378H: The treasure map in a painting

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I have been trying to remember the name of this book for years to no avail.

In 1991 or 1992, my sixth grade reading teacher recommended this book in an attempt to get me to not read Stephen King books. Sadly, I don’t remember a lot of the plot, and I’m reluctant to mention details that could have been in other books.

I remember a few things for sure (hopefully). It was a story involving two boys, and one had or saw a painting called “Nausea,” which we later discovered meant “Gold in the North Sea” (N Au Sea). I thiiiiiink there was a treasure map in the painting. And right around now my memory is very inadequate….. I think the map may have led to Wood Islands in Canada, but I may have looked that up in The World Book at the time, and it may be unrelated to the book…

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

378G: Alien & human boy bond over baseball then alien discards the ball en route out of earth’s orbit, late 60s very early 70s

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I read this book in approx 1974 (latest cut off date), it was more probably between 1968 and 1973. 
The book is about a kid about age 10 who loved baseball, as I did, and he liked to play catch. And meanwhile he meets a new kid about his same age and they become friends, build a bond, which eventually leads to the two playing catch. The baseball becomes a symbol of their friendship. The plot twist is that this friend is actually an alien, whose parents are aliens. I don’t recall much more of the plot. I think the alien kid is waiting until his parents repair their spaceship so they can continue their galactic journey. So when that is accomplished, the alien dad, mom, and son (the alien kid who had befriended the earthling kid) are in their spaceship ready to continue their journey, and they reach a point when they cross it the alien boy will forget everything about his time on Earth. When they do this, one of the alien parents asks the kid, what is that? And they are referring to a baseball which the earth kid had gifted him as a memory/souvenir of their friendship. Only, being past the “point of no return,” the alien boy doesn’t recognize or know what it is, and, being rather meaningless, he or the family eject it from the spaceship (I think throw it through the window, but I could be wrong). Their journey continues. That is the basic plot. I was not happy with the ending!

378F: Mystery Back of the Mountain/Ginseng (Solved!)

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I’m recalling a book I read in elementary school approximately 1973-74.  It was a hardcover mystery with a red cover and the spine had a white section with the title and also an image of a ginseng root.  The story involved a group of children/youths exploring a remote wooded area, possibly on a mountain, who found ginseng roots and were collecting them for money.  Along the way they stumble across a mystery, although I don’t recall the details of that.  I thought the title might be something like “Mystery Back of the Mountain” or something similar, but I haven’t been able to spot it.
In 1974 my 4th grade teacher asked for suggestions to read for class story time, and I suggested the book and it was very popular with my classmates.  I’d love to be able to find it again and purchase a copy.

378D: Mid-century Modern Insect Homes (Solved!)

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Alan Strickland, a_strickland@carolina.rr.com[/private role]

I’m trying to identify a book that my two children (one born in 1981, the other in 1983) remember from their childhoods. I’d like to make it part of my grandson’s library.

Below is my daughter’s description of the book. Thanks for the help!!…

70’s/80’s vibe.  That memory might be because the main image I remember was a neat mid century modern home “split” so you could see the inside. That was the whole concept of the book.  A look into the homes.   The owner of this particular home was maybe a grasshopper?  Or a caterpillar?  The home was outfitted with modern furnishings, as if it were human.  I think each image was the same in the fact that all of the interiors with their creatures featured modern living quarters versus realistic “homes.”  This home was located on a cliff, lots of clean lines and overhangs.  A cool place.

All of the images of the book were drawn with great attention to detail.  A book someone of any age would enjoy to look at verses just a young kid.

We’re they all insects?  Maybe.  It wasn’t a story.  It was more like each page was its own display.  I’m sure there were some words or descriptions, but I don’t remember.

378C: The Friendly Monsters (Found!)

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I’m looking for the title of a picture book that I read as a child in the mid-1990s. I believe the book was written in the 1980s or 90s, though it could also be from the 70s. I don’t remember any part of the title. It was a large-format hardcover edition.

