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McKenzie, Ellen Kindt, Taash and the Jesters, 1968.  "An orphan boy who lives with a witch becomes involved in a dangerous adventure from which he eventually emerges as the brother of a king."
Taash and the Jesters, McKenzie, Ellen, 1970.  Oh, I loved this book too!  It's Taash and the Jesters, and was originally pulished in the late 60s/early 70s.  Taash was a royal prince, who was stolen to protect him from an evil witch, only there was some mix-up and he was lost--nobody actually knows he's a prince.  The baby is actually his nephew, although he doesn't find that out until later.  The jesters are sons of two sets of identical twins--Kashka and Pip, and they're almost identical as well, only one has blue eyes and the other brown.  There's a sequel called Kashka, which is even harder to find.
McKenzie, Ellen, Taash and the Jesters.  Thank you!!!  That is it!  I almost put in the description that one of the main characters had two A's in his name. Odd the things that stick in one's mind.  Now if I can only find a copy...

Tailypo by Galdone.
The book is TAILYPO by Joanna Galdone, illustrated by her father, Paul Galdone.
Hi.  "Tailypo" (T12) is a story called The Peculiar Such Thing, in a collection of stories called The People Could Fly, by Virginia Hamilton. It's a marvelous collection of African-American folk tales that is sold with a tape of the stories read by Hamilton and by James Earl Jones. Hearing Virginia Hamilton groan, "Tailypo, tailypo.  Give me back my tailypo" is absolutely blood-curdling!
T12  There was a wonderful book that came out in the late 1960s called Gwot: Horribly Funny Hairticklers by George Mendoza.  It consisted of several stories, one of which featured the words "Give... me... my... hairy... TOE!!"  It had some strange illustrations that fascinated my siblings and me because they were grotesque and scary.  The stories were scary and funny, but mostly funny.  This might be the book you're thinking of. 

You didn't mention a dragon, but possibly Taka-chan and I: A Dog's Journey to Japan by Betty Jean Lifton (Norton, 1967).  "A dog digs a hole in the sand, all the way to Japan, where he meets a little girl held captive by a dragon and helps her to find the most loyal person in Japan."
D114 Lifton, Betty Jean. Taka-Chan and I.  I used to half-heartedly look for a copy of my daughter.

Jordan, Hope Dahle, Three Desperate Days, 1967.  I think this is the book you are looking for.  There is an alternate title, Take Me to my Friend which is in reference to the sign the hitchhiker had.  Julie is the name of the girl and she has to drive her grandmother from Florida to someplace up north.  I remember that she doesn't like to drive and is afraid of crossing a bridge.  She hides her grandmother's rings in a ball of yarn so the hitchhikers can't get them.  Her boyfriend was supposed to meet them on the way home by putting a red ribbon on the car's antennae.  So that's how they get rescued.
Hope Dahle Jordan, Take Me To My Friend
Yes, It is Take Me to My Friend.  Thank you so much.

P243 This is most likely a book illustrated and maybe even written by James Marshall. It could be one of the FOX books (like FOX AND FRIENDS). Fox does have a pig and alligator/crocodile among his friends. Take a look online at some of his illustrations. His style is simple, but distinctive, and you'll probably know right away whether he's the right illustrator.~from a librarian
James Marshall, What's the Matter With Carruthers?  Hi, I solved my own book stumper when I recognised the style of drawing from the cover on the of the books on the 'back in print' pages! The illustrator turned out to also be the author, James Marshall. Then I found the book and it was called What's The Matter With Carruthers. I'm so pleased. Much thanks to you and your website!
James Marshall, Taking Care of Carruthers.  Oops, I got it wrong, it isn't What's The Matter With Carruthers?, it's Taking Care of Carruthers instead. And it's not an alligator, it's a turtle instead. Thanks for the help!

Cooper, Paul Fenimore, Tal, his Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom, Purple House 2001, reprint.  The story teller is Noom-Zor-Noom, and he travels with a donkey and a boy named Tal. Tal is the King's son, who has been lost, and can't be identified/found until the right story is told. I think.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Cooper, Paul Fenimore.  Tal, His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom. Illustrated by Ruth Reeves.  Purple House Press, 1929, 1957, 2001.  New hardback edition.  $20

Gay, Romney.  The Tale of Corally Crothers. Grosset & Dunlap, 1932. and a sequel:  Come Play with Corally Crothers.  Grosset & Dunlap, 1943.
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I am looking for a book my parents read to me in the mid to late 1940s.  It was about "Cora Lee Cruthers, She had no brothers." The book about Cora Lee Cruthers or maybe Carrothers was all in verse.

M115: Well, the details are not consistent, but it DOES sound like Ogden Nash's Tale of Custard the Dragon.  I first read it in Louis Untermeyer's 1970s Golden Treasury of Poetry.
Ogden Nash, The Tale of Custard the Dragon. "classic Nash story of Belinda and her pet dragon is illustrated by Lynn Munsinger."
Ogden Nash, Custard the Dragon or the tale of.  I'm pretty sure the rest of the line is something about a little yellow dog, and a little red wagon and a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
Ogden Nash, The Tale of Custard the Dragon.  Most anthologies of classic children's poetry include this poem. Also posted on a lot of personal web sites.
M115 "Belinda lived in a little white house, With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse, And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon, And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon" from CUSTARD THE DRAGON by Ogden Nash. There is a newly illustrated copy out, but the copy you probably remember was published in 1959 with illustrations by Linell (Ogden Nash's daughter)  ~from a librarian
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This was a book but it read like a very long poem/prose.  It had a hard cover, tall (11") but not wide, maybe six inches.  I think the cover was white.  It started with: "Melinda lives in a little white house, with a little brown dog and a little grey mouse."  It goes on to talk about the house being on a island, a robber at the window and the dog, mouse and Melinda out smart him, perhaps a crocodile in there somewhere.  My First Grade teacher, Mrs. Lucas read it to us every day after lunch.  At age 6, I could recite the entire prose but now can only remember the first line.  Please help. I have been looking for this for over twenty years.  Thanks!

Why does everyone forget the dragon? This is Ogden's Nash's Tale of Custard the Dragon.

No solution unfortunately, but it looks like this might be the same as O79.
Evgeny Schwartz, A Tale of Stolen Time, 1966, copyright. I almost fainted when I got this book in the mail (thank you Amazon!).  I have been looking for this for twenty years, and as soon as I saw the illustrations, I knew I'd found it.  Thank you so SO much for having this service -- you have solved a mystery that has haunted me for most of my life.

A.J. Wood, The Tale of the Napkin Rabbit, 1993.  I'm almost positive this is what you are looking for - it comes with a napkin to fold into the bunny.  It might also just be called "The Napking Rabbit". We have a copy at my store, but it doesn't have the napkin with it anymore. I'm not sure if it's still in print or not.

A73 spelling shld be Ernest. I found this 1920 bk  in a list of pig bks  when I used "Ernest Aris"  on search engine Google.   Ernest Aris: The Tale of Tiggy Pig (1920)  Seeker might want to look  - I didn't go thru all 20 or so articles.

Sounds like a combination of Magic By the Lake and Half Magic by Edward Eager--the children visit King Arthur's time in the latter and time travel via a lake in the former.  His characters do interrelate  I can't recall if the same set of characters are used in these two titles or not.
Edward Eager has two books that, combined, could fit this stumper. In Knight's Castle the children travel into the Ivanho story. In Magic By The Lake they do a lot of time-travelling via lake-water. Both books have an irreverent humor that might remind the reader of Connecticut Yankee.
Edward Eager's time-travel adventures are grouped together under the group title Tales of Magic.  The series includes Half Magic, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden and Magic by the Lake. 

what a great idea, I think we all need a story-telling hamster...
Caroline Rush, Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa,1973.  '"While recovering from a long illness, a little girl is entertained by her pet hamster who tells her stories about his adventurous grandfather."
caroline rush, tales of mr. pengachoosa, 1973.  Wow! Thank you, thank you thank you! This was so fast. It posted on Monday and was solved on Tuesday! Now to find that book!
And let's not forget Further Tales of Mr Pengachoosa (Crown, 1973).  "Hammy the hamster continues to entertain the little girl who owns him with stories of his grandfather's adventurous exploits."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Rush, Caroline.  Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa. Illustrated by Dominique M. Strandquest.  Crown, 1965.  Weekly Reader Children's Book Club edition.  Fine.  $8

Mains, David R. and Karen, Tales of the Resistance (Kingdom Tales).  I'm pretty sure this is what you're looking for. The boy is called 'Hero', but he does have a scar, and he does pass through fire. He does have a female friend, though I can't remember her name. My copy of the book was hard cover, purple/blue and had the elaborate illustrations you mention. The stories in the book are Christian allegories.
Mains, David R. and Karen, Tales of the Resistance.  Stay away from the edition that was put out in 2000 -- it only has B&W pictures apparently.  I JUST bought these after a long search myself!  I bought these online -- each one was $22, but they were brand-new and had never even been opened.  I've soaked them in, re-reading them!!! Not only are they just as beautiful, the stories are rich and I have cried several times -- the correlation between faith and the King / Kingdom of the Restoration is absolutely encouraging and uplifting.  I don't think I'll ever be too old for these.

Bernard Miles, Favo(u)rite Tales from Shakespeare. ill Victor Ambrus.  various editions (UK & US). Not quite the set of tales included by the querier, but otherwise, sounds like the book in question.
Thanks for the suggestion, but the book I'm looking for dates to the World War I or Edwardian era. I'm familiar with the work of Victor Ambrus (and like it, and am curious to check out this book)...but it's a completely dfferent one I'm after.
E. Nesbit, The Children's Shakespeare, 1938.  My copy of this contains all the retellings the seeker mentioned, but only b/w illustrations by Rolf Klep, and sounds like it is from a later time period than the book in question.  But I thought I'd mention it anyway, just in case.
E. Nesbit, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, 1907.
check out the images at this site.   these are Max Bihn's illustrations for E. Nesbit. Table of Contents: Brief life of Shakespeare -- A Midsummer night'\''s dream -- Tempest -- As you like it -- Winter's tale -- King Lear -- Twelfth night -- Much ado about nothing -- Romeo and Juliet -- Pericles -- Hamlet -- Cymbeline -- Macbeth -- Comedy of errors -- Merchant of Venice -- Timon of Athens -- Othello -- Taming of the shrew -- Measure of measure -- Two gentlemen of Verona -- All's well that ends well
S98 shakespearean stories: From about the right date is Children's Shakespeare, retold by Alice Spencer Hoffman, illustrated by Charles Folkard, published Dutton 1911 (reprint 1936). Contents are Tempest,
Midsummer Night's Dream, Much ado, Merchant of Venice, As you like it; Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Winter's Tale, King John, King Richard II, King Henry V, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Cymbeline, Coriolanus, Pericles. There's also Shakespeare Story Book, retold by Mary Macleod, illustrated by Gordon Browne, published Barnes 1905, reprint of 1902 ed. No contents list available, a retelling of 16 of the plays using "as much as possible of the dialogue". Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch published his retellings in 1900, but he only covered the history plays, so that can't be the one wanted.
Lang, Jeanie, Stories from Shakespeare Told to the Children.  Perhaps it is from the "Told to the Children" series? They
are small hardcover books with yellow dustjackets and a mostly red cover underneath with gilt writing. They have colour plates, but I don't remember any black and white. The series contained famous Western Classics (Homer, Chaucer, the Bible, etc) retold very simply. My father had these growing up in England (1950s), but I think they might be from much earlier. They are very much treasured in my family.
SOLVED: Margaret Christian, Tales from Shakespeare, 1917. The book I was looking for is Margaret Christian’s "Tales from Shakespeare" (Children’s Classics series, M. A. Donahue & Company, 1917). It includes six full-color illustrations by A. M. Turner and numerous pen-and-ink illustrations by A. T. Weston. (I recalled five of the Turner illustrations, having forgotten only the frontispiece, showing Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone.) I checked around online and saw a photo of the dustjacket, which shows Titania and Bottom. It resembled the illustration that I remembered, and I took a leap, and now have a copy.

Ida Chittum, Franz Altschuler, Tales of Terror, 1975.  I remember this book-- there was a story of a "snipe hunt" (involving a bunch of snakes), a woman turning to paper, children picking rocks on a farm... The cover art was of people in rural garb, with swirls of green fog instead of faces.  (I checked it out in elementary school back in the 70s, and forgot to return it, so my parents had to pay for it!)
I would like to thank the wonderful person who replied to G301 stumper. My husband was ready to sign papers to have me commited to an institution because I was so obsessed with this book. God bless you all. 

Miller -- Book House for Children, Tales Told in Holland, 1926.  This story appears in a children's book of mine.  The title of the story is "The Lady of Stavoren."  I am sure the story has been anthologized or retold in many other books.  The lady is a rich widow whose ships sail everywhere.  She commands her best captain to sail all over the world and bring her back the most precious cargo that can be bought for gold.  He brings back a shipload of wheat.  She is outraged and commands him to dump the cargo in the harbor.  So he dumps it at the mouth of the harbor, which causes the mouth to silt up to the point that no ships can enter or leave.  The rich lady is reduced to poverty and finally understands that her ship's captain was right all along.  And the sand bar that formed is called Vrouwenzand, or Lady's Sand.
Some of the stories in Tales Told in Holland have authorial credits, most have regional credits, others have title translations. "The Lady of Stavoren" is credited as "A Tale from the Province of Friesland."  I suspect you did indeed have this collection.  Perhaps you remember a trio of tall books: Tales Told in Holland, Nursery Friends from France and Little Pictures of Japan?  Look under the Anthology Finder for My Bookhouse.  These three books were issued as companions to the set of My Bookhouse.
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/017_legend.html  does this help?
I sent in the first solution.  My grandmother gave my sisters and me all three of these books.  My oldest sister got the French book, my second sister, who was born in Japan, got the Japanese book, and I got the Dutch book.  I always loved the careful illustrations, often adapted from masterpieces by Dutch artists.  I was sorry to learn that these were the only three books in this series.

Edward Eager, Half Magic, 1954.  This sounds like Edward Eager's amazing children's classic Half Magic, which is wonderfully and whimsically illustrated by N.M. Bodecker. Here's a synopsis: Edward Eager has been delighting young readers for more than 40 years with stories that mix magic and reality. Half Magic, the most popular of his tales about four children who encounter magical coins, time-travel herb gardens, and other unlikely devices, is a warm, funny, original adventure. The "Half Magic" of the title refers to a coin that the children find. Through a comical series of coincidences, they discover that the coin is magic. Well, it's not totally magic--it's only (you guessed it) half magic. That means there's a certain logic to the wishes one must make to generate a desired outcome. Imagine the results emerging from inaccurate efforts: "half" invisible, "half" rescued, "half" everything!
E. Nesbit, The Story of the Amulet, 1906.  This is just a suggestion  it doesn't match exactly. A group of children have half an amulet which allows them to travel in time.  If they find the other half, they will receive their heart's desire.  A classic, in print for nearly a century.
There could be a different book called The Talisman, but this does remind me of Nesbit's book The Amulet.
T98 Could be HALF MAGIC by Edward Eager, 1954 ~from a librarian
Stephen King And Peter Straub, The Talisman

George, Jean Craighead, The Talking Earth.  Billie Wind, a Seminole teenager, goes out into the Everglades alone to try to understand her people's beliefs in earth spirits and talking animals. She befriends an otter, a turtle, and a panther cub. She crawls into a sand cave towards the end of the book when her animal friends alert her to a coming storm.
Jean Craighead George, The Talking Earth.  This sounds a lot like what you describe -- Native American girl in Florida goes on a journey into the Everglades to learn to listen to the land and understand her people.  She does meet an otter and a panther in the course of her journey. I loved this book when I was younger! Hope it's what you're looking for!

The Talking Parcel
Girl named Penelope. I read this book around the mid to late 70s and can not remember much. It involved magic, a phoenix and possibly a railroad? It was not a typical children's book, it seemed kind of mystical, along the lines of 'A Wrinkle In Time' possibly.

Gerald Durrell, The Talking Parcel aka The Battle for Castle Cockatrice. Three kids have adventures, one is named Penelope. All the other elements you mention are present.
Gerald Durrell, The Talking Parcel (later republished as The Battle for Castle Cockatrice), 1974. This might be a bit of a longshot... Penelope and two other children are recruited by a talking parrot to go to Mythologia, a  world of fantastic animals by means of a magic train, in order to save the land from marauding cockatrices. They meet many creatures, such as mooncalves, werewolves, a sea serpent, phoenix, and more. The author is much better known for his amazing (and very funny) books for adults about his adventures in animal tracking and collecting. You can definitely see the influence in this work: each of his fantastic creatures has its particular habitat, diet and needs. This book was later made into a very odd animated film!
SOLVED: Gerald Durrell, The Talking Parcel aka The Battle for Castle Cockatrice. This is it!!! Thanks, that was quick!!! Now if I can find it....Can't wait to read it again!!!

Vian Smith, Tall and Proud, 1966.  This is definitly the book!  Its about a girl named Gail who contracts polio, her desperate father gets her a horse to motivate her to learn to walk again. In the process she and the horse, Sam, catch an escaped convict.
Smith, Vian, Tall and Proud, 1968, Pocket Books (reissue Doubleday 2000).  Sounds like "Tall and Proud," in which a girl contracts polio and gradually rehabilitates both herself and a lame racehorse.  I'm pretty sure the book was British.  I recall the heroine at the beginning playing in a stream with her dolls she'd named for the Beatles, and rescuing Ringo first "because he was the most important"!!!  When she's dxed with polio, all of her treasures and toys are burned.  Her parents get her the sick horse to help her connect with the world again.
Vian Smith, Tall and Proud.  I loved this one and I was just thinking about it the other day! The heroine's parents buy her an injured racehorse as she's recovering from polio -- she learns to walk again because of her desire to take care of the horse.
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A girl ends up in the hospital with, perhaps, polio.  She has a painful recovery and must learn to walk again.  When she is sent home there is a horse who is also lame and recovering.  At some point the girl must get on the horse at night to ride for help or to safety because something has happened at her home.  She is hoping they will both make it.  I read this book in the 60s so it is at least that old.  Older if the girl had polio I suppose.  Thanks for any help.

Vian Smith, Tall and Proud, 1966, copyright.  This is Tall and Proud by Vian Smith (UK title King Sam)...one of my favorites growing up (I still have my copy!). Gail is recovering from polio, but is falling behind in learning to walk again, due to the fear of the pain involved in her physical therapy. Her parents buy her Sam, a steeplechaser injured and retired from the track, hoping that the desire to ride will inspire her to push herself to walk again. All the characters, Gail, her friend Roddy, her parents, are very well drawn, as is the location, Dartmoor. Smith wrote a number of horse books, all well worth checking out, all had both US and UK printings. Tall and Proud was printed by Doubleday in hardcover and Archway in paperback, as King Sam it was printed by Constable Young.
C. W.  Anderson, Afraid to Ride, 1957.  Maybe this one?  The details aren't exactly the same--the girl is injured in a riding accident, and is too scared to ride; the horse is badly treated and skittish, too.  Otherwise, the plot is almost the same as you describe.
Dorothy Lyons, Dark Sunshine, 1951, copyright.  "Two years before, horse-loving Blythe Hyland would have been thrilled with the news that the family was moving back to an Arizona ranch, but now - what difference did it make to her?   What could a thin, listless girl, crippled by polio, do on a ranch? Then Blythe found Dark Sunshine, a magnificent wild mare that had been trapped by a landslide.  From the moment she learned it was possible to rescue the buckskin, Blythe determined that, crutches or not, she would train and ride her. It was slow, often painful work for the crippled girl but when an endurance ride offered Blythe her only chance to win athletic honors toward a scholarship, both horse and rider were ready for the grueling test."
Vian Smith, Tall and Proud.  This must be it. The plot is just what the poster remembers. Its listed on the solved mystery pages.
Vian Smith, Tall and Proud, 1966, approximate.  I think this is the book you're looking for.  The girl has polio, the horse was lame, she doesn't think she'll ever get better.  I think either robbers or someone with a grudge against her father breaks into her home, and she escapes, manages to get on the horse, and rides for help.  Tall and Proud might have been the an alternate title--I think it was one of those books that when it ended up in the Scholastic book order, it was given a different title.
Mystery ALREADY solved from further research on your site.  Tall and Proud by Vian Smith. : )

Dorothy Hall Smith, The Tall Book of Christmas, 1954.  Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens is in this book, as is Christmas Through a Knothole and many more. Not sure about the other stories mentioned.
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Mrs. Smittens and Her Christmas Mittens, Nov. 1954?   This was part of a treasury of Christmas stories.  Mrs. Smittens used colored licorice to dye wool for Christmas mittens.  Mrs. Smittens might be a cat.  This is all I can remember.

Smith, Dorothy Hall, The Tall Book of Christmas, 1954. This is almost certainly right.  The book is an anthology that  includes, among other stories, "Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens."  The name's a little off (Granny Glittens vs. Mrs. Smittens), and I don't think she was a cat, but everything else checks out. 

Dorothy Hall Smith, The Tall Book of Christmas, 1954, 2006 reprint. My family just received this as a Christmas gift.  This is a brand new reprint from Gramercy Books and it contains the story "Giant Grummer's Christmas" by William Dana Street.  This story is about a giant who lives in a castle made from limburger cheese. Now when are they going to reprint the rest of the "Tall Books"?
Giant Grummer's Christmas.  The giant is Giant Grummer, and he does live in a castle made of limburger cheese.  The story is in the Tall Book of Christmas.

Be sure you look at the Most Requested Anthologies page to see if anything there looks familiar.
The Tall Book of Make-Believe.  Sounds like it, anyway. Hard to find and pricey, too. :-)
Of course.  See also Most Requested Books.
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I am looking for a childhood book, I am 44 years old. This book was a reader or fairy tale book of some type I believe, it contained several stories in it. The stories I most remember  and want to find  is a story about The  Everlasting Lollipop and also a story about  the Magic Kettle, I think  they had to speak to the kettle to stop it from boiling over and say "stop, stop" or something like that.  I am not sure what the  exact title of these stories are. I believe these  stories were both in the same book. We were thinking it was in that Tall Book of Fairytales, but I found a 1947 edition of that book on ebay and won the bid to find out that neither story was in there. I don't know if they have several editions of that book or if I have it confused with the book these stories are really in. I have been on a search for this book for years. Can anyone help me??

Porter, the Magic Kettle, 1979 Franklin Watts, NY, reprint.  Found this description online of a book by "Porter" called "The Magic Kettle":  "A rusty, dusty, magical kettle brings good fortune to two men" But that was all it said. Another site called it a Japanese folk tale. Another search produced: Rainy Day Stories: Sixty-four Pages of Selected Stories  Racine WI: Western Printing & Lithographing Co. 1922. Stunning color illustration on front board of genie figure rising out of flames and reaching toward frightened old man in a feathered turban. Full color and black and white illustrations. Includes Sinbad the Sailor and stories of his seven voyages, The Magic Tea Kettle, The Fisherman and the Genie and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Endpapers have black and white fairy tale figure illustrations. One more: The Magic Kettle and other folk-stories of the North American Indians.  London: George G Harrap and Co Ltd, 1931. Illustrations by Joyce Lankester Brisley, 55p, 4 coloured plates.
Jane Werner, Editor, The Tall Book of Make-Believe, 1950.  The version of this anthology that appeared in 1950 contains The Everlasting Lollipop, but not the other story.
Magic Porridge Pot or Wonderful Porridge Pot.  Perhaps you mean the Magic Porridge Pot (aka Wonderful Porridge Pot)?  In this story, a kind man repays a good deed by giving up a magic pot that if you say "Cook, little pot, cook", it will cook a nice potful of porridge, but you must stop it by saying "Stop, little pot, stop".  The old woman forgets the right words to make it stop, and the pot keeps pumping out porridge until it floods the old woman's house.
Well, based on the memory that it might be a Tall Book... and the inclusion of The Everlasting Lollipop, I'm going to mark this one solved as The Tall Book of Make-Believe.  My copy also does not have Magic (or Wonderful) Porridge Pot.  Perhaps that was part of a separate book memory?
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This picture book is about a naughty mouse who lives with a girl and her mother. The mouse never helps with chores (ie. never brings in the morning newspaper) and is very messy (never wipes feet at front door and doesn't clean up the milk (or o.j.?) that he frequently spills. Finally, the girl's mother is tired of cleaning up after the mouse and she ties him to an umbrella during a rainstorm. The mouse that eventually finds his way home is a very reformed mouse who always brings in the newspaper, wipes his feet, and cleans up the spilled liquid. I loved this book as a child and my parents still call me "Bad Mousie" although I don't remember that being a part of the title/book? I remember reading it in the early/mid 80's. It was a library book (that I checked out a lot and always had to pay overdue fines!) that wasn't in the best of condition, so maybe published in the 60's or 70's??

Martha Dudley, Bad Mousie, 1947.  "Donica's story, written by her mother, illus. by Trientje Engelbrecht."  If you can find a copy of Books Before Five, by Dorothy White (check a library), the book is mentioned in it (it was a favourite of Dorothy White's small daughter).
Dudley, Martha, Bad Mousie.  I've never read it, but I think this is it.  Bad Mousie "is the story of a little girl who has a pet mouse that is constantly making messes and getting in touble." (quoted from the Jane Werner Waton page under "Most Requested Books.")
Bad Mousie.  This story was also in the book Tall Book of Make Believe, 1950.
Dudley, Martha, Bad Mousie, 1947.  This is anthologized in The Tall Book of Make-Believe, copywright 1950.
Thank so, so, so much for providing your Stump the Bookseller service!  I am astonished that a solution was found so quickly, especially since I've been trying to find out the title of this book for years!  On a side note, I now realize that I was thinking of the version of Bad Mousie that is in The Tall Book of Make-Believe.  I'm beginning to remember some of the poems and other stories in that collection.  Now I'm searching for economic copies of that book...why are these books so expensive??? I want my children to be able to use them and not worry that they are harming a "collector's" item!
supply and demand is the answer to all pricing questions...  in this case, it's very scarce, and in hot demand....

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Dudley, Martha.  Bad Mousie:  Donica's Story.  Illustrated by Trientja Engelbrecht.  Chicago: Children's Press, A Star-Bright Book, 1947.  Similar to a Little Golden Book in format, this book has a red taped spine, and is worn along all its edges.  Very scarce.  VG-.  $50

Mary Elwyn Patchett, Tam the Untamed, 1954.  The particular book mentioned is Tam the Untamed, which centers mainly on the horse....its part of the "Ajax" series, which also includes Ajax, Golden Dog of the Australian Bush, Ajax and the Haunted Mountain, Ajax the Warrior (Algy, the bulldog, and Ben, the Australian Terrier, are two more dog characters in the book).
Patchett, Mary Elwyn, Tam the untamed, 1954.  This is it.  By the same author of the brumby books.  About a girl, her dog and the taming of the horse Tam
Mary Elwyn Patchett, Tam the Untamed.  This is one of a series of autobiographical novels by Mary Elwyn Patchett about her childhood on an Australian outback station.  Lacking other children to play with, she concentrates on her pets, Algy the bulldog, Ajax the dingo/cattledog cross, Tam the horse, etc.  Other books in the series are Ajax: Golden Dog of the Australian Bush, Ajax and the Drovers, Ajax and the Haunted Mountain, Ajax the Warrior and The Call of the Bush

The tamarack tree : a novel of the siege of Vicksburg / Patricia Clapp.  1986 1st ed. English  Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience 214 p.  22 cm. New York : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, ISBN: 0688028527 An eighteen-year-old English girl finds her loyalties divided and all her resources tested as she and her friends experience the terrible physical and emotional hardships of the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863.

Mrs. Molesworth, The Tapestry Room: A Child's Romance, 1879.  Without much more to go on it's hard to say if this is the book, but there's a link to the full text at this site.
Mrs. Molesworth, The Tapestry Room.

Is this similar to F21: Fairy, tiny?
This IS definitely Tatsinda by Elizabeth Enright. A childless couple find a child being carried off by an eagle and they adopt her, but she is a brown-eyed, golden-haired child in a land of blue-eyed, silver-haired people.  She is, however, very good at weaving the traditional rugs and so is tolerated.  She weaves the very best for the prince's birthday in hopes he will notice she has grown up and marry her, but in the midst of the birthday celebration, an evil giant appears to steal the crystals which are so prevalent that everyone uses them to build roads and houses, but are precious in the giant's land. Tatsinda and the prince defeat the giant and do marry.  The wise woman does have chickens and answers one question per person, and aids in the defeat of the giant.  The "dog" is not part of the illustrations in my edition but there is a picture of a "tim-tik," drawn as a tallish, long-haired goat  type creature which Tatsinda rode upon.  The ISBN is 0-15-284280-2
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My third grade class read this book together. The title was the protagonist's name, which may have begun with a "t". It was about a blonde haired brown eyed baby raised amid a race of white haired blue eyed people who regarded her as ugly. Eventually she married their prince. I've questioned lots of people about this book over the years and apparently myself and fellow classmates are the only people who've ever read it!

Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda, 1961.  This sounds similar to a summary I read for Elizabeth Enright's Tatsinda today!
Tatsinda--Elizabeth Enright
Enright, Elizabeth, Tatsinda, illustrated by Irene Haas, NY Harcourt 1963.  I'm sure I won't be the only one with this answer - Tatsinda is a young girl in the wonderful kingdom of Tatrajan. She is not native, but arrived in the kingdom as a baby, rescued from an eagle by an old huntsman.  "The trouble was that her hair was golden and her eyes were brown. All the other Tatrajanni ... had glittering white hair like snow crystals and eyes ... a cool greenish-blue. That was the way people were meant to look, they thought, and they considered Tatsinda handicapped and were sorry for her." There's more plot of course. Tatsinda loves the prince Tackatan, who defended her from teasing when they were children. The wise woman Tanda-nan gives her enough magic for one wish. Tatrajan is attacked by one of the Gadblangs, troll-like giants with leather clothes and stone shoes, who mine the precious mineral gleb.
Stumper C150 certainly sounds like Tatsinda from the solved list, although I haven't read it!
I just wanted to send in the answer to stumper B150. The answer is TATSINDA by Elizabeth Enright, 1963. It looks like it might still be in print.
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I'm trying to find a book that my Sixth Grade teacher read to our class in the mid-1960s that involved a journey to a distant land where streets were paved with something of no value in one land but that was as valuable as gold in the other--some kind of ore or rock used as paving material.  That's about all I can remember of the story.  Ring any bells?

Elizabeth Enright??, Tatsinda??  1963.  This is a really long shot, but the way you phrased it, that something of no value in
one land was like gold in the other, reminded me of the giant in Tatsinda who starts grabbing up the paving stones and cobblestones of the Tatrajanni, crying that now he'll be rich, because in the giants' land the "greb" that the paving is made of is very valuable. ??
Enright, Elizabeth, Tatsinda. NY Harcourt 1963.  Kind of a longshot, but the story is about a strange country, and the giants who invade it are after "greb ore" which they value but which is used in Tatsinda's country as gravel or to pave streets. Of course, the "streets paved with gold" trope is so common as to be a cliche, so there are many other possible answers, I'm sure!
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This was a library book I read in grade school in the early 1960's.  An eagle (?) steals a baby and drops it on a mountain in the distance.  The girl is adopted by a family who weaves carpets.  There is an old wise woman who lives at the top of the mountain, and she grants each person in their lifetime 3 questions or something similar. When the girl becomes a young woman, she however is also granted a gift of magic from the old woman because she has been kind to her.  The young woman has fallen in love with the prince of the mountain and asks for a gift to make him fall in love with her, which she will give him at his upcoming birthday party.  However, as the party is taking place, trolls or ogres storm in and I believe they take the young woman with them.  After the men of the mountain rescue her and she is riding back with the prince, he of course tells her he is in love with her.  And then she asks him how he liked the present she gave him, whereupon he states that in the chaos he has not had time to open any of the presents yet.  Therefore, he loved her without the need of magic.

Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda.  I'm pretty sure this is Tatsinda, especially if the poster remembers wonderful illustrations in feathery pastels.
The book is in fact Tatsinda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can't tell you how many years I have wondered about this book!  This was the best 2.00 I ever spent!!!!  And after posting, I realized I had forgotten to mention the part about the people on the mountain all having white hair and blue eyes!  Thank you to the solver of this mystery!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, thank you!!!
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An eagle steals a blonde, blue-eyed little girl from a farm in the valley and takes her to a mountain kingdom where everyone has the same color hair and eyes (gray eyes/silver hair I think) and she's the only blonde one.  Kids tease her but the young prince pities her and tells them not to tease her for being different.  That's the first chapter, it continues on as the girl grows, she's a peasant, he's a prince, I read it in the 70's.

Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda. Again! See Solved Mysteries.
Tatsinda. Sounds exactly like the one that was just solved called Tatsinda. The poster should check out the solved pages under T and see if it's the same book.
Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda. This is on the Solved pages under TATSINDA by Elizabeth Enright.
Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda. It's Tatsinda again  :) !  See the Solved Mysteries.

