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Need more help than what the stumper magicians offer here?  You might want to consider joining the newsgroup rec.arts.books.childrens.  This newsgroup discusses many children's books, and its readers may be able to help solve your stumpers too.  There's also a bulletin board on MSN called ExLibris, the Lost Boards (which contains the archives from when Alribis used to have a stumper page).  Yesterdayland.com. has a lot of television memories, but some book ones too.  And it seems that abebooks.com has joined the game too, with Book Slueth.

A48 may be (though '87 seems a bit late for 'in the 80s') Witch Stories, compiled by Jane Launchbury ; New York: Derrydale Books, 1987. First Printing, Hard Cover.  Stories include Edward and Anna by Jane Launchbury; The Magic Island by Elizabeth Waugh; Witch Wurzel by Elizabth Waugh; The Witches Who Came to Stay by Philip Steele; Grumblog by Jane Garrett and Rachel and The Magic Stone by Deborah Tyler.
compiled by Helen Hoke, Witches, Witches, Witches, 1958.  This anthology may be too early to be the book you are seeking.  The cover shows witches around a flaming cauldron with skulls.  Some of the authors are Peggy
Bacon, Rachel Field, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elizabeth Coatsworth, and Margaret Embry.
A48 anthology witch stories: perhaps Witches Brew: Eleven Eerie Stories about Magic, Witchcraft and the Supernatural, edited by Alfred Hitchcock, published NY Random 1977. If it helps, the Launchbury anthology includes the following: Edward and Anna by Jane Launchbury; The Magic Island by Elizabeth Waugh; Witch Wurzel by Elizabth Waugh; The Witches Who Came to Stay by Philip Steele; Grumblog by Jane Garrett and Rachel and the Magic Stone by Deborah Tyler.
Manning-Sanders, Ruth, A Book of Witches, 1965.  Possibly Ruth Manning-Sanders?  She did many anthologies about other-worldly creatures, dragons, dwarves, wizards, mermaids, etc.  Here's a list of the stories in the anthology:  Contents: The Old Witch -- Rapunzel -- Lazy Hans -- The Twins and the Snarling Witch -- Esben and the Witch -- Prunella -- The Donkey Lettuce -- Hansel and Gretel -- Tatterhood -- The White Dove -- Johnny and the Witch-Maidens -- The Blackstairs Mountain.
Are you thinking of a book with illustrations?  I remember a picture in a book from the early 80's with a pretty young witch holding a mirror up to deflect a spell and nasty older witch was casting.  The witch had a sweet name - Minnie, Milly?  I forget.  I had not thought about this book unitl I read your request.  The book was somewhat thin, but large (14 by 10?) and had a blue cover.  when she first went to the school there was a portrait on a wall and the admin staff got all "Oh, my!  She's the One!" on her guardians.  Is that the book?  I'll look around my parents' house for you if it is...
Various - Illustrated by Max Ranft, The Witch Book, 1976, copyright.  This compliation includes the stories: Beware of the witch of the Vasty Deep, by Betty Lacey; The entrance exam, by Mary Carey; The witch named Naob, by Helen Kronberg Olsen; Minnie's long day, by Herschel Cozine; and others.
Eleanor Estes, The Witch Family. Do Amy and Clarissa sound familiar? The story goes that one of their mothers told them stories that always began ''One day, old witch'' and the girls would draw pictures that would come true. Old witch lived on a glass hill
Jacynth Hope-Simpson, A Cavalcade of Witches, 1967? I read this one in the 70s-80s. I don't remember this particular story but there were many in there and I only read a few. I can't remember any of the exact stories, unfortunately.

Concerning unsolved mystery A53, I ran across a children's story called The Snooks Family in a listserv to
which I subscribe. The person submitting the story says:  "I can't take credit for this one-- in fact, I don't have an author for it, so if anyone knows who to credit, please shout! My photocopy says From Tales of Ebony by Harcourt Williams (Putnam, London)" I also read a version of this on the Storytelling list, so it may be one of those often re-told stories with many variations. I've taken the liberty of making some little changes of my own."
Using google's advanced search I found: Harcourt WILLIAMS (M: 1880 - 1957) Ginger And Pickles [1930] Tales From Ebony [1934] Harcourt Williams was an actor. He was born in 1880 and died in 1957. I found 1 film with Actor containing "Harcourt Williams:" Brighton Rock Directed by John Boulting, GB, 1947. 1 hr 26 min. Thriller/Chiller. Four fairy plays E Harcourt Williams and  The reluctant dragon E Harcourt Williams.  There are many films in which Harcourt Williams played minor roles . . .
A53 anthology myths & legends: well, here's one with Thor, anyway - Old-time Stories, Fairy Tales and Myths Retold by Children by E. Louise Smythe, published by American Book Company, New York, 1896, first  edition, illustrated in b/w and color, 136 pages. Preface reads in part 'This book originated in a series of little reading lessons prepared for the first grade pupils in the Santa Rosa (California) public schools... The spirit of the book may be illustrated by referring to the roast turkey in the story of The Little Match Girl. The story was told as dear old Hans Christian Anderson gave it to the little German children fifty years ago...' and so on. Stories include The Ugly Duckling, The Little Pine Tree, The Little Match Girl, Little Red Riding-Hood, The Apples of Idun,  How Thor Got the Hammer, The Hammer Lost and Found, The Story of the Sheep, The Good Ship Argo, Jason and the Harpies, The Brass Bulls, Jason and the Dragon.
William Patten, Junior Classics: Fairy and Wonder Tales, 1918, copyright.  Maybe you are looking for the Junior Classic, they are a set of 10 books, each with a different subject matter, the first one is Fairy and Wonder Tales. The other books are Folk Tales and Myths, Heroes and Heroines, Old Fashioned Tales, Stories of Courage and Heroism, Stories that Never Grow Old, and Tales of Greece and Rome. First Published in 1918, and compiled by William Patten, there are many later editions as well. Hope this helps!

Wynken, Blynken and Nod is by Eugene Field. Maybe Lullaby Land a collection of his poems selected by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Charles Robinson, published by Scribner 1894, containing Wynken, Blynken and Nod, The shut-eye train, etc. There's also his Poems of Childhood illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, published Scribner 1930s in the Illustrated Classics series, which contains Wynken, Blynken and Nod and
The sugar-plum tree. Neither Robinson or Parrish really did wispy pastels, though.
In the 50s I had a book called something like the Tall Book of Make Believe.  It was tall and narrow, and full of wonderful  stories and poems, one of which was definitely Wynken, Blynken and Nod.  It was illustrated by Garth Williams, and had many wonderful coloured illustrations.  The stories included one about Georgie, a little ghost, and there were also lots of poems including the battle between the gingham dog and the calico cat. Does this ring any bells with the inquirer?
Olive Beaupre Miller (ed.), My Bookhouse.Wynken, Blynken, and Nod appears in one of the earlier volumes of the BOOKHOUSE series.  (12 vols in all, + supplements.)  There are various printings, but the edition I grew up on is, indeed, bound in blue, and "wispy pastels" is a fine description of the illustrative style. It dates from the 30's or 40's.  This is a WONDERFUL set.  EVERYONE should have one.
Is it possible that this is the Bumper Book, edited by Watty Piper and illustrated by Eulalie?? Wynken... is the first item in the book. It is presented over four pages with very large elaborate pictures! I'd say the gorgeous illustrations would have tremendous appeal to a child and would certainly be vividly recalled long afterward. While the cover color does not match your recollections, I thought it might be worth a look! Good Luck.
Just a possibility -- A wonderful poetry book I just came upon with your poem in lovely soft colors, blue and yellow! You might want to check out FOR A CHILD Great Poems Old and New-collected by Wilma McFarland, illustrated by Ninon.Westminster, 1947.Good Luck!
Watty Piper, The Bumper Book, 1950, approximate.  Someone has already suggested The Bumper Book which is my guess if it's an anthology.  I am 59 and loved the book.  It also contained (among others) Christopher Robin, The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, the days of the week and months with clever pictures, etc.
Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia, 1938.I remember reading Winken Blynken and Nod from a blue textured hardback. It was a collection of children's writings that came with the Arthur Mee's encyclopedia that was sold door to door for many years both in the USA and the British Empire.
edited by Jane Werner, The Big Golden Book of Poetry, 1947, 1949. I was checking out where you may find this book and looked on this site (loganberrybooks) and discovered a list of anthologies. Well, here's the link I found with the children's poetry, including yours of "Wynken Blynken and Nod." This might be what you are looking for.

Loganberry Books Anthology Finder: http://www.loganberrybooks.com/most-anthologies.html

A74 astral projection: this sounds something like Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, though I can't place the incident, and would say it isn't one of the first three books. The characters are Nita Callahan, her sister Dairine, and Kit Rodriguez.
I just finished re-reading the Young Wizards series and this doesn't appear to match any incident described within them.  It does sound vaguely reminiscent of the part in A Wrinkle in Time where Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which take the children to a two-dimensional planet where they cannot breathe.
Wibberley, Leonard, Journey to Untor, NY Farrar 1970.  Just guessing here - the synopsis says "Further adventures of four children who can travel to other worlds - this time to a distant planet where enemies are fought with imagination and will power."
Barthe Declements, Double Trouble, 1987.  About twins who use astral projectiom.
Christopher Fahy, Nightflyers or Night flyers or Nightfliers. (1978 ish)  Hi - I think it might be this book. About teenage kids in high school, bullying and central character learns to astral project. A brilliant book that stayed with me for years.
Joy Cowley, Ticket to the Sky Dance, 1998. "Shog and his twin sister, Jancie, are orphans who live on the streets. They know every free food place in the city and how to make the best of looking helpless and cute. Their favourite possessions are hologram players and zeus boots - they are freedom children of the twenty-first century, using their good looks and cunning to survive. Risk-taking and danger start to unnerve Shog and Jancie and make tem jittery. When Class Act, a famous, international modelling agency, welcomes them to its private world of extravagance and luxury, they can't believe their luck. But as the newness of luxury wears off, it is replaced by terrible fears: why were they chosen and what is really happening on the upper floors if the famous, horseshoe-shaped building?"

A79 alphabet puppets: might be worth looking at The Ark in the Attic, an Alphabet Adventure, by Eileen Doolittle, photographs by Starr Ockenga, published Godine 1987. "An alphabet adventure for young people with one or two photographs for each letter of the alphabet. Each picture contains a myriad of unusual objects, all beginning with the same letter. Includes pictures of antique dolls and toys and many other childhood artifacts and
treasures with accompanying text." "In the charming text, a young girl, alone on a rainy afternoon, finds an old ark in the attic. Setting about to fill it, she plucks and chooses objects of delight from each letter of the alphabet. Bitten by the collector's bug, she embarks on an exciting adventure."

This poster may be thinking of the animal books by Thornton W. Burgess. There are lots of titles, including The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk, The Adventures of Peter Cottontail, Old Mother West Wind, and many more. All of them seem to be in print.
The poster might check the Thornton Burgess books.  Peter Rabbit and his many friends are followed in their daily lives and have many adventures while the reader learns about nature. They were published in the early 1900's and were in most school libraties in the 50's.
A87 animal's daily routine: another writer in the dressed animals genre is Arthur Scott Bailey, whose Sleepy-Time Tales were published by Grosset & Dunlap in the 'teens and '20s. Titles like The Tale of Tom Fox, of Ferdinand Frog, of Frisky Squirrel, of Fatty Coon, of Benny Badger.

Could this possibly be a Budgie book by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of Wales??
Disney, Pedro. This could have been a book about "Pedro," the little airplane that takes over his father's mail route.  Originally a cartoon short in "Saludos Amigos" by Disney, 1943.  I remember seeing the story in one of my Disney storybooks.
This looks like a book about Jay Jay the Jet Plane.  There are several - they are based on a cartoon series of the same name.
It sounds like the plot of an MGM cartoon I saw, where an older propelled cargo plane is always being razzed by the younger, faster jets. What's worse is that his son is also a baby jet! In order to raise money for his family, Dad Prop-plane enters some sort of contest against the jets. He tries, nearly crashes, until Junior saves the day and his dad. Hope this helps.
Fly-away at the Air Show.We had a colorful book in the mid 60-1970 or so that seems to fit the description of this searcher.

