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I am looking for a particular book from my childhood and I thought you might be able to help me find the correct title.  The book relates the story of a rather large family of rabbits (many small rabbit children) who one evening discover an aging, ragged bunny on their doorstep.  He very modestly doesn't want to intrude on their small home, but they observe his pitiable condition (cold, etc.) outdoors, and set about to make him as comfortable and cozy as possible.  Next morning they discover that he was the Easter Bunny.  It is a sweet and comforting story.  It may have been a Wonder Book.  I recall the cover being glossy all over, washable perhaps.  I'm fairly certain it was not a Golden Book.  Thank you in advance for any help you might offer.  It's certainly difficult to locate a book when one has forgotten the title.

This is a Wonder Book. I loved and read it too. It was called simply, I believe, 10 Little Rabbits. Don't know the author, but have the book somewhere but plan to keep it. The rabbit family first just helps the stranger to sleep outside, but then it rains. They bring out an umbrella, then finally invite him in. In the morning, he has left 10 Easter baskts on the mantelpiece.
Close! Here it is:
Potter, Miriam Clark. 10 Rabbits. Illustrated by Rachel Taft Dixon. Wonder Book #648, 1957.
Yes! That is it! I did find one copy last fall in Oregon or Washington state.  I bought it, but haven't seen any more yet. I just love it! Thanks for responding to my query. It really made me smile!
Another edition?  Potter, Miriam ClarkNine Rabbits and Another Wonder Books 1957. "An elderly, aging rabbit appears at the door of a home a rabbit family who have 7 children. He asks to stay the night, but there is no room. Finally, they find him a place in front of the fire. When they get up they are surprised by what he has left for them and who he really was."

Hi, my sisters and I are looking for an illustrated children's counting book we read in the early 1970's.  Reminiscent of Edward Lear or Maurice Sendak, but apparently not by them. The cover may have a picture of a child running from a pastry with white frosting on it in the shape of an 'X' or plus-sign. Below is almost the complete text of the book, which I learned from a post on the BookSleuth forum at abebooks.com. amazingly, that has still not been enough to find it.  Any help/clues towards identifying the Title/Author would be (um) vastly appreciated.   1 - One on the run from a vast cream bun   2 - Two marabou say how do you do   3 - Three ski off a giant's knee   4 - Four in awe of a dinosaur  5 - Five on a drive, will they survive  6 - Six do tricks on candlesticks  7 - Seven in heaven in deepest devon   8 - Eight, late, await their fate   9 - Nine decline to rise a shine  10 - Ten young men in a lions den  11 - Eleven bears without any cares  12 - Twelve baboons in blue balloons  13 - Thirteen adders play snakes and ladders  14 - Fourteen pigs in various wigs  15 - Fifteen birds say absurd words  16 - Sixteen ?  17 - Seventeen girls all diving for pearls  18 - Eighteen ?  19 - Nineteen climb for the very first time  20 - Twenty ?  60,034 could not believe just what they saw.  the 60,034(?) refers to the audience in a stadium the illustration is of all 11 members of a team (US: soccer, UK: football) in the goal in an attempt to block a penalty kick. Some are standing, some are being held over the heads of the ones standing, some are hanging from the top bar.

Colin McNaughton, 123 and Things, 1976.  This was solved another board. Sounds like a great book!

There are two books I loved as a kid--this goes back almost 50 years, and no-one seems to have any idea of either book.  The first was called The Thirteenth is  Magic, and involved a couple of children who, on the 13th of each month, could get onto the otherwise non-existant 13th floor of their apartment building, and the magical adventures they had while they were there.

Sounds like: Becker, Eve.  Thirteen Means Magic.  Harper & Row, 1976. Sound right to you?
That's too late.  Try this one instead (although it's very difficult to find!)  Howard, Joan.  The 13th is Magic.  Illustrated by Adrienne Adams. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1950.
Thank you so much!  I'm reasonably certain that's the book.  Now, if I can just find it, I'll be very happy.  Oh, nostalgia....

Joan Howard (pseud. Patricia Gordon) , Thirteenth is Magic. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, '50.  The children are named Ronnie & Gillian. The Summer is Magic came out in '52: same publisher & illustrator (Adrienne Adams).
Howard, Joan.  The 13th is Magic.  Illustrated by Adrienne Adams. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1950.

The 13th is Magic -- The other book referred to is The Oldest Secret (Viking, 1953), where Hugh discovers a mysterious 'sunken' island after words appear and vanish in his school textbook. He meets Robin Goodfellow and learns that other boys have visited the island (Will Shakespeare, Sammy Coleridge, and others). To get to the Third Ring of the island he has to navigate a bog and avoid being caught by the boggart called the Cold Lad "if he so much as lays a finger on you, you'll be cold forevermore too", and wispy wraiths called the Lost Ones, those who gave in to panic and can never return to the world.
Other books by Patricia Gordon include The Heir to Christmas, illustrated by Garry McKenzie, published Viking 1953  "A lonely little boy finds company when he plays with the treasured toys of past generations." The Taming of Giants, illustrated by Garry McKenzie, published Viking 1950, "Apodemus Sylvaticus (field mouse to you) was an inch and a half long, and yet he actually, or so he thought, succeeded in taming Giants! When the rising tide flooded his old home he set out to find a new one, and came upon the Giants - a whole schoolroom full of them."  The Witch of Scrapfaggot Green, illustrated by William Pene du Bois, published by Viking 1948, "The twins had never had so much fun, and the inhabitants of the little English village had never been so busy since they first buried their witch 300 years before - all because of the mysterious happenings after 'Alice', the American Army  bulldozer, dug her teeth into the soft soil at the crossroads." Rommany Luck, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni, published by Viking 1947, "Story of Gypsy life in Elizabethan England. How Orlando saw the Queen, and won freedom for his family and every other Rommany, makes a happy ending to the cruel threat under which they were held." Not-Mrs.-Murphy, illustrated by Ralph E. Boyer, published Viking 1943, "Amazing experiences befell the children who rode for one exciting week on the green school bus driven by Not-Mrs.-Murphy. It was strange, too, that without once being late for school, they had run with the foxes, sailed with the parrots and shared life with unicorns and seals." The Boy Jones, illustrated by Adrienne Adams, published Viking 1943, "Story of London in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign and ragged and confident Boy Jones wih his obsession for living in Buckingham Palace. His surprising efforts to do this make a delicious story."

It was a book I read in 6th grade (1970s), so I guess a youth book.  It was about a girl who found out she had Lupus.  She got the butterfly rash on her face, and had to buy a wig.  The last paragraph in the book, I believe she is laying in bed and the sun is coming through her window and the last sentence is something like "And she turned her face towards it".  I'm unsure if that meant she died or not, which is why my 6th grade teacher tried to flunk me on a book report and told me he didn't think I had read it (I read it a zillion times!!)

so what if I'm last in line? I work here. I solved it. 13 is Too Young to Die by Isaacsen Bright.  -Audrey
I haven't checked at the library yet to see but I am 99.9% positive that you are correct on that title - thank you SOOOO much!!!!!!!!
Hi - I was the one who originally posted this book - sorry to say, I ordered 13 is Too Young To Die and read it today, and this is not the correct book.  "13" is about a teen who has a brain tumor.  The book I was looking for is specifically about Lupus, I remember the girl getting the butterfly rash on her face and she always had to stay out of the sun.  The last line of the book was "And she turned her face towards it."  I believe she was in her bedroom and was sick of having to stay out of the sun, and raised her blinds up to go to sleep.
Person who posted this disagrees, but I hold fast to my contention. Although I did leave the hyphen out of the author's name (it's Isaacsen-Bright; maybe two authors?).  I remember specifically everything the poster adds below except at the end, the girl's on the beach, I think, not up in her room.  Just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, I put in the book title on yahoo and got this reference: Isaacsen-Bright. (1980). Thirteen is too young to die. Worthington, OH: Willowisp. lupus  Ah, a literary conundrum...  Will investigate further.
Ok, the book I bought that was wrong...title is 13 Is Too Young To Die, by Isaacsen-Bright.  It's a "Lifelines" paperback book copyright 1989 by Willowisp Press.  Hope that's what you were looking for :)  This one was about a girl named Alexa who was a dancer, and had headaches all the time.  They found a tumor at the base of her brain, operated, couldnt' remove it all. The ending of this book was somewhat similar, she was dreaming she was sailing and the 2nd last line in this book was "The day was warm, and Alexa turned her face towards the sun.  She smiled and sailed off alone." In the book I was looking for I am pretty sure she was just in her bedroom going to sleep and had raised the blind b/c she was sick of not being able to see the sun.  I'm positive the very last line of the book was "And she turned her face towards it."  ANYWAY...I hope that's all you needed, if not just let me know!  I don't know how you do this!!  I have absolutely no memory whatsoever!! :)
That's exactly what I needed, and now I'm more intrigued than ever.  The reference I found to the book on the web listed it under "lupus", and I strongly remember it--clearly, this one needs some investigation!  I'll let you know if I find anything and hope you will do the same.
I did a quick search for the publisher and found this: If I Should Die Before I Wake, by Lurlene McDaniel.
Got very excited!  Thought, okay, maybe I was hallucinating and THIS is the book. For once, there was a full synopsis.  Not the book we seek. Back to the drawing board.
Yes, I did a search for it as well and saw that it was coming up under "Lupus" but they never even mention the word in this book, it's just a tumor at the base of her brain.  Very weird!!  Anyway...I'll let you know if I find out anything, now that school is opening next week I'm hoping they'll let me browse around the elementary school library to see if maybe I got it from there :)
13 is Too Young to Die - Someone on Alibris was looking for a juvenile about a girl with lupus that involved Egyptian cats, and it was identified as Cat in the Mirror, by Mary Stolz, published Harper 1975, where the girl has a connection (psychic link?) with another girl in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian goddess Bastet and cats feature in the story. I haven't been able to confirm the part about lupus, though.
Isaacsen-Bright, 13 is Too Young to Die.  The exact last lines are : "The sun must have come up yellow she thought tiredly. And then she turned her face to it."  I have this book at my side right now and am currently re-reading it for like the 900th time. It is an awesome book that I just happened to pick up one day many years ago when i was not even a teen probably!
Hi - I originally posted the 13 is Too Young To Die.  The last person to post put down the last lines of her book. However, in my book 13 Is Too Young To Die by Isaacsen-Bright, the last words are:  "Suddenly Alexa realized that she was alone in the boat.  Everyone else was gone.  The boat sailed far out into the bay.  She could barely see land.  The day was warm, and Alexa turned her face toward the sun.  She smiled and sailed on alone."  I distinctly remember in the book I'm looking for, that she definately had Lupus, she got the butterfly rash on her face and was trying to hide it, and she also had to buy a wig.  I remember her going to school in her wig and feeling like everyone was staring at her.  For some reason I'm thinking the girl in the book was a swimmer?  That might be wrong, but I'm positive about the other things.
Was the1989 reprint of the 1980 original perhaps changed?  Lupus turned to brain tumor?
Isaacsen-Bright, 13 is Too Young to Die, 1980.  I have the book - paid $1.50 for it in 1980 - 1981 - it left such an impression on me that it is the only book I've saved from my childhood (I'm 36 now).  It definitely ends the way the first writer indicated, and the girl - her name was Alexandra, most called her Alexa, but her dad called her Lexi - was diagnosed with Lupus.  Hope this helps.
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Young adult book from 1970-80's, about a girl, named Lexi?, who gets a butterfly rash on her face, diagnosed with leukemia.  When she's in hospital getting chemo she meets a boy, who later dies.  She lives near the beach.  At the end of the book, she's on a sailboat with her dad and she goes blind.

This sounds to us like 13 is too Young to Die, by Isaacsen-Bright, see solved mysteries, here: http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved-a.html
SOLVED: Isaacsen-Bright, 13 Is Too Young to Die, 1980. Thank you so much for recognizing that my query was about this book!  This is the book I remember reading over 25 years ago that affected me so much and stayed with me all these years, and I am just ecstatic to have it in my possession again.  Thank you!

The 18th Emergency
The 18th Emergency:  "When the toughest boy in school swears to kill him, twelve-year-old Mouse finds little help from friends and must prepare for this emergency alone."  Hammerman is the bully, and Mouse spends the entire book running from him until he finally decides to just get the fight over with. It all started when Mouse drew Hammerman's name next to a picture of a Neanderthal, and Hammerman didn't like it.   Mouse's friend Ezzie also tries to help him to avoid the bully and his friends. I don't remember anything about a firehouse, though.
Hello!  My book stumper was solved. The title The 18th Emergency is correct. I can't believe it was found so quickly! Not knowing the title/whereabouts of this book has been plaguing me for years. Now, I've located it at our public library.  What a wonderful service you offer- you must bring joy and satisfaction to so many people. I'm telling everybody at work (I work at the public library) about your service and about how great it is. Best wishes for a happy holiday and a safe and healthy new year.

My wife is trying to find a children's poetry book she especially enjoyed as she was growing up. However, she does not remember the name or the editor of the book.   It contains the following poems among others:  Stephen Wants a Mouse,  Whale, The Tale of Custard the Dragon, The Camel's Complaint, and Robinson Crusoe's Story.  It had 249 pages, a board cover and black and white illustrations. She guesses it was published in the 1940 era.

Be sure to check out the Untermeyer Golden Treasury of Poetry, and others, on the Most Requested Antholgies page, just in case.
Marjorie Barrows, 200 BEST POEMS for Boys and Girls, 1938. This was one of my favorites as a child and I still have it. It's original copyright is 1930 by Whitman Publishing Co.  It has a frog on a toadstool, and a rabbit sitting amongst flowers on the front cover, and two squirrels and a butterfly on the back cover. It has all the poems in it mentioned by the poster.  It also has "The Bear Hunt," "The Animals' Fair," "Radiator Lions," "Somersaults," "Trees," "Where Go the Boats," and "Animal Crackers."  Mine has 253 pages (if you count all the indexes), a board cover and many black and white illustrations.
Hey, I found it...  P134...  and someone has identified it!  200 Best Poems for Boys and Girls.  Now, do you have a copy?  Since you were instrumental in finding the title for me, I would like to buy it from you if it is not too expensive...

compiled by Marjorie Barrows, 200 BEST POEMS for Boys and Girls, 1938, reprint.  I have solved this one before.  The picture of the cover on this site differs from mine.This was one of my favorites as a child and I still have it. It's original copyright is 1930 by Whitman Publishing Co.  It has a frog on a toadstool, and a rabbit sitting amongst flowers on the front cover, and two squirrels and a butterfly on the back cover. It has all the poems in it mentioned by the poster.  It also has "The Bear Hunt," "The Animals' Fair," "Radiator Lions," "Somersaults," "Trees," "Where Go the Boats," and "Animal Crackers."  Mine has 253 pages (if you count all the indexes), a board cover and many black and white illustrations.

See More on Most Requested Books
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I have been looking for years for a book that my little sister had. She was killed by a drunk driverwhen she was four. Maybe that book was my link to her, but I loved it and remember looking at it and reading it often. I think she must have gotten it the year before she died, so around 1956 or 1957.
It was a story book, not a picture book, about the children of a small town. The inside front and back covers had a map of the town. I remember there was a river in the drawing. Everything was in b&w and I believe there was a different story on each page. Most (or many) stories had a drawing at the top of the page. Some of the stories: the children making edible candy necklaces; one girl dropping a pea into the cream pitcher when guests were over; paperdolls that came alive at night.

Harriett!!!!!!!!!!  I am so excited. I've been looking at your website tonight (and sent in a stumper yesteray) and I'm thinking possibly (Can it be true?) the book I've been looking for for 20 years is the Nan Gilbert 365 Bedtime stories. Is there a story about the pea in the cream pitcher? an edible necklace?  Oh, I hope so!!!! Thank you.
Nan Gilbert, 365 Bedtime Stories.  I've paged through the book twice, and this is what I found. "[O]ne girl dropping a pea into the cream pitcher when guests were over..." is September 13, "The Sunday-Dinner Peas."  Timmy spills two peas during Sunday dinner, and hides them in the cream pitcher. "...[P]aper dolls that came alive at night..." is May 25, "It's an Ill Wind."  Jane leaves her paper dolls in the yard and they get blown about by the wind.  The story about "the children making edible candy necklaces" is the only one I can't find.  The children make taffy (January 28, "A Taffy Tale"), candy sack dolls (July 24, "The Candy Sack Dolls") and Sunday school candles made of cereal "shaped like tiny doughnuts" (September 20 "Amy's Candle), but I can't find anything about edible candy necklaces.  Still, it certainly seems like this is the book you're looking for!

This is a book I had as a child. I remember it was a Dell Young Reader - I remember the logo of the horse jumping over a fence on the cover, which I believe means it was a Dell Young Reader.  It was the story of a cat's life.  The cat didn't have a name - it was not a picture book, but a chapter book with very few drawings. The story was how the cat came to be a stray and its life as a stray. Late in the cat's life it's taken in by an old couple.  It was chasing leaves while the old couple was raking and ran in front of a car and hit, and died.  (it sounds depressing but was a great book). The cover showed a colored drawing of the old couple raking and the cat - a calico.  Another chapter I remember is the cat having kittens, and the kittens being swept away by a flood.  The story is told in third-person and explores the cat's feelings.  I would love to have a copy of this book.  Thank you.

I had this Dell Yearling paperback too! Very touching. G. D. Griffiths: Abandoned! A children's story: the moving story of a kitten abandoned on Dartmoor. Illustrated by Les Edwards. Paperback suggestions for the possible title of this book include: "Thomasina" by Paul Gallico, "The Abandoned" by Paul Gallico, "King of the Park" by Mitchell Saunders
Yes!  That's definitely the one I remember - although I would never, under any circumstances, describe it as a "childrens" story, any more than I would read a Celtic fairy story to a five year old.
I have more to add to the "Solved Mysteries" for Abondoned.  I got the book Abandoned by G.D. Griffiths from the library - and it's the book!!!!  I would love to have a copy if you can find a copy for me.  Here's the info from the library copy:
Abandoned by G.D. Griffiths, Follet Publishing Co. Chicago, Copyright 1973, ISB N 0695-80537-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card No 74-18131

I'm trying to find a copy for my 85-year-old mother.  She read this book to us so many times that she basically has it memorized.  We don't know what happened to the book but assume one of my sisters' kids ended up with it.  We believe it has a copyright date of the mid to late 1940's.  I just wanted to send the rest of the text just in case it helps.
A is for apple so rosy and red.
B is for bluebird that sings overhead.
C is for cow that gives us good milk.
D is for dolly dressed in pink silk.
E is for engine that puffs up the hill.
F is for flag we wave with a will.
G is for goldfish.  Watch him do tricks.
H is for hen.  She's watching her chicks.
I is for ice cream that all children like.
J is for jack-o-lantern on Halloween night.
K is for kitten so furry and dear.
L is for lamb.  His mother stands near.
M is for milk.  Please may we have more?
N is for numbers.  One two three four.
O is for ostrich, a big bird and tall.
P is for pumpkins and pie in the fall.
Q is for quilt on dolly's wee bed.
R is for rooster with such a red head.
S is for sand.  We can't find our knees.
T is for telephone.  Hold the line please.
U is for umbrella, saving my bonnet.
V is for vine with red flowers on it.
W is for wheel.  There's two on my bike.
X is for xylophone.  We play with our might.
Y is for yard with fence all around.
Z is for zebra.  He's off with a bound.
Mom doesn't think it was a Golden Book and that it might have been smaller than a Golden Book.  I bought The Alphabet from A to Z, which is a Golden Book from 1942, and it wasn't it.
Hopefully someone will know this copy!  I appreciate your help.

Kathryn Taylor, ill., ABC Book, 1944, copyright. I found the book!  The book is called ABC Book, 1944 copyright, illustrated by Kathryn Taylor, Story Hour Series, Whitman Publishing Company.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Steig, William.  Abel's Island.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976, 1985.  New paperback,  $5.95

Pete Seeger, Abiyoyo,1986. Banished from the town for making mischief, a little boy and his father are welcomed back when they find a way to make the dreaded giant Abiyoyo disappear. Based on an African folk tale, and Illustrated by Michael Hays.
Seeger, Pete
Seeger, Pete, Abiyoyo,(song, 1963),   book 1986. How about Abiyoyo?  "He had long fingernails 'cause he never cut 'em.  He had slobbery teeth 'cause he didn't brush 'em, stinking feet 'cause he didn't wash 'em, matter hair 'cause he didn't comb it."  The boy in the story sings "A-BI-YO-YO, A-BI-YO-YO,......" and the giant started to dance (because he had never heard a song about himself before) until he fell down.  Then the father took his magic wand and Zoop! Zoop! Abiyoyo disappeared.  There was a sequel - Abiyoyo Returns.
Possibly one of the book versions of the Pete Seeger story/song of Abiyoyo?
This sounds like Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger
etc.

Elizabeth Enright, Spiderweb For Two.  1951.  This book doesn't take place in Los Alamos, but fits the description otherwise.
Ramona Maher, The Abracadabra Mystery, 1961. This takes place in Santa Fe rather than Los Alamos (the boy points out the house in which Lew Wallace finished "Ben-Hur"), but everything else fits.  The main characters are a teenaged stepsister and stepbrother, they are searching for a lost font of type, and I believe their pictures are on the dust jacket, though I haven't seen the book for more than 20 years.
Ramona Maher, The Abracadabra Mystery, 1961.  The Abracadabra Mystery seems to fit the description.  The story takes place in Santa Fe (the house where Lew Wallace lived when he wrote "Ben-Hur" is pointed out).  The adolescents are step-siblings (the girl's mother married a New Mexican and moved to Santa Fe her husband has a son and a daughter, and the rivalry between the girls is a subplot), and they are hunting for a missing typeface.