No real proof this is it, but since there's no other guesses, maybe: Anon. Make-Believe Stories McLoughlin Brothers 1942 24mo, illustrations by Sari, some in colour
I was browsing EBay and I think I may have found the Cakeville story.  I got a little excited, since I never expected to find this stumper. Our Story Book.  Akron: Saalfield, 1942  Partial Contents:  Tea Cake from Cakeville, Lavendar Alligator, What Did the Bee Say?
Dear Harriett: Thank you so much for continuing to look for the story for me. I checked the eBay title and sent the seller an email. Unfortunately the story is not in Our Story Book. The other title, Make Believe Stories is a possibility so I'm requesting it through Interlibrary Loan. Once again, thank you. How long has it been since I requested that title? I'm guessing 2-3 years.
Various authors, Our Story Book, illustrated.  Akron, Saalfield 1942.  I have a copy of this book now, and I'm going to make the pitch for it again. The book matches in date and description. The first story is The Tea Cake from Cakeville, by Elaine Baldridge. It takes place in a town called Cakeville, where the people like to eat nothing but cake. "The funny little women all wore large white caps and they grew so fat they began to look like little sailboats." They compete with each other to make the largest and richest cake, until the king happens to ride through town in his golden carriage on the way to the castle. Smelling something delicious, he sends his Prime Minister to Dame Peters tiny green cottage. She has just made "a huge marshmallow cake with pink candies all over it" for her little son Peterkin, to be his first cake, but thrilled to have the king interested, she brings the cake to him, and the other dames bring out their cakes. The king and his servants eat all the cake, "getting frosting over their gold and purple robes" and he orders his men to gather up all the cakes in Cakeville and take them to the castle. "From now on no one must eat any cake or he will be put in prison. You must make the biggest, richest cakes you ever made or you will go to prison." says the king, and so it is. Every day the soldiers fill 15 large carts with cakes from the village, not letting any of people come near the pile of cakes "as high as a house." The people make do with bread and begin to forget what cake tastes like. Dame Peters regrets that Peterkin has never tasted cake (the king having eaten his birthday cake) and at night she sneaks past the soldiers and steals back a chocolate cake she has just baked. "She very carefully cut the middle out and hurried back to the cottage." The next day the castle servants eat all the cakes before the king has a chance, except the holed cake. When the king demands his cake, that's the only one left. The cook, to appease the king, says "Please, your Majesty, it is supposed to be that way. It is a tea cake." Because the king is so hungry, the "tea cake" tastes better than ever, and he decides that all his cakes shall be tea cakes from now on. The people of Cakeville "cut all the centers out of the cakes and became very fat and happy once more. ... That is the reason why so many tea cakes are made round with a hole in the center."  Other stories are: Squeak, by B.H. Hand  The Gift of Spring, by Myrtle Barbre  The Lavender Alligator of the Purple River, by Jeanne Opie  The Legend of the Ginseng, by Ruth Irwin The Windmill and the Tulips, by Margot Jackson  Tommy's Teeny Tiny Pig, by Ida Danziger  What Did the Bee Say, by I.L. Reisler Crocks of Gold, by Carol Ryrie Brink Sylvia's Autumn Gift, by Myrtle Barbre  and several poems.
Stories We Like, 1942.  I found this book on E-Bay and purchased it.  It contains "The Tea Cake from Cakeville" and "The Lavender Alligator" Published by Saalfield in I believe 1942.  I searched so long to find this book.  Having this book read to me was one of the delights of my childhood.  It has a picture on the front and back of a Lady Goose Wearing a hat & scarf and carrying an umbrella, looking into the window of a hat shop

Maybe too recent ... Ming Ming and the Lantern Dragon, by J.E. Edwards, illustrated by P. Aitken, published Methuen 1981, 110 pages. "Ming Ming is a Chinese boy living in a village. When all the people are starving because of a drought, Ming Ming determines to get the river to run again. He becomes involved with a river spirit, a giant Panda and the Sun Dragon. The Sun Dragon seems to reign supreme until Ming Ming gets the idea of turning all the people in a riverside village into the Dragon of the Thousand Eyes. They, together with the unknowing help of another river spirit, defeat the Sun Dragon. The rain clouds come in, the rivers fill again and all ends happily ever after. This is a Read Aloud book that should be welcomed by children everywhere." (Junior Bookshelf Feb/81 p.17)
D55 dragon cries river: well, after finally having the wit to do a search with dragon and parents mag as keywords, would suggest - Tears of the Dragon, by Hirosuke Hamada, illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki, published Parents Magazine Press, 1967  unpaginated. Translated from Ryuno Me No Namida, originally published by Kaisei Sha, Tokyo. "A little boy wants the dragon who lives in the mountains nearby, to come to his birthday party despite warnings that the creature is very wicked. The little boy and dragon become friends and the hatred drains out of the dragon and turns to love; he cries tears and makes a river."
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This book is about an Asian (country?) boy who lives in a small village. Everyone is afraid of a dragon who lives on a mountain (or far away place) above the village.  One day the boy decides to go visit the dragon and he learns that the dragon is quite lonely.  They become friends.  The version of the "book" that I remember is actually on large (place mat sized) picture cards with words on the back for the reader.

Kenneth Grahame, The Reluctant Dragon.  This plot sounds exactly like The Reluctant Dragon (excerpted from, I think, The Golden Age)--except that the boy there is not Asian. Maybe a retelling?
B184 Hamada Hirosuke, translated by Alvin Tresselt, Tears of the Dragon, illustrated by Iwasaki Chihiro. NY: Parents Magazine Press 1967.  Well, this one involves an Asian country boy and befriending a dragon. It's on the solved list. "Akito was the only boy in the village who did not believe that the great monster dragon that lived in the mountains would carry off bad children. He decided to find the dragon and invite him to his birthday party. His kindness made the dragon cry a river of tears that carried the boy on the dragons back down to the village and the dragon miraculously turned into a dragon boat for all the children to enjoy forever."

Whitcomb, Mary B., Tee-Bo on the Trail of the Persnickety Prowler. (1975)  This is the book. There is also a sequel, Tee-bo and the Great Hort Hunt.
Whitcomb, Mary Burg, Tee-bo and the Great Hort Hunt. (1978) This is it!  "With the stone they are also able to discover the magical land behind the waterfall where the Horts - a small elf-like people - live."  Thanks so much!

#A126--Abstract painter dad:  In the Georgie Stable books, The Teddy Bear Habit and Rich and Famous, by James Lincoln Collier, Georgie and his father live in Greenwich Village.  Georgie's father draws comic books for a living but longs to be an artist like Jackson Pollack or Andy Warhol.  I believe Rich and Famous appears on the "Solved Mysteries" page.
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The book I'm looking for is a mystery/adventure with a definate comical tone concerning a teddy bear that has jewels stashed inside it. The hero is a boy, and the bad guy wears a fez. I think it was illustrated with black and white line drawings, was probably published in the 1970's, and was geared toward middle school ages.

#J39--Jewels in a teddy bear:  The Teddy Bear Habit, by James Lincoln  Collier.  Its sequel Rich and Famous is on the solved page and, since I seem to remember solving this one before, I'm pretty sure it is, too.
Collier, James Lincoln, The Teddy Bear Habit.  NY Grosset 1967.  This is on the solved list, and seems like a reasonable match.
James Lincoln Collier, The Teddy Bear Habit.  "Twelve-year-old George Stable wants to be a rock star someday,
but he gets horrible stage fright - unless he has his old teddy bear with him. Hiding the teddy in his guitar seems like a brilliant idea until George discovers that someone has hidden jewels in the stuffing of his beloved bear. Quirky yet believable characters and a funky setting make this one a winner all around."
I submitted the stumper J39 Jewels in teddy bear, and I  believe it has been solved with "the Teddy Bear Habit". I had forgotten about the guitar but knew that was the one as soon as I read it. I looked at the solved mysteries entry and was struck by what different people remember - I had no recollection of the artist father, and they didn't mention the teddy bear! (I tried searching the solved section before submitting, but didn't realize I needed to search each section individually.....) I'm looking forward to sharing this book with my kids - especially my daughter who wants to be a rock star!
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Book about an old teddy bear dated before 1970. The cover had just as drawing of a teddy bear missing and eye, hardcover not jacket. The story was about the teddy and a little boy in an apartment, I think the Teddy Bear might have gotten lost. It's not "Charles"or "Courdory"

James Lincoln Collier, The Teddy Bear Habit, 1967. There's a missing teddy bear and an apartment in this one.  Check it out in Solved Mysteries to see if its the one you're looking for.

I found T31 in the LC online catalog.  Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow, by Sharon Boucher, Rand McNally, 1948
Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow is always late coming back from errands, because he stop and plays.  So his mother sends him on an errand, tells him to be sure to come back right away, and then plans a trip to his grandma's house to start promptly at the time Teddy Bear is supposed to come home.  Well, he comes back late again, and finds a babysitter there.  He cries big tears. The next morning, Mama gives him cookies from grandma (these are what impressed *me* the most, they looked like giant iced plates!), and he learns his lesson and is on time henceforth.
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A young bear misbehaves and goes to his Grandmother's house through the woods.  He was told not to.  If he did, he would miss out on some kind of treat.  The last page was the young bear and his Grandmother with a plate full of pink cookies.

I sometimes confuse stumpers for this book for Little Bear's Visit by Else Homelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak(An I Can Read Book).  But I think this one is Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow by Sharon Boucher, illustrated by Dean Bryant, published Rand McNally Elf Books 1948. The little bear misses out on a visit to grandma because he is always late, then is consoled by having her visit him and make giant cookies for him.
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A little bear lived with his Mama and Papa Bear and was always misbehaving. His parents kept warning him that he should mind them.  One day they told him to be in from playing at a certain time or he would be sorry.  He returned late and found that Mama and Papa had gone over on another mountain to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bear.  He was heartbroken because he loved going to their house.  Cousin Amanda Bear was at his house to babysit while Mama and Papa were gone.  He cried himself to sleep he was so sorry and disappointed.  When Mama and Papa came home they brought cookies from Grandma.  This is a precious book with beautiful word pictures.  It was about the size of a Golden Book. It also had pretty pictures, too.  I used it in my kndergarten class over 30 years ago.  I have a feeling it was printed much earlier.  Help me, please.

I think this one is Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow by Sharon Boucher, illustrated by Dean Bryant, published Rand McNally Elf Books 1948 (similar to Little Golden Books). The little bear misses out on a visit to grandma because he is always late, then is consoled by having her visit him and make giant cookies for him. I sometimes confuse stumpers for this book for Little Bear's Visit by Else Homelund Minarik, 1961, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (An I Can Read Book).
Richard Scarry, Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever.  The Richard Scarry book with the Pierre the Bear story that I inherited from my grandfather and still have has 4 stories inside this book.  It has a drawing of Pierre on the cover reading a book in front of the fire same as the first picture in the beginning of his story. The first story in this book is the City Mouse and the Country Mouse, then a story about a female crow with a piece Swiss cheese and a fox finally sweat talks her out of the piece of cheese, then the Pierre the Bear story, "In a wind swept cabin way up North lived brave Pierre the Bear.  He lived all alone."  And the last story is about a Duck that didn't like water until he had to rescue his friends.  My favorite book as a kid and probably the reason I think bears are to human to hunt.
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My sister remembers this book being read to her when she was in preschool in the early 1970's.  Her recollection is a story about a little bear who runs an errand for his mother.  His mother tells him to take the long path, not the shortcut.  He gets into trouble when he doesn't listen to his mother and takes the shortcut.  He may have fallen in a stream or gotten stung by a bear, but my sister is uncertain about these details.  Thanks so much for your help!

I don't remember the title or the author, but I do remember that the bear gets into poison ivy.  He gathers an armful of what he thinks are beautiful leaves and ends up with poison ivy all over himself.
Kathyn Jackson , The Golden Book of 365 Stories, 1998, reprint.  After doing some Google research on a bear and poison ivy, I'm wondering if this may be the book.  It is illustrated by Richard Scarry. There is a story about Hasty Bear who doesn't listen to his mother and picks a bouquet of poison ivy instead of flowers.  Does anyone know if the bear takes a short-cut, though?  The name "Hasty Bear" does imply that he is in a hurry.
Kathryn Jackson, Hasty Bear, 1955, copyright.  This is in "The Golden Book of 365 Stories" by Katheryn Jackson, illustrated by Richard Scarry.  It's the story for October 14th.  His mother asked him to pick some pretty leaves for her.  Hasty Bear was in such a hurry, he never heard her say "but don't pick the shiny, red, three leaved kind, because they are poison ivy and will make you itch".  Of course, that's what he brings home.  At the end of the story, he waits a whole minute to make sure he hears everything she says.
Sharon Boucher, Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow, 1948, copyright.  I showed my sister the story of Hasty Bear in The Golden Book of 365 Stories, but it wasn't the one she remembered.  Then I contacted the granddaughter of my sister's nursery school teacher, and she came up with Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow.  That was the one!  My sister had misremembered about the bear taking the long path (he was actually supposed to take the short-cut), but the mystery is solved.  Thanks for the help - it's a great website!

For T56 the name of the book is The Teddy * Bear Twins and it was published by Rand McNally Elf book. The copy I have was published in 1965.  The bears' names were Floppy and Flip.  They go to town on a train and get a haircut, ride in a taxi that has a flat, ride in a canoe that tips over then go back to the hotel to have a shower.  I love this book and so do my children!
Wing, Helen.  The Teddy Bear Twins.  Illustrated by Marjorie Cooper.  Elf Book #8453, #8637, & #8722.  1965.

the story is about Floppy and Flip   two bears   a rhyming story   they go on adventures That is all I have??
The Solved Mysteries page has Teddy Bear Twins featuring Flippy & Flop, a Rand McNally Elf book.  Close enough?

A188 Lewellen, John [Llewellyn]  Tee Vee Humphrey    illus by Kurt Werth Knopf    c1957    Weekly Reader edition 1958    television broadcasting - juvenile fiction

Mary Norton, Borrowers Series, 1950s-1960s.  This sounds like the Borrowers series.  The borrower family lived in a shoe in The Borrowers Afield, and something similar to the sink incident happened in The Borrowers Afloat. The illustrations by Beth and Jo Krush in the US editions were verey detailed, though I wouldn't call them photographic.
Donahey, William, Adventures of the Teenie Weenies. Chicago, Reilly 1920.  The illustrations for these are closer to photographic, being very detailed, not scribbly (like the Krush illos) and coloured & shaded. "This is the first of the large Teenie Weenie books and we are introduced to these folks who live in a shoe-house under a rose bush, in a neat little village hidden away in the midst of a thicket."
John Peterson, The Littles.  Your description sounds a lot like a series of books I read to my daughter when she was little.  "The Littles" by John Peterson and illustrated by Roberta Clark. Published by Scholastic. I am not sure of the exact first printing date, but you could probably find that out on your own. Hope this helps!!
Although the Clock family lives in a boot during The Borrowers Afield, the Borrowers series by author Mary Norton is probably not the one being sought.  Beth and Joe Krush's black and white line illustrations are detailed, but not photographic, and there is no illustration matching the stumper requester's description in any of the five books in the series.  The "similar to the sink incident" in The Borrowers Afloat is an illustration of the family sliding down a cord suspended in the drain in the floor of the wash house, while a friend hoists the drain's metal grating aloft.  Also, the first book, The Borrowers, was written in 1952, so the series may not be "old" enough for the stumper requester.
The Littles series by author John Lawrence Peterson and illustrator Roberta Carter Clark is also probably not "old" enough, since the first book, The Littles, was published in 1967.  I have not read every book in the series (at least eleven titles by Peterson, followed by at least five "Littles first readers" adaptations by author Teddy Slater and illustrator Jacqueline Rogers), so I don't know if the illustration described is in any of the books, but I do remember one interesting fact about the Littles that may help the stumper requester decide if this is the sought series.  The Littles have TAILS covered with fluffy, luxuriant fur.  If your little people don't have tails, they're not the Littles.
William Donahey, author/illustrator, The Teenie Weenies (and nine sequels) 1916-1945.   I've never read William Donahey's Teenie Weenies series, but you can see examples of his work (and covers from his books) on this website.  The illustrations are certainly detailed, vividly colored, carefully shaded, and nearly photographic in quality.  If you scroll down the page, you can see an illustration of the shoe house on the cover of the book Teenie Weenie Town and in the map of the town just a little further down the page.  The first book, The Teenie Weenies, was published in 1916, and the last book, Teenie Weenie Neighbors, was published in 1945, so this series is definitely "old"!  I think this may be the series you're looking for! 

The folk tale is The Teeny Tiny Woman.  Our copy is illustrated by Margot Zemach and is printed in a teeny tiny format.  Many other authors and illustrators have attacked this creepy tale, including Harriet Ziefert and Paul Galdone.  This has also been published under slightly varied titles, such as The Little Tiny Woman.

There's a book by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulairecalled THE TWO CARS that features an old car and a new car who share a garage.  It was published in 1955, so this is all relative.  The old car is boxy and tall and red; the old car is sleek and low and green.  They go along together with the old car lagging in every way until the new car meets the traffic cop, and after that their fortunes change.  When they get home at last, the old car says to the new car: "You won the race, but not the praise.  I still think I am the best car on the road.  But you will be a fine car, too, when you get older..."  This could be it!  But 1st editions are pricey, and I'm not sure how many reprints are available.   On second thought, I do not think The Two Cars is the book being sought here...
I'm wondering is C-21, out-of-date car, could be the Wonder Book All in a Day's Work.  It doesn't match exactly, but has elements in common, and maybe the story will ring a bell.  A "little old car" (looks like a red model-T with a yellow cloth roof) goes down the street.  He meets a "big, new green car" that can't start and gives him a push.  He meets a "great big trailer truck" and brings him gas.  Then he meets a "blue pick-up truck" and helps him fix a flat tire.  None of the others thank him, but he just says "It is all in a day's work."  In winter one day, he's driving along the road and flips off and turns over.  He's convinced he's done for, but along come the three vehicles he helped, and they get him out of the ditch, saying things like "Oh, and I forgot to pay you for the gas."  And the little old car goes off down the road. The story is by Caroline D. Emerson; pictures by Sergio Leone.  The copy I have is c1964 by Wonder, division of Grosset & Dunlap.
Probably too late, and English, but there's The Old Car by Elisabeth Borchers, illustrated by Werner Maurer, published London, Blackie 1967 "The old car is sad and shy because it (or he) is different from the others,
with his old-fashioned horn and high weels. So he goes off alone through seacoast and jungle, into the desert. There the animals speak to him kindly and give him confidence. And when he returns to the town, his owner, Mr. Flups, is waiting to greet him, with two tears in his eyes. With strong yet dreamlike pictures, in appropriate colours." (Best Children's Books of 1967)
Another possible is Little Old Automobile, written and illustrated by Marie Hall Ets, published Viking 1948. "What finally happened to a little old automobile which refused to give anyone or anything time to get out of its way. Marie Ets at her most amusing. Picture Book age." (HB Ju./48 p.231 pub.ad)
C21 car out of date: here's another, though perhaps too long - Mat and Mandy and the Little Old Car, by Ruth Simon, illustrated by Lisl Weil, published Crowell 1953, 110 pages. "Younger children will enjoy reading for themselves this gay account of a family's escape from the summer heat in a battered old car that manages to carry them up the little brown hills and the big blue mountaints of California. Says Mat, 'Our car is not new. Our car is not big. But our little old car can go anywhere it wants!'" (HB Feb/53 p.47)
I remember a book from childhood that I think had a similar theme. I thought it was a Little Golden Book called Hesperus yetI could never find it in any searches! Now it turns out it was a Bonnie Book called The Television Book of Hesperus. I wish I could find a copy to verify my memories of this story-it might match your inquire.
Bonnie Books had a series of "Television Books", so named for the moving wheel that changed pictures on the front cover. Hesperus is from this series, NY: John Martin's House, Bonnie Book, 1949.

Walsh, Morris.  There are several titles - don't know if they're all the same or different:  Hesperus (1947) / Hesperus Was An Automobile (1948) / Hesperus (1968) / Hesperus: The Story Of A Jalopy (1966) "A tired old jalopy gets a new lease on lfe with a new owner."
The Television Book of Hesperus, 1949, approximately.  A Bonnie Book, not a Golden Book, this one is about a junkyard car named Hesperus and the big family that drove around in him. I haven't read it since I was little, so the memories are fuzzy, but the cover had a wheel you could turn and change the pictures in a screen over top of the car. This is also in Solved Mysteries under T.

Possibly TELL ME, CAT (A Big Golden Book) by Ellen Fisher, Stitchery by Virginia Tiffany. I have Two Kittens with embroidery, stitched by Tiffany, and photographs very much like description so possibly she did several with other authors.
Esther Averill, Jenny Goes to Sea, 1957.  This doesn't sound exactly like the stumper, but it does have cats and there is a
trip to Zanzibar.
To the person who first guessed at this, I would like more info about the book you listed...Two Kittens who is the author and I'm wondering if you would possibly email me a photo or scan of your book. It is a book I'd be interested in purchasing if I can find a copy
Here's what I found on that: Marjory Schwalje, Two Kittens.  Whitman, Racine, 1966.  Tell-A-Tale Book #2525.  28 pages. Stitchery by Virginia Tiffany. Photographs by ZFA, Duesseldorf.  Tell-a-Tale books are even smaller than Little Golden Books.  I can find you a good copy for $20 if you'd like.
I agree with the first suggestion that this might be Tell Me, Cat.  It's an oversized book with poems, embroidery and photographs of cats.
Ellen Fisher, Tell Me Cat.  Solved!! It is Tell me Cat. I found the book on ebay!! Thanks to you who helped.

I have been looking for this for YEARS!!! Your readers out there have solved it!! I can now purchase this book and feel like my book collection will be complete.  Tell me a Mitzi is the correct book!! Thank you so much!!

Doris Van Liew Foster, Tell Me, Mr. Owl, 1957.  Could this be it?  The HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE OF LITTLE BOY & MR. OWL.
My stumper has been solved.  Tell Me, Mr. Owl isn't exactly as I remembered it, but it's been over thirty years. Still, I'm really glad you found it for me and I've been telling all my friends about your site. Now that I've achieved my final goal, I realize I should've set the bar a tad higher goalwise.

The book is TELL NO ONE by Harlan Coben. It came out in hardback in 2001 from Delacorte Press, but is now available in paperback. TELL NO ONE was the first book by Coben that was NOT part of his Myron Bolitar mystery series.
The book stumper number is D168 and its been solved thanks! I lent my mother-in-law the book and she lent it to someone else because she forgot it was mine so now I know what it is called she can buy me another copy. Thank again.

I think this is Barbara Cohen, Tell Us Your Secret (Bantam,1989)
Hello.  I was the person who asked about W24, the book about the Writers' conference. I just wanted to let you know that the answer was absolutely right!! Thanks so much for your help; this is a wonderful site for book-lovers.

This sounds like The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright.  Check out other comments and memories on the Solved Mysteries page to confirm.
Thanks very much for your response!  Unfortunately, the book I'm looking for is definitely not The Four Story Mistake. Those details don't ring a bell, although some parts do sound similar.  Additional details: I think the name of the girl who wrote the diary was Celia or Cecily. I think the main character (Calandra?) was a part of a large family, and that the bit about the secret room and the diary may have been just a small part of a much larger story. I also seem to remember something about Christmas, having a country Christmas, an orphaned deer, a Halloween party and possibly hiding a rabbit in the secret room. Love the site!
G51 Girl finds secret room in new house sounds like M107 Millowner's daughter's diary
Hi there, I'm the original searcher for G51. Curiosity got the better of me, and I went looking through my old bedroom for this book. I eventually found it packed away with the Baby-sitters Club series. It's called Ten Kids, No Pets and it's by Ann M. Martin. Interestingly, the secret room doesn't figure that prominently in the book! Thanks very much for posting my query and giving suggestions as to what it might be. :o)

G17 this one for sure - the story is Floral Tribute by Robert Bloch, first published in Wierd Tales in 1949, and probably anthologised umpteen times since. My copy is in The Devil's Generation, edited by Vic Ghidalia, Lancer, 1973. Eddie is raised by his grandmother Hannah Morse, who lives "right in the back of the cemetery" and sends him over the fence to get flowers for the table. His friends are Joe and Susie, and his grandmother's visitors include Sam Gates, a Civil War soldier. Eddie comes back after being invalided out of the army (WWII) and finds his grandmother the same, till she sends him to get flowers again, from her grave. Sweet sad story.
Can I suggest in the same vein a children's book The Gathering Room by Colby Rodowsky, about Mudge, a little boy whose father has a caretaking job at an old Victorian cemetery. Mudge plays with Dorro, a little girl who died at age 10. Other ghosts are the Captain, the Butterfly Lady who recites poetry, and the Judge.
Ross Olney (editor), SHUDDERS (a.k.a. TEN TALES CALCULATED TO GIVE YOU SHUDDERS)'
from 1972. The *story* sought in G17 has already been identified, but in case questioner also wants to refind the original book, the only anthology which contains *both* Bloch's "Floral Tribute" and Jacobs' "Monkey's Paw" is the Whitman hc juvenile anthology SHUDDERS ed. Ross Olney (1972), so presumably that'\''s the one where the questioner read the Bloch story.  (Match found via THE SUPERNATURAL INDEX by Mike Ashley and William Contento  Greenwood Press, 1995).
This may be the anthology wanted - Ten Tales Calculated to Give You SHUDDERS, edited by Ross R. Olney, published Whitman 1972. Cover picture in blue/green tones shows teenage girl and boy looking back apprehensively at old wooden house with lit window above porch, ominous shadow in window. Stories are Sweets to the Sweet; Waxwork; Used Car; Inexperienced Ghost; Whistling Room; Last Drive; Monkey's Paw; Second Night Out; Hills Beyond Furcy; Floral Tribute.
Floral Tribute
Forgive me if I may have sent part of this information before, but I have something to add, so am sending it all.  "Floral Tribute" never appeared in ANY Robert Bloch collection, including The Complete Stories of Robert
Bloch, which seems to me to be really false advertising.  How can anything be "The Complete Stories" if it doesn't contain ALL the author's published stories?  It appeared in only three anthologies which I could find, The
Devil's Generation, edited by Vic Ghidalia, Legends for the Dark, edited by Peter Haining, and Shudders, edited by Ross R. Olney, so is not as well-known as the solver assumed.  Without this forum, I'd NEVER have known about it!

"The Cactus Indian" is one of many little stories. Jackson, Kathryn; Byron Jackson Tenggren¹s cowboys and Indians  illus by Tenggren Simon and Schuster  1948
This is Tenggren's Cowboys and Indians, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, and written by Kathy and Byron Jackson.  I think it was originally published in1948, but has been reprinted many times.

Dan Tyler Moore, The Terrible Game. This was made into a terrible movie called "Gymkata", with former Olympic  gymnast Kurt Thomas.  I haven't read the book by Dan Tyler Moore, but it was called the Terrible Game and if the plot was like the movie, this is the book.

Elizabeth C. Spykman , Terrible, Horrible Edie. Poster doesn't say what era, but the "Edie" book series is like this. This is the onlt title I remember --which doesn't have the bike (in this one she doesn't lots of bad things including locking a hated cousin in the boathouse. I loved these books when I read them in the early 60s.

I wrote to Loganberry books years ago (2004 or 2005) looking for a book that described harrowing situations. The suggested book was "Terrible, Horrible Edie." I just wanted to let you know that I finally found the book I have been remembering. (I have not spent all these years searching!) It's "Some Things are Scary" by Florence Parry Heide, illustrated by Jules Feiffer, originally printed in 1969 and reprinted in 2000. The timing jibes, as my recollection is that I would have read it in 1972. I haven't seen the actual book yet, but there is apparently very little text, mostly captions that set the scene.

The Terrible Truth: Secrets of A Sixth Grader
Book I read in elementary school in the late 1980's. Began with main character (elementary school aged girl) talking about having lot of different clothes and wearing different outfits to school, including some madras plaid.  Discussed her home and school life, fitting in, friends (boy), parents...

SOLVED: Stephen Roos, The Terrible Truth: Secrets of A Sixth Grader, 2/1/1984. After much digging on my own, I finally figured out the title of the book I was looking for!

Solved: Jesse Jackson, Tessie. This is it!  This has been driving me crazy for years, truly.  Thanks, book lovers!

T156: The Thanksgiving Treasure by Gail Rock, 1974? She actually gets a horse at the end, though! Rock wrote at least three other books about Addie, including The House Without a Christmas Tree, which I love, especially for the author's sense of humor.
Gail Rock, The Thanksgiving Treasure, 1974.  An Addie Mills Story from the Television Special starring Jason Robards. Addie's Thanksgiving gesture toward a crochety old man enriches both their lives. Maybe?
Gail Rock, The Thanksgiving Treasure (A Dell Yearling Book), 1974.  This story sounds like The Thanksgiving Treasure by Gail Rock who also wrote The House Without A Christmas Tree. The latter was on TV and caught my interest so I read these other books by her including A Dream for Addie. The stories revolve around Addie from Nebraska in the 1940's. She lives with her widowed father (played by Jason Robards) and her grandmother.  They are relatively poor and full of pride and are very private. Addie is so opposite by being an outgoing,disarming and clever pre-teen who unbeknownst to her Dad, befriends this old man and his horse in The Thanksgiving Treasure. Addie learns that her father and the old man have had an on-going feud for years which she helps heal as the wise peace-maker. The old man dies and leaves his horse "Treasure" to her and this fulfills a lifelong dream of of hers to own a horse.  I hope this helps.

You've got it.  Anne Emery, That Archer Girl, Westminster Press, 1959.  Anne is beautiful, wealthy, and secure in the knowledge that she always gets what she wants. But ultimately her selfish games cost her not only her boyfriend, but her best friend. 

That Barbara by Wilma Thompson! Barbara's homemade dress falls apart when she wears it. This is a delightful, old fashioned,coming-of-age story with a funny heroine. Charming!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me find the name of this book and the author! I have already ordered the book and can't wait to get it for my daughter.  (Although I might read it first)! I highly recommend it to anyone who has a "coming of age" daughter and for their mothers who would like a comical "trip down memory lane".

Jessamyn West, Cress Delahanty, 1950's.  possibly?
Lila Perl, That Crazy April.  I'm sure this is the one.
Lila Perl, That Crazy April, 1974. Sounds like this is definitely the right book.

Georgiana, That Donkey, 1954.  No one understood "that donkey" had cold ears, until Laura came to live on the farm.  First, she made him a pair of brightly-colored mittens for his ears, but everyone laughed at him and made him sad.  So Laura made him a pair of brown ear-mittens, just the color of his own ears.  The author, Georgiana (a pseudonym, but I don't know her real name), is listed on this site under "Most Requested Books" (although it does not mention this title).
I requested the name for this and it indeed was solved. Thank you very much...

the book is in fact THAT DONKEY by Georgiana - you solved it already for someone else. Thx !
That Donkey by Georgiana (pseudonym of Dorothy Grider), 1954.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "T" page for more information!

The title is That Jones Girl, by Elisabeth Hamilton Friermood, published in 1956.  Holds up well to reading today -- in fact I reread it not long ago.  Just discovered your site today and glad I could help!

you had all the info right, but for some reason it's a hard one to find!  I did find an ex-library copy though.
Kroll, Steven. That Makes Me Mad! Illustrated by Hilary Knight. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976. First edition, ex-library with library markings.  <SOLD>

Carol Nicklaus, That's not Chester!, 1975.  Chester, the family cat, is left behind at vacation time but the Smith family sees his face everywhere during their trip.

De Angeli, Marguerite. THEE, HANNAH!  Doubleday Doran & Co., 1940. Adventures of young Quaker girl and her family during Quaker Week. They help a slave woman and her little boy to escape.

Pipaluk Freuchen, Eskimo Boy, 1951.  A possibility.
E44 Freuchen, Pipaluk [daughter of Peter Freuchen]  Eskimo boy.  ilus by Ingrid Vang Nyman. Lothrop, 1951. Greenland
eskimos - juvenile fiction; coming of age
Lorraine Beim, The Little Igloo. This could be The Little Igloo, in which an Eskimo boy is learns to build an igloo for his dog, and is teased for it. When he and the dog get lost in a storm, however, he is able to build them both an igloo and survive until they are found.
This might be it!! Their First Igloo on Baffin Island by Barbara True and Marguerite Henry. 1943 Illustrated by Gladys Blackwood Rourke. I found it excerpted in an old California State Reading Series-book called Along the Sunshine Trail. Two eskimo children, Nuka and Palea (a girl)- I think brother and sister, get lost in storm. 

Lionni, Leo, Theodore and the Talking Mushroom, Pantheon, 1971.  "The blue mushroom says only one strange word but Theodore the mouse convinces his friends that it means nice things about him."
Leo Lionni, Theodore and the Talking Mushroom, 1971.  Theodore the mouse lives in an oak stump with his friends, a lizard, frog and turtle.  The other three seem special, while Theodore feels ordinary and is easily frightened.  One day, he finds a blue mushroom that says, "Quirp!"  He tells his friends that he has discovered the Mushroom of Truth and that he alone can understand its language---and that it is saying that the mouse should be venerated above all other animals.  All of the animals believe Theodore, and his life is pretty cushy until the day that he and his friends discover a valley filled with blue mushrooms that say, "Quirp!"  Theodore's charade is over, and he runs away from his angry friends and is never seen again.  In 1997, this story was reprinted in Frederick's Fables: a treasury of 16 Leo Lionni stories.