A102 anthology burned: the first story sounds like Mother Raspberry, by Maurice Careme, pictures by Marie Wabbes, published Crowell 1969. "Very cute story about an old lady who lived in the woods, made raspberry jam in the summer & finally resolved her problem with a pesky old wolf who stole her jam."
A102 anthology burned: the other story described sounds like the song Teddy Bear's Picnic, the chorus is almost exactly the same. Not that it helps.
A102 Teddy Bears' Picnic was first published 1947 as a song by Jimmy Kennedy. Many MANY artists have performed it on children's collections since, and many Many MANY book versions have subsequently been published, including anthologies. Mine as a child included a 45rpm record! In it, humans were putting on teddy bear disguises so they could sneak into the teddy bears' picnic unnoticed. Hope you find yours soon!

Jessie Willcox Smith, A Child's Book of Stories.  This collection contains a story called "Pancake", "Henny-Penny", as well as a couple of "Fox" stories.  It was originally published in 1911 and there have been numerous reprints, including one in 1934.  Unfortunately I don't know if "Pancake" was the first story in the collection, but I bet someone else out there can look it up and let us know for sure. [Here's a lengthy contents list, if it will help: Aladdin and the wonderful lamp -- Ali Baba  or, The forty thieves -- The babes in the wood -- Beauty and the Beast -- Blue Beard -- The boy who cried "Wolf!" -- The brave little tailor -- The brave tin soldier -- The cat and the mouse -- Cinderella  or, The little glass slipper -- The crow and the pitcher -- Diamonds and toads -- Dick Whittington and his cat -- The dog and his image -- The elves and the shoemaker -- The enchanted hind -- The field mouse and the town mouse -- The fir tree -- The fool-hardy frogs and the stork -- The fox and the grapes -- The fox and the little red hen -- The fox as herdsman -- The fox and the rabbit -- The gingerbread man -- The golden goose -- Goldilocks  or, The three bears -- The goose-girl -- Hansel and Gretel -- Hans in luck --Henny-Penny -- Hercules and the wagoner -- The history of the five little pigs -- The history of Little Golden Hood -- How Jack went to seek his fortune -- I don't care -- Jack and the bean-stalk -- Jack the giant killer -- The lambikin -- Lazy Jack -- The lion and the mouse -- The lion in his den -- The little red hen and the grain of wheat -- Little Thumb -- Little Totty -- The magic swan -- The magpie's nest -- Mr. Miacca -- The nose -- The old woman and her pig -- One, two, three -- The pancake -- The princess on the glass hill -- Puss in boots  or, The master cat -- The ragamuffins -- Red Riding Hood -- Rumpelstiltzkin  or, The miller's daughter -- The selfish sparrow and the houseless crows -- The six comrades -- The sleeping beauty in the wood -- Snowdrop -- Snow-White and Rose-Red -- So-so -- The story of pretty Goldilocks -- The story of Mr. Vinegar -- The story of the house that Jack built -- The story of the three little pigs -- The straw, the coal, and the bean -- The sun and the wind -- Teeny-Tiny -- Three billy goats gruff -- The three spinners -- Tired of being a little girl -- Tit for tat -- Tittymouse and Tattymouse -- Tom Thumb -- Tom Tit Tot -- The tortoise and the hare -- The ugly duckling -- The unseen giant -- The water lily  or, The gold-spinners -- The white cat -- Why? -- Why the bear is stumpy-tailed -- Why the sea is salt -- The wolf and the seven young goslings -- The yellow dwarf.]
Childcraft Series - Volume on Tales and Legends. 1970s?  I think this anthology is the one I had from the Childcraft series (I don't know which printing - but I had mine in the earely 70s).  The runaway pancake was the first stroy, and the cover was had a picture of the fox and the stork, which may account for the memory of the fox stroy.
AII6 I think it may be this, which I reproduce from an ad beause it lists a lot of the stories. I can't find my copy to check myself.   Hutchinson, Veronica S.   Chimney corner stories; tales for little children.  Collection of children's stories from: Henny Penny, The old Woman & her Pig, The Pancake, Peter Rabbit, The Three Pigs, Little Black Sambo, Bremen Town Musicians, Cinderella, Lazy Jack, and others. Balch & Company New York, NY 1929

Hoban, Russell, Harvey's Hideout. Could you be thinking of Harvey's Hideout?  It's about a brother and sister muskrat who squabble all the time.  The brother has a secret cave and at the end of the book he finds out his sister has a secret cave next door to his.
Hoban, Russell & Lillian, Harvey's Hideout, 1969.  I'm not sure about it, but this one keeps coming up in my WorldCat searches - seems there aren't too many books with muskrats as main characters! "Harvey thinks his big sister is mean and rotten she thinks he is stupid and no-good. As a result, they both spend some lonely hours refusing to play with each other."  A reader's review on amazon.com mentions "all the things Harvey and his sister were doing, like forming my own club, cooking bacon and eggs over an open fire, and swimming in a lake."
I had this book.  I remember the brother and sister eating cheese, which looked funny.  I keep thinking his name is Eddie.  Maybe these clues will help someone come up with the title.
Glad she remembered "Hollow."   Tales from Fern Hollow series by John Patience, published by Peter Haddock.  Titles include:  Mrs. Merryweather's letter;  Parson Dimly's treasure hunt; Sigmund's birthday surprise;  The brassband robbery;  The floating restaurant; The Secret Hide-Out and Enemies of the Secret Hide-Out.
Emmit Otter'sJugband Christmas '70s, approximate. Part of the Parents Magazine Press Series. I had this one--they rode on the river in a little boat and the book ended with a talent contest/Christmas concert. 

Oversized and orange makes me think of the Childcraft series.  Volume 14: Science and Industry meets that description (10" tall x 14" wide), and certainly has many illustrations and photographs.  But I didn't see the story you cite.  There's a picture of the full series on the Anthologies page, check that out just in case.
Again, sorry I don't have the complete solution, but the story about the stomach is the same as the book "Dr. Beaumont and the Man with a Hole in His Stomach."  Is it possible it could have been included in a collection?
Anthony Ravielli, Wonders of the Human Body.  Just a possibility...this was published in both hardcover and paperback editions.
Thanks for giving it a shot however your suggestions for the book in A121 are not the book.  The book was oversized, probably 18-20" wide by 12" high.  I'm still keen to track it down.  I think the story about the rods and cones in the eye might be the key clue.

Montgomery, Elizabeth Rider, Story behind the Great Medical Discoveries, 1945, copyright. I had a book with this title as a boy, and it certainly included the story of the felloe with a flap in his stomach.  I got the author's name and publication date from AbeBooks, so another book with this title is also possible.
Joanna Cole, The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, 1989. This is just a suggestion. The Magic School Bus Series was published by Scholastic and their book about Exploring the Senses was the latest(1999)  The series started around 1986.

Willard Price, Amazon adventure, 1951.  "Amazon adventure" plot summary:  "One of a series of adventures featuring Hal and Roger Hunt. The boys are accompanying their zoologist father down the Amazon, to explore an uncharted river. They face the natural hazards of the jungle, hostile natives, an anonymous telegram, and a hunchback with bloodshot eyes."  Sound familiar?  It's probably this book, since it has almost entered "classic" status, but there are lots with this plot.  Others:  Morgan Swift and the lake of diamonds by Susan Saunders, published in 1986, about a teacher and twins Jan and Jill that go on a plant research trip to an Amazon tributary - and it turns into a dangerous encounter with thieves and suspicious Indians.  Another one published in 1986, Ambush in the Amazon, by Walter Dean Myers, is about two brothers (I don't know whether there are parents involved) camping in the Amazon who try to save a tribal village from the attacks of what
appears to be a reincarnated swamp monster.  The brothers' names were Chris and Ken.  Also, I could find no plot summaries, but there was a small series of 3 adventure books in the late 1940s/early 1950s about "Tom Stetson" that seem to be set in the Amazon region.

If all else fails, I bet you could contact Educational Testing Service (the group that creates the SATs) and give them the testing date/place.  They probably have to keep records of the copyrighted material that appears on the test and they would be able to tell you where it came from.  Some of their material is really out there--my SAT reprinted some portion of an article on cloud formation.
Rita Dove,Through the Ivory Gate, 1992.

Phyllis McGinley, All Around the Town, 1948.  This is an alphabet book of things in the city. It's the only one I could come up with that the copyright dates fit.
A143 I just checked McGinley. It doesn't fit.
In All Around the Town D is for 'D's the Dairy Driver.  'He makes a daily round, With milk that tastes delicious, Or with Butter by the pound...'  Sorry, not the book you're looking for.
Rachel Isadora, City Seen from A to Z. I think this may be too recent but worth a check

Diana Patrick, First Your Penny, 1932.  Possibly this?  "This new romance introduces the reader to Diana Patrick's most attractive heroine, Amaryllis Sheridan, known to her friends as 'Ryll'. 'Ryll' is young, lovely, and carefree. The whole world, she believes, is hers to command. She had yet to learn the important lesson of life.. that 'the sweets of life must all be paid for'. First Your Penny is the story of her discovery of the important things in life -- and the meaning of true love".
Gene Stratton-Porter, The Magic Garden, 1927.  I'm not sure that this is the book being sought, but it is an extremely sentimental romantic novel with a lead character named Amaryllis!
Gene Stratton-Porter, The Magic Garden 1927, I agree, this sounds like "The Magic Garden," one of Gene's more sentimental efforts. A strong-willed five-year-old named Amaryllis is neglected by her parents, separated from her brother and shipped off to live with Uncle Paul. She's never allowed to have adventures or get dirty, ("Amaryllis, DON'T!" Sound familiar?) so she runs away and ends up wading in a creek that leads her to a beautiful garden. The boy, John Guido, is about twelve and plays her the "Amaryllis, fairest flower" tune on his violin. They promise to meet again, and they do, each knowing from that moment that the other is their one and only and determined to keep themselves pure. JG works toward becoming a world-famous violin soloist
 her career, if any, isn't mentioned. At the end, you're supposed to think JG is dead but he isn't because he stopped to rescue a homeless dog. (if this is the correct book, you'll possibly recognize the phrase "yellow cur"). There was a film version made in 1927 with Joyce Coad and Philippe deLacy.

Werner, J. , ed., Golden Book of Poetry, Simon & Schuster, 1947. This book has all the poems you listed.
Werner, J. (editor), The Golden Book of Poetry, 1947, copyright. Although I can't be sure this is the book you have, this book does have the four poems you cited.  My source is "Index to Children's Poetry, first supplement."
Unfortunately this is not the book.  All of those poems listed in the stumper are in that book but here are some more that are not:  The Table and the Chair, Jack Sprat, The confidant, Happy Birds and many more.
Actually, the four additional poems you listed *are* in the Golden Book of Poetry. It's possible you were looking in a later book with the same title that was abridged (for example, the 1949 edition is only 68 pages long).  The one that has them listed is Werner, Jane, ed.  Golden Book of Poetry  il. by Gertrude Elliott.  Simon & Schuster 1947 (Big Golden Book).  112 poems ungrouped.  This book is 97 pages and is 28 cm. tall.  I hope this helps.
Golden Book of Poetry.  Is this the illustration for The Sugar Plum Tree?   This is the illustration for The Sugar Plum Tree in my Golden Book of Poetry.  (I just did a Google Images search for Sugar Plum Tree.)

