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Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield (1916)? B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood (1939)?
B62 is the Betsy series by Carolyn Haywood.  The little sister is Star, the policeman is Mr. Kilpatrick.
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Betsy and Billy
I vaguely remember a book about a girl whose newborn baby sister was named "Star" (or "Starr"). I think the mother let the girl name the baby, and that's the one she came up.

Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star, 1989.  Originally published in 1950. Part of one of my favorite series.
In my haste, I answered Betsy's Little Star, which is incorrect. The book where Star is born and named is Betsy and Billy. This one was originally published 1941 and has just been reprinted.
Haywood, Carolyn, Betsy's Little Star, 1950.
Carolyn Heywood, Betsy's Little Star.  One of the Betsy series books.
Haywood Carolyn, Betsy's Little Star, c.1950.  This is approximately book six in a series of Betsy books. Betsy tells her mother that what she wants for Christmas is a baby sister. When the sister is born on Christmas day Betsy is allowed to select the name.
Carolyn Haywood, B is for Betsy, 1950.  There are several Betsy books, starting with B is for Betsy.  I don't remember which one Star was born in, but I think it was the first one.  Betsy got to name her.  Some of the other Betsy books are:  Betsy Plays School,  Betsy and the Circus, Betsy's Busy Summer, Back to School with Betsy, and Betsy's Little Star, which is Star's story.
Carolyn Haywood, author and illustrator, Betsy and Billy, 1941.  The older sister is Betsy, and she's the protagonist of the Betsy series by author/illustrator Carolyn Haywood.  There are twelve titles in the series: "B" is for Betsy, (1939);  Betsy and Billy, (1941); Back to School with Betsy (1943); Betsy and the Boys (1945); Betsy's Little Star (1950);  Betsy and the Circus (1954); Betsy's Busy Summer (1956); Betsy's Winterhouse (1958); Snowbound with Betsy (1962); Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick (1967); Merry Christmas from Betsy (1970); and Betsy's Play School (1977, illustrated by James Griffin).  The two girls are also featured in a collection of Ms. Haywood's short stories, Summer Fun (1986), and Star finally got her own book in 1987, Hello, Star (illustrated by Julie Durrell).  My local library doesn't have the entire series, but I seem to remember that Star is born during Betsy and Billy, after Betsy makes a special Christmas wish.  In Betsy's Little Star, Star is ready for kindergarten.
Haywood, Carolyn, Betsy's Little Star. NY Morrow 1950.  Not that I've ever read this series, but I'm guessing it's either this title, about Betsy and her little sister Star, or one before it, since Star is 4 years old in this one. Probably one of the many fans of the books will pin it down!
Hi ~ This sounds like one of the Betsy books. There are several titles, and I have no idea which one has Star's birth in it, but it seems that Betsy's baby sister arrived at Christmas and was therefore named Star.
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Snowbound with Betsy
Looking for book I read around 1977, young adult - family celebrating Christmas gets snowed in and another family has to stay with them. The children are all crabby about this until they discover a trunk in the attic containg craft materials and they make all their own presents since they can't go out and buy. They discover "true meaning of  Christmas" I *think* the main character might have been named Betsy?

There is a Betsy's Christmas in Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy series, I think.
Carolyn Haywood, Snowbound with Betsy.  This is definitely the book, we just finished reading it.
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Merry Christmas from Betsy
1980, childrens.  I've tried the Betsy Tacy & Maud Hart Lovelace, but still can't seem to find this book.  I read it in 1979/1980.  I thought the title was "Betsy's First Christmas".  I only remember she's a very young girl, snow, Christmas time, she goes shopping for a new slicker with her mom, and puts out orange peelings filled with peanut butter for birds I believe.  And possibly a white, hardback.  Think I recall a Christmas wreath on its cover.  Oh please you've got to know this one.  Thank you ever so much!

Haywood, Carolyn, Snowbound with Betsy.  This is Carolyn Haywood's Betsy not Lovelace's, and the episode described is in Snowbound with Betsy.
Carolyn Haywood, Snowbound with Betsy.  Try this one--it does have the scene with feeding the birds.
Haywood, Carolyn, Merry Christmas From Betsy, 1970, copyright.  "Merry Christmas From Betsy" is a collection of short stories from numerous winter-themed Haywood books.   Feeding the birds with peanut butter is from Haywood's most popular novel, "Snowbound With Betsy."
I'm only guessing- but could this be one of Carolyn Haywood's Betsy books?? Snowbound with Betsy? or Betsy's Winterhouse?? These might be possibilities!
Haywood, Carolyn, Snowbound with Betsy, 1962, copyright.  Synopsis: It is usually a harrowing experience to be snowbound, but to Betsy and Star the snowstorm that came a week before Christmas was a perfect delight. For company, they had Neddie and Susan who, along with their mother, had been rescued from a stalled car on a snowy turnpike by Father. Even though the electricity was out and they could not watch television, Betsy was never at a loss for other ways to pass the time. Soon she infected Neddie and Susan with her contagious knack for complicating the simplest situation.  Before the week was over, Betsy washed a can of unpopped corn that got scattered on the floor and then, using her own peculiar logic, dried it off in the oven wwith devastating results. --She devised a birds' Christmas tree that her father called a Garbage tree-- and, with cheer and aplomb, thoroughly misdirected the making of a snowman.  These are only a few of the merry adventures and mix-ups that make this snowbound week a joyous holiday for Betsy and her family.
Carolyn Haywood, Merry Christmas From Betsy.  You might try Carolyn Haywood's books about Betsy and her little sister, Star.  Betsy and her sister Star remember all the special Christmases they have spent together in "Merry Christmas From Betsy", a collection of holiday chapters gathered from the Betsy books, as well as two never-before-published episodes.  Another one that might be worth a look is "Snowbound With Betsy" in which a terrific snowstorm hits the week before Christmas, and Betsy, Star, and their parents are snowbound, much to the girls' delight. There are snowmen to be built, Christmas presents to be made, and a tree to be decorated.
Carolyn Haywood, Merry Christmas from Betsy, 1970, approximate.  It might not be this book, but have you checked out the "other" Betsy books, by Carolyn Haywood? I can't remember the slicker story, but I'm absolutely certain that there is a story about putting peanut butter out for the birds in orange peels. Again, I think that it might be this book, but I can't be sure because I don't own it and am unable to check for certain.
Carolyn Haywood, Merry Christmas from Betsy, 1970, copyright.  This is NOT Betsy's first Christmas but there are different stories about Betsy and her little sister, Star, who was born on Christmas Eve and does have her first Christmas in the book.  In one story they put peanut butter in orange peels to hang on a tree outside for the birds.
Carolyn Haywood, Merry Christmas from Betsy.  Could this be from the long-running Betsy series by Carolyn Haywood? There is a Christmas book.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy series.  I don't know the exact title, but this stumper is referring to one of the Betsy series by Carolyn Haywood, a great series. There is at least one full Christmas title, but a couple of the others may have Christmas bits in them too. Anyway, this is the author she's looking for.
Check the Carolyn Haywood books about Betsy. (Look in the Solved-B section, "B is for Betsy Series") This is a different Betsy from the Lovelace one. At least one of them is about Christmas. See if any of that looks familiar.
I want to thank ALL who responded to my book stumper.  I surely hope you're right.  Now all I have to do is find a copy.  I'm so excited.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Haywood, Carolyn.  Betsy and Billy. Odyssey Classics, 2004.  New paperback reissue.  $6

Babes in the Wood. This sounds like it must be a version of Babes in the Wood. This Wikipedia article provides more information here
Babes in the Wood. Dying in a pile of leaves sounds like Babes in the Wood(which I have always believed is not a fairytale but a real incident which took place in 17th century Norfolk). Parents died leaving two kids in the care of an uncle, along with money for their upkeep and more in a trust for when they're older. The greedy uncle told his servants to take the kids into the woods and kill them. The servants left them in the woods hoping they'd make it on their own or be adopted. Their bodies were discovered later, covered with leaves.
Babes in the Wood. The old children's tale Babes in the Wood ends with the little brother and sister dying and birds covering their bodies with fallen leaves. Could this be it?
You got it!!  I am amazed...  What a unique and special service you have.  Thank you.  I have wondered about this book for many years and had convinced myself that it was a figment of my imagination.  When I ran across your webpage, I had to try it.  And about a week later, you had it pegged.  Now, to find the book...Thanks again!

Robert Lieberman, Baby, 1981. Some are moved to rapturous tears. Some hear only the promise of untold riches. Some think she is a carefully orchestrated hoax. Some think she is a miracle.
Yep, that's definitely the one! Thanks again to a great website & great readers.

Andrew Ward, Baby Bear and the Long Sleep. 1980. Mother and Father Bear want to get on with their winter hibernation, but Baby Bear is slow to catch on. Cute story with illustrations by John Walsh.
Andrew Ward, Baby Bear and the Long Sleep. 1980. If your book could have been published as late as 1980 this one's a possibility.  Baby bear has difficulty settling down for the long winter sleep.
You found it! It is Baby Bear and the Long Sleep by Ward. Thank you!

I know that story!  It was in my second grade reading book in the Wake County Public School System in NC around 1978 or 1979.  The reading book was turquoise.  I wonder if school systems keep any type of record of the reading books issued to students?  I hope this helps.
B3: The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie, 1963  (the bird in the zoo that says bee bee constantly and keeps the other animals awake)

Yeah!!! I am very impressed with your service! I have been searching for this book for months in Los Angeles area bookstores with no luck. Leave it to a hard-working Clevelander to find it for me!! I'm originally from Cleveland. You're in Shaker Heights, aren't you?? I actually used to be a FedEx courier in your area!! I can't wait to come visit your store when I come to the land of Cleve this summer!!!   Thank you very much for your excellent service! Now I KNOW WHERE TO TURN FOR HARD TO FIND BOOKS!!
FYI: This book is back in print.  An edition illustrated by Steven Kellogg is offered this month by the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club.   The illustrations look wonderful.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Massie, Diane Redfield.  The Baby Beebee Bird.  Harper & Row, 1963. Weekly Reader Children's Book Club edition.  Small oblong, slight stain on cover, otherwise VG.  $15

Manushkin, Fran, illus. Ronald Himler, Baby, Come Out! 1984.
Fran Manushkin, Baby, come out, 2002, reprint. B142 is definitely Baby, Come Out by Fran Manushkin being republished by Star Bright Books in 2002.  The original title was Baby and was published in 1972 by Harper and Row.
Fran Manushkin, Baby, Come Out!,2001, reprint.  This charming book, illustrated by Ronald Himler, was recently reprinted. 

Carol Brink, Baby Island, 1948.  This could be Baby Island.  There's two girls Mary and Jean who are wrecked on an island with several babies.  They are on their way to Australia, so the island is tropical.  The girls must survive adventures and care for the babies.

Terris, Susan, Baby-Snatcher, 1984.  I'm not sure, but it sounds a little like Baby-Snatcher, by Susan Terris.  The father in that case is a sculptor, and there doesn't seem to be a mother around.  There's some mystery about if the man is actually the father though...
It is Baby-Snatcher by Susan Terris.  I looked for a copy of the book online and read the book intro to my friend.  As soon as she heard that the lead character's name was Laurel, she shouted "That's it!  That's the book."  Thank you very much for helping to solve this 10 year old mystery.  Now I'm curious and want to read the book!

Willo Davis Roberts, Babysitting is a Dangerous Job.  I'm sure this it the answer!  The oldest girl is babysitting three younger children  two boys and a girl.  The children are parents are wealthy, and a father-son team kidnap them and hold them in the attic of an old house.  The babysitter and the oldest boy figure out that there is a trapdoor to the cupola, and they get the other kids out that way. I think it just came back into print. 

Stan Berenstain.  Possibly from the Berenstain Bear series?  Check out The Berenstain Bears and Too Much T.V. or The Berenstain Bears and the Bedtime Battle.
No, it definately wasn't a Berenstain.  But thank you
B376 Sounds like it could be BAD MOOD BEAR by John Richardson, 1987,1988~from a librarian
That sounds so familiar, its got to be the one.  It was  originally recommended by a school librarian who worked in the bookstore, how fitting the answer comes from another librarian. Thank you so much

THE BAD TIMES OF IRMA BAUMLEIN by Carol Ryrie Brink, 1972. Irma lies and says she has the largest doll in the world, and that it has cerulean blue eyes.
C53 -- not sure about the cerulean blue eyes, but a girl stealing a mannequin because she's boasted about having a large doll occurs in Carol Ryrie Brink's Bad Times of Irma Baumlein.
C53 is, I think, a book I have, but haven't read, called Irma's Big Lie"  It was originally called The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein and was written by Carol Ryrie Brink.  Scholastic published a copy of it in 1972.
C53- I think this is The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein by Carol Ryrie Brink.
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1975-1985.  A girl protagonist has a friend who gets a really nice doll which the protag covets.  She wants a really impressive one, too.  Her grandmother? gives her a very old doll that smells like moth balls and has little pearl teeth.  The protag hates her and one day sees a mannequin in an alley? downtown and sneaks out at night to steal her.  So now she has a really big impressive doll but is afraid she will get caught with it.  In the end she returns the mannequin and learns to love the old doll named Miss Beatrice? or some old-fashioned name.

M120 Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1972.
sounds like Carol Ryrie Brink's Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, about the girl who steals a store mannequin because she's bragged about having an impressive doll.  (A description of the Brink book should be on the
"solved" page, because it's  been asked about before.)
#M120--Mannequin as a doll:  This sounds like The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, by Carol Ryrie Brink.  The only other example I can remember of a girl using a mannequin as a doll was on an "Adam-12" episode.  Officers Malloy and Reed got a "possible dead body" call and found a mannequin.  It turned out "Mrs. Juniper" was the only friend of Melissa, a neglected little girl.  The creepy, Twilight-Zoney aspect of this incident made a lasting impression on me as a child.  It made a lasting impression on Officer Pete Malloy as well.  This was one of their few cases he ever referred to in a later episode!
I think this must be The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein by Carol Ryrie Brink. (The Scholastic paperback version used the title Irma's Big Lie.) She steals the mannequin from her family's department store.
Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1972.  Irma brags that she has the worldest largest doll.  Her aunt gives her Bertha Evangeline Esther Peebles, who smells of camphor balls, has has "peeping out from [her] tiny mouth ... two small teeth like the tiniest pearls on a graduated necklace."  She takes a dummy from a window display because it, like the doll she has claimed to own, has "hair the color of ripe oranges" and "eyes [that] were cerulean blue."  It's on the solved mysteries page.
I think this is The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein by Carol Ryrie Brink. Irma lies about having the biggest doll in the world and at one point steals a mannequin from an alley.
M120 it's THE BAD TIMES OF IRMA BAUMLEIN by Carol Ryrie Brink, 1972. Her Great-Aunt Julia gives her the doll with pearl teeth, but she needs a mannequin to prove that she has the biggest doll. ~from a librarian
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The book I’m trying to find was from my school library from around 1976.  On the cover was a set of stairs from the viewpoint below the first step.  The stairs had large wooden banisters with a red? Carpet covering the stairs.  On the bottom fourth of the stairs was a young girl in a black dress with black hair, who was holding a mannequin?  I believe she was a bit troubled, living with grandmother?, staring out the windows often and dressing the mannequin like it was her friend?  I believe this book would probably be about a 3-4 grade reading level.  At one time I thought it might have been “The 100 dresses” but it was not, so…maybe the title is something similar???

I thought I knew the title, but I can't find it.  I thought it was something like "The Bad Luck of Irma Baumgten".  The cover was defintely illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, and I thought the author was either Carol Ryrie Brink or someone near her on the library shelves.  The cover had a girl carrying a mannequin in pieces, and was in shades of brown and pink.  Definitely published in the late 60s/early 70s.
Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein.  This book was reprinted as "Irma's Big Lie" and if you google this you may find a picture of the book cover similar to what you describe.  Irma lived with her father and grandmother in an old house.  She tried very hard to fit in with her school friends to the point of lying about having the "biggest doll in the world".  Of course, the kids wanted to see it so she stole a mannequin from her father's store to pose as the doll.
Your mention of stairs and mannequin made me think of The Bad Times of Irma Baulein by Carol Ryrie Brink.  A funny book!
Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein (Irma's Big Lie), 1972, copyright.  This is in solved mysteries, but if you don't recognize the cover, that's because it has been reprinted many times.  My Scholastic cover is much like your description.  See http://pictures.abebooks.com/MANYHILLS/1092324727.jpg for a photo.
Try THE BAD TIMES OF IRMA BAUMLEIN by Carol Ryrie Brink. Irma steals a mannequin to impress a girl who has a special doll. I couldn't find a cover that matched your exact description, but the illustration description rings a bell, so maybe it's an image from inside the book.~from a librarian

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Brink Carol Ryrie.  The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein.   Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.  Macmillan, 1972, first edition. Ex-library copy with usual marks.  G/VG.  $12

Back Home, Michelle Majorian.
On your "solved" page the description for the book Back Home by Michelle Magorian is almost completely inaccurate.  In Back Home, Rusty has just returned to post-WW II Great Britain from her "family" in the US with whom she had lived very happily.  She has a dreadful time trying to fit in with her staid British relatives and the horrific British boarding school to which she is sent by her grandmother.  At the end of the novel her mother leaves her father and moves Rusty to a much more pleasant day school near their new home.  I am absolutely certain of my description, because I own the book and just reread it recently.  Perhaps the original requester confused two different books?
"Rusty Dickinson was sent to the United States from England at the age of seven in 1940 to survive the war. When she returns in 1945, she finds a country and a family she neither understands nor likes, and vice versa.A marvelous look at the complexity of mother-daughter relationships." —ALAN Review.  Similar theme, but Back Home deals with the transition back to high-class Britain, while the stumper seems to be looking for a book about the transition to low-class America.  Back Home was also written in 1984, too late for this request?

W92: Baba Yaga's house, most likely. I remember (from the early-mid 1970s) that the stories about her in Jack
and Jill were almost certainly original stories, not old Russian ones - such as the story about an evil blonde fairy
who recites the Chant of the Moon and almost conquers the world, only to be stopped by the good Baba Yaga,
who, in Russia, is not normally portrayed as good. Sorry that I can't tell you where to find the stories besides the
magazine itself.
This sounds like a Baba Yaga story.  Russian Folk tale with many variations.  The chicken legged house is shown
in some book illustrations.  maybe try Patricia Polacco.
Yes, I remember Jack and Jill used to have Baba Yaga stories in it.
Joanna Cole, Bony-Legs, 1988.  This book has the witch living in a house on chicken feet. It is based on the Russian Baba Yaga tale. The little girl being chased by the witch is Sasha. She is aided in her escape by the witch's cat and dog.
The Children's Better Health Institute, the current publisher's of "Jack and Jill" magazine confirmed that there have been as many as 25 original Baba Yaga stories over the years. Each of the stories were published in installments of around 6-7 parts. They can provide a list of the stories and when they were published if you want to try to find a library that might have the particular issues, or for a fee, the publisher can make copies.

Balian, Lorna, Bah! Humbug?  1977.  This is the book. The teddy bear's name is Herold and he gets a new fur coat from Santa. Little Margie is the one who writes the letter, while her brother Arthur sets a trap to try to catch Santa. He fails, of course.

Mannheim, Grete, Bakers children: a visit to a family bakery, 1970, copyright. Photographs and text capture the errands and activities of the baker’s children as they help in the shop.

Grete Mannheim, The Baker's Children: A Visit to a Family Bakery, 1970, copyright.

BALEFUL BEASTS & EERIE CREATURES introduction by Andre Norton, stories written by various authors. The stories are "Patchwork Monkey", "Yamadan", "Monster Blood", "Tigger", "Spell of Spirit Stones", "Night Creature", "To Face A Monster", "You Are What You Eat" and "Nightmare in A Box" This last one is the one you are recalling about the box that came with the warning not to open it, and a monster inside that quickly grows. ~from a librarian 

B52 there's Little Pink Ballerina by Ronne Randall, Penguin Ladybirds, but it seems to be 1997 or 1998, so unless it's a reprint, no go. Or All Tutus Should Be Pink (Hello Reader, Level 2) by Sheri Brownrigg, Meredith Johnson (Illustrator) published 1992, but an Amazon reviewer speaks of reading it as a little girl, so may be a reprint.
more suggestions: Adele de Leeuw,  Maria Tallchief: American Ballerina Champaign, Garrard 1964 hardcover, many photos, designed for younger readers, ballet, Native American Children. Little Ballerina a Rand-McNally Elf Book 1958, the little girl on cover is in white tutu outfit, in front of a red curtain.
B52 ballerina red: perhaps a better shot is Ballerina Bess By Dorothy Seymour, illustrated by Harry Devlin,published Wonder Books, 1965. The illustrations are line drawings with red, and Bess is shown in a red outfit
throughout. 

This is the Shoes series by Noel Streatfeild..
I went to my local library, and I found both the books by just looking through their stacks. They were old and yellowing, but still intact.  The name of the book with the three girls, who actually didn't have different talents but all were ballet dancers, is Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield.  She (and I thought it was a man!) had a whole little series of "shoe" books...
I’ve sent an email about other books and I though you could help me with this one.  (By the way, your sight is so amazing, I love it!).  This is a story set in a boarding house of a sort.  It’s about three or four little girls who are adopted…I don’t know who by.  And they take ballet lessons…possibly music lessons.  It’s about 300 pages long, I think.  I remember all of the girls were very different, i.e. hair color, temperaments, talented differently.  I think they were trying to get it to appeal to all different girls.  I would say I was around 12 when I read it and that would’ve been in 1985, so it had to be published that year or before.  I’m pretty sure the book ended with a dance recital at the end.  Anyway, it moves through the girls’ lives from the time they are small until they are 17 or so.  I can’t remember anything about it.  I just remember how much I enjoyed it.  Any help would be much appreciated.
Oddly enough, this is also the book that is used as a “book stumper” in the movie "You’ve Got Mail", and Meg Ryan answers the question through her tears for the customer of the mega-chain bookstore after the demise of her small independent bookstore.
Also re Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. The three girls were called Pauline, Petrova and Posy and were all adopted by Great Uncle Matthew (Gum). He went away collecting fossils, so they called themselves the Fossil
children. Sylvia and Nana looked after them, and when Gum disappeared they had to let out rooms in the house to make ends meet. The girls were sent to stage school where Pauline became an actress and Posy a ballet dancer. Petrova hated it and wanted to become a mechanic. At the end Gum came back and Pauline and Sylvia went to Hollywood, Posy and Nana joined a ballet company and Gum and Petrova settled down so she could learn to be a mechanic. They reappear again in The Painted Garden (called something like Theatre Shoes in the States I think). It was published in 1936. Noel Streatfiled also wrote White Boots (about skating), Apple Bough, The Circus is Coming and many more in a similar vein. They were all retitled Shoes.

Gardner.  Maybe A Child's Bestiary?
Bev Nevers, The Balmy Bestiary.
Bev Nevers, The Balmy Bestiary
Bev Nevers, the balmy bestiary.   I am pretty sure this is it!

There are four: Bambi, Bambi's Children, Bambi & the Butterfly and Bambi: Friends of the Forest

Legge, David, Bamboozled. (1994) This is the book. Granddaughter visits her Grandfather and notices that something isn't quite right (actually, lots of things, in the pictures). It turns out that he's wearing mismatched socks.
David Legge, Bamboozled.  DEFINITELY this book...there can't be two books with crazy pictures and mismatched socks on a grandpa.
David Legge, Bamboozled. (1994, approx)  Maybe this one. "A young girl narrates, in a simple and ironically naïve text, her visit to her grandpa's house, where "something seemed odd." Actually, lots of things are odd: a giraffe peers around the front door, a necktie hangs out of Grandpa's mailbox, a floor lamp grows out of a plant pot . . .  The shaggy-dog joke is that Grandpa has on mismatched socks, making it seem like everything else is completely normal for this happy pair.
Happily, yes that is the book.  I got a copy in the mail yesterday & my daughter is pleased as punch!  Thanks so much.  Happy reading!

C186 Sound like a Babapapa book, most likely BABAPAPA's ARK by Annette Tison & Talus Taylor ~from a librarian
Annette Tison, Barbapapa's Ark, 1974.  This is one of my favorites.  I had forgotten all about it until I saw it one day in a
thrift shop...then it all came back!  The Barbapapa family watch as humans pollute the earth and make all animals sick.  They sadly decide to build a rocket ship/ark and blaslt off to colonize another planet (or the moon?).  The people on earth eventually notice that all the animals are gone, and they clean up the earth. Then the Barbapapas realize that it's safe to go home again.
C186 Tison, Annette; Taylor, Talus. Barbapappa.  Xerox Education Pub, 1970, Weekly Reader. Tison, Annette; Taylor, Talus. Barbapapa¹s new house. Pan Books, 1972 .
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I had the book in the early eighties. It is about this family of these gourd shaped blobs, bigger at the bottom, smaller at the top. There is a mom, dad, and between 5-8 children in different sizes. They build their homes out of mud and they pack it around the father as a mold, he's really big. The trouble starts when these other things make trouble with them and they have to fight. They fling this sticky goo at them and the family wins. The book was cool because it showed crosscut views of inside their home and the siblings all had different interests. The book was a paperback in black and white. I don't know the author or title, that's my problem. I want to get this book for my little girl because I liked it so much and I think she may as well. I don't know if it is even in print anymore. Please help.

B269 This sounds like one of the Barbapapa books by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor.~from a librarian
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It was a children's book (70s?) about a family that all looked like blobs, for lack of a better description.  They kind of reminded me of that character "Shmoo" (I think his name was) on that cartoon with the Rock man and Ghist Rider or something, but with arms.  Each family member had a different characteristic and was a different color.  The name Barbarella seems to stick in my head. In the story, the earth is beautiful in the beginning, and by the end it is so polluted the family gets on a rocketship and leaves.  I remember the illustrations being very detailed and colorful. I think there was also a 2nd book where I remember them having homes that looked like big white domes stacked on top of each other.  Any guesses?

Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, Barbapapa.  This sounds like the Barbapapa books (and cartoons for tv).  They have their own website:  http://www.barbapapa.fr/gb/barbapapa.html.
Barbapapa, 1970, approximate. I am pretty sure you're looking for the Barbapapa series of books.  He's a big purple alien blob with a family of little multi-colored blobs. If you search for the word "Barbapapa" you will find the books.  Hope this is it!
Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, Barbapapa, 1970s.  Probably one of the books from this series - there were also some TV cartoons.
Annette Tison & Talus Taylor, 1970's.  Maybe the Barbapapa books?  Each one is a different color and they're each into different interests - artist, weightlifter, etc.  Barbapapa / Barbapapa's Ark / Barbapapa's New House / Barbapapa's Voyage.
One of the Barbapapa books? See Solved Mysteries.
SOLUTION- Barbapapa (French for cotton candy.)  <website> This specific book is Barbapapa on Mars.  I can't find anything English, only French the original language they were written in.
Even though it's listed as solved, I thought some more info might help.  The particular Barbapapa book in which the animals and Barbapapa's family
leaves Earth because of pollution is BARBAPAPA'S ARK, and it was translated and printed in English.
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It was probably from the very early 80's or possibly late 70's.  There was a purple or purplish-blue mother/female character who resembled a cross between Grimace and a bowling pin.  She had a happy face and a crown of flowers on top of her head.  It was like a family of these creatures in different shapes and colours but I remember her most...For some reason we think she was like a Mother Nature type thing...the story I remember was some sort of a spill in the water like an oil spill, it was bright pink and they had to clean it off the sea creatures and birds...and catch the bad things/people that made the pollution.  I believe her husband or the important male was a type of king.   I wish I could remember more, it would be easier to find then, yeah?  Anyway, I had a toy of her as well, so i know it wasn't just some sketchy nothing book.

Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, Barbapapa.  This has to be a Barbapapa book!  I'm not sure which one it is but it must be a Barbapapa!
Written and illustrated by Annette Tison & Talus Taylor, Barbapapa series, 1970, approximate.  http://www.barbapapa.fr/gb/barbapapa-family.html
Barbapapa.  This must be one of the Barbapapa books, probably about Barbamama. Not sure which one, but a list of the books can be found here: http://www.barbapapa.fr/gb/catalogue/introduction.html.
Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, Barbapapa, 1970, approximate.  THIS IS IT!!!! For sure, most definitely it!!!! Thank you so much everyone!!! Called my mom and she thanks you too!!!  The character I had was Barbabelle, and I'm still trying to figure out which book it was that I remember, but THANK YOU!!!!
Annette and Tayler Tison, Barbapapa's Ark, Barbapapa's New  House, 1975, approximate.  These are definitely the 2 books, I had rolled them into one memory, but once my mom and I looked at the pictures, we remembered!!  Thanks so much, once again.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Tison, Annette and Talus Taylor. Barbapapa.  Xerox Education Publications, 1970.  Weekly Reader Children's Book Club edition.  Hardback, cover slightly soiled.  VG.  $12

Linda Stewart, Sam the Cat: Detective. Your description triggered a half memory in my own head about reading a book like this!  I dug around a little online and came up with this--I can't be sure if it's the one that I or you are thinking of, but it looked promising. Hope you find it!
Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Went Up The Creek, 2001. A long shot, but if there's any chance your date is off, possibly this one?  Journalist James Mackintosh "Qwill" Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, find themselves in the thick of another light and lively murder investigation in rural Moose County. When the new manager of the Nutcracker Inn complains that the old place is haunted, Qwill agrees to spend several nights with his cats at the converted Victorian mansion. Koko stumbles upon a clue to a recent murder, while Qwill tries to locate the source of the Inn's haunting.  Meanwhile, the locals ask Qwill to review their upcoming production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance for his newspaper. While the chapters are not actually titled, the play is mentioned numerous times in the book.  This is Braun's 24th book in her "The Cat Who..." Mystery Series.
Ruth Siverns, Barlow Dale's Casebook, 1981.  I finally found the book online. It is exactly as I remembered it, with the best part that I remembered called "The Pirates of Pawzance" as a chapter name. Lovely story, with enough of a plot for a 7+ audience. I am over the moon, and thank you for your suggestions everyone. I would never have remembered it was titled Casebook not cat detective!

Enid Blyton?
I am almost certain that this must be the Barnaby Littlemouse series by Racey Helps.  They were my mother's
favourites when she was little, and were passed on to me.  There were several animals - including Barnaby
Littlemouse, Torty, Nubby Tope the mole, Hoppy Spadge the sparrow and Mr Cunningleigh-Sligh the fox.
Torty first appears in "Little Mouse Crusoe" where Barnaby is shipwrecked and meets Torty on a desert island.
When they get away, Torty goes home with Barnaby. The titles I have are: Little Mouse Crusoe - 1948 Barnaby in Search of a House - 1948 Footprints in the Snow - 1946 The Upside Down Medicine - 1946 Tippety's Treasure - 1949 Barnaby Camps Out - 1947 My Friend Wilberforce - 1947 They are published by Collins, and are labelled as costing 3s 6d on my copies! Hope this helps the person looking for them,

Baron's Booty
Picture book before 1980. A knight with a templar shield on his horse and a LOT of little girls dressed in matching chain mail outfits left behind waiting in a castle.   I remember each has a name like Clothilde, Mathilda, or Brunhilde? They line up and one always falls behind the other, I think?

Virginia Kahl, This would be one of Virginia Kahl's series about the Duke, the Duchess, and their daughters.  Titles include The Duchess Bakes a Cake, The Baron's Booty, and Plum Pudding for Christmas.
Virginia Kahl, Plum Pudding for Christmas, 1956. Either this one (has the knight with the red Templar cross on the cover) or its companion volume, The Duchess Bakes a Cake.  Both feature the duke, the duchess and their Gunhilde and her twelve sister.
Virginia Kahl, The Duchess Bakes a Cake, et al.Virginia Kahl wrote a number of books about the Duchess, the Duke, and their family of daughters:  Madeleine, Gwendolyn, Jane and Clothilde, Caroline, Genevieve, Maud and Mathilde, Willibald, Guinevere, Joan and Brunhilde, and the youngest of all was the baby, Gunhilde.  Duchess Bakes a Cake, Plum Pudding for Christmas, The Baron's Booty, How Many Dragons Are Behind the Door, Gunhilde's Christmas Booke, Gunhilde and the Halloween Spell, The Habits of Rabbits.
Virginia Kahl, one of the Duke & Duchess books by Virginia Kahl. There were several books printed about the Duke and his family: THE DUCHESS BAKES A CAKE was republished by Purple House Press  GUNHILDE AND THE HALLOWEEN SPELL,  GUNHILDE'S CHRISTMAS SPELL,  THE HABIT OF RABBITS,  HOW MANY DRAGONS ARE BEHIND THE DOOR?, PLUM PUDDING FOR CHRISTMAS,  THE BARON'S BOOTY. There may be more  that's what I found.
SOLVED: Dahl, Virginia, The Baron's Booty. Thanks so much for solving my stumper!  The description definitely fits and after looking up the cover ... I'm positive that this is the series I'm looking for. Wonderful to see these books again and be able to get them for my little boys 30 years after having them read to me (wow--can't believe that!)

