Category Archives: Unsolved

376E: A talking horse and an aloe plant

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Looking for a slim paperback from the 80s. It might have been from either Starbooks or Scholastic Book Club. Written at the early reader level, a little less than a full chapter book. Set in the American West. A boy goes to a livestock auction and encounters a horse who can talk. He’s a recently captured mustang who wants to rejoin his herd. He persuades the boy to buy him and they become friends but the horse always wants to return to the wild. Somehow the boy smashes his mom’s potted aloe plant, which she needs to treat a burned hand. The horse offers a deal where he will show the boy where to find one growing in the wild in exchange for his freedom. They make a secret journey into the wilderness at night to find the plant. I think the title is something obvious like “The Horse Who Could Talk” but I can’t find anything online.

376D: Farm Book

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The book is about a family living on a ranch/farm in the American West, sometime between 1970 and 2000. I remember three key details about the book: 

A. The families father was killed by a bull during a rodeo. He was gored to death.

B. At one point in the book, a member of the family is in the hospital with a boy who lost his leg to a lawnmower accident. His siblings visit in the hospital and say they are not allowed anywhere near the lawnmower. The boy is in the hospital to get a larger prosthetic leg attached. 

C. The children live on a ranch/farm and often play in a pasture near the house. They go there to hide at one point, but I do not remember why. 

376B: Book about a Southern family

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The book I am searching for may be from late nineteen forties through early sixties. The mother of two (a high-school boy and a married daughter) is the main character. The daughter, named Tilghman, has her first baby near the end of the story. Then the main character, now a grandmother, finds out she is expecting!

376A: The Merry Muses

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Robert Burns “The Merry Muses” (Not “of Caledonia”) “Printed for a Private Collection” “London 1885”

I realize that the content is probably available online; it is the book itself I can not figure out.

I do not know the value of this paperback book without a publisher name, only a logo. (SEE BELOW)

My father, a WWII veteran, had it.

Please let me know. Thank you.

375Y: Magic that costs its user

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I’m looking for a book I had read back between the years of 2007-2011. I believe it was part of a series but I only had found the one book at a used book store. The premise was the main character was a woman who was a private investigator or detective type who worked by herself. There was magic she was able to use but she mentioned many times throughout the book that using magic came at a cost to the user and would take memories or something like that every time it’s used. I believe her father was also rich and or powerful but they had no to little contact.
If it helps at all I vaguely remember the first chapter or so had her getting a call from an older lady who was calling in to ask the detective to help a family member being hurt or missing.
I believe it was an orange cover with a girl doing the turn around pose. I hope you can help me find this!

375X: Nostalgic Summer Nights

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All I remember is it was a nostalgic novel about a guy remembering his stay at an aunts house one summer. It was in the early part of the 1900’s maybe.I believe he had an uncle also. He described the 4th of July and summer nights there among other things.

375V: Girl Lives On Underground Railroad Station

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Seeking a 1960s children’s book (possibly Scholastic Book Services) about a girl (an orphan?) who goes to live with relatives whose house is a station on the Underground Railroad. One of the former slaves they help is named Phoebe. The Emancipation Proclamation is signed at the end of the story, and Phoebe and her mother are able to appear in public with the girl.

375U: A children’s book about cousins

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It was a book my sister and I owned when we were children and we were born in 1990 and 1992. The copy we owned had the cover ripped off so we can’t remember anything based on that. From our memory it was a children’s picture book – the images we specifically remember are a tire swing and a blue minivan. We can’t remember if the character had a cousin or a friend that came to visit or if she went to visit them. But what we remember is that during this visit (most likely with a cousin but possibly a friend) she had all these plans for what they would do together and then nothing turns out as expected and she’s disappointed. I think there is something about her being annoyed about her little sister and wanting to exclude her and then in the end she realizes her little sister is actually great. My sister thought that maybe something was culturally different between the two girls, but it could be getting mixed up with another book. When we googled, it seemed similar to the book “When the Cousins Came” but it’s not that book and that one was published too recently as well. It definitely takes place in the summer or in warmer weather. My Mom remembered that the girl might have had red hair, but my Mom’s memory isn’t always the greatest so I wouldn’t say that is definitely a part of the book, but figured I’d add it just in case. I know this is pretty obscure but hopefully you can help!