Mary Crosbie, There and Back Again, The Story of a Family, 1927.  Could be -- I've never read the book, but it fits the title and timeline.
Evelyn Davey-Collins, There and Back Again.  Illustrated by M W Whittington.  Published Arthur H Stockwell, no date but probably 1930s/1940s.  Decorated blue cloth boards.  Size 16 x 21.5cm approx., 143 pages.  While their parents are abroad, the twins, Jerry and Joan accompany Rosy Liza (a devoted DUTCH DOLL) to the enchanting land of There-and-Back-Again, where they enjoy a most exciting holiday with Uncle Pumpkin, at Cucumber Cottage.  The twins visit Toy Village where they are mistaken for Jack and Jill and put in the Nursery Rhyme Book, attend Dame Gingerbread’s School, meet Sammy The GOLLIWOG-MAN, The Star Keeper, and the Sky Fairies and many other intriguing characters.
Thank you so much - At long last I know know the author....I'm so grateful

How ‘bout a penguin?  I have a Rand McNally Junior Elf book here called Little Penguin.  It’s written by Carrie Rarick and illustrated by Vivienne Blake DeMuth in 1955 and features a little penguin on the cover.  There's also a famous, and early, Little Golden Book about a penguin named Pablo.  It's one of the first Disney LGB books.  Um, you said Puffin, didn't you?  Oh well.
Could P25 be an illustrated version of the Poem that goes:
There once was a Puffin / Shaped just like a muffin / And he lived on an island / in the deep blue sea./ And he ate little fishes / That were most delicious / and he had them for supper /  and he had them for tea...
I think it might be Edward Lear.  If this sounds like it, I'll check my poetry books to be sure, as I know we have several copies.  The Puffin is sad because he has nobody to play with, and the fish offer to play iwth him if he'll stop eating them.  He agrees and has pancakes instead.
I love your site! Some of the requests brought back childhod memories of stories read long ago, especially The Phoenix and the Carpet. Thanks!!   But my problem is searching for the poem "There Once Was A Puffin" referred to in P25 of your website. It was written by Florence Page Jaques- this much I have found out. I would like the whole poem. In third grade the teacher read it to our class and I have never forgotten it, but could never locate it. Can you find a website where the whole thing is written out? It seems it is not available since the publisher is out of stock (boo hiss). Thanks for a great site.
I am happy to say I finally found it! It was in the library as a children's picture book. The publisher is Dutton Children's Books, the ISBN # is: 0-525-45291-5. The author as I wrote last time is Florence Page Jaques, the illustrator of this book is Laura Mcgee Kvasnosky. And here is the poem (ta- daaaaaaa!)

I hope you and everyone else enjoy this. I had to memorized this poem in 3rd grade in a little elementary school in Maine back in 1960. I love your site and will return often just for the memories and the smiles. Thanks so much!

My Mother used to read to me from a book that she received for free after ordering a set of encyclopedias (as I remember)  There was a poem in it about "The Pirate of Dundee" as well as a poem about a Puffin
There once was a Puffin / Who sat on his Tuffin / out in the deep blue sea / He ate little fishes / That were most delicious / He had them for lunch / And he had them for tea.  It goes on from there but those are the only stanzas I remember.  Can you find me the title and author or publisher of this book?  I'd like to have a copy again.
I noticed on your solved mysteries page, you've an item about "there once was a puffin". this poem also appears in the big golden book of poetry (another of your solved mysteries); it is on the last page of the book.
the last red query mentions a book that came free with encyclopedias, containing "The Pirate of Dundee" plus the puffin poem, and asks for its title/author.  Doesn't say how old that book was, but in case this person is still looking, there is One Hundred Best Poems for Boys and Girls, compiled by Marjorie Barrows (Whitman, 1930).  It contains the Puffin and also "Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee" by Mildred Plew Merryman.  (If this is the right pirate poem, it starts Ho, for the pirate Don Durk of Dowdee! / He was as wicked as wicked could be / But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see! / The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.)  It's a small book (5x7), orange with white polka dots and a black spine, with cardboard covers and low-quality paper  the illustrations are silhouettes.

D29: Wouldn't be Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Bridwell?
The book I'm looking for is definitely NOT a Clifford book.  I'm the youngest child in the family so may remember it the least.  I've asked my siblings for more details but have yet to hear from them.  The book was hardcover, probably clothbound.  It had black ink drawings.  I vaguely remember the dog being black.  It had mostly text with  a picture every 2nd or 3rd page.
Think I read this in an anthology when I was small.  The dog was a Scottie and his name was Tammie There was Tammie  just looked at abebooks.com and they list the author as Marguerite and Dorothy Bryan.  Hope this helps....
Got a call from a sister.  She said the book was probably a Weekly Reader and would have been purchased in the mid to late 60's.  The story is about a bunch of raccoons who cause trouble for which the dog is blamed.  The dog ends up in the middle of everything as he tries to warn the family about the raccoons.  In the end, he is finally able to show the family exactly who it is that's making all the messes.
D29 The answer COULD be the Mishmash books by Molly Cone. The first one came out in 1962 and there were seven different ones. He was a black dog that caused lots of trouble (I don't remember that specific phrase
repeating, but I haven't read it since my childhood) One word of warning. The illustrator you would remember is Leonard Shortall (think of the illustrations in the classic Encyclopedia Brown books, or the illustrations for the original The Bully of Barkham Street)  The re-issue copy has a new cover (I can't speak for the pictures inside, although Shortall is still listed as the illustrator)
I FOUND IT!!!!!!!  Thanks for all your help.  I've confirmed that the book is There Was Timmy by Sally Scott.  It was published in 1959 by Harcourt Brace & Co. for Weekly Reader.  But if you have it I'd prefer to buy it from you as a Thank You for your help and your wonderful site.  God Bless and Merry Christmas Mom!
Alas, I do not currently have There Was Timmy.  I do appreciate your asking, however, and am grateful that I could help solve he mystery for you.  Please visit Loganberry again!

Jolly Roger Bradfield, There's an Elephant in the Bathtub, 1964.  This sounds similar to Jolly Roger Bradfield's very first picture book, There's an Elephant in the Bathtub.  He later wrote two more books with very similar themes (Benjamin Dilley's Thirsty Camel and Benjamin Dilley's Lavendar Lion).  You can read all about Jolly Roger Bradfield and his books on this very site, under "Most Requested Books"

They Loved to Laugh
An orphaned girl lives with a family with 4 sons just before the Civil War.  She raises silk worms.  She is engaged to the eldest son who is killed in the war.

I believe this one is They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth.
Here is the summary for They Loved to Laugh, from the LC record: "Summary: In 1831 in rural North Carolina, sixteen-year-old Martitia, newly orphaned and timid, comes to live with a large, boisterous Quaker family whose five sons delight in teasing and laughter. "
Perhaps - They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth, published in 1942 by Doubleday. An orphan girl is adopted by a Quaker family in the 1830s. There are 5 sons, including Jonathan and Clarkson. The girl's name is Martitia.There is also a daughter, Ruth, who tells Martitia that "every tub must stand on its own bottom". Her aunt and uncle, in Richmond, try to take her away because they disapprove of the Quaker's religious beliefs. She raises silkworms to help pay for Jonathan's education. Clarkson falls in love with her but dies of yellow fever.
---
I read this book several times when I was in junior high in the 60's.  It was about a young girl who was orphaned and sent to live with a country family who had 4 or 5 older sons who always teased her.  I think there was a daughter also, who thought the girl was kind of useless since she didn't know how to do anything.  She learns weaving and other household chores.  In the end, she falls in a well, or is trapped somewhere and almost dies, but one of the sons finds her.  You get the impression she had been falling in love with the one who finds her, but it is a different brother's name she is calling out in delirium.

Kathryn Worth, They Loved To Laugh.  This one's often asked about on book search boards.  It's based on the author's family history and tells the story of Martitia, a young orphan who goes to live with a Quaker family.  The incident you refer to takes place in a springhouse or icehouse, where Martitia is stranded with a broken leg.
Worth, Kathryn, They Loved to Laugh.  Don't know about the well, but here's the description of this book: "In 1831 in rural North Carolina, sixteen-year-old Martitia, newly orphaned and timid, comes to live with a large, boisterous Quaker family whose five sons delight in teasing and laughter."
Worth, Kathryn, They Loved to Laugh.  I don't remember the well, but other details match.  The family were Quaker, and the girl, Martitia, ended up falling in love with one of the sons, Jonathan.  In print from Bethlehem Books (1996), but I know it's much older  - I read it in the late 60s-early 70s.
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh.  This was recently reissued by Bethlehem Books.  Their description:  "16-year-old orphan Martitia Howland has been transplanted into a Quaker farm family of five intimidating sons and one disapproving daughter.  As Martitia runs their gauntlet [sic], she begins to bloom.  Valiantly she acquires the skills they expect of her, and discovers other gifts all her own.  Her achievements earn respect in the end and more, her heart's true love."
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1942, copyright.  I love this book and I'm sure it's the one!
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1959, copyright.  Sounds like this one, one of my favorites of all time.
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1942, approximate.  Thank you so much for helping me with this!  I don't know how I would have figured it out!
---

This is young adult fiction, story took place in the U.S. I'm thinking in the mid-19th century. A girl (probably recently orphaned) is sent to live with her cousins. I think it was a large family of boys -- though I remember only two of them -- and one girl. The protagonist was a city girl who had to be taught to do the work of a farm household. There was one scene I remember where she's caught by her girl cousin sweeping dust under a rug. Protagonist wore her dark her short and used a ribbon for a head band, and I remember I eventually cut my long hair short because of this book. She falls in love with the middle brother, who is kind and friendly to her from the beginning. Then he dies and in the end she learns to care for the oldest brother, who has always loved her. He's much more serious and is studying to be a lawyer -- I remember thinking of him as sort of a Lincoln kind of character. This is all I remember!

Perhaps this is They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth?  I haven't read it, but it's shown up as a stumper before, and Loganberry has a copy for sale!
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1942, copyright.
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1942, copyright.  Definitely this is the book - I have read this many times over!  "In 1831 in rural North Carolina, sixteen-year-old Martitia, newly orphaned and timid, comes to live with a large, boisterous Quaker family whose five sons delight in teasing and laughter."
Kathryn Worth, They Loved to Laugh, 1942.  This is it! I'm pretty certain, since I remember the names Ruth and Jonathan. So they weren't cousins after all -- interesting that this is a true story too. I can't believe how easy this was; I've been trying to find this book for probably 20 years. I'm so delighted!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Worth, Kathryn.  They Loved to Laugh.  Illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli.  Doubleday & Co., 1942.  DJ hardback.  F/VG.  $25.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Worth, Kathryn.  They Loved to Laugh.  illus by Marguerite deAngeli.  Doubleday & Company, 1942.  Ex-library edition with the usual marks and rear pocket, dust jacket in library mylar protector; pages soft and clean.  G.  $18

Piasecki, Jerry, They're Torturing Teachers in Room 104. (1992)  Definitely the book you want. The kids in Room 104 have a reputation for going through more teachers than any other class in school when Ms. Merriweather arrives and with the help of her talking door Sidney she shows the kids how awful their futures will be unless they get their acts together.
They're Torturing Teachers in Room 104.  Yes, that's the book!  Thank you very much.

The book you're looking for is The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (1992).  When ten year old Harvey Swick wishes to be delivered from a boring February afternoon, the grinning and mysterious Rictus invites him to Mr. Hood's Holiday House.  This wonderful place has four seasons every day, with lovely spring mornings, summer afternoons, Halloween evenings, and Christmas every night.  Harvey befriends the other children who inhabit the house, but is puzzled when the children disappear and the number of fish inhabiting the pond increases.  A favorite at our house!
Thank you so much, that is most certainly the book I was looking for, I cant thank you enough for finding me the book! What a fantastic site, the best $2 ive ever spent!

A26 might be Thin Arnold by Joan Chase Bacon, published by Golden in 1970.  There is a webpage with the text at http://www.streetcarmike.net/thinarnold.html/
The suggested title Thin Arnold seems to match pretty well, since it is about a rabbit called Arnold who is always late (is thin because his family eats before him) but eventually saves the day, and the publication date works.

This is most definitely The Thing in Dolores' Piano by Robert Tallon.
Robert Tallon, The Thing in Dolores' Piano, 1970.  Published by Bobbs-Merrill.  "Summary: The notes in Dolores' piano have had enough of her horrible piano playing, but Dolores finds something with which to fight their rebellion."

Things to Know
I am looking for a set of books I had as a child, probably about the mid-1980s. My mother couldn't remember this set at all, and my sister and I were only able to remember these vague details: It was a boxed set of two hard-cover volumes of what we think would fall in the category of nursery rhymes/poems. The "box" was completely open on one side and it looked like a red brick building. I think the books' covers also had the same brick design on them. I know it isn't much to go on, but I remember loving that set and would love to find it to share with my children.

SOLVED: Richard Scarry, Things to Know, 1971. I found it! Using a magnifying glass with an old polaroid that happened to have one of the volumes in the background. One of the books is Things to Know by Richard Scarry. There were also two others--Going Places and Best Stories Ever. I found that the collection may have been titled Look and Learn Library. So I was wrong about there being two volumes  there were three. Thanks so much for your service, though!

Beverly Cleary wrote a book called Janet's Thingamajigs, but the characters are fairly human.
Irene Keller , The Thingumajig book of manners, 1981.  "Thingumajigs are ugly creatures who slurp their soup, slam doors, scratch where they itch, and all talk at once."

I don't have a solution for you, but I definitely remember this book.  I had it as a child, and it was in a horizontal format, yellow, with a blue butterfly on the lower right cover drawn as two triangles for wings.  My first thought was it was I Like You or another title by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, because that has a similar line about first putting your socks on, then your pants on, but I couldn't find my copy to check it.  I don't remember the peanut butter sandwiches, but I definitely remember "I was thinking..."  It is absolutely a book from the early to mid 60's. Good luck!
Sandol Stoddard Warburg, The Thinking Book, 1960. She also wrote, as you surmised, I Like You, available in reprint. The Thinking Book was illustrated by Ivan Chermayoff at age 28! It is as wonderful as you remember.

Stephen King as Richard Bachman, Thinner. This sounds similar but in "Thinner" a gypsy curses a man and he keeps getting thinner and thinner.

Candice F. Ransom, Fourteen and Holding, 1987 (may be a reprint).  There are several books in this series by Candice F. Ransom about Kobie, her friend Gretchen - the car accident actually happened in the book Thirteen, but Fourteen and Holding covers Kobie going back to school to start 9th grade without Gretchen.
Candice F. Ransom, Thirteen, 1986.  Thirteen is definitely the book I was looking for! I didn't even know there were others. I just ordered the entire series: Almost Ten and a Half, Going on Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen and Holding, and Fifteen at Last.

Debbie says this sounds like a book called Ndzinga, but neither one of us can spell it.
Reba P. Mirsky, Thirty-one Brothers and Sisters,  1969.  This is the first of a series featuring Nomusa.( All the details match, but the nurse appears in a later volume)
Reba Paeff Mirsky, Nomusa and the New Magic, late '50s-early '60s.  Actually, there are three books in this series: 1) Thirty-one Brothers and Sisters, 2) Seven Grandmothers, and 3) Nomusa and the New Magic. The first two have numbers & relatives in the titles--and as I recall the third is about the visiting nurse.
The book that Debbie and Harriett are thinking of is Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595 by Patricia McKissack, but it's part of the "Royal Diaries" series that are very popular now---I don't believe they were around in the seventies.  One place the requester might want to check is the complete list of Reading Rainbow books (available at readingrainbow.com), since they have a gold decal that looks similar to the Newbery Medal sticker.
Thank you!!!  The books I was looking for are Reba Paeff Mirsky's Thirty-one Brothers and Sisters series.  Thanks to your wonderful contributors for solving this mystery that has been driving me crazy for years!
I saw that someone was interested in Thirty-One Brothers and Sisters by Reba Paeff Mirsky. The author, my grandmother, won a Follett award for the book which was the first in a series of three. I am thinking about re-issuing these books. I wonder if there's any way to know how interested the public would be...  Any interest?

Leon Wilson, This Boy Cody.  Or a sequel? About a young boy Cody in the Tennessee mountains. I don't remember the details.
Elizabeth Enright, Spiderweb for Two. I can't find my copy of the series, but it sounds like an episode in possibly Spiderweb for Two or Four Story Mistake.  The youngest boy's name is Oliver, and it sounds like an adventure he had one day.  I seem to remember the riddles, but don't ask me the answers!
Leon Wilson, This Boy Cody, 1950.  I looked around to find a picture of the cover of This Boy Cody it looks familiar, so this seems to be it. And there are copies to be bought, so I'll get to revisit a favorite pretty soon thanks to the solver!

Sounds like The Great Brain series by Fitzgerald, but I didn't find reference to Mr. Fish.
Gordon Korman, This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall.  "This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall" is the first of the Bruno and Boots books, others include "Beware of the Fish" and "Go Jump in the Pool!" Bruno and Boots are roomies at boarding school, they constantly get in trouble, and the call their headmaster The Fish.
Gordon Korman, This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall.  This is the 'Bruno and Boots' series. It is set in a Canadian boarding school, where two best friends get into all sorts of trouble (helped out by the girl's school across the road). The headmaster's name was Sturgeon, and the students had nicknamed him 'The Fish'. The books were tremendously funny, and I remember being especially interested because the author was only in seventh grade when he wrote the first of them.
It's not The Great Brain, although the mischeviousness level sounds right. I didn't think to mention that I read these books in the early eighties, and at the time the setting seemed modern, as did the book covers.
You are looking for Gordon Korman's books about MacDonald Hall. There are several titles, including Beware of the Fish, This Can't be Happening at MacDonald Hall, and Go Jump in the Pool.
Gordan Korman, Macdonald Hall series, 1978-1994.  I'm sure that this is the series that you're thinking of. There are seven books in this series, all about two boys named Bruno and Boots, and their friends, at a Canadian boarding school.  Their headmaster's name is Mr. Sturgeon, but they all call him "The Fish". All of the books involve many outrageously funny situations that the boys get themselves into, and yes, they are constantly getting into trouble for it.  The one about the pool that you're thinking of is "Go Jump in the Pool", about their many attempts to raise money to buy a swimming pool for their school.
Gordan Korman, The MacDonald Hall series.  Thank you, thank you!  I'm quite sure this is the right series!  It's all coming back to me now.  I can't wait to dig in! Didn't I say I wanted them for my fifth grader??  He's going to have to wait in line!

I believe there's a book called Benji,the Barkless Dog by Hardie Gramatky.
This Dog for Hire, a 1996 mystery by Carol Lea Benjamin. The pit bull is Dash and the Basenji is Magritte. It's first in a series about Dash and his owner.

May be worth looking at THIS FAMILY OF WOMEN by Richard Peck. Although it is an adult book, he has written YA and children's so... Anyway, it follows the generations of a family (perhaps 5 instead of 6), one does involve the Gold Rush, and some of the women's names were Lena, Effie, Constance and Rose (in case it helps) ~from a librarian
Richard Peck, This Family of Women, 1983.  Thank you to the librarian who figured it out! So excited to finally be able to get my hands on one of my favorite childhood books again!

#C105, the Catholic reader about a flood, could be This Is Our Town, originally written in the '40s by Sister M. Marguerite and later revised by Sister M. Bernarda.  It was published by Ginn and Company.  The version I remember contains poems and saints' biographies in addition to the central plot about the flood.  The main characters, three grade-school boys, call themselves the "Three Eagles."
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A book maybe from the 1950's called Our Town or something about Town. Story collection about kids who live in the same town. Color illustrations. Might have had Christian/religious messages.

Two possibilities:  All Around the Town / stories by Helen E Scheffley, Anna M Johnston, Grace G Mitchell , Chicago: Lyons and Carnahan, 1943, 47 pgs.   ---   In and Out and Roundabout: stories of a little town / Eve Garnett / London : F. Muller, 1948, 239 pgs
This is Our Town, Faith and Freedom Series Grade 3.
Sister M. Marguerite, This is Our Town. Hi--this was my stumper and This is Our Town was the book I was looking for. Thanks!

Barbara Corcoran, This is a Recording, 1971.This book is This Is a Recording by Barbara Corcoran.  Marianne spends the summer in Montana on her grandmother's ranch.

Charlotte Zolotow, The Sky is Blue, 1963, copyright.  Part of this book matches your stumper, as it is about a girl looking at her mother's photo album, but it does not show the mother in hippie clothes or pregnant.  The girl then goes on to see that her mother's mother and her mother's mother's mother all had similar lives...and that is the lovely continuity of the story.  The sky was blue for all of them, even though their clothes and homes and transportation changed.  Any hope this is really it?  It does have lovely illustrations and would be good for ages 3-6 as you described.  Earlier copyright, but Zolotow books stay in libraries for a long time...and rightfully so!
Zolotow, This Quiet Lady.  Found it!  Thank you for your help!

#M87--My side of the room:  I remember seeing a story a lot like this, I  think in the "Children's Digest" no later than mid-1970s.  Two sisters have  a fight and the one tells the other not to come on her side of the room,
which happens to be the side with the door leading downstairs.  The other  sister imagines life with her food and other things being raised and lowered by a basket from her window.  Then their mother calls them for supper, the
sisters forget their quarrel and both leave the room by the door.
Betty Ren Wright, This Room Is Mine
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This was a large book about two sisters arguing over having to share a room.  They decide to split the room in half with a rope on the floor and the rule that neither can cross the rope.  They didn't realize that this split the room with the door on one side and the window on the other.  The one sister could not leave the room, but she figures out a way with a laundry basket and the rope out the window?

Betty Ren Wright, This Room is Mine, 1966.  Illustrated by Stang, Judy. Wi: Whitman Publishing, 1966 Glazed Pictoral Boards. "Fun book of possession of sisters' room, Chris and Mary! Using a jump rope they divide the room and the "fun" begins. "Don't breathe My air, said Chris. "I'm breathing MY air,' said Mary! If you ever shared a bedroom, you will understand!"
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S236:  Two sisters share a bedroom and fight over which half is whose.  They end up putting a jump rope down the middle of the room to divide it between the two.  They then realize one sister doesn't have access to the door.  I think they kiss and make up in the end.  It did have pictures, and is probably geared toward 6 - 8 year old girls.  I would  have read it in 1975 probably.

Betty Ren Wright, This Room is Mine. see Solved Mysteries.
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S311: The book is about two sisters who share a room.  They get into a fight and decide to divide their room using a jump rope or chalk?  Each has to stay on her own side of the room.  Only one sister has the door on her side of the room and the other has a window.  They eventually realize that they need each other and end up removing the divider and being "friends" again.  It's a chldrens book that I remember reading as a child back in the early 1970's.  Any ideas?

Betty Ren Wright, This Room is Mine, 1966.  Whitman, 1966. See Solved Mysteries for more.

Sylvia Engdahl, This Star Shall Abide.  G324 and G325 both sound like books by Sylvia Engdahl. G324 might be Engdahl's trilogy.  I don't remember all the titles, but one of the books is called This Star Shall Abide, and I think that the overall trilogy is called Children of the Star.  The main character is a boy, not a girl, but otherwise it sounds right.  Good luck.  Engdahl is a wonderful writer.
Sound a lot like THIS STAR SHALL ABIDE by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, 1972, but the main character is Noren, a boy.~from a librarian
Solved: Yes!!! I recognize the titles.  Thank you so much!  I beleive that you are right about the protagonist of G325 being a boy rather than a girl.  Many thanks!

I think this is Andra by Louise Lawrence. It's about a girl who lives in the future where they are all underground because the surface is "toxic". She finds out that it's not, it's just been used to restrict the people into doing what the authorities want them to do. She leads a rebellion to bring about a more democratic society. I can't remember for sure, but I think that there might have been farmers on the surface that the authorities hadn't told them about.
Other possibilities: Outside byAndre Norton or The City Under Ground by Suzanne Martel.  You might also want to check post O10 in the Stumpers area.  It sounds like it might be the same book.
H.M. Hoover, This Time of Darkness.  In this one, the girl and her mother live in a very small apartment, maybe a single room.  The mother doesn't like her daughter very much and is particularly angry about the fact that she can read, having been taught by an elderly lady whom she befriended.  I think she's worried that having a daughter so abnormal reflects badly on her.  Once the children have decided to head for the surface, they are pursued by officials because it's forbidden to go above the level you live on - and as they go up the levels, the quality of life improves dramatically.  When they get to the top, they have to be cleaned - they enter little white cubicles with a voice that tells them what to do when - and someone gives them oranges to eat, which the girl has never encountered before, because lower down the food is much worse. Ultimately they escape to the outside, although I don't recall the final ending. I read it for the first time in 1987 or 1988, in a UK paperback edition, but it could have been written any time in the previous twenty years.
Mary Q. Steele, Journey Outside.  I'm not positive that this is the correct title  I haven't read it for years.  But I think it is!
The above poster is probably correct. This Time of Darkness by H.H. Hoover is almost certainly the title. See U21 on this same site. I tried to find this, too, and finally did.
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I'm suddenly seized by a desire to find a book that I read as a kid, but I can't remember the author or title, only a little bit about the plot. First, a little background.  Throughout most of the past 40 years, but especially in the 60's and 70's, the theme of undergound cities was very popular. Usually as the result of a war or environmental destruction, humanity was forced to retreat underground and live, usually a life of ignorance and superstition, until some sterling hero emerged to save them.  The classic example of this is Outside by Andre Norton, and The City Under Ground by Suzanne Martel, but it's neither of these.  The story I'm thinking of has humanity confined to one underground city, organized in levels, kind of like a gigantic underground building. Reading is prohibited, and water is in short supply. The main characters are a boy and girl maybe about 10 years old. The girl's name might be Anne. The city is, for the most part, cramped, dirty and generally boring. Anne's school teaches them with talking computers and pictures, which she can't stand and views as stupid and boring. Anne, however, has a secret.  An old woman who shared her family apartment had forbidden books, and taught her to read.  Legends tell of "level eighty", at the top of the city, where everything is wonderful and beautiful. When she meets the boy, who claims to have been born outside in Medford County Hospital, they decide to go for it. Since water is in scare supply, Anne's mother is paranoid that the boy might have drunk some or flushed the "sanit", as they call it. They ascend the levels quite easily. I think that there were just stairs or ramps going up and down. I seem to remember some trouble at level 48, but they managed to keep going. Eventually, the levels are uninhabited, and they get to something called "Sub basement 2" or some such, where a strange woman appears out of nowhere and...

H.M. Hoover, This Time of Darkness, 1980.  Unless the date is too late, I think this has to be right. Last time I suggested this as a solution, I said the following: "In this one, the girl and her mother live in a very small apartment, maybe a single room.  The mother doesn't like her daughter very much and is particularly angry about the fact that she can read, having been taught by an elderly lady whom she befriended.  I think she's worried that having a daughter so abnormal reflects badly on her.  Once the children have decided to head for the surface, they are pursued by officials because it's forbidden to go above the level you live on - and as they go up the levels, the quality of life improves dramatically.  When they get to the top, they have to be cleaned - they enter little white cubicles with a voice that tells them what to do when - and someone gives them oranges to eat, which the girl has never encountered before, because lower down the food is much worse. Ultimately they escape to the outside, although I don't recall the final ending." The girl's name is Amy, and the boy is Axel.  And if this is the one, good news: it's just been reprinted!
H.M. Hoover, This Time of Darkness, 1980.  The book is almost undoubtedly THIS TIME OF DARKNESS, by H.M. Hoover. This is my stumper, and somebody just e-mailed this to me. This book has a webpage.  This book has recently been reprinted and I ordered it. I'll come back and confirm it, but I'm 99.9% sure.

This wouldn't be Beaches, would it?  Not a children's book, of course, but my children read it as early teens.
Sara Davidson, Loose Change, 1977.  The story about the women growing up through the sixties and seventies mught be this one - there was a lot of emphasis on what they wore.
Sally Edelstein, This Year's Girl, 1985.  This has to be what you are looking for.  It is set up like a paper doll book, but aren't meant to be cut out.  It has outfits and trends and tidbits of history from the 50's when Robin & Judi were little to the 80's when they are adults.  I have mine right here, I got it when it first came out in '85 and I'll never part with it!

Margaret Van Doren, Thomas Retires, 1939.  Maybe this one. If I remember this story correctly, old Thomas doesn't want to retire in this story, he's too used to his route.
Hoke, Helen, The Horse That Takes the Milk Around, 1946.  I'm wondering if this is the book you're thinking of.
Some possibilities:  Skags the Milk Horse by Miriam Blanton Huber (1931, 112 pgs.)  /  The Horse That Takes the Milk Around by Helen Hoke (1946, 28 pgs.)  /  The New Milk Horse by Wilson Morris (1937, NY Board of Education, W.P.A. project)
Moore, Lilian and Adelson, Leone, Old Rosie the Horse Nobody Understood. Another story about a milk horse put out to pasture, but I think it wasn't written until the 50's or 60's.
'Thomas Retires' ...  That's the right book! and my mom is thrilled!  She truly believed this book was never to be found, gone forever.  What a wonderful tool this site is and thanks to it my dear mom has a piece of her childhood again!  Thank you very much!

Happy 2001, and thanks for all your hard work! Wish you and your shop were in Seattle.  K14: Kansas college town, 1800's -- This one is Those Miller Girls! by Alberta Wilson Constant. There are two more delightful books about this family: The Motoring Millers; and Does Anybody Care About Lou Emma Miller?
More on the suggested title Those Miller Girls by Alberta Wilson Constant, illustrated by Joe and Beth Krush, published NY Crowell 1966, 304 pages "In a satisfying story set in a Kansas college town in 1909, 11 year old Maddy and 12 year old Lou Emma, motherless daughters of Professor Miller, have adventures enough for two books - camping at the annual Chataqua, furthering their father's work on a much-needed telescope, and acquiring helpful Kate as a beloved stepmother. Drawings project the period flavor and liveliness of the story." (Horn Book Feb/66 p.57)
The book arrived in perfect condition!  I was so excited to have a copy of this in my personal library.  Thank you for all your help in locating this book! Many thanks!
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Girls' "novel" takes place early 1910s-1920s.  Two sisters, one named Maddie/Madeline, & their widowed professor father move to small town with car, a novelty.  They befriend pretty, young milliner who is also new.  Eldest daughter has reciprocal crush on grocer's son (George?)  Some b/w drawings.  The only quote I remember is when the dad is teaching someone how to start his new-fangled car:  "Hark!  Hark!  Retard the spark!"

Alberta Wilson Constant, Those Miller Girls!  I'm pretty sure it's this book, the sisters names are Maddie and Lou Emma Miller.  Everything fits--the father ends up marrying the milliner, and they have a baby boy. There are at least two other titles about the family--Does Anyone Care about Lou Emma Miller? and The Motoring Millers.
Alberta Wilson Constant, Those Miller Girls! 1965, approximate.  This is it!  I am so thrilled to reconnect with this book.  Many thanks to the mystery solver :)

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Constant, Alberta Wilson. Those Miller Girls!  Thomas Y. Crowell, 1965.  Ex-library copy with usual markings.  Wear to head and foot of spine and edges of book; wear on bottom goes through to boards.  Book is solid but not very pretty.  G/G+.  <SOLD>

My guess would be Those Plummer Children by Christine Govan, illustrated by Alice Caddy, published by Houghton in the early 1930s. It's about the adventures of the five Plummer children and their Black friends - Emily and the twins Sears and Roebuck.
More on the suggested title - Those Plummer Children, by Christine Noble Govan, illustrated by Alice Daddy, published Houghton 1934, grades 5-7 "shows vividly and engagingly the relationship between Southern white people and the Negroes who are members of their household. The background of a small Southern town is authentic, and a delightfully understanding relationship between children and adults is suggested." "The five Plummer children and their friend Chris Ellery skylark though a summer vacation with the adequate assistance of three small darkies; Emily, who had 'eyes like brown and white marbles' and Sears and Roebuck, twins. Mrs. Govan has handled Negro dialect skilfully."

This book is Three Billys Go to Town by Nancy Howard published by Parents Magazine Press in 1967.  The premise was that there were three little identical opossums all named Billy who were really quite different and only their mother knew how much.
That is the book, but what do you think the possibility of finding one is?  Please let me know.
Just did a search and found one!
Howard, Nancy.  Three Billys go to Town.  New York: Parents Magazine Press,  1967. Pictorial Cover HB,
Very Good/None, Light wear at spine ends. <SOLD>
Bad news on Three Billys go to Town.  The copy I ordered has been sold, so I am still looking.  I'll let you know what turns up. Sorry for the false lead (I hate it when that happens)
I certainly appreciate all your effort and am sorry the book you found didn't pan out.  I plan to check a couple of used book stores in Chattanooga (now that I have the author and correct title) this week and if I don't happen to find one I will let you know.  Again thank you very much for all your help.
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I don't know a lot about this book because i was a very small child when it was in my family but i know i loved it and i want to find it for my son. it was about a family of possums and they all got together in a car and went into town for the day. i remember the moma possum had on a big hat and they were in a topless vehicle and her hat was blowing in the wind. please find it for me.

This isn't The Four Billies again, is it?
P76 possums go topless: The Four Billies does seem like a good match - it has possums, a trip into town and an old-fashioned car.
I have to confess to a very careless error on my part. I suggested the title Four Billies for the possums go topless query, without actually looking at the Solved list to check the data (and I work at bibliographic checking online - shameful). The correct title as on the Solved List is of course Three Billys Go To Town. My apologies - no excuse for this, just plain carelessness.

Griffin, Peni R., Hobkin. (1992)  Could #S440 be Hobkin, by Peni Griffin? Two sisters run away from an abusive stepfather and settle in an abandoned house in Texas.  They are helped by a brownie named Hobkin.  Supposed to be an interesting mix of realism and fantasy.
Re: "Hobkin." I read a summary of the book, but I don't think it's the one. I doubt there were animals in the book I read, and if there were, they weren't central to the plot (eg. Hobkin is the name of the dog, apparently). Thank you, anyway!
Bobbie Montgomery, Three Blondes in a Honda. (1993)  I found it through another book search, but thank you for all your help, anyway!

Check out B171 Gates, Arthur; Huber, Miriam Blanton; Salisbury, Frank Seely.  Two Boys and a Tree. NY: Macmillan, 1951, reprinted to 1960.  A school reader, no plot description, but date and title are close.
Still searching.  I thought this was in Children's Digest, but had a brainstorm that it may have been in Humpty Dumpty Magazine.  Does this help anyone? I still can't find anyone who has these old periodicals.
Barbee Oliver Carleton, Three Boys in a Tree, 1961.  short story in More Bedtime Stories to Read Aloud, published by Wonder Books (NY). Acknowledgement says Three Boys first appeared in Story-a-Day magazine, all other stories first appeared in Highlights for Children (1951 to 1960). Illustrated by Crosby Newell.  "We're off to find a Snack (BOOM!)"