L11- Sounds like Danny Beaver's Secret (Little Golden Book #160)
Many thanks for your email - I had quite given up ever hearing from anyone!  That COULD actually be the book I am looking for. I was sure that it was a Golden Book, but Golden themselves couldn't help me with the vague information I gave them. Now all I have to do is find someone with that book, so that I can read some of it and check on "Am I strange looking......" I will get back to you when I track it down and if it IS the one I am looking for, then you will receive a HUGH hug! This search has gone on for years.
According to my LGB reference guide, Danny Beaver's Secret was written by Pat Scarry and illustrated by Richard Scarry in 1953.
I emailed a few spots on a book list and a Holly Everson answered me today to say that the book Danny Beaver's Secret that you suggested is not the one I am looking for. I asked her to check the story and see whether the lines I quoted were there, but she said no.  Oh, well.....back to the drawing board. I am not going to give up. Someone somewhere will know what it is. My most profound thannks to you for your trouble anyway. If you ever come across it, let me know, PLEASE???
Ruth Dixon, Bartholomew the Beaver, 1952.  Wow, I picked this book at a garage sale today for my little one.  I was reading through it and I came across THE line:  "Am I scary-looking?  Is my fur ruffled?  Are my whiskers on end or what?" and I KNEW that I had the answer to a real "Stumper".  The book is a Tip-Top Elf Book published by Rand McNally in 1952. It's about a lazy little beaver named Bartholomew.  His mother and Father try to teach him important beaver things, but all Bartholomew wants to do is play.  His mother and father were disappointed in him so they leave to go home and Bartholomew walks away "to see what he could see."  A chipmunk hits him in the head with some nuts and calls him lazy.  Bullfrogs see him and immediately jump into the pond. That's when the little beaver says  "Am I scary-looking?  Is my fur ruffled?  Are my whiskers on end or what?" He ends up going home and likes being a busy beaver.
Some time ago, I posted a request on your web site for a book similar to a little Golden Book, which had the recurring line "Am I strange looking? Is my fur ruffled? Are my whiskers on end or what?" and was about a small furry animal (beaver, otter,??) I had given up any hope of ever finding this book as I have been searching for about 30 years. Tonight I just happened to type in the recurring line on my search engine, and it brought up your web site (which I had forgotten) and someone has given me the answer to my query. I would like to thank that person from the bottom of my heart. She (?) has solved the thing which has been bugging me for years, and I couldn't be happier. If you have any way of forwarding on my thanks to her, I would be most grateful. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, and I just love you heaps!!!!  Thanks for a wonder ful site! Regards from Tasmania.

N. Gretchen Greiner,A batch of the best: stories for girls, 1970.  These are the stories in the book:  Little sister will lead you, by P. Smith.--Sunday afternoon, by L. V. Payne.--Not exactly Carnaby Street, by J. W. Pugel.--The friends, by S. O'Bryan.--The sensational type, by S. S. Pugh.--The blue promise, by L. Strehlow.--Mr. Dillon rides again, by L. K. Sample.--The gift by the wagon, by D. M. Johnson.--Blessed event, by M. Sellars.--A Christmas tradition, by L. K. Sample.--My friend Carol, by M. Blyth.--The real me, by P. Carlson.
Solved!  Thank you so much for the help! Any chance you have a copy of this book for me?

Sheckley, Robert, The Battle, 1954.  I'm about 80% sure this is Sheckley's "The Battle" -- if so, it first appeared in an sf magazine in 1954, was collected in Sheckley's second story collection, CITIZEN IN SPACE, and has been anthologized in THERE WILL BE WAR, vol. 1 (ed Jerry Pournelle, Tor pb 1983) and WORLDS OF IF: A RETROSPECTIVE ANTHOLOGY ed. Fredrik Pohl et al (Bluejay tp, 1986)  it was also reprinted by Sheckley in a couple of his later collections, IS THAT WHAT PEOPLE DO? and COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF ROBERT SHECKLEY, VOLUME 1.
I'm the person who suggested Robert Sheckley's The Battle as the story asked about in R127.  I've now found one of my copies of the story and confirmed that's the one described, so I'll boost my "80% sure" to 100%...

Not the Zork What Do I Do Next books, though.
Hoban, Russell, The Battle of Zormla, 1982.  Maybe, but I don't think so.  The title is close, but LC's summary is "The Empress of Zurm and others receive invitations to a battle from Zormla and his select squad of one-eyed teddy bears."
McDaniel, Lurlene, Battle of Zorn, 1986.  This book was published in Worthington, Ohio by Willowisp Press
and is 96 p. long (from a librarian)

Chalmers, Mary.  There's a Harry the cat series by Chalmers, possibly your book is one of these:  Be good, Harry  1981, ©1967 "When Harry's mother goes to visit a sick friend, Harry takes all his toys and goes to stay with someone else for the first time."  /  Throw A Kiss, Harry "Harry climbs on top of a tall building and must be rescued by a fireman."  /  Merry Christmas, Harry "Harry the cat is delighted when Santa Claus brings him his Christmas wish."  /  Come To the Doctor, Harry  "Harry Kitten learns that a trip to the doctor is nothing to fear."
The book you are looking for might be one of the Harry books by Mary Chalmers. Harry is a cat & many adults in these stories are cats as well. They are very sweetly drawn & told.
Mary Chalmers, Be Good, Harry. (1967)  That is the book!  Thank you so much for solving it in less than a week! Now, if only the book weren't so rare...
Chalmers, Mary, Be Good, Harry. Definitely Be Good, Harry, and yes, it's a sweet book.

I know this is on the Solved Mysteries page somewhere....  let me get these posted first....
S334 BE NICE TO SPIDERS by Margaret Bloy Graham, 1967~from a librarian
Margaret Bloy Graham, Be Nice to Spiders, 1967.  When Billy left his pet spider, Helen, at the Zoo, the animals suddenly became happy and contented. The lions snoozed all day long, the elephants enjoyed their baths, and the zebras ate their hay in peace -- all because Helen was spinning webs and catching flies.  But one day Helen's webs were swept away. The Keeper had the cages cleaned for the Mayor's inspection tour. Soon the flies were back again and the animals were miserable once more. But not for long...
Margaret Bloy Graham, Be Nice to Spiders.  I believe this is what youre looking for.  The pictures remind me of Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion.  [that's because both are illustrated by Graham.]

#B69--Beacon Readers:  I've gathered a little more information on these. They were written by James Fassett and appeared in a number of editions.  The version I want was in at least six volumes.  The first two volumes were divided into two books, the third I'm not sure of, and from volume 4 on seem to be in one book each.  Titles are: Book 1, Part 2--At Play Book 2, Part 1--Old Dog Tom Book 2, Part 2--Little Chick Chick  Book 4--Careful Hans Book 6--William Tell

#B69--One more comment on the Beacon Readers:  I find almost no copies listed of the 1950s paperbacks I am after, but an awful lot of the early (1912-1921 or so) hardcover Beacon Readers.  If anyone has these I'd like tables of contents to see if they contain the same materials as the later
ones.
#B69--More on Beacon Readers:  Book 3 is The Pancake.  Animal Folk Tales, a 1916 hardcover Beacon Reader, contains some of the stories I want, so I'd be glad to get it if I can't find the paperback version.
Book 5 is Briar Rose, and I finally acquired lovely copies of the correct editions of all the books except Book 1.  I still don't know the title of Book 1, Part 1, and I need copies of it and Book 1, Part 2, At Play.

Book 1, Part 1 is At Home. Now that we know all eight titles, this can be moved to the "Solved" page. This was published in paperback by Ginn in 1955 and had gone through 45 impressions by 1960, so you wouldn't think it would be totally impossible to find.  Thanks so much.

This is the Beany Malone series by Leonora Mattingly Weber.  These are hard to find in decent old copies, but they've recently been reprinted by a small independent press and I have some on order.  Contact me to reserve a copy!
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Beanie Malone (her real name may have been Celia) was an adolescent girl who had freckles and was always trying to come up with ways to get rid of them.  As I recall, there was more than one book.  I loved reading about her family, adventures and travails.

There's a whole series, and they've been reprinted!  Please visit the Most Requested Pages for more on Lenora Mattingly Weber's Beany Malone series.

I never actually read this, but I have a suspicion it's Bear Party (1951) by William Pene du Bois. I DID read Bear Circus, which is also illustrated by him - there may be other books of his about the koalas too. He was so amazingly sweet, old-fashioned and dignified all at once - even in his simplest lines of dialogue. Not to mention the way he drew the koalas.
William Pene duBois, Bear Party
William Pene Du Bois, Bear Party, 1951.  "Great color illustrations for a small tale of Koala bears, which won the Caldecott Honor Book Award 1952. Portions of this book were first published in LIFE Magazine. An early, and delighful work - set in Koala Park where real teddy bears live in trees - and where one day, no bear remembers why, they became angry with each other and stopped playing and talking. The wise old koala bear hopes a costume party will change things, but, after a splendid time, anger grows again. Bright, detailed pictures complete the story."
William Pene du Bois, Bear Party, 1951.  Set in Australia in Koala Park.  Bears aren't speaking to each other and can't
remember why.  The wise old bear throws a costume party to break the ice and it goes from there. I have a new Puffin Books edition.

Jörg Steiner, The bear who wanted to be a bear, 1977.  "A huge factory replaces the woodlands around a hibernating bear who, on awakening, must prove he is indeed a bear and not a lazy worker."
Frank Tashlin, The bear that wasn't, 1962, 1995.  "After hibernating for the winter, a bear wakes up to discover that a huge factory has been built over his cave and that nobody believes he is a bear."
The Bear That Wasn't.  I had this on a record when I was a kid, but it's actually not a book but a cartoon. The refrain they keep repeating is,"You're a hairy man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat." There may have been a book made from the cartoon, I suppose. Some information on it is here.
B182: Have I got info for you! It's The Bear That Wasn't, 1946, written and illustrated by Frank Tashlin, writer, animator, director and producer. Also the author of the 1950 The Possum That Didn't   (smile, that is) and the 1951 The World That Isn't.  He worked with Bob Hope, the Marx Bros, Jerry Lewis and directed "The Girl Can't Help It" with Jayne Mansfield and Little Richard. However, some feel that The Bear That Wasn't, while very funny, is really more for adults while slightly sad for kids - it's cynical, after all. Some think it's a bit political, too! It was made into a 10-minute cartoon by Chuck Jones in 1967. In 1976, Jorg Steiner and Jorg Muller wrote a slightly different book version called The Bear Who Wanted to Be a Bear. Not much humor in that one.
Additional note: Frank Tashlin wrote (in 1952?) The Turtle That Couldn't. He was also the director of at least a dozen Porky Pig cartoons, some Bugs and Daffy, and many more.
B182 Steiner, Jorg. The bear who wanted to be a bear.  illus by Jorg Muller. Atheneum c1977.  bear forced to work in factory because no one believes he is a bear.
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I'm looking for a book which I remember reading about 1950. I was in Washington DC at that time, if that helps.  It was about a bear who goes to sleep (hibernates) and during the winter a factory is built over his hibernation cave.  When he awakes in the spring he finds himself inside the factory, and tries to get out (as best I remember).  People keep asking him who he is and he says "I'm a bear" and they keep repeating "Bear?  No, You are just a man in a fur coat who needs a shave" and he goes through a series of levels in the company repeating the same phrases.  I can't remember if he finally gets out of the factory, but I think finally the president believes him. I'd love to find the book again - talk about favorite childhood memories!!  I heard about your website this weekend on a Delta flight from London.  Hope you can help!!

Frank Tashlin, The bear that wasn't, 1962, 1995.  "After hibernating for the winter, a bear wakes up to discover that a
huge factory has been built over his cave and that nobody believes he is a bear." See Solved Mysteries for more.

B53: Bears In---Bears Out by Catherine Barr, 1967.
B53: Yes, that's it! Thanks.
Bears In - Bears Out, written and illustrated by Cathrine Barr, published Walck 1967. "The beguiling story of two bear cubs who become sightseers in Yellowstone Park when they stow away in a family car. Ages 4-7." (HB Feb/67 p.16 pub ad)

Cameron, Eleanor (Frances Butler), The Beast With the Magical Horn.
---
read in 1983 about a unicorn who breaks off her horn and gives to a princess who uses to heal prince, also a phoenix in story
---another request, same stumper--
I read this book around 1983.  It was a small brown hardcover book with line drawings.  It was about a princess who befriends a unicorn.  The unicorn gives her his broken horn, which she uses to heal a prince who is mortally wounded in a battle. There is also a phoenix who burns and is reborn in the tale,  and maybe some other mythical creatures like a griffen(?).  It seems that there was an evil king also.  Please help, I have searched for this book for years!

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn,1968.  What fits is the unicorn, the "princess" -- who IS the unicorn -- healing a prince with a mortal wound, and the evil king.  There is also the point that the movie version came out in 1982, possibly prompting a reissue of the book by the next year.  What doesn't fit is a broken horn, which sounds more like part of the author's UNICORN SONATA, published much later  the phoenix and the griffin, although there is a witch's carnival, where the unicorn is held captive, displaying other ersatz mythical beasts, including a satyr, a manticore, the Midgard Serpent and a real harpy.
Hi, someone suggested The Last Unicorn for my lost book,  unfortunately this is not the correct answer.  I've read The Last Unicorn, which I dearly love, but the book I am looking for has seperate characters for the princess and the unicorn.  Another detail I can remember is that I believe the princess grinds the horn into a powder and gives to the prince, and also that the phoenix burns up and is reborn.
Clifford D. Simak, Enchanted pilgrimage,1975.  The description sounds similar to this book of Clifford Simak.  Maybe this is the book you seek.  I don't believe the main guy was a prince, but it does involve a girl getting a unicorn horn and healing him.  There is another book by the same author involving a girl who rides a griffin  called "The Fellowship of the Talisman," which was published in 1978.
Michael Berenstain, Sorcerer's Scrapbook. (1981) This might be it... at one point a phoenix announces it will soon burn and be reborn, but no one is willing to pay the fee to watch.  A unicorn sheds its horn and a cup is carved from it so a duke will be safe from poisoning.  The story is told from the perspective of a somewhat incompetent wizard, I can't remember if there was a princess or not.
Eleanor Cameron, The Beast With The Magical Horn. (1963)  I think this is the one we have been looking for, found it on Worldcat after much searching.  One of my all time favorite books.  I think the reason we never found it is because the word unicorn is not in the title!

Dr. Seuss, There's A Wocket In My Pocket.  Strange creatures dwell in all corners of a boy's house, including the sink.  Rhyming.
Thanks for the suggestion, but it is emphatically not a Dr Seuss book, and not There's a Wocket in My Pocket. The illustration style, cover drawings and rhymes are completely different. Sorry!
Jack Hanrahan, Beastly Rhymes, Wonder Books, 1966. I thought this was the funniest book ever when I was a kid! I have not been able to find a copy for my own children, but have often tried recall more of the rhymes such as "The Fink". One I would tell them while out fishing was "The Monsterous Injustice" The Monsterous Injustice/Is a sneaky, dirty crook/Not only will he swipe your bait/But he'll also steal your hook!

D133 Sounds like A BEASTY STORY by Bill Martin Jr. & Steven Kellogg. Has the balloon ending as described. ~from a librarian
Joy Cowley , In a Dark Dark Wood, c.1995.  IT COULD BE THIS ONE: In a Dark Dark Wood BY: Joy Cowley, OR  In A Dark, Dark Wood : An Old Tale with a New Twist by David Carter (Author. THE LATER IS MORE RECENT. I REMEMBER THIS BOOK AS WELL.
Ruth Brown, A Dark Dark Tale.  This was a favorite at my day-care.  The book takes you into a dark dark wood, where there is a dark dark house.  Everything is dark, dark. The illustrations are quite effective. It builds up to the last page, which has a mouse. (And this mouse with big ears is shivering in his little nightgown!)
There are many versions of this story.  Besides the ones listed alredy, there's one in the All Aboard Reading series titled In A Dark, Dark House: a picture reader by Jennifer Dussling (Grosset, 1995). "Simple words, rebus pictures, and flash cards make learning to read easy and fun in this tale of a little boy in a haunted house."  Since it's a beginning reader, it's entirely possible that the words that were color words were printed in that color as you mentioned.
Bill Martin and Steven Kellogg, The Beasty Story.  Thank you so much for finding the title of the book. My niece went right to the library and checked out the book and has read it at least 10 times since then.

Constance C. Greene, Beat the Turtle Drum, 1979, copyright.  The sister's name is Joss and the main character is Kate, I believe.  I'm positive this is the one.  Joss falls from a treehouse and is killed.  She also loves horses and borrows one for a day at some point during the book.
Constance C. Greene, Beat the Turtle Drum.  It was also an after-school special.
Constance Greene, Beat the Turtle Drum.  This was made into an "Afterschool Movie" episode as well.
Constance Greene, Beat the Turtle Drum, 1976.  The girl's name is Joss, her older sister is Kate. This is the one you're looking for though.  Hugely sad, but hopeful at the end. My sisters adored this book, and could quote huge sections at the drop of a hat. It was made into an After School Special starring Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary in Little House on the Prairie.)
Constance C. Green, Beat the Turtle Drum, 1976.  details match exactly
Wow! Four people can't be wrong...I never would have guessed that title again and I didn't know it had been made into an after school special. I did a search on the internet and I'm 99.999% sure that Beat the Turtle Drum is the book I am looking for. I still have many of my favorite books from my childhood, but somehow this one got lost. Thanks so much!

Hi!  Could B106 be Beauty by Robin McKinley?  It's sort of a young adult version of Beauty and the Beast.
Mckinley, Robin, Beauty, 1978.  B106 is definitely Beauty, by Robin McKinley.  It's one of my all time favorite stories.  I have a copy of it in front of me.  Beauty's two sisters are named Grace and Hope.  Beauty's real name is Honour in this story, although she is always called Beauty.
Could this be Robin McKinley's Beauty?  Just about the best retelling I've read...
McKinley, Robin, Beauty-a retelling of the story of beauty and the beast.  I actually submitted this stumper without realising it was actually still in print -should have looked harder!
McKinley complicated things a couple years ago, two decades after Beauty, by releasing Rose Daughter--another retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  Her latest is Spindle's End, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, in which you'll find a beautiful, throwaway line about Orpheus and Eurydice.  In McKinley's universe, Orpheus succeeded in bringing his wife home, and they were ultimately celebrated for the strength and endurance of their marriage, not for its premature termination.  One of those tears-welling-up, I-want-to-live-in-this-world moments so common in McKinley's work.  -Audrey

I believe the following is the correct book for this searcher.  This author lived in Minnesota (or thereabouts
<g>....) and wrote many books about animals such as beaver, otters, and bears.  I visited his home when I was a
girl (late 60's) and he raised many of the animals he wrote about...I remember all the otters he had at the time. :-)
Liers, Emil E.  A Beaver's Story.Viking Press, 1985.
I ought to add that this publication date I listed is obviously a re-print; I got this listing off of Bibliofind.com.  The original publication date was much earlier.  I have several of his works and they are all from the '50's and '60's, originally.  I wouldn't like this late date to steer the seeker in the wrong direction.
I'm still researching this one. <g>  Lo and behold, I had a copy on my own shelves! :   A Beaver's Story, by Emile E. Liers, first published 1958 by the Viking Press.   This story takes place in Wisconsin, and is about a beaver "couple" named Haloka and Akella, who meet when Haloka is already pregnant, form a new "family", face dangers from bobcats, trappers, and the separation caused when Akella is trapped and released in a new location,  are visited by otter "friends", and so forth.  The book is fact-based, but anthropomorphic in portrayl.  It concludes: "No beaver anywhere, Akella was sure, had a finer flowage or a more flourishing colony.  Here in the abundant Reno bottomlands he and Haloka would live out their long, productive lives, with eleven fine youngsters still at home....He remembered that he had cut the cottonwood three feet through at the butt---a beaver feat unequaled in any records--and he went on about his territorial rounds, the proudest, happiest beaver in all the Mississippi bottoms."   Hope this helps!

Florence Noiville et Alice Charbin, Bébé Jules Qui Ne Voulait Pas Naître.Gallimard Jeunesse (publishers)  Here it is in French! I assume this is the book that was translated into Englsih.

I have a book called Becky Lou in Grandmother's Days by Hazel Craig that fits this description.  I also read it in the 70's.  It is one of my absolute favorite children's books to date.  It's photographs of black and white dolls
takn with Schoenhut miniatures.  She has other friends who are dolls that are in the book.  There is also a little dog in the book.  I think it's name was Trixie.  She does do cleaning in this book to get ready for her mistress to come and pick her up.  Hope this helps.
Hi -  I went and checked the book, Becky Lou in Grandmother's Days by Hazel Craig, and she DOES clean the outhouse in the book.  Good luck.
more information on the suggested title: Becky Lou in Grandmother's Days, Story, scenes and costumes by Hazel Craig, photographs by Sam Craig, published by T.S. Denison 1961, hardbound, 9 x 11", 61 pages. "The story in the book is told by the use of photography of dolls and doll furniture and toys, very similar to the Dare Wright "Lonely Doll" books. In the acknowledgement, the author thanks Marion Wilson for the use of the kitchen chair, silk parasol, Empire sofa, Empire chest of drawers, poster bed, clown and stool, Schoenhut Dolls, pony cart, Schoenhut piano, scales, meat grinder, coffee grinder, iron and trivet, copper teapot, cream pitcher and sugar bowl, harvest table, trunk, kitchen cupboard and kitchen wares. Included in many of the photographs is a little Steiff Terrier puppy.Author's introduction: "This is a story of Becky Lou, my favorite doll, when I was a little girl like you many years ago. Little girls, then as now, dressed their dolls in dresses like their own and dollhouses had furniture exactly like real furniture of the times. Becky Lou seemed as real to me as my friends. When my friends came to visit, they played with Becky Lou. Sometimes I made up plays with scenery and charged a
penny admission. In the story of Becky Lou, I would like to re-create some of the scenes of my childhood during the early part of the century. How would you like to live without such things as television, radio, electric washers, dryers, refrigerators and irons? Can you imagine a world without supermarkets, drive-in movies, swimming pools, Christmas lights and tinsel? Can you visualize streets with horse-drawn buggies and a few old-fashioned cars and skies without the sound or sight of an airplane? Let's pretend we are on a magic carpet traveling back through the century and see what it was like to be a girl who lived a long time ago - a little girl whose experiences would have been very much like Becky Lou's in the story. These were the old-fashioned days your grandmothers and great grandmothers will want to tell you more about." Photos show the doll beating carpets, using a wringer washer, ironing, etc. Another couple of books that have photographs of dolls doing everyday activities are: THE STORY OF DELICIA: a rag doll, by Gertrude Newman, published Chicago, Rand McNally 1935. Written in the form of a daily diary from the point of view of the doll, and illustrated with many full page photos showing the life of the doll with her little girl. And: Days In A Doll's Life, by Mrs. Crosby Adams, published 1948, 21 pages. "Tells the story of Juliette, a doll, in delightful B&W photos of dolls all dressed up and posed in various daily activities."

Jennie D. Lindquist, The Golden Name Day.  This is something of a longshot but the description made me think of this book so I'm offering it up as a possibility.  This is the story of Nancy who comes to live with her "Grandparents" (really just friends of her mother) when her mother falls ill. They are of Swedish heritage and they and their extended family include Nancy warmly in all of their traditions.  There were many celebrations in the book and I vaguely remember that there might have been a floating birthday cake but I'm not at all sure about this! (It's been a while since I read it!) The plot is about Nancy wishing for a "Name Day" of her own- a Swedish tradition that she wants to be a part of.  Unfortunately, the name "Nancy" is not included on the name day lists.  It's finally resolved when they use her middle name "Wanda" and have a celebration for her on the proper day.  It is a sweet and charming book that has two sequels:  The Little Silver House and The Crystal Tree.
Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday
Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday.  I originally suggested The Golden Name Day as an answer to the stumper but after seeing another person answer Becky's Birthday I checked out that book.  That person was definitely right! Becky's Birthday has the peach ice cream and floating birthday cake-  it must be the one!
Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday.  I'm still pretty sure this is Becky's Birthday.  From an online source:  "On her tenth birthday, Becky braids her own hair, goes grocery shopping all by herself, helps make peach ice cream, makes a bouquet, and goes on an evening birthday picnic."
SOLVED: Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday.  Thank you so much! I honestly didn't believe that anyone would know of this book  I thought it was probably some obscure book with an author no one had heard of! I'm delighted and can't wait to track down the book. Thanks again.

Kids' book read in late 60's, girls in pretty dresses- floating flowers and candles down a stream, nighttime.  Maybe a quaint litte bridge involved?Maybe Scandinavian custom but written in English,lovely illustrations. Not The Golden Name Day, I know.  Hope you can help me.  Driving me nuts!

Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday. If there was peach ice cream involved, it's Becky's Birthday.
SOLVED: Tasha Tudor, Becky's Birthday, 1960. Thank you so much for solving this mystery for me.  I got the book thru my library and reread it (took about 10 minutes, ha!) and enjoyed the story and illustrations all over again.  Such a sweet little story and I can see why it would appeal to a young girl of any generation.

Winifred Madison, Becky's Horse,1975. This is Becky's Horse by Winifred Madison...it came out in hardcover, and as a Scholastic paperback "Becky must decide whether to keep the horse she won or take the prize money to help an Austrian cousin orphaned during the invasion of Hitler's troops"
Yes, that's it!

There was an anthology of stories that I read in the 50's as a child (it wasn't a new book then- so was probably published in the 40's). This was a Big Golden Book (I think) and had the illustrations that you described. I am also looking for this book, but I can't remember the name of it. A lot of the stories were animal stories, but there were stories involving people also.One was a story about a clown that had his nose stolen by another clown (stumper C81 talks about this story). There is a Little Golden Book that is an anthology of these stories, but there were many more in the big book. Soe of these stories were"Little Bear's Pet Boy", "A House For A Mouse", "Chatterly Squirrel's Good Day". I am in possession of the smaller book, but I am looking for the larger one - if anyone knows the name of it...
Burgess, Thornton W. , Bedtime Stories, 1959.  I am positive this is the book! There are 20 animal stories included with black and white and full color illustrations.
You may be thinking of a Golden Book called The Big Brown Bear. It was the story of a bear and his wife. It did feature a neat drawing of the bear catching a fish with his paw but then went on to have him get into a bee hive which his wife had warned him about. He ends up jumping into the river with nothing but his nose sticking out which his wife has to bandage up for him. It was a great story with neat drawings. Hope this helps.
Seton, Ernest Thompson, The biography of a grizzly, and other animal stories, 1969.  This may be the book -- my copy features a grizzly on cover, which has just killed a deer.  However, the Frontspiece is a great drawing of the grizzly catching a salmon out of the river. Other stories in book include: The Pacing Mustang -- Lobo, the King of the Currumpaw -- The Trail of the Sandhill Stag.  In Lobo, the old alpha wolf is caught in a trap, and the storyteller, who was about to kill
him, lets him out instead, but keeps him captured.  The old wolf dies from being in captivity.  In my book there is a picture of the wolf with the trap on his foot (it may have been remembered as a bandage instead, by wishful thinking!)  Some of the drawings are in color, some just black ink.
Thorson Charles, Keeko.  Wilcox & Follett Co. 1947.  [Yep, I heard the NPR story, too.] Perhaps the book in question is Keeko. Keeko, an Indian boy,  has encounters with several animals, mostly young ones,  including a bully mountain lion cub and an eaglet, and he patches  up at least one of the animals he encounters. The author/illustrator, Charlie Thorson, was famous for drawing cute animals, and I think I remember a drawing of a bear that stood out because in contrast to the other cute animals, the bear was much more realistic and scary. See also Keeko in the Solved Mysteries section for more details.
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I think the cover was dark blue, orange, and white, but am not sure.  It's a fairly thick book, with lots of pictures.  The trees in the forest talk, as well as the animals.  But all I remember clearly are the Merry Little Breezes.

M166: Sounds like one of Thornton W. Burgess' many, many books, though in at least 90 percent of them, the plants do not have thoughts, feelings, or voices. Most are about animal adventures, though there are 2 or 3 that focus more on plants. I remember one short story about witch hazel called The Disappointed Bush in one book of the Mother West Wind series.
The Merry Little Breezes are featured in some of Thornton Burgess' stories (Bedtime Stories, Green Meadow, Green Forest Series).

It does exist, I know it does and I remember tucking in the green blanket. But I'm drawing a blank on the title.
Potter, Miriam Clark, illus. Tony Brice, Bedtime Stories, Rand-McNally 1951.  I'd suggest this Tiny Elf book. It's not just kittens, but has several similaries. The stories are Three Jumpy Kittens ("Mother Cat had three little gray kittens. They had blue eyes and pink tongues. One afternoon she said to them, "It's time for your naps. Come with me." So they all went to the kittens' bedroom." They can't sleep and jump around on the furniture, "from the chest to the armchair, from the armchair to the straight-back chair, very softly so they would not wake their mother up.") and finally are tired enough for her to tuck them in right up to their noses,  Mrs. Groundhog's Grapevine ("Mrs. Squirrel had two little squirrels, Fluffy and Frisky. She washed their faces and paws and put on their best clothes. "Very soon now we shall see Mrs. Groundhog's house. It has a little white fence with a  grapevine on it." They are told "There are lots of grapes. You may eat all you want." and eat all of them. Then they are sorry and take all their money and buy fruit to tie on the vine. "The grapevine was full of things: more grapes, a few apples and plums and peaches and a carrot or two. Yes, there was even a banana."),  and Mrs. Rabbit's Birthday Cake ("Once there was a family of three little rabbits. They were Munchy, Bunchy, and Boo." While their mother is at market they bake a cake for her birthday.)
Potter, Miriam Clark, Bedtime Stories,1951.  Illustrated by Tony Brice, Rand McNally, 1951 Hard Cover. G-. A .59 cent Rand McNally Jr. Elf Book #8035. Contains three stories - Three Jumpy Kittens, Mrs. Groundhogs Grapevine, and Mrs. Rabbit's Birthday Cake.
K37: Miriam Clark Potter is also the author of the delightful The Pinafore Pocket Story Book from the 1920's.
I wanted to thank you and whoever solved my Kitten Stories bookstumper.  We've been on vacation for two weeks, so I just received my copy of Bedtime Stories.  I am on cloud nine and can't believe how fast you got a copy to me.  What a wonderful, wonderful service you provide.  You've made a middle aged housewife very happy! To the kind people who helped me solve my stumper:  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  I am so happy to have found this book and to be able to now share it with my own children.  With a title like Bedtime Stories,  I never would have found it on my own.  What a wonderful resource this is!
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This was a small book, about 4" x 4", with a blue cover.  I think there were three stories, each with different animals. The animals all are dressed like people and act like people. The one story I remember was about a mother cat takes her 2 kittens to visit her friend who was a rabbit or squirrel. The friend tell the kittens they can go outside and eat what they want from her garden or off a bush of berries, I don't remember which.  When Mom is through visiting she goes outside and the kittens have eaten all the food.  She is extremely ashamed of them and insisted they appologize.  When the kittens get home they take all their money from their piggy bank and go shopping.  The last page of the story shows the friend's bushes around her house covered with all kinds of fruits and vegetables tied on with ribbons bought by the kittens.

Miriam Clark Potter, Bedtime Stories. 1951.  This one is on the Solved page too.
K40 Potter, Miriam Clark   Bedtime stories    illus by Tony Brice [cover is mother cat reading to kittens]    Rand McNally, 1951.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Potter, Miriam Clark.  Bedtime Stories.  Illustrated by Tony Brice.  Rand McNally Junior Elf Book, 1951.  Binding has been reglued, minor wear to edges.  Hot demand item.  VG-.  <SOLD>

B94 bedtime story: one of the stories sounds possible - Favourite Animal Stories,  Sandle Brother 1971 Folio size 12"-15" tall, 63 pgs. "Wonderful color illustrations in this big children's book of charming animal stories." Stories include: Puffles the Teddy Bear, Billy's Long Floppy Ears, a Springtime Fairy Tale, and Tooty Hooty's Family.
I'm fairy sure the main title of this book is Bedtime Story Omnibus - I've also been searching for it for years!  It is unlikely to be an animal collection as many of the stories weren't based on animals. Other stories I recall include "Terry the flyaway towel", Choo-choo the train (illustrated by very pink and blue clouds) and a great tale about the Dragon of Wantley and a very ugly princess whom he objected to capturing!  Some of the characters kept reappearing, such as a mischievous green sprite whose name I can't remember - I think he was in poems.  The only poem I really remember began  "A little mouse hid himself under a chair / He knew of course who was sitting there - / A beautiful lady, so calm and serene / He knew (at once?) she was a beautiful queen."  I was read these stories in the early eighties but I don't know when it was published - can anyone else give any more information
HRL:   Just give it a plural:  "Bed Time" Stories Omnibus.  London: Brimax Books, 1979, 1981.  Illustrated by Eric Kincaid.

Felice Haus, Beep! Beep!  I’m a Jeep! : A Toddler’s Book of ‘Let’s Pretend’ (Great Big Board Books), 1986.  I can't find a description of this book, nor do I know what time frame to look for, but this sounds like a possibility. 

K.M. Peyton, The Beethoven Medal, pre-1973 (sequel pub. date).  I had this in hardback, not sure if Scholastic used a different title, but Peyton is definitely the author.  Ruth Hollis (pony club rider), Patrick Pennington (pianist from bad family), and Clarissa Cargill-Smith (violinist and spoiled brat) are the characters you mention. BTW, there was a sequel, Pennington's Heir. Public libraries sometimes have these.
K.M.  Peyton, The Beethoven Medal.  May be this book, or another of Peyton's books about Patrick Pennington.
#T119--Pennington's Heir, by K. M. Peyton.  Books before it in the series are Pennington's Last Term (about Pennington), Fly-by-Night (about the same girl, Ruth), and Marion's Angels (after Pennington becomes famous.)
K.M. Peyton, The Beethoven Medal, 1970.  I read this book many years ago, but the opening is exactly as described in the stumper.  The boy's name is Patrick Pennington.  The girl's name is Ruth.  I think this is actually the second book about Pennington, the first being Seventeenth Summer.
This is the book!  I am excited to learn that there are three Pennington novels, as well.  I've since found a Scholastic printing of The Beethoven Medal that was renamed If I Ever Marry, but I intend to read all of the Ruth and Patrick books now. Thanks for your help! 

