Date of Publication: 1950’s.
Contains a story about the Scarlatti (spelling?) family that did things backwards, such as giving presents to their friends when it was their birthday.
332N: Big or Giant Book of Bedtime Stories
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Category Archives: Unsolved
332L: Boy Visits His Own Memory Factory, Retrieves Memory From Messy Pile
I used to read it to my kids, maybe 10 years ago. It’s a story of a boy who shrinks himself down to go into his own ear and see how memories work. He meets lots of different characters as if he is in a factory. Ultimately after all the process, all his thoughts and memories are dumped in a giant pile in his head. Finally he finds (remembers) what his mom told him when he finds a red letter in the pile. It was beautifully illustrated and really funny. I think the boys name was Max last name seemed to be Mc-something, McGinty? Please tell me someone can assist! Thank you in advance!!
332K: New System – Girl Comes of Age Prior to World War II
The book I am trying to find is called: “NEW SYSTEM”. The main character’s name is PAGE (not sure of spelling)
It was published in the 1930’s or early 40’s – it’s WWII, or before America enters the war- but nothing is mentioned of the war at all so it might be before it starts in Europe.
It’s a girl’s coming of age story, pre-WWII. She gets a newfangled “perm”. She is an artist. Her brother gets engaged, and she helps her family put on a bridal shower.
She has a sharkskin bathing suit. She just graduated from high school and is deciding on college. She is trying to get organized and has a journal, and is writing about her “New System” of organizing her life.
No idea who the author is. Picture on the book jacket is a girl’s face with 1930’s -40’s hair style.
I had this book when I was about 12- loved it.
332J: Cat Watches Man Get Ready For Work Day
There is a white cat, and a man drinks coffee or tea, leaves for work and forgets his umbrella. Minimalist art style (e. g. cat only has whiskers, man has no facial detail). Published before 1996.
332I: Child Looks Out At Rain Storm
I am trying to find a book that I think is by Charlotte Zolotow. It’s about a young girl looking out of her window at a rain storm. The water rushes down the gutters and down the street and the child is watching and listening to the sounds.
332H: Gnomes, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans Band Together
Looking for a fantasy series where gnomes, elves, humans and dwarves must band together. The fantasy series has gnomes who raise an ancient evil. A wizard is trying to become king. Humans, elves, dwarves & gnomes band together. A young gnome woman finds a dog that she thinks is a wolf, so she names it Wolf. The wizards have some magic plant that makes people work harder. Elves and dwarves are set to invade the gnome tunnels.
332F: Vampire With A Toothache
I believe this was a book that had a few different stories, but there is one in particular I am remembering vividly. The characters were anthropomorphic animals I THINK. The story I remember clearly is a little vampire/Dracula with a toothache. He has one of those handkerchiefs tied around his head and his fangs are very big. He doesn't want to go to dentist but eventually he knows he has to. So he does and sees its not a big deal! PLEASE Help! I feel like I'm making this up but I remember the illustrations so clearly!
332D: Dark Fairy Tale
I have been looking for years for a YA book I read years ago, and I am hoping you can help. This is what I remember – which could be wrong:
- Young adult fiction
- Part of a series
- Dark retelling of classic fairy tales
- Checked out from my local library between 1999-2008
- Around the same time I read “Just Ella” by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and this would have been around the same time period and genre. This could even be written by her as well.
The book is set in a fairy-tale land, or ‘medieval’ era. The main character is a young girl who is a witch, or just finds out she is a witch, or is learning to be a witch. The girl becomes the town witch/medicine lady who people come to for medicinal needs. There is a distinct part in the book where someone comes to her with their baby who was born with either six fingers or six toes- and they want it removed, but through magic. The witch knows she can cure it without magic, but she needed to put on some sort of a show, so she draws the circle and summons the demons, but she ends up just biting off the baby’s finger/toe herself and pretending it was the demon. She is found out, the demons demand payment, and she is in big trouble.
Essentially, this is a dark retelling of a fairy tale but I could not tell you which princess she was supposed to be.
I’d love to find this book again!
332C: African Safari Via Zebra Bicycle
I read a book years ago about a person who went on a solo safari in Africa, riding a bike painted like a zebra. The only other things I remember are that he got charged by a rhino, and he purified water mostly by boiling or with iodine tabs.
332A: Children Turn Into Insects
I am looking for a book that was read to my second or third grade class by a substitute teacher, and I believe this was around 1963 or 1964. Our regular teacher was ill and replaced by a young substitute, who craftily kept our attention by beginning each class reading one chapter of a book. She hooked us on her very first day, and we came to school each day craving another chapter like crack addicts needing a fix.
The story was essentially Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ for children. Here’s what I remember of the story, and time may have dimmed the details a bit:
1. Three children are spending the summer in the country.
2. They are largely unattached and indifferent to the surroundings and ambivalent about their summer vacation.
3. Somehow, all three are transformed into insects: the older sister becomes a caterpillar, the youngest, from whose eyes we see the story, becomes an ant, and an older brother, I think becomes something else.
4. They encounter daring and frightening adventures, and at the end of the book, they are faced with the possibility of returning back into humans, but the sister, who by this time, has transformed into a butterfly, opts to remain an insect.
This is all I can remember, but what struct me the most about the story was an overarching feeling of melancholy versus a typical children’s book happy ending.