Category Archives: Solved

322G: Ocean Adventures in Octopus Town (Solved)

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I want to help my wife find a book that her mom used to read to her. Mom says it was a paperback picture book and the pages had metallic highlights so they sparkled. The cover had the main character on it, a young girl who had long brown hair and eyeglasses and she was surrounded by seaweed.
In the story/poem the girl falls into the ocean and encounters a variety of sea creatures as a result.
Some lines and plot points from my wife and mother-in-law’s memories:
“…and arm in arm we danced way down, until we reached octopus town. And there we saw one hundred more, eight hundred legs, one hundred heads, dancing in their seaweed beds”.
A line toward the end of the story describes something involving a dense school of sardines or mackerel as “bits of silver hit like hail”
In the end, the main character is being chased by a shark and wakes up, falling out of her bed.
Thank you so much!

322D: Magical Wooden Box (Solved)

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A description of the book, with helpful details:

  • Children’s books, maybe for ages 10 – 13 years old.
  • Red cover (?) with possibly a tree on it
  • Small book, probably less than 200 pages
  • Main character was female (maybe 12ish years old) with a father who gave her a magical wooden box, when she opened it her and her friend were transported to another place (/world.)
  • My foggy memory remembers the two kids standing next to a tree at some point in the other place.
  • The girl finds out her dad has also been to the other place. He may have been a king on the other side or the kids thought he was the bad guy when he jumped through the portal (?)

I’m sorry I can’t recall anything more than this, I’m going off an 11-year-old’s mind over a decade later.

322B: A Sea Princess Riding a Great Dane (Solved)

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Looking for a children’s book we used to get from public library. Dewey number in the 300s/fairy and folk tale section. The story involved a sea king’s daughter and a tea party? The end pages had a black line with color washes drawing of the sea princess (with crown/long wavy hair) riding a Great Dane type dog (with antenna.) Another illustration was an underwater scene with anemone and a glass palace.  We read the book in the mid to late 90s. No idea when it was published. Do not think this was a mermaid tale. The artwork was subtle & lovely, not brash or cartoonish. Do not recall if there were other stories in the book.

322A: Magical Oven Confounds Rude Neighbor Boy (Solved)

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I read this book as a child in the 70’s. A brother and sister’s family moved to a new town. Their obnoxious and rude neighbor boy, I think his name was Jamie, played with them. They didn’t like him but they didn’t know anyone else so the put up with him. They discovered an oven in an old shed on their property. They baked a batch of cookies in it. Jamie selfishly wolfed them down and turned into some king of animal. The oven had magical powers if you ate something that was baked in it. That’s all I remember. I hope someone can help.  Thanks.

321Y: Vineyard owner outwits the devil (Solved)

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This is a kids’ book in which a boy(?) who lives on an old vineyard (or maybe he is trying to win the vineyard from the devil?) is challenged by the devil to perform several seemingly impossible tasks. One involves trying to untangle grape vines. One involves surrounding something with an egg (the boy uses the yolk to draw around the thing). The boy bests the devil and wins the vineyard (maybe) and the devil is pretty upset.  Also, I am 43 and had this book when I was a kid, so I’d guess that it is at least 35 years old.

 

321V: A Gazing Ball And Balloons (Solved)

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So when I was in 6th grade (1992), I had a wonderful teacher. She pushed us to read and loved books herself. We had a project at the end of the year. I can’t remember if this description I’m about to give you is of 2 books or one. My 11 year old son is an avid reader and I’d love to find this/these books for him.

There was a gazing ball (like a mirrored one) in a garden. It was not scary, maybe some mystery but definitely not scary. Maybe a young girl.

And my other memory is of a hot air balloon. I feel like there were a lot of people on the balloon. It could have been actual balloons and not the hot air version. And I want to say they were on a huge piece of wood not a basket. I’m thinking it may have been an award winning book but I’m not for sure on that either. I have no idea if it is one book or two and this has driven me crazy for years. I’ve looked it up every way I know how.

321R: Girl Learns Graceful Behavior From Fairy Queen

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There’s a book of fiction about a girl who lives in or near a castle- I seem to remember it won an award- I think I found it at a Scholastic book fair.  This girl is somehow considered badly behaved- and she’s allowed to run wild. She is kidnapped by fairies who live in a huge underground warren (I think under a mountain) to be a servant.  They’re drugged every night with the food that she discovers if she skips, she’s more alert but struggles with claustrophobia. Because of her refusal to eat the drugged food, she catches the interest of the Queen of fairies who teaches her, mostly through humiliation, how to walk and move gracefully. She’s eventually rescued and the fairies are forced into the other world, sealing their mountain.

I can’t find this book at all- My sister claims she never read it and I looked through the books at my parents house without finding it.

321L: Amnesiac Girl Buys Horse (Solved)

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I am looking for a 1960-1980 era book, about a girl with amnesia that ends up working on a horse farm, buys a horse from going to slaughter, and then discovers she used to be rich and jumped show horses. Her step parent [I want to say father] ended up being the culprit. The point of view was from the girl, and I want to say the book starts with a car accident, which causes the amnesia.