Category Archives: Unsolved

227I: Told from a doll’s point of view

I am looking for a children’s book that I read when I was in grade 3 in 1955 in Toronto. C. 1953? American?  It was a small short picture book/easy reader chapters 5.5″x5.5″, black and white illustrations and hardcover.

In the attic, in a trunk there is a doll (old) who wishes that a little girl will find her and play with her. Emily? is playing one day and wanders up to the attic of her house and discovers a small trunk.  I can still feel the hope and excitement of the doll (Henrietta?).  Emily opens the trunk to reveal a beautiful doll with a complete wardrobe of clothes and a parasol.

Thank you so much for searching for this book for me.

p.s. I named my daughter Emily after the little girl in this book!

227H: Plants go crazy!

A little boy offers to help his neighbor take care of their houseplants while they’re away, and as each day passes the plants grow and grow, until they’ve filled up the house and are spilling out the windows and doors.  I would have seen it as a child in school or at the library in the early 80s, but the book may be from earlier.  I believe hardcover, with color illustrations ( I want to say ink and/or colored pencil?)  I’ve always been fascinated by plants and this book was my favorite!

227G: A book with an alternate ending

It is middle school aged, maybe 5th and 6th grade, and very much like a Beverly Cleary book, and it was in the mid to late 60’s that I read it. You flipped it upside down to read the alternate ending, which had a different cover. I loved it back then because it showed that bullies and the bullied are not so much different. The boy had a major challenge…to play in a school concert, it was either a bugle or a trumpet, and that was the end of both versions of the story.

I’ve looked all over and it seems not to be Beverly Cleary. I know I read it about the same time I was reading Beezus and Ramona.

227E: City boy and crusty mountain man thwart horse rustlers, catch and tame wild mustang

Young adult book; city boy spends the summer in the high country with aunt and uncle who are about to lose their ranch; crusty loner/family friend takes boy into the mountains for a few weeks; they catch and tame wild a mustang and thwart horse rustlers and save aunt and uncle’s ranch.

227C: Duck Decoy with a Heart

The story of a carver who made a duck decoy with a heart anchor held by a string. When he’s in the water a fish, or crab or something snips the string and his heart falls to the bottom of the lake. I read it in about the late 1950s. I remember the hunter using the decoy part was disturbing.

Thank you. I hope someone else remembers this book.

227B: The creatures that did not make it onto the ark

I’m looking for an illustrated book, vertical format, that featured all the strange, bizarre, mythical creatures that did not make it onto the ark. There was a looming storm approaching and many of the illustrations show the rising water level of the approaching flood. The artwork was very dark, surreal, and nightmarish, in an unusual style similar to Hieronymus Bosch paintings.

Each page had a different creature and I can remember just a few of them:

• One was two-headed, and for each head was a gun. The two gun-heads were pointed at each other.
• A creature had a body of a glass bottle with long arms and webbed fingers, swimming in the water.
• A creature that had a paddle or oar for a head.

I don’t recall an explicit connection to the story of Noah’s Ark, but instead maybe just a subtle connection.

Hope this rings a bell!

226K: Fantasy/Mythological: Creator deities assign a boy the task to name things in the world

To begin, there are these gods/deities in the universe that have just finished creating a world, and they are quarreling amongst each other because nothing in the world was named yet. So the deities decide to either A) create a boy, or B) assign a boy in the newly created world the task of naming everything for them. Thus, the boy goes on many adventures traveling to distant places and giving names to everything. It may sound similar to the Little Prince in the fact that the boy does a lot of traveling to distant places (from what I remember). So in a sense, it is like a version of the story in Genesis of the Bible, except Adam is a boy. However, I know for sure it is NOT the Little Prince! Also, it is NOT the Neverending Story.

So for example, if the boy came across an object or creature, he would ask the gods “What is this called?” and they would respond something like “That’s up to you to decide” along those lines.

I wish I could recall character names or author. The author could have had influence or have been inspired by foreign creation stories/myths/legends (Indian/Arabic, possibly Greek/Persian/Chinese?), so the names might have been unusual/unique.

It seemed like a book aimed for children, yet it was fairly thick and was a chapter book. The copy I had was a hardback may have had a dust jacket, color was off-white with decent spine thickness ((roughly 5/5.5 x 8″ dimensions, about .5″ thick). It was published before 1998, and could be from any decade before the 90s. On the cover featured an image of the boy looking down on a cloud, with short black hair, (his eyes are looking downward) with a celestial background – stars, *maybe* moon also. Again, it is definitely NOT the Little Prince or Neverending Story.

I know it exists and it’s out there! If this reminds you of any title, please help!

226J: Robots in a new town

Robot family moves to a human town – this picture book may be a metaphor for racism. The book is about a family of make-shift robots (I’m not sure if they were actually robots, but they were made out of metal parts and somebody’s arm may have been a broom). The family has a mom, dad, children, and maybe a pet. They move to a new town and are very excited at first, but then their human neighbors and classmates are hesitant to befriend them because they are different. Eventually, people begin to appreciate their unique qualities, and they make friends and settle in. I think this picture book is relatively new – it was the favorite book of a girl that I babysat around 2005. I think it’s appropriate for kids age 6-10, but I also loved it. It was somewhat large and may have had a pale yellow cover, but I forget. I’d really appreciate any help in finding it!