Colin Dann, Animals of Farthing Wood,c. 1979.  This is probably a long shot, but could it be The Animals of Farthing Wood? In this series they are escaping a housing development, but I'm sure I remember a scene involving rafting down the river. Or else it could be Watership Down by Robert Adams, where something like that also happens.
I posted this a few months ago. The response is not the Book I am looking  for. My book was probably written in the 1940s to 1970s.  Last time I saw  the book was in the mid-late 1970s. Any other suggestions?
Anyway, I was in the archives to see if I could solve anything and ran across A153 which sounds a lot like the book I'm looking for (F153). I don't remember the raft or the map but the rest sounds the same. Curiously, my request is indexed F153. Is that on purpose?
I have been looking for this book for several years.  My sister and I used to check it out from the small library in my hometown in Michigan back in the 1960's.  It must have been published in the 40's or 50's as the copy we used was showing its age. Is it possible that this is a book from Canada or England?  As I recall the illustrations seemed to be influenced by Milne. I hope someone can find this one.  I would like to by a copy for my sister.
Albert Bigelow Paine, Hollow Tree Nights And Days, 1915.  Paine wrote several other books about the Hollow Tree animals, Mr. Crow and Mr. Coon and Mr. Possum, etc.  I don't remember a fire but I do remember a flood.  The line drawings do have a sort of Milne-ish (actually Ernest E. Shepherd)quality.
Brian Jacques,  The Redwall Series I'm not sure whether these books fit your dates or not, but it's worth checking out this series. Every book is a thick one on basically peaceful forest creatures, whom face war or disaster and are forced to fight. There are so many books in this series, but it sounds similar to Jacques's books.
animals escape forest fire
Possibly this one?  Friendship Valley by Wolo.  NY: William Morrow & Co, 1946.  A story packed with illustrations about a variety of animals, large and small, who work together to make a home after the tragedy of a forest fire. Endpapers are a pictorial map of "The Little Lake and Friendship Valley," color pictorial paper over board.  I'm sending the same solution for unsolved stumper F153: Forest Fire drives animals to new home.
Wolo (pseudonym of Wolf Von Trutzschler), author and illustrator, Friendship Valley, 1946. This is definitely the book being sought!  A badger, woodchuck, family of racoons, squirrel, hedgehog, and frog escape from a forest fire on a raft, and rescue a kitten as they float downriver.  The fire does occur late at night, and the front and back inside covers do show a detailed map of the place where they make their new home.

Robert Lawson, The Fabulous Flight. Could this be it?  A boy suffers an injury that causes him to shrink to a very tiny size.  He makes friends with a seagull and they have some wild adventures together.  I think there is a part where the seagull is trapped, but I could be wrong.
Could this be Sid Hoff's Albert the Albatross (1961) I'll have to hunt for my book to see if it contains the picture you describe.
Well, I just scanned through both and didn't find the box reference...
Holling, Holling C., Seabird, 1948.  Please take a look at this one. -from a librarian.

Kitty Styles, Nicholas Thomas and Timothy series.  These books, in addition to stories, included mazes, games and other activities. Perhaps a more likely possibility would be one of the various "Rainy Day" books that used to be very popular. E.g. John Purcell: Golden Rainy Day Play Book;  Marion Conger and Natalie Young: The Rainy Day Play Book;   Enid Blyton: Noddy's Rainy Day Book  etc.
Big Red Fun Book.  Was it a thick book (maybe 3") and about 8" tall?  Did it include chapters on charades, and handwriting analysis?  I had a book alled either "the big red fun book" or "my big red fun book", and the riddle you mention was one of the first ones in it.  (Another of my favorites was "what goes up a chimney down, but can't go down a chimney up?  An umbrella.) I still have the book somewhere in my collection, so if this sounds right I'll dig it out for more info.
Michael Estrin, Fun for a Rainy Day1945 If this isn't Michael Estrin's "Fun for a Rainy Day" I'll be very surprised. Do you remember a chapter on soap carving, another on knot tying, and a page showing a street accident and you're supposed to look at it for a minute and then remember details? You were indeed meant to take a pencil to the book for the puzzles and designs, and my first edition was a nicely bound black hardcover with gold lettering on the spine. It also came out in paperback. 

A158 Possibly The 40 days of Musa Dagh by Franz  Werfel;  or The rage of the vulture by Barry Unsworth.  [I decided I didn't really know anything about a wandering Jew, tho I've had the book of that name by Eugene Sue, so I checked Google and found this neat site.]
Charles (?) Whittemore, Jerusalem Poker,1970.  Part of a series of marvelous interconnected books that featured the Wandering Jew as a character. The books are a magical realist retelling of the history of the Middle East, with Jerusalem as the focal point. The Smyrna section is near the end of the second book, Jerusalem Poker, a book about a never ending poker game between the shadowy true rulers of the Middle East. Books were recently reissued by Old Earth Books in a uniform trade paperback edition.

This sounds a little like a book called Last Plane Out by John Ball, except that I don't recall there being two brothers in  that one. I have an idea that he has written some YA books about flying, he might be a possibility.
Miriam Blanton Huber et al., Planes for Bob and Andy, 1943. I am almost positive this is the book - I read it not too long ago and it had the filling-in-holes-in-the-fields bits and everything.  But Bob and Andy are friends, not brothers.  This is part of the Aviation Readers series of textbooks.

Tyndall and Bolsover, Annie The Anteater, 1963. From this listing: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=236004067. Apparently there were at least three books in the "Trumpy Tales" series: The Great Magician, Wise Old Friend, and Annie the Anteater.

Gian-Carlo Menotti, Help, Help, the Globolinks, 1970, approximately.  Is there a school bus that gets trapped by the creatures?
Just wanted you to know that “Help! Help! The Globolinks!” was indeed the book I was looking for.  Strangely enough,  the book I read was actually a novelization of an opera of the same name, written by the same man who wrote Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Thanks for solving this puzzle that’s troubled me for years!

"Rabbit's Tail." in Smith, Jimmy Neil, ed. Why the Possum's Tail is Bare and Other Classic Southern Stories. New York: Avon, 1993. pp. 141-45. An African American tale told by Sherry Des Enfants of Lithonia, GA. Rabbit gets Alligator into an argument about who has the most relatives. When a couple thousand alligators show up, Rabbit jumps across their backs, counting them and succeeding in his plan to cross the muddy swamp without dirtying his long fluffy tail, until one impatient alligator bites off his tail.

Sounds like typical Susan Cooper or Madeleine L'Engle to me
Card, Orson Scott, Alvin Maker series.  Possibly ..... Lots  about auras, plenty of good vs evil, Alvin is the special child, but I don't remember a Death in a carriage.
Sorry, definitely not Alvin Maker.  That series has reached six books, most recently The Crystal City, and the only one where he was young was the first one (? Seventh Son).  No Death by black carriage, but plenty of threat by water and things related to water.
Roderick MacLeish, Prince Ombra, 1982.  Could it be?

I remembered also that each page had a letter of the alphabet that was at the top of each page, the letters where wispy and the rhyme was under it. This is such a stumper for me. Is there a site to look at that has 1970s books that were popular?
Aexander Key, The Magic Meadow.My sister just lent this book to me, all the details match.

I can't help with the anthology, but the poem is "Little Boy Blue" by Eugene Field.  You can see online here.  "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" was also written by Eugene Field, and the "Owl and the Pussycat" is by Edward Lear.
Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses.  This sounds a lot like A Child's Garden of Verses that I remember from my grandmother's house. We didn't have a very colorful version but I can remember it had toy soldiers, land of nod, etc...
Mother Goose, c.1960.  This was a book some neighbours had, and I envied it, though it was too young for me. I never could get a copy for my kids,but I saw a copy of it not long ago in a used bookstore in Streetsville, Ontario.

Alcott, Louisa May, Jack and Jill.  In jack and Jill, the two main characters have a sledding accident and I remember the girl was in bed or convalescing for a year. I don't have the book here and i don't remember if there was an apple blossom connection.
Coolidge, Susan, What Katy Did. Penguin 1985, reprint.  Could it be this often-reprinted story? "Katy Carr was a tomboy, but she secretly longed to be beautiful and patient, to be as kind and gentle as her beloved Cousin Helen. This is the story of the dreadful accident that gave Katy the chance to achieve her aim." "An accidental fall from a swing seems to threaten Katy's hopes for the future, but she struggles to overcome her difficulties with pluck, vitality and good humor. A best-loved story for more than 100 years." Katy is confined to bed for 2 years rather than one, but the idea of blossoming trees as a marker of time sounds appropriate to the book.
Thank you. I looked on the website, but the books aren't correct.  :(  I should have mentioned that it was a "picture" book  because I remember it had pictures, so it wasn't a novel.  Do I just keep checking to see if anyone else has any ideas?  Thanks for all of your help!
I remember reading something similar about the same time. Try searching for a girl who has polio.  I remember a horse in the story I read, and a big tree in a yard that bloomed.  Sorry I can't be of more help, but maybe a lead.
Daphne Hogstrom, What Will We See?, 1968.  I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but there were some similarities.  The girl in the book is not sick, but she basically waits a year to see what will happen to the tree at her new home (a farm).  The story contains illustrations combined with actual photos.  The girl wanders her farm with her doll, Jane.  The trees eventually bud and blossom then she finds out they are apple trees.
Are the characters in your book black?  I remember a story from my childhood about a little girl in the South, something about a tree in her grandmother's yard.  At some point in the book the girl is injured (either a broken bone or a head injury)and I think the cover of the book was purple.  I think the gurl was either visiting or living with her grandmother.
Frances Clark Sayers, The Chinaberry Tree.  I don't know if this is the correct answer but your question made me think of a story I read many years ago about a little girl named TooLoo who wasn't allowed to climb the chinaberry tree because she was too small. She eventually climbed it and got stuck. When her mother got her down, she was put to bed.
David Small, Imogene's Antlers, 1981?, approximate. I thought this may be the book you were talking about. Especially the end because she ends up growing tree branches (which grow as cherry blossoms?)
I was born in 75 and am searching for a similar book hopefully my memories might help, Picture book A girls wants to play out in the snow but gas a cold/ flu do has to stay indoors, remember her drinking a hot drink wrapped in blankets I think she was called Annabelle or Rebecca. She gets a treat when cold in better and dances under the blossom trees at her grandparents orchard, the blossom is like the falling snow she missed, I have no idea what the book was called but would love to know if you find out!

Not a solution, but book stumper A197 sounds like the same book as B259.

This sounds like the Book Trails series. There is more information on these books under Solved Mysteries
Jane Werner, Tall Book of Make-Believe, 1950.  Although the description of the books themselves is definitely not the same, the stories of Wynken, Blynken and Nod, The Land of Counterpane and A Swing Song all appear in The Tall Book of Make-Belive. Is it possible that your sister is remembering this book in addition to the ones you describe? You can find it in Solved Mysteries and Most Requested Books.
In response to the comment provided by a reader, I'd like to thank that person for writing.  I've tried to check on the Book Trails book, but I don't think this is the source of our book set.  Our covers were not so elaborate, but beyond that, the Books Trails description mentions black-and-white illustrations; our books had richly colored illustrations.  I can definitely rule out the Better Homes and Gardens Storybook after having seen copies.  I have other memories about our volumes other than those I already mentioned, but they are more vague and therefore more unreliable: I seem to recall a story called The Land of Nod (which might be the same as the story about the boy named Pod, already mentioned...or not).  I think our books had Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.  I think both of our books had a mix of stories and poems for beginning as well as better readers (as opposed to books that contain only poems, another only stories).  I don't think either book had projects or "try it" activities.  If there were other books beyond the two we had (a larger set) I was unaware of them.  As I've continued to try to find these books, I've come to realize that book sets from a variety of publishers in the 1950s contained many of the same stories, which makes the search even more difficult.  I have tried searching through the Mysteries Solved section of this website to find a solution, but haven't had a "that's IT" moment yet.  I keep feeling that if/when I find the story of the boy named Pod and the story/poem about Giant Joe Bean, I will have found the elusive needle-in-the-haystack.  I appreciate any and all help, so please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions.
The Book of Knowledge Have you considered a set of books sort of like an encyclopedia called The Book of Knowledge?  They were burgundy, leather textured hardbacks and several volumes contained poems and short story classics.  That was the source of lots of our childhood literature.
Marjorie Barrows, ed., The Children's Treasury 1947, approximate Now this one I have owned all my life it's "The Children's Treasury: A Book to Grow On", published by Consolidated in Chicago. Mine is a 1947 edition, two volumes, dark red-brown covers. Inside the cover is a colorful picture of children dancing in a circle in outfits from all over the world. Joe Bean caught a cloud and thought he'd bring it home and it nearly wrecked his house. His wife was a lot smarter than he was. The Land of Counterpane is one of several Robert Louis Stevenson poems in there, with soft grey-washed pictures. The one about the baby born to the upside-down-reading parents is "Clown Town". "Hi ho the derry o, the baby's name is <b>pood</b>." And the baby's mother (Flo) wore doughnut earrings.  The book is notable for not only having the story about the house that Jack built -- but also the house that JILL built. Hope this helps!
Childcraft series, 1930s to 1940s.  The poem about the "Jolly giant Joe Green" was contained in an encyclopedic style set of books called "Child Craft".  There were something like 20 or more books in the set.  There were many stories and poems included, and the targeted age range probably was from 1st grade to 7th grade children.  The books were richly bound in a dark red leather, and as I recall, good quality paper. So there probably are surviving editions squirreled away in many attics waiting to see the light of day.  It is probably something a dealer would not handle, because the content would be too literary and/or too dated for today's kids.  If anybody knows where to find the Childcraft series, and in particular, the specific book with the Joe Bean poem in it, I would appreciate contact information of where to find it.

