Category Archives: Unsolved

377Y: Children’s book stumper

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I remember a children’s book about some sort of creature or monster who lived underwater in a castle or palace. He is sort of humanoid/frog cross, is described as having a heart as black as coal, and falls in love with a girl (maybe a princess). He kidnaps her to his underwater palace, and she is eventually rescued by her human love interest. It was a book my grandma bought from her library – my guess is that it was probably published in the 60s or 70s, and I think it was watercolored. I also feel like the color purple was heavily featured in it, but that could be wrong.

377X: A boy and his hound dog

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I have a query about a children’s book from the 1950’s or early 1960’s. I read the book in 1965 or 1967. 
The story is about a lonely city boy who is failing math. School ends for the summer and he goes to visit relatives on a farm.  He gets a hound dog to raise, and he finds self esteem and joy in the process. 
The story mostly revolves around this little hound dog and the boy’s experience with the dog on the farm. 
It’s not “daddles” or “old yeller” or “the fox and the hound”,  or any of the well-known hound stories.  It was a chapter book with a solid color cover and some b & w line drawings.  I thought the title was something about the little hound dog, but my previous searches haven’t borne that out.

377W: Painting the town red (literally) and cucumber sandwiches

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This is a middle-grade book that I read over and over in the early 70s. Here’s what I remember about it: –It was about a group of 4 boys who had adventures in their small town. –One of the boys had a wealthy grandmother and they used to go to her house for cucumber sandwiches (which one boy didn’t like because they gave him gas) –They heard the phrase “paint the town red” and went out one night, broke into the hardware store, stole paint, and literally painted the town red –One of the boys’ moms wanted to visit Schenectady because she liked the way it sounded. This makes me think that it was set in NY.

377U: Boy on the Bayou and Hard Lessons

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This is a book (novel) I read as a boy, so would have been published before 1970. Set in South (probably Louisiana), the boy and his dog paddle through the bayou on a boat (pirogue?) and fish for Gar. The boy has a sister; she is assaulted at one point by a young man from a bad family, but is rescued by a young man from a quiet and good family. The assaulting man is killed and the killing hushed up. Afterwards I think the girl and her rescuer marry. Later the boy goes into town and there is some mention of black superstitious practice involving (if I remember) putting something into a tree, then plugging it up.I tried AI but it was absolutely no help.Perhaps a Harper & Row publication. perhaps 1965.

377S: Animal beggars who were at the bottom of a well

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There’s a book that I had as a child that my mother hated reading to me – I was born in 1987, we had this book before I turned 10. It was a children’s book, illustrated, it was about animal beggars with different kinds of injuries (one missing legs, one blind – war wounds I think), I think one of the animals was a frog. They lived (or hid?) in the bottom of the well and meat was thrown down to them. I’m sorry that I don’t remember much more of about this book.

377O: White Cat Changes Colors

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Probably from the 1940’s or 1950’s

It is about a white cat, probably a Persian, who is entered in a show.  The cat gets out of the house and becomes painted with red and blue paint.  The daughter of the owners says let’s take her to the show anyway and the cat wins first prize.

377N: Pink Cover with Shibari Rope

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I am looking for a book I saw in a bookstore earlier. I took a photo of the cover but it came out blurry. It was a pink cover with a spool of rope/shibari rope on it. The synapses is a bit blurry to my memory, but it was something about someone whose partner dumped them after they moved (to the Netherlands? Denmark? Something else?) and there was something about them meting a new sub. I didn’t finish reading the cover, I was in a time crunch.