It features illustrations with a watercolor style and a brightly colored, somewhat flat, surreal aesthetic with greatly exaggerated proportions. Its protagonist is an explorer who is dressed in a blue 19th-century naval outfit and sailing a large (and very tall) ship by himself.

He is searching for a rare creature that has some giraffe-like features and eats bananas, and on every page you can see that this creature is following him just out of sight. During his exploration, the protagonist meets several huge, frightening monsters, one of which I seem to recall was named the “purple lumpy thumpet”.

When the explorer finally finds his creature, it is revealed that it has many babies, and also that the monsters he encountered earlier were all friendly. All characters then have a picnic together on an island.

As a young child I read this book over and over again, captivated by its unique blend of unsettling, dreamlike visuals and mischievous, lighthearted storytelling. I have now been searching for its title for nearly a decade with no luck, and just found out about this service.

378B: Little Witch Children’s Book

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When I was 4 years old, (roughly 1970) we went to the library in Red Oak, IA for story books.  My mother remembers this book as well. It sparked my love for reading, and I would like to find it again, and read it to my grandchildren.  It was about the size of the Little Golden Books.  The story is of a little girl witch and her mother is a witch and they make blueberry muffins. The recipe was included in the back of the book. I was so thrilled to make the blueberry muffins and have remembered that book every time I’ve made muffins for so many years. I think it states in the story that if you use the blue berry juice, the muffins will be purple. 
The only one I’ve been able to find is the Old Black Witch – which is Not the same story. 

378A: Identify Childrens’ Books 1930s – 40s, photos of tableaux

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The books I’m trying to remember were children’s books for youngish readers, medium-size (12 x 8 inches perhaps?), hardback and slim, perhaps 20 pages long, I feel not more than 30. They had text on one page (but not very much, a few sentences at most) and illustrations opposite. 

They were in the children’s bookcase in my father’s parents house: at least two titles. I was a little disdainful of them as a child myself (in the 1960s): they seemed a bit basic and unsophisticated to my small snobbish self. But they clearly had some kind of evocative magic, which is calling to me 50 years later. I’ve never seen anything like them since and was unable to google anything of the kind. My family is UK-based, though my grandfather worked in Washington DC during WW2. 

If I had to guess the publication date (based on when my father and his siblings were children, and the colour reproduction) I’d say the 1940s or early 50s. The stories were simple tales with a comic or slapstick outcome — possibly of a moral nature. A particular story I feel I strongly remember involves a house filling with water. 

The illustrations were colour photographs — but not photographs of real-life subjects. Instead they were photos of model characters on a little stage-set, a maquette complete with props and scale-model model furniture and so on. As with a cartoon or any illustrated story, each picture was a snapshot of the narrative: but from picture to picture while the characters might have been moved or adjusted within the stage-set, the set itself often stayed the same, possibly through the entire story (this I remember less well).  

The scenes I remember most clearly were the interiors of houses, sparsely furnished with wide expanses of wall in particular, of perhaps a single pastel pink or green. I think there was outdoors scenes also: when I try and recall the feel of the scenes what comes to mind is stills from the TV show Gumby (1953-onwards — but I was not aware of it at the time).  Certainly a similar sense of a flat painted backdrop, with similar spatial relationships between characters and objects and backdrop items. Also very much in colour, though perhaps more washed-out. I actually don’t remember the characters very well, but if my memory isn’t playing tricks I think they had more of a feel of pipe-cleaner people. 

377Y: Children’s book stumper

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I remember a children’s book about some sort of creature or monster who lived underwater in a castle or palace. He is sort of humanoid/frog cross, is described as having a heart as black as coal, and falls in love with a girl (maybe a princess). He kidnaps her to his underwater palace, and she is eventually rescued by her human love interest. It was a book my grandma bought from her library – my guess is that it was probably published in the 60s or 70s, and I think it was watercolored. I also feel like the color purple was heavily featured in it, but that could be wrong.