Category Archives: Solved

144D: Apprentice Witch summons frog-like helper (solved)

3 Replies

Checked out of the library in the early 80s.
Hardback, tan cover with a cauldron on the front, green smoke coming out of the caldron and wrapping around the back.
An apprentice witch’s mistress is accused of some crime by other witches and taken away. The apprentice tries to find the real culprit. She is able to summon a frog-like helper who knows what is going on. Froggie at first cannot answer her questions, but hints broadly. She finds the next part of the spell and he is able to answer “yes” or “no”. Then she finds the last part and he can give full answers. (There is a wand or a book involved, I think)? If I’m not getting this confused with a different book, at some point she allies herself with two children from the circus who are trapeze artists.

 

144A: A Shipwrecked Rabbit Reflects (solved)

7 Replies

This is the second of two books I read in elementary school more than 50 years ago, circa 1960. (I describe the first one in the “A Salmon’s Life Story” stumper.) They connected me with thoughts and feelings way beyond my tender years. I’ve never forgotten either one and would love to read them again.

This book was about a rabbit whom I’m fairly sure was a farmer. Early in the book he ignores a neighbor farmer who happened to be a skunk, because one simply doesn’t talk to skunks. Once shipwrecked, he has time to reflect on his life and realizes he had been wrong to snub his neighbor. The sentence that sticks in my memory is “he wished he had been kinder to the skunk,” or words to that effect. I’ve included a sketch of what I seem to remember the rabbit looked like – very sketchily drawn, very little facial expression.

The rabbit stood upright and wore only pants which I believe were solid black.  (It’s possible I might be remembering a rabbit from an entirely different book, but I’m fairly sure he’s in the one I’m seeking.)

This was more than a half century ago, but I’ve never forgotten either of these two books. If I’ve grown into any kind of thoughtful person, they definitely helped point me in that direction.

Thank you!

 

142C: Scholastic Short Story Contest Winner – Gargoyles come to life! (solved)

4 Replies

I am looking for a book I bought at school thru the Scholastic Book Club, 1982-1986.
The author was 18 and had written a short story that won a contest. The book I bought was the longer version of that story written after the contest, althou it was only around 120 pages I believe.
The story was about a misfit high school boy who made models of gargoyle-like creatures that were about 3 feet tall and for some reason they came to life. The cover was of the boy in his living room and in the background on the stairs was a set of gargoyle legs coming to get him.
I called Scholastic a few years ago to ask about contest winners as I thought it would be the
easiest way to find a name but they referred me to their Canadian office and they never got back to me.

 

142B: toymaker’s workshop (solved)

6 Replies

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)

2 Replies

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.