Trying to find a mystery, printed (in paperback) before 1984. A small town sheriff is faced with a baffling murder. Spoiler alert! It turns out that a well-to-do brother and sister are rather more than that…and want it kept unknown. I believe the story is set in Montana or Idaho, but can’t be certain.
Category Archives: Unsolved
361C: African folktales children’s book
I am looking for a book from my childhood and I’m hoping you can help me. It is a children’s book of short stories/folktales/fables, all of which were set in Africa. Each story was different and had different characters. It was written in English, but all of the characters had African names. I think there were around 20 different stories.
It was a large, hardcover book, maybe 15-18 inches tall by 8-10 inches wide. The cover definitely had orange on it. I think it also had brown and dark green. I also am pretty sure that there were vertical stripes on the cover. I think the book had around 80-100 pages, but that number could be way off.
My mom read it to me in the mid to late 1990s, and it was probably purchased from a Scholastic book fair, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.
361A: Amazing Looking Witch
I am looking for what I think was a weekly reader or Scholastic book from late 70s or 80s. It was a Halloween book with a witch. I actually can’t remember a ton about the story but the graphics were amazing. The witch would fly on her broom and there is a distinct image of her in front of the full moon about halfway through the book. I would love to share with my kids!
360Z: Elephant looking for a kite
I am looking for a children’s book that was a lift-a-flap book. I read it in the 80s. I think the main character was an elephant and he was looking for a his missing kite in his house. He sees small glimpses of things that look like the tail if the kite but when he looks under the flap it’s something different. He looks under a pink bed skirt and to find it was the tail of a toy wind up mouse. He opens a closet but it was a cord to a vacuum. I think I also remember a toy chest and behind a curtain where he looks. I believe there is another book with the same character and I remember a picnic basket full of colorful berries.
360Y: “Lead us to you Sarah!” or “Keep knocking Sarah!”
I read the book in the late ’90s? I had to have been in the 5th grade. I read a lot of paranormal books around that time! The book itself might have been a collection of ghost stories. I don’t think it was “Stories to Tell in the Dark,” but I could be wrong. All I know is that this particular story stuck with me for over twenty-five years.
A family moves into a house with their daughter. Could be just a single mom. The house was purchased after the woman who lived in it before passed. Soon after they move in the daughter starts having nightmares or is getting sick. She starts to talk about the ghost of a girl.
A medium is eventually called in and he holds a seance. The ghost’s name is Sarah (or Sara) and he asks that she knock to answer questions. Eventually, it is discovered that she is in on the property. With the knocks, she leads them to her resting place. “Keep Knocking Sarah!” or “Lead us to you Sarah!” is shouted by the medium. Her coffin is found behind the wall of the closet or the wall of the girl’s bedroom. Sarah is moved and buried next to her mother.
360X: Children of Chicagoan Drug Addicts
I'm looking for book that I thought was called "The Little People". I don't know what year it was published, but I read it somewhere about 1985-86. I thought the book was set in Chicago, but not certain. It was about the children of drug addicts. I don't remember for certain if it was fiction or not. I think I got it from our school library.
360W: Teenage Girl Saves Missing Boy With Horse
Looking for a book about a teenage girl who lives alone with her father. Her brother was killed when he fell off their horse and she refuses to touch the horse anymore, only going into the barn to feed the horse. She lives in the mountains somewhere, they still have a communal phone line, which she uses to order clothes while her father is away on his sales route.
There is a new family in town, maybe the new mayor or teacher, someone important, there is a parade or celebration of some sort where she sees the young boy be given a piece of candy by an elderly woman that the town thinks is kind of crazy.
Shortly after that the boy is kidnapped. There is an abandoned homestead behind her land and a couple moves in. The man does work for her. She starts to wonder about the couple, goes to investigate and finds the young boy. She then devises a way to get the boy back. She uses the horse because she has no way to get into town without the horse. Describes her home as a shotgun house.
360V: Child Eschews Expensive Toys for Red Balloon
“I can still remember the content of my favorite childhood book….the one with the single mother and son going to the mall. There were six red apples, there was four orange carrots”. I remember the mother and son would essentially go window shopping after collecting the groceries, they would explore the other thriving sections of the mall for more educational opportunities before eventually ending the story at a children’s toy store. At the end, and this is the most important element, the child was given the choice of buying a wooden airplane or a wooden train or a plethora of other enticing things., Instead of being lured into buying something expensive, the child however settled on an inexpensive temporary red balloon.”
360U: Prehistoric fiction book from 5th grade
360T: The Blacksmith with a Heart of Metal
This is a children's book about a blacksmith. His heart is made of metal and he carries it around in a bucket or something because he is afraid to feel. Then he meets a lady who helps him feel again. I can't remember all the details.