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The lady who saw the good side of everything
I am trying to identify the title of a book I read to my daughter a 3-4 years ago.  It was about a woman who goes out to have a picnic under a tree with her cat.  It starts raining and a flood washes her house away.  The woman and the cat get on a log and wind up floating across the sea to China.  They arrive in a harbor where there are old style Chinese fishing boats and some children on the beach.  The woman and the cat set up a new house in China and there is a picture of them sitting at a table eating rice.  We read it after Hurricane Katrina and it was very comforting to us both.  I sent it in under key words: woman, cat, storm, float to China (or similar words).  The book was published some time between 1960-1990's?

Pat Decker Tapio, The lady who saw the good side of everything, 1975. Definitely this book -  "A woman’s blithe spirit never wavers, despite the growing disasters that sweep her and her cat from their comfortable home and carry them half-way around the world"

SOLVED: The lady who saw the good side of everything. I wanted to let y'all know that the stumper I sent in was solved-YaY!  It was posted in July and I have been checking back frequently and was giving up on the book title.  It had just been moved into the unsolved archives, but I checked it just because I couldn't give up hope yet - And someone wrote the name of the book they thought it was.  My daughter and I went to the library, looked for  the book, and it was the book we've been looking for!!!  Thank you to the person who solved this for us.  We have re-read the book at least 6 times so far and I'm going to try to get a copy of the book. 
Ladybird
There were a dozen or so of these books- I beleive the publisher was called Ladybird- because I do remember that there were little lady bugs on the front cover and possibly on the inside of the cover. I recall stories like Jack and the Beantstalk and a story of Rose Red or something like that she had a sister and there was a bear in the story also... I would dearly love to find these books as they remind me of early mornings with my nanny- she would read them to me and scratch my back- those were the days!!!  Please help! Thanks:)

I believe these books are indeed published by Ladybird.  Small books, mostly common domain stories, with a ladybug on the cover of each.  I do get them from time to time, and will let you know when I have some in stock.
Ladybird published a great number of different series in the same format of small hardcover books. The fairytale series referred to was called Well-Loved Tales, and was graded by reading difficulty into grades 1, 2 and 3. Grade 1 included The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Three Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Boy, Chicken Licken, The Enormous Turnip, The Big Pancake, etc. Grade 2 included Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, etc. Grade 3 included Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and Rose Red, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Princess and the Frog, etc. The two remembered are from the Grade 3 level.



Lambert, Janet
I have a friend who is looking for a book for which she has forgotten the title. It is about a mother, father, and 2 daughters who sail around the world in a Chinese junk. She thinks it is part of a series. If you can help me with this, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

About two months ago, I sent in a stumper about a family who sailed around the world in a Chinese junk - my friend couldn't remember much else about the books, just that they were a series. Well, I have since discovered that the books were written by Janet Lambert and are about the Campbell family. So, if anyone else ever asks you that question, here's the answer! Meanwhile, we have found some of the books, and I think my friend wants to just search out the rest on her own. Thanks!
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I am looking for a young adult's book (maybe geared to about 5th grade?), probably part of a series, that was set on the East Coast (New York?) on an army (or other) base in the 1930s or 1940s.  It described the lives of he girls in a military family who lived on base.  One girl's name was Carol and she ended up marrying David, either in that book or a follow-up (if it is a series).  I remember descriptions of bicycling in pedal pushers, making fudge, going for bridemaid dress fittings, etc.  (definitely a girl's book!).  I read this in the 1960s.

Janet Lambert, Introducing Parri, Star-Spangled Summer, Wedding Bells, The Stars Hang High, c.1962.
These books are about the Parrish family and were written by Janet Lambert  the details you mention are correct.  They took place in New York and had a lot to do with West Point.  I've read most of them and they were all wonderful.  Still have my copy of Introducing Parri, "...the 14-year-old daughter of famous actress Penny Parrish. Her trip into New York for a 'sensible' coat ended with a tryout for a Broadway play...and began a whole new life of fun and dating!" 


Lambykins
I would especially like to find one of the smaller - possibly a Little Golden Book - about a Lamb who goes to visit his Grandma and nearly gets eaten on the way home, but tricks the animals by hiding in a drum. Possibly called Lambkin, Lambkin or something along that line. Can you help?

I have a copy of this story The Lambkin in a big red book, The Classic Volland Edition GREAT CHILDREN'S STORIES, illustrated by Frederick Richardson and published by Rand McNally. It is not a small book, instead it has 17 traditional tales.
L2: This story appears in a skinny British paperback collection of  stories called Rom Pom Pom that I have at home. Will send more details when I have access to the book.
Hi . . . I just wanted to write and say that I had a book as a child called Lambykins.  It was a Tell-a-Tale book, and the story was as the person that wrote the e-mail described. (The lamb fooled everyone and rolled away in a drum).  Hope this helps.
I am looking for a children's book (like a Golden Book , but not one of theirs) which is called The Lambkin or The Little Lambkin. It was one of my favorites, and now that I am expecting a baby I would like to include it in his "library." Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! 


Land of Green Ginger
This was an Arabian Nights like story with a narrator who addressed the reader in a tongue and cheek fashion.  There was a floating city that moved.  Read in the late sixties, probably published then as well.  Probably a Penguin or Puffin edition.

Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger, 1937 / 1966 / 1975, copyright. Definitely! There seem to have been three separate editions, each rather different from the one before, and I guess you read the 1966 one.  People are quite sniffy about the 1975 edition, but don't dismiss it untried - it's the only version I've read, and I thought it was wonderful.Summary: The Land of Green Ginger is the story of Prince Abu Ali, the son of the Emperor Aladdin of China. When Abu Ali is born, the Genie of the Lamp announces that his destiny has already been foretold  he was the one chosen to break the spell of the Land of Green Ginger and restore the Magician - turned into a Button-Nosed Tortoise by a spell that went wrong - to his normal shape. You'll find magical fantasy, adventure and excitement within the pages of this book - but most of all, you'll find ridiculous wit and humour to appeal to all age groups (whether child or adult).
Noel Langley, Land of Green Ginger.

Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger, 1966, copyright.Sounds like the adventures of Abu Ali (son of Aladdin), his friend Boomalakka Wee, and the Mouse.  The Land of Green Ginger was the name of the flying island/floating world.  My copy is a Puffin paperback published by Penguin Books Ltd.  
Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger. Yes! This is definitely it.  I can't wait to find it again (and I probably will go for the "66 since that is what I must have read.  Thank you so much.

Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger. This one is solved.



Land of Happy Days
When I was in fourth grade (1958), I read a book that had wonderful color illustrations in it.  It seems it was about a little boy who was lost and I remember that one of the parts of the book was that he talked to a rotund man who lived inside a tree(?) but when he turned back to look, he saw only a robin in the tree.  The book was, even at that time, very old.  It had a dark blue cover and the name on the spine was faded.  I got very excited that it might be Little Boy Lost, Hudson, 1918 but I got a copy of that book at the library and that was not it.  The book definitely had color illustrations, not black and white.  I can't wait to just have the time to go through everything on your web-site!  I kind of cruised through and it was so cool!!!

I'm still trying to figure out the very old children's book with a color illustration of a rather rotund man with rosy cheeks (wearing a morning coat?) standing next to a tree with a door.  After the boy walks away, he looks back to see only a bird--a robin, I think--in the tree.  The door and the man are not there.

Maybe it is Little Boy Lost by W.H. Hudson, but with the colour illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop, published by Knopf 1920. I've seen one picture from this edition, showing the little boy lying on a ledge speaking to the Ocean, personified as a huge old man with a wide mouth and trailing white weed-like hair and beard. There's an incident in Little Boy Lost very similar to the robin incident cited, where the boy speaks to a little man who won't answer sensibly, then walks away and turns to see a burrowing owl(?). I don't know whether Lathrop illustrated that incident, though.
S30 shapeshifting bird: Hard to be sure, but another possibility is Wood Magic (also published as Little Sir Bevis), by Richard Jeffries, published Longmans in the 1920s, reprinted several times. "Wind and brook, birds and animals are little Sir Bevis's friends. They vie with one another for his affection and for his sympathy with their very human-like jealousies and intrigues." I've only read excerpts, but I think little Bevis wanders by himself at times. Also, robins are more likely to show up in Bevis's English countryside than the South America of Little Boy Lost.
The suggestion that it might be Wood Magic by Richard Jeffries was a good one as Bevis does converse with many animals; however he does not converse with a rotund little man who then becomes a bird.  I am, therefore, still searching for this illusive, colorfully illustrated children's novel.
Dorothy Nell Whaley & Charles W. Knudsen, The Land of Happy Days, 1938.  Mystery Solved!!  I picked up a book entitled The Land of Happy Days in a vintage bookstore today and there on page 15 was the rotund man (Round Roger)wearing a tuxedo, welcoming a boy and girl to Good Sleep Inn which happens to be the trunk of a big tree.  On page 40, the Inn is simply a tree and Round Roger is nowhere to be found, but we do see a fat round robin who looks "fat and roly-poly just like Round Roger."  Thanks to everyone who tried to help.
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I don't remember much about the book, other than I loved it when I was young!   It was written by a young girl, who apparently disappeared (I'm sure it mentioned that in the preface?)  Anyway, it was about a tiny fairy, was very descriptive and beautiful.  I think the fairy's name started with a "T" and may have been the title, or part of the title, of the the book.  Thank you!

I know one that begins with a "P":  Poppy, or the Adventures of a Fairy by Anne Perez-Guerra.  1931.
Could this be Tatsinda by Elizabeth Enright?
I think that the tiny fairy may be Thumbelina.
This is definitely NOT Tatsinda by Elizabeth Enright
The clue that it was written by a young girl makes me think it's Opal Whitely's The Fairyland Around Us.  The fairy named "Twilight, the child of Day and Night, came and led Liloriole forth in search of the homes of Fairyland."  There's a website with the entire text at http://www.liloriole.net.
I checked out the website, and  The Fairyland Around Us is beautiful, but it's not the book I'm looking for *sigh*.  I remember that there was a description in the story of the fairy/girl waking up inside of a flower which had been covered with ice during the night...it seemed so beautiful to me, the way it was written. Maybe that will ring a bell with someone?  Thanks!
I'm wondering about The House Without Windows and Eepersip's Life There by Barbara Newhall Follett, published by Knopf, 1927 "The story of a little girl who was "rather lonely" and who left home one day to explore the meadows, fields, and woods near by. But she became so enamored of life in the woods that she decided to "live wild" and never go home anymore. She goes to the mountain and she goes to the sea, then back to the mountains, where on one beautiful summer day she becomes a dryad. A rarely lovely book, and the only instance we know where a child has been able to record that longing common to many children under ten to be one with nature. The book was written by the author at nine and rewritten at twelve, as the original manuscript had been burned." There's a book about the young author: McCurdy, Harold (edited by) BARBARA: the Unconscious Autobiography Of A Child Genius Published by University of North Carolina Press: 1966, 146 pages, with b?w photos. "She was educated at home in New England by literary parents, Wilson and Helen Follett, and at the age of four she began to type out her own imaginative stories. By thirteen she had already published a novel and, with the publication of her second novel a year later, she seemed launched on a literary career. Then the events of her inner life and her outer world seemed to conspire against her vivd energy - the separation of her parents, the Great Depression, her own frustrating and unhappy marriage. Finally she fulfilled a prophetic vein in her writings, which sought flight from the human world to an enchanted, unsoiled world of nature. In the winter of 1939, in a mystery that has never been solved, Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared."
Dorothy Nell Whaley & Charles W. Knudsen, The Land of Happy Days, 1938.  A tiny fairy named Twinkle appears in a mirror and leads two children, Betty and Jack, into the enchanted forest.


