Category Archives: Solved

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.

106C: Princes, mystery, tapestry, castle, 80s (Solved)

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I would have rented this book from a library in the Bethesda/Germantown, MD area in the 1985-1989 timeframe, but I am not sure if it is an 80s book.  The details are jumbled, but I want to say it was a children’s fiction book since I would have rented it at age 10-13.  I remember someone (a child or adult, not sure?) going in search in a castle for some mystery and eventually finding what looked like the remains, bones, or other evidence of two children behind a tapestry.  I think they were 2 brothers, or princes.  It seems reminiscent of the “Princes in the Tower” story from the reign of King Richard III in England, but I can’t be sure the 2 stories are related.  I am not sure if the word “tapestry” is in the title, but I haven’t been able to locate anything like it anywhere.  This has been nagging me for a long time.  Thanks for any help you can provide!

104D, solved: fish beautiful happy sea pond

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I read this to my children in the 70’s and 80’s. The moral of the story seemed to be about compassion and freedom. It seems that it was an oblong shaped book, not hard cover, but not cloth, but flexible.

It seems that the background, on the very colorful pages, was black and shiny. When your hand warmed places on the pages, the color would brighten and become visible. The story was about a very beautiful,  happy fish, jumping and gleefully playing in the sea. He is somehow caught (don’t remember how or by who) maybe with a net, by a man or boy. The person takes the fish home to keep forever and puts him in a little pond. Not long after being in the pond the fish becomes dull and sad and not beautiful any longer. He is released back into the sea and swims off, shiny and beautiful again in the sea. The last line in the book is something like, “ a beautiful, or magical fish loses his beauty or magic when captured”.

104C, solved: Children’s book covering colors

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Hi–

I am trying to find a children’s book that talks about colors– every page is a different color.

I cannot remember the title, but the book cover is black (the one I had was hardcover) and the cover has a peacock on it.  The text inside is in rhyme, covering a different color on each page.

Here is some text I remember:

–Plates of purple pickle pie (for page on purple)

–Small blue snail, Big blue whale, Snail on whale, Whale on snail!?, It’s no wonder they go under (for page on blue)

–Pink peacock passing by, When she is full of pickle pie, Pink peacock says, Goodbye –I believe this is on last page, which is probably pink

103N, solved: Kitten Gets into a Pickle

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I am currently looking for a children’s book which is not illustrated but uses actual photos. I read the book in the late 80’s or early 90’s. The book is about an orange or brown kitten that lives on a farm. I can remember pictures of the cat running in a field of flowers, and a picture of the cat knocking over jars of flour and making a mess. The sentence that I remember most clearly was something to the effect of “Oh no, she has gotten into such a pickle” after she knocks over the flour. I had to ask my father and he told me that “pickle” also meant getting into troubled situation.

 

103K, solved: The Lakota, Russell Means, and Basketball

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I’m looking for a book that, when I read it, had an orange and black cover. It was about Native Americans, and I believe had a lot of information about the Lakota tribe, Russell Means, and a young Native American girl who played basketball and became a bit of a local hero. I have no idea what the book is called, but I loved it. I believe it was written by a journalist who was not Native American, and I think it came out after Last of the Mohicans, because I believe it noted that Russell Means wrote much of his own script for the movie.

103J: Boy Accidentally Helps Man Rob House (Solved)

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In 1973 I read an old hardcover book containing European children’s stories.  The stories were probably written in the early 1900s.  In one story a boy is working for a man in a village and unknowingly helps the man rob a house; the man uses a ladder to enter the second story of the house.  Someone pulls up the driveway and they flee.  Days later the boy returns to the village, is forgiven, and continues to be friends with the girl who lives in the house.

103H: Boy’s Summer in the Country Novel (Solved!)

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In 1976 I read a children’s full length softcover novel about a boy who moves to the country.  A girl lives nearby and she claims she can do anything as well as he can.  He has a weight set and can lift the heaviest weight.  She can lift it, too.  They visit a man who lives on a houseboat on a nearby lake.  “How deep is the lake?” he asks.  “Pretty deep,” she answers.  “A car went in it once.”  The girl sprains her ankle and the boy helps her home.