What is this? Have you forgotten the title of your favorite children's book? This is a service to help solve your book mysteries. Submit your memory here, and see if anyone else remembers your book memory, or better yet, knows the title and author!  After all, it's easier to find the book when you know what it's called. I'll post copies for sale when I have them, and am always glad to search for copies not currently in stock.  Loganberry Books is a used bookshop after all, and this page is only a small sideline offered as a service to my customers. Original requests are in bold,  comments and solutions from internet friends are in color.  My comments (HRL/staff) are in black.

How does this work? Book Stumpers should be submitted by clicking the "Book Stumper" link below.  Stumpers cost $2 to submit, and will be posted alphabetically by Keycode until solved. New Stumpers will be on this page for at least four weeks, and are then moved to the archive pages. Once solved, the posting moves to the Solved Mysteries pages, alphabetical by title.  New comments and stumpers are posted on Mondays and/or Tuesdays, and whenever else time permits.  The tallies do not reflect solutions made by simply browsing the archives or asking what we deem an "easy question" rather than a "stumper." The 2003 Tally 1192 Stumpers posted; 744 (62%) Solved  The 2004 Tally 527 Stumpers posted; 395 (75%) Solved The 2005 Tally 902 Stumpers posted; 499 (55%) Solved The 2006 Tally 858 Stumpers posted; 401 (46%) Solved The 2007 Tally   853 Stumpers posted; 409 (48%) Solved The 2008 Tally 691 Stumpers posted; 229 Solved (33%) Solved

Updates  Sorry for the inconsistent fonts. Please bear with us as we update our systems. Want to be notified when new stumpers are posted?  Follow us on Twitter @loganberrybooks.  posted 1/6/10 posted 1/14/10 posted 1/20/10 posted 1/28/10 posted 2/2/10 The 2010 Tally   37 Stumpers Posted 0 Moved to Archives last updated 02/06/10

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

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

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

Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave: An Eskimo Robinson Crusoe, 1939, copyright. The tale of a crippled Eskimo boy who becomes trapped on an ice floe while seal hunting. He is carried to an uninhabited island where he must survive alone for two years before being rescued. I don'\''t know for sure if he has the dog with him on the ice floe, but he did have a dog (a big, black dog named Kakk). An excerpt from the book that I found online talks about how the dogs liked him because he was gentle with them, and how they all obeyed his voice. Even Nuvat'\''s father had to admit that he was the best trainer of puppies in the village - but he had no dog team of his own, because, as a cripple, he was not allowed to hunt with the men. Sounds like it might be the book you are looking for.

A Boy and His Dog, Doone, Radko, Nuvat the Brave,1934, approximate. A children's lit textbook from the 1960s has this description for Nuvat:  "an Arctic setting and an Eskimo hero.  Despised and disheartened, Nuvat is carried off on a floe.  He maintains life for two years, completely alone except for his dogs."

Hugh B. Cave, Two Were Left.

Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave. The tale of a crippled Eskimo boy who becomes trapped on an ice floe while seal hunting. He is carried to an uninhabited island where he must survive alone for two years before being rescued. I don'\''t know for sure if he has the dog with him on the ice floe, but he did have a dog (a big, black dog named Kakk). An excerpt from the book that I found online talks about how the dogs liked him because he was gentle with them, and how they all obeyed his voice. Even Nuvat'\''s father had to admit that he was the best trainer of puppies in the village - but he had no dog team of his own, because, as a cripple, he was not allowed to hunt with the men. Sounds like it might be the book you are looking for.

Hugh B. Cave, Two Were Left, 1942, copyright. This is Cave's "Two Were Left."  It was first published in the June 1942 issue of THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE  it's been reprinted in many anthologies and textbooks and there are at least a couple of copies of the full text (which is only two or three pages) on the web.  Cave published something like a thousand stories in his 94 years of life, and this short piece may be his best-known one.

A Boy and His Dog, Radko Doone, Nuvat the Brave.

 Phyllis Ochoki, Beth's Happy Day.This is a Start-Right Elf book.  It is small and has a pink cover.  The first page has Beth waking up and looking out her window to start the day- I think there is a bird on the page.  She talks about her special day, spends the day doing small, kind things, celebrates her birthday at the end. 

