Category Archives: Unsolved

342H: A Moon Boy’s Android Brother

I am hoping you can help me find a book from my childhood. I think it was from the early 80s to mid 90s. It was about a boy that gets an Android robot for a brother. I think they live on the moon in the future. I think one of them has red hair. I believe it was a kid’s series, I was between 10-14 when I read it. I could be totally wrong on how old it was. I think I read the book in 2000 so it could be 1990s too. But I remember the two kids are climbing a tree in it, and I think they were around 12, and lived in a dome on the moon. Again, not sure about this one. I think there were 2 or 3 books in the series.
Thanks for the help!

342G: YA series about children in another land on an adventure and protected by blue light

I am looking for a young adult series about children who travel to another land. In the first book, I remember them being able to open a book and it put an umbrella-like blue light around them that protected them from something bad or evil. I remember a tree or building that seemed much smaller from the outside than once they got inside, and a scene in the book where a girl has to walk across a canyon and keep eye contact with someone on the other side. I also remember a scene where they are going through a forest and are told they have to be sure to stay awake and almost fall asleep, but come to and continue on their journey. In another book in the series, a boy is invisible but also frozen or paralyzed and I remember him being stuck on a stair landing. In another one of the books, a boy encounters a man with a map on his leg and I believe he gets to the other land by going through bushes or a hedge. There is a later scene where he is in a boat on a lake full of eels. I have been looking for this series for YEARS so any help is very appreciated.

My best guess is that I read the books between 1993 and 1996. I think I originally checked it out from the church library.

342D: Talking Clock Sends Boy to the Past

My brother read a short children's book when he was a kid in the 1970s. The book was about a kid (boy) and a talking clock, the parents of the child are lost (died), the clock takes the boy back to happier moments in the past. At the end the boy is reunited with his parents. My brother said the book only had a few pages similar to Golden Books. If you know someone who could point us towards finding the book it would be appreciated.

342C: A house with a magic door

There’s a girl who lives in a house or has just moved to a house, and in the house lives a cat. She goes up a staircase into a room with many doors in it, and through one of the doors, the cat brings her to a world full of snow. I believe there are other doors with other places through them but I can’t remember. This was a picture book I believe and likely was written in the 90’s or even early 2000’s.

341Z: UFO Light Causes Boy to Grow Third Arm

As you might expect, I’m searching for a book.  I probably read it in the 1978 to 1980 time frame, so publishing occurred before that.  It is possible I read the book as late as 1982, but I don’t think so.
The book may have been a Scholastic publication, but they didn’t find anything matching the rest of the description.
The book was a short story collection.  I do not remember the title or author or authors or editor.  I think the version I read was a trade paperback, borrowed from the school library.  During 1978 to 1980 I was in 5th and 6th grade.  I suppose I could write to the librarians in those schools and ask if they still have books matching the descriptions.
The story I remember from the book had a boy in probably 5th or 6th grade walking alone in the woods one evening.  A UFO appeared through the trees (maybe he was in a clearing?) and shone a blue light through the center of his chest.  Not long afterwards a third arm started growing where the light struck the boy.  He was teased at school for being different, and he thought of having the arm surgically removed.  But the arm proved to be useful when the bullies in his school started a fight with him.  He elected to keep it.  He finished the story by saying other people around the world were getting struck by the same blue light and were growing arms as well.
I do not remember the remainder of the stories in the book.  I’m not sure I actually read them; I may have had to return the book to the library.