Category Archives: Unsolved

248F: Door in a tree with stairs leading down underground

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This is just a fragment! But if you could help me I would so appreciate it.
I grew up in Australia in the 1960s-1970s, and was obsessed with a picture book that featured the main character finding a tree with a small door at its base. The tree had gnarled/ exaggerated roots. The character went through the door and down a flight of stone stairs into what I remember to be a kitchen/witch’s den, lit up with yellows and oranges from an open fire. I cannot remember what happened next – but obviously it is terribly important if I keep searching for this book! 🙂
It is not the Berenstain’s Scary Tree story although slightly familiar in concept.

Thanks so much
Julia

248D: A God Named One

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I read a book many years ago, I’m assuming it’s a piece of fine grocery store literature. My memory follows:

A book set in the future, where there are many religions and people proselytizing in the streets. The main “bad guy” is the leader of a church that was created by a corporation. The part that sticks with me is they used a computer to write the bible, filled with contradictions and vagaries because that way people can interpret as they wish. The bible pages were coated in a mild hallucinogenic and another chemical (I don’t remember). As the book progresses the main character ends up being turned into the Satan to the god named one, while the leader of the corporation becomes the “Jesus” character.

One line I remember is “The computer found a 3 character name to be the most powerful, and the computer recommended either One or Bob” The main character then says “So your god could have been named Bob?”.

248B: He dreamed of pheasant hunting

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I am looking for book I read back around 1970 at our local library-already checked with them.

It is a short hardcover bound youth book written probably for ages 8-12. I suspect it was probably written no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1970, by I suspect a minor author.

The short story, as I recall, is about a young boy who obsessively thinks and dreams about going pheasant hunting, he eventually does go pheasant hunting, gets all scratched up in the thickets chasing the elusive ring necked pheasant and after a long unsuccessful day of hunting I believe his father ends up buying some pheasants to take home so his son does not feel unsuccessful.

As I recall the book had a blue cloth cover with black impressed line drawing of a pheasant or two and perhaps a shotgun.

I would like to buy this book, not really concerned about the price-want to give it to my son.

It is for sure not “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Thanks

248A: Woodland Creatures’ Christmas

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I am looking for a book that was given to my brother in the late 70’s possibly very early 80’s. It was a beautifully illustrated children’s book, similar to Jan Brett. Woodland creatures in a snowy forest, including a hedgehog or porcupine, celebrating Christmas. The end of the book has them finding a candle lit carousel in the woods. Those are the only details that I remember! Have been looking for this book for a long time!
Thank you!

247F: Peccaries in the Rain Forest

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This was a book for littler kids, ages 8 and under, more or less.  This book was read between 1972-1980.  I vaguely remember it being a thin but large paperback.

The main characters were rain-forest animals and the book took place in a rain forest and at least part of it was set at night.  There were peccaries as characters.  Something was happening in the jungle, at night, that the animals were preparing for. The peccaries were really funny characters.

 

247B: Girl in the Mirror/Night Carnival

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In this short story/book a girl finds herself in a night carnival.  The climax in this story is very similar to the, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes.

This short story, however, I found it at a library a library and was never ever to re-find the story on the shelves or in its database.  I believe the story was in an anthology of short stories.

The story is centered in an almost 1950s style where a little girl interacts with another girl in a mirror.  The girl (main character) mysteriously falls into her mirror and finds herself in a dark somewhat spooky place.

As I recall, she sees a carnival in the distance. I believe the carnival is a type of ethereal place and is ghoul like.  My favorite excerpt, “she found herself on a path dimly lit by the dancing of fireflies.”

I recall she sits down and cries.  She tries to get back into the mirror that she fell out of and it appears she cannot escape the dark, Gothic world in which she landed. Her sobbing countenance becomes the reflection that a new girl sees in her mirror.  This temporal/spatial rift that the girl finds herself in is somehow a trap that is now the main character’s punishment for her self-obsession.

What was most intriguing about this story was that it was dark, twisted and yet eerily beautiful. Strong visuals paint the story and it was from the late 1960s to early 1980s.  That is, within the time frame of the Reader’s Digest short story anthologies.

 

 

246J: Stories for Girls to Live By

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I read a book of short stories in 1963. My memory is that the title or description following the title was “stories for girls to live by”. I believe one of the shorts was by Betty Cavanna. I do remember one of the stories had an excerpt about a girl on a sandy beach applying nail polish (crazy fragment to remember, I know). I have been searching for this book in vain forever. I lent it to a girl friend in 1964 and never got it back. If you can help me I’d so appreciate it as I would love to find a copy.

Thank you
Mary

246I: A “cave boy” survives on his own

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This is the first book I remember reading on my own, which would have been about 1954-55. The book was much older than that. From my hazy recollection of its appearance, I’d guess late 1920s through early 1940s. I have no memory of the title or the author. It was written at what was then probably considered a third- or fourth-grade level. There were some facing-page illustrations, but I don’t remember them clearly. It’s a story about a “cave boy” who becomes separated from his family, survives on his own, grows to young manhood, and is reunited with his family at the end. Besides that, I can remember only one specific incident: lightning strikes a tree, causing a fire, which is the occasion for the boy to discover the use of fire.

Would be delighted to find it again.