Category Archives: Unsolved

291V: Fox Trapped in a Smokehouse

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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

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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.

291S: Death Flees Me

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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

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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

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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.

291I: WWII drawings and cartoons

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This was a large (maybe a foot tall) book of drawings from the WWII era that belonged to my father, a WWII veteran. I think some of it was actual cartoons with dialog but what I remember most was wordless cartoon-like sketches/line drawings. There was (I think a full page) drawing of a bunch of soldiers in a huge room full of cots, with high ceilings and tall windows The soldiers were mostly half dressed, some playing cards, some sleeping, some (I think) cooking over little stoves. The general feeling was of a room in a huge mansion in Europe taken over to house soldiers. It was an amusing image but had no words. Another wordless picture was a line of army vehicles driving along a road with lots of people on the roadside including at least one man wearing a turban and a loin cloth and (I think) nothing else squatting at the side of the road. It felt like India. I looked at this book dozens of times over 50 years ago (it was old then and falling apart), but those are the only two drawings that really remain in my memory. I think, but I’m not at all certain, that the whole book was the work of one artist. I think, but again am not at all sure, that it was a paperback.

I would so love to see this book again, to have it. It fascinated me then and has haunted me for years. I’ve tried other on-line forums with no luck.