Category Archives: Unsolved

317F: Sentient Pith Helmets Bust Chocolate Smugglers

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A short illustrated book where a child discovers some sort of bootlegging operation, except they’re smuggling bars of chocolate, not booze.  And the smuggling is being done by giant alien hats.  The clearest image I have is the cops who end up busting the criminals. They took the form of white pith helmets, with twin gun barrels on their undercarriages.
I’m not convinced that this book isn’t a product of my childhood imagination, but the memory is pretty vivid.  I would have read it in the 1980s, probably in the UK or Australia.  The illustrations were painted, not line drawings, and in colour.

317E: Sentient Rocks Befriended By Boy

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A boy moves with his mother to a space colony, possibly on the moon, where it is believed there is no alien life. The boy discovers that the rocks on the planet are actually sentient creatures! The creatures speak by changing colors. The boy befriends one whose name is yellow-green and he calls his friend yelgr or yellger or something like this.

317D: Little Girl Makes Lost Bear Oatmeal

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I’m trying to find a children’s book that I listened to on tape when I was little. I think this would have been early 90s so the book would have been published between the 80s and 90s.
It’s about a bear who gets lost and a little girl takes care of him. I specifically remember her feeding him warm oatmeal filled with things like nuts, fruit and honey. I think Santa makes an appearance at the end? I’ve found lots of books with various iterations of Little Snow Bear in their titles but none are what I’m looking for. A woman narrates the book on tape. Don’t know her name.

317C: Three children fall under the spell of fairies in early 20th century illustrated book

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I grew up in Pennsylvania but we moved back to Europe in my early teens and the boxes containing all our children's books got lost in the move.  There is one that I have been pining for ever since!  It was given to me by an old lady who was the grandmother of some people my parents befriended in the States.  She lived in a big house and had an amazing library and I used to love looking at all her old books.  She really sweetly gave this one to me as she could see how much I loved it.  It was a big thick children's book with black and white illustrations and wonderful colour plates and it must have been written somewhere around the early 20th century - I think.  It was about three siblings who are sent to the country to live with I think their grandmother, in a big house.  There are lots of stories about fairies around, and it is clear that the grandmother and the staff have seen them.  The fairies are not always benign.  Their grandmother starts calling the children fairy names like Puck and Robin.  Eventually the children see the fairies too.  There is some disquiet that the youngest child, a little boy, is falling too far under the fairies' spell; for example he falls asleep in the middle of a circle trampled in the grass by the fairies, which apparently means they 'own' him.  It is a very beautiful and sweet book, and I am hoping it might ring bells.  I can't tell you how much I miss it - it has been 40 years since I last saw it.

317B: The Magic Stone and a Witchy Aunt

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This is a book I read in the mid to late 60’s about a young girl who goes to live with her Aunt Meg, who she finds out is a witch.  The little girl finds a stone which belongs to another witch named Lanie.  They try to get the stone back.  I think there is some magic food involved and I believe the stone helps the little girl fly.

317A: Child Takes Tree House Too Literally

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A hard cover children’s story book (thought it was by Helen Oxenbury but can’t find it) about a naughty child who manages to grow a tree inside the house that grows out and through the whole house. Think it was one of those “two colour” story books before they had full colour printing ability. Probably intended for 6 -8 year olds.

316X: Kids go after the loot, end up creating successful play

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A young kid like to tell stories to his friends. One summer they hear about a (bank robbery/jewelry heist/etc) and go looking for the stashed loot. I can’t remember the reason but they needed money. They end up putting on an impromptu play for the town in an old house. The main character is emoting to the crowd and stomping on the stage which causes a skeleton to fall out of the ceiling, scaring the audience and making the play a success.

316W: School Girl Witch

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Stumped by witch book. I’m Looking for a children’s book I read in the UK in the mid to late 80’s. The front cover had an illustration of a school age witch with a green face and a plated braid which bends up over her head like a scorpion tail. I think there’s a black cat on the cover too. Typical school girl antics (if you’re a witch) plot wise. Think it was about a boarding school but not 100%. Definitely not the worst witch books. Slim book for about 8-9 year olds. That’s all I can remember. Hope you can help. Fingers crossed. Thanks in advance.

316V: Poppy’s Garden

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I’m pretty sure the title of the book is Poppy’s Garden. It’s about a little black girl named Poppy who is sad that she doesn’t have a real garden, so she plants poppy seeds in all the pavement cracks around her neighbourhood so eventually the whole place is her garden! It’s one of those large square shaped, fairly flat, children’s books. It would have been around in the early 90s but may have already been several years old by this point...