Mike McClintock, A Fly Went By, 1958.  The poster's description made me immediately think of A Fly Went By. My parents read this to us repeatedly so that 20-plus years later when they had grandchildren they could still recite it from memory.  Animals are all running from each other and each thinks the other is chasing them when they're actually running from someone else. The hunter brings up the end of the chase but is actually running
from a strange noise. Here's a line from the text: SO..The fly ran away in fear of the frog, who ran from the cat, who ran from the dog. The dog and the pig and the cows--they all ran! And then came the fox, who ran from the man. They came to a house, and ran down the hall.
Hi. I don't know who posted the solution to  my request but I am going to check out the suggested A Fly Went By. I am so thrilled to have some place to start.  If this is not the answer that I am looking for I shall return!!!  Thank you for a wonderful service!!
I checked out A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock and this is not the book that I am looking for. With the help of a local librarian, I may have solved the mystery. I now think that the  book in question is Three by Three (only incrementally different from Two by Two). I will let you know when I am certain so that you can search for it for me.
James Kruss, Three by Three, 1963. This colorful counting rhyme book was a favorite of my son when he was
little. My local library located it in a college library. It was amazing to me how quickly the years fell away when I began to read it. I could see my son and me, thirty years ago,  cuddled up on his youth bed, content and entertained. Now, I would love to buy it for my toddler grandaughters.
Maybe this - Three by Three, by James Kruess, illustrated by Eva Johanna Rubin, translated from the German by Geoffrey Strachan, published Macmillan 1965, 24 pages. "The morning sun shines gold and red, and the merry chase is on with three after three: three hunters, three dogs, three foxes; three foxes, three cats, three mice. In and out and round they go: three hunting, three hunted, three chasing, three fleeing, until the sun is out of sight, the roosters crow a last goodnight. ... pronounced design and geometric pattern, vivid color and facial expressions ... exuberant picture book for preschoolers." (Horn Book Oct/65 p.495)

Robert Arthur, The Three Investigatorsseries -- Jupiter Jones and his friends have a clubhouse in the middle of the junkyard.
Robert Arthur, The Three Investigators.  Mystery series involving three boys, Jupiter, Pete and Bob. Jupiter's uncle owned a junk yard, where they had their headquarters in a buried trailer. Some of the books in the series were edited by Alfred Hitchcock, and later in the series they were written by different authors.
Robert Arthur, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, 1950s.  This is definitely the right series.  They were written in the 1950s with Hitchcock as a minor character who gave the three boys advice from time to time.  They were reprinted awhile back without the Hitchcock references.  Two of the books were Secret of Terror Castle and Mystery of the Green Ghost.  They were published as hardbacks in the 1950s, and Scholastic reprinted them as paperbacks in the 1960s.
Arthur, Robert and others including Carey, Three Investigators.  This has got to be the series the Three Investigators with Jupiter, Pete and ?.  Jupiter's uncle owns a junk yard were they keep their clubhouse hidden.
Is this stump about a book specifically?  There was a UK television series called The Double Deckers that was almost exactly as described by the stumper.  This link has more information and pictures.
Robert Arthur, The Three Investigaters Series, 1964 to 1987.  The Three Investigators: We Investigate Anything!Jupiter Jones was the brains behind the trio, and bluffed his way into Alfred Hitchcock's studio office in the first book to ask his advice on solving a mystery. They create a secret hideaway "office" in a junkyard. Some of the titles are The secret of Terror Castle, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, and The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy. Created by Robert Arthur.
Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.  Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews are three friends who convene in an "office" hidden in a junkyard to solve mysteries. I don't know why Alfred Hitchcock's name is attached to this series, but the titles were usually "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in the Mystery of..." or "...the Secret of...". The first one I ever read was the "Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot." ("To-to-to be or not to be!") The boys used their respective strengths -- intelligence, athleticism and... whatever the other one was good at... to solve crimes and debunk enigmas. Jupiter often came up with a lot of cool gadgets as well. Really ingenious and fun stuff!
Various authors, The Three Investigators series.  This must be "The Three Investigators" series.  Three boys - Pete Crenshaw, Jupiter Jones, and Bob Andrews - solve mysteries in and around their hometown of Rocky Beach, California, mid-20th century. Jupiter is an orphan, and lives with his uncle who owns a salvage yard.  Mr. Jones lets the 3 boys use an old trailer hidden in the midst of the junk as headquarters for their club, which they access through concealed tunnels through the junk.  I think the series had a bunch of authors, but Alfred Hitchcock's name was actually used at one point - ie, Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigator's Series, or something.
various authors - Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Three Investigators Series.  This is the Three Investigators Series, a 43 volume series that ran from 1964 to 1987. There were various authors, the primary ones were Robert Arthur, William Arden and M.V. Carey. There are a number of online fan/collectors sites, with great info re editions, printings, authors bios, etc. (one is threeinvestigators.com).

Definitely Margaret Mahy's Three-Legged Cat, illustrated by (I think) Jonathan Allen.
More on the suggested title - The Three-legged Cat, by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jonathan Allen, published Viking 1993. "A fortuitous mistake brings happiness to nearsighted Mrs. Gimble who wishes her cat didn't eat so much, her cat Tom who dreams of roaming the wide world, and Mrs. Gimble's drifter brother who wants to keep his head warm."

(Oh, and I think B47 is the same as B50: Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward. Pow!)
I've seen this book. It's a Giant Golden Book or similar, illustrated (I think) by Margaret Wise Brown, with bunnies painting Easter eggs. Couldn't find a citation, though.
Not that there aren't lots of books on the subject, but how about - Mr.Bunny Paints the Eggs, by Lee Maril, illustrated by Irena Lorentowicz, published Roy, 1945, 24 pages "The pictures give the book its distinction,
for they captivate with their color and decorative grace. The story is a simple one, telling how Mr. Bunny painted eggs for Johnny and where he got his glowing rainbow paints. A few short songs with music are scattered through the pages." (Horn Book Jul/43 p.273) Then again, does 'real rabbits dressed up' mean photographs of dressed rabbits? That would narrow it down a lot!
If it is photographs of real rabbits in clothes, then try Four Little Bunnies by Frees.
Ruth Dixon, Three Little Bunnies, 1954.  I think this might well be the book.  It has real rabbits dressed up and posed.  The photographs are by Dale Rooks.  My copy of it was put out by Elf Books (Rand McNally & Company), and, if I'm reading my Roman numerals correctly, was published in 1954.  The photos appear to me to have been taken in black and white and then "colorized," which could account for the uncertain memory as to whether the pictures were color or B&W.  There is no Easter theme and there are no Easter eggs, but there is a wheelbarrow.  In fact, the cover photo depicts the three little bunnies standing in a row, and the middle one has a wheelbarrow that appears to contain either roses or carnations.  The story line basically is that Mr. Bunny comes home one day and his wife surprises him with three bunny children: Hippy, Hoppy, and little Maximillian.  They go for a walk, and Hoppy takes the wheelbarrow.  A dog shows up and they all run.  Maximillian ends up falling down a hole and is lost for awhile but then reunited with his family.  They end up having a party at home.  My version of it isn't large, but it's possible at some point is was published in a bigger format.  Anyhow, it's a wonderful book.
Perhaps The Three Bunnies, published by Rand-McNally Elf 1950.  "A story about three bunnies, features real photographs of live rabbits dressed up in clothing."
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This full-sized (maybe oversized) book is from the early 1960's (late 50's?), I had it in Tucson.  It has pictures of Bunnies dressed in people clothes and there is one bunny who gets in trouble with an owl and falls in a mud puddle.  I believe the book was in full color.  (I've seen small B&W bunny in clothes books, but that isn't it.)

Heyward du Bose, the country bunny and the little gold shoes, as told to jenifer.  1974?  Illustrated by Marjorie Flack.
I've got a couple of possibilities here: Down Easter Bunny Lane by Van B. Hooper (editor), 1962. "Profusely illustrated with gorgeous photos of dogs, cats and bunnies dressed up in clothes."  or possibly: Three Little Bunnies by Ruth Dixon, 1950.  "Real live bunnies have their pictures taken dressed in doll clothes."
That Ruth Dixon one is a Rand McNally Elf book, about the size and feel of a Little Golden Book.  I used to have a copy here, but I can't find it right now.  It matches the color photography of bunnies in clothes part, but not the size part.
None of the guesses listed is correct.  I may have been wrong on the date.  My mom thinks I had it in Chicago in the mid-50's.  Its definitely an oversized book, in color and the only  animals other than the rabbits is the scary owl.  It wasn't a golden book.
Ruth Dixon, Three Little Bunnies, 1950.  Have you looked at the cover of this book?  Some of the Elf books were made into oversized books.  I have one of The Seven Wonderful Cats with the exact same cover as the small Elf book, only it's an oversized book.  Here is a picture of the cover.
Yes Yes Yes, that is my bunny book!!!    Do you have it, can I purchase it. This is so exciting.
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Adventures of a bunny named Maximilian. Late 1940's, early 1950's children's book. Story line quite similar to Peter Rabbit.

Ruth Dixon, Three Little Bunnies, 1950.  Rand McNally Elf Book. "Three Little Bunnies" features a rabbit named Maximilian. The illustrations are actual photos of real rabbits wearing costumes. Answer obtained in less than 12 hours from researcher at Google Answers [for $35].
HRL:  It's on the Solved Mysteries page already, with two detailed requests and a copy for sale for $8.  Typing "Maximillian" into Loganberry's website search would have taken you right there; or adding the clues you gave with the solution would have surely solved this quickly, too.

I believe this is the same book as Solved Stumper M104.  I had this book as a child (and still have it) and the illustrations are just beautiful and most memorable.
Margaret Torrey (author and illustrator), Three Little Chipmunks. (1947)  I didn't solve this, but just to clarify because M104 has four titles listed---the previous stumper magician probably meant Three Little Chipmunks, which is described like this: "Chuffy, Chirpy and Cheeky get into trouble for frightening Mr. Wren's chicks.  Cheeky is wrongly accused and is sent to bed without supper.  When the truth is learned, Cheeky's mother brings him a big bowl of ice cream, and he is later asked to "babysit" the Wren chicks."  I've seen photographs from this book online, and the book is illustrated in lots of greens and browns.
Torrey, Marjorie, Three Little Chipmunks. (1947)  Thanks so much for helping find this lost treasure!  I use the suggestion to review M104's solution and found it. Thanks again.

Also on the Solved Mysteries page, listed under Dandelion Library. The title is THREE LITTLE HORSES - BLACKIE, BROWNIE & WHITEY.  Worm, Piet. (1958).
Piet Worm, Three Little Horses.  I think this is a series.
I am looking for a children's book that I read when I was young - in the 70's.  It was about three horses named Blackie, Brownie, and Whitey that wanted to be humans.  They taught themselves how to walk on their hind legs and dressed up in clothes so that they could go into town.  I hope someone can help me with this one...it has been driving me crazy for a couple of years now!!!
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In the late '50s or early '60s I had a hardcover book, tall, with I think a brown dustcover. Very well illustrated. Story is three horses, I think it took place in France, but can not be certain. The horses may have been named Blackie, Brownie and Whitie. There may have been a young girl in the story as well. I remember the horses wore hats with flowers on them. There was at least one meadow scene. And maybe something about the horses growing old and being put out to pasture. Perhaps being turned into dog food (perish the thought!)

You remember the names correctly, and that's the title of the book! Piet Worm. Three Little Horses: Blackie, Brownie and Whitey.1958.  See more on Solved Mysteries.

I pulled out my old childhood copy of The Three Little Pigs from the 1960's.  It's a Whitman Tell-a-Tale
book.  It starts out "Once upon a time there were three round, happy, little pigs.  One was black, one was
white, and one was white with black spots--or black with white spots--it was hard to say which."  The
illustrations show a black pig, a white pig, and a black & white pig.  However, in this book it's the pig who rolls
down the hill in the butterchurn.  The wolf ends up in a kettle of boiling water after coming down the chimney.
Yes, that must be it - thanks for letting me know the publisher's name.

I think I found what it is called.  Three Mice and a Cat. It was a Golden Book published in the  1950's. Now that I know what it is called...any idea where to find it?

Mildred Davis, Three Minutes to Midnight, 1971.
Mildred Davis, Three Minutes to Midnight, 1971.  Blurb found online:  Yesterday she was a lovely, unspoiled girl of twenty-one, with a future as unclouded as her past. That was before she sees her mother killed and her father mentally destroyed in a weird, inexplicable accident. That was before she has to become guardian to her three younger sisters. Before she begins to receive looks of pity from the neighbours, and unwelcome attentions from a brutal yet fascinating young man. That was before she realizes that someone in this cheerful, comfortable community wants her and her sisters dead.  Three Minutes to Midnight. New York, Random House, 1971.  London, Hale, 1973.    cover art depicts a ferris wheel...

This is the beginning of the fairy tale called The Three Sillies.It's published in several different formats, including a nice one by Paul Galdone. But there's also a brand new version out now:
Kellogg, Steven. The Three Sillies. Candlewick Press, 1999. New copy, $16.99 plus $3 shipping.   IN PRINT AND IN STOCK. Order! 

Don't know the book, but the classic element of wishes & sausages from folktales is the couple with three wishes; one (or both) of the couple end up with a sausage on the nose (due to the other's wish), and they have to use the last wish to remove it.
W-11--This is a fairy tale.  I think it is normally called The Three Wishes.  The man takes a wish, the woman takes a wish, and they get in a fight over who should take the third wish and what it should be.  In the end, she impulsively says, "Well, I wish your nose was a sausage!"
There is a version of this which is a Rand McNally Junior Elf Book, rather than a Little Golden Book. It's retold by Wallace C. Wadsworth with illustrations by Esther Friend, copyright 1945 but probably reprinted. The
little old man helps a stranger who has been robbed, and in return is given a magic nut with three wishes. He accidentally wishes for a pan of sausages, and the little old woman angrily wishes the pan of sausages was
fastened to his nose (which it is, with a chain and a brass ring through his nose). They use the last wish to unfasten the pan, and decide that they were happy before wasting three wishes, so they can be just as happy afterwards.

James Vance Marshall.  Walkabout.  Maybe? It takes place in Australia, with a brother and sister who meet up with a young Aboriginal boy who is on his Walkabout.
Can't recall title or author, but I remember a similar story, and these details may help. One anglo boy, 2 Mexican children (Pedro and Maria?)on a beach, swim to a wreck (may be a wreck they survived) to salvage what they can. One of the kids rescues a (bird? sandpiper or roadrunner?) by putting it inside his shirt. They escape as the boat finally sinks. Of the items
salvaged, they use a hose and containers to distill fresh water.
Robert C. DuSoe, Three Without Fear, 1947.  Boy and girl in plane crash at sea, wash up in Baja California, meet runaway Mexican boy and make their way to his grandmother's house.  Hunt rabbits with slingshots, make sandals out of old tires. Had an odd alternate spelling of  "okay" throughout... "okeh" or something like that.  There was a Disney show loosely adapted from the book in the 60's also.
Maybe Boundry Riders by Joan Phipson (1963)? Takes place in Australia.
Robert C. DuSoe, Three Without Fear, 1947.  Thankyou so much. This is the book that was read to me in the 4th grade,1958. I have acquired a copy and have enjoyed reading every page....again. Harriett, you are a gem!

Could it be Through a Brief Darkness by Richard Peck? It was published sometime in the 1970s. The main character is named Karen, and her dad has mob connenctions, if not an actual mobster himself. She did know a guy at Eton, though I'm not sure about any ritual. At one point, she did wear tweed, so she wouldn't stand out as an obvious American. Hope this helps!
Richard Peck, Through A Brief Darkness, 1973.  Yes, that is the book I was thinking about.  I was right about quite a few things although the reason she was being kidnapped/chased wasn't what I said it was.  The 'ritual' would be better phrased as a tradition.  There was a tweed suit mentioned and pills.  Thanks!

Best in Childrens' Books.Here's a link with a photo could this be the series?
Nope, that's not it.  One of the books, blue or pink had stories like, "The Tinder Box" about a witch, a soldier, and a magic tinder box that the soldier was able to get copper, silver, and gold coins with.  They fairy tales had their original endings, i.e. the wicked queen from Snow White was placed in hot shoes and danced to death, etc.  I don't remember what stories were included in the brown American book, except that the cover was a light brown. Thanks
I'm almost positive that it's from this series, Through Golden WIndows.  But it's NOT the one from 1958.  Were they reprinted in the late 60s or early 70s?  Thanks SO much for your list of anthologies, it was EXACTLY what I needed.
Andrew Lang, [Color] Fairy Book, ca. 1890-1910.  This certainly sounds like Andrew Lang's classic series of books which collect fairy stories from many sources. Each book is named with a color which is repeated in the book's cover. there are about 10-12 of them, and I believe they should still be available in some form. Lang was Scottish.  Additional information: The story "The Tinder Box" is by Hans Christian Andersen.
I couldn't find any later editions of Through Golden Windows - 1958 looks like the only pub. year.  However, it was published both by Grolier and E.M. Hale & Co. so there may be some differences in the appearance of the two editions.  The titles of the books are: [1] Mostly magic--[2] Fun and fantasy.--[3] Wonderful things happen.--[4] Adventures here and there.--[5] Good times together.--[6] Children everywhere.--[7] Stories of early America.--[8] American backgrounds.--[9] Wide, wonderful world.--[10] Men and his world.
Olive Beaupre Miller, editor, My Book House, perhaps volume 2 - Story Time.  late '60s-early '70s.  In print from 1920-1971, My Book House was (later) a 12 volume set featuring a wide variety of authors, Hans Christian Anderson included.  My husband had a set of the later volumes, and although the covers were white, each volume number was highlighted by a different color.  Here is a link to a website that describes the contents of each volume.
I can't help with the anthology, but this is probably NOT Andrew Lang's Color Fairy Book series.  There are twelve of these: Blue (1889), Red (1890), Green (1892), Yellow (1894), Pink (1897), Grey (1900), Violet (1901), Crimson (1903), Brown (1904), Orange (1906), Olive (1907), and Lilac (1910).  They were reprinted by Dover in paperback in the 1960s. Although Hans Christian Andersen's "The Tinder-Box" is on page 265 of The Yellow Fairy Book, I can't find "Snow White" in any of the books except page 259 of The Blue Fairy Book---and it's the tale of "Snow-white and Rose-red" which is a different story altogether.  There is a story called "Snowdrop" on page 329 of The Red Fairy Book which is identical to the "Snow White" story the stumper requester describes ("...but red-hot iron shoes had been prepared for the wicked old Queen, and she was made to get into them and dance till she fell down dead."), but ALL of the books in this series contain fairy tales, not just the pink or blue one, and according to the Brown Fairy Book Preface, "The stories in this Fairy Book come from all quarters of the world"---therefore, it cannot be the "American" book the stumper requester is seeking.
Through Golden Windows.  SOLVED and I now own them again!  Thank you everyone for your help.  I would recommend this website to anyone.  You do not know how wonderful it is to be able to enjoy something from my childhood and to be able to pass it on to my children.  Thanks again.
I’m pretty sure that these are Andrew Lang’sFairy Books (most of which are folk tales from many international sources, not fairy tales). The Brown Fairy Book is primarily tales from American sources, and the Pink Fairy Book is more traditional European tales, although it includes tales from other lands. Snowdrop’s wicked step-mother forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes in the Red Fairy Book (except for the name, this is the Snow White story exactly). The Tinder Box is in the Yellow Fairy Book. Dover published these books in trade paperbacks, with appropriately colored covers, but I think the library copies were usually hardbound. Several Internet sources provide lists of the stories in each volume.

rumer godden, the doll's house
Rachel Field, Hitty, her first hundred years.  It was published in the 40's sometime, and I remember the detailed  descriptions of the doll's clothes. I believe it is in print now in an updated version.
Irene Turnbow, Through The Years With Henrietta.  Publisher: Chicago: Follett Publishing, 1966. Henrietta, a china doll, was given to five-year-old Emily for Christmas in 1879. She and her companion doll, Billy Boy, watched Emily grow up and increase her many interests and responsibilities.
Thank you so much!!!!  Through the Years with Henrietta is the right book!!!!  Now if I can find it.....I'll be sure to recommend your service to everyone, and if you ever run across a copy of the book- I'm interested! Thank you!!!
I also could not remember the title of this book.  I read it in the 1970's in about 2nd or 3rd grade.  It had a purple cover and was told from the point of the dolls.  I remember the fire and the clothes and the companion boy-doll.  I also remember the dolls riding in a carriage and seeing a doll on the side of the road.  I'm so glad to know the title so I can try to find it! So glad I found your web site!

TO T2 I AM PRETTY SURE THE BOOK YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR IS CALLED  A DAY IN FAIRY LAND  BY SIGRID RAHMAS, IT WAS PUBLISHED BY RAMBORN CORP LITTLE NECK N.Y, LATE FORTIES OR EARLY FIFTIES. THE BOOK I AM THINKING OF IS A LARGE OVERSIZED BOOK WITH THE PASTEL WATER COLORS YOU SPOKE OF IT HAS THE LILLY PAD ETC., AND IS A BEAUTIFUL BOOK. I AM LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK ALSO HOPE THIS WILL HELP YOU.
The book I am looking for sounds very similar to your T2 listing, though  I do not recall it being called Thumbelina.  I think it had the words "Fairies, or Fairy tales" in the title.  I recall the title being in script or 'fancy' print.  The cover also had an illustration of fairies.  The book was an Oversized book of Fairies, Lily pads, Dragonflies, etc.  The illustrations were in pastel watercolors.  This book may have been published around 1948.  Any help would be appreciated.
Just received your message.  I sent a request for a book that I thought was a 1950's version of Thumbelina.  You have suggested it might be A Day in Fairyland written by Sigrid Rahmas.  I'm frankly not sure if you are correct but would be interested in persuing this.  How can I confirm this is the right book before committing to a purchase?  Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.    Many thanks.
Harriett's Note:  we keep searching until the book sounds like the right thing.  Since there's another cyber doubt about the first suggestion--from a browser, above in blue--then we'll keep hunting.
Another Note:  I just saw a copy of A Day in Fairy Land at a book fair.  It was a folio sized book (read: huge) with beautiful watercolor illustrations.  It was about fairies, but not Thumbelina.  The reader listed in blue above knows what she's looking for (alas, the one I saw was more than $150), but I don't think it's the same as the  Thumbelina stumper.  Close, but...
I read your description of the book you are looking for when trying to find more info about a book that I have. It happens to be A day in fairy land, but I don't think it is what you are looking for as it has quite a lot of words, set out in 3/4 paragraphs per page. Also the story is not about a frog but The fairy Queens birthday celebration
Maybe this edition of Thumbelina by Andersen? New York, Scribner 1961, American Library Association Award. "Adventures of the tiny girl no bigger than your thumb. Beautiful, delicate illustrations in full color and two-color throughout by ADRIENNE ADAMS. Small 4to, green pictorial cloth, color pictorial dust wrapper."
A similar book but recent is The Enchanted Woods, words and pictures by Shirley Barber, published Australia, Five Mile Press 1995, 32 pages. "There is much excitement in Fairyland, for the fairy princess is about to be married. Shirley Barber's breathtaking paintings capture the wonder of her story, and will take readers of all ages on their very own trip to Fairyland."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Anderson, Hans Christian.  Thumbelina.  Illustrated by Adrienne Adams. Charles Scribners Sons, 1961, early copy, nice condition.  VG/VG-.  $20

Hi, I remember that book.  I think it was by Richard Scary and it was also a Golden Book.
This looks like a possible. The cover shows a lion in striped pyjamas reading to a lion cub and a bear cub. It's an armchair rather than a rocking chair, though. Gergely's work has some similarities to Scarry. Tibor Gergely's Great Big Book Of Bedtime Stories: 32 Favorite Tales. A Golden book. 384 pages,full of colored pictures, Copyright 1967.
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I read this book as a child in the early 80s.  We had a used copy so it may have been older than that.  The cover was RED and it was a fairly thick book (maybe an inch or so), oversized.  I think the lettering of the title was yellow.  The picture on the cover was an animal (a bear, I think) in a bed or armchair, reading a book to other animals.  However, the book he was reading was the same book -- so that the cover of the book that the animal was reading had a picture of the same animal, in the bed/armchair reading the SAME book to others, and so on and so on -- I remember this distinctly because I loved this, it was the same "infinity" feeling I got from looking in a three-way mirror!  The only story I recall was at the end of the book -- but it may not have been the "true" end of the book because the back cover and possibly several pages were missing -- and had to do with a family enjoying the seasons of the year.  I am pretty sure that at one point in the story they were at an aquarium and saw a whale.  (I know, how vague can you get!)  This book is NOT a Richard Scarry book -- it is NOT Nan Gilbert's "365 [etc]" book -- it is NOT Burgess' bedtime stories book -- it is NOT any of the storybooks listed on this website's anthologies page -- but it is definitely a bedtime anthology.  I think it had some vague title like "My Book of Bedtime Stories" or something to that effect.  I have pored over websites for hours and I'm going crazy, I have to find this book!!!  Thanks so much!!!

A239 Pretty sure this is GOLDEN BOOK OF 365 BEDTIME STORIES by Kathryn Jackson, illustrated by Richard Scarry. It's not on the Anthologies page, but you do have it under your Solved pages, and the picture of the cover is there, so the  person can check whether it matches the memory.~from a librarian
Kathryn  Jackson (author), Richard Scarry (illustrator), The Golden Book of 365 Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year, 1955.  If the stumper requester is absolutely sure that the book was red and Richard Scarry didn't illustrate it, then this CAN'T be it, but if the stumper requester isn't completely positive, this may be worth checking out! This book was originally published as The Golden Book of 365 Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year.  The front cover shows a boy and girl, in separate beds that are pushed together, surrounded by animals wearing pajamas.  The boy and girl are reading a book that has a cover picture of them reading a book, etc.  A later reprint of this book has a cover picture of a clothed bear in an armchair surrounded by similarly clad animals.  The bear is reading a book that has a cover picture of him reading a book, etc.  The only difference between this cover and the stumper requester's description is that the background is BLUE, not red.  This book was reprinted at least once more with the bear cover as Richard Scarry's A Story A Day: 365 Stories and Rhymes.  Unfortunately, there is no story near the end of the book about a family that visits an aquarium and sees a whale.
HRL:  aha, I've got it!  Tibor Gergely's Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories.  Golden Press., 1967.  Stories included are by Margaret Wise Brown, Kathryn and Byron Jackson, Peggy Parish, etc.
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Tibor Gergely's Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories
I read this book as a child in the early 80s.  We had a used copy so it may have been older than that.  The cover was RED and it was a fairly thick book (maybe an inch or so), oversized.  I think the lettering of the title was yellow.  The picture on the cover was an animal (a bear, I think) in a bed or armchair, reading a book to other animals.  However, the book he was reading was the same book -- so that the cover of the book that the animal was reading had a picture of the same animal, in the bed/armchair reading the SAME book to others, and so on and so on -- I remember this distinctly because I loved this, it was the same "infinity" feeling I got from looking in a three-way mirror!  The only story I recall was at the end of the book -- but it may not have been the "true" end of the book because the back cover and possibly several pages were missing -- and had to do with a family enjoying the seasons of the year.  I am pretty sure that at one point in the story they were at an aquarium and saw a whale.  (I know, how vague can you get!)  This book is NOT a Richard Scarry book -- it is NOT Nan Gilbert's "365 [etc]" book -- it is NOT Burgess' bedtime stories book -- it is NOT any of the storybooks listed on this website's anthologies page -- but it is definitely a bedtime anthology.  I think it had some vague title like "My Book of Bedtime Stories" or something to that effect.  I have pored over websites for hours and I'm going crazy, I have to find this book!!!  Thanks so much!!!

A239 Pretty sure this is GOLDEN BOOK OF 365 BEDTIME STORIES by Kathryn Jackson, illustrated by Richard Scarry. It's not on the Anthologies page, but you do have it under your Solved pages, and the picture of the cover is there, so the  person can check whether it matches the memory.~from a librarian
Kathryn  Jackson (author), Richard Scarry (illustrator), The Golden Book of 365 Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year, 1955.  If the stumper requester is absolutely sure that the book was red and Richard Scarry didn't illustrate it, then this CAN'T be it, but if the stumper requester isn't completely positive, this may be worth checking out! This book was originally published as The Golden Book of 365 Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year.  The front cover shows a boy and girl, in separate beds that are pushed together, surrounded by animals wearing pajamas.  The boy and girl are reading a book that has a cover picture of them reading a book, etc.  A later reprint of this book has a cover picture of a clothed bear in an armchair surrounded by similarly clad animals.  The bear is reading a book that has a cover picture of him reading a book, etc.  The only difference between this cover and the stumper requester's description is that the background is BLUE, not red.  This book was reprinted at least once more with the bear cover as Richard Scarry's A Story A Day: 365 Stories and Rhymes.  Unfortunately, there is no story near the end of the book about a family that visits an aquarium and sees a whale.
HRL:  aha, I've got it!  Tibor Gergely's Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories.  Golden Press., 1967.  Stories included are by Margaret Wise Brown, Kathryn and Byron Jackson, Peggy Parish, etc.  See Solved Mysteries for a picture of the cover.
Hi!  Just wanted to let you know that your solution to my stumper (A239, anthology of bedtime stories) was exactly the book I had been looking for!  As soon as I saw the picture of Tibor Gergely's book I knew that was it.  Thank you so much!!!!

I remember this book as well, under the title Water in the Attic, however I seem to remember that this was a "Translation or originally published as" version put out by a book club. Two possibilities are The Little Ark  by Jan de Hartog or The Sea Broke Through by Ardo Flakkeberg.
Is this one of the versions of A Hole in the Dike? Mary Mapes Dodge is the classic (it was originally a chapter in Hans Brinker; or, the Silver Skates); Norma Green retold it (with illustrations by Eric Carle) more recently (Crowell, '75).
F23    You're very close to the title, it's called The Tide in the Attic and it was written by Aleid Van Rhijn. It was first published in Holland under the title Een Helicoter Daalde.  It was then translated into English and the first US publication was 1962.   It's about farm family in Holland and how they survived a terrible flood. All six end up on the roof of the house.  The boy's name is Kees Wielemaker and his little sister's name is Sjaantje.  Their mom and dad are there and so are the farmhand Jacob, and the maid Trui. Super book, It's in my collection!!!!
Tide in the Attic, by Aleid Van Rhijn, illustrated by Margery Gill, translated by A.J. Pomerans, published Criterion 1962, 127 pages. "When the dikes broke and the water rose higher and higher, Kees, his parents and little sister, their maid and hired man moved up and up in the house until the only place they could escape from the rising water was the roof. There the six, with the dog and the cat, crouched for a day and a night until they were rescued by helicopter. There are no heroics in this story of the disastrous 1953 flood in Holland; the writing is simple, realistic reporting." (Horn Book Apr/62 p.174)

"Tyger Tyger Burning Bright" is the first line of a famous poem by William Blake (1794).  There's a brilliantly illustrated children's picture book titled The Tyger featuring some of these lines and some new lines by Neil Waldman in 1993.  There may be other versions too, and of course the original, which is contained in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.  Not much narrative about the English girl in either of these two versions.
Theodora Du Bois, Tiger Burning Bright.  This was a "young adult" level book about the 1857 Mutiny.
now that sounds more like it!  thanks.

Not too helpful, since I haven't seen any of these books, but maybe one will ring a bell: Slobodkin, Louis, Trick or Treat NY Macmillan 1959 "There's a big surprise for the children on Willow Street when they ring the doorbell of the haunted house and a black cat answers the door!" color illustratrions, last page has directions on how to make THE MAGIC PAPER PALM TREE TRICK Zolotow, Charlotte, A Tiger Called Thomas illustrated by Kurt Werth, NY Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1966. "Little boy fears people might not like him, but when he dresses like a tiger for Halloween, he discovers they do like him."  Pictorial cover, color illustrations. Preston, Edna Mitchell, One Dark Night also illustrated by Kurt Werth, NY Viking Press, 1960 "A spooky Halloween story for children"
Adrienne Adams, a Woggle of Witches, 1985. Could this be A Woggle of Witches? by Adrienne Adams? The witches go out on Halloween but get frightened by children trick-or-treating  I seem to remember a very large moon in at least one picture. Super book.
Charlotte Zolotow,Over and Over, circa 1950.  This may not be right, but Over and Over by Charlotte Zolotow has beautiful watercolor illustrations by Garth Williams, and one of them is of four trick-or-treaters (no cats, but one is a tiger) at an open door, and there's a full moon in the background.  But it's not a Hallowe'en only book -- instead, it tracks all the major holidays as a little girl who doesn't understand about time encounters each.  (Garth Williams also illustrated Wait 'Til the Moon is Full by Margaret Wise Brown that has some full-moon pictures, including on the cover.)
the cover of A Tiger Called Thomas, by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Kurt Werth, does show a bright full moon and trick-or-treaters including the boy in a striped tiger costume.
Could this be Old Witch Rescues Halloween (1972) by Wende and Harry Devlin?? While the moon is not present in most of the pictures there are several night scenes with black silhouetted buildings against a dark blue dusky sky and a large yellow moon-all very evocative of autumn! Great illustrations!
Mary Calhoun, Wobble the Witch Cat.  Could this be it?
Charlotte Zolotow, A Tiger Called Thomas.  Thank you so much! I can hardly believe that someone was able to figure out which book I was talking about - especially since I thought it was a girl dressed as a cat rather than a boy dressed as a tiger.

Jan Henry, Tiger's Chance.  I searched for this book FOREVER!  But I finally found it, and it is named Tiger's Chance.  Ma'am, I hope you check back here to see the solution!
Jan Hanry, Tiger's Chance, 1957, copyright.  A photo of the book cover, not jacket, can be seen on Amazon. It was illustrated by Hilary Knight.
Jan Henry, Tiger's Chance, 1957.  Tiger's Chance it is!  I would never have remembered it on my own.  I posted this stumper and deeply thank whomever solved it for finding my book!