#H63--History of America contrasted with other things going on in the world: The World in the time of Abraham Lincoln, by Fiona MacDonald.
The series The World in the Time of ...Abraham Lincoln/Albert Einstein/Leonardo Da Vinci...etc was written in the late 1990's -- way too late to be the book you're looking for.
Genevieve Foster, Abraham Lincoln's World. From your description, I'm not sure if your book deals with more than one president at a time, but I thought I'd give this one a shot--Genevieve Foster's book Abraham Lincoln's World does intertwine Lincoln's life with events going on elsewhere in the world during that time.  She also wrote George Washington's World, Augustus Caesar's World, World of Columbus and Sons, and some others.
H63 I checked The first book of presidents, but it had hardly anything abt any one, let alone Lincoln.

I think the game you're describing was called "Ace of Aces."
Alfred Leonard, Hal McKinney, Aces to Aces WWII Air Combat Game.  There are several of these in the series. They come in a box with two booklets and are just as you describe. The only one I'm familiar with is Balloon Buster. Never played it but have one sitting around that I picked up at a book sale. I never really understood what it was until I read your description! :-) But that's it!
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Ace of Aces.  Here's info I found on the web- it looks like your books are actually part of a game. "Ace of Aces is a computer game flight simulator developed by Artech Digital Productions in 1986. The game takes place during World War II.  There was also a brilliant two-person "board" game of the same name from 1980 with the same name. Instead of being a dice-based game, it used a pair of books with a Choose Your Own Adventure style of looking up the result of your next action. But given that it was a two-player game, that meant your actions were determined as well by what action your opponenet chose to take."
Alfred Leonardi, Ace of Aces, 1980 (first version).  This must be I think Ace of Aces which I played in the mid-eighties -with the little brown books. There are still quite a lot of fansites out there try this website which is pretty complete
Nova Game Designs, Ace of Aces.  The poster is probably thinking of Ace of Aces, by Nova Game Designs. I had the Pern version of this game book based on Ace of Aces at one point, which (aside from the fact it's dragons instead of WWI fighters) sound just like the poster describes it. There are two books in a set, one for each player.

The book starts out being about a group of (Amazon?) warrior women, the main character being one of these women. The main character gets kidnapped by an underwater civilization (Atlantis?), these people give her gills so that she cannot return to her warrior people. The warrior tribe she left behind is visited by a group of Greek (mythological type names?) men who then proceed to start a war with the warrior women. She is forced to helplessly watch the war from her underwater world.   I am sure that at least one of the Amazon women are kidnapped and think the story may be set around the 9th? trial of Hercules (Amazons battle Hercules/Theseus over Hippolyte's girdle? Where Antiope (or Hippolyte, depending on the story) is abducted, and married to King Theseus in Greece.) I'm not sure about this.   I found the underwater world the most interesting part of this book and am interested in getting a copy of it. If this is recognizable to you or anyone you know, I would really appreciate knowing the title.

Jessica Bryan, Across A Wine-Dark Sea, 1991.  This is the first in a 3-book trilogy about the Atlantean merpeople.  See this website which has descriptions of all three books along with their covers.  They are wonderful and sit on my keeper shelves.  They are romance novels, not children's books.  To my great regret the author never wrote any other books that I can discover.

Could this be Kym by Joyce Stranger, c1976? Its about the life of her male siamese cat.  Most of the book is very humorous, relating various situations the cat got into, but the ending (horribly sad) is about his death. I can't remember if he died in a car though.
Charlotte Graeber, Mustard, 1982.  Could this be it?  Here is a description:  "Mustard is a playful cat that has been with
Alex's family for 14 years. They are all very attached to him. When they visit the vet, Dr. Griffith, for Mustard's yearly check-up, they are told to keep Mustard from having any stress. The problem is Barney, the newspaper boy's mean dog...and that's when the trouble starts."
Charlotte Towner Graeber, Mustard, 1982.  Could this be it? Eight-year-old Alex and his family try to come to terms with the old age and death of their beloved cat.
O28: It's shown solved as "Mustard," but that's not it at all.  There is no newspaper boy's dog in the story.  No, one day the kids can't find the cat, and they search all over.  I can't remember how they happen to find him curled up peacefully in the old abandandoned car in the woods, dead, but that' where he's found.  It's very sad and sweet, too.
Ben Shecter, Across the Meadow, 1973.  I'm not sure about this, but this picture book does have a tired, old cat named Alfred who goes "on vacation," and passes all his old friends on the way there...to an old abandoned car in the woods where he curls up and falls asleep.  They never say that he dies, but that is the intimation.  The book is in a smaller format, like a
children's novel, but much thinner.  The illos are done in pen & ink with muted watercolors - very light green, yellow, brown.  The book begins with a picture of an old cat sitting under a screaming infant in a high chair: "Alfred was tired of all the noise the children made.  The liver patties seemed hard to chew.  His old injury was acting up. 'Time for a vacation,' Alfred said."  The end of it does not show the children searching for and finding the cat, however, so this may not be your book after all.

I read this book in the late '70's, early '80's. I remember the title as being a long string of girls' names that started with "A" ending in Girl Witch. An example: Alexanria Ariadne Arista Angelina, Girl Witch (I'm pretty sure about the "Ariadne" part). The book was about a young girl who decides she wants to be a witch. She's maybe at her aunt's house, there's maybe a cousin.... She tries various spells and find some of them actually work. At the very end of the book she decides she doesn't want to be a witch anymore, she wants to be a spy.

W155: The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch by Edmund Wallace Hildick, 1973. Non-fantasy, I think, but there is a mystery involved. Bored and annoyed at her parents, she takes a "witch" name, Ariadne Atropos Arachne. She doesn't want her little sister around, but her sister finds out about the game and takes a witch name too. I used to get this mixed with The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test until I actually read the former.
E.W. Hildick, The Active-Enzyme Lemon-Freshened  Junior High School Witch.  I don't have the book in front of me, but I know this is it.  The main character Allison decides to pick a magical name for herself out of a book and winds up liking so many of them that her witch name is something like "Arachne Ariadne Atropos...".  Her younger sister is kind of pesky but insists on learning the spells as well.
E.W. Hildick, The Active-Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch.  The main character does take a long string of names, one of which is Ariadne. If I remember correctly, her little sister decides to take the name 'Jezebel'. :)
This doesn't match exactly, but my first thought was that this was E.L. Konigsburg's Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth (anthenrum, 1967).  Elizabeth meets Jennifer (sitting in a tree) when they're both dressed up as pilgrims for a school play.  Jennifer decides to make Elizabeth and "apprentice witch," and Elizabeth learns how to eat raw eggs and cast short spells.  The girls meet each Saturday at the library and go from there to the park where they hold special ceremonies and read books on witchcraft. Their goal is to make a flying ointment, with ingredients like fingernails, watermelon seeds, a frozen snowball, and Crisco - and possibly their pet frog, Hilary Ezra.  At which point their friendship runs into rough waters, though they make up at the end of the book.  However, though they decide they don't want to be witches anymore, I don't remember anything about being a spy - and the title doesn't contain A names or the phrase 'witch girl' so this probably isn't the book you're looking for.
Konigsburg, E. L.,  Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth.  This sounds like it could be this classic.
And it looks as though there's a sequel - The Top-Flight Fully-Automated Junior High School Girl Detective (1978). The description reads: "Three children comb their area of Manhattan in search of a credit card thief."

E.W. (Edmund Wallace) Hildick, The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened, Junior High School Witch, 1973.  I haven't read this one, but the description from your Solved Mysteries "A" page certainly matches!
Edmund Wallace Hildick, The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch, 1973.  This is a popular one! See the solved mysteries!
A248  This is THE ACTIVE-ENZYME, LEMON-FRESHENED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL WITCH by  E.W. Hildick, c1973.~from a librarian
Active Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch.  From the solved mysteries page...this one pops up a lot!
E.W. Hildick, The Active-enzyme, Lemon-freshened Junior High Scool Witch
E.W. Hildick, The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened, Junior High School Witch, 1973.  This is it! Thanks so much.

A young boy, maybe the youngest of several children, finds a key in the woods that seems to bring him luck or grant his wishes. He thinks he is to blame for the cat getting into the fishtank when he doesn't see his brother's favorite, black goldfish in the tank. He reapproaches the tank with the key, and the fish swims out from among ferns. The author's surname would be between H and L, 1975-1985

Lattimore, Eleanor Frances, Adam's Key, 1976.  This sounds like it, but I couldn't find a more detailed description: "The youngest of five children finds a master key that not only enables him to help in emergencies but gives him the self-confidence he lacks."
And that's another! The one of the three I was most anxious about was the colony one, but I certainly do appreciate the help with these two. Thank you so much.
Summary: The youngest of five children finds a master key that not only enables him to help in emergencies but gives him the self-confidence he lacks.

Title - Simplicity Jane ??? 1940s-50s?  This book revolved around an older orphan girl, a rather plain child, who was shy and reserved and never got picked by prospective adoptive parents.  Anyway, one summer she is chosen to spend half her summer with a reserved single/widowed woman, and makes a rather ebullient friend named India Maud.  The second half of the summer she spends with a family in the country, and at summer's end is faced with the choice of picking between the families, who would both like to adopt her.  I cannot remember either author or title, but do recall that "simple" or "simplicity" may have figured in the latter.

H. R. Daringer, Adopted Jane, 1947.  I recognized this book description right away!!  The name of it is Adopted Jane and it's pretty much as described including the friend, India Maud.  I can't find a reference to "Simplicity Jane" in the book, though.
This poster is describing the book Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer and illustrated by Kate Seredy. One my favorites from childhood!
Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer, 1947 ~from a librarian
Thank you for the identification of this book.  Such a relief.  But I wanted to explain, briefly, the "simplicity" part of my recollection.  I recall that the first prospective parent, the single/widowed woman, has the dressmaker come to fit Jane for some clothes, and sort of thoughtfully muses that they should be "something simple, I think."  Anyway, I recall Jane making a mental note that "simple" sounds so much better than "plain," the word much in use at her orphanage.  Since one can say "Plain Jane," I think I must have stored this information away in my mind as leading to her name being "Simplicity Jane."  Clearly, "Simple Jane" would never do!

I did find the solution right after I sent payment. I did search your website first and found nothing.  Just a very SHORT time after I paid, I was just wandering through your website and FOUND the title. It rang a bell so I did a google search on the title and found more about it. This IS the book I was looking for! I was wrong about Jane's age. I was 8 when I read it, she was 12!
I forgot I didn't put that in the email! The book is Adopted Jane by Helen Fern Daringer. It was copyrighted in 1947 and reprinted, I believe in 2002. Which is great because it is AFFORDABLE!

Tomboyish girl named Addie (Abby?) has own rowboat, solves mystery.  I remember the protagonist being very independent and self-confident (esp. on the water), having a male friend (relative?) who is much more timid in going out in the boat.  There is a scene late in the story where the children have escaped the "bad guy" (don't remember much about him), try to row back to shore in a storm, the landlubber friend has poked holes in the gum between the boards of the boat to "let the water out" (after a joke about this by the bad guy earlier), so they are sinking.  Also, when told to "throw out the anchor", the friend boy does so--having untied the anchor rope, so it's gone. This story had an atmosphere that stuck with me.  I read it no later than 1968, probably '67 or '66.  Thanks for your help.

Lauber, Patricia., Adventure at Black Rock Cave, illustrated by Leonard Shortall.  Random House 1959.  This sounds like a good bet - "Even though their father warned them to stay away from Black Rock Island, Chris and Addie are determined to solve the puzzling secret of Black Rock Cave."
Lauber, Patricia, Adventure at Black Rock Cave, 1959.  I remember this book! Addie and Chris take a rowboat to Black Rock Island where Addie has seen mysterious lights. If I recall correctly they encounter lobster poachers!

As a kid, in the mid to later 60's I read a book about modern explorers discovering a lost world of cave people, coexisting with dinosaurs. First clue that something extraordinary was ahead was the relatively fresh(not fossilized) body of an Archyopteryx(sp?), one of the feathered lizard bird ancestors. This world was reached through a (tunnel/cleft?) in a cave. At one point a T-Rex attacks the Stone Age villagers, and in one scene  the modern day people witness a ceremony intended to ward off such terrors.  A shaman wore a stylized mask of a big flesh eater. The moderns eventually returned to the outer world, I don't remember how.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land that Time Forgot, 1924.  This is one of the likelier candidates:  A trilogy: The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss.  “Bowen Tyler's adventure began with a terror-haunted trip as a captive in an enemy submarine. It ended on the rocky shores of a lost world, unmapped land forgotten by the rest of humanity, where the beasts and beast-men of the Stone Age still lived and fought as they had hundreds of thousands of years ago. What was the secret of this mysterious continent, where time had apparently stopped and where dinosaurs, sabre-toothed tigers and ape-men still struggled for their lives with tooth and claw?"
The solutions I saw proposed are not the book I read, sorry to say.  I have read both the Conan Doyle and Burroughs books, and it's not them.  I'm pretty sure the book was targeted for a juvenile audience, and the author was not someone who was/is well known, or someone else would have come up with the answer.  But I thank the people who tried to help.  There's always hope.
Lester del Rey, Tunnel Through Time, 1966.  Details differ slightly.  When Dr. Miller sends Doc Tom back in time through his time tunnel and Doc Tom doesn't return on schedule, their 17-year-old sons Bob and Pete must travel back to rescue Doc Tom.  They meet a T-Rex and see it fight a triceratops.  They also see the Archaeopteryx (but it's alive).  Later they advance in time and meet primitive people.  No dinosaurs then, though.  This was a Scholastic book.
I wish the del Rey book was the solution, but I know the story I read didn't have a time travel element.  I'm almost positive the "lost world" was entered through a cave/tunnel/natural geologic formation.  Am not positive now if adults were along, but my sister remembers that when the young people return their folks see a live Archyopteryx, and the kids ask "Now do you believe us?"  I still appreciate that folks are trying to help solve this puzzle!
I'm sure the answer can be found at the Prehistoric Fiction Bibliography.  It lists 1023 titles, with bookcovers and descriptions.
Glyn Frewer, Adventure in Forgotten Valley.  My thanks to whoever posted the Prehistoric Fiction Bibliography. I started slogging through all those authors and titles and only got to the F's before I came to the solution. I read the summary and it has it all, the kids, the cave, the Archyopteryx, everything.  Now I have to search for a copy!  Thank you, thank you!  The Internet is wonderful!

Hypnosis unnecessary.  You're awfully close, though.  Try Enid Blyton's Adventure Series:  8 books, 1944-1955. Featuring Philip, Dinah, Jack, Lucy-Ann, Bill Smugs and Kiki, a parrot with an attitude.  See more on the Most Requested pages.

Enid Blyton, Island of Adventure, etc. A series of mysteries about two pairs of children an adult detective and a parrot/cockatoo called Kiki.

#P143--Puffin talks and yells about closing doors, windows could be: Bogwoppit. Ursula Moray Williams.  Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, 1978.  First U. S. Edition.  Abandoned by her guardian, Samantha moves in with an unwelcoming aunt whose dilapidated house includes bogwoppits, rat-size creatures with wings, fur, and blue eyes.
Enid Blyton, "Adventure" series (Island of Adventure, etc.).  Kiki in this series is in fact a parrot and not a puffin but otherwise it sounds like her.
Blyton, Enid, Sea of Adventure.  Armada 1977, reprint.  I'm going to agree with the Blyton suggestion. Kiki the parrot is in every book and often mixes up her sayings, which include "where's your handkerchief?" "pop goes the weasel" "wipe your feet" "shut the door" "God save the Queen" "wash your hands" "three bags full" "call the police" and imitations of a police whistle and a steam train. I'm going to suggest this particular title because the four children visit a group of islands and are stranded on one where puffins nest, so there are a lot of puffins, including one which becomes a sort of pet for them, so there is a puffin and a parrot both. It may be in this book that Kiki learns to say "puff puff puff", also.

Actually, I think by looking at other questions on your website, I solved the mystery.  I believe they were a series of books by Enid Blyton called the Adventure Series.  The one I had remembered was the Island of Adventure.  I have to find a copy and read it!  Thank you!

I think this is Willard Price's Adventure series with Hal & Roger Hunt.  Amazon Adventure...African Adventure...Arctic...Diving...South Sea...Safari...etc.
This sounds like the Adventure series from Willard Price.  There are 14 books in the series - we were read these at school and the two I remember most are African Adventure (where they have a pet cheetah) and I think South Sea Adventure (where one brother gets stuck in a giant clam!) The brothers names are Hal and Roger Hunt.
This might be the Tom Quest series by Fran Striker, an 8 volume series that ran from 1947 to 1955.....there is only one son, Tom, but there is a young reporter who has joined him on his adventures, the first one of which is to rescue his long missing archaeologist father from the jungle in Sign of the Spiral.  Other possibilities would be the Ken Holt series by Bruce Campbell (1948-1963) or Biff Brewster (1960-1965), though again, there is only one son in each.

B853: British Village of Animal Friends
This is a children's picture book with several stories about a village of animals. Seems British. 1. Family of foxes flooded, neighbors help them. 2. Porcupine and friend ride in hot air baloon through village. 3. Village contest day gets rained out, moved to local manor house for indoor games. etc

SOLVED: Well, I am solving my own mystery! You just posted my stumper yesterday, and today I found out I was talking about “Adventures in Fern Hollow” by John Patience, published in 1984.

Raymond Healy and Francis McComas, eds., Adventures in Time and Space, 1966.  This book is a collection of sci fi stories by various authors and it has the Black Destroyer story, and the cover is red. It's the 1966 Bantam edition. Here's a picture: http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=144166669&aid=frg.  I can't tell exactly how cat-like the creature on the front is, because there are words across the image, but it does have a tail.
Having just searched through several sci-fi anthology sites, I've found Black Destroyer included in many anthologies, dating from the 1940s through current publications.  As the basis for the movie "Alien", this appears to be one of Vogt's more popular stories, as well as his first. However, I've not yet come across the cover you described. Perhaps it would help if you provided an approximate publication date for the book you are looking for, or at least about when you read it?  Also, do you remember any of the other stories included in that book? That might help to narrow down the search.
That's the one I was trying to describe!!!! Thank you very much for solving this for me. I've been trying to find this for quite a while! This if a great service and I will highly recommend it.  Thanks again. I can't wait to get it.

The book I am looking for is a reasonably long  kid's 'chapter book' written prior to 1977 or so. It was illustrated in black and white. It follows the story of a rabbit who becomes shipwrecked on a desert island. He eventually makes it home to his wife and child on the back of a whale or shark. (I am not thinking of Abel's Island, FYI.) My dad read this book to my sister and I over a series of nights when we were young, and I would love to find a copy. Thanks!

Garth Williams, The Adventures of Benjamin Pink, 1970. Chapter book about a shipwrecked rabbit, I'm fairly certain this is what you're after - it's got black and white illustrations, and does involve riding a sea animal (I think a turtle, though). He also does have a wife back home (though I don't think a child). Hope this helps!
Far too  many items on Google to check, but I found this before I gave up:  Garth Williams.  Benjamin's Treasure. A rabbit gets stranded on a deserted island with a trunk full of treasure and  must find his way home.

This is a children's book read to me in the 1970s. I remember it as a series of short stories about a cat and dog who are friends. One story has them fighting over what color to paint a doghouse--one wants yellow; the other blue, and it turns out green. Another story is about their first day of school, and one of them eats chalk. I remember that the illustrations were very amusing and that the dog resembled a golden retriever. The book was hardcover and on the large side--maybe 8.5" x 11" Help!!

Annemarie Colbin / Anne-Marie Dalmais, The Adventures of Brownie and Puff, 1970.  This is definitely The Adventures of Brownie and Puff.  It is retold by Annemarie Colbin, from a French text by Anne-Marie Dalmais, with illustrations by Giannini, and is an oversized hardcover book (10.5" x 12"), published by Golden Press in 1971. Brownie is a golden retriever type puppy, and Puff is a grey striped kitten.  The stories in the book are: Brownie and Puff, Brownie and Puff at the Beach, Brownie and Puff Paint the House, Brownie and Puff Go to the Mountains, and Brownie and Puff at School.

Title Unknown. This is the story of a Tourist Squirrel who travels all over the US and meets all kinds of friends along the way, I recall a white or silver squirrel for sure. Can you help? This is a great web site, btw!

maybe ... The adventure of Chatterer, the squirrel by Thorton W. Burgess first edition 1924  it could as well be this one
In print & available as a Dover Children's Thrift Classic.
The book is listed as being SOLVED as Adventures of Chatterer, the red squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess.  This is NOT correct - that book does not deal in ANY way with a travelling squirrel - instead it is a more naturalistic story of a squirrel's life.  I am not sure of the correct answer, but I'll throw out a few more guesses to help out whoever first posted the stumper:  Alexander, Elsie M., Happy Family of Beechnut Grove; Story of Peter Gray Squirrel and Family (not sure if they travel however).  Famous, Howard B. (real name Helen Hart), Hazel Squirrel and Other Stories; Bushy-Tail and Hazel Squirrel.  Fielding, Jane, Jackie Hightree's Adventures of a Squirrel.  Garrott, Hal, Squiffer.  Nill, Cynthia, Scamper.  Prentice, Amy, Frisky Squirrel's Story. Sittig, Mrs. Frank, The Story of Bobby Squirrel and other Bedtime Stories. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Queer Little People. Walsh, George Ethelbert, Bobby Gray Squirrel's Adventures.  Wyatt, Woodrow, The Exploits of Mr. Saucy Squirrel.  Hope the person who posed the original stumper finds their book one day.  You offer a wonderful service, by the way!

I am looking for a copy of a book named The Adventures of Grandfather Frog. It was one from my elementary days which would have been in the 1950's Any help in locating this book would be greatly appreciated. It was in a series.