1970s to 1980s book about a boy who wont stop blowing up his balloon and flies over the world, mountains, men with darts, his name is Ben i think, but its not the 2008 Ben and the big balloon book

Maybe it's The Brave Balloon of Benjamin Buckley by the very versatile Barbara Wersba, with first-time illustrator Margot Tomes (1963)? "In this humorous short novel for children, set in 19th-Century English, the people of a town called Peaceful discover a lighter-than-air balloon has floated into their midst. They are mystified by it and by the teakettles, old shoes, cobblestone and dictionaries they found in its basket." "Many years ago in an English township called Peaceful, the citizens decided to build a balloon. Boy Benjamin Buckley who had always wanted to fly, became the first one, along with William his cat, to take a ride in it. A glossary of ballooning terms is in back."

I don't have specifics for you - but I had a book with what sounds like the same story - my book was several hundred pages long, it was slightly larger than paperback sized hardback with a blue cover with some pictures on it.  It had one of those names like "best children's stories" that make searching for it impossible.  My book also had a story about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband (I think called How do I love thee).

Reply and update on "Stump the Bookseller" C635:  the book is definitely NOT "Highland Rebel"--but it could be the "best stories" item that is suggested in the following post (the book was several hundred pages long).  I seem to also remember that the pages were thick and uneven on the edges (whatever that is called?).  And I believe the book was quick definitely published before 1940 (given the illustrations I remember). 

C637: Cauldron of Color
Childrens book from the 70s (I think)...medeival setting...each page was drawn like a "Where's Waldo book" for its time...the world is black and white and a man mixes up a cauldron of color and paints the world one color...then one other color, etc.  At the end all the colors mix in the world.

Lobel, Arnold, The Great Blueness and Other Predicimants, 1968, copyright. A wizard invents colors and gives them out to his village. Complaints ensue until all the colors are released together.

 1970s juvenile book. This was allegedly the diary and true story of a woman who went by the name Cat, who ran away from home and lived on her own, mostly in a tent, until her death.IIRC, she died from natural causes, and the story took place in eastern Canada in the early 1970s. I suspect it had as much basis in reality as "Go Ask Alice", but it was still a good story.

Edward Eager, Knight's Castle,1956, copyright.
Rumer Godden, The Doll's House. This sounds like "The Doll's House" by Rumer Godden, who wrote several absolutely lovely books about dolls.
Reby Edmond MacDonald., The Ghosts of Austwick Manor,1982. Not 100% sure this is right, but it reminds me of THE GHOSTS OF AUSTWICK MANOR. Don inherits a dollhouse that is a replica of a family manor. When the dolls are taken out, the two girls begins to travel back in time through the dollhouse. They are trying to break a family curse that was placed on the males of the family. There are more details on your Solved pages.~from a librarian.

Sounds like a kids' book from my school days. Small boy is bothered by his four bossy older sisters Molly, Dolly, Lolly, and Solly, they keep saying, "You're a pest!" or the like. He runs into several small animals who also taunt him with the Pest! comment. Somehow his sisters and the animals fall down a hole. The boy, Max? manages to pull them out, at the very end is a large bear who takes Max's side, calling all the others pests.
Crosby Bonsall, Who's a Pest. You may want to check into this one. While it's not exactly as you describe, it has definite similarities. Falling in a Hole.
L. Frank Baum, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, 1908, approximate. If falling in the hole also involved adventures in strange lands, L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (one of the Oz sequels) begins with Dorothy and her cousin (and their horse and buggy and Dorothy's cat) all falling into the earth during an earthquake and coming out in strange lands below.  They encounter vegetable people (who grow on plants and are picked when they're grown/ripe), an invisible race, and others, meeting up with the Wizard along the way.

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

greyhound, warsaw, WWII This story is about a boy in WWII Warsaw who finds an injured greyhound and tries to take care of it in a bombed out building.  Don't remember a dad, but he had a mom I think.

G555: Giant in a Dress
I read this in the late 1980s.  The plot involved a giant (female) who lived near a bunch of villagers.  The villagers grew tons of flowers in order to make a beautiful dress for her (possibly a wedding dress?).  The thing I remember most is the vivid 2 page spread of the giant in the dress.  Thanks

Lorna Balian, A Sweetheart for Valentine.

Tamara Kitt, Billy Brown Makes Something Grand (a wonder easy reader). This was one of my favorites.  he manages to bake a cake containing a bird cage, an alarm clock and even more bizarre stuff.  lovely pictures too!

