Category Archives: Unsolved

316U: Magic blue paint or a magic window in a boy’s bedroom

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My teacher read this story aloud in elementary school (mid 90s). I'm not sure if it was a short story or a chapter book. What I remember is that a boy is in his bedroom, which has no windows, and decides to paint a window onto his wall. After he paints the scene, it actually becomes a real place that he can travel to by climbing through the window. I also remember that the scene he painted was of a maple tree farm, and that when he climbed through he tasted some of the maple syrup that was coming from the trees.

316R: Treasure hidden in the wall

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I have been looking for a children’s book that is about a young boy who lives in a brick “walk-up” and who has a collection of items hidden behind a red brick in the wall of his building.  I remember one item being a stick of gum… I have been trying to find this book for awhile.  I would appreciate any help you can give.

316P: Classic children’s poetry – Little Golden Book?

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I have a tattered copy of a much-loved book of poetry by Eugene Field that I think was a Little Golden Book. This was from my childhood in the 1950s. Some of the poems in the book include “Little Boy Blue,” “The Sugar Plum Tree,” “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat,” “Good Children Street,” “Intry-Mintry,” Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” “Seein’ Things,” “The Drum,” “To a Little Brook,” and “The Boy.” I think there may be one or two other poems. The illustrations are whole-page in color with black and white pen and ink drawings between the poems. I would love to find an intact copy of this book.

316O: Man Attempts to Expose Shadow Government in England

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I can’t remember if this was hardcover or paperback. The protagonist was a British government official in a fairly important post who discovers a shadow government that has plans to overthrow the legitimate British government.

When he refuses to go along with their plot, they frame him as a pedophile by putting child pornography on his computer. He escapes arrest and subsequently fakes his death. When his daughter comes to take possession/clean out his house, she finds small clues that would be meaningless to anyone else but lets her know he is alive.

CCTV is almost everywhere, and phone calls, mail/emails are screened. The protagonist enlists others to help him, and is successful in the end.

I think I read this around 2009, and gave it to someone else to read. Neither of us recall the title, but in 2011 when Rupert Murdoch was exposed as having monitored mail and cell phones in England is was eerily reminiscent of the book.

316N: 3-D Glasses Lead to Magic World

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I am looking for the title of a book I read when I was a child, in about 1965 or so. It was about a girl who was at home, ill in bed, while her friends went to the 3-D movies. She couldn’t go due to her illness, but her friends brought her a pair of the 3-D glasses. When she put them on, she was transported to a magic world. It seems to me like there was lemonade rain but I’m not sure.

Does this ring a bell with you?

316M: Colouring a grey kingdom leads to misfortune

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A man (possibly the king of a realm) lives in a kingdom, its quite likely grey, and he discovers various colours in his castle / dungeon. You see a brilliant patch of colour in an otherwise totally grey scene as he discovers each colour. He rushes outside and paints the entire land colours, but this makes the inhabitants sick / depressed / angry etc. based on the characteristics expected of that color. Colors include (from memory) pink, cyan and yellow.

I first had this read to me in the late 70’s and as it was from my public library so may have been published considerably earlier, perhaps 1950’s or 1960’s.

316L: Two children visit island they are warned not to. Children’s picture book 80s.

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I am looking for a children’s picture book from the 80’s.

Synopsis: Two island children were told by their elders not to ever visit a certain island near them as there was danger there, so naturally, the two adventurers decided to go anyway. They were frightened off by somebody wearing a scary mask and they scampered back to their canoe and back to the safety of their own island.

Pictures: It was pretty much a picture book with vivid illustrations on every page, with a little writing in big bold print. Lots of palm trees and jungly illustrations.