Land of the Lost
This book featured a fish named Red Lantern or Green Lantern.  Somehow he helped two children explore a secret kingdom within the mysterious Sargasso Sea.

I wish I remember the title for sure, because I remember this book from my childhood as well (early 60s). However, I think it belonged to my mother so was from the 40s. I think it was called something like "Land of the Lost". The boy and girl find all kinds of things under the sea that are lost above, and sometimes never sought--lost socks but also buttons, watches, treasures, dolls...
Hewson, Isabel Manning, Land of the Lost, illustrated by Olive Bailey, NY McGraw-Hill 1945.  I would suggest this. The fish's name is Red Lantern. "Billy 13, and Isabel, 11, fishing from their rowboat, catch Red Lantern, the Guiding Light of the Land of the Lost. In return for letting them go, Red Lantern takes them to the wonderful kingdom under the sea where all lost things eventually arrive. Here they find the doll Henrietta that Isabel had lost overboard, and the toy soldier Sergeant Pine who is now a captain. Then there is the villainous Kid Squid and his band of cuttlefish, who nearly prevent Isabel and Billy's return to earth. Best of all are the Knives of the Square Table, with Billy's lost Jack Knife, the Great Horn Spoon, Sir Keen Carver and Lavinia Ladle. These fascinating stories have been developed from Isabel Manning Hewson's Blue Network radio program: The Land of the Lost, which as this book goes to press is carried on more than 80 radio stations throughout the United States. Mrs. Hewson also reports that there are more than 3500 Land of the Lost Clubs and the number is growing daily." (from the dust jacket) There were also at least 2 Land of the Lost cartoons made, one dealing with the Jack Knife story, the other with a pocket watch. The animation and art were similar to the Caspar the Friendly Ghost cartoons.
Isabel Manning Hewson, Land of the Lost. (1947)  God - just glad that there are people out there who have heard of this book.  I own a copy and wondered if any one else had heard of it.  The illustrations are a very strange updated version of '\''Alice in Wonderland'\'' but quite wonderful.  I would love to know more about the author though.'


Lands of Pleasure
In a first grade textbook story (published prior to 1969), identical twin brothers acquire a gold cocker spaniel puppy.  One wanted to name it "Snapper" and the other "Zip."  Their dad even had them stand at separate ends of the yard calling to see which name the puppy would respond to.  In the end they named it "Zipper."

Albert J. Harris & May Knight Clark, Lands of Pleasure, 1965.  This was my first grade reader, too, and I have a copy of it. The exact story of naming Zipper the cocker spaniel is in here. The twin boys are named Jim and Jack Jones.



Landslide!
Great site! Found 4 of the 5 books I was looking for just by reading through the solved ones!  For the remaining book, here's what I remember: Alpine setting, heavy snowfall.  A group of children, siblings, I think, go to check on an elderly neighbor who may have been snowed in.  While they are in his house an avalanche hits and they are trapped.  The neighbor they are checking on has died, I think.  No one knows the children are there.  They manage to flash a piece of glass when the sunlight hits just right at a certain time of day.  A boy in a village across the valley - stuck in bed with severe allergies - sees the flashing light, figures it might be a distress signal, and sends a message, which saves the children.  before 1972.  I know the book is not the A. Rutgers Van der Loff Avalanche one.  Hope someone recognizes this!  If I find it, I'm hoping to get 2 copies.