Children's or YA fantasy. Published pre-1982. Small kingdom with castle that teleports to safety when attacked. The king doesn't know the magic word to work it, but says it by chance when he sneezes or hiccups. The royal wizard keeps his daughter in an mountain after turning her to ice by mistake.

Written around 1975?; science fiction novel alien green planet with really enormous tropical trees shipwrecked  human survivors evolve longer toes to climb and live on enormous tree branches;giant caterpillar like creatures befriend humans for life; deadly giant gas filled jellyfish roam tree canopy

I am looking for a particular book from my childhood.  It would have been sold in the mid 1950's and has a red/blue cover with the subject of 'helping mother bake a cake'.  The little boy goes through each page sifting flour, measuring milk, etc. it was a small "cardboard" type book. Any suggestions on where to go to get the publisher, or name of the book. I would dearly love to find a copy.

Traditional (Illustrator Wallace Tripp), A great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied his Horse to Me, 1974. The wonderful illustrator Wallace Tripp complied two volumes of lesser-known traditional nursery rhymes and populated them with animal characters. The second volume is Granfa Grigg had a pig. One of these two is absolutely your book!You can find a cover image here:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vKa0t-f9L._SL500_AA240_.jpg I was standing in the street, as quiet as could be, when a great big ugly man came up and tied his horse to me!

Yes .. this is it .... Thanks for providing the forum!!!

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.

from the early 1970s, a book to teach children to draw (faces, mostly) by using geometrical shapes. Each face is broken down into cartoon-like shapes (nose is a triangle, for example). Drawings in primary colors (reds, greens, blues) with black lines. Lots of "strips" as in comic books.

This could be one of the Ed Emberley drawing books. There are so many, it's hard to say which one. Maybe Ed Emberley's Drawing Book: Make a World.

Ed Emberley, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Faces. Sounds like one of Ed Emberley's books.  From your description, I'm guessing it's his Faces book. This may be one of Ed Emberley's books  perhaps "Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Faces."

Emberley Ed, Sounds like one of Ed Emberley's drawing books. There were lots!~from a librarian

L274:Last' of the Trojans'

Children's or YA: I read 1975-1980. A girl (who I think considers herself homely) wants a life size doll (because a friend has one?). Maybe a focus on the way the doll's eyes close, but I might be combining book memories. She acquires (or wants to?) a (redheaded?) mannequin as a doll. Anyone?

Brink, Carol Ryrie, Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1972, approximate. Not certain about the red hair, but Irma claims to have the biggest doll in the world and ends up taking a mannequin to support her claim.

Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein. Sounds like it could be this one. 

Carol Ryrie Brink, Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1988, copyright. Irma brags at school that she has "The Biggest Doll in the World", then must figure out a way to prove it when her classmates vote her doll to be displayed at a school festival, sure that if it is as great as Irma says, they will win the grand prize.  She smuggles a mannequin from her family's department store to school and gets into a lot of trouble! 

Brink, Carol Ryrie, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1972, copyright. Irma's lie about having the biggest doll in the world leads her into deeper and deeper trouble.

M590:Map, Animal Tracks in Inside Cover
Book from late 1960s, early 1970s. A story about a lion (?) and possibly some other animals. The most intereting thing was the inside cover, white background, which showed a map of little animal foot prints walking through a meadow with a willow tree. Someone blowing on a dandeloin (?). thanks!

Hello, I am looking for a children's book from the 1960s that had a title, I believe, that included the words "new-fangled."  The book is about a family's visit to the 1876 Centennial Exposition, and I believe it was published by Scholastic Books.  It described the new telephone, automobile, etc.

Caroline D.Emerson, Father's Big Improvements. Worth a look?

Father's Big Improvements, 1962.

Maybe Father's Big Improvements?  "Horseless carriages! Talking boxes called telephones! Water running out of a faucet! What is the world coming to? Mother calls it newfangled nonsense--Father says they are all big improvements that he must have!"

I need the name of a book about a girl who lives in orphanage and who loves horses. She runs away with one of the horses and stops at a creek. People are looking for her. She runs away to other towns and works on farms. The book is a grade school reading level.

As a child I had a Princess and the Pea book, that was interactive. On the side it had buttons that you could press that made sounds that went along with the story. It told you in the book when to press the buttons. It came out in the early '90s I think. I think it had 10 buttons. I can't find it.

