[HartOvara]

Here's the deal. There are a few books I remember that range from children's to young adult/teen. Many of you may even have a favorite or two among these:

Book 1. This first item is a children's book I remember particularly for the artwork (I wish I knew who the illustrator was. I really liked the art. ). But the stories were good too. I've read two of these books in a series, but the one whose plot I remember in more detail involves a boy named Peter. He takes his little brother Tony and little sister Elaine to the house/farm of his friend Maggie (she seems to be the main character of the series.). He asks her to babysit the kids until he gets back, and as soon as he leaves, they go amok! They get into everything until finally they take green paint and paint the farm animals with green paint (they even get some all over them). At this point, Maggie gets fed up, chases them, and puts them both in a barrel to hold them. Then washes the green paint off the animals (there's an illustration of Maggie hosing off a cow). Then she gives them a bath while they cry all thru it. Finally, Peter comes back to pick them up and finds the kids tied to a bench while crying. They tell him that Maggie "put us in a barrel and dunked us in the water". It's a complete misunderstanding, but Peter storms off with them, leaving Maggie confused as to what just happened. The only element to the other book I remember was that Maggie, Peter, and other children had some sort of costume party and parade and that the series had something to do with puppies and lambs.

Book 2. The plot of this book involves a girl who lived with her divorced mother. The thing about this mother is that she had this habit of doing new, life altering things ever now and then. But the latest thing she's making them both do is vegetarianism. The girl's attempts to adjust involve one instance where, being too embarrassed to eat veggie at school, she hides under the bleachers in the gym. Other elements to the story include her crush on this boy, a vegetarian club being formed called G.H.O.S.T. (each letter standing for various vegetables), and that she visits her dad on occasion, but she uses the opportunity away from her mother to eat meat again. And there's one point in the book where they find mice....somewhere. Finally, the girl comes back home for dinner to find they have a male guest dining with them, and she's surprized that the diet goes back to what it was when she sees meat on the table.

Book 3. This is about a girl who had a best friend. However, this friend had some psycological problem that made her act wild from time to time. This placed a strain on the friendship. Another plot point was that the girl had two sisters, one of them in college. Her parents were worried because they somehow found out that she may be "involved" with one of the professors (forgot the resolution to this). Lastly, the girl, while having trouble with her difficult friend who puts her thru alot for the sake of their friendship, gets an anonymous letter from someone who likes her and wants to be her friend. I remember it was a black girl who was in the same class (there's even an illustration of her, the girl, and mabey her friend on the cover of the book).

Book 4. This children's book involves a minature world where a pixie named Tollie who, with the help of the small animals of a meadow, runs a guest house/hotel for said small critters (mice, bugs, birds, frogs, etc.) called the Sun Inn. At one point in the story, a weasle riding a ferret drawn red(?) chariot-like vehicle comes barging into the guesthouse and get's angry when Tollie serves him the usual menu items, (honeysuckle juice(?), etc.) instead wanting things like frogs legs in blood. The weasle gets chased out somehow and Tollie turns the chariot into a cart to help around the Sun Inn.

Book 5. This (again) children's book involves a kingdom of tiny people that has a wizard who, for some reason, needs an apprentice. He goes to a school and has the children try to turn a white paper red with a wand given to each as a test for magical ability (it was a sing-songy rhyme that ended "pinky panky ped, now the paper is red"). Fast forward the story, two of the children, twin brother and sister, become his apprentices because they both knew their fingers itched (the girl knew hers itched more than her brothers). And at some point the girl tests her magic with the wand to turn a cake from it's original color to red. The Father gets upset because the cake now does'nt taste like anything, even when changed back. Lastly the Father, despite their wizard training, want them to be doctors (like him), I think the mother comes up with the idea of them being both (the twins make a sing-songy rhyme that has the words "wiz-doctors, doc-wizards hee haa ho").

Book 6. This sci-fi book involves two rival groups, one who was a highly trained group of professionals and the other who was pretty much an unconventional, rag-tag band of misfits. As to anything else I can tell you about the book I can recall because, unfortunately, this is basically all I know after only reading a bit of the summary on the inner front cover of the book. I have no idea why i didn't read the book further and only became interested in it after the fact!

Finally, does anyone remember the "Peanut Butter & Jelly" kids magazine which had a pinkish haired, green skinned princess (was her name Princess Andromeda?)and a snotty yellow robot that had some problem with humans as a comic? The Peanut character was like a kid with a peanut for a head and the Jelly character was a sort of purple dinosaur/monster (NOT BARNEY! ). I know this list might be a big one, but I'm sure at the very least ONE person knows ONE item from this list. Thanks to one and all for any help with info and links to any resources.

[Breevereurl]

I have read all of these summaries, and being a former Language Arts teacher, I am ashamed to say I have no idea what any of these books are. I hope someone here can help you. Good luck.

[Tusethede]

Thanks alot for the try and the luck Jen*!