(Not a solution, but an 'And further...') I just remembered that this book involved using another item (I think a book) as a 'portal' - definitely not part of the Half Magic series.  Illustrations most resemble those done by E.L. Konigsburg (ink line drawings).  (Er, is it okay that I add to my original query with more information?)
This only partially fits the poster's description, but I thought I'd toss it out there just in case. Do-It-Yourself Magic by Ruth Chew is about a brother and sister named Rachel and Scott. They find a magic double-headed hammer that makes things larger or smaller, and they use it to transport themselves into a miniature medieval castle. When they get there, they find themselves in a real medieval world.
Mary Tannen, The Wizard Children of Finn. I don't believe this was illustrated but the plot is that a brother and sister (Fiona and Bran) visit an elderly uncle who is a professor.  He has a book that tells the adventures of Finn MacCool, a legendary Irish hero.  The children are transported back in time to ancient Ireland to help Finn MacCool become a hero. Memorable scenes include the children helping Finn catch the Fish of Wisdom which he
has to eat in order to gain wisdom, Fiona being very happy about being given a comb, the children helping him compose a poem describing his epic journey.
Uttley, Alison , Traveller in Time, 1939. 1964. 1968.  Long shot, but could this be Alison Uttley'sTraveller in Time?  It begins in winter, when a girl and her siblings are sent to stay with relatives  Penelope slips back and forth between the 16th century (and a plot about rescuing Mary, Queen of Scots).  No magic token -- the time shift isn't something she controls --  but a bobbin boy figure (found in a sewing kit) recurs at several transition points.
Thanks SO much for your suggestions.  None of these are quite right, and I'm still positive about the author's surname beginning w/ C, D, E or F (and it's definitely not the Chew book).  I remembered one more thing about this book, which is that I think the brother's name is Chris, Kit or Kay.  He disappears on his own for a while and when the girl/sister finds him again (possibly at a big banquet), he's been off being a squire for some knight.  I could easily have mixed this up with another book, but...it's possible.  Thank you again!
Andre Norton, Red Hart Magic, 1976.  [Summary from the dust cover] An exquisite miniature model of an old English inn triggers three strange and exciting adventures back into earlier centuries for Chris Fitton and his new stepsister Nan Mallory.  Nan's mother has recently married Chris's father, and both children resent the problems and mixed-up relationships the marriage has forced upon them.  Difficulties at Chris's Aunt Elizabeth's home, where they are temporarily living, and with classmates at school push Nan and Chris still further apart.  In this time-warp fantasy, noted writer Andre Norton has skillfully reconstructed three tumultuous periods of English history, during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, in which earlier Nans and Chrises test their courage against great danger. Breakers of the law must be defeated, and in the end, the two young people emerge strong enough to solve their present-day problems, discovering that they can relate to each other as members of a true family.  Strong values from the past help shape the present in this distinguised story, which is further enhanced by Donna Diamond's brilliant pen-and-ink drawings.
G93  Not Norton - not Red Hart Magic.  Hopefully the NPR readers have new input?
C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair. Could this be one of the books from C.S. Lewis' Narnia series? The Silver Chair features the characters Jill and Eustace, and the world of Narnia seems somewhat medieval, with castles, a prince, etc.
Mary Stewart, Walk in the Wolf Wood.I am fairly sure this is a YA book written by Mary Stewart.  The boy and girl are kept separated doing "male" and "female" activites and have very little chance to meet or talk.  Good description of life
in a late medieval household.  Definitely time travel/fantasy. Still in print.
Neither Mary Stewart nor CS Lewis.  I appreciate all the input very much.  Someday...
Penelope Lively, Astercote, 1970.  Ran across this possible solution today while looking for something else.  "A brother and sister discover that nearby woods not only hide the site of a medieval village but also a well-kept and potentially dangerous secret."
My fault this got moved to 'Solved' - I hadn't checked it in a while. Astercote is not the correct book either.  Please keep this one current??
Not a solution - but possibly more information. . . Was teh secret realted to the Tudor roses on the walls of ceiling?
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Beginning Place.  I am fairly certain the poster is looking for The Beginning Place by Ursula K. LeGuin. This was my favorite book growing up. The girl finds a land called Tembrabreze where it is always twilight. She
can stay here for days or weeks at a time, but when she comes out, only a few minutes or hours have passed in regular time. Eventually, a young man named Hugh Rogers also find the Beginning Place (a stream they cross over to get to the other land). At first, the young woman is angry that someone else has found her place, especially because the village people welcome Hugh as a potential hero. You see, a mysterious force is threatening the village--for some reason, the people are afraid of it nd unable to leave the town. Eventually, Hugh and the girl go off into the mountain to fight the force. This book is a young adult book--the girl/young woman and hugh are in their early twenties, I think, and they actually make love toward the end. This is/was a wonderful book. The illustration on the cover shows the two dressed in medieval garb, which is probably why the poster remembers medieval times. Hope this is right!

Could this be Raggedy Ann & Andy?  This is how their stories got started. Little Marcella found a doll in the attic that her grandmother had made. Her father fixed it up and it became Raggedy Ann. Then he would tell Marcella stories about her, and that is how he started writing the books.
The other book is about some dolls.  I think there are one or two of them, and they live in an attic until they are discovered by a little girl who takes them out and plays with them.  It’s not the Raggedy Ann stories – I think at least one of the dolls was porcelain or bisque.  And the little girl in question liked to dress up in the old clothes in the attic.  If you can help me I’d surely appreciate it!
Does this have any relation to Missing Melinda?
I am almost certain that the book in "mystery D4" is Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy. The story is about a little girl who goes to live with her great-aunts and discovers two porcelain dolls in the attic who come to life when she is there.  The dolls are brother and sister and she does dress them up in fancy doll clothes from the attic. Hope this helps!
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All I can remember about this story is a young girl was sent to a childrens home and she had a stuffed companion named Juniper.  I remember one section where the woman in charge tells her not to drink cold milk because it will be a shock to her system.  I think it was a magically mystery type book, but I was about six in 1982 when I read it.  This has been puzzling me for years and I'd like to share the story with my kids.

Sylvia Cassedy, Behind the Attic Wall, 1980.   Orphaned Maggie, after a series of failed foster homes and boarding schools, goes to stay with distant relatives who are health nuts (hence the "cold milk" comment).  She discovers "live dolls" are living in the house  the dolls are the ones who have a pet china dog named Juniper.
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This is a chapter book that I may have read in the late 70's early 80's.  The description sounds sort of like the Victorian Dolls questions, but it is not a picture book.  It is about a girl, I think, that she goes to live with her aunts in a big house or she lives in a big house...  I think that I remember her being lonely and discovering a "family" of small people, like dolls (NOT THE BORROWERS!), from an earlier period in time (whose real lives may have ended in a fire which they may not really recall while telling their story in the book).  These small beings become petrified if a person sees them.  They actually black out for a period of time.  For some reason I do not remember this happening with the girl in the house.  Maybe because she is a child(?).  The "younger" "doll" communicates with the child.  I remember that tat the end of the book, there is a fire, and found are the charred remains of what appear to be dolls.  Librarians that I have spoken to think I am nuts and have a very active imagination.  Help!

V34 Pretty sure this person is thinking of BEHIND THE ATTIC WALL by Sylvia Cassedy~from a librarian
Sounds like either Behind the Attic Wall by Cassedy (1983) or Return of the Twelves by Clarke (1962).  Both have full descriptions under Solved Mysteries.
Sylvia Cassedy , Behind the Attic Wall.  This sounds a lot like Behind the Attic Wall, although some of the specifics are a little different than I remember them.
Sylvia Cassedy, Behind The Attic Wall, 1983.  I am sure this has been suggested to before but since many elements seem to match up I thought I would propose it just in case it does turn out to be the book you are looking for. "They were watching...and waiting At twelve, Maggie had been thrown out of more boarding schools than she cared to remember. "Impossible to handle," they said -- nasty, mean, disobedient, rebellious, thieving -- anything they could say to explain why she must be removed from the school. Maggie was thin and pale, with shabby clothes and stringy hair, when she arrived at her new home. "It was a mistake to bring her here," said Maggie's great-aunts, whose huge stone house looked like another boarding school -- or a prison. But they took her in anyway. After all, aside from Uncle Morris, they were Maggie's only living relatives. But from behind the closet door in the great and gloomy house, Maggie hears the faint whisperings, the beckoning voices. And in the forbidding house of her ancestors, Maggie finds magic...the kind that lets her, for the first time, love and be loved."
Sylvia Cassedy, Behind the Attic Wall.  Am pretty sure this is it - Maggie is living in a former boarding school with her two aunts.  She begins hearing voices, and finds three china dolls in the (attic?) - a man, woman, and dog (Juniper).  The dolls move and speak, but no one else can hear them or has seen them.  At some point, Maggie is 'caught' with the dolls, and the dolls stop being alive for a time.  It becomes evident that the dolls were people that had lived in the house and had died in a fire.
Sylvia Cssedy, Behind the attic wall, 1983.   Maggie gets sent to live with her aunts in a big house that used to be a boarding school.  She is a difficult child and lonely. First she hears voices, then discovers dolls/people from an earlier time on the other side of the wall.  The dolls' lives stop when she is not there.  There is a fire at the end of the book and the charred remains are found.
This sounds a lot like, Behind the Attic Wall, by Sylvia Cassedy.
Sylvia Cassedy, Behind the Attic Wall.  Just a guess.   I haven't reread it.
Sylvia Cassedy, Behind the Attic Wall.  Maggie goes to stay her two great aunts in a house that has previously been through a fire and discovers dolls living behind the attic wall.  These dolls have recollections of a thoroughly lived life and Maggie gradually realizes that they were people who perished in the fire.
Cassedy, Sylvia., Behind the Attic Wall.  U.S. edition: Crowell, 1983.  This book has been the solution to other questions, but it does sound like it fits here, too. The little girl is Maggie, and the two dolls she plays with the most are Christabel and Timothy John.
Sylvia Cassedy , Behind the Attic Wall.  Maggie leaves yet another orphanage/boarding school and goes to live with her aunts. In the attic she finds two dolls, who come alive. I really think this is it.
This sounds like Behind the Attic Wall.  Maggie, a misfit, goes to live with her aunts in a big house and begins to hear voices.  She discovers the dolls in the attic, Miss Christabel and Timothy John.  The fire detail fits.  Kinda creepy for kids.  Surprise ending.
Thank you to eveyone who posted.  THis is indeed the book!

C1951. Don't have a copy with me, but check this popular novel for young people, 218 pages.
Gladys Malvern, Behold Your Queen. I think that this might be Gladys Malvern's Behold Your Queen.  I too read a novel-length version of the story in the 1970s that was very compelling, and the scene you remember sounds familiar. Other details I remember:  in the beginning she is called Hadassah, but changes her name to Esther when she goes off to be part of the competition to become queen.  She spends an entire year being trained to be queen and made beautiful with the other finalists, with two staff members whose entire job is make sure that she is the one who wins (each girls gets two staff members for this purpose).  She wins because when it is her turn to interview with the King she asks about his feelings instead of telling him why he ought to marry her.  After she becomes queen she lives in a palace where the windows are specially designed so that she can see out but no one can see it.
Gadys Malvern, Behold your queen. I remember the scenes of them preparing her for her audience with the king and they are as  you described
Blinn, Stephan, Hadassah: One Night with the King, 2004. The book on which the religious movie from 2006 is based.
You people are marvelous! That's it. Thank you so much. Now if I can just find a copy for sale that won't require me re-mortgaging the house...

Johnny Gruelle, Raggedy Ann.  Kind of a long shot here...but could you be remembering the Raggedy Ann series by Johnny Gruelle?  Either the first book or Raggedy Andy.  The dolls in the nursery always came to life when nobody was around, and then had to run back to their places when they heard anyone coming.  The picture of Raggedy Ann on the cover might possibly be remembered as an Aunt Jemima doll, especially because there is an "Aunt Jemima type" maid in the house.
Johnny Gruelle, Beloved Belindy. (1926)  To the previous stumper magician: your response is not a long shot at all!  It helped jog my memory, and there's an excellent chance that this is the book being sought!  Johnny Gruelle wrote a whole series of books about Raggedy Ann and Andy and their friends.  Only two of the books are named after other characters in the series.  The first is Beloved Belindy, which features the black mammy doll who appears in many of the Raggedy Ann and Andy tales.  Her illustration appears on the cover of the book that bears her name, and you can easily find a photograph by doing a Google image search.  The second is Wooden Willie (1927), where Marcella and her mother go to the city for a week, and Uncle Clem and Beloved Belindy go to Eddie Elf's house and Wooden town.  And yes, Raggedy Ann and Andy and their friends frequently have interesting adventures when Marcella, their mistress, is away, and must run back to their original positions when she returns.
This sounds right!  I vaguely remember reading Raggedy Anne books, too, but I thought this book I was remembering was separate from those.  But Marcella rings a bell, and Beloved Belindy looks like the doll I was thinking of.  I'm going to try to get a copy through interlibrary loan and see if this is the book I remember.  Thanks for pointing me in what I think is the right direction!

BELOVED BENJAMIN IS WAITING by Jean E. Karl, published by Dutton, 1978, 150 pages. Lucinda hides in a cemetery and makes contact with aliens - this has to be the right book - not a very common plot!
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This book was about a girl who found a statue who's name was Benjamin ( I think). I also sort of remember that she was hiding in an abandoned building and this statue talked to her.  that's all I remember! Hope someone can help. This book was out in the 70's or 80's.

S251 Sounds like it could be BELOVED BENJAMIN IS WAITING by Jean Karl, 1978. It appears on your Solved page, and you already have a picture of the cover, so it might help confirm the memory. ~from a librarian
Karl, Jean, Beloved Benjamin is Waiting, 1978. It sounds like this one -- creepy!

Interpreting Condition Grades

Karl, Jean E. Beloved Benjamin is Waiting. E.P. Dutton, 1978.  First edition.  Ex-library copy with usual markings.  VG/VG.  $18

Slepian, Jan, Bendemolena.  Follett, 1967.  Series = The Junior listen-hear books.  "When Bendemolena wears a tin pot on her head, what whe hears gets so mixed up that she and her brothers and sisters iron the meat, nail the chairs to the wall, and invite in a bear and a horse."
Jan Slepian, The cat who wore a pot on her head, 1980.  "When Bendemolena wears a tin pot on her head what she hears gets so mixed up that she and her brothers and sisters iron the meat, nail the chairs to the wall, and invite in a bear and a horse."
Amelia Bedelia.  Sound like my favorite maid, but the name might be a stretch.
Peggy Parish, Amelia Bedelia.I'm sure I'll be only one of many to suggest that this is Amelia Bedelia. She's a maid, not a child, but there's a whole series of books in which she comes to grief by taking expressions literally (for instance sketching the curtains, instead of drawing them) but is forgiven because she's such a good baker.
Diane Goode, Ann Durell, Ed., Diane Goode's Book of American Folk Tales and Songs,  1989.  I can't absolutely verify this, but it looks like "Bendemolina" might be one of the stories in this anthology.  Unfortunately, I can't find a list of all the stories in it, so it's going to take someone actually checking to be sure!
Could this possibly be Roald Dahl's The B. F. G.? (The Big Friendly Giant). I haven't read it for a long time and can't recall the details of the story, but the tone sounds right and it is set in England.

Could this one be Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones?  Some of the facts don't quite fit (it was in England rather than Ohio) but there is a boy who's an "elf", and there is a whole bit with human construction driving the "elves" out. Might be worth checking out, anyway.
Curry, Jane Louise, Beneath the Hill, Could this be Jane Louise Curry's Beneath the Hill? Curry's website also has part of a chapter from the book here:
Jane Louise Curry, Beneath the Hill. This is most definitely Curry's Beneath the Hill.   The boy, whose name I cannot recall although I reread the book recently, leaves peacock feathers, or a jar of mint in the fridge, or a beautiful belt-like strip of blue fabric in exchange for the items he takes from the mortals.  He's of a ... clan, I guess... of Welsh/Irish fairy people who wound up in America several hundred years prior.  The book ends with the fairy folk releasing the underground river to wash away the "Bane" and join the major river near(ish) and they take boats down the river to their long home.
This is it!  Thanks so much to those who solved my riddle -- I've now located a copy of Beneath the Hill, and it's definitely the book I was searching for.  What a great site! Many thanks again.

B60: Not quite the same plot, but...maybe it's the 1970s book The Werefox by Elizabeth Coatsworth?
Could B60 be Masefield's The Midnight Folk?  Just a possibility the poster might want to check out.
B60 Benjy and the Beast -- How about Benjy in Beastland by Juliana Horatia Ewing? It was first published in Aunt Judy's Magazine in 1870, in Lob-lie-by-the-Fire and Other Tales in 1890, and separately (with Randolph Caldecott illustrations?) about 1900. I haven't been able to locate a copy or a description of the plot, though it's mentioned with 'Amelia and the Dwarves' as stories about children reformed by contact with fairyland. On the negative side, telepathy seems an unlikely concept for the time, (talking animals maybe), on the positive side, manor house, moat and fierce fish sound appropriate for Ewing's work.
this time for sure (to quote Bullwinkle Moose): Baker, Olaf. Bengey and the beast, illustrated by Victor J. Dowling, New York, Dodd, Mead and company, 1947. vi, [2], 243 p. illus. 21 cm "The action takes place in England, not far from the Roman Road, where Bengey lived in a great old manor house with his Aunt Patricia. It was with Skoma the lordly red fox that Bengey had the first adventure which made his whole world different. When these two understood each other, Wulpington Woods and the Far Forest began to teach the boy their secrets. At dusk and on moonlight nights the wild creatures walk in the woods, going about their business on quiet feet. Bengey grew to know Brock the wise badger, Dusky the stag and best of all, Bagloosy, shaggy old forest dweller who loved all wild creatures. There were other strange folk in the forest too, and even uncanny haunting things, fearful like the Gunderbust, against which Bengey, though he did not know it, had the charm of a fearless heart. Other enemies, full of craft and vindictiveness, are seen in the Squire and his gamekeeper with whom Bengey has exciting encounters." There's an illustration I can scan and send if it helps. Baker also wrote one of my favourites Shasta of the Wolves, a Mowgli-type story.
B60: A long shot, but it sounds as though you've got some elements from The Children of Green Knowe by LM Boston mixed in.  It's about a boy named Tolly living in an English manor house with his great-grandmother, and there is an ancient, slightly scary carp (fish) living in the moat.
B60 benjy and the beast: more on the suggested Bengey and the Beast - Bengey lives in Wulpington Manor "that great old house, many chimney'd, many gabled" which does not have a moat, but does have a mere "close to the house on the terrace side," where lives Jaggisbull the big pike. "his first sight of that giant fish made him glad to get back to the boathouse, and ever after that the memory of Jaggisbull haunted the depths of the mere." In ch.1 Bengey Meets a Fox "the only thing I can do is to tell you that, boy and fox exchanged important information without any help from words. And when the moment came for them to part, the boy knew a good deal about
the fox, and the fox about the boy." Later, "although no actual words were said by either of them, it is necessary to write down their unspoken ideas in the form of ordinary speech." Bengey has many adventures in the woods,
with Skoma the fox and Brock the badger, evading Sam Blood the gamekeeper, visiting Bagloosy the old man who lives in the Gutch, with narrow escapes from the Gundergust, a strange wolflike beast. In ch. 17 Sitting Inside
Oneself, Bengey meets Maundering Milly "a woman with a large hat made of twigs like a rook's nest, shrouded in a long gray cloak ... stooped so much that her arms, dangling before her, almost seemed to touch the ground ...
swaying a little backwards and forwards .... "If you get much closer to the earth, you'll fall over," Bagloosy said. "Falling is itself a fine art," she replied mournfully. "Besides you often fall upon the best things quite by chance." So I'd say it's a very close match in title and incident. 

Geraldine Ross, Benjamin Brownie and the Talking Doll, 1962.  Benjamin Brownie is one of Santa's elves. He brags endlessly about his ability to make dolls, until he makes one who won't stop talking!  Eventually, she develops a hole in her tongue and stops. This is a Whitman Tell-a-Tale book. One of my all-time favorites. 

Benjamin Budge and Barnaby Ball, 1970's.  This is a great book- I think it was part of the scholastic series. I read it to my son all the time.
by Florence Parry Heide,  Illustrated by Sally Mathews. Scholastic, 1967.
Benjamin Budge and Barnaby Ball, by Florence Parry Heide, also published by Four Winds Press 1968. "The amusing story, told in simple verse, of the problems of a great big man who lives in a tiny house, and a very small man who lives in a tremendous house." (HB Apr/68 p.136 pub ad) 

Eisenstein, Phyllis, Sorceror's Son, The Crystal Palace, originally in the 1970s.  I seriously doubt that these novels could be what this person is seeking -- they are adult fantasy, not children's books --  but the reference to spiders put me in mind of them, so I thought I'd take a chance....
W35 witch and boy: perhaps Benjamin the True, by Claudia Paley, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, published Little, Brown 1969, 88 pages. "Author's first book is the story of young Benjamin, who discovers an unusual witch living in the cellar under a neighbor's lawn. She is neither good nor bad, just powerful. But one day her power is not enough and she must ask Benjamin for help."
I wrote to you some time ago with a stumper that became "W35: Witch book with tragic feel."  The second guess submitted, Benjamin the True, is the book I was looking for.  I purchased a copy from another source (I didn't want to bother you if it turned out not to be correct) which arrived today, and it *is* the one I sought.  So,  I've mailed you a check for your site's help in finding this - it's the least I can do.  Thank you (and the solution submitter) so much.

Judi Barrett (author), Ron Barrettt (illustrator), Benjamin's 365 Birthdays.  One of my children's favorite books!  The description by the original stumper requester is accurate--Benjamin is a very boy-like bear who tries to recreate the magic of his birthday by giving himself a wrapped "gift" every day until his next birthday.  The gifts are household items he already owns.  In the final illustration, he has wrapped his entire house! Written and illustrated by the talented duo who also created Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and its sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh.  The paperback edition of this book is still in print, and used hardcovers are not hard to find.

I just remembered new information on it! The boy's name wasn't Carmichael, I am pretty sure it was Benjamin.
Joan Lexau, Benjie on His Own, 1970.

I have an answer: B49 is Benjy's Dog Houseby Margaret Bloy Graham (of Harry the Dirty Dog fame). I came across my copy of this book a few weeks ago while cleaning out my parent's attic.
More on the suggested title - Benjy's Dog House, by Margaret Bloy Graham, published Harper & Row 1973, also Weekly Reader and Scholastic, 1978. "Very cute story about a little dog who ventures from home when he is forced to live outside. Illustrated by author, who is better known for illustrating the Harry the Dog stories, by Gene Zion." "The story of how Benjy gets to sleep in the house again is very cute, as are the drawings." "Come on in," said the baker. "Nice to have a visitor." The baker gave Benjy a meat pie and fixed him a bed of empty flour sacks."
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1970s - 1980s.  For awhile now, I've been looking for a book I read as a child. My mother used to subscribe to Parent's Press Magazine mail order children's book club and one of the books I had was about a dog that runs away from home. Unfornately, I don't remember much of the plot except that the dog runs away from home, ends up at a bakery where he sleeps on flour sacks, and the baker makes him special doggie biscuits. One night he eats too many and has bad dreams where the treats are flying above him. The illustration of him lying on his back with the flying treats in the air is stuck in my head! He later goes home to his family. Does the story ring any bells? I don't know how old the story is but when I read it, it was about 20 years ago!!

Graham, Margaret, Benjy's Dog House.  Almost positive about this -- I remember that illustration too. Had a hard time with the search initially, since LOC has the title "Dog House" as two words ...
Harry the Dirty Dog.  Man, now this is driving me crazy! After reading this stumper I could not get the image of the dreaming dog out of my head - though I am not 100% sure of the book, I remember that illustration too!! I THINK I remember a kind baker giving the dog the treats in a bag which it carried in its mouth. I know in "Harry" he is lost and the illustraton on the cover seem to resemble what I remember the style to be...hope this helps!
Margaret B. Graham, Benjy's Dog House, 1979.  The mystery has been solved!!! Thank you to the person who gave this tip. I have been racking my brain for months and now have some peace. I can't wait to order this book!!! I have several of my favorite children's books displayed on my coffee table.

A51 puzzled me for a while, I remember reading it too.  Then Bennet Cerf popped into my head.  I don't think it is a story just a series of vignettes etc.  Possibly The Book of Riddles (1960) or Book of Laughs (1959) published by Random House Beginner Books.
A51 Accident prone boy:  If it weren't for the date, I'd suggest The Conker as Hard as a Diamond by Chris Powling, but it was published in 1984. A young boy is given a conker (horse chestnut on a string) that can break or knock down anything. On three occasions he knocks down condemned buildings, rotten trees etc. without meaning to.
I believe you are looking for a children’s book by Bennett Cerf which I think was titled something like …book of jokes.  The scene you describe is clearly in this book.
I ran across a copy of Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs, a Beginner Book, illustrated by Carl Rose, c1959.  It's a series of short incidents all involving a little boy, Marvin.  There is one involving Marvin leaning against a brick building, a telling a lady (not a policeman) that he's holding it up.  Also one with a fisherman who pulls Marvin out of the lake and asks how he came to fall in.  "I didn't come to fall in, I came to fish!" is Marvin's reply.  Another has Marvin sitting on the stoop in front of a building.  A salesman comes and asks if Marvin's mother is home.
Marvin says yes, and the man knocks and knocks, and rings the doorbell, all with no reply.  "I thought you said your mother was home," he says.  "She is," says Marvin.  "But this isn't my house."
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I am trying to find this for a friend of mine.  She used to read this book to her children in the '50s.  Marvin's Mother says"Marvin, you have your shoes on the wrong feet".  But these are the only feet I have.  Marvin and his friend are down town looking in the beauty shop window his friend says "Look Marvin my grandma got her hair cut, she doesn't look like an old lady anymore".  Marvin says "No, now she looks like an old man".   Marvin is running in and out of the door.  His Mother says "Marvin, I don't like all these flies in my kitchen".  Marvin says " Okay, which ones don't you like and I will put them out".  A lady walking down the street sees Marvin leaning against a brick wall.  "What are you doing Marvin?.  Holding up the wall?"  "Yes, Marvin says and then Marvin walks away and the wall falls down.  This book was bought from the Grolier Beginning Readers Book Club.

Cerf, Bennett, Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs.  This is definately it.  It's list in solved mysteries under Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs

Bennet Cerf's Book of Laughs.  This is one of the "Marvin" stories.  Check Solved Mysteries, its there.
Bennett Cerf, Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs, 1959.  Check in Solved Mysteries -- sounds like the same book.
Hample, Stuart, The Silly Book,1961.  I don't have a copy in front of me so I can't check, but it sounds like something from The Silly Book.
Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs, 1959.  This book is about a little boy named Marvin who gets into all sorts of funny situations, including the one with the wall described here.

Felsen, Henry Gregor, Bertie Takes Care, 1948.  Henry Gregor Felsen wrote two story collections about a boy named Bertie.  One was Bertie Takes Care, from 1948, and the second was Bertie Comes Through, from 1949.  They were both reprinted by Scholastic in the early 1960s.  I, too, had wondered about a Scholastic book list, and after several inquiries to the company with no answer, decided there is no such thing.  So I created my own.  I am a member of a discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bookworm8820 and once you register with the group, you can read the lists I've created of all the Scholastic T series books from the 1960s and 1970s. The lists are  not complete, though.

Paul Gilbert, Bertram and the Camel
C183 If it is Gilbert's Bertram series, it is not With Bertram in Africa; I just looked at our copy.
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I hope you can help!  I only remember that a boy (Bertram?) was chased around a house by a rhinoceros. My mother read it to me when I was bedridden with a childhood illness.  The book was the size of a Wonder or Golden book, but I haven't been able to locate catalogs of children's books going back to the late 1940s.

Any relation to C183?  How about Gilbert, Paul, BERTRAM AND THE TICKLISH RHINOCEROS.  Illustrated by Ruth Thompson Van Tellingen.  Chicago: Rand McNally Elf Book, 1948. Charming 1940's illustrations are bright and colorful.  Bertram gets in trouble for playing Rhinoceros with Baby Sam and goes off to find his own rhinoceros! A hard-to-find book.
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When I was about 6 yrs old in 1944 my mother read a little story to me about a boy named "Bertram."  All I can remember about the story is his name and that I tho't it'd be cool to be named Bertram. It seemed also to me that the book was pretty old because I think it had been rebound for our little library in Belle Center Ohio.

Sounds like Paul Gilbert's Bertram.  These are hard-to-find and quite sought-after:  Bertram and his fabulous animals, Rand McNally, 1937.  With Bertram in Africa, Rand, McNally, 1939.   Bertram and the ticklish rhinoceros; Illustrated by Ruth Thompson Van Tellingen; Rand McNally Elf Book, 1948.
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The childhood story I'm interested in finding was a story, read by my mother, from a collection of stories.   I don't know whether the story was ever published as a separate book.  The story told of some children who climbed on  the roof of their house to escape from a run away rhinoceros.  I believe the children used a fishing pole to haul up food while they were trapped up on the roof.  I also remember that the solution to the problem had to do with attaching a pillow to the rhino's horn.

Paul Gilbert, Bertram and the Ticklish Rhinoceros, 1950.  The rhinoceros gets a pillow tied onto his horn so that he stops ripping holes in Bertram's pants.  I believe the family gets stuck on the roof of their house for a while until the problem is solved.
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Bertram and his Funny Animals
I'm looking for a children's book that was probably published in the 1940s about a boy, a tapir, and a velociped(e?). I think the title was something like "Henry and his velociped". The story went something like this: The boy is out on his velociped one day and meets a homeless tapir. He feels sorry for he creature and offers to take him home. Of course, he can't let his parents know about the tapir so he hides him in the basement. Over the next several days, the boy goes out on his velociped looking for food for the increasingly demanding (and seemingly ungrateful) tapir. I can't remember how it ends, but the story has stuck with me, probably because it's kind of odd (a velociped and a tapir in one story!). I read it as a young kid in the 50s and the book probably belonged to one of my older siblings who were born during and just after WWII. I'd love to see it again or even hear about anything you might come up with about it. Thanks a lot!

Same as T149.
Roberta Moynihan, Futility the Tapir, 1959.  Might not be the right book, can't find a copy or a description anywhere online.
I found this description of Futility, the Tapir:  A quietly hilarious picture book about a tapir who, upon awakening, begins the struggle to force his ungainly body to stand, and who at day's end exclaims, "What an exhausting day! I really must get some rest. After all, tomorrow I may succeed." Nicely humorous illustrations by the author.
Gilbert, Paul T., Bertram and his Funny Animals.  NY Rand McNally 1937.  This might be worth looking into. "Bertram is a little boy who likes animals - eight chapters, each covering Bertram and his adventures with different animals - hippopotamus, dancing bear, giraffe, tapir, kangaroo, elephant, rhinoceros, and baboon." There are two other books, and some of the chapters were published as Elf Books - Bertram and the Ticklish Rhinoceros, Bertram and the Whale, so it's possible the tapir chapter might have been, also.
Paul T. Gilbert, Bertram and his Funny Animals, 1934.  I feel sure you are looking for the story "Bertram and the South American Tapir" that appeared in Child Life Magazine, May 1934, and was also published in the book Bertram and his Funny Animals. Bertram rode a velocipede and kept animals in his basement that usually caused him all sorts of problems. The tapir was awake at night and hungry and raided his neighbor's watermelon patch. More information about these stories is at http://www.bertramstories.com

Shirley Simon, Best Friend, 1964, copyright.  One of my favorite books.  Seeker is confusing book details, however.  Set in Cleveland, the book is about the unhappiness of 6th-grader Jenny Jason whose best friend Dot has moved out of their apartment building and found a new best friend.  Dot and Jenny's 6th-grade class puts on a marionette show of Alice in Wonderland and Jenny's new classmate Ruth is the Mock Turtle.  As she and Dot drift apart, Jenny comes to realize that having different friends is better than being dependent on just one friend.  She also comes to appreciate her eccentric, bike-riding grandmother who moves in with her family.  And there is a chapter titled "Thick and Fast" but the words come from one of Tweedledum's lines.
Shirley Simon, Best Friend.
I think someone solved my mystery! Shirley Simon's Best Friend. I am so happy that someone found this!  Thank you so much!
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1960's, childrens.  This is a story about a girl whose Mother is deceased.  Her Dad's Mother comes to live with her and her family, and the girl is ashamed of her grandmother at first. One of her friends even makes fun of her grandmother. Her grandmother is very smart and resourceful and she is always helping others.  The girl has a falling out with a girlfriend at school.  Her grandmother helps her to make new friends, a Jewish girl named Ruth, and a Chinese girl named Betty Lee.  There is also another girl named Jean Marie in the book, plus a teacher named Mr. Ellison. The kids in the school do an "Alice in Wonderland" play in the story, too.  Read this book when I was 10 or 11.  Can't recall the name or the author.

Shirley Simon, Best Friend, early 1960s, approximate.  This is the book you're looking for because you pretty much have all of the details and names right.  It was one of my favorite books growing up.
Shirley Simon, Best Friend, 1964, copyright.  Jenny Jason's best friend, Dot, moves from their apartment building to a different one, the Essex Arms.  Unfortunately, the Essex Arms comes equipped with a group of snobbish girls who invite Dot to join their Thursday Club and to attend Charm School.  When Dot becomes involved with them, Jenny has to make new friends.  Ruth Kaplan, the librarian's niece, is one.  Betty Lee, whose family owns a Chinese restaurant, is another.  Jenny works on a marionette play about Alice in Wonderland.  At length, Dot wants to be best friends with Jenny again, but Jenny doesn't want to be her shadow any longer, and wants to keep her other friends.
Simon, Shirley, Best Friend, 1964, copyright.  This is definitely the book, I had the paperback and read it many times.  It's funny what we remember about a book-- Mr. Ellison was a turtle in the story named after a favorite teacher but we never met the teacher in the book.