P457:  Princess Named Aurora who Can't Smile
 I am trying to find a beautifully illustrated children's book about a princess named Aurora who could not laugh or cry. I read it in the 1950's growing up in Ohio, and loved the beautiful illustrations in the oversize book. The illustrations were persons in France in dress circa 1500-1600 hundreds(Elizabethan?Rennaisance?) The story is how she was taught to feel sadness and happiness.Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am sorry that is not the way your website wanted this but I could not get it to work properly.

Nancy Faulkner, the Sacred Jewel, 1961, copyright.
Rosemary Sutcliff. Could this be one of Rosemary Sutcliff's many wonderful historical novels for children?

Rosemary Sutcliffe, Outcast,1955, copyright.

The Perilous Descent Into a Strange Lost World, by Bruce Carter.  There weren't two authors, but the book has at least two titles and the author may have published under two names.

Could it be The Red Book of Fairy Tales, in a special edition? I do remember the "toads and diamonds" story.
Izawa / Hijikata (illustrators), The Grosset Treasury of Fairy Tales, 1971. Your description of "cushiony" reminds me of this book, illustrated with Izawa and Hijikata's photos of dolls/puppets.  If that rings a bell, here are the stories:  Little Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, The Elves and The Shoemaker, Tom Thumb, Rumpelstiltskin, The Real Princess

R226: Redtail Hawk
Rufus the Redtail Hawk, 1953. Possible Primer Primer. The book may have been a primer or a children's book.  Not many illustrations.  The hawk's name was Rufous or Rufus (not sure of spelling).  A story of the adventures of a hawk.

Garrett, Helen, Rufous Redtail.

Shimer, Edgar Dubs, The Fairyland Reader  New Fairy Stories for All Nations, 1914 / 1924. New York (1914 Frank D. Beattys and Company, 1924): Noble and Noble, Publishers. Illustrations by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Stories include: THE BEARS MAKE A VISIT, WANG AND HIS STAR, THE SCARLET BLANKET, ETC. 
Edgar Dubs Shimer, Fairyland: New Fairy Stories of All Nations,1924.This has to be your book. The dates are right and so are the contents according to a brief mention on iobabooks.com. It is also called "The Fairyland Reader". It looks hard to find. However I did find one copy on abebooks for $34, another on amazon for $65. And to think it only cost 50c when it came out! Story Collection from the 1920s.
Shimer, Edgar Dubs, Fairyland Reader: New Fairy Stories for All Nations,1924, approximate. A search shows The Bears Make a Visit, Wang and His Star, and The Scarlet Blanket were all published in The Fairyland Reader (Noble & Noble). 

You might try The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville.

S657: Strawberry Dean 1950's

My mum talks about a childhood book and i would love to find a copy of it for her.

She received it in 1955. She thinks the title was strawberry dean. It was about a brother and sister who had magic pebbles. She said it was hard cover brown with black and white illustrations.

Evelyn Davey-Collins, Strawberry Dene. Maybe this one?  I can't find a plot description.(Apparently a "dene" is a type of wooded valley, at least in England.

S658: Spoiled Princess & a Tiger Prince
This is an Asian (Chinese?) story. Their is a woman (maybe princess) that is spoiled. There is a tiger rug (alive?) that likes candy canes (peppermint?). I remember the rug being beaten clean. The tiger rug turns into a prince at the end. I'm pretty sure it's part of a book of stories.

1970s juvinile book. You don't know, she was an ice skater and movie star from that era.  The murder is eventually solved, and it's a complete shock as to who did it.  My school library had this book, and I have no idea who wrote it.

The second snag is that while the 3 older kids arrive back as themselves, the youngest arrives back in contemporary time still as an 8th century girl. She is frightened of cars and baffled by television, for instance; I remember the older kids are trying to figure out how they are going to explain to their parents why the girl no longer reads when that used to be her passion. I can’t remember how it all works out (or if it does), and I have this vague notion that somehow they figure out the grandmother started out as someone from the past, who got sent *forwards* in time (from, say, the 8th century to the 20th). This is absolutely *not* an Edward Eager or E. Nesbit book. The tone is much more serious, and lacks the whimsy of either of those authors... and it was on a different shelf in the school library than either of them. (Why, oh why, can I remember the shelf-placement and not the title or author’s name?!)

