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K5: Kittens
Solved: Katie The
Kitten
K7: Kittens,
dirty
Solved: The Kittens Who
Hid From Their Mother
K9: Kidnapping
of the coffepot
Solved: The Kidnapping
of the Coffee Pot
K10: Kingfisher family
Solved: Peaky Beaky
K11: Kittens from a cave
Solved: Jenny's
Surprise Summer
K12: Keeper
This was a science fiction paperback book that I first read in
the mid to late 70's. Truth be told, I wasn't able to finish
reading the book, so I am not even clear about how it might have
ended or what the details of the story line might be! Nice
one for you to try and figure out, huh?! :) I vaguley
remember that it was a coming of age story about a boy who lived
possibly on another planet and either he, or someone close to him,
changed into some other creature that floated slowly in the
air. That particular scene had a very dreamlike
quality. It was a great book that I have always
regretted not finishing and having a copy for my own. Can you
help?
Could this be The Boy Who Could Fly?
It
was
about
a
boy
who
had
a
younger
brother
that
was
very
different,
special,
and
could
do
weird
things.
At
the
very
end
the
boy
levitates
in
front
of
many
other
witnesses,
looking
to
the
older
boy
like
Buddha.
Very dream-like ending, and it was in the Sci-Fi area of our
gradeschool library, (for lack of a better classification -
today it would be called new age). Some scenes you might
remember - going on a train with younger brother to spend a
month with their grandparents. The older boy disliked his
little brother for being so special, getting all the attention,
etc, but comes to realize at the end that he IS special, and he
loves him.
I haven't read this, so it's vague, but what
about The Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica
Hughes, published 1980? It's part of a trilogy (Guardian
of Isis, The Isis Pedlar) set on another planet, or an a
beacon in space. Olwen, 16 Earth years or 10 Isis years old,
keeps the beacon by herself. She's the main character but there
is a boy involved. She's also been genetically altered in some
way to fit her for the work and environment, and there's some
question whether the boy and his colleagues can adjust to
dealing with her. No idea about floating, though.
K12 - this is defintely NOT Keeper of
the Isis Light - no flying in that, I've just read
it again for a children's literature conference.
Definitely not Keeper of the Isis
Light where the girl who is the Keeper (whose name
eacpes me for the moment) has been 'genetically modified' (!) by
her robot companion to be able to survive the conditions on Isis
without breathing apparatus, extra UV protection etc. But there
is no flying except in 'floater'-type vehicles. Has the poster
checked Penelope Farmer's The
Summer Birds- though my memory of this is more
'magic' than sci-fi.
Isaac Asimov. Story of a boy
visiting a planet with his mother to decice whether the human
colonists can take over the whole planet. He realises that the
rock like creatures are intelligent by telepathy with one of the
young ones. Coming of age involves flying. In order to convice
everyone of their intelligence he suggests that the young rock
creature make the shape of something to do with Christmas
(angel?) in the sky, thereby proving that they must be
intelligent to have understood his suggestion. It's the only
children's book by Asimov that I know of
Robert Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars, late 60's. This is one of my least
favorite Heinlein book for kids. In it there is a male main
character, a female who is extremely bossy (I think) and a
fairylike creature from another planet that the female character
adopts. It may be far fetched, but when I read this discription
and the other solutions...I thought of this book.
Robert Heinlein, Red Planet. Maybe this book set on Mars. Definite coming of
age story. As a part of it, a teenage boy has a pet "martian"
named Willis who is small, cute, etc. Later in the book, Willis
transforms into something else much different. The colonists
never knew this would happen because they had not been on Mars
long enough to see the creatures go through adolescence. Thought
there were several species of Martians. Turns out it is one
species but different ages take different forms.
K16: Kitten family
Solved: Nine Lives
Collection
K17: "Kitty carol"
Something to do with a little girl who was
an orphan. I read it in the 1950's, but the book belonged to my
mother...so the age of the book is unknown to me.
K18: Karen Kay
Solved: Big Little
Kitty
K19: Kubla Khan kids
Solved: Next Door to Xanadu
K20: Kate
Solved: Kate
K21: Kittens born in the city
Solved: Wild Cat
K22: Katie Wants to Play
Solved: Katy Rose is
Mad
K23: King gets lost after dark
From what I recall, there was a king who
got lost after dark. The illustrations were quite
memorable, simple basic colors.
King Nunn the Wiser,
1970? Picture book - King travels through all sorts of
adventures in the dark that are not at all what he thinks they
are
Thank you. I would like to find information of the title
that you mentioned. Do you know who the author might be?
I think the author of King Nonn
(?Nunn) the Wiser is Colin McNaughton, but
no longer have a copy in stock to check - thought I had and have
been looking for it - hence the delay in getting back to you
about it!
I haven't been able to find reference to
this...
More on the suggested - King Nonn the
Wiser, written and illustrated by Colin
McNaughton, published Heinemann 1981, 32 pages. "King
Nonn was very happy in his library, reading all day and
getting always more short-sighted. But his subjects wanted him
to fight dragons and right wrongs, so sadly he and his
short-sighted horse went off in search of adventure. It was
all around him - giants, haunted forests, distressed maidens,
dragons - but he saw none of them. After unhorsing, by
accident, his warlike neighbour King Blagard of Rong, he
returns home to find himself a hero. Thankfully he
returns to his library." (Junior Bookshelf Dec/81 p.242)
Fred Gwynne, The King Who Rained. This may not be your book title but Fred
Gwynne wrote and illustrated a few children's books, word play,
etc.
K24: Kangaroo mail truck
Solved: Too Many
Pockets
K25: Knicker knick, Knacker knack
Solved: Nikkernik, Nakkernak and Nokkernok
K26: King and Cat
When my family moved most of my favorite books were lost or sold.
The book I'm now looking for is probably from England. It is about
a King who is to be receiving a present, specifically a cat. The
townspeople guess at what the cat will look like, and even imagine
it as an enormous fat mean cat who towers over the town like
Godzilla. In the end, a giant box is delivered and a small kitten
walks out.
K27: Kidnapped
Solved: Ransom
K28: Kids ride cloud meet
turtle
Two children, a brother and a sister, are ustairs at home by a
window. They catch a ride on a passing cloud, which takes
them far away. They disembark at a strange place. I
believe there was a roundish building about. There they meet
and make friends with a huge, turtle-like creature. The
creature has a different object (such a phone, for example) hidden
under each of the plates in his shell. Eventually, the kids
return home. I remember the book's being a bit wider than it
was tall, and there was a lot of orange in the cover (which, if
memory serves, featured the creature).
K29: Kittens Found Inside Bus Seat
Solved: The
Wild Warning
K30: Kumquats and pitter patter
Solved: Gunniwolf
K31: Kim and her dolls
I am looking for a beautifully illustrated book c. 1950's-1960's
about a little girl and her dolls. I think the little girl's
name was Kim. Either the little girl, or her doll was Kim, and I
believe it was the little girl. I bought it for my daughter
named Kim and she has always remembered how much she loved the
book and we have looked for a copy of it for years. Can you
help me?
Kim Yaroshevskaya, Little Kim's Doll. Might not be this one as it seems to be
more recent, could be a reprint though?
K32: Know Nothings are key characters
Some kids have an underground/other world type adventure that
involves some characters called The Know Nothings. I think the
book was purple. Had it read to me in about 1973 and it was a
library book, so may be much older.
K32 know nothings: could this be The
Secret World of Og, by Pierre Berton,
published McClelland & Stewart 1961, 146 pages? The first
edition was illustrated by William Winter, with a green cover,
but the 1974 edition with illustrations by Patsy Berton, does
have some purple on the cover. The story is about Penny, Pamela,
Patsy, Peter, and the baby Paul (Pollywog) who find a tunnel
under their playhouse that leads to the world of Og. The Ogs are
short and greenskinned with floppy ears who have learned about
the upper world by stealing and reading comic books. There is no
actual reference to 'Know-Nothings' but the Ogs are pretty
ignorant.
2002
K33: Kitten finds a home
Solved: Up and Away
K34: Kathy Hicks
Solved: Cindy Bakes a
Funny Cake
K35:
Katie Rose
Solved: Katy Rose is Mad
K36: Kids travel back
in time from NY to New Amsterdam
Solved: The Magic Tunnel
K37:
Kitten Stories
Solved: Bedtime Stories
K38: kids learn to eat foods
they dislike
I'm looking for a book that I remember reading in elementary
school in the 1950s. It's about kids who end up away from
their home in a fantasy land. They can't get home until they
complete three tasks, one of which is learning to like foods that
they dislike. I can't remember the other two tasks or
anything else about the book but would appreciate it if someone
else can. Thanks!
Juliana Horatia Ewing, Amelia and
the Dwarfs, 19th
century. The description sounds as though it *might* be
this story, which was part of a collection of short stories by
Mrs. Ewing, "The Brownies and Other Stories". Amelia, a naughty
spoilt child, is spirited away to a fantasy land, where she has
to complete several tasks, which, as far as I remember, include
not learning to *like* certain foods, but finishing the foods
that she has wasted. She also has to mend the clothes that she
has torn repair the conversations that she has interrupted
(!) and possibly something else as well.
2003
K39: King and Three
Sons
Solved: The King's Wish
and Other Stories
K40:
Kittens eat garden
Solved: Bedtime Stories
K41:
Kooma
of
the
Jungle
Solved: The White
Panther
K42: Krakatau
Solved: The Twenty-One
Balloons
K43: Kids find hidden room in house, smugglers
Solved: Secret of Smuggler's Wood
K44: Kings and Queens (?) may be part of title
Solved: Kings and Queens
K45: Koala bear in airplane
koala bear in airplane wearing a parachute sees the lights of
Paris. Sepia illustration. Probably published mid "30's to 40,s.
K46: Kitten with Ribbons
Solved: Big Little Kitty
K47: kiki marie
Solved: Pinky
Marie -The Story Of Her Adventure With The Seven Bluebirds
K48:
Kids
mistakenly
leave
train
Solved: Dolphin Luck
K49:
Kids
in
London
Thwart Thieves
I read two books at about the same time while in a catholic grade
school. I enjoyed them very much and they got me interested in
reading longer adventure stories (geared to pre-teen boys). One I
found on this website and it was written in 1965. I figure this
other book was written around the same time. Some of the
details I relate may be faulty memories, but what little I
remember of the story was that it dealt with a group of kids from
a working class (?) neighborhood in England - London I believe.
They somehow become suspicious of a group of men who open a shop
next to a bank. They finally put the clues together and discover
that the men are tunneling from the shop to the bank vault in
order to rob it. As I recall, they deduce this when they see one
of the men come out of the shop wearing a mackintosh on a bright,
sunny day - he is hiding tools or dirt under the mack. The kids
develop some ruse to expose the robbers and the men are caught.
I may be way off base, but if the book you
read was heavily illustrated, it was possibly the Adventures
of the Black Hand Gang.
No, it wasn’t Adventures of the Black Hand Gang. I
checked into that one and it isn’t the same book. Someone told
me about a series called The Secret Seven by Enid
Blyton, but I’m not familiar with it and don’t know whether any
story is similar to my recollection. I looked up some
information about her and the description of the kids and types
of adventures in the series sounds somewhat similar. I’m not
sure how much my memory melds different recollections into one,
but the detail I recall as being in the story most is the
incident with the man wearing the mackintosh in the warm sun as
what the kids notice to solve the mystery.
I am not sure, but am wondering if this
could be one of Roy Brown's books. He wrote quite a few
mystery/ adventure stories about working class London children.
Titles include A Saturday in Pudney, The Day of the
Pigeons, The Viaduct and several others.
Robert Martin, Joey and the Mail
Robbers. The
"Joey" series by Robert Martin was about a group of working
class kids in London who solve mysteries and prevent crimes.
There are many titles in the series and the author wrote similar
books under other names as well as "Robert Martin". "Joey and
the Mail Robbers" is a likely title but there are other
possibilities including non-Joey books by this author.
Astrid Lindgren, Bill Bergson Lives
Dangerously. I
have the vaguest feeling that the raincoat scene is in this book
or one of the other two Bill Bergson books.
Kind of a longshot, but some elements are
the same. Here's teh plot synopsis: "A bunch of French children
with a headless wooden horse get involved with a gang of thieves
who plan to rob the Dijon-Paris Express. The theft completed,
the money is hidden overnight in a nearby novelty factory and
the key to the money inside the wooden horse. Helped by a horde
of dogs the children manage to catch the crooks before they can
get away with the money." Working class children,
adventure, crooks- but in Paris. And its probably not right
because I would tink you'd remember the horse
C. Day Lewis, Otterbury
Incident. This could be it. Try it anyway
it's very well written. Two English working-class kids groups
play war games with each other (this was pretty soon after WWII)
but then work together to catch the bank robbers. Very
well done. I believe Ardizzone was the illustrator.
K50: Kids on an island in summer; lagoon;
adventures; cove
Solved: Gone-Away Lake
K51: kangaroo gives other animal an apron with pockets
Solved: Katy No-Pocket
K52: Kitten named Socks
Solved: Socks (Cleary)
K53:
Kitten-Sewing Machine Swap
Solved: Me and Emily and the Cat
K54: Kids Paint old lady's apartment in the 1970's
There were some city kids that paint an apartment of an old lady.
I don't know why, but on one page there is a huge lion. And all
the colors are oranges and yellows and greens. And there is a sun
behind the lion and lots of other animals, a rabbit in the bottom
right hand corner, and lots of tropical plants. That's all I
know.
K55: Kids meet mysterious woman in the Old South
Solved: Zeely
K56: knotholes cats windows secret-passages
Solved: Mansion of Secrets
K57: kite that flew?
Solved: The Toy That Flew
K58: Kids build tree house
A group of children build an elaborate tree
house and develop a secret morse type code. Seems like it is
summer and they are on holiday in country house that is
unfamiliar to them. Teacher read to us in 1971 and I read on my
own. Much detail. Kids not all in same family.
It is not a Swallows and Amazons book. Pretty sure set in
America.
K58 is
NOT Longman The wonderful tree house
Gertrude
Chandler
Warner, Tree House Mystery (Boxcar Children #14).
All of the Boxcar Children mysteries take place during the
summer, so that part fits. In this one, they get new
neighbors and the 2 sons on the family want to build a
treehouse, so the Aldens help them. The new boys have a
spyglass, and the group discovers a hidden room in the house
when they see a window in the end of the house that is not
visible from inside the house. They discover a child's
room that was boarded over because the child moved away for
some reason. The room contains toys the child played
with. I think they used a flashlight to signal the Alden
children from the treehouse, which would have probably been
the morse code in the description.
I am
the person who wrote the stumper. I had not checked on
this in a while and I now see that my book is in the solved
pile. Sorry! It hasn't been solved! The
book is not a Boxcar Children book. At the time I
loved that series and if a teacher read me one that would
have registered and this would not be a mystery to me. The
book was entirely new to me, not part of a series I had read
before and loved. Most definately not the Box Car
children. A lead from Chinaberry has me wondering if
the book isn't Either Then There Were Five or The
4 Story Mistake by Eizabeth Enright.
Peggy
Parrish, Clues in the Woods.
Maida's little . . .This sounds like a series I read when I
was a child, based on the lives of a group of friends. The
central character was Maida, who, I seem to remember, had a
limp. There were books like Maida's Little
House, etc. And
your mention of "then there were five" reminded me of another
series I read, about the Five Little Peppers. Hope one of these suggestions
hits the mark.
2004
K59: Kindly, elderly bear finds boy lost in woods
Solved: Parade of
Stories
K60: King/Emperor helped by animal
Solved: The Wisest Man
in the World
K61:
Kids
meet
friendly
scarecrow
Solved: The Cheery Scarecrow
K62: kids in a town of food
Solved: Trip to Lazibonia
K63: Knight beheaded while young friend watches
It's about a young boy who becomes homeless, medieval times, and
finds the world a very rough place. He is befriended by a
young warrior or knight, a wanderer of sorts, and they have some
really scary adventures. In the end, the boy's
protector/friend is captured and beheaded, and the boy sees it
happen. It was a good book, I think it was by a fairly well
known writer but maybe not. That's all the details I
remember. This might assist in finding my other stumper
(S-308), because they were both new around the same time,
approximately the late 1960s. Another title from the same
approximate time might be, "One is One," by Barbara Leonie Picard,
which was published in 1965.
Rosemary Sutcliffe, Knight's Fee.
Knight's Fee may be it, but the reviews I found of it on
the internet say the boy's benefactor was killed in
battle...still a possibility depending on how many benefactors
he had. In the book I read he was definitely captured and
beheaded by a band of renegades or marauders or something.
K63 Isn't it just Sutcliff?
Rosemary Sutcliff's Knight's Fee is definitely not the
solution to my stumper. The book I'm looking for is not
about knights, courts, and squires, it's about common people
alone together in a real scary world.
K64: kingdom becomes beautiful
I am looking for a children's picture book - the story is about a
king who's kingdom is not doing well. Someone comes along
who can "see" the kingdom to be beautiful (I believe that there
may be a pair of glasses involved). By viewing the kingdom
in this new way, the king is able to direct his kingdom in this
positive new direction.
Richard Paul Evans, The Spyglass,
2000. Could this be
it? "K-Gr 5-This original fable offers a lesson about
faith through the fall and rise of a kingdom. A once-great realm
has declined into poverty, both of wealth and of spirit, until a
passing stranger loans a magical spyglass to the king. Through
it, the ruler and his subjects can see "what might be." A barren
pasture appears as a fertile field and a crumbling cathedral
looks magnificent when viewed through the spyglass. These images
restore faith to the people, who then work together to restore
the land to its past prosperity."
K65: Kittens Swapped for Other Pets
Solved: One Kitten for Kim
K66:
Kitten
Dispersement
had a book as a little girl about a little girl whose cat had a
litter of kittens that she wanted to keep but her mother said
no. So she loaded up the kittens in her wagon and took them
around her block (because she wasn't allowed to cross the street)
to give them to her neighbors...she gave the kittens away to
people who looked like the kittens, for instance if a cat was
white with black circles around it's eyes she's give it to the
neighbor with black rimmed glasses...in the end I believe she gave
them all away.
Newberry, Clare Turlay, April's
Kittens. NY
Harper 1940. Perhaps this one. April's family lives in a
one-cat apartment. When her black cat Sheba has three kittens,
April must decide which cat to keep and find homes for the
others. The kittens are Brenda, Butch, and Charcoal. I don't
know their markings, but the kitten on the cover is all black
(Charcoal?).
I don't think April's Kittens
sounds right she doesn't give them away to matching
people. At the end of that book her parents agree to let
her keep one of the kittens along with the mother cat since they
have decided it's time to move to a two-cat-sized apartment.
Kate's Kittens. Not sure if
this is it, but I had a book about a very small girl named Kate
living on a city block (it listed all the neighbors - she was
much smaller than the grocer, etc). She finds an orange
cat with kittens and puts them in her wagon and gives them to
all the neighbors, and at the end she feels big. The
colors were mostly black, white, brown and orange in the
pictures. I can't remember the title or author,
unfortunately!
Phyllis LaFarge, Kate
and the Wild Kittens, 1965, copyright. I
found this book! Randomly, at the library, displayed on a
shelf... All the cats in the neighborhood are disappearing, and
only little Kate can find them. They are with a mother cat
and her kittens, and she must return them all to their owners,
keeping the mother cat and kittens for herself. Very New
York/Eloise style. Hope this is your book!
K67: Kittens: chocolate-drop, lollipop, lemon-drop
Solved: Peppermint
K68:
Kat in London
Solved: Stairway to a
Secret
K69:
Kittens
My daughter-in-law has talked for several years about a small
book, maybe a Little Golden Book with a kitten story. The
book may have been pink. Toward the end of the book the
kittens are on the bed making it dirty and also there is a floppy
hat on the bed. There are three or four kittens. That's as
much as she has told me!
Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Tom
Kitten. Any
possibility it could be a Beatrix Potter book? In The
Tale of Tom Kitten, Tom and his sisters Moppet and
Mittens are sent upstairs as punishment, and they end up making
a wreck of the bedroom there's an illustration with them all
over the bed and one of them is wearing a bonnet.
2005
K70: Killer Persian Cat
A killer persian cat and a group of rabbits
are living in the woods--perhaps together? There is a
gamekeeper who possibly strings up the cat with magpies?
It is a spooky, sinister book with silverpoint
illustrations. Large, rectangular with fine paper. This is
a book that an older colleague of mine remembers with fondness.
I would like to be able to find her a copy for her retirement
present. She read it when she was a child. She
associates the name Collins with it, but I think that might be
the publisher, not the author.
K71: kids visit grandma and grandpa
Solved: We Like To
Visit Grandma and Grandpa
K72: Kentucky Settlers
Solved: The Young
Trailers series
K73:
king-smallest
but
most
knowledgable
Solved: May I Stay?
K74:
Kay
Thompson?
Solved: Kay Tracey Mysteries
K75:
Kit and Carlos
Solved: A Time for
Tenderness
K76:
King Arthur's Dragon
Solved: Green Smoke
K77:
kids find forgotten street and old couple
Solved: Gone-Away Lake
K78: Kittens meet cannibal at sea
This is a children's book, beautifully illustrated, about a
few kittens (don't remember the exact number) that live in an
upturned boat on a shoreline, and then take a voyage out to sea,
or get lost a sea. At the end of the book, they land in the South
Seas somewhere and meet a friendly cannibal, a character with very
big lips and many huge ostrich feathers. The art is very intricate
and full of great details, such as many little sea creatures,
crabs, etc., with their own little personalities, running around
the bottom of the pages. I think there is also a bird that goes
along with them. I had this book in the 50's or 60's, but I don't
know the title. It is NOT the two-page story by Clarence Mansfield
Lindsay called, "The Three Little Kittens Who Went to Sea", which
was published in the 50's in a magazine entitled "Wee Wisdom". I
saw that reproduced and it's not it. This is a book of its own
with several pages.
I was thinking it could be cats
instead of kittens.
K79:
Kid on peanut butter (and jelly?) river
I read it in the late 70's /early 80's. It's a book about a
boy(& friends?) floating down a river of peanut butter (and
possilby jelly) on a slice of bread, and other adventures.
Hardcover (approx. 12H x 9W). May have had pictures of
flying pigs on inside front & back cover.
Louis Ross and Margot Apple, In
the
Peanut
Butter Colony,1979.This could be a long shot, but
this may be this book which was about a boy who traveled to a
land of peanut butter creatures who battled jelly
creatures. He traveled there by means of a saltine cracker
on a tomato soup river, using a spoon as an oar. Was
mainly about a young boy's lunch time fantasy. It happened
to be a child hood favorite of mine that I also can not find.
K80: kittens
Golden Books (?), 70s-80s. Book about a farm family -
the mother sends her children out one at a time to tell the others
to come in for supper. Each gets distracted by new baby
kittens in the loft of the barn. Finally the mother comes
herself and discovers her children and the baby kittens.
Cook, Bernadine. Looking for
Susie. illus by Judith
Shahn. Young Scott, 1959. farm life - juvenile
fiction; cat & kittens in loft This
is not a Little Golden but the story definitely matches. It has
been put out in several editions.
Interpreting
Condition
Grades
|
Cook, Bernadine. Looking for Susie.
Young Scott,
1959. library
binding, slightly soiled, initials on endpaper
[SQ14486] $12 |
|
K81: Kampbell
I'm trying to find a juvenile book (no
pictures, geared toward young teens) about a teenage girl who
used to act in a television show. The show was about a
fictional "Campbell" family, or that might have been spelled
"Kampbell". The show might've been called "The Kampbell
Kids". Anyway, after the show ends, she moves with her
mother away from California and show business. Her mother
has either recently re-married, or is getting married, and the
girl goes to live with her new step-family, in New England I
think. Her stepbrother is named Peter(?) and he has
hemophilia. Anyway, the book is a novel and it's about the
former actress fitting in at her new school and with her new
lifestyle. Can you help me find it?
A couple of details I forgot to mention (sorry!): the
book was a paperback, regular size, and I read it around 1980 or
so. It was a new (i.e. modern day) book then, so it
couldn't have been written before 1978. Thanks!
This is definitely Starring Peter
& Leigh by Susan Beth Pfeffer.
"When her mother remarries, 16-year-old Leigh abandons her
acting career and tries to lead the life of a normal teenager.
She is coached by her 17-year-old stepbrother, homebound with
hemophilia."
Pfeffer, Susan Beth, Starring Peter
and Leigh: A Novel,
1979. When her mother remarries, 16-year-old Leigh
abandons her acting career and tries to lead the life of a
normal teenager. She is coached by her 17-year-old stepbrother,
homebound with hemophilia.
Wow, that was fast! Yes, that's the book. Thank you
SO much!!
K82: Knitting and reknitting
Solved: Socks for
Supper
K83: kids adventure series brothers
Solved: Adventure series
K84: Kitten gets dyed blue and wins contest
Solved: Peppermint
K85: Kitten
Title could have been "hello, kitten" or "karen's kitten"
or "The Kitten's Secret". This book is pink and has a
picture of a blonde haired girl holding up a white kitten.
The kitten is wearing a blue. All I can remember about the
basic plot was that the girl received the kitten either as a gift,
or the kitten arrived at her home one day. It is also a small
children's book. Not the regular size of the books in the
"Little Golden Books series".
Jan Biggers, Big Little Kitty, 1953. Are you sure the kitten was
white? Because this sure sounds like Big Little
Kitty, a Whitman Tell-a-Tale book. These books are
smaller than the Little Golden Books (approx. 6 1/2" x 5 1/2").
The cover is pink, showing a little girl in a pink and white
dress, with golden blonde curls held back in a little ponytail
with a blue ribbon. In her arms is a yellow and white kitten
with a blue ribbon around its neck and big blue eyes. The girl's
name is Karen Kay.
Jan D. Biggers, Big Little Kitty, 1953. Sounds like Big Little Kitty
except the kitty being held by the little girl on the cover is
orange, not white. I believe one of the other kitties that
appear at the end of the book is white. It begins
something like "Karen Kay is four years old, how about
you?" It goes on to tell about how she got the kitty, how
it disappeared one day, and then how it reappeared on Christmas
day with three other kitties. Here is a picture
of the cover.
2006
K86: Kansas City to California
Solved: The Wonderful
Year
K87: Kids franchise "unused" airspace
'Brainy' kid and his friends discover that
no one 'owns' the air, somehow claim the rights to said airspace
and spend the summer franchising their discovery. One example I
remember is charging the local bakery for all the 'space' in the
center of every donut they baked. There were also various run
ins with local government officials about the validity of their
claim. I read this as a child in the 50's so I'm pretty sure it
was not published later than 1960.
K88: Kelpies
Solved: The Kelpies
K89: Katie with depression
Solved: Gimme an H! Gimme an E! Gimme an L!
Gimme a P!
K90:
kids
search
for
missing letters
Solved: Mystery at
Shadow Pond
K91:
kidnapped
Solved: Judas Child
K92: Kitten tries to hide
white "sock"
I am looking for information about my father's favorite childhood
story (he would have been reading it around 1957). It is
titled Socks and was about a kitten with one white paw. He
was always trying to cover his white paw and my father remembers
that at some point in the story, the kitten dips his paw in ink to
try to cover up the white "sock". Any information that would
lead me to this book would be greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks
for your help!
Betty Molgard Ryan Florence Sarah
Winship (illus), Socks. (1949) I'm sure
this is it. Socks was published by the Whitman Publishing
Company, and is a small book - about the size of a Jr. Elf book
(5.5" x 6.5"). Cover shows black kitten w/ white paws
& tail tip and big green eyes sitting on grass w/ daisies
& violets, in front of a brownish board fence. Only
instead of 1 white sock, the kitten has 4 white socks and a
white tip on his tail. Some children and the other animals
in the barn where he lives tease him about his white socks &
tail. He wishes he were all black like his 4 siblings, so he
goes to the cow, horse, and pig for advice on getting rid of his
white feet. Finally, he sees the farmer's wife using some
black polish on a pair of shoes. She leaves to answer the
telephone, and he dips his paws & tail into the shoe polish
bottle to make them black. He then writes a note saying
"Thank you" to Mrs. Morgan (the farmer's wife) on the sidewalk
in black footprints, before making his way home to the barn.
Betty Molgard Ryan (author), Florence Sarah
Winship (illustrator), Socks. (1949) Whitman Tell A Tale
book, #886-15. Charming story of a kitten, Socks,
with four white paws and a white tipped tail who was teased by
the children and barnyard animals about his "socks", until he
finally did something about it. You can see what he did here.
It's
shoe
black,
not ink, but this seems to be the right book!
K93: Knight finds seed
This was a book I read in the late 70's, it
was oversized, I think. There was lots of white space on the
pages and the drawings were always on the same scale, showing
knights about an inch high (on the page). The knight rides
out of the little medieval town and finds a seed, or possibly
just a spot on the ground. He goes back to get more knights, and
in the end a huge yellow flower pops out of the ground (about
twice the height of the knights). I don't remember any
text, so this is possibly a wordless book.
K94:
Kids clean up messy uncle's house and
boat
Solved: Summer at Hasty
Cove
K95: King's shoes/boots
A children's book, probably from the 60's, about a king's
shoes/boots that leave and go out and do the town and come back
all messed up each day.
A couple of possibilities that might be
worth looking into: In the King's Shoes by Enid
Blyton, orig. published in the 1940's or 1950's, reprinted
in 1999. Shoes
Fit for a King by Helen Bill, illustrated by
Louis Slobodkin, c. 1956
Just an idea -- could this be some kind of
gender-reversed version of the 12 dancing princesses story?
K96: Karen Kay
Karen Kay is four and a little bit more, how old are you?
1960-1965 Someone has asked this already, but I don't think
the answer is correct. The book began: Karen Kay is
four and a little bit more. How old are you? Karen Kay remembers
the day when ______ the kitten came to stay with _____Ben, the
Teddy Bear, and _______ who lived under the chair." It was about a
kitten who disappears, and Karen Kay is desolate. Then the cat
comes back on Christmas Day with a present for Karen Kay:
Kittens! It was smaller than a regular Little Golden Book, and the
cover had some blue in it.
Check in "Solved Mysteries" for Big
Little Kitty by Jan D. Biggers.
