Category Archives: Solved

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

6 Replies

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!)

2 Replies

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!)

4 Replies

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!)

2 Replies


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!)

3 Replies

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!)

4 Replies

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!)

324B: Boy Changes Into Animals To Discover Their Worlds (Solved!)

3 Replies

I was born in 1951 and read a children’s book at roughly age 6 – 8.  We probably got it from the library.

I have no title, but the book told the story of a boy who changed into a different animal in each chapter to explore what that animal’s world was like.  I specifically remember the chapter in which he became an otter.

There were black and white drawings/illustrations at the head of each chapter but otherwise is just text.

Many thanks for your help!

323Q: Town Gets Rid Of Laws And Other Stories (Solved)

3 Replies
Growing up, I was born in 1982, we had a book that was a compilation of short stories and some poems and other things. It was a light blue/teal colored hard back book with a paper cover. It was a bigger book, like maybe more of an 8.5×11 size. There was a story in it about a town that got rid of all the rules and laws for the day and people didn’t wear their seat belts and sped around town. And there were pictures in the book. There was also another story about 2 teenage sisters who got in an argument and one sister ripped the nose on the other sister’s David Lee Roth poster and tried to cover it up. The book was definitely super random with stories ranging from life lessons to fun little kid’s stories. At some point my mom has lost or gotten rid of it and I’ve been trying to remember what this book was for about 3 years now. It’s been driving me nuts and both her and my brother have no recollection of it. Please help!!!!

323G: Late Bloomer Finally Dates (Solved)

3 Replies

Young Adult book on library shelves in late ’60’s early ’70’s.  Has an old-fashioned feel.  Girl (first name starts with an M?) is slightly awkward, gets to date a boy she likes.  She overhears girls mocking her for wearing too much face powder.  Her yearbook quote was, “her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in a woman”.  Good ending.