Tikki Tikki Tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo has fallen into the well!
Greetings!  I think you're looking for Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel.
Wow! That was fast and embarrassing. Look at my spelling...well I was only a babe.  Thanks so much. I will say Nay to the book. I was just looking for the name.
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Im looking for this book, which was an illustrated children's book probably from the 1970s.  It was about an asian family that proundly named their first born son with an extrememly long name.  the boy fell in water and was submerged, and the second born child ran for help.  The parents wouldn't let the child shorten the brother's name, so the out of breath second child had to try to say the whole long name.  This slowed everyone down in rescueing the boy.  They did rescue him, and although it sounds morbid, the book implies that the boy with the long name is brain damaged from being underwater so long.

Wonderful book.  Mosel came to read to my elementary school and apparently the publisher made her condense that long name by half!  It made for an excellent children's participatory reading.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Mosel, Arlene.  Tikki Tikki Tembo.  Illustrated by Blair Lent. Henry Holt, 1968, 1989.  New reprint edition.  New hardback, $16.95.  New paperback, $6.95

Not positive, but it could be WINTER MAGIC by Eveline Hasler. Came out in 1984, 1985 and is 32 pages long.
I'm wondering if s33 is Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander.
S33 Just checked a copy of Alexander's Time Cat. "Only Gareth, Jason's magical cat had the power to transport the two across time...."
There's a series by Sheila K. McCullagh about a boy named Tim  who has magic cats named Tobias and Sebastian. It's apparently a very difficult series to locate, and there are at least 36 titles. Some of them are: Tim and Tobias, Tim and the People of the Moonlight, Tim and the Witches, Tim and Sebastian.
Sheila McCullagh, the suggested author, is very prolific but hard to find in North America. She has written extensively for the Ladybird Puddle Lane series of short original fantasies. The Tim series referred to was written for E. Arnold Publishers 1974-77, and is a school reader series called Tim and the Hidden People, each book being 32 pages and illustrated by Pat Cook. Titles include Tim and the Witches, Tim and the Smugglers, Magic in the Yard, On the Night of the Full Moon, Tim in Hiding, At the House of the Safe Witch, Watchers in the Yard, Mandrake's Castle, Tim Rides on the Ghost Bus, Three Fires on the Dark Tower, etc. I could find no plot or character descriptions.
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I would dearly love to find these?(I'm sure it was a series of) books. I read them in about 1988 they were in the school library(UK) All I remember is there was a black cat called Tobias I think or one of the charcters was called it. The cat and a boy(?) went on adventures at night. That's all I remember!! Oh they were so so good and I want to find them for my children.  Thank you for any help!

Sheila McCullough, Tim and the Hidden People (series).  Could the reader be remembering Tobias the magical talking cat from the Tim and the Hidden People series.  These were school reading books in the UK.  These books also appear in your solved pages, where the requester remembered Sebastian who was Tobias' son.
McCullagh, Sheila K., Tim and the Hidden People series, 1974.  This is on the Solved List, I think. The first volume is Tim and Tobias. Tobias and Sebastian are cats. Tim is a boy. I can supply the details of the entire series if anyone really wants!

Ormondroyd, Edward, Time at the Top, 1963.   This is definitely Time at the Top...the elevator goes higher than the building and lets off 100 years before.
Time at the Top is the first book, with the sequel being All in Good Time.
This has got to be Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd. Summary: Susan travels back in time on the elevator in her apartment, and, surprisingly, elects to stay.
Edward Ormondroyd, Time At The Top, 1963.  I've read the book (which I ran upstairs and pulled off my bookshelf just now!), and seen the movie adaptation.  I'd recommend the book, but definitely not the movie.  No suprise, though, right?
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This is a children's book I read as an adult, but I still can't remember the correct title or the author. It involves a family of children who live with their widowed father (?) in a large house. There is either an elevator in the house, or they discover an elevator. When they ride the elevator to the top, the door opens and they are back in the  1800's. The house that they are in then is owned by a single (or widowed) woman. They enjoy living in a simpler time, in a more rural area. In the end, I believe they convince their father to "go to the top" with them, and the inference is that he and the lady will marry. If was a wonderful and heartwarming story and I'd love to know the title and author so that i could try to locate a copy. Thanks for any help!

Ormondroyd, Edward, Time at the Top. Possibility?
Edward Ormondroyd, Time at the Top.R51 sounds extremely like Room at the Top.  The synopsis is the same except that it's a girl who goes back in time.  She meets and makes friends with other children and ends up taking her father back in time with her to live.
#R51--Room at the Top:  You're close, it'sTime at the Top, by Edward Ormondroyd.
R51 Sounds like TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd, 1963 ~from a librarian
Edward Ormondroyd (sp??), Time at the Top

Robert Heinlein, Time for the Stars, 1956.  This has got to be the book.  Pat and Mike are twin brothers who have a special twin ESP that will enable them to communicate even when one of them joins other twins in the first space ship that will go beyond radio range.  One of Heinlein's terrific juvenile books.
I agree with the previous poster - this sounds like Heinlein's Time for the Stars.
That's the book.  Thank you very much!

k75 sounds an awful lot like a betty cavanna book...i just can't think which one ...does that help?
I found this book by searching some authors of that period.  I finally found a complete list of works by Betty Cavanna and remembered it by the title--I knew it was something silly.  I must be losing it because I had the main character's name wrong (Peggy, not Kit) and it was based it Rio not Puerto Rico.  I think I may have been combining two different books.  Thanks for looking! PS: I did find it on several websites--I ended up buying it from a gal from Texas through Amazon.com.
Betty Cavanna, A Time for Tenderness, 1962. A Time for Tenderness by Betty Cavanna is about a girl named Peggy from the American south who goes to Rio in Brazil with her mother, father, and little brother when her father is transferred there.  She falls in love with Carlos, and when his family realizes that the feeling is mutual, they announce his engagement to his distant cousin Cleo.  A few of the details in the original description are off, but this is definitely the book in question.

John Jakes, Time Gate, 1972.   One of my favorite books.  I don't remember an elevator, but the bald girl was definitely in this one.  John Jakes went on to write adult historical novels.

Bartholomew, Barbara, The Time Keeper, 1985.  The "stepping stones" reference makes me think of this book and its sequels (CHILD OF TOMORROW and WHEN DREAMERS CEASE TO DREAM), all Signet/NAL paperbacks from 1985.  Hard to be certain based on the handful of details provided, but definitely worth investigating.
I put in a request to find a book and the one response I received was correct.  Once I saw the name I knew it was right.  Thanks a lot

Donald Keith, Mutiny in the Time Machine,1963.  This book is about two Boy Scouts finding a time machine hidden in a canyon in the Southwest.  They go first to the future and pick up a Scout named Kai, then into the past and pick up a Spartan youth named Dion.  There is at least one other title about these characters, as I remember incidents that this book does not include, like meeting Teddy Roosevelt after performing mouth to mouth resuscitation on a drowning child.
Donald Keith, Time Machine to the Rescue, 1967.  I haven't read the book yet (again?), but I have a feeling it may be Time Machine to the Rescue bu Donald Keith.  I located and read Mutiny in the Time Machine by the same author, and it definately seems like the same series, but it doesn't have the key scene that I put in the stumper.

Any relation to S63?
T67 - Could this be Alison Uttley's Traveller in Time - in this story Penelope Taberner Cameron finds her way back into the past of the farmhouse, 'Thackers' she is staying in and gets involved with the Babington family
(famous for Babington Plot to try and save Mary Queen of Scots) over the years she makes several visits to the
16th century and falls in love with Francis Babington though both know that because they belong to different
times their romance has no hope of leading anywhere.
T67 -  Thanks, but it's not the Uttley book.  I actually own (and love!) that book, and should have realized someone might think it was that one.  I checked S63, too, and it's no relation, either.  Thanks to you both....I'll keep checking!
a possible title: Time Tangle by Frances Eager, published Hamish Hamilton  1976, 125 pages. Jacket design by Gavin Rowe. From the dust jacket : "It had begun with the telegram, which had banished her to the Enclosure where the nuns lived, for the whole of the Christmas holidays. It had ended with her mad dash down the staircase in the Chapel after a vanishing dream. Beth was convinced though, that it was no dream. Adam with his beautiful voice, his missing hawk, and his silver cross had really existed, hadn't he and entrusted her with a vital message that would save the life of a fugitive priest? In the quiet of the Enclosure where time seemed to stand still it was easy to believe you could reach across four hundred years to Tudor England. But Beth was given to daydreams and flights of fancy, and when proof of Adam's existence had gone, how could she even convince herself that it had really happened?"
Eager, Frances, Time Tangle.  Oh my gosh....I'm almost positive this is the book I was looking for!!
Thank you, thank you!

COuld this be Traveller in Time by Allison Uttley?
T29 is definitely Mabel Esther Allan'sTime to Go Back.
By the way, T29- could it be Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones?  A girl two boys from the future think is wrecking time is pulled from the middle of WWII into Time City with them, and when they realize their mistake it is too late to put her back, so the three of them have to travel around time fixing it.
Well, having looked up the suggestion Time to go Back by Mabel Esther Allan, I found a copy that had recently been for sale on Ebay, and the cover had a girl in a headscarf with a city backdrop - all very familiar!  It was published in 1972 which would also tie in very well.  Can't be completely sure until I get my hands on a copy, but it certainly looks very hopeful - thank you very much!  It didn't honestly think anyone would be able to help, but I shall now recommend you to everyone I know!
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This book begins in modern-day England (70's).  A girl who doesn't get along with her mother must go stay with her grandmother in Liverpool.  Somehow (I've forgotten) she is transported to the same house during the Axis bombing where she meets her mother as a teenager, and a heroic older aunt.  I recall vivid descriptions of blitz bombing and
the time travel element most clearly.  I am a school librarian, and I remember the book on the first shelf of fiction, so the author is an A  (Allen?  Alexander?)  Anybody remember it?

Mabel Esther Allan, Time to Go Back, 1972.  A rebellious teen-ager goes back in time to Liverpool during World War II and views her own mother's adolescence and her aunt's tragic romance.

Constance O'Day-Flannery, Timeless Passion
I found it and it's been solved.  I can't wait to get the book-on-tape from our library and listen to it again.

I have a Little Elf Book titled Mr. Mole's House by Linda Heath.  Dickie Mouse is  taking his baby sister for a ride in a wagon and decides to go to Mr. Mole's house.  Along the way, he looks under a bucket for Mr. Mole and feeds the baby a strawberry. They fall asleep at Mr. Mole's house and their parents find them the next morning.  I know the details aren't exactly right but it is a little mouse and his baby sister who are away from their parents and he looks under a bucket so it's worth a look.
I have the answer to T47: Timmy Mouse. The book is called Timmy Mouse and is part of the 'Rand McNally Super Book' series. The year is MCMLI (I think that's 1960?) The author is Miriam Clark Potter and the illustrator is Tony Brice. I have a copy... it was one of my favourites when I was a little girl. The best part is how the baby insists on bringing the little red umbrella and that's what Timmy uses to free his parents from the pail!
Yes to all that, except it's 1951.
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Children's book early 1960's. Story of a mouse family. The father goes searching for food/better home but doesn't return and family worries. A young mouse goes looking for him, has an adventure, eats a large strawberry along the way. Finds father stuck under a tea cup, family reunited.

Miriam Clark Potter, Timmy Mouse.  This is a junior elf book- it doesn't match the description exactly but it's close enough to mention.  Timmy is left to watch his baby sister when his parents go out.  When they don't return he goes in search of them.  His little sister insists that they bring along her red umbrella.  He finally finds his parents who have been trapped under a bucket and uses the umbrella to rescue them.
Don and Audrey Wood, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear, 1989, copyright.  I don't know if this is the right book, but I thought it was a possibility. Hope this helps!
Miriam Clark Potter, Timmy Mouse, 1951, copyright.  The first person that commented correctly identified the book. Thank you.

I found one under that very title (and only one!).  I believe I can get it for you from England, a paperback.  Let me know if you are interested, and I'll pursue it.  In any event, here's the author's name you were seeking:  Margaret Storey.
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A small boy goes to visit his Aunt for the summer.  She is a young, "good" or "white" witch.  She can open the door to her house by just placing her hand on the door-he eventually learns to do the same. He speaks of how the soap just slips into his hands when he is washing them and not out like most soap does.  There is an aquarium full of fish as the bathroom floor.  His bed rocks him to sleep at night like a small boat.  Somehow he ends up in a forest fighting off a bad witch and his Aunt does not know where he is.  Part of his defense against the bad witch is a white thread stained red from his blood which is wrapped around a twig...maybe a witch hazel twig?  His Aunt eventually finds him and I believe they return to her home on a flying bed.  Not "Bedknobs and Broomsticks".  I read this about 15-20 years
ago...any help would be appreciated!

This is Timothy and Two Witches by Margaret Storey. I love this book, and all her books! She's British, and
her titles for younger readers are hard to find in the US, but this one and a sequel (The Dragon's Sister and
Timothy Travels) were issued as Dell Yearling books in the early 70's.
If this is the Timothy and Ellen series, by Margaret Storey, there are several books in it. The Dragon's Sister, and Timothy Travels Faber 1967, illustrated by C. Stewart, 139 pages Timothy and Ellen are menaced by the sister of the witch they turned into a dragon, and aided by the white witch Melinda, then Timothy is stranded in the Open Country where he teams up with the 'cockroach children'. A War of Wizards Faber 1976, illustrated by J. Ede, 134 pages "Timothy and his friend Ellen have access to the Open Country where magic belongs. The enchanters and magicians who live there are charming if scatty people. The children get caught up in a magical struggle for power ..." The Double Wizard Faber, 1979, illustrated by J. Jackson, 113 pages takes place in our world and in the Open Country, involves the Ice Dragon, a lazy magic carpet, a stranger with no memory who looks like the bad wizard Ogaday
Well, it certainly could be it!...now I just have to locate Timothy and the Two Witches to see!  Thanks for the email.  I can sleep at night now!
#F34--Flying bed and witch:  The book The Bed that went Whoosh! to New York, by Bernard Share and William Bolger, Dublin:  Allen Figgis, 1965, is described as one of a series about flying beds.
F34 flying bed: more on Timothy and Two Witches, by Margaret Storey, illustrated by C.W. Stewart, published Faber 1966, 76 pages. "When Timothy goes to stay with Melinda, life takes a new turn. The garden comes into the living room; his bed is like a boat, and orange trees grow when anyone wants an orange. All this is due to the fact that Melinda is a white witch. The black witch tries to interfere but is unsuccessful. Melinda, with the help of Timothy and his friend, soon defeats her." (JB Apr/66 p.118) There's a line drawing showing Timothy warding off the black witch with a small bunch of (rowan?) twigs or flowers while his friend Ellen crouches behind.
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I am hoping you can help me locate a certain book.  It takes place in London.  A brother and sister go to visit a relative, who lives next door to a good witch, most likely named Belinda.  The children go to her house, and enter another dimension.  I believe they fight off a dragon, and fly away on a giant eagle.  There are at least 2 books in this series.  And the author makes a big deal that the good witch has golden eyes.    The writer is most likely British born, because she refers to the subway system as the tubes. I had this book as a young girl, and traded it back and forth many times with my best friend.  I will be seeing her at our 20th  (YIKES!!!) high school reunion, and would like to give her 8 year old daughter the book that charmed us so much.  By the way, she doesn't remember the title either.  I have searched this book down for many years, and appreciate any clues you can offer.

Margaret Storey, Timothy and the Two Witches. US Publisher:  Dell Publishing. Original UK date: January, 1966.  UK Manufacturer: Faber. Witch's name is Melinda. A couple of other books in the series are The Double Wizard and A Quarrel of Witches
Margaret Storey, Timothy and the Two Witches.  See the listing for G164 (I think that's the number) posted just above this one on your website--this is the same book.
Thank you so much to the person who answered this one.  It has haunted me for years!!
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I am looking for a childrens book, most likely from the early seventies. It takes place in London.  A brother and sister go to London to visit a relative. They stay in a house next door to Belinda(?) the golden witch.  I believe she is named that because her eyes are gold.  They have some adventures in a different dimension with a dragon.  It is  a book aimed at the 10 year old set, I believe, and may have been written by a Brit, because I remember being stumed by some terms, like "the tubes".  THere wre at least two books in this series.  Thanks so much!!!

Margaret Storey, Timothy and the Two Witches.  See the listing for B275 (I think that's the number) posted just above this one on your website--this is the same book.
Storey, Margaret, Timothy and the Two Witches.  Please see stumper B275.
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I read this series of books when I was at school in the sixties. All I remember is a boy sent to stay with a relative (I think) called Miranda who was young and a witch. Her hair rose up off her shoulders when she was casting a spell. At one point he is chased by an old, evil witch through the woods but escapes because he has learned a spell to stop witches which involves tying a red thread round a twig of rowan berries and saying 'Rowan berries and red thread, Stop a witch in her speed.' That stuck in my head but I don't remember anything else! I think it was part of a series of books because I'm sure I read more than one.

Storey, Margaret, Timothy and two witches, 1966.  Again! - The witch is Melinda not Miranda but the detail about her hair is correct.  See more on the Solved pages
Margaret Storey, Timothy and the Two Witches.  I think this is the answer and I worked it out myself from looking at other postings on here. The witch is Melinda not Miranda but I'm pretty sure it's the right book. (Unless someone else knows better!)
Margaret Storey, Timothy and the Two Witches.  Again! The witch's name is Melinda. See Solved Mysteries for more info.

"Timothy Titus Butteryjill had a red-roofed house at the foot of a hill, and the hill rose up all green and brown like an ice-cream cone turned upside down. And Timothy's house had a rosebush rack and a porch at the front.  And a porch at the back."  I'm typing this from a story collection, Read Me Another Story, compiled by the Child Study Association of America, and published in 1949 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company.  Timothy Titus is by Blanche Elliott, and the acknowledgments give Doubleday & Company, 1937, as the publisher granting permission for this reprint.
The original book is indeed simply called Timothy Titus.  Written by Blanche Elliott,  Illustrated by Ruth Holbrook, Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1937.

Oh, thanks much, but I finally found the answer elsewhere on your fabulous web site--seems to be Timothy's Travels by Margaret Storey, and part of a sort-of trilogy (Timothy and the Two Witches and The Dragon's Sister).  Hard to find, though, especially at reasonable prices.  Thanks for the great web site!

Tim's Friend Towser
The illustration shown at http://sites.google.com/site/battidau/ is from a birthday card my young son received. It really reminds me of a children's book from when I was young, but for the life of me I can't remember the title, the author, or illustrator?

Edward Ardizzone, Tim's Friend Towser, From a Tineye search on the image provided. I wonder if the card publishers have permission to use the image?
Edward Ardizzone. I looked at your picture, thought "That reminds me of Edward Ardizzone", did a Google search to find a sensible page to point you at, and lo and behold, one of the search results I got was a picture of that very card.  So I'm now pretty confident in my guess. Anyway, here's a useful website, including a list of books currently in print: http://www.edwardardizzone.org.uk/  I think the picture on your son's card must be from one of the Tim books, though I don't know which.
Edward Ardizzone, Tim's Friend Towser, 1962. It's from the title page of Tim's Friend Towser. One of the Tim series.
Edward Ardizzone, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain...or possibly one of its sequels.  I don't have the books handy and can't check.
Edward Ardizzone. I recognized Ardizzone's sytle immediately! I don't know which book this particular drawing is from: he was a very prolific illustrator. If you do a google image search of his name, you will find this same illustration.
Edward Ardizzone, Tim and Lucy go to Sea. Ah Ha! A little more image searching and I think I found the source! Try Tim and Lucy go to Sea.
Edward Ardizzone, Tim in Danger. The illustrator is Edward Ardizzone and it's almost certainly from one of the Tim books (there are several.)  Bet you get a lot of responses to this!
I am quite sure the artist is Edward Ardizzone. I believe this comes from one of his "Tim" books. He is both author and illustrator. Hope this helps.
Well, that is unmistakably Edward Ardizzone's work... Maybe it's from one of the Little Tim books.
Ardizzone, Edward, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain. It may not be this particular book but it is from this series about little Tim.  There are 4 or 5 other books.
Edward Ardizzone. Looks like the illustrations of Edward Ardizzone. Maybe Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain or one of the other Tim stories.
Edward Ardizzone?,  Illustrations looks rather like Edward Ardizzone - maybe one of the Little Tim books?
Eleanor Estes or Louis Slobodkin, When I looked at the picture, it made me instantly think of Eleanor Estes' books.  The Wikipedia entry for her name showed that she did some of her own book art and Louis Slobodkin did some.  They both have a very similar look to each other and to the picture you displayed.  The Wikipedia entries for both of them have a bibliography at the end.  So, that might be a starting point for a search.
This illustration is definitely by Edward Ardizzone.  It may be from one of the Tim books...perhaps Tim and Lucy Go to Sea. 
Edward Ardizzone, Tim's Friend Towser, 2008, reprint. The title page from Tim's Friend Towser. Thanks very much to all for your help.

D135: The Tinder Box by Hans Christian Andersen?
D135 I know the name of this story is The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen. Unfortunately this may not narrow down your search as it's probably in many collections. ~from a librarian
Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder Box.  This is the story in question.  A witch hires a soldier to climb into a hollow tree to take money which is guarded by three dogs, one with eyes the size of tea cups, one with eyes the size of mill wheels, and the third with eyes the size of towers.  The soldier can take all the money he wants, but must bring the witch an old tinder box that is in the tree.  The soldier takes the money and the tinder box and kills the old witch.  He keeps the tinder box and finds that it will summon the dogs.  He uses them to get money, then hears of a beautiful princess who is locked away in a copper castle.  He uses the dogs to bring the Princess to him every night.  The Princess tells her mother about the visits, and the Queen tracks down the soldier and has him imprisoned. The soldier uses the tinderbox to summon the dogs, who kill the King and Queen.  The soldier becomes King and marries the Princess.
Hans Christian Anderson.  This story is The Tinderbox. My edition is a two story anthology which includes The Swineherd and was actually published in Odense, Denmark. The illustrations are by Gustav Hjortlund and are very similar to what the poster describes but is probably not the anthology the poster read. At least I can provide the name of the story.
Hans Andersen, The Tinderbox.  I'm pretty sure this is the story you want - the bogs with big eyes are certainly from there.
Hans Christian Anderson, The Tinder Box. This is the story.  The phrases about the three dogs with eyes of different sizes such as "eyes the size of dinner plates" are in this story. It is about a soldier and a tinder box and I'm pretty sure there's a princess involved.
Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder Box.  Those three dogs with big eyes are probably from this story.  A soldier uses the dogs to get rich and, of course, to win the princess.
Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder-Box.  I can't help you with the particular anthology or translator, but the story is probably The Tinder-Box by Hans Christian Andersen.  Please note that the descriptions of the dogs' eyes vary according to how literal or liberal the translation is---in my copy, the dogs have eyes as big as breakfast cups, mill-wheels, and the Round Tower in Copenhagen.
Hans Christian Andersen, The Tinder-Box. One version of this story can be found in The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales, edited and illustrated by Tasha Tudor.  The pictures are wonderful, with an eighteenth-century look, if I remember correctly.
This is a bit like a Hans Andersen story - The Tinder Box. The treasure is guarded by 3 dogs, with "eyes as big as teacups" "eyes as big as saucers" ad "eyes as big as cartwheels", but the rest of the story doesn't fit. Wonder vif the psster is confusing ekements of m ore than 1 story?
Wow.  What a wealth of information your stumper-solving readers have posted!  I'll have to find and read it again, but this sounds right. I did not remember all the elements of the story.  I think "teacups", "saucers", and "cartwheels" are what I had.  Wonder which book this translation is in?  Here I go on another book search, at least this time armed with story title and author! Illustrator to be researched.  I am pretty certain it was in a collection of tales.  Thanks!
Thanks to all who submitted solutions!  Armed with the title and author, I looked through my crumbling old storybooks AGAIN, and found it!  The eyes in question are teacups, mill wheels, and round towers.  (Wonder where I got "saucers"? Guess it just seemed right).  Book is a very aged and brittle copy (that I hardly handle due to that) of Bedtime Tales:  A treasury of favorite stories.  128 pages in full color.   Pictures by Corrine Malvern.  I will attach a scan of the page I was trying to describe, don't know if that can be posted with my comments.  The dog does look like I remember - in the style of a "chinese" dragon!  Thanks again!  Hmmm, I guess I better carefully go through the rest of the book before submitting any more stumpers.....

Kunhardt, Dorothy, Tiny Animal Library, 1948.  This was put out by Simon and Schuster and illustrated by Garth Williams. It had 12 volumes and came in a beautifully illustrated box. You can expect to pay $50-150 in todays market if you can find one.
Kunhardt, Dorothy, Tiny Animal Library.  Thank you so much for solving my stumper and for the photograph of the boxed set on your web site.  It really brought back a lot of memories.  You're wonderful!

It sounds like A TINY FAMILY by Norman Bridwell, available through Scholastic Book Services in the 1970s ~from a librarian
Could this be The Borrowers? I think this series was written by Mary Norton.
I'm pretty sure this was a Scholastic book.
Mary Norton, The Borrowers.  Not sure about this one- it seems too easy to be true. There's also a book called Papa Small, by Lois Lenski, but I don' t know anything about it.
Norman Bridwell, A Tiny Family
Sounds like Tiny Family (1972) by Norman Bridwell, author of the Clifford series! (Also the author of The
Witch Next Door, which has four sequels.) They live in a garden and a tiny umbrella gets caught in the "giant" dog's paw. The dog's owner, the big girl, takes the umbrella back to the big house and the tiny girl/narrator goes to the house in the dead of night to get it back. They finally become friends.

Well, the beginning sounds like The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, but there's nothing in there about cookies...
I was browsing in a forum on kid's books and someone was discussing this book.  He/she didn't mention an author but described this book (complete with recipes) and referred to it as The Tiny Little House.  I checked
Bibliofind and didn't find anything with that name, but perhaps it'll jog the requestor's memory.
It sounds like the questioner is mixing up some books.  Obviously, the first part of her/his question refers to Virginia Burton's The Little House book.  The part about the sugar cookies is probably from another book.  So many of those Weekly Reader books had recipes in the back.  I wish I could remember one that had sugar cookies. I know that this is not a complete answer but just .02.
I did find this book a few days after I sent you my request. It is called The Tiny Little House by Eleanor Clymer.  Thanks for your help.
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I am hoping that you can help me.  I am looking for a book I had as a child that I think was called The Little Cookie Shop, but I am not sure.  It was about an old lady who lived in a small house that was sandwiched between two large apartment buildings.  She was about to lose her house to developers when two little girls from the neighborhood discovered that she made the most delicious cookies.  They encouraged her to bake cookies while they went door-to-door selling them.  The cookies were so popular that she was able to start a small business and, of course, saved her house.  I am having a hard time finding this book because I am not sure of the title and have no recollection of the author's name.  I'm hoping that someone in the book business may remember this book.  At the end of the story there were several cookie recipes.  Any help that you can give would be greatly appreciated. PS  I had this book in the 1970's

L22 is on your solved page: The Tiny Little House by Eleanor Clymer. A book I was so happy to find on your site before I sent it in as a stumper for myself! I had wondered for years if I would ever stumble across it again.
The Tiny Little House by Eleanor Clymer.
Eleanor Clymer recently passed away.  For a short bio on her, please visit In Memoriam.
What a wonderful service you provide with you Stump the Bookseller page.  I have been trying for such a long time to find this book, and I doubt I would have ever found it without your webpage.  It's amazing how you can't remember a title for 25 years and then as soon as you hear it you remember and know it to be correct.  I would like you to search for a copy for me, but please let me know the price before you purchase it.
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It may have been published as early as the late 60's. It was a book about a tiny little house squeezed in between two tall buildings in a city. The house is unoccupied and neglected and is eventually discovered by a little girl. I remember the reading about very dirty windows that the girl cleans to let light into the house. The house becomes well-cared for, and the girl and her mother use the house to sell cookies from, like a shop. The illustrations, I think, were pen and ink with a watercolor wash. They remind me of Garth Williams. If you could help me find the title for this book, I would be very grateful!

Eleanor Clymer, The Tiny Little House, 1964.  I think this is the book.  There are two little girls who clean up the house and the lady who starts the cookie shop is a neighbor named Mrs. O'Brien. It's a cute story.
Thank you so much for finding this book! I found it at the public library and read it again. Despite the fact that its been almost 30 years since I last read it, I was amazed how familiar the illustrations seemed to me! I shared this book with my child who enjoyed it as well. Thank you for providing the forum for such book searches and for giving back wonderful childhood memories!
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I am looking for a 1950s book that is about a little house that gets dwarfed by all the big city buildings that go up around it.  The house becomes very dilapidated, and some children discover it and decide to clean it up ("sweeping away the cobwebs", etc.)  They then find a little old lady who agrees to live in the house and start a cookie-baking business.  This book is NOT The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  The plot is similar, but the house in the story I am looking for does not go back to the country.  It stays in the city (there is a nice illustration of two towering buildings with the tiny house in between, and warm lighting emanating from the house, with the little old woman and the children inside.)

I know I've seen this before and I'm just drawing a blank...  I've got 26 more stumpers to post today, so I'll work on posting the queries first!  Then I'll look again -- unless one of those wondrous Stumper Magicians comes to the rescue!
Eleanor Clymer, The Tiny Little House
L122  TINY LITTLE HOUSE by Eleanor Clymer, 1964~from a librarian

Massie, Diane Redfield, Tiny Pin. Harper & Row, 1964.  subject ="Porcupines, legends and stories of"'
Diane Redfield Massie, Tiny Pin, 1964.
Massie, Diane Redfield, Tiny Pin, NY Harper 1964.  "Tiny Pin is a little porcupine who didn't want to leave his mother's side." Hard to find, and pricey when you do, though.

Lead clue comes from poem "Choosing Shoes" by Frida Wolfe. Of all the shoes to choose from: Buckle shoes, bow shoes/ Pretty pointy-toe shoes/ Dandy dance-by-night shoes/ ultimately sensible shoes will be chosen:Flat shoes/fat shoes/ Stump-along-like-that shoes/ Wipe-them-on-the-mat shoes/!  Found this in The Big Golden Book of Poetry (ed. Jane Werner) While I don't see the other referenced poems, having the title of one may help in checking indexes! Good luck!
Helen Oxenbury, Tiny Tim: Verses For Children, 1981. I e-mailed my local children's librarian to find this.  She wrote back saying that she was going to have to think about it and ask around, but that evening, she was pulling titles for a display case and Tiny Tim was one of them!  I managed to buy a copy and it's awesome!

This sounds like Tiny Tots 123 Illus. by Marjorie Murray, 1958, Whitman Tell-a-Tale This book has the children, the ice cream cone picture(first page), and beautiful pictures of robin's eggs, lollipops, etc.
Roundheaded girl and multi colored icecream,
I am wondering if this book is about the little girl who befriends a snowman, and he ends up eating all kinds of different flavored icecreams, because there is no snow, and then climbs up a tree and the wind whips him into multi colored and flavored snowflakes?  A golden book, but I can't remember the title....
I think that's it!  Thanks sooo much!  You've made my day!

Mabel G. LaRue, Tiny Toosey's Birthday,1950. This is a chapter book for young readers about the Toosey Family.  There are 7 kids and the youngest one is called Tiny.  The mother is in the story but there is no mention of the father.  They get on a train and Tiny can't find his ticket.  His mother asks if he ate it.  Then she shakes him so the ticket will fall out.  Finally Tiny looks in his left hand and there is the ticket.
I submitted B482 Boy on Train.  I thought I would check this morning for a response and there was one already!  I'm so excited!  I believe that is the correct book!  Thank you, so much, Loganberry!  I have been trying to figure out that book for 4 years!  This is one of the BEST websites I've ever been on!  I'm definately going to share it with the school librarian where I work.  She and I are always discussing favorite books that we can't remember!

While looking for something else, I ran across this:  Thayer, Jane.  Little Mr. Greenthumb.  William Morrow, 1968.  Illustrated by Seymour Fleishman.   "...even a gardener with an ordinary thumb can earn the name of Mr. Greenthumb if he works hard enough..."; Jane Thayer pen name of Catherine Woolley.
Two possibilities:  The Boy With The Green Thumb by Barbara Euphan Todd (119 pgs., H. Hamilton, 1956, 1968) or The Green Thumb Story by Jean Fiedler (38 pgs., Holiday House, 1952 & Scholastic, 1964).  Sorry, no descriptions.
Maurice Druon, Tistou of the Green Thumbs, 1957.  This is it.  I just found a copy today. The last line is "Tistou was an angel".
G121 is Druon, Maurice,  Tistou of the Green Thumbs.  Charles Scribners Sons, 1958. Translated by Humphrey Hare.   "Tistou used his green thumbs in mysterious and astonishing ways-even on the cannon made in his father's factory. The secret of who Tistou really was is held to the last page, with its surprise ending. An unusual, thought-provoking story of great originality; a story that stays in the mind."

Ayrton, Michael, Tittivulus, or, The verbiage collector, 1953.  London, M Reinhardt & Co  The novel charts the progress of Tittivulus - a demon who was given the task of collecting all the World's verbiage in sacks - whilst he contends the expedient bureaucracy of hell, and as his job becomes increasingly difficult with the growth of civilisation.