Strangeways, Mark, The Secret Base: a thrilling tale of the Pacific, 1946.  A very similar stumper was recently solved on another site. The story involved a shark attack/Japanese millionaire/Chinese cook/British boys/and a mysterious yacht.  Sounds like the same book this poster is looking for (is that you ElMagnifico??)
Alert - it isn't The Secret Base!! I just got it and there was a mix-up of information!
Nope, tis Elwyn who posted this - it seems we were only half right about this book. Has half the elements but not all - we are still seeking the Chinese cook among other things!
One Ah Sin I know of is a character from the poetry of the 19th century writer Bret Harte - I believe it's from the narrative poem about California prospectors with a title something like Tales of Truthful James.  This was later dramatized by him (with collaboration by Mark Twain) as Ah Sin, or the Heathen Chinee.

William Nicholson, The Wind Singer Since your not sure if your plots are mixed I'm going to suggest this one, although it has nothing about astrology, people are segregated into different classes based on testing. They can only live in their assigned part of the city, wear their assigned color, and are limited on career advancement as well. This tale also features, Mud People, really scary Old Children(who steal away youth by touching you), and some kind of prophecy. You may remember remember cities on wheels that sail across the desert, and an evil foe called "the Mora". I hope that's enough information, and I hope you find the right book. 

Rumer Godden, The Rocking Horse Secret.  Just a guess!
I located my copy of the Godden book  after re-reading it, I'm certain that my suggestion was wrong.
Lucy Boston, The Children of Green Knowe.  It's not quite the same as the description, but could it be The Children of Green Knowe? The main character is a boy, Toseland, not a girl, but it has many of the same elements: torrential rain in the beginning, English, a large house not his own, rocking horse in the attic, found jewels. However there are non-creepy ghosts.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden.  1994, reprint.  Summary From Publishers Weekly Bratty and spoiled Mary Lennox is orphaned when her parents fall victim to a cholera outbreak in India. As a result, Mary becomes the ward of an uncle in England she has never met. As she hesitantly tries to carve a new life for herself at imposing and secluded Misselthwaite Manor, Mary befriends a high-spirited boy named Dickon and investigates a secret garden on the Manor grounds. She also discovers a sickly young cousin, Colin, who has been shut away in a hidden Manor room. Together Mary and Dickon help Colin blossom, and in the process Mary finds her identity and melts the heart of her emotionally distant uncle.  Ages 6-12.
This reminds me of a book I read about the same time.  I think it was titled The Octagon House.  The girl goes into a strange octagonal shaped house to get out of the rain as she walks home from school.  She finds a key that opens a doll house that is the exact replica of the house she is in.  There is something magic that occurs and she finds treasures.  I think there is an old woman involved and the key was inside a box with a velvet ribbon?  I remember the  rocking horse, too.
Another person brought a stumper within the stumper about an octagon house. I don't know if this is the answer to the origanal stumper, but the person is thinking of OCTAGON MAGIC by Andre Norton, 1967 (published in American and the UK). A girl (named Lorrie?) is having problems with mean kids at her new school. She finds refuge in a strange eight-sided
house that has a replica dollhouse inside and I do seem to recall a rocking horse (perhaps there's a connection between her riding the horse and magic happening). It isn't a sinister book, and I think at the end the old ladies who lived in the house end up as dolls in the dollhouse? Anyway, maybe this description will help.~from a librarian
CS Lewis, The Magician's Nephew.  Most of the things that you described are in this book
I have to disagree; this sounds nothing like The Magician's Nephew.  In that book, two children (a boy and a girl) travel to worlds through a wood full of pools using green and yellow rings invented by the magician of the title.  It is a prequel to the rest of the Narnia books, explaining the origins of things such as the White Witch and Lantern Waste, and there are most definitely parts of it that could be considered creepy.
Rumer Godden, The Rocking Horse Secret. (1988)  I agree, this sounds exactly like The Rocking Horse Secret, though I don't remember any jewels (I have a used copy and re-read it within the last year). Tibby, the main character, is the daughter of the housekeeper at a grand house. Tibby has a friend who comes over, a slightly older boy who works in the stables. She explores all over the house and gets in trouble for sneaking around. She finds the will that leaves the house to the rightful owners (maybe Tibby's mom or the stable owner?) in the tail of the rocking horse in the old nurseries.
I don't know if it will help you find your book, but I can tell you what galoshes are. They are a lot like rubber boots but they are oversized so that your regular shoes can fit inside them. They have no lining inside because if you are wearing shoes inside you don't need one. 

Slade, Jack, Yeti.  Authorhouse 2003.  Perhaps too recent, but it is a horror novel based on the Yeti or Abominable Snowman legend. No plot description available. Another on the subject is Mountain King, by Rick Hautala, Dorchester 2001. "The mountain stood proud and alone, shrouded in mist and snow, surrounded by legends and fear. Some said a demon resided on the rocky slopes, an unholy thing that periodically emerged from the mist to claim a life. Mark Newman had hiked the trails to the mountain's peak many times. He'd heard the tales, but he didn't believe them - until the day his friend
disappeared in a sudden, blinding snowstorm while they were on the mountain. Mark witnessed something he knew couldn't be real - something that would kill again and again."

Laura Bannon, The Wonderful Fashion Doll, 1953.  I think this may be the one you're looking for it does have color illustrations.
No it's not wonderful fashion doll. I just found one on e-bay with pics and they are not the same. The doll in my book was more of a baby doll. The end pages were one full page for each outfit in bright colors not pencil and watercolors. The blue I mentioned outfit was a deep velvet blue.
I just talked to my sister who is also looking for this book. We brainstormed and here are more clues. I was wrong it was not a baby doll but a young girl doll. The was a riding habit among the pictures. They had bustles and hats and shoes. The girl looking for the doll was visiting a relative when looking for the doll.
I remember reading a book like this as a child.  The girl, Sally, goes to visit her Great-Aunt Sarah.  She doesn't get along with the aunt and somehow she winds up going back in time about 50 years and becomes another girl also named Sally.  The "olden times" Sally has a doll with golden hair which is lost.  "Modern" Sally comes back to modern times and looks for the doll.  In the end it turns out that the cat had taken it and hidden it in the attic.  In the modern time Sally finds the doll because her great-aunt's cat had golden hair in its claw.  In the end Sally's father comes back for her and calls Aunt Sarah, "Aunt Sal".  It turns out that she was the young Sally from the past.  I don't remember the title or author but this might give you more to go on.
Norma Kassirer, J Jackson, "Magic Elizabeth" (for last poster) and "Missing Melinda" for requester.  The last suggestion is the book "Magic Elizabeth"- great story- but I don't think it really matches the request. Mystery involving clues and a doll could be "Missing Melinda"- but no fashion doll stuff at all that I know of. Maybe this is two books being mixed in memory? From the synopsis: "Missing Melinda, Little, Brown and Co. - 1967.  Twins Cordelia and Ophelia find a valuable antique doll in an attic it's stolen, and they have some scary adventures getting it back. The final clue comes, perhaps not unexpectedly, through Shakespeare."
Laura Bannon, The Wonderful Fashion Doll,1953, copyright. This Sounds like the Book.
Catherine Woolley, Ginnie and the Mystery Doll. I don't remember much about this book's plot, but I loved reading this book so much when I was a little girl that I've always remembered the title.  Ginnie and a friend find an antique doll that belonged to her great-aunt.

J. Bosworth's White Water, Still Water began with a similar raft incident, and the boy spends the rest of the book trying to walk home through the wilderness.  I don't remember the dog, but it's been about 40 years since I read it!

There's a Johnstone book called My Pop-up Book ABC,A Dean's DeLuxe Pop-up Book, but I don't believe this fits the bill, as it doesn't have any fairy tales.  Could be another Dean collection though, like the Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales.  I don't know if that has ABC's in it though...  See if any look familiar on the Anthology Finder.
A229 NO ABC SECTION IN THE 1977 EDITION
Blackwood Alan, Mulberry bush book of nursery rhymes, 1974.  illustrated by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone. Publisher: London : Nelson Young World, 1974.

Yes, though the key words I gave you were, I think, "alphabet alliteration sheep sharp shape," my adult daughter (whose book it was—which I LOST!—and who is about to get her Ph.D. in English and who would be THRILLED if I could give it "back" to her as a Doctoral present!...so you see why I'm so obsessed with this!) remembers it more as a kind of casual phonics book, thinking that there was a also "CH" page, among others, and that what I had thought to have been the "S" page was—duh!—actually more of an "SH" page. Makes sense, BUT, it was definitely NOT a "phonics book," per se, i.e., not an intentionally educational tome; it was still just a playful romp through letters or sounds of letters/letter combinations, using images (the sheep looked like a Tomi di Paola creation) that delighted both kid and parent. More like Sesame Street or Electric Company than Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll, but those guys would have appreciated it, too. Hmmm, it MIGHT have been British (fat lot of good that is! It might have been Hungarian, for that matter—but no, the humor did have a rather British flavor...and I bought in in a Burlington, VT,  bookstore which was run by a very English-bookstore-type British woman, so whether her "influence" is influencing me or whether it was actually something she'd imported—like the Ant and bee books, which only she carried at the time—I don't know). Still the only thing I know FOR SURE is that the "S"—or "SH"— page said, approximately, "Show me a freshly shorn and shampooed sheep," then, DEFINITELY, "and I'll show you a sheep in sharp shape."  Whew! Goodnight!

C.J. Heck, Barking Spiders (And Other Such Stuff), August 2000, reprint. Visit this website for more info. This is definitely the book.
Alas, the CJ Heck (Barking Spiders) book is definitely NOT the book, as I should have made even more clear when I alluded to in passing in it my initial inquiry. Rats! How long do I get to keep this maddening thing out there?

Christine Bernard, A Shiver of Spooks.  A collection of ghost stories published by Armada in the 1970s, so possible.
The story sought is "The Skeleton Rider" by Christine Pullein-Thompson, an original in THE FIFTH ARMADA GHOST BOOK, ed. Mary Danby (London: Armada, 1973), pp. 16-28.  It's also depicted as the cover art of that anthology.  I can't find any indication that the story has been reprinted or appeared anywhere else.