Several googles [incl an old one of yrs]
were of people looking for Karen Kay and her kittens, but
an expired e-Bay item had this: >>(1953-Whitman
Book-Tell-a-Tale series) Big Little Kitty by Jan
D. Biggers. Story of Karen Kay and Christmas Day
when she received the present of a new kitty named Muffin,
who runs away (of course), but comes back home to have her
own kittens. Cute story for kitten and cat
fans.>> Another entry implies that you had a K18
solved as the Biggers book. And here is your solved
mysteries B - referred to by Google so IO think I'll stop:
Big Little Kitty
K97: Kendra in Seattle
1950's. This is a novel set in turn
of the century Seattle. The main character is named
Kendra. Plot is: girl from poor family falls in love with rich
boy from Beacon Hill.
K98: Kidnapped
The book I'm looking for was read to me when I was about 12, 27
years ago...that would have been 1979, but I don't know if it was
a new book then. It was geared toward late elementary or
ealry teen. It was about 3 kids who were kidnapped together,
a brother-and-sister and their friend, who was a boy. The
kidnappers had only planned to take the brother, but a change of
plans had resulted in the boy's sister and friend walking home
with him from school that day, and the kidnappers panicked and
took all 3. The book was mainly about their reactions to it
and attempts to escape. I'm sure they succeeded in the end
though I can't remember that part. I remember that the
friend had some sort of breathing disorder in which he has spells
in which he has trouble breathing out, and the children considered
at one point deliberately triggering one of these episodes so as
to force their captors to take him to a hospital, where they might
get help (they decided against it as too dangerous). That's
about all I would remember. I enjoyed the book very much and
would love to find it and read it to my older boy. Any help
would be appreciated...Thanks.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Famous
Stanley Kidnapping Case,
1985, reprint. This probably isn't the book you are
looking for, but maybe it will help trigger someone else's
memories. In The
Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case, the Stanley family
is living in Italy for a year, and a local gang sets out to
kidnap Amanda, thinking her biological father will pay their
ransom, but unfortunately ends up with her two
stepbrothers, David and Blair, and stepsisters,
Janey and Tesser(Esther), as well. I don't think anyone was ill,
but the younger boy has visions of the Virgin Mary which spooks
the (apparently Roman Catholic) kidnappers. Good luck
finding your book.
Richard Parker, Three
By Mistake, 1974, copyright. This is
definitely Three By Mistake. My family ended up
with it from a library booksale, and I read it many, many
times growing up.
K99: Kenny the pig
Solved: The Golden
Story Book of River Bend
K100: Kids trapped in cave
Kids trapped in cave - - find underground
prehistoric world with live dinosaurs, have adventures before
finding way out
Is there any chance the
poster is conflating parts of a movie with a book? This
sounds a great deal like "Journey to the Beginning of Time,"
which is described in detail here (Brief
excerpt
from that site: "Four young boys visit the American Museum of
Natural History . . .After viewing the dinosaur skeletons, they
rent a rowboat at the lake in Central Park. They enter a cave,
and come out . . . into a strange new world. They see a
Wooly Mammoth, and realize they have traveled back to
prehistoric times!") I can't find any indication it was
ever novelized, though.
Just wanted to respond to the previous comment.... Nope,
not confused with a movie :) This book was
about two (maybe three?) families on vacation together, and
while the parents were busy with something (can't remember what)
one day, they sent all of their kids on a cave tour. I
can't remember how many kids there were, but at least five (and
definitely some brother/sister pairs).
This probably isn't it, because I don't
think the dinosaurs are alive...but the first thing that came to
mind upon reading your stumper was Question of the
Painted Cave, by Winifred Mantle. But there
are five kids from three families, and they do find a cave. It
could also be The Narrow Passage by Oliver
Butterworth, which is a sequel The
Enormous Egg about a boy who hatches a
dinosaur.Whatever it is, I know this book exists, because I read
it too!
This description rings a vague bell with me.
I have a feeling that the book may have been translated from
French, as when I read it I was young enough to be confused by
the fact the male main character was called "Jean." Hope this
may help.
Glyn
Frewer, Adventure in Forgotten Valley, 1964. I am pretty sure this is it..."A group
of children who have accompanied their fathers to South America
find an archaeopteryx, a creature supposedly extinct for
millions of years, wedged in a wall inside a cave. A rockfall
pens them inside the cave and before they escape, they are
involved with two separate eras of long ago-human cave dwellers
and prehistoric animals" I found it on this website after
many years of searching, http://www.trussel.com/prehist/prehist3.htm#F, and for me the cover photo was
enough to confirm it was the book I was looking for. Good
luck@
2007
K101: king and queen who wouldn't speak
Solved: The King and
Queen Who Wouldn't Speak
K102: kitten, lost, badgers, Christmas, fire
Solved: Friendship
Valley
K103: Korea, Su-Won, golden silk
Solved: Su Won and Her
Wonderful Tree
K104: Kids in Autumn Leafpile
Solved: Babes in the
Wood
K105: Kids don't want to live in a house
Solved: We Were Tired
of Living in a House
K106: Kitten, 3 stories, small blue book
This was a children's book. It was small and blue and was
bought through one of the book magazines that go out to school
children, possibly Scholastic. It had three stories about a small
kitten. One story he was being read a story and insisted on
having all his toys on his sitters lap with him. In another
he was baking with his mom. This book must be at least 25
years old and I've been trying to remember the title for years so
I can find it.
Miriam Clark Potter,
Bedtime Stories, 1951, copyright. This is a Junior
Elf book. It has a blue cover showing Mama Cat, wearing a
pink-and-white gingham dress, seated in a green chair on a
yellow rug. Mama Cat is reading from a book titled "Cat Tales"
to her three kittens, who are gathered around her, wearing their
nightclothes. The stories are "Three Jumpy Kittens," about
kittens who jump around on the furniture when they should be
napping, until they wear themselves out and fall asleep, "Mrs.
Groundhog's Grapevine," about two greedy young squirrels who
devour all the grapes, then buy fruit and vegetables to tie to
the grapevine as replacements, and "Mrs. Rabbit's Birthday Cake"
about three little bunnies who bake a surprise birthday cake for
their mother. Cute illustrations by Tony Brice.
The book suggested is not the one, unfortunately.
The book I am looking for had three stories about the same
small kitten. In one his mom was baking, in another he
was being babysat, and I cannot remember what he did in the
third story. I’m wondering if the book was always small
and blue. I know the books offered by the school book
clubs are sometimes in a smaller format.
Mary
Chalmers, Harry and the
Babysitter. I'm pretty
sure you are thinking of a series of books by Mary Chalmers. The
books were small and in different colors. Harry and the
Babysitter (my favorite, where Harry piles all his toys on the
babysitter's lap) was purple. Not sure which one was blue. Hope
this helps.
Mary
Chalmers, Take a nap, Harry. Me again. The story where the
kitten bakes with his mother is Take a Nap, Harry. I vaguely
remember reading an anthology of the Harry stories but can't
remember what color it was.
Mary
Chalmers, Be Good, Harry. I'm afraid I misinformed you. The
title isn't Harry and the Babysitter it's Be Good, Harry. Sorry for any confusion.
K107: Kids cookbook
Kids cookbook with flaming eyed ghost cake on cover.
Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker's
Cookbook for Boys and Girls, 1957, 1975. There are a few different
editions of this with different covers. The one I remember from
the mid-'70s had a kid holding a plate of food festooned with
smiling faces. I don't believe there's a version with the
flaming ghost cake on the cover, but that is the recipe/photo
that stands out most clearly in my memory as well! The
description of the '50s version, which is currently available in
reproduced form, doesn't mention the ghost cake, whereas other
editions do, so be sure to check before buying. While I
was searching for this on the web, I came across a YouTube video
of someone lighting the flaming-eyed ghost cake! Apparently they
got it from a recipe in Amy Sedaris' book "I Like
You."
I had this in the 80s! I remember my
mom wouldn't let me make the ghost cake for some reason.
I'm pretty sure it's a Betty Crocker book.
Thank you for posting this on your site.
I just wanted to elaborate about the book a little. I
can't find what I originally submitted with my request, but
the flaming-eyed ghost cake was on the front hardcover.
It was made using boxed vanilla cake, baked in a rectangular
pan and with the top 2 corners cut off, frosted with vanilla
frosting and decorated using egg shell halves which were set
aflame. Other recipes included in the book were Purple
Cow Milkshakes, and a salad appetizer which was a canned peach
half set on a bed of
lettuce. You decorated the peach
half to look like a little mouse by affixing raisins with
toothpicks for the eyes and a maraschino cherry half for the
nose, etc. I loved this cookbook. I received it
from my Grandmother around 1982-1983. I went to summer
camp in 1988 and my mother gave it away or sold it at a garage
sale. I was crushed. Now that I am a mother, I
desperately want it for my own kids. Could you please
post the additional info to my request in hopes of helping jog
somebody's memory? Thanks so much!
Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker's
Cookbook for Boys and Girls, 1975, copyright. I own the 1987 reprint
of the 1975 edition of Betty
Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. The ghost
cake isn't on the cover, but there is a full-page picture
inside. There is a recipe for Purple Cow Milkshakes. And the
peach with raisins and a maraschino cherry that looks like a
mouse on a bed of lettuce mentioned by the stumper submitter is,
in my book, a pear with a prune, a raisin and a maraschino
cherry that looks like Snoopy on a bed of lettuce (though the
book calls it Friendly Dog Salad to avoid copyright
infringement). In short, I'm sure this is the cookbook you're
looking for! Just be sure to get the right edition in case
earlier versions are different.
K108: Kids sucked into computer/video game
I will be truly amazed if you can find this book, because I don't
remember much at all. It was at least 10 years ago that i read
this book. Some kids got sucked into a computer or video game and
were trying to get out. all I really remember that there were
letters and numbers, and i think maybe microchips?? I will be so
eternally grateful if you can find this book!!
Richard Peck, Lost in Cyberspace. This one is probably it, but there's
also a Xanth book by Piers Anthony in
which someone gets sucked into a computer game, but I'm not sure
which one.
Gillian Rubinstein, Space Demons [or the sequel, Skymaze].
'Late 1980s, reprinted in the 90s as well. When I read the
description this came to mind at once... very special computer
game given as present to 12 year old Andrew (i think that
is the name), who gets his friend to play and the game comes to
life and they go into it... it affects them, haunts them,
changes them. Second book: life empty without thrill of
Space Demons, then package comes-- new game--... Skymaze.
And this time it is not they who go through the computer into
the game, but the game which comes out through the computer and
into the real world...
Kidd, Ronald, The Glitch: A Computer
Fantasy, 1985,
copyright. Your mention of there being letters and numbers
made me instantly think of this book. The letter "M" is a
main character, and other letters, numbers and symbols
appear. "Eleven-year-old Benjamin Bean dislikes modern
machinery, particularly computers, and is dismayed to find a new
microcomputer in his favorite second-hand bookstore. There's a
"bug" in the store's computer program, however, and when
Benjamin casually picks up a loose electrical cable, he is
sucked into the machine. Inside is a chaotic world full of
regimented people and living data-animated numbers, letters and
punctuation marks, etc. With the aid of the letter "M" and
Professor Babbage (inventor of the mechanical digital computer),
Benjamin travels through the kingdom, surviving encounters with
a dragon and the police, until he finds the true bug in the
system and returns home."
Vivian Vande Velde, User Unfriendly, 1990, approximate. "Arvin and his
friends risk using a computer-controlled role-playing game to
simulate a magical world in which they actually become fantasy
characters, even though the computer program is a pirated one
containing unpredictable errors." I think the mother ended
up in the game with them, and they had to get out because she
started having headaches and fainting.
K109: Kids catch criminals in school
Solved: The
Mysterious
Schoolmaster
2008
K110: kids travel to Jurassic to find Dad, save Mom from
jail
A boy and a girl travel back in
time in their father's homemade time machine. Their mother
is on trial because of the father's disappearance; she knits a
really long scarf in jail. I think that the kids bring back
an egg/or baby animal that causes them trouble and is lonely, so
they send him/her back.
Stan McMurtry, The Bunjee
Venture, 1977, copyright. This book
is at my parents' right now, so I can't check the details, but
they certainly share a lot of the same characteristics, so perhaps
it's the one. I don't remember the mom/scarf/jail part, but
it does sound vaguely familiar. There's a creature who runs
words together when he speaks, so you had to work to understand
what you were reading. There's photos of cover of book on
internet, maybe that would ring a bell with you. Good luck!
This is in follow-up to the solution I sent in 1/25/08 or
so... I found my copy of this book and was able to look up
details. I believe this is definitely the book you're
looking for! (One of my faves!) Dad goes back to
pre-historic times in time-machine. Children build another
and go after him. Encounter creature, Bunjee, who runs words
together like this: WHYDIDINTEYEFINKOFDAT? Mom is suspected
of foul play in the disappearance of her family and is knitting
incredibly long scarf in jail. Bunjee and two eggs come home to
modern times with the dad and kids.
Interpreting
Condition
Grades
|
McMurtry, Stan. The Bunjee Venture.
Illustrations
by the author. Scholastic, Inc. 1977. "An Apple Paperback". Lightly used; inside is
clean, cover shows usual wear and tear. G. $3. |
|
K111: King
rules cardboard kingdom
As a child, I had an LP story album
accompanied by the book read on the album. The book is my real
interest; I'd like to find the illustrations again. The story
(rather depressing, in my opinion) involved a young boy who sets
out on a journey and meets odd people along the way. Among these
people was a giant, but the one that really stuck in my memory was
a king who ruled over a cardboard kingdom, complete with cardboard
subjects. These were not magical, living, talking cardboard
subjects, but rather just plain cardboard cut and painted to look
like people, placed in the windows of cardboard houses so the king
could pretend to have a populated kingdom. At the end of the
story, if I remember correctly, the boy arrives at a beach/at the
ocean and meets a young girl who gives him a little kiss. I cannot
remember the author or the name of the book/album. It is possible
that the title was just the boy's name, but I am not at all sure.
It would be great if you could figure this one out--I'd like to
use the illustration of the cardboard city in an essay I'm writing
(with permission, of course, but that requires knowing whom to
contact!)
K112: Kids sucked
into TV villainous world
Somewhere in the 70's I read a book
that involved some kids (2 or 3?) who were sent to their uncle's
house. Their uncle disappears and they are looking for
him. They go in to the attic and there are a bunch of TV's
on there. They turn one on (or it comes on by itself?) and
there uncle is on/in the TV asking for help. Then another TV
comes on and the villain is spouting his villainy. They try
to turn the TV off but it won't go off. They go to unplug it
and (gasp) none of the TV's are plugged in. Then they get
sucked in to the TV and adventures ensue. At one point the older
girl is captured by the villain and is promised food and a shower
if she switches to his side. She succumbs to the shower but
half way through, realizes it's all a lie and she's showering with
dirt and the sumptious food on the table is actually all
rotten. At the end, they save the uncle and return home, but
the TV's are still up in the attic and one turns on....
John White, The Tower of Geburah, 1978, copyright.
K113: Kid Wars
the book involved a group of kids
split into two groups of a war game; One side had a cardboard tank
or something similar; one of the characters was called Nick
(I think) and some crooks turn up near the end.
Astrid Lindgren, the Bill Bergson books.
I am wondering if this could perhaps be one of Astrid Lindgren's
Bill Bergson books. The children divide into two teams, the
Red Rose and the White Rose, and have "battles."
This sounds vaguely like a Paul Berna book; however I
read them all a very long time ago and can't remember which plot
goes with which title. His most famous book was "The Horse
without a Head", but I don't think it was that one. Still,
maybe this will help narrow it down?
Cecil Day-Lewis, The
Otterbury Incident, 1948, copyright.
Has a boy named Nick, the kids make a home-made tank and are
playing war games with each other. Several reprintings since
1948.
K114: Kelpie
Gypsy
Pony
Solved: Kelpie,
the
Gypsies' Pony
K115: Katie
Kitten
book
My Mum can remember the following
words to a book she has as a child (she learned it by heart), in
the early 1950's. I reckon it's from the Katie (the) Kitten
series, by Kathryn Jackson. The words are below. She
remembers that the theme of the story was that Katie missed a trip
because she slept in because her bedroom was facing West. I want
to buy the book, but it appears to be in a series of about 60
books, so I'd love to have a clue as to which one to buy.
Any ideas? The book began with: "Katie kitten was always
late. Wherever she was going or whatever she was going to do, she
was sure to be late for it. She always began the day by being late
for breakfast and of course all the nicest things had gone. She
had to eat the bread that had been left on the plate and drink the
milk that had all the cream taken from it."
K116: Kids
travel
to
magical
land where common things no longer work
I remember only the following of a
book I read about 55 years ago, and want to find it for my
grandkids. Kids wind up in a place with a boy scout manual,
matches and a flashlight. But the manual is apparently now
in a different language, the matches won't light, and, I think the
flashlight doesn't work. They eventually learn magic from a
wizard or sorcerer to fight off the bad guys. Thanks in
advance for any help in finding this.
This sounds vaguely like
Pamela Dean's "Secret Country"
trilogy (but couldn't be it, because that came out in
1986). It has roughly the same ideas though. Five children who
have an imaginary game about a secret kingdom, find places where
they can cross over from earth to that world. (the tone is not
Narnia but closer to E. Nesbit). They have to pose as the royal
children whom they have played in their game. Most modern
technology doesn't work there -- a flashlight becomes a lantern,
and so on, the books are in a different language, one of the girls
has to learn magic. While the story never loses a slightly
whimsical tone, it also treats its main theme very seriously --
what is the responsibility of imaginers toward the worlds they
imagine? You might like these books, either for yourself or the
grandkids or both. More at
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20010101/pamela_dean.shtml.
K117: Kit
Car,
VW with 455 Toronado Engine Mid Mount
There was a book I checked out in
college almost every month, about kit cars. One article in
it was about putting a front wheel drive engine out of a toronado
or eldorado into the rear seat of a VW beetle. There were
other kits in the book, but this one was the one that always stuck
with me. I read it around 1985 or so, but it was likely
published in the 70's.
K118: "King
of
the
Cats"
book
Scary (maybe Halloween), book of
short stories by different authors. One story in the book
was King of the Cats.
C. B. Colby, Strangely Enough, 1959, copyright. This is a
collection of (supposedly) true short stories. The "King of
the Cats" story is called "The Bewitched Cat of the Catskills"
here. It was a Scholastic paperback.
There are many collections
that contain the classic King of the Cats story. To narrow
down your exact book, can you remember ANY of the other stories
in the book, or at least plot lines of some of the other
stories?
Poppy Z. Brite, Are
You Loathsome Tonight?, 2000,
copyright. This might be too recent, but it is a
collection of short scary/macabre stories, which includes a
story called "King of the Cats," and is not the more usual
fairy-tale collection. The book is illustrated by J.K. Potter, with an
introduction by horror author Peter Straub. Titles are: In
Vermis Veritas; Arise; Saved; King of the Cats; Self-Made Man;
Pin Money; America; Entertaining Mr. Orton; Monday's Special;
Vine of the Soul; Mussolini and the Axman's Jazz; Are You
Loathesome Tonight? Front cover shows a bluish-toned
picture of a man, from shoulders up. However, instead of hair,
he has octopus-like tentacles curling around his head. These
are not, however, children's stories - the book is written for
an adult audience.
Kevin Crossley-Holland, Emma
Clark (illus), Enchantment:
Fairy Tales, Ghost Stories, and Tales of Wonder,
2000, copyright. "A treasure house of folk & fairy
tales that brings together the talents of a brilliant
storyteller & a much-loved illustrator…there are stories
to make you jump out of your seat, stories about some rather
silly people and many stories of fairy magic & mystery,
taken from all over England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales."
Stories are: The Cow That Ate the Piper; Fairy Ointment; The
Frog Prince; The Shepherd’s Tale; Tom Tit Tot; Billy; Three
Heads of the Well; Hughbo; Monday, Tuesday; Samuel’s Ghost;
The Changeling; Mossycoat; King of the Cats; Dathera Dad;
Sea-Woman; Charger; The Three Blows; The Mule; The Dauntless
Girl; and Boo! Cover and dust jacket show assorted small
images from the various stories on a whitish background.
Claire Necker (editor), Supernatural Cats,
1972, copyright. If it's possible that all of the
stories in the book you are looking for were about cats,
this might be the one. It is a collection of cat tales
about felines with weird and wonderful powers and
characteristics. Some of the many stories in this
anthology include: The Game of the Rat and Dragon
(Cordwainer Smith); Space-Time for Springers (Fritz
Leiber); The Green Cat (Cleve Cartmill); Space Cat
(Ruthven Todd); The Cat Who Became A Queen; The White Cat
(Comtesse d’Aulnoy); Puss in Boots; The Troll Cat; The
King of the Cats (Traditional); The King of the Cats
(Stephen Vincent Benet); The Cat, "I Am" (Gerald Heard);
Broomsticks (Walter de la Mare); The Bad Kittens
(Elizabeth Coatsworth); A Demon Cat of Old Japan; The
Demon Cat of Connemara; Balu (August Derleth); De Black
Cat Crossed His luck (JD Corrothers); The Black Cat (Edgar
Allan Poe); The Cats of Ulthar (HP Lovecraft); The Squal
(Bram Stoker); He Didn’t Like Cats (L Ron Hubbard); The
White Cat of Drumgunniol (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu); The
Language of Cats (Spencer Holst).
A few other
anthologies (there are many more) that contain Benet's
"King of the Cats": The King of the Cats, (ss)
/ Stephen Vincent
Benet; Out of This World, ed.
Julius Fast, Penguin 1944; Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster
Museum, ed. Anon., Random House 1965; The
Golden Road, ed. Damon Knight, Simon &
Schuster 1973; Masterpieces of Fantasy and
Enchantment, ed. David G. Hartwell, SFBC 1988.
K119: Kittens
Solved: The Secret Kitten
K120: Kids living next to spooky witches' house
Solved: The Haunted Cove
K121: Kids trick or treating,
end up at an old couple's house, old man shows them magic tricks
Solved: Trick Or Treat
K122: Kittens hidden in
garden shed
The book was about a little girl
(may have been staying with someone) who, when exploring out in a
backyard garden, found a cat (I think it was black &
white). She makes friends with the cat and then finds out
there are kittens (maybe 2, maybe 3) hidden in a garden
shed. I think she is afraid to tell for fear somebody will
drown the kittens. I read the book sometime back in the
1950's and I remember it had very nice illustrations.
W.G. van de Hulst, Good and Naughty Kittens!, 1965, copyright. This book
was published in Canada, translated from Dutch. The story is
a little different from what you remember, but your description
reminded me of this book. The story begins with two kittens
getting out of their own yard, into a dark shed filled with
firewood, through a hole into the angry doctor's garden,
frightened by a big dog, into the doctor's house where they break
dishes, break his long pipe, step in ink and finally fall
asleep. Than the story moves to the two sisters who own the
kittens. They notice the open gate, the disturbance in the
wood shed and are also frightened by the dog. The doctor
thinks the sisters have damaged his belongings and the sisters are
afraid of the doctor's scolding. All is made right in the end with
the girls making a gift of a new pipe which they see the doctor
smoking with the big green ribbon still attached.
Nope, that is not the story I remember. There was
only one little girl, the cat was big and black &
white. It could have been one story within a book of
stories, but I KNOW there were not two little girls.
I just looked up the book you mention on the internet and it
is definately NOT the story I'm remembering. I do
remember the one you think it is, but that isn't it. The
one I'm looking for is probably much older than 1965 and the
illustrations are WAY nicer than the ones in Hulsts'
book. Sure wish the one I'm looking for could be
found!
K123: Kidnapped, taken to France
Kids kidnapped by gangsters and
taken to a cave in France where there was an Aeolian harp in the
wall to scare people off, and they drank "thick French coffee from
a bowl, not like the wishy washy stuff at home". Really scary pen
and ink illustration of the gangsters, gave me nightmares!
Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Really--the book is very different from the Disney
movie. From page 102 in our edition: "The coffee
with milk, which the French call cafe au lait, was, if you
happen to like coffee, better than the wishy-washy stuff you
often get in England."
Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang - "Ian Fleming's
only
book for kids!" For those who don't know, the book is VERY
different AND superior to the movie. It's even highly educational!
(I'm so glad Fleming's 100th anniversary is this year, 2008.
According to "100 Things You Didn't Know About Ian Fleming," "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang" was his last book, written for his son. As it
says on the back, it's one of the most delightful and zany books
about cops and robbers. And while mother Mimsie doesn't really
come off as "adventurous," contrary to what Fleming himself says
in the book, daughter Jemima pretty much makes up for that - she's
the one who reminds her twin Jeremy that he has a knife "full of
gadgets and things" when they're trying to figure out how to write
a warning note without any kind of ink. Not to mention that
Fleming even allows Jemima to say "I hate the stuff" - namely,
lipstick. She has one or two other good scenes, too. Since Fleming
included a guide on how to turn 1964 English pounds and shillings
into American dollars, you may want to know what the final prices
are after inflation. This may or may not be helpful to Brits, but
according to the online Inflation Calculator at
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ $1 in 1964 would be worth
$6.71 in 2007. From an article: "......they go after big
time baddies Joe the Monster, Man-Mountain Frank, and Soapy Sam,
who are dead-ringers for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Hugo Drax, and
Auric Goldfinger." And here are the 1920s racing cars that
inspired the book! (There's a photo too. One was described in the
book - though not as part of the story itself.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitty_Bang_Bang.
Ian Fleming, Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang. You seem to be
describing the more exciting details from the original book Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang. (Not the horror of a movie they
made!) BTW, Ian Fleming
is better know for the James Bond books. Check into this
one, I think it's the one you're looking for!
K124: Kid
Detective, Hi-fi shop, 1960s
1960s children's fiction about a
kid being a detective. One day he asks to look at a hi-fi in a
shop, the owner warms it up, the kid secretly decodes the serial
number while the owner isn't looking and realises it is old stock,
not brand new as the owner was describing it.
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin's Secret Code. This is one of the Alvin
series; I'm pretty sure it's "Alvin's
Secret Code".
Sounds like one of the Alvin Fernald series.
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin's
Secret Code. I know it's one of the
Alvin Fernald books, and I'm pretty sure it's Alvin's
Secret Code.
Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin's Secret Code,
1963, copyright. You'll get lots of responses to this
one -- it's a classic. There are nine Alvin Fernald books;
this is the second, and one of the best. Look for the Wacky
World of Alvin Fernald website.
I think this is one of
the Alvin Fernald books by Clifford B. Hicks but I don't remember
which one.
Danny
Dunn?? This is one of the Danny Dunn books.
The kids learn to decipher codes from a cryptographer
and unmask a salesman trying to sell a "new" model tv
that is last years model. Sorry, don't remember the
title of this one.
K125: Kidnapped
child, farmhouse, instant coffee
Looking for a young adult book I
read in the late '70's/early '80's. A child is kidnapped, held
hostage in an abandoned farmhouse in the winter. I remember
something about instant coffee. Possibly attempted to escape by
running across frozen ground in the dark when female kidnapper
falls asleep.
Barbara Holland, Prisoners at the Kitchen Table, 1979. This may be the book
you're looking for. Two kids are kidnapped--one is kind of
shy/timid, the other brave. The brave one gets scared, and the shy
one arranges for them to escape. I think the kidnappers sit
around the kitchen table, drinking coffee when the escape happens.
K126: Kid's x-mas pop-up book
Kid's x-mas pop-up book read to me
in the mid-1960s. First lines "It's Christmas, It's Christmas,
that wonderful season, when children are good for a very good
reason. They almost have wings sprouting out of their backs
and that's when their guardian angel's relax." Main character Katy
or Katie.
Beth Vardon, Charlot Byj
(illus), The Wonderful Window. Definitely this one. "It's
Christmas, it's Christmas, That wonderful season, When Children
are good, For a very good reason. They've almost got wings,
Sprouting out of their backs, And that's when their guardian
angels relax." All the children are good at Christmastime, giving
their guardian angels a break - except Katie. When Katie
accidentally breaks the stained glass window in the church, her
guardian angel prays for a Christmas miracle to fix it in time. A
delightful classic pop-up book that has been reproduced for a new
generation.
Beth Vardon, Charlot Byj
(illus), The Wonderful Window.
Definitely this one. "It's Christmas, it's Christmas, That
wonderful season, When Children are good, For a very good reason.
They've almost got wings, Sprouting out of their backs, And that's
when their guardian angels relax." All the children are good at
Christmastime, giving their guardian angels a break - except
Katie. When Katie accidentally breaks the stained glass window in
the church, her guardian angel prays for a Christmas miracle to
fix it in time. A delightful classic pop-up book that has been
reproduced for a new generation.
2009
K127: kids escape through flooded cave
tunnel
Solved: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Looking for a a fantasy
story, the main characters (kids) in the story are being hunted(?)
and escape through cave tunnels, one of which was flooded.
The title (I think) was 'Arkenstone' or 'Eyrkenstone' (?) which
described a magical stone that had been taken or lost and had to
be recovered.
Susan Cooper, Over Sea, Under Stone. Over Sea, Under Stone is part of the Dark is Rising
series. Kind of a long shot, as the kids are looking for the Holy
Grail, not a magical stone, but it has the tunnels flooding and
the word stone in the title, anyway...
Plot sounds like Alan Garner's THE WEIRDSTONE
OF BRISINGAMEN (1960). (There is also a sequel,
THE MOON OF GOMRATH, 1963). See plot summary at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weirdstone_of_Brisingamen.
Alan Garner, The
Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Think this
could be the book you are looking for. I grew up in the next
village to Alderley Edge, where the book is set, so it was
always a favourite of mine.
I believe I solved my own stumper :) I used
Google book search to look for fantasy novels written
between 1970 and 1980, and one title jumped out at
me--"The Weirdstone of Brisingamen". I am nearly positive
this is the book I am looking for.
Garner, Alan, Weirdstone of Brisingamen, 1960, copyright.
You're mixing up two magical stones - happens to all of us
sometimes :-). The Arkenstone is from the Lord of
the Rings, but the incident you are referring to is from The
Weirdstone of Brisengamen. The author is
obviously a caver, as his description of squirming through
flooded tunnels is so realistic it gives me claustrophobia
just thinking about it. The stone is called Firefrost.
