Category Archives: Solved

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

8 Replies

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!

265B: ’80s or ’90s children’s books about a lottery mystery (Solved)

2 Replies

This one has been bugging me for years! I read this book in the late ’80s or early ’90s, and I don’t remember much about it other than these two things: (1) there was some sort of mystery with a lottery ticket, and I’m pretty sure what had happened was that the guy selling tickets at the store somehow knew the ticket was a winner and kept it for himself – I want to say the person who was trying to buy it was mentally challenged in some way perhaps, or there was some other reason why he thought the person wouldn’t appreciate the winning ticket; and (2) there’s a scene where the main character (a young girl) is in a body of water and trying to hide from a boat – I’m pretty sure it’s night and that she is floating in an inner tube, and to hide, she ducks her head inside the tube. Oh, and I think the cover was edged in a bright blue. Thanks!

264C: Boy Inventor solves mysteries through creativity (Solved)

8 Replies

From the early 1960’s, a young boy invents various devices in his home to solve mysteries.  He can’t wake up, so he invents an alarm clock with string attached to his toe – alarm goes off, string winds up and tugs his toe. Does he invent a periscope to spy on a suspicious neighbor?

Name might have been Henry (perhaps with alliterative last name).  Several books were published with his adventures, thin young (young?) adult fiction.

263H: A puppy waits for the perfect owner (Solved)

5 Replies

Probably considered a “first reader” though might qualify as a picture book. Read to me in the late 70’s but could be as early as late 60’s. The book is about puppies in a pet store window waiting for their owners to choose them. The cover (or an illustration inside if not the cover) is a view of the pet store storefront with two windows on either side of the door. Puppies on both sides. In the book people keep coming in and choosing dogs and they all resemble the person choosing them. A take on the dogs look like their owner concept. Tall skinny people with tall skinny dogs…etc. The beagle puppy is waiting and waiting until a boy in a baseball hat (red?) comes in for him. I think the boy had previously seen the dog and had been told he had to save his money.

The illustrations might be mainly line draws and are in yellow/brown/red tones as far as I remember. My mother belonged to a book club that automatically sent books so this may have been a book club selection. It’s so frustrating to be able to remember it so clearly but not be able to find it. Hopefully someone can help!

 

Thanks!

263G: Lonely kitten and sad duck become friends (Solved)

1 Reply

I read this in the mid-late 1980s, it was a paperback children’s book with soft purple cover, illustrations of cat and duck on front. I remember there were flap pages inside. The story was along the lines of a lonely duck and cat living in the same neighbourhood, I think a ball goes over the fence of one of their houses and they end up becoming friends. I think the kitten wore a hat? And the duck wore a dress? But I could be misremembering the clothing details. The cat was black/white and duck was yellow

263D: A girl and her teddy bear (Solved)

5 Replies

Hello, I’m looking for a book I had as a child. It’s about a teddy bear who is owned by a little girl, and on her birthday she has a party. He can hear all the noise and excitement and gets curious. So he sneaks down the stairs and watches what’s going on through the railing. The girl is opening her presents and is so excited and happy that the teddy thinks she must not want him anymore. So he goes back upstairs and crawls under her bed to hide and be forgotten. Some time later, the little girl and her friend are playing in her room and happen to look under the bed, and they find the teddy bear, he is all dusty and ripped up. The girl is so happy, and her and her friend get the sewing kit and play hospital while they sew him up.

 

I have been searching for years and so has my mom. She has suggested that perhaps I remember two books as one, but I know that’s not the case. Please help! Thank you so much!

263C: Fairy fantasy from the 60’s or 70’s (Solved)

1 Reply

I read the book around 1978-1983. It was a fantasy with a child who stayed with family and went into the woods and found a passage to a fantasy world of fairies which she ended up traveling to. The book had a title that was a play on Maestro or some other musical name. The cover of the book was brownish red with the face of one of the fairies. The face was very large and very round(side-wise oval) and with a very wide mouth. I was between 9-12 yo when I read it but this is what I remember.

 

263A: Old man with mustache tells grandson the story of how his hair turned white (Solved)

3 Replies

I would have read this book in the early to mid 90’s but I’m not sure if that’s when it was published. I remember that it was shelved with the Halloween books at my local library. An old man who has a white mustache is telling his grandson (may have been multiple grandchildren) about how his hair turned white. In his story he is pictured as a young boy but he still has the mustache, I remember thinking this was hilarious as a child. The gist of the story as far as I remember it is that when he was young he went into a haunted house or witch’s house on Halloween night and when he came out his hair had turned white. I have been wracking my brains for ages trying to remember the title of this book, I would love to read it again. 

262E: Welsh Coal Mine Ponies (Solved)

2 Replies

I loved this chapter book in the 1970s.  It took place during a much earlier era.   A coal mine in, I believe, Wales is closing which employs most of the people in the town.  The town children are afraid of what will happen to the ponies that work in the mine pulling the coal carts. They want to “retire” the ponies to a field.  The parents are worried about losing their jobs and don’t have the money to help the children save the ponies.  I believe the children make an appeal to the wealthy owner of the mine, who is sympathetic.  There may also be descriptions of the miners being sick, and of a canary dying from gas in the mine.  I remember this book having the same kind of feel to it as “The Wheel on the School.”  Thanks everyone for your help!