Category Archives: Solved

321V: A Gazing Ball And Balloons (Solved)

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

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)

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.

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

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)

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)

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!)

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)

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.