Alan Garner, Weirdstone of
Brisingamen. I wonder if the
poster is mixing up stories? The Arkenstone is the great
treasure of the dwarves that Thorin Oakenshield is
searching for in The
Hobbit along with Bilbo the hobbit, and 12
other dwarves. It is part of the treasure of the dragon
Smaug. Bilbo Baggins takes it as his portion and then
gives it to the archer Bard (Smaug's killer) and
Thranduil (Elevenking) to bargain with when the Dwarves
refuse to share the treasure. But kids are not the main
characters in this classic. The story that comes
to mind with kids and a lost stone is The
Weirdstone of Brisingamen. The stone was to
protect the Sleepers for the final battle with Nastrond,
the Great Spirit of Darkness. The stone had several
names. The wizard who was supposed to guard it called it
Firefrost. Bess Mossock who gave it to Susan's mother
called it the Bridestone. Susan, who with her brother
Colin are the main characters, called it her Tear.
The place where the caves flood is called the
Earldelving and in some places the tunnels narrow like a
pipe where everyone has to manuver through space where
the walls, floor and roof fit them like a second skin.
Alan Garner, Weirdstone of
Brisingamen, 1960. The
Weirdstone of Brisingamen is a fantasy story
by the English author Alan Garner, first published in 1960.
The story of two children, Colin and Susan, who are
staying on a farm at Alderley whilst their parents are
overseas. Susan possesses a small tear-shaped crystal
held in a bracelet: unknown to her, this very crystal
is the Weirdstone of the title, and her ownership of
it causes the children to be hunted by the evil forces
of the Dark Spirit Nastrond.
K128: The
King Who Rode a Bike
Children's story of a king who
rides a bike and is happy. One day he stops riding and thorny
vines grow throuhout the kingdom. Once he starts riding his bike
again and smiles, the kingdom becomes normal again.
Dr.
Suess, The Kings Stilts. If youre not positive about the bicycle it sounds a lot
like the Suess book the king happily clops about on stilts
until an evil nobleman convinces him its undignified. The stilts
are hidden until the kings pageboy sees how miserable the king is
and gives them back. I dont know about thorns, but the kingdom,
being rather marshy, is protected by mangrove-like dike-trees
which hold back the waters. The trees are often assaulted by
crows, which are kept in check by Royal Patrol Cats the king
used to inspect his cats after a walk on his stilts. Hope this
helps.
K129:
Kids that get locked in a bomb shelter
Read this book at least 30 years ago. I recall in the book
the kids go into the bomb shelter for some reason, to check it out
or something. There never is a bomb. They get locked
in by mistake. In the book the shelter is fully stocked with
food and has a ham radio. They talk alot about hardtack.
James L. Summers, The Shelter Trap. This one was in my school library in the
60s. A group of kids (and their teacher, I think) are
either at school or on a class trip when they are accidentally
locked in a bomb shelter. The awkward but levelheaded
teenage main character eventually emerges as the hero of the
situation.
James L
Summers, The Shelter Trap. I answered this last week but
it wasnt posted in the last update, so Ill try again.
K130:
kids book tv-shaped aliens fix spaceship inside
moutain
A kids book i remember having in 80s, i think was
illustrated somewhat. Inside a mountain we're all these aliens,
all shaped differently. Some shaped like tv sets etc. They were
stranded and fixing their spaceship.
Andre
Norton, Day of the Ness. This is your book. Loved the
TV-shaped aliens.
K131: Kids
in Rowboat
1970-1980 (or b4) kids bk. appx: 12"x10" about kids taking row
boat thru cove and then run into pirates. All illustrated &
story is printed on the page as the people saying the story. Each child has own adventure w/ a
certain pirate. mermaid tied to front of the ship talks. then kids
head home.
K133:
Kittens, Sailboat, Island Storm
I think the book was about a lost boat at sea an old
style sailboat maybe 32-38 feet to be specific. The boat
was tossed around in a storm, and aboard the boat are small
kittens. I think the storm ends, and the boat makes landfall on
a small island with a house. The kittens are saved in the end.
Natalie Norton, A Little Old Man, 1959. A Little Old Man by Natalie Norton. This was one of the
first stumpers I sent in, so I'm happy to have a chance to
answer for someone else. A really lovely children's book
about a little old man who live on island. A storms washes
away his home, but brings an abandoned lifeboat to the
island. Inside all is cosy and shipshape with a family of
kittens who were hiding under the stove... seems like it might
be out of print. It was a Weekly Reader Club selection.
Arthur
Ransome, We didn't mean to go
to sea,
1940. The four Walker children make an accidental crossing of
the English channel. En route, they rescue a kitten.
K134:
King and castle has garden of pinwheels that reaches to the
sky
A book of the 70's. Features
a king and on the castle pinwheels are built higher and higher.
2011
K135: Katie,
anorexia, romance, grandmother, enchiladas
YA romance novel about a girl named
Katie who has anorexia. She lived in the Southwest, had a close
relationship with her grandmother (there were descriptions of her
cooking - green enchiladas?), a quirky best friend and a
boyfriend. She played Scrabble. She spends some time in a hospital
or clinic.
K136: king,
contest, forest, magical creature
SOLVED: Jolly Roger Bradfield, Pickle-Chiffon Pie.
K137: Kids
with behavior problems learn to use positive reinforcement on
their teachers
I read a young adult fiction book
in the late 1970s/early 1980s in which a class of middle or high
school kids identified as having behavioral problems learn to
apply the techniques of positive reinforcement on their
teachers. The plan works and the kids start to be perceived
much more positively.
Gordon Swarthout. Just a
guess...but this sounds like something Gordon Swarthout might have
written. His most famous book was Bless the Beasts and the
Children, but I don't think it's that one. You would definitely
have remembered the ending.
K138: Kids book of
questions or facts? circa. 1980's
The book was filled with kids
q&a's - how does quicksand work? Who got the first speeding
ticket? Glossy White cover, i think question marks on
it.-construction paper pages, colored sections. Little cute
pictures followed each question. Boldface font, looked
typewritten. Please help find this book! Additional information: Circa
1980s - Childrens book of Questions or facts?As i recall, it had a
glossy white cover, perhaps with question marks on it. Title was
something like Facts or questions for Children but not sure.
Everypage was construction paper. Colored sections, like blue,
purple, orange, green. About 150 pages. There were questions, with
pictures, and answers to the questions, sometimes more than one
question per page. The font was bold as i recall. Very crude
looking, but a great book nonetheless. Some of the questions
answered were how does quicksand work, who got the first speeding
ticket, really a hodgepodge of interesting facts. I will be
forever grateful for help finding this book. Thanks.
Malvina
G.
Vogel, The Big Book of Amazing
Facts, 1980,
approximate. Could it be "The Big Book of Amazing
Facts?" We had a paperback copy that didn't have
color-coded sections, but the format and sample questions sound
similar.
William
E. Siegmond, Once Upon a Question, 1977. Has the glossy white cover and different
colored construction paper sections. Font is typewriter-like,
includes small illustrations. I'm sure this is the book you are
looking for.
K139: King wishes
painless life for daughter
A king had a daughter he wanted to
live without suffering pain. A sorcerer granted his wish. The
daughter grew but had no love or empathy for others. The king
complained to the sorcerer and she told him it is because she does
not feel pain. The King had the sorcerer change her back so she
could feel pain but also know love and empathy.
K140: Key In Trunk
Under Frog
SOLVED: Wylly Folk St. John, Mystery of the Gingerbread House.
2012
K141: Kids decide to
find another house
SOLVED: Liesel Moak Skorpen, We were tired of
living in a house, 1969.
K142:
Kids in treehouse dress as superheroes & solve mystery
Neighborhood kids have a
treehouse they use as a headquarters (like the hall of justice
in DC Comics). The kids dress as superheroes (maybe
similar to DC heroes like Batman, the Flash, etc.). The
kids had bikes decorated like vehicles and the treehouse has
exits for each bike. Book pre-1990s.
K143: Kittens: Twinkle and Boo
Looking for a very old children's
book (don't know the title) that starts: "There were two little
kittens with eyes of blue, One named Twinkle and the other Boo.
They tried to be good and do what was right but they got into
mischief from morning to night."
Helen Wing, The Kitten
Twins, 1960. I found this book by doing
a google search of the first line of your poem. It looks like
it's a match, but you can probably tell for sure by looking at
some of the illustations (by Elizabeth Webbe). Someone has
posted a few photos of the illustrations here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trywhistlingthis/3309833171/
Helen
Wing, The Kitten Twins. "In no time at all / those
kittens were up / licking the milk / from Grandfather's
cup. / Then onto a shelf / they climbed very high / And
Boo put her paw / in a blackberry pie."
Helen Wing, The Kitten Twins, 1960. Illustrated by Elizabeth Webbe, Elf Book.
K144:
Kids Stuck in Mud
Looking for a book about a large
family that moves to the countryside. The kids find a mud pond
and jump in, only to end up stuck upside down as their parents
try to get them out.
Fleischman, Sid, McBroom
Tells the Truth, 1966. This is the first in
the McBroom series. The family buys an acre of land, only to
find out that all it consists of is a pond (the acre goes
straight down). When they jump in the water to make the best of
it, it's such a hot day that the pond dries up before they reach
it, and they end up stuck in the mud.
K145: Kid's Series?
Find parent's secret book in house wall. Secret cave, tree
house
SOLVED: John Peterson, The Secret Hideout.
K146: King's pleasure
boat on river
In the 80s I read my young
daughter a children’s book by an English author about a girl who
is taken by her nanny (I think) on visits to the river. If I
recall correctly the book was set out in chapters with each
chapter revolving around an adventure on the river. The king
sometimes went by on his pleasure craft and was attended by a body
guard. I seem to remember that there was also a river policeman
who wore a plumed hat and dashed about in a speed boat. Eventually
one day the girl was invited by the king onto his boat. It was set
in the past with Victorian or Edwardian times suggested. The tone
was humorous and the illustrations were line drawings. The copy we
had was a paperback.
K147:
Katydid did it!
Book has a recurring phrase of
"Katydid did it!" Katy is the youngest kid in a katydid
family, and is always being blamed for various misadventures, thus
"Katydid did it!". Published in the early to mid 1980's at
the latest. Not the Lorianne Siomades book of 2009 or Susan
Coolidge series.
K148: Kidnapping of
boy with outrageous behavior
Story about a wild, rambunctious
boy who is kidnapped. A ransom note to the parents results in the
father offering to take the boy back for a fee. The boy carries
out all sorts of injuries and insults on the kidnappers. In the
end, the kidnappers return the boy without collecting the ransom
(I think. Memory is fuzzy.)
This sounds like O. Henry's
short story The
Ransom
of Red Chief.
O Henry, The Ransom of Red Chief. Definitely sounds like your story.
Not only do the kidnappers get nothing, they have to pay the
father to take his kid back, as the boy is having too much fun and
doesn't want to go home.
K149: King needs best
and biggest
The King's Flower,
Misumasa Anno.
K150: Kids live in shack by the sea
I'm looking for a british childrens book I used to read as a kid.
Was oldish (like 1950-70). About a family of kids (maybe 2 boys 2
girls) who for some reason go to live at a shack near the sea by
themselves. Think it had Pelican in the name. Was not a mystery,
not Enid Blyton. Would prob be OOP
This description does sound very like one of
the Arthur Ransome books (not Swallows and Amazons).
But there were several others and ‘Pelican’ does ring a
bell with these.
I've looked through all of Arthur Ransome's books but
unfortunately none of them are the book I'm looking for.
Possibly: The far-distant Oxus,
Katharine Hull, Pamela Whitlock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far-Distant_Oxus
Very much in the style of Ransome.
K151: Kids meet and play in a tree,
Southwest US, "Mama Bear rain"
Kids meet and play in a tree (evergreen?). This was a young
adult book from the mid 80's. It was set in the Southwest
US. One girl has "whipped cream curls", may have been named
Darcy. In one scene, the kids play in the "Mama Bear
rain." A character may have been named Esperanza.
K152: King Cabbage gets eaten by
worms
I'm trying to remember an illustrated children's book. All I can
remember is a sad deposed king of the cabbages. Perhaps he's dead
because his head is riddled with wormholes. Maybe he ruled over a
kingdom of vegetables. Cannot remember the story or the
protagonist.
K153: Kids live in apt building, eat
ladyfingers
2-3 kids living in apartment building, other tenants are old &
rich? Something mysterious is going on (perhaps they think a
tenant is a murderer?), but maybe they turn out to be mistaken.
One tenant, an older woman, gives them ladyfingers, there are dogs
owned by the tenants living in the building.
Has the person ruled out one of Elizabeth
Levy's books about the Bramford brothers? The first one was Frankenstein Moved In on the Fourth Floor.
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/elizabeth-levy~series~bamford-brothers~17194.htm
I'm not sure it totally fits but in Judy
Blume's Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself, Sally and
her friend do live in an apartment-type building in Miami.
At one point, they do eat ladyfingers (I think dipped in jelly)
for dessert. Sally has a very active imagination and
believes that an old man who lives in the building also, is
Hitler, in hiding. Good luck!
K154:
King, curtains
I read this book as a child between 1967 & 1969. It was
about 3rd to 5th grade. The book was about a king who told the
people they had to take the curtains off their windows, so he
could see everything they did. Picture of king in tower looking
down at people.
L8: Lonesome
Traveller
Solved: Lonesome
Traveler
L9: Looking
glass,
3-way
Solved: The Multiplying
Glass
L11: Looking strange
Solved: Bartholomew the
Beaver
L12: Lucy Ladybug
Hi - I love your site and need your help.
There was a book which contained a story my mother read to me in
the 50's. I had a story about Lucy Lady Bug having a tea party.
She invited all of her friends and got everything ready for the
party. After getting everything ready, she decided to rest for a
little while. She fell asleep and slept through the party.
Grassy Grasshopper came to Lucy's house for the party but could
not get in because Lucy was asleep. I would like to find the
complete book to read to my 3 year old daughter.
Animal Bedtime Stories. I know exactly which book you're talking about,
in fact my grtandmother used to read it to me. Unfortunely the
only book I kow that it is in is Animal Bedtime Stories,
and the only person I know who has it is my grandmother and
she's not selling, sorry.
L13: Ladybug-shaped book
Solved: The Bug Book
L19: Little Mermaid variation
I remember a book that contained a story (the title story of a
collection of stories) that was a variation of the "little
mermaid" story. in this version, the little girl mermaid spies
upon a small boy and girl on shore. the boy and girl turn out to
be a prince and princess. the mermaid meets with them again in
bbbbv. I can't remember the entire story, or any of the other
stories. the book had a dark yellow or maize-colored hard cover
with a color plate on the cover, and at least one color plate
inside. there were also some black and white illustrations. the
version I had was printed I believe somewhere between 1890 and
1925 (I had it in the 60's). I thought it might have been The
Little Mermaid and Other Tales 1893, trans by R Nisbet,
illus by JR Weguelin, but I recently saw the cover of the (1990's)
reprint, and that's definitely not it. I've also seen references
to a book published by Ward, Lock & Tyler c. 1890, and The
Mermaid and Other Stories, Dugald Stewart Walker, pub Garden
City 1923. However, I haven't been able to find a picture of
either the cover or front plate of either work (the easiest way
for me to positively identify it). I'd like to identify the
book and then obtain a copy. Can you help?
L20: Little Old Man by the Sea
Solved: A Little Old Man by the Sea
L21: Limpopo
Solved: Ginny and
Custard
L24: Legend of the white buffalo
My aunt had a book that belonged to her
that she would read me when I was little. Therefore, it
must have been originally published in the
'40s. It was an orange hardcover (minus the dust jacket)
and the standard large-sized children's
book. It was called "(Name) - The Legend of the White
Buffalo" or something like that. I
think the basis for the story was an American Indian spirit or
legend of a white buffalo
and maybe involving a young boy. The illustrations were in
black/white drawings maybe
with some minor color. I would like to find out the name
of this to see if I can locate a copy to have.
#L24--Legend of the white buffalo:
Very long shot, but this legend is well-known among a number of
Native American plains tribes. A few years ago, a calf
fitting the legend was born on a bison ranch. The story
was featured on "Unsolved
Mysteries." According to the legend, the calf was to be
female (which this was) and was to be born white, but turn three
other colors (I believe red, yellow, and brown or black, but
don't remember the sequence) to show that it was really a
magical beast and not just an albino or freak of nature.
The calf turned the proper colors in the proper sequence.
It's possible that the people now keeping this bison on their
ranch may have collected literature on it and be familiar with
this particular version, or know who might have it.
Title not quite matching, but there's The
Great
White Buffalo by Harold McCracken,
illustrated by Remington Schuyler, published NY Lippincott 1947,
268 pages "It was in the days when the Indians had this
country to themselves that a young Dakotan saw the almost
unheard-of sight of a pure white buffalo calf with its mother
on the grassy plain. His report of the powerful good luck
symbol was not accepted by the Wise Elder members of the tribe
and Wakan was sent away. He was to find the White One again
and form with him a strong bond of friendship." (Horn
Book Mar/47 p.120)
-------and the white buffalo.
I received this book for my 7th birthday in 1944. It was the
story of an Indian boy who found a white buffalo. The first word
in the title was the Indian boy's name I believe it was
something like Tah-Neek-Ah. I think this may have been a
Platt and Munk book.
White Buffalo and Tah-Tank-Ka
by John D. Nicholson, Platt & Munk, 1941?
L25: Little girl friends with the devil
One of the books from my childhood that is
still quite memorable is about a little girl who gets into a lot
of trouble because of her friendship with the devil. He was a
small, brown beast with a pointy tail, possibly had horns. The
little girl grew attached to her devil friend, but he always got
her into trouble. She would blame him but nobody believed her.
Finally she must tell him to go away, because it's time for her
to be a good girl, and the devil starts crying when he has to
leave her. I wish I could remember more. I'm desperate to find
this book!! Who is the author, and what's the title? My mom read
it to me dozens of times in the mid to late 70s, maybe early
80s. Thanks for your help!
Ann Lawrence, The Good Little Devil, 1970? sounds as if it might be this?? Know I've
read this, and also know I've read something like the poster is
asking for - but are they one and the same ...?
More on the suggested title - Good
Little Devil, published Macmillan 1978, illustrated
in b/w by Ionicus. "Humorous juvenile novel about an Abbey
choirboy in the Middle Ages." Which would seem to rule it out.
could be The Devil Did It,
written and illustrated by Susan Jeschke, published Holt
1975, 32 pages. "After Mama tells Nana that the devil made
the tangles in her hair, only Grandma believes Nana when she
says that the devil is hiding under her bed. The devil - small
and furry, with curved horns, pointed ears, and long, sharp
nails - gets Nana into a heap of trouble. He puts Papa's socks
in the refrigerator and Cousin Joey's clothes on the dog. But
gradually Nana learns to tolerate, outwit, and even like her
devil - and then he leaves in a huff. As Grandma says
comfortably, 'These demons, that's how they are. They come and
go, come and go ...'" (HB Apr/76 p.149)
L25 Is the girl African American? Seems so
familiar to me... but I haven't got the book right here. The one
I'm thinking of includes an episode where the girl spills a pail
of milk she is carrying home, possibly devil's fault, or
possibly she just blamed him.
L26: Lame story
Solved: A Tree for
Peter
L27: Little Witch
This book is about a little witch.
She either lives by herself or with one older person who is not
present that often. She is supposed to sleep during the
day, but she longs to be a normal little girl, so she dresses
like a human girl, and she slips out of her house, and she makes
friends. I think that there is something like she can't
cry, or she doesn't know what crying is.
Check out the solutions posted on the solved mysteries pages to
see if your book stumper might be Little Witch or
Little Leftover Witch. Possibilities?
Does sound like Little Witch
by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, illustrated by Helen Stone,
published Lippincott 1953. Minikin (Minx) lives with Madame
Snickasnee the witch. At night she has to make Black Spell Brew
while the witch goes out, and is supposed to sleep during the
day. However, she sneaks out and goes to school for the first
time. Her teacher tells her to wear a clean dress next time, but
she only has one, until her friend gives her some clothes.
However, she seems to cry without any difficulty, and I couldn't
find anything in the book about witches not crying (though this
is a point in several other books).
I'm not sure if it is Little Witch.
I've
asked
my
mother, and she seems to think that it is. I am trying to
find a copy at the library to look at so I can confirm it.
Try The Resident Witch.
about
a
little
girl witch who sneaks out and goes to a carnival, makes a friend
and gets into all kinds of trouble! I have it at home, but
can't remember the author.
L28: Lazy Boy
Solved: Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead
L29: Little Boy From
Shikshinney
Solved: Little Boy from
Shickshinny
L30: Lamb learns to sing
I hope you can help me! I am looking for two books from my
childhood. They had the same illustrator: one was about a lamb who
learned to sing and then lost her voice; the other was about a fat
little fairy who got thin, then fat again. The illustrations
were so beautiful - at least in memory!
The lamb story is probably Barbara
Lamb, written and illustrated by Cam,
published Roy 1950, 32 pages "A gay picture-book about
Barbara the lamb whose ambition was to sing so that tears came
into people's eyes. There are colored pictures on every page
filled with the kind of detail that children love. Ages 4-6."
(HB Nov/50 p.466) No guess on the other one, though. "Cam" is
kind of a pain to search online.
a possible for the other story, assuming
that Cam is the right author/illustrator, is The
Story of Buttercup Fairy, written and illustrated by
Cam, published by John Lane Bodley Head, 1946. The second
in this series of picture books (Barbara Lamb
being the first). Pale blue pictorial boards. Bright colourful
pictures every page.
L30 lamb learns to sing: there's another
story on this subject! The Song of Lambert, by Mazo
de la Roche, illustrated by Eileen Soper, published
Macmillan 1955, Little Brown 1956, 51 pages. "The amazing
adventures of a singing lamb, including a hazardous trip to
the South Pole and a return to the farm of his youth."
"Lambert is a little lamb with a lovely song, which very few
can hear." Now to find whether Eileen Soper illustrated a
book about a fat fairy ... Later - couldn't find a fat fairy
book, but she did illustrate a lot of Enid Blyton.
L30 lamb sings: now that I've looked at The
Song of Lambert, I don't think it's the right book.
Lambert is a boy lamb, not female, and he doesn't have to learn
to sing, it is a natural gift. Also he never loses his voice,
though he doesn't sing for a long time after he leaves the farm.
So Barbara Lamb sounds like the better bet, being about a female
lamb who has to learn to sing. Also, Cam's illustrations are
much more distinctive and memorable than Soper's.
L31: LGB holidays
Solved: The Little Golden Holiday Book
L32: Lars, Pip, Olaf and Britta
Solved: The Children of Noisy Village
L33: Lemon soda and chocolate bar
Solved: A Penny's Worth
of Character
L34: Lost duck or duckling
A friend told me about this book and gave
me the title, but after trying to locate it for years I gave up
and lost the informaiton. Yesterday another friend was
searching for Jonica's Island and came across a lost
duck book, but she can't remember where or the title.
Perhaps the duck was injured or sick instead of lost.
Thornton Burgess, The Adventures of
Poor Mrs. Quack.
Mr. Quack is missing, feared dead, during hunting season and Mrs
Quack flees from the"Big River" to the "Smiling Pool." They are,
of course, reunited in the end and all is well. This is a
possibility for your stumper.
I'd suggest The Story About Ping,
by Marjorie Flack, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published
Viking 1933, about the duckling who runs away and is found
again. But perhaps that's too obvious?
L34 lost duck: Another suggestion, but a
goose rather than a duck, is Rebel by John
Schoenherr, published Penguin/Putnam 1995, 32 pages. "Soft,
realistic watercolors evoke the bleakness of early spring and
its dangers for newborn geese. The illustrations portray an
individualistic gosling going his own way, while the narrative
tells the parents' story of protecting their young from
predators. Although almost abandoned, Rebel is reunited with
his family as they prepare to join other geese at the brooding
ground." (1996 Horn Book review)
L34 lost duck: another is Little Duck
Lost, by Anna Standon, illustrated by Edward
Standon, published Constable 1965, 48 pages. The story is set in
Paris, and French words and phrases are introduced.
L34 lost duck: here's another, probably too
recent - Have You Seen my Duckling? written and
illustrated by Nancy Tafuri, published New York,
Greenwillow 1984, 25 pages, "Cheerful, bright pictures
depict a mother duck's search for an errant duckling."
The Little Wild Ducklings. This book is illustrated in photographs. It's
about a family of ducks going to swim in a big pond. One in
particular is curious and wanders off to explore. He is
frightened by a larger bird but his mother comes to the rescue.
At the end of the book they take a nap. Ends saying "Sleep tight
little wild ducklings!
L35: Letter writing and pancakes
Solved: Nate the Great
L36: Leaf skirt
Solved: Date with a Career
L37: Little boy and his teddy bear
Solved: Charles
L38: Labor struggles in Buffalo
The book is about labor struggles in Buffalo during the late 19th
or early 20th centuries. I believe the word "Niagra" is in
the title/ Julia is the author's first name.
Mrs. Richard Crowley, Echoes
from Niagara: Historical, Political, Personal,
1890. I wonder if this could be it... Mrs. Richard Crowley
is how it appears on the title page, but her name was Julia
Corbitt Crowley. The book was published by Moulton in
Buffalo, NY. I cannot find any details on content, but
there are several on the net.
L39: Little girls defeat witch coven
Solved: Mystery of the Black-Magic Cave
L40: Lot's wife statue
Solved: She Fell Among Thieves
L41: A Little Girl's Very
Special Day
Solved: My Special Day
L42: The Little Red Hen in
rebus
Solved: Better Homes and Gardens Story Book
L43:
Little Golden Book blue treasury
Solved: Treasury of Little Golden Books
2002
L44:
little people living in vegetables
I read this as a kid in the '50s, but it belonged to my mother or
uncle, so I think it was published in the '20s or '30s. All I
remember is great pictures of a vegetable garden, with small
people living in the vegetables (which had roofs, doors, windows,
etc.). I especially recall a pumpkin(?) up on stilts with a
stairway leading up to the front door. Not much to go on, I know,
and I don't recall the plot (troublesome animals?). Wish I'd found
your site years ago!
I wonder if this could be the Teenie-Weenies
series of books (don't know the author). In the 50's I know it
was a book series and a comic strip too. The description of the
homes in the vegetable garden sounds pretty typical, and they
did have encounters with small animals/birds/insects. Don't know
if it dates as far back as the 30's.
I've checked out the Teenie-Weenie
series, and that's not them. My garden-town people were more
nursery-tale fantasy types, not so realistic (if you can call
4-inch people that!).
L44 little people vegetable houses: maybe Twinkie
Town
Tales, by Carlyle Emery, llustrated by
Arthur Henderson, published St. Louis, Hamilton-Brown Shoe
Company, 1926 "This delightful book is Book I of the Twinkie
Town Tales, The illustrations of the Twinkies are wonderful. The
Twinkies resemble pudgie little elves or pixies." About 33
pages, 12 full page illustrations, the other pages are also
illustrated.
Riesner, Charles Francis., Little
Inch-high people.
(1937) LC Control Number: 38004096 From the Library of Congress:
Type of Material: Text (Book, Microform, Electronic, etc.) Brief
Description: Riesner, Charles Francis. Little Inch-high people,
by Charles Francis Riesner, illustrated by George Wolfe. New
York, N.Y., Junior progress, inc. [c1937] 9 p. l., 7-97 p.
illus., col. plates. 26 cm. I have an original copy of
this incredible children'\''s story, which included the rich
illustrations your write describes: Read it myself as a child,
and my children loved it as well!
L45:
Lapis Lazuli is girl's favorite word
Solved: A Room Made of Windows
L46: light
Solved: Destiny of Fire
L47: little duck ran away
The first book I am hunting for is about a little duck that ran
away from his home pond and went to see the world. He had
numerous adventures and ended up at the ocean which scared
him thoroughly, so he ran home again. His mother, when
he showed up, said, "Quack, quack, I'm glad to have you
back. Don't you ever run away from home again." I
expect it was printed in the early 30's, because I was a little
girl when I got it.
The Little Lost Duck, Little
Golden Book
I pursued that Little Lost Duck
as a Golden Book, but this is not the right story. I had
talked to Strawberry Hill Books and they said that Golden
Books started a little later, perhaps in the 1940's, so my
book request is too early for this. I'm sorry.
Perhaps somebody else will come up with an idea. Thank
you.
Adda Mai Sharp & Epsie Young, Downy
Duck
Grows Up, 1947. I
don't find where Downy Duck winds up at the ocean, but he does
run away and has many adventures, then goes back home.
This is part of the Woodland Frolics Series.
L48: Lipstick-eating outsider girl
Solved: Honestly, Katie John!
L49: Large shouldered girl
Solved: Junior Miss
L50: Los Alamos
Solved: The
Abracadabra Mystery
2003
L51a: Lost kitten
Solved: The Kittens Surprise
L51b: little golden
book story about a kitten.
Solved: Peppermint
L52a: LITTLE CHICK BRUSHING HIS BEAK
That's all she wrote...
Dr. Almute Grohmann, Dragon Teeth
and Parrot Beaks.
1998. A little chick brushing his beak also sounds like it
could be Richard Scarry or something by Margaret Wise
Brown. Can the customer give any more information?
L52 little chick brushing: maybe Little
Yellow
Chick, by Ian Munn, illustrated by Helen
Adler, Rand-McNally Junior Elf 1961. or Little Chick's
Story by Mary Deball Kwitz, illustrated by
Cindy Szekeres, Scholastic 1978, 32 p.
L52b: little boy, little dog, big black umbrella
Solved: Happy Orphelines series
L53a: Li'l Hannibal
Solved: Li'l
Hannibal
L53b: Little Golden Kitten
Red Boots
My sister grew up in the 80s. One of her favorite books she
thinks was a Little Golden Book. The story was about a
kitten who got a pair of red boots.
Charles Perrault's Puss in Boots is almost too
obvious. The original Little Golden Books format was
published in 1959 in an adaptation by Kathryn Jackson and
with illustrations by J.P. Miller. There was also a 1991
version with illustrations by Lucinda McQueen.
L53 Could this be about a bunny
instead of a cat? There is a Little Golden book called Bunny's
New Shoes.
Edith Thacher Hurd , Johnny Lion's
Rubber Boots,
1980s-currently in print. Not a kitten, but a
feline. And the boots are red.