Day, Veronique, Landslide!  1958.
Veronique Day, Landslide!1966.  You're pretty close---it's a landslide that traps the children!  Two sets of siblings are trapped in the remote hillside home of an elderly couple who happen to go to town that day.  No one is looking for the children: their parents believe they are on vacation, and their host believes they have gone home.  Escape is impossible, so the children must figure out how to survive until help arrives.  Eventually, the children send a Morse code signal that is seen by the sick boy, but because they have mixed up the letters of the Morse alphabet, the schoolmaster must help the sick boy decipher the message!  Meanwhile, the eldest child, an introverted and bookish boy who takes charge during this emergency, is becoming sicker and weaker from an infected wound on his arm.  Will he die before help arrives?  One of my favorite childhood books!
Arthur Catherall, Prisoners in the Snow
Veronique Day, Landslide, 1961.  Five children are trapped in a lonely cottage when a landslide hits during Christmas vacation. The owners'\'' pet bird dies of shock, and the only thing the children can hear is a cuckoo clock. They send signals in Morse code using a large mirror.
Landslide.  btw- the boy who sees the flashes is home with a sprain, not allergies.
Veronique Day, Landslide, 1963.  Five children (from two families) on vacation without their parents are hiking and get caught by a landslide in an elderly acquaintance's house. After a few days some snow falls away from a window and they use a mirror and morse code to signal for help, which is seen by a boy home sick from school. I believe the book was originally in French and translated.
Veronique Day, Landslide!  1963.  I am certain this is the book you are looking for.  Five kids - two sibling groups - are on vacation in the mountains.  They go to see the oldest boy's friend, an old man named M. Nortier.  He is not there.  They go in and go to sleep.  While they are sleeping there is a landslide and they are trapped.  No one knows they are there and no one is looking for them because the parents think they are somewhere else.  After being trapped for days, they are able to send a message by flashing a message into the snow in Morse code using a mirror when the sunlight hits just right at a certain time of day.  A boy in the village is home with a sprained ankle and sees it.  With the help of the village teacher they figure out the message and the children are rescued.
Landslide!  Yeah!  Thank you so much!  In addition to my own collection, I'm working on a Christmas present for my sister.  These were all books we both read as kids, and still talk about finding again.
Just wanted to say that Prisoners in the Snow is about 2 children that see a plane crash and watch the pilot parachute out.  The plane causes an avalanche.  The kids run in and warn their grandfather (the parents had taken advantage of the nice day to ski down to the village).  The house is buried.  While they are moving their cows to safety, they realized that the pilot is buried in snow on the roof of the cowshed.  The young boy has to try and rescue the pilot as great risk to himself.  The pilot badly needs a doctor, so the boy again has to make a dangerous attempt to reach the outside world.  Anyone who enjoyed Landslide! would probably like Prisoners in the Snow.



Lark
I'm very pleased to find this site. I read incessantly as a child and at one point wanted to be a children's librarian when I grew up. Here is my Stump the Bookseller:  There was a series of books I read in the sixties that were set in a variety of times and places, but always featured a feisty teenage girl, who for some reason was uprooted from her home and A. had to go live with relatives,  B. frequently ran away from said relatives and/or home disguised as a boy/actor/gypsy/soldier/etc.,  C. met her soulmate/future husband,  D. eventually was reunited with her parents/family.  They were fairly accurate, historically. Several took place in Israel, on a kibbutz. The rest in  Cromwell's England, Scotland and the Colonial US. All involve politics, revolutions and struggles for freedom, both for the country in which they were set and the heroine herself. I think at least one was called Lark.  Can you help me?

L3  I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Sally Watson, who wrote Lark in 1964 and wrote several other books in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  Some other titles include Jade and Linnet, Watson's books feature young girls in different adventures and are set in various times and countries.



The Large and Growly Bear
Bear goes to a pond and looks in growls at himself grrrr! (gets bigger each time he returns).  Pink (Soft cover, one story book.  Mid to late 60's.

Gertrude Crampton, The Large and Growly Bear, 1961.  Although the version pictured here is a book/record combination, that's the cover I remember--and it is pink!


Lassie and the Mystery at Blackberry Bog
This was a young adult book about a boy who wanted a bicycle, so he grew and sold strawberries to pay for it. It was probably written 1940-1965. I read it in the 1970's. It may have been a Lassie book. It had lots of details about the # of strawberries he sold & the amount of $ he was earning.

Dorthea J. Snow,
Lassie and the Mystery at Blackberry Bog.
SOLVED: Dorthea J. Snow, Lassie and the Mystery at Blackberry Bog. I found a used copy of "Lassie and the Mystery at Blackberry Bog" (the solution posted on my stumper), and I wanted to let you know that it IS the book I was inquiring about. So this stumper is solved.



Last Guru
I read this book in the 1970s, and it's about a boy who won a small amount of money ($2,000) or so, then invested it in a restaurant chain (hamburgers I think) whose stock was trading at 1/8 or so.  Then for some reason the stock jumped up really high making the boy worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  I can't remember the rest of what happens, but it has to do with what the boy decides to do with the money.  I remember the book being pretty humorous, but can't remember anything else about it.  I would love to read it again but so far haven't had any luck tracking it down.

Daniel Manus Pinkwater, The Last Guru.  I think the kid in this book invents 'Zenburgers'- the only other detail I can recall involves lamas or priests who 'all look a little like Anthony Quinn'.
Daniel Pinkwater, The Last Guru, 1978.  That was fast, it just took one day!  I went to Daniel Pinkwater's site and confirmed that The Last Guru was the book I was searching for.  Thank you very much, I look forward to reading it again and Pinkwater's other books as well.



Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
I read the book in the mid 70's.It was a brand new copy in the library  so it was probably written around then (or at least a reprint).The cover was hardback with a dust jacket,and the illustrations were very bright (psychadelic).Girl and boy,adventure in fantasy land.Guided (occasionally) by fairy godmother/mother nature type character.They help the 'king'( non human poss with antlers),who has a toothache.(?)He has a sweet tooth.The girl exclaims when she sees it '...it IS a sweet tooth...' The tooth in question has a picture of a daisy on it.That's all I can remember and it's driving me nuts.

