Category Archives: Unsolved

297K: Very Afraid Little Blue Monster

I’m looking for a book from my childhood (born in 1977).  The main character was a little blue monster, and if I remember right, he was very afraid of just about everything, and was quite little compared to the other monsters of his kind. I think the book ends with him feeling safe after finding his monster mommy. This illustrated children’s book’s main character is dark blue, with a large head vaguely shaped like a devil, or maybe a tear drop (wider at bottom, narrow at top, perhaps with two ear-like horns?). He might have had a tail, and his body may have been “textured” with some black lines, and typically was depicted with an open mouth (indicating fear).  I vaguely recall that most of the book was devoid of color in the illustrations, save for the slightly panicked looking monster. My hazy memory makes me think that the book was published sometime after 1960, likely in the 70s, and certainly before 1983 or 1984. I think we had a hardcover of it growing up.

297I: Grosset and Dunlap Children’s Anthology from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s

I’ve looked all over NYC for my favourite children’s book to no avail. It contained stories with elves as well as several more modern city stories. It had black and white illustrations , probably pen and ink. The book was in memory slightly  smaller than 8 ½ by 11 in two dimensions and over an inch thick. It had a pearl grey hard cover that was pretty shiny in the 1950’s. That’s all I remember and it’s not much to go on, but I’d love to find a copy.

 

297H: A boy who turns into a wolf

I remember having this book as a child, it was a picture book about a boy who turns into a wolf and becomes part of the pack for a season. At one point the pack travels close to his old home, and when he sees his family he remembers them and turns back into a human. I can’t for the life of me remember the title or the author, and at this point.  I’m pretty desperate for any information. Thank you!

297F: Poor Susie Cruthers

I had cousins that used to read to me from a book during the years 1942-1945 that began something like:

Poor Susie Cruthers

Had no sisters

Had no brothers…

I don’t remember the rest but it went on to say things she liked to do.

Thank you for you willingness to search for the treasures of childhood.

 

297E: Martha with matching initials

This is a children’s book from the 1960’s, about a little girl, whose name I believe was Martha, who had matching initials (her last name also began with M).  Because she had matching initials, she was able to go on amazing adventures with such characters as Timmy Turtle and Willie Whale, all around the world.

296X: Yellow Cape/Yellow door

This book was on the shelves of the library of my middle school in the early 60’s.  I would find it by the cover, which I think showed a tree with a round door.  Not unlike Hobbiton, the story was about small people and their society.  They lived in hollow trees. The thing I remember best is that the individuals wore capes that matched the color of their front door.

 

296W: Sci-Fi Retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey

I read this in the late 1970s. A 12ish year old boy living in a rural area of the US notices small lakes are disappearing in his area. He deduces that aliens are stealing the water to use for fuel and starts watching for their ship, which he boards when he sees it. The ship takes off while he is aboard and the rest of the book is his adventures in trying to return home. There are other abductees from other planets already on board who become his crew. It is a loose re-telling of Homer’s The Odyssey in that the boy travels from planet to planet aboard the ship and encounters people who are recognizably the Lotus-Eaters, the Cyclops, Circe, etc. Because it’s a children’s book, many of the details are toned down. For example, the Cyclops had poor vision and thus needed to wear a thick lens to see, which the adventurers broke to “blind” him. I remember very well there was a full-page painting of the boy in the Cyclops cave, which might have been the cover of the book.

 

296V: Family moves to country home

This book was from my elementary school library, read around 1967. The book was older, 1950s or 1940s. A family that was either down on their luck, or through an inheritance, move to a house in the country that came with African-American servants. This might have been in the South and it seems as though there was an adjustment. I recall food scenes, such as how much the family enjoyed the fresh baked biscuits. This might have been their first encounter with them. In another scene, the mother twists her ankle while walking through the garden and sits alone until she was found because she was in too much pain to walk. What struck me was that this was the first book I read that was told from both an adult and a child’s viewpoint. There was a mystery involved too but I don’t recall whether the house was haunted.