A240 It is NOT this, which is juvenile but nonfiction hist of Atlantis Wilkie, Katharine E; Moseley, Elizabeth R. Lords of Atlantis.    1979.
Just a thought: E. Nesbit's Accidental Magic is a short story is about a boy who falls asleep at Stonehenge and ends up in Atlantis. It doesn't have bracken or fern in it, though.
A240 This is a total shot in the dark because I've never read it, but perhaps the title will ring a bell. There's a book about Atlantis that was published in both London and New York in 1971. It is BEYOND THE GATES OF HERCULES: A TALE OF THE LOST ATLANTIS by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino. According to the summaries, there is a prohecy that a boy will destroy Atlantis, and his sister can do nothing to prevent the tragedy. And in case the detail helps, it is the Archer family and they tend saffron.~from a librarian
Timms, Edward Vivian, Cities under the sea, 1948.  Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1948. Two races of Atlanteans on islands of another sea beneath the Sargasso Sea.1948. This could be a possibility.  Looks like it's a fairly rare book.
Thanks to all of you for these suggestions so far.  None of them is the right book yet, but I really appreciate your trying.  Any other suggestions would be very welcome.
Farmer, Penelope, William and Mary. This was already one of the solved mysteries, but I believe it might be british and there is a boy main character.
Jan Siegal, Prospero's Children. This is more for teens and was probably too late, but it does have a main character named Fern who goes back to Atlantis to search for a way to stop the Atlantean queen.  She meets up with a boy who helps her and they fall in love.
Elinor Lyon, Hilary's Island, around 1949.  This sounds like Hilary's Island by Elinor Lyon. Hilary was actually a girl named Amaryllis who pretended to be a boy named Hilary. She named "her" island Atlantis (her favorite of several near-by islands) and she ran away to hide on it. The book was English, and mentioned bracken (Hilary/Amaryllis piled together bracken to sleep on when she ran away).
Beachcroft, Nina, A Visit to Folly Castle.  Long shot, but this features a girl whose family originally came from Atlantis...makes friends with a 'normal' girl who is invited to visit them, they live a very secluded life and the 'normal' girl's younger brother may be involved? I remember a crystal ball that shows things and that the family have strange abilities...it fascinated me as a child, as it was the first I had heard of Atlantis!
E. Nesbit, The Story of the Amulet, 1906, approximate. This is a sequel to "Five Children and It."  It's rather a slim connection to your query, but four children (two boys and two girls) and their friend the Professor do go to Atlantis, and are looking for the other half of their Amulet.  It is a British book, and there very well might be bracken - I can't remember.

A223 Could it  be any of these?  Barbour, Ralph Henry. Three in a trailer. illus Edward C Caswell.  Appleton, 1937.   Greene, Carla.  Holiday in a trailer. photos by H L Van Pett [Van Pelt?]  Melmont, 1955.   Clark, Electa.  Tony for keeps; a story of a house on wheels.  illus by Lisl Weil.  Winston, 1955.  The Feather family car pulls a trailer around the western half of the US as father swaps labor and objects for needed cash. Orphan Tina accidentally joins them, is disguised as a boy so there will be no accusations of kidnapping before they can get her back and adopt her.
Florence Musgrave, Trailer Tribe.  This might be the book. The cover shows a family and their airstream trailer. 

Dr. Seuss, pre-1968.  This book sounds a lot like Dr. Seuss's book of ABC's. Although it is common to have a Yak represent Y (such a difficult letter!), I think this might be worth a look to see if it is the one.
H.A. Rey, Curious George Learns the Alphabet.  In this book the Man with the Yellow Hat drew alphabet animals so George could learn the alphabet.  The little-h horse rings a bell for me.
H.A. Rey, Curious George Learns the Alphabet, 1963.  I have to second the motion for Curious George Learns the Alphabet.  I have the book here on my lap, and the illustrations are exactly as the stumper requester remembers.  Here is the text for each page: "The small h is a horse.  He is happy because he has heaps of hay.  George had his own horse---a hobby horse."  "The big Y is a big YAK and the small y is a small yak  he is still young.  Yaks live in Tibet.  If you haven't seen any yaks yet you may find one at the zoo."
No, it's not the Curious George book. The only word on each page was the spelled-out name of the animal, as I recall.  I remember just the large drawings of animals, one on each page. This may have been a book from the fifties or very early sixties.
Dorothy Schmiderer , Alphabeast Book: An Abecedarium, 1971.  Sounds like Schmiderer's Alphabeast Book -- letters morph (in a sequence of four drawings) into animals.  My copy shows h becomes a horse, and y, a yak.  The only colors used in the book are red, white, and blue, if that helps.

James Vance Marshall, Walkabout, 1978.  Sure, it's not Africa, but the Austrailian outback could be remembered as sub-saharan Africa. Two white teens lost in the outback survive by relying on a young black aborigne who is on a manhood quest, I believe. Very popular at the time.
Kaffir Boy.  This is the exact title of a book I started and never finished; it has quite a lot of description in it but is not a children's book.  Makes reference to eating insects and hatchling birds.   Sorry I don't know the author; I'm going to guess I read it 10 years ago.  Maybe this is the book you are looking for.

Stephen R. Lawhead, Dream Thief, 1983.  Could you  be looking for Dream Thief? It's about a sleep scientist who goes to live on a space colony. He also ends up on Mars and in India before the story is over. It definitely fits the bill of a love story and a christian story. This was by far my least favorite books by Lawhead (the author of some of my favorite books of all time, like Patrick, Son of Ireland), but it was ok.

Thanks for the idea, however, I know this is not it.  It was definitely not a Science Fiction.  More of a romance.  Thanks anyway! 

Orson Scott Card (author), Ender's Game.  I know that Ender's Game isn't the right book, but man, it sure is eerily similar.
Samuel Delany, The Fall of the Towers, 1977, reprint.  I don't remember the helmet, but the part about the government starting a war for the reason you mention... it's there. This is an edition comprised of three novels, first published separately as Captives of the Flame, The Towers of Toron, and City of a Thousand Suns.

Giant Dell Comic No 1, A Christmas Treasury, 1954.  I have one of these books and the story "Santa and the Angel" in it fits your details except for the part about polishing the star at the end--in this story, the angel (he's a boy) is picked up by Santa at the end  Santa puts the angel into his mitten and takes him back up to heaven for the big Christmas party. Other stories in the magazine include the story of Jesus' birth, The Night Before Christmas, a section of carols, The Little Fir Tree, A Christmas Carol, Hansy and the Spirit of Christmas, and Santa's Christmas Mouse.

Through the Gate of My Bookhouse, c. 1948.  Might even be called My Bookhouse Through the Gate but, pretty sure this is the book you want.  Has the following stories I believe - Tippity Witchit's Hallowe'en, Teeny Tiny.
editor: Olive Beaupre Miller, My Bookhouse, 1920 - 1971.  I had this age-appropriate set of books in the 1940s.  My set started with a light green cover for the Nursery Rhymes and advanced through shades of green and then blue for older readers.  I remember Tipity Witchit!  I think he dipped his tail in whitewash.  Later it must have rained because his tail was revealed to be solid black again.  His story was probably in Volume 2 or 3.
For more on My Bookhouse and its various editions, see The Anthology Finder.
I remember the Bookhouse books, my mother had a set of them. I do recall the Teeny-tiny women, I think she stole a scarecrow lady's clothes. With Tippety-Witchet, I remember that Tippety's white tip was to protect him from being stolen away by the witches. One old witch in particular kept trying to pour a shadow on his tail so she could catch him, after she turned his mother into a porceline sculpture! It was a good spooky story full of ghosts and devils and dancing.  don't recall much of the rest of the book.

I was born in 1960, and I have fond memories of an illustrated book about one of these "aliens."  He was a child-sized mythological Japanese imp (kappa) who had a bowl shaped depression on top of his head that had to be kept full of water.  He was usually very strong and quite mischievous, but the water had to be replenished periodically or he would become weak and ill.  In the tale I remember best, the kappa befriended a little human boy and decided to live with him.  He wanted to keep his identity a secret, so he engaged the boy in a playful water-throwing battle and managed to replenish his supply without admitting he wasn't human.  I remember more than one story about this kappa, but I cant remember the name of the book or the author, and I dont know if these were multiple tales in a single book, or a series of picture books by the same author.  I can't even tell you if the author is of Japanese descent (many libraries have culled "inauthentic" folktales from their collections).  I've found three possible children's books from the correct time period for you.  The first is 'Kappa' and other stories by Shigeru Tomiyama (1949, 54 pages).  The second is Kappa’s tug-of-war with big brown horse the story of a Japanese water imp by Dorothy Walter Baruch (author) and Sanryo Sakai (illustrator) (1962, 36 pages).  The third is Clinton and the Kappa by Edgar C. Grove-Merritt (author) and Yasuo Kazama (illustrator) (1965, 38 pages). I haven't seen any of these and don't know whether the illustrations match your description.  When searching for stories, please note that some adult tales feature frightening or monstrous kappa, quite unlike the odd and endearing creature I remember.  Good luck in your search!
I don't know the specific book in question, but the description of the beings sounds like it must be about the Kappa (of Japanese folklore).
Another possibility: Kap the Kappa by Betty Jean Lifton (author) and Eiichi Mitsui (illustrator), 1960.  Here's an online description: "A RARE Vintage Japanese Fairy Tale. Deep in the rivers of Japan, as all Japanese children know, there live mischievous little Water Elves called kappas (pronounced koppas). They have shells on their backs, webbed hands and feet, and shallow bowls of water in the tops of their heads. As long as the bowls are full, the kappas are gay and strong. But should the water spill out, they become very weak and may even die.  This is the story of a young Kappa Prince named Kap. One day he wandered too far downstream from his royal palace and was lifted out of the water on the end of a fishing pole. The next thing he knew he had been adopted by a Japanese family, who hid the fact that he was really a kappa from all the villagers. But no one could hide Kap's mischievous nature, and soon he was playing tricks on everyone. Kap's pranks will delight American children, who will share his adventure when he tries to find his way back to his river kingdom."
It turns out that Betty Jean Lifton wrote a sequel to Kap the Kappa, and it is also illustrated by Eiichi Mitsui.  It is Kap and The Wicked Monkey (1968)--- another possible solution for you!

Sounds like The City Under the Back Steps by Lampman.   See more on the Solved Mysteries page.
Mary Chase, Loretta Mason Potts.  Also titled Colin's Naughty Sister-  I could be way off base but your description made me think of this book.  The children do go through the back of a closet and end up by a bridge.  When they cross the bridge they become ant-size (although they don't realize this at first).  They go into a castle and meet a lady who turns out in the end to be bad.  She has kept Colin's sister Loretta living away from her family for many years.  Loretta is finally happy to live with her family after they band together to separate her from the lady by destroying the castle (doll-sized if you don't cross the bridge).
Chase, Mary, Loretta Mason Potts.  They didn't become as small as ants, more the size of dolls in a dollhouse, but the closet was the portal to the farm that led to the small size place.
I love The City Under the Backsteps, but the children don't have a magic closet--they shrink because they're bitten by an ant. Does the original requester remember actual ants being part of the story?
The Indian in the Cupboard.  I think this may be the book in question.
Absolutely, positively NOT The Indian in the Cupboard or any of its sequels.

Are the children named after varities of apples too?  If so, try Jean McDevitt's Mr. Apple's Family, illustrated by Ninon,  1950.  See more on Solved Mysteries.
I don't believe it's Mr. Apple's Family.  The story is more about the house, and I'm not sure if there are any children.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  Could this be The Little House - the line drawings sound familiar, the main colours are red and green, the house gets battered and bruised but is eventually renovated and at the end a new family find it is just the house for them...
Hi, I'm the requestor for the above stumper.  It is not The Little House by Burton.  Somewhat similar, but the house is never in the city.  There is definitely an emphasis on apples with regard to the house.
 Apple Tree House Did the stumper ever check out Mr. Apple's Family by Jean McDevitt?  Best in Children's Books (1958) printed an excerpt from Mr. Apple's Family called, "The Apples' New House."  If the stumper requester only read this story, it might explain why s/he remembers that
"[t]he story is more about the house."

Could this be Sneaker Hill, by Jane Little?  There's an Aunt Miranda, who's studying for a certificate in witchcraft.  There are some suspicious other witches, who don't know her niece (and son!) exist.  Aunt Miranda can't cook, so I remember some parts about her inedible meals, and the witches meet in the woods.  Something to check, anyway...
I just read Sneaker Hill (by Jane Little, drawings by Nancy Grossman, published by Atheneum, NY 1967, 183 pages) and I'm sorry to report that it's probably not the book being sought.  Sneaker Hill was written for 9-12 year olds, so it is not a Young Adult book, and the plot elements don't match the stumper requester's memories.  Susan Derry spends her spring holiday with her cousin Mathew and Aunt Miranda.  There is no witch named Lanie, no magic stone, and Susan discovers that Aunt Miranda is studying witchcraft at the end of chapter 2, when Mathew tells her.  Aunt Miranda cooks delicious meals, but because she's an inexperienced witch, they don't turn out exactly as she had planned (she conjures fortune cakes instead of cookies).  The witches meet in a cavern inside Sneaker Hill, not in the woods.  If the stumper requester doesn't remember a battle where an army of rats, Sneakers (the shy humanoid inhabitants of the hill) and magical creatures rout the witches, then this is not the book s/he is searching for.
Bruce/Katherine Coville, Sarah's Unicorn.   Could it be 'Sarah's Unicorn'? Not sure if thats what you were after.