Calling All Girls magazine.  The Tizzy comics used to appear in Calling All Girls magazine, which became Young Miss,
which became YM.  I don't know if they were ever published in book form, though.
Kate Osann  (illustrator), Tizzy series of books.  Addition to my Tizzy response:  yes, there are different Tizzy paperback titles listed on the used book site I checked.  A search by Kate Osann should bring up the ones you want.
Marty Link , Emmy Lou, 1944-79.  This sounds like a comic strip that ran from 1944-1979. It was originally called "Bobby Sox" and was later renamed "Emmy Lou" after the main character, a teenage girl. There was also a paper back book of these strips, maybe titled The Life and Times of Emmy Lou. I used to have it, and I remember she was always lying on the couch with her feet up, talking on the phone.

Maxine Drury, To Dance, to Dream, 1965, approximate.  Link to cover image: http://www.librarything.com/work/1153905.  Michel Fokine,Maria Tallchief, Jean Baptiste Lully, Margot Fonteyn, Anna Pavlova, Marie Taglioni, Isadora Duncan...
This is the book, thanks!

Elizabeth Lowell, To The Ends Of The Earth, 1998. Contracted to work on a photography assignment, Catherine ("Cat") Cochran tries to keep from falling in love with the mesmerizing Travis Danvers. The emotional turbulence of growing love and physical attraction between Cat and Travis becomes the center of Merlington's performance."

Well, she's got the pride of Duvoisin's Petunia, and there were sequels, but I don't know this one...
I don't know much but it sounds like a story my mother used to read to me that was one of her favorites.  The one I had was a Little Golden Book but I don't know if an anthology exists for all of the Little Golden Books. I was born in 1970 and I remember having it around when I was really small so definitely published before 1975.
Little Golden Book, To Market To Market, 1961.  This is so funny that I'm the one who found the answer, and also the one who requested the stumper. Found the title after an exhaustive 6 month long search on Ebay!!!
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This is a Little Golden Book Im almost certain.  It is about a goose(I think)that gets her coat caught in a door as she's walking out. I don't remember all the details but somehow she gets out (neighbor?)but at the end of the book she ends up back in the door and stuck again.  One of my mother's favorite books to read to me when I was little and I'd love to get it for her. Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

Im the original poster: just noticed, this bears a vague resemblance to O45 in the archives, but there was no monkey or organ grinder and it was almost definitely a goose (or a duck, not a human woman at any rate). I forgot to say that I was born  in  1970 so this was read to me mid seventies. thanks.
It sounds like one of Petunia's misadventures in the series by Roger Duvoisin.
Little Golden Book, To Market, To Market, c.1961.  Hi, I'm the original poster and I found it on your site! I was looking through the solved category and saw a message from someone saying how she had checked your site after a year and found an answer to a stumper she had requested. I thought I should check on mine just in case, although its been a few months so I didn't think it would be answered.  Then I saw that it was solved, I was so excited!  But what's funny, when I went to the title I saw the request was not mine but defintely the story was the same.  Even funnier, I had answered that original poster (don't even remember doing it but I could tell it was me) with the same vague information I had, only adding that I thought it was a Little Golden Book.  The poster him/her self found it on Ebay after a 6 month search.  I went back to the G stumper page and found out the one answered was G158.  I knew mine was G200+ so I went until I found it.  So another one solved, thank you sooo much!  This is the third book your site has helped me find that I thought was lost forever to me. Thanks again!!!

Could this be Charlotte Sometimesby Penelope Farmer?
Charlotte Sometimes is the sequel to two previous books, The Summer Birds 1962 and Emma in Winter 1966.
Thanks for getting back to me!  No, unfortunately, the book isn't Charlotte Sometimes (although reading a description of *that* book made me want to read it, too!)  Still searching!
T14  I'm almost sure I read this book--there's a recurring theme of  Greensleeves.
I think the blue poster is thinking of A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley, where young Penelope Taverner goes back in time to the Elizabethan period (at the old farmhouse of relatives) and becomes involved with the
Babington family and their (historical) plot to help Mary Queen of Scots. The tune "Greensleeves" does recur in that story, being sung by one of the Babingtons, and by Penelope when she's lost in the mine tunnels. However, I don't think it's the book the original poster wants. Penelope does not become another girl, there's no one named Anne, neither Penelope or the Babingtons are poor, and no one dies of fever, though some come to other bad ends. Timeslip fantasies are fairly common, at least in England. In 1975 alone there was The Other Face by Barbara Freeman, where Betony Dovewood goes back 2 centuries after lighting incense in a china cottage
ornament, and works as a servant for her own ancestor; Robinsheugh by E. Dunlop, where Elizabeth goes back to the 18th century by means of a strange looking-glass in the cottage where she's staying with her scholarly Aunt and undergraduate Kate; Ruth Arthur's On the Wasteland with another Betony who sees visions of Viking times and identifies herself with Estrith, a girl of the Viking settlement.
Janet Lunn, Twin Spell.  In Twin Spell by Janet Lunn, twins named Jane and Elizabeth start having time-traveling episodes when they find an old doll and move to their great-aunt's house in Ontario.  Eventually they realize that the cottage they're seeing is a small part of the big house, and that the memories they're experiencing are those of two of their ancestors, twins Melissa and Anne   the last time they travel, Anne dies in a fire.  I believe this is a 60'\ book which I read in the 70's. It's not quite the same, but....
Margaret J. Anderson, To Nowhere and Back, 1975. After more than a year, I solved my own stumper just this week!  Found the book in the children's section of my local library.  Thank you to everyone who made suggestions and tried to help out!
Well, shoot, I was so proud of finally finding the answer to a stumper about a girl who goes back in time and becomes Ann, and I see the asker solved it him/herself!  To Nowhere and Back, Margaret J. Anderson, Knopf, 1975, 141 pp. "On a path near her home, Elizabeth travels 100 years into the past and becomes a girl named Ann."

Scott O'Dell has written several books about young Native American women  you might check some of his.
Scott O'Dell, The Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Joyce Rockwood, To Spoil the Sun, 1976. I've solved my own stumper, but I was only able to with the help of your web site! I was browsing through the Solved Mysteries and I came across a description of one of Joyce Rockwood's other books. It sounded like she wrote the type of book that I was looking for, so I did a little searching on the web for her other titles. I came across To Spoil the Sun and it sounded similar enough that I ordered a copy. Sure enough, this is the book I've been looking for all these years!! It's so great to rediscover it - it really is a wonderful story.

Cresent Dragonwagon, To Take A Dare, 1982.  Read it myself and was thrilled to see someone else had and remembered it.  Not really a book for kids, more young adult.
Paul Zindel and Crescent Dragonwagon, To Take a Dare, 1984.  This was one of my favorite books, I think it's still wandering around the house somewhere.  I'm 100% sure this is the one you're looking for. The girl is called Chrissie by her parents, she takes the name Chrysta, her mom gives her a frilly white dress for her birthday and Chrissie pours ketchup all over it.

Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping.  Though "Housekeeping" is for adults, it sounds awfully similar to this
description---the mother of two sisters commits suicide, girls go to live with their slightly oddball aunt.  One of the sisters is quite disciplined academically & very concerned about appearing "normal", while the other is more offbeat.
Hi. Someone suggested Housekeeping as the title I was looking for, but that's not it.
Hilma Wolitzer, Toby Lived Here, c. 1978.  This is about 2 sisters who wind up in foster care, Toby (the older sister) and Ann (Anne?), the younger sister. I remember the canaries, and a young woman, Connie or Constance I think, who used to be a foster child in the same place and was still a close friend--she is the one who came over when Toby got her period. Toby makes a friend named Susan, and in the end the mother partially recovers and they go back to live with her again. The foster father's hobby is bowling and he has lots of bowling trophies. Toby carves her name into a piece of furniture, just as Constance had done earlier.
S121: Sisters in Foster Care. Absolutely the book I was looking for was Toby Lived Here. Thank you and your contributor so much!

Watson, Clyde & Wendy, Tom Fox and the Apple Pie, 1972.  This is just a suggestion. I don't know if there is a sick sister and a balloon in the story, but it sounds close: "Tom Fox goes to the Fair to bring back an apple pie for his family."
Yep, it sounds like Tom Fox and the Apple Pie.  Small book, black pen-like illustrations with a touch of blue.  Tom and his 13 brothers and sisters hear the sounds of the fair and are excited.   Tom and his 'special sister Lou-Lou' have a bag of pennies hidden in a hollow tree and plan to get a big blue balloon and an apple pie at the fair -- but their father makes them all work in the garden instead of letting them go to the fair.  So Tom takes the pennies and sneaks out to the fair and buys his pie and the big blue balloon with the face on it for his sister.  But as he walks home, he worries about cutting his pie into 16 pieces to share with everyone and figures he'll wait till some of his brothers and sisters go out to look at the stars and then he'll only have to cut the pie in eight pieces.  But the pieces still won't be that big, so he'll wait till they all fall asleep and share it with only Lou-Lou, Ma and Pa.  Then he figures he'd just share with Lou-Lou if she were there.  Then he opens the box, smells the pie, and gobbles it down himself.  He gets home and the family just finished dinner and there's none for naughty Tom.  But he doesn't mind being sent to bed without dinner because he's FULL from the pie. 

Just a guess, but could this be the Tom Swift series of books by Victor Appleton?
I'm afraid it's not tom swift as the stories are set in the future and are definately science fiction thanks for trying.
Victor Appleton II , Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway, 1963.  I read this book growing up.  I think it is what you are looking for.
It must be the book I read, funny how that is the only story I remember but it does match my memory. I remember that I had to get most of the books specially ordered and really enjoyed them thanks for all your help.

Tomas Takes Charge  (title later changed to Children in Hiding) by Charlene Joy Talbot 1966
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In the mid-1970s I read a book about a brother and sister who somehow became orphaned. I think they lived in NYC and ended up living on a rooftop.  The boy went out to look for food and found plantains in the garbage, and the girl fried them on the roof.  At some point the boy met an artist who wanted to paint him.  I read this book many times, I would love to find it!

Talbot, Charlene Joy, Tomas Takes Charge, 1966.  Tomas and Fernanda have not heard from their father for weeks, not knowing he is dead.  They can no longer pay the rent on their apartment, so they sneak out one night and move into an abandoned building.  Fernanda is afraid to go outside.  Although the term "agoraphobia" is never used, this is what she has.  This book was reprinted in 1971 by Scholastic as Children in Hiding (which is when I bought it and read it).
Talbot, Charlene, Tomas Takes Charge/Children in Hiding.  This is absolutely the book, as already noted. I actually have both editions because I enjoyed it so much! Tomas also finds a gas stove that they cook on, t hey adopt a cat that Fernanda names McCall (after the magazine) and everything goes well until Tomas severely sprains his ankle climbing down the fire escape.
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help! I'm looking for a book that was published by Scholastic in the late 1970's/possibly even early 80's about a brother/sister team who were orphaned in NYC and squatted in an apartment, decorating and scrounging as best they could. I remember them going to Far Rockaway (?). They were eventually discovered and adopted, and what I remember most is their apartment being decorated with yellow and green plastic chairs and plastic ivy tacked to the walls. I want to say the little girl's name was Fernanda.

I was right about Fernanda and should have searched before I posted - found what I was looking for by searching Fernanda. Great service anyway!! DO you have any copies of Elizabeth, Elizabeth?
Could the submitter be merging two books here? There are a lot of similarities to Tomas Takes Charge/Children in Hiding B342, where the sister is named Fernanda and the children hide in an old apartment building.
The book with Fernanda is actually Tomas Takes Charge, aka Children in Hiding - so that should be marked solved as such.  As for Elizabeth, Elizabeth, it was (badly expressed by me), a totally different book but another one that I want...

Norma Klein, Tomboy, c.1978.  One possibility.
Ellson, Hal, Tomboy, NY: Scribner 1950.  I believe I read this in high school. The description is "novel of teen-age gangs in the slums of Manhattan." It was also published by Bantam in 1951 and reprinted into the 60s.
Hal Ellson, Tomboy.  It is the one by Hal Ellson.  Thanks so much.

Two possibilities for C94: I found them in the August 1978 volume of Cricket magazine in "Cricket's Bookshelf." One is Escape into Daylight by Geoffrey Household. "Carrie and Mike are kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark, damp dungeon beneath a ruined abbey. The only way out is through twisted passages and an underground river." The other is Ursula K. LeGuin's The Tombs of Atuan.
Ursula K LeGuin, The Tombs of Atuan. Sounds like it might be The Tombs of Atuan.  It's about a girl named Tenar who's taken at a young age and dedicated to the service of "The Namless Ones" and sent to guard the tombs of Atuan, which are extensive  catacombs.  A young thief enters the catacombs and encounters Tenar.
Elizabeth Marie Pope, THE PERILOUS GARD, 1974.  I think THE PERILIOUS GARD might be the book. The girl is sent to an old Keep, and ends up underground in the passages occupied by the last of the Folk (or Druids). There's a vivid description of the claustrophobic attack that the darkness and stone walls causes. It's a really great read. And I just read that it is being re-published this year. ~from a librarian
C94 catacombs: I know a dozen other people are going to answer this, but it has to be The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Leguin, first published London, Gollancz 1972, second book in the Earthsea Trilogy. The girl is called
Arba, the Eaten One, taken from her family to be a priestess in the mazelike tombs. The young man she goes away with at the end is Ged, hero of the first and third books. She finds him lost underground and must decide
whether to sacrifice him according to her duty as priestess, or abandon it and save both of them.
C94 catacombs: I pulled out my copy of The Tombs of Atuan to make some comparisons, and it's a good match, as follows: It is about the girl Tenar, who in the first chapter is taken from her home (aged about 6) to the Place of the Tombs, for the ceremony of the Remaking of the Priestess, because she has been chosen as the Priestess Ever Reborn, and renamed Arha, the Eaten One. The Place of the Tombs is a convent, with girl novices who will become priestesses, and eunuch servants. When she is 15, she first enters the Undertomb, the "lesser maze, which is beneath the Throne" and begins to learn the paths within the Labyrinth, which must be followed by touch. "The spiderweb of stone-walled tunnels underlay all the Place and even beyond its walls; there were miles of tunnels, down there in the dark." While she is exploring the Labyrinth (by touch), she is startled to see light - the young wizard Ged has come seeking the broken ring of Erreth-Akbe. She first keeps him prisoner and then hides him in the Labyrinth until the Nameless Ones become angry. They escape as the Labyrinth collapses in an earthquake, and they leave Atuan in Ged's boat, which has eyes painted on it and a red sail.

James Wallerstein, Tommy and Julie.  I'm very sure this is the right title since this was always one of my favorites as a child.  It's an odd, dark book, but a great read.
Wallerstein, Tommy and Julie, 1952.  Thanks!I think this IS the title,and I have ordered the book via inter-libary loan from the only library in the state that still seems to have a copy. I'll post again when I know for sure that the title is correct--and then search for a copy to purchase.The book WAS dark--but intriguing. This Loganberry site is amazing.
Wallerstein, Tommy and Julie, 1952.With the suggested title, I was able to locate a copy of the book via inter-library loan, and Tommy and Julie is indeed correct.  Now I'\''m looking for a copy to purchase.  Thank you

Lo and behold, I was pricing some LGB's one day, and flipped through one I didn't remember and it was unmistakably this story! It's called Tommy Visits the Doctor, and is illustrated by Richard Scarry. When I called the customer to tell her the good news, she was ecstatic and told me that she was on her way to Russia to pick up her newly adopted child. Wow.

And then there is the little Golden book in which a child is visiting the doctor for a checkup.  At the same time, running parallel with the story, a little rabbit is going to the rabbit doctor.  Very cute. 

I don't know if it from a Ray Bradburybook or just a sci-fi anthology but I do know that the rain story in A18 is by Ray Bradbury.
I taught 5 & 6th grade during the late 70's and early 80's and used an anthology that included the story of the planet (Venus) where the sun only appeared for a few brief hours every seven years. I do not remember the time travel story; the other story, All Summer in a Day, is by Ray Bradbury and probably can be found in one of the collections of his short stories.  This story always greatly impressed my pupils; even when they were in high school and college students sometimes came back to look for that particular selection in the reading book. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the reading series that published that anthology, but could probably find out by doing some backtracking at the school.  I do not have a copy of the anthology, which is no longer in use, and I am sure is out of print, but wish I did!  (The school has no more copies either.)
I have also been looking for this book for years!  I loved this as a child in the 70's.  I do remember one thing about this story.  The little girl that was locked in the closet's name was MARGOT.  Could that be in the
name of the story?  Maybe that will help the reader with the title.  I remember the last line was the children "opening the door and letting MARGOT out."  I would love to read this story again.
Sorry, I didn't realize that A18 had listed the name of that story.  I thought the person meant the second story.  Now I can probably find it if it's by Ray Bradbury. THANKS.
My mystery is solved!  The anthology is called Tomorrow's Children edited by Isaac Asimov (according to the reviews of this book on Amazon.com, apparantly I was not the only 5th or 6th grader to become enchanted with this anthology of great science fiction stories about children).  Originally published in 1959, it is now out of print.  The other story I reference in my original stumper request is called "Star Bright" about two children who can transport themselves throught time.  Anyhow, as it is out of print, I would certainly be interested in locating a copy.  Any help you can provide would be appreciated.  Thanks for everyone's help!

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When I was in Jr. High School 1982-1983, I did a book report on a series of science fiction stories from various authors. All of them were about children with special gifts. One story was told from a Father's point of view (diary style) when he realizes that his daughter has figured out how to travel through time. He tells her not to, but she disappears anyway and he suspects that she found a way to travel to a new dimension, but in this actual time. Another was from the point of view of a boy who had an empathic little sister. The book may have had the word "star" or "children" in it.

#S88--Star Children:  This is Tomorrow's Children, edited by Isaac Asimov, which appears on the "Solved Mysteries" page.

Tomorrow's sphinx by Clare Bell, 1986. "Two unusual black cheetahs share a mental link, one cat coming from the past to reveal scenes from his life with the young pharaoh Tutankhamen, and one struggling to survive in a future world ravaged by ecological disaster."

Janet McNeill, Tom's Tower.  I am certain this is the right answer. Tom gets into trouble on the first page because his teacher, Mr Ovid, finds a note in Tom's handwriting saying "The Castle is there". Tom can't remember anything about it, finds more notes, then suddenly sees the Castle.
[McNeil,  MacNeil, MacNeill]  Tom's tower.  illus by Mary Russon.  Little, c1965.

Bill Peet, Huberts Hair Raising Adventure, 1959.  In print.
Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure was my guess, too for this book.  My friend saw my copy of this book and says that's not the book she's looking for.  She thinks her book might have been a Little Golden Book (definitely not Tawny Scrawny Lion).  The Lion gives his hair/mane to birds and they give him something in return.  Thanks again to all who are searching.
Ken Wagner, Tony and his friends, 1969.  Maybe this one, then?  "Tony the zoo lion is so generous he gives the hair from his mane to the birds who need it to build their nests."  It was published by Golden Press as a Golden Beginning Reader.
Wagner, Ken, Tony and his Friends,1969, Golden.  This is at the outer edge of the time period you gave, but the description sounds promising:  "Tony the lion is so generous he gives the hair from his mane to the birds who need it to build their nests."
Yes, yes, yes - THIS is the book - Tony and His Friends. Thank-you all so much for your help in finding this great kids book! This is the greatest website!

Arthur L. Gates, Alice K. Liveright and Irene Esterline, Tony and Jo-Jo. Illustrated by Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, Charles B. Falls.  Macmillan 1940.  This looks possible. The book is a paperback, about 8" tall. "Story is about a Man named Tony who buys a monkey and  calls him Jo-Jo. The book tells about all the mischief that Jo-Jo gets into." Don't know whether it's part of a series, though. For what it's worth, Curious George is called Zozo in England.

Make that Tomie de Paola.
Tomie de Paola, Tony's Bread, 1989. New York: Whitebird Books, 1989.

Tony's Hard Work Day
A little boy decides he's going to build a house. So he goes into woods and cuts down trees (?) and builds a log(?) house, then goes and has a meal because he's hungry. Builds it for his family (?). Sorry for lack of details. Book is maybe from 60s.

The giving tree
James Stevenson, Tony's Hard Work Day. If it's a picture book, this might be a possibility.
SOLVED: Alan Arkin, Tony's Hard Work Day, 1972. Thanks! I think that's the answer.

Mabel Watts, Too Many Kittens,1963, approximate.This might be your book.  It was a Whitman Tell a Tale (find pictures on the internet).  The little girl is named Carol and she wishes for a kitten, but winds up with so many that she must give some away and winds up with one kitten named Boots. Illustrated by Suzanne.
Mabel Watts, Too Many Kittens.This is a Whitman Tell-a-Tale book.  A girl wants a kitten so her Dad puts an ad in the paper.  Soon many kittens are dropped off at her door.  She can't keep them all so they put a new ad in and soon all the kittens are gone, her mother accidentally giving away the last one.  She's sad until she finds her favorite kitten had hidden away and was still there. 

How about a baby kangaroo that escapes his mother's pouch to see the world and finds his way into a mailman's big bag- throwing out mail saying " We don't need this-and This is no good" etc. Maybe?!? Wonder Book Easy Reader, Too Many Pockets by Dorothy Levenson (1963)

Anita MacRae Feagles, The Tooth Fairy, 1962.  I believe the Feagles book is the one sought the illustrations--pen and ink with pink wash--sound right.  This was a personal stumper for me, as well, oddly inspired by the South Park "Tooth Fairy" episode!
Possible - The Tooth Fairy, written and illustrated by Anita Feagles, published Young Scott 1962, 32 pages. "Everybody knows there is a Tooth Fairy, but what DOES she do with all the teeth she collects every night from under children's pillows? Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy means a great deal to young children. Here is a profile of this little-known celebrity. Grades K-2, 2-color illustrations." (Horn Book Apr/62 p.206 pub.ad)
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The story of the toothfairy and what she does with all those teeth-- example she uses some of them to pave the sidewalk.  It is at least 40 years old, has a pink cover wiht the toothfairy dancing on the cover (I think)

I can't think of the author or lay my hands on my copy of the book, but I believe this one is just called The Tooth Fairy.  The illustrations  are all in black & white & pink, with pink and a picture of the tooth fairy on the cover like the poster says.  Also it does talk about what she does with teeth, including paving her sidewalk.  In the end it turns out that she loves to collect teeth because she has none of her own.
Anita MacRae Feagles, Tooth Fairy, 1962.  I'm betting this is the same as Anita MacRae Feagles' Tooth Fairy, already in Solved the description matches, both story and color/illo. (I'm one of the ones who suggested this title for the previous request)

John Reynold Gardiner (ill.Marc Simont), Top Secret, Boston: Little, Brown (1984).  NB: Little, Brown pb still in print -- the book shows up on lots of reading lists (BTW, the boy's name is Allen Brewster)
John Reynolds Gardiner (author), Marc Simont (illustrator), Top Secret, 1984.  This is definitely the right book!  Allen Brewster, a fourth grader, decides to discover human photosynthesis for his school science project.  His irritable teacher, Miss Green, declares his idea ridiculous and assigns a lipstick project instead.  His parents are equally nonsupportive, but his grandfather encourages him.  Allen discovers that the biggest difference between hemoglobin and chlorophyll is that the former contains iron while the latter contains magnesium, so he decides to ingest foods that contain high levels of magnesium.  He mixes salt water from an aquarium with peanut butter, Coco-Puffs, raw liver, and Mexican refried beans, runs the mixture through a blender, and drinks it.  After some experimentation with the proportions, he discovers that his skin has turned green, his taste buds have disappeared, he doesn't need to eat, and he craves sunlight.  He also gets aphids and starts sprouting roots.  Once the government confirms that Allen has succeeded in discovering human photosynthesis, they return him to normal with a pill, classify his discovery as top secret, and give him a lipstick science project that wins a blue ribbon.  On the other hand, crabby Miss Green gets her comeuppance!  A fun book, still in print.

could be Torten's Christmas Secret, by Maurice Dolbier, illustrated by Robert G. Henneberger, published Boston, Little, Brown 1951, 64 pages. "An imaginative tale of the things that happen at the North Pole when the gnome, Torten and his good friend Drusus, the polar bear, set out to do something about the bad children whose stockings might not be filled at Christmas." (HB Dec/51 p.415) The illustration shows the polar bear poking his head in the window where the gnome sits at a table painting a toy train while a calico cat and little mouse look on. More mice and small birds perch on the window shutters.
S107 santa's helpers: looking at our library's copy of Torten's Christmas Secret.   It was published 1951. Santa's elves are called gnomes. The gnome Torten makes toys at home out of scraps from the workshop, not as good as the workshop toys (train with mismatched wheels etc) but he plans to give them to the 'bad children' who wouldn't get toys at all. This is his secret mission and there are many setbacks. First is that Santa is taking more reindeer than usual, so there are none left for Torten's little sleigh. However, the polar bear Drusus is convinced to try flying (turns out he can), though his first landings wake everyone up. Eventually Torten and Santa meet up in Hackensack, New Jersey at the home of a little girl who won't brush her hair, and Torten finds out that even bad  children get presents. Santa appreciates Torten's work and asks him to help next Christmas. The book is profusely illustrated throughout.

Betty Cavanna, A Touch of Magic, 1961. This is a historical romance by one of the best 50s-60s "maltshop book" writers.  I'm sure it's the book being sought.  Fifteen year-old Hannah Trent is a Quaker in Revolutionary-War Philadelphia who befriends Peggy Shippen's sister Nancy.  Hannah and her mother are hired as seamstresses by the Shippen family.  And Hannah is drawn into war intrigue by her friend Mark who's on the side of the Rebels.
Betty Cavanna, A Touch of Magic. It's about a Quaker seamstress Hannah, who is friends with Nancy Shippen, cousin of vain Peggy Shippen

This may be Ruth Carroll, Tough Enough ('54). I think this a sequel to Beanie (Henry Z Walck, '53): Beanie's dig is named Tough Enough. Or it may be the same book, resissued with a different title. Set in the Smokies -- mountain boy & his dog..
Just stumbled on your site.  Awesome! I picked up one of Ruth and Latrobe Carroll's books at a second-hand store called Runaway Pony, Runaway Dog, in which Tough Enough and the family's pony Sassy run away. Other books in the series as listed in the book are:  Beanie,  Tough Enough,  Tough Enough and Sassy,   Tough Enough's Pony,  Tough Enough's Trip,  Tough Enough's Indians.
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Tough Enough and Sassy
Very sketchy memories of this chapter book!  A family is living in the country, can't remember if they moved there recently.  I think they need to earn money to remain in the country, and the family creates a little roadside store to cater to tourists.  I think they sell wild strawberry jam from berries the children gather, and perhaps cake, but the  one thing that I remember with absolute certainty is that the mother successfully sells something that the father initially dismisses as rubbish.  She finds interesting pieces of wood, carves or burns hollows into them, and plants ferns or other native plants obtained from the woods in the hollow spaces. I can't remember much else about the book, except that for the longest time, I thought the title was On The Banks of Plum Creek.  (No, I never read the Little House books when I was a child!)  It isn't, so it is possible that the title contains the name of a fruit and/or a body of water, or maybe the author's last name starts with a "W" and the two books were shelved together, or maybe this is a red herring!  I loved this book and read it over and over. I probably read it before 1970, though it may have been published earlier.

Could this be Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski?
No, sorry, this isn't Lois Lenski's Strawberry Girl.  It's a fine book, but I've read it recently and know it's not the one I'm looking for.
Ruth Carroll, Tough Enough and Sassy, 1958.  Possibly this one -  "In a summer of drought, Beanie and the rest of his family make "pretties" out of twisted wood, acorns and cones to sell to the tourists, and Tough Enough and Sassy get lost when the dog encounters a wild boar."  (Thanks, Pugcat, for reminding me where I saw this stumper!)
Ruth (co-author and illustrator) and Latrobe (co-author) Carroll, Tough Enough and Sassy, 1958.  YES!!! Thank you so much, this is absolutely correct!  This is book five in the seven book series about the Tatum family: Beanie, Tough Enough, Tough Enough's Trip, Tough Enough's Pony, Tough Enough and Sassy, Tough Enough's Indians, and Runaway Pony, Runaway Dog.  Tough Enough and Sassy is not a chapter book, but a picture book with lots of text.  Ma and Pa Tatum have five children and numerous pets.  (Their youngest child, a boy called Beanie, has a dog named Tough Enough and a pony named Sassy, hence the title of the book.)  The Tatum live in The Great Smoky Mountains and fall on hard times when their crops fail due to a drought.  Ma makes the planters (called "woods pretties") for Mrs. Gudger's store, which caters to tourists.  Mrs. Gudger is interested in buying Beanie's pony Sassy, and Pa owes so much money to the general store that he has to seriously consider her offer.  Besides gathering wood and plants for the planters, the children pick blackberries, harvest wild strawberries that Ma makes into jam, gather acorns and hemlock cones that Ma makes into necklaces, and make ornaments from sheets of mica that Beanie finds.  Mrs. Gudger sells the planters, fresh fruit, jam, necklaces and ornaments, and the money the family earns is enough to keep them going until the drought ends, and the current year's crops are sold at a good profit.  A lovely book that warmly but accurately depicts Appalachian life.  For more information on this series, visit this excellent web site.

Well, I now know its title.  It is Toward Freedom, and it is a title in the Democracy series, 1941.

Andre Norton, Steel Magic.  3 children, 2 brothers and 1 sister, buy a picnic basket and go on a picnic on an island on their uncle's property.  The ruin on the island is a gateway to another realm.  They are involved in a Merlin/King Arthur adventure where each is sent to find a different object and they are only armed with a piece of silverware (a knife, a fork, a spoon) because the items are made from iron/steel which the fairy folk can not touch.
I'm sure this isn't Steel Magic (aka Grey Magic).  Steel Magic does not have a Christian slant, and I'm pretty certain there's no bathroom scene in it.  The "children going to another world" scenario is one of the most common in children's fantasy, and there are dozens of books it could be.
Dan Millman, Quest For The Crystal Castle, 1992.  Could this be it?  I know the date is later than what you stated, but it's the only thing I could find.  It's the second in Dan Millman's Peaceful Warrior series.  The first, Secret Of The Peaceful Warrior, was written in 1991.  Here is a short description:   Danny's wish for adventure comes true as he finds himself on a quest for a crystal castle, high on a distant mountain in a land he's never seen. Before he can reach the castle, he must pass through a mysterious forest, where he will encounter unusual challenges and receive help from unlikely allies. His adventure ends with a surprising discovery.  Another description: Unappreciative of what he has in life, Danny travels with the magical old man Socrates into another world, where his quest for the crystal castle teaches him that it is the journey itself
that makes a warrior, not the reward.
John White, The Archives of Anthropos. This is a series of books with various titles (The Tower of Geburah, Gaal the Conqueror, The Sword Bearer more) that are very similar to the Narnia books and were published in the early 1980s.
Ed Wicke, The Muselings, or Screeps.  Reminds me of The Muselings, or its sequel Screeps, though not sure of publ. date (can't find my copy, orginally from church bookstore).  "One day three scruffy children from an orphanage in an English village have a surprise. Rachel, Robert and Alice fall UP a tree into another world! Why have they been brought into the land that scheming Queen Jess calls her own? The Queen and the children would both like to know, and as they try to
find out, they stumble into hilarious and hair-raising adventures. Here we meet Lord Lrans, mad about fox-hunting
 the Reverend Elias, beloved but misunderstood vicar  Ballbody, a round, bouncy fellow. . . and the Muselings - kind, furry
creatures whose world the children have fallen into. And there is Queen Jess's husband Ahab, transformed into a flying bird-like and rat-like creature, blood-red and sharp-clawed, as high as a large shed and as long as two cars.  Then Reverend Elias faces Queen Jess on a hilltop, and everything changes."
One of the people that wrote in to my question had the right book.  My request was C173, Children in another realm.  The author is John White, and the book is The Tower of Geburah.  Could you email me back and let me know if you can order the book, and also the price?  Thank you! Your website is a great idea!
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Three kids, staying with an uncle,  find 3 TV's:  girl falls into one showing a prisoner.  Brothers follow her through the other two.  The girl escaped dungeon  following a tunnel with blue light.  Long book, lots of quests.  Paperback with pictures from the series, mostly  blue.  1st of a Trilogy?

David Mains, Karen Mains, Tales of the Kingdom, 1983, approximate. Maybe this series--this is the first book.  "Summary: Twelve stories centering on the adventures of two orphaned brothers who escape a polluded city ruled by an evil enchanter to seek their exiled king in the place whre trees grow."
SOLVED: John White, The Tower of Gerburah, 1978. I'm the requestor of this one. I actually found it the day after I sent the request in.  It's the start of the Archives of Anthropos series  I suddenly remembered the publisher and from there was able to find it!  It's still in print too.  Amazing.

This book could very well be Tonke Dragt's Towers of February. There is a parallel universe accessible only if you know the right word and have the right mindset and only on first and last days of Leap Day. A boy who cannot remember his name (or anything else) awakens or comes aware on a beach. He is clutching certain things, including a journal whose writing he cannot make out, and shards of glass that have cut his hand. The parallel universe is a mirror image of his own, kind of--the glass was a mirror to read his journal with--but not quite: there are differences, like in electricity and schools. The boy takes refuge with a girl who has a father and a dog, but the dog and the girl, whose hair and fur are the same color, are never in the same room at the same time. The way back home does have something to do with a rug, though I don't remember what, something about its complex pattern and color making the boy think and make connections among what he's seen and can just remember to realize how he can get back. I loved this book and bought it from a library sale, but I figure it's quite rare.
Dragt, Tonke, The Towers of February, 1975.  I believe the book sought may be Tonke Dragt's The Towers of February, which has subtitle "a diary by an anonymous (for the time being) author with added punctuation and footnotes." The elements mentioned -- the sea, abandoned building (tower), old man and girl, time travel &/or parallel universe -- all fit.  This is the English translation of Dragt's De torens van Februari (Dutch).

