Probably a British children’s book, the main character is a cat called “Powderpuff Percy.” I read it in Hungarian translation in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s.
291Z: Powderpuff Percy
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Category Archives: Unsolved
291Y: Father benignly deceives son
I’m looking for a chapter book in which a father amazes his son by seeming to do a magic trick on a city block, involving a building which is either being built or torn down. The father doesn’t really do anything magical–he just has information that the son doesn’t, so he can frame it as something enchanted. The son totally believes the illusion and is in awe of his father. This episode, which extends over several weeks, is a plot point in a book that I don’t think was aimed at kids or YA but involved children. It was written, perhaps, in the 60s or 70s? I thought it was by William Goldman, but I haven’t been able to find it.
291X: A voyage aboard a research vessel
The book I am looking for is about the oceans. I read in in the late 1970s. It was written by a man who was participating in an ocean voyage aboard a research vessel. I think he may have been a Canadian, and the book may have been published via McGill University. He described the oceans as having four levels, each level’s current went counter to the level above or below it.
Thanks and good luck. I would love to read this book again.
291V: Fox Trapped in a Smokehouse
This is a book of interconnected short stories. It was an oversized hardcover book with full-page text and color illustrations, meant for an older reader. The stories all concern a community of animals who live in the woods adjacent to a farm. I’m fairly sure the title of the collection has the name of the animals’ home in it — maybe the lake they all live around, or the name of the woods, or the name of the farm? The book was published in the 80s or 90s. Each short story ends with a well-known moral or saying. I think there is a story about a badger or raccoon who is sick of it all at home and doesn’t want to get out of bed. There might be a story about an animal collecting (quail?) eggs that then get destroyed or eaten — the moral is don’t count your chickens before they hatch (or don’t put all your eggs in one basket?). The story I remember most is about a fox (perhaps the main character in the book) who gets trapped in the farmer’s smokehouse. He sneaks in to steal some of the farmer’s ham (I think?) and gets his leg stuck in a claw trap or gets locked in, and he has to beg another of the animals to help him escape before the farmer finds out and shoots him with his shotgun. In one of the later stories, I think the fox runs away from the animal community. I loved this book as a kid but can’t seem to work my Google magic to identify it! Thanks in advance to all you sleuths out there!
291U: It definitely wasn’t Harriet the Spy
I’m looking for a book I read as a child in the 1960s. My clues are very vague (sorry!), but here goes:
The book was a middle-grade novel about two girls who play at being detectives. They follow people around and write in their notebooks. I thought the title was The Key House Mystery or The Key-House Mystery (with a hyphen), but I haven’t found it on sites I’ve tried.
Unfortunately, that’s all I remember. I don’t know the color of the cover, whether there were illustrations, or when it was published.
The book definitely wasn’t Harriet the Spy.
291T: A Japanese girl becomes attracted to Christian music
A Japanese girl, whose father is a Shinto priest, is attracted to Christian music ca. 1945 and becomes a Christian. Her father tells her it would have been better had Christ said, “I am a way” instead of “I am the way.”
Possibly autobiographical. Translated from German to English ca. 1990s.
291S: Death Flees Me
So, the title if this small novel as i recall it is “Death Flees Me”. However, I cant find it under this name so i am probably mis-remembering.
The novel was about the End Times, written from the point of view of a non-believer. As I remember it, it was not very religious at all. It simply played out the story of his wife and friends disappearing one day. I recall nothing else about the story. It was short, a very thin book.
291P: Suddenly No Men on Earth/No Women on Earth
I read a science fiction book in high school (1969-1973) about some kind of catastrophe that resulted in the sexes living in separate worlds. In the “Women’s World,” planes fell out of the sky. Maybe the women didn’t know how to operate heavy machinery? In the “Men’s World,” other things happened because they were lonely…?
I found it totally mesmerizing at the time. I thought it had a title like “Island of Vipers,” but I have never found that title. All help appreciated!
291O: Cap’n Patchy Rat
Captain Patchy Rat, as I recall from my very early youth, is the story of the rat who organized a swashbuckling rebellion against the tyranny of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustrated. I recall an eye patch, of course, a pirates sash with rapier brandished. The book dates to 1950 era.
Have not been able to locate with desultory inquiries.
Would like to locate before all my grandchildren are too old for it.
291K: Bertie Wooster has a scheme
P. G. Wodehouse story: Bertie Wooster’s friend, Bingo Little, has a get-rich-quick scheme to start a mink farm where the mink are fed white mice that procreate without cost. It is a disaster and Jeeves must bail him out.