Category Archives: Solved

377J: Looking for a teen funny book from 70’s (Solved!)

I read a book in the early 70’s. It was about a teen boy and his misadventures in a small town. It had a cover with a kids driving and old blue jalopy In the book. In One of the stories he gets a commercial propeller and puts it on a car to make a go faster. It flies loose and goes flying through the town, destroying things. I think the book had a white hardback cover, and the picture of the boy in the car was like light blue drawing I think it may have been a Scholastic book. But it was about this young early teen boys misadventures. And I recall the propeller wrecking havoc story. The book may have been from the 60s. But I read it in the early 70s. It may have been one of my older siblings book. And it probably was from the Scholastic catalog.

376T: 12 Days of Christmas parody (Solved!)

I came across this website while trying to search for this book from my childhood. I do not know the title of this book. All I can remember is that it is a 12 days of Christmas parody. That there were monsters in this book. It had to been published before 1996. It was a colored illustration book.

The world works in mysterious ways. A line from the book came to me today and when I searched it, an article from The New York Times archive popped up. Published in 1977, Joel Schicks The Present was there. This was the book I’ve been searching 10 years for.

376S: Pilot hidden in attic (Solved!)

So I read this book in 2020 or 2021 and I believe it was written roughly around that time. The author is a woman with a unique name (which for the love of cheese, I cannot recall) and her bio said she lives on an island off the coast of England (could be Channel Islands) or possibly coast of Australia! Oh man, I’ve really forgotten!

The story is written first person from the perspective of a girl as she grows up, and then also as she is an adult. I forget how her father died, but I think he was on a boat at sea and never returned. The girl is sent to live in a house on the coast with a woman guardian, who is not her mom or stepmom, and their relationship is curt. There is a creepy male family friend who drives up every other week or so to check in on them and I think gives them money.
At some point, a German pilot crashes his plane into the ocean, swims to shore, and comes to their house. They help him and hide him in their attic. As I recall, he speaks little English. The little girl develops a loving sweet relationship with him, and he teaches her to draw. The girl’s guardian woman falls for him, and the little girl feels jealous of their relationship.  At some point later in the book, the creepy man is coming over and the girl is upset with her guardian, and intentionally leaves the door to the attic open where the creepy man will hear them talking. The creepy man discovers them and basically tells the man to walk into the ocean, knowing he will not survive the freezing water.
In the meantime, in the present, the now  adult little girl is planning the day she will die and leaving a note for her neighbor letting him know. She is visited by a teen girl who is sitting on her fence (and I think she is the daughter of the creepy man and her guardian). I know it’s complicated!
The grown little girl does end her life as she planned, but it’s not graphic or violent.
I cannot remember any names, but I think the time is WW2 because of the German pilot.
Thank you so much for any ideas! I’ve searched so many searches and authors and come up empty.

376Q: In Search of the Amulet (Solved!)

I’m hoping you can find my book….I really don’t want you to be stumped 🙂
(I think) the title is ‘In search of the amulet’
(I think) the author’s first name is Susan, and that she is English.
The book is likely to have been written in the ’70s or’80s, but I’m not certain.
Its a non-fiction story of her solo travels across Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (and other places) in an attempt to find the origins and meaning of the common fringed triangle symbol (amulet).

376N: Magical Silversmith (Solved!)

Looking for 1950’s or 60’s fantasy young adult books about a magical silver smith in Massachusetts who can time travel and shape shift and enables a young boy to share his adventures.  Author might be Lawson or Dawson.  I have tried the Library of Congress listings of books without success.  The books were available in the San Marino, CA public library into the 1970s or 1980s.

Additional story elements:

The silversmith was an adult during the American revolution. Story elements involve turning into various animals and birds, pirates and participation in the revolution

376M: New Girl Teen Love Triangle (Solved!)

The book revolved around three high school kids in a small town, two boys and a girl. I think the girl had recently moved to town, possibly from down south somewhere, and had befriended the two boys. One of the boys I remember being more awkward and emotional than the other. They have a spot in the woods that they meet up. Both boys fall for the girl, and eventually the girl falls for the not-awkward boy. Awkward boy catches other boy and girl either dancing or kissing in the school gym, and reacts badly. Girl goes to the special spot in the woods and finds that awkward-boy has hung himself. Possibly an 80’s Avon Camelot book.

375Z: Scholastic Book Club, 1977-81, children’s book, thriller, white paperback with cover art, kids at night, carnival with Ferris wheel with swinging lights (Solved!)

Have little to go on. Believe purchased via Scholastic Book Club or at Scholastic Book Fair between 1977 and 1981; a short-read, 1–2” children’s novel; think it’s published by Scholastic; it might be a supernatural or science fiction thriller; white paperback with cover art, possibly with kids and a Ferris wheel; main characters are kids, with the climactic event at a carnival with a Ferris wheel with swinging lights?

