Category Archives: Unsolved

332D: Dark Fairy Tale

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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!

332A: Children Turn Into Insects

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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.

331Z: Supper Club Takes Unsavory Turn

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The book I’m searching for is out of print, last time I checked.  I believe the author is/was a woman who only wrote one book.

The book was set in New York City and was about a young woman moving to the city.  She met someone on her plane and they told her of an apartment that was available in a beautiful building.  The residents of that building had a supper club where they ate dinner together occasionally.  They started out eating exotic animals and gradually graduated to eating people.  Can you tell me the name of the book and the author?

331Y: Margot Forces Agoraphobic Mother to Leave Apartment

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This is a 1970's or 1960's middle reader. Possibly 1980. A girl named Margot lives in a city with her mother, who has not left their apartment since the father left her. She gets along pretty well by having her groceries delivered and such. Margot gets tired of this and decides to spend the night at a library or something to force her mother to leave the apartment to find her. Not sure if her scheme works or not. A neighbor ends up dealing with the police after Margot is found; I remember her spelling Margot's name for them and telling them "The T is silent" and sounding very proud of this knowledge, like it's a family secret. There is also a boy whom Margot befriends.

331X: Lonely 13th Android

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I read this book around 1983 from my school’s Jr. High Library. The main character is an android who believes he is the last one built. His maker has died and, while quite brilliant, was a very superstitious man.

The sentient android looks like a human in every way. He is the most perfect model. He had learned how to build replicas prior to his maker’s death, so he builds replicas and programs them to send him a portion of their paycheck after they blend into society. He does this for decades so he amasses great wealth, but he is lonely. Although an occasional woman shows up in his life through the years, he never connects with them. There is no one to share his life with so he starts to hunt for his siblings: the other androids made by his maker.
He finds them all (so he thinks) and none of them are a match either. Finally a woman appears and surprises him. She knows all his details. In fact, she is the random woman who has appeared to him throughout the decades. She too is an android. She explains that, yes, there were 13 androids built, but the maker was too superstitious to label an android “13.” So all these years our hero android thought he was the most advanced model, but there was one build after him. She had never revealed herself before because she believed he needed to mature

331W: Magic Boots Takes Boy’s Family Away Into Forest

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The book I cannot recall is a chapter book that my 4th grade teacher read with our class.

The story begins with a small family in a cabin in the woods.  Each night, they hear a knock at the door, and whoever answers the door disappears.  The reader soon discovers that the a pair of magic boots have been walking themselves up to the door, forcing themselves onto the feet of who answers, and walking them off into the forest.  Each family member disappears until only 1 boy, the protagonist, is left.  He manages to trap the boots in a pot, pours (honey or molasses?) onto the boots, and puts 2 rats into the enclosure with the boots.  The rats eat the boots and become "bewitched," and the boy stands on the rats and rides them into the forest to find his family.  He is led to a troll or giant, but I cannot remember how the story concludes.

Please help!

331U: Old Woman Who Cleans

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Hello, the book I'm looking for is old, most likely from the 50's or 60's. There is an old woman (skinny) who lives in a cottage or house that is messy. She starts out cleaning one thing and then obsessively has to clean the rest of her house, and there was a picture of the kitchen with a blue checkered tablecloth.

 

331T: Amazing Sweater Boy With Inventor Relative

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I remember (around 1980) visiting the library and reading this wonderful book about a little boy with a striped sweater that was amorphic. He could store all sorts of things in it. He had adventures with another character, maybe his uncle, or some other male relative. I recall big machines, like vehicles with all sorts of ‘chitty chitty bang bang’ style appendages all over them.
The boy might have had a pet…but that’s me just imagining things, I think.
I’ve been searching for anything like this for years to no avail.

 

331S: Black And White Line Drawing Picture Book

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Back in the mid to late 70s I recall a wonderful picture book that I read at primary school. I cannot remember any title or author details, but I do remember that the book was perhaps set in a forest? The illustrations were black and white until the last page I think, where they became full colour. I think they were line drawings. I imagine the book was published in the early 70s, maybe late 60s. I remember something about a rainbow as part of the story, i think this is why it was full colour on the last page. I also think a child was moving through the book. Thanks for your help