The Adventures of Grandfather Frog is by Thornton W. Burgess.  It was originally published in 1915 but seems to be perpetually in print.  It is a series; he wrote dozens of books about Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, Jerry Muskrat and their friends.
A61 could be Grandfather Frog by Thornton Burgess Bedtime Stories.
This is Thornton Burgess, the Adventures of Grandfather Frog (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1915).  In print & available as a Dover Children's Thrift Classic.

Betty S. Fix, THE MUSICAL SEA SHELL the Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield, 1946.  "Engaging undesea fantasy about Idabell and Wakefield, the little Royal Fish Twins. Terrific full-page color illustrations throughout."  (The illustrations refer to this edition).
Ya know, I did think of this book, but did not know there was a series.
Betty S. Fix, The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield, 1939?  Apparently this is a set of 5 books - v. 1. The musical sea shell. -- v. 2 "What would you do?" -- v. 3 Everyday and missaday. -- v. 4 Dolls around the world. -- v. 5 Through a child's window

Betty S. Fix, The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield.  Fish children, one named "Wakefield" -- need I say more? :)
F81  Betty Sims, The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield, 1946.  series of books about fish children, great illustrations
The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield. Any chance this is it?  If not, I'm concerned about the number of fictional fish named Wakefield!

M208:  Musical Seashell.  1955. Beautiful pictures - larger size, 13X9 - hard cover - reading age 10 yrs or younger.

Betty S. Fix, The Musical Sea Shell:  The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield, 1938.  "Story of Idabell and Wakefield, little Royal Fish Twins. In their kingdom at bottom of the ocean, everyone is talking about the wonderful little sea shell, that plays beautiful music. Everyone is searching for the little sea shell."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Fix, Betty S. Dolls.  Around the World: The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield.  In collaboration with Edith E. Buhler.  The Crosby House: 1946.  This volume features fanmail from around the world with full color plates of dolls representing various nations.  Dust jacket is tattered, but the book is only a bit shelfworn.  Pages and illustration colors are bright.  VG/P.  $38

Richard Scarry's little worm hiding throughout his illustrations is called Lowly.  He seems to have his own book, but recently: Scarry, Richard. The Adventures of Lowly Worm.  Random House, 1995.
L57 Scarry, Richard. Richard Scarry's lowly worm sniffy book. illus by Richard Scarry. Random, c1978.  scratch & sniffbooks, spiral binding is white wire, not plastic.

I would very much like to find a book that was read to my second-grade class circa 1961-62, although I know the book in question was "old" at that time.  My only recollections (fairly accurate, I hope) are of the main character who was a little girl named Mabel who had adventures with brownies/fairies.  She may have entered their world through a hole in a tree or the ground.  I thought I was about to solve this mystery a few years ago when I ran into my second-grade teacher, but she could not remember the name/title and had given the book away.  Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Don't know how close this is - Hester and the Gnomes, by Marigold Hunt, illustrated by Jean Charlot, published Whittlesey/McGraw 1955, 128 pages. "A delightful story of how a delegation of gnomes came up to investigate the digging of a well, how they met Hester, and why they decided to stay and set up a gentlemen's residence in the old hollow tree. Ages 8-12." (Horn Book Sep/55 p.403 pub.ad)
M109 mabel and dwarves: could it be The Adventures of Mabel, by Harry Thurston Peck, illustrated by Meg Wohlberg, published New York Graphic Society 1963, 192 pages, 5x8"? "Ill-tempered giants and talking horses are all in a day's work for Mabel, an interpid heroine who copes with stupendous problems absolutely unruffled. Age 6-10." (HB Apr/63 p.219) It was originally published in the 1890s and was reprinted in 1997 - here's the information for the reprint: The publisher, Greenhouse Books , December 10, 1997  "This facsimile edition with 7 full-color plates charms today's young readers as powerfully as the original did its audience after publication in 1896. Wondrous events, magic, humor, and heroism all embellish this series of tales. Not one  dull sentence mars its colorfulness. Mabel is a friend to Everything Well Meaning, most especially animals, both wild and tame, with whom she communicates by a secret call that a delightful lizard taught her. Among the Adventures: Mabel tames an unruly horse, Rex; Rex is stolen, and Towser, the dog, turns detective; Mabel caters to her Animal Friends at her birthday picnic; Mean Spiders ensnare Mabel; Mabel's good friend, The Grey Rat, saves her life; Mabel is kind to the Frogs, and they reciprocate; A Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf play their parts; The Brownie gives Mabel a difficult choice of only one present; Mabel visits a Castle and  encounters a fearsome Giant."
M109 mabel: there's also Eliza and the Elves, by Rachel Field, published Macmillan 1926, but that seems to be a collection of stories and poems.
Harry Thurston Peck, The Adventures of Mabel, 1986, reprint.  Finally, after 40 years I have found Mabel again!  I purchased a reprint (Greenhouse Publishing) through the National Review Book Service and just read it this afternoon.  It was every bit as enchanting as I remember.  Mabel is a wonderful heroine: courageous, kind, and resourceful.   I delight in the fact that she is such a strong female character, even though she was created in the 1890s!  She certainly embodies the qualities we want to see in our children today, both male and female.  Thank you for reuniting me with this wonderful story!

Seaman, Agusta Huiell, The Adventure of the Seven Keyholes, 1926.
Augusta Huiell Seaman, Adventure Of The Seven Keyholes, 1926.  I could not find a description, only the above information.
Augusta Huiell Seaman, The adventure of the seven keyholes, 1925, 1926.  You were right about the author!  Book is about 150 pp.
S227 Sounded familiar to me and Google led me to a copyright renewal notice: The Adventure Of The Seven Keyholes Augusta Huiell Seaman  26Mar26:A883817  29Jan54:R124914

Hi there!  OK, I read a book while I was in elementary school in the sixth grade.  It must have been a juvenile/young readers book. This was in 1985, so it was published before this date.  As I remember it was a story where you would read a page of a detective like story and on the opposite page there was a detailed black and white sketch picture.  The pictures were ones like the Where is Waldo picture series from the Burger King Restaurants, except in the book I am trying to remember they were only in Black and white and you had to find the robber. The best I can remember it is that there was a robber/thief and we the reader may have been the detective.  I remember there being a trunk and the robber in a picture, a diamond and a robber in a picture, and the robber and a chimney in a picture.  It was a pretty thick book.   Since you had to study the pictures it took forever to finish.  It seems as though it could have been classified as a game like book.  If you can provide any help that would
be great, I will keep brainstorming thanks!

I think the answer to B51 might be The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang.  I haven't read this book, but sold a copy on Ebay a few months ago, and realised after I sold it that I wish I had kept it :)  It was a paperback, and like the person described, a mystery story in which text was on one side, and comic-like drawings on the other that had some sort of puzzle to go along with the book... It didn't look like Where's Waldo to me, though, but maybe Burger King had a different kind of Where's Waldo.  The book looked *very* nifty and I could see someone really liking it.
Hi There!  I posted B 51 and it looks like you solved the mystery. I just bought The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang book, and am pleased to tell you this is the one.  Boy how memories fade.  Now seeing it again it seems like only yesterday.
Press, Hans Jurgen.  The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang. Illustrated by Illlustrated By Author.  Prentice-Hall, 1965, 1977.  Reprinted by Scholastic in paperback.

Hans Jurgen Press, Adventures of the Black Hand Gang,  1980.  Guess where I found the title?  Right here at Loganberry's "Stump the Bookseller: Solved Mysteries."  I decided to just start at "A" and go through them one by one, hoping by chance someone else had posted and solved the same story.  Lucky for me, it was in the "A's".  Now I just need to find a copy!

I am looking for a children's book about an artist that mixes colors.  I think the main character's name is Angelo.  As he mixes colors, there are transparency overlays in the book that you lay on top of each page revealing new colors that he has mixed together.  For example, one page might have blue on it, and as the artist mixes in yellow (you would lay the yellow overlay on the page) to reveal the new color (green).

Tison, Anette & Talus Tayler, The Adventures of the Three Colors, 1971. This story published by World Publishing Company features Herbie as an artist and Angelo as his dog.  Herbie painted colored animals, and when the transparent pages were overlapped, a new animal was formed.  A blue elephant and a yellow dog formed a green fish.  At the end of the story, Herbie paints a large yellow flower, a pink flower, and a blue flower, and when the pages are overlapped it forms one flower with all the colors of the rainbow.
Adventure of the three colors, circa 1971. Thank you so much! This *is* the book I was looking for!  This website is so helpful- thank you to everyone who read the description, but especially to the person who identified it. Consider it solved :-)

I am looking for a book I read in elementary in the 1950's. I think it was a 6th grade literature book. Had a grey cover. I used it in Clifton, NJ. Many storied were included. Example: The sun and wind, trying to get the person to take his coat off.. Which one of them could do it. Could you look for me?

I remember such a book:  the illustrations were incredible, the faces on the wind and sun were wide-eyed.  This may be Aesop's Fables collection, though I don't know author.
This definitely is Aesop's Fables. The author is rather obviously Aesop, but I don't know who was responsible for this particular collection. These fables are great with handy morals to be explained when reading to children.
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Solved: Aesop's Fables
in 1970 i was 7 years old i had a big book of aesops fabels it came with a record album that narrated the short fables it was a oversized book with beautiful pictures

Aesop's Fables. (Here's a possibility--  no info on the book, though.) Columbia Junior Book & Record Library / 12-19-0005 / Louis Untermeyer (adapter) Marshall Izen (performer, composer) James Timmens (conductor) / Contents: Introduction -- The gnat on the bull's horn -- The grasshopper and the ant -- The lioness and the vixen -- The boy and the wolf -- The lion's share -- The fox and the grapes -- The cat and the mice -- The goose and the golden eggs -- The dog and the shadow -- The eagle and the tortoise -- The dog in the manger -- The jackdaw's fine feathers -- The hungry wolf and the lanb -- The country maid and the mild pail -- The lion and the mouse -- The town mouse and the country mouse -- The fox and the crow -- The strength of the wind and sun -- The crow and the pitcher -- The lions and the hares -- The cunning cat and his company -- The great and little fishes -- The hungy lion and the wise fox -- The hare and the tortoise -- The miller, the son, and the donkey.
Columbia did issue this as a book/12" LP combo. The book was a Giant Golden Book, 92 pp., selected/adapted by Louis Untermeyer with color illustrations by Alice & Martin Provensen.  It contains 40 fables (I didn't count them in the previous solution, but it looks like it's probably the same).

John Steinbeck, The Affair at 7 Rue de M. A review is here.

I read the book I'm describing as a pre-teen in the early to mid 90s. I have absolutely no idea when the book was published, though. In this book, the main character is a girl whose family owns a furniture factory. The town is named for the family. The other characters in the book are the girl's snotty female cousin, who's about the same age, the girl's grandfather, who the girls is extremely close with, and the girl's yonger male cousin, who the girl hangs out with. The book starts off with the girl's birthday party which his combined with her snotty cousin's. The girl receives a clock that used to belong to her now deceased grandmother from her grandfather. In the book, the girl's snotty aunt complains about the girl's appearance and also about how the grandfather has let his house go since the grandmother dies. So the girl and her male cousin go over to his house to clean things up but they ruin things instead. The male cousin and the girl eventually get into a fight and the girl gets a black eye. At the end, the grandfather throws a party where he gives everyone fortune cookies with his own handwritten fortunes. Thanks for your help.

Ann R. Blakeslee, After the fortune cookies, 1989.  I saw this stumper and said, "I've read that book!" but I had no idea what it was called, either!  Luckily, I was able to find it.  "The summer Allison turns twelve brings many disturbing changes, as she fights to protect her beloved grandfather from the schemes of other family members and seeks the courage to stand up to the taunts of her spiteful cousin Carolina." Another summary: "The Godolphins are an important family in Godolphinville, or so Allison has always been told. Her pushy Aunt Bee uses this fact to keep all the Godolphins in line. But when Allison turns 12 she begins to realize that everyone, even Aunt Bee, faces problems and uncertainties. The girl's beloved grandfather, who guides the family with sage fortune-cookie messages, seems to be slipping into senility, and Allison is fearful when Aunt Bee decides he needs "taking in hand." Allison and her cousin Robby cook up a scheme to foil Aunt Bee's plans, but Grandfather ultimately proves capable of looking after himself."

Looking for title & author of sci-fi/fantasy short story, maybe written from late 70's to early 90's. Takes place at a time when the young have been completely dominated to the point of enslavement, by the adults. The old have become so envious of the young that they basically "took over". Main character of story is a young girl, she narrates the story. She is with a group of young girls who are being trained in some way by a group of older people, for the role they will be allowed to have in society when they too are older. They are treated cruelly by the older people. One part of the story involves the girls having to watch a film of what appears to be a beautiful young woman, but when the woman removes all sorts of devices & makeup she is revealed to be an old crone. At end of story the main girl and a younger girl "run away" but they are really still in the same building, hiding somewhere and won't come out. The younger girl dies of starvation/dehydration while they are hiding, and at the end the older girl is still hiding with basically the same outcome in store for her.

Kate Wilhelm, The Funeral, 1972.  This short story is in Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison.
I'm sure this is the story, as I had Again, Dangerous Visions for years and read most of the stories in it, and I also was pretty sure the author of my stumper was female. Need to get a copy of that book again. Interesting that author is Kate Wilhelm, as I just read one of her more recent stories and it also has become one of my favorites. Thanks so much! Awesome website!

I have sent in a couple of stumpers(one of which you solved--Hurrah!!) but have hesitated to send this one because it is very vague and I had it all mixed in with the plot of the Mrs. PiggleWiggle books; but here goes: The book is about two elderly ladies,??sisters??, who have a long standing feud.  I believe they were the great-aunts of the children involved and had magical abilities.  One of them apparently believes the other stole or lost one of her magical items. I think there are magic safety pins involved which were apparently used as diaper pins.  The children's mother remembers listening to wonderful, magical stories as a baby. They reconcile in the end because the magical item(the pins??) were merely misplaced.  Thanks in advance.  I also think there might have been something buried in a creek.(or not!!)

Pretty sure this is Aggie, Maggie, and Tish by Betty K. Erwin, 1965 Three old ladies (sisters?) with a touch of magic - they may have been one or two other books about them
 I was able to get a hold of a copy of this book and read it today.  Of course I had some of the details garbled (can you imagine that!!) but I am reasonably sure this is the book I remember.  Thank-you so much.
Aggie, Maggie, and Tish, by Betty K. Erwin, illustrated by Paul Kennedy, published Little, Brown 1965, 154 pages. "After many years and far travels, Aggie, Maggie, and Tish had returned to their home town. The Eliot children discovered - as their parents had done before them - that the three were much more than just old-fashioned-looking little old ladies. But how much magic could be attributed to them the young Eliots were not sure. Was the tiny bulldog real or a toy? Did Jim truly fall asleep in a bear's den? Was Ginny's pet really a wolf cub? A light-hearted introduction to the every-day kind of magic that will lead naturally to the books by Edward Eager and E. Nesbit." (HB Dec/65 p.629)

John Blaine, Rick Brant series.  The two boys, the plane, and the science angle are making me think of the Rick Brant series, which started in 1947.  However, the boys in that series are from a scientific installation on an island off the East Coast, not a ranch.  Might be worth checking www.rickbrant.com to see if anything looks familiar, though!
E.J. Craine, The Airplane Boys at Cap Rock.  Looks like my previous idea about the Rick Brant series was incorrect. Here's a description of The Airplane Boys at Cap Rock (by E.J. Craine, World Syndicate Publishing Co. Cleveland, Ohio - copyright 1930):  "This is the second book of Jim and Bob the Airplane Boys, and their many adventures at home in Texas. They discover who mysterious Don Haurea is, and they get a chance to present their friends, the Canadian Mounted Police, with the promised horseshoes."
Thank you for the suggestion but the book is not one of the Rick Brant series. To the best of my recollection, it was a pre-World War II book.
Congratulations and thank you! The book I was searching for is the one by E. J. Craine.

Daniel Pinkwater, Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars. I think this may be Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater.  Plot synopsis here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Mendelsohn,_the_Boy_from_Mars
SOLVED: The solution ("Alan Mendelson, Boy from Mars") for my stumper S757 is correct. I've been trying to remember this book for years! Thank you so much!

I'm looking for a book that I think was a Parents Magazine Press book--about a boy and his stuffed zebra (or horse?). I believe the zebra's name was Alexander. Whenever the boy got into mischief he would blame the zebra. Does this sound familiar?

This is the book you seek:
Littledale, Harold.  Alexander.   Illustrated by Tom Vroman. New York: Parents' Magazine Press, 1964.  I've had it before, it's really cute.  Unfortunately, I don't have it presently.  I'll let you know when I get another in stock.

The second book was about a boy and horse. The horse was striped in many different colors.  All I remember of the book was the boy scolding the horse. On the cover was the boy and the multi-striped horse. I believe both these books came out in the late 1960s. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to locate the titles and authors of these two books.

*later* I don't remember the horse being stuffed, but I do remember the name. It is Alexander. Thank you very much for the information.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Littledale, Harold. Alexander.  Illustrated by Tom Vroman.  Parents' Magazine Press, 1964.  Some wear to head and foot of spine and edges of covers.  Front free endpaper is slightly ripped.  VG-.  <SOLD>

A favorite book of mine as a child was about a crocodile, who lived with an old woman in the Victorian period. The house was shared with a yak, a "magical" mouse, and other animals.  I remember a part where there was a storm, and the crocodile was out in it, and got sick. I cannot for the life of me, remember the title.  My brother and I read it in the early 1970's.  I remember that the crocodile felt bad because he was trying to get help, but everyone was afraid of him in town.  Please help!!! I'd love to find it to share with my children.

This is it!  Sanders, Martha.  Alexander and the Magic Mouse. Illustrated by Philippe Fix.  American Heritage Press, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, 1969.
thank you, I actually discovered it that same evening! I did find a copy, have since received it, and was delighted.  I can remember the illustrations, even as an adult some 25 yaers later!

Yes, yes, yes! I remember this book! I'm pretty sure it was called Mrs. Twilley's Treehouse. In fact, I was going to post a message to you, because I would love to see this book again. I remember the story, though I don't remember a chihuahua. What I do remember is she had a pet yak, and she would make flyswatters out of hairs from the yak's tail. The yak helped save the townspeople from the flood, though he got very sick doing so. But in the end he lived, and everyone accepted Mrs. Twilley. If the title helps track down this book, please let me know who the author is. Thanks for a fantastic web site.
I know the book I remember had a small dog, not a yak; however, I do think the title may be correct. Please let me know if you can find this book, I would  love to have it again - I don't care if it's hardcover or paperback. Thanks! I love your site!!!!
In the comments about Miss Twiggley's Tree, someone described a book about rain and a yak. That book is Alexander and the Magic Mouse. All I could remember originally was that there was an old lady, a yak, and possibly an alligator, maybe named Alexander. When I did a web search for yak and children's book, I found your website. The description of the yak getting sick after a rainstorm  reminded me that the story was about a rainstorm. A search of yak and rain at the Library of Congress got me the title. My most vivid memories of the book are the illustrations. I don't remember the story at all, but I remember what Alexander, the old lady, and theYak look like.

Your book stumper sounds like a cross between Miss Twiggley's Tree and Alexander and the Magic Mouse.  Check out the other comments on my website to determine which one it is.
Thank you so much for responding.  The book is Alexander and the Magic Mouse.  Do you think you could locate a copy?  Thank you so much for this service.  It is fantastic!  I've been searching for this book for 10 years.

Alexander and the Magic Mouseby Martha Sanders.
Yes, this is it. Thanks.

Sanders, Martha.  Alexander and the Magic Mouse. Illustrated by Philippe Fix.  American Heritage Press, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, 1969.  Check  Solved Mysteries  for more.

Sounds like Sanders, Martha.  Alexander and the Magic Mouse. Illustrated by Philippe Fix.  American Heritage Press, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, 1969.  See Solved Mysteries for more.

Bernard Waber, The House on East 88th Street or Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, 1962 & 1965 respectively.  The House on East 88th Street, by Bernard Waber (1962,) is about a family named the Primms who move into an old Victorian brownstone, only to find a performing alligator named Lyle living there in their bathtub.  At first horrified, they learn to love him and accept him into their family.  No floods, but he does go SWISH, SWASH, SPLASH, SWOOSH a lot.  Mrs. Primm is not an old lady, but she does hang out with Lyle more than the rest of the family.  In the sequel, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (1965,) she plays a more central role.  While they are out shopping they run into their next door neighbor, Mr. Grumps, who finds Lyle a nuisance (because Lyle scares his cat, Loretta.)  Mr. Grumps has Lyle thrown in the zoo.  When Lyle is freed by his old performing partner, Mr. Valenti, they go back to the house on 88th St., where they find Mr. Grumps' house on fire (no floods, again.)  Lyle rescues Mr. Grumps, is declared a hero, and thus, allowed to stay with the Primms.
Hello - I ADORE your web site!  I recently found a favorite from childhood and you gave it a big write up here on your site - Alexander and the Magic Mouse (1969).  My question is, how can I request that this book be put back in print when I can't locate the author (Martha Sanders) or the Illustrator (Philippe Fix) or the Publisher (American Heritage Press)? This book is a jewel.  People who remember it have never been able to get the visions of the amazing illustrations out of their heads.  The story was like a wonderful dream.  Now it's hard to find even a used copy.  I think children today should have the same opportunity to be entranced by this story as were the lucky ones from my generations.  I would like to try to get the book back into print but have no idea as how to proceed.  I was hoping perhaps you might have some suggestions. It was a book club book - Weekly Reader as I recall.  I can't believe it didn't win any awards.  The illustrations alone are so far better than anything I've ever seen in a children's book. Any help you can give me in this matter would be appreciated!

HRL:  Martha Sanders,  Alexander and the Magic Mouse. Illustrated by Philippe Fix.  American Heritage Press, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, 1969.  See Solved Mysteries for more.

