Category Archives: Unsolved
342Z: Science Fiction Banks Hacked
-science fiction, young adult
-main character was a male
-someone had made some kind of system where everyone had their own personal code - could be a bank password, savings code, etc. - but it was extremely private and considered unhackable. I think it was based on polynomials or factorials
-The conflict is that someone figures out how to hack everyone’s password, data is exposed
-main character has some kind of relationship to either the person that created the code or the person that hacked it. I think there’s a rivalry between the main character and another male
-there’s a really big twist in the middle of the book!
-might turn into a heist book? but also maybe not
-I *think* the original hardcover is blue/green, has overlayed code in the background, one modern-looking symbol. Possibly a key
-read in 2013/2014, and I had at least 2 books in the series out at the time, I’m only describing the first one. I was in 8th grade - 12 or 13 at the time. The book was age-appropriate
342Y: Boy Wants Toy Truck To Match Dad’s
Looking for a small book about a boy who gets to go buy a toy truck for his birthday. He’s shown all kinds of trucks, but in the end wants one just like his dad’s.
342X: Asian Inspired Dragon Picture Book
The dragons were mostly Asian-like in nature but there may have been some Western ones tacked on as well.
342W: An Out of This World Glowing Garden
This is a book that I read when I was a preteen, so early 90’s. I am starting to think I made it up! I remember there was a girl who lived in a cabin and is an orphan (I think) and she finds these seeds that glow so she plants them. Then they grow into a garden that shines at night and works to call her family to her because it turns out she is not from earth and her family was looking for her.
342V: Hippies in a Sunny Book
The book we are looking for may have been affiliated with Paulist Press. My brothers and I remember reading it back in maybe the mid to late seventies. It was a hippie/peace kind of book. Probably a book of stories. The pictures below show a distinctive sun image that we have tried to find through Google reverse image searches. The images are likely Photoshopped for copyright reasons. These photos are from Jim Erickson’s photography site. We have reached out to him as part of our quest, but have not heard back.
342T: Small animal flies plane, crash-lands in friendly place
I believe this may have been a book from Scholastic sold in the 1970s. A small animal, maybe a mouse? accidentally takes off in a small plane, and crash-lands, possibly in the Philippines, and meets a boy who is friendly to him.
342S: Second Grade Book
I am trying to find a book that my teacher read to me in the second grade. I can remember the cover – lavender with a photo in the center and two snakes on either side. Snakes were a sort of trope in the book. It was either a coming of age or autobiography of a girl who lived in the SouthWestern US. Unfortunately, that is all I remember.
342R: Sordid Affair Leads to Heiress Being Raised by Native American Woman
Romantic novel, heiress is raised by a Native American woman after her father runs away with her (he finds out his wife betrayed him, his second daughter isn't his, she has been having an affair, and ended up dying by her lovers hand) and dies in the wilderness. She hums a "spirit song", Greensleeves. A soldier comes to the Native American camp, she ends up falling for him, and he brings her back to civilization, to his fiance's family who happens to be her long lost sister and grandmother. Her sister doesn't like her and thinks she's a fraud, when she is actually the true heiress to everything. Her sister is also having an affair (just like her mother), she ends up dying just like her mother did.
342Q: Vintage Picture Book Featuring the Ocean
Vintage Picture Book (from 50s, 60’s, or 70s), not very thick, stapled, maybe 10 – 12 pages, not a lot of printed text. Watercolor, realistic illustrations
What I remember about the story: A boy spends a lot of time snorkeling, he sees all kinds of fish and turtles, and he finds a shipwreck and a shark shows up (scary) but he escapes and finds a treasure.
I remember the following illustrations:
- Sea stars on a sandy ocean floor, the sunlight is shining through the water onto the ocean floor
- A sea turtle swims and again the sunlight coming through the water
- A two page illustration showing the boy on the left top looking down on the shipwreck, again the light plays through the water
The illustrations were realistic and what stood out was the light portrayed underwater.