Category Archives: Solved

271B: Child meets magical friend from a family of wizards/magic in secret garden (Solved)

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I have been looking for this young adult’s book for some time without success. I can’t remember any words of the title, it was aimed at 10-12 year olds. I read it in around 1990-1995, but it may have been published in the 1970s or 1980s. I’m pretty sure it was a British author, but it may have been American/Canadian. It was a slim paperback and I seem to remember that it came in a boxed set with a 3 or four other books, not necessarily by the same writer, but similar fantasy/magic genre. The story followed a young boy or girl who was staying with a relative somewhere, perhaps on holiday, who one day crawled under a hedge in the neighbourhood and into the garden/grounds of a wealthy and mysterious family, who turn out to be magical (possibly wizards). S/he meets and befriends the young girl who lives there who shows her various magical things but they keep their friendship secret as the other wizards/magical relatives would be angry if they found out she had come in to the garden. The family lives in a large and beautiful house and there is a magical lake in the garden which the two children sail across to an island in the center. They are later placed in danger when someone finds out the child is in the magic garden. I remember this being a wonderful story and would so love to find it! It is not Tom’s Midnight Garden or Timothy and the Witch.

269A: Fairytale Compilation from 70s or 80s (Solved)

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I was born in 1985 so I must have had the book in the late 80’s early 90s, My mother purchased it from ToysRUs and it was a hardcover book with what I believe was a blue and white dust jacket. It is not the blue book of fairytales or the Richard Scarry book. It included Henny Penny, The Princess and the Pea, I believe also Anasi the spider and a story about a jackal or fox. There were about twenty stories in it. Please help! Thanks!

267D: Dick-and-Jane-esque, Plus Gyp (Solved)

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I have to tell this story first – I found Stump the Bookseller around a decade ago when I was in grad school in Illinois, and you all helped me find some dear books.  Then, my husband got his medical residency in Cleveland and someone told me about Loganberry Books, and I went, AND FELL IN LOVE.  Then I made the connection, and it rocked my world.  Another reason why I adore Cleveland: it has Loganberry.  (When I was in grad school, it was just a theoretical cool bookstore, not a concrete reality!)  Visit here if you can.

My stumper: my grandma had this series of square, paperback books, probably from the 50’s, that were like Dick and Jane but not – the same kind of easy-reading format, but the little kids had different names.  There was a boy, and a brunette girl, and a blonde girl, I think.  They did various things (the books had little stories per volume, I think); one of them involved the little blonde girl going shopping with her mom in town, and picking a bow for her hat.  I don’t remember their names, but I do remember that they had a cute little brown dog named Gyp.  My grandma is still around, but someone in the fam (understandably) took the books, and I so want to find them again.

Thanks!!! 🙂

266I: “You’re my (little) boy, my pride and joy” (Solved)

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Looking for an old children’s book that has the words “you’re my (little) boy, my pride and joy” after each page or section.

My sister in law remembers her mom reading it every night to her little brother. Her mom passed away over 20 years ago, and the book is MIA. She always looks for it whenever she’s in thrift stores, or used book stores… we’ve searched for the keywords of the book on google and can’t find the title of it.

My SIL grew up in Northern British Columbia if that helps – might have been a small/remote publishing company?

 

265E: A girl wants to be an investigative reporter (Solved)

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I’m looking for a book that I would have read no later than 1992. It was almost certainly published in the mid/late 80s or very early 90’s. A light, funny YA (possibly upper-middle grade or tween) book in the vein of Ellen Conford or Paula Danziger, although I don’t believe it was actually by either of them. The version I read was a hardcover, with an illustrated cover that was more cartoonish than realistic. I believe the cover features a girl in a dumpster or garbage can, although it’s possible that was just an episode in the book that I’m conflating with the cover in my memory.

It’s about a girl who wants to be an investigative reporter. She’s working for the school newspaper and begins to uncover some kind of light mystery. (Not a murder or anything like that.) The most specific thing that sticks out in my mind is that the girl and her friend use a lot of lingo and abbreviations in casual conversation, including the shorthand “L.L.A.” to mean “lifelong ambition.”

I believe the title has the girl’s name in it. I feel like the title might have a similar construction to Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great, although it’s obviously not that book. The book is also not Buffalo Brenda by Jill Pinkwater. Anyway, it’s driving me crazy. (I still think about my L.L.A.’s all the time.) Please help me put this to rest!