Category Archives: Unsolved

351Q: Italian Immigrant Artist-Sculptor Love Story

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Love story about Italian immigrants in the US around the early 1900s. The young man is a laborer, possibly at the railroads, during the day and an artist-sculptor at night. The setting is a city. He does not readily tell his girlfriend about his artist-sculpture work he does in his off time. I think it was a statue of a woman when finished. Read in the 1980s, about 200 pages of dense writing, paperback, pocketbook size. May be considered a romance novel.

351O: Mr Widdle and the Sea Breeze? Woman Builds Odd House

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I have a children's book stumper to solve. I remember a book from my childhood (born in 67, so the book must've been published before 1977 or 78). It was about a woman who built a house and painted it gray with pink shutters. Or maybe pink with gray shutters! For some reason I associate this memory with Mr. Widdle and the Sea Breeze by Jo Ann Stover, but I don't have a copy to check if it's the one. Thanks for any help!

351N: Children’s book about a girl who won’t go to sleep, with inbuilt music

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This is a hard cover children’s picture book and story about a little girl who won’t/can’t sleep when everyone else goes to bed, and stays up trying to play… but every attempt to do so – with her dolls, teddies, pets (?) has them also asleep and quiet and in the dark. She is all raring to go at any of the usual places around home she usually plays but it/they aren’t.
I recall a picture of her doll house with them all asleep and quiet like the rest of her house/family … but what makes this book different is an inbuilt music element that at the end you play a lullaby type song (that I guess is what helps her get to sleep in the end) and that was built into the back of the book. I think the book tied up with a ribbon too.
This book was a very special memory for me and my sister/cousins at our Gran’s house and I have tried many times to identify it to hopefully find an old copy. I hope you may be able to help me.

351M: Family Relocates to Alaska

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The book I am searching for is a young adult novel I read in the 1980's about a family relocating to Alaska.  They lived in an isolated cabin, walked to a lone general store to get supplies and place an order for clothing and household items through a Sears Catalog.  They ordered in summer for a delivery of winter items, items didn't arrive until Spring.  A teenage girl with at least one sibling, mom gets depressed, and either dad or brother or both get lost and possibly killed. One chapter talks about them laying in supplies for winter and the girl sleeps on pallets of canned food.  It was a paperback book, white cover, the title had something to do with Alaska without saying Alaska, referencing the 24 hours of sun / dark I think.

351L: Art Book about the Wind

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This was a beautiful hardcover book that I owned in the mid-1980’s. It was probably published sometime between the mid-70s and mid-80s. It may have been a small printer, or art book type thing. The size was probably 9x12 or a little larger, maybe 1/2” thick. If I remember correctly, it had a tan canvas-type cover, and a slide-in box that the book came in.

The artwork in the book was beautiful. It may have been acrylics or oils, or some type of print work. On each page was a description of wind force. If I remember correctly, the first page talked about when there is no wind, the next page when there is a light breeze, and so on. In the end there is a full hurricane. The book is nonfiction (and I found it very boring as a young child). Each page shows the same location — with some grass, people, trees, sky, and the ocean — as the wind increases. I believe there was even a description of wind speed on each page.  The language was simple and descriptive. It said things like “Now there is a light breeze. The leaves on the trees move a little bit. When the wind is like this...” etc. One page mentioned that this is a good wind speed to fly a kite, another mentioned that the waves start to have small white tips. There are no characters, no plot/story, just information about wind.

351J: Large Red and Yellow Kid’s Storybooks

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Looking for info on 2 books from my childhood. All I can remember is one was red and one was yellow. They were both large, like 12×16 maybe. The content was mostly stories and nursery rhymes accompanied by artwork and maybe some general science for kids. The covers may have been embossed. Mid to late 60’s is when i was reading them. They may have accompanied the My Book House series but don’t count on that. I just remember those at the same time perhaps. Any help would be appreciated. fiosco@bell. net. Thanks, Scott

351I: Dollhouse view of building with bakery in it throughout the day

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This book was probably from the 70s or 80s. I read it from the library in the 90s. Every page was the same dollhouse view of one building at different times throughout the day with different things going on in each room. There was a french bakery on the ground floor with baguettes, the baker came in early to bake. There maybe was a clock saying what time it was on each page? It could have been a learning to tell time book. Either wordless, or minimal words. Illustrations were small in scale, I think done in pen and ink and watercolor or gouache. Similar to Roser Capdevila or Ljiljana Rylands. My mom thinks it was French-Canadian or French or from somewhere else in Europe. It was large in scale— maybe 11×13”.

351G: Seizure Takes Girl Back in Time to Relive Ancestor’s Life

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I’m trying to find a book that I read in the late 70’s. It was a paperback book, probably a teen novel about a girl whose name was Katherine (I think). She goes into an antique store or an attic and sees a picture of herself which turns out to be a picture of her great great great Grandmother. She has a dream and goes back in time and lives her grandmother’s life in great detail, for years. It seems to be a life in the Middle Ages.
She suddenly wakes up from her dream and is told that she has only been asleep for about 15 minutes and that in fact, she had a seizure. During this very short seizure, she lives her ancestor's life.

I believe the cover of the book had a portrait of the girl from the Middle Ages in it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I loved this book and would be so happy to find it.

351F: Disfigured Man Brought Out of the Dark by Lover

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The book is a historical romance. The two characters had met before but separated for whatever reason. Later in the story (midway ish?) the man’s older brother is thought to be dead and his face is now terribly scarred. He is now left with his brother’s title and 2 daughters. He keeps to the dark, won’t come out in the daylight or shave and neglects the girls as a result. She comes back and he tells her that she will have to marry him to stay and take care of the girls and she agrees because she loves him. He basically drags her to an old alter that’s cracking and falling apart and then makes off with her for their wedding night. He likes the dark so she can’t see him so he tries to keep it dark but she’s terrified of the dark.
Eventually she tells him to get over himself that it’s just a scar and he’s being a big baby and not treating his nieces the way he should. He shaves and goes to see them in bed and one of the girls wakes up screaming (neither had seen his face with or without the beard since before the incident that caused him to be scarred). I think that’s when she tells him off and leaves him to his own devices. He sacks up and starts rejoining the world he had cut himself off of, only for his brother to come back, turns out he was alive and well (ish) and eager to be home with his brother and children. This is the climax area, something makes them both rush off, I think she gets trapped somewhere dark and he and his brother have to find and help her and she’s in such a state she doesn’t even realize that her husband is clean shaven and in broad daylight.
That’s it that’s all I remember, I’ve been trying periodically for years to find the book title but I’m at a loss. I think I read it between 2004-2011? But would have been from my library so it could be older by a decade or more, I come from a really small town in Michigan.