Category Archives: Solved

110F, solved: Book About Reincarnation

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My mom read a book about reincarnation in 1964, and she thinks it’s called “Through a Glass Darkly.” All she can remember of the plot was: Two girls were in a swimming pool, and one of the girls saved the other from drowning, but then drowned herself. She was then reincarnated as a Nurse in a hospital. Somehow she eventually recalls that she had rescued the girl(or kid) in a previous life. (and that’s all my mom remembers) Any thoughts? We’ve seen two of the other books called “Through a Glass Darkly,” and neither one is the one she’s looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

110D, solved: Unusual Pencil-drawings

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Our teacher showed us this book in 1993; it had full-page pencil drawings with unusual captions.  I remember one of the drawings was of a young boy sleeping and the caption said something like “Archie (don’t remember last name).  A small voice said ‘he’s the one.'” I think another picture was of a room or staircase, and there was a tiny, maybe six-inch high door built into the wall.  I want to say our teacher mentioned that the illustrator had dropped off the illustrations and captions at a publishers, said he would return the next day, but never showed.  So the pictures were published into this book but no one knows who actually drew them.

 

110C, solved: Young Adult book about Jason and the Golden Fleece

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I read this library book in the 1960s but it could have been published earlier. A young girl is chosen to represent her village by becoming a handmaiden to the temple where the Princess Medea serves. This girl is chosen because she has some special mystical power even though she is very shy. She loves Medea and makes friends with others there. And she tells the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece from her point of view. The book ends with Jason leaving Medea and Medea, in her grief, killing their children. There are many references to the Maiden the Mother and the Crone in the book.

110B, solved: Otis and the Donut Shop

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Hi, I’m looking for a series of children’s books or it might’ve been a series of stories one the one book that I read in the 1970′s and the protagonist was a little boy named Otis who always got into trouble. There was also a donut shop or some kind of elaborate donut maker in most of the books.(or stories) He has all kinds of adventures but usually finds his way out of them in some unusual way. There’s one story where a woman’s diamond ring gets fried into a donut and adventure ensues as they try to find it. I can’t remember the author. Also, they were paperbacks. Thanks very much.

109F: Cross Section of a Hotel (solved)

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This is a tricky one, I had it as a kid. It was a cross-section of a hotel, across each double page. Each page was like 30 seconds after the one before. The detail was brilliant, I would spend hours picking a storyline in the pictures and following it through to it’s conclusion. I recall a flood, a rat infestation, an underground car park, a lady having a bath, loads and loads of things happened in that book. It was a hardback, with maybe 20 or so pages. It was quite large, maybe A4 or slightly bigger as I recall. Sorry I do not know more details about the book, I was young (somewhere around 10 year old, making it 1987) and my parents don”t even remember it. Hope you can help, my kids want to see this book too 🙂

107E, solved: Birthday Dress, Hot Dogs, and Rice

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A book about a young black (African-American) girl whose birthday was coming up. Her mother didn’t have much money, and all the girl was hoping for was a favorite dinner of hot dogs and rice. I don’t remember much more, except I think her mom made her a dress (and she got the meal!). Thank you!

107D, solved: Childhood Story Book

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I am long looking for my childhood Story Book.  My birth year is 1947.  I do not know if mom had this book previous to my birth.  The cover is gone.  So are the first 16 pages.  No index, no contents.  But, on the upside, I have [a few pictures] of the story beginning and some illustrations. I would love to purchase one or more of these books if it could be identified.

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(Click on pictures for larger view.)

107C, solved: Two Bears Who Disobey Their Mother

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Info that may help

  • I was born in 1992 so is must be at least 20+ years old.
  • It has an animated version in a collection of stories on VHS (tape) along with others such as Puss in boots, The boy who cried wolf and more.
  • I believe the moral of this story was to teach following rules and consequences.

Name

  • I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the collection of stories or the individual one.. sorry! I could only guess and yours would is as good as mine.

Description

  • There were 2 bears that were very curious about an area that was far away that was forbidden by the mother bear to enter. It appeared to be a magical place and everything inside was perfect. The bears went there one day and contemplated entering – in the end they did. Once they disobeyed the mother and entered, though, they were stuck there forever and could never return home.

106E: Polar Bear in Pants, Possibly Named Victor (Solved)

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Published in the early to mid-80’s, perhaps. It was my absolute favorite somewhere between 1986 and 1988; I remember this because I have fond memories of reading it while in the refrigerator box fort in the backyard of the house we rented during that time. It was a paperback, thirty pages or so, stylish and clever (to my young senses). I recall only a single illustration: an expressionless polar bear on the second floor of a house or at the top of the landing of stairs; I could have sworn his name was “Victor” but I’ve found nothing similar about a polar bear with that name, other than the Victor Vito books, which this is not. It is also definitely a white bear (so is not Lebraun’s Little Brown Bear series or something by Frank Asch, despite similarly sparse illustrations). He was wearing (polka dotted? striped?) boxers or trousers. I’m nearly certain Alborough’s Bare Bear can’t be it because the plot (despite the reference to underwear) didn’t ring a bell at all, but one never knows. The only other thought I have is that it may be Le-Tan’s Voyage/Visit to the North Pole because his illustrations look familiar, and there’s a dog in the story named Victor, but I can’t find copies of either book at any of our local libraries or a cheap enough edition to risk being incorrect.