Julie Edwards, Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.  Must be this book. The Whangdoodle has a daisy on his sweet tooth.
Julie Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.  Three children and a professor go to Whangdoodle land and try to help the Whangdoodle get his hearts desire. He does indeed have a "sweet tooth" with a flower on it.
This sounds like the Last of the really great Whangdoodles I think I've got that right by Julie Edwards (the married name of Julie Andrews). The last Whangdoodle is a strange creature with antlers and a sweet tooth marked with a flower. Three children come to his land with the assistance of a scientist friend. I haven't read it for 20 years but it was definitely psychedelic.
Well done you ! After all this time wondering, you solve the mystery overnight.Thanks everso.
--
Juvenile Literature/Chapter book. Perhaps a few sketches throughout. Probably a map in the early pictures. Book about kid or kids that enter a fantastical land.  In this land there is an endangered creature called a Wing Ding Dilly or a Wang Dang Doodle.  The kids travel through the land (that's why I think I remember and the map).  I think they were trying to save the creature and it was very special. Don't know author, title other than the wings and wangs and dings and doodles. Book was very popular in my middle school in 1983-1986.

Julie Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards (actually Julie Andrews). Wonderful, fun book. Might go read it again right now.
Julie Edwards, Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. Could this be Julie Andrews The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles?  Two brothers and their sister travel through a magical land with their friend the professor, searching for the mysterious Whangdoodle. There is a picture book by Bill Peet called The Wingdingdilly, so maybe you'\''re somehow combining these two books?
Julie Andrews Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. 1974, copyright. Its definitely this book.  Three siblings (Ben, Tom, and Lindy) meet an eccentric professor who takes them to Whangdoodleland, a place where fanciful creatures and plants live.  The elusive and peaceful Whangdoodle is king, and the children go on a search for him.
Julie Andrew Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. 1974, approximate. Possibly this one? "What on earth is a Whangdoodle? A "fanciful creature of undefined nature," it was also once the wisest, kindest, most fun-loving living thing in the world--until people stopped believing in it.  But when an open-minded professor--the one adult who still believes in the Whangdoodle--joins forces with three children with active imaginations, they become an unstoppable team on a fantastic and sometimes terrifying journey to Whangdoodleland."
Bill Peet. This ones easy. One of my sons favorite authors. The Whingdingdilly by Bill Peet.
Sounds like THE LAST OF THE REALLY GREAT WHANGDOODLES by Julie Edwards (better known as Julie Andrews)~from a librarian
Julie Edwards (Andrews), The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, 1974, copyright. This is it!!!
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I'm looking for a book about a couple of kids who go through a hedge along a road and are transported into a magical kingdom.  They journey through the kingdom to a castle and I think they meet a series of magical creatures along the way.  I read the book in 1978 when I was in the 4th grade and it was my favorite book at the time.  A librarian friend suggested that it was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I know that's not it.   I have been trying to find it for 10 years and I hope someone can help.

Joy Chant, Red Moon and Black Mountain, 1971, approximate.  It might be this book:  3 siblings go through a hedge and end up in another world. Nicholas and Penny end up together but Oliver gets separated from them.
Nesbit, E, The Enchanted Castle, 1907, copyright.  Possibly this one - they initially do find the castle when they stop to eat their lunch in a hedge by the side of the road.  You can read the full text online at Project Gutenberg.  From the publishers description: Four English children find a wonderful world of magic through an enchanted wishing ring. Originally published in 1907, this book concerns four likable English children and their adventures with a magic ring.
Mary Stewart, A Walk in Wolf Wood.  Could it possibly be "A Walk in Wolf Wood"? This was one of my FAVORITE books, and now I'm reading it to my kids. Here is a brief summary..."When a weeping man in a strange costume passes their picnic spot and disappears into the nearby woods, a brother and sister decide to follow him and soon find themselves involved in the rescue of a werewolf in the 14th century."
L. Frank Baum, Road to Oz.  A very long shot, but in L. Frank Baum's Road to Oz (one of the sequels to Wizard of Oz) Dorothy and a young boy called Button Bright are walking along a road and find they're lost in an enchanted land.  They travel along to the Emerald City meeting various characters along the way (the Shaggy Man, Polychrome, who normally lives on a rainbow...).  The book was in print in the 1970s.
Pamela Dean, The Secret Country, 2003, copyright.  The copyright for the most recent edition is 2003, but I know it's been around for quite a bit longer. The children (teens and pre-teens) have pretended about this place for years, and then one day they go through a hedge and are actually in the world they have been pretending about. It became the first book in a trilogy, but I liked this one best.
Julie Edwards, Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, 1974, copyright.  Wearing scrappy hats, Ben, Tom and Lindy Potter go through a hedge to Whangdoodle land with Professor Savant. They meet all sorts of creatures like the Prock and the Whiffle bird and eventually make their way to the palace of the whangdoodle.

Julie Andrews Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles , 1974, copyright.The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles is it!  Thank you so much!!!  After years of searching, I am thrilled to read this book again!
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Edwards, Julie.  The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.  HarperCollins, 1989 paperback reprint.  New pb, $5.99  pending availability. 



Last Put-Out
kid's baseball book, title is something "The Last Out" about a baseball player who injures himself on the outfield wall while going for a fly ball, then struggles to return (successfully, of course) to playing ball and catching fly balls once again. Probably published around the 1950's.  Thanks!!

There's something called The Last Out by Jerry Taylor, but that's certainly not it!
Wilfred McCormick, The last put-out : a Bronc Burnett story, 1960.  Possibly?  I'm not familiar with this series, but this is a kid's fiction book about baseball.
How about The Last Put-Out: A Bronc Burnett Story, Wilfred McCormick, Grosset & Dunlap, 1960.  Sorry, no description other than the subjects Baseball and Juvenile fiction.



