Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

366E: Girl Trapped in Cistern

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Sometime in the period 1984-1988, when I was a child, my summer reading subscription (Weekly Reader?) sent me a novel about a girl who lives alone with her mother in a country house. One hot summer day she escapes her chores in the cellar where there is an old-fashioned cistern (unlidded concrete cylinder built into the floor). She climbs it to lie on the rim, but then falls in and remains trapped for hours because her yelling is unheard by her mother vacuuming two floors above. That’s all I remember!

366D: Anthropomorphic pastels at a cafe

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I am looking for a children’s book that I remember, featuring anthropomorphic oil pastels or chalks as characters, set in a cafe or restaurant where they spent time. It was somewhere between a “picture book” and a “chapter book” in terms of length and balance of illustrations vs. text — some pictures but mostly text, I think. In fact, I wouldn’t swear that it was intended for children, but it was appropriate and comprehensible to an elementary school student. The tone was somewhat serious and melancholic, with bohemian themes. The cafe may have closed or changed hands, or a character may have stopped coming or left town. It would have been published before 2002.

366B: Red-Haired Boy with Freckles Series

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I am looking for a book series that I read as a child in the 1990s (the series was not new at that time). These were chapter books. The protagonist, as I remember it, was a red-haired boy with freckles and a big toothy smile. He was on the cover. The book series was funny and followed this boy’s antics (not magic) at home and in his neighborhood.

365W: 1970s(?) book about kid spies

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I am looking for a book that is a children/tween/teen book from the 60’s or 70’s (I borrowed it from the Bookmobile in the very early 80’s) about 3 or 4 teenagers who fly a glider and get involved in a spy plot where an organization (maybe called Chaos or similar acronym) with a plan to put a memory drug into the water supply. Originally they are set astray by misinformation that it is going into the milk supply. I think one boy is super athletic and one is the brainy one. There is one part where they fly the glider over a compound and later break in. It is guarded by a lion that has been fed the drug and doesn’t attack them but is reliving a memory. It turns out the parents of one of the kids are actually spies and assist them in the end.

365M: Images from an Adventure

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My brother and I remember a book from our childhood (the 90’s) which was picture-book sized but felt more like a preteen/YA type novel. It was an adventure / mystery story, and we both only remember images from the book. We are hoping that you can help us out.

We remember:- a picture of people on a rope bridge being attacked by arrows (? we think it was arrows?)- a picture of a girl sticking her arm in a fire while onlookers watch (it was some sort of test)- picture of an idol with green skin and a horn through its nose- picture of two people being ties to a rock with evil looking horsemen appearing from a sandy background- picture of a seaplane landing on water- [potentially someone (resembling an Aztec or Mayan leader?) taking the heart of another person– we are not sure if this is from the same book, so this is the only image we cannot commit to]

365J: Girl At Grandparents’ Farm For Summer Wants Horse – Both Have Yellow Hair On Cover (Solved!)

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I’m trying to track down the title of a children’s/young adult book from the late 1970s/early1980s.  I want to say it was a book sold via one of those “book club” orders that kids used to order books from in elementary school, where the teacher passes out the order forms with a list of book selections.  I remember it was a thin book with a dark gray cover with a pen-and-ink drawing of a young girl standing at a fence with a horse on the other side of it in a field, and both the girl’s hair and the horse’s mane were colored yellow.
The most I can remember of the story is, at the beginning, the girl – I think her name MIGHT be Jane? – is going to spend the summer with her grandparents on their farm, but first she has to get through – I THINK – the last day of school and her class’s “field day.”  I know that whatever the occasion, she sprains her ankle during a race and goes to her parents’ truck to nap until it’s over and they take her to her grandparents.  I also remember that while she’s at her grandparents, there’s a flood for her birthday and her grandmother gives her homemade gifts including a hand-sewn dress using fabric from the kitchen curtains.  And I know that there’s a horse involved – maybe a colt?  Maybe called Lightning?  I’m not sure.  I believe she wants the horse to be hers, and I think her grandfather isn’t all too keen on the idea.
I’m sorry I can’t provide any more info – I hope this is helpful!

365I: Zoologist Couple Explore Animals With Son and Daughter

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My fourth grade teacher (in about 1971) read to our class a book about a zoologist couple and their two children (a boy and a girl) who went on an expedition together as a family to the Amazon jungle to discover animals. I think for a zoo, but maybe not. Each chapter was about a search for a different kind of animal (like an armadillo) describing its nature and its habits. The children had some thrilling adventures – for example, with a jaguar – from which they were rescued by their parents. It was a series because I remember that there was another book where they went to Africa.

365G: Large dinosaur made from egg boxes for a school project in a garage

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Can you please help me track down a book from childhood?
I read it sometime between 1985 and 1988 (I think!) whilst at primary school in the UK. Although it could have been an older book, maybe from the mid-70’s to the early 80’s?
Book title: It was a chapter book, but I can’t recall the name at all, sorry!
Front cover description: I remember it pretty clearly, it is a night time scene (a painted illustration) of the open garage door next to a house, with the large egg box dinosaur (t-rex?) visible inside, and the light spilling out from the garage illuminating the dark exterior driveway. It was quite an evocative image from what I remember.
Description of the book: It is about a group of school friends (a gang or club maybe?) who make a large / life size dinosaur out of egg boxes (a t-rex I think?) for a school project in the garage attached to one of the children’s houses. At some point I think a child from a rival gang / club spies on them, and the rivals (possibly?) end up making their own egg box dinosaur as well (that could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure about them being spied on by a rival though).

364U: Children’s chapter book about a witch

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Details I remember – story is about a boy who goes into the woods and notices an abandoned cottage is now occupied.  He meets a mischievous girl and they form a friendship, then finds out she’s a witch.  At some point I believe she makes the mayor of his town dance around, and they go to a fair where she changes into a cat to accompany him undetected.  At the ends she starts to lose her powers because she starts to care for him (so her nose grows warm, it had always been icy cold), so she leaves.  The very end is the boy all grown up, now the mayor of his town, and he often looks to the forest hoping to see puffs of smoke from the little cottage.

The book had a lots of line drawings similar to Roald Dahl’s but smaller.