Category Archives: Solved

123E: Boy living with count and his daughter after father imprisioned (Solved)

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In the 1970s I read 2 or 3 books from a series which were old books from my parents.

The main character was a boy (maybe Peter) whose father was part of a resistance movement. The father was captured, tried as a traitor and sent to jail.

The boy (who appeared to have no living mother) was taken to live with a senior person (count perhaps) who was important in the government or people the rebellion was against.

This “count” was seen by the boy as dark and evil and the grand house seemed like a prison to the boy.

The boy although very unhappy eventually made friends with the “count’s” very young daughter, went horse-riding, played etc. But he tried to get messages to the resistance movement and maybe even tried to get away. The “Count” found out, and there was some discussion about holding the father as a “hostage” to the boys good behavior or the boy to the father’s behavior.

The “Count” and the father were both really trying to work towards the same end, but the father was doing it by rebellion, and the “Count” from inside the system.

The boy ends up being treated well by the Count – but I never got to the end of the series (I think I read book 1 and 3 maybe).

I think one of the adult’s names was Sebastian and I got the feeling that it all happened in middle Europe, black forests and castles.

I would love to find out the author and the name of at least one of the books.

 

122D: Mouse Learns About Thunderstorms (solved)

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I read a wonderful book in the late 80s/early 90s that was about a little mouse who learns about the scientific explanation of thunderstorms. He walks around with a little umbrella and even gets to ride on some birds (geese?) into the clouds to see the positively and negatively charged air that causes the sound of thunder, etc. Please please help me find it!

121J: Boy’s journey across the red cliffs to the beach (solved)

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This stumper is a children’s picture book that I think was published either in the late 80’s or the early 90’s.  I live in Australia, and I’m afraid I don’t know if it was an Australian book or not.  If it is I suspect it will make it even more difficult to solve!
I originally thought the title was “Lucy’s Beach”, but I’m obviously wrong about the name because I have not been able to find any record of it.  I am pretty sure it’s a girl’s name followed by the word “beach”.  I don’t know who the author is.
The story began with the main character, a young boy, in the kitchen at his house with his family.  The weather is good, and he comes to the decision that today he will cross the red cliffs to the beach.  His family listens to his announcement very seriously.  You got the sense that it was an important thing the boy was doing, and that it’s the first time since some kind of significant event that he was returning.
He leaves the house and crosses the cliffs.  He navigates the narrow ledges of the red cliffs and finally arrives at the beach.  He searches in the beach until he finds a stone covered by the sand, not red like the cliffs, but flat, smooth and polished.  It has a name engraved in the top of it.
Finding the stone makes him remember playing at the beach before with his younger sister, and the boy remembers his parents telling him to watch his sister in the water to keep her safe.  I think he got distracted playing his own games, and his little sister ended up drowning.  The stone is a memorial marker for her.  He lifts up the stone and finds a compartment with some kind of plant or flower seeds.  He removes the seeds from the box and blows them into the wind, and they rise up above the towering red cliffs.
I think that’s pretty much the end of the story.  Pretty sad for kid’s picture book.  I really hope you can help me solve the mystery of this stumper!  I’m certainly looking forward to hearing from you.

121I: Pre-Teen Romance Anthology (Solved)

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I read this book sometime between 6th and 8th grades, so between 1976 and 1979. It was not great literature but catered very much to pubescent and pre-pubescent girls. It was a mass-market paperback anthology of short stories, and I think they all dealt with romance and/or the characters’ first kisses. There might have been some that were just about the trials and tribulations of being that age, but if so, I don’t recall specifics. I do remember one of the stories mentioning chocolate pudding. In another -or maybe the same story- the protagonist went on her first date (possibly a school dance?), and when she and the boy walked home, he kissed her, and she said his lips tasted sweet like Coca-Cola.

 

121B: Boy Runs Away with Pig (solved)

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In the late 1980’s when I was in high school we were assigned to read this book, it’s possible that it was a few years earlier in middle school. There was a young Asian boy, I remember him being Chinese or Vietnamese but he may have been Japanese because I also remember him talking about wanting a lot of “yen”. I remember it because I don’t think I ever really heard of yen before that book. Another thing I first heard of in this book was rice paddies, I don’t remember if he was running away from work on a rice paddy or if he passed by some on his journey.

I’m not sure he was running away at all he may have been on a quest of some sort, it may be that he was wanting to sell something the get money for some reason because I seem to remember he had a destination in mind.

Also, I remember a pig. I thought he had a pig with him or met a pig along the way that followed him but my mother read the book also and she doesn’t remember a pig. She doesn’t remember any more than I do about the book, all she knows is that I liked it so much I gave it to her to read. I’ve thought about this book several times over the years trying to remember it and I’ve looked all over the internet for it and I’ve asked people about it with no luck. I’m hoping it was on a lot of high school or middle school reading list and you will be able to help me.

 

120A: Girl with Real Golden Hair (solved)

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In the early 1970s, as a kid, I came across an extraordinary cloth-bound picture book: The story of a girl from another planet–a girl whose hair is made of actual gold. She is befriended by a young Earth boy who learns her secret, and tries to help her get away from bad guys who want to lock her up and harvest her hair.
The illustrations were photographs (or else very photo-realistic drawings).
I was fascinated by this little sci-fi tale. Years later I went back looking for it, and it was long gone.
I suspect it was not a new book even in the early 70s. It had the wear and tear of something that had been in circulation for years.
I would be grateful and astonished if you can find a title and author for this book!

 

119B: Highway Wants a Vacation Too (solved)

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I am looking for one of my childhood favorites from the 80s possibly 90s. It’s a picture book about a highway that always takes a family to the city (I think) for their summer vacation. One summer the highway decides to take them to the beach because the highway wants a vacation. The pictures that stand out in my mind are of a road twisting and turning, bumping a family to the beach. The road ends up in the waves of the ocean at a crowded beach. I feel like the title is something like Highway 101 Goes to the Ocean.