Fiona Waters (Editor), DOUBLEDAY BOOK OF BEDTIME STORIES, 1992, reprint.  Not sure if it's the same anthology, but it does contain  Betty Van Witsen's "Cheese, Peas, and Chocolate Pudding."
It was Peas beans and chocolate pudding. It was a storybook from the 50's or 60's. It also had astory about a lady who put her cakes in a hatbox. I've checked all the doubleday books and did not find any of these stories.......thanks
Sheldon, William, Believe and Make-Believe, 1957.  Published by Allyn & Bacon, Inc. Illustrated by Cheslie D'Andrea and Winnifred Westlake. This anthology contains the Van Witsen story about a little boy who will only eat cheese for breakfast, peas for lunch, and chocolate pudding for dinner, nothing else, until while playing like a doggy and rolling around on the floor under the table, someone drops a bit of a new food into his mouth. He chews, he swallows, and he likes it!  Part of the Sheldon Basic Reading Series for fourth grade level. Includes a glossary and word list. Includes 2 poems by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet,  Captain Kidd,  Indian (a poem),  The Old Sailor by A. A. Milne,  The Story of Polly Patchwork by Rachel Field,  Little Rooster by Kate Seredy, and many more.Color illustrations.  320 pages. Sorry, can't attest to the other stories.
sidonie matsner gruenberg, Let's Hear a Story: 30 Stories and Poems for Today's Boys and Girls, 1961.  Found this collection by Doubleday on the "Find in a Library" website.  It has Mrs. Goose's Hatbox Cake, which I've been searching for for years and it also has the cheese, peas, and chocolate pudding story. A search online also turned up several copies for sale!

A few more details: The book is from the early 50's. I remember a picture of the letter sent to the animal kid from his parents on their trip, propped up on the mantel over the fireplace, unread. The kid(s) wander through the forest asking each animal "Can you read my letter?" When the owl reads when the parents are returning, I think they plan a welcome home party.  The end shows a picture of all the animals, each opening a gift the parents bring  the ones I recall are an alarm clock, a comb, and mirror.  I can't imagine why this book is haunting me...maybe my parents left me at home for a long time when I was kid! 

I wrote originally that the book was yellow.  It was actually light purple.  I am sorry for the confusion.
I'm afraid I don't know the title of the anthology, but perhaps this bit of information might help.  We also had this book for my son when he was little.  It was an anthology of stories  - one about bees bothering a monkey - in a rhymning sing-song fashion - but it also included a story about (and here I think the inquirer is mistaken) a lion who generously gave away his hair to his friends, and then needed his friends' help in replacing it.  The lion story apparantly was also sold separately (and has previously been solved here) as Tony and His Friends (1969 Golden Book.)  I don't believe this anthology was a Golden Book product, and I'm sorry that I don't remember its title, but perhaps the inquirer could do a search on Tony and His Friends, (since that particular title is known - I beleive - ) and find the anthology's title through publishing records that way.
Jacobs, Leland B., The Read-It-Yourself Storybook, 1971, Golden Press.  Contents: The monkey and the bee, by L. B. Jacobs.--Tony and his friends, by K. Wagner.--Emily's moo, by T. Gergely.--Come on! Play ball, by I.-M. Vogel.--Peek-a-boo, by I.-M. Vogel.--Eddie's moving day, by J. Deering.--Too many Bozos, by L. Moore.
Read-It-Yourself Storybook by Leland Jacobs is correct! Your stories are the first two in the book!  " I need some hair for a nest," said the bird. "Take all you want," said Tony. Another bird the same, and another-till he is bald!

Wilks, Mike, The ultimate alphabet, 1992.  I'm positive you're thinking of this book - each letter has incredible detailed pictures - with hundreds and hundreds of objects for each letter - i think the "s" page has over 1000.  I see there is now an "annotated ultimate alphabet".
Wonder if this is Animalia, by Graeme Base?
Grahame Base, Animalia, 1987.  Extremely detailed illustrations (picturing, for example, crimson cats with crayfish, coke cans, candles, cacti, camels, castles and more in the background) in an oversize book, along with captions for each page (such as "Lazy Lions Lounging In the Local Library").
This must be Animalia, a beautiful alphabet book by Graeme Base.
Base, Graeme, Animalia.  Possibly Animalia, as it contains many lavish and detailed pictures  that contain many examples of words starting with that letter.
Graeme Base, Anamalia, 1987.  Richly illustrated, finely detailed, mysterious in tone, but beautiful to the eye, this book is the first to come to my mind when someone asks for an alphabet book illustrated with paintings.
Graeme Base, Animalia, 1987.  This book has incredibly detailed illustrations for each letter of the alphabet, and each picture features as many items beginning with that letter as possible.  For example, Horrible Hairy Hogs Hurrying Homewards on Heavily Harnessed Horses.
Graeme Base, Animalia, 1993.  It sounds like Animalia. My favorite illustration shows "Lazy Lions Lounging In The Local Library". The lions look at books titled "Lassie Come Home", "Let's Learn Latin", and "Life In Luxembourg."
I bought this probably around that time.  I can't find the title.  Mary Engelbreit is the illustrator.
The concept here is a common one for ABC books, dating back at least a century.  But I'm voting for The Ultimate Alphabet as the solution to this stumper, as it is less well known as Animalia, with more objects detailed in the drawings, and no catchy captions that the stumper requester might have remembered.
Graeme Base, Animalia, 1986.  Animalia was published earlier than 1992 but it has beautifully intricate illustration. All of the illustrations are associated with a letter of the alphabet.
Graeme Base, Animalia, 1987.
Mitsumasa Anno, Anno's Alphabet, 1975.  Could it be Anno's Alphabet?  The letters were carved, I think, and the drawings very intricate.  Here's a description:  Each letter of the alphabet accompanies a full-page picture puzzle of an object whose name begins with that letter: anvil, bicycle, etc.
I've looked into both titles suggested and am reasonably sure neither is the one. I do not recall any words whatsoever on the pages and the paintings were very realistic - like still life.  I believe~ there were ants on the "A" page and maybe even visual referances to alchemy? The scale of the book was similar to Anamalia, being taller than wide.Thnx again!
Base, Graeme, Animalia.  If you want to rule out Animalia, check your memory of this: certainly there are ants on the "A" page, that's not unusual. But on the "D" page, for Dr. Who fans everywhere, there is a Dalek in the background. No other alphabet book in my memory has that!
Leonard Baskin, Hosie's Alphabet, 1972.  ANIMALIA sounds right, but it could also be HOSIE'S ALPHABET.  Here's the card catalog description:  "A full-page illustration of a creature for each letter of the alphabet, including a bumptious baboon, furious fly, ghastly garrulous gargoyle, and quintessential quail."

A294 Sounds like it could be JUST TELL ME WHEN WE'RE DEAD by Eth Clifford. This is one of her Jo-Beth and Mary Rose mysteries (they are sisters). They go looking for their cousin on an island. There is an amusement park involved (the cover has them riding in a roller coaster car heading into a mountain cave). It was published 1983 and 1985. ~from a librarian
It is not Just Tell Me When We're Dead, though I appreciate the guess.  I don't remember the main character being with a sister.  I think either her relatives or family friends ran the amusement park.
Lorire  McLaughlan, Cinnamon Hill Mystery. (1967)  It's been a long time since I read this, but as I remember, there's a girl (who does have a lot of sisters, but they're not really in the story) a boy who considers himself an inventor (who may be her cousin) and a mystery.  The whole mystery wraps up in an amusement park...but I don't remember much more than that.  It's definitely not the JoBeth and Mary Rose books by Eth Clifford, though some of the elements are similar.

(1950-1960)  Could this be one of the Jenny Lind Cat Club books by Esther Averill?  I think there's a theatre production in one of them...maybe The Hotel Cat?
Kobayashi, What's Michael?  (1990)  Perhaps one of the What's Michael? collections published by Eclipse in trade paperback/softcover circa 1990? Some info on the series can be found on Wikipedia. These are translations of a popular Japanese manga/comic and do fit most of the criteria, since the requestor is not sure if the insides were illustrated or not it's worth trying.
No - I've read the Jenny books, and they're not it.  Also, I'm positive these were dressed, upright cats, and that the book wasn't aimed at children. Another forum suggested The Cinematic Cat: A Cat's Guide to the Great Movies by Bob Bruno might be the book I want, as the front cover is very close to what I described, but I need to see the back cover to be really sure.  Does anyone have copy they can take a picture of for me?

Helen Earle Gilbert (author), Marge Opitz (illustrator). A similar stumper was posted within the last couple of years, and it was solved as Go-to-Sleep Book by Helen Earle Gilbert (author) and  a Junior Elf Book published by Rand McNally in 1949.  I've found copies that bear a copyright date of 1936 and 1959, so it's probably an older book that was reprinted numerous times.  I don't know if this is the book you're looking for, but it's worth a look!  Please see the Solved Mysteries "G" page for more information

Alien and little boy  - Could this be The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree by Louis Slobodkin?  I remember that the alien's ship was disguised as an ice cream cart, but don't know the details because I never quite finished the book.  There are sequels I've never read, as well.
Cameron, Eleanor, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. (1954)  A mystery man inspires two boys to build a space ship which takes them to the planet of Basidium to help the Mushroom people.

Sayre, April Pulley, Crocodile Listens, 2001. Even though this title is from 2001, it fits the description. I think it might be the one.
I don't think it can be Sayre's Crocodile Listens. I had a crocodile book that sounds very similar in the early 80s, and it was not that one. The only further detail  I can suggest are that my book was rectangular in shape, was landscape format, not portrait format, and there was a fair amount of white space left on many of the pages.
Evelyn Shaw, Alligator. (1972)  This looks like a good possibility.  "Alligator" is a "Science I CAN READ Book" published by Harper & Row, for ages 4-8, illustrated throughout in color by Frances Zweifel.  The book discusses the life cycle of the American Alligator, and man's threat to its existence.  The cover of this book is a soft green color, sort of mottled or textured looking, not a flat or solid color.  Pictured is an alligator, with a fern in the foreground, palmetto fronds in back, and some clumps of long grasses. If this isn't the one you're looking for, a couple of others that might be at least worth a glace are "The Life Cycle of the Crocodile" by Paula Hogan (1980), or "The Crocodile and Alligator" (part of the "Animals in the Wild" series from Scholastic) by Vincent Serventy (1986).  Cover of the Hogan book is brown, with picture of crocodile in circle at top, and the word "Crocodile" printed 3 times at bottom.  Cover of the Serventy book shows a photo of an alligator, lying on a rock or bank, reflected in the water. Title is printed on a yellow band at top of page. Good luck!
David Knight, I Can Read About Alligators and Crocodiles, 1979.  This is a possibility, if the book you remember was from a school book fair and was for fairly young readers.  This book was published by Troll.  I found a picture of the old cover here: .  The newer (1999) cover is different but I don't know about the inside illustrations.

Monica Hughes, The Keeper of the Isis Light, 1980.  One of my favorites! I am quite sure this is the one you are looking for. It is the first of a trilogy by a great Canadian author who has written many juvenile/young adult science fiction books. The other two are The Guardian of Isis and The Isis Pedlar.
Unfortunately, it's not the Isis series, which I read and loved at about the same time I read the stumper book.  This one didn't have a Guardian taking care of the girl, and didn't get into the generations of recent-Earth folks settling into the planet.  But thanks for the Isis reference - I didn't know there was a third one!
H.M. Hoover, 1970s/1980s, approximately.  It sounds a little like one of H.M. Hoover's books, but I don't remember the plots well enough to pull the correct title out of my hat!  You could try Only Child, Winds of Mars or maybe Orvis.  Good luck!
H M Hoover, Another Heaven, Another Earth, 1981, approximate.  It's this book; it takes place on the planet Xilan, and the main characters are Gareth (the Xilan colonist) and Lee (one of the explorers).

