Category Archives: Solved

339J: Children’s fantasy from 60s/70s with invisible magician/wizard/enchanter (Solved!)

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I borrowed this book from the library, probably during the 1970s, but it may have been published earlier. My vague memories include: two children, probably a boy and a girl, had magical adventures. There was a friendly witch or female magician and a good but scary male magician who was always invisible. This may have been by choice, and there was a backstory of a romantic relationship with the witch. One of the children was transported by the invisible magician and found it rather frightening but eventually trusted the magician. This was not the main plot!

The book was almost certainly British and would have been a chapter book (not a term used at that time).

Thank you!

338T: Non-Traditional Stories of Kings (Solved!)

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I was born in 1984, and I’m guessing I had this book when I was 6-8 years old. It’s a book of collected tales, but most of them were non-traditional stories. The only traditional stories I remember inside is The Emperor and the Nightingale, and Sing a Song of Sixpence. One story was about a king who got tired of living in his castle and decided to search for another place to live, but eventually ends up back at his castle. Another story was about a king whose soldiers were an untidy and lazy lot, always waking up late and showing up dirty and messy. The princess makes bacon and eggs and tells them they can only have breakfast if they clean up.

338O: Girl searches for spinet-playing doll (Solved!)

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I’m looking for a book that was written probably in the 1960’s, possibly early 1970’s.  I think the title contained the words “secret friends”. It is about a girl and her best friend who stumble across a mystery involving 2, or maybe 3, mechanical dolls. Her father owns an antique store. He has one of the dolls, a girl sitting at a desk who dips a pen in an inkwell and writes. The other is a girl playing the spinet. I remember the clue to the mystery was found inside the doll.

338N: Book of Marys (Solved!)

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I am looking for a young adult book, dating back to the mid 1930s, with 12 chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a famous woman named Mary–Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), Mary Lyon and 9 others. The cloth bound volume was blue.

338M: YA fiction Ruby Cross of Acapulco (Solved!)

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I’ve been searching for this book for years. I read it in the 6th grade, twenty-one years ago. My old teacher didn’t remember it, and I don’t recall the title or author. It seems that it was an older book, possibly from the 50s or 60s. There were a couple black and white sketches in it.
I remember most of the plot. A girl named Samantha lived in Boston with her mother (father deceased), who then died, leaving her an orphan. Her mother’s dying words were something to the effect of keeping the family heirloom safe. A ruby cross stolen from Acapulco.
Samantha is sent to live with her relatives in Hawaii (during the life of Princess Liliuokalani – I think she even had tea with her, or met her in the story). She has a cousin her own age and she experiences lots of new things there, but trouble turns up as men seeking the ruby cross, which she hid in a cave. She ends up kidnapped and having to show them where it is, but is rescued my a family friend, Andrew. All ends well. She ends up marrying Andrew, and they return the cross to Acapulco at the end of the book.

 

338H: English girl falls in love with the boy next door, eventually (Solved!)

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I have been searching for a book I remembered for years and then I heard about you guys. I have no idea if you can help me because it isn’t a children’s book, but it’s worth a chance. It’s from before 2006 because I read it when I was in high school (wow!) from the library.
I believe it is set in England. The main character is a girl and she is friends with the boy next door since they were little kids. She goes to prom with a guy, has sex and ends up getting pregnant. I think she continues to live with her parents after she has the baby, which is a girl. Her friend ends up needing to move to America. They stay in contact over email. Some of the book has the reader read their conversation like an email.
Her dream is to manage a hotel one day and after working her way up the ladder, she does. I remember her describing how the chandelier looked in the hotel and how elegant and beautiful it was. Eventually, she realizes she loves the boy (now a man) next door. He has a child with someone and it was a boy. I think at the end of the book he moves back to England and their children become friends or something and I am pretty sure they end up professing their love for one another.
I look forward to seeing if you can find the book. It’s the last one from my childhood I couldn’t remember that I can’t get out of my head.

337Y: During WWI, Grumpy Old Man Befriends Teen Girl (Solved!)

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So the book is set in America in WWI around 1918 during the flu epidemic. I want to say Philadelphia or New York. The main character is a female teen or preteen. Prior to being sent to the country to escape the flu, there was a scene with the mother’s favorite tea cup boiled in milk to repair a break.
The girl is sent to live with an older man in the country. She gets sick and he has her shining vinegar as a curative. After she’s well, they collect peach pits for gas masks, knit scarves and socks for soldiers, sew gauze masks, etc for the war effort.  The old man also fries fresh donuts as a treat for him and the girl.
I know they eventually become great friends, although she thought he was scary and grumpy at first meeting.

337V: Society that enjoys watercress sandwiches (Solved!)

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I read this book in six grade in the mid-80s.  I think it was a fantasy type story.  This society had once been in contact with humans (or maybe just one human).  He may have come over the mountains on a hot air balloon.


They got a few things confused about humans.  For example, they had a painting of a tree and a diagram of a family tree (genealogy chart).  They called the genealogy chart a picture and the painting of the tree a family tree.  So everyone in this society had a very carefully tended “family tree” in their yard.  Unfortunately, I remember nothing about the actual plot.