Loganberry Books
Solved Mysteries: UV
Home
Book Club
Nostalgia
Catalogs
Book Searches
Blog
Stump the Bookseller
Solved
Mysteries
Most Requested
Books
Collectible Authors
Back in Print
Named for the Book

 
Stump the Bookseller Queries
New
AB
CD
EF
GH
IJ
KL
MN
OP
QR
S
T
UVW
XYZ
Solved Mysteries Catalog
A
B
C
D
EF
G
H
IJ
K
L
M
N
O
P
QR
S
T
UV
W
XYZ
Search Loganberry's Website!

Return pages containing    of these words: 
How to Send in Contributions
 
Book Request
when you know
                            the title

Book Stumper
(new format)

when you just
                            don't know what it's called
Solution
when you think
                            you know the answer
e-mail
when you want the
                            free-form method







Ukelele and Her New Doll
All I can remember is there was a girl and a doll in this story,maybe it took place on a tropical island?  I think the last page had a picture of the doll laying on the beach.  I am now 48 years old so I would of read it in the early 60's.

D181 Pretty sure this person is thinking of UKELELE AND HER NEW DOLL by Clara Louise Grant. It was a Little Golden Book, it is out of print and collectible, so it may be expensive or hard to find. Ukelele has a wooden doll that she loves, but when a ship comes to the island, one of the men give her a fancy doll. But the fancy doll can't do the doll things that the girl wants (eat sand cakes, fit in the little doll hut) and she goes back to her wooden doll. There are some nice photos of it online. ~from a librarian
D181 Parrish, Anne.  Floating Island.  illus by Anne Parrish    Harper 1930.   survival on desert islands; dolls - juvenile fiction.  I'm pretty sure this is it.
No doubt-It's Ukelele and Her Doll. A Little Golden Book, 1951.
---
Child's book about a little girl (I think polynesian) who had a clay(?) doll that she played with in the sand.  A sailor from a schooner gave her a doll with pretty hair and clothes, but she found out she couldn't play with her in the sand.  This is an old book because I had it when I was little and I was born in 1948.

Clara Louise Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951, copyright.  A cute Little Golden Book, illustrated by Campbell Grant.  A kindly ship's captain gives Ukelele a beautiful store-bought doll, but after a day of being unable to really play with it the way she can with her old doll, for fear of spoiling it, Ukelele decides that she prefers the old doll.
Clara L. Grant, Ukelele and her new doll.  This was a Little Golden Book.  I have it in an anthology, A Treasury of Little Golden Books, published in 1972. (The stories are from between 1942 and 1960.)
Clara Louise Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951.  A Little Golden Book about a South Seas island girl whose handmade doll is wooden.  When a Western sailor comes to trade for coconuts, he gives Ukelele a big china doll.
Clara Louise Grant, illustr. Campbell Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951.  See solved mysteries, under UV.  It's a Little Golden Book about a girl named Ukelele who lives "on a beautiful green island in the South Seas."  Ukelele has a wooden doll that her dad made her, and she plays in the sand with it "all day long."  A sailor from a sailing ship gives Ukelele a "big china doll," but she can't play with it in the sand, and she ends up going back to playing with her "dear little wooden dolly."  I have this story in a treasury of Little Golden Books.


Ultra Violet Catastrophe
Here's another one... I read another book as a child about a little girl who was a tomboy, possibly named Ann. She loved to climb trees and play tree pirates. Her mother cleaned her up and they took a trip to visit a great Aunt. There she met a Great uncle and they went off to explore together, met an angry bull, got all mussed up, and the uncle's favorite phrase was "Ultra Violet Catastrophy" Thanks for your help!

Again I have found this one as well. It's title is: Ultra Violet Catastrophe: or The Unexpected Adventures of a Walk With Great Uncle Magnus.
---
I remember reading and loving this book when I was a little girl …late 70s early 80s.  I don’t remember the title or author I simply remember that a girl goes for a walk with her pudgy, white haired and balding Grandfather, who, at the start of the story looks very polished. During the walk they get into various “troubles”…ie. They get chased up a tree by a bull, as they climb over a fence the grandfather rips his pants. When they return they are scraped, bruised and very dirty. The illustrations in the book are wonderful. I sure hope you can help me with the title as I would like to find a copy and read it to my 3 girls.

I think this may be Margaret Mahy's 'Ultraviolet Catastrophe', although it's a great-uncle, not a grandfather if that's the case.
Margaret Mahy, Ultra-Violet Catastrophe, 1975.  Thank you so very much to the wonderful person who solved this mystery for me. The book is in fact titled "Ultra-Violet Catastrophe" by Margaret Mahy and I have already found a copy. I can't wait to read it to my girls!!!


Unaccompanied Sonata
This story appeared in OMNI Magazine... In a future society people are tested before birth a boy is found to have musical aptitude. He is raised in isolation in the woods by robots, his only companion and toy is the "instrument".  As he grows he learns the capabilities of his instrument and begins to create music. He is isolated from humans, but a groups of people who have shown an aptitude for listening to and appreciating music gather to hear the results of his experiments. , Even though it is forbidden for him to have any contact of any kind with humanity, a listener secretly gives him a recording of Bach fugues after one of his performances. He listens to the recording and is moved by its' beauty. Realizing that his overseers might suspect his listening to a forbidden recording he avoids any reference to the fugue, which is how he is found out. The overseers (judges?) notice the lack of fugue elements in his performance. His punishment is to have his instrument taken from him and to become a vagabond, prohibited from creating any more music. He begins to wander and work at odd jobs, but he is unable to resist making music, first on an old piano in a diner (he is discovered by an overseer and his fingers are cut off) then singing his songs while working on a road gang (his voice is removed when he's found out).He is finally made an overseer because of his understanding of the laws and his fairness. After he retires he walks into a hall where some teenagers are performing the songs he wrote and sang on the road gang. As they finish he asks them (in writing) where they learned these songs. They tell him that the songs were (his name while on the road) songs and everybody sang them. He realizes that he has reached an audience that he never knew and he is happy.

Orson Scott Card, Unaccompanied Sonata.
Orson Scott Card, Unaccompanied Sonata. Definitely! And here's a link to Omni stories.


Umbrella
story of a rainy day, pictures of a child w/ an umbrella-- lots of yellow, early '60s.

J42: Umbrella by Taro Yashima, 1958? I adore this one, the blurred watercolors make me very nostalgic for my own brief first six years in NYC.
#J42--japanese? illustrated picture book:  Here's the only japanese umbrella book of which I know: Lifton, Betty Jean.  Illustrated by Fuku Akino.  New York, Atheneum, 1968.   One day a Japanese boy sees a strange one-legged creature fly over the mountain.  All the villagers gather around it but no one knows what it is.
You didn't mention a title.  I think you're referring to Betty Jean Lifton's The One-Legged Ghost.
Could this be James and the Rain, by Karla Kuskin?  It's not Japanese, but does tell about James and his adventures with an increasing number of animals.   "What do you do in the rain? said James. Have you any excellent rainy day games?"
Taro Yashima, Umbrella.  This was one of my own childhood favourites.  Momo receives an umbrella for her third birthday but has to wait for a rainy day to be able to use it.
Taro Yashima , Umbrella, 1958.  This was a Caldecott Honor Book.  The cover is predominantly yellow.  "On her third
birthday, Momo (whose name means "Peach" in her parents' native Japan) receives rubber boots and an umbrella. Impatiently she waits for a rainy day so she can try out her new apparel."


click here for Nan Gilbert pageUnchosen
The Forgotten Ones?  early 1970s.  This is a scholastic book services book, purchased in the early 1970s.  It is written in the first person by a girl in high school, about herself and her three friends, none of whom are attractive in the accepted way and are always ignored for dances, etc.  She has handled this herself by becoming pen pals from a young age with a young man from another town or state, and has always pretended in her letters to be beautiful and popular, and when he asked for a picture of her, she sent several of herself when young, pretending to be coy.  He comes to town to meet her and she can't do it.  She is too embarrassed about having lied about herself.  One of her misfit friends goes skiing on a school trip and goes off a steep trail by accident, out of sheer ignorance.  When she shows up at school with a broken leg in a cast, and tells people what trail she broke it on, everyone is very impressed that she was even up there, and she enjoys her new notoriety so much that she keeps the cast on long after it is necesssary.  At the end of the story the girls all grow up into more attractive versions of themselves.  I have looked and looked for this under the above titles but have never found it.  Thanks for any help.

Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen, circa 1965.  This sounds a lot like THE UNCHOSEN, which I read as a kid in the early 70s. One of the girls is pearshaped and overweight. When her penpal announces he's coming to visit, she goes on a starvation diet and ends up looking saggy and unhealthy. And I think one of the girls was very thin and her glasses were always dirty.
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen.  I don't remember the plot details, but this may be Nan Gilbert's The Unchosen, for which there's a brief summary (some details match) on Loganberry's Most Requested page under the author's 365 Bedtime Stories in the Comments section.
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen, 1961.  I found this reader's review, and it seems to match: "Follow the foibles of Ellen, Kay, and Debbie as they come to terms with the concept of popularity. Written in the first person, Ellen secretly names the trio the "Unchosen," and describes their individual attempts to tackle self improvement. From Ellen's horrifying steak and water diet to her "romance" with her mysterious pen pal, Norris, you will find yourself laughing out loud and hoping that she'll ultimately succeed. Kay pulls no punches...rude at times, but always painfully truthful as to the situation of the "Unchosen," and poor Debbie, who will do virtually anything to find romance...this beautifully written book is funny, entertaining, and sometimes sad."
What a great service!  I have been trying for years to remember the names of those books and you got them solved in a matter of days.  W178 is Patricia's Secret (I checked on the Internet and they even had one with the cover, which I remember, so I know it's the right one), F204 is The Unchosen and M325 is Marsha, thank you, thank you.  The last one, V40, sounds like Miracle on Maple Hill which I have read, but I don't think it is that one, although I want to get it from the library and double check before submitting a denial, it was a very good guess.  You have made my day, you have no idea!



Uncle
please and thank you in advance. here we go....what i know/remember (i think) the vivid memories of the book are an uncle who is a fierce elephant, who lives in a castle...someone goes to stay with the uncle (his nephew/neice) and they fight off evil somethings....at some point they rub a certain fish oil on the window glass to make it unbreakable....there ya go...as for the physical book...i seem to remember an illustration at the beggining of chapters but that was it....standard hardback size (maybe a
little smaller) these are the things i remember

This suggestion is so obvious that it probably isn't right.  What about the Babaar books? There was an uncle in those books I believe.
#E11--Arnold Lobel wrote Uncle Elephant, but leafing through it I didn't find anything about being fierce or using fish oil.
E11 Elephants, fierce, who use fish oil -- There's a series by J.P. Martin about "An elephant of eccentric benevolence rules a castle kingdom so vast that he is still exploring its byways, while carrying on a sporadic war with disagreeable neighbours. Comic fantasy." The series includes Uncle (1964), Uncle Cleans Up (1965), Uncle and his Detective (1966), Uncle and the Treacle Trouble (1967) and Uncle and Claudius the Camel (1969).
I think I can confirm that this is the Martin book. On page 32 of Uncle Uncle asks "Have the windows been well rubbed with Babble Trout Oil?" "Babble Trout Oil is a special preparation made from the babble trout, a small fish, difficult to catch. It renders glass tough, so that it is impervious to crossbow bolts and other missiles. Uncle often has his lower windows rubbed with it when trouble is threatening." Uncle's brother Rudolph arrives to help him with attacks from the Badfort mob.


Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories
Looking for a set of children's books that were sold door to door (maybe in stores also, unsure) in the 1950s. The covers were orange red and I am fairly certain most of the illustrations were by Besse Pease Gutmann (at least they looked like her art). I cant remember if any of the volumes contained fairytales, I mostly remember true-life short stories that contained morals, one I remember about a mother that had been in the hospital ill and the first thing the child asked when she came home was if she brought a present for her, another something about a child getting hit by a car and riding in an ambulance.etc.etc. Would like whole set or even one volume. Thanks.

I know that the Childcraft books are orange-red and were probably sold door-to-door. They had various illustrators, though, and I'm not sure that they were as moralistic as the set you describe.
S-10--Uncle Arthur's Bedtime stories?  The early ones had orange-red covers, but it's been awhile since I've examined the art.  They were definitely sold door-to-door and were all stories-with-a-moral. They were issued as paperback "volumes" and then as orange red books with four "volumes" per book.
Sure!  Uncle Arthur... Written by Arthur Maxwell.
---
I am looking for a book I read as a child. I am 48 y/o, so it had to have been published before 1951. It was a collection of children's stories, black and white print, shiny stock, large printing. The only story I remember from it is "Georgie and the Policeman". It also had black and white pictures. Don't have aclue of the title or author and don't know if I would recognize it by title - butI would know it if I saw the book.... Thank you.  There was another story in it Iremember (but not the name) about a boy in the hospital who is afraid to die and theother children tell him that Jesus comes through the hospial every night to take thechildren who are very sick and he just has to keep his arm up so Jesus will see him.
He is too sick to do that so the other children prop up his arm with pillows and hedies that night. Even though it sounds so, I do not remember it as a sad story. Thanks, again.

The optrician I went to when I was a kid had this book!  I clearly remember the story about the boy and the arm.  It was a religious publication, and was called something like Favorite Children's Stories of Courage
Both stories are from a book called Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  There were a couple of volumes of the books.  They are all stories with a moral, and there were also Bible stories at the back of each book.  And the boy in hospital wasn't afraid to die, he wanted to because he was very sick (I think he'd been in a fire) and wasn't going to get better - that's why it wasn't a sad story. They must have been pretty popular books because we had them as kids here in Australia too.  Hope you can find them! **Later...
In addition to what I sent previously..........the books are by Arthur S Maxwell, and I think they were published in book format and in magazine format. Georgie and the Policeman has to be in either Volume 1 or 2 of the books, because I remember the story and they were the only volumes we had at home.
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  I had this series as a child, and I definitely remember the story about "Jesus coming through the hospital ward and 'taking' children who had their hand raised, to Heaven to live with him."  This particular story really frightened me, and for many months I slept with my arms underneath the covers so that God wouldn't think that I wanted to die, and make a mistake and take me to Heaven accidentally. (Okay, so I wasn't a particularly bright child!)
---
THE BOOK I'M LOOKING FOR WAS READ TO ME BY MY MOTHER WHEN I WAS YOUNG (A LONG TIME AGO!) I WAS A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES ABOUT CHILDREN WITH A MORAL OR AN EXAMPLE OF THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE A PARENT HAS FOR THEIR CHILD. ONE STORY IS ABOUT A LITTLE GIRL NAMED JUNE WHO TORMENTS HER YOUNGER BROTHER, MAKES HIM CRY, AND TELLS HER MOTHER, "HE LIKES IT".  SO THE MOTHER DOES SOMETHING TO HER, I THINK SHE SQUIRTS HER WITH THE WATER HOSE, JUNE CRIES AND ASKS HER TO STOP.  HER MOTHER SAYS, "BUT JUNE, YOU LIKE IT". ANOTHER STORY IS ABOUT A YOUNG SINGLE OR WIDOWED MOTHER WHO HAS TO LEAVE HER SLEEPING BABY ALONE FOR JUST A FEW MINUTES TO BUY MEDICINE OR MILK AND RETURNS TO FIND THE APARTMENT IN FLAMES. SHE RUSHES IN TO SAVE HER BABY, BUT IS LATER FOUND DEAD WITH THE BABY IN HER ARMS.     I THINK THE FIRE WAS STARTED WHEN HER CAT KNOCKED OVER A KEROSENE LAMP. I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME!!!  I THINK THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1935 AND 1955.

