Category Archives: Solved

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

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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)

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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)

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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. 

 

152C: MYSTERIOUS FRIEND (solved)

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Let me start off by saying the book I am looking for is not ‘The Secret Garden’ by Burnett, and is not ‘Secret Friend’ by Marilyn Sachs.  I’ve also considered but tossed out ‘Mystery Back of the Mountain’by Mary C Jane, although I think that’s the closest I ever got to a eureka moment but I don’t recall a male companion in the story.

Read the book in 4th grade, 1982, it was about 1″ in thickness,  it was a hard cover, fabric, pale sage green. It didn’t seem new.
I recall a “W” on the spine of the book. In the author’s name perhaps?
I do not recall pictures, but that doesn’t mean there were none, just that this was a children’s novel, not a little kid’s book.
The title included words like Secret, Friend, Mysterious Friend, Garden ?…
The main character was a young girl, 10-12 years old possibly.
The book has the dark English feel to it similar to The Secret Garden. I recall grassy hills, gardens, whispers, not modern.
The biggest memory in the book is the main girl character meeting a mysterious girl named Olivia (which makes finding this on Google impossible due to the pig of the same name) and becoming friends with her.
This is why I don’t think that it’s Mystery Back of the Moutain, because I don’t recall a male character tagging along in their friendship but I might be wrong.
My other last ditch guess is “THE HOUSE OF SECRETS” aka “The Secret Passage” by Nina Bawden.  Is there an OLIVIA in that book? This book however, also contains a male child that I don’t recall.
Would love to find this so I can pass it on to my daughter 🙂

 

150J: jokes/quotes to escape from a shell, selecting future selves (solved)

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Looking for a children’s book, brother and sister, a series of magical challenges.  One requires that they escape from a conch shell with increasingly important quotes.  They start with jokes/riddles and end up needing powerful quotes for the final sections of the shell. 

Also there is a scene where the sister (Nora maybe? Ellie?) is faced with a series of doors, each in a set of two where she chooses one based on her reflection.  At first she chooses more sophisticated versions, with fewer of her hated freckles, but ends up very uptight and opts to return and take another path. 

 

150I: Nine ??? Dragons (solved)

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Children’s book I read to my kids in the 80’s.  I believe it was part of a collection, my daughter believes it may be from Sesame Street.  Probably a learning book about numbers.  “Dragons” was definitely in the title, probably with a descriptive word in the middle, such as “Nine Daring Dragons”.