Category Archives: Unsolved

340U: Talk Show Goes To The Dogs

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This book is fiction, and could be a novel, short story, or novella, but set in the current time and real world when the book was published (sometime between 1960-1985). A famous night-time talk show (along the lines of The Tonight Show during the Carson age) hosts a segment featuring a guest who is a man with a very smart dog; the guest claims the dog can understand spoken conversation, beyond just verbal commands. There are a number of conflicts that arise; the main conflict is the sponsor of the show (a dog food company, I think) wanting to use the dog in advertising, but the dog’s owner refusing. I think it is set in Manhattan, and the book culminates in a dog fight on the ice of a pond in Central Park (between the smart dog, I think a golden retriever, and a doberman pinscher).

340T: Philosophical Conversation All The Rage On Worldwide Network

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Looking for a science fiction novel which starts with an older man on a park bench having a conversation with two or three youths (I think young men, teens). It is a philosophical conversation, mostly about economics and society. The interaction is recorded via a smart device, and uploaded to the worldwide network; it becomes enormously popular, the old man becomes quite wealthy and the teens are viewed as somewhat famous (infamous?) for their part in the conversation as foils, even decades later. This may have been a novella or short story, as well, and may have been by Vernor Vinge or David Brin; it would have come out after 1990 or thereabouts.

340S: Boy meets crows on a chessboard

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Seeking a children's/teen book I read in the 90's, the central character is a boy who went to a pond/lake when he was told not to and developed warts on his hands as a result. These are cured by a magician? in an early scene, a friend of his father maybe? I only remember two more scenes, one in which he remembers trying to pull a wart from his skin, and another in which he dreams? of a giant chessboard. The white pieces are standard king, queen, knights etc, but all of the black pieces are crows. Crows and chess pieces were a recurring image in the book, but I don't remember what purpose they served. Thanks to anyone who helps with this, it's stumped me for years!

340R: Daycare Abuse

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I believe this book was from the 80s after the real case of day care abuse and Satanic worship came out. This was a girl (early teens) who has a little sister or brother enrolled in the same day care that she attended. Things her younger sibling says to her begins to trigger memories of her own time there and the abuse (I believe sexual) that she suffered.  No one will believe her because the teachers are so well loved. She has to find proof of the abuse by speaking to the children who attend the school.

340Q: Man Fights Wolverine

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I’m looking for a book I read as a child which I checked out of a public library in Seattle in the early - mid 1950’s. The book could be older than that. It was the very first book I checked out, and led to a lifelong love of libraries.

The plot line was about a mountain man who lived alone in a log cabin and a wolverine chewed his way into the cabin, and the man had to figure out what to do.

Thanks!

340P: Trying To Befriend A Rude Companion

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Looking for a children’s book from the late 70s/early 80s. I believe the main characters were Timothy, Clyde, and Violet. They were anthropomorphic - one was maybe a fox(?). One of the characters (Timothy or Clyde) was trying to make friends with the other - he’d say things like “hey, you’re wearing the same shirt as me!” and the other one would rudely respond, “no, YOU’RE wearing the same shirt as ME.” My late father used to read it to me and I’d love to find it.

340N: Fairy Tale Anthology, Blue Cloth Cover, 12 Dancing Princesses

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I had a collection of fairytales in 1990-1995, though it may have been published prior to that (c. 1980-90).  It had a royal/dark blue cloth cover with a small, embossed-gold pegasus in the center of the cover (possibly with children riding the pegasus).

The collection was rather thick (perhaps a half inch) and contained at least 20 stories.  Each story was illustrated with at least one color illustration on each page (some small alongside the text and some full page). There were different illustrators throughout.  The text was regular-sized font.

I specifically remember these stories, though there were more (I’ve listed the more rare first):

  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses (I specifically remember the exquisite illustrations of the prince breaking off a branch of the silver tree)
  • The Snow Queen (illustrations of Kay and Gerta with the penny on the window, the snow queen in her carriage driving away, the garden of flowers Gerta visits, and her red shoes)
  • The Water Babies
  • The Little Match Girl
  • Cinderella
  • Rapunzel (an incredible full-page illustration of the witch’s garden)
  • The Sleeping Beauty (illustrations of thickets of thorns, sleeping kitchen maids)
  • Rumpelstiltskin
  • The Frog Prince
  • Hansel and Gretel
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • There may have been some Aesop’s fables as well, but there my memory gets hazy.
Thank you for your assistance in finding this book!

340K: Separates

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Looking for a book from about 1960 about a young teen girl. Her mom makes all her dresses, but she wants to babysit for extra money so she can buy “separates.” She babysits children who come down with diphtheria and she must work hard to save them while in quarantine. Good luck!

340J: Young Man from South Africa Travels to Botswana to Escape Apartheid

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A few years ago I read a book about a young man from South Africa during apartheid who would risk his life to travel back and forth over the northern border to Botswana.

He travels to Botswana and becomes a gardener for a woman who lives alone.  He is black and she is white.

I read the book within the last 10 years and it has stayed with me.  I don’t remember the name or the author, but I think this would be a good book for my book group to read.