Martha Sanders (author), Alexander and the Magic Mouse, (1969). I solved my own stumper thanks to another stumper (O36)! Once I saw the title and description, I was able to look it up online and found out that my beloved alligator, old woman, cat and mouse do indeed exist! I though maybe I made it up. Thanks a bunch!
Martha Sanders (author), Alexander and the Magic Mouse. This is it.  See the solved pages under "A" for more information. So many people remember this book with love but can't recall the title.
Martha Sanders (author), Alexander and the Magic Mouse, (1969). I think the book you're looking for is "Alexander and the Magic Mouse"...such a wonderful story! It is a Weekly Reader book and seems to fit your description perfectly. (I have a picture to attach if that would prove helpful.)
Lyle the Crocodile. Perhaps "Lyle" the crocodile? The pictures are "drawn" and maybe memory is from the old "london-like" NY townhouses? Maybe a Lyle book in which he visits a lighthouse...
Martha Sanders (author), Phillipe Fix (illus), Alexander and the Magic Mouse, (1969). This must be the one you're looking for.  In the illustrations, the house does look quite Victorian. "There was an old lady who lived in a house on the top of the only hill for miles around. There also lived in the house a brindle London Squatting cat, a Magical Mouse, an Alligator from China, and a Yak. Alexander, the alligator, a friendly creature who keeps trying to improve his smile so people won't run away from him, is the center of attention. A heroic rescue mission gets him all the friends he can use, with a brass band and a medal thrown in.
Martha Sanders (author), Alexander and the Magic Mouse, (1969). This is the very sweet, and beautifully illustrated, Alexander and the Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders
Martha Sanders (author), Alexander and the Magic Mouse, (1969). It's got to be Alexander & the Magic Mouse that you're looking for. I loved this one as a kid in the early '70s & my daughter loved my copy just as much. Enjoy!
This is Alexander and the Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "A" page for more information and a photograph of the cover!

My husband insists he read a book about a salamander and a magic pebble when he was a kid. It's not Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, and it's not The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. Thanks!

Not a solution, only possible titles to run by your husband, because there doesn't seem to be anything out there but Sylvester when it comes to magic pebbles!  The magic pebble, and other stories by Susan Jolly (1960),  Peter and his magic pebble by Willy Schermele (1953), or I wonder if it could possibly be  Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater (1976)?
Leo Lionni, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, 1969.  The mice are the main characters, but the salamander performs magic with a purple pebble in the moonlight.
S253 Lionni, Leo.  Alexander and the wind-up mouse. illus by Leo Lionni.  Scholastic. friendship between real mouse and toy one; Caldecott honor book; ALA Notable Book; NY Times Outstanding Book of the Year

A book my mother recalls reading to her kids either in the 60's or 70's. The title may be Alexander Fiddlewhistle as is the main character. Illustrated.  She recalls the characters having very large heads.  That's it!  I've searched and googled it with zero luck.

Watts, Charles E., Alexander Fiddlewhistle, Helicon Press, 1960.
Charles E Watts, Alexander Fiddlewhistle, 1960.  Publisher is Boston: Helicon Press.  It appears to be quite a scarce book as possibly only 3 US libraries (including the Library of Congress) have it.

I am looking for a children's book about a cat, I believe was named Alexander. Anyway, this little cat didn't trust anyone, and would try and hurt another animal before it had the chance to hurt him. His lesson in the end was in learning to trust. It was a book in print at least 30 years ago, since I'm 37, and was a child when my mother would read it to me. Can you help me recall the name of the book?

Jessica Potter Broderick (author), Marge Opitz (illus), Alexander Kitten, 1959.  This is definitely Alexander Kitten, a Rand McNally Junior Elf Book.  Alexander thinks it's his duty to fight other creatures, scaring them away or hurting them before they have a chance to hurt him.  Because he attacks them, he gets stung by a bee, pecked by a chicken, and bitten by a goose. His Grandfather finally straightens him out by suggesting that he try NOT scaring or hurting the other animals.  Alexander discovers that if he leaves them alone, they will leave him alone or even give him feathers to play with.

Do you by any chance know what book(s) (I think they were a series, but I can't remember) featured a club of kids whose clubhouse was built in a junk yard, in the junk yard heaps themselves?  They had a series of labrynthine tunnels to get into the clubhouse, and closed them down when outsiders discovered them.  They were either kid detectives or something like that.  I was thinking it was the Mad Scientists Club, but now that I re-read the book, I realize that isn't it.  So now I'm wondering what book that was.  It would have been generally available in the mid-1970s, perhaps through the Scholastic book club.

I just submitted a stumper - please ignore it!  After submitting it, I looked through the "A" posting, and had my memory jogged!  I'm remembering the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series!

You and I may have the same book in mind (T253). I also recall the hairy aliens and the computer program.
t253 and t252.  Pamela Sargent, Alien Child, 1988.  Yeah, I found it!!!  The only human left on earth being raised by aliens.  Or so she thinks until she meets the boy who has also been raised by an alien.  The two learn together of the history of their species and try to determine its future.  Thoughtful and raises a number of good questions. Website.
andre norton.  This book sounds very much like an Andre Norton novel which I read about 20 years ago.  The cats were very anthropomorphic.  I am sorry to say that I do not not recall the title right now, but I can found out the next time I visit my parents, as the book is still on the shelf there.
PAMELA SARGENT, ALIEN CHILD.  This is totally the book I was looking for I am so super excited! Thank you so much for your help!!
Pamela Sargent, Alien Child, 1988.  I found a copy on-line and purchased it and this is definitely it. The names of the aliens are Llipel and Llare. The back of the book says: Nita is the last human on Earth, raised by an alien who revived Nita's embryo, stored in the Institute before wars destroyed humanity. Nita can never truly understand her gentle guardian, and when she discovers Sven, a boy secretly raised by another alien, she longs to be close to him. But as Sven and Nita learn more about each other and the history of humanity, they are terrified. Do they carry seeds of destruction and violence within them? Should they revive other embryos and raise the children? When they venture into the wilderness outside the Institute, they awaken powerful instincts, as well as the knowledge that they carry the fate of Earth in their hands.
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Boy and girl raised by alien guardians separately in a huge city in the future.  No other human life is around.  They meet by accident one day and soon try to adjust to having each other around.  Something happens and the boy abandons the city and the girl.  I read this book sometime in Middle School around 1989 - 92.

Pamela Sargent, Alien Child,1988.   Could it be this one?  Nita (girl) and Sven (boy) were test tube embryos left in stasis in an embryological institute.  Two aliens, Llipel and Llare, accidentally set in motion the machinery that allowed them to be grow.  Llipel became Nita's guardian while Llare raised Sven, and the two children were kept segregated from each other until after Nita's fifteenth birthday.  Then Nita and Sven learn they are the last humans except for the other embryos stored at the facility.  See the Solved Mysteries "A" page for more information.
It was Alien Child by Pamela Sargeant.

I work in a bookstore and am researching a book for a customer.  The only things she remembers are the following:  something about a mentally handicaped child, dad or mother is alcoholic, one or the other locks the child in barn, she is starving, they may have been on an "isolated mountain," some other "friend" rescues her, and the protagonist's name may be Alice. The customer says it was required reading when she was in 7th grade.  I searched your "solved mysteries" and also the questions put to you by others, using certain "key" words but still haven't "found it." Could you post please?  I will continue searching.

I posted a request for a book about a girl named Alice, and it's listed under Isolated Mountain.  The customer that was researching it discovered that it is indeed called Alice and is by Sara Flanigan, but is alas, no longer in print.  Could you add that to the "I know that book" section in case someone else ever wants to know what it is?
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My friend checked this book out from our highschool library around 1995, but I'm not sure when it was written.  It took place in horse and buggy times I believe.  There were a brother and sister who discover a beautiful isolated and abused teenager.  I don't remember exactly why they kept her isolated. I think she may have been deaf, but basically she has no experience with doing normal things. They befriend this girl, but the brother starts to feel attracted to her.  In one seen the girl gets angry and shows them that she knows how to do the household chores.  They realize then that they underestimated her intelligence.  Also, In one instance the male teenager almost forces himself on the abused girl, but then he feels repulsed by himself when he realizes that her father did that to her.  The abused girl and the boy eventually do have a relationship and near the end of the book they are all traveling to a dance together.  The people of town are seeing the girl for the first time and they all stare because she is so pretty.  Also I think it may have been a fair type thing,because someone's aunt or something wanted their cake to win.  I may have gotten a few of the details totally messed up, I'm not sure about the cake thing, but that is all I can remember.  I thought the title may have been a girl's name, but I don't remember that either.

Flanigan, Sara, Alice, 1988.  This sounds like Sara Flanigan's novel, Alice, which was made into the movie "Wildflower," starring Patricia Arquette.
Sara Flanigan, Alice, 1991, reprint.  A story of Ellie Perkins, who discovers that the reclusive neighbors have a deaf, epileptic daughter, Alice, who has lived most of her life in a shed. With the help of her older brother Sammy and some townspeople, Ellie is able to intercede in Alice's life to the point where Alice acquires a hearing aid, a tutor and a blossoming romance with Sammy.
That sounds right.  I actually thought the title was Alice, but then I thought I was getting it confused with another one of my books.  Thankyou so much!

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There is a book, possibly part of a children's story series, that I enjoyed very much when I was little (late 60, early 70s).  The name might have been about travelling.  The story may have been British, it involved a number of people, mostly children going on a tour in a bus around Europe.  When they arrived at the various destinations the reader would also get a little story about the place.  The only two places I remember are St. Ives, which included the nursery rhyme, and also Lapland, and the story there was about a little family that kept reindeer and the children slept in beds inside of a cabinet. I haven't explained this very well, but I would appreciate any info. if this rings a bell for anyone. My sister loved the book too, but doesn't remember anything more than I do.

B48 reminds me of a book I would like to locate that I read as a child.  I read it in the early 60's and I believe it was at least ten years old at that time--probably older!  I believe it was a reader.  A man and his wife (who looked like grandparents) were taking a trip around the world on a ship.  They visited many lands.  Just as in the book B48 is seeking, in mine there were also children that slept in cabinets.  I believe they lived in France, and I believe they ate snails.  I think this couple also went to Lapland, and I know they went to Africa.  I loved this book and read it over and over--would love to have it.
#B48, "Bus Tour of Europe," reminds me of my third grade social studies book (1970, but a lot of our books were old).  I didn't want to ask about this (and several others) because I'm having enough trouble finding "real" books, let alone textbooks, but here goes: I also remember this book/series.  In the part about Africa (North Africa) there was something about a sacred white camel, maybe a baby camel.  The old man was at first afraid to ride a camel but became so peeved because the camel wouldn't stand up for him, he was determined to ride it!  I remember most vividly the part about Lapland and the four children there.  The boys were Olaf (10) and Carl (8) and the girls were probably Ingrid and Bridget.  Olaf had come into possession of a pencil, a rarity in Lapland.  At my school kids threw pencils away on the playground and at my house you could scarcely turn around without knocking over at least one pencil.  Olaf had just the one, which he guarded like the crown jewels.  One day Carl decided to ride a bull, which he stayed on for some ways before it threw him.  The other three came running up calling for him, and Carl lay perfectly still, thinking, I'll fool them I'm dead.  His five-year-old sister asked, "Is he broken?"  His brother tried to get him to speak, and Carl lost patience and yelled, "I can't speak, you dummy, I'M DEAD!"  At which the others burst out laughing.  I, too, would LOVE to get this 1950s (?) Social Studies textbook!   I vividly remember when my sister got into fifth grade and I into sixth, social studies was suddenly boring statistics and we wondered, why can't it keep being as interesting as *that* book?  The only other thing I can say is when I went to the school in 1983 to note titles this was *gone*, the way the rest of the good stuff has disappeared since!
#B48, "Bus Tour of Europe," is definitely the Alice and Jerry Book.  Written by Mabel O'Donnell, it was published by Row, Peterson and Company as If I Were Going in 1936 and 1941.  In 1948 and 1954 it was republished as The New If I Were Going.  Before the story taking place in each land is a little unit on that country, and I assume the revisions in those portions reflected changes brought about by the war, and the stories and illustrations were probably just the same.  I was pretty darn close on the children in Lapland:  their names were Ola (10), Carl (8), Inger (7), and Martha (5).  So out of four names and four ages, I got one name and three ages exactly, and three other names very close--how's that for 30-year-old memory!  Well, okay, I saw the book twice, once 30 years ago when I was in third grade and once 29 years ago when my sister was, but I still plan to throw this in my sisters' faces as proof of my accuracy of memory--think how good it must be after only five or ten years!  The incidents with Ola's pencil, Carl riding the cow, and Mr. Sanders riding the camel are there almost exactly as I described them.  As for the person who wrote about the children sleeping in cupboards, that was in Brittany (not France), but again pretty darn close.  Besides Norway, Lapland, Brittany, and Africa, they went to England and Spain, but no one seems to have remembered those.
Brittany IS a region of France.

mabel o'donnell, round about, 1957, reprint.  Upon my word was a common expression throughout many of the Alice and Jerry books..can be found on pages 168, 173, and 176 in the  Round About book..
I apologize for not responding right away, but I had not been out to the site in quite a while. “’Upon my word,’ said Mr. Green” was my original inquiry to Book Stumper a few years back. It stayed out there for so long I didn’t think it would ever get results. I think Round About or possibly Through the Green Gate – another Alice and Jerry reader – is the book I was looking for. Thank you very much. If this turns out to be the case, it will be three juvenile books you’ve located for me. I bought David and the Phoenix from you and another. I think it was The Secret of Crossbone Hill.  Thanks again.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

O'Donnell, Mabel and Alice Carey.  If I Were Going.  Illustrated by Florence and Margaret Hoopes.  Row, Peterson and Company, 1936, 1941.  Alice and Jerry Reading Foundation Series.  Missing front free endpaper, minor wear, esp. to cover, otherwise a respectable copy.  VG-.  $20

This isn't exactly a children's book.  It was popular w/some of us 8 or so years ago, & w/ the college crowd.  A brain-teaser or puzzle book, featuring the maddening "Who is John?" puzzle.  It may have had anAlice in Wonderland style/theme or illustrations.  I'm interested in any (non-mathematical) brain-teaser books such as this.

I know the name and author!!  The name of the book is Alice in Puzzle Land.  The author is Robert Smullyan. Can you locate a copy for me?  We had it in 1992, but don't know when it was written.
Thanksthanksthanks!

A young adult book I read around 1967. I recall the book as being written in the 1950s. An American college student majoring in Spanish spends a year in Mexico. As soon as she arrives at the airport - I'm thinking Mexico City - she is surprised how different the language sounds spoken there than in her classroom. Unbeknownst to her, everyone with whom she converses is impressed by how well the young American speaks Spanish. She has a boyfriend back at home, but the longer she is in Mexico the more immature and ordinary he seems compared to the young men of the same age she is meeting there.

Bryant, Bernice, Fancy Free, 1949.  "The bright and colorful cover features two young adult sweethearts in a water taxi being entertained by floating mariachis. A neat vintage tale of a young teen's summer adventure and study vacation in Mexico, where she goes to take courses and experience the culture at the National University in Mexico City, the archeological ruins, and learn about Mexico's rich and diverse history!"
Fancy Free (maybe), 1950s.  I don't remember the title (though it sounds familiar) or the author's name, but I do remember sensing in the late '60s that it was an older book, not just published. The heroine's name was Alicia she was a blonde and of Spanish (as in Iberian Peninsula/European) heritage, and I remember her talking (maybe to a less pretty sidekick) about how she spoke "pure Castilian" instead of the kind of Spanish spoken in Mexico. You will think I am absolutely nutty to remember this, but the sidekick says something like, "Let me borrow some of your fabulous night cream, Leeshy, the kind that smells like strawberries." I remember thinking that was odd, because "night cream" sounded like something my mother would use, not a teenager. And I thought "Leeshy" was an awful nickname for Alicia.
Nancy Hartwell, Senorita Okay, 1956.  I believe the book is Senorita Okay.  I received and read this pink hardback book in the mid-60's when it arrived through a book club mailing.  The main character is Patricia (Triss) O'Kane.  The boyfriend back home is Paul Hunter.  While in Mexico, Triss has a very romantic encounter with a "handsome caballero" named Fidel Ramirez who wants her to stay in Mexico  however, she winds up falling in love with an American boy named Jack Holliday she meets while studying at the Institute of Arts.
I was able to track down and have read Fancy Free and Senorita Okay. Both are delightful books and I am grateful to those who suggested them since I otherwise may not ever have read either. However neither are the book I read, nor the one featuring Leeshy with the face cream that smelled like strawberries.
I don't know the author or date, but the heroine is indeed alicia and the title is also Alicia.  She has a girl friend named Honey, two suitors named Manuel and Richard, but at the end realizes she's in love with just-plain-Jim brant.  There's a Fidel in that book too, he's interested in Honey but it doesn't work out.  Hope this does it.
This book is called Alicia. and is written by florence Crannell Means. I'm positive it's the right one.  alicia has a friend named Honey, two suitors named manuel and Richard, but the guy she realizes she loves is Jim. Fidel, in this book, is interested in Honey but it doesn't work out.  Sorry about hurried e-mail but this one is right.

All By Ourselves?, 1924.  This book is about a brother and sister, orphaned and fending for themselves in a town near the ocean. My copy had a red cover. I think that the author is Mabel Robinson.

All by ourselves.  Mabel L. Robinson, with decorations by Mary Sherwood  Wright.  New York: Dutton, 1924.
Q7 Requester has both author and title- and date right. I found it with Google on a list of her work.   >Mabel Louise ROBINSON {US} (F: 1874 Jul 19 - 1962 Feb 21)  All By Ourselves [1924]
Pub. info for All By Ourselves = by Mabel Louise Robinson, with decorations by Mary Sherwood Wright, 254 pgs. with ill. plates, 20 cm, pub. by E.P. Dutton & Co, 1924, LCCN: 24-15759.

See More on Most Requested Books

The book dates back to late '50s, line drawings on off-white pages, I think it is an immigrant story, but I know that the main character is Jewish, probably a tailor and on the lower east side of Manhattan.

Sydney Taylor, All-Of-A-Kind Family, 1951.  In this story, the Jewish immigrant father is a junk dealer.  It is the story of 5
little girls growing up in the lower East Side before WW1.  The drawings are very fine pen and ink.  There are several sequels  -- A-O-A-K Family Downtown, More A-O-A-K Family, A-O-A-K Family Uptown, Ella of A-O-A-K Family.  I tink they are all still in print.
???, One of a Kind Family?  This was a series about a Jewish family on the lower east side, father was a tailor (I think). Had quite a few tailors. Really about the girls, but definitely right era and milieu.
J46 Taylor, Sydney.  Ella of all of a kind family.  illus by Gail Owens. Dutton, 1978. oldest child, Ella, courted by Jules, starts on a musical career

This poster's mention of the brothers standing beside each other and looking like steps made me think of All-Of-A-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor so I wanted to see if the poster were positive the book featured brothers. All-Of-A-Kind Family (see the Solved Mysteries page) features 5 sisters who are referred to as "a Steps-and-stairs family" and there is an illustration of the girls all dressed alike looking like steps. Of course, if it was definitely boys this won't work!!
For lack of any further information, I'm going to call this solved.

Sounds like the All-0f-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor, except I think it was pennies instead of buttons...  See more, plus the whole series for sale, on the Most Requested Books page.
Sydney Taylor (author), Helen John (illustrator), All-of-a-kind Family, 1951.  The stumper requester is right---mother hid buttons.  You're right too!  From page 33: "And then every day in one memorable week, Mama hid buttons PLUS one shiny copper penny.  "Finders-keepers," she told the little dusters."
Thank you for the solution to my stumper.  I've ordered the books so I can see if they are as wonderful as I remember. Thank you again.  I'll definitely pass on the word about your service.

The story starts with a young brunette brother & sister waking up in their home to find their mother missing and two young pale blonde children (also brother & sister) living in their house with their aunt.  The house has been re-decorated.  This makes the children think they have gone back in time; to save the two blonde children who are being abused by their aunt.  There is one perticular bit where the blonde children are locked in a cupboard and the brunette children push a key under the door.  The aunt dies at the end from drowning on the frozen lake by the house ( I think there might be some kind of chase?).  The brunette children find their mother, and then the last page of the book says how the two blonde children are seen by (I think) a farmer, and when asked why they are so scared; they describe seeing two brunette haired children which the farmer then replies by saying are a perfect description of the two children who had recently died in a ice-skating accident on the very same frozen lake just before the blonde kids had moved in.  Hence; the twist being the children (brunette) who you follow through the story are in fact ghosts and even they themselves don't realise it.  The reason they find their mother is because she also died; of a broken heart.  I read this book at the age of about 9/10 and have been searching for over 10 years, but can't find it anywhere.  I though maybe the book was called; the night before christmas / winter .... / something do do with winter or christmas?  The front cover I remember being quite dark colours and was a picture of a young brunette boy & girl looking out a window (staring straight at you; as if you were stood on the opposite side of the window), and it may possbly have been snowing.  I remember it being a paperback book with quite small writing.  If anyone has any clues I would greatly appreciate your input as I can't seem to find the title for this book anywhere.  Thank you!