Shirley Simon, Best Friend, 1964, copyright.  Yes!  This is definitely the book!  I ordered it and received it over the weekend.  Thanks to all who helped!

Best Friends series
Hi. Love your site! It's what I've been looking for...actually, I've been looking for a book, perhaps titled BEST FRIENDS, maybe published 1960s or very early 1970s (I read it in 1972, I think). It was about two girls--best friends, obviously---and one is from France. The American girl doesn't have a father (dead or divorce, I don't remember which), and the French girl doesn't have a mother (ditto), and in the end, I think their parents hook up. The only passage I can really remember involved the American girl and her mother introducing the French girl to hamburgers. Any idea? Thanks!

B40--Best Friends by Mary Bard. Coco moves next door to Susie, they become best friends and later sisters when their parents fall in love and marry (as they had hoped for). The other two books are Best Friends in Summer and Best Friends at School.
B40 best friends: more on the suggested title, Best Friends, by Mary Bard, pictures by Jill Elgin, published New York, Lippincott 1955. "Mary Bard knows a great deal about 11 yr old girls. She understands their point of view about school, families, boys, and troublesome people like Millicent. Readers of eight to twelve will take Co Co and Suzie to their hearts, and consider them among their "Best Friends"."
Belatedly, an actual description of the story - "Suzie Green was eleven years old. She had a wonderful tree house, a devoted mother and grandparents, a dog and kittens, and she was in the sixth grade. In spite of all this she was unhappy. She had no best friend, and Millicent, who was in her class, made life just miserable. One day things changed. The owners of the Pink House next door, who had been away for many years, came home to stay. One of them was Co Co. Co Co was eleven, too. She had lived in France most of her life, she spoke a delightful mixture of French and English, and she seemed to Suzie a truly glamorous person. The nicest part of it all was that Co Co and Suzie became Best Friends...." The first book from the very scarce Best Friends series. (Suzie and Co Co later become sisters when their widowed parents marry.) Written by Mary Bard. Illustrated by Jill Elgin. Copyright 1955 Lippincott. Best Friends in Summer, by Mary Bard, illustrated by Inga Pratt, published Lippincott 1960 "A sequel to Best Friends that takes Co Co and her friend Susie to a ranch where they spend an active vacation. Ages 8-10."
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I am looking for a book, or it might be a series that I read about 30 years ago.  The main character was a young hawaiian girl who was sent to the mainland to attend school.  I think her name was Leilani, but then who knows.  She taught the girls to hula and made a luau for them.  She had problems with the cold.  Does this sound at all familiar to anyone?

H51 Best Friends at School--Mary Bard (a good one to look for. I have only ever found Best Friends and Best Friends in Summer)
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I am looking for a book that I loved in childhood. All I remember is that it was about two girls who met at a boarding school, one was Hawaiian I believe, and their parents eventually marry (the Hawaiian girls father marries the other girls mother I believe) and there was more than one sequel to this. How will I know if someone figures this out? Thank you.

Mary Bard, Best Friends at School. This is the third book of a trio, Best Friends and Best Friends in Summer being the first two. The two friends who became sisters later met the Hawaiian girl in the third book. Haven't seen any of these books selling for less than about $250. Ouch! Any reprints in the works? (This series is already mentioned under Solved Mysteries.)
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I read this book about 1979.  It has two girls that meet at a boarding school.  One girl speaks some french, she says oui a lot.  The school was for girls only and they had to have an inspection every morning or night for a ?bed check? to be sure the kids were in their room at night.  They had some hawaiian party..the school was strict..

Mary Bard, Best Friends at School.  See the entries under the Best Friends Series by Mary Bard.
Could it be the Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom (1960)?  Here's a description:  Eight-year-old Victoria North is dreading boarding school, and it turns out to be worse than she expected. If her paralyzing homesickness weren't enough, a stern, whistle-blowing housemother and unforgiving schoolgirls unlock a faucet of tears that just keeps coming. Partly because Victoria hates the Coburn Home School so much, her quirky and opinionated classmate Martha Sherman takes a liking to the shy new girl. And that's when things start looking up. In Martha's world, the word for wonderful is "leebossa" and sickeningly sweet is "ick-en-spick."
Everything she said fits with "The Secret Language" except that nobody in that book spoke French. There are several books about boarding-school girls. The girls in "The Secret Language" had read books about boarding schools where the girls would hold a "midnight feast" and they tried that, but everyone fell asleep before time. More successful was their hut out in the woods behind the school built of scrap wood. The whistle-blowing awful housemother with the bedchecks was replaced by a kind if rather June Cleaverish type who wanted everyone to call her Mother Carrie. Hope this helps.
I sent a request regarding a book that I read as a child...it was the question where I wrote that there were two girls who met at a boarding school and the school was strict and one girl was french.  You advised that it was probably Best Friends at School.  I checked it out of the library, which took about 1 month to get here due to it being a rare book.  You were right!
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This was a library book I read in late 60s or poss. early 70s. I think one girl had to go live with some relatives and a neighbor girl may have been foreign (French?). They became friends through spending time in a treehouse.

Rumer Godden, Little Plum,  1962.  Not a lot to go on, but one of the girls (Nona) lives with her cousin's family, and her cousin Belinda uses Tom's treehouse to spy upon and harass the new girl next door.
Bard, Mary, Best Friends, Lippincott 1959.  The dustjacket of this book (shown on the Solved List) shows two girls in a treehouse, and the plot is not a bad match.
T123 treehouse: sounds like Best Friends, by Mary Bard, Lippincott 1955 "Suzie Green was eleven years old. She had a wonderful tree house, a devoted mother and grandparents, a dog and kittens, and she was in the sixth grade. In spite of all this she was unhappy. She had no best friend, and Millicent, who was in her class, made life just miserable. One day things changed. The owners of the Pink House next door, who had been away for many years, came home to stay. One of them was Co Co. Co Co was eleven, too. She had lived in France most of her life, she spoke a delightful mixture of French and English, and she seemed to Suzie a truly glamorous person. The nicest part of it all was that Co Co and Suzie became Best Friends...."

I just sent in the form about a doll book and I was looking through the message boards and someone wrote about it. The Best Loved Doll. Thanks..  Because of your site I was able to find out the name of the book. What a big help. I will bookmark the site and come back again.
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A little girl has a collection of beautiful dolls. But her favorite is a shaggy one. Dress has patches on it and I think she had a button sewed on one eye. When the little girl leaves the room all the dolls talk to each other. My daughter had this book when she was around 7 years old which would have been around 1965.

Sure sounds like Raggedy Ann to me.
#D82--Dolls that talk to each other:  sounds like The Best-Loved Doll, by Rebecca Caudill.
I think you found the book I've been looking for but not sure. I would like to see something more about it before I try to find it. You said, The Best-Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudhill and I think that is it. But how do I find out more. Where can I go to see pictures from it.
click on the icon above by the title...
It might be The Best Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill.  However, Jennifer (the shaggy doll) doesn't have patches on her dress or a button sewn over her eye. She does have little x's (fixing tape?) on both cheeks though.  And the dolls do all talk to each other when their mistress leaves the room.
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My daughter had a book when she was a child that she still talks about. A little girl had a collection of beautiful dolls. But her favorite was a doll that  was kind of shaggy. Patches on her dress, I think a button or patch sewn on one eye.  When the little girl left her bedroom where her doll collection was the doll's would talk to each other. My daughter was probably 7 years old at the time so that would have been around 1965 but I don't know if that's when it came out.

Sounds like Rebecca Caudhill's Best Loved Doll, again.
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Book is about a little girl who's invited to a birthday party, and you have to bring your favorite doll to the party.  My sister was a child during the 70's, and this was one of her favorite books.

B224: The Best-Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill, 1962. The girl is supposed to bring a doll to be judged for one of three prizes - best-dressed, most antique, or most creative. (She has an automatic doll seated at a mini-sewing machine, plus two others that fit the descriptions.) However, she takes her best-loved doll instead. There's also a book called The World of
Rebecca Caudill which talks about all her books.
Rebecca Caudill (?) I think, The Best Loved Doll.  Sounds like it could be, but I'm not sure of the dates.

The Bet
Short story, '"gentleman's club", England, 19th cent., talk about man sentenced to 10 years in prison; young man says he'd handle that, if he had books. Rich man wagers 1,000,000 pounds, young man spends 10 years "incarcerated", reads books (and Bible) and leaves without demanding money.

Anton Chekhov, The Bet, 1890. Some of the details are slightly different, but this is the premise of this Chekhov short story. The story is out of copyright and can be read online in various places, including at http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml
Hello! Thank you! -- that was exactly the short story I was looking for. All the best.

Carolyn Haywood's B is for Betsy series?  I'm not sure she's Swedish, though.  When I think Swedish I think of Maj Lindman's Flicka Ricka and Dicka series or Hilda van Stockum.
Thank you for your response...Actually, after extensive online searching I discovered that what I was looking for was a series of books called the Betsy Books by a Scandanavian woman named Gunilla Wolde.  I was very excited about this discovery!!! 

Erla Young, Betsy Buttons,  1947.  There is a book called "Betsy Buttons" by Erla Young but I cannot find a
plot summary.  Here is the publication info from WorldCat: published 1947, Juvenile audience, unpaged, illustrated, published in Salt Lake City, Utah by Deseret Book Co.
I found info on a book titled Betsy Buttons -- no description, but pub. info is:  Betsy Buttons, by Eria Young, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1947. There are 8 libraries in the US that have it -- try interlibrary loaning it from your local library.
That's the one for sure!  Now I remember that the doll belonged to a Mormon pioneer girl.  Wowee do I love this site!  Thank you thank you thank you! 

I'm wondering if N47 is Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle?  The two adolescent boys end up in the desert with Noah's family.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1942.  No doubt this is the third book in the Betsy-Tacy series! In the next one, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, the girls finally turn 10.  "Deep Valley" is really Mankato, Minnesota, and the  Betsy-Tacy-Society is restoring Betsy and Tacy's houses. For more information see the  Society's website at www.betsy-tacysociety.org
Lovelace, Maud Hart.  Betsy & Tacy Go Over the Big Hill / Over the Big Hill, a Betsy-Tacy Story
Maud Hart Lovelace , Betsy and Tacy Go over the Big Hill.  I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly but I think this Betsy, Tacy and Tib story is the one where they are waiting to be ten, the beginning of growing up, because there are two numbers in your age.  It's the third volume in this delightful series.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1940.  I believe this is the book you are looking for.  Betsy and Tacy can't wait for their "two-number" birthday, as it means they will get to do a lot of new things.  This book is part of a series (the third one, I think) originally published in the 1940's.  Recent paperback reprints are available.
Lovelace, Maud Hart, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1942.  Originally published as Over the Big Hill, this is definitely the story about the little girls who can't wait to have "two numbers" in their age.  (It's the third volume in a ten-book series.)
Lovelace, Maud Hart, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1940s.  A strong possibility -- Betsy and her two friends, Tacy and Tib, turn 10  summaries of  the title note the importance of "two numbers" in their ages.  When they do go over the Big Hill, they discover a  colony of Syrian immigrants.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1942.  This sounds like one of the "Betsy-Tacy" series, which has been reprinted several times.  When the book opens, the three friends (Betsy, Tacy and Tib) are definitely looking forward to their tenth birthdays:  "You have two numbers in your age when you are ten. It's the beginning of growing up,'\'' Betsy would say."
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill.  One of the Betsy-Tacy series. The 'Big Hill' is a literal location, not used metaphorically  but the book *does* begin with the characters looking forward to their tenth birthdays when they will "all grow up".
O47 How abt Over the big hill by Maud Hart Lovelace? a Betsy-Tacy book
I am positive that O47 is Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill by Maud Hart Lovelace.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, 1942.  Definitely Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill.  First paragraph: Betsy, Tacy, and Tib were nine years old, and they were very anxious to be ten.  "You have two numbers in your age when you are ten.  It's the beginning of growing up" Betsy would say.  One in a series of Betsy-Tacy books, reading age on back is 7 to 10.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill.  About two girls waiting for their tenth birthday.
Lovelace, Maud Hart, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill.  Children's classic and still in print, apparently.  There's a whole series, not ending until Betsy and Tacy are grown and married.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy & Tacy Go Over The Big Hill.  This is the third in the Betsy-Tacy series. The first chapter is Getting to be Ten. I am sure this is the book you're looking for!
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Heaven to Betsy
I remember some Betsy books from my childhood (in the 50's), but I'm not sure which series they were from.  Betsy-Tacy sounds too young.  My memories include regular Saturday night get-togethers with Bermuda onion sandwiches, teenage romances, and the main character tossing an apple peel over her shoulder to see the initial of her own true love - and seeing a "C" instead of the "T" she hoped to find.  (Of course, the boy that was right for her had a C name!)  I was in 5th or 6th grade at the time, and thought my teenage years would be like that!

Maud Hart Lovelace, Heaven to Betsy, Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy was a Junior, Betsy and Joe.  These books are definitely the high-school stories from the Betsy-Tacy series.  (If anyone is interested, there's a Betsy-Tacy Society on the Web.)
Leonora Mattingly Weber, Beany Malone series.  Is it possible the girl's name is Beany rather than Betsy?  This sounds like the Beany Malone series.  The thing about the letter "C" fits, because her true love turns out to be the boy next door. . . Carlton.  I read those books over and over and now I see they're back in print.
I'm sure I'm one of many submitting this one, but this is indeed Betsy-Tacy! Try Heaven to Betsy, Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy was a Junior, and Betsy and Joe. Mr. Ray made bermuda onion sandwiches.
Maud Hart Lovelace, Heaven to Betsy.  Probably lots of people will tell you this IS a Betsy-Tacy book, "Heaven to Betsy". Betsy and Tacy are in high school.  Betsy's dad always prepares the Sunday night lunch of sandwiches from whatever is in the ice box.  If nothing is available he makes his sandwiches of Bermuda onions sprinkled with vinegar and dusted with pepper and salt.  On Halloween, Betsy tries to throw her apple peel to make a T for Tony but curly apple peels don't make straight letters too well.  Betsy eventually marries Joe Willard in "Betsy's Wedding".
Maude Hart  Lovelace, Heaven to Betsy.  I'm sure it's Heaven to Betsy that you're looking for.  It has the onion sandwiches, the young romances, etc.!

Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star.  Sounds like what you're looking for. It's from the "Betsy" series, but as I recall, focused primarily on Star, Betsy's younger sister. I definitely remember the "waiting for kindergarten" part of the story, and new shoes sound vaguely familiar as well. Also from the right time period, since I think it was written in the 50s maybe. Check it out.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star.  This is one of Carolyn Haywood's "Betsy" series, about Betsy's little sister Star.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star, 1950.  I'd say most likely this is either Betsy's Little Star or another book from the B is for Betsy Series by Carolyn Haywood.  Betsy had a younger sister named Star, and this sounds like something she would do.  I read these books long ago and don't remember for sure, but I think Star wanted to do what the older kids did.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star,1950.  This is Betsy's Little Star.  The story is just as the seeker describes it. The main character is named Star because she was born on Christmas (in one of the other Betsy books). I have read it a couple of times to my children and we all love it.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star, 1950s.Thank you!  This is it.  I enjoyed reading it again after about 25 years.  I look forward to sharing it with my kids.  I love your site. I am rediscovering a lot of books I really enjoyed as a child.  Keep up the good work.
Carolyn Haywood, Betsy's Little Star, 1950. It has been quite a few years since I have read this one, but I am fairly certain it is what you are looking for.

I don't know what the collection is, but I can name the poem: it's from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and reads "'You are old, Father William,' the young man said/'And your hair has become very white;/ And yet you incessantly stand on your head--/Do you think, at your age, it is right?'" So, onto the quest for a collection that has Carroll's poem, Sword in the Stone, La Bifana, and Kipling's The Jungle Book.
In request B1, a reader mentions a Christmas story called La Bifana. I believe this is a reference to La Befana, an ugly but good-hearted fairy who fills the stockings left out by Italian children on the feast of Epiphany (January 6). Maybe it would show up under the other spelling.
This sounds an awful lot like one of the volumes of the Through Golden Windows series...perhaps either Mostly Magic or Fun and Fantasy.
Thank you so much for keeping my request in mind; that was very kind of you. I FINALLY found the book just a few months age...it was Better Homes and Gardens: Second Story Book. The book was fun to get and to share with my siblings. We were amazed at how well we all recalled it!  If you don't mind, I'd like to contact you again if we ever have any "mystery books." This current one has stirred up a lot of memories of other books we read as children!
FYI-The photo of the book you have included is not of the Better Homes and Gardens Second Storybook, it is of the first storybook entitled Better Homes and Gardens Storybook.  The 2nd book is orange with six of the storybook characters including Father Abraham standing on his head across the bottom of the cover.
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The second book is an anthology of Folk/Fairy tales that my mother bought for me in the 50's which included Little Black Sambo, Peter Rabbit, The Three Little Pigs, Henny Penny (not sure about this one).  The book was orange with a black title of several words in the center , beautiful heavy stock ( a little bit glossy), beautiful color illustrations that look like they were done in the 1930's, kind of Beatrix Potter looking.  There may have been a paper jacket, but I don't recall.  The book was mainly text, with perhaps one illustration on a page.  I can still see the picture of Sambo looking  incredulously at the tiger with the crimson jacket on and the purple shoes on his ears (maybe vice versa).  Hope you can help.  Thanks.

Anthologies are not my forte.  There are too many and they all anthologize the same things!  But check out the Watty Piper page I have, just in case it's one of those...
A40 is NOT Childcraft c1947. It is orange, but Sambo illus are black and white.
This sounds like The Better Homes and Gardens Story Book.  The original version from 1950 had Little Black Sambo with color illustrations.  The cover was a mustardy-yellow with a drawing of Peter Rabbit.  There was a color DJ.
Not any too sure about this, but it's orange and has the Sambo story. Penell, Mary E. & Cusack, Alice M. The Children's Own Readers Book Two Boston, Ginn 1929 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall, 261 pages, orange cloth hardcover with pictorial design of boy bottle feeding fawn, blue pictorial (Sambo) end papers, includes a version of Little Black Sambo, Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings, and many more, Davis, Marguerite & Laite, Blanche Fisher.
A bit more on the suggested - Better Homes and Gardens Story Book published by Meridith 1950, 151 pages with "50 stories to delight you. Yellow cloth hard back 10" by 8". Loaded with pictures. Contains "LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, TALE OF PETER RABBIT, NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, PALMER COX
BROWNIES CIRCUS, TAR BABY" just to name a few."
This doesn't really fit, but I keep wanting to suggest it - Kersti and Saint Nicholas, by Hilda Van Stockum, published by Viking 1940 "Kersti is the seventh, last, and naughtiest daughter of the van Disselens, and she
has a way with her. Even Saint Nicholas and his faithful helper Pieterbass find themselves leaving gifts for the bad children on the good Saint's birthday - and it's all Kersti's fault." (Horn Book Dec/40 p.382 pub ad)
This sounds like The Gateway to Story Land to me.  There was a reprint of this book that did not include Sambo but the one I grew up with did.  I know there have been a number of printings of this book.
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I am looking for the version of the Little Red Hen done in rebus format. It was from the early 50's and possible was included in a treasury of stories but not all necessarily in rebus form. Thanks.

Better Homes & Gardens (Children's Anthology), c.1960.  I'll find more info when I'm at my Mom's house in a week or so. I believe we still have this anthology which reprints the rebus, along with "Little Black Sambo" and other chestnuts.
See the Anthology Finder for more on Better Homes and Gardens Story Book.
Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, 1950.  Hello!  "The Little Red Hen" is told in rebus style in this anthology.  The volume also includes "Little Black Sambo," Milne's "The King's Breakfast," and Edward
Lear's "Nonsense ABC.
Betty O'Connor, Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, 1950.  The first story in this wonderful anthology (which also includes Little Black Sambo, some Uncle Remus, and more) it The Little Red Hen.  It's in rebus and
the credit reads, "The Little Red Hen, a Nursery Tale retold by Helen Dean Fish. Pictures by Katharine R. Bernard.  Used with permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. The 1950's copies of this anthology have yellow cloth covers with storybook characters printed on them.
Selected by Betty O'Conner, Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, 1950.  This collection of stories (in a golden-yellow hardback linen-texture cover) starts off with the Little Red Hen rebus story! It is published by the
Meredith Publishing Co (Des Moines). My favorite story has always been The Story of Live Dolls, but everything in it is great! I have seen it in used book stores at least once. I still have the copy given to my sister in 1951.
Helen Dean Fish, The Little Red Hen This appeared in the Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, with the following information:  "The Little Red Hen, a Nursery Tale retold by Helen Dean Fish.  Pictures by Katharine R. Bernard.  Used with permission of Houghton Mifflin Company."  If this is the same version you're thinking of, it's about the hen who lives with a cat, a rat and a mouse, and she bakes a beautiful three-layered cake with white frosting and a cherry on top  a fox comes out of the woods, grabs the hen but forgets the cake, and carries her off she tricks him and (of course) fills his bag with stones.
I SO love this version. The bright simple colors and storytelling style are delightful. Then again, maybe it has just as much to do with the soft, worn-out cottony feel of the pages and the anthology itself! It's in the 1950's edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, Vol. 1. (Of course, it may appear elsewhere too, but I doubt it. Rebuses of familiar stories are not as common as I would think.) It's the first story in the collection, I think - soon followed by a not-so-grotesquely illustrated edition of "Little Black Sambo." (Not all eds of BHGS have this.) The LRH rebus combines the baking story with the fox/kidnapper story. I remember being bewildered by one sentence - it said "...she took (picture of a filled bowl) and made frosting." I now assume it meant sugar, naturally. Enjoy it!
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I'm searching for an 70-80's children's book I received as a gift in the early 80's.  It's a hard back with a white cover (I think) with illistrations of the characters from inside the book (a stream with fish and maybe indians and a tee-pee) it think.  Regardless, the drawings on the inside were very simple.  The book had one short rhyme or story in it titled "Ten Little Indians" and it also had a rhyme or story about fish that that "swam said the one".  It was a larger book.  I hope you can help me find it.

for what it's worth, the second rhyme mentioned sounds like "Over in the Meadow", so we need an anthology that
has both that and "Ten Little Indians".
This site's Anthology Finder / Most Requested Books page shows the cover of Better Homes & Gardens Story Book and it has line drawings of various characters across the top and bottom.  Two of the stories listed are Ten Little Indians and Over In The Meadow.  Sounds like the book this person is looking for.
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Just trying to find the name of this book that I just have a section of from childhood. Covers are gone. 8x10" size. Many stories including: The Brownies' Circus by Palmer Cox, Over In The Meadow Illus.by John Hartell, The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling, Peter Pan in the Never-Never-Never Land by Daniel O'Connor,  About Elizabeth Eliza's Piano by Lucretia P.Hale, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story by Joel Chandler Harris, etc. Would like to buy the whole book again!! Thanks so much!

Has to be the Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, vol. 1. See Solved Mysteries - also, remember to click on the Anthology Finder once you get to the title!
You'll probably get a lot of answers to this, but #C212 sounds an awful lot like Better Homes and Gardens Storybook.
Betty O'Connor (editor), Better homes & Gardens Story Book, 1950 edition.  This is definitely what you're looking for--it contains all the stories you mentioned (and the illustrations for Over in the Meadow by John Anthony Hartell).
Better Homes & Gardens Story Book
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Well, I really hope you can help me. Nothing is left of my book but the middle!! I will tell you what stories are in there that I do have. I loved this book so much there's not much left. A children's collection (50's?). Stories that I have are: About a little red hen (in color) a fox who wants to eat a pink frosted cake with a red cherry on top. Little Black Sambo. How Charlie made Topsy Love Him by Helen Hill.  The House That Jack Built pictures by Randolph Caldecott.  Finger Games(Here is the beehive, where are the bees?).  The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Uncle Remus initiates the little boy by Joel Chandler Harris.  Over in the Meadow illustrations by John Anthony Hartell (Over in the meadow in the sand in the sun, Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one. Dig said the mother, we dig said the one . So they dug all day inthe sand in the sun.  The Old Woman and her Pig.  The King's Breakfast by A.A. Milne.  he Brownies' Circus by Palmer Cox.  Peter Pan in the Never never never land by Daniel O'Connor.  About Elizabeth Eliza's Piano by Lucretia Hale.  The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson.

C228: Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, vol. 1! See Solved Mysteries - and the Anthology Finder for the picture of the cover and the entire list of contents. A real old-fashioned treasure. BTW, some later editions do not include Little Black Sambo, for what that's worth. However, the 1950s edition has illustrations for Sambo that are not hideous like the originals.
Better Homes and Garden Story Book.  This is the same as the edition I have from the 1950's.
Stories Selected by Betty O'Connor, Better Homes and Gardens Story Book,  1950.  Meredith Publishing - Looks like there was another version printed with the same copyright date, but without a few stories. From reading, the book was BANNED AND RECALLED by the PUBLISHER shortly after its release in 1950. ALL UNSOLD COPIES WERE DESTROYED! Due to the inclusion in the book of these three stories: 1) LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. 2) THE WONDERFUL TAR-BABY STORY. 3) UNCLE REMUS INITIATES THE LITTLE BOY. Besides the included stories, looks like there is
another way to identify version: "On page 120, you will find The Pledge of Allegiance. In 1954, Congress added this phrase to The Pledge: Under God.  Prior to 1954, the Pledge of Allegiance was written: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” After 1954, the Pledge includes the phrase ”under God”.  Don't know if all these are facts, but in searching, have seen some photos of the book and it looks like it contains the same stories as the one described.
My copy of the BH&G Story Book includes the "under God" phrase, as well as the two stories about Uncle Remus.  However, there is no story of "Little Black Sambo."
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My great grandmother used to read me poems, stories and rhymes from a large book which I remember having a dark (black or blue) cover which was quite illustrated.  I own the Golden Book of poetry and it is not this book, but it is similar in size, but I remember it to be thicker.  I recall maybe one or two other goose rhymes per page with one illustration each.  The poems I remember are Gander pulling at someone's leg, simple simon, calico cat and gingham dog, the poem about the gumdrop tree and maybe gingerbread man --lots of gumdrops.  She used to sing Froggy Went a Courtin which I also think was in the book.  Maybe also the poem about the sea made of ink.  It was more than just Mother Goose  rhymes, but it was one book. There were lots of colorful illustrations.  She died in 1970 and her oldest great grandchildren were born in the late 50's to 1960.  I would love this book for my cherished memories of my Nana.
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[another?]
This was a book I had as a child, and I would do nearly anything to locate it...I seem to recall it having a mustard-yellow cover. It was a collection of Mother Goose rhymes and other poems. I do not believe it is The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Lit (Margaret E. Martignoli)- although some of the  illustrations look awfully familiar.  Some of the pictures in this book looked like Victorian era meets the 70's...full of color and very interesting. I remember "Polly put the kettle on...", A diller A dollar, a ten o'clock scholar.." I wish I could remember the *@!% title....it's driving me batty.

I think that A49 and M127 may be the same book, and it's one that has been haunting me for a while.  My recollections are that it was large, perhaps 8"x10", and thick, perhaps an inch or an inch and a half.  Our copy had no dust jacket and had a dark brown or reddish-brown cover -- very much like an encyclopedia volume, but I don't know that it was part of an encyclopedia.  Our copy probably was my mother's when she was a girl -- she has vague recollections of a book which might be this one -- so the 40s could be the right date.  I mentioned Childcraft to her, as A49 suggested, and she thought that was NOT it (and it rings no bell for me).  However, she does think the book MAY have been part of a set;  if so, the other volumes were not exactly of the same nature (stories, perhaps?).  As to content, the book contained a lot of rhymes;  I don't recall if there was any prose.  It was extensively and wonderfully illustrated, possibly by multiple artists.  I remember that it definitely contained the old man who wouldn't say his prayers (I grabbed him by the leg and threw him down the stars), the calico cat and the gingham dog, the owl and the pussycat, Froggy went a courtin', a countdown rhyme about ten little firecrackers blowing themselves up in various ways, the crooked little man, at least one alphabet rhyme (A is for ... -- the only letter I remember is X is for Xerxes). Perhaps these additional details may jog someone's memory.  I would dearly love to find a copy of this again; the illustrations fascinated me as a child and some still haunt me now.
Louey Chisholm, The Golden Staircase, 1910.  This is a an old book that I remember reading as a child c. 1970, which contained poems for various ages, ranging from nursery rhymes to long narrative poems. I don't remember it in great detail, but it could be the one. Another possibility is Ethel Lindsay: The Children's Treasury: A Book of Verses (1916)
Second query- yellow cover- Victorian meets 70's!! That describes Dean's Mother Goose Book of Rhymes (Dean & Son Ltd., London, England) (1977 edition) Illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. It was originally published as Gift Book of Nursery Rhymes and New Gift Book of Nursery Rhymes.
My Book House, 1920-1971.  Could this be a volume of the My Book House set?  There's one of nursery rhymes.
The book I am thinking of has been driving me crazy for years, too.  I was born in '53 and it might have been a hand-me-down from the early 40's.  I remember a mustard-yellow cover as well.  And Xerxes.  My addled brain remembers something like, "Xerxes, Xerxes, little Xerxes" (or 'jerkses).  I remember the picture of a little king strutting around.  And "Y" was for "Yew", and I remember the picture of the tree.  I don't think this was a volume of a set, but I could be wrong.  We just never had the other books.  And it was a lot bigger in my mind than the Childcraft books that peopole have suggested.  Help!
Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, 1950.  The larger-sized mustard-yellow-covered book with "Y for Yew" and "X for Xerxes" (who was a little king), I'm almost positive is the Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, the one published in 1950, the first edition that was later reprinted without some of the selections such as "Little Black Sambo" and "The Tar Baby" (for political correctness, I guess). I'm pretty sure it also had the story about the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat (I'm positive about that one because we had the book when I was a child and that's the only book I ever remember seeing it in). In addition, the book also contained "The Brownies Circus", "The Little Red Hen", and many others, including all or part of "The Story of Live Dolls" by Josephine Scribner Gates. This book, the vintage, 1950, yellow-covered version is usually available on eBay (with lots of people bidding on them). There are also some later editions available but without all the stories found in the original.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

O'Connor, Betty, ed.  Better Homes and Gardens Story Book. Meredith Publishing, 1950.  Yellow cloth  with imprinted stamps.  Corners bumped, cover slightly soiled, otherwise, VG.  <SOLD>

Well, there were tons of books like that. I have a very cheap, thin fanzine from San Francisco called
"Murder Can Be Fun" - the particular issue is called "(Anti)-Sex Tips for Teens" and it's all about these
old teen-advice books from 1897 to 1987. From the fifties and sixties, there's one by Pat Boone, one by
Billy Graham, two by Dick Clark, one by Gay Head (I kid you not), one by Connie Francis (who was hardly a role model, given her very messed-up life), seven by Evelyn Millis Duvall, and How to Get a Teenage Boy and What to Do with Him When You Get Him by Ellen Peck, 1969. My guess is that your best bet would be to aim for one of the last two authors. There was another long list of lesser known books/authors at the end of the mag, but none had enough detail for comparison. Good luck!
P.S. on this:  If you want dated and funny, I recommend Gay Head's Hi There High School.  The 1950's edition, preferably. "The popularity of clothes brushes with our Army and Navy proves their value..."  Plus tips on why not to brush your hair in the cafeteria...
Three suggestions: Cornell, Betty Glamour Guide for Teens. Pocket (paperback), 1210, 1958.   Reba and Bonnie Churchill Reba and Bonnie's Guide to Glamour and Personality New Jersey: Prentice-hall, 1962 Hard Cover. KEIFFER (or Kieffer), BETSYMCCALLS GUIDE TO TEENAGE BEAUTY AND GLAMOURPYRAMID BOOKS 1959 1963 ILLUSTRATED AND FULLY INDEXED. BE THE MOST GLAMOUROUS, EXCITING AND CHARMING GIRL IN YOUR SET. '
Cornell, Betty, All About Boys. "The secrets of popularity with boys (and girls, too).Helpful, informative
chapters on ..what makes 'em tick..getting that first date..keeping him on the string..getting a date with "him" again..family opposition..breaking up..do's and don'ts of dating..going steady.With Date-rating charts and a 52-page diary with beauty and conduct pointers."
Cornell, BettyBETTY CORNELL'S TEEN-AGE POPULARITY GUIDE. Prentice-Hall NY 1958
There are several possbilities here, but surely Betty Cornell is on the right track.  Here's a list of her various titles:
All About Boys (1958), Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide (1958), Glamour Guide for Teens (1958), So You're Going to be a Teen.

The second is exactly what you said it is:  Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook (1965), which features an Enchanted Castle Cake.
You and your website are BRILLIANT! Thanks much.

No real information, but the title sounds plausible - Betty June and Her Friends, by Lena B. Ellingwood, published New York, American Book Company, 1929 Pictorial Cloth. Octavo. And not really right, but also - Magic Night for Lillibet, by Gerry Turner, illustrated with photographs by the author and line drawings by Ralph Owen, published by Bobbs-Merrill 1959 "A marvelous fantasy with stuffed animals that come alive. Parts of it will be seen on TV. Ages 4-7." There's a small drawing shown of a girl with dark hair in bangs and a pony-tail, wearing a sailor-type shirt, hugging a large toy giraffe around the neck. (Horn Book Oct/59 p.334 pub ad)
a more remote possibility (being Australian) is Betty Ann's Birthday, published by Muir 1941, 12 pages, illustrated in b/w and yellow, subtitle: "And how the toys gave her a party". Way too short, though.
B88 betty june: more on the first suggested - Betty June and Her Friends, by Lena B. Ellingwood, illustrated by Ruth M. Hallock, published New York, American Book Company, 1929, 7.5" tall, hardback, "full color illustrations on estimated 30% of pages, other illos are green and black. Betty June has lots of animal and toy friends. Apparently a childrens reader with 96 pages."