Arthur Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories 1966.   I don't remember the June story, but the mother/baby/fire one sounds a lot like "Mother's Hands".  In that story, a mother leaves her baby to talk with a
neighbor and returns to rescue her from a fire.  Years later, the girl comments on the mother's ugly hands, scarred in the fire.  This story appears in volume 13.
---
I AM 45 YRS OLD AND REMEMBER THIS BOOK FROM WHEN I WAS UNDER THE AGE OF 10 YRS OLD (1962). I REMEMBER THE CLOTH COVER BEING A BURNT OR DARK ORANGE COLOR. IT WAS PLAIN ON THE FRONT AND BACK. IT MAY HAVE HAD SOME KIND OF DRAWING ON THE FRONT. TWO THINGS STAND OUT. WHEN YOU OPENED THE HARD COVER OF THE FRONT OF THE BOOK AND THE BACK OF THE BOOK THERE WERE WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL PENCIL DRAWINGS OF A WHOLE BUNCH OF DIFFERENT SCENES. EX: BOY FISHING, BOYS SWIMMIMG IN WATER HOLE, ETC... THE ONE AND ONLY STORY I REMEMBER IN A BOOK WITH ALOT OF DIFFERENT STORIES IS THE ONE OF THE SICK LITTLE BOY THAT WAS GOING TO PASS AWAY. HE WAS I BELIEVE AT HOME AND BED RIDDEN. IT WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS....HE NEW HE WAS GOING TO DIE, AND I BELIVE IT WAS AN ANGEL THAT CAME TO HIM. HE WANTED TO KNOW HOW HE WAS GOING TO GET TO HEAVEN. I THINK IT WAS THE ANGEL THAT TOLD HIM IF HE RAISED HIS HAND, GOD WOULD SEE IT AND TAKE HIM TO HEAVEN. BECAUSE HE WAS SO SICK AND WEAK HE HAD THE ANGEL OR HIS MOTHER PROP UP HIS HAND (ARM) AT NIGHT WITH A PILLOW. THAT EVENING HE PASSED AWAY. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A CHRISTIAN BOOK BUT I'M NOT SURE. IF ANYONE CAN FIGURE THIS ONE OUT I WILL BE MORE THAN THANKFUL AND SIMPLY AMAZED. THANK YOU!

I definitely remember this story. But I read it in a book that used to be present in every pediatrician's office or dentist office. It was a Christian book. It was blue on the cover and had "Bible" in the title and was a collection of stories (not all bible stories). I know that's not much, but this was such a COMMON book, perhaps you know the book I mean, and from there can find the author of this particular story - I'm guessing the book your customer remembers was a different printing since his book cover is different from the one I remember.
#B149--Boy passes away--hand propped up with pillow:  Almost certainly an  Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories story, "Jesus Understood."  The boy in the  story was hit by a car and was in the hospital with most of his bones broken, in too much pain to live.  A boy there told him Jesus walked through the hospital wards at night and to raise a hand to attract his attention.  The boy explained that with two broken arms he was unable to raise a hand, so the other boy propped his hand with a pillow.  In the morning, there was the bandaged boy, dead, his hand still propped up, and people said, "Jesus Understood."  To this day the sight of a hand protruding from a cast or an arm propped on a pillow causes me to utter these words.
a story from Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories...
I've read this book as well, but can't tell you the title.  I recall it as 1950's in style, and was an anthology of Christian stories with morals.  As I remember, the boy was injured in an accident and was sent to hospital, where the boy in the next bed told him about the hand trick.  Late one night, the next bed boy asked the protagonist to help him put up his hand  in the morning, he was dead, but with a beatific smile.  The anthology also included
another winner about a boy who had a friend his mother (?) considered a bad influence--she showed the protagonist how one bad apple can turn all the apples around it bad, warning him that his evil friend would do the same to him.
The Uncle Arthur Books are put out by the Seventh day Adventists . If you check with the pastor of a church near you they can help you get them.
---
this was a set of Bible stories that had a cardboard case. Each book was large and hardcovered with a dark maroon color and a photo on the front. I loved these Bible stories! There were (I think) 4 books in the set and each contained many bible stories. I don't quite remember which illustrations were on the covers but I THINK one was that man being lowered from a window in a basket. Each book had tons of beautiful color illustrations to go with the stories.

I have a four volume set in a cardboard case.  No photo on the covers, but books contain many illustrations, including coloured pencil sketches by Rafaello Busoni, and engravings by Gustav Dore among others.  Is this
what you were looking for?  Mine was published by Educational Book Guild, New York, 1956, and was edited by Turner Hodges.  Sorry, not for sale, but maybe the info will help?
This may be Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I just saw a copy of one yesterday and the cover was marroon. The part about the man being lowered in a basket was probably a story about Paul from Acts 9:25 in the Bible. This was one book of a several volume set. Hope this helps!
This could be Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I've seen it with marroon covers. The story about the man in the basket is probably about Paul from the Bible - Acts 9:25.
Kenneth N. Taylor, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, 1950's.  I am holding a reprint of part of this book.  It has a coloured picture for each story.  Each story is very short and simple, but the picures are full colour and realistic.  The one of St Paul being lowered in the basket is particularly striking.  Only one volume, but who knows how many different formats these works take over the years?
---
As a child in the early 50's we had an orange hardback bible story book with our names printed on the front of it. It was approximately 7 inches by 10 inches and about an inch or a little more thick. There were colored and  black and white illustrations in it. The one I remember the best was a black and white illustration of people in the water with very  frightened looks on their faces. This was a scene from the story of  the flood. I think the title of the book might have had the word "bedtime" in it. I just am not sure.

Maybe one of the Uncle Mac's Bedtime Stories series? Some had orange covers, and they definitely included religious stories.
I think you mean Uncle Aruthur?
Yup, I meant Uncle Arthur. The Uncle Mac series was British (BBC?) and not religious. But hey, I've never actually seen either series myself.
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, My Book of Bible Stories  I have a book that is 7 1/2 by 9 1/2, orange with red title on the front (stamped title, so names could have been added to match.)  It is hardback and about an inch or so thick.  Black and white and color pictures, but the flood picture is color.   THis one was printed in 1978, but it's a reprint edition and says that more than 23,000,000 copies had been sold, so an earlier edition could have been yours.  There are 116 Bible stories, grouped in eight parts.  The first part goes from Creation to Flood, then from Flood to Deliverance from Egypt, etc.  The endpapers are dark red orange, the cover more yellow orange.  In the flood picture, there are two elephants standing on a rock, lightening in the background, a mother and child, a man clinging to a tree and a woman on the rock, along with lizards. There is a man reaching out of the water screaming, a cow in the water, and a lion or tiger on a log in the water.  It is raining in the picture.  On the next page, there is a little picture of a dove with an olive branch in his mouth in the upper corner. On the page before, there is a black and white picture of Noah gathering animals and people laughing at him, however, to a child it might appear that the people are crying and screaming.  Noah is pointing his staff at an elephant, other animals are lined up 2 by 2.  I picked this book up at an auction a few months ago in a boxlot, and kept it when it didn't sell on ebay.  The orange color reminded me.
---
Arthur S. Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  The different stories that were quoted about the dying child with his arm up, and the mother and baby that died in the fire were indeed all from the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories series.  These
books were changed every few years, so it depends on the edition for which volume your stories were in.  My set had ten volumes in full color with hard covers.  And yes, the covers are red/orange.  These were published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association located in Mountain View, California.  The books were copyrighted by the Review and Herald Publishing Association Washington, D.C.  Library of Congress Cat. Card No. 50-3160.  They were also copyrighted in Great Britian by the Stanborough Press, Ltd. Watford, England.  Isn't it wonderful that these stories made such an impact on each of our lives.



Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories
 Ok, i read a story in a book of other stories in the 70's,the one I remember the most was called Just A Minute Janet.All the stories had morals to them & they had beautiful pictures, is it still in print? Thanks!!!!

Arthur Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, 1950.  Pretty sure this is what you're looking for. "Just a Minute Janet" is in Volume 3, I think.
"Just a Minute Janet" can be found in v.3 of the 1950 ed of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  There was a version printed in the 1970's but I don't know if every story was reprinted.
J75 It's not in vol 5
Arthur Maxwell (Uncle Arthur), Uncle Arthurs Bed Time Stories.  This Was It! Thanks!!!!!   :)  :)



Uncle Bumble
Read this book in the '70s.  Man helps animals who are sick (ex: beaver w/ toothache, horse)  The man gets sick, and the animals decide to help him by building a house where they can live together.  The man has gray hair & beard, vest, striped shirt, glasses. Lots of orange/pink. Set in a forest?

Sounds very much like Uncle Bumble, 1970, by Jenny Williams. "An old man moves from the hustle and bustle of the city to the country where he finds life with the animals even more hectic." (Good thing she picked a memorable title - I might not have remembered it otherwise, though I do remember other details, such as the city's deciding, at the book's beginning, to tear down the old man's rickety shack, which he's glad enough to move out of.) You can see the cover here: http://flickr.com/photos/8860619@N06/2653160682/  Jenny Williams may or may not be the same person who illustrated some books by Margaret Mahy and compiled some nursery rhymes and fairy tales.
Thank you!!!  The solution has been posted.  It is indeed Uncle Bumble!  Mystery solved.  I really appreciate your service.


Uncle Remus
This was a Disney movie about Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby featuring the song Mr. Blue Bird's on my Shoulder. I would like to try and find a copy of the original stories in book form. Thank you.

I am interested in finding a copy of a book from my childhood. Unfortunately I do not remember the title.  It could be something like Disney’s Folklore.  It containted storys about Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and Mike Fink.  It was a slightly oversized book, with a yellow cover w/pictures?  And probably published in the 50’s (I’m thinking later 50’s).  If this rings a bell and you can find a copy in good to vg condition without a lot of effort, let me know.

There are many book versions of the Uncle Remus stories before Disney got their hands on the stories, and then there are many Disney versions based on the movie "Song of the South," and then there are modern reinterpretations. Here's what I have in stock:

Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus. Selected and introduced by John Tumlin. Savannah: The Beehive Press, 1974. Discretely ex-library. Tall 8vo. VG/F. $18 postpaid.
... Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. Foreword by Marc Connelly and woodcuts by Seong Moy. NY: The Heritage Press, 1957. Excellent condition. F in F box. $26 postpaid.
... Palmer, Marion, adapt. Walt Disney's Uncle Remus Stories.Adapted from the original stories by Joel Chandler Harris. Pictures by Al Dempster and Bill Justice. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1947. A Giant Golden Book. First Printing. Large 4to format, 92 pages. Gorgeous full color printing. Minor edge wear, retaped spine with cloth binding tape. A gem of a first edition Disney book! <SOLD>
... Walt Disney's Brer Rabbit and his Friends. NY: Random House, 1973. From Disney's Wonderful World of Reading (a beginning reader book). Slick pictorial boards, some wear to edges of spine, otherwise VG+. $12 postpaid.
... The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Illustrated by Frank Baber. NY: Rand McNally, 1980. Pictorial boards, 4to. VG. $15 postpaid.
... Jump! The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Adapted by Van Dyke Parks and Malcom Jones. Illlustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. Beautiful condition. F/F. $16 postpaid.
... Jump Again! More Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Adapted by Van Dyke Parks. Illlustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987. Beautiful condition. F/F. $16 postpaid.



Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator
I'm looking for the title of what I believe is an Uncle Wiggily book. I remember two things about the story. 1. The skillery-skallery alligator was in the story and 2. they were painting a house "sky-blue pink".

I don't know which book this is from, but it is definitely an Uncle Wiggly book.  When I was young, my father used to read us the Uncle Wiggly stories at bedtime.  (My favorite color was sky-blue pink).  The author is Howard Garis.
Howard Roger Garis, Uncle Wiggily Bedtime Stories. I haven't seen the book to be sure, but one online review of this book mentions the skillery-skallery alligator. The edition I saw was a paperback edition pubished by Dover under the Children's Thrift Classics label.
Garis, Howard R., The Little Golden Book of Uncle Wiggily, 1953.  This is definitely the book.  The only discrepancy is that nobody is actually painting a house sky blue pink, but the first line of the book does read, "Nurse Jane ought to like the
bungalow much better after I paint it sky blue pink,' said Uncle Wiggily as he stood on a ladder putting some dabs of color on his hollow stump house."  In fact, Uncle Wiggily is attempting to paint his house red as Billie Wagtail and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow arrive.  As a practical joke, the three hand Uncle Wiggily some green paint which he starts to apply as he is distracted by his conversation with his friends.  The skillery-scallery alligator arrives on the scene with the intent of nibbling Uncle Wiggily's ears.  Uncle Wiggily retreats to a tree but the 'gator starts sawing it down with his "nutmeg-grater tail".  Just as the tree is beginning to topple, Unlse Wiggily's friends save the day by dousing the 'gator with paint, and he beats a hasty retreat.  The last picture is of Uncle Wiggily capering among some falling fall leaves.  The illustrations are by Mel Crawford and are wonderful.  (I think he also worked in animation, maybe for Disney.)  The only other possibility is that the person who submitted this contribution read a story called Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator, on which, according to the publishing info at the beginning of the book, this Little Golden Book story was based. 



Under One Roof
Hi, I just stumbled upon your website and I hope you can help me with this question about an old children's book.  I used to read and re-read a book in the late '60's and in the '70's from our public library. It was a "young adult" book called something like "Under One Roof" about a teenage girl near the early part of the 20th century... her parents died in a buggy accident, leaving her and her younger siblings orphaned.  She begged her (mean) relatives to let her raise her siblings alone, and a young minister in the town took her side. She went through tremenous hardships but was able to keep her siblings with her.   The searches I've done for this book (long out of print, I'm sure) don't seem to yield anything under that particular title!