375P: Boy on Farm Imagines Different Jobs (Solved!)

Mother is busy,
She’s making a pie.
But we do the farm work,
My dad and I.
Together, together,
We scatter the seeds,
We shear the sheep,
We pull the weeds.
We milk the cows,
We pet the goats,
We fix the fence,
We cut the oats . . .
Hand in hand along with Dad,
Around the farm with my dog Lad.

Winter, springtime, summer, fall,
Ours is the nicest farm of all.
But sometimes I wonder what I will be
When I am as old as – twenty-three!
I think of this, I think of that,
Till there I am in a trim gray hat . . .

I’m a mailman!
Tramp tramp tramp
I walk for blocks,
And I put Something Special in everyone’s box!
Woof, woof, say the dogs
As I walk through their yards,
But on I go, carrying
Letters and cards.
Then after I’ve brought
Everybody some mail,
I pick up a hammer
And drive in a nail –
Wham!
And there I am . . .

I’m a carpenter!
Bang goes my hammer,
I’m nailing down floors
And putting in windows
And hanging up doors.
Zing goes my saw
And I never stop
Till I’ve built a fine house
With a red roof on top.
Then I pack up my hammer,
I say, “Toodle-oo!”
And quick as a wink, There I am . . .
at the zoo!

I’m a zoo-keeper, see,
With a broom, and a key.
I’m walking the camels
And feeding the bears,
I’m stoking the lions
And sweeping their lairs.
I’m teaching the monkeys
And training the seals.
I’m giving the hippos
E-NOR-MOUS big meals!
Now evening is coming, the zoo has to close . . .

Presto and Change-o!
I wear a red nose . . .
Now I’m a clown
With a painted-up face.
I’m tumbling and jumping
All over the place.
My clown suit is baggy
(It’s puffed up with air!).
I wave to the children
I see everywhere.
See my duck in his bib?
See my dog in his bow?
See my string of balloons,
And my nose all aglow?
But all of a sudden
I catch on a hook,
And everyone shouts to me,
“Look, mister, look!”
Bang goes my clown suit-
A Shoosh! Then a pop! . . .

Then I hold up my hand
And the traffic must stop!
For I’m a policeman
At Walnut and Main.
Are you looking for Somewhere?
I’ll stop to explain.
Now, go, Jim and Johnny.
Go, Kathy and Joan.
Stop, Little Puppy,
Out walking alone!
Then all of a sudden
My day’s work is done,
So I find me a horse
(With a saddle, of course!)
And I strap on my gun. . . .

Now I’m a cowboy, a-riding along,
A-jingling my spurs and a-singing my song.
Across the Great Prairie I ride far and near
To round up the cattle and rope a wild steer.
Then I tie up my horse (and I feed him, of course!).

Yippi-yi! Now I’m going. . . .
I jump in a boat,
And away I go rowing.
Now I’m a fisherman
Out on the sea,
Where there’s nothing but water
And fishes – and me!
Riding a wave
I see something afloat.
It’s a whale come to visit-
He’s rocking my boat!
Then whoosh! comes a wave,
And it gives me a smack . . .

And I call to my daddy,
“Hello there, Im back!”
“Just in time for a snack,”
Says my daddy.
And then . . .
Off we go again!
Together, together,

(scan cuts off here)

I have a PDF with some scans of an illustrated children’s poem from my mother’s childhood [see below]. Sadly, the cover and title pages were lost long ago. The scan does not contain all of the pages. I am attaching the scans as well as a transcript of the text. It is an illustrated poem about a boy on a farm who likes to daydream about different jobs, such as a zookeeper, clown, policeman, etc. My mom read this book as a child around the mid-late 1960s / early 1970s.
I suspect (but cannot prove) this story may have some link to Western Publishing. (Western publishing was based out of Racine, Wisconsin and my family is from southeast Wisconsin.) We would love to figure out the title, author, and/or illustrator of this book!
I have reached out to various forums and the Library of Congress but no luck so far. I really appreciate the opportunity to ask the Stump the Bookseller community! If there is anything I need to do to correct of enhance my submission, please do not hesitate to let me know!

375J: Fire Sprite and Water Nymph (Solved!)

I had the book as a child in the early ‘90’s.
The book was brown and had pictures in the centre of the front and back, embossed. Collection of stories, one about a fire sprite and water nymph trying to be together. Illustration of them with a glass window between them. One of the last stories in the book had to do with a stone walled off orchard and a giant keeping the children out. Something about the stigmata. 

375D: Poetry Anthology Including “If” (Solved!)

I am looking for what I think is an anthology of poetry, illustrated, that contains an extremely cleverly illustrated version of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Black and white line drawings I believe. I remember seeing it in a bookstore in Ithaca circa 2012 it might have been newly published then. There were other poems in the book, possibly also short stories? And authors besides Kipling?