B140--This is one of Crystal Thrasher's books, she wrote a trilogy about a young girl living in a rural area. Fairly certain it is Between Dark and Daylight
I finally got ahold of this book, and it was indeed Between Dark and Daylight by Crystal Thrasher!  The only things I had wrong were that the boy's name that died was Johnny (but there was a Byron in the book, too), and it was a Buick, not a truck, that he was dragged from.  This ends this quest - but now I have the other books in the series to read, too.  :)  Thanks to whoever solved this one!!

MacDonald, Alan, Beware of the Bears,1998. What a coincidence! I'm planning a 'wolf'story program and this was one of the many books I read last week.  "Angry at what goldilocks has done to their house, the three bears decide to get back at her by messing up her house, but they make an unfortunate mistake."
Alan MacDonald, Beware of the Bears. I read this one to my children recently so I'm absolutely sure it's the one you're seeking.  Quite a shock for the bears when they realized they'd trashed someone else's house!
MacDonald, Alan, Beware of the Bears, 1998.Angry at what Goldilocks has done to their house, the three bears decide to get back at her by messing up her house, but they make an unfortunate mistake.  Originally published in the UK, published in the US by Little Tiger Press.
Alan MacDonald, Beware of the Bears, 2005. Definintely this one!  After Goldilocks has fled the bear's house, Baby Bear sees her entering another cottage in the woods and the bear family decides to give Goldy a little of her own medicine. When she leaves the cottage, they enter, making themselves at home and deliberately leaving a terrible mess. Imagine their surprise when Goldilocks returns, finds them, and informs them, "This isn't my house. . . . I only came back because I left my teddy bear."  They must all then make their escape, before the cottage's real owner, the Big Bad Wolf, catches them.
McDonald, Alan, Bweare of the Bears. "Everyone knows the story of the three bears. Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear, and Baby Bear are furious when they see the mess Goldilocks left. So they visit her cottage while she's out and wreak havoc everywhere. But when Goldilocks arrives back at the cottage, the Bear family realizes they've made an awful mistake."
Thank you, thank you, thank you!  What a wonderful service this is.  My girls will be so thrilled when I pick up a copy!

R L Stine, Goosebumps series.  Just a guess - based on listening to my daughter describe every detail of many of these books as we walked her to school years ago.  This sounds very much like the plot pattern of the Goosebumps books.
Given date, way too early for Goosebumps series.  More likely the Twilight series (Dell) or the Dark Forces series (Bantam) of teen horror pb originals of that period.  I don't have an actual likely title though.
thank you for the suggestion, but i am very familiar with rl stine's goosebumps and also christopher pike's books having worked in a book store for several years. i know it wasn't either of those. it wasn't part of a series or a popular author that i know of. thanks though - now that you mention it, i can see where it would sound like that!
Carol Beach York, Beware of this Shop.  This is definitely it - just read it recently and all the details match.
York, Carol Beach, Beware of this Shop, 1977, Scholastic.  "Hester discovers that Mr. Mordrian casts an evil spell upon each item sold in his shop and that he intends to further his power using Hester as his assistant. Can she foil his plan?"
York, Carol Beach, Beware of this Shop.  This must be Beware of This Shop.  Main character is a poor-ish girl who lives with an elderly aunt or grandmother (her parents are dead, I think), and she has a richr friend.  She takes a job in a small shop, run by an odd and sinister old man who keeps a hideous metal toad locked in a cage  you find out later that the toad is somehow the source of his power.  Everything bought at the shop is cursed.  The girl's aunt/grandmother buys some wool, and it gets tangled every time she tried to knit with it and she gets terrible headaches.  The girl brings home a glass bowl or vase of some sort, and has horrible luck until it breaks, and she cuts herself badly cleaning it up. Her friend buys a ring, and gets deathly ill  the girl suspects the ring is the cause, sneaks into her friend's room, and saves her life by pulling the ring off and disposing of it.  Finally, she starts spying on the man, and discovers he's some sort of spell-caster.  She steals the metal toad and throws it into a lake, and as she does so, he's hit by a carriage and dies.  The story isn't set in contemporary times - more like Victorian era, or maybe early 20th century.
Carol Beach York, Beware of This Shop.  That last description is definitely of the book I was trying to find! Thank you all so much for your help!!
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A new shop opens in town, and all the objects lose their luster after they are bought. Perfume smells bad, a green glass bowl cuts the buyer. A girl who lives with her aunt goes to work for the shop. She throws his evil brass toad to the bottom of a lake.

Bruce Coville, Magic Shop series. Could this be one of the Magic Shop books by Bruce Coville?  Jennifer Murdley's Toad sounds like the most likely one, but I don''t actually remember the storyline...
Carol Beach York, Beware Of This Shop, 1977. This is definitely "Beware of This Shop".  All the details, including the broken green glass bowl and the brass toad thrown in the lake, fit.
SOLVED: Carol B. York, Beware of this Shop, 1977. Thanks to whomever listed Beware of this Shop. It is the right answer! I found a copy of the cover and it is the one I remember. I would never have remembered this as the title, though.

The book described under "R16: Rich lady adopts girl who looks like her dead daughter" sounds suspiciously like one I read around the same time frame...This was a book by V.C. Andrews, called My Sweet Audrina.
Regarding R16-Rich Lady adopts a girl: I've just re-read My Sweet Audrina (purely out of curiosity!) and it's definitely NOT it.
I'd like to find more information, but maybe Garden of Lies by Eileen Goudge, published by Viking, 1989, 528 pages (which doesn't sound as if it's aimed at teens). Apparently about children switched at birth, and the
hardback cover shows a stone cherub in a garden.
Re R16- I think that this is Alan Davidson's The Bewitching of Alison Allbright.
I was looking for the titles and authors of L9 and R16. The Multiplying Glass and The Bewithching of Alison Albright both sound like the right books. Many Thanks!
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The book was about a poor girl, probably a pre-teen. I think her father broke his leg, and they didn't have a car. She befriended a rich woman with a large estate, and began going over there every day. Her family didn't know where she was going. She developed a separate identity, where she would go over to this house and pretend to be rich, before going home to her own family. I think there was a climax with a big rainstorm, and the father had to go out and find her, getting rides from other people. It was a chapter book, almost definitely published in either the 80s or early 90s (no later than that), and on the cover was the girl's face divided in half, with her hair pulled back on one side and down on the other, and wearing ordinary clothes on one side and nice ones on the other.

Alan Davidson, Bewitching of Alison Albright.  Reading through previous stumpers, I came across a description nearly identical to this one, especially with respect to the cover.  After reading the description, I really think this is probably the book.
Our copy of The Bewitching of Alison Allbright has the cover described, with half the girl's face lighter (pigtail hair, house in background, schoolgirl uniform?) and the other half of her face darker (pageboy hair, butterfly in air, pearl necklace, ocean in background.)  The flyleaf reads:  In her imagination, Alison is pretty, charming and witty, instead of drab and shy. Her family have a lovely house instead of the ancient cottage they live in.  They have wonderful parties and glamorous vacations.  Little do her classmates know of the furious resentment which seethes inside "Alldull", as they call her, or of the 'real' Alison who longs to get out. Then Alison meets Mrs. Considine, the mother of her dreams.  She's wealthy, charming, and sophisticated and showers Alison with gifts.  ... Alison is entranced with her new life, but only when it's too late does she realize the power of the spell that Mrs. Considine has cast.
Alan Davidson, Bewitching of Alison Allbright.  That's definitely the book I was thinking of. Thank you so much!

Check out titles by Opal Wheeler, who wrote great young adult biographies of composers.
Possibly Mendelssohn's Rediscovery of Bach?? By Gerald Hendrie, Open University Press, 115pg., 1971.
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This book is written novel form and is about the composers J. S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn.  I read it in paperback about 25 years ago.  Sorry I cannot give the name, author or publisher.  The book opens during Bach's later life when he was a poor organist in Leipzig and was about to undergo cataract surgery (without the benefit of anesthesia).  He did not long survive the surgery.  It then skips ahead to the time of Mendelssohn who also lived in Leipzig.  Among his other interest, he is very devoted to the works of Bach.  As I recall, he is doing research trying to locate a lost work of Bach; The St. Matthew Passion.  He ultimately is successful in a strange way.  His wife comes home one day with meat from the local butcher.  The meat is wrapped in manuscript paper bearing a portion of the music from "The Passion" Later, he recovers the remainder of the work and manages to get it performed.  I doubt this is any more accurate that many of the Hollywood adaptations of the lives of the composers but I love music and enjoyed the book so much that I would love to read it again.  Hope you can help. My thanks for your efforts in locating this book.
Pierre La Mure , Beyond Desire : a novel based on the life of Felix and Cécile Mendelssohn, 1957.  The love story of Felix Mendelssohn, a famous composer and conductor of the 19th century and Maria Salla, the fiery Italian prima donna and for Cecile Jeanrenaud, his wife, who was one of the most beautiful women in Europe. It is also the story of his love for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his fight to restore that music to its rightful place in the world. 

Damon Knight, Beyond The Barrier, 1963.  Professor Gordon Naismith expeiences all that you describe and more (athough I only remembered the evocative bit about the markings on the floor)  My paperback copy (142 pages) is a 1970 Macfadden reprint of "The Original Hardback" - thanks for an excuse to dig it out!
damon knight, beyond the barrier, 1964.  I'm fairly sure this is it, based on the multiversions of the college lecturer scene that opens the novel (and which I think is as far as I ever got into it).  It was first serialized in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION under the title "The Tree of Time" and that scene was illustrated on the cover.  I think all book editions have been as BEYOND THE BARRIER however.
Damon Knight, Beyond The Barrier, 1963.  Thanks for your quick response.  This thing was an itch that I've been trying to scratch for nearly 30 years.  Thanks to the Internet and this web site, I finally have an answer!

Gillian Bradshaw, Beyond the North Wind. I wonder if you're thinking of Bradshaw's Beyond the North Wind?  Griffins (check), Cyclops (check), war - there had been battles & were going to be more, but it never quite happens due to the protaganist (half-check?), griffins not understanding that clothes are not skin - yep.
I just wanted to confirm that Beyond the North Wind was indeed the book and I'm very pleased. Thank you and I imagine I'll be submitting a couple more once I think of them!

I read this book too, and although I can't remember the author, I know is was in the "L - N" section of the shelves.  I think the author was either from Australia or New Zealand, and the paperback was from Dell Yearling. It was probably published in paperback in the late 80s/early 90s.  I thought it had "dragon" (or dragons) and "eye" in the title, but I wasn't able to find it anywhere.  Maybe these clues will help though.  Good luck!
Andrew Lansdown, Beyond the Open Door (a.k.a. With My Knife), 1992/1993. The book Beyond the Open Door (alternate title With My Knife) by Andrew Lansdown has this summary: "Colyn uses the weird knife he got for his birthday to cut a hole in a cardboard box which turns into a doorway to another world-- a world surrounded by mist and dragons! When a hole that he makes in a cardboard box turns into a doorway, Colyn discovers, to his amazement, that he can neither close the hole nor shut the doorway."
That's it!!  I''m not the original poster, but I'm the one who also remembered the book but couldn't come up with the author or title either...but that''s the book I remembered!

Louisa May Alcott, Under the Lilacs.   long shot...but maybe Under the Lilacs?
Palmer Brown, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees
Could it be Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott? Even if I'm wrong, I still appreciate your giving me a reason to recall a book that I'd loved but forgotten!
Pamela Brown?, Under the Pawpaw Tree.  This HAS to be it!  I don't remember the author, but I'm almost positive it's
Pamela something.
Here's the bibliographic info, but I couldn't find a copy for sale! Palmer Brown, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees; the story of Anna Lavinia. Drawings by the author.  New York, Harper, 1954.
by Palmer Brown, Beyond the PawPaw Trees: The Story of Anna Lavina, 1954.  Story about a child named ANNA LAVINIA who has amazing adventures that involve PAW PAW jelly, hedgehogs and trips to visit her aunts. She has a cat named Strawberry to whom she is very devoted.
I don't know, I read a book called The Riddle of the Trumplar Tree... could be a sequel?
You folks are absolutely the greatest.  I spent a fair amount of time trying to research this myself, and, bang!, within twenty-four hours of posting with you, I had my answer. Thanks so much.
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We are searching for a small hardcover book my wife read in elementary school in the early '70s. It was about a young girl sent to spend a summer with her relatives, possibly her grandparents. She may have traveled by train. The keyword my wife remembers is "lavender." The word "strawberry" is also in her head, but that has sent us down a few rabbit trails. The cover was white, with black lettering in a circular design, possibly around a circular train track design. The book is small approx. 5"x7" and less than 100 pages or so. Not much to go on. Thanks for any clues or assistance!

Palmer Brown, Beyond the pawpaw trees: the story of Anna Lavinia, 1954.  This is the story of Anna Lavinia setting out to visit her Aunt Sophia Maria who lives in a mysterious land. She's accompanied by her cat Strawberry.  The book does indeed begin on a "lavender blue day" (a theme running throughout denoting a "topsy-turvy" or "special day")Yes, there's a map illustrating the train journey.  Highly detailed and intricate black & white illustrations by the author, himself.  A truly exquisite book! (122 pages in 1973 Camelot pbk edition). Originally published by Harper in 1954.  I do feel this is the one you are looking for.
Thank you so much. What a great service! The description and solution are right on. Of course, if we'd known what to look for, the solution was already on your website in another stumper!

Ashraf Siddiqui, Bhombal Dass, The Uncle of Lion, 1959, copyright.  I'm 99% sure that this is the book being described.
Ashraf Siddiqui, Bombal Das, the Uncle of Lion, 1959, copyright.  Thank you so much! It took a while to find a copy, but the whole family enjoyed it again after losing it almost 15 years ago.
My husband Tom Hamil is the author of the children's book Bhombal Das published in 1959. You give the author as Ashraf Siddiqui. How is that possible?
Well, it looks like we have a little controversy here.  So to resolve the issue of authorship, I checked with the Library of Congress online.  Here is what the Library of Congress online catalog says about this book:

I came up with  2 versions of Bibs by  Johnson, Eleanor M.  BIBS Reading  Skilltext. a workbk  published by Merrill
YOU FOUND IT!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH.  My first cat when I was six years old was named bibs after I read the skill book.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 

Enid Blyton, Five series. (1970s, reprint)  This is one of the Famous Five mystery series by Enid Blyton.  I can't remember if it's Five get into Trouble or Five are Together Again, or maybe Five Fall into Adventure.  But it's one of them.  There's a bike trip with Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the dog, a mysterious boy named Dickie who's running away.  Dick gets mistaken for Dickie and is kidnapped, and the kids try to get him back.
The answer on the bookstumper page for my question B455, doesn't sound like the correct book to me.  Can you keep searching? Thanks
Ritchie, Rita, Bicycles North! (1973) I can't remember the storyline at all its been so long since I read this, but it came to mind after reading this stumper. I do know that it is a mystery/adventure story. There is a picture of the cover at this website.  Perhaps that will help identify the book.
Ritchie, Bicycles North.  This sounds exactely right.  The other one someone suggested (Famous Five by Enid Blythe) was definately not it. I bought it and read it and it's very different.  I'll buy Bicycles North and double check, but the cover looks right. Thanks!
Rita Ritchie, Bicycles North-A Mystery.  This was definately the correct book. I enjoyed reading it! Thank you for solving my stumper!

Your mom was right!  This is Anna Marie (no author listed) on page 61 of Big Big Story Book published by Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin (my edtion is copyright 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1955).  Please note that Whitman published two books with the same title!  The other one is Big Big Story Book (copyright 1938 and 1941) which contains modern abridged versions of Black Beauty, Heidi, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Peter Pan and Hans Brinker.  Unfortunately, the 1941 version is the only one listed on WorldCat, so you probably won't be able to obtain the 1944 one through interlibrary loan.  You've almost got the first part of the poem correct.  First verse: "Up in the mountain and under a tree/Lives a little gray bunny named Anna Marie/She lives all alone in warm weather and freezin'/With no one to speak to, and this is the reason:" Second verse: "Anna Marie never knew any rabbits./(Her mother and father had wandering habits.)/She lived, when still young, by a clear little brook,/And never thought much of how bunnies should look,"  Third verse:"Till rude Charley Chipmunk said, "My you are queer!/You don't look a smidgin like me, you poor dear./Your tail is too short and your ears are too long./There's nothing about you that isn't all wrong."  The poem goes on for another four verses.  The book is out of print, but it's not hard to find inexpensive used copies.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! I HAVE  BEEN TRYING TO PIECE THAT SMALL PART OF MY CHILDHOOD BACK TOGETHER FOR YEARS !!!
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I remember having a hard back book as a child in the 1960's. It contained children's short stories and some poems. One poem in particular was entitled AnnaMarie.  The first line is : "Up in the mountains and under a tree lived a little gray rabbit named AnnaMarie. / She lived all alone in warm weather and freezin', with no one to talk to and this is the reason:"  I would be thrilled to either find the book itself OR at least find the words to the poem in its entirety.

Whitman Publishing Company, Big Big Story Book, 1955, copyright.  Contents include Anna Marie, also Jasper Giraffe, The Circus Train, Hucklebones, Let's Go To The Fair, The Flying Sunbeam,  Tommy of A-Bar-A Ranch, Pussycat's Secret, Fluff, Woofus, What Happened to Fluffy, Timothy Buys A Pet, Susan and the Rain, Nellie, Tatters, Pie Face, Picnic in the Pantry, and more.  Not to be confused with Whitman's earlier Big Big Story Book (1938, 1941) which consisted of abridged versions of Black Beauty, Hans Brinker, Heidi, Peter Pan, and Grimm's Fairy Tales.  See solved mysteries, under Big Big Story Book, for the first three verses of the poem.
Whitman Publishing Company, Big Big Story Book, 1955, copyright.  IT'S SOLVED!!!!!

Thackray, Patricia, Big Bird Gets Lost, 1978.  "Big Bird loses his way while shopping for bird seed for his nest-warming party. The reader can experience some of the fragrances Big Bird encounters on his trip by scratching and sniffing treated pages."  A Golden scratch & sniff book.

Georges Duplaix, The Big Brown Bear,1947.  I believe this is a Golden Book, but not under the title "Heloo, World". The illustrations are by Gustaf Tenngren, one of the best.  The bear gets a big, swollen nose from the beestings, and he gets in trouble with Mrs. Bear.  It's a great book!
This  Rand McNally Elf book is called Forest Babies.  It has 3 stories in it.  The first one is about a bear and starts out by saying, "Hello World."  The bear's name is "Buffin."  The other two stories in the book about two raccoons and a deer.
H52 hello world: another from the Solved List, I think, though I'm having trouble finding it. Something about "Hello World, said Bunkle. Bunkle was a bear." My vague recollection is that it was Spring Comes to the Forest, but I could be wrong.
I'm a bit dubious about this. The seeker says it was a small bear, and the getting into honey incident is so standard for bear stories that it's not terribly useful as identification. More likely perhaps is - Forest Babies, by Jean J. Parrish, illustrations by Elizabeth Webbe, published Rand McNally. "The line "Hello, World!" begins the story of "Buffin Goes Everywhere." He visits some ants and gets his nose stung. Then he falls out of a tree into a cockleburr patch.  Finally the Mother and Father Bear find him." This definitely has the "Hello World" beginning.

The Big Elephant
Circa: 1950s. It was a large book about a multi-talented elephant who had several careers during a given day. The illustrations were watercolour, realistic, fullpage. I clearly remember two of them: one in which the elephant (as railroad operator) wore pinstriped overalls and a conductor's cap. The other, he was wearing a chef's toque and dancing about with a huge yellow cake on a plate. That cake was topped with a delicious cherry. I don't remember more of the story than that. It's NOT the Saggy Baggy Elephant. This elephant was the hero of his own life: he had dignity!  :)

Kathryn and Byron Jackson  Feodor Rojankovsky (illus), The Big Elephant, 1949. Reprinted as What's Next, Elephant? "Delightful story of circus elephant who kept falling out of his bed while traveling by train from town to town. He left the circus and decided to build his own home in the town. He helped the people with tasks and became very popular with his music. At Christmas, he received a shiny new horn from Santa and began to play all kinds of songs. He was asked to join the town band and was most happy when he marched along in the Fourth of July parade." The elephant wears a variety of clothes while performing tasks throughout the book, including striped pajamas (when falling out of bed), blue overalls with a red shirt (while watering gardens and carrying coal) a suit (while performing with an orchestra) an apron (while serving cake and ice cream) and a marching band uniform.
SOLVED: The Big Elephant. Well, I can't seem to access the inquiry I submitted on the website, but I'm happy to say that the answer you found was the one I've been seeking. Additional good news: the book is readily available-- and the illustrations even more luscious than I recalled them! I've ordered a copy and am happily awaiting the arrival of my very own nostalgic pachyderm. Thanks!

In response to your stumper A9 - the three poems that the requestor mentioned are all in the Giant Golden Poetry Book (or Book of Poetry -- I can't remember the exact order of the title).  It contains no stories, but if he/she wanted copies of those poems all in one place, this would be where to find them.
I double checked the title of the poetry book I was thinking of and it is The Big Golden Book of Poetryand dates from 1945.  Sorry to mess up the title in the last message.
just wanted to say I love your website! lots of good general info, but the A9 anthology under "stump the bookseller" was very helpful. I've been trying to pin down that same anthology. I've tried The Bumper Book and The Brimful Book,but I'm pretty sure The Big Golden Book of Poetry is the one I wanted.
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Big Golden Book of Poetry.  Thank you for your lovely website! What a relief and blessing to know there are places out there to re-capture childhood.  I too am looking for this wonderful book that my sister and I ruined on our older sister {boy, was SHE mad!}Years and years ago. I had no idea the title of the book until the other day, I was thinking about the poem,
"Wynken, Blynken and Nod". Then scrolling down the page of selections, I saw the picture and it's EXACTLY how I remember it to be. That was it. I now have resources to bring this happy time back.  Again, thank you

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Werner, Jane, ed.  The Big Golden Book of Poetry.  Illustrated by Gertrude Elliott.  Golden Press, 1949.  A beautiful copy.  F.  <SOLD>

Quite sure this is Big Horse, Little Horse by Martha Golfberg (1960)
Goldberg, Martha. Big horse, little horse.illus by Joe Lasker Scholastic, c1960.

Bonsall, George, Illus. by Crosby Newell, The Big Joke.  This is a Wonder Book with fantastic illustrations of the fish family. 

I read a book in the 70's called Small Shadows Creep. by Andre Norton.  It was a collection of short stories and I am sure that there was a story either called Beelzebub, or had that name in it.
Scott Corbett, The Big Joke Game, 1970's.  Pretty sure I remember this one, too.  Scott Corbett was a favorite of mine and my friends in middle school.  We read many of his titles.  I don't have the book so can't provide any exact details!
Scott Corbett, The Big Joke Game, 1970s.  To the person who remembered this book, I say Thank You! As soon as I read the title, "The Big Joke Game," I knew it was the right book. Once again, thank you very much! This stumper can now be considered "solved." (By the way, this solved stumper makes 3 for 3 on the stumpers that I've sent to Loganberry Books. This is a great service.)
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Checked this book out in the mid-late eighties from the school library, so who knows on date.  I always thought it was by Roald Dahl, but maybe it was just in the "D" section.  The plot involves a boy who climbs a rose trellis and falls, and then is sucked into a riddle game? or a labyrinthe-like land.  I remember a trojan horse being invloved somehow.  Maybe he had to solve riddles or something to beat the clock and get back?  Very slighty dark undertones.

Corbett, Scott, The Big Joke Game.  The boy falls off the trellis in trying to run away, and goes to Limbo, where he has to play a game, with "Bub" his "guardian devil" following him around.
This is The Big Joke Game by Scott Corbett. The boy is punished for writing a limerick about his lisping teacher. He tries to escape by climbing down the rose trellis and is hit on the head. He is transported to a life-sized board game where he meets his guardian devil Bub. Playing the game involves solving riddles and telling jokes, and periods of NOT telling jokes. He can't get home again until he reaches the final square.
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This memory is of a book my 3rd or 4th grade teacher read out loud to my class back 27 years ago or so.  I remember a group of 3 or 4 children were somehow swept into an alternate reality, life-sized board game where they had to make choices to get through the game.  They may have had to roll dice to get through the game, but I'm not positive about this.  I distincly remember there was one chapter in which there was a Trojan Horse.  Kind of like those garden chess games where real, live people play the chess pieces. The story had a surreal feel to it, like Alice in Wonderland, where characters and situations they encountered there were very bizarre.  I think there were occasional illustrations of simple pencil drawings. Would love to solve this one.  I have bugged all the children's librarians here in Houston and so far no luck.  Hope someone out there remembers this too and can help me out.  I would love to have this to read to my niece and nephew!

Scott Corbett, The Big Joke Game.  The Trojan Horse appears in The Big Joke Game. Check in the Solved page for more descriptions and see if they ring a bell. I'm pretty sure it's the book you're looking for, though.
Chris Van Allsburg, Jumanji, 1981.  Could you be speaking about Jumanji?  Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations certainly lend a surreal feeling to the story of children who find an old game in a park and get swept into a torrent of wild animals and nasty hunters, only to discover that they must finish the game in order for the unwelcome visitors to leave the house.  This book was made into a movie in 1995.
Scott Corbett, The Big Joke Game.  Thank You, Thank You!  I am quite certain this is the book I was wondering about all these years.  I browsed the web and after seeing the titles and covers of his books, I do remember all the children's books that this author wrote.  They are truly wonderful.  I am now in the process of trying to buy as many of them as I can find to share with children in the family.  Well, Ok, I admit I intend to read them myself first, and won't be lending them out unless I am certain I will get them back!  What treasures to find again, and so many other memories were sparked of other books I had read by this author.  Thanks again.  I'm going to submit another stumper soon!
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A boy climbs out his trellis and ends up in the Game of Life board game with Beelzebub as his companion?? for part of the story.  1970s.

The Big Joke Game, Corbett, Scott.  Ozzie likes to play practical jokes, until he and his "guardian devil" Bub get trapped in a giant game.
Corbett, Scott, Big Joke Game.  This is in Solved Mysteries.

Bryna & Louis Untermeyer (editors), Big and Little Creatures,1961.This might be the one you'\''re looking for.  It was published by Golden Press, and is the first of a 10-volume set called "The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature" (not to be confused with the single-volume anthology of the same name, also edited by Untermeyer).
untermeyer, Big and Little Creatures, 1961. I saw a picture of this book on the internet and its the one, I do not know how you guys figured this book out, someone over there is an angel in disguise or somthing, thats incredible, I can'\''t wait to buy a copy and give it to my sister, who mentions this book freqently.  Bravo Bravo Loganberry. Gratsi

This is Jan D. Biggers, Big Little Kitty (Whitman, '53) -- a Tell-a-Tale book.
K18 karen kay: more on the suggested title - Big Little Kitty by Jan D. Biggars, published Whitman Tell-a-Tale 1953. "Karen Kay is four and a little bit more. How old are you?" "When Karen Kay was just 4, she got a cute kitten on Christmas. But one day Muffin disappeared and Karen Kay was sad and wished him home. It turned out that while playing, Muffin has jumped onto a train!"
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K46:  late 60s, early 70s.  It was a small, colored-illustration book that told the story of a little girl who wanted a kitten and eventually got several, with a different-colored ribbon on each one's neck. It was a white family, blond kids, perfect little house with garden. The kittens were delivered in a basket, also with a ribbon on the handle. The little girl was very happy and kept them all.

Jan D. Biggers, Big Little Kitty, 1953.  This is a TELL-A-TALE book.  It is small and has a pink cover with a little blonde gilr holding a kitty the same color as her hair.  There is no basket in this book so it might not be your book.  It does show a blonde girl and her blonde mother.  She gets a kitty named Muffin for Christmas which later runs away.  It comes back in the end with two kitty friends and they all have different color ribbons.  The book begins with "Karen Kay is four and a little bit more.  How old are you?"  It was my favorite book as a child.

Kim Platt, Big Max,1965.  Big Max, the world's Greatest Detective, arrives by umbrella to help the king of Pooka Pooka find his missing elephant.  The elephant escaped his yard by climbing over the wall on the blocks of ice.  He escaped to go back home to celebrate his birthday with his family.  The sound they are following is that of the elephant and his family partying in the jungle.
Kin Platt, Big Max.  This was an early-reader type book.  There's a reader's theater script for it online here  (Scroll down to the second play).
D213 This sounds like BIG MAX by Kin Platt, illustrated by Robert Lopshire, 1965 and republished after that. A king call in the detective Big Max to hlp him find his elephant. It turns out the elephant stood on an ice block and was able to get over the wall.~from a librarian
Kin Platt, Big Max.  maybe?
platt, kin, Big Max.  This has got to be Big Max:  the World's Greatest Detective
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I remember a children's book that involved an elephant missing from a zoo. Since I read it as a small child the publication date is probably in the mid 70's to early 80s. The main character of the story is an Inspector Clouseau-ish detective who is brought in to solve the case. The detective notices a large puddle of water near one of the walls, and realizes that the elephant used ice blocks to build a staircase to escape. Platt, Kim, Big Max.  Your book is Big Max, an I Can Read Book.  See solved stumpers, page B.
Platt, Kin, Big Max the Worlds Greatest Detective.  See Solved mysteries
Kin Platt, Big Max
Kin Platt, Big Max (The World's Greatest Detective). (1965)  This is definitely the book you're looking for! A wonderful "I Can Read Mystery". ENJOY  :)
Kin Platt, Big Max: The World's Greatest Detective. (1965)  This is Big Max: The World's Greatest Detective by Kin Platt .... it was my first mystery book and an all time favorite. Originally published in 1965 and in continuous print since then. Platt won Edgar honors for some of his books for older kids too: Sinbad and Me, The Mystery of the Witch Who Wouldn't, and ghosted a couple of the Alfred Hitchcock "Three Investigators" series.
Kim Platt, Big Max. (1965)  Big Max, the world's greatest detective, is called in when the King of Pooka Pooka's prize elephant, Jumbo, disappears. It turns out that the elephant has escaped by climbing over his wall on a block of ice, in order to go visit his family. This is one of a series of "I Can Read Mystery" books, including "Big Max in the Mystery of the Missing Moose", and "Big Max and the Mystery of the Missing Giraffe."
Kin Platt, Big Max.  It is definitely Big Max. Still in print. An "I can read" book
Kin Platt, Big Max. (1965)  Big Max is a detective who must find the King of Pooka Pooka's missing prize elephant who has escaped from a seemingly unescapable habitat. Using various clues (puddle of water) he discovers the whereabouts of the elephant and why he went missing. This is an "I can read" book.
Kin Platt, Big Max, the World's Greatest Detective. (1992)  This was absolutely the book I was thinking of. Thank you so much for solving this mystery for me!

Interpreting Condition Grades

Platt, Kin.  Big Max.  An I Can Read Mystery.  Illustrated by Robert Lopshire.  Harper & Row, 1965.  Edgeworn, name on endpaper, otherwise clean and bright.  VG-.  $7

Cindy Chang, Big Mouth Gulch (Timmy the Tooth).  1995.  Paperback Publisher: Price Stern Sloan Pub  (August 1995)
ISBN: 0843138653 There is also at least one other title Secret Birthday Surprise  0-84313-8645 

I think B13 is BIG MUTT by Reese, John H. (1952).

I saw yesterday on your Website that someone was asking about a book about Mr. Plumbean - the title of this book is The Big Orange Splot - it is by Daniel Pinkwater.  It is still in print and is published by Scholastic.
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Hey everyone!  I am looking for a children's book about a house in a neighborhood where all the houses look the same.  One day a bird flying with orange paint (I think) flies over one of the houses and drops it on the roof of one of the houses. The guy living there decides to paint things all different colors, and the neighbors get mad.  Then by the end of the book, the every house in the neighborhood is painted all crazy and is totally unique.  I remember this being a favorite book with great pictures in it.  Can anyone help me? Your effort is appreciated, Thanks.

Daniel Pinkwater, Big Orange Splot.
Dan Pinkwater, Big Orange Splot.  See "solved mysteries."
Daniel Pinkwater, The Big Orange Splot
Pinkwater, Daniel Manus, Big Orange Splot.  Another definate.
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There was a street were all the houses looked alike and everyone thought it was a great street. A bird drops paint on a house and the person decides to make their dream house, a hot air ballon or something, than all the owners make their homes different - like boats and castles and when people walked down the street they did not like it.

Close to Mr. Pine's Purple House, but not quite.
Daniel M. Pinkwater, The Big Orange Splot, One of my favorites, and it's still in print.
Possibly Daniel Pinkwater's The Big Orange Spot (pub. by both Scholastic and Hastings House, 1977.)  "When a seagull drops a can of orange paint on his neat house, Mr. Plumbean gets an idea that affects his entire neighborhood." Even though his neighbors thing his house is awful at first, pretty soon they all paint their houses to resemble different things -- a ship, the Taj Mahal, etc.  This doesn't match the description given exactly, but it's similar.
This is definitely The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater.  The bird drops paint on Mr. Plumbean's house and rather than clean it up, he paints wild designs around it. When the rest of the homeowners get over their initial shock, they paint their own houses to reflect their personalities.
D101 THE BIG ORANGE SPLOT by Daniel Pinkwater ~from a librarian
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I'm trying to remember the title of a book I read as a child about identical houses on a block.  All the home owners were strict about keeping this homogeneous look until one person re-designed his house like a jungle.  Others soon followed, some with castles, others with styles from different cultures, all expressing some part of their personalities.  I'd love to find this again.