On the Solved Mysteries page, there's a story about a doll hospital called Katy Comes Next.  It doesn't sound like the same one, but you should read the comments under it to see if other guesses for that stumper might be your book.
It's OPEN THE DOORS & SEE ALL THE PEOPLE by Clyde Robert Bulla, 1972. If the title doesn't sound familiar, it's because it was republished under another name (The Toy ***, I can't remember the exact title, I'll check my copy at home). And I'm pretty positive this is the right one - it was a stumper of my own a few years back! ~from a librarian
Getting back to you with the other title that this book was published under. Scholastic Book Services published it as THE TOY HOUSE DOLLS in 1974. Mama, teeny and Jo Ann lose their house to a fire. They move to the
city with nothing to their name. The girls miss the dolls they lost. They find out about The Toy House. It's a lending library for dolls and toys. They take worn out and broken dolls and make them as good as new (book has a scene in the toy repair shop). The girls borrow dolls. They find out they can adopt the dolls, if they can prove that they can take good care of them for 6 weeks. ~from a librarian
Yes! The book was called The Toy House Dolls. Thank you for helping me remember the name of this wonderful book. The name struck a chord right away because Bulla is also the author of another of my favorite books The Ghost of Windy Hill. I remember ordering both these books from the Weekly Reader bookclub around 1973. Thanks also for this great site and for the tips about using the Library of Congress system to look things up.

Til B. Christopher, The Toy Party (Stevie and Todd Have a Dream), 1948. "Tell-A-Tale" Book No. 878.

Toy That Flew
My dad used to read me this book in the late 70's (maybe very early 80's) when I was 4 or 5.  We remember the title as "The Kite that Flew" but I haven't been able to find any mention of this book online.  It isn't "The Flyaway Kite." I can vaguely picture the illustrations-- an Asian boy and his grandfather flying a kite, maybe on a beach- (maybe the kite flew away? my dad thinks it might have been a Chinese HAT that flew away?)

Allen Say, perhaps?
K57  Not too possible --  Herrmanns, Ralph.  Lee Lan flies the dragon kite.  colored photos Harcourt, 1962
K57 Smaridge, Norah.  The toy that flew.  illus by Herta Depper.  Whitman Tell-a-Tale c1974.  supposedly the invention of the kite - after a Chinese boy's hat blows off 

Grifalconi, Ann, The Toy Trumpet: story and pictures,  1968. Bobbs-Merrill.  "When everyone tells  him that he must wait to  get a trumpet, a young Mexican boy works to earn enough money to buy one for himself--a bright pink one that is just right."

F92 Florence Musgrave, Trailer Tribe, 1955.  This is about a family that travels in a trailer throughout the United States.  In one chapter, they visit the Pennsylvania Dutch (or Amish).
F92 sounds like Trailer Tribe by Florence Musgrave.  In it a family--father, mother, sister, and brother--travel around and
they do visit Lancaster County, PA.

Has P29 tried the lead in P17 regarding Penelope? [The author is the English cartoonist Thelwell; his books about horses include Penelope, A Leg at each Corner, and Angels on Horseback.]
Hi Harriett,  Thanks for writing.  No, I don't think this is the same.  The one I'm thinking of was hardback and there was just one book, no series.  Also, it wasn't a cartoon.  Somehow I think the cover may have been green with a drawing of a girl on a hill (or the side of a mountain). And there was a boy also. The reason I even remember it is I went to school with a girl name Penelope and my Dad called her Penny lope. I don't even really remember the story any more but would love to find the book.  If I ever run across it, I know I'll remember it. Thanks for writing.
No good information, but the date is right: Parton, Ethel Penelope Ellen: Three Little Girls of 1840 NY, Viking 1936, 300 pages. It's another time rather than another place, and it may be too long a book for the age
remembered.
Does your Penelope book involve time travel? If si, it could be Alison Uttley A traveller in time. The heroine is called Penelope.
Joan Nichols, Penny Nichols and the Nob Hill Mystery, 1939.  If the girl is not a little girl the book might be Penny Nichols and the Nob Hill Mystery (1939) by Joan Clark. I read this years ago when I was small and I
called her Pen-a-lope all through the  book- and I wasn't kidding! I kept thinking what an odd name! Shortly after someone spoke of a Penelope and then the light broke! Penny Nichols was a series, another book is Penny Nichols and the Lost Key. She was about the age of Nancy Drew, if my memory serves. I don't know if she was termed an amateur sleuth like Nancy Drew but she gets involved in mysteries.
Marjorie Torrey, Penny, 1944.  Might this book be Penny, by Marjorie Torrey? The main character is named Penny, not Penelope--but she travels by train from New York City to the country, where she visits her Aunt Penelope. She makes friends with a boy named Caleb. There's a poodle named Pouf and a doll named Rosmyrelda. The book is from 1944, so fits the date described. There's a picture in the book of Penny asleep on a hillside.
Alsion Uttley, A Traveller in Time, 1939. I'm sure this book is a Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley, as somebody said. It was published in 1939 and was set in England. Penelope Taberner stays in her aunt Cicely's old manorhouse (Thackers Farm) in the countryside and somehow manages to step through a door into the manor's Elizabethan (16th century?) past. She meets a boy called Francis Babington. The cover is indeed green and there's a picture of a girl in a bright green dress next to a boy on horseback in front of a manorhouse. I can scan the cover if you want, or scan a couple of pages from it, see if it jogs your memory? I had the same thing happen, read it when I was little, and then was looking for it for years and finally discovered it in my uncle's bookshelf!

Merrill, Jean, The Adventures of Marco, 1956.  This must be the book that the person is thinking of though some of the details are a little confused.  Marco is a homing pigeon who, fed up with his roof top flies allover New York city having adventures and trying all sorts of food.  The front endpapers are illustrated with the little boy who feeds him the peas.
Jean Merrill, The Travels of Marco, 1956.  Just throwing out a possibility here.  The Travels of Marco by Jean Merrill is described as the adventures of a pigeon in New York City.  Food is listed as one of the subject headings for it in the LC catalog.
Merrill, Jean, Travels of Marco

HRL:  Not the picture book Masquerade by Kit Williams?
Milton Dank & Gloria Dank, The treasure code, 1985.  Maybe? "Six junior-high-school friends embark on a search for the dragonring, a valuable treasure buried somewhere in the city of Philadelphia by a local author who has written a book containing clues to the treasure's hiding place."
Thanks a million!  The Treasure Code is the book I was trying to remember.

Colver, Anne, Bread and Butter Journey.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the details, but "Bread and Butter Indian" and "Bread and Butter Journey" might be possibilities.
This isn't a solution.. I'm afraid I don't know the book you're seeking but I do know that it is not Bread and Butter Journey.  I read that one recently and there was nothing in it about a necklace, a sampler, a turnpike, or travelling on a raft.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's helpful to rule things out sometimes on the quest to find the right book.
You are right - it isn't Bread and Butter Journey.  I just got it through InterLibrary Loan, and knew almost at once it wasn't the right one.  I did, however, enjoy it, and the wonderful illustrations by Garth Williams are always a delight.  So the search goes on....
Helen Fuller Orton, The Treasure in the Little Trunk, 1932. This is definitely the book in question.  Patty's family moves from Vermont to upstate New York in a covered wagon in the 1820's.  Her grandmother promises her a gold-beaded necklace if she completes the sampler she's been working on by her 10th birthday.  The origin of the word "turnpike" is in here.
Helen Fuller Orton, The Treasure in the Little Trunk,1932.This was one of my favorite Orton books.  It's about 9-year old Patty in 1823 Vermont who needs to finish her sampler before she turns 10 so she can earn the heirloom string of gold beads from her grandmother.  Patty's family decides to move to Western New York and travels there by covered wagon. They go on a turnpike and through a tollgate.
Helen Fuller Orton, The Treasure in the Little Trunk.   Yes, Yes, This is IT!!  When I read the name "Patty" I knew it.  Thanks so much for solving another memory-itch.  Thank you all so much for not giving up on this older stumper.

D144 Sounds like THE TREASURE IS THE ROSE by Julia Cunningham, 1973. Ariane is a young widow living in Mon Coeur Castle. Three men come along and try to find treasure there. She figures out that the treasure is buried under a rose bush, and also finds a new love. ~from a librarian
Cunningham, Julia, The Treasure is the Rose, 1973.  I have a copy of this book.  It matches the description exactly.  What a lovely story! Amazon books appears to have some used copies, although it is out of print.
Julia Cunningham, The Treasure is the Rose, 1973.  I love this book!  Ariane, the Countess de Mon Coeur, is a widow living with her old nurse, Moag, in a small castle that is going to ruin. There is no money to save it from the neighboring baron who wants it.  Meanwhile, her home is invaded by three young men, drifters and possibly criminals, who have heard that there is a hidden treasure and threaten dire things if they are not given it.  (They are using the names Ragwort, Toadflax and Yarrow!) Through the sweetness of her spirit, Ariane tames them, and through her memories of her husband she finds the
treasure.
Julia Cunningham, illustrations by Judy Graese, The Treasure is the Rose, 1973.  So glad to be able to help again! This book is one of my favorites from my childhood years. The edition I have is from Scholastic, but according to the copyright info it was originally from Pantheon. It is the story of Ariane, a young widow whose husband was killed in the Crusades, leaving her pretty much penniless. She lives with one servant in a very small castle that is pretty much falling apart. The plot is pretty much as the submitter remembers it, with the addition of a trio of thieves. It all ends happily. What is also very interesting is that in the illustrations, Ariane is pretty much a dead ringer for Princess Leia from the first Star Wars movie - the dress and hair are identical. Since the book predates that movie, I always wondered about that.
Julia Cunningham, The Treasure is the Rose,1973.  Ariane is desperately poor after the death of her husband. She grows damask roses in the garden of "Mon Coeur", the small castle where she lives with her sevant-woman, Moag. Ariane and Moag are menaced by a gang of rogues, also by a wealthy baron- local rumor tells of treasure at the castle -her husband's last message was "The Treasure is the Rose". 

T48 treasure magazine: perhaps Bless This House, by Norah Lofts, published Doubleday 1954. "The story of Merravay, a house in Suffolk, England, told through a series of exciting and dramatic episodes inthe lives of the people who built it and lived in it from the days of Elizabeth I until the reign of Elizabeth II." (Basic Book  Collection for High Schools, ALA 1957 p.111) Doesn't say if the story is narrated by the house, though. I'd like to suggest it for H29 house goes through transitions, but it's only one book, not a series. A longer shot is The Snowstorm, by Beryl Netherclift, published Hutchinson 1967, 183 pages. "With parents overseas on a business trip, Kit, Caroline, and Richard are on their way to an aunt, who lives in Farthingales, the ancient and beautiful house of the Faraday family. Farthingales is falling into ruins and nothing can be done to stop it - unless the lost treasure is found. With the help of many children from the house's past, it is, and all ends happily. ... fairly stock characters, Farthingales itself comes to life, however, and saves the book from mediocrity ..." (JB Aug/67 p.256)
It's not Bless This House - none of the names matches. BTW, I forgot to make clear that Edward Poole cheats by using his whip - against Sarah's horse!
The Old Book Company, a shop in the UK, has about 80 issues of Treasure Magazine from the 1960s for sale. Their email is Sales@Oldbook.co.uk The issues are USD8.00 each, and they have 2 from 1963, 37 from 1964, 26 from 1965, 5 from 1966, 10 from 1967. I asked about a serial involving a family and a house called Gabrielles or similar but they're not eager to poke through all the issues on spec, which I can understand. They asked if I could pin down a year, which of course I can't.  It's possible, I guess, that the seeker will want a bunch of them anyways, or will have a closer idea which year it might be, so maybe you could pass this information on? Sorry to dump this in your lap, but I have had no luck at all finding an index or contents list for the magazine, and this is the best lead so far.
T48 treasure magazine: just a question, could the house have been called something like "Gables"? That sounds like "Gabrielles" and is an architectural feature. Treasure Magazine was published by Fleetway in the 1960s, so old copies might be found from used bookshops in the UK or Australia, or from ebay.co.uk.
T48: Thank you for your kind efforts! I'm not eager to spend that much on magazines (though if I were in the UK and not the US and could see them myself, I'd probably break down and buy one or two). I WILL contact them. In the meantime, I can't pinpoint the year, but those years sound likely - plus, the BACK COVER always featured episodes of long-running stories from "Marigoldland" with King Florian and Wicked Wizard Weezle, and the stories I remember from that (WHY did I ever let go of them?) included those two characters switching bodies - and places - through evil magic; little Princess Rose and her nanny being kidnapped by Weezle and freed by Prince Strongbow - plus, a magical violin is used; Weezle makes the forest trees come to life and march to Florian's palace; and little Prince Rupert gets lost, finds Weezle's lair, steals his thinking cap, finds himself in the ocean chased by Weezle and gets picked up by the king's ship. Too many examples already, I'm sure! WITHIN the mags, the other long-running stories I remember were the life of St. Francis, Gulliver's Travels, Worzel Gummidge, and Galldora.
Captain Marryat, Children of the New Forest, 1847.  This is a long shot as I don't think the names match, but other aspects of the story sounf familiar.
I have a few copies of Treasure Magazine from 1965 and 1966 (it was published weekly and was the younger version of Ranger, and Look and Learn magazines). There is no long running story of Gabrielles or any storyline close to that described. The Tale of Princess Marigold Land however is in every copy.  None of the stories or comic style portrayals are credited to any author.
Treasure.  I have just retrieved a large collection of Treasure magazines from my attic. My 10 year old daughter is now enjoying such tales as Princes Marigold Land, Robin Hood, Galdora and Gabriels, which is, as suggested, the story of a house. I also have a couple of annuals, which would be the Big Red Book previously mentioned. My magazine range seems to run from No 216, dated March 1967, to 417, January 1971. At some stage after this, Treasure was replaced with the dreadful and disappointing World of Wonder.  I am delighted someone else remembers Treasure with affection  they are wonderful, informative (Mr Answers and Wee Willie Winkie etc), a delight... And not for sale! However, some details which may help you: Comics were published by Fleetway and then IPC Magazines, as were the annuals (just found them - I have 1970, '71 and '72.)
Following on from my last posting: If you are particularly interested in the editions including Gabriels, they run from No 326 (The first "New" Treasure in a reduced (now standard) format), dated April 12th 1969 to No 338 dated July 5th 1969. 

Gordon Shirreff, The Secret of the Spanish desert, 1964. This was the sequel to Mystery of the Haunted Mine, and while it doesn't match all of your details it is very similar.
I have checked out The Secret of the Spanish Desert, and it's not the book I am thinking of either.  I am beginning to think that the book I am looking for is not by Gordon Shirreffs at all, because I don't recognize his writing style.  As for the details - I am dead certain about the treasure map being found in a cubbyhole in the roof of the adobe house I'm certain about the symbols on the map, including a saguaro cactus and either two or three circles that represent Indian women with tattoos on their faces and I am absolutely certain about the main character discovering the mission bell and realizing that mice have been knocking off pebbles onto the bell inside the cave, which is what has created the ghostly ringing that people have been hearing for years.  I also specifically remember the scene around the campfire where the girl has a blanket wrapped around her head, and the main character hears her muffled voice saying something about "ghost" and "blue."  That's her theme throughout the story - "I hope we do find a ghost, and I hope it scares you blue!"  Any book that doesn't have those specific details is definitely not the book I am looking for.  But thank you for the help and suggestions!
"Timothy Bowdy, you make me so mad"', shouted Debbie. "I hope you do find a ghost and I hope it scares you blue." p. 91. The Treasure of the Padres by Betty Baker-1964.
Betty Baker, Treasure of the Padres, 1964. Treasure of the Padres is definitely the book.  Thank you so much!  I looked up that title on line and someone had posted a photo of the book cover - exactly what I remember.  It was like getting struck by lightning!  It wasn'\''t a Scholastic Press book - it was a Weekly Reader Book Club release.  I can'\''t wait to get a copy of the book.  Thank you again!

L174 This is definitely THE TREASURE TRAP (also published as THE HAUNTED MANSION MYSTERY) by Virginia Masterman-Smith (I'm so sure because it was a book that I had childhood memories of and I hunted it down a few years back). You might be interested to know that ABC Weekend Specials made a mini-movie (43-50 minutes long) based on the book, starring a very young Christian Slater.~from a librarian
Virginia Masterman-Smith, The Treasure Trap, 1979.  It could be this one.  A lot of the elements are the same...a girl named Angel moving to a new house, a boy named Billy living next door who helps her, and an Old Man Waterman who died and supposedly left a treasure somewhere in the house.  There is something about a trench, but I don't remember friends helping to dig.  I don't remember the old man's body turning up, but there was a sequel, called The Great Egyptian Heist where there's a mummy involved...
That is it exactly. I knew it as the Haunted Mansion Mystery.  Thank you so much for your help.  I would love to dig up that old TV special. LOL.

Virginia Masterman-Smith, The Treasure Trap, 1979.  Sounds like The Treasure Trap, or maybe its sequel, The Great Egyptian Heist.  The kids are Angel Wilson and Billy Beak and there's a Junior running around who eventually becomes their third friend.  Angel's just moved into the house next door, where there's supposedly a missing treasure...she enlists Billy's help to find it.
Virginia Masterman-Smith, The Haunted Mansion Mystery, 1983, approximately.  My own memories of this plot stem from watching the movie version during a library summer reading program.  Angel Wilson and her family move into a house haunted by Old Man Waterman, a mean, baseball-swiping miser who hid a treasure under the house.  Angel and her neighbor, Billy, end up digging in the backyard and falling into a basement room where they find the old man's skeleton.  I found a paperback version of this book with a publication date of 1979, and another published in 1983, the same year that the movie was released.
Just for clarity, THE TREASURE TRAP (Atheneum, 1979, Aladdin Paperbacks, 1992) and THE HAUNTED MANSION MYSTERY (Scholastic, 1983) are the same book. It's listed under your Solved pages under THE TREASURE TRAP~from a librarian
Virginia Masterson-Smith, The Haunted Mansion Mystery.  Thank you!  This is solved.

For what it's worth, there are Mog stories by Judith Kerr, also the author of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and widow of Nigel Kneale (The Quatermass Experiment).
Joan Aiken, A Necklace of Raindrops.  The story about the cat Mog is a short story by Joan Aiken called "The Baker's Cat."  I have a copy of this published in a collection of Joan Aiken's short stories titled A Necklace of Raindrops in large hardcover format with colour and black and white illustrations.  The other stories in the book are more of Joan Aiken's fairy tale-type stories.
Thank you for the suggestion, but unfortunately the rest of the stories in Joan Aiken's book don't match my recollection.  I was talking to my brother, who couldn't remember the title either, but he did remember an additional story from this book.  It was about a man (maybe God?) who found a little eggplant-like creature growing in his garden.  It gets bigger and bigger - at some point the man pokes his finger into its back, creating a blowhole - and of course it turns out to be a whale.  I'm sure this was in the same book as the baker's cat...maybe this new clue will help!
Okay - I've found out that the story my brother remembers is "How the Whale Became" by Ted Hughes.  And I'm sure that the suggestion above is dead on about Joan Aiken's story "The Baker's Cat".  Now I just need to find an anthology where both of these stories were published together!
Linda Yeatman, editor, A Treasury of Animal Stories.  I managed to track this book down at last - this anthology contains the Aiken story, the Hughes story, Dick Whittington, the Black Bull of Norway, and a ton of other stories that I now remember.  Thanks!

Hilda Offen, A Treasury of Bedtime Stories. I was looking through some old photos the other day and one was a picture of me ten years ago standing in front of a bookshelf.  There I saw a book with the blue spine I remember, and after much squinting made out the words "Bedtime Stories".  After searching on line, I discovered that the book I was seeking is A Treasury of Bedtime Stories by Hilda Offen.  The short story I loved so much was "Tim Rabbit and the Scissors" by Alison Uttley.

The Treasury of Little Golden Books- 48 best-loved stories, selected and edited by Ellen Lewis Buell. It has Sailor Dog and New Baby. While it has no Daniel Boone story, it has The Little Trapper by Kathyrn and Byron Jackson, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren- little boy wears coonskin cap- maybe this is what you mean! My copy is not blue but I think this has been produced a number of times. Hope this is a match!

Hilda Boswell, Treasury of Poetry, 1960s.  I have a copy of Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Poetry which has the Wynken Blynken and Nod poem as you describe, across two pages and beautifully illustrated. It's from the 1960s and is probably the one you have in mind.

Woods, Ralph, editor. This is probably one of the Ralph Woods volumes: Treasury of the Familiar, Golden Treasury of the Familiar, Second Treasury of the Familiar.  They were published and reprinted in various editions but various publishers (including book club editions and as part of sets with "Treasury of Essays" and suchlike).  There are quite a few on the web... perhaps one of those vendors would be willing to match contents for you.

We are looking for the exact same books!  Some titles we can add to her list include: The Lion and the Carpenter, The Nightingale, Thumbelina, The Pied Piper, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Some of the illustrations that stand out are: Thumbelina:  The mole that rescues her wears spectacles and a vest.  Her mother tucked her into a bed made of a walnut shell. Aladdin:  He was in cave filled with trees that had fruit made of jewels. He was plucking grapes made of sapphires, etc. The Nightingale:  The mechanical nightingale was made of gold with jewels on it.  Some stories that we recall "sans title" include:  *A girl whose 6 naughty brothers were turned into ravens. *The lazy fisherman who meets a magic gold fish who grants him 3 wishes. He had a wife who berated him, yet was not satisfied with each granted wish - even when she became queen.  The fourth wish returned them to their original status and pleasant life. Our impression of the book is that it was not designed for young children, as the quality of illustrations was phenomenal.  The book was filled with full page, colour pictures.  They were realistic illustrations, kind of like Norman Rockwell -- not cartoon-ish at all.  Thank you for your amazing web-site!
Helen Hyman (publisher Danbury Press), A Treasury of the World's Greatest Fairy Tales and A Second Treasury of the World's Greatest Fairy Tales, 1972.  I sent in the secondary comments regarding this "stumper" and then proceed to spend about 30 hours stubbornly hunting down these books...and SURPRISE..I managed to find them.  The titles in this 2-volume hardcover (no jackets) set include:  Volume 1:   THE UGLY DUCKLING, PUSS-IN-BOOTS, HANSEL AND GRETEL, THE WILD SWANS, SEVEN IN ONE BLOW, SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED, THE FROG PRINCE, THE THREE LITTLE PIGS, RAPUNZEL, ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES, THE THREE DWARFS IN THE WOOD, PRINCE KAMAR AND PRINCESS BUDUR, HANS IN LUCK, THE THREE MUSCIANS.  In Volume 2:  CINDERELLA, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, ALADDIN AND THE MAGIC LAMP, SLEEPING BEAUTY, LITTLE RED RIDINGHOOD, THE LION AND THE CARPENTER, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE SEVEN RAVENS, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE LITTLE TIN SOLDIER, THE EMPEROR'S NIGHTINGALE, THUMBELINA, THE THREE
HAIRS OF THE OGRE, THE PIED PIPER.  Both books contain approx 300 pages each, with beautiful colour illustrations.  The front covers are just as the original "stumper" person stated.  In addition to the blue and red titles set in the corner of each volume, the books are white with pictorial images of the story of Cinderella.  One Cinderella image is her running down long descending stairs from the prince's castle to her carriage below -- you can see prince running after her down the stairs in the background.  The other volume has an image of the carriage with white horses pulling away from a grand castle.  Enjoy...
I stumbled onto your site to see if anyone knew whether a third book for this set had ever been published.  (Sadly, no.)  I completely sympathize with the person who wrote in trying to find these books - I spent almost fifteen years searching (had no title, no author, all I could tell people was the stories in it, and describe some of the artwork).   FINALLY, I found them both online in pristine condition (I cried when I got them in the mail).  It was like being seven years old again as I curled up on my bed and read them from cover to cover.

Yes! Here it is- Treat Shop selected and edited by Eleanor M. Johnson and Leland B. Jacobs. Charles E. Merrill Books, Inc. (1954,1960) Your stories and many others. It resembles a school text. It is one in a group called: Treasury of Literature- Readtext Series.
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1950s-60s.  This book is a collection of short stories similar to Childcraft.  Three stories I remember:  1. Creamed angelworms on toast  2. A story about a child counting the freckles on her face by marking them with ink.  3. A poem starting "A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar/Why do you come so soon?/You used to come at ten o'clock/but now you come at noon."  Then the student explained to Miss Black, his teacher, all the events that made him late.  She then asks "Did all those things really happen to you?"  He replies, "Not all, but I did see a worm."

The Ten o'clock scholar's teacher's name was Miss Block, not Miss Black.  Thanks and I can't wait for a solution.
The story about creamed angleworms (not angelworms)was published in a grade school anthology called Treat Shop.  Please see the "T" Solved Mysteries pages for the editors, copyright date and publishers of this book.  I don't know whether it's the one you're looking for---I remember the stories you've described, but when I've looked at online photographs of Treat Shop, the cover doesn't look familiar.  The story may have appeared in more than one anthology: good stories often do!
Found it! It is ,indeed, Treat Shop- by Eleanor Johnson and Leland Jacobs-Treasury of Literature- Readtext Series. Freckle story is The Blue Nose by Emma L. Brock. Angleworms on Toast is by MacKinley Kantor and Marco Comes Late is written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. They are all there. I do not see the Dillar Dollar thing happening, though! This series of texts keeps cropping up!!
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This is a book giving to me in my childhood during the mid 1970's it was pre-owned and has a stamped "St. Mary's School" in the middle of the book. I still have this book but it is missing the origional binding and covers. It is also missing several pages from the front and back of the book. I am looking for the title to purchase a completed copy...  The first page of my book is page 23 it starts with the Story of "The puppy who wanted a boy" Topsy-Turvy Tales on page 27 there is a poem "Animal Parade" By Dorthy Hall pg. 28 Story "The Boss of the Barnyard" Then pg. 36 "Tammie and That Puppy" (more animal stories) Next Section is a poem -Old Magic Tales-Dorothy Hall then more stories pg.74 "The elves and the Shoemaker" Next Section Foolish Folk and Funny Fellows pg. 114 "The Old Man and the Monkeys" The next section Hurrah for the Circus! with "Minnie and the Lion" pg.150 The Next Section Sing and Say with poem "Husky Hi" on page 178 the next section People Near and Far with "The little cooks reward" pg 198 Next Section Everyday adventure with "A blue Nose" pg 222 The last page I have in this book before it is torn away is pg 238 "Angle worms on Toast"

Treat Shop, 1954, 1960, 1966. Treasury of Literature Readers - Banned Edition.  Selected and Edited by Eleanor M. Johnson, Editor-in-Chief My Weekly Reader. I have the '66 edition and it matches your description ALMOST exactly, so I'm sure you have either the '60 or '54 ed.  The chapter titles are the same and most of your titles are on the same pages as mine, but mine doesn't have "Husky Hi" or "A Blue Nose."
edited by Eleanor M. Johnson, Treat Shop, 1954, copyright.  Oddly this is the book that I originally placed a stumper for only a few weeks ago.  I purchased it easily online and my copy matches your description exactly.  It is amazing to me how many people have focused on this book (read through the many requests for the stories on the stumper lists).
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This was a story in an anthology of juvenile stories (like Angleworms on Toast) with an amusing twist.  A young girl has a face full of freckles and gets very tired of people asking her how many there are, she tries counting them covering the counted ones with her fingers but eventually she runs out of room so she decides to mark them with "indelible blue india ink".  Of course she cannot get the ink off even though they scrub her nose with lye soap etc.  I have been looking for this anthology for ages and I did think it included "Angleworms on Toast" but I am beginning to wonder if I merely had that story at the same time.  I have recited the story to my daughters many times and would like them to be able to read it to my grandchildren.

Last night I mailed you a check for a stumper regarding a girl with freckles.  Today I found it on your solved site.  The story was "The Blue Nose" in an anthology called Treat Shop which also included "Angleworms on Toast".  I found a copy online (you didn't have one listed).  How exciting - I am all agog.  I have been looking for this book for at least 40 years and have never known how to conduct a proper search. THANK YOU!  I spent most of today looking over your sight, this is the most fun I have ever had online - I look forward to going back every week.

This story sounds like Tristan and Iseult.
Joyce Ballou Gregorian, The Broken Citadel, Castledown, The Great Wheel, mid 1970s, approximate.  Got to be these:  In this trilogy Sibby, who is dark and doesn't get along with her mother, while her family is blond gets to another world and falls in with the prince rescuing the blond princess/daughter of the wicked sorceress in the tower.  The princess reminds Sibby quite a bit of her mother, and it turns out the kids were switched at birth.  Sibby goes home at the end of the first book. Comes back in teh second, is going to marry the questing prince - and does - but in the meantime, before the wedding drinks a love potion with the desert king.  Ooops.  She also in this world marries the villain of book 2, who also came from our world, but is of a family (bad) in the other world of Tredana.  In Book 3, in this world she's divorced.  Goes back to Tredana, but on the other side of the world, and her daughter born there is a major character.
Gregorian, Joyce Ballou, Broken Citadel, Castledown, The Great Wheel, 1970s, approximate.  Pretty sure you're looking for the trilogy by Joyce Ballou Gregorian, that started with The Broken Citadel.  Dark haired girl Sybbie, in a blond family, swapped by her enchantress mother.  Gets from our world to her native world, helps rescue the blond swappee who reminds Sybbie a lot of her 'mother' in our world.  Book 2:  Marries the prince.  Drinks love potion with wrong guy.  Has kid - not to the prince, to the other guy.  Goes home, marries the villain of book 2 in our world (he also came from a family originating in the world of Tredana and goes there in Book 2).  Every time she goes home she forgets everything that happened in Tredana.   Long after the first two were published the third came out which featured Sybbie again, her late teen daughter, the prince, the other guy....
Well this has to be it !!!  Thanks for all your help, have books on order.  Have been looking for these forever, should have found this site a long time ago.  Thanks!!

Kate Seredy, A Tree for Peter, 1941.  The original stumper requester is not sure what type of digging toy is involved.  I think it is "a little toy spade with a red handle from the five-and-ten-cent store" and the book in question is A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy, published by Viking Press in 1941.  The story begins when six year old Tommy Crandon, who is riding a train to the city, sees a lame boy standing alone in the rain near Shantytown.  Tommy grows to adulthood, but never forgets the dark, sad, ugly town and the ragged little boy in the rain.  He becomes a builder and decides to build sturdy homes for poor people.  He then rides the train to the city for the second time in his life to meet a famous builder, Peter Marsh, who has transformed Shantytown to Peter's Landing, a beautiful community.  Mr. Crandon meets Mr. Marsh in his office and describes the lame boy in the rain years ago.  He asks what sort of magic Mr. Marsh used to renew Shantytown.  Mr. Marsh tells him a story about a lame little boy named Peter, who lived in Shantytown with his mother following the death of her husband.  They hadn't always been poor, but Peter's hospital bills had driven the family into debt.  (Peter's illness or injury is not specified---he remembers "a lot of hurt where now his foot was lame.") Mom had to work six days a week, and Peter was alone and afraid until he met an elderly tramp, King Peter.  King Peter took the lame boy fishing, gave him a toy spade, and introduced him to a stray dog, Pal, who became the boy's companion.  He encouraged little Peter to befriend the local police officer, Pat, who helped little Peter plant a garden.  Finally, King Peter brought little Peter a tiny live Christmas tree decorated with candles.  The poverty-stricken neighbors unite around the tree and begin cleaning up the town and repairing the houses.  Soon Shantytown is beautiful.  That's the end of the story Peter Marsh tells Thomas Crandon, but it's not the end of the book.  "Peter Marsh rose from behind his desk...He was limping a little.  From the cupboard he took a little spade, a toy spade, old and worn."  Thomas Crandon and the reader find out that the poor lame boy in the rain and the great builder are the same person, and Peter Marsh reveals that King Peter may have been the King of Heaven in disguise, as no one but little lame Peter ever saw him.  The book is out of print, not hard to find, but nice copies tend to be expensive.
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children's book from 1960's--it starts in an office and a lawyer (i think) is teling the story of a young boy, i think named peter, who is very poor--maybe homeless--also has some problem with his leg and limps--and is befriended by an old man i think near a dock or wharf--the man is very kind and helps the boy to grow through their friendship--eventually the old man doens't ocme any more but by then the boy is okay--at the end it tunrs out the man telling the story is the boy, grown up and doing very well and helping others as he was--i thought the name had peter in the title but that may not be correct--but the plot basics are what i remember--it was in my church library but was not a specifi ally religious book--thanks!

Seredy, Kate, A Tree for Peter.  See solved mysteries under "T" for more details but I'\''m pretty sure this is the book you want- a young fatherless boy (with a limp) named Peter lives in a shanty town and is helped by a mysterious vagrant whom no one else sees.  There is the suggestion at the end of the book that the vagrant was Christ but it's never spelled out.  With the help of the stranger Peter sees the latent beauty in his surroundings and plants a garden and a tree, bringing together all the 'residents' of shantytown and building a community.  At the end Peter is a famous architect and builder and has had the shanty-town renamed in his honor.
Seredy, Kate, A Tree For Peter, 1941.  Just got this book in the mail as part of your thank you for solving stumpers.  By the way thank you.   Have to admit I haven't read it through yet, but glancing through I'm sure that is the one.  Peter Marsh a little lame boy meets a tramp named Peter King, Police man named Pat, his dog finds a spade, he digs in the sunshine everyday, cleans up Shantytown and grows up to become a builder.
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1940-80.  A teacher friend has been searchging for years for a book she used to read to her classes.  It is about a little disabled boy who uses a red shovel, eventually grows up to be an architect and helps build homes for others wih problems.  She recalls there is a picture at the end - of the architect at his desk, with the little red shovel leaning against it.

