Category Archives: Unsolved

326I: Two-Eyed Freak

It was a thin children’s book, mostly of illustrations, about a girl who was born with two eyes and is considered a freak by everyone in her community who only has one eye. But she sees the world in color while everyone else sees in the world in black and white. I want to say the protagonist has long, dark hair. I don’t know how it ends. I think I read it in the mid-90s. No later than ’98.

326F: Artistic Computers as Counterpoint to Throw-Away Technology

My stumper is just a fragment of a memory. I don’t remember the plot of the book at all, but it was near-future science fiction or maybe cyberpunk. The main character comes across someone with a beautiful laptop where the interior components can be refurbished and replaced, but the outside of the computer is a work of art that they would never part with. They talk about how there is a group of artists or maybe an artist commune that manufactures these computers with wood cases, and with beautiful keys made out of mother of pearl or semi-precious stones, basically to serve as a counterpoint to the throw-away culture of new technology. It was such a cool idea; I wish some artists were actually making computers like this.
If anyone recognizes this description and remembers what book it was in, that would be great!

326E: Planetary Creature Encyclopedia

I had an amazing book when I was a kid that I haven’t seen for decades. I was born in 1973, so it would have been published sometime in the 70s or early 80s. It was a large, slim encyclopedia- or reference-style book, but it was about all of the planets and what each of their creatures would look like based on the physics, chemistry, and gravity of the planets. It was very colorful and there were wonderful renderings of all of the would-be creatures. I believe it also listed what these creatures’ habits, diet, lifestyle, etc. would be like as well.

I hope you can help me find out what it is!

326D: Air Force Pilot Takes On Dragon In Storm Cloud

Short fantasy/sci-fi story in an anthology aimed at young readers in the late 70s/early 80s - I seem to remember reading it in late elementary school, though it could have been middle school. Story was about an Air Force pilot who lost a friend to a dragon in a storm cloud, but no one believed him, so he stole a plane and went back up to kill the dragon. He was catatonic and white-haired when the plane landed, and everyone thought he was just crazy, until they watched his gun-camera footage of his attack runs on the dragon.

326C: Spaceship 10/100 Hours

Ok, this book is one i picked up at an airport in Hawaii 2011. Its a SciFi romance that I think is intended for YA as the main characters were between 15-22. They were living on a spaceship with the Heroine sneaking through the vents. I’m pretty sure they rotated on a 10 hour schedule with the week starting over at 100 hrs.
Please help me, this book was so good it haunts me!

326A: And a seagull sitting on a wave

Looking for children’s book or poem which contains the line “and a seagull sitting on a wave”.  It was something I read to my kids when they were small and it popped into my head this week and I cannot shake it. My son passed away 5 years ago, so I cannot ask him.

325Z: A Boy And The Spirit Of Coolaid Bicycle

I remember a book from my childhood roughly 2nd-5th grade (which would be 1972-75) that had to do with a boy and a bicycle. The only thing I actually remember from the story is the quote, “Go, Spirit of Coolaid, faster boy (ching, ching)!” All of my bikes have been named Spirit of Coolaid! I have recently taken up cycling again, and, you guessed it, my bike’s name is Spirit of Coolaid. I really would like to know what story this phrase came from!

325Y: Boy Spends Summer At Beach Solving Mystery

I believe this book is for middle grade and from the 1970s or before. It is about a boy who spends the summer away from home, near the ocean or on an island. The first night there, he see someone using Morse code to spell out his name. Later, he learns it is another boy who wants to be friends. (They become friends.) There is some type of mystery to be solved and a man (maybe a relative?) tries to kill the boy at the end of the book. There are caves or some kind of natural phenomenon where at the right tide, the wind/water rushes through, sounding like ghosts moaning. When the man is after him, the boy has to face his fear and enter the caves to escape.