The Big Orange Splot.  This certainly sounds like the same book as D101. The description is on the solved pages.
This is The Big Orange Splot again by Daniel Pinkwater.  Check out the Solverd Mysteries page.
Daniel Manus Pinkwater, The Big Orange Splot
Long shot, but could be Andrew Henry's Meadow.  It is a little boy designing the "houses" in this book, not adult homeowners, but there are a variety of original styles.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Pinkwater, Daniel. The Big Orange Splot.  Hastings House, 1977.  Scholastic edition.  Previous owner's inscription on front free endpaper.  VG+, <SOLD>

Edward Marshall, Space Case.  I don't know if this is the book you mean or not.  This is a picture book.  In it, an alien shaped like a UFO comes to earth on halloween.  At first, the kids think he is just another kid in a costume.  One little boy takes him home for the night and they drink orange juice the next day at breakfast.  At school the next day, the alien wows the class with his ability to solve math problems.
Jerry Juhl, The Big Orange Thing, 1969, copyright.  I posted this stumper several years ago, and happened to find the book in a used bookstore!  I was so excited.  The little boy feels bad because he cannot draw very well, but he CAN build, and makes a big orange thing (like a giraffe/robot) that he takes to school.  Fun book!

Pretty sure on this one: Big Rig by Bill and Rosalie Brown, published by Longmans 1959 "A feud between a truck driver and a mouse". There can't be that many on this theme.
M35 mouse and truck driver: A bit more on the suggested title, Big Rig by Bill and Rosalie Brown, illustrated by Peter Burchard, published Coward-McCann 1959 and 1964 "darling story of Angelo the mouse and Clarence
the truck driver, unpaginated."

C104 coloured pages: I found this possible answer in a thrift shop - The BIG Story Book, compiled and edited by Malvina C. Vogel, published Moby Books, Playmore, Waldman, 1978, 576 pages, 8 1/2" x 11", softcover, large print. The contents are divided into Puppy Stories; Train Stories; Horse Stories; Kitten Stories; Funny Stories; Animal Stories; Stories of Giants, Witches and Dragons; Stories of Magic and Mystery; Stories of Fairies, Elves and Little People, each set by a different author and illustrator. The illustrations are cartoony line drawings. The book is of cheap pulp paper in blocks of different colours, like the big doodle pads I had as a kid. However, the colour changes do not correspond exactly to the story sections, but are in blocks of 64 pages, blue, pink, white, yellow, (repeat). The cover is a sort of peach/pink and shows a gnomish old man with a tall checked hat and fairy wings reading a book to a blond girl and a brown-haired boy wearing peasant clothes. The girl is petting a fawn. In the background is a castle with a dragon in front and a giant peering around from behind. 

Elizabeth Orton Jones, Big Susan, 1947.  Maybe?  The dolls only come alive on Christmas Eve, but it is a large doll family. "After six weeks of neglect, a family of dolls comes to life on Christmas Eve wondering if they will have a tree or gifts this year from the girl who normally takes such good care of them."
Elizabeth Orton Jones , Big Susan, ca1947.  Not definite, but a possibility.  Family of dollhouse dolls (6 children plus Cook and Nurse) comes alive when the owner plays with them and on Christmas Eve.  It's being reissued by a small press.
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1950's, childrens.  I'm looking for a book or story about paper dolls.  They were arranged by their young mistress (a little girl) in a play doll house.  Then the little girl gets sick and is unable to play with them, so they are "frozen in action".  The story is from the paper dolls’ points of view.  I thought that that particular story would have been featured in “Lots of Stories”, but apparently, it wasn’t, as I bought the book and it wasn't in there.

Elizabeth Orton Jones, Big Susan, 1947, copyright. While I was looking up the story "Twig" on the Internet, I came across the book "Big Susan" by Elizabeth Orton Jones.  I believe that this was the book I was looking for.  The dolls were made of plastic and china, but the general story is the same.  Thanks again for this service!  It's funny how one story can lead to another!

Is this The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge? It sounds like it (though I've never read the book).
I think the book to which M65 refers is Gillian Jigs...there is a poem in the book which goes: Gillian, Gillian, Gillian Jigs, it looks like your room is lived in by pigs.
M65 - The searcher might check out Sarah's Room by Doris Orgel.  Sarah is a little girl with a messy room.  Her older sister has a beautiful room that Sarah isn't allowed into.  At the end of the book she cleans her room up and gets is all fixed up nicely.  The illustrations are by Sendak and Sarah does has black "sticky-out" hair.
M65 sounds to me like a book called Jillian Jigs. A poem runs through it which goes like this:  Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs! It looks like your room is lived in by pigs!
M65 messy: just wanted to mention that I saw a copy of The Big Tidy Up on Ebay (going for over $100) and the little girl has black frizzy hair. The cover shows her upside down hanging over the edge of her bed, so it may be straighter when she's rightway up.
More on The Big Tidy Up by Norah Smaridge: illustrated by Les Gray, Golden Press, 1972. Very scarce and collectible. Adorable book about Jennifer and how she changed her room to earn a door sign come in! instead of keep out! All in rhyme.
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This was a large hardcover book I had as a child about a little girl and her very messy room. I thought it was called "The Messy Room" or something like that, but I can't find any reference anywhere. I recall a bright colorful large book that was all about this girl's atrocious bedroom...detailing all the junk she had laying around, piles of stuff, a doll with a lollipop stuck in its hair? even going under her bed...the little girl herself was a mess, with very messy hair...I believe at the end of the book she cleaned her room (a very big job!) and had a sign on the door about her clean room or something like that. My memory is really foggy about it, but I really loved it as a child and would love a copy for my daughter.

Perhaps The Big Tidy Up by Norah Smaridge, illustrated by Les Gray, Golden Press, 1972.
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I was born in 1977 and the book was my brothers who was born in 1968 so it is somewhere  in there or before age wise. It was about a little girl Jennifer who never cleaned her room so her mom hung up a big sign keep out so she dreamed about running away and then finally cleaned her room and hung up her own sign that said come in I believe. I remember to the best of my knowledge that the book started 'Jennifer knew as well as you that everything had its place but just didn't care a wit or a bit so her room was a real disgrace a shoe lie a skew on the window sill" after that it gets a little fuzzy. I would love to be able to get this book for my child if you have any info I would appreciate it greatly.

I've never gotten my hands on a copy of  The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge.  Could this be it?  Check out comments on this title (and other messy-room books) on the Solved Mysteries page.
I agree with the other poster this definitely is from the Big Tidy Up.  My mom still has a copy of the book and I recently read it to my children.
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My mom and I recall this book from my childhood (mid 70's) about a little girl who's mom wants her to clean up her room.  Everything's a mess and the little girl tries her best, but doesn't do a great job of it.  The whole story is in mostly rhyme...such as "....is not the place", she said, "and what's that big lump in your bed??" (as in the little girl tried to hide things under her covers).

Are you thinking of The Big Tidyup?  If so, good luck...copies are scarce.
W151 I can't find Harvey Weiss The big clean-up to check on story. I bet it is abt a boy, anyway.
Norah Smaridge, The Big Tidy Up, 1970.  "Jennifer knew as well as you, that everything had a place. But she didn't care a whit or a bit so her room was a real disgrace"!  This rhyming picture book about a little girl who cleans up her room is fondly remembered by many people, judging from the number lamenting that it is out of print!
I posted a request 11/18/04 and had it solved already, thank goodness!  My mom and I have been going nuts trying to remember the book title and author.  Too bad I don’t have $100 to buy it off ebay since it’s out print.  Thanks again to all the great solvers!
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GIRL, messy room, very untidy and dirty. Something causes her to change her ways and clean up her room. It's a thin, colorfully illustrated book that I read in 1971-ish. The girl has black hair and I remember she is sitting in her window at the very end, in a nice dress.

Norah Smaridge, The Big Tidy-Up.  Very bright early '70's-type pictures?  Probably The Big Tidy-Up, which for awhile was just about impossible to find.  It's just been reprinted and you can find it online.
Doris Orgel (Author), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator), Sarah's Room.  I bet this is Sarah's Room, about a little girl who isn't allowed into her big sister's room, because the big sister is very tidy and the little girl is a slob. Finally the little girl learns to keep her own room tidy, and then is allowed into her sister's room.  Thin book, colorfully illustrated, girl with long black hair, just as you say.
Mary Calhoun.  Not sure, but your description might be one of the Katie John books of Mary Calhoun. Katie John is a somewhat tomboyish girl whose parents run a boarding house. She loves to get out and have adventures, but over the course of the series does grow up, take a bit more pride in her appearance.
Thanks for your energy and passion for books!!! This stumper is solved! The Big Tidy-Up! Perfect!  Thanks soooooooo much! I also like the description about the other books. I will look into them, also.

The Big World and the Little House, (1949) by Ruth ("The Carrot Seed") Krauss.  It's a wonderful book by a well-known author with enchanting pictures by Marc Simont.  It begins "The world is a big place.  The house was a little house.  The house was a little part of the world.  It sat alone on a hill that was rough and completely bare...  At night it was part of the
dark.  No heart beat in it.  Nobody lived there."  Then a family moves in, fixes it up.  "The dog dug a hole and the kids
poured water in it to catch the stars. And they invited chipmunks to come and live among the roots of the roses."  "The father put down a little blue rug with a black sheep on it made by a lady in Canada."  Incredibly poetic, somehow incredibly evocative of what it means to live in a family... and more... "They put in a telephone and if you got the right number you could talk with somebody in China.  And they put in a radio.  On the radio, you could hear people from another part of the world, but they couldn't hear you.  If someone on the radio said, 'Children should be in bed right after supper,' you could yell 'Yah yah yah yah yah!' and they couldn't yell back because they couldn't hear you....  If you turned on the music loud enough, the floor of the little house would shake in time to it.  Someone making music far away across the ocean could make your house shake."  One clear night the kids start to make up a song beginning "'We've got chipmunks in our roses and stars between our toeses...'  They didn't get any further.  And like this song of the children, that had no ending, the house was so filled with the feeling of the people in it even in what was not there--like the curtains Grandma never put up in her room and kept saying she was waiting to get just the right kind.  Only everyone knew it was one of those things Grandma never got around to, and never would."  "The little house had become a home.  'Home' is a way people feel about a place.  These people felt that way about the little house.  Some people feel that way around a room, which is just part of a house.  Some people feel that way about a corner, which is just part of a room that is part of a house.  Some people feel that way about the whole world."
Virginia Burton, The Little House.  Story about a house that's built in the country ... the city grows until it is surrounded by tall buildings.. then a family (the great granddaughter of the builder or some such thing) finds it and moves it back out to the country, builds a new pond like it had in the first place 

Caldecott winner 1952!  Here it is!  What makes you so sure it's 78 pages?  It's actually 84.  :-)

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Ward, Lynd.  The Biggest Bear.  Houghton Mifflin, 1952.  Eighteenth printing.  Caldecott Winner.  VG+/VG+.  $30

Amye Rosenberg (author and illustrator), The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree, 1985.  What a coincidence!  I bought a used copy of this book yesterday (December 23rd, the same day this stumper was posted!) at my local thrift store!  This is the story of three animal families who live in a great fir tree.  Mr. and Mrs. Fieldmouse live downstairs, Old Gray Acorn, the squirrel, lives upstairs, and the Chipmunk family (Mom, Dad, Little Nina and Nutley) live in the middle.  Despite their holiday preparations (baking cookies, hanging stockings), Santa never comes until the Chipmunk's Aunt Mim (not their grandmother) visits.  She thinks that Santa can't tell their tree from the others in the forest and doesn't know that anyone lives there.  Aunt Mim suggests that they decorate the tree, and provides craft supplies so that the animals can make ornaments.  Thanks to her, Santa finds the animals' home and they receive their first Christmas presents ever.  This cute story with charming illustrations is a Little Golden Book.  The right upper corner of the cover bears the code 459-8.  I hope you find a copy of your own soon!

I was browsing through the messages and came across the one relating to a "stumper" about a group of children who were involved in gangs named after the Red and White Roses featured in the War of the Roses. It rings a very real bell for me -I too was intrigued by the book. My recollection is that is was entitled The Wars of the Roses, and I believe that the children were Danish, or possibly Dutch, but that the author was British. Not much help, I'm afraid, but it might provide some lead.
I was trying to recall the name of a children's book I read 'way back when (which I was trying to explain hazily to my son), and my Web search turned up, if not an answer, at least the same question. That's it.  I found only one of these books at my local library, and I'm pretty sure it was not called "The War of the Roses" -- it wasn't the first book in the series either, because the situation was already well established.  But I recall that there were three kids on each side of the fanciful "war" they played; it was certainly a Scandinavian setting with Scandinavian names; and the heroes had a secret code that consisted of duplicating each consonant in a word with the letter "o" in between and retaining the vowels as they were:  In the book I read, these amateur detectives run afoul of an actual murderer in hiding, and I remember that one of them, who's in the clutches of the murderer but doesn't want him to know that she knows who he is, communicates this secretly to her pals hiding nearby by warbling "Mom-u-ror-dod-e-ror-e-ror" as if it were a nonsense song.  Clever and fun.
I don't remember a book with references to the War of the Roses, but there is an author, Karin Anckarsvard, who wrote children's mysteries set in Sweden that had a group of kids who end up investigating things. The ones I remember are: The Mysterious Schoolmaster, Rider by Night, The Robber Ghost, but I know there were more than that.
The book is White Rose Rescue. It is set in Sweden. It is the third in a series by Astrid Lindgren. The first two are Bill Bergson, Master Detective and Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously. These are wonderful books!

The Lindgren just may be it!!
By Jove, I think you've got it!  Armed with this clue, I searched "Astrid Lindgren" and "roses." I turned up a couple of sites that made clear Lindgren indeed wrote the stories I remember.
"It is summer, the little town is the picture of tranquillity. But appearances can be deceiving. Right in the middle of this idyllic spot a war is raging between the White and the Red Roses - two rival children's gangs. They are competing for the stone "Stormumriken". Kalle Blomkvist and Eva-Lotta decide to put "Stormumriken" in a safe place, just in case. However, while on her way to  the hideaway  Eva-Lotta makes a horrible discovery - old man Gren, the towns money-lender, has been murdered. Luckily,  Kalle, the master detective, is on the job."
That's the scenario, all right. And the name "Eva-Lotta" is familiar. And since the title Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously definitely rings a bell, I suspect that was the one I read! It appears it has even been made into a movie at least once (in Swedish, I gather).   I think "Kalle Blomkvist" must be the original name of which "Bill Bergson" is the translation. I didn't turn up any references suggesting any of the Bill Bergson books were still in print. Do you happen to know if they are?
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I read this series of books in Chinese growing up, and am pretty sure that these are American books.  I remember there are 2 "camps" of children who are constantly "at war" (harmlessly) against each other, and they name the conflict "the Wars of the Roses," the White Roses and the Red Roses.

How 'bout Swedish?  Check out more on the Solved Mysteries Page.
Am actually nervous to find them and read them again.  I liked them A LOT when I was a kid, so naturally, I am expecting to be disappointed.  ;-)

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Lindgren, Astrid.  Bill Bergson and the White Rose Rescue.  Viking Press, 1965.  Second printing. Ex-library copy with usual marks.  No dust jacket.  G+.  $19.

This is a book I read as a kid in the mid to late 60s early 70s.  It takes place in summer.  Its about a group of kids who are in two teams and hide a statue or trophy from each other and the other team has to find it.  The statue is called The Great Mumbo.  The groups are both boys and girls.  One girl is a little older than the others.  They get kidnapped and taken to an island or possibly by a river but the book does not take place in a tropical location. One of the lines in the book is "Are you going to hide it or are you going to keep the Great Mumbo forever"?

Astrid Lindgren, Bill Bergson and the White Rose Rescue. I am fairly sure this is one of Astrid Lindgrens Bill Bergson books, and I think its the White Rose Rescue one. 

Youre web site rocks out loud! Thanks so much for solving G534 Great Mumbo - It was the Bill Bergson book. Again - you people rock!

Faye Tornquist, Billions of Quacks, 1939.  Published by Gabriel and Sons, illustrated by A. E. Kennedy.  This one sounds *very* close.  It's the story of duck who can't stop quacking.  He meets a toymaker who wishes his toy ducks could quack.  Duck gives quacks to toymaker, to everyone's mutual satisfaction.
This has got to be Billions of Quacks by Faye Tornquist. 

Baby in Buggy and his brother. How frustrating!  I know my son and I "watched" this book on TV, either on "Storytime" or "Reading Rainbow."  Googly-goo! Does this help jog anyone's memory?
Googly-goo! This is it! Billy Brown: The Baby Sitter by Tamara Kitt. (Wonder Books-1962) Easy Reader.
I had this book. I don't know the name of it but I do remember him knocking over watermelons and watermelons were everywhere.

Lawrence, James, Binky Brothers, Detectives, 1968.  Could this be the 'I Can Read' about the two young Binky brothers who solve the mystery of a missing catchers mitt?  I believe one or both of them did have red hair, and they worked out of a clubhouse in their backyard.  There was a sequel published in 1970 called Binky Brothers and the Fearless Four.  There is also an 'I Can Read' series called Pinky and Rex, by James Howe, but those were written in the 1990's.  Pinky is a red-headed boy who loves the color pink, and his best friend is a girl named Rex.  I believe there are at least ten books in that series.
Lawrence, James, Binky Brothers, Detectives.  Could the person who submitted P198 be thinking of the Binky Brothers? There were at least two books about these brothers who solved mysteries.  Both books appear to be out of print, however. (Binky Brothers, Detectives  Binky Brothers and the Fearless Four).
Lawrence, James, Binky Brothers, Detectives, 1968, Harper & Row.  I have the book in front of me, and that's definitely the right book.  Albert (Pinky) Binky is the red head, his younger brother is Dinky, they have a lemonade stand and solve mysteries.  In this one, they have to find Chub's stolen baseball mitt and Pinky gets stuck up in a treehouse (the bad guys take away the ladder) while his younger brother finds the mitt. 

Sounds like Rebecca Sprinkle, Parakeet Peter (Elf Book #490, 1954). Peter's the boy, not the parakeet.  There is also a Wonder Book, Petey Parakeet, by George Bonsall and Crosby Newell.
another possible:  Brenner, Barbara, illustrated by Fred Brenner A Bird in the Family  Scholastic Book Services, 1970 "This story is about a lost, frightened parakeet that the family finds and adopts."
Colour not mentioned, Candy Joe, the adventures of a parakeet by Peggy Lois French, published by Ariel Books of Farrar Straus, 1955 (Horn Book ad Apr/55 p.145) "The day Candy Joe flew out through the door his adventures began. This book teaches the child to care for and train a parakeet. Ages 6-8"
Again, no mention of colour, but a parakeet outside. The Traveling Bird, by Robert Burch, illustrated by Susanna Suba "The engaging story of a talkative parakeet who sets out to find a puppy for his little friend Dave. The characters - including an irrestistible puppy - are drawn with great charm and reproduced in halftone. Ages 6-9." published New York, Astor Books 1959 (Horn Book Aug-Sep/59 pub ad p.337)
Maurice Maeterlink, The Bluebird of Happiness.  Could this be he story of the blubird of happiness - it's most often a play, but might be the right thing.  It's referred to in Ballet Shoes (Noel Streatfield).
Barbara Penner, A Bird in the Family, 1962.  Cover has a little boy with a blue bird sitting on his head. Inside flap reads: "They find him on the beach - a lost, frightened parakeet - and they take him home. They name him. They get to know his habits, and the whole family becomes involved in bringing up this bird who likes nothing better than to fly around the house and get into trouble.......And everyone will share the family's sorrow when the bird flies away and their anxiety when the bird gets sick." They name the bird Jetsam.
Barbara Brenner, A Bird in the Family, 1962.  This is most certainly A Bird in the Family by Barbara Brenner. The cover has a little boy's head with a blue parakeet sitting on top. The family finds him on a beach and take him home. They name him Jetsam. He flies out the window and eventually comes back. He gets sick and has to see a vet. The illustrations are in black and kind of an aqua blue.

This looks good -  Samis, Robert E., The Bird Foot Race in Follies Kansas City, Samis 1924, 80 pages, seventy-two color bird plates, illustrated with drawings, color plates, and from photographs, oversize 13.5x11, blue decorated cloth boards stamped and illustrated in black to upper board. "A handsomely illustrated book, written in awful verse."
B77 bobwhite quail: the suggested title seems to match in subject and physical description. Here's a bit more information, "This book has been written for the amusement and entertainment of children. It is full of educational features and also gives a short comic digest in which a large number of North American birds are represented as taking part in the race." Too bad no one mentions the ending.

Neltje Blanchan, Birds every child should know, 1910. This author wrote Birds worth knowing, with illustrations by Allen Brooks. I found another book she wrote Birds every child should know. The descriptions in the childrens book are written in a poem, song type way. I couldn't find out who illustrated this one.It has been reprinted three times.
King, Julius, Birds: Book I, Book II, Book III, 1934, copyright. I finally discovered the answer to my own question.  These three little volumes are 61 pages each and have descriptions of 15 birds each.  Each bird is illustrated in a painting by Allan Brooks.  There is a poem that accompanies each bird.  For instance, the House Wren: There on the bird house with bill lifted high, the House Wren is pouring her song to the sky never come songs any gayer than these, than this sweet little singer sends out on the breeze
 with joy in her heart and this song in her throat, the Wren gives the woodland its happiest note.

Two possibles. I think the second is more likely (check out the sample rhyme) but it is not spiral bound. The first is spiral bound but doesn't seem that close otherwise. Neither title is even close to A for apples, though. Ockerse, Thomas The A-Z Book New York, Colorcraft-Brussel 1969 Square small folio, card covers, plastic spiral binding, in two part box. "A highly inventive alphabet book, using only black and white papers, and cut-outs."  Smith, William J. Puptents and Pebbles NY Little, Brown, 1959, yellow cloth hardcover with black decoration; approx 7.5 x 10 "Out of the ordinary ABC reader with humorous five-line verses for each letter." Charming color illustrations by Juliet Kepes. "a nonsense ABC with a verse for each letter: "X is for X, and X marks the spot, On the rug in the parlor, The sand in the lot, Where once you were standing, And now you are not."
Have to rule out Puptents and Pebbles, and it looked so good, too. A more detailed review states that it begins with "A is for Alpaca", ranges through Cabbage to King, by way of Frog-boy and Inkspot, and on to Z for Zebra.
I don't have any real idea, but a search at Bookfinder.com shows several books titled "A is for Apple" and several of them appear to be children's alphabet books. Possibles: A is for Apple illustrated by Elsie Darien (no author given). A is for Apple by Lynn L. Grundy. A is for  Apple, W is for Witch by Catherine Dexter.  A is for Apple Pie and Other Learning Rhymes by Fran Thatcher.
could be Q is for Crazy by Ed Leander, illustrated by Jozef Sumichrast, published Harlin Quist 1975, described as alphabet in nonsense rhymes. No more info, but the described verse is strange enough to be from a Harlin Quist book.
It's definitely not A is for Apple Pie.  I have that and it's not crazy.  Hope this helps!
JoAnne Wood, Birds in my Drawer, 1971.  This is the one..  it is a 'Golden Preschool Learning Book' by Jo Anne Wood, illustrated by Olindo Giacomini.  Full title is Birds in my Drawer- Funny ABC Rhymes  The words are exactly as remembered... "A is for apples that grow on my bed.  When I am sleeping they fall on my head... etc."
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I had this quirky alphabet book as a child in the late 70's. All I remember is the first few lines. "A is for apple that hangs over my bed. When I am sleeping it falls on my head." I've been searching for years.

JoAnne Wood, Birds in my Drawer, 1971.  This is the one..  it is a 'Golden Preschool Learning Book' by Jo Anne Wood, illustrated by Olindo Giacomini.  Full title is Birds in my Drawer- Funny ABC Rhymes  The words are exactly as remembered... "A is for apples that grow on my bed.  When I am sleeping they fall on my head... etc."
Wood, JoAnne, Birds in my Drawer.  See solved stumpers for more details - The words are exactly as remembered... "A is for apples that grow on my bed.  When I am sleeping they fall on my head... etc."
Jo Anne Wood, Birds in my drawer: Funny ABC rhymes, 1971. Quoted directly from the book: "A is for apples that grow on my bed. When I am sleeping, they fall on my head. B is for birds that live in my drawer. They growl and they grumble. Sometimes they roar! C is for camel with bumps on his back. Two cents a slide. (One nickel, with wax!

And from a Lisette, coincidentally in today's Inbox:
I have solved my own stumper (Old Lisette and her Kittens.  It is a children's book, but the spelling or title may be wrong. This may be more of a description of the plot than the title. I know I read it as a child (around 1972). I remember there was a picture of it on the dust jacket of another book-The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was In It, by Carl Sandberg, Illust. by Harriet Pincus, Copyright 1967. Any info??).   It was Pitschi, by Hans Fischer. Published in 1953. I was able to find a reprint. Unfortunately (fortunately??) I now know that there is another book about Old Lisette and her animals.  It does not seem to be available in a reprint.  I’m wondering if you have or could find a copy.  I have seen it on several on other sites, but since you have been so kind and have a website I come to time and time again – I’d rather give you my business, if possible.  The book is The Birthday by Hans Fischer.   Please let me know.  Thanks

Diane Redfield Massie, A Birthday for Bird,1966.  Hope your daughter has a very happy bird-day! 

Oscar Wilde wrote some fairy tales, including The Birthday of the Infanta in which an ugly Dwarf falls in love with the Infanta.  When he discovers his image in a mirror, he realizes that the joy he has shared with the Infanta has been mockery, and he is forlorn and refuses to dance again.  When the Infanta demands to know why he will not dance, the Chamberlain says "Because his heart is broken," and the Infanta proclaims, "For the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts!"  This is included in various Wilde collections, including the one listed below.
It might also be The Birthday of the Infanta and Other Tales by Beni Montresor.
Wilde's Infanta story is included in The Princesses, edited by Sally Patrick Johnson (Harper & Row 1962), a wonderful collection of mostly "modern" fairy tales by writers such as E. Nesbit, George MacDonald, Thurber, Kipling, Dickens, Milne, et al.  However, in flipping through it I don't see the name Paz, though that's familiar to me from some book I recall as well.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Wilde, Oscar.  Fairy Tales and Stories.  Octopus Books, 1980.  13 tales.  Modern hardback edition.  VG/VG.  $15

Hello, the answer to F10 (flying potion) is Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and it's still in print.  I too loved this book as a child, and still have my original copy of it!
The book about the young boy rubbing lotion on his shoulders and sprouting wings at night is called Black and Blue Magic and was written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. One of my favorites from childhood--in fact, I recently read it again as an adult. Great read!
Looks like you already found it once before : Black and Blue Magic. Thanks so much for your site!
I've been trying to find a (probably out-of-print) illustrated children's book that I remember from my elementary school, but I don't remember the title or author - all I remember is some of the plotline. It was about a boy who at night could apply some lotion or ointment to his shoulder blades and grow wings and fly, but it only worked three times. I read it in elementary school (1976-1980 for me), so it must have been published prior to 1978.
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This is a book I read as a kid (probably in 1974/75?) about a boy who rubs a special magic lotion on his shoulders at night and sprouts huge wonderful wings that allow him to fly around his city.  The boy lives together with his mother, and the two of them run a boarding house.  The magic lotion comes from a man -- a traveling salesman -- who is boarding with them.  The story takes place over the course of a summer, and it reads as a sort of coming-of-age story.  I think that I read it in a Scholastic Books edition, but I'm not sure.  Any ideas on a title???

Snyder, Zilpha Keatly, Black and Blue Magic
B141: Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder in 1965 or so. She wrote this when her son said he was tired of her sad stories about girls and would she write a funny one about boys instead. What was unique, I thought, was how despite many mishaps and being seen with wings unintentionally several times, Harry still manages to hold on to his secret in a convincing manner. Many colorful details about San Francisco!
B141--Black and Blue Magic--Zilpha Keatley Snyder
This isn't very exact, because I don't remember many details.  But I do remember a story, possibly a play, called "Pinfeathers," in which a boy grows wings.  No author, no book name, no details... sorry.
Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, illustrated by Gene Holtan, published Atheneum 1966, 186 pages. "Money was always needed for emergencies in the boardinghouse run by 12-year-old Harry Houdini Marco and his mother, and this summer was no exception. Their vacation trip had to be canceled, and with all his friends away, Harry anticipated a dull summer. But his kindness to a strange little man, who gave him a bottle of ointment to apply to his shoulders, changed everything. Then Harry, "probably the clumsiest kid in ten states," had, whenever he wanted them, a tremendous, powerful pair of wings to cope with. Exploring San Francisco on wings by night, through fog and starlight, gave Harry some remarkable experiences, and brought about a wonderful change in the Marcos' fortunes." (HB Jun/66 p.308)
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The book I'm seeking was one I read in junior high about 1970. It was about two boys, brothers possibly, who found an ointment they rubbed on their shoulders and grew wings -- they did this at night, I think from an upstairs window in their house. They may also have had an adult buddy who helped them (like a Merlin?).  But I may also recollect there was something about a spaceship, but I'm not sure about this.

B194 not sure about this, but it reminds me of descriptions of BLACK AND BLUE MAGIC by Zilpha Keatley Snyder ~from a librarian
#B194--Boys fly after putting ointment on shoulderblades: Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
B194 is definitely Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  Only one boy actually uses the ointment to fly, although there is another boy he hangs out with in the story. An older wizard gives the boy the ointment and acts as his mentor.
B194  Snyder, Zilpha Keatley, Black and Blue Magic. Some of the details are off, but he rubs a potion into his shoulder
to grow wings.  Check the Solved Mysteries.
Perhaps Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder?
Zilpha Keatley Snyder,Black and Blue Magic, 1966.  There was only one boy, but this is definitely the book.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic.  ? This has only one boy, who is given a bottle of magical ointment that
(with a rhyme, I believe) when dabbed on the shoulder blades allows him to grow wings.  He has to promise not to let
anyone else see him use the magic, however, hence the flying at night out of his bedroom window. there are also subplots about a neighbor who mistakes him for an angel, and that when the ointment runs out at the end of the summer the muscles he's used for flying still help him play baseball.
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I'm seeking a book I read in junior high in the late '60s-early '70s. It was about two boys, perhaps brothers, who discovered an ointment that, applied to their shoulder blades, let them grow wings at night so they could fly. I believe they launched themselves from their bedroom window high up in the house, and that they had an adult friend who helped them (someone like Merlin?).  At the same time, it seems like there was a spaceship involved, but maybe that was another book.  Or maybe they flew with their wings to other planets.  Thanks for having Stumper -- it's a wonderful idea and I loved hearing your happy "customers" on NPR.

B195  Black and Blue Magic again. As a side note, it sounds like the customer may be confusing this title with Eleanor
Cameron's Mushroom Planet series--that's where the two boys, spaceship, and flight to other planets come in.
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Long ago a teacher read me a story about a boy who lives with his mother in a boarding house. The boys father is dead. I remember someone comes to visit. They boy gets or finds an old trunk that belonged to Harry Houdini I think and inside is a potion. The boy rubs it on his shoulders at night and he ends up growing wings and is able to fly. I think the cover was blue and it showed the boy with wings climbing out of the window of his house. I have no idea of the author or title but would love to find it so I can read it to my kids. Thanks for the help.

#B229--Boy who grew wings:  This is Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, again, on the "Solved Mysteries" page.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic,  1972.  Again!  Check the Solved Stumpers page...
Synder, Zilpha Keatley, Black and Blue Magic. Check solved  mysteries.
Ha!  I knew this one had already been solved, but I couldn't remember it.  I guess I need to sit down and read it!
Black and Blue Magic.  Yet again--mother runs boarding house, mysterious boarder shows up, boy gets ointment which allows him to grow wings and fly around the city at night.
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A boy being raised by his single mother receives a mysterious lotion that he discovers will cause wings to grow when applied to his shoulders.  He learns to fly in secret.  His mother worked very hard to support them (doing cleaning or laundry I think) and there is a love interest for her.  There is also a competetor for the man's attention.  I remember that the story is told from the boy's perspective.  He described that the other womans eyelashes looked "sticky" (too much mascara) and that he preferred his mother's clean look.  At the end of the story there is only a small amount of the lotion left, and his final application produces only one white feather, which he keeps as a memento.

is this Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Snyder?  not sure of the exact details ...
Snyder, Zilpha, Black and Blue Magic.Look on the solved stumpers page.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic
Sounds like BLACK & BLUE MAGICby Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 1966, 1994~from a librarian
B324: Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic.  Man, this one shows up a lot!
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic, 1966.  This is the book about the boy with wings, though I don't remember the love interest angle. It was a Scholastic paperback.
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vague memories here, but I'll try - a young boy finds or is given a vial of magic liquid that if he rubs a drop of the liquid on his shoulders, he'll grow wings.  I think it was set in San Francisco area

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic, 1972.  Should be described at length in the solved section. Harry Houdini Marco and his mother run a boarding house in San  Francisco. Mr. Mazzeeck, a temporary boarder, gives him a magic gift, the vial that allows him to grow wings and fly.
Black and Blue Magic again.  See Solved Mysteries
M296 This sounds like BLACK & BLUE MAGIC by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I think it may already be on your Solved Stumpers page)~from a librarian
Snyder, Black and Blue Magic.  This one again!
This is Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  More info on the Solved pages.
The description was perfect. This is Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic.  Again!
Thank you to all and apologies to those whom I annoyed by missing the item in archived stumps.  This is the book - can't wait to read it again.
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I read this book in the late 70s (78 or 79), about a boy who somehow (don't remember how) gets hold of a magic potion, that when a single drop is rubbed into the back of each shoulder, causes him to grow wings.  He flies out his bedroom window at night and has adventures.  This is not the book "The Boy Who Could Fly" or the poem "The Long-Haired Boy" by Shel Silverstein.  If I remember correctly, the book was a paperback with a dark, night scene cover that showed a house with a covered porch & a second story (I may be wrong).  Please help me find it.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic.  I'm certain this is the book inquired about.  It's all there, the potion, the wings, even the dark blue and black cover illustration.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Black and Blue Magic
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley, Black and Blue Magic.  see solved mysteries.
Thank you so much for your book stumpers.  Not only has the mystery been solved, I am now in possession of a copy of Black & Blue Magic & have re-read it.  It is definitely the same book, & I enjoyed it as much as an adult as I did as a kid.  You can take B440 off your stumpers & add it to your solved mysteries.  Thank you again!