Last Seen on Hopper's Lane
Teen/young adult fiction from last half of 80's / first half of 90's (think I bought it same time as The Face on the Milk Carton).  Teen girl is riding her bike, comes across old/abandoned house, goes inside and overhears two men in basement doing something illegal (drugs?); they discover her and kidnap her, throw her and her bike in the back of their van.  Whole story is her ordeal with them--one is cruel, one is sympathetic and he and she almost develop some kind of bond--I remember she visits him in jail at the end, after the police find her in some kind of cafe?  I can picture the front cover--with the house and the bike turned over in the front, but cannot remember the title at all, nor the girl's name.

Donald J. Sobol, Angie's First Case, 1982.  I can't be sure, but this rang a bell of a book I used to frequently check out of my library. Angie helps her sister, a police officer, with a case involving a gang called the Wolf Pack or something similar. I believe both she and her boyfriend were kidnapped. It's by the author of the Encyclopedia Brown books. I couldn't find a picture of the cover online.
Janet A. Stegeman, Last Seen on Hopper's Lane, 1982. A teenage girl (I can't remember her name) is exploring an abandoned house when she comes across two men who are doing a drug deal. They kidnap her (they take her bike too). One kidnapper is kind while the other is very harsh. I think this may be your book.
I had a stumper that was posted as # G423 a couple of weeks ago, and to my surprise and abounding happiness, it was solved by the second poster (in purple)!  It is indeed Last Seen on Hopper’s Lane.  I was far off on the name (thinking it had the word kidnapped in the title kept me from moving on to other guesses, I think), but that is the book!  I have already found it on ebay and it arrived today, and I am in much bliss!  Thank you SO much!  I have been unable to remember for years and had almost resigned myself to never knowing!



Late for Halloween
Hello, i'm based in the Uk. As a child i read a book called Late for Halloween by Camilla Fegan. Now i am older and have nieces and nephews i am trying to collect some of the books that i read when i was a youngster. The above said title has evaded me for years. No matter how hard i have tried and all the various book shops i have searched i cannot obtain a copy. Can you help me please?

a huge thanks for getting the book for me, i am so thrilled after all these years of searching for it. It seems so ironic that i'm getting a UK edition from the States, yet over here in the UK my search has proved fruitless! :)
Just wanted to let you know that the book arrived safely. My  word, how strange it felt opening that package, and viewing the cover of the book. It was exactly how i remembered it! And i felt very nostaglic. The child in me had to read it again, of course :)and i found it so hard to believe that it was 28 years ago that i first read it!! For years i have had a chant in my head, and i couldn't remember where it had come from. I had to laugh when i actually saw it in the book, and realised that it had come from there. I feel sure my neice and nephew will be thrilled with it, just as it thrilled me all those years ago. The book was in excellent condition. Many thanks.
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I took this book out of the library numerous times but cannot remember the name or author. It's about a witch who gets banished to a little girls' rhodedendron bush in her yard, starting the day after Halloween until the following Halloween.  The witch conjurs from a picture on a serving tray, a tiny flying Chinese Dragon.  This dragon and the little girl become fast friends, and the dragon grows bigger throughout the book.  He belonged to an ancient Chinese magician who taught him all good and powerful magic.  We go through the year with these three.  The witch is a fairly dangerous character being that she's decidedly two-faced.  The book culminates with the Halloween bachanalia the following year, where the witch and her cronies are defeated, and an escape back to ancient China with the dragon where we meet his master.  The dragon ends up returning the girl, and disappears back to his own time. HELP!

Fegan, Camilla, Late for Hallowe'en, Methuen 1966.  This turned up as the solution to a stumper on Booksleuth, and sounds like a good bet: "Judy made her way to the little cave-opening under the bushes and ducked through. 'Come in, won't you? And thank you for knocking!' a thin crackly voice remarked. Judy has found a witch living in the shrubbery--a witch called Murgatroyd and her cat, Hornsbydale. Murgatroyd makes a dragon from an old tray. But.." The dragon is called Chinquintafizz and his master is Fly-by-the-Moon.



Laughing Dragon
A similar sounding query is not the book I am looking for, as best I can tell. This one is set in some Asian country, I imagine China, where there is a dragon living under this rich man's house. But he does something wrong--maybe sets something on fire with his breath?--and gets expelled from the home, until a terrible blizzard comes and the dragon saves the family by keeping them warm with his breath. I remember them setting off fireworks by throwing them into his mouth--maybe at the happy conclusion to the story.

Kenneth Mahood, The Laughing Dragon.  The dragon Hojo starts out as a pet to the Emperor of Japan, and every time he laughed he would burn things. Because he laughs uncontrollably, he is exiled. A turtle teaches him to control his laughter, so he returns to Japan just in time to save everyone from the cold. The turtle helps him keep the laughter under control, but tells Hojo his funniest jokes for the fireworks displays.
The Laughing Dragon.  I agree, 100%...The Laughing Dragon is the book you are looking for! It was one of my childhood favorites too :)
The Laughing Dragon. Yes, that is the one!  Thanks so much!



Laura
This is a fairly recent book (two years ago) that I saw in hardcover and now I can't remember what it was called or who wrote it.  It is a children's picture book and the plot is a weird version of Humpty Dumpty.  There's a girl (named Lucy?) and she befriends an egg.  They play together, but then there's thunder and lightening in the forest and she loses the egg.  She finds the remains of the shell and is upset  - but her friend (the egg) had turned into a bird.  I remember the illustrations to be colored pencil-like with dark backgrounds. This book may have been a re-issue of an older book, but I saw it about five years ago.