U8 under one roof: could be Head of the House, by Grace Livingston Hill "A tragic airplane accident, causing the death of both parents, left the seven young Graemes to be quarrelled over by their stodgy relatives. "Aunt Petunia" and some of the others not only wanted to separate the young people but looked forward to managing the ample fortune left by John Graeme. Jennifer, on the wrong side of her twenty-first birthday to be legally the head of the house, took matters in her own capable hands and left in a hurry with her younger brothers and sisters in order to be out of reach of the relatives. Many ups and downs welded the young Graemes even more closely together and brought them closer to the highest source of all-pervading good. Mrs. Hill has created a beguiling heroine in  Jennifer Graeme. The adventures of the seven young people are described with the sympathetic understanding that Grace Livingston Hill brings to all her novels." The title isn't too far off, but it's not a buggy accident - though the book is probably old-fashioned enough for that otherwise and it does sound like GLH's uplifting works.
Catherine Marshall, Christy.  Could it be this classic semi-religious inspirational tale?
Wilson, Emma, Under one roof, 1955.  New York,  Alfred Funk publishers. Could this be the solution?  An autobiographical tale of a Kentucky family in the early years of the 20th century.  Town the lived in is called Hopkinsville.
---
Hi, I just stumbled upon your website and I hope you can help me with this question about an old children's book.  I used to read and re-read a book in the late '60's and in the '70's from our public library. It was a "young adult" book called something like "Under One Roof" about a teenage girl near the early part of the 20th century... her parents died in a buggy accident, leaving her and her younger siblings orphaned.  She begged her (mean) relatives to let her raise her siblings alone, and a young minister in the town took her side. She went through tremenous hardships but was able to keep her siblings with her.   The searches I've done for this book (long out of print, I'm sure) don't seem to yield anything under that particular title!

U8 under one roof: could be Head of the House, by Grace Livingston Hill "A tragic airplane accident, causing the death of both parents, left the seven young Graemes to be quarrelled over by their stodgy relatives. "Aunt Petunia" and some of the others not only wanted to separate the young people but looked forward to managing the ample fortune left by John Graeme. Jennifer, on the wrong side of her twenty-first birthday to be legally the head of the house, took matters in her own capable hands and left in a hurry with her younger brothers and sisters in order to be out of reach of the relatives. Many ups and downs welded the young Graemes even more closely together and brought them closer to the highest source of all-pervading good. Mrs. Hill has created a beguiling heroine in  Jennifer Graeme. The adventures of the seven young people are described with the sympathetic understanding that Grace Livingston Hill brings to all her novels." The title isn't too far off, but it's not a buggy accident - though the book is probably old-fashioned enough for that otherwise and it does sound like GLH's uplifting works.
Catherine Marshall, Christy.  Could it be this classic semi-religious inspirational tale?
Wilson, Emma, Under one roof, 1955.  New York,  Alfred Funk publishers. Could this be the solution?  An autobiographical tale of a Kentucky family in the early years of the 20th century.  Town the lived in is called Hopkinsville.
This item is in your "solved" section.  However, it is clear to me that the actual solution was never reached.  The book she sought is "Under This Roof" by Borghild Dahl.
Borghild Dahl, Beneath This Roof.  This is definitely the requested book -- not Grace Livingston Hill.  I loved this book and searched long and hard for a copy.  Read it and still love it



Under Plum Lake
Under the Purple Rainbow, Under the Purple Sea? 1980's, childrens.  This is a book I read in the mid '80's.  It is about a boy who lives near the water and he makes friends with a boy who seems to be his age, but is actually much older.  This friend takes him under the water and shows him his society.  Everyone ages slowly, and lives to advanced old age. It is an amazing society but these people look just like regular people.  He stays down there a while, and he gets hurt while doing some kind of sport they have. He breaks his collarbone maybe. Then the adults do something to his brain to make him forget his visit, but he in fact remembers.  After he gets back home, he starts to remember his adventure in dreams and he writes them down.  His finds out his mom is reading his dream notebook, so he hides his real notebook and he starts putting fake stuff in a different notebook for her to read.  I think this book was called the purple rainbow, or Under the purple sea, or Under the Purple Rainbow.  It had a mostly purple cover and a picture of a boy looking out to the sea.

Davidson, Lionel, Under Plum Lake.
  I remember this one, the undersea boy was named Dido, and Barry, the narrator would make him in a tunnel near the shore, by a floating box and barrel. He has several adventures and does get injured in a sporting event.


Under the Haystack
I'm looking for a book I read in my teens (I'm 44). It was about a girl who was raising her family herself--something happened to her parents and she doesnt want the kids separated...its a coming of age story too as she starts to order bras and underwear from a mail order catalog like Sears.

Cynthia Voigt, Homecoming,
1981. Homecoming is the first in a series of books about the Tillerman children. The rest of the series is Dicey’s Song,  A Solitary Blue,  The Runner,  Come a Stranger,  Sons from Afar,  Seventeen Against the Dealer. Dicey and her younger siblings James, Sammy and Maybeth, are abandoned by their mother on a road trip to their cousin. Dicey has to take over the care of the kids and get them to their cousin's house, walking along highways, rationing food, and camping out until they reach their cousin, where things are not as they expected. It's a very powerful book, and goes into great detail about how the kids take care of themselves and survive.
Patricia A. Engebrecht, Under The Haystack, 1973. Not sure if this is it, but the part about the Sears orders reminded me of this book.  A woman abandons her children, a 12ish girl and her younger sisters.  They live on a farm and manage to convince the neighbors that nothing's wrong, mom's just visiting friends.  Over the summer, they make a garden, go swimming, do chores, and at one point they order new clothes from the Sears catalog, and the heroine realizes uncomfortably she needs to order a bra.
Vera & Bill Cleaver, Where the Lilies Bloom, 1974. I'm not sure about the bras, but I do remember the oldest sister did order some things for the younger kids from the Sears catalog.
Patricia A. Engebrecht, Under The Haystack. My bookstumper is SOLVED! The book is UNDER THE HAYSTACK!! Oh thank you so much!

Under the Mountain
Long ago, when I was a teenager (1980's), I read a book about red headed twins that had special powers (Telepathic was one I think) and they were given 2 rocks which had the power to keep aliens captive that were trapped under the nearby bay/sea .. I think it was based around San Fransisco Bay, but not sure .. it ended up with each of the twins on either side of the bay, with their power being channelled though the stones and bright light coming out of the stones and arching over the bay and meeting in the middle .. which then stopped the aliens escaping .. I'd love to read the book again as I've very fond memories of it, thanks :)

Hugh Walters (Walter Hughes is his real name) wrote a series of books with red-haired female twins who had ESP and space adventures.
Gee, Maurice, Under the Mountain,1979.  I'm pretty sure that this is the book as a lot of details match.  Rachel and Theo
are red headed twins who can read each other's minds. One summer holiday, "Jones" the alien wants to use their psychic forces to get rid of the wilberforces, another alien race.  The Wilberforces are really scary - they're slimy and green and can shape-shift.  They want to destroy other planets but are trapped on earth (under the mountain) in a semi-sleep.  They too know of the twins special powers and are beginning to wake from their sleep...and so the book unfolds.  It was also a tv series in the early 80s and I remember hiding behind the couch in the scary bits!  the story is set in the city of Auckland, New Zealand which is on a harbour, which may have made the person think of San Francisco
R98 Walters, Hugh [pseudonym of Walter Hughes].  Spaceship to Saturn.  Criterion, 1967. Chris Godfrey heads for Saturn; juvenile science fiction


Underdog
I'm looking for a book for a thesis I'm writing for graduate school. It is a book I read when I was younger - the mid to late eighties or early nineties, and it was probably purchased from one of those scholastic book clubs where students buy books mail order. It is about a young girl whose mother has recently died. Her pet Scottie was the cause of the accident and so this girl's father gives the dog away. A while later, the girl wants her dog back and starts trying to find him. She finds a scottie at the animal shelter that she believes is her dog, but slowly comes to realize that this is a different dog. This one is shy and withdrawn where the other one was lively and playful. She adopts this dog anyway and they help each other heal. I am almost 100% certain that the dog in this story is a scottie. I can visualize the
cover of this book very clearly (just not the title). The dog might be a dark cairn terrier too. If you know the title of this book, or can figure it out, I will be eternally grateful to you.

Jean Little, Mine for Keeps. This has a similar plot line and a Scottie dog.  Sally has cerebral palsy and moves back home from an institution. Her parents buy her a dog to help her adjust to going to a regular school and make friends.
This is definitely NOT Mine for Keeps.  That dog is a Westie (West Highland Terrier) and the mother is alive and well.
no luck so far, but Lynn Hall wrote some books with similar themes.
Marilyn Sachs, Underdog. This is the story of a 12 year-old orphan girl who searches for her long-lost dog. There is a Scottie on the cover.



Underground Alley
Underground duplicate town (England somewhere). Probably about 40 years old. Girl reading about ancestor, he's suspected of stealing wagons of gold but no-one knows how, she discovers he built a duplicate town in the caves under the real one and tricked the wagons into unloading there. One scene describes her and a friend walking through the duplicate town and comparing the buildings to the ones they know.

William Mayne, Underground Alley, 1960s.  While painting scenery for a town pageant, Patty knocks a hole in the wall of her cellar and finds an entrance to a cave. In the cave is a row of houses, just like the ones in the street above, but derelict.  This discovery solves the mystery of how an alchemist several hundred years before managed to steal wagonloads of gold tribute from the Welsh that should have gone to the English crown
William Mayne, Underground Alley.You are amazing - I took one look at the book and the cover was soooo familiar!'


Understanding Kim
I've looked for this book for years, but still don't recall title or author.  It's a children's book I read in grade school, which would have been somewhere between 1960 and 1967. It was about a white family who adopted a child who was a different nationality. The children in the family seemed to be having a difficult adjustment to their new family member, who was in awe of all our U.S. modern conveniences.  I remember specifically something about using soap for the first time. It wasn't a chapter book, more a story book, as I recall. I'd very much like to know what the title of this is and whether I could obtain a copy, if it's not too expensive.  Thanks very much for any help you can offer.

Maybe - Doane, Pelagie Understanding Kim Philadelphia, Lippincott 1962. "Having a Korean orphan as a sister poses a problem for Penny." Less likely - Warren, Mary Pharner Walk in My Moccasins illustrated by Mays, Victor. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1966, which seems to be about adoption of an Indian child.
More on one suggested title - Understanding Kim, written and illustrated by Pelagie Doane, published Lippincott 1962. "Penny learns to accept her newly-adopted sister Kim, a Korean war orphan. Ages 9-11." (Horn Book Oct/62 p.422 pub.ad)



Understood Betsy
red cover - 1930-40 - little girl comes from city to stay with grandparents on their farm - she has a blissful time, gathering eggs, milking cows, playing in the hayloft.  I was in love with this library book and checked it out as often as I could all year long, hiding it behind the other books on its shelf so that no one else could fine it!

Stars for Cristy.  Cristy was a city child who went to stay with people named Todd through a fresh-air program not her grandparents though.  The reason I suggest this is that it did have a red cover and I took it out of the library quite a few times as well.
The answer posted to G211 is not correct since the book I am searching for was published earlier than 1940.  Nor is the story quite right.  But thanks anyway.
Dorothy Canfield, Understood Betsy, 1917.  This sounds like Understood Betsy, which has been around in many editions and has recently been reissued. The relatives she stays with are a great-aunt and uncle (older, so they could be remembered as grandparents) who take her in after the overprotective aunt she lives with in the city get sick.
This might be Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield, maybe? She goes to visit relatives but they are not grandparents.
---
Around 20 years ago while I was in elementary school I read a book that was given away years later. I loved that book. It was a hardback book. The cover was red. The picture on the front was (I think a pencil drawing) of a young girl in front of a tree tapping maple syrup. What I remember of the story is that she lives with her two aunts (who overprotect her from everything) until one of them gets sick and they have to move to a warmer state. The Aunts don't get along with their cousins but since they are the only option they ship the girl off to the cousins who live in the country. While there she learns to tap for maple syrup and every once in awhile she drops some in the snow while tapping so that it will harden and she can chew it. She also gets lost with a friend at the fair. She gets to eat until she is full and has several more adventures.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy
This is the book you described.  Some additional details:  Betsy doesn't know right from left when she first goes to live with the country relatives, and at the end of the book she escapes from a deep pit by using a fallen branch.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy.  Definitely the one.  Available online, just do a search for the title and it will come up under digital.library.upenn.edu/ .
Dorothy Canfield, Understood Betsy, 1916, copyright.  This sounds a lot like Understood Betsy with only a few details not matching; definitely worth checking out. I did not read this book until I was in my late 40's, but I can tell you I consider it one of the best I have ever read. It holds up even today.
I agree, the book in question is Understood Betsy...however, "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorenson fits some of the maple syrup-type clues, and is also set in Vermont.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy.  This is most definitely the book I was looking for. Thank you!

 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
 Canfield (Fisher), Dorothy.  Understood BetsyGrosset and Dunlap, 1917.  Hardcover with protected dust jacket.  G/G.  $15
 
Canfield (Fisher), Dorothy.  Understood BetsyGrosset and Dunlap, 1917.  Hardcover w/o dust jacket.  G+  $10
 




Unicorn Magic
I loved this book in elementary school and repeatedly checked it out from my school library at Washburn Elementary School in Duluth, MN, during the mid-80s.  I have wanted to find it again for some years now but don't know the title.  I have asked a few different librarians about it but my descriptions don't seem to ring any bells.  The book was illustrated.  I remember there was a unicorn who awoke after about 500 years and then aided a princess who had been made out of straw by a witch?  I loved unicorns so much as a little girl and this book totally fed my fantasies.  I would be so grateful if someone could help me with this.  Also, I seem to remember that the book was not a paperback, but hardbound.  I want to say that it was a very light blue?  Another memory is that it seemed long (kind of long) to me as a 2nd and 3rd grader.  But I might be wrong on that.  I'm not sure.  Thanks for the help!

Ida Mae McIntyre, Unicorn Magic, 1972.  I too was looking for this book for a long time.  The only details I could remember were the unicorn and the straw person.  I just figured it out this past fall as I searched through WorldCat.  Here's the synopsis from WorldCat: "A unicorn uses his magic to foil the plot of an evil magician who tries to get the prince to marry a woman made of straw."


Universe Between
I would like to find the name of a couple of my favorite books from my childhood. They both would be considered science fiction, I guess. The first is about a girl that can "turn a corner" into another dimension and travel that way. She has a troubled past and is recruited by scientists, I believe. They have failed in the past because the other dimensional travelers had been unable to handle it. They "smelled" the color blue, or saw circles with 4 corners - that kind of stuff. Anyway, her interdimensional travel upsets the people in the other dimension for one reason or another, causing interdimensional trouble. In the end, I think she is kind of an ambassador to the other dimension, which turns out to be ours. She actually is from the other dimension, and not our own.