Interpreting Condition Grades

Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  Black and Blue Magic.  Macmillan, 1966.  Aladdin paperback reprint, 1994.  As new.  Out-of-print.  <SOLD> Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  Black and Blue Magic.  Scholastic, 1966, 1967.  Small mass paperback.  Cover worn and creased.  Out-of-print. G.  <SOLD>

I submitted the request for B79 - Black Bear Story. Just letting you know I found the book - A Black Bear's Story by Emil Liers. You can remove it from the list. Thanks.
Black Bear's Story, by Emil Liers, illustrated by Ray Sherin, published Viking 1962. "The Minnesota forest awoke at a raven's cry and through the next year and a half a wise bear devoted her life to her two cubs. Here the panorama of the seasons reveals the beauty and harshness of nature as it affects the life of many other woodland creatures, not only bears. Handsome as well as authentic book. Ages 9 to 12." (HB Feb/62 p.13 pub ad) Liers wrote several wildlife stories, and both he and the illustrator were naturalists.

C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy. Part of the Chronicles of Narnia.  Shasta lives with a man he thinks is his father, but who routinely beats him and mistreats him.  One night a great lord visits and offers to buy Shasta to be his slave.  Shasta, overhearing this, expresses his fears to the lord's horse.  To his surprise, the horse speaks and tells him the lord is cruel.  They decide to run off together. They ultimately find safety, and Shasta finds his true father.
Good start, but that's not it. This book is fiction, but not fantasy...the horse definitely doesn't talk! And the boy has an ordinary name, like Charlie or Toby. Thanks!
Catharine Cookson, The Nipper. I vaguely remember this story from when I was younger, and it may be what you're
looking for. There's a boy called Sandy and he makes friends with a horse called the Nipper. They have to work in a coal mine (?) as they're poor, and he could well be beaten too. Sorry if this is no help.
It sounded good until the coal mine part. This takes place in the country. Maybe England? There is an older girl in the book who discovers him sneaking in to see the horse, and I believe her family adopts him in the end. Thanks for trying, though!
When I read your stumper, I too thought of The Nipper by Catharine Cookson. I'm not sure about the coal mine mentioned in the previous reply. I do remember it being set in the country in the north of England, in the 1800s. There was a girl from a rich family who lived in a big house where the boy ended up living/ working at the end of the book.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Gib Rides Home, Gib and the Gray Ghost.  One of these could be the book.  Gib is in an orphanage where all the boys are mistreated.  He goes to live on a ranch where he has a gift for dealing with horses and forms a close bond with one of them in particular.  There is a girl who lives on the ranch and he becomes part of her family.  The second book is a sequel to the first.
I think I read this also, and I think he lived with an aunt and an uncle, and the horse belonged to a neighbor who kept it locked in a dark stall.  The boy would sneak out to visit the horse, which was supposed to be vicious.  I think he fed it apples, and at one point it bites, or kicks him.
Is it possible that what you are looking for is Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright?  It all fits except the part about the horse being vicious.  The boy in the story (Mark) is living with his cousin who works him on the farm, hits him, and generally treats him poorly (his mother died when she was a baby).  He meets the Melendy family (4 children, father and housekeeper) and befriends them.  When the farm burns down and his cousin dies in the fire, he is brought to live with the Melendy's, who adopt him.
Cannam, Peggie, Black Fury, 1956.  I think this stumper is one of my childhood favorites, and I have a copy of it.  Nick Randall is the main character, an orphan who lives with his abusive aunt and neglectful uncle.  Nick has a dog Anna, and he shares what little food he gets from his aunt with her.  It is set in England, and in the end Nick is adopted by the Wilsons, whose daughter Elizabeth befriends Nick early on.  He sees the horse (named Shillagh) on the Barkers' farm she's been locked up in a nasty stall because Mr. Barker can't control her.  Nick becomes determined to take care of her, and keeps visiting her.  The horse has been mistreated and is vicious to everyone, even Nick at first.  At one point Nick brings a bucket of water into Shillagh's stall and she kicks at him, injuring his hand.  Nick's aunt is nice to him for a while when she finds out, because she thinks she's the one who injured his hand.  At one point, Nick thinks Shillagh has been sold to the meatman and is so upset he makes himself sick and ends up fainting in school. It's illustrated by Wesley Dennis.

Possibly White Panther by Theodore J. Waldeck, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published Viking 1941, 193 pages "account of the education of a white panther, Ku-Ma, the swift, savage, stealthy beast of prey. The book follows his adventures as he stalks the beasts of the jungle; eventually he is caught by an Indian cage trap, but with his exceptional strength and cunning, he escapes. Set in the jungles of British Guiana." "Ku-Ma is a baby panther learning the ways of the wild from his mother when the events of a storm prove that he may be left on his own as he has learned to use his senses to help himself." Nothing about a monk, though. On the other hand, Black Lightning: the story of a leopard by Denis Clark, illustrated by C.Gifford Ambler, published by Viking 1954, 144 pages, is a story of a black leopard. "A beautiful tale once told to the author many years ago by an old Buddhist monk in Ceylon." No idea about floods.
A fuller description of one title - Black Lightning, by Denis Clark, illustrated by C. Gifford Ambler, published Viking 1954, 144 pages. "Sensitively written story of a leopard in Ceylon, unusual because of his all-black coat. Separated from his mother when he was still a cub, he had to fend for himself in the jungle; was captured and became part of a circus, but escaped with the sympathetic help of a small boy, and returned to his native haunts to mate and raise a cub of his own. Once he unknowingly saved the life of a monk who lived in a cave in the jungle, and in turn, the holy man was able to give protection to the leopard. It was this monk who told the story of Black Lightning to Mr. Clark." (Horn Book Jun/54 p.184) 

Bird, Dorothy?, Mystery of the Black Opals?I used to check this book out from my library!  I loved it, but now cant remember the exact title or author...
Anne Emery, The Mystery of the Opal Ring, 1967, copyright. After graduating from high school, Paula is ready for a summer adventure.  She starts working at an old mansion which has been turned into a resort on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin and she soon becomes involved with thefts and kidnappings.  This book was possibly the only mystery written by Emery, noted more for her classic malt-shop series books.
I think this reply is referring to Dorothy Maywood Birds story, Mystery at Laughing Water, but I dont believe its what the original poster is looking for.  It takes place at a girls camp, where a mystery involving one campers ancestors who were killed in a forest fire is solved by another camper who turns out to be her relative.  A cache of the ancestors jewels is found, I think in a hollow tree.
Dorothy Maywood Bird, The Black Opal, 1949, copyright. A description of this book seems to match some of the details the requester gave:   "Laurel Stanwood's first year in a small college in Southern Michigan becomes quite complicated when she sets out to solve a murder mystery that began a hundred years ago."

The Black Opal, 1949, approximate. Another Stumper solved!  Thank you to those who replied to my Stumper with suggestions: the book I am looking for is indeed The Black Opal by Dorothy Maywood Bird.  I had a few details wrong, but I was pretty close. Now  I'm looking for a good, clean  affordable copy to read again. I am always pleased when Stumper sleuths have fond memories of the books I've been looking for, and as always, thank you for keeping this wonderful site going.  I've had at least 4 Stumpers solved over the last two years, and I didn't really expect my last two to be solved!

Erickson, Phoebe, Black Penny, 1951.This is your book- all the details match- the cover, the little brother's name, etc.

Tanith Lee, Black Unicorn, 1993.

Marriott, Alice, The Black Stone Knife.  1957.  Could this be the book you're looking for? I don't have a full
description, but Marriott did write about Kiowas (among other tribes), which would indicate the correct region.
The Black Stone Knife.  A group of young Kiowa Indians decide to take a trip to 'follow summer' because winter means hard work.  A younger brother, Wolf Boy, follows them after promising to bring back a black stone knife for his best friend.  They have adventures during the 2 1/2 year trip, including a run-in with Apaches and a visit to the houses of the Huicholes with the talking blue bird.  This is definitely not the book described above.
N32 native american boy: This sounds possible - The Black Stone Knife, by Alice Marriott, illustrated by Harvey Weiss, published NY Crowell 1957, 199 pages "Wolf Boy was determined to go south with his older brother to prove to all the Kiowa tribe that he was a man. And he intended to bring back a sharp-edged, black stone knife, just like the one his grandfather had discovered by the great river."
Hi!  I'm afraid this book stumper somehow got put in the "solved" area.  We ILL'ed the book for the patron and learned that it is NOT The Black Stone Knife.  If you could still keep it  as an active stumper we would be grateful.  Thanks.
Remember this one we were working on? I sent this description to the Ref Librarian at Billings and they had no answer.  But I looked at my copy again and I think the reader got her geog mixed up because the other stuff fits.  Fitzgerald, Pitt L.  The black spearman; a story of the builders of the Great Mounds.  illus by Pitt L Fitzgerald. Books, Inc., 1934.  Native Americans; subtitle speaks of Mound Builders,  but no obvious references in the story about Ghost-of-a-Wolf and his travels across the west to cure his lameness; fights and friendships predominate.
Fitzgerald, Pitt L. , The black spearman a story of the builders of the Great Mounds. (1939)  This *is* the answer to the riddle.  The Black Spearman ... is the story of Ghost of a Wolf and his travel to (what we know to be) Yellowstone, and back home. I read this as a young teen (1970s). Wonderful story if you can find a copy of it. LC Control Number: 34035313
Fitzgerald, L. Pitt, The black spearman a story of the builders of the Great Mounds, 1934.This is definitely the book!  (We had just about given up hope of ever finding it.)

William Sleator, Blackbriar.  This is definitely Blackbriar.  Phillippa and the boy (don't remember his name) go off to live in a weird, abandoned house.  The boy discovers it was used as a plague house in times past, and eventually discovers a tunnel that comes out near a hill.  There's a really creepy part where the boy discovers the names of all the plague victims carved into the basement door. Weird subplot about the villagers being witches (they have ceremonies on the  forementioned
hill).
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Story of kid or teen, probably in Britain, finds old house hut or barn, somehow connects to ancient knowledge through haunting or witch, learns of plague and victims isolation. Published <1984

Robert Westall. Try this British writer.
Penelope Lively, Astercote.A possibility.
William Sleator, Blackbriar. This sounds like Blackbriar.  A teenage boy moves to a remote and creepy house.  He befriends a local girl and together they find out why the house is shunned by locals.  The house has an ancient door inside with names carved on them.  It turns out that the names are of plague victims who all died in this house where they were sequestered away from the villagers.
William Sleator, Blackbriar. Check the description for Blackbriar under Solved Mysteries--sounds like it might be the right book.
William Sleator, Blackbriar,1972. It could be Blackbriar...a boy moves with his guardian to an old house in the English countryside, only to discover that it had housed plague victims in the past.  There's also a cult of devil worshipers running around, somehow trying to use the power of the house to do something bad.

Arthur C. Clarke, The Sentinel, 1950s, 1960s.  This sounds like the story from which 2001 A Space Odyssey developed.  Its been part of several short story collections by Clarke and others over the years, including The Nine Billion Names of God.
Hugh  Walters, The Domes of Pico.  There was a whole series of books featuring Christopher Godfrey. He is originally a schoolboy/student who is quite short (so he fits a small rocket)as these structures appear on the Moon. He becomes an astronaut, later books deal with Mars and Venus, even the Mohorovic Discontinuity.
walters hugh, Blast off at Woomera, Blast off at 0300 (US), 1950s.  This is the first of the Chris Godfrey books, where artificial structures are observed near Mt Pico. He goes up in a rocket to observe more closely.The Sentinel was a short story originally I believe, about one structure not visible from Earth, this was the whole point as when exposed to sunlight it emitted some pulse of energy, letting someone know that spaceflight had been achieved.
You've done it again! I posted this only recently, and someone already found it: Blast off at 0300, by Hugh Walters. I thought these searches were impossible until I discovered your web site.

Bleeker perhaps?  Bleeker, Sonia. Published by Morrow, Illustrated by Patricia Boodell.   The Delaware Indians; eastern fishermen and farmers,1953.  The Eskimo; Arctic hunters and trappers, 1959.  The Inca; indians of the Andes, 1960. The Pueblo Indians, 1955.
I thought of the Bleeker books, too, but I checked a few of them and while they are told in narrative form, there is no central child character around whom any action takes place in any of the ones I checked.
Thomasma, Kenneth, 1983-1995.  I know of a series that fits the "indian kids" description perfectly EXCEPT for the fact that they appear to have been published too late. There are about ten books, each the story of an Indian child from different tribes around the country and their particular adventure. Some examples are "Pathki Nana: Kootenai Girl Solves a Mystery","Kunu: Winnebago Boy Escapes Capture", "Soun Tetoken: Nez Perce Boy Tames a Stallion", and "Om-kas-toe:Blackfeet Twin Captures an Elkdog".
That 1980s series sounds interesting, but couldn't be it. If anyone out there knows a long-time children's librarian at the Waukesha Public Library in Waukesha, Wis., that's where I found them as a kid in the early 1970s, although I'm sure they've been replaced by newer books since then.
Re I38: This is probably not the right book, but  The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling was a collection of five stories about Indian children: one from the eastern Woodlands, a Mandan child from the central Missouri River, a Northwest Coast child and her slave, and a child from the Southwest. Perhaps these were reissued as separate volumes? They are excellent in accuracy and detail about the cultures involved. Kenneth Thomasma wrote a series titled "Amazing Indian Children," but those are perhaps too recent.
I38  Sonia Bleeker.  You were right -- it WAS the Sonia Bleeker books! (I guess my memory was a little off about them having a single kid protagonist, although two of the ones I saw today had one or two kids as the focus.) I found them today at the Chicago Public Library and have had so much fun re-reading them. I still haven't found the acorn/mustard story, though (they only had three volumes at my library branch). Are the books for sale anywhere? Please let me know because I would love to buy a whole set for my daughters. Thank you so much for solving this mystery!!

I've continued to dig and managed to solve my own book stumper (B503).  My book was either Bleep and Booster (1965) or Bleep and Booster's Space Secret (1967).  The books were a spin off from a BBC animated television program in the early 1960s.

Hilary Milton, Blind Flight, 1982.  A 13 year old girl who has lost her vision is with her uncle in his small plane and when he is injured she must land the plane with the verbal assistance of other pilots. See this website for more description.
Hilary Milton, Blind Flight, 1980.  Though I own this book I have never read it but, it does sound like it must be the one you are looking for. "Flying with her uncle in his small plane, 13-year-old Debbie who has been blind for about a year must suddenly take control of the plane when her uncle loses consciousness."
Hilary Milton, Blind Flight, 1980.  I believe Blind Flight by Hilary Milton might be the book.
Hilary Milton, Flying Blind, 1980.  "Flying with her uncle in his small plane, 13-year-old Debbie who has been blind for about a year must suddenly take control of the plane when her uncle loses consciousness."

probably Blinky the Lighthouse Ship, by Ruth Roberts, illustrated by George Peed, published Peter Pan 1971, book and 45 rpm record.
Blinky the Lighthouse Ship, by Ruth Roberts, published Ambassador Records 1971. "There was once a little lightship named Blinky because he had big shiny yellow eyes. He was a very friendly lightship." Blinky becomes sad because the other ships never speak to him, and sings a song "I'm a lonely lightship, sad as can be. Nobody ever wants to play with me. Girl ships and boy ships hurry off to sea, But I'm a lonely lightship, as sad as I can be." Naturally he becomes a hero during a storm and realises that "all the ships on the sea were his friends."
just passing by. noticed your web site. looked up something just for fun and found it on your site. me and my brother were remincsing on old times about the old 45rpm and book i used to have. blinky the lighthouse ship. i had it back when i was 4 or 5 and now i am 28 yrs. old. i couldn't remember how the song went until i read it here. thanx for the memory. 

Could this be Mirror of Danger by Patricia Sykes in Solved Mysteries?
Lois Duncan, Stranger With My Face.  I can't remember the details of this book, but I think that you're talking about Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan.  The protagonist is a young woman and has to deal with an evil (unknown) twin and astral projection.  I wish that I could remember more, but I suggest checking out the Duncan book from a library and seeing if it rings a bell.  Good luck!
Sounds a little like Lois Duncan's Stranger With My Face.  Laurie's friends keep claiming she's doing things/being seen places she's not  it eventually turns out her twin sister is using astral projection (she lives in New Mexico) to impersonate her.
Well I checked out the solutions given to me on this stumper.  I know for sure it is not Stranger with my face by Lois Duncan because I have this one and have read it again recently just to make sure.  I also checked out the other book suggested Mirror of danger by Patricia Sykes and it was not this one either.  Thought I should let you know just in case some one else comes up with another solution.  Great ideas though.
I was wondering if this could be Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp.  I haven't read it yet, but know that's it's a scary one involving a girl who is attracted to a garden gazing ball.  I believe some kind of possession is going on.  There's more about it in "Solved Mysteries."
Marlys Millhiser, The Mirror, 1978.  This might be The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser.  It takes place in Colorado.  It involves a young girl of about 20 or 21 who is getting married.  Her parents bring up an old mirror that has been in the family for years and put it in her bedroom.  Her grandmother (who has been senile for all of the girl's life) is in the room with her when she looks into the mirror. They both look into the mirror at the same time and their is a loud "CRACK".  When the girl wakes us, she is in her grandmother's body at age 20 (or 21) and ends up living her grandmother's life.  Her grandmother ends up living her life.  It's definitely a memorable plot.
Sarah Armstrong, Blood Red Roses, 1982.  This is a slim volume from a teen horror imprint (Twilight).  Kate buys an antique mirror and hangs it on her bedroom wall, then starts having terrible nightmares.  A classmate who wanted the mirror
steals it, which frees Kate to investigate the mirror's history -- she discovers it was owned by a girl named Rose in the 1840s.  Rose brutally murdered her entire family, and her spirit is in the mirror, posessing anyone who owns it and driving them to murder.  It's set in a small town in Massachusetts, but part of Kate's backstory is that she's lived all over the country, which might account for the New Mexico memory.

Best guess: Ziegler, Elsie Reif, The Blowing-Wand illustrated by Jacob Landau, Philadelphia, John C. Winston; NY Junior Literary Guild 1955 map(s), bright red boards with black and yellow illustration. "A story of Bohemian glassmaking in Ohio" Horn Book says "Jaroslav Piontek, American descendant of a Bohemian glassmaker, never lost his dream of finding the missing ruby glass candlestick to match the one his family owned. How he did come upon it and how he saw his great-grandfather's valuable formula for ruby glass in use again ... Jaro's own success in fulfilling his dream of becoming a glassblower's apprentice instead of a farmer. Realistic working scenes, accompanied by antagonism, strike threat and fire, and boarding-house cameraderie and romance in mid-19th century Glasstown are well handled." Ruby glass is produced by adding gold oxides.
Another book of possible interest is Jeremy Pepper, written and illustrated by Frances Rogers and Alice Beard, published Lippincott 1946. "An English boy adventurer becomes a glass-blower's apprentice in colonial Pennsylvania. Ages 11 up." (Horn Book Nov/46 p.407 pub.ad)
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The book I am looking for is a children's book I read in elementary school, probably in about fifth grade (in Cleveland, Ohio). The book told the story of an apprentice glassblower in Europe (Hungary?) in athe 1800's (I think). At the end of the story, the apprentice accidently discovers how to make ruby glass. I have no inkling about the title and the book is apparently out of print. None of my friends here have ever heard of it.    Someone from another website (in Australia!) suggested it to me to help find my book. I just had to write and mention that i am a Clevelander, having grown up on the West Side near the zoo (I moved away after college). The world is very small when someone from another continent can suggest I ask for help form someone in my old hometown. Perhaps one day I will have a chance to visit you bricks and mortar store. Thanks for providing this service!

Elsie Ziegler Reif, The Blowing Wand, 1955.  "A story of Bohemian glassmaking in Ohio."  (I know the location isn't right, but the Bohemians and the Ohio connection make me wonder if this could be it.)
G67 This is a total shot in the dark. There's a book called THE GLASS PHOENIX by Mary Stetson Clarke, Viking Press, 1969. From what I can gather from various summaries of the book, a young man has an interest in
glass-making, and when his father is lost at sea, he goes to work in the Sandwich glass factory to support his family. While working there, he "acquires the formula for the beautiful golden-ruby glass which was known only in Bohemia" (I don't know if the formula was accidently discovered or was given to him). However, the setting of the book is in Massachusetts in the 1800s. ~from a librarian
G67 glassblowers apprentice: sure sounds like The Blowing Wand, over on the Solved List. Boy apprentice, ruby glass formula discovered, etc.

A possibility is The Blue Eyed Cat by Margaret Kornitzer, published by Lutterworth, 1945 "Tom the blue-eyed cat forms an army to help him catch mice - with disastrous results."  It matches somewhat, but did they have disposable razor slots in 1945? Another possible from the LC catalogue: Mathiesen, Egon, 1907-1976. The blue-eyed pussy; story and pictures by Egon Mathiesen; translated by Karen Rye. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday [1951]. 111 p. illus. 21 cm. "The author-artist pictures the peregrinations of a blue-eyed Siamese cat searching for the Land of Many Mice"
A bit more on - The Blue-eyed Pussy, by Egon Mathieson, Doubleday 1951, 112 pages "A well-known modern Danish artist has given us this book about the adventures of the cat who set out to find the Land of Many Mice. Because he was a Siamese with blue eyes he was scorned by the ordinary cats whose eyes were yellow and had to prove that he was a "proper cat" anyway. It was hard but he was a high-hearted pussy and refused to be discourage. Both story and pictures (in black and white except for the blue and yellow eyes) have freshness, originality and humor." (Horn Book Dec/51 p.403)
Edwin A. Peeples, Blue Boy, 1964.  I remember this book - in fact I still have it! Blue Boy is a "bluepoint
siamese" cat who belongs to a boy named Colin. Blue Boy goes exploring in their big country house and falls down between the walls. He can't get out and starts howling, making people think that there is a ghost in the house.  Colin's father throws his razor blades down in a chute every day, and Blue Boy is down near that chute, so that's where that memory comes from.  Blue Boy makes friends with Raffles the mouse and manages to finally get out.  It is actually very well written, with lots of unexpected personality and insight.  I'm pleased that I can finally solve a mystery for someone else, since I have so many of my own mysteries!

NOT a solution just a recommendation :)  This is VERY similar to Colleen McCullough's The Ladies of Missalonghi.something to read while the stumper is solved? :)
Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Blue Castle.  This is definitely it.  One of my favourite L.M. Montgomery books, after the Anne series.
L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle, 1926.  This is one of my all-time favourite books! It's out in paperback, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a copy.
L. M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle, 1926.  This is my favorite book of all time!! This is by the author of the Anne of Green Gables series along with many wonderful other books.Valancy is 29, unmarried and brow-beat by her family. After receiving the wrong letter by accident which described a fatal heart disease with a few months to live, she boldly defies everyone and says and does everything she always wanted to. She goes away to care for the local bad girl(out of wed-lock child) who is dying of "consumption". After she dies, Valancy proposes to and marries the local disreputable character who not only is the famous author but is the heir to a million dollar "patent medicine" fortune. Absolutely wonderful book-I read it at least once a year!! My second favorite book by her is Tangled Web. Sadly, I think they are currently out of print but they come in out of print and used copies are available. I have a Bantam paperback edition from '89.
L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle
L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle, 1925
L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle, 1926.  This fits the description exactly, though the period is a little later than indicated. I recall reading somewhere that this book was based on a similar story set in Australia or New Zealand, but don't have any details on that.
L. M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle.  Sounds like this is it!
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Blue Castle.  At twenty-nine Valancy had never been in love, and it seemed romance had passed her by. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she found her only consolations in the "forbidden" books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle. Then a letter arrived from Dr. Trent, and Valancy decided to throw caution to the winds. For the first time in her life Valancy did and said exactly what she wanted. Soon she discovered a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.
Hey, I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you that responded to my book mystery.  This was a book I shared with my very best childhood friend.  We have been searching for this book for almost a year now and we had pretty much given up on finding it.  Less then a day after posting my mystery it was solved!  My friend is getting married in the begining of August and now I have a wonderful, meaningful wedding gift to buy her.  Thanks also for the suggestions of other books, I will buy them all for her.  This is the neatest service I have seen on the internet yet.  Worth way more than the two dollars I paid for it!

Another long shot Navaho sister by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, illustrated by Paul Lantz, Doubleday, 1956 (reading level grade 6-8) "Sad Girl, so named because her grandmother was the only family she had and the Navahos considered this a sad situation, was ashamed of her name ... When she went from her Arizona home to the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon, she tried to keep anyone at school from knowing that she had no family. ... she came to understand that in a sense, the entire school was her family ..." I looked at Little Navaho Bluebird and there doesn't seem to be any school or prayer stick incident in it.
I went through the a book catalog and have nothing to add for now except that Holly Davis had a chance to look at "Little Navajo Bluebird" and it is not the "Navajo Prayer Stick" story I was after.  I didn't think it would be.  Thank you very much.
The trouble I've had is that most of the books about Indian children in school are set in the Indian schools, AND the children want to be there (sure). This is just slightly too late, but it looks so good I'm sending it anyway: Williams, Barbara Secret Name NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972, illustrated by Jennifer Perrott "juvenile fiction about a young Navaho girl from the reservation going to live with a white family and going to school in Salt Lake City. A provocative story of many of the problems Indians face in today's world." "A nine-year-old girl recounts the changes in her family's life after a young Navajo girl comes to stay with them."
#I19--Indian boy plucks eagle's tailfeather:  the last answer seems to be a misplaced reply to my stumper #N14, Navajo Prayer Stick, but doesn't sound like the story I'm looking for.  Publication date is too late, and the one I want is from the point of view of the young Indian girl adjusting to her school and teachers, not of a white girl adjusting to life with an Indian girl.
Possibly - Tangled Waters: a Navajo Story, by Florence Means, illustrated by Herbert Morton Stoops, published Houghton 1936, 212 pages, grades 7-9 "The experiences of Altolie, a Navajo girl, in acquiring an education at the government school, and her adjustments to life at the reservation will be interesting to girls. Navajo customs and beliefs are interwoven with the story." Another possible is - Far-away Desert, by Grace Moon, illustrated by Carl Moon, published Doubleday 1932, "Pah-chee, a little Indian girl taken away to a white school, longs for her Navajo desert. She runs away with a neighbor boy and their journey finally leads them to a circus. An understanding clown is instrumental in their return to their homes."(Children's Catalog 1936)
Ann Nolan Clark, Blue Cornflower, 1966.  In an old Ginn third grade reader called Finding New Neighbors there is Blue Cornflower by Ann Nolan Clark. The young girl does indeed leave her pueblo for a school. Homesick one evening she sees the new moon that comes before the first snow and recalls Indian lore about feather planting time. If you tie a prayer wish to a feather, it will fly to Those Above. She ties a feather to a pencil, and under the stars she plants her prayer stick and recites her prayer wish-Winter snow, sleep!/Growing time,come soon,/That I may go back to my mother's house.
The story described last is available online, where I was able to view it  and confirm that it was the one I wanted.  My schoolbook may have had different illustrations, but this is the right story.  Thanks!

I think I found it!!! The Blue-Eyed Lady by Ferenc Molnar, illustrated by Helen Sewell (1942). The Junior Literary Guild- Viking Press. Two orphaned children: Pip, young boy, and older sister, Nanny. From the pictures -this looks like a match!

Egon Mathieson, The Blue-Eyed Pussy, 1951. A blue-eyed cat goes looking for the Land of Many Mice and gets laughed at and criticized by the yellow-eyed cats along the way, because of the color of his eyes.
Leo C. Fay, Blue Dog and Other Stories, 1966.
Egon Mathieson, The Blue-Eyed Pussy, 1951.  Thanks to the person who gave me the title and author above. I was pretty sure they were right, so I requested the book via interlibrary loan to double-check... that's definitely the book!

Helen Girvan, Blue Treasure, 1960.  The painting is a lost Vermeer, the island is in Bernuda, the house is inherited by a young woman who is studying to be an artist, there is an underwater cave, there is a mild romance and there is a hurricane. This book has all the elements.

I haven't seen this in book form, but here's a Christmas book that has a story by the same title as your B56:
Birmingham, Christian.  A Christmas Treasury: The Children's Classic Edition.Running Press, 1999.  Includes The Night Before Christmas, Louisa May Alcott's A Merry Christmas, and the holiday fable The Little Blue Dishes.  Hope this helps.
I used to have an book, mostly likely discarded school reader (1960's?) that had a story in it about a little girl who fell in love with a set of toy dishes in a store window. She was saving her pennies up to buy them and every day she stopped to gaze at the dishes in the window. One day she stopped and the dishes were gone and she was heartbroken. She went home and her mother had a wrapped present for her (a birthday present?) and in it was the tea party set she had longed for so long. I don't remember the name of it, but it had beautiful color illustrations in the manner of Dick and Jane. I wouldn't mind finding it again.
On a book thread elsewhere online, a few people have described the dishes in the window that end up as a present as a plot point in one of Carolyn Heywood's Betsy books, and this sounds familiar to me, too.  You might check those at the library!
#B56--Blue Dishes:  the second description is of an incident from B is for Betsy,  by Carolyn Haywood, the first of a series listed on the Solved page.   Carolyn Haywood's illustrations were not elaborate or in color, but very simple black-and-white drawings.  Excerpts from many of her books appeared in textbooks, however, which may be where the poster saw this.  I don't believe it's the same as the "blue dishes" story.  Betsy's dishes were not blue and were not for Christmas.
A story called "Little blue dishes" (no author noted) does appear in Told Under the Blue Umbrella illustrated by Marguerite Davis, published Macmillan 1933. No plot description, and every other story has a named author.
Doris Gates, Blue Willow.  I remember this book vividly! It's about a young girl who's poor and has one blue willow plate and lives with her family in a trailer--they've moved a lot and all she wants is a real home.  In the end, the father gets a job and she gets to go to real school and they get a set of Blue Willow china.
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All I can remember of this book is one illustration, of a girl with large round black glasses and shoulder-length hair, drawn in thick dark strokes, rather in a bob about her face, sitting beneath a willow tree, hidden beneath the willow tree.  Perhaps in one illustration, only her glasses peek through the wisps of the willow?  The tree figures prominently in the book -- I think it was on the cover.  I seem to remember a lot of illustrations, but some may have been smaller, at the bottom of the page or  on the side. This would have also been sometime in the mid to late 60s, and I think of it as a new book then, hardcover with a dust jacket.

Doris Gates, Blue Willow, c.1940.  This is a nice story about a young girl who yearns for a home that she can call her own. Janey travels with her father and stepmother to wherever her father can find seasonal work.Her most valued possession is a Blue Willow plate that belonged to her mother, who died when she was young. Finally the family settles in a place where Janey makes friends, but it is inevitable that they will have to leave when there is no more work. When her mom falls ill, Janey departs with her precious plate. This story has a happy ending where good triumphs over bad, and there is a great focus on the love between family members.  I had a paperback copy of this from late 1960's/early 1970's with a picture on the front cover which matches the searchers description.

I think the Louisa May Alcott "Little Blue Dishes" is it, but I can't help but think this is related to the Czechoslovakian story of Greta, Peter and John and the blue dishes that appeared in an anthology called "The Children's Treasury" in the 1950s. In this story, the children have no parents, just a grandma, and the brothers end up almost accidentally buying her the blue dishes. There is almost an Andersen feel to this story but it isn't him.

Blueberry, by Helga Sandburg, published Dial Press 1963.  Here are three online descriptions:  "Kristin found the mare for sale at the County Fair. It took some time to convince her family that she was responsible enough to own a horse, but they finally agreed to give her a chance. That first summer with Blueberry was beautiful for Kristin. The winter, though, was another matter."  "A girl buys a mare at the County fair and trains her with the help of a friend. Kristen struggles to keep her horse Blueberry as her grades slip and her friend gets in trouble with the law. Can she help prove him innocent, pull up her grades and keep Blueberry?"  "Written by the daughter of poet Carl Sandburg and based on her childhoold experiences and love of horses. This is her first novel for young people."
Sandburg, Helga, Blueberry. Dial, 1963
Helga Sandburg, Blueberry. (1963)  Kristin found the mare for sale at the County Fair.  It took some time to convince her family that she was responsible enough to own a horse, but they finally agreed to give her the chance.  That first summer with Blueberry was beautiful for Kristin.  With the help of her best friend, Danny Wasilewski, the warm days flew by in training, schooling, and just enjoying Blueberry.  The winter, though was another matter.  Danny was sent away to live with his uncle, and Kristin's father's prejudice against her friend did not help her overcome the loss....
Helga Sandburg, Blueberry. (1963)  could this be Blueberry by Helga Sandburg? (daughter, by the way, of poet Carl Sandburg)  "A girl buys a mare at the County fair and trains her with the help of a friend. Kristen struggles to keep her horse Blueberry as her grades slip and her friend gets in trouble with the law. Can she help prove him innocent, pull up her grades and keep Blueberry?"