Margaret Anderson, In the Circle of Time, 1979, copyright. I think this is probably the one you're looking for! "Two children are hurled into the future as a result of their hunt for three 12-foot stones missing from an ancient Scottish stone circle. There's at least one sequel--In the Keep of Time, and maybe another as well.
Margaret J. Anderson, In the Keep of Time,1977, copyright. Sounds like IN THE KEEP OF TIME by Margaret J. Anderson. 4 children go back in time while exploring an old Scottish keep or tower. If I remember correctly, one of the children doesn't make it back, instead a child from the past comes back in her place and passes for her, or something along those lines.~from a librarian
Margaret Jean Anderson, In the Keep of Time. Maybe this one?
Margaret Jean Anderson, In the Keep of Time, 1977, approximate. search brought up this book which sounds exactly like the one you are looking for, and it also has a sequel called "In the Circle of Time".
Margaret J. Anderson, In the Keep of Time. This sounds about right - tower, time travel, Scotland
Margaret Anderson, In the Keep of Time. I recognized this instantly as In the Keep of Time by Margaret Anderson....the same book I submitted as a stumper a few years ago! This is: In the Keep of Time by Margaret J. Anderson. See Solved Mysteries. I was the first one to solve that stumper from long ago - somehow, I managed to type "entical-looking" when I meant "identical-looking."

Can't recall the title, but do recall the book. The father goes back to the past, but is stranded there  his kids go back in a second machine to find him. Besides dinosaurs, they also meet a strange furry beast called a Bunjee, which looks like an earless elephant, and flies by inflating its trunk. After several adventures, Father and kids take the Bunjee beast and its eggs back to our time for a while, but it isn't happy and goes back to its home. Hope this helps.
Lester Del Rey, Tunnel Through Time,1966, copyright. The story of two boys (Bob and Pete) who must travel back in time in search of Pete's father, Doc Tom, after he fails to return from a trip to the past. The time machine ("time ring"?) was built by one or both of the boys' fathers, and it seems like it might have been in the garage - but it's been a long time since I read this book, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Anyway, the boys are sent back to the time of the dinosaurs, but also visit caveman-times, in their efforts to find Pete's dad and bring him safely home. It seems like there was a caveman-girl they befriended, and that they might have brought her back to the present with them - perhaps to save her life? I vaguely recall, near the end of the book, the girl crouching in the garage, terrified by all the modern noises, machines, etc., but they can't send her back, either because the machine is no longer working or because to do so would be to send her to her death? But I'm not 100% sure that scene is from the same book. The book was issued in hardback in 1966, and in paperback in 1970. The hardback has a picture of a T-Rex on it, with the two boys in the foreground - one of them is holding a gun. The paperback version shows a closeup of a boy's face (Pete?), with a series of concentric rings starting by his right eye, giving the impression of a pinkish tunnel. In the tunnel is the small figure of a man (presumably Pete's father). You can find images of the cover online, to see if they look familiar.

'McMurtry, Stan, The Bunjee Venture'

 date='1977, copyright'

 comments='Plenty of copies of this book (original and reprint) are still available.  I still have my original and love it!  Please note the author'\''s last name has two r'\''s.  Internet has name spelled two different ways, but I looked at the cover of my book.  There was even a tv show based on this book.  Happy reading!'

T487: To Date a Rogue or Not?
I read this book in the early to mid-70's, I think.  A British YA -(?) novel about a young woman who somehow meets and possibly is torn between two brothers (one a rakish airplane pilot who crashes, but survives?).  The story also involves horses, I think- perhaps the young woman learning to ride?

K. M. Peyton, Flambards, 1967, copyright. Undoubtedly this is Flambards, or one of it's sequels. The orphaned Christina is sent to live with her impoverished uncle and two male cousins at Flambards (a country house), one an arrogant brutish fellow, the other a sensitive boy who wants to be an aviator (set in 1901, or thereabouts).

This sounds like the Flambards series or possibly another work by K. M. Peyton.
KM Peyton, Flambards. Sounds like this book.  

Peyton, K. M., Flambards, 1967. This is the Flambards trilogy.  Flambards (1967) starts when Christina is 12. The Edge of the Cloud, and Flambards in Summer followed shortly thereafter. Flambards Divided (1981)is a later sequel. The first three books were made into a popular Yorkshire TV series in 1979, later shown on American public TV.

K.M. Peyton, Flambards.The solution to this stumper may be K.M. Peyton's Flambards series:  Flambards, The Edge of the Cloud, Flambards in Summer, and Flambards Divided.

