Category Archives: Unsolved

308I: The Cat with Amber Eyes

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The title somewhat resembles: The Cat with Amber Eyes or The Cat with Green Eyes

(In all honesty I’m not sure myself.)

Some of the details I remember from the book are that the cat had multiple brothers and sister that had (if the main cat had amber eyes) green eyes, or (if the main cat had green eyes) amber eyes. I remember the flowy and descriptive language describing how the cat would move from the trees to the ground.

It was (from the small fragments I remember) a book about a cat who felt like an outcast since his eyes didn’t match his siblings. Sorry that wasn’t much.

I don’t remember when it was published, nor by who, but I believe the cover had an illustration of a black cat with either green or amber eyes. (Another detail, I’m also sure the cat was all black).

I remember the book to be like a short novel a second grader can read, with large font; hardcover.

I’m sorry I don’t remember much, but I do hope you can find it with the little information I’ve given you.

Thank you very much,

308F: Straw Soldier in a Lollipop Field

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Large format anthology children’s book with 1930s or 1940s art deco artwork. The only details I remember about the stories is one involved a joey that ate a lot of lady fingers and sodas in a drugstore before being found by his mother and another story which includes a scene where a child gets chased by a scarecrow-esque straw soldier through (I think) a lollipop field. I was given the book back in 1970 and it was quite old then. The two scenes I described above were illustrated so they stand out as a memory. The pictures were in color but only in that two-color green and orange that was popular back then (the book may even be as old as the 1920s. . . the style of art was certainly in line with that era).

Thanks!

308E: Girl Slides Amber Necklace Beads for Time Travel

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A young girl slides amber (or precious stone) beads along a necklace (possibly belonging to her grandmother or found in an old house or bestowed upon her?) to travel to different periods in her own life and maybe throughout history, with a specific goal. She sees herself as a young woman, a grandmother. Her siblings are involved somehow, particularly a younger brother. At some point a knife or bloody knife portends something about how her younger brother is doing back in the present day (much like in many fairy tales). Her name was simple and classic like Jane or Anna or Annie. This book must have been published pre-1987, when my school librarian suggested it to me. It seemed already old at the time (which may just have been kid perception) so could possibly have a publish date anywhere from 1940s through early 80s.

It was a chapter book. Though it may have had a few line drawing illustrations throughout the text, it was not a picture book.

308D: Tiny Grandma

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My mother remembers reading us a book about a grandma playing with her grandchild. She is babysitting, we think. At one point, the grandma shrinks in order to jump on the couch with her (or maybe the grandma has always been tiny?). That’s all we remember.

I was born in 1978, so this book was most likely

Published before 1980.

Thank you so much!

308A: Penny for your thoughts, a girl and her parents

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I am looking for a children’s color illustration picture book that is about 15 to 20 years old, maybe 25 years or so. Unfortunately, I do not recall the title or author. It may have been a Scholastic book, but I am not sure. The characters had no recognizable names, such as Madeline, Judy Bloom, etc., as I recall.

It was about a young girl and her parents. It was a  series of illustrations showing different scenes, with the girl and her parents with a different fantasy happening, such as they are on the beach at night and you see pirates approaching, and in each scene the girl asks if her parents would let her go and the response is always the same, something like “For a nickel I would” or “We would for a nickel.”

It was a short book, not chapters, maybe about 10 to 12 scenes (each scene covered two pages as I recall) and page size was at least paper size or magazine size, not a small book. I can locate a number of books using the word nickel in the title, but I do not believe the word nickel was in the title of the book I seek, and it was not about the nickel (as the subject of the story), it was about the girl and her parents interaction about letting her go on each adventure.

Any help or suggestions on how to track this down would be appreciated.

Thank you.

307Z: She visited a field of flowers

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I believe its a YA novel. Its a about a teen girl who’s mom is sick. Her mom has a hospital bed in their home. The girl and her dad take care of the mother while none of their neighbors really know that the mother is sick. Her dad continues his coaching job and acts as if everything is good. It flashes back to before the mom got sick. The girl is almost resentful of her sick mom. Her mom eventually dies towards the end. The girl visits a field of flowers that her and her mom visited before while shes driving her moms car.

This all I can remember. Hope you can get down to the mystery of what this book’s title is!

Thank you!

309Y: Jasmine One and Jasmine Two

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A children’s book that I read in approximately 1982 when I was perhaps 9ish.
It was about a girl who was two children (an imaginary friend perhaps). One of the lines I remember is ‘people thought when they were talking to Jasmine (name may be different) they were talking to one little girl but really they were talking to two’.
They were called, Jasmine One and Jasmine Two.  Jasmine One was a good little girl and Jasmine Two liked to climb trees and ride bicycles with her skirt hitched up.  Jasmine Two would take over Jasmines One and get up to mischief.
It ends with Jasmine Two climbing on the roof of the family home to rescue a cat.  When she is up there people become concerned and I think she gets stuck and fire brigade comes to rescue her.
While she is on the roof Jasmine Two becomes as light as the wind and leaves forever.
Jasmine One grows up and becomes a pilot and flies through the sky just like Jasmine Two.
I loved this book so much as a kid, I would love to find it again.