Sounds like ALL ON A WINTER'S DAY by Lisa Taylor, Scholastic, 1990, c1989.~from a librarian

Sheila Garrigue, All the children were sent away.  An eight-year-old British girl experiences loneliness and fear when she and many other children are evacuated to Canada during World War II.
Garrigue, Sheila, All The Children Were Sent Away, 1976.  From the flyleaf:  "Sara was eight when the bombs began falling.  The night before whe was sent away to Canada, in July 1940, one bomb hit the church tower in Peterstone.  The next morning, Sara said goodbye to everything she loved, and to her mother and father, who were staying at home to fight the Nazis. ... But instead of the forlorn journey she'd feared, Sara had adventures.  She found a hiding place in a lifeboat and, hanging between the two metal beams that helf it, sighted a school of dolphins alongside the ship.  She won a battle for independence from her guardian, gruff and snobbish Lady Drume.  And she made two best frineds, Maggie and Ernie, who like herself were sent away because England was under attack.  Together they almost forgot about the war.  Almost.  then the ship was torpedoed by a German sub..."
Sheila Garrigue, All The Children Were Sent Away, 1976.  Thanks, you solved another one!!! Very much appreciated!

Bosworth, J Allan, All the dark places, 1968. This sounds like the book but it's 20 matches not 13.  There is a map on the endpapers which might be the map that the requestor is remembering.   A sixteen-year-old boy sets out alone to explore a large and difficult cave in the Appalachian Mountains, becomes lost, and then loses all his sources of light except twenty matches.
All the Dark Places is correct. That was a quick solution, just one day! I'm sorry that I was not able to respond sooner. When I started looking for this book I checked a number of caving websites since some of these include book lists. On one of these sites I saw this title, but passed it by as it didn't match anything from my memory. Since, however, I have checked the suggestion and this is the book that I was remembering. Thank you for your help.

Goble, Paul, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, 1979.  This is a picture book about a Native American girl who is swept away with her tribe's horses during a stampede.  The mention of multicolored horses made me think of Paul Goble's other book, The Gift of the Sacred Dog, with its vivid illustrations of blue and red horses mingling with horses of more normal colors.
Jan Brett?, Fritz and the Beautiful Horses.  Might be the early Jan Brett book Fritz and the Beautiful Horses, but I don't know when it came out, if it fits the time frame.
There's an old lullaby called "All the Pretty Little Horses."  It was recently made into a picture book by Linda Saport, but I swear I remember a book version of it from the mid-70s too. Can't find anything about it, but it's a place to start at least...
This one might be a version of All the Pretty Horses that was illustrated by Susan Jeffers and published around 1974. Here's the library catalog summary:"Lulled to sleep by her mother's singing of the traditional lullaby, a little girl dreams of all sorts of horses." From a children's librarian.
A315 Here is the full text of All the Pretty Horses by Susan Jeffers:  "Hushaby, don't you cry. Go to sleep , little lady. When you wake,  you shall have all the pretty little horses. Blacks and bays, dapples  and grays. All the pretty little horses. Hushaby, don't you cry. Go  to sleep little lady."  The illus show the little girl on the horses cavorting over lots of  yellow flowers.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Jeffers, Susan.  All the Pretty Horses.   illus by Susan Jeffers.   Macmillan, 1974, 1st hardcover printing.  Ex-school library with the usual marks.  A bit worn, dust jacket has minor tears.  G/G.  $8

All Through the Day.  My sister solved my book stumper for me.  Tiny Tina was a chapter in the educational book All through the Day.

A man keeps chickens, and one night frostbite kills one of the chicken's toes. The man fashions little rubber boots for the chicken. A stray dog also shows up on the farm, in fact, the story has the word "dog" in the title; perhaps something like "One Dog", or "Along Came a Dog". I think the cover was red, and modern-artsy. The story was written more like a true tale than a fable, and was for teenagers. I read it in the 70's.

Meindert deJong, Along Came a Dog.Seems like a possibility.
Dejong, Meindert, Along Came a Dog, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. NY, Harper, 1958.  I'd say this is it. In the first chapter, the little red hen's toes (all of them) come off in a mud puddle because her feet froze over the winter. In chapter 3, the man carves her little 'duck feet' from a rubber strap, but this strangeness makes the other chickens attack her. Instead he pins the feet to his shirt to make a perch for her. All this time the big black dog hangs around trying to be taken in at the farm. He finally proves himself by protecting the little hen and her chicks from a hawk.
As for Along came a dog, I haven't read it yet, but I sure do remember the drawings! It's definitely the one. The cover isn't the same, but I'm sure the one I read originally was hardcover. So, two solved riddles! Thank you!!

Meindert deJong, House of Sixty Fathers.  Just a possibility for the first book. About a Chinese boy during World War II seems to fit some of the description, though it was a pig he had, not a bird.
#S215--Stories from my Childhood:  Well, the author is right for the chicken story.  Meindert DeJong,Along Came a Dog, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, 1958.  "A homeless dog becomes the protector of a hen who lost her toes."

O45 It is NOT Hurdy-gurdy holiday by Gale
Oh Boy! I thought I had a good contender here but I think the date is too late. Well-- I'll list it anyway just in case! Leo
Polito's Piccolo's Pranks, 1965.
Along Cherry Street, Ginn 1 1 reader.  I can't find the listing or number but have solved my own stumper, the reader with organ grinder and monkey is Ginn publisher, Along Cherry Street, first grade, first hardback.

Title: Alta in the Shadows Late 60's - mid 70's Author: Honoria deSackville Story: Young girl goes to live with mysterious relatives who can shapechange into felines. They are 1 of 3 families who can shapechange. (Cats, Snakes, Flies) They are all part of something called the Trine. Looking for book since mid 70's when it was accidently destroyed. HELP!

HRL:  oops, this isn't a stumper -- you know exactly what it is!  Okay, I'll find a copy for you.  Here's a description and a quote --  1st in the Trine Series. Alta comes to live with her mysterious new relatives and meets the brooding Ramses.

Donald J Sobol, Encyclopedia Brown series. This sounds like Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown.  His Father is the police chief and his best friend is a girl named Sally, but she's a tomboy, which might be why you remembered two boys.  There is a whole series of these books, starting with Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.
Donald J. Sobol, Encyclopedia Brown series, 1960's through present, copyright.  He doesn't have a crew cut, and he doesn't have a male partner, and his name is Leroy, not Harvey.  But his father is a police chief, and his partner in crime-solving is a girl named Sally, who is not his sister.  And he solves lots of cases, both for his father and for the neighborhood kids.
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin Fernald series.  This started with "The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald" in 1960 and ended 26 years later with "Alvin Fernald, Master of 1000 Disguises." I'm sure these are the books you're looking for. Check out alvinfernald.com.
Franklin W. Dixon, Hardy Boys series.  A bit obvious, but maybe the Hardy Boys series of books? A fan website describes them thus: "World-renowned private detective, and former ace NYPD sleuth FENTON HARDY seemed to always be off somewhere working on some important case, so that left his two teenage sons, FRANK and JOE, to watch over things in Bayport, a thriving town on the north-eastern seaboard. Fortunately, for generations of adolescents, they share their dad's zeal for bringing criminals to justice".
Clifford B. Hicks, The Alvin Fernald books.  This sounds like the Alvin Fernald books by Clifford B. Hicks.  The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald; Alvin's Secret Code; Alvin Fernald, Foreign Traveler; Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day; Alvin Fernald, Superweasel; Alvin's Swap Shop; Alvin Fernald, TV Anchorman; Alvin Fernald, Master of a Thousand Disguises.  Alvin has a little sister, Daphne, called "The Pest", his friend is named Shoie Shoemaker.  There's a website about him:  http://www.alvinfernald.com/.
Henry Higgins books. I think the writer is referring to the Henry Higgins books. I can not remember the author but the boy had a crew cut and solved mysteries.
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin's Secret Code, 2006, reprint.  Alvin Fernald and his buddy Shoie (sp?) get into -- and out of -- all sorts of hot water and mysteries in the series.  Alvin's dad is the police chief.
Clifford B Hicks, Alvin Fernald series, 1960, copyright.  Thank you so much!  The Alvin Fernald books are the ones my husband was remembering and he is enjoying them again as are our boys.  The Encyclopedia Brown series was also a good guess and we will be reading them as well.

I have a memory from my childhood (1980s) of an older childrens/YA series of books about a boy who masquerades as a superhero.  I believe he has a costume and maybe a cape.  I think he takes a superhero name that is kind of self-deprecating (the letter "D" could be a part of it).  The superhero name is part of at least one of the book titles.  I don't think the boy has any super powers, but he occasionally has ESP-type episodes.  The only plot line I remember involves stolen money, possibly a bank robbery, and the crime pinned on the wrong person (another character's parent(s)?). Our boy/superhero solves the years-old mystery and it turns out an armored car with the stolen money in it was buried in a mudslide and no one ever knew.  Does this ring any bells?
 

I'm sure you're thinking of the Alvin Fernald series by Clifford B. Hicks--I also read them as a child in the 1980s.  The main characters are Alvin, a red-haired boy with a genius for inventing; Shoey (sp?), his best friend; and Daphne, Alvin's kid sister.  In Alvin Fernald, Superweasel, Alvin turns himself into an environment-protecting superhero, "Superweasel," as a project for school. He wears a costume made out of pajamas or long underwear or something.  One of his "heroic deeds" is putting a board over a pollution-spewing factory smokestack, I think another involves dead fish.  A resentful classmate, son of the factory owner,  copies the costume and starts vandalizing the town to damage Superweasel's reputation.  The psychic episode and armored car mystery are in Alvin Fernald, TV Anchorman. The book is mainly about Alvin and his friends starting their own TV news program for kids, but they end up solving the mystery of a vanished armored car (which had gone over the side of a mountain, I think, and possibly was hidden by a landslide), thereby clearing the name of a grown-up friend, who turns out to be the long-lost father of one of their friends.  I think Alvin's sister pretends to be a psychic at one point (or perhaps that occurs in a different book in the series).
I sent in stumper B159 at the end of August, and checked religiously every week for two months to see if anyone had any ideas, but got discouraged when no one did.  Well, I just came back today to find that it has been solved!  Thank you so much, and thanks to whoever figured it out!  I'm heading to the library tomorrow.  :)

This book is Always Anne by Holly Wilson.   Anne  and her friend Claire try to make a dress form for popular Glory Hoffman with plaster, and it burns her skin.  It sounds awful, but it's actually a pretty funny chapter in the book.
Mystery solved! What a great service you provide. Thank you

Wolo, Amanda.  "Children's Story about Amanda the Snake, her friend Mr. Archibald the Monkey, and their unselfishness on their journey through the jungle. Black and white and color illustrated."

It is a tall book with a black hardcover, featuring “The Amazing Mumford” or “Mumford the Magician” from Sesame Street. On each page there is a picture of an item for a kid to count (example 10 lady bugs). On the last page it asks if you can count the stars and there are hundreds of stars. It must have been published somewhere between 1970 and 1977. Thanks!!

Stevenson, Jocelyn, Amazing Mumford presents the magic weather show, 1981.
Don't know the book, but just a guess here:  if it's a Sesame Street counting book, isn't it more likely to have starred The Count rather than The Amazing Mumford (a la peanut butter sandwiches)?
Norman Stiles (author) and Michael J. Smollin (illustrator), The Amazing Mumford and His Amazing Subtracting Trick: and featuring lovable, furry old Grover, 1972. This is just a guess, because I haven't read this book or seen its cover, but the date is right and the title suggests that items can be counted during the course of the story.  It is described (on another website) as an uncommon, oversized book.

Wickenden, The Amazing Vacation.  Some details of this remind me of the stumper:  Joanna (and her brother Ricky) are visiting relatives and learn that their older cousin, Emmeline, had gone through a "gate" into a different country, and left part of herself there.  So she's sort of ethereal in this world. The younger cousins go back through the "gate" to retrieve the item that Emmeline had left.  The gate is a huge stained glass window.  Joanna is fascinated with isthmuses and is delighted to cross one during her adventure.  Book is set in 1920's.
Dan Wickenden, Amazing Vacation, 1956.  (I posted the solution and am adding to it)  I just checked my copy of this book and Emmeline DOES play a harp!  So I think I'm correct in suggesting this is the solution.

Jane Langton, The Diamond in the Window.  I wonder if this is it?  Some of the details are off, but it's about a brother and
sister who rescue a long-lost aunt and uncle from a fantasy land.  A window is involved, although it's not stained glass.
Jane Langton, The Diamond in the Window.  I don't know if this book is old enough to be the one the submitter is looking for, but the plot sure sounds the same.
Langton, Jane, The Diamond in the Window.  Sounds like this could be it.
Wickenden, Dan, illustrator Eric Blegvad, The Amazing Vacation.  NY, Harcourt 1956.  I believe this may be it - it's also on the Solved List. Here's the full description: "How Ricky and Joanna climbed through the magic casement in their uncle's study and entered the Country Without a Name to search for Cousin Emmeline's turquoise. (Because she had left a possession there years before, poor Emmeline was not quite "all here" and since at eighteen she was too old to go back, it was clearly up to them.) Almost immediately, the children began to meet interesting people - Frederico, the Fretful Porpentine,  Matildagarde VII, a self-made queen,  Ali, a boa constrictor with a tragic past,  Chief Matinkatunk, the Last of the Shinnegonquins,  the Princess Citronella, and many others. Such unusual friends and enemies naturally lead to unusual adventures, but Joanna and Ricky are inventive and self-possessed  they grasp opportunities and thrive on complications. And with almost the whole Society of Wizards and Sorcerors helping, it's just a matter of time, magic and adventure before everything comes right." (Horn Book, Oct/56 p.352) Eric Blegvad also illustrated some of the Edward Eager books.
I can't help with the book title, but this does NOT sound like The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton.  Eleanor and Edward Hall are not sent to live with their uncle---when the book begins, they are already living in poverty with their Aunt Lily and mentally ill Uncle Freddy.  The beautiful stained glass window is not in a library, it's in a children's bedroom they discover hidden in the attic.  The window cannot be opened, so they never climb through it and enter a different world.  Instead, when they sleep in the hidden bedroom, they experience a series of dreams linked to a treasure hunt and the disappearance of Aunt Lily and Uncle Freddy's younger siblings, Ned and Nora Hall, and Prince Krishna, who was  engaged to Aunt Lily.  The book was written in 1962, and it was illustrated with wonderful pen and ink drawings by Eric Blegvad, but I don't think it's the one you're looking for because the story doesn't match at all.
---
The Amazing Vacation
A brother and sister enter a magical land, possibly through a window in their grandmothers attic. The boy joins a kids "army". His Boy Scout knife is magical here and they try to get him to trade it for a "better" knife in order to access the power of his knife. His sister searches for him. I read it early to mid 60's in Grade school library. Young Adult book.

Wickenden, Dan, Amazing Vacation.  It's also on the solved pages, with more info on plot details there.
Wickenden, Dan, The Amazing Vacation.  I suspect it is this one, from the Solved List. The character Emmeline has left a piece of jewelry behind in the land reached through the magic window, and so is not quite 'all there' in this world. The two children go back to rescue it, and the boy accidentally leaves his jack-knife behind.
Dan Wickenden, The Amazing Vacation, 1956.  I think this may be the right book.  Joanna and her brother Ricky are spending the summer with their odd great-uncle and great-aunt.  They go through a magic window into another country (the Country Without a Name), where they must complete a quest.  Each carries a special token -- for Ricky, it's his new Scout knife  for Joanna, her knitting bag.  These tokens have great power for the people who live in that country, so at one point, an evil boy wants to give Ricky a fancier knife in exchange for the Scout knife.

T7: Vague, but it sounds like the 1940s Augustus series by Le Grand, a.k.a. Le Grand Henderson. There's Augustus Goes South, which I remember from an excerpt in The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature and at least ten other titles, all of which begin with the word "Augustus". They are ...Jeep, Border, Ship, Mountains, River, Desert, Road, Army, Navy, and Marines. They're all at the third-grade level or so. The first one I mentioned involves robbers on the lam. Le Grand wrote other stories too, many of them funny.
Horn Book again, Sept-Oct/44 ad for McGraw-Hill Whittlesey House American Caravan, by Frances Frost, illustrated in color by Lee Townsend. "The rollicking Pettigrews - Dad, Mom, Juniper and Pete - journey through the 48 states, gathering animal friends as they go. Everybody has fun - and learns the geography and natural wonders of the United States. A rebus in verse with hundreds of amusing pictures. Ages 8-12."  The number of family members is right, and the book could have been around still in the mid-50s, but the query doesn't mention verse or rebus, so it's not definite.
I was browsing your site (mysteries solved section) and came across a description of a book called American Caravan that was about a family that travelled across America in a mobile home and saw highlights from various states as they did so.  I own and have loved since childhood a book called Runaway Home from the Alice and Jerry series by Elizabeth Coatsworth (illustrations by Gustav  Tenggren) which also fits this basic scheme: 2 parents and 2 children must uproot themselves from their home on the east coast and travel west to their new home. It was a school book, a basic reader that also gave a sense of US (48 state) geography and history. Some of the places the family visits are the Petrified Forest and Jamestown's Lost Colony in Virginia. Perhaps this is the book that is being sought?  Great website, I bookmarked it for future use.

A possibile title is Wonderful Dolls of Papier Mache by Jo Elizabeth Gerken (Doll Research Associates, 1970, 227 pgs.
Jordan, N.R., American Costume Dolls: How to Make and Dress Them, 1940s.  I remember this book very well!  The illustrations are beautiful, the sewing impossible.  The Civil War dress has about a dozen flounces, all edged with ribbon... she might have been Lucinda, but I think Lucinda was the Mexican-War era doll wearing a little bolero.  Then there was "Barbara: Of Today" in a little 1940s outfit, very cute.

Vladimir Hulpach, American Indian Tales and Legends, 1966.  I knew I'd read this one as soon as I saw the description.  So I called my sister, and with her help was able to track down what I think is the right one. Definitely a keeper.  "Color illustrations and endpapers by Miloslav Troup, translated by George Theiner  forty-six legends from thirty different tribes  'hundreds of years ago all the great American Indian chiefs gathered together to exchange the legends and lore that were native to their individual tribes  a magic calumet, or peace pipe, was passed around the campfire from mouth to mouth and memorised every single word of the ancient tales, faithfully retold here.
A131 Could it be this? Haven't unpacked it to see about style of illus or grouping of tales;  it was one of the few I had that weren't limited to one tribe's folklore.  Chafetz, Henry.  Thunderbird and other stories, illus by Ronni Solbert, Pantheon, c1964.

There are lots of books on this subject.  The best history of American children's publishing is Barbara Bader's American Picture Books: From Noah's Ark to the Beast Within (Macmillan, 1976).  She covers most of this meeting of childhood development and publishing response, and it really wasn't until the 20's that "children's books" as we know them came into existence.  There were several key book editors involved, and some studies by the American Library Association.  The bibliography in Baber's book should be able to direct you to other source material.

William Sleator, Among the Dolls,1975.   Vicky is angry when she gets a dollhouse instead of the bicycle she wanted for her birthday, so she plays meanly with the dolls, creating awful scenarios for them.  When she is pulled into the dollhouse and finds herself living among them, she is horrified to discover that the dolls have all taken on the cruel personalities she gave them.  They take their revenge on Vicky and set out to keep her living in their house for good.  The dolls did have strange names, but it has been a long time since I read this one and I cannot remember the name of the youngest doll.
Among the Dolls.  A possibility?
Sounds like AMONG THE DOLLS by William Sleator, 1975, 1991~from a librarian
Jane Curry, The Mysterious Shrinking House

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Sleator, William. Among the Dolls. illus by Trina Schart Hyman.  Trumpet Club, 1975. A 1989 mass paperback, VG.  $5

Balet, Jan B., Amos and the Moon.  (H.Z. Walck, 1959, c1948)  "Amos thought he had captured the moon but the next morning it had vanished--so he went searching for it."

I think A66 is the Rose Colored Glasses (not sure if Rose Colored is hyphenated or not) by Ruby Lorraine Radford.  The description sounds like my memory of the book.
More on the suggested title: Ruby Lorraine Radford Rose-Colored Glasses, reprinted by the Theosophical Publishing House 1970, illustrated by Iris Weddell White, 56 pages "A quest book for children, b&w illustrations, pictorial cover, octavo" Maybe too recent: Newman, Nanette Amy Rainbow and the Magic Spectacles illustrated by Evie Bricusse, London, Franklin Watts 1980. "A rather sweet picture-story book".  No plot description, but there's also Joe de Mers Taffy and the Rose-Colored Glasses published Hollywood, Rogue Press 1945.
Thank you for solving my mystery. I have been thinking about this book for  he last couple of years and you guys found it for me in a couple of weeks. The book I was looking for was Amy Rainbow and the Magic Spectacles by Nanette Newman, now all I have to do is find a copy!

Zilpha Keatly Snyder, Green Sky triglogy. The cover you describe is the middle book in the series, And All Between.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And All Between, 1979.This is the second book of the Green-sky trilogy which starts with Below the Root and ends with Until the Celebration. It was also made into an early popular video game. You'll probably get lots of responses.
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley, Green Sky Trilogy. This is one of the Green Sky books.  One of the books is told from Teela's point of view.  That's the one you want.  The others are from the point of view of the "tree people."  I absolutely loved this series - especially the first one, "Below The Root.
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley, Below the Root and sequels, 1975, approximate. Olzhaan are a special class of people in Snyder's Green Sky trilogy which begins with Below the Root.  The others are And all Between, and Until the Celebration.  The trilogy has an underground civilization and a different civilization living in trees. One or both of the peoples had telepathy.   I think this is what you're looking for.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And All Between, 1985. This is the book! I almost cried when I came to check and found responses to my stumper. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!! If I'm ever stumped again, I know where I'm coming!!! :D

Jennifer Courtney, Pepito the Naughty Donkey. I have owned a copy since the early '70s. Cannot locate it to check the artwork, but I recall more art than text. It was also a scratch n' sniff. Hope this helps.
Possibly Donkey, Donkey by Roger Duvoisin (Grosset, 1940 and Parents Magazine Press, 1968.  It's about a donkey who is teased by the other animals on the farm about his long ears. The illustrations are simple, black pen outlines with watercolor.
Juan Ramon Jimenez, translated by Roach, Eloise, Platero and I, 1957.  Possibly thinking of Platero, the little gray donkey from Spain?  Beautiful, spare line drawings by the author.  The book is made of short chapters detailing the author's daily life, how he relates to the other villagers, and the palpable love flowing to and from his little donkey, Platero.  My mother read this one to me as a child and some of the stories always made me cry.  Still do.  The stories of village life are beautifully limned, this is a wonderful testament to the ability of the translator.
Could this be Achilles the Donkey (1962) by H. E. Bates and Carol Barker?
I think I found it!! Yes!yes!-  ...and Juan by Terry Shannon, illustrated by Charles Payzant (Albert Whitman and Co. 1961). The story of the youngest child in a family of potters. Vibrant pictures in festive folk art colors capture the gaity of the local scene. Apparently Shannon-Payzant have a folk art collection on which the pottery and artwork is based! Wonderful, wonderful illustrations, very evocative of Mexico! The book was a Junior Literary Guild selection chosen as an outstanding book! Check it out!