Oh what a wonderful site! Just discovered it today and will be back frequently. O11 is unquestionably The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse. It was published in book form in 1965, but parts of it had been published as short stories in the 50's. I have a copy and re-read it frequently.
That's it!! They are both correct. Your site is fantastic. I didn't think I would ever know the names of these books so that I could pass them along to my kids, who also love to read. Thank you ever so much.
---
I am looking for a science fiction book I read in the early 1960s about a girl who can go through "thresholds" to other places.  She can slip into another dimension to move about to another locations.  I have no idea who the author is and would appreciate any assistance in locating this book.

Madeline L'Engle, Wrinkle In Time.  This may be too obvious, but isn't there language in Wrinkle in Time about the tesseract being a threshold between dimensions?
Madeleine l'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time,1963.  Could this possibly be it?  The timeframe certainly fits, as does the general description.  Meg travels through space and time, along with her friend Calvin and brother Charles, by means of a tesseract.
Could this be Alan Nourse's The Universe Between?  The act of moving between dimensions is referred to there as "turning the corner", but I think there were characters called "Thresholders".
Nourse, Alan E., The Universe Between, 1965.


Unleaving
The story is about a girl (I THINK her name is Meg) who lives in a house by the sea in the British Isles.  A group of college? students come for the summer and one of them is a boy who comes with his little sister who is retarded and tragically falls into the sea.   Meg and the boy fall in love. Jill Paton Walsh, Unleaving.

J
ill Paton Walsh, Unleaving. That's It!  I found it, and also discovered that it's a sequel to another book "Goldengrove."  Thank you!



Unlucky Winner/ My Next Girl
I was wondering if you recall a short story from an least 25 years ago about a new college student who resorts to plagiarizing a story (or article) written by an obscure, eccentric old college professor who then turns up unexpectedly to read or grade the submitted stories.  At the end of the story, the reader suspects that the professor recognizes his own work, but he does not let on that he does.  Thanks for your help!

Max Shulman, My Next Girl, 1946.  This is the story.  Its in The Bedside Book of Humor edited by Mathilda Schirmer, 1948
Yes, I remember this story!  It is The Unlucky Winner, the first story in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Eleven Campus Stories by Max Shulman (1951).  The other stories in the book are She Shall Have Music; Love is a Fallacy; The Sugar Bowl; Everybody Loves My Baby; Love of Two Chemists; The Face is Familiar But---; The Mock Governor; Boy Bites Man; The King's English; and You Think You Got Trouble?
The Unlucky Winner is definitely the story sought---I have the book right in front of me!---but I wonder if it was published earlier with the other title suggested, My Next Girl.  Why?  The first paragraph of The Unlucky Winner is, "My next girl is going to be honest.  I don't care if she looks like a doorknob.  Just so she's honest."  Dobie Gillis is the plagiarist; Clothilde (his girlfriend) encourages his academic dishonesty; and Thoughts of My Tranquil Hours by Elmo Goodhue Pipgrass is the book he copies from.
I'm the one who suggested My Next Girl, and its definitely the same story as The Unlucky Winner. Interesting that the two anthologies we read it in were published only a few years apart, and the story's name was changed so quickly.



Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
In middle school (in the mid 70's) I read a short story told in the first person about a man caught in a peculiar "house".  Every time he entered a room, he caught only a glimpse of someone else leaving that room through one of its other doors.  In the end it turned out to be himself!  This impossibility idea has fascinated me ever since and I would love to read it again as an adult. I don't know if the story was published on its own - I saw it in a collection of stories (I think mostly science fiction) geared toward middle school and possibly high school children.  Now that I have children of my own who love to read as much as I do, I would like to dig up some of these old stories for them as well as myself!

"—And He Built a Crooked House", Robert A. Heinlein, 1941.  This short story by Heinlein was first published in Astounding magazine in February 1941. It was reprinted in his book The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag in 1959. It has also appeared in numerous anthologies. You can see a list of them here:  (Just use the "Find in Page" function to search for "Crooked House".)
Robert Heinlein, And he Built a Crooked House, 1941. This is the name of the story - I think it is also the name of the anthology.
I29 impossible 4d shape: This should be the story "And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert Heinlein, from the anthology Fantasia Mathematica: being a set of stories, together with a group of oddments and diversions, all drawn from the universe of mathematics, edited by Clifton Fadiman, published New York, Simon & Schuster 1958, 298 pages. Quintus Teal builds a tessaract house for his friend Homer Bailey, but an earth tremor collapses it into a cube. Teal and the Baileys go in, but can't find a way out again, except for going through one of the windows, which leads off the roof. One door opens to another planet. At one point the three people see themselves from the back in another room.
---
This was a sci-fi book I read in the early 60's but could have been written possibly earlier...not a children's book...it is about a man who lives in a world that changes when a fog surrounds wherever he happens to be (in the car driving or in a house, etc).  It also seems that there are mirrors involved in some way, possibly a portal to another world.  There is also a woman who seems to know what is going on...she seems to appear at random times.

gordon r dickson, time storm, 1977. Possibly TIME STORM by Gordon R. Dickson.  I don't remember the mirrors, but I don't believe I ever read the whole book, just the magazine version of the first part of it.
Heinlein, Robert A., The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1942. The reader's description of the man, the mirrors, the world changing outside the fog, and the woman, make me think of this novella by one of the masters of SF, RA Heinlein.  Something in a mirror is responsible for the strange coma that has afflicted a young married woman.  Her husband seeks help from Jonathan Hoag.  Towards the end, the couple is driving away from their city, apparently on a sunny day.  But if they roll down the car windows and look out, they are driving through a fog, and terrible things are happening in that fog.  This story is anthologized in a collection of Heinlein stories titled 6 X H and also in a collection called The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.
Robert Heinlein, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1942.This is a short story and also the name of a collection of shorts.  The tag line is "What if the Sons of the Bird lurked behind all your mirrors?"  I don't remember it completely, but perhaps...


Until Proven Guilty
I am trying to remember the author and title of a mystery/detective book with a female killer.  I think it was from the mid 80's.  It starts with a mysterious woman showing up at a child's funeral.  There is also a detective there trying to solve murders.  He's attracted to the mysterious lady.  The mysterious lady from the funeral, I believe turns out to be the killer he's looking for.  I think she lost a sister or relative when she was younger.  If I remember correctly, she is avenging her sisters death by killing anyone who harms or kills a child.  I believe the lady and detective become romantically involved before he realizes she's the killer. Please help me remember the title and author.  Thanks.

Jance, J A, Until Proven Guilty From AudioFile:  A little girl is murdered, and a mysterious woman in red comes to the funeral. Both events unalterably change the life of Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont.


Untitled
I am looking for a book I had as a child.  It was fully illustrated, solve the ancient mystery, where's waldo sort of book.  It had to do with bees and was black and gold I think.  This was sometime in the late 70's, early 80's. There were very few words and  I remember believing that it was a true mystery. Thanks for any iinformation you might have.

Not quite, but this made me think of Kit Williams.  Is Masquerade the only book by this author?
Kit Williams did have another book -- usually appears as "Untitled" or "Kit Williams".  I think the price was a golden and jewel bee.  The cover illustration was of bees, and the story was about Ambrose the bee keeper.  It's Knopf 1984
B76 - This is almost certainly Kit Williams. He did a book after Masquerade which when published had no title,
the competition was to guess what the title should be. The cover was a marquetry honeycomb with a jewelled golden bee (the prize) on it. The title was eventually revealed as The Bee on the Comb
This has got to be the second find-the-treasure book by Kit Williams (the first being the find-the-golden-hare book). It has no title, (that's part of the puzzle) but has been called The Bee on the Comb, Bee on Honeycomb
and The Bee Box Book among other titles. It was published by Jonathan Cape in England and Alfred Knopf in the USA, in 1984. The American isbn is 0-394-53817-X
I had a book written by Kit Williams about bees, but there was no title to the book.  That was what the mystery was . . . you were supposed to solve some sort of mystery in the book that would reveal what the title was.  If
you did it, you would get a prize.


Unwed Mother
This mid-1980s book has been my obsession!  All I can remember is a teen mother with a baby (boy, I think).  She had two sisters named Mona & Dona (which I thought were strange names at the time).  She and her family were able to move to a bigger apartment because of the baby.  She doesn't stay there.  She's daydreaming and burns her food (eggs I think) and Stepdad or Mom's boyfriend yells and she decides to leave.  She ends up renting a place with other unwed teen moms.  Next door is a young married couple (with kids maybe?)  I remember one of the moms in her house doesn't take good care of her baby (named Pam).  You would think with all I DO remember, I would remember the title or author, huh?  Help! (and thanks)

Lee, Joanna, I want to keep my baby!, 1977.  i think stumper T268 could be I want to keep my baby! which was also made into a tv movie with Mariel Hemingway.
I have a copy of I want to keep my baby and although this book is very similar, it's not the same one.  I am sure the baby was a boy the book that is stumping me. In I want to keep my baby it's a girl.
This sounds like the book UNWED MOTHER by Gloria Miklowitz.  I can't put my hands on the book right this second, but I believe I am correct.
Gloria D. Miklowitz, Unwed Mother.  Thank you! Unwed Mother is the book I was looking for. What a great website.  Thanks again.


Unwilling Vestal
The protagonist of this historical book is a young Roman girl, who through bad luck ends up being chosen to be one of the Vestal Virgins.  She is already engaged (or at least in love), but if she breaks the chastity vows she will be buried alive or something horrible.  However, she is only obligated for
thirty years, and at the end of that time she ceases to be a VV and marries her devoted lover, who's waited all that time for her.  I am certain that the author's last name is White, because I remember it being next to T.H. White's books (but it turned out not to be written by him).  I read this in 1985-6 or so, and I'm sure it was published before that year.  Thanks!

V6 has to be Unwilling Vestal: A Tale of Rome under the Caesars by Edward Lucas White.  It was published by Dutton in 1937.
THE UNWILLING VESTAL: A TALE OF ROME UNDER THE CAESARS by Edward Lucas White, 1918.
Thanks!  Sorry for the delay in responding.  This has to be it!



Up a Road Slowly
My book has a girl whose mother has died.  Her aunt is going to raise her, and is a very strict, very proper teacher whom the girl doesn't really like.  The one scene I remember vividly is the day of the funeral, the girl hides in an under-stair coat closet to cry and the aunt comes in there with her and cries, too.  The girl ends up learning to love her aunt and becomes very much like her.

Irene Hunt, Up a Road Slowly
An excellent book!
Irene Hunt, Up A Road Slowly, 1966, copyright.  This also won the Newbery Award - Great book - one of my favorites!!
Irene Hunt, Up a Road Slowly, 1967, copyright.  The scene you described sounds familiar.  This book is definitely about a strict, spinster aunt raising her niece.  The scene I remember was the niece visiting relatives and being so shocked when the dirty dishes were left overnight.  Such sloth!!  It is a great read even if it's not the one you were looking for.  Hope this helps.
Irene Hunt, Up a Road Slowly.
Irene Hunt, Up A Road Slowly, 1966, copyright.  When Julia's mother dies, she goes to live in the country with her Aunt Cordelia, who teaches in a one room school. Chapter 1 ends: "We sat in the dark closet together for a long time; then when there were no more tears left, we crawled out and began our decade together."  I loved this book.
Hunt, Irene, Up a Road Slowly, 1966.  This ranks up there with Blue Castle and The Ghost of Opalina as one of my all time favorite childhood books. After the death of Julie's mother, she goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster school teacher, in the country until she graduates from high school. It is a very poignant story of life's lessons that is not without a great deal a humor. I cry every time I read it. Oh, I'm positive this is the correct book.
Irene Hunt, Up a Road Slowly.  I think this is the right book.  The main character is Julie; her real name is Julia, and her aunt insists on calling her that even though nobody else does.  It takes her from a child to college age.
Up a Road Slowly.  Thanks a million to all - the minute I read the name I remembered it.  Thank goodness for others whose brains haven't "fritzed" yet!!!!


 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
 Hunt, Irene.  Up a Road SlowlyFollett Publishing Co, 1966.  DJ hardback.  F/F.  $15.
 


Up and Away
Hello:  I attended first and second grades in 1963/64.  I remember reading a children's book about a mom who took her six children to the beach and she gave them each a different colored hat so she could keep track of them.  She had seven hats when she started and when she did a head count she came up one short.  She then discovered it was on her head.  I can't remember the name of this book but would very much like to track it down.  Thanks for any help you can give me.

This sounds like Mrs. Toosie? Tootsie? and her family.  Oh, goodness, is this the same family who lived in an old trolley car in the country?  I definitely remember the hat episode and can picture the illustration, and I'm sure the name was something like Toosie because that struck me as amusing as a child.
Ha ha!  Got that one!  It's an old old school reader called Up and Away with a pic of a little blond boy waving to a man riding a circus elephant on the front.  Remember the stories "What about Willie" a calico cat that didn't have a home and was out in the rain, "P is for Paint", a girl wants to win paints at a birthday party, "Wait for William" - the little boy who was slow because he had to tie his shoe, and because of it got to ride the circus elephant in the parade and so on?!  Love it!  And I won't part with it (sorry).  It was Mrs. Toosey who had the violet hat on, and they went for a boat ride in a rowboat that sunk.  Beautiful pictures.  That particular story is adapted from The Tooseys by Mabel G. La Rue published by Thomas Nelson and Sons.  But you're probably looking for the reader Up and Away, Reading for Meaning - Thomas Nelson and Sons (we have the Canada edition printed in 1958, Toronto Canada) copyright 1957.
H4 hats of different colors: has the original poster ever confirmed this? The suggested solution looks pretty good.
---
Willy, a white, black, and orange kitten is looking for a home. Tommy wants a kitten. I think at one point Willy goes into a house and sleeps on a bed, getting the covers dirty and gets chased out. Meanwhile, Tommy is fishing at a pond. He leaves his line and hook at the pond and goes home. A fish is pulling the line and Willy gets tangled up in it and there is a tug-of-war between the cat and fish. Willy is about to be pulled under the water when Tommy rescues the kitten, but then the kitten runs away. Tommy has fish for dinner but can only think about the kitten he lost. The next morning Tommy finds Willy in the mailbox. End of story.

