Category Archives: Unsolved

224C: Sullen Hedgehog

2 Replies

I am trying to find a kids book I used to read to my kids when they were young (15 years ago.. omg). I can’t remember the title, or the author, and all my searching and asking has led me nowhere. So I will ask here just on the outside chance someone knows.

It is the story of a Hedgehog that has awoken in string and is in a bad mood, he goes around talking to all the forest animals before finally feeling better. The refrain he says is “I am a prickly hedgehog, i have just awoken from a long sleep. I am sullen, angry, mean, and moody. Woe betide those who cross my path”
Any help here?

221E: 1970s children’s chapter book about wacky family

4 Replies

I have been trying to find this book since my first child was born 15 years ago. It was my favorite when I was about 8 or 9, I think, but I never owned it; I would just choose it over and over again from its spot on the shelf in our local library, never committing the title or author to memory.
The protagonist is a young girl who has a wacky family—perhaps they’d be described as “dysfunctional” nowadays but that was not a term at the time. The story is full of mishaps and made me laugh out loud each time I read it. There are line drawings in the book and one I can recall is of the girl (or maybe her father) heading out of the house for a beach trip loaded down with supplies. The dad is kind of grumpy, as I recall. I was reading it in the late 70s so I assume it was published earlier that decade. It was of that era and the copy I read was hardcover.
This is not a lot to go on, I realize. But perhaps someone out there will recognize my brief recollections. I hope!

221C: Hyppo the Hippo

2 Replies

The book I am seeking was called Hyppo the Hippo. I’m not even sure how it was spelled. We pronounced it with a long I – Hypo?. It was a book very like the Barbar books in shape and had colored illustrations of hippos in human clothes. The baby hippo was left on a doorstep in a wicker wash basket. I imagine it was published in the 40’s

221B: Girl moves to country with parents and falls in love with boy named Eric

Leave a reply

Hi! I’m looking for a book series written in the early 20th century (one in 1913)? It may be a children’s book series. It’s about a girl who moves to the country with her parents, where she falls in love with a boy named Eric.

Unfortunately I don’t have much more to go on, but here’s a few keywords/concepts that should appear in the series:

– The girl gets in trouble for wearing a skirt that goes above her ankles.
– Skiing with Eric.
– Wagons.
– Chickens?

Thank you so much for your help!!!

221A: “Solve this picture-mystery” collection of books

4 Replies

I’m not sure whether these were actually children’s/middle-readers books, but I loved them as a kid. Each two-page puzzle had a full black-and-white line-drawing illustration of a mystery on the left page, and a little exposition with leading questions on the right, to help the reader solve the mystery. The mysteries were things like “Who tampered with the paddles before the rowing competition?” and “How did the baby get downstairs in the elevator?” and “Who stole all the chickens from the coop?” I forget whether there were murders to solve too, but most of them were all-ages-friendly puzzles. Each book probably had 20 or 30 mysteries to solve, with answers in the back of the book. It was a series of largish paperback books–I’m pretty sure I had at least two or three of them–and I was reading them in the early-to-mid ’90s. Thank you!

220C: Animal Pirates in Space Seek Treasure on New Planets

1 Reply

Its a kids sci-fi picture book I loved as a child. I know it was popular in the late 80s or early 90s as that was when I was a kid. The book reminded me of “The Odyssey” but in space, and animal characters instead of humans. Each planet they traveled to, two of them would decide to stay. Sometimes their decision to stay would be a bad decision and sometimes it was okay. in the end, there was only one or two animals still on the ship, and on the last planet they visit, all their friends they lost throughout the journey, ended up being there.

220B: Children’s Science Fiction Chapter Book Yellow Cover People with Powers in Hidden City

5 Replies

I was in elementary school in the 90’s, and I remember a book or series of books in the school library that I believe were all by the same author but may not have contained the same characters. I think both books had yellow hard-back covers. One of the books cover had a woman on it with a third eye, the eye was possibly triangle shaped. I’m not sure I remember the plot line of that book if there was more than one book. The plot-line I do remember though went as follows: A girl (and possibly her family) moves to a farm/rural setting. While out walking one day she runs into an invisible wall. Somehow she, and possibly a boy (or her family) get through the wall, and there is a hidden city behind it, possibly made out of crystal. The people in the city are either alien in nature, or are people with powers, and those powers and possibly telekinesis and/or telepathy. I think she has to figure out how to escape from this city. I’m hoping someone knows what these books are.