Category Archives: Unsolved

103B: circular short story by Hispanic author

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I read a short story while I was studying in Mexico, so I am almost positive that it was a contemporary work by a Hispanic author, about a man sitting reading a book one night ( I for some reason believe it was dark and maybe stormy and that he was sitting in a chair reading by a fireplace).  He is reading about a man reading a book, and outside the character’s window there is someone lurking.  The story ends with the reader hearing a noise outside his window, insinuating that he himself is the character that he is reading about at the exact same time.

103A: Perfect Pumpkin’s Twist Ending

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Hi. I’m looking for a book from the late 1960’s – early 1970’s, and I haven’t had any luck at the sites you recommend because I have so little to go on.

A little girl is excited about her class trip to a pumpkin patch where every child gets to choose and take home a pumpkin. When she finds her perfect pumpkin, she discovers a mouse living inside it. She decides to leave her perfect pumpkin so the mouse can stay and goes home empty-handed.

Thanks.

PS I grew up right by Shaker Square. Next time I come home I will visit your store!

102W: Intergalactic Airport

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A children’s book (early 90s/late 80s?). Comes with tape. A boy enters an abandoned house (w/ little sister?); it’s really an intergalactic airport for aliens. Aliens are friendly; one that’s green with multiple eyes buys him a multi-flavored milkshake.

102T: Greek Mythology

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Series of books I read in 1980. Must have yellow binding w/black letters. One book was completely Greek Mythology. The other books in the set are different topics and are fuzzy to me. Your closest solution is M129, wrong color/binding. The Young Folks Shelf Books also wrong color binding.

102S: Bunny Falls into a Hole

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My mom used to read me a book in the early 1950’s which told the story of a bunny who disobeyed his mother and fell into a hole in the woods–eventually rescued, he learned his lesson.  The distinctive thing about the book was that the illustrations were photos of real bunnies dressed up in human clothing–for some reason, I think the photographer’s first name was ‘Bill’, but not certain about that.  Any help greatly appreciated.

102R: Story a Day

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Looking for a book that was my mother’s. She was born in 1938 and had a book that featured a story a day for the year. It had a small margin on top of the story on each page that was illustrated in black and white. Published sometime in the 40’s.

102Q: Sultan’s Wives

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A story about a sultan/ prince or  exotic, wealthy man – who is looking for a wife. He tries a lot of different ones; one is an American who arrives dressed in pants. He hates this! In fact he finds fault with each. He casts them all off.

102P: Tiny People Near a River

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This book was a children’s book about a bunch of tiny people.  They lived on or around a river, and led a very scary life.  Someone – maybe a full size person, or a rival group of miniature people, was quite willing to kill them.  And hung dead animals up on trees to scare them away from wherever it was that they wanted to go.

I don’t know how it ended – as a child I only got through the first two thirds one night when my family was visiting another family, and there were no other kids present so I picked up something to read instead.  This would have been 1971/1972 in Africa, Lesotho or Swaziland.  So the book would most likely have been British in origin.  It was kind of dreadful and frightening for a kids’ book, but I have always been curious about how it ended!