Jane Thayer's Blueberry Pie Elf is very hard to find.  But, having just discovered that Jane Thayer is the pen name of Catherine Woolley certainly helps!  The original of this was published by Morrow in 1961, with illustrations by Sid Fleishman, I believe.  There's a recent paperback reprint with new illustrations by Anthony Accardo.  Even the reprint is hard to get, but I think I can for $14.  Please confirm availability.
Interestingly, I looked up the Blueberry Pie Elf  thing and the author is listed as "SRA Publications Staff", which references those Scholastic reading cards that got posted on your site a while back.
The illustrator on the original Blueberry Pie Elf is Seymour Fleishman.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Thayer, Jane [Catherine Woolley]. The Blueberry Elf Pie.  Illustrated by Anthony Accardo.  SRA Macmillan/McGraw-HIll, 1995.  Paperback reprint with new illustrations.  New, with school property and lending stamp on endpaper.  Laminated paper wraps, stapled binding, square size.  $14

Thanks, but I now have the answer!  Feel free to post it if you like: The book is, Bob Fulton's Amazing Soda-Pop Stretcher by Jerome Beatty Jr. The ASIN number is 0201091259.  But, it's out of print. Now, I just need to see if I can find a hard bound edition in good condition for a price I can afford!
Jerome Beatty Jr, Bob Fulton's Amazing Soda Pop Stretcher, 1979.  I saw this solution on another site just today. So I can't really claim the effort of finding it.
Beatty, Jerome, Jr., Bob Fulton's Amazing Soda Pop Stretcher, 1979.  There was enough info to find it on Google.  Since someone found the book I was looking for, I figured I'd try to do the same for someone else!  Here's some more info: Publisher: Bantam Books  (January 1979) ASIN: 0553150561 

Laura Lee Hope, The Bobbsey Twins and the Talking Fox Mystery.  This is a long shot, but I think I remember the tail falling or being broken off the fox, and it had something to do with them finding out how it 'talked'.
The Bobbsey Twins and the Talking Fox Mystery.  WOW. Amazing. I think this is it. I remember very clearly reading this book as a child. You people are astonishing! THANK YOU!

Sounds like the Berenstain Bears to me (Stan and Jan Berenstain)...  There's also a great one about getting honey.
Marilyn Olear Helmrath & Janet La Spiza Bartlett- Illustrated by Marilue, Bobby Bear Find Maple Sugar, 1968. This is one of a series about Bobby Bear, who learns about maple sugaring. There are quite a few other books about him and his animal friends.
Bobby Bear, 1968.  Thank you so much...  This book has been on my mind for a few years and a friend told me about Loganberry.  I knew that as soon as I saw the name of the book, I would remember it.  I would like to by the set for my son. 

The Bobby Brewster books are by H.E. Todd. Fairly widely available used in UK.

Bobby Shafto.  Dodd, Mead 1977 / juvenile fiction, 40 pgs.  No author given.  There are 4 copies in university libraries - Michigan State Univ., California Polytechnic State Univ., Univ. of California/Santa Cruz, & Univ. of S. Florida.  Maybe you can contact one of those libraries to see if it's the book you're looking for, or try to interlibrary loan a copy through your local library.  Good luck!

This sounds like one of John Goodall's books, small picture books, often wordless, with mice in Victorian or Edwardian clothing going on picnics etc. I haven't been able to confirm it as one of his titles, though.
B67 bobby shafto: there's a version called Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea, by Mark Taylor, illustrated (in 3 colors) by Graham Booth, published Golden Gate 1970, 48 pages. "This rollicking story is based on the favorite Mother Goose rhyme, but the author and illusrrator of The Bold Fisherman and The Old Woman and the Pedlar have made it into a wildly imaginative, original, funny sea tale for all. A simple arrangement of the song is included. Grades 1 up." (HB Oct/70 p.528 pub ad) LC description is "Bobby Shafto's unhappy experiences at sea change him from a dandy to a tough match for pirates. Based on an old nursery song." Now if only it said whether mice were involved ... 

P36 The person who wrote in about the blue-eyed bogwoppits, is thinking of BOGWOPPIT by Ursula Moray Williams, 1978. But the description of the book (orphaned girl goes to live with aunt, bogwoppits live in aunt's house) doesn't quite seem the same.

Bamman, Henry A., Bone People, 1970,Westchester, Ill., Benefic Press.   "A space mission from Earths meets and fights the Bone People from a distant planet."

Originally, this was a Disney book published by Golden Press as a Giant Golden Book. I don't have the original format, but I have an abridged version that looks like a Little Golden Book.
Grant, Campbell.  Bongo.  Illustrated by Walt Disney Studios.  Simon and Schuster, 1948.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Grant, Campbell, adapted by.  Walt Disney's Bongo. Illustrations by the Walt Disney Studio.  Simon & Schuster, 1930.  A Little Golden Book.  "A" edition.  Red foil spine.  VG.  <SOLD>

Not exactly a solution, but maybe this will help: I think it was a collection of spooky/ghost stories.  It was a woman who had the ribbon around her neck, not a girl, and she told her new husband that he must never remove it.  One night (I believe while she was asleep) he untied the ribbon and her head fell off.
G356: That girl/ribbon story turns up in many collections, but one I remember was Scary Tales by Bee Thorpe. Very bright colors.
I don't have a specific book to offer (since the story has been reprinted and anthologized many times), but the story of the lady whose head falls off when her collar is removed could be Washington Irving's 1824 story "The Lady with the Velvet Collar" (also published as "Adventure of the German Student").  But the story has also passed into general folklore/campfire-tale lore, sometimes with a title like "Black Velvet Band" (no relation to the music hall song of that name).  If it's not Irving's own story, it could be from a folklore/urban legend collection ultimately drawing on it.
This sounds like it might be Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales, but I haven't read that in years, so I'm not sure.  The bit about buttering the fence certainly sounds like a Baba Yaga story, though (although I think it's a gate that has its hinges buttered, not a fence).
I can't identify the other stories, but one book that contains the story about the girl with the ribbon around her neck is In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories retold by Alvin Schwartz, with illustrations by Dirk Zimmer (1984).  Here is the table of contents: Foreward; The Teeth; In the Graveyard; The Green Ribbon; In a Dark, Dark Room; The Night it Rained; The Pirate; The Ghost of John; Where the Stories Come From.  The other stories you describe may be in this book, but I never finished it once I determined it was inappropriate for my three year old, who had selected it at the public library.  The cover is primarily orange, yellow and black.
Schwartz, Alvin, In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, 1984.  I'm just scanning it now and I don't see anything with a clawfoot bathtub or anything with butter on the hinges of a gate, but this IS the book that has the story about the girl''s head falling off ("The Green Ribbon" - I still love that story). It's a beginner reader book and the cover is very similar to what you decribed (dark with yellows and browns, it's a bunch of monsters peering into the doorway of an old house, with a pair of eyes looking back at them from in the shadows). The complier had another beginner reader called Ghosts! that had other scary stories in it, so the other two may be in that one (I don't have it here to check).
Thanks so much! I mistakenly thought all were in one book but have now found EXACTLY what I was looking for. The Schwartz title is the book that has the girl with the velvet ribbon story I was thinking about. Baba Yaga was so close, but not exactly what I remembered, to the story with the butter on the fence and the fence growing out of the ground and the claw foot tub- I did an internet search for the American version of Baba Yaga, and found what I have been thinking about for so long- Bony Legs by Joanna Cole. As soon as I saw the cover of the book and read the title I knew it was what I had been looking for.  without the suggestion of Baba Yaga I never would have found it! Thanks so much again all!!

Leaf, Munro, Boo: The boy Who didn't Like the Dark, 1954.  I found the answer right after posting my request.  I was doing some more investigating and then found it.

Stephen St. Vincent Benet and Rosemary Benet, A Book of Americans.  Also includes the duel in a poem about Aaron Burr:  "He shot great Hamilton, 'tis true./He had some provocation, too./ And as Vice President he sat/ But men are seldom hanged for that." 

Patricia McKillip, The Book of Atrix Wolfe. (1995)  This may be the one you're looking for -- I'm not sure the kitchen scene opens the book, but the description of Saro crawling around the floor to do her work is very vivid, and is the first time she appears in the story.
Patricia McKillip, The Book of Atrix Wolfe. (1995)  This sounds remarkably like this book.
Celia Dart-Thornton, The Ill-Made Mute

Enid Blyton, Book of Brownies, originally 1920s.  This sounds like Blyton's Book of Brownies  Hop Skip and Jump accidentally lose Princess Peronel through a magic trick that goes wrong.  They look for her in different lands and have many adventures.  The king says they have to find their "goodness" before they can return to Brownieland/Fairyland - I think the "goodness" came in bottles from a friendly wizard eventually! Much reprinted, should be easy to find.

Thanks so much, but -- silly me -- no sooner had I sent the post, when I began browsing your site and came across the reminder to check the Library of Congress search site. A site that I use all the time in my editing work.  But had I thought of it for my stumper? Noooo.  I entered Holling Clancy Holling and came up with my book: it's The Book of Cowboys. Now, why all my googling on his name and "cowboy" came up empty, I don't know.  But anyway, I solved my own stumper. I will keep Bookstumpers in mind for my next stumper!

This sounds like Sheila Hayes, The Gift Horse (Scholastic), originally issued as The Carousel Horse('78).
I was so excited to see an answer to my stumper. And I've been working on confirming if it's right, because the publishing date doesn't match with when I would have read it (I was 17 in 1978 and I think I read it earlier in my teens).  I just now tracked down a plot summary on a library website and it doesn't really sound like the right book. But if you come across a copy I'd be happy to buy it. Who knows--maybe it is the right book. And if not, I'm always happy to be introduced to a book I haven't met. Thanks for your great website.

Got the book--thank you. It's not the one I was thinking of, so I'm still stumped, but I enjoyed reading it anyway. It's always fun to get introduced to an author whose books I haven't read before.  You've got a great service. Thanks again.
C18 online search brought up Carlsen, Ruth Ride a Wild Horse Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co. Boston, 1970 Hardback, 164 pp. Illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush. Couldn't find a blurb or plot description though. Might just be a horse book.
Here's the summary blurb for the Carlson book:  The police thought Julie had amnesia when they left her in the custody of the Suttons, but twelve-year-old Barney Sutton soon discovers she knows perfectly well who she is and where she is from.  (It's classed by LC as Science Fiction, so doesn't sound like a match, but who knows.
Not very confident, because of the scanty plot descriptions, but: Summers, James Gift Horse Westminster Press 1961, 190 pages "A humorous horse story" "Juvenile romance - juvenile coming of age" Sondergaard, Arensa Horse With the Flying Mane American Book Co. 1963 pbk, "RANDY GETS MERRY GO ROUND HORSE FOR BIRTHDAY" B&W&red illustrations by Don Madden.
C18 carosel horse: have to disqualify the James Summers suggestion - it's about an actual palomino and a boy called Alan.
Kate McNair, A Book of Directions, 1970.  Could this be A Book of Directions by Kate McNair?  It's a book of short stories and the last story is about the narrator, a boy she likes very much and a carousel horse that was given to her by an old carnival worker.
I haven't checked this stumper I listed for a while because it seemed so hopeless, but the interview on NPR this a.m. reminded me to check. And ... solved! I Can't believe it! A Book of Directions by Kate McNair is indeed the book I was thinking of. As soon as I saw the title, I recognized it as the right one. Oh, thank you thank you to whoever came up with the answer!

You might try to find a copy of Favorite Bedtime Stories, translated by Susie Saunders (London,'78). I don't know the book myself, but it sounds like a good candidate.
Does the book have SLEEPING BEAUTY, THUMBALINA, PRINCESS  THE PEA, THE WHITE
CAT?  If not, it's not the right one. Thanks for your swift reply!
Well, I'm sorry to say that the book doesn't have any of the stories you mentioned.  Here's a short sampling of the contents: THREE LITTLE PIGS, FLICK THE SQUIRREL, GIRL AND THE GOLDEN RING, THEO AND THE ALARM CLOCK, THE FOX AND THE HEN, THE GREAT RACE, THE DAY OF THE FAIR, THE GOAT AND THE SUN, MAISIE AND THE BEAN, THE THREE FISHES. Wrong book.  We'll have to keep looking...
Here's another possiblity:  Barbara Douglas. Favourite French fairy tales, retold from the French of Perrault, Madame d'Aulnoy and Madame Le Prince de Beaumont, ill. R. Cramer. (NY: Dodd, Mead 1921) (later ed. London '52). 255 pp. col. front., col. plates. 21 cm. Library citation looks promising:  Perrault, Charles, 1628-1703.    Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine), 1650 or 51-1705.  Leprince de Beaumont, Madame (Jeanne-Marie),  1711-1780.(i.e., Beauty & the Beast)
I have been looking for a book for years that I think another customer is also looking for on A7 question and answer on the web site.  You said that it might be favourite french fairy tales by Barbara Douglas and I wanted to see if you had it in stock.  The way it was described sounds like the one I'm looking for as well.  The illustrations are gorgeous but rather adult and it has a blue/grey cover ( I remember mother goose in the title or a picture of her on the book as well with a castle too.  It had little ida's flowers, the white cat,  princess and the pea,  the frog prince, sleeping beauty etc.  Pls call me!  I'd love any information that you could give me.
I think the book is The Fairy Tale Book, a Deluxe Golden Book, copyright 1958, Simon and Schuster, Inc. It is not the usual Golden Book. The book is 10" by 13" and has very detailed drawings, some in color and some in pencil. The white cat story in this one is called "Queen Cat" by d'Aulnoy. All the other stories you mentioned are in it. It has 156 pages with selections of 28 stories by Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, Madame d'Aulnoy, Madame Leprince de Beaumont, Madame la Comtesse de Segur, and Charles Perrault.
Hi I found the book that I was looking for and I think that the other person is also looking for. Its a book of fairy tales published by Dean and Sons Ltd 1977.  It has gorgeous illustrations and some of the stories that are in it that haven't already been mentioned are mother goose,  hop  of my thump,  blockhead hans and the darning needle.  It has a picture of children from the fairy tales, like goldilocks and little red riding hood waving to mother goose who is flying above them on the cover, which is blue gray.  The book has also been called  The White Cat,  Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales,  Janet and Anne Graham Jonstone Gift Book of Fairy Tales, and Gift  Book of Fairy Tales.  THANKS  so much for having this sight. It gave me the clues I needed to narrow down my search.
So what's the title?  athor?  illustrator??
The edition I found  is called A Book of Fairy Tales.  (which makes it easy to find lol).    It was published in 1977 by Dean and Sons Ltd.  and the illustrators are Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.   There isn't an
author or editor mentioned.   The stories except for the white cat,  I think are all  Hans Christian Andersen.
I am looking for a book from my childhood--all I remember is the following:  It is fairly large book that is a dark green hardback.  On the front there is a forrest and I believe it simply says Fairy Tales on the top--it's a script font but not too fancy.  Mother goose is flying over the forrest and several other characters from the other stories are waiving to her--I know Goldie Locks is one of them (wearing a white and blue dress).  The characters have their backs to the reader and are looking up at Mother Goose.  Inside the first story is Red Riding Hood--but others are the Frog Prince, Sleep Beauty and Thumbelina.  Before the stories begin there are a few nursery
rhymes/poems.  I read this as a young child which would have been in the late 70's early 80's.  We lived in Germany until I was three, so it may be British--I don't know.  I've looked at bookstores with no luck, so I guess it's out of print?--but someone else had to have had this book??!!! If I could just get the title/ editor/ publisher--anything?
Hi, I posted a stumper yesterday that I think has already been solved. I look in the solved section after I posted mine out of curiousity and found a description that sounds just like mine.  The girl found the book she was looking for which is A Book of Fairy Tales, published by Dean & Son Ltd., 1977 and illustrated by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone.  I have been searching for this book for years after I lost it.  I just know this is it due to the similarity of our descriptions of the cover.  Do you have a copy of this book for sale? Thank you so much for having such an incredible site...I have been heartbroken over this book for at least 6 years and didn't know what to do about it until yesterday.  Now my husband doesn't have to hear about this anymore!!

I just solved my own stumper when I recognized "The Click Clacker Machine" in a children's anthology at my library and searched for the author's name - The Book of Foolish Machinery by Donna Lugg Pape.  Other poems include the Witch Watch Machine, Melting Pot Machine, and Cinderella's Cinder Sander Machine. Now I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

David L. Harrison, The Book of Giant Stories, 1972.  This is a cute childrens book I remember from several years ago. I noticed several copies of this book on ebay for only a few dollars.
I just wanted to write a thank you! I don't know who answered my question but they are right! I just  happened to accidentally stumble upon your site again and recalled that I had posted my question a while ago. Upon finding my request I saw that it had been answered!  With this new found info I was able, not only to locate used copies as the person suggested, but also to find that it has been re-released with  the Caldecott award, i believe. I have been looking for this book for over 12 years now, describing it  to each bookseller I encounter.
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A Caldecot medal winner, 1970's, -A chidren's book, a collection of short fairy tale GIANT stories. One story was about a giant, frightened by a small boy who had a childhood malady evidenced by red spots on his face.

#B174, boy that has a secret that scares monsters, could be the same as #G118, giants.
David L. Harrison, Phillipe Fix (Ill.), The Book of Giant Stories, 1972.  This was the winner of the 1973 Young People's Christopher Award, not the Caldecott. "Mighty giants meet a down-to-earth boy in the 1972 Christopher Award-winning The Book of Giant Stories by David L. Harrison, illus. by Philippe Fix. In each of the three tales, the villains end up overshadowed by good sense and practical wisdom. Fix creates a forbidding landscape of craggy trees, fern-filled forests and darkened lairs."
David L. Harrison, The Book of Giant Stories, pre-1980.  I just suggested this for B174, and it seems even more likely for G118.  It's on the Solved Mysteries page.
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This book is about a boy that has a secret that he tells many monsters. When they hear it they all run away. He goes home and tells his mom the secret, she doesn't run away, she takes care of him. He has the measels (I think)

#B174, boy that has a secret that scares monsters, could be the same as #G118, giants.
David L. Harrison, The Book of Giant Stories, pre-1980.  If the monsters could have been giants, then I think this is the one.  It's a picture book, although with a lot of text.  The little boy has been sent home early from school because he has measles, and he whispers his secret to at least one giant, who runs away, before reaching home and whispering it to his mother.  This book is on the Solved Mysteries page.
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I read this book in the 1970's when I was a 7 or 8 years old?  I recall it being maybe a fairy tale type book, and the main character was a little boy who was in a house of some kind, and at one point was in the rafters of the house with giants below him, talking to them.  Had great illusrations but can't remember the story line or context. I remember loving this book for its illustrations.  It was about a boy who was in a “house” (I’m not sure how he got there) which had giants or ogres in it.  There were great pics of the giants/ogres, once in particular of the little boy talking to them while he was perched in the rafters of the house.  Not sure WHAT he was doing there in ANY context, only that it was a house of giants/ogres and the little boy was trying to do something?  Definitely not Jack and the Beanstalk  I've been trying to locate it for years.

David L. Harrison, The Book of Giant Stories. This could be from a collection of three stories that my sister was given as a child. I cannot locate the physical copy at the moment in my mother's house but your description could be from the story where the boy has a secret which he whispers into the ear of each giant causing them to run away in fear. His secret is that he has the measles. Another story I remember is the boy teaching a giant how to whistle. This story is set outdoors. This may not be what you remember but it could well be. It seems to be have been reprinted so is readily available today.
Thanks, that's solved.  Bought the book and it seems like the right one, right down to the amazing illustrations.  Thrilling to see them once again.

A88 anthology: again, from the description of the cover, would suggest The Book of Goodnight Stories, by Vratislav Stovicek, illustrated by Karel Franta, translated by Stephen Finn, published NY, Exeter Books 1982, isbn 0-671-05963-7 "Great children's book of "goodnight stories" one for every day of the year! Each story is marked with the date!" The white cover of this book shows a boy on a small green hill, playing a long flute with a small bird perched on the end.
I'm the original poster for this query. I haven't checked the site in a while, and I was so pleased to find that someone has solved this long-standing mystery for me. It is, indeed, The Book of Goodnight Stories. Thanks so much for all your help! 

Arthur Mee, The Book of Knowledge: The Children's Encyclopedia, 1920s.
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I was wondering if you ever deal in antique children's encyclopedias. My grandmother -- who would have been married and age 20 in the year 1913 -- had a wonderful set of maybe 6 or 8 volumes in dark maroon bindings, I think. These were filled with games and activities for kids, science projects, I think, stories and fairy tales, all manner of crafts to do, decorations to make, holiday stuff, with lines drawings, as I remember. I think the publisher may have been Grolier.

Grolier, Book of Knowledge, 1912?  I wonder if this may be the Grolier Book of Knowledge.  There have been new editions since the early twentieth century.  My family owned a set of the volumes published in the 1950's.  I remember stories, games, science (why is the sky blue?), things to do although I don't remember crafts.  I think there were about 10 books (two volumes per book), red with gold lettering.
University Society Incorporated, New York., The Home University Bookshelf, 1945.  We had a set of these that I adored as a child in the 70s.  There were 7 or 8 volumes to the set and those that I remember included a 'home science' volume, which followed a little girl and her mother and various cooking lessons, building lessons (for the boys!) and crafts.  I'm pretty sure this same volume also had a section of educational puzzles with things like spot the difference, tangram pictures etc.  Another volume was filled with classic stories, including Tom and the waterbabies, the Silver Skates.  I'm pretty sure there was more than one volume of stories, and one moral story was of the girl with the pearl necklace which choked her if she told lies. There were several colour plates in the book which were overlaid with tissue paper.  Another volume was a Boys and Girls of many lands type, and followed a little girl who was transported to other lands during her nap time.  I remember she went to the rose attars in Persia, and a trip to Australiam which included a visit to an outback station. I rang and checked with my mother about the publication date.  Ours was 1945, but notes that it was drawn together from various publications prior to that, including the Boys and Girls Bookshelf (1912, 1915, 1920) The Young Folks University,  The child Welfare Manual,and an earlier Home University Bookshop.  My Mother agrees that many of the illustrations in particular were pre 1940s in feeling.  Even if they aren't the ones these are great books, and just thinking about them makes me want to read them next time I go home for a visit!
Grolier? , Children's Encyclopedia Set.  Wow, did this description bring back some memories...I'm pretty sure we had the same set of encyclopedias in my house in the '60s & '70s. (I loved them but as I got older found it very unusual to have encyclopedias in the format described.) Let me check w/my mom over the holiday weekend to see if she still has them & if yes I'll pass along the publishing details.
This looks like the right thing:  McLoughlin, E.V. (editor in Chief), The Book of Knowledge: The Children's Encyclopedia; 20 Volume Set in 10 books. Grolier Society Inc, 1952. 

D30 is almost DEFINITELY The Book of Live Dolls (1901) by Josephine Scribner Gates, which I named
elsewhere, but now I have my doubts. The drowning, fortunately, is not likely to be too traumatic because
of how it's handled. The book is written in three parts or so and I read the first part in the 1950s edition of the "Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, Vol 1". The Victorian line drawings are charming. The book opens with a doll carriage drawn by kittens going through Cloverdale and tossing leaflets announcing that all the dolls would come alive soon.
Thanks!! It looks like it might be, I put an order for it at the library.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

I currently have three of these in the Book Hospital.  With some work, they'll be presentable again.  Here are the titles. Stay tuned. Gates, Josephine Scribner. The Story of Live Dolls.  Illustrated by Virginia Keep.  Bobbs-Merrill, 1901. Gates, Josephine Scribner. More About Live Dolls.  Illustrated by Virginia Keep.  Bobbs-Merrill, 1906. Gates, Josephine Scribner. The Story of the Three Dolls.  Illustrated by Virginia Keep.  Bobbs-Merrill, 1905.

I sometimes wonder if I should correct entries with poor grammar, spelling, or typing.  I have no idea what "SCW trng wlie" means or how it connects to this stumper, but since those are the keywords given to me, I feel obliged to use them so the requester will be able to find her entry in this vast field of stumpers...
J. Ruth Gendler, The Book of Qualities, 1984, reprinted 1988.  I'm holding my copy and reading "Trust" -- the poster's quotations match almost exactly.  (Nice to know someone else has heard of this book!) My edition, 1988, is from the "Perennial Library" imprint of Harper & Row  it says "originally published in 1984 by Turquoise Mountain Publications".

Provensen, Alice, A Book of Seasons, 1978, copyright. Funny, I just read this aloud to a Kindergarten class this week. Matches your description of cover art and includes illustrations sugaring time, and raking leaves.

Provensen, Alice, A Book of Seasons, 1976, copyright. This is the book! Thank you soooo much Book Stumper!!

Robert Silverberg, the book of skulls, 1972.  The plot is pretty much as outlined by the original stumper.  the four boys are college students who want to discover immortality  each has his shameful secret, three involving sex, one plaigarism.  One kills himself, another is killed to keep him from leaving
 the remaining two stay with the monks.  I just read this book a few months ago.  a wonderful, powerful book, but not exactly categorizable as SF or fantasy, somewhere in between.
I'm pretty sure this is Robert Silverberg's Book of Skulls.  "Candidates for eternal life must present themselves at the "Skullhouse" as a foursome. The brothers are happy to provide training in their secrets--but there's a price. The Ninth Mystery in the Book of Skulls states: "Two of thee we undertake to admit to our fold. Two must go into darkness". One of those four college students must willingly commit suicide. One is fated to be murdered by his own friends.
Robert Silverberg, Book of Skulls.  Pretty sure this is the one - originally published in 1972.
Robert Silverberg, Book of Skulls.  Hi, great site.  This book isn't exactly a kid's book though.  Some really horrible things happen to the characters both physically and emotionally as they vie to get into the "monastery".

I wonder if this might be an early edition of My Book House, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller. The stories are certainly grouped by age and I saw some volumes fitting this description at a used bookstore yesterday.
Ed. by Renne Stern & O. Muiriel Fuller, Book Trails (8 vols.). 1928 (and 1946). Publication: Eau Claire, Wis. : E. M. Hale. Copyright 1928 by Shepard and Lawrence [Chicago?]. v. 1-2. For baby feet -- v. 3-4. Through the wildwood -- v. 5-6. To enchanted lands -- v. 7-8. On the highroad to adventure. Covers are burgundy, embossed with a knight on a horse.
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As a child in the late early 60's my mother had a set of childrens story books.  We can not remember who the distrubuted the books, but someone thinks it might have been Golden Books. They were a hard covered book, deep red color about 8X11 in size, and maybe 12 books or so to the set.  She also may have got them when she purchased a set of world book encylopedias, we just don't know.  I saw them once at an antique shop but did not realize at that time that my mom no longer had them.  I went back there after realizing we no longer had them but they withe had been sold or just moved on. The books had all kinds of childrens stories such as Little Red riding hood, the trolls, Little Black Sambo, etc.

A13 . . . .  This is probably the set of Childcraft Books that used to be part of the World Book Encyclopedia set.  I own these books and they are dated in the late 50's or early 60's. They have all the stories the reader says they contain, and they also have beautiful illustrations.  Hope this helps!
I don;t believe those are the ones I'm looking for but thank you.
I believe the set of anthologys referred to in A13 may be called The Children's Hour.  There are 16 volumes in the set and they are dark red with black on the binding and guilt lettering and an illustration in black and gold on the front.  They were published in 1953 by Spencer Press.  Some stories included in the first vol. are The Velveteen Rabbit, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Curious George, and the Fir Tree.  I have my childhood set plus a few stray vols purchased at used bookstores.
Harriett, I believe it might be the set of ChildCraft Books since my mom thinks she purchased them when she bought the World Book encylopeidas set.  I went looking in the antique shops this past weekend and I had no luck.  Thank you though, this has been very helpful.  At least now I have a name to search for.  I'm also looking for the Childrens Hour books just to see if they are possibly the ones too.
Harriett, I have found one of the books we are looking for.  The front cover says Book Trails for Baby Feet.  Child Development, Inc.  The person we talked to say she thought there was only 8 volumes.  Copyright 1928, 1946 by Shepard and Lawrence, Inc..  If you know of these please let me know.
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I am looking for a set of childrens books that have a story in them called "The little Bed That Ran Away" it was about a little boy that didnt want to go to bed and said he didnt like his bed, and the bed overheard him and ran away.  I remember pars of the story such as the bed went clickety clack clickety clack down the stairs and there was an illustration of the little bed with a sad face crawling down the stairs.  well then the little boy realized that he really liked and needed his bed and asked him to come back etc..  Other books in this set of 6 or 7 were some of Gimms fairytales, nursery rhymes, Little black Sambo and some of the other books had stories for older children as well.  The set was likely published in the 40's or early 50's maybe in the 30's but I doubt it.  the books had a dark burgandy cover on them.  Please let me know if you have any information about this set.

Check out the Book Trails set of anthologies-see the Solved Mysteries page.
I checked, and The Little Bed that Ran Away is indeed in the Childcraft Book Trails series. It is in Book 2- For Baby Feet.
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My mother used to read from one single book. It was a brick red cover and had a collection of stories in the book.  Titles of the short stories included "the bed that ran away" "the pancake that rolled away" "little black sambo" a story about a navy bean who split his side and a needle and thread sewed him up... I am pretty sure it was a two volume set, but I aways wanted her to read the little bed that ran away...My mother passed away when I was 14 so I have no one to help me solve the missing childhood bedtime story mystery...my books were all given to charity when my mom died.  I was born in 1975 so the volumes must be other than me.  Thank you so much in advance for helping me.

Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, Favorite Stories Old and New, More Favorite Stories Old and New, 1942, 1955.  All of these stories except Little Black Sambo are in these two volumes.  One was blue, the other dark red.  One volume has a story by Elizabeth Enright about an African boy named Kintu, which you might have confused with Little Black Sambo.
Book Trails for Baby Feet, 1946. Book Trails for Baby Feet (Part of the larger Book Trails set) was in two volumes, had a brick red embossed cover and had many nursery rhymes plus stories like Little Black Sambo.
I just checked my copy of the Book Trails series, and the stories mentioned are in Book Two.
You should charge more for your services! I have been searching for these books for years. It tore me up inside to know that part of my once great memories of my mother were gone, completely lost because I did not know the title of the book.  When my mother passed, I was sent away and all my belongings where taken from me, including the books she used to read from.  I cannot thank you enough, if you were here I would hug you and give you a big giant kiss for offering this service to the public.  It is only chance that I happened upon your site...well...maybe divine intervention as well.  I have purchased the whole 8 volume set of Book Trails  Who ever solved that for me is a wonderful person and has brought much joy to an aching heart.  I cannot wait to share these stories with my little girl.  Thank you so much.

Bookshelf for Boys and Girls, 1955, 1963.  This sounds like that favorite staple of the baby boomers. There was a 1955 version  the 1963 version had turqoise bindings. The ten volumes included Nursery Favorites Old and New, Happy Hours in Storyland, Folk and Fairy Tales, Songs and Stories from Many Lands, Things to Make and Do, Bookland Classics, and more.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

University Society Editorial Board.  The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls.  The University Society, 1970. 10-vol set; sturdy cream and blue fake leather with pastedown picture on front of each cover (1:Red Riding Hood,  2: light house, 3: knight, 4: Dutch scene,  5: model sailboat, 6: art gallery, 7: deer, 8: snowy log cabin,  9: Paul Revere) Vol 10: guide & index; vols 1-3 lower part of pages lightly rippled; 4,6,7,8,9,10 very good; vol 5- 1st 15 pages a bit worn and soiled.  Overall, set is in G+ condition.    $120 plus extra postage [MEQ28769] can obtain; please inquire

Possibly -- Boots The Kitten by Margaret Sanford Pursell (Carolrhoda Books, 1976)  Series: the Animal Friends books.  "Having observed his kitten for its first three months in his aunt's house, Mike and his sister are better able to care for the new kitten when they bring it home."
I wasn't going to send this because the cat's name is not the same (and that seems an important part of the stumper) but this sounds a lot like Beverly Cleary's Socks, a popular book by a popular author at the right time. It is possible the name got mixed up in your mind over the years?
Beverly Cleary, Socks.  Okay, okay, it was probably the one already listed as a solution as Boots the Kitten.  Still, this book is similar and is very good, as all Beverly Cleary is.
Boots the Kitten.  Thank you. I acquired a copy, and although I cannot be absolutely certain, it does appear to be the right book. It was printed at about the right time, and the explanation of the kitten's name was very close to what I remembered. 

Paul Samuel Jacobs, Born Into Light, 1988. The aliens are sent to interbreed with the humans because they are defective internally, and the 'hybrid' children are healthier and will live longer. At the end all the children are sent back to the home planet.

Hubbard, Joan, The Boss of the Barnyard and Other Barnyard Stories, 1949.  This is definently your book - contains the stories you want AND is illustrated by Richard Scarry!

The Botticelli Horror
Science fiction story about creatures that were like flying rugs. When they landed on somebody, they dissolved whatever part of the body was underneath them. I can't remember if it was a book, novella or short story. I think they were called night cloaks.

Lloyd Biggle, The Botticelli Horror. This story is included in Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Creatures: An Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
SOLVED: Lloyd Biggle, Jr., The Botticelli Horror, 1960. First published in Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, March 1960. I found it in hardcover book The Metallic Muse published by Doubleday Science Fiction, copyright 1972. It's a collection of stories by Mr. Biggle, Jr. Other stories: The Tunesmith, Leading Man, Spare the Rod, Orphan of the Void, Well of the Deep Wish, In His Own Image.  Thanks so much for your help.

Rachel Field, Calico Bush, 1933.  ??Maybe??  Was the girl a French orphan?  Also, this doesn't take place in New
Amsterdam/New York, but rather a family moves from Massachusetts to Maine.  Also I don't know if there were a large number of boys in the family.  But this book was a Newbery Honor Book and it has stood the test of time.
Denker, Nan, Bound Girl.  Girl "Felice or Felicity I think" has fled from France to America. Father or mother dies on the trip and she is bound to Family until her uncle is located.  Mother of family doesn't care for the idea but she wins her over at the end.  Learns to spin flax, has trouble with alderman, and ends up with one of the sons.
Gladys Malvern, Jonica's Island, 1940's.  The description of this book actually sounds like Jonica's Island, which is in the Solved Mysteries section.