Category Archives: Solved

190D: Girl Moves in to a Family Full of Boys (Solved)

I am searching for a book I read when I was a teenager, so it would have been in the 1960’s or 1970’s. I cannot remember the name, and the details are a bit foggy. But, it was about a girl whose parents died or were gone or something like that. She was living with a family that had a number of boys. She fell in love with one of the boys, and another of the boys hated her. She was trapped in a cellar, and almost died, but did recover. The boy she was in love with died, and the boy who hated her eventually fell in love with her. I wish I could remember more! I hope you can identify this book for me!

190C: Girl starts Babysitting to Buy Christmas Presents (Solves)

I’m looking for a book I enjoyed as a child around 1995, although I believe it was published well before then, probably around the 50s. It is about a girl who starts her own babysitting business because she wants to buy Christmas presents for her family. It details her escapes with the children along the way…she eventually gets her mother a set of orange (or maybe apricot?) scented bath products…bubble bath etc. Can you help with this? I’d so love to have this book for the holidays.

189D: British Children’s Short Story Treasury from ‘80s or ‘90s (Solved!)

This was a large, white-bound treasury of short stories and craft ideas, likely published in the 1980s or very early 1990s. The stories were all in British English, but took place around the world. One story was about a brother and sister exploring Montreal’s Underground City during the winter (I believe the brother’s name may have been Sean, with an accent on the e). Another story was about a girl named Tracey who had a pair of silver sandals that never got used. The sandals were sad when they saw her wear all her other shoes day after day, but they finally got worn for a fancy party. I would love to find this collection again! Thanks for your help!

189B: Children Abandoned on farm (solved)

Oldest sister (story is her perspective) of I think 3 siblings keeps up appearances – keeps everything running so they can stay together. Careful not to let neighbors know they are alone, they make excuses why their mom has not been seen. They stretch the money they have, sell what they can, order clothes from Sears Catalog. The Story ends when the mom comes back. And although oldest is angry, she is relieved she is back in the end.
Young adult / teen coming of age fiction book, I read in the mid 70s.

189A: Princess, a rose, sheet music in the book (solved)

I’m looking for a slim paperback, probably from the late 1970s early 1980s, possibly from one of the Scholastic book fairs. It was about a princess, I think secluded in some castle, and I recall it being a romance. A rose featured prominently in the story, and the most specific part of the book that I recall was that there was a song included in the back of the book, in sheet music for the piano, that was about the rose. I remember trying to play the song on the piano as a child…I believe that there were only a few illustrations, and those were in pen / ink…not colored. Thanks for any help!

187F: KIDS FIND SECRET ROOMS AND TREASURE IN OLD HOUSE (Solved)

This is a children’s book that was read to us in class during the mid-1970s, but I felt it was from an earlier era. A family moves to the country, moves into a big, old, dusty, neglected house. There is a solid wood table that they sand and polish with linseed oil. I think there is a scene where the children explore a sealed-off hallway by climbing in through an outdoors upstairs window. I think one of the kids has some chocolate with them and they eat it and they are very thirsty but there is no water, but they quench their thirst by leaning their head out the window and drinking rainwater from a busted downspout. Maybe in the same book they find some old jewelry in a secret compartment behind a medicine cabinet?

187E: KIDS SKIP SCHOOL IN TROPICS FOR A YEAR (Solved)

This is a children’s book that was read to us in class during the mid-1970s, but I felt it was from an earlier era. In it, a brother and sister leave school and join their father and his friend (a man) on a yacht in the tropics for a year. Their father’s friend acts as a tutor. They do their lessons on ship. They swim in the sea and eat breadfruit. I was impressed at how mature and capable and adventurous the kids were.

187B: Eggplants and basketball save a town (Solved)

The area was in financial trouble, and a boy did some research and found out that eggplants would grow well there. Tall triplet boys (they were French?) learned to play basketball, the team got new eggplant-colored jerseys, and the big game or tournament was won for eggplant publicity. The boys referred to a basketball while they were practicing and playing, saying things like, “Pass me the eggplant” or “Throw the eggplant.” They were trying to persuade farmers to plant eggplants, I think, and maybe trying to get publicity for the town. I think the cover art was an eggplant dropping into a basketball hoop.