L54a: Lonely, lost train
Solved: Choo Choo, The
Story of a Little Engine Who Ran Away
L54b: little bear and rocketship
Solved: Moon Cake
L55: lollipops
Small format book, grey-blue hardback cover, published 1935-44,
illustrated in color with meadow of lollypops in many colors,
possibly featuring an elephant. It had a companion book about a
squirrel in winter. USA imprint.
Kathryn Jackson. Author of a
number of picture books with somewhat similar themes, though I
can't identify the particular book
Johnny Gruelle, Eddie Elephant. (1921) There is a picture of
Eddie Elephant, who lives in Jungleville, looking at the field
of 'flowers' (lollypops) shown him by Grandpa Monkey.
Eddie wears a red/white striped outfit, inlcuding a hat.
Other characters in the book are Christopher Crocodile, Alonzo
Alligator, Cousin Katy Kangaroo, Uncle Hippopotamus, the Cocoa
Boy, Mabel Monkey, and Bertram Buffalo (to whom Eddie gives his
shiny new blue bicycle (tricycle) with the bell that goes
"Tinkle, Tinkle.'' It was a "Volland Sunny Book Series"
book. The illustrations are wonderful. I spent many
years thinking it had been a "Babar" book.
L56: long lost book
Solved: Tal, His
Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom
L57: Lowly the Worm
Solved: The Adventures
of Lowly Worm
L58: Leper victim
Solved: Miracle at
Carville
L59: Lavinia, little witch girl?
This is a book about a little girl witch who lives with her
mother and hates being a witch. Dorrie sounds a lot like
this, but I don't remember anything about red hair, and I could
swear the name of the book was "Little Witch."
Well, there is a Little Witch
book. See W86 above, and more on the Solved
Mysteries
page.
Although Bennett's Little Witch sounds sweet, I'm
really not sure it's the answer. I don't think the little
girl's name was Minx; is there any character in that book named
Lavinia?
Palmer Brown, Beyond the Paw-Paw
Trees or The
Silver Nutmeg, 1954, 1956. Both of these are
extremely long shots and only because the reader seems insistant
that the girl's name is Lavinia, and these are the only books I
can think of where the protagonist is both a young girl and has
the name of Lavinia (or actually "Anna Lavinia"). Beyond
the Paw-Paw Trees: "On the way to visit her Aunt,
little Anna Lavinia has some remarkable adventures." The
Silver Nutmeg: see the Solved Stumper page.
ooooh! I remember this book being mostly
concerned with the fact that mother has to go off to work- just
so happens she's a witch.
Is it a Junior School age
girl, who all she wants to do is go to an ordinary junior school
(which I think was called Fern Tree), like the neighbour’s twins
do? Only she had to go to a junior
school for young witches, where there were a lot of broomsticks
with L plates on in the schoolyard.
If it is that one, there was a
“cauldron cookery class” in which she made tomato soup while the
others made potions.
At the end of term she got asked
to leave to school, and she was pleased (though her mother
wasn’t), because then it meant she could go to school with her
neighbours children.I don’t know if that is the same one (and I
can’t recall the title either), but I thought it might help shed
some light on this if you think it might be the same one.
L60: Live Dolls
Solved: The Story of
Live Dolls
L61: Little dog chewing bone
Solved: Animal Stories
L62: ladder
when i was a young boy back in the early 50s i remember being
read a book about a woman who was taking care of some children and
she took them on a journey to the moon. i remember she made a
ladder that went up to the moon.it seems to me that she was some
kind of sorceress or something
P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins books. Sounds like a Mary Poppins story,
though, if so, I can't identify which one. I think
that "Mary Poppins and the House Next Door"
does involve a visit to the Man in the Moon - I can't remember
if a ladder was involved.
I checked -- Mary Poppins climbs up cloud
stairs, no ladder involved.
Since no one has offered any other
possibilities than Mary Poppins, I wondered if
this could be The
Peculiar Miss Pickett again. I don't remember
the book well enough to know if there's an incident like this,
but Miss Pickett is a magic babysitter... (see more in
M187)
L63: The Little Brown Bear
The Little Brown Bear, pre 1936. The little brown bear is
at a picnic with other animals. "The monkey started to serve the
fish, but he put it all in his own dish, and the little brown said
That's not fair!" "And the little brown bear got jam
in his hair." This was an oversize book with pictures on
every page. The pages may have been linen
Maybe? Upham, Elizabeth, Illustrated by Marjorie Hartwell.
Little Brown Bear. Platt and Munk Co, 1942
I checked my copies of Little
Brown Bear and Little Brown Bear and His
Friends.
In the latter, he does go on a picnic but there is no monkey or
fish involved. Should probably rule out this series.
L63 My Upham Little brown bear
is c1942; in many ways it sounds like the stumper but doesn't
fit exactly; others listed in the series have even later dates.
Leslie Brooke, Johnny Crow's Garden, etc.. Could be one of this series (Johnny
Crow's Garden; Johnny Crow's Party; Johnny Crow's New
Garden)
L64: La Brea tar pits prehistoric drama
Solved: Monsters of Old Los Angeles
L65: LOCKET
Solved: The Magic Locket
L66: Little boy climbing to the moon
Solved: Amos and the Moon
L67: lost on Canadian tundra
Solved: Lost in the
Barrens
L68: Linette and Lenare
This is a story about two flowers named
Linette and Lenare (I believe this was the spelling, though I'm
not sure). It may have been in a children's magazine, or
possibly it was a collection of stories, from the 1930's or
1940's. I remember it as a large, thick paperback with
illustrations. The flowers are either pansies or
violets. I have been searching for this for years! I
hope someone can help!!
L69: Lancelot suit for exploring space
When I was in high school I read a book,
possible short stories, about someone who got a special space
suit called the Lancelot Suit that allowed him to explore space
without a ship. The suit was able to travel at speeds that
allowed him to exploer the whole galaxy at will.
Are you positive about the 'Lancelot'
suit? The story I kept coming up with is Have Space
Suit--Will Travel by Robert Heinlein.
It was published in an anthology as well as a book. "A
high school senior wins a space suit in a soap jingle contest,
takes a last walk wearing 'Oscar' before cashing him in for
college tuition, and suddenly finds himself on a space
odyssey."
Fred Saberhagen, Berserker stories. Maybe one of his short stories?
Here is a description of the suit. 'In a sense it was a suit of
armour that provided a life support system, a means of
propulsion and weaponry. When Michel first donned it, Lancelot
had the appearance of gauzy veils surrounding him. As his skills
at using it developed, Lancelot moulded itself closely to his
body, rather like a suit of armour.'
L70: Lazy boy
Solved: Lazy
Tommy Pumpkinhead
L71: Lichen and Other Stories
Rare book, I'm sure. I doubt if it can be found but I have
thought about this book for years. Children's book of short
stories published early this century or late last century. Could
be considered fairy tales. Very dark and sinister.
English author or maybe a translation from a European
language. I had a hard copy version with a red cover when I
was growing up in the 1960s in colonial Africa. It had many
stories in difficult, archaic language. The main story was
about a young girl called Lichen. I believe it was a sad
story and my memory was that it was the tale of one evening she
spent flying around the world through some force that made her fly
faster and faster, and she was refreshed eventually through a
draught of ice cold green liquid. Another story in the book
was of a witch who lived in a haystack, and a young man who passed
by the haystack each day and eventually was drawn in and
encountered the witch.
Olde English Fairy Tales. Your
book
sounds
very like one we read as kids called "Olde English Fairy
Tales." I remember a story with a witch in a haystack and
one about creatures called "Yob Yahs" (not sure of the spelling
but that's how we pronounced it.) Yob yahs were small
bipedal creatures with lizard-like tales - their story involved
kidnapping a girl, putting her in a sack. She is rescued by a
kindly hunter who puts his dog into the sack instead.
There was another story about the New Moon, pictured as a young
lovely girl who is tangled in a swamp and slowly taken down by
clinging vines. Very dark stories, not what I would have
put in the Children's Section of the library, which is where we
found it. Read it in the 60's and it was a very old book
then.
L72: Little House in the Big World
Solved: The Big World and the Little
House
L73: Lost Lake
Solved: Gone-Away Lake
L74: Love is like a Lion's Tooth
Solved: Like the Lion's
Tooth
L75: Lost Julie is guided home by cats
Solved: Nine Friendly
Dogs
L76: Little Postman of Blueberry Lane
Solved: The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane
L77: Little foxes with frozen faces
Solved: The Little
Foxes Story Book
L78: legendary sword found under mountain
Solved: Magician: Apprentice
L79: London family during WWII
I read this in the early 70s while working
on a bookmobile in Montana. It was shelved in the
children's fiction section by author and towards the end of the
alphabet. One of the main characters is Victor or Victoria
or some other V name, I belive. It's about children in two
families, one of them Jewish (maybe a character named Issac?) in
London during WWII. The hero/heroine meets the Jewish
child at school, visits their family, is appalled at the
violence of the father (there's a scene where one child is
beaten as a punishment). I seem to remember the
protagonist as an exceptionally gifted child relocated to live
with relatives because of some family tragedy and the relatives
have no idea how bright the child is or how special his/her
achievements. Not a lot to go on, but maybe it will ring a
bell for someone.
Could this be Michelle Magorian's Good
Night,
Mr.
Tom??
Sorry, this is not Goodnight, Mr. Tom.
Barbara Ker Wilson, Last Years Broken
Toys, c. 1964. As
the poster of this stumper says, little to go on, but I wonder
if this might be Last Year's Broken Toys by Barbara Ker
Wilson. I read it as a Peacock Book, which was the teen
imprint for the British Puffin paperback collection. As I
recall - the book is now in my parents' house - this was the
story of a group of girls at high school together in England
during WWII. I'm sure one was Jewish, and I have a
recollection that another was called Florence. I'm pretty
sure one of the girls, or her family members, were killed in an
air raid. As far as I can see, the book in now out of print, but
some UK second-hand booksellers are listing it.
I finally got hold of an old copy of Last Year's Broken
Toys, and that is not the book.
L80: Lost Kitten
Solved: Little Lost Kitten
L81: Larkin (or Larken?)
This is a long shot! All I remember about this book is that the
main character was a girl named Larkin (or Larken), and it MAY
have been an adventure. It was a chapter book, probably for
middle-school years. 1970s.
Doris Gates, Blue Willow. Just a possibility; the heroine's name is Janey
Larkin.
Doris Gates, Blue Willow, 1941. The main character in Blue Willow is
Janey Larkin. She's the daughter of a cattle rancher who
lost everything in the Dust Bowl and now travels the country as
a migrant worker.
Gates, Doris, Blue Willow. In "Blue Willow" the main character is a
young girl named Janey Larkin(or Larken.) The book takes
place in the '30s and Janey is the daughter of migrant workers
whose prized possession is a plate with the blue willow
pattern. She longs for a permanent home.
Is it possible her name was "Lark"?
There is a young-adult book by that title, by Sally Watson,
about a girl in 17th-c. England who must make her way across
country to her family during a period of war and upheaval.
She meets a young man (?named James?) and travels with him. Just
a thought.
Patricia MacLachlan, Baby. Could this possibly be it? It's
about a 12 year old girl named Larkin who finds a baby on their
doorstep. A Yearling book.
I posted this one. I am certain the girl's first name was
Larkin! I also think it was a more contemporary setting, but I
could be wrong. thanks for the suggestions! Might be the
book titled Baby. I'll see if my library has it.
Springer, Nancy, LARQUE ON THE WING, 1994. A long shot, as this is much newer
than has been suggested and a novel rather than a chapter
book. OTOH, it does feature a protagonist first-named
Larque, and is a decidedly free-wheeling yarn gender issues are
a large part of the subject matter.
L82:
Linda
Sherrill
artist
helps capture saboteurs in WWII
This book was published around 1944.
It is about Linda Sherrill, a young art student who is
recovering from scarlet fever. She lives with her parents
in a high-rise apartment in NYC overlooking a river. Her
father is a doctor and she has a boyfriend named Leeds.
She has a little dog named Shandy. As she is recovering
she sits out on the terrace and sketches people she sees passing
by below. One of the people is a man with a limp.
She sketches him and notices that he strolls by often looking at
the ships on the river. He becomes aware that she is
sketching him. This puts Linda in danger as he is a spy or
saboteur trying to do something to the ships. I have been
trying to find this book for a long time and cannot remember the
title.
L83: Lord Love a Duck
Solved: Wounded duck
L84: Life in Dollhouse picture book
I found the book in the school library at
Marquez School in Pacific Palisades, California in the late
1950's - probably 1958 or 1959. It was an LA City School
at the time and I don't know if there was such a thing as a
"standard list" for elementary school libraries or whether the
librarian had the discretion to choose titles. It was a
picture book size, shelved with the picture books. The book was
about a dollhouse and the dolls who lived there. The book
had photographs, not illustrations - big photographs. The
predominant color in my memory is brown, so perhaps they were
sepia and white? The pages were slick and had what I
think of now as a "printed in Europe" scent to them. Don't
laugh, books with lots of photographs printed in the UK or
the continent have a rather singular tang to them <g>. The
book had either been around for a while or was well-loved, so it
might have been from the late 40's or early 50's. I
remember some scotch tape repairs.
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll, 1957. This one is still hanging on at
our public library, and is the only one I've seen matching this
description.
I have to disagree with the suggestion: The Lonely
Doll is very American, and does not involve a doll
house. It is, however, illustrated with black and white
photographs.
Rumer Godden wrote six or seven books
from the doll-house point of view, and this could be any of
them: The
Doll's House, The Fairy Doll, Four Dolls, Miss Happiness and
Miss Flower, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle,
The Story of Holly and Ivy, Little Plum, Mouse House, The
Mousewife, The Rocking Horse Secret, Tottie The Story of a
dolls' House.
Could this possibly be Miss Kambeitz'
Doll at the Hot Dog Show, by Albert Szabo?
L85: Lawncare poems
Rhyming poetry that has to do with lawncare
subjects or gardening and is funny and perhaps a little bit
nasty or morbid: "Don't leave in the grass a rake, or
daddy, walking by, will get a headache!"
L86: little bed that ran away
Solved: Book Trails
L87: lonely baby whale
Solved: The Story of
Bubbles the Whale
L88:
lion who loses his hair/mane
Solved: Tony and His
Friends
L89: Lost dolls
Solved: The Secret
Museum
L90: lost kitten searching for mother, victorian type
clothes
Solved: Where Did My
Mother Go?
L91: little house
Solved: The Little House
L92: little witch
When I was around 6 or 7 (in the mid to late 60s), I read a book
about a little witch. Details are pretty sketchy but I do
remember it being a small book, with a yellow cover. A girl
(witch?) was in a window on the top floor of a Victorian-type
house with a large leafless tree right outside her window.
That's all I have. Hopefully it will trigger someone's
memory. I can't even remember what the book itself was
about!
Eleanor Estes, The Witch Family, ca 1960. This might be it. There's
a picture in it of a little girl sitting drawing by a
window.
L92 I think this might be it. This paperback
cover has the old witch-like lady walking with her cane in front
of an old Victorian house with a veranda. No one is in the
window, but the story refers to glimpses people got of her at
the window.
York, Carol Beach. The witch lady
mystery.
illus by Ethel Gold Scholastic, 1976. When
Oliver rakes the leaves in Mrs Prichard¹s yard, will he find out
if she is really a witch?
L92 This sounds like THE LITTLE
LEFTOVER WITCH by Florence Laughlin, 1960.
It definitely has a yellow cover and is a fun read. ~from a
librarian
Laughlin, The Little Leftover
Witch,The book you mention is the Little
Leftover Witch who is stuck in a tree and leftover
from Halloween. She lives with people, combs her hair,
sleeps in a closet at first, then a bed, is mean to the cat, and
I can'\''t remember much more. I read is over 25 years ago
at least 30 times.
L93: little girl sports
Solved: The Rand
McNally Book of Favorite Pasttimes
L94: L or 7
Solved: Sal Fisher, Brownie Scout
L95: Leprechaun fools boy with yellow ribbons
Solved: Pot of Gold
L96: Law Firm, The
This book was about a large city law firm,
I think New York. As I recall the name of the firm was
Adams and Adams and Breedon and Tree. This was the result
of the merger of two firms.
2004
L97: Little Colonel in Arizona
Solved: The
Little Colonel in Arizona
L98:
Little boy eats until round as balloon and floats to the sky
I’m trying to find a book / story I read as a child. I was
in grade school – late 40s and early 50s. I doubt it was a
text book or even a book from school. I don’t remember being
able to bring books home in grade school and in the little town in
Colorado where I grew up, we didn’t have “library” until Jr.
High. I must have borrowed it from the public city
library. I really don’t remember if it was a stand alone
book or a story contained within a book – I lean toward stand
alone. The story is about a little boy who eats and eats and
eats until he becomes fluffier and fluffier, as round as a balloon
and floats up into the sky. I don’t know if he ever comes
down or floats away to ---- who knows where. In my mind’s
eye, I keep seeing the little round boy in royal blue pants
(short) and a red and white beanie on his head – or maybe he wears
a red and white shirt. Do you recall a story like that and
if you do – do you remember the name? I so very much want to
obtain a copy of it. Thank you very much.
Thank you - have been on your Web site several hours already
today searching ALL pages for even the slightest connection to
my vague recollection of this story/book. Indeed, am out
there at this very moment. Will be most eager to see if I get
any hints. What Happened to George seems to be
built on much the same premise but I very much remember this
being a story about a little boy not a pig.
Yes, I thought of that one too, but George is definately a
pig. There's Fat Cat by Jack Kent
too, but again, that's a cat, not a boy.
Am doing a search on Web in general at the moment – a search on
peppermint – for some reason this very, very cob-webby notion
that the little boy ate peppermint has suddenly come to
light. Could it be I’ve set the rusty wheels of time in
motion and they are slowly grinding away to help me uncover this
childhood story? I think your Web-site is truly a delight
– I ran across several little story books that I had forgotten,
stories read long ago but what warm memories they evoked!
Thank you for providing such a great service!!
Hugh Lofting, The Crazy Story of
Dizzy Lizzie, 1953??,
reprint. This stumper reminded me strongly of Dizzy
Lizzie, whose story I encountered in Volume 4 of a
1953 CHILDREN'S HOUR set (the indicia in that volume says that
Lofting first published it in Child Life Magazine, but gives no
date). In some respects the match is very good -- a major
episode does involve Lizzie flying about as a human balloon, and
the illustrations (done by Lofting) show a person in a red and
white striped shirt. In others the match isn't close at
all -- Lizzie is a girl, not a boy, and the balloon incident
arises because she's previously been flattened by a steamroller,
and is then accidentally mailed to Persia where the King has her
inflated. And I don't think there's any peppermint
anywhere. However, the parts that match are close enough
to be intriguing, particularly Lofting's illustrations, in which
Lizzie might well be mistaken for a boy.
Wonder if this could possibly be Charlie
&
the Chocolate Factory -the scene where the chubby
boy overeats during Willie Wonka's tour of the candy factory?
The boy who overeats in Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory doesn't float away in the air
he falls into the chocolate river and goes up a pipe.
Tall book
of make believe. I know this book has
appeared in the past on this website. I suggest it as a
possible solution to this question because of the way our mind
plays tricks on us. In this book, The Tall Book of
Make Believe, there are two stories that might have
coalesced in the reader's memory. One is about a little
boy who gets given a magic lollipop that gets bigger and bigger
the more he sucks on it, and he, consequently, gets fatter and
fatter, until he finally gives his now giant lolly to the
candystore owner to use as a sign for the store. In the
same book is a story about a town that is called the village of
creampuffs, or something like that, and it is only attached to
the earth by some sort of tether ropes, or it would float away.
L99:
leprechaun ship code language
Solved: Magic to Burn
L100: Little girl plays house
Solved: We Help Mommy
L101: London Bridges Falling Down
My grandma bought me a book sometime in the
mid 1950s. I think it was the song "London Bridges Falling down"
in book form. but on each page that mentioned a candy "build it
up with lemondrops" or "build it up with licorice sticks" there
would be a sample piece of real candy on the page. I would like
to know the name of the book or the company who sold
it.
L101 Just a side note: in searching this on
Google, I learned that in the year 1305, King Edward I, placed a
duty on licorice sales, which went to help finance the repair of
London Bridge.
There's a nice Peter Spier book
version of the folk song, titled London Bridge is Falling
Down,
but it wasn't published until 1967. No lemon drops or
licorice sticks.
L102: Locked in attic sketching insects
I'm seeking title and author of an old favorite of mine from the
nineteen forties. The main character, a young girl, is missing out
on a big picnic, because she's been locked in the attic by
accident. Although upset, she makes the best of her plight
by settling down to illustrate a book about insects that she and
her friend--a boy whose name begins with "D"--have been working on
as a gift for, I believe, her father. Please help!
L103: Lonely girl in poverty makes a closet dollhouse
Solved: The Secret in
Miranda's Closet
L104: Lantern Fish
Solved: The Monstrous
Glisson Glop
L105: lost village
Solved: Fair Boy
L106: Lost Candy Cane Christmas
Solved: The
Santa Claus Book
L107: Land of Little People
Solved: The Teenie
Weenies
L108:
little
girl
witch
is lonely or sad
Solved: The Little
Leftover Witch
L109: lollymops and the mouse cafe
Solved: Mouse Cafe
L110: Llamas pajamas
Solved: Humpty Dumpty's
Bedtime Stories
L111:
Little White Teddybear not sleepy
Solved: Story of
a Little White Teddy Bear Who Didn't Want to Go to Bed
L112: Los Angeles
Solved: The Paper
Dynasty
L113:
little girl, whispering voice of dead girl
Short story that I read in the 80s? One kid invites another
kid home (after school?) and it's very strange. The entire
family talks non-stop, and there's never any silence in the
house. When the kid finally escapes to the bathroom, s/he
hears a little girl whispering. They all talk to cover the
whispering. It turns out that the whisperer died in the
house/family after going to bed after an argument, and just wants
to forgive and be forgiven. Either a short book or a short
story. Thanks!
Don't know the name yet. I am still
looking for the title, but it is a short story. I will keep
looking.
Vivien Alcock, The Whisperer. (1987) This short story is in Ms
Alcock's collection "Ghostly Companions."
L114:
lost treasure
Solved: The Haunted
Treasure of Espectros
L115: Leaves raked for neighborhood “witch”
Solved: The Witch Lady
Mystery
L116: Laura-summer by herself
Solved: Rise and Fall
of a Teenage Wacko
L117: Like to!
I'm looking for a 50's children's book
about a horse whose legs get tangled up when he jumps over a
fence. But when he learns to jump up & say "Like
to!" his legs become untangled & he can overcome any
obstacle.
Key, Theodore, So'm I, illustrated by Frank Owen. NY Dutton
1954. I wonder if it might be this one (also on the Solved
pages) about a knock-kneed and bow-legged horse who becomes a
champion steeplechaser. The authors were cartoonists, and the
book is illustrated in cartoon-style.
L118: Lion
Solved: Miss Lollipop's
Lion
L119: Lighthouse with pirates
I've been looking for a book from my
childhood about a kid that lives in a lighthouse who is
captured by pirates? It was lavishly illustrated, in a million
details sort of way. I recall lots of fishing poles out
the windows of the lighthouse, and an illustration of big fish
eating medium fish eating smaller fish under the
sea. This book would have been available in the mid
1970s-early 1980s.
Solotareff,
Gregoire, Theo and Balthazar Captured by Pirates, 1986. The 1986 edition is an
English-language translation of a French book, presumably
written earlier. Could you possibly have read it in an
earlier translation (or even in the original French) in the
early 1980's? Here is a synopsis from the Library of
Congress catalog: "While exploring a lighthouse, Theo and
Balthazar fall into the clutches of evil pirates but escape with
the help of friendly dolphins". Another possibility might
be The Lighthouse Kids and the Oyster Pirates by
Lionel A. Hunt (1953),
but I do not know the plot of that one. Of course, there
is always Jules Vernes' book The Lighthouse at
the End of the World, but that one is about a grown
man trying to evade pirates who have taken over the remote
lighthouse he is stationed at on an island near South America,
not about a boy.
Here are some more details: I've been looking for a book
from my childhood about a kid that lives in a
lighthouse who is captured by pirates? It was lavishly
illustrated, in a million details sort of way. I recall lots
of fishing poles out the windows of the lighthouse,
and an illustration of big fish eating medium fish
eating smaller fish under the sea. The kid lived in a
lighthouse, gets captured by pirates, and makes it back home in
the end. it is illustrated in (I think it's called) the
clear line style, that is solid color areas bordered by thin
black outlines. the lighthouse had all kinds of windows out of
which were many fishing rods going into the sea. I see the
pirates in the hold of the ship with big barrels stacked
sideways. We see underwater at some point, the kid may be diving
(not sure) but the classic fish food chain image is illustrated
there - the big fish eating a smaller fish to about six or seven
levels. it's an oversize book. It was in color color with
lots of intriguing details, over the top illustration and I
would have read it pre-1983
I don't feel it is any of the titles
you suggested. I can confirm that it is full of lavish
illustrations, oversized, and pre-1983 (but no earlier than mid
70's), with the plot involving a boy captured by pirates. I can
also add that there were many images of hanging fish, from shops
and rooftops. (This "weirdness" is similar to the many fishing
poles leaning out of the lighthouse windows)
E. E
Libenzi, Robin and the
Pirates,
May 1975. I have been looking for this book as well. I have a
copy that is so worn it no longer has the cover. I am almost 99%
positive this is the book you are looking for.
L120: Lost
Solved: The Haunted
Treasure of Espectros
L121: Little Boy mailed to his grandma
Solved: Flat Stanley
L122: Little house in a big city
Solved: The Tiny Little
House
L123: Little Orphan Annie
Solved: Orphant Annie
Story Book
L124: Liverpool, World War II
Solved: Time to Go Back
2005
L129: long shadow/heavy water
Solved: Rick Brant Series
L130: lived in a tree
Solved: My Side of the
Mountain
L131: Lost Favorite Toy
Solved: Dogger
L132: Lavender and Strawberry
Solved: Beyond the
pawpaw trees
L133: Lame Stork
"the lame stork" (may be the title) children's short story; there
is a lame stork named agar (egar?) and a wise owl says he needs to
deliver baby Jesus and that he can do it. Older story, may
have appeared in a magazine.
L134: Lighthouse and Sailing Mystery
Solved: Something Out There
L135: Lois Lenski
Solved: Surprise for Davy
L136: Lonely girl meets undersea friends
Solved: Priscilla and
the Prawn
L137: Little black horse and big red
a childrens' story about a little black horse (or a pony?) whose
owner out grows him and starts riding a big red horse.
the little black horse tries to keep up with them as they ride
through a forest and jump over a big log. the little horse
tries to keep up and almost hurts himself, with a tear in his eye,
he has to go back to the stable. most likely came out in the
70s.
Farley, Walter, Little Black a Pony, 1961. Beginner Books: When a small boy
graduates from his little pony to a big horse, the pony is sad
until the time comes when he is able to do something the big
horse cannot do. Walter Farley of of Black Stallion
Fame
Walter Farley, Little Black, A Pony. I'm pretty sure this is the one.
Little Black gets his foot caught in a tree, Big Red is too
heavy for the ice and falls through, so Little Black must help.
. .I had the book as a child, and your stumper actually jogged
MY memory. I am now searching for a copy of Little
Black, A Pony. I hope this is the one you're
thinking of!
Interpreting
Condition
Grades
|
Farley, Walter. Little
Black, A Pony. Illustrated by James
Schucker. Random House Beginner Books, 1961.
Book Club edition. Edges bumped and crayon name on
front endpapers, otherwise VG. $8 |
|
L138: Lobsters flying
A children's picture verse book of which I
only have one spread left, "There are lobsters flying in the
sky. Lobster flying in the sky? Oh, yes. Don't you see them
flying by? No, I don't. Oh, now I do. I just caught one. Here,
it's for you. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. I don't care for
lobster."
L139: Lost Scottish Farm Boy
I read this book about 25 years ago.
A little boy (maybe age 7 to 9 years) from a farm family gets
lost on the Scottish moors. He goes to ground like
afrightened animal and eventually comes out on the far side of
the moors. He is a secret artist beacuse his father has no
patience for such things. I think the father softens on
this after the boy is found. The whole village and other
villages come together to search for the boy. The boy is
very surprised that the father even cared that he was
lost. It might have been based on a true story. It
was a short book and I think the author was a male. Thanks
so much. This has been bothering me for a long time.
I'd love to read it again.
L140: Little girl enters baking contest
Solved: Ginnie &
the Cooking Contest
L141:
Lorax variant
Solved: Wump World
L142: Little Italy
Little Italy, NYC, summer, early 20th century, young boy, Readers
Digest Condensed Book before 1968. Can't remember the plot but
only evocative
details like the iceman arriving with a block for the icebox,
people shouting to each other from the stoops, the kids pouring
red wine vinegar and olive oil onto bread for a snack, and the
oppressive heaet of an inner city summer.
Levoy, Myron, The Witch of Fourth
Street and Other Stories,
1972. This book contains stories about children from
different ethnic backgrounds in a New York neighborhood during
the early 20th century the story that stands out in my
memory is the one about Vincent the Good, a little Italian boy
who never gets into trouble.
Angelo Valenti, Big Little Island, 1955. Probably not it, but just to rule
it out... Lorenzo is a war orphan who comes to live with
family in New York. The uncle is a baker, and allows the boys to
help make eclairs. There is another episode where Lorenzo and
his cousin buy a cartwheel-sized pizza with 'the works'.
L143: Little Janet and the Lollipop
Solved: The Story of
Little Janet
L144: Last Ten Dollars
This is a short story: A man is almost
broke, down to his last ten dollars. Staring at the bill on his
coffee table, suddenly he has two ten dollar bills! Then he has
another, and another. He uses them to pay for items, and gets
caught because they all have the same serial number. The IRS
comes to visit, he offers them a drink, and one sets their drink
on the coffee table, suddenly there are two drinks. The IRS
takes the coffee table and chops it up. The man moves away, and
wonders if anyone would be interested in a thirteenth copy of a
rare car they only made twelve of... I read this in about
1977, probably in a book of short stories, but don't remember
the author or what library I got it from.
