Category Archives: Unsolved

309O: Historic Jesus by two anthropologists

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Sited on NPR with interview of authors between 10 and 15 years ago (?).  They describe Jesus in he context of the Roman political power and the strain on the economies via taxes etc. and how Jesus was a counter culture.  Also, I remember they assert that it was highly unlikely that anyone was allowed to remove his body from the cross and they describe the sect of Christians who lived in Jerusalem who saw Jesus not as divine but as a prophet and how they were all killed off in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

309N: Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz Survivalist

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True story about a young (12-14 year old) Jewish boy who uses his wit, street-wise and athletic abilities to keep one step ahead of his Nazi captors in the Warsaw, Poland ghetto.  For a while he is able to secure items for people trapped in that prison-like environment by sneaking out of the ghetto and returning unnoticed.   Eventually he is sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.  He escapes by hiding in a railway car leaving the site with packed clothing.  He goes back to Warsaw to warn others about conditions at Auschwitz and joins the Jewish fighters in the ghetto uprising against the occupying German army.  He again is sent to Auschwitz and escapes a second time by hiding under a truck leaving the prison.  He survives World War II and ultimately publishes the book about his exploits only after his wife perishes in a house fire.  I do not know the name of the book or the date of publication.

309M: White sheep in a green field

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I do not know the author or the name of the book but it was published about 1947or 1948 It was the same time I read Elizabeth Enright's "Four Story Mistake."


It was about a girl who had very little in common with the kids in her school and had few friends and believes it will be worse now that she has moved. She is standing on a bridge in the new town and down at a field when a boy joins her and says "white sheep in a green field, doesn't that remind you of "Kim". That was just what she was thinking and she makes her first of many friends in a school that shares her interests.

309K: Turn back to the front and read it again!

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I grew up in the mountains of Virginia.  In my three room country school, there were very few books, but there is one I remember very fondly and would love to have a copy of it.   I don’t remember the title or author, but I would have read this around 1946 or 1947.   Here is a gist of the story.  A family lives very happily in a tiny, tidy one room house.  One day they decide that their house is too small so they begin adding rooms onto the one room.  They continue to add so many rooms (one behind the other) that they seldom see their family members.  I believe that the house became such a curiosity that train tracks were built along side the house so tourists could see it.   The family members navigated this long house on roller skates.  One day the family happened to meet together in one of the many rooms and decided that they were much happier in their one room.  So they proceeded to tear down all of the added rooms until their house was back to the one room.  Here is the part that intrigued me and the reason I believe I still remember it.  On the final page, it said.  “If you want to see what this family did next, turn back to the front of the book and read it again!”

309G: A girl named Meg

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This book was about a girl named Meg whose family moved to the old west and settled in a small community. There were some problems with Indians, a barn-raising, a pregnant girl and a blue (or red) dress for the dance. Her friend got the other color. A housecoat was referred to as a “wrapper”. Was originally published under another title, then abridged. I read this when I was 11 or 12 (1967-68) and have been trying for years to find this. Thanks!! (I want the Unabridged version, please!) Thanks!

309F: Mouse’s House

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This was a book out in the early 1950’s. It might have been a golden book, but I could not find it in their listing. The first line was “This is the house of Mrs. Mouse and these are her children three.” It was book for young children; it had illustrations. I don’t remember anything else, but that first line has stayed in mind all these years.

309D: Each hut being a different emotion

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Blue greenish background, with ground at the bottom, plants growing up. A figure/person  just right of the center, facing right. Title at the top, red lettering(maybe with some vine like font) 

Two lead characters, both boys, roughly the same age go from their world to a fantasy realm through some sort of door where they have the option of becoming a warrior type, magician/wizard type, and third on I can’t remember. One boy chooses a Warrior class the other is Wizard/Magician, can’t remember the specific name. The end goal is to get to a crystal city of sorts. There they fight a shadow version of themselves. Warrior boy is Asian(has Asian sounding name just can’t remember it), lives in the slums. Other kid is white, rough home life, if I’m remembering correctly. I remember at the beginning, one if the first person the Warrior boy(Asian name) comes across is an old man who lives in 12 different huts. Each hut being a different emotion. When he goes to another hut, he is the most extreme version of that emotion. I think it only talked about happiness, anger, and sadness.

 

309C: 60s or 70s urban YA

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This will probably be too little to go on, but I’ve been racking my brain for a year trying to remember a book I read when I was in middle school. It was YA and from the late 60s or 70s. It may have been a bit more of a pulp paperback than YA, but it was definitely geared towards young readers. It had an urban setting and there was a racial understanding component to the plot. I think the protagonist was white and he ended up befriending an African-American classmate. Almost anything else I try to remember about the plot (was there gang tensions? were they accused of a crime and had to hide out?) then convince me I’m remembering a different YA novel I read around the same time. The one thing I do seem to remember is totally pointless and trivial, but the main character sees the girl he likes in a corner store and causes her to lose her balance by knocking her in the back of the knees. I know it’s not much to go on, but I’m open to suggestions and guesses. Thanks!