I am looking for a book with two main characters, a brother and sister, and the sister is named Lorna. I forget the brother’s name. I’m pretty sure it was a scary or mystery book about a witch or ghosts. Would have read it in the early 80s which means it could have been published in the 70s. Not much to go on but hoping you can help!
Category Archives: Unsolved
319I: Mid-1800’s Mystery Girl’s Biography
This book is a biography. I thought it was a Discovery book, but looking at the available titles from that series, I cannot figure out which one it is. It is a biography of a woman. She was either a niece of Henry Clay, or the Senator was family friend, so she might have been a child in the 1830s or 40s. One of the chapters in the books describes her and a friend getting into trouble, because they wanted to be fancy and they made hoop skirts out of willow branches. Also, maybe a chapter about playing at her father’s flour mill making cakes and pies – but maybe they were mud pies?
Thanks for any leads you can offer!
319H: Teenage Girl Deals With Kangaroo Court
I am looking for a book that was probably written in the 1950s or early 1960s. It was a part of my grade school library, a school that converted from a K-12 school to a K-8 in 1965 or so. The book might have been written as a young adult novel. It was about a teenage girl and her dealing with high school life (boyfriends, homework, mean girls). I do remember that one chapter was titled “The Kangaroo Court”. I do not remember the very much more about the book, but “Pink” comes to mind – either part of the title or another chapter. I hope this jogs someone’s memory!
319G: He made a face and it froze like that
I'm looking for a children's book I had in the mid-1950's about a little boy with a frown. If I remember correctly, it became frozen on his face.
319E: Getting Swallowed By A Whale
319D: A Young Ballerina’s Struggles
The book is juvenile fiction about a young girl, age 9, who dances ballet. She wants to start using toe shoes but everyone tells her she is too young. She goes on a summer vacation to the beach and meets a famous ballerina and her choreographer husband who decide to stage a shortened version of The Nutcracker at the grand hotel where they are staying. The girl is invited to participate even though she is not staying there. The owner’s spoiled daughter makes a fuss and is cast as Clara. She had started dancing with toe shoes but it is causing too much stress on her developing feet and she can’t dance very well. I think her name is April.
319C: Two young brothers during the Great Depression
1930's adventures of two boys, moved around the dust bowl by their WWI soldier father who was gassed during the war. Has scenes of 1st cigarettes and one putting skunk oil on engine block of a disliked man. Thought it was "Me and Caleb," but, it's not. Similar relationship between the brothers.
319B: The Witch Sisters Scare Their Neighbor
Looking for a picture book my girlfriend read in the 90s. She says it was about two witches (sisters?), one nice and one "mean." They had an uptight neighbor who got mad at the nice one about her vegetable garden and so the mean one made the pumpkin big and scared him. She thinks the mean one was named Madam Mehetabel and that this might have been part of the title.
319A: Aeronautical Adventures
1930s or 1940s adventure books (of short stories) for boys featuring airplanes. I remember a story that featured a crew of men attempting a record breaking non-stop (transcontinental? Transatlantic?) flight, in a 3 engine plane that could be refueled midair. I remember a scene where one engine was shut down for in flight maintenance.
One story featured two pilots flying an old biplane in a barnstorming content that was won because the co-pilot dumped itching powder down his partner's back. Another featured WWII aircrew captured by Germans and they manage to escape and steal a German plane equipped with skis for the snow. These books had belonged to my father, and were probably given to him by his uncle, who was a pilot.
318Z: Monsters In The Piano
The title, actually the subtitle, was something like "OR, The Things in [girl's name, I think it might have been Susan]'s Piano." It was about a girl who was bad at playing the piano, maybe willfully from refusing to practice, and inside the piano were monsters who were hurt or injured or horrified or angry or something, by her bad playing. They may have been musical notes come to life. It was a picture book in my elementary school library, so it was published before 1982. Probably in the 70s. It was sort of psychedelic and the characters were almost ugly, deliberately so. I remember lots of teeth in big mouths.