Category Archives: Unsolved

351Y: Black and White Blobs Accept Different Blob

Looking for a book from at least my childhood (~30 years ago). It's a a thick book, mostly white cover, on what felt like recycled or hand-made paper. Story is that a world exists in black and white, the characters are kinda oblong blobs, then one day a different looking oblong blob shows up (he is either in color, or fuzzy versus not fuzzy, I can't remember). For a while he has a hard time getting people to interact with him, but eventually the lesson is that we shouldn't be mean to or scared of people who look or act differently. I thought it was something about Nog (not Nod), but cannot find anything by that name or description.

351X: Part comic/part written book series maybe called ‘Freak’?

I’d really like some help finding a comic I haven’t read since I was in school in 2001. I’ve tried googling it with no luck. I swear it was called ‘F.R.E.A.K’ or something. The front cover had a teenager jumping in the air clutching/firing lightning from his hands. There were two issues I think, one with a blue background cover and one with a green background.

It was about some teenager who stumbles into an alternate dimension (after getting beaten up in the street by hooligans) and meets a bipedal lioness who can talk. There were other animal people, and they were at war.

The lions were mostly police, and some of the characters had psychic powers and they were referred to as ‘TK’s’. The main bad guys were a vulture woman and a fat guy with angel wings. They used guns and were rivals. The angel wings guy says in one panel that ‘I like to keep ahead of the competition’ or something similar, and it shows a severed head on a spike.

The lionnes jams a gun with her mind as the teenager is about to be shot, but Angel wing guy thinks the teen did it and that he’s a ‘TK’.

There were also lizard people and monkey people. One of the lizard people pretends to be prison guard to help rescue the teenager. It was partially comic and partially written story. I remember it being very violent and adult oriented. Please does anyone know what it is? Any help would be most appreciated

351T: Young boy with red/brown hair and glasses solves mysteries using science

One book cover includes him on the cover with a lab coat and beakers. The cover may have been blue or purple. It was very block cartoonish. He solves mysteries with a girl who is also on the cover with a lab coat on. They may have had a dog. I believe they solved mysteries in their apartment complex or school. It was a series that may have been Scholastic as I believe I got it from a book fair as a child. The book would have been out in the early 2000s.

351Q: Italian Immigrant Artist-Sculptor Love Story

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

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

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

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

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.