L145: Lucy Ladybug
Hi! I have been searching for years for a
childhool story of Lucy Ladybug back in the 1960's, although it
could easily have been older than that. She was going to
have a tea party and spent the day cleaning furiously for her
company. She's so exhausted that she has to lie down, and
sleeps through the knocking on the door of her guests.
This story is very precious to me and I would really appreciate
any efforts to find it. The cover to the book was ripped
off, so I have no idea (nor does my mother or siblings) of the
title of the anthology or the author, but it was dimensionally
larger than 8 1/2 x 11 (although I was probaby 4-5 and
everything looks big then :) ).
HRL: Same as L12 in the archives, for which a answer was
proposed as Animal Bedtime Stories, but still no
author or publisher information.
L146: Lion transforms into a creature
Solved: Lord Rex: The
Lion Who Wished
L147: Lily summerhouse daughter "drowns"
Solved: The Color of
Hope
L148: Lavendar
Basically, I'm looking for a book from my childhood, and all I
can remember is that I was fascinated with a room being painted
the color lavender, and that I think it had billowing fabric
hanging from the ceiling. I'd love to find it again. I was
born in 1958, so I'm thinking I probably read it around 1968 to
1970.
M. M. Kaye, The Ordinary Princess,
1980? I don't have The
Ordinary Princess here with me to check, but I know
the princess's room was lavender and I'm pretty sure it had
fabric pinned up too. However, apparently the book wasn't
published until 1980, so it may not be what you're thinking of.
L149:
Lonely girl at Christmas sucked into Victorian world
Solved: Mirror of
Danger
L150: little witch/girl in mirror/potions
Solved: Little Witch
L151: Lion story
Solved: My Father's Dragon
L152: little girl finds "magical" buttons
Solved: The Witch's
Button's
L153: little girl with puppy dog
I have been looking for this book for years, but can't remember
the name. Probably a little golden book. A little
sandy-haired girl with chubby face is playing with her doll and
has a little tan and black puppy who gets into trouble. On one
page, he is ripping an Indian headdress to pieces. It was my
favorite book; can anyone help?
Janette Sebring Lowrey, The Poky
Little Puppy, 1942.
This was a Little Golden Book. The Poky Little Puppy was very
mischievous, but I can't remember if he ever ate an Indian
headdress. It might be the LGB My Puppy by Patricia
Scarry, too - that puppy definitely ate things.
The book you describe is definitely NOT
The Poky Little Puppy! There are no Indian
headdresses in that book. The poky puppy escapes under the
fence (repeatedly) with the other puppies. In the end, the
poky puppy misses dessert and so decides not to escape under the
fence ever again.
L154: Little girl awaits new sibling
Solved: The New Baby
L155: "Lucy's lump" (ambergris)
Solved: Runaway
Home
L156: Lecturer is Replicated and Teaches Multiple Classes
Simultaneously
Solved: Beyond The
Barrier
L157: Little Red Riding Hood
I'm looking for a specific version of "Little Red Riding
Hood." The only problem is that I have no idea who wrote
it. The difference with this version was that it was
structured like a choose-your-own-adventure story. The reader was
Red riding hood. To navigate the book, the pages were
numbered with colored tabs, I believe in the upper corner of each
page. If memory serves me right, the colors were red, yellow,
green, blue, and black. It was wonderfully illustrated. I
also believe it was published sometime before 1989. I forgot
to mention that I also believe there were other popular children's
stories done in the same format. I don't know if that will help
you/anyone, but I just thought the more information, the better
chance of locating this book.
Scally, Kevin, The Story of Red
Riding Hood ~ The Magic Road, 1984, approximately. Hi there! I'm glad
I actually found one of the books that your readers have posted.
This is definately one of the "Magic Road" books written by
Kevin Scally...I just finished reading "The Three Bears" version
to my son. It is like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and the tabs
are Yellow, Red, Blue, Purple, Green and Black.
Thank you so much for the help. This will make a great
Christmas present as my sister recieved it from our late uncle a
long time ago. Unfortunately a fire claimed this book, but
thanks to your site and the help from the Internet Friends, the
book has been identified properly.
L158: Large Child Playing With Real Cars
This was a story in a 1950s-1960s elementary school reader. There
was an extremely large child (I think a scientific experiment had
gone horribly wrong) who was kept in a warehouse. He played
with real cars, which were the same scale to him as toy cars are
to us. The narrator was a man (scientist) who tried to
communicate with the child. I remember he steered one of the
cars while the child pushed it, but the child pushed down on the
roof of the car so hard that it was difficult to steer. I'm
sure I didn't dream this up!
Sounds like a bit from a
Warner cartoon about a normal-sized family who mistakenly recieve
a giant baby. One bit has the kid going "roum-roum" with the
family car and shoving it all the way to Dad's office. Another had
Dad coming home to what looks like a horrific traffic accident
only to warn Mom about Junior leaving his toys in the yard. Maybe
the book was inspiration for the cartoon?
L159: Little girl, doll hospital
A little girl goes on a quest to get her sick doll to the doll
hospital. All I really remember is that the doll itself is deathly
pale.. the book's a picture book.. and I remember a lot of
blue... The doll is dying or something.. she's sick at least.. and
they go on this rather surreal quest to reach the hospital.
Barbara Brenner, Amy's Doll. Maybe? I've never seen this book but I
know it has black and white photographs of a girl who has to
take her beloved doll Sarah Jane to a doll hospital in New York
after she gets left outside and damaged.
My father claims he remembers this book as
being called "caroline's doll" or something along
those lines. He also remembers a fox being in it. Apparently it
teases the little girl as she tries to get her doll to the
hospital. I haven't been able to find any images to confirm this
as yet, or indeed anyone who's heard of the book.
L160: Little Bear & Rusty Tin Cup
Solved: The Merry
adventures of Little Brown Bear
L161: Leprechauns and fairies
My mom had a favorite book as a child, so
it would have been in the mid to late 50's. What she remembers
about it is that it was a collection of stories about
leprechauns and fairies. She doesn't remember any goblins, she
said, but that doesn't mean there weren't any. One story she
remembers is that a boy makes a wish at a wishing well and a
leprechaun comes out and he gets three wishes. I have looked at
"Lots of Stories" by Rowena Bennett and that doesn't seem to be
the right book. Any ideas?
L162: little girl befriends the ghost of a girl her same
age
It's a book I read about 10 or 12 years ago about a little girl
who befriends the ghost of another little girl who used to live in
her same house many years before. They both have similar names and
ages. And the living girl goes back to the ghost girl's time to
try to save her life. Another thing I remember is that the ghost
girl seemed to be getting thinner or weaker or something like
that.
Pam Conrad, Stonewords: A Ghost
Story, 1990. It's
been a while since I read the book, but based on my memories and
the School Library Journal review, I think L162 is Stonewords.
Another book where a girl befriends a ghost with a similar name
is Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes,
but it's probably not your book because the girl doesn't try to
save the ghost in fact the ghost tries to kill the girl!
Conrad, Pam, Stonewords, 1990. I'm sure this poster is looking
for Stonewords. Zoe is the contemporary girl, and Zoe
Louise is the ghost from the past. The passage way of time
is the staircase in the house both girls lived in. The two
girls are ghosts in each other's lives, and Zoe helps prevent a
tragedy in Zoe Louise's life, bringing the haunting to an end.
Pam Conrad, Stonewords: A Ghost Story. Think this is the book...my daughter who
is now 20 read and re-read it perhaps 8 to 10 years ago.
Conrad, Pam, Stonewords: a ghost story, 1990. "Zoe discovers
that her house is occupied by the ghost of an eleven-year-old
girl, who carries her back to the day of her death in 1870 to
try to alter that tragic event." I seem to remember the
ghost decaying towards the end and trying to trade places with
Zoe - but maybe I'm combining to books in my memory.
Pam Conrad, Stonewords. This might be the one--a little girl,
Zoe, becomes friends with another Zoe who died in her house, at
her age, and she tries to save her. Ghost-Zoe doesn't exactly
get weaker, but towards the end she slowly starts decaying.
Pam Conrad, Stone Words. This book sounds very like your
description. Zoe comes to live with her grandparents and
meets Zoe Louise, a ghost from the past. Zoe Louise visits
with her over the course of years and Zoe eventually is able to
go back in time to be a "ghost" at Zoe Louise's house. She
returns to the present, finds out how Zoe Louise died and is
able to prevent her death (in a fire at a birthday party).
There is a sequel- "Zoe Rising".
L162 Sounds like it could be STONEWORDS
by Pam Conrad. The girl and the ghost are both named
Zoe.~from a librarian
Mary Downing Hahn, The Doll in the
Garden. (1990,
reprint) This is another possibility. Ashley follows
a white cat back in time and meets Louisa, a girl who is dying
and who longs for her beloved doll--a doll that Ashley and her
friend Kristi have found buried in their landlord's garden. In
the end Ashley, Kristi, and their landlord visit Louisa the
woman is able to make amends with her childhood friend.
The time frame is right, and Louisa was dying from consumption,
which matches the poster's info that the ghost kept looking
sicker/weaker every time they met.
L163: Lollipop, shaggy dog with lollipops stuck to him
Solved: Two Stories
About Lollipop
L164: Lamb as pet in the house
I remember a book that I read at my
grandmother's house. I think it was probably one of my father's
books. He was born in 1920. I remember the illustrations as
being charming. The children had a pet lamb which they let into
the house. It got covered with a blanket and they thought it was
a ghost. Isn't it funny how a memory like that stays? How
wonderful it is to have a website which allows people to
collectively remember.
Lammie. There are
several Lammie books. In one Lammie does get mistaken as a
ghost, he also eats some horseradish from the garden and does a
hilarious dance of a pumpkin.
L165: lemonade stand, root beer and lemade from faucet
Solved: Mr.
Pudgins
L166: Latevia
Solved: Watery
Grave
2006
L167: Little girl wants to grow taller
Solved: The Very Little
Girl
L168: London rain
This book is about a little boy, his
sister, and their mother who go on a walk in the rain with the
boy's new rubber boots. The city is possibly London.
The boots were red or yellow. The book was published before
1986.
Hughes, Shirley, Alfie's Feet, 1983. I think this is the book. The boots
are yellow.
Alfie's Feet from the
collection All About Alfie by Shirley Hughes?
Unada (or Unada, Gliewe), Ricky's
Boots, 1970. It could be Alfie's Feet,
although I don't think it ever actually rains in that
story--Alfie and Annie Rose just go stomping through puddles and
so on (and he ends up wearing his new boots on the wrong
feet). But if the book could be a bit older, you might try
Ricky's Boots it's set in the U.S., not England, but
it is a big-city wet-day boots story as well. "..one
drippy day Ricky isn't allowed out to play. His old boots are
too small..". I don't remember if there was a sister in
it. Or if the child could possibly have been a girl,
there's Umbrella, by Taro Yashima.
L169: Little Boy Mowing Grass
Solved: Come Play House
L170: Little girl london early 1959's Twiggy
Solved: Twig
L171: little houses winter story
I think this is a tough one, but hope you can help. When I
was in junior high (19 years ago), my mom gave me a book. I
think it had between 100 and 200 pages. It kind of had the
feel of "The Five Little Peppers" era, but do not remember the
title or the author. I do remember that the book was several
small stories all about the same group of houses and there was an
illustration of a row of different colored homes. Each short
story was about each of the people living in the homes. The
stories took place either during Christmas or the winter. I
remember that one was of a boy who lived with his mother and she
had made either a pie or a dish for the boy to give to a
neighbor. That gave the segue for the neighbor's
story. That's all I can conjure out my brain for now.
I'd be thrilled to have it again!
Margery Bianco, A Street of Little
Shops. This
sounds a lot like a book my mother had as a child--A
Street of Little Shops. Each story was about one
shop. In one, the snooty baker's daughter is invited to a
birthday party, and she brings the splendid cake from the bakery
window, not knowing that it's a fake for display only. There was
a story about a woman who made horses for hats, and one about a
man permanently stuck in a hardware store because he couldn't
remember what he wanted, and I think one about a cigar store
indian.
L171 Before I checked on A street of
Little Shops, I got out Bianco's Other
people's houses because "houses" sounded closer to
the scenario, but it was not close at all. Then I got out
Little Shops
and I feel it doesn't match, either, but GUESS WHAT - the
ice cream shop is run by MR MURDLE!
L172: London orphan & a chimney sweep named Angel
Solved: The Street
Sparrows
L173: Literary Guild Book Club
When I was pregnant in 1985, I belonged to
the Literary Guild Book Club, as well as another that I do not
remember the name. I got a book from one of these clubs, in the
fall. It is the story of an English family, around the turn of
the 20th century. The father was a vicar, who had several
children. Somehow, one of the daughters got pregnant, and
decided to not marry. She named her son Jamie, which was the
reason for the name I gave my son. I am not sure of any other
details. Thanks for any help.
L174: Lost money searched for by boy and girl
Solved: The Treasure
Trap
L175: Little girl gets tangled up in gumballs/candy
Solved: The Sweet Touch
L176: Littlest Angel
Not Taldewell (1940's) An angel lands
in a farm yard and wants to play with the baby animals.The
mother animal says "hush,hush my baby is fast asleep etc" After
going to several animals he goes to the window of the farmhouse
and finds the baby in the playpen and the Mother invites the
little angel in the home.
L177: Little witch and glass mountain
Solved: The Witch Family
L178: Lion, black boy, and butter
Solved: Little Black
Sambo
L179: Letters from Susie
A young children's picture book
reader. Story line: Children would write letters to Susie
asking all sorts of questions. She would type out an
explanation and mail them back. Hook: Susie was a spotted
dog.
Richardson, Cynthia, Susie Cucumber,
she writes letters. (1944)
Susie
Cucumber
is a fox terrier that learns to write letters. Illustrated by
Roberta Paflin. Attached to the back endpaper is a bag which
once contained writing paper and an addressed, stamped envelope
for the child to start a correspondence with Susie Cucumber.
Cynthia Richardson, Susie Cucumber
she writes letters.
(1944) You don' say how old the book is, but if it's old
this is a possibility. (Roberta Paflin, illus.
/ Juvenile audience [60] p. illus. / New York, S. Gabriel
sons & company / subject:dogs)
L180: Locked in museum
(1970) kids on field trip at a museum end up locked in for the
night
Konigsberg, E.L., From the
Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. See solved mysteries
Locked in museum - Could be From the Mixed-Up
Files
of
Mrs.
Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.
Just a note, the children in From the
Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler evaded
security guards to live in an art museum for a length of time (a
week, I believe) and encounter a mystery relating to a statue
that is possibly a Michelangelo. If the kids your stumper
is about were accidentally locked in, this wouldn't be the book.
Baum, Thomas, It Looks Alive to Me! (1976, approx) Could it be "It
Looks Alive to Me!" In this one, a teenage boy is
accidentally locked in the Museum of Natural History overnight.
There's a weird moon rock that brings the exhibits to life, and
they have to survive until they can get out in the
morning. There's a girl too, but I can't remember if she's
a classmate or if she's one of the exhibits come to life and he
doesn't realize it. Anyway, it might be worth checking
out.
L181: Lost girl finds skeleton hands
Hello, I'm looking for a series of books that were used as
reading skills in middle school back in the 1970s to early
1980s. The books may have been Reader's Digest Young Readers
and were pink paperbacks. A story in one of the books is
about a girl getting lost in the woods near a cabin. She is
scared when she finds a set of skeleton hands on a stump next to
an ax. I cannot remember the title or the author, but it was
a suspense/ mystery story. I hope this helps.
L182: Lamb follows herd
Book read in the 1970s was about a lamb who
follows his herd all over the place, into various minor
problems, and then one day the herd leads him into a
hurricane/tornado/cyclone. After that, he decides to think for
himself and not follow the herd around. It had b&w line
drawings, more picture than text but several sentences per page.
Leaf, Munro, Gordon the Goat. (1944) This is the book. Gordon
went everywhere with the herd, even following them into a
twister!
L183: Love
Solved: Love One
Another
L184: Little girl on Central American/Hawaiian island
This was a children's paperback picture book I had in the late
80s or early 90s. It was about a little, dark skinned girl who
lived in a jungle on an island. There were few words, but
lots of pictures. The pictures were intensely colored and
crowded with exotic fruits, flowers, and animals. My mother
thinks the book was called "The Island" but I haven't had any luck
with that. I don't remember the story at all, except I think there
were descriptions of eating all the fruit and I think she may have
gone into a city at one point. I know it's not a lot to go
on, but I hope someone can help! Thanks for your time.
Arthur Dorros, Isla.(1995) This seems to fit your description,
but the copywrite is later. Rosalba and Abuela fly through
sunny skies until they smell "aire tropical" and see the island
that Abuela calls "mi esmeralda" sparkling in the ocean below.
Rosalba visits with her relatives, travels to the rain forest
and samples the local plantains, papayas and pineapples before
it'\''s time to head back to New York City.
L185: Lucinda Ladybug
looking for children's book featuring insects: Lucinda
Ladybug, Bumblebuzz (bee) and Beetle Black
Rosalie Fry, Bumblebuzz. (1938) Cover is yellow, shows a bumblebee
with a red "hobo-pack" (bandana tied on the end of a stick) over
his shoulder, walking through grass with a ladybug. Looks
like they might be holding hands? Rosalie Fry also wrote a
book called "Ladybug! Ladybug!" in 1940. The cover of this
book shows (at top) two ladybugs running toward one another, and
the main picture is of a white house with a red cone-shaped tile
roof. Unfortunately, these books are long out-of-print,
hard to find, and very expensive.
L186: lords of cosmic jest
Solved: Dream Dancer
series
L187: Lion Family
Solved: Johnny Lion
Series
Johnny Lion Series
L188: little people
a whole society of little people who live under the tree roots -
i read this in the 70s. thanks! i've found TWO books i 've
been searching for FOREVER through your bookstumper service!
IT LOOKS ALIVE TO ME and THE GRUESOME GREEN WITCH.
bookstumpers ROCKS! Ps. if anyone is looking for a book
about a magic barn where the ponies talk and teach you how to ride
it's called SILVER SNAFFLES. i stole it from the library
when i was a kid because i loved it so much. i wish i had stolen
ALL My favourite books since the library has long since got rid of
most of them!!!
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Below the
Root, 1975,
approximately. Could this be the beginning of the Green
Sky Trilogy? Below the Root is about a race of
people who live under the giant trees of a forest. There's
another race who live in the branches of the trees. The
trilogy is about how the two peoples come together. (And,
er, you do know that stealing from libraries is wrong? If
you took it, it couldn't become someone else's favorite book.)
L189: lapis lazuli
Lapis Lazuli used by fairies or elves to keep cave moist enough
to survive. Two children become involved with getting lapis back
to its rightful location. they eat spongy fairy cakes made of
ferns or something like that, i read this story in the mid to late
1970s. one of the elves or goblis or nomes or whatever has done
something with the lapis and hidden it. i remember the walls
of the caves were all wet and the fairys ir elves r whatever could
become invisible, or maybe they became invisible because they
dehydrated, or maybe lost their ablity to become invisible without
the lapis. Anyway, I REALLY want to find this story as it i
driving me MAD and i want to shar it with my daughter..thanks!
Mary Whitcomb, Tee-Bo the Incredible
Talking Dog in The Great Hort Hunt. Tee-Bo the talking dog and the children who own
him find a piece of lapis lazuli that, among other things,
allows them to travel behind a waterfall to the homeland of the
magical, elflike Horts, and assist them in saving their way of
life.
L190: Little elf song
Not a book, as such, but a song I learned
in Year 4, which would have been around 1967. Our school music
teacher taught us this, and I assume she got it out of a book.
The song went -
There was a little elf
Who lived all by himself
He laughed and sang with all his might
And never went to bed at night
But when the moon was shining bright
Out came this little elf.
I'd like to know where this odd little
ditty came from. The other songs I recall from the same teacher
include Marianina, Brahms Lullaby and Upidee and On Ilkley Moor
Ba t'at. A weird lot, no?
L191: lost pearls
circa 1958. I read this book when I was approximately 15
years old. It was a story about a young girl sent to and
Uncle's farm for the summer. she found a roll top desk in an off
limits room. as she was opening all the different drawers,
one of them held a sting of pearls. When she was caught in the
room, she closed up the drawer and the desk. when she came
back the pearls were gone. it was a trick drawer and had a
hidden compartment.
L192: London orphan
Your website for helping people search for books from their
childhood is just awesome! I hope I have the same
luck. I am trying to find a book that I read as a child in
the late 1970s. The book would have been published either in
the 1970s or late 1960s. It takes place in London.
It's about an orphan girl who ends up being in an orphanage.
I don't remember if the story was that she was sent to the
orphanage and she's waiting for her father to come and take her
out of there. The book mentions the weather a lot, and it is
always raining and dreary. At the end of the story, the
girl's father (a captain, I think) comes to take her home.
I've racked my brain, but unfortunately, I can't recall the title
of the book.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Sara Crewe
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, A Little
Princess. Could
this possibly be the book you're looking for? I have a
copy from 1967 - the cover is yellow and has a painting of Sara
standing sideways wearing a pink dress with a huge bow in her
hair. It is illustrated by Stewart Sherwood. I see
the edition that is illustrated by Tasha Tudor in bookstores all
the time, and I never see my edition, which is perhaps why the
original requestor didn't remember the book.
This story sounds like The Little
Princess, or A Little Princess. The
little girl gets sent to a boarding school while her dad, a
British army captain, is away in India. She is forced to become
a servant. In the end her dad comes back, or some friend of her
dad's adopts her and takes her away from the bad school.
In case this is indeed A Little
Princess, I want to make a correction to the above
poster's comment: Sara Crewe's father dies in India, no matter
what some movie versions would have you think. The man
who adopts her at the end is her father's best friend.
L193: Lost children/garden with crystal
Solved: Tommy
and Julie
L194: Lost boy cave one match
I read this book in 4th - 6th grade
(1970-1973). A boy goes into a cave, perhaps with some
friends in KY or WV. He enjoys looking at the rock
formations and wanders in deeper. They get
separated. He has to use his matches to try to get back
(perhaps he has a flashlight and the battery dies), and he winds
up on his stomach in a tunnel. At some point, he gets down
to one match and has to try to decide the best time to use
it. He realizes he must find his way out in the
dark. Maybe there's some rushing water and/or a big
dropoff somewhere on the path back. He makes it out okay
in the end. I believe that this book was nominated for
some national or GA state award.
L194 Having sold this
book, I can't check on the story, but my subject
headings are: Mammoth Cave; caves ; Kentucky - juvenile
fiction - for River
in the dark by Jean Speiser, part of
Your Fair Land series
Mary Cunningham, The Witch's Spoon. There is a scene really similar to this in The
Witch's Spoon, which was published in the 1970s. Lauren
and Tom are staying at their grandmother's house with their
Italian cousin. At one point during the story, they decide
to do something they've always wanted to do but have never been
allowed to. Lauren's activity is catching a baby owl and
Tom's is exploring the caves by the ocean/sea. He nearly
runs out of matches while he's lost in the cave and at one point
has to slither back on his stomach.
I'm looking for the same book, I'm sure. I
read it at about the same age, probably 4th grade, in about
1975. A couple things I remember: darkness, the main character
was alone in the dark for a very long time. There was a huge
cliff in the cave that he came close to falling off at one
point. It seems that the kids--they were probably about 13-16
yrs old--knew something about caving.. they didn't just
accidentally end up in there. They even knew the cave, I think.
It seems that they knew the names of the formations. This book
was *really* scary. Keep thinking the title was something like "To
strike
a match" or "A light in the dark".. I'm sure I
would recognize the title and it's not either of the ones
suggested here so far.
Bryce
Walton, Cave of Danger. This sounds like the book "Cave of Danger" by Bryce Walton, about a boy named Matt (an amateur spelunker) who
searches for and discovers a cave and decides to explore it by
himself, only to get lost. His friend, Spotty, and his
enemy, Kurt, both end up in the cave searching for him-- one
ends up falling into the underground river.
L195: little girl becomes witch
I'm looking for a book I loved as a little
girl in the mid 1970s. The plot line was something like
this... A little girl wants to be a witch. She spends much
of her time dressing up like a witch, ugly nose and all, and
scaring her classmates. One day she finds that the nose is
stuck for real. I don't remember exactly what happens
next, but I think she leaves her family to go live with some
witches (?), does not like it/misses her family, and decides
that being a little girl is not so bad after all. I can
remember the illustrations, but nothing I've seen on
adlibiris.com, eBay, or Amazon look familiar, although I could
be wrong. Thank you for whatever help you can give
me. I have a six year old daughter and I am dying to
introduce her to this book!
Eugenie, Wickedishrag1968, Cute story about naughty princess Gwendel,
who likes to pretend to be a witch and frighten people, until
one day she is mistaken for a real witch. She must learn to be
good before she can become a princess again. See solved
mysteries for more info.
Eugenie, Wickedishrag. Look on the solved pages for more info
but I'm pretty sure this is the title you're looking for.
Interpreting
Condition
Grades
|
Eugenie. Wickedishrag. illus by Eugenie. C
R Gibson Stardust Books, 1968. dust
jacket has large taped tear on rear, and a little
edgewear; cloth and pages very good.
[SQ29267] <SOLD> |
|
L196: "L" or "M"
I read this book in 1966 and it was about an oriental boy.I can't
remember if he was in China or Japan. It was a chapter book and I
think his name started with the letter "L" or "M". I remember
something about him fishing or being in a boat. It was really good
but that is all I can think of. Hope you can find something.
That's not a lot of clues... but Mei Li by Thomas
Handforth won the Caldecott in 1939, so it's pretty
famous. Start with the famous, and work your way down..
Mei Li is about a girl, and
it isn't a chapter book...
Elleanor Lattimore, Little Pear, 1955, reprint. Could this be Little
Pear: The Story of a Little Chinese Boy? The 2005 reprint
lists this as the summary: The adventures of Little Pear, a
mischievous five-year-old boy living in China in the early
1900s. Little Pear is a young boy who lives in a small village
in China. Although his story takes place long ago, he is much
like any little boy today--always on the lookout for excitement
and adventure! Little Pear is just looking for fun, but he has a
knack for finding trouble without even trying! Join him as he
stows away to the fair in a wheelbarrow full of vegetables,
nearly flies away on a kite, has a mishap with a firecracker,
and is rescued from the river by a houseboat family.
Meindert DeYoung, House of Sixty
Fathers, 1957,
approximately. A long shot, but might it be Meindert
DeJong's Newbery honor title, House of Sixty Fathers?
The story begins with Tien Pao in his family's sampan with his
ducklings and pig this occurs during the Japanese invasion
of China in WWII. An accident sets the boat afloat and
sends Tien Pao back into Japanese territory, from which he must
start a journey looking for his family and safety.
Not too likely, but one more river
story. Creekmore, Raymond Little
Fu
illus by Raymond Creekmore Macmillan
c1947. Little Fu’s description of his voyage down
the river with his father to sell their tea gives us a picture
that part of Chinese life; large lithographs add to the
picture
L197: Lost Steiff Bear
Solved: Lost Bear
2007
L198: Little girl chooses between a doll, an airplane, and
a book
Solved: I Decided
L199: Little boy who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed
and has a bad day
When the little boy wakes up on the wrong side of the bed,
everything goes wrong, but when he wakes up on the right side of
the bed, he has a good day. He is on his way to school one
day and stops to buy chocolates for a Valentine gift.
syd hoff, I should have stayed in
bed
I checked the book posted, but it's not the one. I am 48
now and I read the book in the late 60's or early 70's when I
was in grade school. There definitely was a passage in the
book about the little boy shopping for a gift on his way to
school. I remember he had to settle for a little box of
chocolates because he only had so much money. If anyone
else has more suggestions, please reply.
L200: Lonely Owl story
Solved: Owl at Home
L201: Little Gypsy Dandelion
Solved: Little Gipsy
Dandelion
L202: little girl, a dolphin, an underwater cave
Anyway, all I can remember is that this is
a book I read in about 1972 and there was a little girl, a
dolphin, an underwater cave and for some reason I think there
was a giant angler fish. Any help at all would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks so much!
O'Dell, Scott, Island of the
Blue Dolphins,1961.I hope this is what you're
looking for. It's a wonderful book. Scott O'Dell won
the Newbery Medal for this in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's
Literature Association named this story one of the 10 best
American children's books of the past 200 years.
Peter Benchley, The Girl of
the Sea of Cortez. Worth a look, if just to rule it
out. There is a giant manta ray...
L203: large creature from outer space
Solved: The Star Beast
L204a: little cakes or cookies
I can only remember reading this book. I
believe it was 8.5 x 11 size and I recall that it was
paperback--perhaps with a firm cover. The most striking thing I
can remember about the book was that it was printed in greens,
pinks and browns.It was a collection of stories and poems, I
think, and they were not the usual Mother Goose or Fairy Tales.
It may have included "There was a crooked man" and "Big Rock
Candy Mountain" but I'm not sure. One of the stories was about
little cakes or cookies. I know this sounds hopeless, but does
anyone remember such a book. I would have had it between the
years of 1958 and 1965.
Rosemary E. Livsey (editor), A,
B,
C: Go!,1962. A long shot, but might this be the one
you're looking for? It is the first volume of "Collier's
Junior Classics - The Young Folks Shelf of Books" and contains
many nursery rhymes, poems, and stories, including "There Was a
Crooked Man," but not "Big Rock Candy Mountain." I'm
pretty sure these books have been re-printed a time or two, and
there may have been a soft-cover edition. (Mine is
hardcover, and each book in the 10-book set is a different
color.) The books contain works by many different authors and
illustrators. A lot of the illustrations are black-and-white,
but there are also some full-color, and quite a few
black-and-white accented with some other color, including a
brownish shade, also yellow, pink, blue, and/or green. The
reason this book springs to mind is the story about the little
cakes or cookies. This might be "The Funny Thing" by Wanda
Gag, about a kindly old man named Bobo who provided good things
to eat to all the little birds and animals. One day a
"Funny Thing" (drawn to look sort of dragon-ish) arrived at his
cave, looking for something to eat. The Funny Thing wasn't
interested in any of the foods Bobo offered, and said that he
preferred to eat children's dolls, which of course would make
the children cry. So Bobo whipped up a batch of little
balls which he called "jum-jills" and convinced the Thing to eat
them, to make his tail grow longer and his blue points more
beautiful. The Thing liked the jum-jills so much that he never
ate any more dolls, and as his tail grew longer, he settled atop
a mountain where Bobo had the jum-jills delivered daily by
birds. Another story about little cakes in the same book
is "The Poppy Seed Cakes" by Margery Clark, about a little boy
who is supposed to keep an eye on some poppy-seed cakes that his
aunt had baked, but instead bounces up and down on the feather
bed. A goose comes to take back the feathers from the bed,
claiming that they are his, and eats all the poppy seed
cakes. In the end, he explodes from eating so many cakes,
and Andrewshek's auntie tells him that he will soon have some
nice feather pillows to go with his bed. Other stories in
this book include The Velveteen Rabbit, Angus and the Cat, Kiki
Dances, Evie and the Wonderful Kangaroo, Rosa-Too-Little,
Susanna's Auction, The Five Chinese Brothers, and The Little Old
Woman who Used her Head.