#S177--sangre de cristo new mexico:  This is the Newbery Award winner ...and now Miguel, by Joseph Krumgold.

Ray Bradbury, And the Sailor, Home from the Sea, 1960.  Unless there's a similar story out there with the same theme, I'm guessing that this is "And the Sailor, Home from the Sea" by Ray Bradbury.  This short story was originally published by The Saturday Evening Post as "Forever Voyage," then reprinted in 1964 in _The Machineries of Joy_.  This book is out of print, but used copies are easily obtained.  Captain Tom is an elderly wheat farmer who lives with his cook, Hanks, on an inland prairie.  He had once been a middle-aged ship's captain who married a younger woman.  On their first sea voyage together, Kate died and was buried at sea.  The grieving captain turned his back on the sea and farmed wheat for twenty years, with the faithful ship's cook his only companion.  One morning, Tom has a premonition of his own death, and asks Hanks to "Bury me where she is."  He dies the next morning and Hanks buries him in the wheat field.  For there was just the ocean of wheat going on and on forever...and not a line or seam or ripple to show where the old man sank from sight.  "It was a sea burial," said the minister.  "It was," said Hanks.  "As I promised.  It was, indeed."

Madeena Spray Nolan, The Gift, 1970s.  I read a similar book in the mid-1970's, and I think it is this one. The one I remember had a grandmother give three children magical gifts right before she died.  She gave the youngest son incredible musical talent, but he would not take it seriously.  She gave the oldest daughter the gift of dance but she loses it when she breaks her leg.  She gave the middle daughter the gift of seeing into the future and other esp ability, and the story is about her.
Schotter, Roni, A Matter of Time.  Sep. 1981.
Lois Duncan, A Gift of Magic,1971.  Some of the details don't match, but Nancy has ESP, including the ability to see the future, and a trouble-prone younger brother.  She is also having a great deal of trouble adjusting to the new man in her Mom's life.
I have not read this  book so I don't know if all the particular details match- but Lois Duncan wrote a book Gift of Magic (1972)that involved a girl named Nancy and ESP.I just stumbled across a brief summary and I thought of this posting!
The book one poster remembers as The Gift is the Duncan A Gift of Magic.  The younger brother's name was Brendan, and the older sister's was Kirby.  It was her grandmother who passed the ESP to Nancy, as well as the other siblings' gifts to them.  Nancy uses  retrocognition to visit her grandmother at the time of her death when this occurred.
Ellen Conford, And This is Laura.  Just a guess.
Ellen Conford, And This is Laura. Just did a quick search on afterschool specials- 'The Girl With ESP' ran in 1980, and from the summary I read, it seems that we have a match! Laura's little brother has the ability to remember any TV commercial perfectly, and I remember that detail from the book.
Ellen Conford, And This Is Laura. 1985.  I think this may be the book you're talking about.  The girl's little brother was always reciting commercials and I'm pretty sure wearing a pith helmet.  And he got lost at the end.  Hope this helps.
Hello! I wrote in asking for help with the name of this book, and once again the mystery has been solved! The name of this book is And this is Laura by Ellen Conford.  Do you have a copy of  this in either paper or hardback?  Thanks so much!

Stella Pevsner, And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine, 1979. Andrea is the youngest, Joe is away at college, and 16-year-old Elaine is an obnoxious rebel who can''t get along with anyone in the family. But when Elaine runs away and Joe is killed in an accident, Andrea grows in compassion and tolerance.
Stella Pevsner, And you give me a pain, Elaine, 1983.
And You Give Me A Pain, Elaine, late 70s early 80's. This sounds like it could possibly be this book. I remember reading it in the early to mid 1980s.  All I know for sure is that the story is told from the point of view of a younger sister who adores her older brother (possibly named Rob?)and struggles with her older sister, Elaine, who is sullen, sarcastic, and generally mean to her little sister.  When the older brother dies, it puts a greater strain on the two sisters' relationship until their shared grief allows them to appreciate each other more. Good luck!
Book stumper #B566 was solved correctly (And You Give Me A Pain, Elaine).  Your site rocks!   Thank you!

Anderson's Fairy Tales (Szyk illus.)
We're looking for a book that was given to our sister around 1963 or so. It is most memorable for its illustrations  -  fullcolor plates, vivid colors, in the style of Arthur Rackham; in addition, each story had some pen & ink drawings of the characters, events, etc..  It had a dark cover - blue gray? - and was about 8 x 10, This book could be Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales or an anthology that includes both Grimm's and Andersen. (We could be wrong about the Grimm's and be remembering another book from our childhood) Stories included are Thumbelina (full color illustration of Thumbelina and the bird), Darning Needle, The Tinderbox.  There were  other stories we can't remember the name of but they were about a young woman who had to knit sweaters out of nettles to tun her swan brothers into humans, a porcelain shepherdess who was supposed to marry a Chinese porcelain man, and two sisters (Rose red and Snow White?).  This ring a bell with anyone?

A42:  Maybe not the same, but I know a two-volume set of Grimm's Fairy Tales and Andersen's Fairy Tales by Grosset and Dunlap. The Grimm has a red cover with a small colored picture from "The King of the Golden Mountain", it's translated by Lucas, Crane and Edwardes and it's illustrated by Fritz Kredel, and the Andersen is green with the emperor and the nightingale on the front, the translators are Lucas and Paull, and the illustrator is Arthur Szyk, whose fantastic though not glamorous style and colors may well make one think of Rackham.  The tales you listed are by Andersen. They are both from the 1940s or earlier.
A42 anthology, yes another: more on the suggested Andersen's Fairy Tales, illustrated by Arthur Szyk, published Grosset & Dunlap 1945, 343 pages, approx. 8.5" x 6". The colour plates by Szyk are quite memorable, though I'm not sure I'd call them Rackhamesque, and there are b/w illos as well. The cover is dark green, with a small pastedown colour picture. There is another edition with an offwhite cover with a repeat pattern of capital A and a swan. Contents are: The Garden of Paradise, Little Tiny (Thumbelina), Fir Tree, Storks, Little Ida's Flowers, Red Shoes, Ugly Duckling, Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, Bottle Neck, Snow Queen, Marsh King's Daughter, Wild  Swans (swan brothers), Great Claus and Little Claus, Shepherdess and the Sweep (porcelain sheperdess and Chinaman), Bell, Angel, Nightingale, Holger the Dane, Emperor's New Clothes, Steadfast Tin Soldier, Little Match Girl, Swineherd, Elder-Tree Mother, Hans Clodhopper, Princess and the Pea, What the Good Man Does Is Always Right, Roses and the Sparrows, Old Street Lamp, Tinder Box (named). It doesn't include Rose Red and Rose White or Darning Needle, so this doesn't prove it one way or the other, yet.

Hmm...maybe this is a book with Grimm's tales and others; Snow Queen is H.C. Anderson.
G36: Sounds a lot like the Grimm/Andersen two-volume set I identified in A42! Yes, the Andersen does have the Szyk picture of the Snow Queen and other characters inside each cover.
G36 grimms anthology: Andersen's Fairy Tales, illustrated by Arthur Szyk, published Grosset & Dunlap 1945, 343 pages. The endpapers in the Andersen volume of the Andersen and Grimm set illustrated by Szyk  are similar to those described. The Snow Queen wears a red cape and has her powdered hair piled high (don't know if that qualifies as 'long'?), with long elegant fingers (can't make out the nails). She is a large figure, with little Kay beside her, and several other characters from the stories. The Grosset edition does include both The Princess and the Pea, and The Snow Queen.

R28: Andrew Henry's Meadow (1965) written and illustrated by Doris Burn. Each kid has a hobby that nobody else cares about or else considers a nuisance, so they set up their own community. Andrew is the young housebuilder.
I think I've got some info on R28: Runaways. If this is the same book, it's part of the Weekly Reader series & my mom bought it for me back in the late '60s/early '70s. My younger brother, much younger cousin, & I all loved it! Unfortunately, my copy is packed in my aunt's attic (in Philly & I'm in Michigan) or I'd be checking for title & author right now. The illustrations are primarily b/w, & each runaway builds his/her house at a different time of day & that page mentions a different meal. I remember that part so vividly because I had never heard of the word "lupper" before--the meal between lunch & supper. Hope this helps jog someone else's memory to come up w/the title & author, & thanks for your wonderful site!
Yep, that is the book, and I found one, you are very good!  Thanks for the heads up!

Doris Burn, Andrew Henry's Meadow.  I'm pretty sure this is the one.  The size, plot & pictures match, right down to the dragonflies.
Doris Burn, Andrew Henry's Meadow, c.1965.  Definately Andrew Henry's Meadow. Supposedly, this book is now being turned into a movie with a script written by Zach Brach of 'Scrubs' and 'Garden State'.
Doris Burn, Andrew Henry's Meadow, 1965.  THIS IS IT!!! Thank you so much! This is my first time using your service and you got it right!! Now I just need to find a copy of this that's the same edition I had as a kid in the early 70s. Great work!
B373 Burn, Doris. Andrew Henry's meadow.   DRAGONFLIES ARE THERE

Burn, Doris, Andrew Henry's meadow, 1965.  This sounds a lot like the ever popular Andrew Henry's meadow.  More on your solved pages

Hicks.  PossiblyThe Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald.
Doris Burn, Andrew Henry's Meadow. More on Solved Mysteries, I'm sure.
Andrew Henry's Meadow again!
Thank you very much! My stumper was solved B396.  Do you carry the book, Andew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burn?

Doris Burns, author and illustrator, Andrew Henry's Meadow.  Sounds like this one!  See the "Solved Mysteries" A page for more.
Jean George, My Side of the Mountain.  I believe that Sam, the hero of My Side of the Mountain, did hollow out a tree to make a house for his friend Bando - possibly for another friend as well.
Doris Burns (author and illustrator), Andrew Henry's Meadow.  Sorry to disagree, but My Side of the Mountain isn't a match.  It doesn't have a lot of illustrations, and the protagonist doesn't build multiple homes suited to the personalities/hobbies of his friends.  Andrew Henry's Meadow fits both of these criteria, and I think its the correct solution to this stumper!  Recently republished in a 40th anniversary hardcover edition by San Juan Publishing.

Burn, Doris, Andrew Henry's meadow, 1965.  This sounds a lot like the ever popular Andrew Henry's meadow.  More on your solved pages

Just after I submitted my Book Stumper question to you, I stumbled upon a link on Amazon and FOUND the book.  Talk about weird -- I've been looking for this title for 30 years, and all of a sudden, there it is!  The book I've been searching for is Andrew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burn.

Barbara Brooks Wallace, Andrew the Big Deal. (1970)  Hooray!  I finally found it, and my memories were pretty accurate!

#R50--Robots Come Alive:  Sounds like Andy Buckram's Tin Men, by Carol Ryrie Brink.  One poster speaks of nearly being flunked on a book report for not understanding the ending.  My sixth grade teacher yelled at a boy giving this report in front of the class because she refused to believe the book existed!  He took it with a lot better nature than I would have, though I had to admit, she gave him credit for a lot of imagination!
Brink, Carol, Andy Buckram's Tin Men, 1966.  This is definately it.

Val Teal, Angel Child, 1946.  this was published by Elf Books.  This was an easy book I had as a child, and it had a pale blue cover.  At the end of the story, the mother has a baby, and tells the brother and sister he's an "angel child."

Jane Trahey, Life with Mother Superior, 1962. Life with Mother Superior is the original title of this book (also a play) by Jane Trahey, but it was later named The Trouble With angels.  Basis for the movie with Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell.  Here is the IMDB link for the movie.
Forgive me, but you should not have said that B400 was solved.  The novel Life with Mother superior, later made in "The Trouble with angels," is an autobiographical novel whose leading character is jane; and all her friends have different names from all the names i mentioned in my summary; there is no blanca Maria mentioned in the summary of Life with Mother superior, and the tricks the girls pull are unknown to me in the book I read; plus there is no mention of blanca maria's father.  I can understand why the assumption was made, but i have serious, extremely serious doubts that Life with Mother superior could be the same novel as the one i'm looking for.  anyhow, I think I read it before 1962.
Tere Rios, An Angel Grows Up, 1957, copyright.  A friend from Bookshare remembered reading this in junior high.  I found it and indeed it was the one I was looking for.  The author also wrote a book called the Fifteenth Pelican which was the basis for the Flying Nun TV series.

Possezzere, Heather Graham, An Angel's Touch, Kensington 1995.  Might be this one - "Don and Cathy Angel are an enviable New York couple  he's a successful lawyer, she's a rising interior designer, until a deadly car accident on Christmas Eve turns them into a couple of angels. In the crowded, misty corridors of the afterlife, ruled over by a God who's depicted as a celestial CEO, they take a meeting with the Angel Gabriel. Acerbic and businesslike, with a taste for Versace suits and stretch limos, Gabriel briefs the couple on procedure: to earn their wings, they must perform six Christmas miracles by midnight. Equipped with paranormal powers, Don and Cathy return to Earth. In Boston, they help unite a hard-drinking man with his long-suffering wife and aid an elegant bag lady in Florida, they offer comfort to a terminally ill nun, who is afraid to die, and to a suicidal young angel expert who needs a reason to live. Returning to New York, the angels face their ultimate test."

I don't know the author of A80, but I remember the story clearly.  The full title is Creamed Angleworms on toast.
Kantor, MacKinlay, Angleworms on Toast, 1942, 1969.  I remember that book, too! It was greatly enhanced by the drawings of Kurt Wiese (1969 ed.) Hope you can find it - it was a library book in my hometown...
Angleworms on Toast, by MacKinlay Kantor, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published New York, Coward-McCann 1942. "Meet Thomas, naturalist and gourmet - and a most engaging, exasperating, beguiling and wholly lovable little boy." (HB Nov/42 p.389 pub.ad)
I found this site because of a question and answer about Angleworms on Toast.  This children's book is by my
grandfather, MacKinlay Kantor, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his Civil War novel, Andersonville. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the book; I think it went to one of my siblings.  But I do have vivid memories of my grandfather and my father--the "Thomas" of the book, who was always known as "Tim", for some reason--reading the book to me.  I am as near certain as possible that the title was not Creamed Angleworms..., but just Angleworms on Toast.  I can see the cover clearly in my mind's eye and I have heard the book referred to oodles of times, always as Angleworms on Toast.  (You are right, however, in the sense that the book is about creamed angleworms on toast.).

Thornton Burgess' Bedtime Story Books (examples: The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum, The Adventures of Johnny Chuck, The Adventures of Reddy Fox)?  Or perhaps Arthur Scott Bailey's Tuck-Me-In Tales, Slumber-Town Tales or Sleepy-Time Tales (examples: The Tale of Rusty Wren, The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot, The Tale of Tommy Fox)?  The Burgess books are more popular, and both series are small.
I also thought of the Burgess books immediately but my set isn't quite half the size of normal books.  I then wondered if this writer isn't thinking of the Beatrix Potter series.  They would fit the size description.  Some of those titles are: The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle.
The orange/brown color of the cover in this series makes me think that it might be the Animal Adventure Series. Designed for 1st to 2nd grade reading levels and printed in the 60's and 70's, they included vocabulary lists in the back. The titles were things like Sally The Screech Owl, Becky The Rabbit and Pudge The Beaver.
Darby, Gene. Sally the Screech Owl. Illustrated by Edward Miller. Chicago: Benefic Press, 1964.

How about this one: Animal Counting Book, adapted from "Over in the Meadow", Pictures by Moritz Kennel Copyright 1969 by Western Publishing Company - A Little Golden Book.  My favorite page and possibly the person looking for the book as well:  Over in the meadow/in a snug beehive/Lived an old mother bee/and her little bees five/Buzz said the mother/We buzz said the five/So they buzzed all day/in a snug beehive.  Also, there are some 'dark', pages, like the 1 Beaver and the 3 Owls.

Battaglia, Aurelius. Animal sounds. Golden, 1981.
Buerckholtz, Henry M., First Animal Book, 1985.  This is only a suggestion.  I couldn't find a picture of the book, or a copy for sale for that matter.  It is a board book published in New York by Banner Press, 10 pages, color illustrations, 16 cm.  It was the only animal book from that era I could find with an author whose name was somewhat similar.

Georges Duplaix, Animal Stories, 1944.  This particular story is 1-page (8 illustrations) and is called The Bulldog and the Friendly Puppy.  The puppy, white with reddish-brown spots, has a big, juicy bone.  The fierce-looking bulldog with a green collar and tag with a swastika takes the bone away.  Last picture shows sad puppy and caption reads, 'and the poor puppy had no bone at all'

A127 Do you  suppose the author was Hergé - The adventures of Tintin: Destination moon [and others]. Atlantic Monthly Press / Little, Brown,  American printing c1976, comics-style illustration on quality paper, rather than on newsprint; spaceship, rocket, to the moon
The solution to A127 is Animal Stories byGeorges Duplaix with illustrations by Feodor Rojankovsky.  The version the requester is seeking is the original edition published by Simon and Schuster with 46 stories.  The book was republished by Golden Press as a Big Golden Book with only 18 of the stories.  That edition is missing many marvelous things such as the story of The Fighting Rhinoceros.
ok, i found the answer to my own stumper.  it was listed in your anthology section but i didn't recognize it at first because there was no identifying picture as with the other anthologies.  it was Animal Stories by George Duplaix copyright 1944.  most of the story titles are also rather vague in the description of the contents so i didn't really recognize anything until i reread your description and recognized the seagull and the skunk story.  oddly enough, my mother gave me a box of old books of mine the other day and this one was in there.  we've been reuinted!

Georges Duplaix, Animal Stories, 1944.  See more on Solved Mysteries.
Thank you so much for finding the answer to my query, and so quickly, too.  I have the '71 edition of Animal Stories which was renamed Animal Tales, but since it omitted the "The Bulldog and the Friendly Puppy," I had no idea that it was originally part of this volume.  In doing a web search, I noticed a copy from 1944 inscribed by Truman Capote.  Price:  $4,375.50.  Understandably, I'm looking for something a bit cheaper.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Duplaix, Georges.  Animal Stories.  Illustrated by Rojankovsky. A Giant Golden Book. Simon & Schuster, 1944.  38 stories.  I suspect this is a 1960's printing, but it doesn't say.  There's no bulldog or rhinoceros in this edition.  Edges worn, corners very bumped and frayed, small piece of white tape on spine.  G+.  $18

Burton, Maurice, Animal World In Color, Chrilren's Press, 1969.  I think this is the set you're looking for. "A twelve-volume series exploring animal behavior with each volume concentrating on a particular characteristic or specific animal group."  Vol. 7 is titled Hunters: Mammals.
Maurice Burton, editor, Animal World in Color Volume 7 Hunters Mammals, 1969.  Published in 1969 by Regensteiner Publishing, Childrens Press, Chicago.  I did an eBay search and came up with this title.  The date doesn't fit, and the cover isn't exactly as described, but perhaps this is a revised or reprinted edition of an earlier work?  To see it, search on eBay.
...and yes, it IS Animal World in Color!!!!!!! I just ordered it off of Ebay - funny, becasue every few weeks for years I had been doing a search of "hunters/mammals" on ebay, with no result! Loganbooks is a godsend! Thank you thank you thank you!!! Just looking at the cover pic on ebay gave me a jolt of nostalgia almost bordering on religious experience! Yeeehaw!

Kathryn B. Jackson, The Animals' Merry Christmas.  1950, 1958.  This is definitely the book, I'm holding it in my lap as I type. It's a collection of short stories and poems, with Richard Scarry illustrations. The piece you're recalling is the second entry: "Green Christmas"  "It's almost Christmas, and still no snow!" Cry the woodland creatures. "We still can go Out of our houses to search for roots And seeds in the dry grass, and maybe shoots   etc. . .
Note: there was both a Little Golden Book and a Big Golden Book version of this title.  Most people seek the more elusive (and I believe longer version) of the Big Golden Book.

Haber, Shel and Jan, The Animals' Vacation, 1964.  The zookeeper lets all of the animals out of their cages so they can each set off on a two-month vacation back to the countries they originally came from.

Possibly ? -- Animals Who Changed Their Colors by Pascale Allamand (Lothrop, 1979).  "The polar bear, whale, tortoise, and two crocodiles try to imitate the parrot's beautiful colors, only to discover how impractical they are."
That is the book, I don't remember it looking exactly like that but I do remember the bear using green on himself.  Do you know if there were any other versions with different illustrations besides the ones in the 1979 version?
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I'm looking for a book I used to have when I was little (born in '81). It was about a white bear (polar bear, I'd guess) who wanted to change his color. He went through the forest looking at other animals and their different colors, and he'd try to change his color. One specific way I remember is that he rolled in berries to stain his fur so he'd be purple like the crocodiles he saw. Of course it washed off when he went in the water.
It was a very beautifully illustrated book with watercolor pictures, I think.

