Category Archives: Unsolved

375N: The Gift of Wings

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The story revolves around a young girl who is either estranged or has a strained relationship with her family, which some may describe as “trailer trash” or poor. The family collectively gifts her a pair of large and lifelike wings, which is a significant moment for her. The gift of wings came after her birthday didn’t turn out as expected.

Describe notable characters:
The main character is a young girl, possibly with a difficult home life.

The family members may possibly depicted as problematic or dysfunctional.

Genre:
It’s a coming-of-age novel, not strictly a fantasy book but may have some symbolic or fantastical elements.

The book:
I think the cover was primarily blueish purple. There may be an image of a girl sleeping in a tent in her yard. It was a medium-length novel. About 500 pages.

Setting:
The setting seemed contemporary to when it was published, which was before 2003.

Where did you get the book?
I believe I borrowed it from a school library or got it from a book fair. It might have been relatively new, but I’m not certain.

375M: Susie the Cow

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I have a vintage children’s book that I have been looking for that my grandmother used to have for us to read.  The main character of the book was a female cow named Susie and I believe the title of the book was Susie.  If I am remembering correctly the cover of the book was pale blue and had black decorative scrollwork on the corners and her name on the front.  Susie walked upright on her two back legs and wore pretty sundresses, high heels and a pearl necklace. There was a male cow in the book as well and was somewhat of a nerd and became cute and popular at the end of the book.  He liked Susie and I believe they ended up together at the end.  

Many have suggested that this book must be Elsie the cow, but Susie was younger and more stylish.  I imagine they were both from the same time era and the book was from around the 1940’s.

375L: Boy Gets Supplies to Run Away

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I’m looking for the name of a book. It’s a children’s book where a little boy decides to run away from home but along his way he stops at I think it’s a deli tells the person he’s running away and they give him a sandwich. He goes to another shop says he’s running away and they give him a blanket. It’s not the book boy was I mad. It was from the ’70s or the ’80s. 

375K: Unicorn horn makes figures of speech literal

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I read this children’s book in the 1970s, but the book could have been older than that. A girl gets a unicorn horn from somewhere (possibly an antique store or a relative), and whenever she holds it, figures of speech become literal. I remember being freaked out by a woman whose tongue literally began flapping at both ends. This may have been only one of several magical things that happened to the girl over the course of the book, but it’s the only one I remember.

375I: My South Poem

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A piece of a poem that I read in a book at the Dartmouth College Library in the late sixties contained these lines (or something close):

“I think there is a much more terrible thing. To be raised without one’s own consent In the cave of the mind. Like a faded fish. And to go as assuredly blind in the soul. As a Saint”
I think the poem was titled “My South”, I don’t remember the author.

375G: Darker Harry Potter-Like Novel Series I read in the early 2010s

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I have been racking my brain trying to figure out the name of a young adult fantasy series that I read in the early 2010s. From what I remember, there was a male protagonist (probably teenaged?) who was extraordinarily skilled in some magical system that revolved around basic elements (fire, earth, water, etc). I feel like the series may have begun with some sort of entrance exam, that was repeated at the start of every book/school year. There was always some dark force acting as an antagonist, but the protagonist wasn’t very well liked with classmates (I think they had all had a lot more training than him, some kind of elitist thing). All that’s to say that other students may have been minor antagonists as well. This one is a total shot in the dark but I believe the main bad guy wore a mask of some sort. It wasn’t actually super reminiscent of Harry Potter, besides the basic plot of a super talented kid appears out of nowhere and isn’t well liked. But, I can’t think of a better title so I’m sticking with that. The cover was a dark brown, maybe maroon-leaning, with a simple icon on the front I believe. This is the detail I’m least sure about since, during my search, I found a copy of Swann’s Way that looks a lot like what I’m describing and I may be conflating mental images here. I understand that none of this is super specific, or concrete for that matter, but any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

375E: Very dark YA, MC teen boy dies saving girl he kidnapped

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Published date2002-2007 at least that is when we had it in Australia
Story– MC is a teen boy who doesn’t have any friends and is in high school, he is “good” however he is timid and very unsure of himself – he has a crush on a beautiful popular girl from school but she doesn’t know he exists- he makes friends with a boy who is nice to him and a little weird who has a group of friends outside of school so he introduces MC to them- the friends are all boys and they have extreme views and want to act out violently, however MC doesn’t care about this as he doesn’t think the boys will act on it and it’s better than being alone- one day the leader of the group devises a plan to kidnap someone from school to hold them hostage (for reasons I cannot remember sorry), the leader has a car and weapons and makes MC get involved as he is a weak character- it turns out the leader of the group wanted to kidnap the girl from MCs school who he has a crush on and he feels very conflicted about this but doesn’t know how to voice this and get out of the group or tell the police- they kidnap the girl and hold her hostage in a friend’s house but the kidnapping makes the news and it becomes a full blown investigation which escalates the situation quickly- MC had thought that they would just release the girl after the leaders demands are met however due to the kidnapping becoming breaking news he realises there is no way out- he tries to come up with plans to help her escape and make her feel less distressed without getting caught by the leader but it doesn’t work- the leader of the group decides that because his demands are not taken seriously by the police he will take the girl into the woods at night and kill her by hanging her- they tie her up and take her into the woods and put a noose around her however something happens and i think she slips and she suddenly becomes hung – at this point the police have found them and they all run away except MC who desperately tries to cut her free- he manages to save her however there’s a siege and the police find him and start shooting at him and so he runs- the story ends quickly after this chase as he is shot dead.
As you can see this is an incredibly dark story and I was super surprised that it was YA and in my school library! The book absolutely wrecked me for weeks when I was 15. I think it must be out of print as I can’t find it anywhere on google/goodreads.

375B: Impoverished Girl Knits Sweater

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In fourth grade, in 1970, our teacher read us a chapter book about a girl in a concentration or refugee camp or impoverished village.   I remember descriptions of the harsh conditions and an episode where she knit a sweater for a woman in exchange for a cow. The sweater didn’t fit because the woman gained weight from drinking the milk and the girl had to redo the sweater.
Would love to know this book!