Category Archives: Unsolved

329M: Planet run by computer “gods”

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I’m looking for a science fiction novel I read years ago, in the mid 1970’s. Unfortunately, I know neither the title or the author! I have no idea whether it was a new novel at the time I read it – I got it out of the library. I would love to find it again. If anyone has any ideas of what it might have been from the following description, I’d appreciate any help. 

Overview: The novel was about a spaceship which landed (crashed?) on a planet that was run by “gods.” The “gods” were actually computers, and they set about trying to kill the ship’s crew as heretics. Each chapter was headlined by a different quote concerning religion – the whole book seemed to be a diatribe about the pitfalls of organized religion. 

Various specifics: I remember that the ship’s captain was female. Early in the book, the captain and crew realized that the flowers in the field they were making their way through were actually microphones, relaying their conversation to the planet-controlling computers. At one point, they traveled through a system of caves, the only place they could escape the computer’s sensors. In the cave they all found it necessary (I don’t remember why) to strip, but as it was dark, mixed-sex modesty wasn’t an issue (figures that scene would stick in the memory of an adolescent boy.) The indigenous life on the planet resembled teddy bears. 

Book edition specifics: It was a hardcover (and, as mentioned, a library book.) I believe the dust jacket was yellow, and pictured one of the teddy bear-like planet inhabitants. 

I know that’s not a lot to go on, but if anyone has any ideas, I’d appreciate hearing them. 

329L: Boy Who Could Unmake Things

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I’m looking for a book I read in the 80s (I think) about a world in which the typical magic was to be able to create things, but one boy is able to unmake things and everybody either wants to use him or kill him. It’s possible this boy is actually a girl, but I’m leaning toward it being a boy.

329J: Science Fiction picture book for kids from the late 80s early 90s

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When I was somewhere between 9 and 11, I checked out a book from a library in northern California that was a picture book that came with a cassette tape. It was a science fiction story about a kid that went in a robot spaceship that traveled the universe and back. Along their journey they visited multiple space phenomenons, including visiting Alpha Centauri, almost getting sucked into a black hole, and searching for life in deep space by looking for radio waves/signals that may be nearby. They actually found a radio signal, but when they tuned in, it turned out that the radio broadcast of “Howdy Doody” from 50 years or so prior had made it out that far and that was what they were picking up. The whole story was geared toward education of different types of stars, galaxies, space phenomenon, etc., for a child, and most of this “tour” through space was narrated by the robot/spaceship that the child was a passenger in. It was VERY entertaining, with great pictures and I’m surprised that I couldn’t find it with a quick google search!

329F: Creatures on Venus

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The book I am interested in is a juvenile / YA science fiction book most likely written in the late 40s or 50s or very early 60s before we landed space probes there. The main character is a boy. They land on Venus and find deserts and no life, but along the way the main character gets lost and finds a valley with dinosaur-like creatures and small primate creatures. Eventually, the primary expedition finds him and all turns out well. I have searched the net but have not found any trace, I checked it our from our public library many times in the 1980s. Thanks!

329E: Myfanwy – A Romance

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“Myfanwy” is a short story that was included in an anthology of teen romances.  The preface of the book had the lyrics to either “Why Must I be a Teenager in Love” or “Do You Wanna Dance?” The story involves a teenage boy who attends a boy’s school and a beautiful girl named Myfanwy would be seen at church, but would never speak to anyone, and one day, the boy is sitting under a tree reading and Myfanwy approaches him and they talk.

329C: Ghost of California chicken racer

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Published before 1989, likely current setting is late 70's or early 80's. Teenage girl with mom and brother, no dad, move to a 3 story house off the California coast line. The house has a curved driveway with a tree stump in the grass. The family does not have a car, but the girl keeps hearing a car idling in the driveway. Then starts to see an oil leak when everyone else sees dirt. Later she sees a 50's style car (blue if I remember correctly) and a man in his late teens or early 20's in a bomber jacket. Man died in a chicken race when his car went over the cliff. He is asking the girl to help him find his girlfriend from that time, who used to live in the house. Detail about the house is that the circular window on the 3rd floor always breaks out even after the tree was cut. Which used to be tall enough to reach the 3rd floor window. Below the house is a small cottage surrounded by lots of flowers and the person who lives there befriends the girl. She is the new girl in school and everyone thinks she is crazy, especially when the ghost of the man in the bomber jacket starts to dance with her on the school's cruise along the coast. Of course, no one can see him and everyone thinks she is dancing by herself. The cover has the picture of the girl, brunette I think, standing in the driveway, with a see-through image of the man in the bomber jacket and his car behind her.

329A: Flute Turns Fruit Into Candy

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I’m looking for a children’s book, at least 30 years old. I don’t know the title name, but the plot is about a piper man, I think, that walks with 1 or 2 children in a forest, and when he plays his flute the fruits on the tree turns into candies.
That’s all I remember, we tried in the family to locate the book but failed. Hope you can help.

328Z: Animal Entourage And A Big Tree

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I am looking for a picture book I read as a child in the 1970s.  Publication would have to be before 1978, no clue what decade.

A boy goes walking through a landscape (forest?) and comes upon different animals. Each one has a musical instrument and joins his entourage. It sounds like a parade, but it seemed more like a Pied Piper of Hamelin situation where he somehow got them all to follow him. At one point I remember a big tree. I don’t remember how it ended. The illustrations were line drawings in a style similar to Ernest Shepard (Winnie-the-Pooh).

IT IS NOT:
The Parade of the Animals by James Abell Wright
Sophie’s Animal Parade by Amy Dixon
Animal Parade by Jakki Wood
Animals on Parade by Molly Burke Hamilton
Animal Parade by Clare Youngs

Thank you for your help!

328Y: Magical Friend Is Bad Influence

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I’ve been looking for this book for about 12 years and would have first encountered it sometime before about 2007. It’s a children’s book about a lonely child (I believe a girl) who’s always writing in her notebook. One day she gets contacted by an imaginary friend, who communicates with her using the notebook, and this friend begins to teach the child magic. (I believe at one point, a potion using the wings of lacewing flies.) This imaginary friend’s help grows more and more sinister as time goes on, until they try to convince the child to burn down their school.
All help in finding this book would be much appreciated!!