Category Archives: Solved

201E: Self portrait with mice (Solved)

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I’m looking for a picture book that has the artist’s self portrait throughout. The image of the artist is looking at the reader are the subject behind him is one mouse or mice. I remember the mice or mouse driving a classic black convertible. There may be more, but either way the mice were up to no good. I think the mice were doing various bad things, but I’m not sure. In his self portraits, the artist does not look amused by the mischief. This book has a sixties feel. The artist is heavy set and wears glasses in his pictures. He looks like he’s in his sixties. There is a lot of white space in the pictures. The art is very precise and in the realm of realism. I’m pretty sure the artist/author is very famous.

201B: Children’s book, navel oranges, sharing. (solved)

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A boy receives an orange as a gift, and he generously gives away its segments to others, only to find himself with none left. Someone tells him that it was a navel orange, and there was a hidden baby orange within the skin, enough for one bite. I read this around the 70’s, a beautifully illustrated book. The author might have had a Spanish name, or perhaps Jewish? I don’t recall any Christmas themes and he shared his gift mainly with older relatives, neighbors who seem European…

199H: Girl enters magical kingdom, fights off goblins, rides dragon (Solved!)

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I read this book somewhere between 1963 and 1966 when it was new. It was sold through an elementary school book fair. A girl wanders off and finds herself in a magical kingdom. There she is a princess. There’s a fight in a castle. Goblins enter the castle by turning themselves into doorknobs. At some point in the magical kingdom, she wanders up a hill and finds a dragon cave. The dragon turns out to be peaceful, although misunderstood, and she has tea with him and they become friends. He flies her around the kingdom and alights on the roof of the castle with her.

The book was paperback with a light blue cover.

199E: 3 Siblings worship magic dough/bread man (Solved)

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I read this book in middle school, 1995. so book is late 80s-90s. Three siblings, 2 girls and a boy, with the boy as the middle child. the youngest sister is ill/sick/crippled in some way. home life is not awesome, and they may or may not have moved to a new house- a huge tree in the backyard, they each find different items in the “new” backyard and decide to bake all of them into bread that mom or grandma was making. i think one of the items was a wire in shape of a crown, and another thing for the heart and something in the dough mans hand. this became some kind of magical talisman that made the little sister stronger and or able to perform magic. i also distinctly remember (i may be wrong) them having an entity i thought was rowan or something with an “R” that they worshipped for giving them this magic, and it became mad for some reason, resulting in the little sister climbing the tree to give back the dough man, and her falling…

199D: Children’s fairytale/fantasy book with illustrations *possibly* by Paul Klee? (Solved)

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I had a picture book, squarish proportions, about knights who set off on a journey to confront “the wizard Bone,” depicted in the book as a rather dragon-like creature. The art style is VERY reminiscent of Paul Klee paintings during his Bauhaus period – very geometric, abstract; the ‘wizard/dragon’ is sort of like a Pac-Man with sharp teeth – or something like Klee’s ‘Death and Fire’ – the lettering in the book was by hand, with a very stick-figure style almost like Viking runes; flattened picture-plane perspective, etc.

I do seem to remember seeing the word “Klee” on the cover; but given that he died in 1940, if it wasn’t him, it was certainly inspired by his work. Oval eyes like ‘Senecio,’ panels like his ‘Sinbad the Sailor.’ and generally geometric backgrounds like ‘Castle and Sun’.

It seemed to have been published new in the early 1970s, late 1960s maybe.

199B: Easter Island Childhood (photobook) (Solved)

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I can’t remember the name of the book or the author. Photo book about a indigenous boy who lives on Easter Island, and the book follows his day exploring the island, probably suggested as a `biography’. Emphasis is on big B&W photos. It was a hardback book and I think probably from British/UK publishers. I’d say it was about 12 inches by 10 inches – bigger than normal size. This would have been published in the mid to late 60s or very early 1970s. I remember this from South Africa where I spent part of my childhood.

198G: Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. (Solved!)

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Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. I read it 20+ years ago, I’m assuming it’s 100-200 pages long. There was a young girl who buried a bird, and maybe tied notes to trees. Found a passageway to a hazy, smoke-filled room covered in old throw pillows. An old lady was there dressed in ratty fancy clothes and gaudy jewelry with a long smoking stick. There was a dalmatian somewhere in there too. I think she communicated with the old lady by burying letters in the ground. Maybe she found the dalmatian dead at the end? I read it at the same time as “The BFG.” I was young so some of the details my be completely fabricated!! Hope you can help!

197G: Boy captured by Native Americans in Colonial America (Solved)

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I used to read this as a kid so I’m assuming was published pre-1980. At the beginning the setting is the American Colonies during the French & Indian War and it describes a Native American messenger running between tribes with a bead belt (belt contains a message in the beadwork).

I don’t remember how it happens but the main character (pre-teen/young teen boy) is captured, goes through the gauntlet of the tribe and is then adopted. One of the scenes I remember is of his new father shaving/plucking his scalp to give him a mohawk.

At the end of the book the American Revolution has started and the boy has linked back up with his family (brother & sister?) and is on raft going down a river. I think they were headed to a fort, there may have been a scene that described the fort occupants melting metal for bullets.

The copy I had may have had a tortoise on the outside cover (no just jacket).

197E: Weather Witch and Orphan Girl (Solved)

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I’m pretty sure this book takes place in England and is about a girl who has magical abilities. She lives in a town with magical residents. The mayor is able to control the weather. She is being pursued by dark forces and the entire town might also be compromised by this danger. She is learning magic from an older wizard. There’s a scene in an underground library. They may have the ability to time travel, but definitely the ability to transport themselves with magic. There’s a scene at an abandoned boardwalk (in Brighton I believe) and a carousel is there as well. I think it was storming at this scene. In the town, the magic is used to whitewash the fences and keep things sparkly white and beautiful. Each house has a footbridge due to a stream running through town and a garden with a whitewashed fence. The girl knows the mayor. She might be an orphan.