Pascale Allamand, The Animals Who Changed Their Colors, 1979, copyright.  The polar bear, whale, tortoise, and two crocodiles try to imitate the parrot's beautiful colors, only to discover how impractical they are. English version by Elizabeth Watson Taylor.
Lavie, Arlette, The Little White Bear Cub, 1985, copyright.  After a series of tries at being another color, a polar bear learns to appreciate his snowy whiteness.
Pascale Allamand, The Animals Who Changed Their Colors, 1979, copyright.  This is it!! I didn't remember the other animals until I saw the picture on the cover of the book. Thank you so much, this is quite a bit of nostalgia for me!

Sleator, William, The Angry Moon, 1970.  Boston, Little Brown.  illustrated by Blair Lent.  This retelling by Sleator, recalls the Tlingit Indian legend of a girl who angers the moon and who is held captive by the moon until her grandma rescues her, using a combination of magic and a ladder.  The illustrations are based on original Tlingit motifs which may be why it seems surreal.
The Angry Moon- I'll look into this, but I don't think this is the book I had in mind. I definitely don't remember any Native American connection, and the cover image I found online for Sleator's book doesn't look like the kind of artwork I remember- but I'll check it out anyway, and post an update.
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Frances D.Francis, illustrated by Alan Aldridge, Ann in the Moon, 1970. This is the one. Just happened to mention it to a friend who immediately came up with the answer.

Ann Likes Red 

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A44 is Annabel and Bryony by Marjorie Phillips illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Oxford U P 1953. Virginia, Nick, Annabel and Dick find another road [to fairyland] and meet Bryony, Lord Tamus, Captain of the 1st Royal Company of the Enchanters ...
You, or your original correspondent, may be interested to know that the first of three unpublished sequels to the book will shortly be published in a small edition. Full details are below.
In 1953 the Oxford University Press published a book called Annabel and Bryony by Marjorie Phillips, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes (the illustrator of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, and some of Tolkien's stories).  Annabel and Bryony was the story of four children, of whom Annabel was the youngest, who, one Christmas Day, find a very young lost fairy. She is too young to return home on her own, so the four children set out on a long and perilous journey to take her back to the fairy realm.  "On publication it received universally favourable reviews," the author's daughter Vivien Gambrill says, but the three sequels remained unpublished, although the author considered them all to be "better and more closely knit" than the first book. The first of those sequels, Annabel and Tawny, will shortly be issued in a small edition by the Curved Air Press. If it is a success, the others will follow.  At this stage, we don't want people to start sending us money. All we need are expressions of interest!  -- Russell & Ghillian Potts,  The Curved Air Press rpotts@talk21.com

On the kids riding on dragonflies, it seems like one of the Thumbelina or Adventures in Fairyland described the same thing.
They're fairies, not children, but The Adventures of Prince Melonseed by M. Ella Chaffey, Toronto, Briggs, 1916, has a cover illustration of the hero, a young fairy boy, riding a dragonfly. Melonseed rides a dragonfly while searching for his brother, Orangepip. There's a war with the mice, a fairy princess to be rescued from a rocky island, and so on. Probably not the book wanted, but just in case.
Marjorie Phillips, Annabel and Bryony, 1953.  The fairies in this book ride on dragonflies. The four children who visit them have an opportunity to do so as well.

A132: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery? Written a century ago.
MONTGOMERY, L.M., ANNE OF GREEN GABLES.  OF COURSE
"Anne with an e" is Anne of Green Gables...or is that too obvious?
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  from AnneW (spelled with an E)
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, 1908.  Your namesake is one of the most intrepid, winsome and storied heroines in literature! Here's a synopsis from the 'net: "This is one of the best books ever written and the credit goes to spirited Anne (make sure it's spelled with an e!) Shirley. Anne of Green Gables is the first of a series on this lovable orphan, and it begins with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a respectable brother and sister, living at Green Gables. They are both growing old and need a boy to help out on the farm. But they got a talkative redhead girl instead. Before they can send her back to the orphanage, Anne has managed to win the hearts of Prince Edward Island with her wit and imagination."
Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  Kind of an obvious guess. It'll probably be submitted quite a few times.
LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  You may be looking for the Anne of Green Gables books...Anne always makes a point of telling people her name is "Anne, spelled with an E." My only hesitation is that they took place on Prince Edward Island, Canada, not the frontier, but it was in the 19th century.
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  Anne Shirley insisted upon having her name spelled with an 'e'
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  Anne of Green Gables insisted that her name be spelled with an "e." And although her adoptive family members weren't pioneers, they were rural, farming people...
There is a specific section of the Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Avonlea) where Anne instists that her foster family spell her name with an "E" at the end.  I think this fits the description of your search.
Lucy Maud Montgomery , Anne of Green Gables,1908. I don't know if this is the book you want, but I'm pretty sure that this Anne always said "Anne with an E."
Anne of Green Gables.  The Anne of Green Gables series comes to mind for me, because she was particular about spelling her name with an 'e'. She wasn't a pioneer, but she certainly dealt with a lot of difficulties in a creative way, and it sounds to me like this could be the book.
You'll probably get a million responses on this---"Anne with an e" is Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery.  She definitely had adventures in a rural setting (Prince Edward Island, Canada) though I wouldn't really describe  at as a pioneer-type story.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.  This may be a little too obvious, but could this be Anne of Green Gables (or one of its many sequels by L.M. Montgomery?  I do recall that she was particular about spelling her name with the "e" on the end.
This is not so much an adventure story, but Anne does live in "pioneer times" and was quite a spirited child, always getting into trouble. The part about insisting the name be spelt with an E is what makes me convinced this
is it.  Anne of Green Gables makes a big deal SEVERAL times in the book about how her name should only be spelt with the E and how it looks much better that way.
Wow, the response seems unanimous. I read voraciously growing up and I can't imagine how I missed the Anne of Green Gables series, except perhaps there are no horses. That was a primary criterion in my selection process. Still is.  Anyway, how much does a nice, first edition from that series go for now? I'd love to have one as a connection to my father. Meanwhile, I'm going straight to the library to check them out.  Thanks for your help in solving this long-standing mystery.  --Anne (with an e of course)
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Lucy Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables, published in the late 1960s/early 1970s.  Hi--Maybe this is the wrong place to request this, but I am looking for a specific edition of this classic.  I have searched the Internet but there are so many thousands of editions, I get overwhelmed with looking.  The only way I can pick it out is to see the actual cover.  I will describe that:  It is a hardcover book, I received it new in approximately 1967 or 1968, possibly a little later.  It was a large book, about 13" x 10" or bigger, height longer than width, like most books.  It had a picture of Anne on the cover, a young face with two red braids, smiling, and I remember it looking like an impressionist portrait, with lots of blues and greens in the background.  It was unabridged and beautifully illustrated.  I always felt I discovered it because when I read it, no one I knew had ever heard of either the book or the author!  I remember Anne was full frontal, looking out at you, with maybe the upper half of her body showing, but it was mostly a portrait style.  She was wearing a hat, with flowers in her hair or on the hat.  I remember the front and back cover backgrounds flowing into each other as in a total picture.  If this rings any bells, I'd love to see what you have, I will only know it by seeing the cover.  Thanks for my three solved mysteries so far!

Not that it helps you at all, but this is the only thing I could find that remotely matches your description.  You're right, it's tough wading through everything online.
Take a look at this site.   The cover picture matches your description.  The book is large format about 8.5" x 13".  Illustrations all over the inside, too, some color, some b&w.  But it's abridged.
Montgomery, Lucy, Anne of Green Gables, 1961.  Thank you to both suggestions, how wonderful to have so much help with my search!  The first suggested cover certainly matched my description and I looked at it over and over again, trying to make it be the right one, but it just wasn't quite it, the picture of Anne is a little more modern than I remembered, and a little too cheerful, the Anne I remembered on my book was a little more subdued, but thank you so much for trying, it looked exactly like what I had described overall.  The second one, however, I think may have hit the jackpot!  I have contacted the bookseller of that one and requested to have additional illustrations from it sent to me so I can be sure, and I will let you know once I am positive.  I am very surprised that it is an abridged edition but, when I read it as a child, I would not even have noticed that of course.  Thank you so much to both of you, this is the most fun and useful web site I have ever found!  I never thought anyone would come up with the right one, I was really just shooting in the dark.  I am amazed that anyone could have sorted through the thousands of possibilities and come up with the right one so quickly!  I am forever in your debt.
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, condensed and abridged by Mary W. Cushing and D. C. Williams, Illustrated by Robert Patterson
Grosset & Dunlap, 1961.
The Cushing and Williams abridged edition is the one I've been searching for, I just got in the mail, thanks a million for your help in finding this childhood memory for me!

O12 Fleischer, Leonore; based on screenplay by Sobieski, Carol.  Annie.  Ballantine, c1982.  Little Orphan Annie; Sandy; Carol Burnett; Bernadette Peters; Albert Finney  paperback original,  [IF MY FLASHLIGHTS WERE WORKING, I'D GO CHECK THE STORY TONIGHT; CAN LATER IF DESIRED.]
Re. O12(Orphan Annie) I think that the right version is not Leonore Fleischer's movie tie-in, but Thomas Meehan's novel- I remember the spelling bee bit too.
Thomas Meehan, Annie.  This is definitely Thomas Meehan's Annie.  I checked it out from the library over and over as a child!  Wish I had a copy now...I think it is out of print.  It was a chapter book with a few color-plate illustrations and yes, you are right on about the orphan not being able to win the prize at the Geography bee.  A rich girl with gold braces took 2nd place and won it instead.  I believe the prize was an Rand-McNally Atlas that Annie wanted very badly too.  I think the rich girl's name was Myrtle or something very close to that.

#A93--Annie's Story:  Annie's Coming Out, by Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald.

Sounds like Jane Campion's movie about the real-life author Janet Frame, "An Angel at My Table" (1990).
A38 is Annie's Coming Out by Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald.  It's the story of Anne McDonald who was put in an institution at three and then much later found not to be retarded but having an inability to communicate.
More on the suggested title - Annie's coming out, by Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald, published Ringwood, Penguin Books Australia, revised ed. 1984, 255pp "The story of Anne McDonald who was crippled by cerebral palsy from birth but with the encouragement of her teacher, Rosemary Crossley, learned to communicate and manage her own affairs."
A93 Annie's Story: Sounds like the suggested answer to A38 Australian girl institutionalized: Annie's coming out, by Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald.
A38 Australian girl institutionalized: Annie's Coming Out seems like a good match, being Australian, the nameAnne McDonald being close to Anne McDougall, and the basic plotline being the same.

Annual Mammoth Book.  There were a series of annual books put out by Whitman Publishing called the Annual Mammoth Book. Most of these, as far as I can tell, had several sections such as Fairy Tales and Mother Goose.  Linda Card illustrated most of them.  Years that I have seen range from 1945-1956.
It doesn't have the right number of pages, but the rest is right.  The only book in WorldCat (library catalog database) that matches this description is: Title: Fairy tales Author(s): Gould, Jean.  Publication: Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Pub. Co., Year: 1944  Abstract: Collection of traditional fairy tales such as, Cinderela, Puss in boots, Beauty and the beast, Sleeping beauty, the Frog prince, etc.   illustrated by Linda Card.
Closest I could find: Annual Mammoth Story Book: Fairy tales, Black Beauty, Mother Goose,Heidi -Whitman- 1954- Jean Gould-illustrated by Linda Card.

G110 must be Another Day by Marie Hall Ets.

H. M. Hoover, Another Heaven, Another Earth, 1981.  Let's hope this makes it 3 for 3...!  I have not read this book, so am not certain of the details of this.  However, the plot summary looks close enough to warrant checking it out: "After being lost for several hundred years, a space colony is rediscovered by an exploratory expedition from Earth whose technology threatens to destroy the colony's painfully constructed civilization."
Mwah and mwah and mwah! Your, or your contributor's?, description and title didn't sound quite right, and the paperback cover illustration is wrong, but the hardback cover, when I found it, let me know you were right. Thank you again.

Adrienne Jones, Another Place Another Spring, 1971.  Possibly?  Two Russian women do flee the secret police and one of them does end up at Fort Ross.
Adrienne Jones, Another Place Another Apring, 1971.  Someone posted this book under R114 and it is the right one. Thanks much!!!

I think this is  Another Way to Dance by Martha Southgate.  Plot summary:  "As one of very few African-American girls studying classical ballet, fourteen-year-old Vicki feels out of place both in her classes and with other black kids. Battling against prejudice--and an even more destructive internalized self-hatred--she discovers that there's more than one way to be black, and more than one way to love dance."'

Edmund Selous, Jack's Insects.  Can't remember what the frontispiece looked like  but this is an early 20th century children's book about insects.
Selous, Jack's Insects.  If the book you're looking for is Jack's Insects, you might want to contact Tanglewood Education  for information on reprints.  Their website promises that this book will be added to their grade two homeschool curriculum next year.
Blanche Elizabeth Wade, Ant Ventures, c. 1924.  This is embarassing, but I solved my own stumper, and ordered a copy over the weekend.

Mrs Jamison, Lady Jane, 1890s
Jamison, Mrs. C.V. , Lady Jane; New York, Century, 1891.  I've just had a look at our library's copy of the 1963 reprint, and have some doubts. After her father's death, the little girl "Lady Jane" and her mother travel to New Orleans. On the way, a young man gives her a fledgling blue heron called Tony. Her mother falls ill before they reach their friends, and is taken in by a Creole woman, Madame Jozain, and her 'worthless son' Adraste. The mother dies, and Madame Jozain keeps the girl, while selling off their belongings. Friends that Lady Jane makes include Madelon the praline-maker, her crippled daughter Pepsie, Madelon's twin sister Tante Modeste, Gex the old vegetable seller and Mam'selle Diane who makes woollen pen-wipers. Raste is arrested for trying to sell the dead woman's watch, and Madame Jozain flees, sells Tony and makes Lady Jane beg on the street. Jane ends up at the Orphans Home, where at last all is made clear and her millionaire grandfather claims her, the good are rewarded and the evil punished. There are no mice, other than a black servant called 'tite Souris (little mouse).
Mrs. C.V. Jamison, Antoinette's Philip, c.1893.  This is not Lady Jane, but written by the same author. The hero is a boy, Philip, who has been raised by his Creole nursemaid since his parents died. He has a pair of mice who he is caring for they actually belong to his parish priest, and is friends with a little girl who has a dog named Hugo and a father who is a sculptor. Eventually he is adopted into a nice family with a very supercilious little girl. The mother in the adoptive family thinks he isn't "refined" enough for the family and makes him miserable and he runs away with the help of his nursemaid's little boy. Then the mother discovers he is her deceased sibling's child and frantically searches for him.  This story was first published in St. Nicholas magazine in 1893.

Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box, originally published 1965, paperback 1969.  Those stories do make a lasting impression, don't they?! Your memories of the stories, even after all this time, were clear enough that I recognized them instantly as "Something Bright" and "Food to All Flesh" by Zenna Henderson, one of my all-time favorite authors. The book you will find them in is called THE ANYTHING BOX. I don't think it's been reprinted recently but it should be fairly easy to locate a used copy now you know what to look for.
Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box, 1965.  Reissued in 1977, currently out of print but easy to find in paperback and not
expensive.  The first story you remember is "Something Bright". A poor child stays with elderly neighbors for a week during the Great Depression---she thinks they are wealthy because they have eggs for breakfast every day!  The old folks enter a bright and beautiful world under their bed and leave her a "treasure"---all of their possessions, including a paper bag of eggs.  The other story you remember is "Food to All Flesh".  Padre Manuel meets a starving alien and tries to feed it.  He does not succeed---it regurgitates everything he offers it.  The alien's baby is finally satisfied after it takes a chunk out of Padre Manuel's  thumb, but the alien shows great restraint and leaves him unharmed.  Zenna Henderson is primarily known as the author of numerous short science fiction stories about The People.  These have been collected in a wonderful book (currently in print) called Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson.  If you enjoyed The Anything Box, yo''ll love this book!
Zenna Henderson, Anything Box.  DEFINITELY this one!  It is still in print, I believe.
Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box.  (It could be Holding Wonder, but I think these two stories are in A.B.) Here's a link to "Something Bright". The other story might be titled "Food to All Flesh".
Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box, 1969.  The two short stories in question are "Something Bright" and "Food to All Flesh". She also wrote "The People" stories collected in Ingathering and another collection of shorts called Holding Wonder.
Henderson, Zenna, The anything box, 1965.  Both of the stories mentioned are in this book, the one with the child lying on the floor looking under the bed where the couple, a pair of alien observers, have returned home is "Something bright" and the one where only human flesh will nourish the alien is "Food to all flesh".
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In this pre-1988 story, a girl (whose name may be Anna) befriends and helps out an elderly neighbor (maybe her name is Mrs. Klevity?) whom she at first considers to be strange and not very approachable. The girl's family (her mom and two younger siblings) live in a somewhat rural small town neighborhood, and have little in the way of food or money. (This is why I think it might have been set in the Great Depression.) The neighbor asks the little girl's mother whether the girl can stay overnight with the elderly neighbor to keep her company while her husband is away. The mother agrees and the little girl stays with the woman. She discovers that the woman has a lot of food, and she offers Anna "one or two" eggs for breakfast. Anna, who is used to sharing a few eggs with the whole family says, "Two eggs!" and the woman starts to crack two eggs. Anna stops her and says one is enough, then can't wait to tell her mom she was offered two eggs for a meal! The heart of the story is that the old woman and her husband are visitors to Earth that have been stranded here and can't get back to their planet. The woman asks Anna for her help, to keep looking for a light or something bright while she is there. Anna sees a shiny button on the floor of the bedroom and calls the woman's attention to it, and she leaps for it, surprising Anna with her energy! But it is just a button and the woman is sorely disappointed. They sleep in the same big bed, and the woman asks Anna if she has ever felt like she could float or fly in a strange dreamy voice, and Anna seems to recall a time she felt that way, then dreams of floating in a beautiful place. Anna eventually sees a spreading light across the bedroom floor, and calls the woman to see it. It is a window in the wall under the bed, opening to another, beautiful world! The woman quickly writes two notes, one for her husband and one giving Anna's family all of their belongings, and dives under the bed! The husband arrives home just in time, and dives under also! They leave their clothes on this side of the opening, and Anna sees them floating and flying, waving goodbye, as the bright opening shrinks and then disappears. Anna leaves, taking the note to show her mother, and her last thoughts as the story ends is how she helped them get home, and how she stayed with folks who offered her two eggs for breakfast!  [Thanks, I hope you  can help find this short story (maybe 10-25 pages?). It was in a rather thin anthology of sci fi stories for children, I think.]

Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box.  I can't remember the title of the story, but it is in this anthology.
Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box.  The story is called "Something Bright". See Solved Stumpers.
Zenna Henderson, The Anything Box, 1965.  This is the story "Something Bright" from The Anything Box by Zenna Henderson.  The girl is Anna, and the neighbor is named Mrs. Klevity.  The book was reprinted in 1977.  It is currently out of print, but not hard to find in paperback.  You can also find the full text of "Something Bright" online.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "A" page for more information.
Thank you so much! This is indeed the book I was looking for!  We love your site!

Conford, Ellen, Anything for a Friend, 1979, copyright.  This is definitely the book about Wallis, who moves around a lot and always has to explain about her unusual name. I remember asking my dad about the whole Duchess of Windsor thing and why the potential king had to give up his crown to marry her. I loved this book growing up, and all of Ellen Conford's books which are laugh-out-loud funny. Only thing, I don't remember her winning anything but the requester may have mixed this up with another Ellen Conford book The Luck of Pokey Bloom who was always entering contests.
Ellen Conford, The Luck of Pokey Bloom, Anything for a Friend,  1975, 1979, copyright.  Thank you, you're brilliant!  No wonder I could never find it since the only two details I was certain of were actually from different books!

Leo Hartas, The Apartment Book: A Day in Five Stories, 1995.  I solved it with the help of Alibris by putting in the subject matter!  At least it was not 3 a.m.!
Ohmygosh!!! I sold this book on eBay sometime during the last year. I think the title is, The Room. If I'm right -- our minds are amazing things. If I'm wrong -- sorry!! I know I sold this. And I'm pretty sure that was the title!
Could this be Mordecai Gerstein's The Room (1985)?  I couldn't find any cover pictures, but here is a link to the author's website.  He has a very distinctive style of illustration, so this may be a help.
Leo Hartas (illustrator), Richard Platt (author), The Apartment Book: A Day in Five Stories, 1995.  As stated previously, this is definitely the book.  This large (11" x 14") thin picture book is published by Dorling Kindersley.  Oddly enough, the illustrator's name is written before the author's name on the title page, and in larger, darker letters as well.  The book contains fourteen highly detailed, double page illustrations showing a cross section of an apartment house in England, its occupants, and what happens in one memorable period from 7 AM on Saturday until 1 AM on Sunday.  There are words that accompany the illustrations, but the visual storytelling takes center stage, and includes a burglary, a flood, a hot air balloon landing, a rocket launch, and a huge party.  While it is entertaining, The Room by Mordecai Gerstein is not a match.  It's a small book (7" x 6")about the occupants of one room in an apartment house.  The apartment house is not shown in cross section, and although the many inhabitants of the room are odd and memorable, there is no flood and no party. 

Dick Bruna, The Apple,1975, reprint.  Could this be Dick Bruna's The Apple?  The apple is lying on the ground very sad because it has fallen from its tree.  The weather vane cock takes it on his back so it can see the world.  The picture of the weather vane is concave so the apple can fit in it.  My copy has a 1975 copyright but the pictures were copyright by the author/illustrator in 1959 so it could actually have come out earlier.

Dick Bruna, The Apple. F198b sounds like it's probably Dick Bruna's first book, The Apple. If the poster uses the search phrase "Dick Bruna De Appel" s/he can find pictures of the cover using Google's image search and see if it matches. (De Appel is the original name of the book.) I think there's also another about the same apple called "The Happy Apple" but I'm not sure.

