Category Archives: Unsolved

301L: The Sun is Put to Bed

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I’m looking for a beautifully illustrated English language children’s book published in the early eighties or possibly late seventies. It was an important part of my childhood that was sadly lost in a move and I just cannot remember its name (I was 8 when it was lost). We lived in England at the time so I’m guessing it was published there.

The illustration was old-fashioned and in full-colour. I think it was art nouveau or art deco style. The theme of the book was about how the sun is put to bed and the night-time gotten ready for. This was done by illustrating most elements using textile symbols. So, curtains were drawn across a sleepy sun, a backdrop of stars was pulled down, the moon was a button that (I think) was hoisted into position, there was scaffolding erected around the moon so it could be cleaned. A cow and a spoon jumped over the moon at one point.

The book was not long, definitely more of a picture book with most illustrations in blue and white colour ways. The text was poetic and may have rhymed. It was a bedtime story for young children. The paper was thick with a matte finish.

If you could help me find this book I would be so, so, so grateful. It was a childhood gift from my much-loved godmother and I think it about it often.

301K: White Bear a in Blue Dress Goes to a Ball

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I’m looking for a children’s picture book that features a white bear – I think her name was Edwina but I am not positive. At some point in the story, she puts on a pale blue satin fancy dress and I think she goes to a ball. I owned this book but can’t find it. I would have purchased it between 1990 and 1993. My daughter (who is now 24) marks this book as one of her earliest memories. She was so enamored with this book that I sewed her a pale blue satin dress to match the one the bear wore in the book and she wore it all the time when she was two or three. I still have the dress but can’t find the book. Her birthday is in October and I’d love to find and purchase a copy of this book if I can find it. Thank you in advance for any help!

301J: Orphaned and “sold” into marriage

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A book about a girl who is orphaned and in care of a relative (I think an aunt). I believe they were also heading west on the Oregon Trail, but not 100% about that detail. The relative “sells” her into a marriage with a much older man when she is very young and she goes to live with him on her (once again, I think 15th) birthday. She takes something that belonged to her mother ((blanket or dress?) Her relative doesn’t want to give it up but since the girl does it in front of her new husband, the relative had to give in.  I think the husband dies of a heart attack soon after arriving at their new home.

301I: Catching Fireflies in a Jar

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Looking for a children’s picture book that I read sometime between 1969-1973. The story of a young girl and her brother, or sister, catching fireflies in a jar, on a summer night.

The children’s mother (or grandmother) finds an empty glass jar in the pantry and explains how to catch the magical fireflies (she may have caught fireflies herself, as a child).

I recall the beautiful illustrations for this story, which perfectly portrayed the inky, soft atmosphere of a summer evening, filled with hundreds of glowing fireflies. The night sky was created with dark blues and purples, perhaps in pastel chalk or watercolors.

The children’s hair may have looked silvery in the starlight.

I think the fireflies were only kept in the jar for a short time and then were released into the night air.

301H: A beaver who doesn’t want to die

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This was a story about a young beaver who doesn’t want to die. He encounters a fairy who grants him the wish of immortality but as is characteristic of beavers, he keeps growing through his extended lifespan, loses his friends and family members and outgrows his environment. The denouement escapes me but the essence is his coming to terms with mortality. I hope you can help find it!

301G: Your typical high school romance

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I read this book in the early 1970s, I’m assuming it came from the 1960s. I don’t know the name of the book nor the publisher. But it was your typical high school romance of the time, where the popular boy in school falls for the less popular girl and her name was Beth.

Obviously the book resonated with me  at the time because my name is Beth I would have read it around the age of 10 to 13.  I always wondered if I could find the book and reread it is an adult what would I think of it.

301F: Walled-off site of painful memories

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Around 1995, when I was around 11 or so, I read a story as part of a reading program at the Hennepin County public library in Maple Grove, Minnesota. The following has stayed with me:

  • The main characters are children, probably around 12. They encounter a wall (perhaps a dense hedge) in a woodland near their town. The existence of the wall may be surprise to them, but if not, they know that it is prohibited.
  • One or more kids find a way over the barrier. There is some cause for concern (perhaps the trespassers go silent or else simply have trouble getting back over).
  • During the resolution of the story we learn that the wall/hedge encircles an area that the town had closed-off a generation before. (I envision this area as a garden on a hilltop, but this vision of the landscape may not be grounded in the text.)
  • The children’s parents join them in the isolated area, and rather than being angry with the children for trespassing, they tell the tragic story of why the area was closed. Ultimately the older generation finds some peace from the process of sharing the story and remembering a part of their youth that had been forgotten.

I think the kids had bicycles, but nothing about the story felt particularly immediate, so the publication window could be 1950–1995. I don’t recall there being any pictures, and I think the total reading time was on the order of an hour.

301E: He looks in a mirror and discovers he’s no longer human

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This is a science fiction book I read in high school, circa 1986 or 1987, it had already been around since maybe the 50’s or 60’s? It’s about an astronaut or maybe an explorer who I think is stranded or left on an alien planet that he is meant to explore or get ready for humans? He stumbles in to a residence and is grateful because he’s close to death, but quickly discovers everything there is not fit for humans so he really isn’t saved like he hoped. He persists. Time goes by. He uses his knowledge and training to adapt the environment to his human needs. He starts to thrive. He’s accomplishing his mission. He gets ready to contact his group. He discovers a mirror. He looks in to it. He’s no longer human. His environment and its systems didn’t adapt to his needs, he adapted to it. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS BOOK?

301D: Bent Arrow, True Arrow

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Children’s fiction book I read around 1958. Main character is “Bent Arrow”, a Native American boy with a problem with his leg. He saves his ? uncle from another warring tribe and in doing so, I think, he walked 10 paces then ran 10 paces then ran 10 paces alternating. He is renamed “True Arrow”. I do not remember the title or author.

301C: A boy is dropped off at a “poor house”

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The book that I am looking for is as follows:
 
Set in the time of US slavery, this children’s story opens with a very young boy being anonymously dropped off a horse drawn wagon at a the end of the driveway of a rural ‘poor house’ in a northern US state.  It turns out that his slave mother was forced to leave him behind while fleeing her ‘owner’ and the father of her baby as she tried to reach Canada via the underground railroad.

The reader does not have this information at the start of the tale but rather learns this as the story unfolds.  The story follows the little boy who is taken in by the operators of the ‘poor house’, however unwillingly.  In return for lodging he is assigned chores and when old enough goes to school and makes friends.  His closest friend, however, is one of the other residents, a giant male adult with mental health issues that cause him to occasionally become violent, which necessitate that he be kept in a cage in the house so that he will not harm others.  Near the end of the story, this man (perhaps severely afflicted with severe SAD)  is killed in an accident in a rock quarry where he works when mentally able to do so.
 
The little boy is visited by a white man from the south, and eventually comes to understand that this man is not someone with good intentions, in fact he is his father.  He has been pursuing both he and his mother who had managed to escape. I forget all the details of the story, however, the boy does end up safely in Canada