Category Archives: Unsolved

331M: Deathwatch meets The Most Dangerous Game

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I read this YA book in the mid to late 70’s. It is definitely NOT Deathwatch or The Most Dangerous Game but it has similarities to both.  A man is being hunted by another man – I think simply because the hunter enjoys it.  I’m not sure if the hunted man has any weapons or vehicle.  The setting may be Africa or the southwest US.  There are a couple of plot twists.  The hunted man meets someone who offers to help him, but then it turns out that person also wants to kill him.  And then in another twist, maybe that turns out to be a mistaken impression. Or maybe the first guy ends up helping the hunted man because it turns out the second guy is the real bad guy.  The question of who he can trust is a big part of the plot.

331L: War Kids Seek Treasure

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The book I am trying to identify was written over 60 years ago, and it features a group of children ages five or so through 14, or thereabouts.  They have been sent to the country because of the Second World War, and they become convinced there is lost treasure in the vicinity.  The only scene I remember takes place in church.  The younger kids are shocked and scandalized during the service as the collection basket enters their pew.  The eldest, instead of putting a coin in, pulls one out!  This is their first real clue.  The coin turns out to be a genuine gold doubloon.  The eldest boy may have been named Emil.  Do you know which book this is?

331J: Kid Sends Re-Inflated Moon Back To Sky

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I was born in 1991 and my sister, who was born in 1988, remembers this book too, but neither of us can remember the title or what year it was published.
All we can remember is that a little kid can see the moon out their window at night while laying in bed. One night the moon is gone, so the kid goes looking for it. They find the moon in their backyard all deflated and crumpled up and dirty. They wash the moon off and inflate it again and send it back up to the sky. I recall a page where the kid is talking to their neighbor along a fence while their neighbor is on a ladder and trims or waters their hedges.

331G: Paranormal Handbook For Kids

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I am looking for a book that I read when I was about 7. It was probably published in the late 80s to early 90s and was basically a paranormal handbook geared towards kids. I would check it out from the juvenile section of my local library and it featured directions for basic ghost hunting and how to test ESP. It featured Shel Silverstein-like illustrations of kids doing the experiments (you know, that line art style that was so popular in the 80s). It may have had any (or none! how exciting!) of the following words in the title: paranormal, extrasensory perception, ghosts.

331E: Red Wagon, Romani Adventure Novel

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When I was a young girl in the 70s, there was a chapter book that my mother used to read to me. This book stayed at my great grandmothers home, and we would read it when we visited. It was probably written for young adults. I think it was written before the 30’s or 40’s. All I can remember is the story was about this gypsy girl’s adventures. I remember a picture of a Romani style wagon, and the color red. I loved it, but can’t recall the title or the plot. Please help. I would love to revisit this book.

331D: Hostile Alien Wildlife Combined With Earth’s Failures Leads To Space Colony Catastrophes

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Not sure if this is one book or a series. Earth’s first colony loses touch with Earth. Without supplies they’d counted on from Earth (food, building materials, vehicles, weapons), the colonists struggle, mostly because the planet’s wildlife (plants and dinosaur-ish animals) are all deadly 24/7. The main female character is the Sheriff, who, at the beginning, has to rescue a female friend in the badlands from a large dinosaur-ish thing. Half-way through the book, the female Sheriff crash lands in the middle of the deadly wilderness. The main male character, who she doesn’t like, goes to rescue her. After a week or so and lots of peril and at least one broken leg (hers), they end up getting back safely by making a canoe out of the shell of a huge animal (and in love).

The colony has major political and leadership issues, some gun-fueled, and then Earth shows up and wants to take over everything. There’s also a creepy guy who starts a brothel and a gambling establishment and schemes to be get elected the boss. Somebody starts a stampede of the dinosaur-ish wildlife down the town's main-street in the middle of the night, and also traps the main male character in his house with a big dinosuar-ish animal by blocking the door with a programmable excavating machine.

331C: Girl With The Ribbon

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I'm looking for an illustrated children's collection of stories. The story I remember most vividly is that of a girl that always wears a ribbon around her neck (I think it was yellow), and eventually her husband removes it and her head falls off.  It is NOT from the book "In a Dark, Dark Room."  The illustrations were simple black (or blue?) and white, with pops of color (kinda similar to Robert Bright's).  The book also had a story about a young man that only had a couple hairs on his chest, and he was trying to grow more to prove that he was brave (my memory of this plot line is pretty fuzzy though).  I borrowed it from the library as a child in the 90s (I was 5ish?), and it was pretty beat up then so maybe published significantly earlier?  I attribute this book to my lifelong irrational inability of wearing anything around my neck (necklaces, scarves, turtlenecks, etc.) and would love to prove that this book exists.