Category Archives: Solved

156E: Miser’s Old Shoes Must Go! (solved)

I’m looking for a picture book that I read to my kids in the 80’s about a miserly man in the middle east who refuses to throw away his old, stinky shoes. He gets in trouble with the Sultan at the public baths for his old shoes. He then tries many different ways to throw them away, and they keep coming back to cost him money and grief – he throws them into the reservoir and they end up clogging the city water pipes; he dries leaving them on the roof to dry, and a dog throws them off the roof onto a woman passing by down on the street – until he finally learns the lesson of throwing old things away when they are no longer useful.

 

156D: Haunted House Pop Up Book (Solved)

When I was a kid, sometime between 1987-1992, my grandmother bought me a hardcover book that contained 2 or 3 haunted plays that all took place in a mansion (or maybe a hotel?). In the front cover of the book was a pop up of the mansion, that included several rooms, to be used as the set for the plays. If I remember correctly, it also included cardboard cut outs of the characters to move from room to room as you “acted out” the play. My cousin and I played with this book for hours, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the title or the author. It’s not the haunted pop up book by Jan Pienkowski and it’s not the Disney haunted house book. If anybody can help me figure this out, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

 

156A: Girl makes up imaginary world in Central Park (solved)

A girl (Girl A) lives with her parents in a brownstone(?) or apartment building across the street or adjacent from Central Park. She has a good life but would like a friend of similar age. Very early on in the book, a girl about her age moves into the building! Girl A makes friends with this girl, has many high spirited adventures in and around Central Park & NYC.

This book is titled something like “The World of Xanadu” or “Xenon” or “Xenia”, but “Xanadu” sounds most right to me. the X-word is the title of the imaginary world that the girls have made up. Early on, Girl A daydreams that she will find a friend her age and when she does, she says “We will make a fantasy realm called ‘Xanadu'”. This aspect feels like it has a “Bridge To Terabithia” element to it.

The setting is very close to “The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline” by Lois Lowry, but it isn’t that, because that book has more of a mystery/suspense nature to it.

Any help would be wonderful! Thank you!

 

154G: Last Dragon who loves a witch (solved)

I am looking for a book that was probably published in the early 1980’s or so.

It is a science fantasy book, set in a different land.  The main character is a woman, who is a “witch” (wise woman) and she is married/consort to the local lord, which isn’t as glamorous as all that – the lord loves to discuss pig breeding with the farmers and he does wear glasses (I believe)
There is a dragon (and old one – could be the last dragon in the realm) who is awakened and she & her husband are tasked to kill this dragon.  She has the power to understand the dragon and the dragon falls in love with her – she is able to transform herself into a dragon and she loves it.  But then she realizes the life she had as a woman and transforms herself back to a woman and goes back to her family and life

 

154F: Kids visit fantasy world with owl mayor (Solved!)

The book I’m trying to find was probably published in the 1970s. It was mostly text, with some black and white line drawings. The storyline involved some kids visiting a fantasy world with an owl for a mayor. For the owl’s birthday, they bake him a cake in the shape of an owl. The owl is horrified and refuses to eat the cake because it looks like him. That’s all I remember, except that it also contained the word “turd” which greatly horrified my mother. It’s possible the book was written in verse, or that this was just one story in a collection, but I don’t remember. I think I had this book when I was about 10, so it was probably written for the tween market. The tone of the book was playful and irreverent.

 

154E: Beautiful book of tiny people (solved)

There was a full-color illustrated book at least 20 years ago. Each page was edge-to-edge covered with a cross-sectional view of cities, usually underground or inside plants, of dozens of tiny people (possibly mice?), going about their daily business. They often had sort of improvised technology, or had built devices into natural facades, like a periscope that looked like a flower. The illustration style was very realistic and extremely detailed.

 

154B: The Princess Who Escaped Her Story (solved)

Here’s what I remember:

The book is about a princess, I think her name was either Sophie or Sophia, who lives in a castle with her Royal Family in a town located within the confines of a storybook. Whenever the book is opened, the people in the town stop their current activities and rush to their places in order to preform their story for The Reader who’s name, I think, is Claire. The princess is very adventurous, she hates the repetition of the story and longs to visit a world beyond the book. I think that she does leave for a short period of time, and once she steps out from the book, she enters one of Claire’s dreams. She returns to the book ,and informs the other characters who react with shock and disapproval. When Claire’s little brother burns the book, the princess and the characters escape into Claire’s memory/imagination/dreams. The story and the characters, I believe, are passed down to Claire’s daughter or granddaughter, who with the princess’s help, re-writes/re-publishes the story so that it and it’s characters will live on.

Another point worth mentioning is that the book was published sometime in the early 00’s, I had a copy in my possession in 2003. It was from a school book fair, so the publisher could be something that has connections with Elementary and Middle schools like Scholastic. It was a paperback, the front and the back were off-white or cream in color, and I think the front had an illustration of the princess. All I can remember was that she had dark hair.