Category Archives: Unsolved

372P: Petey and Friends

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As a child I would periodically visit my grandparents, in the mid 1960’s. They had a children’s book at their house that I still remember (as does my cousin). If I could find the name, I’d love to get us each a copy for the holidays. 

Children’s chapter book, green cover, we think, but aren’t 100% on that.

Published definitely prior to 1970, more likely in the 1950’s.   The story line was pretty didactic, and that would fit the era. Also, while folks had cars, the vegetable man had a cart.

Generally simple plot: family with several kids move to a new location. The youngest child is named Petey, and he is the main character.  Each chapter basically follows one event in Petey’s life. Chapters I can remember:

** Petey makes friends with the vegetable man who comes into town to sell his veggies. Petey and family are invited to go out into the country to visit the veggie man’s family.  There was some cross-cultural awareness, but I can’t remember what. 

**Christmas is approaching and all the townspeople ask Petey what he wants for Christmas. “Oh, just one of those little cars” (referring to Matchbox cars). Everyone is astounded he wants so little. In the end, everyone in town gets him a little car.

** Bad snowstorm keeps Petey and his siblings indoors. After complaint about nothing to do they all sit and start to create a quilt from leftover fabric. They work all day and succeed in creating quilt.

It wasn’t great literature, but it has sentimental value for us. ☺️

Thank you for any help you can provide! I have been searching for this book for over a decade! 

372O: Vintage children’s photo book – 1960s or earlier

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Hello Book Heroes!  The very back of my brain has been tickling me about a book I had as a child, and I’m hoping you can find it for me. 

I don’t recall whether there was any text at all, but I think they were nursery rhymes – what I DO remember is that the illustrations were all photos of miniature items arranged in scenes, perhaps with live baby animals (chicks, kittens, puppies)?  If they weren’t live animals, they would have been perhaps plastic figures, maybe with flocking to make them look fuzzy.

372N: Mystery children’s book

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I have been searching quite a long time for a book I remember from my early childhood. I was born in 1964, and I think the book was considered old back then. I believe the illustrations were black and white. The main character was a skinny boy who wore only a loincloth and turban, and there were many sea creature friends in the grotto. I remember the fishes’ eyes seemed rather human-like.

372M: Alliterated Named- Animals

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Hi, I’m searching for the name of a series of children’s books I read in the 1960s and 1970s. I don’t remember much about them except that all the characters were animals
and they had alliterated names.  There was a firefly in the books. The coverwas very cute. These books gave me a lifelong love of reading. I was in grade 5 at the time, going to school in Hull, Quebec, Canada. The books were in English. Unfortunately that’s all I remember.

372L: Boy Beaver

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The book I’m looking for I read in 1970 – 71.  A fourth grade teacher selected it from the school library for me.  It was a children’s chapter book about a boy who either dreamed or had a vision that he was was a beaver.  It had Native American motifs and all the other characters were also animals. I really don’t remember much more than that.

372J: Stowaway Samurai

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I read it in the late 90s, so it was written before then.  The person that lent the book to me called it a ‘cult classic’.  If I had to guess, I would estimate that it written in late 1960s.
I seem to recall that it involved a Japanese samurai, but he could have been a giant.  It also could have been from China.  They were a stowaway and travelled to USA.  I believe it was San Francisco.  It may have hidden in steamer trunk.
This was not YA.  More of a fantastical book for adults with nice meaning.
I’ve been wondering about this book for about twenty years.

372I: Preteen Thief Gets To Go On Pogo Stick

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There’s a book I read around 2004, definitely before 2005. Man travels Europe with his rich girlfriend, they have no real jobs. Her preteen daughter is home from boarding school for the summer so is traveling with them. At the beginning of the book she uses yogurt to soothe a sunburn. Also, he wakes up to the child standing next to the bed asking him to take her on pogo sticks but he refuses. For some reason they have to go visit the child’s grandfather. The child helps the main character plan to steal some art while at the house. He is a little bit bumbling but succeeds at stealing the painting. While they are at the grandfather’s house he has to pretend to be a tutor for the child. There were other people also there, and one was a French (?) woman who flirted with him a lot. At the end of the book the man takes the child on pogo sticks.

372F: Growing up in a convent

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I’m trying to remember the name of a sweetly simple novel, not very long and probably published in the 1960s, about a young motherless girl whose father brings her to a convent so the nuns can raise her while he–works? Travels? I can’t recall. I believe it was written in first person, and the girl lives a fairly idyllic existence with the nuns, who treat her with every kindness until her father returns. She doesn’t always understand their little jokes, such as one involving “elbow grease” that I never forgot. The title and author, however, are another story.

372E: Romance leads to “cheating”

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I’m looking for a book I read in High-school (2011) I believe the book was written and or published 1985 to 1999.


Keywords: YA romance, senior year American high school, new girl, friends boyfriend returns from a semester abroad, new girl falls in love with friends boyfriend.


Summary/synopsis:The book starts out with a main female protagonist who was new that school year. The setting is high school, in the autumn/winter. She goes to school and talks with her new friends and finds out that one girls boyfriend who is returning home from a semester abroad.When the boyfriend returns, he’s very welcoming and excited to talk to everyone again but it seems like everyone is treating him very similar to the way he was before he left. He wants to talk about his new experiences and the only one who can relate to is the protagonist as she had family in the part of England that he visited. They talk about the old stained glass windows. Later it’s apparent they like one other a bit to much. They are hanging out together but during one day, it is too much and they talk about his feelings for the main character in his car. They decide that they should put distance their relationship so as not to be unfair to his current girlfriend until he breaks up with his  girlfriend to be with the main character.Somehow the friends catch wind of this and assume that the main character and boyfriend were cheating more than they did. The Ex girlfriend and main girl get into an argument and later at school the friend group is mad at both of them but the two main characters support one other through this until the friends realize the main characters were sincere and tried to make the most out of a hard situation. I believe it ends with talks on them going to college potentially together.


Other details I remember: they held hands in the car and the main character noticed the boyfriend’s thick healthy nails.The main character was a brunette.The ex girlfriend was blonde.The boyfriend played a sport before going to England. 
I can work out more information if I can, but I don’t want to Mandela effect myself more than I may have already done.

372D: Going through a day in the city

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Children’s picture book from 1960s\1970s Ink drawings (with possibly a pop of one color?) fully covering both pages. Very few words. The detailed drawings followed characters throughout their day in the city (similar to “In the Town All Year Round” by Rotraut Susanne Brener). I remember a girl’s birthday party, a barber shop, and an alligator coming out of a sewer. The book size is tall and thin, (approx 12x 10?). I think it had an orange fabric cover. The book was read in the US in the late 70s, and early 80s, but was likely a hand-me-down from older siblings. Thank you for any leads.