Tag Archives: witch

350J: Witch keeps girl’s lover in birdcage

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I’m looking for a darkly illustrated children’s book, probably published in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

There was very little text and mostly illustrations. The story involved a girl whose lover(?) is taken away by a witch. She goes to the witch’s lair and there are many birdcages with owls in them. Her lover(?) is also being kept in a birdcage when she saves him.

The pictures had a very dark colour scheme with a gothic/art nouveau art style, similar to Kay Nielsen but darker. I remember being fascinated with this book as a child as the content was so dark compared to my other books. I’ve been trying to locate it for years but cannot remember even slightly what the title was.

If it helps, I suspect the author was European given the content, so the original book was probably published in Finnish, Danish or German.

341U: Similar to the princess and the frog

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When I was quite small, I remember having a favorite fantasy book along the lines of the princess and the frog, but I can never seem to remember more than a few details. I’ve tried really hard to find it, but no one in my family even remembers the book aside from me...

What I can remember is this:

- Two people are turned into frogs

- There’s a witch that captures them

- When they escape, they steal a vial of dragon's breath that is used later for a spell I mostly forget... I think it’s used to turn either them or the otter human again? Or to trade for something?

- There’s a magical bracelet which they both must put an arm in to be returned to being human

- There’s an otter, who once was human, who gets them the bracelet because the woman (possibly fairy?) that was keeping it was once his lover before he was turned by the same witch from before

- I believe at one point someone pretends to be a fairy, and that fairy finds out and gets offended?

And that’s mostly all I can remember, aside from the scenery I imagined along with the story as a kid. I’ve been searching for around 5 years now and would LOVE to get to read it again!!

333D: Redheaded Girl’s Scary Witch Encounter Just a Dream

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I am desperately trying to find out the title of a book I used to read to my daughter when she was little. It had to have been published before 1994. What we remember is that the main character is a little girl, maybe a redhead and/or curly haired. She may be walking through a forest and encounters a scary witch. At the end we discover that the whole thing was a dream.
The book, which we used to take out from the library, was a hard back.

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!

319J: Brother And Sister Confront Scary Beings

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I am looking for a book with two main characters, a brother and sister, and the sister is named Lorna. I forget the brother’s name. I’m pretty sure it was a scary or mystery book about a witch or ghosts. Would have read it in the early 80s which means it could have been published in the 70s. Not much to go on but hoping you can help!

319E: Getting Swallowed By A Whale

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I vaguely remember the book.  I read it at a very young age, and I was born in 1997.  I brought it up to my mother and even she vaguely remembers, but we are both so stumped, and Google has produced nothing.
The layout of the book was to be landscape format, I believe, and I am pretty sure it was not hard covered, but soft (I am sure that does not even matter).  The artwork, however, I remember is dark colors and what I would assume to be an oil style of painting?  Maybe acrylic, but very Van Gogh-esque with swirls of red and blacks with slight bits of yellow.  I am pretty sure it is a woman, maybe a witch?  I know there is some sort of magic involved, but I think she lives in the belly of a whale, and a man gets swallowed and finds her in there, or he just lives in there.  All I know is someone gets swallowed by a whale and lives in it and the swirls, so many swirls and so much red.  The tone of the book was a bit darker, and I think there may have been a storm at night?  I cannot get this book out of my head, at all, for the last few years.  Please help!

288D: Woman in black kidnaps kids

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It is a “scary” children’s picture book about a woman dressed in all black and she kidnaps children. She has a black hat with a black veil, yet has yellow eyes that can still be seen. She carries an umbrella and a bag of bricks. She has pilgrim buckle type shoes. She can run really fast and creates a black streak as she passes. As she kidnaps more kids, the parents of the remaining children send them to school with protection. The zookeeper’s son arrives with a boa constrictor around his neck, the beekeeper’s son wears a beehive, the military kid rides up in a tank, etc. The lady in black even takes a teacher. They eventually catch her and she leads the police to a cave where the children and teacher are kept, unharmed. The lady then slips out of the handcuffs and escapes. The book was written in English and had colored illustrations. I read it in Minnesota, USA in the mid-to-late 90s. I remember a specific illustration in which the lady is hiding behind a pole at a bus stop, just before she takes a kid.

282A: A dollhouse with a little witch living inside

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This is a book that was in the library when I was in grade school so early 90’s. It was already vintage then, probably 70’s-80’s, but I actually have no idea as to the publishing date. It is about a young girl who acquires/has a dollhouse with a little witch living inside who is alive and rides around on her broom. If I remember correctly the house is in the room where she is staying with an old relative. I think someone’s name started with an S, possibly Samantha, but I could be mistaken.