Category Archives: Unsolved

336Q: Brigands

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I wish I had something more for hints, but this query comes for a book I believe was published in the 1930’s.  Had it been in the 1940’s I would have been able to read it myself, and I don’t think I ever could.
It was hard backed but not more that a half-inch thick, all black and white.  Illustrations included stick figures or possibly pear-shaped bodies (inverted?) with stick arms and legs.  These figures or characters were called “Brigands” and were bad.  I have no idea what the title may be.
There seem to have been two stories in the book.  It’s possible one was “Ferdinand the Bull,” but that may be a merged memory.
That’s all I’ve got and I really don’t expect anything.  You’d have to be older than I am with a marvelous memory.

336N: Reincarnation theme with lovers

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This children's picture book was likely published in the 70's, probably before 1978. It was set either in China or Japan and centered around a loving couple who died and then kept reincarnating as adversaries (like a fox and a hen) until they both reincarnated as swans. Loved getting this book at our local bookmobile from the Montgomery County public library system in Pennsylvania.

336M: Captive Mage Falls In Love With Woman Captive In Tower

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I’m looking for a fantasy novel, likely written in the 90’s, as I read it between 1998-2003, I think.
It was about a woman who was captive in a tower with a Druid/mage who produced alchemical fireworks. He was also some kind of captive in the city-kingdom, and naturally they fall in love.
My parents pitched it out and I’ll never let it go

336K: Confused Woman Wants To Know Where Her Daylight Went

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I am looking for a book. Here are the details I can remember:

1) The book is about about a woman who is desperately hurrying to bring sunshine/daylight into her house so that she can save it for later, she uses things like pans and jugs to trap the daylight and carries it into the house, but is then confused when she gets inside and there isn’t any light (her house may not have had windows).
2) It is a children’s book
3) I believe the main colors in the illustrations are yellow, brown and black
4) I read it as a child in the late 1980’s, but it was likely a hand-me-down book from my sister who was born in 1980

336J: Obscure Memoir – Woman (nurse) drives her Defender across Europe and Africa, works in Africa, then decides to keep driving around the world.

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I read this memoir in my childhood in the 80’s or 90’s.  May have been paperback, may have been hardcover, and it was not a new book when I read it.  Was possibly only published in Australia or Europe (my friend got it from her Auntie in Western Australia, but they are of British heritage so it could’ve been from there, too).

Woman in the mid 20th century decides to drive her Defender across Europe and Africa, working as a nurse along the way. She settles down but eventually gets restless and decides to keep going, driving her Defender back (or maybe it was around the rest of the world?).

 

336I: Confused Bird of Paradise

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We are looking for a book that we had when we were children. We think it might have been published in Australia, as it was a gift from family there, and must have been published before 2004. We can’t remember the title but it was about a bird of paradise. We think that the book started when he falls out of his nest or something and then asks lots of animals one by one what animal he is, until one animal tells him that he is a bird of paradise, and we think the last page was a double page spread of a picture of a bird of paradise.
We have been trying to find this book for years and had no success, so if you think you might know it I would really appreciate your help!

336H: A unique, darkly humorous children’s picture book

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Looking for the title of a picture book I had when I was a child–and absolutely LOVED.
Clues:
1. I know I possessed it at least as early as 1960/1961, and it was a used book when I got it. So my guess is that it was published sometime in the 1950’s, or even the late 1940’s.
2. As I recall, the book had an unusual shape. The top edge was curved, rather than straight across. I’m not 100% certain about this, but it is my strong recollection. It was taller than it was wide, giving it a much more rectangular shape.
3. There were both stories and poems in the book.
4. This was definitely not a sweet, endearing, Beatrix Potter-type book. The stories had a slightly darker edge to them. One of the poems was about a big, creepy tree, and the drawing of the tree scared me silly–but I loved it!
5. One of the stories was about a mischievous boy (it used that word specifically–it had to be explained to me) and one of the naughty things he did in the story was take piano keys off the piano and stuff them down between the crack in the floor boards.
There you have it…that’s all I remember. I sure hope someone can track this one down!

336F: Children Find Fine Art

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This was a 90’s children’s mystery novel that I read as a 3rd or 4th grader in 1996 or so. It was an un-illustrated chapter book. I can’t remember much else about the plot other than the characters were sorting out someone’s estate and found a very fine piece of stained glass art (lamp, vase or pitcher perhaps). The author did an excellent job describing the art – that’s what all my friends and I loved about the book. I also remember at the end of the book they are able to see all of the other pieces of the art collection that belonged with it.