I solved my own stumper - H13's Humpty Dumpty story is actually called Laura by Binette Schroeder.  I happened to be in the Strand Bookstore in NYC and I was so shocked when I saw it!



Laura Charlotte
A little girl loves her stuffed elephant, she accidently leaves it out in the rain and can't get to it. When she finally does get it one of its ears have been torn off. Her mom fixes the elephant. Eventually the little girl gets older and it sits in her room or another room and doesn't ever get played with. I think at the end she grows up and gives it to her daughter.

Galbraith, Kathryn O., Laura Charlotte, 1990, copyright.  Beautifully illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Laura asks her mother to tell her the story of her beloved stuffed elephant, originally made for her mother by her grandmother, years ago. This includes something about being left outside and the ear needing to be sewn.
Galbraith, Laura Charlotte.  Lovely illustrations of the little girl and the elephant.
Kathryn O. Galbraith, Floyd Cooper (illus), Laura Charlotte, 1990, copyright.  "A girl who is afraid to go to sleep asks for the familiar story of Charlotte, her handmade stuffed elephant. It is her mother's own story, and though it is late, she tells it to her daughter. When she was five, her grandmother made her an elephant out of sewing box scraps, and she named it Charlotte, "the prettiest name in the world." Laura knows just how the story goes, and prompts her mother with the telling, from Charlotte's first arrival as a birthday gift, through Mama's nighttime rescue of her lost elephant, to Laura's own welcome arrival and Charlotte's new place in her life. Galbraith has written a gently reassuring story about the love that spans generations and is handed down with toys. It is also a tale of a girl getting older and outgrowing the need for a stuffed playmate and protector, but who nonetheless is saving it for her own child."  And yes, Charlotte does indeed lose an ear - there is a very touching picture of the little girl in a pink dress (or nightgown) kneeling on the grass, her hair blowing in the wind, clutching the stuffed elephant, whose right ear has been torn off and is lying on the ground.
I just looked at a copy of Laura Charlotte the other day, and can confirm that this is
indeed the book the requester was looking for.


Lavender-Green Magic
Two sisters find a route through their family's garden maze by sleeping on an herb pillow (which might have been an inheiritance. They sleep on different sides of the pillow, and one learns a route of all left turns, while the other learns a route of all right turns.  When they get to the center of the maze they each meet a woman (witch?) one of whom is good and one of whom is bad. That's all I remember about the book, except that I loved it.

Andre Norton, Lavender-Green Magic.  When the Wade children go to live with their grandparents in the country, they explore an old garden maze that leads them back through time to a witch's cottage.
Norton, Andre, Lavender Green Magic, 1974.
Andre Norton, Lavender-Green Magic
Andre Norton, Lavender-green magic, 1974.  This was a wonderful book!  The heroine is the oldest child, and she's angry for a variety of reasons, not least that she must live at the junkyard with her grandparents.  But what a junkyard!  I wish -I- could live there!
I read this book also, and the girls were sisters, I believe they were African American, and they lived with their grand parents who were caretakers of a garden, or an estate. The pillow itself had a maze like pattern sewn on it and a pleasant smell associated with lavender on one side and a smell of decay on the other. I also seem to remember that they found the pillow somewhere on the property. I don't recall the author or name of the book, but perhaps these clues can help you further your search.
I just came across your "Stump the Bookseller" web site and finally, after years of searching, found out the title and author of Lavendar-Green Magic! I read that book when I was in 4th or 5th grade in the 70s, and the story stuck with me but nothing else had. I have been trying to discover what that book was for years, but did not discover it until I stumbled across your web site.  Thank you so much! 


Lawrenceville Stories
My father is often talking about a short story that he read as a child in the 40s or 50s. It was part of a collection of short stories for Swedish pupils studying English in school. According to my father, the story goes like this: The pupil Smythe is a zero in school. Nobody really notices him. But he suddenly turns into a hero, after eating an enormous amount of pancakes in the school restaurant. When he is sitting there, eating and eating, most of the students/pupils come to have a look at this wonder boy, who can eat so many pancakes. (I am trying to find this short story for mid August when my father's birthday is, so it would be great if it was solved by then! Thanks! :)

Owen Johnson, The Lawrenceville Stories, 1910. This is one of Owen Johnson's popular Lawrenceville School stories, starring boy heroes "Dink" Stover and The Tennessee Shad, among others.
P247 Chapter 2 of The Prodigious Hickey is called The great pancake record.


Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead
Many years ago, I read a children's book about a boy who lived in a house that did everything for him.  It cooked his breakfast. It put his clothes on. I think it even brushed his teeth and combed his hair.  I have been searching for this book for years.  It is NOT danny dunn and the automatic house.

It's way too simple to think this might be Ray Bradbury's short story "The Veldt," right?
Could H11 by Lazy Tommy Pumkinhead by William Pene du Bois a picture book in which machines do everything for the boy including getting dressed.
Most likely "Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead" by Willem Pene du Bois. Very funny. This was supposed to have been part of a "Seven Deadly Sins" series, another being "Call Me Bandicoot" (about avarice) but the series was never completed.
Thank you very much.  Your stumper answer sounds right!  Now I want to get the book.  I looked for it online. holy cow, the lowest price was $180 used !!!  Unfortunately, my upper limit is around $30.  if you see the book cheaper (but in decent condition), please let me know. Thanks.
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story about a boy who lives in a mechanical house that pours him out of bed and into the shower machine, dressing machine, he's got mechanisms for making breakfast etc.

