Category Archives: Solved

321H: Wisps Haunt Village Near Reservoir (Solved!)

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The protagonist lives in a village at the base of a mountain. Everyone in this village owns some kind of cat-like animal with the semi-magical power to take bad feelings away except the protagonist who is allergic. Getting water requires an arduous journey up the mountain to a reservoir, made more dangerous by the “wisps” (or maybe will-o-wisps?). The wisps are little balls of light that come out at night which everyone fears.

The protagonist follows one of the cat-like animals one day and discovers a graveyard where they go to die. She discovers that, when they die, they release wisps, which are like all the pent up bad feelings they’ve absorbed over their lives. While there she climbs some kind of knoll and I’m fuzzy on the details but something happens that results in her being bound in some way to a newly created wisp, which gives the wisp some sort of subtle influence over her and her emotional state.

The protagonist then has to journey home while bound to a wisp, which tries to do things like demoralize her and lead her off cliffs. She reaches the reservoir and the wisp manipulates her into jumping/falling in. She ends up sucked through an underground river and wakes up in a cave on the other side of her village. The wisp is there, but the connection it had to her is broken.  So she’s discovered the reservoir is connected to and underground stream which runs near the village. She goes back with plans to tell her village about the river and ideas about to tap it for water.

Thank you in advance so much for your help, I’ve been trying and failing to find this book for 15 years!

320U: Wizard Teaches Children Life Lessons (Solved)

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1968 – 1970 I read a book about 4 children (2 boys, 2 girls) who lived on the edge of a wood. Their ages ranged from 8 – 12-ish. The setting was not a specific geographical location although the story was written as realistic fiction… with a bit of fantasy thrown in. I believe the author and publisher are English (from Great Britain) because of where I was living at the time and the phraseology used.  
     Each Saturday the children would visit a wise old man (wizard ?) who lived in the woods behind their home, at the top of a magical tree. His quaint little cabin in the tree was never visible to adults, only children.  During each visit, the children would ask what special “place” or “kingdom” had stopped at the top of the tree, which could be reached by climbing a ladder (inside his living room) that went up into the clouds that would settle on top of the tree. 
     Each chapter in the book told a new adventure the children had in the different magical places that stopped for brief time periods at the top of the tree.  Each adventure also taught the children a life skill, or a positive character trait.
     One such adventure was of a Carnival, where everyone was riding rides, playing games, purchasing trinkets and sweets. But, the children soon discovered that in this place they could not purchase anything for themselves, but only for someone else.  They realized they must work together and pair up to enjoy the day by learning what each other would like and then making the purchases for the other person.  At the end of the day, when they come back down the ladder to the wise man’s living room, he talks with them about what they learned.
    
I wish I could recall other adventures, but it HAS been 50 years!
I believe the book was newly published at the time, so circa 1966-68?  
Here’s hoping that someone knows (or can find) the title/author.

320J: Fold-Out Illustrated Pig’s Adventure Series (Solved)

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I’m looking for a book about a pig (or some animal, but I am pretty sure it was a pig) who goes on adventures. The books were a series, and were all fold-out books, with illustrations only, no text. The books were wider than they were tall, to accommodate the fold-out pages, which were flaps that unfolded to the right. One that I remember involved the pig going camping and getting rained on. I read them in the early ’80s, so I imagine they were published in the ’60s or ’70s.

319K: Daughter of Veterinarian helps rescue hoarded animals (Solved!)

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Paperback, probably from Scholastic in mid-70s.  The veterinarian’s daughter helps rescue a trailer of hoarded animals.  Her father’s girlfriend helps and gets completely overwhelmed by the suffering, which makes the girl like her more.  The girl refers to herself as an iron hand in a wool mitten.  She dates a boy who likes Bartok.  Any help appreciated.

319F: Island Girl Disappointed With Porcelain Doll (Solved)

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A Little Golden Book (or similar style) about a young island (Polynesian?) girl.  A ship's captain visiting her village gifts her with a porcelain doll.  She tries to play with it as she had her own doll, but found that she couldn't get it wet, or feed it sand cakes, etc.  It was a book my grandmother had, but I'm pretty sure it's not a vintage book - probably no older than the 1960's (but that's 10 year old me remembering. )  Still, I don't remember the graphics being older looking.  It was the size, shape and length of a Golden Book.

318W: Bird Family Takes Care of Young Girl (Solved!)

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Children’s book stumper!  A child is left at home by parents for a weekend or some length of time, and a neighbor who was supposed to care for her breaks leg and can’t.  Bird (maybe a Robin) hears her crying and somehow shrinks her down and brings her home for he and his bird wife to care for her.  They feed her the flower butter ‘n’ eggs. . . a catbird leaves an egg with their eggs. . . there might be a bird ball. . . she has a marvelous time and eventually goes home. . . I read it in the late 70s or early 80s but I think it was quite old then.  Thank you!

318K: The Magic Tent (Solved!)

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I read this book when I was young in the 80s. It was about a brother and sister (I think) who were caught in a rainstorm and happened upon a sagging, scary looking tent. They went inside and magically it was a bright, exciting room with some kind of delicious food (ice cream? cotton candy?) and I think a pinball machine? I feel like there was a witch involved, who turned out to be a good witch, but maybe I’m making that up.

317I: Native American Girl Moves From Reservation to the City (Solved)

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Children's chapter book about a Native American girl who moves from the reservation to the city with her family. The little girl is confused and embarrassed when she realizes, on her first day at the new school, that she is expected to bring lunch money. A woman gives her a donut. She makes a mental note that she has to ask her father for lunch money. Her brother runs away because of the culture shock and is discovered to have been living in a local park, hunting the urban wildlife. An officer or social services worker asks the family questions like, what is his name, how tall is he, how old, etc. and these questions strike the little girl as irrelevant because they don't mean as much as who her brother really is, like how he can run fast. Paperback. I think the cover was yellow with a picture of a Native-looking girl on it.