Category Archives: Solved

242D: Bunny with large family (Solved)

I’m trying to find a book that my daughter remembers me reading to her in the 80s when she was about 5 years old. In the book there’s a female bunny with a large family.  They annoy her so she runs away and creates her own house.  Eventually she realizes that she misses her family. It was illustrated on each page with small black and white illustrations.  It was also a small sized book, a little smaller than a trade paperback.  My daughter remembers it as a long book, but that is probably a kid’s impression.  Probably no more than 20 pages.

240F: A girl pretends to be a witch (Solved)

The book is a children’s picture book about a little girl in witch school, or living with witches. But she is not a witch, or she doesn’t look like one, but she is pretending. Every day she puts on her robe and hat, and also a fake witch’s nose to hide her small nose. The book had line drawing illustrations (black and white), and at least one involved spiders and her bed. The girl was swept away by a real witch on Halloween, having been mistaken for a real witch girl, and finds herself at this school quite by mistake. I’m afraid this is quite a stumper, as I have only the fuzziest recollections of the book, but would know the illustrations instantly. I have looked and looked, and can’t find it!

 

240E: Death of a King (Solved)

I can’t remember the title of the book but I vaguely remember something about a bird maybe. I do however, remember some plot of the book. There was a boy who grew up from nothing, he is very charming and everyone loves him. He makes a best friend another boy and they travel together. They meet a girl and she is completely devoted to the charming boy, but he doesn’t spare her the time of day. The best friend is taken with her. At the end of the story there is a tournament to win the kingdom and the hand of a lady. The charming boy wants her really bad but she already has a guy and when they fight in the tournament the lady’s guy loses and charming guy wins the kingdom and her hand in marriage. The plot twist was that the lady and her guy stab the charming guy in the back and he ends up dying at the very end. His best friend takes over and gets vengeance on the lady’s guy. And he ends up ruling the kingdom with the girl that charming guy had no time for.

240C: A family of animals underground (Solved)

I was born in the late 1960’s. There was a children’s book that had to have been published before 1973 that I remember that had these illustrations it in about either a mole, a rabbit or a mouse whose family lived underground. The book had illustrated cut-aways that showed the ground above, the tunnels going down and their little house down in the earth (like a little kitchen, bed, etc.). For years it has been driving me nuts trying to find this book. So if you have any information please let me know.

Thank you!

239I: Photos of frolicking kittens (Solved)

This book would have been published before 1978 but probably after 1960 or 1965. It was a children’s book with photos (probably black and white) of a pair of frolicking kittens. The kittens had black and grey stripes. There may have been short captions of the pictures. The pictures were of the kittens leaping and jumping in funny ways.

239H: Animal steals a cherry pie from window sill (Solved!)

I was read this book by my mom when I was about 7 years old. It was probably published before 1995. It’s part of a collection of stories, possibly with the word “treasury” or “collection” in the title. The book was hardcover, a royal blue color, maybe a little bigger than a standard piece of computer paper, and about an inch thick. It may have been designed to be a bedtime book, but I don’t remember anything about sleeping.

I don’t remember anything other than a bit about one of the stories. I think they may have all been about animals, though. The one story I do remember involved a raccoon or black and white animal (but not a skunk) that steals a pie that was set to cool on a different animal’s window sill. I think the pie was cherry and had a lattice top crust.

Please help me find this book. I’d love to read it to my son.

239G: Old woman and a wolf? (Solved)

I have been trying to conjure up what this book is that I had as a child. I could have sworn it was The Old Woman and the Wolf, but I’m not sure. I have stumbled onto The Wolf and the Old Woman, but I can’t find a description of what that book is about, plus the illustrations look wrong in the one image I saw of the cover (not to mention it was published in ’94, much too late for what I’m looking for).
As far as I can remember, it was about a lonely woman who lived by herself in the woods and a wolf would come to visit her. I think at first the wolf was pesty and she wasn’t fond of it, but over time she and it became friends and at the end, either she or the wolf dies. I remember it taking place season after season, over several years, and for some reason the winter season rings a bell. Like she keeps getting colder and colder every winter.
I know that it was a larger book, about the same size as Make Way for Ducklings. And it possibly had one of those medal insignias on its cover, although its possible that I’m mistaking that for MWfD.
I’ve been searching for this book for years and would do a great big happy dance if anyone at your store is able to somehow help me out with this. I want to get a copy for my own kids. And it certainly wasn’t a cutesy book by any means, had a darker vibe than a lot of children’s books.

I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed!
-Nicole

239F: Fuzzy Shoulder Friends (Solved)

I need help finding a children’s book, I can’t remember what it’s called!

It’s about a little village where all the people have little fuzzy creatures that sit on their shoulders. They look like fuzzy balls with eyes, and come in all different colors. These creatures make the people happy and build their self esteem. Then the people get greedy and start taking each other’s creatures to the point where the whole village is unhappy. They realize this and begin to share the creatures, the village is happy again. Moral of the story: when you take someone else’s confidence, you feel worse too. Published in 1960’s – 1980’s, perhaps.

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!