L204b: land of the fairies
I have a very vague memory of a book I
enjoyed as a child. A young girl finds her way to the land
of the fairies. The fairies are mostly named after
flowers. For example, one fairy is named Lords and Ladies.
It isn't one of the flower fairy books by C M Barker. I
think it might have been called something like Behind The
Screen.
Terry Prachett, Lords
and Ladies, 1995, copyright. Did you rule
out this book? It involves elves, not fairies, who are called the
"lords and ladies".
L205: little witch
Solved: Little Witch
L206: lotto winner
Solved: Pot of Gold (Michael)
L207: lady of shallot
Solved: Castle Steep
L208: lonely caterpiller
I have attached a picture of the main
character. this book was from the early to mid 60's i
believe. It was a story about a lonely caterpiller, and in
the end, he (of course) turns into a beautiful butterfly.
i don't remember much about the book (i started school in '67
and this was my favorite book all through elementary
school). i hope you can help me find this book.
Could this be hope for the flowers:
by Trina Paulus? In it a unhappy caterpillar becomes a
happy butterfly. I think it was from the late sixties. My hippie
parents liked it more than I did.
Dom DeLuise, Charlie the
Caterpillar, 1993. illus. Christopher Santoro.We
had this book and recognize the picture of the caterpillar.
nope, but thank you. neither of these
books are "the one". thanks
L209: labrador retrievers raised by family
Solved: The Dog In My
Life: Thumper of Walden
L210: Lost Mission Bell in Desert Southwest
Solved: Treasure of the
Padres
L211: Little girl, car trip, national monuments
Solved: Runaway Home
L212: Lost teddy bear
Solved: The Teddy Bear
Habit
L213: Lost "white" dog
Solved: Harry the Dirty
Dog
L214: little girl trapped on sandbar in France
I'm looking for a picture book about a
little girl who runs away from home and gets trapped on a
sandbar at high tide. I think the book takes place in
France and has water color illustrations, but I could be wrong
on both of those things. Thanks!
I think this may be Tim and Ginger,
one of Edward Ardizzzone's books as both author and
illustrator. I just located these books for myself within
the last two months since discovering the Book Stumpers
database. It is set in England (although there is a definite
French "feel" to the pictures) with distinctive watercolor and
black and white illustrations. Ginger is a boy, but you
might remember his name as a girl's name. (As I did.) He
is careless and gets trapped in the ocean bay on a sandbar at
high tide. There is a great illustration of him standing
with just his head out of the waves, as Tim approaches in a
small boat to rescue him. Once you see the illustrations
you will know immediately if it is the book you want, they are
very much the author's own style, very memorable. This is
a picture book, and there are several written about Tim and his
adventures in a seaside town. I hope this helps! I'd
been thinking about this same book since kindergarten!
Napoli, Adventure at
Mont-Saint-Michel, 1966. This is about a French
girl who gets trapped in the sand near Mont-Saint-Michel when
the tide comes in-- and I remember that the illustrations look
very water-colory.
L215: little witch girl
This is a picture book/series from the
1970s or older. It was about a little witch girl, who was very
thin and had long stringy black hair, wore rags and I think
thigh high stockings that were striped? She had a pointy
hat (of course) and a black cat. She was cute/pretty, not
"witchy" looking. She was either an orphan or an isolated
character. She lived in an old house. The drawings
were stark, like pen and ink. That's all I can
remember! THe story centered around her activities in this
house, in which I think she lived in the attic or somewhere off
by herself. I do not recall her leaving the house or
travelling around, though I do think she had a broom. Thanks
very much!
Patricia Coombs, Dorrie series,
1974. This description sounds
like the series of books about Dorrie, a young witch, first
published in the early 70's. Coombs wrote Dorrie
and the Blue Witch, Dorrie and the Goblin,
Dorrie and the Amazing Magic Elixir, and so on.
There must be roughly 15 Dorrie books. They were my
daughter's favorites.
Marian Place, The Resident
Witch, 1970. This reminds me a bit of The
Resident Witch (see solved mysteries under "R" for
more details). Witcheena does wear long striped stockings,
polka-dotted underwear, a ragged brown skirt and blouse, a
pointed hat, and long pointed witch shoes with big
buckles. She can be pretty, when she combs her hair and
cleans herself up, as she does when trying to pass as a normal
human to have fun at the carnival. The illustrations are
black-and-white sketches (pen and ink) by Marilyn Miller. This
doesn't quite match up with the isolation you describe.
Witcheena lives with her aunt, but she is a bit lonely until she
makes a human friend (Nancy) at the carnival.
Patricia Coombs, various titles about
Dorrie. Could you mean Dorrie? Patricia
Coombs wrote several titles about her for beginning
readers. Her stockings never matched and were often slipping
down. She does not live alone but with a mother and aunt-type
witch, but she has most of her adventures on her own or with her
black cat, whose name escapes me.
Coombs, Patricia, Dorrie. This
sounds
like
the
series of books about Dorrie the little witch. She lives with
her mother the Big Witch and wears a black hat and dress and
stripped stockings. More about his series (including some of the
illustrations) may be found here:
etc.
Eleanor Estes, The
Witch Family.
Nearly forgot about this, but could it be the Witch
Family? The little girl does dress in witchy fashion,
all in black, but generally acts like a normal little girl,
albeit one with a few special skills. She lives with the mother
figure of Old Witch, and gets a baby sister; she later befriends
two little human girls. For some reason the human girls have
power over the Old Witch, "banquishing" her to keep her out of
trouble, the Little Witch is for her company.
L216: lonely house
I am looking for a book from the early to
mid 1970's. It was a "little golden book" or "little elf"
type of book. I believe it was entitled The Sad little
house or the Lonely house or something along those
lines. On the front cover in a house; the windows are eyes
with shades half drawn, the door is the mouth. The house
looks sad. The storyline goes along the lines of the house
is sad and empty and then a family moves in and makes it
happy. It was a favorite of mine and I would LOVE to find
it. Thanks for your help!
Virginia Lee Burton , The
Little House, 1943. I suspect this stumper may be
The Little House by Virginia Burton, originally published in
1943. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and read this as a child.
The little house loses its family and the city grows up around
it. In the end, it is moved into the country and gets a new
family to love it and make it look happy once again.
Virginia Lee Burton, The
Little House (Her Story), 1942. A country house is
unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows
up around her." Caldecott winner in 1943, reprinted 1969,
1978, 1988, and back in print again.
Virginia Lee Burton, The
Little House, 1943. I suspect this stumper may be The
Little House by Virginia Burton, originally
published in 1943. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and read
this as a child. The little house loses its family and the city
grows up around it. In the end, it is moved into the country and
gets a new family to love it and make it look happy once again.
Virginia Lee Burton, The
Little House, 1978, reprint. Could this be a
possibility? It was written decades ago but remains in
print. The cover is different, but I believe there's a
picture within the book matching your description. I read
it at the local bookstore sometime within the last year as I
searched for books for my nephew who was due to be born. I
also recall an old cartoon based on a similar story.
This book, as described, is probably NOT
"The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. The Burton book is a
regular hard cover Caldecott Award book (not a Golden-type book)
about a little house in the country, who lives through the
seasons, wonders about living in the city, is eventually
overtaken by the city, then abandoned as skyscrapers grow up
around her. Eventually, she is discovered by relatives of
the original owner, finally move her back to the country, where
she is happy and lived in again. The cover has a picture
of the happy little house (curving steps somewhat resemble a
smile), with a tree on each side and a smiling sun above. The
copyright date for The Little House is 1942.
L217: lumberjack camp, girl
I'm trying to locate a book title for my
daughter. She remembers her first chapter book as a red hardback
about a girl who goes to a lumberjack camp. She - my reader- was
8 or 9 she thinks so it would have been in the middle 70s. I
don't know if it was a new book, one of mine or my mother's (a
Harriett who just died at 87) We'd love to find the book.
Thanks.
Jacqueline Jackson, The Taste of
Spruce Gum, 1966.
Could this be the book? In 1903, Libby Fletcher, about 10,
moves from Illinois to Vermont a year after her father
dies. Her mother is going to marry Libby's father's
brother, Uncle Charles, who runs the family lumber camp.
Libby struggles with adjusting to her new father and new
surroundings. My first-edition copy has a yellow cover and
not a red one.
Annie Roe Carr, Nan Sherwood
at Pine Camp. Could it possibly be Nan
Sherwood at Pine Camp (also named The Old
Lumberman's Secret)? I had a different Nan
Sherwood book, handed down from my mother and grandmother,
and it did have a red cover. This book is available through
Project Gutenberg, if you want to check the text.
Walter and Marion Havighurst, Song of
the Pines, 1949. Is she
sure that the main character was a girl? Because if it was
a boy named Nils, it could be Song of the Pines.
It was a Newbury Honor Book in 1950, so it's probably gone
through multiple printings.
L218: Little Prince book (not the popular one)
Solved: Deegie and the
Fairy Princess
L219: Lost pony (illustrated)
Solved: Stolen Pony
L220: Little witch living in a cottage
Solved: The
Little
Witch
L221: Lucky to have a mother like me
Solved: Push Kitty
L222: little witch book from the 1970's
A book from when I wasin Grade School in the 70's about a little
witch. I remember a star being on her hand and her wearing striped
tights. I know it is not Dorrie.
Ida DeLage, Weeny Witch, 1968, copyright. Sounds like this one,
if she turns out to have been a fairy child who had been
kidnapped by witches and raised as one of them. The birthmark on
her hand establishes her identity as a fairy. See solved
mysteries for more details.
Weeny Witch? See Solved
Mysteries.
L223: Lila lives with disapproving aunt
I am looking for a book I read in the 60's about a girl named
Lila who goes to live with her cousin and aunt. The aunt doesn't
approve of her and thinks she's trouble. Lila meets a boy named
Steve that she dates. I don't remember either the title or the
author.
L224: little angel
little angel breaks stained glass window
Barbara Robinson, The Best Christmas
Pageant Ever, 1972,
copyright. This is the first thing that came to mind. From
the net: "The Herdmans are absolutely and without question the
worst kids in the entire history of the world. They are guilty
of evey unmentionable childhood crime and have thought of more
than a few original ones. When they take over the church
Christmas pageant (although none of them has ever attended
church, much less heard the Christmas story before), the first
Christmas becomes new and real in some pretty surprising ways."
Here's a bit more information about L224:
The Christmas book would have come out in the 60s and it
involved a little girl angel who was very sad because she
accidentally broke a stained glass window in a church with a
piece of ice/snow. Maybe this will help.
Vardon, Beth, Wonderful Window, reprint. I had this book as a child and
it can now be purchased as a reprint. It is illustrated by Charlot
Byi. If you wish to check and see if this is the one you
remember, look here:
http://www.grandmas-attic.com/children_books.html.
L225: love, religion, late 70's
I'm looking for a book that I read out of the church library when
I was very little (I was probably 3 or 4 the first time I read
it). That makes it around the late 70's/early 80's. I
thought it was called "What Is Love?" It's *VERY* similar to
the Golden Book "What Is Love?" by Sarah Eberle (in fact, I
remember reading the Golden book version later in my childhood and
thinking it was almost the same book!), but the illustrations are
wrong. The pictures I remember were much softer - more
pastel colors, softer lines. The book was also bigger - more
along the lines of a full 8 1/2 x 11" sheet for each page. I
would love to find this book again as it was one of my favorites
as a child. Thanks!
Sarah Eberle, Jan Brown illus, What
Is Love? 1975,
copyright. You may have the right book, but just the wrong
version. Eberle's
book has been reprinted several times, with more than one
illustrator. (Jan Brown, Angela Jarecki, and Tammie
Speer are the three I can find.) I would suggest
looking at the Jan Brown version from 1975 - I think
this is a Happy Day Book, published by the Standard Publishing
Company. The front cover of this one shows a little girl in a
red and white heart-printed dress, kneeling on a rug, holding
her baby brother's hands and helping him to walk. There are a
ball and teddy bear on the rug beside her, and behind them is a
window with two pots of red geraniums on the sill, and a puffy
curtain. The style of the artwork reminds me a bit of
Holly Hobby.
Well, I *think* the 1975 version
of the book "What Is Love?"
could very well be the right one. The "Holly Hobbie"
reference to the illustrations sounds correct. However,
I'm having an INCREDIBLY difficult time finding a picture
anywhere. Everytime I try to come up with that version, I
end up with pictures of the 1980 golden book-type version
instead. So I'm not gonna say this is definitely solved
yet until I can find a picture of it *somewhere*. But it's
definitely looking promising. Thanks!
L226: Letters of the alphabet disappear
I have the very sketchiest of details. It's a children's
chapter book from my childhood, and I was born in 1967. Somehow,
the letters of the alphabet disappear or become lost. I think I
remember a scene where a child takes a book off the library
shelf (in a nursery?) and opens it and the pages are blank. Then
the child, maybe with another child?, goes on a hunt looking for
the alphabet letters??? Maybe there is a snowglobe in the book,
perhaps with the letters swirling around?????? Maybe the child
goes into the snowglobe???!?? Or, these details could be totally
way off. LOL!!!Ring any bells? Thanks so much. I adored this
book from my elementary school although you can hardly believe it
seeing how sketchy my memory is. I do appreciate everyone’s
help.
Sesyle Joslin, The Night They Stole
the Alphabet, 1968,
copyright. Illustrated by Enrico Arno.
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. While Victoria is
sleeping, someone steals the alphabet from her wallpaper.
She goes off on an almost Alice-in-Wonderland type search to
find the missing letters.
2008
L227: large family, waking up, going to
school
Illustrated childrens book I read
in early 80's about a large family that was "ALF-like" in
appearance. (Or bear-like?) The book was mainly about
waking up and getting ready for school. The children's
blankets were attached to ropes and pulleys which would lift up
when the alarm clock went off. They all rode in a big
bus-like vehicle... seem to remember that the youngest
sibling was a little girl who whined and cried a lot...
Fernando Krahn, The Family Minus,
1977. This could be it. The family is large, there are crazy
inventions, they look alf-like. But it's been at least twenty
years since I read it, so I can't be completely sure.
Fernando Krahn, The
Family Minus, 1977, copyright. This is
definitely the story you are thinking of. The family are mice, I
think. The mother invents a train-like car for them and also the
device to get them all out of bed in the morning. Their names
are Firsterix, Secondus, Thirdly, Fourthem, Fifthmore, etc., all
the way to the youngest, a girl named Eightah. Parents'
Magazine Press, New York, 1977. I think there are one or two
sequels.
L228: Livingstone,
Stanley
Mid 1980s publication a
fictionalized account of Stanley's journey to find Livingstone
Lennart Hagerfors, The Whales in Lake Tanganyika (A
Novel), 1989, copyright. "In March 1871,
on assignment for the New York Herald, Henry Morton Stanley set
forth into the heart of Africa to find David Livingstone. This
book is a retelling of the expedition in the form of the journal
of John Shaw, one of two white man who accompanied Stanley."
Additional detail: the Livingstone book in question was
definitely adult.
L229: Letter
containing secret message
I have a foggy memory of a mystery
book I read as a youth in the late seventies. All I can remember
is a part about a girl who was possibly kidnapped or held against
her will somehow, and allowed to send or give to someone a letter
she had written, with every other word spelling out her captive
situation. This cry for help is the only memory I have. Thank you.
Cynthia Voigt, The Vandemark Mummy.
Probably
this book. The kidnapper's name is Ken Simard, and the heroine
writes a message where the first letter of each word spells out
his name.
L230: Lots of alike
dresses
Story about a small black child
living with grandmother. Child has several dresses exactly the
same but her school friends think she has only a single dress to
her name. There are references to a chinaberry tree I think.
This sounds similar to
unsolved stumper G413: Girl lives with sewing spinster aunt who
makes all her dresses from the same bolt of cloth. See Stump the
Bookseller: GH for more details.
L231: Lady Morgana in England
The book was a historical romance
maybe 1700-1800's in England. I believe it was a forced or
arranged marriage. What I remember is the name "Morgana"; I dont
think this is the title it might be the characters name. The story
unfolds thru many many years. She leaves him after some time and
even has other lovers one of them a French man. Their relationship
is an on and off again thing. The hubby and her do have children
of their own. I know she had red hair and I believe the cover had
her and him on a cliff maybe she had a green dress. I remember
that on one of the scenes someone died I’m unsure if it was a
child or someone closer to her and her hubby shows up again this
is around the time that she is with the Frenchman. I believe one
of her lovers not sure which one turns out to be cruel he hits her
one time and she compares him to her husband. I hope this is
helpful. I had the book about ten years ago at that time the book
was already old I think it might have been published in the
1970’s.
Rebecca Brandewyne, No Gentle Love.
This is an old book with a heroine named Morgana. Her grandfather
arranged her marriage to her cousin Rian and both were unhappy
about it. That's all I remember and it may not be your book.
Brandewyne, Rebecca, No
Gentle Love, 2002. Here is the cover on
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/3kztnb. She has red hair, but
they are on a ship. Kind of a cliffy-looking ship, though.
L232: Little people
in colored capes
This one is very vague because I
remember more about the decription of the characters than I do
about the story. They were little people a lot like hobbits
except they lived in hollowed out trees with round doors.
Each character's door color was the same as the cape he or she
wore. I was reading this book in the mid sixties but I have
no idea if it was new or old - it was in the library of my public
middle school.
Possibly The Gammage Cup
by Carol Kendall?
Carol Kendall, The
Gammage Cup.
I wonder if you might be recalling The Gammage Cup. It's
about a group called the Minipins. They live in houses,
not trees, but do have prescribed colors for doors and cloaks.
The heroine is exiled from the village, along with a group of
other nonconformists, because she paints her door red, if I
recall correctly. The group of misfits then overcomes an
invading army of mushroom people and return as heroes.
Kendall, Carol, The
Gammage Cup.
And everybody had family trees planted in their front
yards. The people were called Minnipins.
I
ordered The Gammage Cup
and it arrived today but it wasn't what I am looking
for. Upon further reflection I am wondering if the
little people lived in mushroom houses. But I am
absolutely sure that their capes matched their door colors
and I am fairly sure the doors were round. Any more
ideas?
If the people lived in mushroom houses,
it's possible you might be thinking of one of the Mushroom Planet books
by Eleanor Cameron.
The older cover illustrations show the inhabitants wearing
capes... "The Wonderful Flight to the
Mushroom Planet", "Stowaway to the Mushroom
Planet", "Time and Mr. Bass", and "A Mystery
for Mr. Bass".
I
posted the stumper. Please keep trying because
there is no solution yet.
L233: Little Lottie
1910-1925'ish, childrens. I
am told by a number of intellegent folks that there once was a
comic strip featuring as a main character, a female adolescent,
"Little Lottie" or possibly "Cousin Lottie". Presumably, the
title of the strip presumably bore her name. I'm really more
interested in an older man, presumably her grandpa, the main
comedic figure in the series who regularly appeared in the strip
as a buffoon. He was elderly, moved, talked and processed slowly
and carried a very large, out-of-scale hearing trumpet which he
used, usually unsucessfully, to attempt hearing folks who were
tying to communicate with him. His answer was always, "talk
louder", "come closer" or something similar and he never seemed to
be able to understand anyone. I'm Peer Mentor for the
hearing impaired and am looking for something I can use in my
lectures to document some of the roots of the stigma against
hearing aids and why many who need them seem to stay in denial so
long, often as long as 15 years. If you have any other
suggestions from the popular literature which might help prove my
point, I'd love having those remarks as well. Hope you can
help. Either way, thanks much.
Little Lotta.
Possibly
this
one?
http://home.att.net/~thft/lotta.htm.
I found another clue: one of Lottie's trademark
expressions when she was amused was to utter, "tsk,
tsk." Thanks so much for your help. I don't know
why our darlin' "Cousin Lottie" is playing it so coy!
Little
Dot. Possibly a different Harvey
Comics character, Little Dot?
This does sound
irresistably like Little
Lotta, a Harvey Comics character who was around
beginning in 1955. Today such a character -- an overweight
girl who liked huge meals -- would be considered appalling,
but it was all presented in a whimsical, slapstick fashion.
(And she did say "tsk tsk" sometimes.) It's certainly
possible she was based on a 1920s character although I have
not found much about this. But the grandfather! -- Him, I
remember. He did have a huge ear trumpet. Other than being a
bit deaf and slightly forgetful, he was healthy, active, and
one of the only comic book characters I remember who took
vitamins (he called them "vitymines"). In that, he was ahead
of his time.
L234: Lost/Kidnapped
Brother Comes Home
Solved: The Lost Boy
L235: Little Women with White Cover
available in the 1980s
My wife really wants to find a
particular edition of Little Women that she read as a child. She
was in grade school in the 80's and she said it was a worn book
then. She descibes the particular edition as having a white cover.
The main reason she wants this edition is that she really enjoyed
the illustrations in this edition as a child. The main
illustration she remembers is one of the female characters sitting
in front of a mirror. If you can help identify the edition,
publisher, and year of publication, I would be greatful. Thanks.
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1970,
reprint. I have a white covered "Whitman Classic" issue of
Little Women. It says "Modern Aridged Edition". Its Whitman
number is 1605. It was published by the Western Publishing
Company and has a very colorful picture of the four girls on the
front (The top 1/3 of the cover is white). There is a
picture on page 251 where it looks like Jo is sitting near a
mirror. Nothing is reflected back so I'm not sure if this is
the picture your wife was thinking of or not.
L236: Lincoln Historical Fiction Juvenile
Vintage Book
Hi, I'm looking for an historical
fiction novel that was either about Mary Todd or Abraham Lincoln.
The only scene I remember specifically that might set it apart
from others was a scene where either he (or she?) threw Abraham
Lincoln's shirts out of the window in a mad rage b/c they weren't
pressed correctly (or something like that). I remember loving
it--but even when I read the book it looked old to me, so for all
I know it had been around my public school library for ages. (I
was in 7th or 8th grade and it was the early 80s.) It was
definitely historical fiction, though, because even though it was
based on truth, the characters were brought alive in a very
soap-opera-like way (if I remember correctly!) Thanks. (I also
might remember a scene of her staring at her or his house either
when perhaps they were moving away after having been there
awhile???? Not sure on that scene, though.)
Irving Stone, Love Is Eternal. I haven't read the book in
years and years, so I can't remember whether the scenes you
describe are in it, but this definitely fits the description of a
rather dramatic historical fiction book about the Lincolns.
L237: Little girl walks through forest with
goblin
I have very vague memories of this
book from childhood. At the age of about 9 or 10 I won a
prize at school and was asked what book I'd like. I'd read
this book but couldn't remember its name. They tried to find
it for me then but couldn't and I was given "The Princess and the
Goblins" which was wonderful, but I've never stopped wanting the
one with the child walking through the dark forest with the
friendly goblin. I think there might have been a witch at
the end of the story too. I don't have much to go on, and I
don't really ever expect to find it, but it's worth a try.
Lynn Reid Banks, The Farthest Away Mountain.
A long shot, but maybe it's this
one?
I highly doubt it -- I loved The Farthest Away Mountain
in elementary school, and this doesn't sound like it at
all. The main character is a teenager, and she goes into
the forest with a gnome/elf statue that comes to life, not a
goblin.
Thanks for the suggestion of The Farthest Away Mountain.
I've considered this, and without seeing the actual book it
sounded quite promising. But I read on a website that Lynn
Reid Banks published her first children's book in
1973. The one I'm looking for must have been written
before about 1966, as that was when I left primary school.
Could this be one
of the other books by George
MacDonald? In the sequel, The
Princess and Curdie, Curdie (the Princess' friend)
has some dealings with both goblins and witches.
Thanks for your suggestion, but I've read the
George MacDonald books and I'm afraid the one I'm after
is something else.
It is possible
that this book is Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell.
See solved mysteries.
Thanks for the suggestion
of Shadow Castle. It sounds lovely, but having read a bit
more about it online, it's not the book I'm looking for.
L238: Live nativity scene found in snow
All I can remember from this
delightful children's picture book is that a live nativity scene
is found (I think in a barn, but perhaps a church) in the
snow. Thank you for your help.
Collington, Peter, A Small Miracle, 1997. Possibly this book. A
very poor woman sells her accordian, then has the money stolen by
a thief who also robs a church's alms box and disrupts the manger
scene. The woman sets the scene to rights, then collapses in the
snow. The nativity figures come to life to help the old woman. The
book is wordless.
Collington, Peter, Small
Miracle, 1997, approximate. If it was a
recent wordless picture book, it might be Small Miracle.
After a poor woman is robbed and left unconscious, the nativity
figures from a church bring her back to her caravan (through the
snow).
L239: Lemonade
Affair
in the end of 1970s i read a series
of 3 or 4 books at school library. one with title like 'the bubble
lemonade affair' or something like that, going on about a lemonade
production getting out of hand ?? or something. second book was
about some machine, looking like a dragon, ripping off the 'bad'
posters on the walls of the town, making paint from it and
splashing it all over town. very specific: on the inside-sleeves,
the two main-characters 'arrive' in the book by one method, and
leave the book in another way. once with hot-air-balloon, once
with 3 'flying steps', in the next book through underground-tunnel
chasing a butterfly. their house in one story was some artistic
structure, with glass canopies.
as i have been browsing other stumpers on your page, i
noticed that my description does miss, that it was a
picture-book with a little storyline (and no reading-book).
L240: Little girl her name is Anne
I am looking for a children's
poetry book my Mum had as a girl. She remembers her father reading
a poem about "This little girl, her name is Anne..." and
also a poem about two raindrops. She is 60 so this would have been
in the early 1950s. Thanks.
A.A. Milne, Now We Are Six. "a poem about two raindrops"
-- This is probably the poem "Waiting
at the Window" "Little girl her name is Anne" -- If
the requester's mom isn't remembering the lines quite correctly,
this could be the poem "The
Morning Walk,"
which begins "When Anne and I go out a walk...."
Milne, Now We Are
Six.
To help jog her memory, here are the first lines from Waiting At
The Window -- "These are my two drops of rain, Waiting on the
window-pane. I am waiting here to see, Which the winning
one will be. Both of them have different names. One is
John and one is James....." Some of the other poems in Now
We Are Six include: A Thought ("If I were John and John
were me, Then he'd be six and I'd be three.") Cradle Song
("O Timothy Tim has ten pink toes, and ten pink toes has Timothy
Tim. They go with him wherever he goes, and wherever he
goes they go with him.") and Binker ("Binker--what I call
him--is a secret of my own, And Binker is the reason why I never
feel alone. Playing in the nursery, sitting on the stair,
Whatever I am busy at, Binker will be there.")
L241: Long lost twin
In 1982-1985, I read a book that
was a standard trade hardcover size with a blue (mottled blue)
binding. The book was about a girl who finds out she has a
long lost twin. It's not a happy book, more like a mystery.
. . my memories tell me it's one of those that makes your chest
ache.
Janet Lunn, Twin Spell / Double Spell (The book was published with two
titles). This is a long shot-- "It was when (Jane and
Elizabeth) brought (the doll) Amelia to Aunt Alice's house that
the weird occurrences started. First, Elizabeth fell down the
stairs from Aunt Alice's attic -- a strange, dark room with a
cold, malevolent feeling in it. And both twins started having odd
visions of a time long past, when Amelia wasn't ancient and
battered, but new, her face freshly painted." "Who were Anne
and Melissa, another set of twins, who had had dolls just like
Amelia? What had happened to them? And who was Hester and why did
she hate them so? All through the long, hot summer, with past and
present beginning to melt together, the twins find themselves
trying desperately to answer these and other questions, before
someone else gets hurt."
Duncan, Lois, Stranger
With My Face, 1981, copyright. "A
seventeen-year-old senses she is being spied on and probably
impersonated, but when she discovers what actually is occurring,
it is more unbelievable than she ever imagined." The person
spying on her and impersonating her turns out to be a twin
sister she didn't know she had.
L242: Little man from another planet with
perambulator
Book I read in the mid-70's,
children's book, maybe sci-fi, a little man visits earth from
another planet and befriends a boy. They have adventures
together. The little man has a small craft they fly around
in together called a perambulator - it's possibly an ice-cream
cart at other times?
Louis Slobodkin, The Spaceship Under the Apple
Tree,
1966, approximate.
L243: Little
boy, cave, spiders, witch, elbow grease
Solved: Grandpa's Ghost Stories
L244: Large
children's hardcover story book
Looking for large children's
hardcover book from around 1950s to 60s. Probably 4-6
different stories and illustrations. One was about a little
boy named Bimba (I think) who got some magic beans and another was
about wild white horse from fairyland who was caught with
human hair. Please help.
2009
L245: Little
girl, iceberg
childhood book read to me in the
70's. little girl somehow ends up on an iceberg & floats off
somewhere. can't remember what happens next.
Radko Doone, Nuvat The Brave: An Eskimo
Robinson Crusoe, 1934, copyright. Any
chance it was a boy instead of a girl? Because he has a crippled
leg, Nuvat is forced to do women's work in his village, while the
men do the hunting. But when an ice floe breaks off underneath
him, he is swept out to sea. He lands on a deserted island, where
he must survive alone for two years before finally being rescued
and returned home.
scott o'dell, black
star bright dawn, 1985, approximate.
about iditarod and girl floating away on iceberg.