Try a web search of "puppet storybook" and see if any of those books look familiar. Some of them had a very distinctive 3-d cover made from vinyl and the rest of the book seems to match your description.
You are looking for the Golden Press books with the black covers! The illustrations are actual photos of posed dolls and the cover shows a holographic-like 3D image. I have a few of these books (they were favorites of mine too!). The Emperor's New Clothes was published in 1966.
About that holographic cover...  We hadHansel and Gretel when I was a child, and my mother said that it could be played on a record player.  I don't remember it ever working very well, but it would be interesting to check out the possibility if anyone has a copy and still owns a turntable.
Various, Golden Press books illustrated by Shiba Productions, late 1960's/early 1970's. These were by Golden Press, and had lenticular 3D pictures set into the covers.  The illustrations were photographs of dolls in scenes and were done by Shiba Productions.  They included Emperor's New Clothes, Thumbelina, Little Mermaid, Little Tin Soldier, Snow Queen, Wild Swans, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White.

Scott O'Dell, Sing Down the Moon, 1997, approximately.  Could it be Sing Down the Moon? It was about the Navajos being captured by the Spaniards, I think.

Claude Aubry, Agouhanna, 1972.  I'm sure this is the book you are looking for!
Young Agouhanna, an Iroquois chief's son, does not enjoy hunting and running with the other boys.  Little Doe, a female childhood playmate, and White Eagle, his best friend, try to encourage him as the time of his manhood trial draws near.  White Eagle remains near him in the forest and Little Doe demands to pass the ordeal test along with Agouhanna.  At thirteen the chief's son undergoes his vision and receives a spirit animal  from that time on he is at peace with his nature and with the formerly frightening forest.
I will definitely check out Agouhanna, but I don't think it's the one I'm looking for. I don't remember anything about a girl trying to pass the manhood challenge.  One other thing I remembered that I'm pretty sure was from this book is that the boy was unusually close to his mother, past the time of normal childhood closeness.  She may have been the one who suggested that he hide the supplies in the woods, or might have helped him to gather them.  I remember a scene where the mother is plucking the hairs from his chin, using a clamshell as tweezers, but I'm not 100% sure that scene is from the same book. Thanks for any suggestions!

Jean Horton Berg, The Playful Little Dog, 1951. This is a Wonder Book, similar in size to Little Golden Books.  Archie the Boston Terrier and his owners move to a new neighborhood.  Across the street lives a big dog.  Afraid that the big dog will eat Archie, Archie's owners put up a fence.  When the big dog comes running over, Archie jumps over the fence.  The big dog chases Archie, and then the two dogs lie down and rest together and become friends. 

Watty Piper, The Road in Storyland, (1932). The story entitled the Old Woman Who Wanted All The Cakes appears in the Platt and Munk Company's The Road in Storyland, which I believe was reprinted a number of times in the 1940's and 50's.  The story about an old woman who is transformed into a woodpecker for refusing to give a beggar a piece of pie made quite an impression on me too when I read it about 50 years ago, and was the subject of a previously solved book stumper.
Platt and Munk seems to have cornered the market on this one!!On this site- in archives, it is cited in three of their books. As someone mentioned Road to Storyland, also Folk Tales Children Love- Watty Piper- 1934 illustrations by George and Doris Hauman( unattributed, I believe), and finally Magic Story Tree-Lucille and H.C. Holling-1964. In this last one it is called The Woodpecker, if memory serves me. I have the book-somewhere! Can't locate it right now. I am sure your solution is one of these last two books. Given the Hauman's woodcut type pictures, I think the second title might be your best bet!! Stumpers R 142 and W 183 seem to be looking for the same volume.
Thankyou for the tips but I know that the name of the book is Aesop's Fables and it a collection of fables, the one about the woodpecker is just one of many.

Heinrich-Maria Denneborg, A Trip to Lazibonia,1971. Could A325 be A Trip to Lazibonia by Heinrich-Maria Denneborg? The children are awoken by the dream boat that takes them off to the magical land of Lazibonia!  Through the pyramid of rice pudding to the only place where roast chickens fly straight into your mouth, cheeses are scattered like stones and gingerbread cottages really exist so that the residents can simply lie around. Cooked fish swim in the milk river, honey roast hams run around ready to be carved for lunch. Fountains abound to deliver your favourite drink on a whim.  Need to loosen your belt? Clothes grow on trees and the grass is made of every imaginable colour of hair ribbon. Activity of any kind is frowned upon but if you want to learn you can start at the top and work your way down to kindergarten where you can just have fun all day!"

Cameron, Eleanor, Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, 1954.  Sounds like the Mushroom Planet books.  Most of the activity takes place on their planet, but one alien did come to Earth--Mr. Bass--and he manages to get two boys to build a spaceship and take a hen along to save his homeworld.  Egg yolks fill in some missing piece in their diet and the population is saved.
Zena Henderson, The Anything Box.  This is an anthology of stories I read a few years ago from the library so I can't check the details but I think it had a story in it similar to what you're seeking.  The story I recall had aliens landing on earth and living in a refugee-type camp while negotiations were ongoing among the officials.  A young boy made friends with a young alien, the mothers got to know one another as well, and the humans accidentally discovered that the aliens required something in their diet to survive that was no longer available on their home planet- it may have been salt they were using on a hard-boiled egg at a picnic.  The other book that comes to mind is Eleanor Cameron's Mushroom Planet series- in those books the boys travel to the Mushroom Planet and leave behind a chicken as the people of the planet are dying from lack of sulfur and need the eggs to survive.
The story in Zenna Henderson's The Anything Box about the aliens who need salt is called "Subcommittee". They need salt water, not only to live but to be able to reproduce. To me, it is one of Henderson's best stories. Henderson's other collection of short stories is called Holding Wonder. Her "People" stories were anthologized as InGathering about ten years ago.

You're POSITIVE this isn't The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key, written more than 40 years ago? It's awfully similar, though among other differences, the beginning and ending have shooting stars, not fireworks. See Solved Mysteries. A lovely book. One amateur reviewer said it helped expand his idea of masculinity greatly, too.

Bernard waber, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, 1965.  I remember those books, they were grand. There are a series of them, just in case you were only exposed to one of them.
I'm suggesting this only because his name is Al.  Enright, W J Pat.   Al Alligator and how he learned to play the banjo.  illus by W J Pat Enright.  Dodd, 1947.
Mircea Vasiliu, Where is Alfred?, 1978, copyright.  This book is about a girl named Susan who lives in a city and has a pet alligator named Alfred that loves to eat dog biscuits. One day he falls out of his high-rise window into a treetop. Susan looks all over for him and eventually discovers him in the tree, but all attempts to rescue Alfred fail until Susan has the idea to tie dog biscuits to balloons which are then tied to the end of a fishing pole and extended out of a window.  Alfred leans out to take a bite and when he does, he floats gently down to the ground. Susan makes Alfred a roof garden and soon neighbors with a pet turtle and another alligator move in and Alfred makes new friends.

Sure sounds like the Tweedlebugs from Sesame Street - not sure of the book's title, though.
This sounds like the children's poem "Southbound on the Freeway" by May Swenson. Perhaps her poem was expanded on in another book? (The aliens are not named in this poem) The poem can be found in the 1967 anthology Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle, which is still in print.

Herbert Kenny, Dear Dolphin, 1967. The author name doesn't match what the requester remembers, but I''m fairly certain this is the book. It's an Alice in Wonderland sort of story with a young girl, Ann(e), who follows a dolphin into the sea and runs into a pirate who lives in a sunken shipwreck. I loved this book when I was a child, and got to re-read it again when I visited my parents' house last year.

The Winfield Diamond.  Not exactly a solution, but the story about the diamond necklace sounds suspiciously similar to an old radio play from "The Unexpected" series, called "The Winfield Diamond."  A female jewel thief, while casing the Winfield mansion with the intent of stealing a famous diamond, is approached by Mr. Liggett, the butler, who offers her the position of secretary to the elderly Mr. Winfield, an invalid. She is later given the location and combination to the safe by Mr. Winfield, with instructions to remove the diamond and ship it to a buyer.  She removes the diamond, intending to steal it, but is caught by the butler and ordered to return the diamond and leave the house immediately. Then, of course, the "unexpected" twist - on her way home, she hears a news broadcast that the diamond has been stolen by an international jewel thief, Light-Fingered Liggett, with the aid of a female accomplice posing as the old man's secretary.  She ends up in prison, while Liggett gets away with the diamond. Of course, the genders are switched from the story you recall, but perhaps it is some variation of this one?

I believe this book is called “The Bright-Eye Book”, illustrated by Milo Winter, verses by Marjorie Barrows, 1941. It has a jingly eye on the last page, and each animal is placed to have this jiggle eye as its own eye. There is a bird, a fish, a dog, an owl, a lamb, a duck and a squirrel.

Holling C. Holling, The Book of Indians, 1935, copyright.  This book contains four chapters about the home life of Indians from various regions of the country, and eight chapters relating the adventures of specific Indian children. Chapter titles are: Something About Indians, People of the Forests and Lakes, Otter-Tail Goes Hunting, Flying-Squirrel Gathers Bulrushes, People of the Plains, Buffalo-Calf and the Great Herd, In the Days of Rides-Away-Tinkling, People of the Deserts and Mesas, Little Turtle and the Cliff Dwellers, What Corn Flower Found, People of the Rivers and the Sea, Raven and Whale-Tooth Hunt a Whale, and Cedar-Bough's Bargain.  The book includes six color plates, plus line drawings by H.C. and Lucille Holling.  The cover features a stylized drawing of a thunderbird or eagle below the title. Some editions have a blue cloth cover with either orange or black print, others have red cloth with black print.  The dust jacket shows a full-color picture of an Indian Chief in feather headdress riding a horse. Inside the front and back covers are maps, showing where the various tribes lived.

Edward Lear.  I've never seen a full color version of this, only one with black and white illustrations by the author, but the text is definitely Edward Lear!
This is one of Edward Lear's alphabet poems.
Lear, Edward.  I am sure there are many published versions of this set of limericks.  The alphabet limericks were written by Edward Lear.
Lear Edward, Edward Lear's A nonsense alphabet, 1962, reprint.  There is a version of Lear's alphabet illustrated by Richard Scarry, published by Doubleday in 1962.

Peter Dickinson, The Weathermonger, 1969, copyright. Could you be thinking of The Weathermonger?  Its one of a trilogy (the other two being Heartsease and The Devils Children) - in it the UK has returned to a pre-technological way of life - technology and machines are seen as evil (there is a scene in which lightening attacks a car which the protagonists are trying to use) The source of the anti-tech is not an alien, but Merlin, who has awoken but is kept drugged, but several of the other details, and the publicaton date all fit so I thought it was worth suggesting.
Louise Lawrence, The Power of stars.This is a long shot, but the book may be one I posted as a stumper myself, and this was the solution.
The Louise Lawrence book sounds like it might be the book I'm thinking of--I've ordered an old copy and will let you know once I review it. In the meantime, many thanks for your tip! 

'No, sorry, not THE GHOSTS.  I read this in the early to mid 1970s, plus the plot is not what I was looking for  thank you, anyway, for trying.'

A412: Aprann Li
Aprann Li by Yves Dejean. I did find the book via Worldcat and they are in libraries in NY, FL, MA and CA. I have made an interlibrary loan request for one but would really like to purchase the book. At the bottom of the title page it has -©1983 by the Center for Human Services. Thank you

A413: An Abstract 'Me'
Solved: Me

A414: animals have picnic in forest
Solved: Will You Come to My Party

A415: Anthology: Witch chases children & puts spiderwebs on her wounds
 I read this fav book in the late 70s/ early 80s, it was an anthology of short folk tales - possibly european in origin. The story I remember concerned a witch chasing children - the witch got hurt and returned to her home to put cobwebs on her wounds. Can't recall any other details sorry. thx

A416: Mystery, airport port, crossword puzzle
  Solved: What could Go Wrong?

