Category Archives: Unsolved

327E: Missing ice cream every morning, eventually found to be eaten in his sleep (1970s)

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I am looking for a children’s book that I read in the early 1980s. What I remember is that there was a man who lived above an ice-cream shop (I believe he owned the shop) and every morning he woke up to find one flavor (I think it was chocolate chip) completely missing from the store. This went on for a number of days, and somehow in the end it is discovered that the man himself has been walking downstairs in his sleep every night and eating the ice cream without realizing it!

327D: Bejeweled Bird Comes To A Tragic End

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This is the story I am looking for. I was in elementary school when my father read it to me. I’m afraid that it might have morphed some in my memory. It has stuck with me a long time. I’m 65. So he would’ve read it to me in the mid 60’s. This story sounds vaguely similar to the Nightingale but I do not remember a mechanical bird in my story. It is tragic like the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen stories. I do not have a title or an author.

This story involves a bird that a man, maybe a king, is enamored of, either because of its beauty or its song. I don’t remember which. The bird pleases the king so much that the king decorates it with jewels. It seemed like he thought he was was rewarding the bird. Giving it value. The bird can’t fly, can’t do bird things, is ostracized by its friends, becomes tragically lonely and dies of a broken heart. That’s what I remember.

327C: Max Moonpenny

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My mom is searching for a book she read as a pre-teen about a girl named Max Moonpenny. I have searched and searched (and I even work in a library) but I can’t find anything about this book! She’s not sure if the title is Max Moonpenny or if it is something else. My mom grew up in the 1960s & ‘70s in Wisconsin, and a friend of hers also remembers the book and her niece was even named Max Moonpenny after the character from the novel. Unfortunately, the niece is prolific on the internet and clogging up my search results.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

327B: Time Traveling Girl

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No idea of publication year, I read it in 2003.  Title is something like “As Time Passes” or “Time Lost” but I honestly only know that it has something to do with time in the title.  No idea on character names, one might be Isabella ??  Plot description: has something to do with a girl traveling back in time to different eras, she meets a guy at one point who she falls in love with, but then travels to another time where she is maybe held captive in a royal castle where they think she is their daughter or something to that extent. I honestly don’t remember how she time travels, maybe because of a book she finds, or some kind of power??  I believe the front cover is like a pale yellow with a girl facing away with a braid in her hair.

326Z: Magical Land Emits Personalized Alluring Scents

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I read this book in middle school between 1998-2000 and checked the book out from my school library. It was probably published in the late 80’s or 90’s. It was from the fantasy genre and included a magical land that the young female main character found by following a trail that brought her to a waterfall with a hidden entrance. Once she was in the magical land, there was some kind of dangerous landmark that lured people by emitting a pleasant scent that specifically appealed to each individual. For the main character I think it was a warm scent like cinnamon/honey/nuts/vanilla. I think this book may have also featured a relationship between the main character and her grandmother. Please help!

326Y: Monster Hunters

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Read it in early 2000s. Two siblings hunt monsters with a book with ingredients, with stuff spilled all over the pages.  They are with their uncle who is a fox, or his name is Fox. There is a troll who can only eat things once and if he eats anything twice he dies. The kids feed him his toenails and he dies. At the end the uncle, who was thought to be dead, shows up again alive and well.

 

326W: A Raven, A Boy And A Mosquito

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I am looking for a book that I believe is a children’s book, published in the 1970’s or 1980’s.  It has a dark green cover (pine color) and has a raven on the cover.  It has a God-centered theme.  Includes a boy and a mosquito.  The cover may also have red on it.  This is all according to my son who was born in 1980 and is recalling what details he can.

Thank you for your help.

326R: Photos of a Girl Named Nancy

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I’m looking for a book that was given to my mother and that I also loved as a child. Mom was born in 1928, so I think the book was from the early 30’s. I think the title was just Nancy. It may have had a subtitle–I can’t remember. It was hard-covered with blue patterned paper; I remember it as being square, or nearly so, roughly 10 x 10. Each page had a black and white photo of a girl of about five engaging in various everyday activities. The one I remember best showed her with a sudsy rag washing the big glass window in the front door of her house. I have fuzzier memories of photos showing her riding a trike and eating from a dish. She reminded me of Shirley Temple–similar clothes and hairstyle. There was a small amount of text with each photo. My sister and I would love to have this book again!

326P: Mechanical Illustrations From The Future

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I was born in 1977, and remember a picture book with lots of detailed illustrations including cross sections of spaceships and people on conveyor belts being fed via mechanical arms from ceiling (I remember a woman tilting her head back to receive a giant claw full of salad). Also, a kind of altered lawn tractor that did everything, including cutting all the flowers off with a reciprocating hedge trimmer attachment. I thought I may be confusing this with “Little Monster Goes to Work”, which i also loved, but having recently looked through the latter, realized it is a different book. Please help!