Category Archives: Unsolved

355G: Vampire Horror Anthology

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The book I am looking for is a horror anthology of Vampire fiction published a minimum of eleven years ago, maximum twenty-one. The book itself contains two stories I remember, one better than the other. The first is about a cantor at a failing synagogue who is contacted by a lapsed Jewish man whose son has fallen victim of a vampire. The cantor is called upon to help, and tries several methods which do not work, and it comes about that only the father is Jewish, not the son, and the son has neither converted nor done his bat mitzvah. The cantor then does an emergency conversion, then an emergency mitzvah, and the vampire is exorcised. The story is set in the modern-day, maybe in the 90s.
The second story I remember less. It is told in the first person by a farmer on a failing farm about how a farm girl he hires (who he believes is from Pennsylvania) ends up in a sexual relationship with the farmer and his son. As the relationships continue, the farm fails, because “the plowing didn’t get done because we were plowing her”. It is a very explicit story and ends with a wiser townswoman realizing the girl is a vampire and stealing her. The man telling the story realizes the girl is from Transylvania, not Pennsylvania, and that is when the shoe drops for the reader that the girl was eating these two men slowly, hence why they were getting thinner and hungrier as time went on while she stayed plump and beautiful.
I read this book when I was about sixteen, and the story about the Rabbi stuck with me. It is the piece I’m most interested in finding, but sadly the book seems to be lost to me. I apologize for the explicit nature of the second story, again, I read the book at sixteen and it was the only story of its type I had engaged with at that time, therefore it has stuck in my head.

355D: Girl Spends Day With Mom, Boy Spends Day With Dad

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I’m looking for a children’s book that I had in the mid 1970’s.  It was a hardcover book and I believe it was oversized.  The ‘first’ story was about a child (believe it was a girl) spending the day with her mommy.  You then flipped the book upside down & over and there was a ‘second’ story about the child spending the day with his/her daddy and they went to the zoo.  I remember a picture of them looking in the animal exhibit and the child is holding a balloon and I think they get ice cream.  I’m pretty sure it’s people and not animals (i.e. not the Mercer Meyer little critter book).

354Z: Father and Daughter Move into the Countryside

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A young girl and her parents move from the city for her father’s health. They become pioneers in a way and are excited for their new lives. They have neighbors who the daughter befriends. She shows the youngest son how to wash dishes with sand. He tells her “One day you’ll be a beaut.”
She only thinks men with big teeth are attractive. There were small sketches through the book.

354V: The Comancheros?

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Read in 6th grade about a Spanish highborn son that gets in trouble with the court (king's court). the family goes to the uncle’s hacienda in the new world, he and his brother are captured in an Indian raid, he ends up with a Comanche family and becomes a member of the tribe, he falls for an Indian girl possessed by a cruel Comanche, he goes on a raid to steal horses to buy her.

354U: Farm Town Gradually Turns Into City

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I don’t know the title of this book, I had it as a child. It was a picture book that depicted a city (I believe American) as it changed through the decades. It started as a farm town and then buildings continued to be added. It had a similar feel as Annos counting book. I hope you can help me with the name, I’ve been searching for it for years.

354P: A Girl Discovering Interesting Things in the Woods

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I don’t know the title, but this is my memory of it. I grew up as a kid in the 1990s, so it would be from around then or earlier. I think it was probably made in the 1980s or 1990s, but I could be wrong. My memory of the artwork is watercolors.
Synopsis: Girl goes out for a walk in the forest. I think she brings sandwiches with her (possibly peanut butter)? She might also have had a thermos to drink something. She goes and picks berries and puts them in a glass jar she has with her. I think she ends up eating all the berries and instead fills the jar with tadpoles. Not sure if I am remembering the tadpole part correctly. It could be that she sees tadpoles in the brook in the forest. My memory is that nothing extraordinary (no adventure) happens. It’s just the girl with her thoughts and discovering interesting things in the woods. My memory of the illustrations is lush and detailed and more sophisticated.
Sorry to be so vague, but this is as good as I got! Thanks so much for your help!

354O: Blue Jay Book With Sound Effect

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The book I’m looking for was a children’s book my grandmother had in her home before it had burned down years ago. The only things I truly remember is that it was about a Blue Jay and I’m pretty sure it had a speaker in it that would chirp at you like a Blue Jay. I may not recall much, but I hope to recognize it if I see it.
It was more than likely a book leftover from one of my cousins born between 1980 and 1996. And I want to say that speaker was yellow for some reason, but that could be wrong.
Thank you so much in advance!!