A417: Awaiting a Sibling
  It's a book my mom had checked out for me from the Salem Library in Oregon when she was pregnant with my sibling in 1986.  It was a book about a little girl (named Dana?) and her mother who is pregnant with her soon-to-be little brother.  The book had photographs instead of hand illustrations.

A418: Arabian  Nights
Solved: The Land of Green Ginger

Don't think this is the one, but your description reminded me of a chapter in a Christian children's book about tales from Africa. The stories had a Biblical slant, but were often upbeat. The one in question was about a wild horse who could not decide whether he wanted to be black or white  in the end he became a zebra because he just could not make up his mind. Hope this helps.
This sounds like a telling of an African folktale - all the animals are white or grey, then there's a cave where they all go to get new coats.  Zebra is eating so doesn't go until it's too late - there's only pieces of black left.  He makes a coat, but when he puts it on it bursts at the seams because he has eaten so much.  Thus he is white striped with black. For one retelling see Greedy Zebra by Hadithi, though that's late enough that it's not the one this requester is looking for.

Doubt this is it, but it does remind me of a Peanuts strip where Sally is setting up a fish tank, telling her brother Charlie Brown her reasons is that "This is the Age of Aquariums"!
It's still a cute bit.

I just remembered that I think on the cover, the letters might have been formed by people or animals or other things, forming the shapes of the letters, like if there was an “H,” it would have two people standing upright, facing each other with arms linked, forming an H. I’m pretty sure I ordered it from a book order at school, which would mean it’s probably Scholastic, unless there was some other company using the same sales model at elementary schools in Iowa in 1978-1980, which is when I bought this book.

A423: A Boy and His Dog
An Eskimo boy and his dog stranded on ice floe, starving.. Boy has to decide if he will eat  the dog before the dog eats him. Childrens literature text book from late 60s.

Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave: An Eskimo Robinson Crusoe, 1939, copyright. The tale of a crippled Eskimo boy who becomes trapped on an ice floe while seal hunting. He is carried to an uninhabited island where he must survive alone for two years before being rescued. I don'\''t know for sure if he has the dog with him on the ice floe, but he did have a dog (a big, black dog named Kakk). An excerpt from the book that I found online talks about how the dogs liked him because he was gentle with them, and how they all obeyed his voice. Even Nuvat'\''s father had to admit that he was the best trainer of puppies in the village - but he had no dog team of his own, because, as a cripple, he was not allowed to hunt with the men. Sounds like it might be the book you are looking for.
A Boy and His Dog, Doone, Radko, Nuvat the Brave,1934, approximate. A children's lit textbook from the 1960s has this description for Nuvat:  "an Arctic setting and an Eskimo hero.  Despised and disheartened, Nuvat is carried off on a floe.  He maintains life for two years, completely alone except for his dogs."
Hugh B. Cave, Two Were Left.
Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave. The tale of a crippled Eskimo boy who becomes trapped on an ice floe while seal hunting. He is carried to an uninhabited island where he must survive alone for two years before being rescued. I don'\''t know for sure if he has the dog with him on the ice floe, but he did have a dog (a big, black dog named Kakk). An excerpt from the book that I found online talks about how the dogs liked him because he was gentle with them, and how they all obeyed his voice. Even Nuvat'\''s father had to admit that he was the best trainer of puppies in the village - but he had no dog team of his own, because, as a cripple, he was not allowed to hunt with the men. Sounds like it might be the book you are looking for.
Hugh B. Cave, Two Were Left, 1942, copyright. This is Cave's "Two Were Left."  It was first published in the June 1942 issue of THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE  it's been reprinted in many anthologies and textbooks and there are at least a couple of copies of the full text (which is only two or three pages) on the web.  Cave published something like a thousand stories in his 94 years of life, and this short piece may be his best-known one.
A Boy and His Dog, Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave.
Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave.The tale of a crippled Eskimo boy who becomes trapped on an ice floe while seal hunting. He is carried to an uninhabited island where he must survive alone for two years before being rescued. I don't know for sure if he has the dog with him on the ice floe, but he did have a dog (a big, black dog named Kakk). An excerpt from the book that I found online talks about how the dogs liked him because he was gentle with them, and how they all obeyed his voice. Even Nuvat's father had to admit that he was the best trainer of puppies in the village - but he had no dog team of his own, because, as a cripple, he was not allowed to hunt with the men. Sounds like it might be the book you are looking for. (I've submitted this twice before, but it hasn't shown up in either of the last two updates, so here's hoping third time's a charm!)

A424:Alaska
 The book I'm trying to find is about Alaska.  It was written by my Great Uncle, Lee Gardner, before Alaska became a state.  My mother had a copy that got destroyed when her home was flooded.  I sent a query to the Library of Congress and they suggested you.

Oscar Weigle, Tadasu Izawa, Fun With The Alphabet (A Puppet Storybook), 1969. Published by Grosset and Dunlap. Front cover is white, featuring a 3D image on a lenticular plate. Picture is of a large letter "A" (in yellow, with red and white scalloped borders) in front of a little house, with a little boy leaning out through the triangular part at the top, as through a window, and a little girl in front of him, pulling a wagon that contains a red-and-white striped beach ball. There is also another printing (as a "Winker Puppet Storybook") that has a pink cover with a 3D lenticular plate of the boy flying in a little airplane.

A426: Amos the Duck Can't Talk
There was a book that my mom used to read to me in the '60's that I can't find.  In the book all the other ducks kept saying, "Amos can't talk, Amos can't talk."  He turned out to be a swan and not a duck.  Sound like an ugly duckling story but not sure.  Any help out there? Thank you!

Bradbury, Bianca, Amos Learns to Talk: The Story of a Little Duck, 1951.
Bianca Bradbury, Clare McKinley (illus) , Amos Learns to Talk: The Story of a Little Duck,1950, 1963 (reprint). A Rand McNally Elf Book about a little duckling (Amos) who goes around visiting the other animals on the farm to find out how they talk, because he thinks the quacking of his brothers and sisters sounds funny. When he gets lost, he discovers just how wonderful his mother's "Quack Quack" sounds.

Val Teal, Angel Child, 1946.This is a Rand McNally Tiptop Elf book.  It's the story of a boy and girl who find an angel baby dangling from a tree.  They take care of the angel baby until one day they push him on the swing.  His wings unfold and he flies away.  They are sad to lose their angel child, but they go into the house to discover that their mother has just had a baby, an angel child of their own.  The publication date is older than you suggested, but I was given this book in the 70's, so I suspect my copy is a later reprint that only shows the original date.

Mike Wilks, The Ultimate Alphabet.  If your book had very realistic detailed oil paintings that were a bit surreal, this may be your book. Go to the author's website to see reproduction of the cover and some pages to be sure.
Graeme Base, Animalia, 1986. This is a strong possibility. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a complex painting containing many objects beginning with that letter, plus a short verse describing the animal beginning with the corresponding letter. B is for Butterfly, of course.
Base, Graeme, Animalia, 1993. Animalia would be a distinct possibility. There are gorgeous, elaborate illustrations for every letter in the alphabet
Graeme Base, Animalia. If the pages also had alliterative phrases (like "Crafty Crimson Cats Carefully Catching Crusty Crayfish"), it could be Animalia.
Graham Base, Animalia. There are probably several books that fit this description, but Animalia is my favorite
Mike Wilks, The Ultimate Alphabet, 1986. If there were literally hundreds of items in each picture, it could well be The Ultimate Alphabet.  It was first published as a competition - name everything in the book and win a cash prize - and I don't know if anyone ever won  to find all the things in the pictures, you'd need a huge vocabulary.  The paintings are landscape-format, and each one faces a page with a paragraph or so listing some of the items to be found in it.  In total, the book contains 7,777 namable items in the 26 pictures, ranging from 30 (X) to 1,229 (S).  The pictures are very crisply painted, and of course tremendously detailed.
Graeme Base, Animalia.

Kathryn Jackson  (Author), Richard Scarry (Illustrator), 365 Animal Bedtime Stories, Richard Scarry's A Story A Day 365 Stories and Rhymes. This book has a blue cover and stories for each of the seasons. Also a similar book with the same illustrator (Richard Scarry) is THE GOLDEN BOOK OF 365 STORIES A Story for Every Day of the Year by J.D. Bevington.
Kathryn Jackson, The Golden Book of 365 Stories. I know you said it wasn't The Golden Book, but there are several editions. I have this one (with pictures by Richard Scarry) and it matches your description perfectly, including the cover description. You can see it at http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2009/02/golden-book-of-365-stories.html

A443: Animal with sweet tooth, series
There was a book series (I think it was a series) that I read as a child in the 80's. The characters were animals and I think it was a Berenstein Bears type series. The one I remember in particular was about an animal dealing with a sweet tooth problem and it may have caused him bad dreams.

Jacquelyn Reinach, Elephant Eats the Profits (Sweet Pickles Books), 1977. Possibly the Sweet Pickles Books, specifically Elephant Eats the Profits for the one described. All the cover images can be viewed at http://sweetpickles.com/The_Books.html to see if they ring a bell.
Stan and Jan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food, 1985. If it's possible you're combining memories of two different books, there's The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food, where the love of Sweetsie Cola, Sugar Balls, Coco-Chums, and other unhealthy snacks causes Brother, Sister, and Papa bear to get fat. A visit to Doc Grizzly results in an explanation of how the body works - complete with diagrams of the nervous, circulatory, digestive, muscular, and skeletal systems - and the proper foods to fuel it. Doc Grizzly prescribes an exercise program and Mama replaces the junk food with healthy snacks. There isn't anything about bad dreams, but there is another book in the series - The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream - that does. That one doesn't have anything to do with sweets, though - it's more an explanation of how dreams are made up of bits of things you remember from earlier in the day.
Richard Hefter, various titles. Could this maybe be the Sweet Pickles series? They're less of a story than the Berenstain Bears, but like those books, they have a moral at the end.
Sigh. Thanks for the help, but it's not the sweet pickles series and not the berenstein bears. It was not as juvenile as the sweet pickles appears- it seemed more like the berenstein bears type illustration. I read them through my school's scholastic book fair sales I think. The year had to be around 1986-1991. Like I said, similar in size and illustration to the berensteins, just not the berensteins. Maybe a little edgier, if that is possible. I'm thinking like bears or raccoons or some other smallish, furry animal. A brother and a sister?
Brown, Marc, Arthur series, various titles. I don't know about edgier, but could this be Marc Brown's stories of  Arthur and sister DW?
Russell Hoban, Harvey's Hideout. I'm just throwing Harvey's Hideout here because it's a bit "edgier" than similar small-animal stories...and because, although there's no sweet tooth problem in that story, you might, might possibly be thinking of both that book and the Frances-the-badger books (maybe Bread and Jam for Frances), since Russell Hoban wrote all of them.
Nope- not any of those. I am beginning to think I am delusional, ha! Thanks for all your trying, I really appreciate it. I guess I'll be taking this one to the grave with me.
We'll keep trying!
Lillian Hoban, Arthur series. Arthur and Violet, chimpanzees.  Lots of sweets in these books.  Not sure about the bad dream - he was afraid to go upstairs in the dark in "Arthur's Loose Tooth"
Mayer, Mercer, What a Bad Dream. Could it be What a Bad Dream by Mercer Mayer? It is one of the Little Critter series. Here's a plot summary:Turning himself into a scary, disagreeable monster who won't go to school or take a bath or eat anything but fudge pops and pizza, Little Critter discovers that his family has decided to go away and leave him alone. Trapped in a lonely dream, Little Critter has to make a choice.
Nope, still none of those all though the little critter one seems closer to what I remember, just not exactly.

You can see examples of her illustrations and summaries of all the books on the author's website here: http://www.bramblyhedge.co.uk/