Stolz, Mary, illus. Uri Shulevitz, The Mystery of the Woods.  NY Harper 1964.  If the names are reversed, it might possibly be this one. "Will and his elderly grandfather live amicably in a small house near a wood, although Will wonders about the necessity for the many rules of the house. One rule they break, however, is in opening the door to admit a mewing cat  and because of Tom Kitten (named for a "cat in a book") they break another, in entering the mysterious woods because Tom is missing. Thus, Tom helps them discover that not all rules have to be kept." (HB Aug/64 p.372) No confirmation of the fishing incident though, or the mailbox.
We had this book in the mid-to-late '40s. It couldn't be the one suggested here.
Up and Away, Reading for Meaning series., 1958.  I saw this school reader in a used-book shop recently. The first story in it was called What About Willie: a kitten wants a home and a boy wants a kitten. Willie is a yellow and black kitten, the boy is called Tommy, and the exact incident of the kitten being caught in the fishing line occurs. No authors were given for any of the stories.



Up and Down the River
This is a chapter book from the 1950s or 60s, I believe part of a series or at least a sequel, about a large poor family living in the country/woods.  The oldest girl is a daughter and then there is a son, and lots of younger brothers and sisters.  There are stories of how they make do (passing down schoolbooks to be used from one year to the next, making a baseball out of string, etc.)  There is also a large bit about the little girls who go around the country neighborhood selling bluing they ordered from a magazine, to raise money to buy chickens (I think).  It is sort of reminiscent of Little House books only the family is larger and stuff.

Patricia Beatty, The Nickel-Plated Beauty.  reprinted 1993, but I remember it from the '60s.  Might the chickens have been a stove instead?  My copy is in storage so I can't check the details, but your description made me think of this story about the large Kimball family, in early-day Washington state, trying all sorts of things to earn the money to buy their mother a wonderful new stove (wood-burning, of course, in those days).  I can't recall the oldest girl's name (Clarrie?), but her closest brother is Cameron.  All the chidren have dark hair and are called "the glowering Kimballs" in the neighborhood.  Among other jobs, they pick cranberries to sell, and perhaps the chickens are a source of eggs?  An online review actually compares this book to the Little House ones, and it does have two sequels.
Rebecca Caudill, Up and Down the River, 1951.  The episode of selling the bluing is in Up and Down the River.  Little Bonnie and Debby send off for bluing and for colored pictures to sell to raise money, and the book is about the people they meet and the adventures they have selling the things.  Other books in the series are Happy Little Family, Schoolhouse in the Woods, and Schoolroom in the Parlor.  Althy is the eldest sister,  Chris is the brother, Emmy is the second eldest sister.
Thank you!  I think this must be the Rebecca Caudill book, because when you said Althy, I remembered that this was the big sister's name.  :)  I will have fun reading these all again - I used to check them out of the kid's section in the library all the time, until one day I went and found they (and a lot of other older books) had been discarded!  Thank you!!



Up the Hill
Title:  probably Up the Hill.  Author:  first name possibly Angelica or Angela.  date: 1944 or before.  I remember a beautifully illustrated book, with detailed drawings in pale colors.  This was the first book I ever took out of a library and I would love to see it again.

Marguerite de Angeli, Up the Hill
Marguerite de Angeli, Up the Hill,1940s
de Angeli, Marguerite, Up the Hill.  Doubleday, 1942.  "A Polish American family lives in a Pennsylvania mining town and keeps the ways of the old country."



Up the Pier
I remember a book where a girl went reluctantly on holiday to the beach. She was hopping along the boards of the pier, and she hopped a certain pattern: forward one, back two, forward three, or something like that. Suddenly she could see a boy who hadn't been there before, who was dressed oddly. He was from another time, and she had travelled back to it. She had to get back to her own time by reversing the hopping pattern, and she kept coming back to help the boy and his father with... something... which eventually changes the future, I think. I was FASCINATED by the hopping-pattern thing, and tried it on several piers.  ;-)  If I could find this book, I would be over the moon. Thank you so much!

Helen Cresswell, Up the Pier, 1971. While visiting a seaside resort with her mother, a young English girl discovers a mysterious family living on the pier.
Helen Cresswell, Up the Pier, 1971. I solved my own stumper! I was reading the next stumper down the list from mine, and it has turned out to be a book by Helen Cresswell... and I thought, hey, that name sounds familiar... I think that's the author of my book, too! Sure enough, I did the research, and the book I'm remembering is called Up the Pier, by Helen Cresswell. About to go in search of it right away. Thank you, all!


Upright Hilda
My sister has a friend who is looking to find a certain chidren's book to give her mother for Christmas. This is a book that her mother used to read to her as a child (my sister's friend is about 25 years old). She remembers only the last line of the book, and the name of the main character. The character is Hilda Kolakowski. The last line in the book is "there among 500 dead with only Hilda on her head". The book is about this thrifty lady who skimps on everything, including her funeral...and she ended up with only 1/2 of a casket or burial plot, and so had to be buried on her head. Has you ever heard of a book that sounds like this? Thanks for your help
Later the same day...
I have been looking for this children's book for years!  We read it when we were young and my mother has wanted a copy for the last several years.  We borrowed the book from our bookmobile when I was a kid, maybe around the last 70's early 80's.  I was born in 1975.  The book was about a lady named Hilda Kolakowski (I'm unsure of the spelling.) She was really cheap. She was so cheap that she only bought half of a grave plot then when she died they buried her on her head: "And here among 500 dead, with only Hilda on her head."  I have no clue who the author is or the name of the book.  Any ideas? Thanks for the input... I have search ALL OVER and have had no luck... so thanks for the opportunity to check it out!

Hutter, Donald, Upright Hilda, illus. Barbara Byfield, NY Bobbs-Merrill 1968.  Plot description from eBay copy "A cute story about a little girl who things that anyone who stands on their head is a fool. When she dies her family buries her vertically on her head." LC record says "Hilda grew in somber fashion, knew no fun and little passion. Succumbing to a minor illness, no one now disturbs her stillness." Name matches, rhyme scheme matches, burial matches. No confirmation of thriftiness, except in emotions.


Urn Burial
Young Adult sci fi.  Background - Unknown to Earthlings, each animal has evolved to become the superior creature in its own galaxy. An intergalactic war rages between Cats (good) and Dogs (bad - considered the scum of the galaxy).  Plot - Human boy finds a spaceship and a helmet in a cave, both of which belong to a long-dead cat warrior. On putting on the helmet, he triggers an alarm (or something like that) that alerts both the cat and dog armies that the helmet and spaceship have been found (the two items are in some way really important to either army). Both armies then come looking for the items. The boy (and his mailman) is captured by the Dog army; there's a creepy part with some sort of green fungus that eats away at the mailman (who's locked in a cabinet or closet on a dog spaceship).  Most likely published before 1990 (but also not much before the 80's, either).

Andre Norton, Star Ka'at, 1976.  I'm guessing, but this sounds close.
C108 cats v dogs: Star Ka'at is about Jim Evans and Elly Mae Brown and their two cats who reveal themselves as being alien super-cats and ask for their help in a rescue mission. The star ka'at world is called Zimmorrah and they travel to it in the sequel where killer robots show up as villains. Couldn't find anything about a mailman or fungus. The plot device of a boy finding a spacesuit belonging to an alien race involved in a war was used in a juvenile sf film not long ago, but I don't know whether it was based on a book.
Robert Westall, Urn Burial, 1990.  I'm pretty confident about this.  It was a fairly short book (closer to novella than novel).  The cats and dogs were bipedal and human-sized.  I remember the fungus particularly vividly, as I found it very disturbing.  Definitely YA rather than children's.
C108 cats vs dogs: the movie mentioned doesn't seem to have been based on a book, otherwise it wouldn't seem a bad lead. Its production title was The Warrior of Waverly Street, but it was released as Star Kid in 1997. The opposing forces are the Trelkin (good) and the Broodwarriors (bad). A meteor lands in a junkyard where shy Spencer finds the "Trelkin Phase 1 Cyber Assault Suit in need of a bio-organism to interface with", which would be him. The Broodwarriors are also after the suit, for their invasion plans. But no mailman, no capture in ship, no fungus (though the Broodwarrior's weapons are creepily organic-looking).




Valentine
I read this book around 1970-1972. The main character was named Valentine. She was a shy person without friends. I remember her walking to visit either a grandparent, aunt, or elderly person. That was her only friend.  

Evan Carroll Commager, Valentine, 1961. A possibility?  "A sentimental and rather old-fashioned novel about a shy and awkward girl  poor and orphaned, Valentine had come to a small Southern town with her aunt-and she didn't like it at all. When she took a job as a baby-sitter, Valentine's life changed."
Evan Carrol, Valentine. Thank you for solving my stumper. I always thought Valentine was the title but when I tried typing that name into Abebooks, etc. I got hundreds of books about the holiday. I ordered the book and am looking forward to reading it again!


The Valley of Adventure
A children's book with "adventure" in the title. Children are transported somehow to a place -- an island? -- where they have adventures.  Well, gee, that really narrows it down.  The only detail that might help is that they find some kind of hideout behind a waterfall. Seems like they were American, not British.

Enid Blyton, The Valley of Adventure.  I think that this is right, it's one of Blyton's for certain. I remember the waterfall.
A246: Maybe Bertrand Brinley's The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club (1968)? It's not fantasy, mind you. It's a sequel to The Mad Scientists' Club. In one story, they have a hideout behind a waterfall, where they also keep a mini-sub, and in the last story, two of the club's members get kidnapped by the rival club and dumped on a lake island. See Solved Mysteries under M.
I'm thinking it may be the Enid Blyton (although they're British, not American).  I'm checking that out.  I read it before 1968, so it couldn't be the more recent one.
The Valley of Adventure, 1947.  Here is the blurb: ...Jack and Lucy-Ann, Philip, Dinah and Bill Smugs and Kiki the Parrot are accidentally flown into the unknown. It is a mysterious place- a long desolate valley- with lizards like baby dragons, half ruined houses- giant mountains-hidden caves and thundering waterfalls...
Yes.  Definitely The Valley of Adventure.  Not, I must say, a book that holds up well.  Not like Edith Nesbit or Arthur Ransome.  But easier for kids to read, probably.  Thanks.



Valiant Women
The book I am looking for is called the Valiant Woman and i need the Author and or where to find it. It was published around 1980. The main characters were Shey/Shay and Socoro. Set after the famine in Ireland. Shay is wounded and Socoro nurses him back. Think they may be in California. The author wrote a sequel which I don't remember the name of. Thanks for your help.

Jeanne Williams, The Valiant Women (Arizona Saga book 1), 1980. This is the book you are looking for.  It is the first in a series of 3, called The Arizona Saga.  (Not California) "A wild and ambitious Irishman carves an empire out of the Arizona desert with the aid of three courageous, determined women - one Spanish, one an Indian, and one a girl burgeoning into womanhood."  The story continues in Harvest of Fury (Talitha manages the Socorro ranch in Arizona, while she waits for Patrick O'Shea to return from the Civil War.) and A Mating of Hawks (Shea and his half-brother, Judd, become bitter rivals for the love of Tracy Benoit when she comes to live at their Arizona ranch.)


Valley of the Song
This is a children's book -- the main character is a girl and I THINK it's called Under the Sea, or something to do with Neptune.  I can't remember anything else except for this poem in it about the zodiac, "The ram, the bull, the heavenly twins, next the crab, the lion shines, the virgin and the scales, scorpion, archer, sea-goat, the man who holds the watering pot and the fish with the glittering scales." Don't ask me why I can remember all that and not the little girl's name!

The rhyme quoted is a very old mnemoic verse to remember the order of the zodiac. Most frequently quoted as:  The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, / And next' the Crab, the Lion shines, / The Virgin and the Scales. / The Scorpion, Archer, and the Goat, / The Man who holds the Watering Pot, / And Fish with glittering scales.  It's all over the web with no source quoted.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Valley of Song. (1951)  This sounds like it could be 'The Valley of Song'. Tabitha, the main character of Valley of Song, has red hair. She visits a fairy world, most often entered through a local quarry, but at least one of the main trips involves an adventure under the sea.  The visits to the fairy world are themed around the rhyme mentioned.

Yes!  I finally got a copy of the Elizabeth Goudge book and it is the Valley of the Song.  This is such a terrific site - thank you, Loganberry and fellow book solvers!
---
This is an old children's book, possibly from the 60s or earlier. A young girl goes on a journey/adventure (possibly several times) in a magical land (? and possibly accessed through a stone or a gap with a stone?) and meets all the signs of the zodiac one by one, including the water bearer. Some scenes I remember: She attends an old fashioned school with a strict but essentially kindly teacher and one day they are in class reciting poetry. Day dreaming, the girl recites slower than other pupils and says "...on the wings of the wind" after everyone else has finished. The teacher scolds her but the feelings it evokes means she allows all the pupils to go out and play. At another time, the teacher wants to go on this journey/adventure herself, but she can't because she's too old. The girl swaps places/ages with her so she can go. The girl waits by the (stone/gap?) for her to return, and might have been crying as she waited. The girl might be called something beginning with T... but that could be faulty memory on my part. I recall this being an old and obscure book even when I read it (in the early 80s) with an old fashioned feel to it.

Goudge, Elizabeth, The Valley of Song, 1951, copyright. It is set in a village where they build ships, and the daughter of one of the smiths visits this magical place. They meet the zodiac signs, but for one visit she takes the years off another girl, and believes she can't enter the valley. There is a ship being built but there is not enough money to finish her, they get supplies from the valley, paint that is used for flowers and timber too.
Goudge, The Valley of Song, 1951.This is the one -- the girl's name is Tabitha, and the teacher is Dame Threadgold.  From page 4: "The other children came to an end before she did and 'wings of the wind' came ringing out in a sudden silence."
Elizabeth Goudge, The Valley of Song, 1951.Tabitha is able to visit a fantasy world through a local quarry  the zodiac is an important theme.

Solved: The Valley of Song
That's it - thanks so much! This is a great site. Now off to find a copy...!



Value of Believing in Yourself
I have been in search for a book from a friend's childhood.  However, he neither remembers the title of the book nor the name of the author, therefore making my search incredibly difficult.  I thought, perhaps, that if I emailed you with a sketch of the plot, you might recognize the book or could direct
me to someone who might. The book was probably written in the 70s or early 80s and all my friend can offer is that a child is bitten by a dog and a doctor/scientist then traces how the boy's body reacts, in terms of white blood cells and such. He claims it is a children's picture book.  Again, he read this as a young boy so his memory of the storyline may not be exact. I've been searching various rare and
out-of-print children's books websites and am unsure as to where to go from here. If you recall this book or have any suggestions on how to find it, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thank you for your help.

