Category Archives: Solved

142B: toymaker’s workshop (solved)

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I am looking for a children’s book that I read in primary school, and I’m afraid I have no recollection whatsoever of the title. One of the main characters is a toymaker whose workshop is in a mountain: his character is definitely ambiguous, sometimes actively malevolent. There are children, perhaps siblings, who are other characters who have to deal with him. The toys may come to life?

Other hints: my recollection is that there may be more than one book in the series; the setting is in Austria, or Switzerland or some similar mountainous European locale, and the feeling was definitely of fantasy.

Maybe the strongest marker would be the date of publication. I think it would have been published in the 60s or 70s, certainly no later. I was born in 1965 and was reading it at ages 7-12 or 13.

I have already searched Loganberry Books Solved Mysteries, and not found it; nor has a preliminary search on Google produced anything.
Thank you VERY much for whatever help you can give

 

141Q: Son, father and Stonehenge-like village (solved)

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From what I remember as a ten year-old: the book was for tweens, probably published in the seventies, mid to late. It is a chapter book, contemporary, about a father and son visiting a quiet (English? New England?) village that has a secret. The people in the town are all secretive and distrustful of outsiders, but the boy strikes up a romantic friendship with a girl from the town. The mystery of the town centers around a Stonehenge-type ruin. The climax of the book involves a cyclical resetting of the people of the town and their memories.

 

140B: A Yukon Adventure (solved)

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I am trying to locate a book for a friend.  The title is not known and it was probably published in the late1940’s or early 1950’s.  Some Disney friends went looking for gold in the Yukon and ran into Peg-Leg Pete.  While trying to escape him one of the friends shook hands with a totem pole and a trap door opened up to save them from Peg-Leg. 

 

140A: Childrens book with an animal (bunny or mouse) that wins the lottery (solved)

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I have been searching for a book that I read in first grade, and I can not find it to save my life.

The book is about a rabbit or possibly a mouse. He works in a grocery store, and wins the lottery. He wastes the money he wins on a car with no engine, a mansion that is too big for him, and a motorcycle so that he can move back and forth through the mansion.

The book ends with the mouse or bunny broke, and returning to work at the grocery store. he buys another lottery ticket on the last page i think.

I was in the first grade in 1988-89, so my memory may not be that great of the details. I think this was a scholastic book- we had book fairs and mailers come home all the time, and that might have been how I ended up with this book.

 I have a first grader that is starting chapter books, and I would love to give him this book. I have very fond memories of reading and laughing at how silly it was. Your help is much appreciated.

 

139A: frog’s birthday party (solved)

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This is a picture book from the early seventies featuring, I believe, a frog who invites people to her birthday party but no one ends up coming. I think this is because she holds it in the water and serves foods that only she likes.  I have a distinct memory of an illustration in which the frog is sitting alone on a lily pad with a party hat askew on her head.  She has prepared many gelatin molds with flies and they are beginning to melt.  She ends up arranging a different party with food to suit her guests and everyone comes.  Please help me!