Definitely A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "T" pages for a detailed synopsis.  Currently in print, published by Purple House Press.
Seredy, Kate,  A Tree for Peter.  Thank you so much!  This is the right book - my friend is ecstatic!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Seredy, Kate. A Tree for Peter.  Purple House Press, 1941, 2004.  New hardback, $19.95

Beverley Nichols, The tree that sat down. I'm pretty sure the first book is The Tree that Sat Down, in which a young girl and her grandmother keep a shop in a magic forest with talking animals as customers and face competition from a nasty rival establishment operated by a Sam and a witch.   She marries a prince at the end.  The second story is probably (I don't have a copy of this one) The Stream that Stood Still, the second book in the series, which has been published in a single volume with the first story.
Thank you! I believe that The Tree That Sat Down and The Stream That Stood Still single volume is the book that I've been looking for. You don't know how excited I am to have found out the name of this book after all of these years! If Loganberry has it in stock, please let me know.
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My parents don’t remember this book, so I must have been old enough to read to myself – I was born in 1974, so mid-80s.  It was about animals who live in a wood, and (I think) a nice girl who did things with them – she may have been called Deborah? There was also (I think!) a nasty boy, and three toads called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Clearest memory is of the boy (with someone else?) setting up a stall in the wood selling empty boxes to the animals. He said they contained things like ‘rien’ (nothing in French) and similar in other languages, and the animals bought them. May well have been an English book.

I have just submitted two paypal 'stump a bookseller' and was browsing your site to see if I could help anyone else, when I have come across the answer to one of my queries!  M333 (Beverley Nichols - The Tree that Sat Down) is the answer to a favourite book I have been desperate to remember for at least 5 years now, and I am absolutely thrilled to have found it again after all this time!  Thank you so much for a brilliant site - and feel free to 'solve' my query immediately when you receive it!

Tree Toad.  Adventures of the Kid Brother by Robert Hobart Davis, illus. by Robert McCloskey (Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1942).

Don Lawrence & Micheal Butterworth, The Trigan Empire. This was a hard covered collection of stories. The beginning is the finding of the spaceship in the swamp. The other stories are all about The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire.
The Trigan Empire.   I read this once as a kid, twenty years ago, and I've remembered bits and pieces of it ever since.  Thanks so much for helping me to re-connect with it!

A Trip to Lazibonia by H.M.Denneborg aka Heinrich-Maria Denneborg, translated by Anne Rogers, illustrated by Horst Lemke, published in London by Kaye and Ward Ltd. (1971).  Here's an online description: "The children are awoken by the dream boat that takes them off to the magical land of Lazibonia!  Through the pyramid of rice pudding to the only place where roast chickens fly straight into your mouth, cheeses are scattered like stones and gingerbread cottages really exist so that the residents can simply lie around. Cooked fish swim in the milk river, honey roast hams run around ready to be carved for lunch. Fountains abound to deliver your favourite drink on a whim.  Need to loosen your belt? Clothes grow on trees and the grass is made of every imaginable colour of hair ribbon. Activity of any kind is frowned upon but if you want to learn you can start at the top and work your way down to kindergarten where you can just have fun all day!"
Someone posted this solution, and it is the book I have been searching for (for 3 years!). Thank you to whomever posted it, and thank you for this website - it's fantastic!

John Christopher, The Tripod series.  Sounds very much like the Tripod series by John Christopher, which contains The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead (which is the one which features the domed city and the true shape of the aliens), and The Pool of Fire. A prequel, The Day the Tripods Came, is also available.
Christoper, John, When the Tripods Came.  this was a trilogy with the prequel When the Tripods Came. Trilogy books are White Mountains, City of Gold and Lead and Pool of Fire.  FROM THE PUBLISHER:  Will has escaped from the City of the Tripods to deliver terrifying information to the colony of free people: The Masters are planning to change the earth's atmosphere to that of their own planet, exterminating the human race. There isn't much time to stop them, but Will and the others have no alternative but to try. Will they succeed in freeing the world from the control of the Tripods? And if they do, what will a free world be like after centuries of domination? Thirty-five years after its original publication, we are proud to offer this anniversary edition of The Pool of Fire, featuring a new preface from John Christopher, as well as the author's fully revised text, available in the United States for the first time.  FROM THE CRITICS [Publishers Weekly]: Now in 35th-anniversary editions, John Christopher's Tripod trilogy, about a race of three-legged machines who rule the planet, appears with a new introduction from the author and revised texts. The White Mountains introduces 13-year-old Will as he flees the capping ceremony, a rite of passage in which the Tripods enslave their subjects by fitting them with metal headgear, and heads to Switzerland's White Mountains in search of the world's only remaining community of free people. The follow-up, The City of Gold and Lead, finds Will and friends living in Switzerland and training to overthrow the Tripods. But he must travel to the City of the Tripods, from which few return, to acquire vital information. In the final installment, The Pool of Fire, Will and friends fight against time to defend the human race from extinction, the end result of the Tripods' scheme.
A possibility - at least it has giant space spiders. The Crystal City by Nancy Etchemendy.  "When they accidently encounter intelligent giant spider beasts during a copperdust storm, William and Maggie must convince the skeptical leaders of the New Genesis colony of the aliens peaceful nature."
John Christopher, Tripods Trilogy.  I think the poster is remembering the Tripods trilogy (The White Mountains, City of Gold and Lead, The Pool of Fire), although that took place on a future Earth.  The aliens had tall three-legged walking vehicles and lived in domed cities. In City of Gold and Lead, the hero escapes by hitting his alien owner in the spongy part of its head and killing it.
Margaret Mahy, Aliens in the Family.  This begins sort of how you've outlined, but was published in the mid 80s.
Christopher, John, Tripods Trilogy, 1969.Yep, sounds like Tripods to me.  The books were also serialized as a comic strip in Boys Life magazine (Scout magazine) and the first two books became a TV series by the BBC in the 1980s.  I have a website about Tripods that might also ring some bells:  www.thetripods.org

This is definitely Trish by Margaret Maze Craig.  I have a paperback copy somewhere, and I think the copyright date is 1951.  Pat is the quiet girl, the rich popular boy is Dick, and Anne is Dick's sister, the sophisticated "coed" who's dating a boy named Jeff.  I remember the sandwiches of tomatoes, cheese and dried beef well-  I grew up in the 70s and wondered what dried beef could possibly be!  The dress with black patent leather bows on the pockets is in the window of an expensive boutique, and Pat asks for it for Christmas, but her mother makes her a white dress instead, and she cries.  At the end she gets a letter from Jeff telling her not to change, and there's a suggestion that they will end up together.  Hope you find a copy!  I went to Catholic school, so the library was full of these proper 50s books, and I loved them.

You've got the title right. It's Trolley Car Family by Eleanor Clymer.  I don't know if there was a sequel, but Clymer did write a lot of books... Check out her recent obituary.
Thank you, thank you!!!  Found a used copy to buy.  You've made my day.
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children's mother/grandmother runs cafe in train car.

Rachel Field, The Yellow Shop.  A long shot, I know...but if the "train car" wasn't actually on a train, you might be thinking of this story.  Two children who live with their elderly aunt decide to help out financially by resurrecting her old shop, putting it on wheels and moving it to the town crossroads so they get more business.  They sell lemonade, candy and cookies, so it could be remembered as a cafe.  At the end of the story, a wealthy customer notices their beautiful antique ginger jars, and pays enough money for the jars to get the roof fixed etc. etc.
Joan Bauer, Hope Was Here.  Possibly Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer?  A young girl works in a diner for her Aunt.
Could it be a cable car instead of a train?  "The Trolley Car Family" by Eleanor Clymer is a story  about a family in the 30s who live in an old cable/trolley car the father (who was a conductor or engineer or something) brought home. I vaguely remember either a restaurant or the family entertaining guests.  Anyway, it might be worth looking into!
Eleanor Clymer, Trolley Car Family, 1958, reprint.  Yes, that's it! I was able to buy a used copy. Thanks so much!

Isn't there a Madeleine L'Engle story along these lines? The details I am coming up with sound like they must be from a separate book (old portrait proves to be valuable, boy goes to South America to donate it to a museum, gets kidnapped, ends up fulfilling the prophecy by returning to the lake his ancestor (whom naturally, he resembles) left over a hundred years before... But L'Engle often has repeating characters, so maybe one  will lead you to the other.  Good luck!
Not a solution, but I don't think that this is a L'Engle book, as suggested by the previous person.  Many of her books do include marine biology (The Arm of the Starfish, etc.)  The book mentioned with the ancestor's painting is Dragons in the Water.
Edward C. Janes, Trouble at Clear Lake,1956. This one drove me crazy because I thought I'd looked at
something like this at the library this summer.  I finally found it tonight.  The main character is a young biologist who moves to a cabin on a lake to find out why fishing has gone down. He finds a gang of counterfeiters who are polluting the lake and killing the fish.  Could this be what the poster is looking for?
I can't thank you enough for having a web site which solved a 30 year mystery of mine concerning the name of a book. My submission B-155 (Biologist cracks counterfeit ring) was recently solved by someone as Trouble At Clear Lake.  I then found the book. Thank you again. I have three other books posted, and hopefully await solutions.

Trouble for Trumpets
I used to read this book in my local library as a child around 1993. It was a fantasy fiction with these great illustrations that were so detailed and full of activity. The image I remember is of these two tribes of tiny human like creatures in a forest setting, one tribe in red the other in blue..

Peter Dallas-Smith, (Peter Cross, illustrator), Trouble for Trumpets, 1984. Perhaps you are thinking of this book, lavishly and beautifully illustrated by Peter Cross. The good Trumpets (mostly wearing red) are at war with the evil, wintry Grumpets, (who wear dark-green uniforms). You can see a reproduction of some of the illustrations here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16735390@N00/3920391949/
SOLVED: Peter Dallas-Smith, (Peter Cross, illustrator), Trouble for Trumpets You solved it - you're amazing! Thank you so much :)

McGraw, Eloise, The trouble with Jacob, 1988.  Twelve-year-old twins Andy and Kat think they are in for a dull summer at a remote resort in western Oregon, until the ghost of a nine-year-old boy appears demanding restitution for a crime committed over 100 years before.
May Nickerson Wallace, The Ghost of Dibble Hollow, 1971, reprint.  I don't know if this is the book.  There are a lot of similarities but the name of the ghost was Miles Dibble not Jacob.

This sounds like Oliver Butterworth's The Trouble with Jenny's Ear .  Two brothers who like to fiddle with various types of sound equipment, gradually wire their house; their sister, Jenny, is increasingly unhappy with this, and, along the way develops ESP.  (This is loosely tied into the idea of the sound equipment producing voices from unseen people/far off locations).   After the boys' teacher is injured, they set up a closed-circuit tv system so she can teach from home.  Interspersed with this is a romance between the boys' uncle and another schoolteacher, aided and complicated by Jenny's ESP, along with the plot about Jenny going on various quiz shows, etc., to earn money to keep a nearby hill from being turned into a subdivision.
YES YES YES!!!!!   PLEASE YES!!   :)  WOW!!  Thanks for the web site Harriett!!!  YEEE HAH!! I got the book several days (weeks) ago.  Hey, I thought you said the book was used!!  AWESOME condition!  Thanks!!

Betty Miles, The Trouble With Thirteen.  I'm positive this is it. (This one was making me crazy all day yesterday I could remember exact lines of dialog but not the author or title. Walked into a used bookstore today and there it was!)
Blume, Judy, Just as Long as We're Together, 1991.  This was my absolute favorite book when it came out and I was about 12.  Some of the details seem to be a bit different: It is actually about three girls - Rachel, Stephanie and Allison, and I don't think anybody moved away, but Allison moved to town at the beginning.  But the nightgown thing and the matching dresses thing are both spot on.
Betty Miles, The Trouble With Thirteen, ~1979.  I looked up the title and this is definitely the book I was looking for. I can't believe I even had the character's names right, it's probably been 15 years since I read the book. Thanks for the help!

Peter Cross, illus. Story by Peter Dallas-Smith, Trouble for Trumpets, 1982.  (Dragonfly Books, Alfred A. Knopf, in case it turns out to be the right book) This description sounds a lot like an odd paperback book I have, very thin (1/8") and 10x12" or so.  The creatures have faces shaped like hippos', and are the Trumpets ("We..live in a summer world of warmth and sunshine...in winter we go down into our warm homes underground") and the Grumpets ("They live in the dark, frozen mountains...a sharp, pointed, cross-looking lot") who want to take over the Trumpets' country.  The Trumpets are helped in their military defense by wrens, owls, snails, mice and other creatures.  The Grumpets wear pointy helmets and invade using submarines and helicopters (the rotors are made of seed pods).  There are the numbered charts and lists the poster describes.  The whole thing is like a takeoff of British military lore, in the midst of fields and hedges!  You said "them" -- are there more Trumpet stories?
T198: There was a sequel to Trouble for Trumpets:  Trumpets in Grumpetland / Peter Cross ; story by Peter Dallas-Smith. Random House, 1985. Summary: Livingstone the lute-player and the beautiful Kim are brought together by their love of music, while fierce Havoc the Grumpet and his Grumpicats are repelled, at least temporarily, by the Trumpets and the Borderers.  The Grumpets are orange, not blue, but their uniforms do look sort of Prussian (dark green belted leather jacket over black tunics with gray stripe/skeleton design, jackboots, and pointy helmets like the previous respondent said).

Have you looked at the various Moomim books by Tove Jansson?  Or perhaps Annette Tison's Barbapapa series?  (Jansson's books are juvenile novels, Tison's are picture books, neither with particularly intricate illustrations).
Thanks for your suggestions, it is not an Annette Tyson book, and I should have said the creatures LOOK a bit like moomins but they aren't, we have looked at the moomin website. My nephew remembers the creatures having big noses!
Peter Dallas-Smith, author, Peter Cross, Illustrator, Trouble for Trumpets.  An amazing childrens book, with extremely detailed illustrations showing the war between the peaceful summer-loving Trumpets (they do look a little like moomins) and the evil, wintry Grumpets. And yes, the Trumpets use a magnifying glass to focus sunlight on the Grumpets to gain their victory. There is also a sequel (not quite as good) Trumpets in Grumpetland.

Barbara Bates, Trudy Phillips, New Girl, 1953.  I'm positive this is the book. The plot is exactly as the Poster described. Trudy, her little brother Johnny and their parents move from the familiar Eastbrook to adjust to their new life in Tylertown. She tries to befriend Gloria, the most popular (and richest) girl in class but only ends up alienating her. She also buys a golden retriver and names it Tuck.
Thanks so much, this is definitely the book!

Diana Palmer, True Colors,12/01/04, reprint. Not a children's book, but a romance by Diana Palmer that has been reprinted at least once. ISBN-10: 0373770154

I continued to search, however, and found the name: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.   I guess you can go ahead and put this right on the Solved page!  Love the site by the by!

Maybe ... Whittaker, Otto The True Story of the Tooth Fairy (and why brides wear engagement rings) illustrated by Anne Goetzman, published by Droke House, 1968, 32 pages "Story of two children, the good fairy King Bonnyful and the link between lost baby teeth & engagement diamonds."
Thanks for getting back to me.  I just about gave up on this request. I did mention the title you found to our patron. I was wondering if there was anything else.  I guess not.  Thanks, again.

I am also trying to find this book!  You have jogged my memory a little, so I thought I would add my information to yours.  I think the main girl is called Sally and she returns from holiday to find that her school district has been divided in two.  She has to attend the new school, but is determined to remain loyal to her old school, where her best friend goes still.  Lenore is her neighbour, and her father is arrested after an investigation that includes Sally's(?) sister who spys on him for the authorities.  Her sister is younger than her and pretends her bike is a horse. Sally eventually grows to love her new school, and consequently looses her best friend.  Thats all I remember!!  If only I knew the name of the book!!!!
I don't know the solution, but I have been looking for this very same book!!!  I am SO FRUSTRATED!  I have some further plot details which may help.  A girl and her family return from holiday to find that the high school district has been split in two.  The girl (Sally??) has to leave her beloved old high school, including her best friend, to go to the new school.  Its all new, and she hates it.  Meanwhile, an amazing girl called Lenore moves in next door.  Sally? is jealous of her, but is friends with her.  Sallys little sister is horse mad, and has a tricycle that she pretends is a horse (horace??).  She even has a whip for it that she got for christmas.  Sally thinks she is crazy!!  In the end, Sally falls in love with her new school (I think the old school colours were orange and brown, and she has a little enamel owl brooch in these colours that she wears to school to show she is still loyal to the old school) and becomes loyal to that school, thereby losing her best friend from the old school.  I think Lenores father is involved in illegal activity and at the end he is raided.  It turns out Sallys crazy little sister has been spying on the place for the authorities!!  Also, I think in one part, Sally gives Lenore a present of a red vinyl clutch purse (lovely) for christmas because Lenore has given her an expensive cashmere sweater.  I hope this helps, and I will be as excited as anyone if this one gets solved!!  I tell you, I've been looking for the title for AGES!!!!
This is a shot in the dark, but one search turned up Children in the Wind by Bernice Grohskopf, (1977). It might be worth a look. The main character's
name is Lenore, and Chris Rivers is the beautiful new girl at school. One of the summaries said that Lenore is worried about an upcoming move. But it did say that Lenore is mysterious about her father and that they move a lot. One summary also mentioned a girl named Marah.
Viola Rowe, True to You 1964,  Found the title at last.  It is readily available
Viola Rowe, True to You,1964. This is the book you're looking for.  All the mentioned item are in this book.  The girl's name is Sally, her best friend is Sue.  The 9 year old  sister, Lucia, likes to pretend that her bicycle is a horse.  They have a new neighbor named Lenore.
Viola Rowe, True to You, 1964.  Found the title at last.  It is readily available.
Rowe, Viola, True to You.(1964)  That's it! Thanks SO much!
Just wanted to add that Viola Rowe was also the author of Practically Twins and Freckled & Fourteen. The latter still has some shock power to it - pity she didn't live long enough to write more books with more lasting power and contemporary feeling.

Could it be?  Trumpet by Lynn, Patricia 1953 Whitman Tell-a-tale book. Illustrated by Bernice Myers

Kelly, Eric P., The Trumpter of Krakow
Medieval tale revolving around an alchemy stone. Probably The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly, illustrated by Janina Domanska.  It won the Newbery Medal in 1929 and has been reprinted many times.
Kelly, Eric P., The Trumpeter of Krakow.  Well, that's it. Thank you very much! :)
Kelly, Eric P., The Trumpter of Krakow

This was one of my favorites in the 70's, The Truth About Mary Rose by Marilyn Sachs.  The mother in the book is the Veronica Ganz of Sachs' earlier books such as Amy and Laura and Peter and Veronica.  My sister and I copied Mary Rose's hobby of cutting pictures of jewelry from catalogs and adding paper bands or chains so we could "dress up" in them.

On the basis of almost nothing, let's try - The Ghost Hollow Mystery, by Page Carter, illustrated by Fred Collins, published Lippincott 1951, 156 pages, ages 8-12 "A new junior mystery writer makes her debut with a very delightful story of boys and girls solving a mystery in a country village." (Horn Book Dec/51 p.371 pub ad) Cover not shown, unfortunately. And it's a boy and girl, not two boys, but maybe - The Truth About Stone Hollow, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, illustrated by Alton Raible, published New York, Atheneum, 1974, 211 p. "The new boy at school introduces Amy to the secrets of Stone Hollow where the circles of time converge"
the hardcover of Truth about Stone Hollow does have a green cover with a pink rectangle, but the picture in the pink is like a Victorian family photograph with 3 young girls (I think). More on the plot "In 1938, at Taylor Springs, California, Amy Polonski becomes friend and defender of an English boy, Jason Fitzmaurice, who is an odd-man-out in her sixth-grade class. Together they visit the supposedly haunted Stone Hollow, which their classmates slavishly avoid. There they sense the presence of ghostly shapes ... Jason sees Indians, and a small piece of stone he gives to Amy enables her to bring something magical to view in her attic at home." (HB Aug/74 p.380)
H38 hollow: looking at a copy of The Truth About Stone Hollow, Atheneum 1974. The dustjacket is olive green, with a pink rectangle, showing an old-fashioned family 'photograph' not a boy's face. There is an illustration of a boy's face on p.9, though. The main characters are a tomboyish girl, Amy Fairchild Polonski, and a new boy, Jason Ulysses Fitzmaurice. Amy does befriend Jason, although she thinks he's a crazy person. They do explore, particularly Stone Hollow, and the ruined cabin that the Ranzonis, an ill-fated Italian family, built. "They had a little girl die of the lockjaw and not long afterward the father died too, in an accident. They say someone from the town went up and found the man dead, just outside the barn, and the woman was missing. They found her later wandering in the Hills, and sent her away to an asylum. They say she was mad as a March hare." (p.29) "A cut on the foot ... That's what happened to Lucia ... The mother wanted to take her to the doctor, but the father wouldn't. When she was dead the father buried her under the tree." There are some differences, but the lockjaw seems like a good identifier.

Not Roller Skates, Ruth Sawyer
Florence Laughlin, Try Again, Sally, 1969.  Published by Whitman.  I hadn't thought of this book in years, but I can picture the cover--my little sister had a copy from around that time.
Florence Laughlin, Try Again, Sally! This is a Whitman Tell-a-Tale book.  The pictures are exactly as you describe including the skate key.
It is not Not Rollerskates by Ruth Sawyer. The book has a little girl sitting on the front cover with her rollerskates on. She has a ponytail and I believe her hair is reddish-brown. The book has to do with Sally learning to rollerskate and something to do with a skate-key.

I thought this was on the Solved Mysteries pages, but the closest I could find was "Faithful Jenny Dove" (read under Haunting Tales).
Elswyth Thane, Tryst,1939.  This sounds like Elswyth Thane's romance, Tryst, originally published in 1939 and republished several times.  It's definitely a ghost romance.  I'm sorry I'm very vague about the plot.  I'll have to locate my copy and reread it.
G57 ghostly love: doesn't really fit, but The Wyndcliffe, by Louise Lawrence, published Collins 1975, is about the love between "Anna Hennessy, lonely in her new Gloucestershire village home, and the ghost of John Hollis, a young poet who died in 1823. Gradually he begins to take over her whole personality until Anna's sister and brother find out what is going on and break his hold, sending him firmly back to the past before he ultimately drives Anna to suicide." Closest I've found so far.

Lewis Wilson, The Tsar and the Amazing Cow, 1988.  Searching through the library catalogue, on page 37 of children's fairy tales I found it.  Magic milk was the main theme of the book, something I had forgotten about completely.

B44 and W48 could be the same. I was combing the used-books stores in downtown San Francisco a week ago
on vacation and I found a very thin book bound with staples that may well have been it! It's Tucked-In Tales by Patten Beard (1924) - you can tell in a flash from the mother's hair, figure and clothes that it was printed in the 1920s.
The Little White Bed that Ran Away.  This is a story in an anthology of bedtime stories - although it may well appear elsewhere.  My mother's copy (which is now with one of my siblings) had the story with color illos and was published sometime before the 1940s.  I loved this story, too.
Patten Beard, Tucked-In Tales, 1924 & 1935.  Also a possible solution for W48.  I found a reference to a "book" called "The Little White Bed That Ran Away" in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's autobiography.  In it she quotes from the book: "Thump, bumpity, bump, bump down the stairs came the little white bed."  A google search on "The Little White Bed That Ran Away" brings up your site and one other, a bookseller describing a copy of Patten Beard's TUCKED-IN TALES, illus. by  Clarence Biers. Size approx. 6x8".  The cover shows two children, and stories include "Little White Bed That Ran Away," "Little Town of Upside Down," and "The Browns' Little Brownie."
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B44: I am looking for some of my father's favorite books from childhood...this one is a book about a bed that runs away because the boy never sleeps in his own bed!

B44 and W48 could be the same. I was combing the used-books stores in downtown San Francisco a week ago
on vacation and I found a very thin book bound with staples that may well have been it! It's Tucked-In Tales by Patten Beard (1924) - you can tell in a flash from the mother's hair, figure and clothes that it was printed in the 1920s. Sorry, I didn't make a note of the store's name, but I'm pretty sure it was on Polk, California, or Sutter St. At any rate, it was east of Van Ness and north of Geary - there's also a copy on sale in abebooks.com in Ohio.
Patten Beard wrote three collections of stories with similar titles - Tucked-in Tales, Pillow-time Tales and Twilight Tales published and reprinted during the 20s and 30s. Each contained about a dozen stories. I don't know if any of them dealt with runaway beds. Here are a couple of books that deal with beds, anyway: Townsend, Elizabeth, Johnny and his Wonderful Bed NY Stephen Daye 1945, 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Green hardback. "Story is about the wonders of the bed and the adventures it brought to Johnny, his Gramp, the furniture man and the cop." 55 pages. Illustrated endpages by Rafaello Busoni. Vorse, Mary Ellen,  Wakey Goes to Bed NY Scott 1941, orange/brown pictorial hardcover, one-color illustrations by Inez Hogan
B44 bed runs away:  going entirely by the title - Bumpkin and the Runaway Bed, written and illustrated by Mary Nunn, published by World's Work 1967, 32 pages. No information on the story, other than that it has "a fair story with an unexceptionable moral ... disreputable hero ..."
Patten Beard, Tucked-In Tales, 1924 & 1935.  Also a possible solution for W48.  I found a reference to a "book" called "The Little White Bed That Ran Away" in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's autobiography.  In it she quotes from the book: "Thump, bumpity, bump, bump down the stairs came the little white bed."  A google search on "The Little White Bed That Ran Away" brings up your site and one other, a bookseller describing a copy of Patten Beard's TUCKED-IN TALES, illus. by  Clarence Biers. Size approx. 6x8".  The cover shows two children, and stories include "Little White Bed That Ran Away," "Little Town of Upside Down," and "The Browns' Little Brownie."

Jo Mendel.  Sounds like the series of books about the Tuckers. 5 children, Tina, Terry and Merry (the twins), Penny, and Tom.  Dog Toby and Sugar the cat.   They rode in a station wagon. Titles include:  The Wonderful House, The Special Secret, Adventures of Plum Tucker, Trouble on Valley View, The Cottage Holiday, Tell a Tale of the Tuckers, The Turn-About Summer, Here comes a Friend, and That Kitten Again.
I remember this book from the 60's, 2 or 3rd grade.  It was our Catholic School Reader - the kids were named, Mark and Joan, Carl and Claire and Baby Tom and Toots the dog.

Sounds like The Tuckers: The Cottage HolidaybyJo Mendel. Penny the youngest daughter is frequently ill. She suggests going to the lake cottage for Christmas and there is a cougar roaming around. Her father and a farmer friend finally kill him.
C192 Mendel, Jo. The Tuckers; the adventures of Plum Tucker. illus Jackie Tomes.  Whitman, 1961
Thanks so much!  I'm sure you have the right book because I recognized the cover art when I searched for it at booksellers.  I'm thrilled!  It is amazing what heartstrings get pulled with these memories... 

Sounds like The Araboolies of Liberty St, maybe. I saw this title in a list of "back-to-morals" books from 1989. They were: Christmas on Exeter St (by Hendry, generosity), No Star Nights (Smucker, poverty), The Araboolies of Liberty St (Swope, tolerance of childhood and different people in general), The Same But Different (Tessa Dahl, differences), Loving Ben (Laird, having a retarded baby brother), Landing on Marvin Gardens (Zable, homelessness) and Thee, Hannah (vanity - 1989 was Marguerite DeAngeli's 100th anniversary).
N20 noisy family: more on the suggeted title: The Araboolies of Liberty Street, by Sam Swope, illustrated by Barry Root, published Potter 1989, reprinted Farrar 2001. "A large, colorful, boisterious family moves onto a drab boring street and nothing remains the same." "The General and Mrs. Pinch rule the residents of Liberty Street, prohibiting all laughter, activity, and games. Joy and the other youngsters who live there are unhappy but there is nothing they can do about it, as the General threatens to call in the army for the least infraction of his orders. Then the Araboolies, who speak no English and who change skin color on a daily basis, move in ... Life becomes chaotic, exciting, wonderful, and fun - until the General calls in the army to remove the house and the Araboolies because they are different ... Ages six to twelve." (Booklist)
Enid Blyton, Those Dreadful Children.  just another possibility for this stumper.
Jo Mendel, The Tuckers - Trouble on Valley View, 1961.  This is the second book of the Tucker series. The Tuckers
believe that their neighbors in their new town are bothered by their large and noisy family and pets. They finally decide they must move away, but then the neighbors all come to tell them that they like the Tucker family and want them to stay. A lovely childhood favorite of mine, and easy to find them on ebay!

L Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth
A122 could have been City Of Gold and Lead of the Tripods series by John Christopher.
Thomas M. Disch, The Puppies of Terra, 1966.  The date would fit.
Tanner, Tumithak of the Corridors.  Written in the 1930's, it's about a world taken over by spider-like aliens who keep some humans as pets, fatten some up for food, and hunt the remnants living in tunnels beneath the surface.  Some of the "pets" are "mogs" (humans who act like tracking dogs) who hunt down the tunnel-dwellers if they come to the surface.
Tanner, Charles, Tumithak of the Corridors, 1932.  The aliens keeping humans as pets, breeding them for food, and hunting them sounds like two stories about Tumithak, written in the 1930's.  One was Tumithak of the Corridors, and the other its sequel, Tumithak in Shawm.  I read the first one in Isaac Asimov's collection, "Before the Golden Age."

R119 Could this be TWIG by Elizabeth Orton Jones?~from a librarian
Lovelace, Maud Hart, The Tune is In The Tree, 1950.  About 95% certain this is the book you're looking for - about a girl who is shrunken down and lives with the birds.  Very rare though.
Lovelace, Maud Hart, The Tune is in The Tree, 1950.  Did a bit more research, and I can verify that this IS the book you want - the detail about the girl having to live with neighbors is present, as well as the ending "bird ball".  The girl, Annie Jo, has to live with neighbors while temporarily separated from her own parents.  She is not happy with this arrangement, though, and is shrunk down and taught bird language through magical means.  At the end of the book, after a party, she returns home to her actual parents.
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Two children accidentally left without an adult are befriended by two birds who tweak their shoulders reducing their size and giving them wings and take them to the trees to live until the adults return.  Nice children's adventure.  Back in 50's or 60's was when I read it.  Similar to the book "City beneath the steps" which was about ants befriending kids.  Don't know title or author.

If you're certain your synopsis is correct, then this can't be it, but your description reminded me of The Magic Finger (1966, reprinted many times) by Roald Dahl.  Here's an online description: "The Gregg family loves hunting, but their eight-year-old neighbor can't stand it. After countless pleas for them to stop are ignored, she has no other choice -- she has to put her magic finger on them. Now the Greggs are a family of birds, and like it or not, they're going to find out how it feels to be on the other end of the gun."  Even if you're sure it's not the right book, it's worth checking out!  Try to find a copy with the original illustrations by William Pene du Bois (the author/illustrator of Newbery Medal winner The Twenty-One Balloons).
I just thought of another "kids turn into birds" book (besides The Magic Finger)---perhaps Magic in the Park (1972) by Ruth Chew?  But the publication date is probably too late on that one...
I think the title had something to do with Trees such as the Song in the Trees.  However, since I find NO book on internet with that title, I assume I am wrong.  I know it is not Magic as part of the title.  It was similar to the Book "City Under the Steps (not beneath)" and just as enjoyable.
Lovelace, Maud Hart, The tune is in the tree. (1950)  A rare Maud Hart Lovelace book and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  Published by Crowell in 1950.  It tells the story of Annie Jo.  Apparantly in  Betsy Tacy's Wedding, Betsy says she will write a story about a little girl who lives with the birds and Lovelace later wrote that book as A tune in the tree.  Maud Hart Lovelace was awarded the Spring Book Festival Award for The Tune is in The Tree in 1950.  Rare and expensive!
Maud Hart Lovelace, The Tune is in the Tree. (1950)  THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  THAT IS IT!  I knew it had something to do with music and trees but could never figure out the answer.  YOU DID IT!  I am Extremely grateful.  Now to find a copy reasonably priced.  It might take awhile, but now I know what I am looking for.  Thank you Loganberry and thank you whoever knew the answer.  You have made me VERY happy!
Just to do an ending to this...Kept searching with my Dogpile.com and came across a copy for $75!  It also turned out to be located a 100 miles from where I live.  Go figure!  Needless to say I bought it immediately and they say they are shipping it today!  From the bottom of my heart I thank Loganberry for this website as well as the person who was able to answer my query.
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I read this book between 5-10 years ago.  It's about a little girl who is waiting for her babysitter and is made small and joins the birds in the trees.  She lives with different ones.  I remember the perfidious Mrs. Cowbird.  I think it ends with a ball and she has a dress made for her by the birds out of their feathers.

Maud Hart Lovelace, The Tune is in the Tree. By the author of the Betsy-Tacy books.  See solved stumpers for more details.

Tuned Out, Wojciechowska, Maia, 1968.  The description sounds like Wojciechowska's Tuned Out, about brothers Jim and Kevin.
Hinton S.E., That was then this is now, 1971.  Possibly this one?  About Byron and his friend Mark who lives with Byron's family.
Maia Wojciechowska, Tuned Out, 1968.  A young man witnesses the older brother he worshipped become a drug addict.
The Book Stumper has been solved!  Thank you!  The book is Tuned Out by Maia Wojciechowska.  It has been almost ten years that I've been trying to find it.  Thank you for solving my book stumper!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Wojciechowska, Maia, Tuned Out , Harper, 1968, exlibrary; laminated dust  jacket, library binding and pages all good        [W34938]

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Wojciechowska, Maia, Tuned Out,  Harper, 1968, exlibrary; laminated dust  jacket, library binding and pages all good        [W 34939]

Interpreting Condition Grades

Wojciechowska, Maia, Tuned Out , Dell 9139,1968, 2d Dell Laurel  printing, Dec 1969, paperback, good       [W34940]