Category Archives: Solved

347O: Children’s Picture Book – Bears Confused By Clothes (Solved!)

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I loved this book as a child in the early 1960s. The story was about a family of bears who moved from their home in the forest to a big city. Because they now lived in the city, they all started wearing clothes, like the city people.  But after a few days of wearing clothes, the bears could no longer recognize each other among all the hundreds of city people, who were also wearing clothes. The bears became separated from each other. They were sad and lonely, because each of them was alone.
One day, a huge storm swept through the city streets and blew everyone’s clothes off. The bears happened to be on the same city block. With their clothes blown off, the bears immediately recognized each other and joyfully reunited. They raced away from the city and returned to their cozy home in the forest, so glad to be together again.

347K: Chapter book with some illustrations about a possessed plush Easter rabbit, with a human agoraphobic girl as the main character, possibly part of a holiday themed horror series? (Solved!)

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The book is a chapter book, probably about elementary school reading level? Along the lines of goosebumps. I think I remember black and white illustrations scattered throughout the book, but not more than four or five I think. I remember some of the details pretty vividly because it was a very weird book, but I can’t remember the name and google searches for it just sort of turn into word salad.
 The main character is a girl who expresses a fear of almost everything (I remember that alien abduction is specifically mentioned as a reason she doesn’t want to go outside?). Her name was Katie or Emma or some other names that can have a lot of different nicknames. Her family goes to a mall where a mysterious/creepy Easter Bunny mascot gives her younger brother a plush Easter bunny, which he loves and she despises. The girl begins to hear “thumping” in the hallway and finds the plush in odd places, leading her to believe that the plush is alive and malevolent. Unrelated to the rabbit, there is a scene where she participates in a class play about the myth of Hades and Persephone and hallucinates that she sees the myth occurring out the window of the classroom.
The back half of the book is fuzzier for me. On Easter night (or the night before?), her brother goes missing (presumably kidnapped by the plush) and she has to go down a rabbit hole in her backyard(?) to follow the plush rabbit and save her brother. Somewhere along the way she finds a table setting with name cards that are all variations of her name, but none of them are the nickname she prefers and I think it’s probably symbolic of something? At some point in this journey she ends up on the moon. I think she has to make a declaration about how she will be brave and face her fears in order for the bunny/the universe (???) to give her brother back to her? I think the lesson learned was that you shouldn’t be scared of the unknown.
The blurb on the back of the book seemed to give me the impression that it was part of a holiday themed children’s horror series, but I don’t recall ever seeing anything that looked like it was from the same series

347I: A book named Toby? (Solved!)

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I remember the cover was white with a monochromatic pencil-style drawing of a rundown old house with a bit of grass/ground in the foreground.
A lonely, rejected boy named Toby is forced into this spooky house by bullies, I believe near Halloween. The boy is 12? Possibly younger? I’m sure his name is Toby, and that is likely the name of the book, but I can’t find it by that title anywhere.
He has to spend the night in this old house because the bullies block/locked the doors. I believe he was locked in the attic? Or stayed there overnight. He learned that his fears are in his head and he needn’t fear his imagination.
I read it before 1980, so it would be at least that old, but not much older.
It isn’t long, or large. It might even be a short story, but I’ve not been able to find one by that title that fits the story either.
The cover reminded me of Where the Sidewalk Ends in style of drawing.

347F: Beautifully Illustrated Book Somewhat Scary/Morbid (Solved!)

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I am looking for a book that I read as a child. I grew up in the 80s so it was published before then. It was a somewhat scary and morbid story about a little girl in the woods. I believe something happened with her parents and she was alone. What I most remember is the illustrations were absolutely beautiful. I think the girl’s name was something with an M – Milly, Mildred, Millicent, etc.
The book was so creepy it was almost not for kids.

346S: The no where land – Abstract Menace Engulfs World (Solved!)

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The book opens with a team of emergency responders in a bar. Suddenly an alarm goes off, which is a shock – this normally doesn’t happen. Their work is to contain something abstract that has become very physical (e.g. “nothingness”) that threatens to engulf the land/world and is the result of some sort of corporate greed in the past. There are large pipes that contain the menace. This assignment doesn’t go as planned and the protagonist (a man) embarks on a harrowing journey.  Later in the journey some outside group/nation that seemed vaguely Middle Eastern comes to help. A new order is established with things very different as a result of the abstract threat.
The title is something like “the no where land” or “the nothing world”. I would guess that the book was written in the last 15 years by a man. It is sci-fi / fantasy but the laws of reality within the book are constantly changing and it’s a real mind bender.

346R: Medieval prince feigning illness (Solved!)

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Looking for a children’s picture book from the 1970s. It was about a prince trying to get out of something. He draws red spots on his face to pretend to be ill. It’s set in medieval times, as he wore tights and those pointy slippers/shoes that turn up at the ends. That illustration or the cover was purple. Hardcover, portrait and about 8x10” or letter size. Might be British.

346Q: Fairy brings clay animals to life (Solved!)

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American book published some time around 1930 about a little blond boy on a farm. The farm animals were all his friends. One day there was a storm and all his animals were carried away and he was heartbroken. He went down to a stream and started making little animals out of clay in the shape of the animals he had lost. He fell asleep and a fairy who was riding around on a throne made of pink clouds saw him and had pity on him and used her magic wand to bring the animals to life. The book was illustrated in color and the title might have included something like Happy Valley Farm or Sunny Valley Farm.

346P: Teen Mystery Centered Around a Library (Solved!)

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It’s set in a small town where the main girl is a young teen/pre-teen and she lives with her grandparents and her uncle who is younger than her and is basically her little brother. They go to the library in town (the mystery of the book is centered around the library) and the library has a large mural of Andrew Carnegie burning in hell because the town hated him and refused one of his Libraries and built their own with a big “f you” to him in it.

346G: Stuffed Bunny Feels Replaced by Stuffed Bear (Solved!)

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There was a children’s book about a little girl with a bunny stuffed animal, the girl gets a new stuffed animal, a bear I think. The bunny feels replaced and tries to run away and ends up falling in the bathtub. I think it gets powder or something on it. It’s found and cleaned up and the girl has room to love for both stuffed animals in the end.

345U: Virgin Islands young adult mystery (Solved!)

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I am searching for a young adult mystery that was set in the Virgin Islands.  The protagonist, a young woman, receives a message from her father on an alphabet shell.  I think it was her father, who is a doctor, and who has been abandoned on an island.
Please help me.  This book was a seminal influence on my desire to live on islands. I now live in Manhattan.