I'm almost positive I know this one -- there was a series of books I had and my school library had (early-mid 80's) about responsibility, perserverance,etc., the titles were something like Let's read about or Let's Find Out About and then the lifeskill in big, colored letters.  The illustrations were cartoon-y.  Each book featured a famous figure that exemplified that quality - the dog bite one was my favorite - featuring Louis Pasteur, and had a boy bitten by a dog, with great detail about how the bite was affecting his body and how the rabies vaccine worked.  I don't remember which quality Pasteur exemplified, however.
I know the title and author of the book described by the person who gave the first suggestion in blue, but I'm not sure it is the correct book.  The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur, a ValueTale by Spencer Johnson M.D.  There was a series of these published in the late 70's-early 80's.  This one was the "free sample" they sent you in the mail to induce you to purchase the set. There isn't an actual physical description of the dog-bite reaction.  It is more of a fairy tale desciption where the "Magical Soldiers" (the vaccine) battle the "Terrible Germs". The illustrations are very cartoonish and the text gives very little scientific/medical description.
If the blue poster's suggestion is correct, this may be: Johnson, Spencer The Value of Believing in Yourself : The Story of Louis Pasteur.  Pileggi, Steven; illustrator, ValueTales Series, San Diego, Oak Tree Publications 1976 ISBN 0916392066 Couldn't find a plot description, though.



ValueTales series
I am looking for a series of children's books that I bought my son when he was 6-7 years old, which was around 1976-1977.  The series was about childrens development and ethics.  The books included historic fiqures such as, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, Madam Curie, plus others which I cannot recall.  Example of Jackie Robinson was that he was the first african-american that played baseball.  The example of Helen Keller was how one can overcome a handicap such as blindness and succeed.  The books were white and hardcover.  Hope you can help end this mystery for me. Thank You.

Ann Donegan Johnson, Valuetales series.  The book about Helen Keller is called The Value of Determination: The Story of Helen Keller.  The other titles are similar.
This sounds like the ValueTales series. Children's biographies with titles like The Value of Courage: The Story of Jackie Robinson and so on. The books were tall white hardcovers. They also featured an imaginary friend that helped make the exposition more "kid-friendly".
Various, Valuetales Series, 1976 - 1978.  This series of books teaching moral values through biographical examples includes Helen Keller (the value of determination, Louis Pasteur (the value of believing in yourself, Albert Schweitzer (the value of dedication), Christopher Columbus (the value of curiosity) and about 30 others. Published by Value Communications.
Spencer Johnson, M.D., The value of courage : the story of Jackie Robinson, 1977.  The Value of Courage is part of the ValueTale Series. The series was published by Value Communications, La Jolla, California.There are at least 27 titles in the series including Helen Keller (The Value of Detemination) and Marie Curie (The Value of Learning).


Vegetable Children
I would like to know about a book probably from the 30's called Mother Nature's Children, or something like. The old-timey illustrations depicted radishes and eggplants , etc. as kids and the verse was about the food. Such as , "The mustard kids are here to play..."Thanks--

I think you're thinking about Vegetable Children by Elizabeth Gordon, published by Volland in the 1930's.  She also did books called Flower Children, Butterfly Babies, and Wild Flower Children, all depicting kids as those respective plants and animals, beautifully illustrated!

I am looking for 2 books that I remember reading when I was a child.  I don't have much information except the following: they were cloth covered - one in yellow and one in a brownish color (could've been red originally) I believe the illustrations in both were by Cicely Mary Barker.  One book was about Flower Fairies and in particular there was a page that featured "Hollyhock" with a corresponding pome The other book was pictures and poems of vegetable children...same premise as above.  I am guessing that the books were new around the 1930's or 40's.
I think the book listed in Solved Mysteries as "Vegetable Children" by Elizabeth Gordon, is actually "Mother Brown Earth's Children: Flower and Berry Babies, Vegetable and Fruit Children" by Edna Groff Deihl


Vegetable Thieves
A mouse couple works very hard in a vegetable garden. Every evening they come home from the garden exhausted from their labors.  On one memorable page the "husband" falls asleep in his bowl of mashed potatoes.  This is a picture book with lovely illustrations.  I read it to my son (born in 1979) many times in the local public library, but  we never owned the book.  I would love to have my own copy, or at least be able to enjoy it again at the library.

Possibly The Vegetable Thieves by Inga Moore (Viking Press, 1983).  "Proud of their vegetable garden, two mice try to track down some thieves that are stealing their wares."


Velvet Room
I read this book in 1969.  It had a green cloth cover w/ a fancy gold key embossed on cover.  It was a chapter book w/ few if any pictures.  A lonely girl finds a secret rom I believe w/ velvet wall paper or curtains.  I believe it is a library.  Vaguely remember that the family were itenerant workers of some sort.  Maybe not though. Vivid descriptions.  Maybe befriends boy.  Titled The Secret Room or The Velvet Room or The Green Velvet Room, circa 1960's?

ZILPHA KEATLEY SNYDER, THE VELVET ROOM, 1965.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  This sounds an awful lot like the Velvet room. "Robin and her family have spent several years moving from place to place, trying to find work and a place to live. When Robin's father finds a job, all are happy but Robin. She explores the countryside near her home, meets new friends, and discovers a secret."
Snyder, Zilphia  Keatley, The Velvet room, 1966.
Elswyth Thane, Tryst, circa 1938.  The mysterious room was at the top of the house the family were renting  it belonged to the younger son of the family who owned it.  He had a large library and the room had, as I recall, velour cushions (possibly velour curtains as well).
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  Could this be the book?  Robin finds the Velvet Room, the library, in a deserted mansion.  Her family is a migrant family  the cover of the book has a fancy key.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  Robin's family travels from place to place as her father, a migrant worker, struggles to find employment.  She longs for security and privacy from her noisy siblings, and finds both after a tunnel leads her to a small, beautifully furnished room full of books in an abandoned mansion.  A lovely, suspenseful, mysterious tale.
Thank you for the cookbook!  Arrived Christmas Eve. I WILL enjoy it.  Oh, and S278 is most likely The Velvet Room by Snyder, but I'm sure everyone said that by now!
The Velvet Room.  I don't remember very many details about this, but my older sister owned it when I was child. I'm sure that this the book about which the questionnaire asks. I will ask Rebeccahif she still has the book, and if she has the author, date, and any other important things.
The Velvet Room, Snyder, Zipha Keatley
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  You have all the details right, including the key.  The girl is Robin, the library is red velvet.  She and her family find work on an apricot farm but Robin longs for more.  A classic.
Zilpha Snyder, The Velvet Room.  I am the placer of this mystery.  Thnaks to all!  I think we have definately got it! Very exciting.  An older book stumper mystery mentions this book but plot they described did not match or the date.... Anyhow I did a search and have several copies available and they had plot summaries that also match.  I had half forgotten the secret tunnel!  First read this when I was  7 so it stands to reason I am a little foggy.
---
I remember buying this book through a book club in middle school inthe early to mid 1970s - probably Scholastic.  It was a paperback and I think the cover might have had a lot of pink in it.  The premise is a lonely girl investigates an old, empty house nearby and finds an old diary she reads (over time) in a window seat in this old house.

Could be Norma Kassirer's  Magic Elizabeth. Scholastic, Inc., 1966.  Features young Sally staying in creepy old house with her Aunt Sarah, and an old doll named Elizabeth. B&W Illustrations by Joe Krush. See more on Solved Mysteries.
This book is probably THE VELVET ROOM by Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  I have this book at home, bought it in the '70's from Scholastic, and it has a pink and white cover with a girl reading a book in a window seat.
Sounds like The Velvet Room.  See Solved Mysteries


Ventures Book 4
A fourth grade textbook (1971 or earlier) of ours contained "The Cabin Faced West," by Jean Fritz, with beautiful charcoal drawings of the girl in the story and her friend.  The only version I could find in a textbook was an excerpt in "On Story Wings."  Jean Fritz says that although various versions of "The Cabin Faced West" have appeared in textbooks, she KNOWS the entire text has never appeared in a textbook.  If this wasn't the whole text, it was pretty close:  it had chapters and everything.  She could not identify this textbook.

Ventures.  I distinctly remember this textbook (containing what seemed like a full, chapter-by-chapter version of "The Cabin Faced West") because I "read ahead" when I wasn't supposed to and got in trouble. If it wasn't the complete book, it was some kind of Reader's Digest condensed version, but definitely not only one excerpt.  I remember Ann's tea party and the special blue shoes that no longer fit. It was the fourth-grade reading text in my Catholic school in 1972-3, and it was called "Ventures" (fifth grade had "Vistas").  It had a blue cover with some sort of abstract design, if I remember right, and I think it was a specifically Catholic series in which some of the stories were religious..."New Cathedral Basic Readers" comes to mind.
On my query "Cabin Faced West Textbook," the notes I made the day I went to look at old textbooks say I did see "Ventures" but did not find this story.  Possible explanations are that "Ventures" was the third grade book in the series while "The Cabin Faced West" was in the fourth grade book, which I have not found--in all my searches I've only turned up one of the New Cathedral Basic Readers--or that I was looking at an earlier edition of "Ventures" filed in the book room, while the more recent edition was still in classroom use, meaning it would have had to be new when I was in fourth grade, which I doubt, as we got another new textbook that year, a relatively rare event I remember well.  (In fact, the next year the school levy failed--but that's another story.)  I can hardly have looked at the book it was in and missed it, as this story took up a large section.
The original full-lenght version appears as The Cabin Faced West. by Jean Fritz,  Coward-Mccann, 1958. It was later reprinted in paperback by Scholastic.  And the various textbooks listed above contain the story as well....  I'm filing this under the original story name, since it's the full story that the requester was after....
#C55--Is not solved, doesn't belong under "Solved Mysteries," and should be moved back to the unsolved section.  I was not looking for the book The Cabin Faced West, by Jean Fritz, which I know about, and have, but for a specific fourth grade textbook containing this story.  The Cabin Faced West took up a good part of the textbook, but was not the whole book, and I don't remember what other stories were in it--it's one of those that "I'll know it when I see it."
The Scott Foresman reader-Ventures-(1965)-Book 4 in the New Basic readers series has The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz as the last story in the book. Page 396 has a letter from the author and then the story runs from p. 397-489, followed by a postscript from the author.The story has eight chapters and it is illustrated by
Feodor Rojankovsky. It is very lengthy! I do not have another book copy to do a comparison and see what may have been cut from the original. Note: I do from time to time see Ventures featured in auctions on-line, you could locate a copy. My 1965 edition definitely has the Jean Fritz story. Good Luck.
To add to my previous answer regarding Ventures Book 4 reader- the teacher's manual section of my book states in several places that this is THE COMPLETE TEXT! Viola! That should help!!!


Venus Boy
I'm trying to remember the author and title of a juvenile sf book (50s to late 60s) about a colony on Venus, which was depicted as a forest or jungle planet inhabited by bear-like creatures which the humans believe are animals, but which turn out to be the native intelligent life-form.  The main character is a boy who has another name but is called Johnny by everyone because one of the "bears" was raised by his family as a pet, and the cry it made when it called for him sounded like "Johnny."  I believe the author was male.

I know this isn't it, but the basic plot is quite similar to Star Beast, by Robert Heinlein. The boy's family has what they think is an alien pet, called Lummox, brought back from space by an explorer in a previous generation. It turns out that Lummox is intelligent and a member of the alien royal family, and from her perspective she has been raising generations of the family as her pets. The aliens are very long-lived and take a long time to reach maturity - she was very small when the explorer picked her up but has grown to immense size and this causes problems with the family's neighbours etc.
J22 juvenile sf: somewhat closer is Venus Boy, by Lee Sutton, illustrated by Richard Floethe, published Lothrop 1955, 182 pages. SF story set in "the colony New Plymouth, established on Venus by pioneers from Earth ... relationship between the little boy Virgil Dare (named for Virginia Dare, but called Johnny) and Baba, his rare pet bouncing bear cub with the valuable blue claws and teeth. Their understanding of each other through a clicking kind of speech introduces Johnny to other Venusian species who, recognizing his friendliness, cooperate to save him from colony enemies. A bizarre world made strangely acceptable." (HB Aug/55 p.260)
Lee Sutton, Venus Boy, 1955.  As the original inquirer about this book, I wanted to say that  the second answer is definitely it!


Veronica Ganz
I remember a book with the title character named Veronica Ganz.  She lived in a city in an apartment with her parents and sister.  A line in the book went "Veronica Ganz doesn't wear pants" and I believe she proved that she did!  The author wrote a few about Veronica and a few about another child and their names appeared in each others books.  I think they were in the same school or lived in the same building.

Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz.  That IS the title of the book.  There's also Peter and Veronica and the characters also show up occasionally in Sach's Amy and Laura books.  There's a later sequel called The Truth About Mary Rose, which is about Veronica's daughter.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz. Just another note that the poster might want to look at Marilyn Sachs' website.
Sachs, Marilyn, Veronica Ganz, 1968.  This was the fourth book in a series Sachs wrote that started with Amy Moves In
(1964), and was followed by Laura's Luck (1965) and Amy and Laura (1966). In those books, Veronica Ganz was the local bully who terrorized sisters Amy and Laura, but later became almost a friend to Laura.  Veronica was, of course, the star of the fourth book, Veronica Ganz (which is the one with the "Veronica Ganz doesn't wear pants!" taunt) and also of the fifth one, Peter and Veronica (1969)- along with Peter, the very boy who created that hated taunt!  Yet another book, The Truth About Mary Rose (1973) continues the story after Veronica is a grown woman with children of her own, and centers around her daughter.
Marily Sachs, Veronica Ganz. This book is currently in print.
Marilyn Sachs is the author of Veronica Ganz, Peter and Veronica, etc.
Marilyn Sachs, Peter and Veronica.  If I'm not mistaken, Veronica Ganz first appears in Marilyn Sachs's Amy and
Laura.  She goes on to share top billing with her best friend in Peter and Veronica, and she's in a few others as well. (I'm sorry that I don't remember them all!)  There's even one about the grown-up Veronica's daughter--The Truth About Mary Rose.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz.  This is indeed the title. Sequels include Peter and Veronica and The Truth About
Mary Rose (the latter is about Veronica's daughter). Other books about schoolmates of Veronica and Peter include Marv and Amy and Laura.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz, 1968.  I vaguely remember this book from when I was a child. I know of one other book about Veronica, it had her friend Peter in it and I think there was something about anti-Semitism - Peter was Jewish, as I remember.  I think Marilyn Sachs wrote a number of other children's chapter/young adult books. The books seem to be more or less available, at least as far as a websearch turns up.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz. Marilyn Sachs wrote several books about Laura and Amy Stern (Laura's Luck, Laura &
Amy, etc.). Veronica Ganz was featured in a couple.
I think maybe this was written by an auther named Marilyn Sachs who wrote quite a few childrens books taking place in the city.  I could be wrong, but it seems to ring a bell.
Veronica Ganz by Marilyn Sachs- also Peter and Veronica, The Truth About Mary Rose.
Wow, I've never even heard of this series!  It was originally published in 1968, reprinted by Scholastic in 1987, and again reprinted by Penguin/Putnam in 1995, and is currently out of print again.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Sachs, Marilyn.  Veronica Ganz. Illus. by Louis Glanzman.  Scholastic, 1987.  Trade paperback, minor wear, VG.  $9


Very Best Day for Every Little Girl
There is a young girl who is trying to figure out what her favorite day of the year is.  She goes around asking everyone she knows what their favorite day of the year is.  One person likes Valentine's Day, someone else likes the 4th of July, and another likes Halloween. (these are not necessarily in order of the book, but most of the holidays are mentioned).  Anyway, the girl still can't figure out what her favorite day is.  She grows up, falls in love, gets married, and has a baby.  That is when she figures out what her favorite day is, when her baby is born. I don't remember the girl's name. It did not take place in any particular town or city. I was born in 1961 so I'm assuming that it was printed before 1970. A local library searched and came up with A Very, Very Special Day by Frances DeArmand, but that is not it.  Would love to pass this on to my girls!!!!  Thanks!!!

