Category Archives: Unsolved

236D: A boy and his wolf

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I remember this book from when I was a kid, my dad first introduced it to me.
The book is set in late colonial period I think and is about a young impoverished boy and his family. The town in which he lives finds a wolf den, and he is the only one who can go down into the den. He agrees to go but for a price, he gets to keep one pup. The townspeople agree and when he goes down he finds five or six pups still alive. He picks one and comes out with it, telling everyone that it was the only one alive. He takes the wolf and begins to raise it. I know he watches an bald eagle kill a hawk, which he then takes to his professor/taxidermist friend and sells to him. That is about all I can remember.

235C: Hippo’s Birthday

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I am looking for a book from my childhood which I remember very well. I am from the UK. The book must be more than 20 years old. It is about a hippopotamus, referred to as “Hippo” in the text. The Hippo asks his dad (also a Hippo) if it is his birthday every day. “Is it my birthday today?” and the dad hippo would reply, “No, not today, Hippo.” This goes on for some time as his birthday approaches. It is eventually his birthday and when he asks a final time, I think the dad hippo says, “Yes, Hippo. Today is your birthday. I even remember the dad hippo hiding the birthday cake on top of a wardrobe.

235A: A young girl shares her weathervanes with her neighbors (Solved)

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I was born in 1953 and think maybe the book was for 8-10 year olds so, if it was newly-published, maybe it was from the early 1960s? I have only vague memories of it, of course.  The story of a girl who has moved somewhere new–a place that, to a kid like me from Los Angeles, stuck with me as exotic, like maybe Florida? I think the plot is that the girl has this collection of weathervanes and, when family relocates to a housing development where all the homes are identical, she gets this great idea of giving each neighbor one of the different weathervanes to make life easier for everyone! (The movie “Inside Out” made me think of this book–what happens when a plucky little girl moves?)

234H: A sketch book of imaginative designs

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No idea about the title. I first found this book in the early 2000’s, but it is probably older–90’s or 80’s or even earlier? No narrative. Contains (mostly?) black and white sketches of many silly and imaginative designs for ordinary items and new inventions. Just one example: a contraption that completely encloses a desk to allow a nap in the office. I also remember a page full of funny-looking footwear; a memorably risque one was modeled after the nude female figure.

234G: A Mechanized Life

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Hello~

For about 20 years, I’ve been looking for a children’s book that I loved in the 70s. It was a picture book (or at least an illustrated book) about a boy whose house was fully automated, with an ejector bed that popped him out in the mornings to be dressed robotically, and I think a slide took him to the kitchen, where his breakfast was served mechanically… I wish I had more info. I’ve hit up quite a few children’s librarians, and haven’t had much luck. The book charmed me so much as a kid, I really wanted it for my kids.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

234F: 1980s book that features child abuse

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Looking for a YA novel, 1980s, title and author unknown. About a girl living with a neglectful/abusive mother. In one scene, her mom leaves her alone in the house for days with no food (may or may not have locked her in) and when she comes home, tosses some groceries at the girl, who opens a can of spaghettios (or similar food) and the girl eats the contents of the can ravenously while the mom calls her an animal. I think the girl takes up painting (with watercolors?) under the tutelage of a neighbor. Title might include words like house (of)…, child (of)…, glass, light.

234D: Large Children’s Anthology of Short Stories from the 90s

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I’m looking for a treasury/anthology of short stories for children that was most likely published in the early to mid 90s. I can’t remember too much about it, but the pages were yellow (or maybe had a thick yellow border?). It was about 2 inches thick, and was about 8 1/2″ x 11″. There were all different types of stories and were unrelated to each other. The only one I can actively remember was about the father of the family was trying to cure sunspots. The book contained pictures with most, if not all, of the stories. The stories were probably geared towards ages 6 to 11, as opposed to younger children. I have no idea about author/title/publisher because for as long as I can remember, the front and back covers had torn off!