Trinka Hakes Noble, Apple Tree Christmas, 2005. In 1881, when their apple tree is felled by a storm just before Christmas, a young farm girl and her family discover that the tree was important to each of them for different reasons.
You found it!  Thank you so much!

Virginia F. Voight, Apple Tree Cottage, 1948, 1966. Pink Cover, Black lettering-Yes. Covered wagons, deserted cottage- Yes. I have no summary but browsing through the book it seems to fit. It is illusrated by Eloise Wilkins.
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This approx. 175-200 page book was softcover, white, with an illustration (of the young girl, perhaps?); she read Godey's Lady Book; the plot involved a stolen silver porringer; they had a horse named Bucephalus; the father was sickly, and they had no mother.  Any ideas?

Virginia Voight, Apple Tree Cottage.  I'm not sure this is your book but there is a girl, her younger sister and a father (no mother) in this book.  They are traveling in a wagon and settle down in a cottage with an apple tree.  The thing I remember is that the girl has to take care of her family and she does it by getting a job painting color plates for the Godey's Lady's Book.
mary stetson clarke, The Limner's Daughter,  1967.  Possibly this one?  Amity Lyte was sixteen, and for months she had worked in a sail factory to earn a living for herself, her injured father, at one time a successful portrait painter, called in those days a limner, and her sixteen year old brother. Now, a letter dated September 1, 1805, had come from an unknown great-aunt offing a home for all three of them.
Voigt, Virginia, Apple Tree Cottage.  That's IT!  Thank you SO much!  Now I'm on a quest to find it ... !

Miska Miles, Apricot ABC.  1969.  After relentless sleuthing - I found it!  Apricot ABC by author Miska Miles & Illustrator Peter Parnall.  It was actually a hen who ate the apricot.  Oh, how the memory fades!
Miles, Miska, Apricot ABC, 1969.  Little Browwn : Atlantic Monthly press book, illustrated by Peter Parnell.  An apricot falls to the ground and becomes a thing to be examined by insects, eaten by a villainous hen, and covered by the processes of nature to grow again. Each page introduces a new letter of the alphabet.

B198 It's THE BOY WHO WAS FOLLOWED HOME by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, 1975. He's followed home by hippos. His parents despair, and hire a witch to break the spell. It works, and the boy is sad when there are no hippos left. But then a giraffe starts following him...~from a librarian
David Cleveland, April Rabbits.  1978, pub. by both Scholastic and Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.  On the first day of April, a rabbit follows a boy home.  On the second day of April, he sees two rabbits behind the TV...and so on... On the last day of April, He doesn't see a single rabbit anywhere.  And on the first day of May, he sees a hippo in his yard. (I love this book, though kids don't usually get the humor.)
David Cleveland, The April rabbits, 1978.  The date isn't right, but it's the same plot:  "As Robert goes about his daily activities during April, he encounters an ever-increasing number of rabbits."
David Cleveland, The April Rabbits.Could this be it?  "A cute story, illustrated by Nurit Karlan, about how more and more rabbits enter Robert's life as April goes on - then disappear.  Here comes the April Rabbits with funny surprises for every day of the month!"

Lois Maloy, Arabella of the Merry-Go-Round, 1935.  Beautiful illustrations in color and b/w. "Arabella was a beautiful merry-go-round horse, but she wanted to travel and see the world. One day Judy and John come to ride, and when she asks them to take her away with them, they do. After some adventures, she ends up in a barber shop where little boys sit on her to have their hair cut - and this she does not like at all!"
Lois Maloy, Arabella of the Merry-Go-Round, 1935.

Maybe Sarah Brewster's Relatives by Elia Wilkinson Peattie, published by Houghton, 1920s "Sarah is a spoiled child who goes from New York to live with relatives in Wisconsin. She learns to adapt herself to her new
surroundings and finds happiness."
#C35--City girl gets a lesson:  the description of Black-Eyed Susan by Joslyn Gray, which appears under #B37, sounds like a description for this one.
Another, but still nothing definite: Homemade Year by Mildred Lawrence, illustrated Susanne Suba, published Harcourt 1950, 217 pages. "This is the story of a gay, spirited little girl who goes to spend a year on her aunt's farm in Pennsylvania. Since the farm is heavily mortgaged, all Vicky's cousins work hard to save every penny. Slowly, Vicky learn's some of the useful arts and her cousins come to see that hard work can go hand-in-hand with fun."
C35: Haven't been able to find any of these yet, but just wanted to say that I doubt all of the above because this is a short book for second-graders or maybe younger kids.
C35 city girl lesson: maybe Wonderful Nice, written and illustrated by Irma Selz, published Lothrop 1960? Unpaginated picture book about a little girl from the city who becomes friends with an Amish girl and visits her. The reading level is closer.
C35 IS Araminta by Eva Knox Evans - I posted the question years ago and found a copy some weeks ago.

This must be archy and mehitabel, by don marquis.
Don Marquis, archy and mehitabel. Right! Archy is a cockroach, and Mehitabel the alley cat is the second character. this was a wonderful collumn that Marquis wrote for a publication in NY called the Sun.  There are two other books of Archie stories: archy's life of mehitabel (Repr. PB by Faber and Faber Ltd., 1978 and earlier) and arcyology, the long lost tales of arch and mehitabel  (repr. HBUniversity Press of New England, 1996). No caps in any titles. All are fine and jolly reading, but the original stories are a MUST.

Judy Blume, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, 1970.  I read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret circa the mid-'70s -- and even then, the book's obsessed-over "sanitary napkins" and accompanying accessories (pink belts?!?) were outmoded. I wonder if Judy Blume has updated the text to involve the more current innovations of adhesive and wings? If anyone tried to determine the most common rite of passage for preteen girls in North America, a girl's first reading of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret would rank near the top of the list. Judy Blume and her character Margaret Simon were the first to say out loud (and in a book even) that it is normal for girls to wonder when they are ever going to fill out their training bras. Puberty is a curious and annoying time. Girls' bodies begin to do freakish things--or, as in  Margaret's case, they don't do freakish things nearly as fast as girls wish they would. Adolescents are often so relieved to discover that someone understands their body-angst that they miss one of the book's deeper explorations: a young person's relationship with God. Margaret has a very private relationship with God, and it's only after she moves to New Jersey and hangs out with a new friend that she discovers that it might be weird to talk to God without a priest or a rabbi to mediate. Margaret just wants to fit in! Who is God, and where is He when she needs Him? She begins to look into the cups of her training bra for answers ...
Sounds like Judy Blume to me too, but I don't remember much about the story itself, just that it was fun to read as a young adolescent.
Y8: Well, there's Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (which I never heard anyone under 35 admit to reading or liking) and there's also The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh - that book was one of the first such depictions of menses and it's very dated - of course, so is her portrayal of the surreal, filthy rich parody of a parent. Still an OK book, though - yes, Harriet the Spy is there too.
#Y8--Young girl getting her period:  If it's published any time during the 1970s or before, it's almost certainly Judy Blume.  Although I'm not sure any of her characters except Fudge appeared in series, these topics were taboo until she opened them up with Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret.
Blume, Judy,Are You There, God?  It's Me Margaret.  Could be Blume's book, or it could also be The Long Secret (sequel to Harriet the Spy).
Judy Blume? Y8 seems like it has to be Judy Blume...I'm not sure which of her books has the girl getting her period, but I remember it - her friend sends a cryptic postcard over the summer saying "I Got it!" or something, but it turns out she was lying and she completely freaks out when she does start her period later that year. PossiblyAre You There God, It's Me Margaret.

D. Barr,  Arithmetic for Billy Goats, 1966.  Illustrated by Don Madden

Margot Benary-Isbert, The Ark.  Just a possibility.  This is set just after WWII in Germany and is about a refugee family.  They eventually find work on a farm and live in a converted train car that they call Noah's Ark or The Ark.
Nora's Ark.  I had this book in the '68-'72 time range. It was about an adolescent girl who kept aquiring animals. I don't remember anything about her being Jewish but I do believe there were some difficulties in her life, perhaps involving her father. However, I believe the main gist of the story was all the animals she kept "rescuing."  Since the poster doesn't mention animals at all, this probably isn't it.
Trapido, Barbara, Noah's Ark,  NY Watts, 1984.  Allegedly also published by Scholastic in 1985, but doesn't sound like a kid's book. Reportedly about Alison, who has 2 failed marriages, a pretty daughter and a houseful of junk. Noah Glazer, a whiskey-drinking American doctor, gives her stability. Then he is away at a conference and she explores certain avenues of her past - this is apparently a bad thing. Might be the one, depending if the troubled adolescent is Alison's daughter, or maybe flashbacks to Alison herself. And Noah Glazer does sound a possibly Jewish name.
Madeleine L'engle, Many Waters.  One of three books written as sequels to A Wrinkle in Time, the story is about Sandy and Dennys - twin brothers - who travel back to the time of Noah.  The story is very different from others I've read about the Great Flood.  It primarily focuses on the brothers' struggles (they get separated) to live in the culture and make sense of what's happening around them - and, eventually, to return to their own time and family.  Doesn't match a lot of what you mentioned - but there's always a chance.  Good luck.
Margot Benary Isbert, The Ark,  1953.   That is it!  That is exactly the story I was looking for, thank you so much.

remy charlip, arm in arm, 1969.
Remy Charlip, author and illustrator, Arm in arm: a collection of connections, endless tales, reiterations, and other echolalia, 1969. One of my son's favorite books---this is definitely it!  Originally published by Parents Magazine Press, reissued in 1997 by Tricycle Press.  See Most Requested for more information!
This sounds like Remy Charlip, Arm in Arm: A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and Other Echolalia -- originally published in the 60s, reprinted in '97, & still in print.
See Loganberry's Most Requested.
Remy Charlip,  A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and Other Echolalia, 1997, reprint.  Thanks to everyone for their help -- three generations of my family can enjoy this book again!
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It was a hard back book with strange illustrations on the front, like a man and woman bust face to face connected by a pink squiggle... I can't remember much about it, but the book was full of odd pictures and stories and things...one I remember was a spiral printed, and the letters got smaller and disapperared... and it said "It was a dark and stormy night.  We were standing on the deck. The ship was sinking. The captain said to me, tell me a story my son, so I began...It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on the deck..." etc. until it disappeared.  I loved this book as a child... I think it came out in 1971-1973 just not sure when. Thanks!

Remy Charlip, Arm In Arm: a collection of connections endless tales reiterations and other echolalia, 1967, copyright.  From the question about "It was a dark and stormy night. We were standing on the deck. The ship was sinking. The Captain said to me, 'Tell me a story my son.' So I began..." etc. printed in a spiral. This is the book! I put in the inquiry and found it myself, but I know there are a lot of other people looking for this book! It's one of my favorites from my childhood. Enjoy!
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60's or 70's children.  hard cover - I BELIEVE black & white.  circular reasoning like "pete & repeat".  "It was a dark and storm night" written in spirals so you had to turn the book to read. "I feel like a cup of tea...funny you don't look like one..."

I have more to add that I couldn't figure out how to fit before.  Two women talking: - I feel like a cup of tea  - Funny, you don't look like one  - What I meant was, would you like to join me in a cup?  - Would we both fit?  - No silly.  I have two cups.  Cream or sugar?  - Both.  Which hand do you use to stir your tea with?  - My right.  - Silly thing, use your spoon!

Remy Charlip, Arm in Arm, 1997, reprint.  Originally published in the late 1960's. This book is the one you are looking for...lots of pictures and word games, including "cup of tea," "dark and stormy night" etc. A great book that I remember fondly from my own childhood!
Remy Charlip, Arm in Arm, 1997, reprint.  To the person who solved this - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  I can't believe it.  Everyone in my family has been trying to figure this out for at least 20 years!  Just ordered three of them online.  Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!

I took your advice and looked it up through one of the links on your website (Library related?) and found it under Arm Of the Starfish.  FYI, the book is:  The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle Franklin copyright 1965  It's probably out of print, but I found a used copy and I've begun rereading it but only 4 chapters so far.  The protagonist is Adam, summer before starting college, obtains an internship w/ a marine biologist working on an island off of Portugal.  Before he even gets there, he meets a girl who warns him about the guy he's going to work with, and then the adventure and intrigue begin!

Joan Aiken, Armitage Armitage Fly Away Home. This is a book of interconnected short stories where strange and magical things happen to the Armitage children. In this story, one of them finds that they can travel to a magical world through a cardboard cutout on the back of a discontinued cereal box. The wife of a neighbor disappeared into that world many years ago and never returned. They try to get her back, tracking down the last box of cereal from the non-existant manufacturer, but then (I think) their mom throws the whole setup away! A kind of melancholy story. The same characters appear in some other Joan Aiken collections as well, but I think this is the only book devoted to them.
Joan Aiken, Armitage. Armitage. Fly Away Home, 1970. This sounds like a short story in Joan Aiken's book Armitage Armitage, Fly Away Home.  The story is called "the cereal garden", or possibly "the serial garden".  It's actually a boy who is cutting out the pieces of the garden from the cereal boxes.  He is magically able to visit the garden, where he meets a beautiful lady who is trapped there.  When he gets the last piece of the garden, she will be able to return to the real world, but something happens to the last piece-- I don't remember if a pet ate it or what.  So she is trapped there forever.  It's a sad but lovely story.
joan aiken, unknown - Armitage series. 'I agree that it sounds like a story about the Armitage brother & sister by Joan Aiken - but I don't think it's in the book, Armitage, Armitage Fly Away Home - I think it may've been in another of her (sadly) out-of-print anthologies.....
"The Serial Garden" can be found in Armitage, Armitage.... as well as in A Small Pinch of Weather and Other Stories..

Red fairy tale anthology  - May be "Around the World Fairy Tales" by Vratislav Stovicek with illustrations by Zdenka Krejcova.  Fairy tales included: The little Mermaid, Stumpy, The Little Girl Who Wanted Everything Back, The Haunted Well, Puss in Boots, Doll in the Grass, The Little Girl on the Moon, Prince Miaow, Urashima, The Brave Clever Tailor, Tha Magic Rattle. The Enchantress Medusa, The Master Pupil, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Magic Almond. The Red Czar and the Goldern Haired Tihota, The Six, Fools, Tom Thumb, The Devil and the Old Hag, Jose and Princess Florabella, The Dandelion, plus many more.  The chapters are Tales of the East Wind, Tales of the West Wind, Tales of the South Wind, Tales of the North Wind.  This was solved on another forum when someone posted pictures from their book, which had lost its cover.  You can see the pictures they posted here.
The solution published is definitely it! Thank you so much!

Total shot in the Drak because I couldn't verify the names without the book in front of me, but could this be ARTHUR THE KID by Alan Coren?~from a librarian
Alan Coren, Arthur the Kid, 1977.  I am pretty sure this is the book.  A bumbling outlaw gang in the Old West is taken over by ten-year-old Arthur the Kid.  I am certain the outlaws were named Phil, Maurice and Sutcliffe.  It was made into an ABC after-school special-type TV movie in 1980.
That's it!! Thank you all!

Arty the Smarty by Faith McNulty. Cute story of a fish who does things his way! 1962 Wonder Book Easy Reader.  Her only adult book was the true story The Burning Bed, made into a movie starring Farrah Fawcett.
Yes, Yes, Yes!  I would love to have a copy for my kids.  If it has stuck with me for so long, it must
have made a pretty good impression on my young mind!  I'd appreciate any help you can give me.
Harriett, thanks so much for your search and response. Unfortunately, it is just too rich for my blood.  I do appreciate your finding it for me, and am a real believer in your ability.  I have passed on info about you and your website to several people I know, who are looking for this book or that.  Thanks again!
A local library said they had a copy and that she would get back to me and she never did.  I know it's out there somewhere.  I told her the title.  Artie the Smartie. I loved this book as a child and I know that my children would love it too.  Thank you so much.  It was the illustrations that were really great too.
My sister found your website and the inquiry for the book Artie the Smartie by Faith McNulty, and forwarded it to me.  I, too, have such wonderful memories of this book from my childhood and always keep an eye out for it in antique stores, old bookshops, etc.  I would just love to share this book with my children and relive memories of sitting on Mom’s lap listening to the story mesmerized by the illustrations.

M.R. James, The Ash Tree.  This sounds like the right ghost story.  Here's a link to it and other ghost stories by James.

Isaac Asimov, "Anniversary", 1968.  "Anniversary" is a short story in the collection Asimov's Mysteries.  It is a sequel to "Marooned off Vesta."  The three astronaut survivors of the wreck of the Silver Queen are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their recovery and are trying to make themselves famous -- no one remembers anything about the wreck except that a famous scientist named Quentin was killed.  They discover (using Asimov's Multivac) that he was working on something called "an optikon" -- and the host of the party goes to the attic and picks up a small optical device with no lenses that he found in Quentin's cabin.  They deduce that it's not "an optikon" but "anoptikon" -- an optical device without lenses.
I wanted to let you know that stumper O80 has been solved.  I found the Isaac Asimov book and indeed, it is the story entitled "Anniversary" that I have been looking for.   Thanks to you and your book sleuths for solving a braintwitcher!  I am an optician and have been racking my brains for about a year now!

This sounds like the mysteries by Augusta Huiell Seaman.  Her mysteries were published from the 1910's through 1950.  All of them revolve around some historical or old family mystery.
This descriptions seems to fit a lot of books, but one author you might try is Augusta Huiell Seaman. The dates and description are right.
Marchant, Bessie.  Could the poster be thinking of books by Bessie Marchant - she worte a number of "mystery" and adventure stories.  Titles include: The courage of Katrine,  Canadian farm mystery or Pam the pioneer,  Deborah's find,  Delmayne's adventures,  Di the Dauntless. They take place in lots of locations around the world
I just checked my J57 listing, and I am absolutely certain (after looking her up and reading all about her and her writings) that the author I wanted is Augusta Huiell Seaman.  Two of her books, The Boarded-Up House and The Sapphire Signet, are plots that I definitely remember.  THANK YOU so much for providing this service.

See also commentary from H60: Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  The Velvet Room is about a young girl from a migratory farm family who finds a hidden reading room with velvet lined drapes and cushions in an old abandoned mansion.  I believe the story may be set during the dust bowl era of the 1930's.  Her family are something like "okies" and she is embarrassed that they travel around with all of their possessions in a broken down model T (I think that's what it was.)  I can't remember the girl's name but she seemed to be about 12 and just wanted to get away from her family and from having to constantly work, so she slips away to this velvet room to read.  There is some sort of mystery surrounding this room too, which is resolved by the end of the story and I think she and/or her whole family get to stay on at the ranch where they were working once the mystery is solved.  She also befriends the beautiful, rich girl whose family owns the ranch.  I remember horses but I don't remember a doll.  This was also written in the wrong decade, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.
O40 Just checked, and the arroyo incident IS in this book: Le Grand, Augustus, pseudonym of Henderson, Le Grand. Augustus rides the border.  Grosset & Dunlap, 1947.  Augustus moves to Texas with his family.  There are others in the Augustus series.

Polacco, Patricia, Aunt Chip and the great Triple Creek dam affair, 1996. Aunt Chip saves the town of Triple Creek, where everyone has forgotten how to read because of the invasion of television.
Patricia Polacco, Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair, 1996. No mistaking this one. The child's name is Eli

Woolley, Catherine, Ginnie and the Wedding Bells, 1967.  This was a book from my childhood as well, but about the only thing I remember is the part with the necklaces.
Hi - someone has replied with a solved to this mystery, but I don't think it's the right one.  Do you know if there is any place where the entire plot of the book: Ginnie and the Wedding Bells is posted so I can double check? Because if I am wrong and they are right, I would, of course, love a copy of the book.
I found the following synopsis for Ginnie and the Wedding Bells on the 'net: "A junior bridesmaid with a black eye? A last-minute virus? Then the cat has kittens, which can't be found!" Hope this helps.
Just got confirmation that Ginnie and the Wedding Bells is not the book.  Back to the drawing board.
Ruth Daggett Leinhauser, Aunt Sharon's Wedding Day, 1958.  Found and confirmed by the Library of Congress.

Cohen, Peter Zachary, Authorized Autumn Charts of the Upper Red Canoe River Country. Have you ever yearned for adventure? This book provides charts for two such (canoe) trips. Maps & pictures are the guides. Charming, funny mustard & black illus by Tomie de Paola (who isn't even given a bio on the rear DJ).
I wonder if this could be The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang.  The description strikes me as rather similar, although I've never read the book. Check out the details in "Solved Mysteries" and see if it rings bells.
Authorized Autumn Charts of the Upper Red Canoe River Country, by Peter Z. Cohen, illustrated by Tomie de Paola, published Atheneum 1972. "Two ridiculous adventures, complete with maps, for daydreaming and imitation. Ages 6-9." (HB Apr/72 p.110 pub ad)

Rossi, Jean-Baptiste, Awakening (the False Start), 1954.  A fourteen-year-old boy falls in love with a nun twice his age.

Andre Norton, Octagon Magic.  There is a scene in Octagon Magic where the main character, a girl, sits on a rocking horse in the nursery and is transported to the past.  The plot revolves around this shy girl and her visits to an octagon shaped house which is inhabited by an old lady.
Maybe Away Went Galloper by Margaret J. Baker, published by Britannica Press 1962 "Tib and Leo go on great adventures on the rocking horse named Galloper".
More on one title Away Went Galloper by Margaret J. Baker, illustrated by N. Thelwell(!), published London, Methuen 1963, 111 pages "Tib and Leo are staying with their aunt and uncle, while their parents enjoy a cruise that was the first prize for winning a television quiz. The children are convinced that they are going to have a dull time and wish for a little magic to liven things up a bit. The magic arrives in the shape of a wooden rocking horse, given to them by an old groom to save him from an auction sale. Galloper takes them on many wonderful rides and their visit turns out to be far from dull."

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