Here's a possibility from WorldCat:  Best day for every little girl, by Kathryn Kohnfelder Murray, drawings by Allianora Rosse, published New York: Simon, 1960, unpaged (probably a picture book).  The subject heading is "Holidays -- Fiction."  Sorry, I couldn't come up with a plot summary.
Hello!!! Thank you to whomever responded with The Very Best Day For Every Little Girl by Kathryn Murray... that's it!!! I am so excited!!!  This is a wonderful Christmas gift to me!!! Now I have to see where I can get a copy!!! Thank you very much!! 



Very Little Girl
Like everyone who visits this site, I loved this book as a child and am dying to remember the titile.  I was born in '73 so it could have been written at any point before then but I have a feeling it was the sixties.  It was a small book with very beautiful illustrations of a little girl who is lamenting the fact she is not tall enough to do anything.  One example I distinctly remember is she is not tall enough to reach the doorknob.  And in one random scene I remember she hides under the table during one of her parents' dinner parties and some sort of food (I think it was a grape?) rolls under the table to her.

Doris Orgel and Maurice Sendak, Sarah's Room Could this be Sarah's Room? A little girl wants to go into her older sister's room. There is nothing about sitting under a dining room table, but there is a picture of a little girl reaching up for a doorknob and being to short to turn it.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I looked up this book and it's not the one. The illustrations in the book I remember are black/white, sort-of line drawings, but the girl looks more like an Alice in Wonderland type (long hair, kind-of wavey I think). And there is no plot other than her wishing she wasn't so tiny. I think she does grow tall enough by the end of the book to do all the things she couldn't do before (like reach the doorknob, etc...)" Somebody please solve this stumper - it's driving me batty!"
The Very Little Girl.  I don't remember the author, but I owned this book when I was little.  It is definitely The Very Little Girl--she couldn't reach the doorknob, see over the fence, pick up her mother's sewing basket, but in the end she was big enough to take care of her baby brother.  Definitely published sometime before 1965, when I got it.
This IS the book! The Very Little Girl by Phyllis Krasilovsky. THANK YOU!!!
Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Very Little Girl, 1953.  The Very Little Girl was written by Phyllis Krasilovsky. She also wrote The Very Tall Little Girl in 1969 (another possibility).
Krasilovksy, Phyllis, The Very Little Girl, 1953 , reprint.  "Dainty, utterly charming picture book tale of a little girl who grows big enough to be a big sister to her brand new baby brother." Illustrator is Ninon. Most of the 1953 copies I see online are over $100, due to be inscribed by the illustrator with a special one-time extra picture. There also seems to be a revised version from 1992.   There is also The Very Tall Little Girl and The Very Little Boy.
I don't know if this is the correct book, but The Very Little Girl (1953) was written by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Ninon, and published by Doubleday.  It was reprinted in 1992 with new illustrations by Karen Gundersheimer, so if the stumper requester has strong memories of the illustrations, s/he'll want to examine the original version.



A Very Private Life
it's a book I read as a kid. Probably late 60's early 70's. I can't remember the title or author but I do remember alot of detail. A defiant young girl raised in an environment where people never went outside. They did'nt wear clothes and everything they needed to survive was supplied They always wore sunglasses because they believed their  eyes were naked not their skin When they needed to feel happiness or sadness they would take a pill to fill the emotion's? She saw her father go out a secret panal oneday and decided to see where it went. The things she saw outside the box made her feel lucky to have the life she had so she wanted to go back to where she came from. The powers that be found her and returned her to the enviroment she was accustomed to and she conformed. She did witness a birth and it was a bit detailed. And death was a bit graphic. I know it wasen't an adult book but it was above my grade leval. I was maybe 3rd grade. I think I got it from the public libary but may have been a school book.

Frayn, Michael, A Very Private Life.  NY Viking 1968.  It's been a long time since I read this, but the plot has some similarities. The girl, Uncumber, lives in a room where she can contact other people by video screen, but no one ever leaves. She decides to go out of the room and meet some of the people she has known on screen. I think she is in a sort of commune for a while (a man with several wives?) but decides to return to the life she knows. On the other hand, I read it in grade 6 and it was a bit beyond me then, so I'm not sure how readable it would be for someone in grade 3! Here's a blurb: "Once upon a time there will be a little girl called Uncumber." Frayn's unforgettable heroine lives at a time in the distant future when all humanity is divided in two. "Some people are on the inside, some are on the outside. That's just the way the world is, Cumby," explains her father, Aelfric. Of course it is the insiders who are privileged, with their every single need catered to by somatic drugs, three-dimensional holovision, piped sustenance - in short, everything, including an increasingly prolonged life. As for the outsiders, they can just grub along as best they can, except when needed to help sustain the inhabitants of the windowless houses. Unbelievably, however, all this is not enough for Uncumber, for she is haunted by a restless and inquisitive spirit, driven by Angst as she grows up, that refuses to be satisfied by such devices, as a love introduced and supplied by holovision. After dialing a wrong number one day, she espies a strange crude fellow speaking an unknown tongue, and, smitten by love, she sets out to find him. Here, of course, is the classic Quest, replete with peril, suffering, and elusive rapture. Even though our searcher is millennia removed, we can feel her fate is ironic, we are involved and we pay her homage for her courage in grappling with the Outside.
Frayn, Michael, A Very Private Life.  I belive this is the book I was looking for. I thank you very much. 



Very Young Rider
Non fiction book (1970s) about a girl and her show horse.  Had photographs and was about the girl and her experiences showing her horse.  Was set in upstate New York I believe.  At the end of the book the girl gets a new horse.  I read the book in the early 80's, and think the book was written in the late 70's.  I believe it was part of a series, as I remember reading a similar book, but the girl was a ballerina (was non fiction, had photos, ect.)  Any help is much appreciated!!

A Very Young Rider. here was a series called "A Very Young..." with different occupations. Could this have been one of them?
Jill Krementz, A Very Young Rider, 1977. I beieve this is the book you are looking for, it is part of a series of young people who have certain talents and it does have photographs as well as the girl getting a new horse at the end of the book. "A ten-year-old girl relates her experiences as she and her pony train and prepare for riding competitions.
Jill Krementz, A Very Young Rider, 1977. Definitely! You might remember the photos of the girl brushing cobwebs out of the stable, Kym (stableman?) braiding her horse's tail and her horse drinking Bubble-up out of the can...and I think one of her horses was called "Fresh Paint".
Jill Kementz, A Very Young Rider, 1977. Might this be one of Jill Krementz' books, whose titles start with "A Very Young...?"  One is about riding, and there's also A Very Young Dancer, among others.
Jill Krementz, A Very Young Rider, 1977.  One of photographer Krementz's book series about girls and their pursuit of such interests as horseback riding and ballet dancing.
Krementz, A Very Young Rider Jill Krementz did several photo books on young girls- A Very Young Dancer, A Very Young Skater, etc.



Victoria at Nine
Don Wood style???, 1970s.  Okay...I am going to need a LOT of help with this one...this is an obscure chapter book possible with a subtitle stating it's a fable orn fairytale for adults (as well as children).  A little girl has a stable of toys (a bear, rabbit, owl, possible a ballerina doll?  or a toy soldier?)  all of whom embody the personalities of adults and give the little girl advice.  She may be troubled about something...possibly sort of existential in nature...maybe her parents' divorce?  I can't remember.  The illustrations were elaborate - possibly some color plates but very beautifully and expressively rendered.  This may not be a children's book per se, although I read it as a pre-teen in the 1970s.  ANY IDEAS?

Don Robertson, Victoria at Nine 1979, This is "Victoria at Nine" by Don Robertson. Victoria, the daughter of a Shaker Heights, Ohio minister, is a shy girl who deeply loves her parents, but consults her array of toy animals for guidance, clearly hearing their voices. A seemingly minor injustice at school leads Victoria's father to a rather off-the-wall condemnation of her personal world, and he commands her to "live only in the world of reality" henceforth. Victoria buries her toy animals and regards them as dead. After a brief chat with the church secretary (I think) and a carved wooden owl at her grandfather's house, Victoria figures out a way to explain things to her parents.
THIS IS IT!!!! Thank you SO MUCH!!! Seriously...this is a huge delight for me...wherever did you find this info? I thought it was lost forever...
I read it the year it came out -- it appeared in the new books section of our public library -- and never forgot it. I am so glad to be able to help! Happy Xmas.
Your memory of "tarpin et pindar" tells me this has to be Elizabeth Enright's fabulous Gone Away Lake, a Newbery Honor Book!! The abandoned homes are just right! Even Tarquin et Pindar carved in the stone. I believe the lightbulbs going out is a memory of another book.



View from the Cherry Tree
I'm looking for a book about a teenaged boy who dislikes his neighbour (possibly an older woman). I think the title has the word "spider" in it, and I remember the boy dousing himself with ketchup to frighten the neighbour. I also remember that he breaks into her house. I think the book would be from the 70s.  That's all I remember!

Roberts, Willo Davis, The View From the Cherry Tree, 1975.  I think this might be it. The main character, Rob or Robby, collects spiders (that may be where the requester got the word "spider") and they play an important part in the solution to the book. It is mainly a mystery about a hated neighbor lady who is murdered and Rob sees it happen but no one believes him. Also, there is a scene in the book where he puts ketchup on himself to make her think he hurt him badly after hitting him with a broom, I think. And, near the end, he does break into her house but to solve the mystery of who killed her. Anyway, worth a
shot.



Village of Hidden Wishes
Hi.  My sister and I have been looking for a book we had years ago in the mid-sixties.  My sister thinks maybe it was a book club book ordered from school in the early sixties.  Our memories are pretty sketchy, but this is what we remember.  It's about two girls and their two dolls that look like them.  They end up switching places with the dolls--I think maybe the dolls tricked them-- and the dolls lock the girls (who are now the dolls) in the doll cupboard.   There is a bald headed man involved in the switch, his name perhaps was Mr. Moon.  I remember the illustrations were black and white and at least one of the drawings showed the back of the bald mans head.  It's a rather dark story for kids, but I remember loving this book! I long thought the title was "The Valley of the Dolls" but it obviously IS NOT, but maybe something like it.  My sister seems to think that maybe "Mr. Moon" was in the title, but that seems unlikely to me. (I already looked up Mr. Moon books, and they don't seem to be the book I'm looking for).

As for D11: Dolls and Kids switching places, I remember this book, but not the name, so that's not very helpful. I believe Mr. Moon had a doll store/hospital, and the dolls had been custom made or repaired there. He was definitely the bad guy. If I stop trying so hard, maybe I'll remember more.
I think the answer to book-stumper D11 is The Village of Hidden Wishes by David Fletcher.  Fun site! :)

Thank you and the reader who replied with the title--that IS the book!!! What a wonderful Web Site this is!   My sister  would love to get this book (she was the one that Emailed you earlier, and would like to know if you have a copy of it, since it was because of your web site that we know what the book is!!)


Village of Hidden Wishes
I thought this book was called the Doll's Hospital or the Doll's Shop, but none of those titles are turning up anything.  I read this book in 1966, about twin sisters who treat their dolls badly.  The dolls are taken to be repaired, and when the girls pick them up, the man who fixed them, gives them cookies or something.  The girls share the cookies with the dolls, the dolls come to life and the girls become their dolls.  The girls then learn what it was like being mistreated dolls.  It wasn't a picture book, but a children's chapter book that my 5th grade teacher had in her classroom collection.

David Fletcher, The Children Who Changed
Hi Harriett, someone posted a possible title and author for my search, of The Children Who Changed by David Fletcher.  The title doesn't sound familiar, but I tried to look it up to check, but can't find anything on that book either.  I'll keep trying.  Thanks.
---
David Fletcher, The Village of Hidden Wishes, 1960. Thanks for helping me find this book, consider it solved.  It is, indeed, by David Fletcher, but the title is The Village of Hidden Wishes, not The Children Who Changed, and  I now have a copy.  Thanks again, I have been trying to find this book for years.
David Fletcher, The Village of Hidden Wishes,1960. I hadn't given up on finding my book.  Someone had suggested David Fletcher as the author, and I kept googling until I found this: The Village of Hidden Wishes.  I am not certain yet, but the description sounded like it, and I have ordered a copy.
David Fletcher, The Village of Hidden Wishes  The Children Who Changed, 1960-1961. I just discovered that David Fletcher wrote two books about sisters Lucy & Tessa and their dolls, Mabel & Margaret. The first half of each book is identical but the second half is completely different. Village was published by Pantheon Books in New York in 1960 and illustrated by Dorothea Stefula. Children was published by Michael Joseph LTD in London in 1961 and illustrated by Belinda Hodson. I just acquired Village today and it seemed familiar so I searched my collection and discovered Children. I read both of them and discovered where they were the same and where they were different. I have found several books reprinted under different titles but never hybrids like these.


Village of Normandy
Possible Title: A Little Village of Normandy.  Probably published by Bobbs-Merrill, since my dad used to work for and get books through them. I remember painted illustrations, and possibly French along with the English text. 1960's was when it may have been published.

A Village in Normandy.  Published in 1968 by Bobbs-Merrill,  French and English text.  Author's name is given as  Laurence--no idea whether that's the first or last name.


Visions: nineteen short stories by outstanding writers for young adults
Recently, I've also been wondering about a book that I borrowed from the library back in 1990 or 1991. It was anthology of young adult short stories, some by well-known authors (I think). They all had teenage protagonists. One story is about a young girl who lives in the South with her aunts. She is visited nightly by a ghost named Seth. He grows up along with her and eventually stops coming to see her at night. I think he may have been killed in the Civil War. Another story is about a poor girl  who lives in the rural South and teaches dance to six and seven year olds at a ballet school. She is beaten and raped by her father, but tells no one until she suspects one of her own students of suffering abuse as well. I think the little girl's name is Patsy-Warren. Another story is about a teenage boy (Dave?) who is always imagining great adventures for himself. He is working at Burger King one day when armed robbers enter and tie up the employees. Yet another story was about a girl named Fan who almost loses her virginity in a cemetery and whose father is dying. There's also another story about a teenage boy that wants to impress another boy who's always doing dangerous things. That's pretty much all I remember. Does anyone know what this might be?

