Category Archives: Solved

326S: Book about a disabled girl who laughed but didn’t talk (Solved!)

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I read this book in the late 70’s or early 80s. It popped into my head today; I don’t know why, and now I feel driven to reread it, but again, I don’t know why. The cover was an outdoor scene — a grassy field with some blurred figures, hard to make out. The novel was about a girl who lived in a hospital or an institution. She was physically disabled (wheelchair) and also did not talk. However, she did laugh at least once, and it seemed that she may have had a sense of irony that others didn’t recognize. The point of view was, I think, from her brother, who was visiting her. There was something disturbing about the story, but I can’t remember what it was. The only other thing I remember is that she had a unique name. This may also have been the name of the book. It had a T and an I in it – Tig? Twig? Twich? THANK YOU!

 

326Q: Boarding School Girls Discuss Castle Drachenfels (Solved!)

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I read it in the 1970s.  It was written for girls, maybe came in two volumes, the copies at the library had stripes on the covers.  Came from the Beverly Hills Public Library, if that is helpful.

I think it took place in a girls’ boarding school.  Maybe there was one girl called Cordelia, shortened to Cordy.  Maybe in it they told a story about a Castle Drachenfels.  It’s possible I’m mixing this up with another book, but maybe not.

Please help!  Thanks!

326G: Kid’s Bad Day Is Remade Into Better Day (Solved!)

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I’m looking for a book that is about a bad day, but *not* Alexander’s. The book I remember has a main character who is school-aged. The character wakes up late, puts too much sugar on his/her morning breakfast (after the mother warned him/her not to), and ends up wearing slippers to school. The kid decides to reset the day by going home at lunchtime and starting the day over. Puts the right amount of sugar on breakfast, wears the right clothes to school, and has a better day.

326B: Warmth Of Friendship In A Smooth Stone (Solved!)

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I am hoping you can help me find a book I remember from my childhood (probably 40 years ago).  The book was about a young girl who lived in an apartment (I believe) and was very lonely.  Another young girl moved in and they became best friends.  One of the girls found out her family was moving and she was very sad and worried about making a new friend.  The first girl gave her a smooth stone and told her when she was lonely to hold the smooth stone and she would feel the warmth of their friendship.
At least this is how my memory recalls the story. LOL!


If I recall correctly the cover had a light blue background and the girls were sitting on the steps of the apartment building.
I have tried to Google search this to no avail.


I am assuming that this book may no longer be in print.  Thanks for any help you can provide.

325X: Boy Uses Imagination To Scale Impossible Wall (Solved!)

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I’m trying to locate a book I read as a child but which don’t remember the title of. The story was about a child (a boy, I think) who needed or was challenged to jump over a high wall (maybe a castle wall). The wall seemed impossibly high to climb. However, there was a pile of boxes/crates nearby so the child used his/her imagination and began stacking the boxes one-by-one to effectively form a staircase that could be used to scale the wall. 

I’d appreciate any information you can provide about this book/story.

325L: Ringmaster is a balloon who inflates himself! (Solved!)

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This children’s picture book was always hanging around our vacation home, and in the mid-fifties it looked old, so I guess it was from the late thirties or forties. Definitely not after mid-fifties.  It was a book about a balloon ringmaster who blew on his toe and inflated himself and then I believe he inflated the rest of the circus.  It had some color in the pictures, I think, not many pages, hardbound.  The ringmaster was round body, round head as you can imagine.  Any ideas?

324M: Girl’s Best Friend Moves To New York City (Solved!)

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This was a thin paperback, and I think the cover was yellow/gold with a b & w photo of two teenage girls taken in a photo booth. I read it in the late 70s/early 80s. It was about a girl whose best friend moves to NYC. After being separated for awhile she is excited to visit her friend there, but when she arrives her friend is now a stuck up “city girl.” I remember her friend mocking her for calling 6th Avenue by its other name, Avenue of the Americas, stating only tourists call it that. There is also a subplot abut the girl’s dog, a sweet old yellow lab (?) named Nora/Lorna. Near the end of the story, Nora/Lorna dies under a lilac bush and the devastated girl wraps her in a special towel that was used for the dog’s baths.

324L: A Hidden Room Mystery Story (Solved!)

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1960’s-1970’s YA mystery short story–people search a castle for a missing keep or room wherein may be hidden a fortune.  Many people search.  They decide to put a cloth in each window as they search; then they can see from the outside which window has no cloth and is therefore the hidden room.  The story is possibly from one of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents Anthologies. It certainly had that feel.   Although many others are searching this castle for a missing keep or a room in a keep, only one person finds it.  There is some sort of secret entrance, I recall.  When the finder discovers the entrance and room, another character (the bad guy) goes with him and murders him there and “hides” the secret entrance to the room again.

 I recall (or believe I recall) a line at the end—part of the thoughts of the skeptical castle groundskeeper, I think– “there was no Norman keep.”

 

324D: A Young Boy At A Sheep Ranch (Solved!)

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Seeking a copy of a book that my father gave me circa 1963 when I was almost 7—the only and last present he gave me before disappearing from my life forever. Narrative follows a young boy sent to a sheep ranch, perhaps as an orphan(?) I believe, but little else comes to mind except a blue cloth binding and white or silver spine lettering.  It was a YA book, over 100 pages, with some illustrations, which of course I could only read a few years later.

Inside he wrote: “Keep your right up” as he had tried to teach me to box, but I don’t think boxing is part of the story line.

(I had this copy until my sister sold it at a yard sale when I went away to school at 14!)