Mary Ellen Chase, A
Walk on an Iceberg, 1966, copyright. A
bit different but memory plays tricks. The story of her
grandmother who married a ship's captain about 1860 and sailed
with him. She spotted an iceberg in the Baltic sea and,
accompanied by some sailors, went for a walk on it. They
rescued a ragged German seal hunter who had been stranded on
the ice for days when it broke away from the mainland and thus
became an iceberg.
Sanchez and Pacheco, The Girl With No Name,
1978, copyright. Part of The Rights of Children
series, Methuen, New York.
L246: Little wooden doll lost in a jar of
jam
I checked this book out of my
elementary school library when I was in second grade--an
illustrated book about a doll so small that it kept getting
lost. It was vacuumed up, and then later fell into a jar of
jam--taken out with a spoon by a sick little girl.
Johanna Johnston, Sugarplum. A tiny doll named Sugarplum
was always getting lost and being accused by the larger dolls of
being no more than a trinket. But when she falls into a jar of
newly made jelly and is lost for months, Sugarplum gets her chance
to prove she is a little girl's real doll. There is also a
misadventure involving a vacuum cleaner. A rare and expensive
book, unfortunately out of print. Another book, Sugarplum and
Snowball, recounts the doll's adventures when she is carried away
by her friend Snowball, a white kitten.
Johanna
Johnston, Sugarplum, 1955, copyright.
Johanna Johnston, Sugarplum.
Sugarplum.
Check
out solved stumpers.
Sugarplum, Johanna Johnston.
This
book
is
remembered fondly by many, many people. The classic
scene of Sugarplum falling into the jelly jar is what most
people remember. There is a sequel "Sugarplum and
Snowball".
L247: Lily
Durpess?
I have been searching for a
children's book that my now deceased father used to read as a
child around 6 years old while in school. He was Born in 1918 in
Danvers Illinois which is near Peoria. He went to school in that
area. The book, I think, is called something like Lily
Durpess or Durp. It was a school reader or a story in a school
reader, possibly from the 1st grade. The reader could have been
older as he attended a little poor school with about 20 kids. He
was in first grade around 1924. I have been searching for
this for over 20 years since he died.
L248: Lilybet
or Lilybeth
The title of the book I am looking
for is either Lilybet or Lilybeth. It is about a girl who
lives with the circus with her parents - she wants to be an
equestrian - hardback book - cover has a black and white picture
on it - photos in the book and not drawings.
Astrid Lindgren, Lilibet Circus Child, 1961, copyright.
L249: Lute playing hero rescues
princess/lady
Solved: Trumpets in Grumpetland
L250: Little Golden Book, pink pigs, ice
cream
A Little Golden Book, I think, from
the 1960s. Story of family of very pink pigs. On one
page they ate ice cream. Thank you for any help you can
provide.
Mary Rayner, Garth Pig and the Ice Cream Lady, 1977, approximate. This is
a long shot, but could it be Garth Pig and the Ice Cream Lady?
The story features a very large family of pink pigs...Garth is the
main character in several books. Although it came out in
1977 in the US, it's originally British, and may be older than
that.
L251: Leprechaun
grants boy infinite wishes
Solved: The
Three and Many Wishes of Jason Reid
L252: lumpy tummy and peaky beaky
Hello, I would like to find a book
with the characters being lumpy tummy and peaky beaky,
please! Thanks!
Bertrand de Vogue, Peaky Beaky, 1967, approximate. In the
solved pages -- Peaky Beaky. (There are also two images from
the book at
http://squirrelisknitting.blogspot.com/2006/04/reminiscing.html.)
L253: Little Girl is Late to a Birthday
Party - Learns to be on time, etc.
Collection of stories from
30's-50's? about a little girl who learns to be respectful of
others. In one story she is half hour late to a b-day party so her
mother makes her leave a half hour before the party is over. Also,
in the very early a.m. she is sent to the yard to garden &
sees a little bird.
Arlera
Richardson,
In Grandmas Attic, More
Stories from Grandmas Attic,
and Still
More Stories from Grandmas Attic, 1974, copyright.
These collections of short stories give the feel of being
written in the past, I dont remember all of the tales, but the
party one you described sounds familiar to me. Id guess
the story you are looking for is in one of these books.
Thank you for your suggestion. I'm afraid it is not
the book I'm looking for, but it looks like a great book series!
:)
L254: Little
girl loses sock at laundromat
Solved: The
Big Enough Helper
L255: A Light from Heaven
A small boy and his mother strive
to love Jesus in spite of the father's un Christian like behavior.
The boy is afraid of the dark and the mother puts a picture of
Jesus above his bed. the mother and child are not allowed to go to
church due to their ragged clothing but the father. I
believe the name of the book was "A Light from Heaven" set in
1930/40 in America. About a young boy and his mother and the
love they share for each other and Jesus. The cover was light blue
with the boy standing.
Christmas
Carol Kauffman, Light From Heaven
1965? Reprinted by Moody Press and Christian Light Publications
Inc Date Published: 2000 ISBN-13: 9780878139637 ISBN:
087813963X.
L256: Lighthouse
where a woman gets shipwrecked with a gruff lightkeeper.
Christian Fiction. I was 12,
so it was published before 1995. Most likely 70s or
80s. I think the woman's name was Katherine, but I'm not
sure. I think she was pregnant. It's not Eugenia
Price's Lighthouse, Nicola Beaumont's The Lighthouse, or Susan
Wiggs' The Lightkeeper (similar to this one).
L257: Little witchs broom has mind of own
Im remembering a book from the early to mid 80s - a little
witch and her broom. I remember stripped stockings and her
and the broom fighting. At one point I think she ends up
hanging from the weather vane because of the broom. But then
they make up and decide to go around and clean up the town.
Coombs, Patricia, Dorrie books. This sounds like one of the
Dorrie books by Patricia Coombs, but I cant pin down the
title.
Coombs,
Dorrie Series. Im
not sure, but your request (especially the striped stockings)
made me think of this long-running series. look here for a
description of all the books as well as some sample
illustrations.
Place,
Marian T, The Witch Who Saved
Halloween, 1940. This book is a possibility, although its about a boy
(warlock), not a girl (witch). The main character is named
Witchard. Witchard'\''s parents have flown away to find a
new planet for witches to live on, because Earth is getting too
polluted. Witchard is left in the care of his aunt and
grandmother, and they live together in a thicket by a
stream. Witchards broom is enchanted so that he cant fly
too far from home unsupervised, and he "fights" with the broom
at one point. He eventually goes out and explores the
human world, makes friends, and gets people to cooperate with
witches on cleaning up pollution so witches can stay on
Earth. If this is the book, you might mistakenly remember
the character as female because Witchard had to wear a brown
dress until he passed a certain level in his warlock training
and graduated to a green warlock suit. I think there may have
been illustrations of him in a dress and striped stockings.
Ive looked at the Dorrie
series and the drawings do not look familiar - were they ever
drawn by a different illustrator? If
not them Im afraid thats not my book.
Jane Yolen, The Witch Who Wasnt, 1974, approximate.This might be the book
youre thinking of dont be fooled by the similarly titled Meredith,
the Witch Who Wasnt.
Otfried
Preussler, The Little Witch. In one of the episodes in this
book, the big witches have taken the little Witch'\''s broom
away so she has to buy another one and break it in. While it is
trying to run away with her she tears her apron on the weather
vane.
L258:
"little man" doll and
bell in title
Hi!
I am 42 and I used to read an old book in my public library as
a girl that had bell in the title and it was about a little
girl who had a doll called "little man". I don't
remember
much more except her doll sat next to her in church and
eventually in the book she grows up. Help!
L259:
Little boy searches for perfect present for his mother
Little boy looks everywhere for a
present he can give his mother. I can't remember if it is
her birthday or what. He ends up with fresh flowers from a field.
Illustrated in loose watercolor.
Charlotte
Zolotow,
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely
Present, 1962. This sounds a
bit like Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present: The little girl in
the story needs to find a birthday present for her mother and is
in need of assistance. Mr. Rabbit, who has a big heart, offers
to help out the young girl even though his ideas arent that
good. Eventually, between the two of them, they come up with the
perfect gift for her mother - the gift of color. They offer the
gift through objects that are different colors: yellow - banana,
purple - grapes, green - pears, etc. The illustrations use soft
mute colors which are appealing to children. The art, by Maurice
Sendak, is lovely loose watercolors
L260:
London romance set in 1940's, girl called Kitten, eats
trifle, fals in love with a British officer, World War II era
Solved: Stairway to the Street
L261:
Loki at
Modern Invasion
SOLVED: David Brin, The River of Time,
1986.
L262: Lonely
creature looking for companion.
He was the only one of his kind. He
looked for a companion, and at the end of the book, he looked into
a mirror, saw his reflection, and it leaped out at him and came to
life. On the back of the book it shows the creature, his
"reflection", and several babies.
Wanted to add a few more
details I remembered: the creature had a unicorn-like horn and (I
think) a lion-like mane. The books main colors were orange and
red. I always thought the title was The Loneliest Creature, but
Ive never found any book by that title. I read it as a child in
the 80s.
Jenny Wagner, The
Bunyip of Berkeleys Creek, 1974,
approximate. This is a very long shot,
because youd have to be misremembering several important details,
including the picture on the back cover. But
its got enough themes in common that I thought it was worth
mentioning, just in case. (Besides,
its a lovely book and deserves a mention!) The Bunyip
of Berkeleys Creek_ is about the eponymous creature, who starts
out covered in mud, wondering what he is and what he looks like. He asks various animals, but is treated
rather rudely by all of them. Eventually
he goes off sadly to be by himself - whereupon he finds another
bunyip, covered in mud at the billabongs edge and wondering what
she is. The story ends with the
original bunyip lending the new one his mirror.
Doesnt look
like "The Bunyip of Berkeleys Creek" is what Im looking for,
sorry! My apologies - I should mention that the book is a
picture book/board book - it had words, but the book was overall
very simple.
Dean Walley, Lamont,
the Lonely Monster. This is flap and lift book. The monster goes
around trying to find friends and I think there might be a mirro
at the end. I hope this helps.
L263:
Lagging behind Follow-the-Leader
A girl in a group of kids, playing
outside, does everything slower than the rest and is always
lagging behind the group. They play follow-the-leader and
all walk across a balance beam and the girl is last. I read
this in the 80's so it was maybe published in the late 70s to mid
to late 80s.
L264: Lola the bunny
Childrens book about three baby
rabbits, one was definitely named Lola. the others were named
similarly perhaps: Nola?
Surprise for Mrs. Bunny.There
were more than three bunnies in this story, but the names are
similar--Molly, Polly, Lolly, Nolly and so on.
L265: Leprechaun
Timetravel
1970s story is about a boy who is
hit by a car trying to save his dog (the dog dies). The boy is in
the hospital blaming himself and not getting better when a
leprechaun-type of being transports him to ancient Scotland where
he has some adventures and bonds with a puppy named, Lad. While he
is in the hopsital his parents get a new puppy for him, which he
doesn't want, but when he walks into the house he is greeted
joyfully by the puppy from the time travels and all is well. (I
loved this book when I was in 3rd grade and read it over and over
again!)
L266:
Little girl (Katy?) breaks church window, sews a new
one
The church window broken by katy's kite? She sews a
window, prays. A miracle occurs: the last page is a pop up
of the new stained glass window
Beth
Vardon,
The Wonderful Window. This has been solved here before.
Illustrations by Charlot Byj. It has, fortunately, been
reprinted, so it is available.
Vardon, Beth, Wonderful Window.This classic pop-up book has been
reprinted. Illustrated by Charlot Byj.
L267:
Little Bear Getting Ready for Bed
Has a
little bear in the extra large spine loop bedtime book little
bear who is getting ready for bed. "Mama bear dries his furry
paws, tummy and head. She picks up the bedtime book, pulls up a
chair and reads sleepy stories to her little bear.......Its
nighttime and bedtime for one little bear and"
L268:
Little witch turns into fairy
I think it was written between
the 1950's -1970's. A little witch lives with other
witches. They are mean to her. She wants to be nice & feels
like she doesn't belong. In the end she is taken somewhere and
given wings and realizes she is a fairy princess. It is a short
book.
Anne Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch,
1953, copyright. A perennial favorite. Little Minx lives with
Madame Snickasnee, a mean witch who turns neighborhood children
into flowerpots on her windowsill if they bother her. Minx just
wants to be clean and go to school like other children. She
often thinks she sees, out of the corner of her eye, a beautiful
woman with wings in the mirror. She is, of course, finally
rescued and her true identity revealed.
Anna Elizabeth Bennet, Little Witch. A few details are off
(only 1 witch, but she WAS mean) and the girl's mother was the
fairy, but I would definitely consider this one a possibility.
DeLage, Ida, Weeny
Witch,
1968, copyright. After the witches capture the night fairies,
Weeny Witch helps them escape and discovers that she too is a
night fairy, stolen years before by the witches.
Anna Elizabeth Bennet,
Little Witch.
Your description sounds something like the Little Witch, a book
that turns up here a lot. Minx, the girl, is supposedly a
witch's daughter and has to do all the chores around the
house she does not enjoy her life and tries to escape by
going to school. There are confrontations between Minx's friends
from school and the old witch, but all ends well. Ultimately
Minx's true mother is revealed to be a fairy princess, held
captive in the witch's magic mirror, Minx sets her free. Hope
this helps.
Weeny Witch by
Ida DeLage. See Solved Mysteries.
Could be either Little
Witch by Bennett, or No Flying in the House by Brock!
Ida Delage, Weeny
Witch, 1968, copyright. After the witches
capture the night fairies, Weeny Witch helps them escape and
discovers that she too is a night fairy, stolen years before by
the witches.
L269:
Labyrinth Ends with Time Travel
Solved: Mazemaker
L270: Lion
and a Cat Eating PBJ
My son
was born in 1990 and I read him the book between
1990-1995. It was about a Lion and a Kitty Cat. I
can remember that I think it was the lion sitting in a high
chair eating peanut butter and jelly. And the last page
of the Book said, I'll crown you said the kitty cat and the
Lion roared no more". Sorry, I know that's not much
but for some reason have been thinking of this book lately and
have had no luck finding it. It was not a very long book
and I do remember the illustrations were really good and when
I would read the last page he would just giggle. Would
love to give it to him again now that he is older.
Please, any help you could give would be greatly
appreciated. If there is a cost for your search, please
let me know. Thank you sooooooo much.
Maurice Sendak, Nutshell Library. Any chance this could be from one of the
books in Maurice Sendak'\''s Nutshell Library. For some reason,
his illustrations popped to mind when I read this.
L271: Lonely
girl in East Coast seafaring town1970's.
Maybe Dell paperback for 9-12 year
olds. Lonely girl moves to a port on the East Coast
(MA?). She meets the ghost of someone who died during a huge
storm. With the ghost's help, she saves a boat during
another big story. "I think I read this one in the late
1970s. It may have been a Dell Yearling paperback,
since I had a million of those. It was about a girl who
moves to a northeastern port town (maybe in Massachusetts?) to
live with a relative (maybe an uncle?) I think she lives in
the lighthouse or her relative is the lighthouse keeper. She
is lonely and meets the ghost of a young boy. His death
was somehow connected to a terrible storm which resulted in a
shipwreck. I can't remember if he was on the ship or
died trying to save the ship. When another big storm
comes, the ghost helps the lonely girl save a ship that is
headed toward the shore. I'm pretty sure she also saves her
relative in the process (maybe he's on the boat?) Not
sure what the connection is, but Enid Blyton (the English author)
plays a role in the story. (It could have been E. Nesbit,
but I'm pretty sure it's Blyton.) I hope this rings some
bells for someone, as it has been bothering me for years!" I just discovered your site this week,
and I've stayed up WAY too late revisiting some of my old
favorites. Two stumpers I considered submitting were
already solved. I am thrilled at the prospect
of rereading them and introducing them to my children in a
few years. I'll be spending some of my free time seeing
if I can help on some unsolved ones. Thanks for such a
fabulous service.
L272:
Little Pig Take a Bath
Childrens' book, published in the 1940s or early 1950s, in black
and white illusrations. About a little pig who was dirty who had
to wash with geranium soap. He had
animal friends who were animals.
Charlotte
Pomerantz and James Marshall, Piggy
in
the Puddle,1989,
copyright.Quite
a longshot because of the date, but the piggy is muddy and has
to wash with soap!
L273: Learning
to Draw, Geometrical Shapes
Solved: Ed
Emberleys
Drawing Book of Faces
L274:Last of the Trojans
I read this
book when I was a teenager in the 1970s. It is about a girl who
falls for a hotrodding guy from the wrong side of the tracks who
eventually moves away. What I remember most, besides the fact that
it is a love story, is that the girl's brother tells her at one
point, "To quote the Rolling Stones, you can't always get what you
want." I've been hunting for this books for years now I'm so
glad I found this website. I'd like to read the book again, if
only to satisfy my waning memory!
Phyllis Anderson Wood. I'm
pretty sure this is a book by Phyllis Anderson Wood, but I can't
remember the title. Her books were published in the 70s in
paperback, but they fell apart very easily. Still, it may
be a starting place.
Donia Whiteley Mills, A Long Way Home from Troy, 1971. I haven't
seen my solution posted, so I'm going to try again. I'm
almost positive that L274, Last of the Trojans (which has been
moved to the archives with a suggestion as to its solution
that I believe is a good but incorrect guess), is actually A
Long Way Home from Troy, 1971, by Donia Whiteley Mills, ISBN
0670439029 and 067043903. This was one of my most
favorite books when I was a teenager (still is), and I had to
keep it a secret -- boys didn't read books like this
one! It's an unforgettable, bittersweet love story about
preppy, uptight Jeannie Travis, who falls hard for hotrodder
and hoodlum Lamar Puckett "Truck" Hardy. To her own
surprise, she discovers that she would much rather spend her
time riding around in Truck's '57 Chevy (named Tortoise) than
wishing her straightlaced, jealous boyfriend Earl Corbett were
more affectionate. They have all sorts of adventures
together, and they finally realize that they're from
completely different worlds: she's going on to
college in the fall, and he's going to further his drag-racing
career. Please see to it that the original poster sees
this solution. Unfortunately, Donia Mills was
essentially a one-trick pony: this beautiful gem is
almost her only book. I still have my copy from the
early 1970's, and I will always treasure it. Shop
carefully -- I see a few copies out there, but the prices vary
wildly. Good luck; I hope you find it!
L275: Lanie
and Me
Young girl spends summer
with her aunt, finds a stone that belongs to a witch named Lanie,
who lost it and needs it to fly, witches find out she has stone
and come after her, she later finds out her aunt Meg (margaret) is
also a witch. circa late 60's early 70's.
L276:
Little Men in Woods Mesmerized by Fire; Girl Spies Them
I am looking for a
book of fairy tales from late 50s or early 60s with a light green
cover. The story I'm searching for is about a young girl who
sees/.follows a group of little men (trolls?) in the woods.
These little men seem to be mesmerized by a camp fire in
illustration.
Traditional, The Twelve
Month Brothers. I have to say I
have no idea what collection you might be remembering, but your
description of the illustration reminds me of this traditional
story common across Northern Europe and Russia. A mean
stepmother sends her good kind stepdaughter out in the middle of
a snowstorm to bring back strawberries. Wandering in the woods,
she comes across a campfire surrounded by 12 brothers. She
realizes they are the 12 months. she is very polite to them, and
they offer to help her out, so June presents her with the
berries and they send her home safe. When the stepmother sees
her good fortune, she sends her own daughter out into the
blizzard, but she is rude and mean to the months, and they send
her out to freeze to death in the snow. The stepmother also
freezes when she goes looking for her daughter, and a happy
ending for all! The story has been published on its own, and
also turns up in many collections. If the story rings a bell,
maybe you can find the collection...
L277: A
Last Race
I read this
book in 1961-2 while I was attending third grade in California.
For some reason, the story really struck me – I must
have read it 30+ times, and the librarian finally told
me I couldn’t check it out anymore. Buying a copy was
beyond my family’s means.Unfortunately,
I don’t remember the title or author. In form, I think
it would qualify as a juvenile ‘novel’ – it included
some line illustrations but was mostly text. It was
published in hardback and had (I think) an illustrated
cover with the horse’s profile figuring prominently. I
don’t remember the book being heavily used (by anyone
but me, that is) so I expect it was written sometime
after 1955. The story traced the life of a
racehorse and focused on the relationship between
him and his trainer or a stable boy. After a long
and successful career, the horse was about to stop
racing but then was called back to run one more time
for a prize to fund a retirement home for race
horses. He won, of course. That’s as much as I can remember. Thanks
to you and the other Book Stumper contributors!
Mildred Mastin Pace,
Old Bones, the Wonder Horse,1956.Perhaps this one? My copy is a blue hardcover w/
small illustration of Exterminator's head.
Pace, Mildred
Mastin, Old Bones the Wonder
Horse,1956,
copyright.This might be the book you are thinking of. The
only detail that didn't match was racing for the retired
racehorse home. (At least I don't remember that, its been along
time since I've read it.) There is a nice picture of the cover
at http://www.librarything.com/work/146403 and some more details on the solved mystery pages.
Pace,
Mildred Mastin, Old Bones
the Wonder Horse, 1956,
copyright. This might be the book you are
thinking of. The only detail that
didn't match was racing for the retired racehorse home. (At least
I don't remember that, its been along time since I've read it.)
There is a nice picture of the cover at http://www.librarything.com/work/146403 and some more details on the solved mystery pages.
Marguerite
Henry,
King of the WindI too loved this book as a
child. I remember it just as the poster said, the young mute
Arabic stableboy raising the horse which became father to a new
breed - the "Arabian" horse. With a beautiful horse profile on the
cover.
L278: LITTLE
BOY VAMPIRE (new in town?) and POLIO victim, comic
Comic from magazine, maybe FANGORIA 1984~94. Vamp kid wears "school
uniform" with knee shorts. He's confused why school is empty &
quiet. He's alone. Most of story is in his thoughts, & he's
pompous. Finds victim, boy his age. Bites him. Becomes sick &
notices crutches & vaccine poster as he dies.
Solved:
UNBELIEVABLE! After *years* of searching, I found it
not
3 minutes after sending my
Stumper.
I wondered
if the person who submitted this and then found it might let us
know what it was-I'm curious!!
L279:
Lost and Alone
Story about little girl who
gets lost and stays out overnight...This book I am far more vague on details,
but it was an absolute favourite so here goes. It was a
story about a child, I think a little girl, who heads off one
morning to her grandmother's house (I think that's where she is
headed, in any case) and finds herself lost. She
realises she is lost and decides she is going to have to survive
by herself outside, and she does things like steals apples from a
farmer when he isn't looking, builds a little shelter for herself
in a hedge or bushes...I think she befriends a cat, also? I
believe she has a amall amoutn of money and has to decide what to
but with her limited funds to get by. She actually does stay
out overnight, I think, and the next day her father and
grandmother find her and tell her that they were worried
sick. Or perhaps they find her before she actually has to
stay out overnight? but I think she does actually stay out
all night. Really vague, I know, but I figured it will drive
me nuts if I don't at least try to solve this one!!!!
L280:
Little Red Riding Hood on the Cover & other Nursery Rhymes
I posted this a couple of years ago
and am hoping someone else may see it and is able to help.
My grandfather gave me a book he found about 1958-1960 timeframe
(published date is unknown). It was a red book with linen
cover - it had a picture box in the center with Little Red Riding
Hood. My
grandfather gave me a book he found about 1958 (I do not know what
year the book was published). It was a red book (kind of a
cloth cover) with a picture of Little Red Riding Hood on the
front, a somewhat smaller picture of her in the center on the
front of the book. The book was a volume of nursery rhymes and
stories and it appeared to be part of a set. He always told
the story of finding it at the local dump and picking it up and
giving to me. Well, years passed and I let my son use the
book, but ultimately I lost it in a divorce. I would give
anything to find a copy of this volume. It contained one
rhyme in particular “I Had a Little Doggie” who used to sit and
beg, but doggie fell down the stairs and broke his little
leg……etc. The pages were kind of glossy with bright
illustrations. Can your readers provide any
assistance? I greatly appreciate it. It is not the
Horace Mann Second Reader.There
were
many
rhymes
in this book as well as stories....I am hoping someone will
recognize it!
L281: Little Red
Riding Hood gone American
I'm
looking for a children's hardback book with sound buttons Little
Red Riding Hood, an American version where the wolf comes across
a group of "rangers" who ask him questions, the mailman
and other people. The sound buttons said things like "Yoo hoo,
Mr Mailman" and "what's wrong with your voice?
Nolan, Billy, Little Red Riding Hood Rides Again,
1993."Nine humorous
sound effects and audio conversations that can be triggered by
pushing buttons highlight an interactive version of the story of
Little Red Riding Hood's perilous encounter with a wicked and hungry
wolf."
Nolan, Billy, Little
Red Riding Hood Rides Again, 1993."Nine humorous
sound effects and audio conversations that can be triggered by
pushing buttons highlight an interactive version of the story of
Little Red Riding Hood's perilous encounter with a wicked and
hungry wolf."
L282: Little Golden
Book about doctor who fixes a broken heart
I'm looking for a Little Golden
book published at least 15 years ago about a doctor who can fix
everything except a broken heart but by the end of the book
figures out a way. I don't remember any of the title, just that it
had the binding of an LGB.
Ronne Peltzman, Mr.
Bell's Fixit Shop. Recently someone was asking about a book
that featured a fix-it shop that advertised it could fix anything
but broken hearts. A little girl brings in her doll to be mended
and b/c he's able to fix the doll (or the doll's heart?) the
slogan is changed. I found a Little Golden Book called Mr. Bell's Fixit Shop that
fit the description. Could the doctor in your memory actually be
Mr. Bell? Anyway, check out the cover (click on camera) and see if
it rings a bell.
Ronnie
Peltzman, Mr. Bell's Fix-it
Shop, 1981. A
little girl who is a friend of Mr. Bell's asks if he can mend her
much-loved but severely dmaged doll. What she really wants
fixed is her own broken heart over the sad state of her
doll. This is definitely the book you're seeking.
L283:
Lucy, her dad brings her
dolls from around the world
I'm looking for this book for my mother. She read it when she was
about 6 and is 67 now. She said it's about a girl named Lucy.
Lucy's dad travels and when he comes home he brings her dolls from
different countrires. At the end a doll maker makes a new doll
incorporating all of dolls into one.
The Surprise Doll.
Morrell Gipson, The
Surprise Doll,
2005, reprint. For more than half a century children have
been captivated with the story of Mary and her dolls. Mary’s
father was a sea captain who took long trips across the ocean,
bringing back a doll from each journey. Soon Mary had six dolls
and wished for a seventh one to become her "Sunday" doll. But
Mary’s father said six dolls were enough for any girl, so she set
off to visit the Dollmaker and, oh, was she in for a surprise!
Gipson,
Morrell, The Surprise Doll.
This seems to be the same
as D326. The little girl's name was Mary, but everything
else fits
Morrell
Gipson, The Surprise Doll. Not only is this in solved
stumpers, it's actually solved ON THIS PAGE. See D326: Doll for
Sea Captain's Daughter
Morrell
Gipson, The Surprise Doll, 1949. See Stumper #D326,
above... it's the same book. Fortunately, it was reprinted not too
long ago, so it should be relatively easy to find.
Morrell
Gipson, The Surprise Doll. The
girl's name is Mary, but otherwise it matches the description.
See also stumper D326 and the Solved Mysteries page.
L284:
Little girl in city gets a tiny dog
This is a book that I read when I
was in kindergarten or first grade in 1963-1964 (or thereabout). I
remember taking it out of the library over and over again. It is
about a little girl who lives in a small apartment in a city
(NYC?) and she gets a very tiny dog (no bigger than her hand).
Thank you!
Betty
Brock, No Flying in the House. Well, if no one is going to guess on
this one, I wonder if it might be the well-known "No Flying in the House" with
the tiny dog Gloria and the girl Annabel, who discovers she's a
fairy. You can check the Solved
Mysteries to see if this rings a bell.
Norman Bridwell, Clifford the Small Red Puppy,
1972. This
immediately made me think of Clifford
the
Big
Red
Dog. Or, more specifically, his origin story, which was
published in Clifford the Small
Red Puppy. The only problem, of course, is the date. The
original book was published in 1963, but the one that would match
your description wasn't published until almost ten years later.
L285:
Little people living in garden
Some little people live in a garden
near a mansion or big house. They can't be out when the sun goes
down or they get lost in the shadows. They can only be out when
the sun is out. I think there's a statue or something with a
fountain that they live in or around. I think humans can't see
them.
Betty Brock, The
Shades, 1971.
Some of the details don't exactly match, but I think this might be
your book. When a boy visiting a big old house washes his eyes in
the magical dolphin fountain, he discovers that he can see the
living shadows of the people who visited the garden in the past.
The shadow people are menaced by the evil influence of the statue
of a beautiful woman.
Betty
Brock, The Shades. I agree this is The Shades. Just to add a couple more
details, the Shade family is created from people who've come out
to the garden in the sunshine. If one of the family is already
there who fits as a person's shadow, then that Shade member is the
shadow. New family members are created when no Shade matches their
shadow. The boy who is the main character has created a new
shadow, but he can't see his shadow as a person, as he can all the
others. The magic is created by a fountain of a dolphin in the
middle of the garden which is being overgrown, and is in
danger of losing the magic. (Probably too much info, but I loved
this book as a kid!)
L286:
"Lori's Big Day," leaves, pancakes
Looking for picture book - Lori's
Big Day? Not sure on the title; Lori has pancakes for breakfast
and jumps in a big pile of leaves. It could be her birthday? Not
sure when it was published - read it between 1980-1986...but it
was with a lot of Eloise Wilkin books, so may have been older.
Ruth Odor, Lori's Day.
2011
L287: Lunar park? boy and girl go to moon, maybe
amusement park, they eat moon treats
an illustrated children's book (possibly australian) about a
boy and girl and possibly parents (i dont think any of them
had any hair) who have an automated house. They are woken up
by their beds, washed by a bathroom machine, food prepared
by robots etc. They then go to the moon and go on various
rides, antigravity room, ride on the rings. they would eat
moon treats like big coloured candyfloss. Then they came
home and their bbq robot had made them a big feast. Book may
have been early 80s and may be called something along the
lines of "lunar park".
L288:
Living chalk drawings
1980s latest. Czech/E. Euro author?