Donald R. Gallo (editor), Visions: nineteen short stories by outstanding writers for young adults, 1987.  Except for the Burger King story, this seems to be the book you're decribing (amazing memory, by the way!) The stories you mention are "Shadows" by Richard Peck, "Good Girls" by Fran Arrick, and "What Happened in the Cemetery" by Norma Fox Mazer.
Hi, I'm the original poster for A90. I was just periodically checking the site and I am so happy to see someone has identified this anthology for me. It is, indeed, Visions by Donald Gallo. Thanks so much! 


Visit to the Children's Zoo
Even though I am a school librarian I cannot think of the title of the book I am looking for.  I hope you can help.  It was a Golden Book about a girl and her dad who spend the day at the zoo.  Now of course I recognize it as the Central Park Zoo in New York City.  I would dearly like to find a copy.  Thanks so much!  Love your web page--Thanks to the Detroit News for publishing it!

Could this be Leo Mero's, Jack & Jill Visit the Zoo (Whitman Publishing,'40)?  Check out the comments on the Solved Mysteries page.
Barbara Shook Hazen, A Visit to the Children's Zoo.  I still have this one somewhere-  a Little Golden Book with a yellow cover.  The zoo featured is definitely that in Central park, before it was revamped in the 80's.  My copy was from the early 70's, but it wasn't the first printing.



A Visit to Flower-land
A larger picture book, roughly 8x12, probably 30-40 pages. I owned it in the 60s but it was probably older. About a little girl who shrinks to fairy size and meets elves and insects and mushroom characters in the grass, finishing with a fairy feast with such lovely details as huge berries carried on leaf plates. The best clue I have is that this is the book read by the Doll family in Anne Parrish's Floating Island (1930) in the illustration opposite p.26! The text quoted there says "fresh and sparkling with dew. So forgetful Maria forgot that she had been told not to go into the meadow, and ran from harebell to daisy and from daisy to foxglove, until, just as she was stooping to gather a foxglove, what". A full page picture of smiling mushrooms  among strawberries on one page, and an inset picture of little blonde Maria wearing a tied cap and a pinafore, carrying an armful of flowers. This made me think that Anne Parrish was the illustrator (maybe author) of the book, but I haven't found anything to confirm that, though the title Knee-high to a Grasshopper by her misled me for a while (sigh).

I'm still looking for this myself, and have been wondering if it was a knock-off of the Elsa Beskow books like Peter's Adventures in Blueberry Land some of which were translated in the late 1920s (more just recently).  The format is very similar, and the art style is close to what I remember, as well as the basic plotline. In fact, if only Elsa Beskow had done a book about a little GIRL having fantastic adventures, instead of Ollie meeting frost people and Peter meeting forest people, I'd be pretty sure it was my book. But no.
M67 maria in the meadow: well, it's NOT Joan in Flowerland, by Margaret Tarrant, the pictures don't match (though the title rings a distant bell). The illustrator might have been Ida Bohatta (or someone influenced by her) since I've seen a mushroom person by her who is a mushroom with a face on the stalk, rather than little people with mushroom-cap hats like the Beskow illos.
Lundberg, Lucie (illustrator), A Party in Fairyland (maybe!).  Well, I'm pretty sure I know the illustrator and  publisher - now if only I could confirm the title! I found a book called Linda's Curious Toys, trans. D.M. Priestley, illustrated Lucie Lundberg, published Litor n.d. and realised right away it was the illustrator I'd been looking for. Talking to another bookdealer I found out that Litor had also published a book called A Party in Fairyland which sounds very promising, but there aren't any copies of it available, so I can't confirm whether it's the same  illustrator or what the plot is. It's the best lead I've had so far, though.
Caiden, E. (english text), A Visit to Flower-land.(1960s)  Wow, I've identified this and found a copy, both at once. I was wrong about one major point - the character is actually a little boy called Peter, who goes blackberry picking and is found by a fairy girl who shrinks him to fairy size. The rest of the book is just as I remember it, and it's a fairy wedding that is the cause for feasting.  Now it's only the long-haired princess and the pickpocket book left!



Visit to Folly Castle
Girl makes friends with new girl from next door who has a very strange family, including an aunt who can walk on water, her mother is a witch maybe.  Strange girl has a crystal ball, and in the end she reluctantly leaves the house with her family.  Must be written in early 90s, quite serious in tone.

Margaret Mahy, The Changeover.
   It sounds a little like "The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance".
Thank you for the suggestion, but this is not the book. I don't remember there being a boy in it, just the two girls and various older relatives.  I do remember that there was a hedge maze in the book, and there was a lake on the property that the girls went rowing on.
Nina Beachcroft, A Visit to Folly Castle
Possibly A Visit to Folly Castle by Nina Beachcroft? Can't remember all the details, but a girl becomes friends with a girl who's just moved to the area (?) they live a secluded life but the girl is invited to visit...there's definitely a crystal ball of some kind and it turns out the family are some of the last refugees from Atlantis and have special powers. I remember the strange girl hides out at the normal girl's house for a while, but I think goes back to her family afterwards and they move away?
Nina Beachcroft, A Visit to Folly Castle.  Thank you so much, this is the book I have been looking for!  I also found that she wrote another book I loved as a child, The Genie and her Bottle, so it was a double stumper!  Thank you again.


Visitor
I’m looking for the title of a book I read as a child – about 25 years ago. It’s about a Golden Retriever whose owner dies. The dog is placed in an animal shelter where it becomes a caretaker of sorts for the other animals that pass through the shelter. The shelter manager takes pity on the dog and lets it help the other animals. The dog, meanwhile, dreams of going home and going hunting, with a camera, with its owner. In the end the dog is put to sleep by the shelter owner who leaves the dog alone with a final pat, allowing it to die completely alone. The dog’s last thought is “Maybe now they’ll let me go home.”

I recall a similar plotline with an Irish Setter (named Copper?) who ends up in an animal shelter after the human father of Copper's family is killed in a car crash. Would love to locate this book again.
Gene Smith, Ted Lewin (illus.), The Visitor, 1971, New York, Cowles Book Co., ISBN: 0402140168, 9780402140160.  "When his master dies, Sassafras, an Irish setter, becomes a permanent resident of a kennel."
Gene Smith, The Visitor, 1971, copyright.  Someone solved it for me - I see it posted on the archive site.  I wanted to notify you it is solved!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! I cannot thank you enough!



Visitors from Planet Veta
Some kids (maybe from another planet) who live on a giant tomato plant.  Their skin is green, and when they go to school, they cover it with something to make them look like the other kids.  They want to make friends with their classmates, but hide the fact that they are different.

Goll, Reinhart W. / G. O. James., The Visitors from Planet Veta, 1961.  Book Description: Philadelphia: Westminster Press, (1961)  Greenie, Beanie, and Teenie just arrived from Veta  in blue jacket with green drawing identical to boards  8vo  116 pp. . Juvenile Hardback. Suzy and Sandy hope for their tomato plant to grow into a giant tree, and, surprise, during the night three children descend from their spaceship and the fun begins. A cheerful science fiction fantasy for middle elementary children. There are other books about Planet Veta by Reinhart Goll.



Voices After Midnight
I read this book within the last 10 years, but can't remember it's name.  It was about 2 brothers and a sister who found that they could time travel.  The sister would dress in old-fashioned clothing and run off to meet a young man.  The brothers ended up in NYC during a blizzard in the late 1800's or early 1900's where they kept someone from freezing to death in a broken elevator in the house.

Richard Peck, Voices After Midnight.
Richard Peck, Voices After Midnight. Chad and his brother and sister find they have the ability to see into the past while visiting New York for the summer.  They interact with two teenage "ghosts" in the house they're staying in.  In the end they rescue the "ghosts" from a birdcage-like elevator in the house.  A freak snowstorm has knocked out the electricity and they are trapped in the elevator in a freezing house.  The children rescue them and find that they turn out to be their ancestors.
Richard Peck, Voices After Midnight, 1989. Details match exactly.
Richard Peck, Voices After Midnight, 1989. Thank you! That's the one!  I wanted to read it again and it was driving me crazy when I couldn't find it!



Voices in the Night
This was from scholastic books in the early 70's. Large poor family is split up among neighbors. Jeannie ends up with a quaker family who are part of the underground railroad. Towards the end of the book, she must take a large risk in delivering some people to the next stop by remembering a poem that goes some thing like "Abou Benjamin, may his tribe increase!" There is a cousin named Seth, a girl named Amaryllis, an african american woman named either Chloe or Phoebe (I remember that the pronunciation stumped me at the time). Later Jeannie's family gets back together to homestead westward and she is ill and cannot go with them. They are all killed in a riverboat accident. The quaker family adopts her. I remember everything about this book so vividly, except the title or author! However, after many years of research I can tell you it is NOT Steal Away Home or Steal Away or North to Freedom or Diary of Strawbridge Place or Come Morning or North by Night or anything else that comes up in a google or amazon search using many different possible keywords. I have personally requested, checked out, and read every possible in print and library book for children or young adults on this subject and haven't found this one. I know the author is a woman, and my vague memory is that her last name is long- maybe starts with an O? Thanks in advance for this- I think it is a superbly written book and I would love to find it again.

Rhoda W. Bacmeister, Voices in the Night Abou ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Bacmeister, Voices in the Night.  Wow- I really think this is it. I cannot find a description or image anywhere, but this title and author just sound very, very right. I have ordered it through our library system (it is in another town, but they will get it for me) and will let you know. Thanks so much to whoever gave that response!
Solved!! Just read it from the library. This is it! Thanks


Voyage of Luna 1
I  just encountered your site this morning - and let me add my voice in its praise!  The reference that led me to you is an ongoing discussion at www.salon.com called Your favorite kids' books, those of us born before 1970.  I've been looking for some time for an English kids' science fiction book that I read in the 1950s.  Its name was The Voyage of the Luna I  but I don't remember the author.  The plot was technically preposterous, but it was in the vein of "ordinary spunky, imaginative children who are rewarded with remarkable adventures" that I really loved.  I read a lot of Edith Nesbit, by the way.

Would that be David Craigie's The Voyage of Luna 1 about the first flight from earth to the moon?
The Voyage of the Luna I, by David Craigie (pseudonym of Dorothy Craigie), published London, Eyre 1948, 252 pages "The account of the flight through space by a rocket ship, the wonder of the night sky - its beauty and terror - and breathless adventures at the termination of its journey - the moon. Those who like the thrills and adventure of this kind of fiction will enjoy the story of two young stowaways, Jane and Martin Ridley on a rocket ship to the moon. Mad as the story is there is scientific fact behind it and the story is clear and credible." (BRD 1949)



Voyage of the Space Beagle
Star Trek or big energy space cat?  My mother was on a science fiction kick in the early 60's, and I read one of her books, and for some reason always believed that it was the book the Star Trek series was based on.  Series of adventures -- could have been short stories -- about space exploration. Chapter I remember involved a large cat made of energy, who lived in interstellar space (on a sled or platform?), and preyed on energy sources (like spaceships).  She (female cat) could project herself into the spaceship, I believe.

A. E. Van Vogt, Black Destroyer, 1939.  The plot sounds similar to Van Vogt's Black Destroyer, a short story - a cat-like alien that is made of energy and can project itself through space. But the cat is male, not female, and there's no connection to Star Trek.
Space cat.  Space dog?  Yes, I think that's it!  A little googling reveals that Van Vogt compiled "Black Destroyer" with some other stories into a novel called Voyage of the Space Beagle (!!!)You're right, it was a male. And I suppose it wasn't the precursor of Star Trek, although it sounds pretty Star Trekky to me -- they were always inviting aliens on board only to find they were trouble (tribble?).  HOWEVER, "Space Beagle" IS, apparently, the precursor to the movie "Aliens" -- someone says Van Vogt actually sued and won on that. So I was close.  Fascinating.  I suppose it's not a children's book, per se, but it's certainly the stuff I devoured as a child.  Thanks -- this was fun.
---
The Book I am looking for is a Science Fiction Book published sometime prior to 1965.  I know I read it when I was a junior or senior in High School.  That would be 1963-1965.  The book was a hard bound book.  It concerned a space ship that left earth, went somewhere in space and then on the return voyage, it became clear that a female alien had left eggs to incubate in the humans on the ship. She may have come back on the ship, but I'm not sure about that.  It sounds a lot like "Alien", but the publishing timing is all wrong.  It seems to me that the viewpoint of the alien was not violent - she just needed some where warm to put her eggs.  I have seen the "Alien" movie and it certainly spurred my memory, but the story isn't quite right.  I would LOVE to have this mystery solved.  It's not "The Cookoo's Egg" either.

A. E. van Vogt, Voyage of the Space Beagle (also paperbacked as Mission Interplanetary), 1939 (magazine) or 1950 (book collection).  A.E. van Vogt's VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE is generally considered to be a strong (though inititally unacknowledged)"inspiration" for the movie ALIEN.  The book version was first published in 1950, but three of the four stories comprising the book had been published in ASTOUNDING magazine in 1939-1943 (and have been individually anthologized from time to time as well).  The proto-ALIEN-plot story is the first one in the book, Black Destroyer.
Oh My Gosh!  I'm am so happy!!  In such a short time, someone came up with the Author and Title of the SCI FI book that has been on my mind since high school.  I am so pleased to have the solution.  I went right out to a local used book store and low and behold, they had a hardback edition which I was able to purchase for a very reasonable price.  I am enjoying re-reading this story after so many years.  Thank you so much for this service.  I have recommended it to all of my reading friends. 





 
Stump the Bookseller Queries
New
AB
CD
EF
GH
IJ
KL
MN
OP
QR
S
T
UVW
XYZ
Solved Mysteries Catalog
A
B
C
D
EF
G
H
IJ
K
L
M
N
O
P
QR
S
T
UV
W
XYZ
Search Loganberry's Website!

Return pages containing    of these words: 
How to Send in Contributions
 
Book Request
when you know
                            the title

Book Stumper
(new format)

when you just
                            don't know what it's called
Solution
when you think
                            you know the answer
e-mail
when you want the
                            free-form method


 
Home
Book Club
Nostalgia
Catalogs
Book Searches
Blog
Stump the Bookseller
Solved
Mysteries
Most Requested
Books
Collectible Authors
Back in Print
Named for the Book

3/15/13