Category Archives: Unsolved

287C: A tree in the forest with special powers

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Looking for a children’s chapter book from the 1960s or early 70’s about a tree in the forest that has special powers. I recall that the vines were alive as was the tree – but I recall only a girl in the story could communicate with the tree and either visited or lived beneath the ground by the tree? For some reason I recall descriptions about being under the ground at times. I don’t think it was a scary tree. More like a friend and protector to the girl. Would love to track it down if possible.

 

287B: Girl & Her Family Travel in a Motor Home in a World of Paved Roads

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No one can walk anymore.  They only drive in large wheeled homes and mobile offices.  They even have motorized vehicles in individual sizes for transporting themselves outside of these wheeled homes.

Everything has been paved over with roads, except a small area with a flower or a tree in it.

Fascinated by this unpaved area, the girl wheels over to it only to find her wheeled individual vehicle can’t go on the unpaved area.  She is forced to get out of the vehicle and make her way across the green space without motorized assistance.

286H: A world without reflections

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I am looking for a children’s book I read in 90s. I read it in the library of the language school.

A group of children find a gate that leads to another world, a world without any reflections (even when looked at surface of water). The gate itself is such that it does not pass any metals (coins burn red hot if attempted to be carried through). One of the children find out that their ancestors originate from this world, and that world is now under control by mean men. At the book first climax, a Locket Necklace worn by the child happened to contain small mirror, and it is used to distract and defeat the leader of the mean men.

286E: Picture-only book with words next to items in several scenes

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This book was a children’s early reader book from 70s/80s with scenes from a park (which had a pond in it, I think, and possibly a duck in the pond), classroom, hospital room, etc. In the picture of the classroom, for instance, it said “paint” next to where the paints were, and “chair” next to the chair in the picture.  No plot, just labels for items in the pictures. It is *not* a Richard Scarry book (which sometime label individual items as well).

285D: Boy and cat are best friends

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I am looking for a children’s book from around 1980.

I do not recall the title or author, and the book may have been published before 1980.  Let’s say anywhere between 1970 and 1982 or so.  This was a favorite book of mine when I was a kid, and I used to take it out of my local branch of the St. Louis Public Library pretty regularly.

The one thing I DO remember were the fantastic illustrations.  It was done in black and white, and the drawings looked as though they may have been pen and ink, or etchings, and they were very realistic.

Thematically, I remember a couple things about the story:  A boy and his cat used to sit on a hill under their (or maybe the cat’s) favorite tree.  At night, the cat would go have adventures on his own with his cat friends.  Toward the end of the story, the cat died, and the boy and his mom decided to bury him atop the hill under the beloved tree.  Then the boy would go there to remember the cat.

Specifically, I recall one page in the book that illustrated night time, when the cat would go with his cat friends.  There is a house (presumably the cat’s) in the background, as though he has just been let out for the evening.  In the foreground, you see the cat joining up with many, many neighborhood cats as they set off to roam around–a virtual cat army.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

285C: Kafka-esque book for kids, 90s

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A young boy becomes a roach- literally all I remember. However, the side story I do remember. His sister is some kind of super genius who didn’t speak until she was five and when she did finally speak she created a board game. She spends her day in front of the tv counting the number of times the commercial for the board game plays and how much money she is making.