YA, a few drawings. Drawings come to life on a school wall. Young
man befriends them. Drawings can move between walls, or on
playground sand (which hurts). They're in trouble of some kind,
towards end man leaves '+'s on walls to show where he's searched
for them
L289: Little girl
cuts sweater sleeves, runs away from home
Author/Title/Publisher unknown.
Children’s book. Probably published between 1950-1970. The story
is about a little girl, probably age 6-9, who is angry because her
mother insists that she wear a sweater that she hates. After
the mother has left the room, the girl takes a pair of scissors
and cuts off the arm of the sweater. When she sees what she has
done, she is shocked and very sorry, but still angry. She decides
to “move away,” so goes to make a new home in a tree house or
attic room or (or something like that) belonging to a neighbor.
The neighbor is a kindly woman who does not insist the girl come
down, but instead brings her food and orange soda (like Scout
bringing supplies to her brother in To Kill a Mockingbird ).
When it begins to get dark, and she misses the familiar comforts
of her home and family, the girl eventually decides to go home.If
you can find this book, I would be very grateful.
Astrid
Lindgren,
Lotta Leaves Home.
L290: Logic puzzles,
illustrated stories
Book, logic puzzles, characters
solved problems using logic/math. Wolf/goat/cabbage problem
was in there. Also, a boy/man who works for a mean rich man and
tells his boss that he wants to be paid double every day, starting
with a cent, who foolishly agrees. I think this was the cover
illustration?
Mathemagic
(Childcraft
series), 1978. In addition to the goat/wolf/cabbages and
doubling pennies puzzles, "Mathemagic" includes "Multiplying
Vampires," "Tuesday I Was 10," and an excerpt from "The Phantom
Tollbooth," among many other tidbits. The cover I had has a
photo of a mime in some sort of unitard (hey, it was the '70s!)
holding a magician's hat with numbers coming out of it. Loved
this book!
L291: Little book
golden or disney?
Phrase on last page of book
is: Take it up and drink it down and ye shall have a golden
crown.
Mother
Goose Rhymes. This just occurred
to me--Disney's
Mother Goose Rhymes includes Crosspatch, Draw the Latch. "Take a cup and drink it up and call
your neighbours in." A possibility?
L292: Little girl, at
home, lunch, bath, by myself
I had a book in the early 70's -
Little Golden? Whitman? Rand McNally? - about a little girl who
spends the day at home. It's all about how she can do things
herself - take her own bath, make her own lunch. Beautiful
illustrations. "I can do it myself" keeps popping into my
head! HELP! Updated: Forgot to say,
this is NOT "We Help Mommy". The little girl in the book
I'm looking for is around 6-8 years old. The one in We
Help Mommy
is more like 4 years old. Just a bit more detail about the book I'm
searching for. It was the same shape, size and general
format as a Little Golden Book or a Tip Top Elf book (though I'm
pretty sure it wasn't one of those). I was born in 1965
and had this book when I was around 5 or 6, but it could've been
printed much earlier than that. The illustrations are what
I remember most. The little girl (dark haired) in the
bathtub, in the kitchen making her own lunch, the mother in the
next room vacuuming(?) or doing housework, etc. I wish I
could remember more about the actual story, sorry!
June
Goldsborough, I Can Do It By
Myself, 1981. I saw this Golden Sturdy Book on Paperback
Swap and remembered this stumper. I can't find an image to
confirm, but the description is: "A child demonstrates the
things she can do by herself all day long."
Thank you for the suggestion!
Unfortunately, it's not the right book. Mine would've been
printed in the 60's at least. And I found a description on
the web that says your title is a "wordless picture book" for
toddlers. Mine had text. A very good try, though -
thank you, again!
L293: Local
develops toxins in basement, Midwestern sheriff, Middle
Eastern immigrants
SOLVED: Neal Stephenson and
Frederick George, Cobweb, 1997.
L294: Lost wolf pup,
indian girl hunted by trapper
Late 1970's early 1980's. A lost
wolf pup is found by an indian tribe and raised for awhile then he
is lost again and find this indian girl who is forced to marry
this trapper, she runs away and the wolf and her becomes
friends and they are trying to escape from the trapper who is
hunting them.
Jean
Craighead George, Julie of the
Wolves, 1972.
Miyax, like many adolescents, is torn. But unlike most, her
choices may determine whether she lives or dies. At 13, an orphan,
and unhappily married, Miyax runs away from her husband's parents'
home, hoping to reach San Francisco and her pen pal. But she
becomes lost in the vast Alaskan tundra, with no food, no shelter,
and no idea which is the way to safety. Now, more than ever, she
must look hard at who she really is. Is she Miyax, Eskimo girl of
the old ways? Or is she Julie (her white-people name), the
modernized teenager who must mock the traditional customs? And
when a pack of wolves begins to accept her into their community,
Miyax must learn to think like a wolf as well. If she trusts her
Eskimo instincts, will she stand a chance of surviving? Sequels
are Julie and Julie's Wolf
Pack.
L295: Lost kitten found in
pocket
Three children looking for their kitten give up looking, get ready
to go outside and a child finds the kitten in her coat pocket.
L296: Lost diamond
ring
SOLVED: Kinsey, Sea View Secret, 1952.
L297: Large
graphic novel, 1980s, sci fi, color. may start with O, or main
characters name starts with O
Boy flies space ship shaped like
bird, lands on planet. Shiny ship, metallic. Landing gear
are feet? Gets pulled into vortex, travels thru space/time.
Ponders depths of universe, perhaps swallowed by a star.
Sparse text, esoteric, space feels alone to him.
L298: Letters from a
penpal
A book that is all letters that a
young girl receives from a penpal. Each page of the book is
another letter that she received. I'm thinking the title is
Dear Amy, or Dear Joann or something simple like that. I
read it early 1990's. It's a young girl's novel. A
children's fiction book ages 6-8?
Ann Martin, P. S. Longer
Letter Later,
1998, approximate. Could this be Ann Martin & Paula
Danziger's book (a series of letters between Tara*Starr and
Elizabeth)?
L299: Little girl,
planet, space, window
The book is about a little girl who
sits and looks out her window at the night sky, and imagines space
and other planet and another city where another child is sitting
in a place similar yet very different to her own city. It was a
bedtime story for me as a 5 year old. Gorgeous illustrations.
L300: Live Doll,
Fairy, or Miniature Person who needs care
A tiny live doll, fairy, or
miniature person who needed love and care. A little girl had to
provide for all of her needs and set up a table and chair for her
to eat in the middle of the family table, give her tiny portions
of food, make a place for her to sleep and so on. Updated: Little
girl is given or finds a little person who needs her care. The
little person, I _think_ fits in her pocket, and she has to use
things around the house to provide for her care. She has to make
a little bed for her doll-person, and sets up a tiny little
table and chairs in the middle of her family's dining room
table. It seems to me like she had to decide what to feed her
and give her one whole pea for her vegetables. I don't remember
any pictures, it seems to me that this was a selection in an
anthology, and I read it about 1972.
Perez-Guerra, Anna, Poppy or the
Adventures of a fairy. A mischevious
fairy is found in the garden and taken in to live with them. The family gives her doll house
furniture, and small pieces of food. To
keep her out of trouble they put a colander on top of her and she
almost suffocates when she clogs up the holes with clay. She
is rescued just in time and it ends with her finding a friend to
play with. She further description in
Solved mysteries.
L301: Little Jungle
Girl
Book is from the 40's-60's. It is
about a little girl who lived in a jungle village who is taken in
by a white guy and is taught English, etc.. I think that she
eventually goes back to the jungle in the end. It might be named
after the girl. Cover shows the girl in the jungle, green, orange,
& black
W. H. Hudson,
Green Mansions, 1904/1952. Could it be Rima the Bird Girl from Green
Mansions? She was 17 but small (4' 6"). Abel
finds her in the jungle and she returns there. In the
book, she is burned to death, but the comic book from the
1950’s, she continues to live in the
jungle/forest.
Edgar
Rice Burroughs, The Son of
Tarzan,
1917. I don't know if this could be it or not. The
date doesn't match, but it was republished a few times, I think. The book does feature a girl named
Meriem, who lives in a village near the jungle.
She is rescued from her evil guardian by Tarzan's son
(hence the name of the book) and lives in the jungle with him for
a while before being recaptured. She
eventually ends up living with a white family in their jungle
bungalow, who teach her English. I
can't remember if she goes back to the jungle at the end though. Anyway, worth a try.
L302: London
apprentice
I am looking for a book about a
London apprentice set in the 1800s I think - think it was
published by Puffin. i would have read it about 1977 or
thereabouts - the cover then had a picture of the docks in London
on it and was very descriptive about how harsh life was for
children in London in those days. I DO so hope you will be able to
helpme with my quest for this book.
Joan Aiken, Midnight Is a
Place, I don't know about the apprenticeship, but
this book is definitely about the harsh life of children in London
during that time period. In one part,one of the kids (a girl and a
boy, not related) have to scavenge for junk in the sewers. In
another, the girl gets a job as a picker at a carpet factory and
nearly gets killed by the machinery. Very good book, very dark.
Leon
Garfield, Smith, 1970.
Jill Paton
Walsh, A Chance Child.
Cynthia
Harnett, Ring Out Bow Bells. This book is definitely about
young apprentices in London but it is set in the 15th, not
19th century. Dick Whittington makes an appearance.
Leon
Garfield , The Apprentices.
Rachel
Varble, Three Against London, 1962. This book takes place in the
late 1600s. One of the main characters, a young girl named Susan,
is a maid in the household of the diarist Samuel Pepys, who held
an important government position at the Royal Docks. She meets an
apprentice, Adam, and his younger brother Kit. I've
forgotten a lot of the story, but not the C. Walter Hodges
illustrations or the strength and realism of the characters.
Adam and Susan are about 17 and 14 Kit is maybe 10 or
12. I think Adam has to watch out for the pressgang, and
there is a mystery involving the docks -- someone corrupting the
ship supplies, maybe. I remember the book showing a lot of
brutality for the time it was published.
L303: Large lime
green book on different sciences
I remember a large almost phone
book size book that had a lime green cover. It came out mid 80's
and had different chapters on different sciences. It was for I
think mid teens. 2 pages I tore out had a perpetual calendar in
it.
2012
L304: Little girl
wants to be a spy (not Harriet)
Children's book in the 1970s about
a little girl (who possibly wants to be a spy, but not Harriet the
Spy) who flies alone (to Texas?) to see her father. Her
mother packs a cheese sandwich for her to eat on plane (possible
spoiled?). Her dad has horses and was
either involved in horses or small planes. It seems like the
cheese sandwich was spoiled on the plane. She may have
had red hair too.
L305: Lucy Lupin Red
Bird
A 1970s book about a little girl
Lucy Lupin (?) with shoulder length black hair that stuck
out. There is a white paper house that blows away with the
girl through a beautiful dark blue twilight sky. There was a
bright red bird. The illustrations might be airbrushed.
L306: London children
Looking for a childrens book,
probably published mid '60's. It was about six kids who
lived in London and made the park opposite their home their own by
squeezing through the railing when it was closed. They named parts
of the park after london landmarks etc. the park keeper was their
enemy.
Eric Allen,
The Latchkey Children. I don't remember
all the details, but it is certainly a 60s book about a group of
London children and their local playground.
John Rowe
Townsend, Goodbye to the
Jungle, 1970. ...or maybe Gumble's Yard. Two kids are
abandoned by their uncle, and end up making an empty lot into
their home. Some of the other kids that live around the lot help
them by bringing them stuff. From what I remember, it was
a really rough London neighborhood but if they named
things after landmarks, I don't remember that part.
L307: Little Dog
Lost? Grass too tall and puppy can't find mother
Children's book. I had a
hard-cover copy in the 1970's. A little dog gets separated
from his mother and meets other animals (no humans I think) along
the journey to find his mother again. Cover had an
illustration of the puppy in long grass. Would really love to have
a similar copy again.
Janette Lowrey, The Poky
Little Puppy, 1942. One of the
Little Golden Books.
L308: Little Girl
Runs Away From Home But Just Goes Around The Block
Young single mother living in a New
York high rise with a young daughter & toddler. Mother is
trying to do the taxes and gets mad in frustration. Daughter
decides to run away with her baby brother. But they can't cross
the street, so they just end up going around the block, where
mother is waiting.
Lore Segal, Tell me a Mitzi. This is stretching it, since most of
the details don't exactly match, but just in case: the first
story in the book, "Mitzi Takes a Taxi," is about how Mitzi wakes
up early, gets herself and her baby brother dressed (including
changing a diaper), gets him into the stroller, out to the
apartment elevator, down to the street, and into a taxi. She
says they want to go to their grandparents' house, but since she
doesn't know the address, the taxi driver puts them back out on
the street, and in they go again, up the elevator, and back into
bed, seconds before their parents' alarm clock rings. At
which point Mitzi asks her mother for the grandparents'
address. "Why?" "Just because."'
L309: Little Girl's
Russian Trans-Siberian Adventure
SOLVED: Blanch, Lesley, A
journey into the Mind's Eye.
L310: Little girl
living with multigenerational family
I read this in the late 60's. It was a charming story about a
little girl who had a close relationship with her immediate family
and older family members,They lived a very "ethnic"life and
celebrated holidays and seasons which were richly described in the
book.they were of polish or from the Ukraine. This book was a book
at about the 5th or 6th grade level- about a little girl and her
grandmother and family- they were always cooking, cleaning,
celebrating holidays- everything was an event..not a chore.
It was such a great tale. I would love to share it with my
nieces.I remember the grandmother had some ties to Poland, Russia
or the Ukraine and they observed many of the holiday traditions of
that culture. I have tried unsuccessfully to locate it through
other internet searches for a very long time.
Something by Kate Seredy, maybe? The ones I remember were based in
Hungary, but she has others that sound like possibilities.
L311: Lots of animals
live in the zoo
We sang a song in primary school in
England in the 1960s: 'Lots of animals live in the zoo/ Lions and
bears and the big kangaroo... Lots of animals, lots of animals,
lots of animals live in the zoo!' I am curious as to where it
comes from
Matterson, Elizabeth, This Little
Puffin (reprint
source). One website identifies the song as "There Are Monkeys" by
Elizabeth Matterson another source indicates it's been
reprinted in This Little Puffin, which may have more information
about the origin. The song begins, "There are monkeys and
bears and a big kangaroo / Lions and tigers and elephants
too / . . . And lots more animals live in the zoo."
L312: Little boy cuts
down trees, builds house
A little boy decides he's going to
build a house. So he goes into woods and cuts down trees (?) and
builds a log(?) house, then goes and has a meal because he's
hungry. Builds it for his family (?). Sorry for lack of details.
Book is maybe from 60s.
Andrew Henry's
Meadow? See Solved
Mysteries.
L313: Little
boy leaves island in Scotland
SOLVED: Sharyn McCrumb, The Songcatcher.
L314: Lance/Lancelot
YA romance
YA/teen romance that I read mid to
late 80s. Likely ordered from Weekly Reader or Scholastic as
bookstores weren’t plentiful here at that time. What I’m sure of
regarding characters and plot: Heroine in high school; Lives
with one female; The female she lives with is how she
meets the hero (friend? tutor? friend of boyfriend?); Hero
named Lance; They rub each other the wrong way; She
snarkily refers to him as Lancelot; His name really *is* Lancelot. What
I *think* but am not quite sure of: Lance
is in college (or at least out of high school); The
female the heroine lives with is an older sister; The
heroine has a crush on a different guy who may or may not have
turned out to be bad news.
L315: Little girl can't stop
looking at reflection of herself
This was a picture book in the
1970's, in the style of Madeline. It was about a little girl
who couldn't stop looking at reflections of herself, despite the
trouble that it got her in to. In one scene, she falls into
a manhole because she's staring at her reflection in a shop
window.
William Pene Du Bois., Pretty Pretty
Peggy Moffitt, 1968. "Her first present was a mirror, her first words were
"pretty pretty girl," because that was all she heard. As she grew,
Peggy (always enchanted by her image) kept bumping into things
because she was looking at her reflection." (Bulletin of the
Center for Children's Books)
L316: Little people live in the woods, board book
I'm Looking for a cardboard
childrens book my grandmother used to read me in the 90s. It was
about little people who lived in the woods. On one page they
harvested grain with a scythe, on another there was a big carrot
and a grey/black mole. I don't remember anything about the title
or author.
L317: The Little
Mermaid
I am
looking for a 1960's storybook with a lentograph on the cover
and pictures of either felted or fabric dolls. As I recall
the pages are thick cardboard. Hopefully you can find this
childhood treasure for me. Thanks!
Hans Christian Anderson/Tadasu Izawa & Shigemi Hijikata,
The Little Memaid, 1966. You're probably looking for a Golden Press publication of The Little
Mermaid, with a 3D hologram picture on the cover. The
inside illustrations are photos of dolls/puppets by Tadasu Izawa and Shigemi Hijikata for Shiba
Productions. Izawa and Hijikata did a lot of these books in the
1960's and early 70's, most of which were fairy tales. Golden
Press published quite a few of these, though other publishers
(such as Crown Publications) also got in on the action. An online
search for "Golden Press Little Mermaid 3D Puppet Book" should
find pictures of the cover and illustrations to compare to your
memories.
L318: Little bear
lost in new suit of clothes
A book from the 1960's I think.
About a little bear who gets lost in a new suit of clothes. they
get dirty and he tries to wash them and they shrink he finally
comes home mother gives him cocoa and buttered toast in bed... Was
a small blue hard cover. Updated:
When I wrote the description I think I may have confused
two books... The book I am looking for was I believe a small blue
hard cover children's story about a little bear. He either gets
lost or is afraid to come home because he soiled his new suit of
clothes.When he finally gets home his mother puts him to bed with
cocoa and buttered toast. I was born in 1961 so the copy wright is
probably the 50's or 6o's.
Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear, 1957. It's a sweet little book (that *is* a small blue hardcover,
by the way) containing four stories...one of which is called "What
Will Little Bear Wear?" and another story that ends with Mother
Bear making him a hot lunch after an adventure.
It's also the first book in a series, so it might also be
another one of those books you might be thinking of, too.
L319: Little ...
Warrior
SOLVED: Disney, Little
Hiawatha.
L320: Labyrinth
solution: climb the walls
In Jr. High (during the 1980's -- but the book could be older) I
read the story of a boy who enters a labyrinth.
He
finds other people inside, but can't solve the maze so instead he
climbs over the walls to escape into a distant land.
Once there he gets captured and is caged next to a lion (or
tiger?), which I think he helped escape. The
rest
of the story is fuzzy, but I would love to read it again.
Dorothy Gilman, The Maze in the
Heart of the Castle. This sounds like The
Maze in the Heart of the Castle. Dorothy Gilman wrote a mystery called The Tightrope Walker that
featured a made-up book with this story and title. She later went
to actually write the story. Colin loses his parents, and goes to
an old wizard to help get rid of his pain. The wizard sends him
into the maze in the heart of the castle. Colin climbs the wall to
escape the maze, though none of the other people in the maze are
willing to take the risk of following him. He has many adventures
beyond the maze. If I remember correctly, at one point he is being
held in a cage at zoo. There are also bandits, and a cave of
joyless people who cannot stand the light.
Dorothy
Gilman, The Maze in the Heart
of the Castle, 1983. This book was
one of my favorites too! The maze and the capture in the lion's
cage are definitely memorable. This book can be read as a
gripping adventure story... or as an allegory of the human
condition.
L321: Littlest
Christmas Angel
Three little angels are telling
stories about how bright their stars are: one rescues children
from the forest, one guides a ship in rough seas and the littlest
angel shines down on baby Jesus. May have been published or sold
at a Catholic elementary school.
Beth Vardon,
The Shiniest Star. (A hard-to-find book!) Excerpt:
"Next, the little Crewcut angel stopped/ his work, and said with
pride,/ "Listen! My star saved two children,/ lost and wandering
side by side. It was midnight in the forest/ they were scared as
scared could be!/ But my star shone through the darkness-/ I was
helping them to see!"
If you are interested in purchasing a copy, we have a 2002 reprint
of The
Shiniest Star for
sale at Loganberry Books. Please let us know.
L322: Little boy cuts down trees, builds house
SOLVED: Alan Arkin, Tony's Hard Work Day, 1972.
L323: Little Girl,
Mirror, When I grow up
My mom read this book as a child
and I really want to find it for her. It is about a little girl
who is looking in a mirror and imagining and seeing in the mirror
all of the things that she can be when she grows up. My mom was
born in 1964, so that gives you a time frame to work with.
Jean
Bethell, Ruth Wood (illus), When
I Grow Up (Easy Reader), 1964. Cover is yellow and shows a red-haired
little girl from the back, wearing a red and green plaid jumper,
white blouse, black tights, and red shoes. The girl is facing a
large oval mirror in which she sees reflections of her older self
as a ballerina, a nurse, a stewardess, and a cowgirl.
L324: Little princess
frightened of thunderstorm and runs away
Anthology story of little princess
in enclosed glass garden flees during thunderstorm looses memory
and grows up with another family eventually prince comes. Color
pictures in text. Remember picture little girl in blue dress
tangled in thornbush. Also, picture of her grown in peasant dress
working.
L325: Little Engine
Story about a little engine that
can magically lay down track in front of itself. Probably
1950s.
L326:
Little matchbox girl, 1970's, dark, storybook
It may have been an adaptation of Hans C Andersen's "The Little
Match Girl"-- full color, hardback, storybook, in the late
1970's/early 1980's -set in either WW1 or WW2 because references
to bombed out buildings, in France or Germany, gas masks work by
soldiers -very bleak, dark, vivid artwork.
L327:
Little Lizzie's Big Adventure
Illustrated children's book from the 1970's about a little
African girl who gets lost in the jungle and ends up riding a raft
down a fast flowing river and escaping a crocodile. The
illustrations were very vibrant and detailed. The little girl may
have gone out by herself despite warnings.
Mayer, Mercer, Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp,
1976. Might be this one.
L328:
Little red-headed girl
Little red-headed girl with bunches goes to school for first
time. Practises swimming in bath; Paints robot at school; Does PE
- Dancing I think; Female teacher;
Has a sleep (so it must be an American book). Read this in
the 1980's (early) It had a rainbow coloured striped border
on front cover)
L329:
Lost in the Badlands
Thank you so much for offering this service! I hope you can
help me as I would love to find a copy of this book to give to my
nephew. The book was entitled something like "Lost in the
Badlands". I believe it may have started with "Mighty
Mites: Lost in the Badlands" as the book featured a group of
children who were called the Mighty Mites (or something along
those lines, I'm not sure exactly what it was). I read the
book in the 80's, but it may have been published in the late 70's
as it was a hand-me-down from my cousins. It was illustrated
in colour, sort of comic book style with several pictures framed
within the page and "speech" bubbles. The children in the
book were I believe in Alberta's Badlands so I suspect it was a
Canadian book, but I may just have assumed that as a child because
they were the only Badlands I knew of at the time (since I'm
Canadian!). The kids somehow travelled back in time and
found themselves in the Badlands during the time of
dinosaurs. I'm not sure if it was an educational book but I
remember learning a lot from the book, such as what noseeums and
hoodoos are. I particularly remember one frame in which a
kid says, "Hoodoos?" and another kids says, "You do!" Thank you
very much for your help!
Mark Thurman and Emily
Hearn: Mighty Mites in Dinosaur Land. 1981. It
does indeed take place in Alberta's Badlands, and is in an
illustrated comic format.
From WorldCat: Title: The
mighty mites in dinosaur land /Author(s): Hearn,
Emily. Thurman, Mark. Publication: Toronto : Greey de
Pencier Books,
Year: 1981 Description: 43 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 26
cm. Language: English Series: An OWL learning through
adventure book; Variation: OWL
learning through adventure book. Descriptor: Dinosaurs --
Juvenile literature.
L330:
Little girl witch
I'm interested in a book that is about a little girl witch.
She gets caught in the rain and a family finds her and brings her
into the house. There is a real girl there and the little
witch girl gradually turns into a real girl too. I read this
book 1000 times when I was young. Please find it!
This may be "Little Leftover Witch" by Florence Laughlin.
The Little Leftover
Witch, 1960, by Florence Laughlin. See
Solved Mysteries. Chris Colfer, from the show "Glee,"
was planning in 2011 to have Disney make it into a TV series
this year, but there's no real sign of it. A few thoughts:
It's clear to me that the story is not so much a witch story
as it is an adoption/adjustment story. Does anyone think, for
example, that Felina's illiteracy at age seven REALLY has
anything to do with being a witch? My point is that Felina is
not a witch so much as she is simply a neglected, unhappy
child who has to adjust to the idea of loving parents who
actually deserve love and respect in return. Besides,
interestingly, she never refers to any witch from her past
life as a relative - and she never quite seems homesick, just
sulky and rude.
Some have complained that this book is about promoting
conformity. While it's true it wouldn't be written the same
way today - after all, there's really nothing to distinguish
Felina from Lucinda by the end (she even takes Lucinda's name
as her middle name!), there's still no reason for any child,
in my opinion, to think that the conformity in question is
about anything more serious than good manners vs. bad manners
and ingratitude. Or, if you will, the Golden Rule. Besides,
you could always follow this one with "Jennifer,
Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth,"
which points out (through Cynthia) that conformity is often a
disguise for meanness.
The Little Leftover
Witch by Florence Laughlin. A young witch named Felina breaks her broomstick one
Halloween night and is stranded in a town of ordinary people.
She is taken in by the Doon family and befriended by the Doons'
daughter, Lucinda. Although Felina's witchy antics
sometimes drive the Doons crazy, they come to love her. As
a new Halloween approaches and Felina has a chance to rejoin the
witches, she comes to realize that she loves the Doons, too, and
would rather stay with them and become Lucinda's sister.
This has to be The Little Leftover Witch by Florence
Laughlin. It's a great book!
L331: Little military guys,
illustrated book
The book is a children's picture book I took out of
my school's library when I was in first grade. I was born
in 1968 and I think I was in first grade around 1974 . . so the
book was published before then. It was an oversized book
(not regular 5 x 8 or 8.5 x 11) because I recall it sticking out
of the shelf more than the other books. The cover was
purple and all of the images were illustrations/drawings.
It was of two little military guys with rather large mustaches
who keep meeting up to compare weapons. The first guy
starts out with a small knife, so the second guy shows up with a
larger knife. The first guy then gets a sword and then the
second guy gets a gun. They go on and on until they are
both sitting on elephants with huge weapons pointing at each
other. The last image is of them back to the first images
where they are just standing there with no weapons looking at
each other. Other than that, I have no other details.
L332: Literal
interpretations of idioms
Solved: The Phantom Tollbooth
L333: Little Red Riding Hood Adorns Grey
Fairytale Book Cover
This is an approximately 8"x10" hardcover book of 12+
fairytales featuring Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The
Princess & The Pea, etc. I received the book as a present
pre-1988, but it could have been published in the 1960s-1970s.
Tons of colored illustrations, somewhat in the style of the
19th-century illustrator, Dulac, but it is NOT him. I recall the
cover was dark greyish-brown. It wasn't a particularly happy
scene, more mysterious and a little foreboding. Little Red Riding
Hood looking away from you, peering into the forest (her face
partially or totally hidden). I seem to remember characters from
other famous fairytales also in the woods on the periphery. I
remember the pages had a straightforward, matte paper feel. No
glossy, waxy pages. Thank you for your help. I really appreciate
it!
L334: Lion, haircut
A book about a lion who either got a haircut or didn't want
a haircut. Either way he wasn't happy. I read it as a
kindergartner in the early 1970s. No clue on the title or author.
I do remember the cover seemed to have a picture of the sad lion
on it.
Freeman, Don, Dandelion,
1964. Could this be Dandelion? Dandelion's new haircut
causes him many problems.
L335: Little girl in land of candy
When I was little I had a favorite book. I believe it had a
white cover and most of the drawings were black and white line
drawing with some elements colored in. It was a little girl in a
land of candy. I remember the drawings being beautiful but I can't
remember much about what the story was about. I also can't
remember if there were other characters in the story or if it was
just about the little girl. I think the story was about a dream of
hers? It was published in the 1980s or earlier. I would be very
grateful if you can tell me what this picture book is. Thank you!
"The Sweet Touch" by Lorna Balian, 1976.
A girl puts a penny in a gumball machine but gets a plastic gold
ring instead. The ring contains a neophyte genie who grants the
girl the Sweet Touch (like the Midas touch, but with candy
instead of gold). Which is great... for a while. An online
reviewer notes that the newer edition has different
illustrations, and says the ISBN for the original book is
978-0687407736.
I'm guessing this might be The
Sweet
Touch, by Lorna Balian. The cover is a
little girl surrounded by giant pieces of candy. I don't
remember the story at all, but the cover has always stuck in my
memory!
L336: Like Lonely Doll Book by Dare Wright
I am trying to find the name of a book that was published
between 1966 - 1971 that uses color photographs of a plastic doll.
I remember that there is a kitchen scene where she is doing
chores. It has a cover using red checkers like the Lonely Doll
Book but it is not that book. It is similar to the book by Antonio
Colacino titled More Adventures of Susan and Spotty. Any
suggestions? I've been looking for 10 years! Thanks.
You mention that it is
not More Adventures of Susan and Spotty, but
is there any chance you are looking for Susan
and Spotty by Antonio Colacino? That one
does have a red cover (illustration is of Susan (the doll) and
Spotty (the dog) in bed with their young owner, Kate). In this
book, Susan and Spotty make a see-saw with a can of dog food and
a scrub brush, Susan tries roller skating with toy cars tied to
her feet, then Susan fills the kitchen sink with soap and water
and the two of them go for a swim. When they are done, Susan
hangs her pants on a kitchen spoon propped on a teacup to dry.
The soap-filled kitchen sink, scrub brush, and drying laundry
could give the impression that Susan was doing chores.
L337: Little Match Girl, sepia-toned
Looking for
version of Little Match Girl I had when I was young - Probably
published mid 1970s to early 1980s. Don't know the illustrator
but illustrations were very brown and sepia toned. Book was
hard cover and cover might have been brown too.
L338: London boy finds canal boat
This book is set in inner London
about a boy. He has a brother who is a bully. He is
reading Ancient Mariner at school and he discovers an
old boat to go down the canal on. Unfortunately this is
the only information I have. I really hope that you can
help me! Thanks.
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3/14/13