Children's book read in the 1960's about a young boy befriended by a tiny tiny woman (think Thumbelina size) She mentors, guides, teaches him about life and helps him grow up. When she is finished (or he grows up ala Mary Poppins style) she flies away on a balloon I guess to find another child to mentor. I thought her name was Tivoli? Or Tevali? Can't think of the title or author. There were illustrations.

T489:Three Stories

Written for children before 1958. Three short children'\''s stories in one small, 6 1/2" by 5", picture story book, about 30 pages. Characters are animals with human characteristics.

1st- children are tucked into bed, but not tired.  Allowed to get up, play for a bit, then happily go to bed.

2nd- children accompany mother to neighbor'\''s home. Mother goes inside and children are offered grapes growing around home.  They eat all the grapes to the adults disappointment.  Next day they tie more grapes to the vines with red yarn.

3rd- mother goes off to shop.  Children attempt to make a cake. Father arrives just in time with ice cream.

V74: vignettes of the flood

 Another young adult/bookmobile book I have never forgotten. Read in 7th or 8th grade, 1963-64, although book may be older. It's about a youg woman who wants to be a writer. There is a catastrophic flood in her town (possibly the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania?) After the flood she begins writing local survivors' stories for the newspaper. She wants to call these "Vignettes of the Flood" but the older male reporter tells her not to use such a fancy word like "vignettes" and just call them "stories of the flood.  It was wonderfully detailed, about 250 pages or so. Anyone?  Many thanks!!!  

Elisabeth Hamilton Friermood, Promises in the Attic, 1960, copyright. Could this be the book? This story takes place in Dayton, Ohio and is indeed a book that includes a detailed account of a family and the ordeal of the March 25-27, 1913 Miami River flood. It devastated the city of Dayton but the city fought back. The story is related through the eyes of young 16-year-old "Ginger" Virginia O'Neal, a girl who desires to become a writer and is actually already doing a fine job of writing for the local school publication. Ginger is the author of pages of first-hand accounts of what took place during the flood as seen on her street. She and her grandfather are trapped in the attic, better off than most neighbors, because of Ginger's writing desire. Her typewriter purchase proved to be an old and noisy machine that was set up in the attic for the peace and quiet of the rest of the family. A small stove had been added as well as discarded furniture making the attic in the O'\''Neal house a haven during the flood. Grandpa encouraged her to write the account to keep her mind off the horror of the flood."

I remembered a little more. The kid had to get crocodile tears for some reason, so he had to go somewhere and make this crocodile cry by telling it sad stories, and catch them in a little jar. I also vaguely remember something about a princess kissing the tip of his wooden sword to bless it or some such thing.

Used to check this book out of the elementary school library in the 1970s, could never remember it's name but every time I went looking for a book this is the one I chose.  It is about a little girl whose family spent their summers at a lake.  One summer they return to find a boy scout camp on the lake.  The little girl is upset and wages war on the camp.  She wears her hair in braids with a white feather.  When the boy scouts get fed up with her, they catch her and cut off one of her braids.  She goes to her mother in tears who says she can fix it and the mother removes the other braid to find the girls hair mossy.  It turns out the girl never removed the braids to wash her hair all summer  she thought she didn't need to wash her hair because she swam in the lake.  That is what I remember about this story.

Jacqueline Jackson, The Paleface Redskins, 1970, approximate. This is definitely the book you'\''re looking for--I read it so many times when I was a kid! I couldn'\''t understand, though, how the girl could get away with never taking out her braids, since mine would get so messy after just a day or two!

Marian Place, The Resident Witch, 1970, copyright. Definitely this one! Witcheena, a lonely young witchling, is sent by her aunt, a senior witch, to ruin a neighborhood carnival - but instead, decides to disguise herself as a regular girl and mingle with the crowd. There she befriends a girl named Nancy. She tells Nancy that she has "twenty-six cats and forty-twelve bats." She later tells Nancy's father the same thing. When the abandoned farm on which Witcheena and her aunt live is purchased to build a children's amusement park, they must find a new place to live. The girls come up with the idea of a "Resident Witch" who will live in a "witch house" at the park, to scare the children who come for overnight campouts, and Nancy's father (the park operator) approves the idea. Witcheena, of course, wins the contest to become the new Resident Witch. You might also remember Witcheena's fascination with the "Moon Ships" from a carnival ride - Witcheena enchants them several times during the story and flies around in them, calling them "the modern way to fly."

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