L28: Same as B79 - Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead by William Pene du Bois. Part of a Seven Deadly Sins series. This is the best, IMHO, of the four actually written - the second best is Call Me Bandicoot.
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Help! I am looking for a children's book that I read as a child (late 60's early 70"s) about a little boy who doesn't like to do things so he invents machines that will do the tasks for him (i.e. brush his teeth, etc). At first the machines work fine but then start to malfunction, i.e. brush his toes instead of his teeth. Have you heard of it? I would love to get it for my son. Thanks so much.

Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead (1966) by William Pene du Bois, I believe. Very funny. Check it out in the Solved Mysteries page. The only other books in that series I heard of were Pretty Pretty Peggy Moffitt (1968),
Porko von Popbutton (1969), and Call Me Bandicoot (1970).
#L28--Lazy boy:  Several stories contain these elements.  The introduction to William Pene du Bois'sThe Twenty-One Balloons notes its similarities to F. Scott Fitzgerald's story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz."  I started to read the Fitzgerald story, but it's not nearly as good as "The Twenty-One Balloons."  In "The Twenty-One Balloons," these magical devices are the work of industrious Americans rich on a huge diamond supply, while in "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" the diamond discoverers rely on slave labor.  When I got to the part about how the whole scheme wouldn't have worked except that the slaves placed absolute trust and complete belief in their masters, *poof,* that was it for my suspension of disbelief!  William Pene du Bois said some of the similarities were obvious but he couldn't account for how he and F. Scott Fitzgerald would choose to spend their money in identical ways!  The other story that has some of these elements is "The Veldt," the most famous of a number of stories Ray Bradbury wrote on the theme of what did not then exist but are now known as "smart houses."  In "The Veldt," Peter, the boy, complains to his father, "I didn't like it when you took out the picture painter."  "I want you to learn to paint your own pictures," father replies.  At last father disconnects one too many "lazy" devices and plans to take the children off to "rough it," which the children put to an end through rather violent means.  (If what you read was this--or any other Bradbury story--you'd probably never forget the ending.)  His other famous "smart house" story, "There Will Come Soft Rains," involves no people, but rather a "smart" house which goes on working even though all its occupants have been killed in a nuclear holocaust.
L28 Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead -more info. appears on your Solved Mysteries page ~from a librarian
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I loved this story! It was about a lazy boy who didn't want to do anything for himself (either that, or he was an inventor boy). He made this contraption that did everything for him (got him out of bed, got him dressed, made him toast & eggs, etc.). I believe that the contraption may backfire in the end of the story. I think it's a picturebook. Definitely from the mid-seventies. Thanks!
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Seeking a child's book about a lazy boy who is fed and dressed by machines - machines break during a storm

Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead (1966) by William Pene du Bois.   See more on Solved Mysteries.
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I had a picture book in the mid to late '70s about a boy who lived by himself in a fully automated house.  Every morning, machines in the house would wake him up, get him dressed, feed him breakfast, etc.  One day, something goes wrong and he's put into his clothes upside down, the toothbrush is used on his feet (?), and I think he winds up with scrambled eggs in his hair.  That's all I can remember, but it's a vivid memory!

HRL: Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead by William Pene du Bois, 1966.  See Solved Mysteries!
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Hello Looking for a book about a boy who lives in an automated house it gets him ready in the morning and cooks his breakfast and then something happens possibly a power outage and he gets backwards so his clothes go on backward the bath is backward and his breakfast is served on his feet. Loved it as a child.

William Pene du Bois' wonderful and rare Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead, 1966.
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This was a book I used to beg my mom to read me daily in the 1980's.  It was about a boy/man who lived in a house that took care of him.  There was a machine that woke him up, another that put him in the shower, dressed him and made him breakfast.  One day all these inventions go crazy and the shower is cold, it tries to feed scrambled eggs to his feet and general mayhem ensues.  I have no ideas on what the title or author could possibly be.  Any help is appreciated.

William Pene DuBois, Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead, 1966. I bet this is Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead.  Tommy lives by himself in a fully automated house just as the seeker describes.  Things go awry one day with very funny results.
William Pene Du Bois, Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead, 1966. A spoiled/lazy boy is awoken, washed, dressed, and fed his breakfast each morning by an automated house.  One day the machines get mixed up and he goes through this process backwards -- his toes are shampooed, he winds up with his pants on his head, etc. It is on the Solved page L.
Willem Pene du Bois, Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead. This sounds the the popular Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead.  He has an automatic house that does everything for him and one day everything goes wrong and he get breakfast served to his feet, he gets bathed in ice-cold water, ect.
DuBois, William Pene, Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead, 1966. See more information under Solved Mysteries.  This definitely sounds like the book!
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The book I'm looking for was a favorite I used to check out of the library in the early or mid '70's, so it was probably printed in the late '50's or '60's.  A boy hated to get up in the morning, so either he or a parent invented a machine that got him up, dressed him and made him breakfast.  Any help would be appreciated!!

Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead (1966) by William Pene du Bois.   See more on Solved Mysteries.



Lazy Young Duke of Dundee
I do not know who wrote the book or the title. I used to read it to my daughter when she was little. I would love to have it for my grandchildren. It was about a Duke of Dundee.  He had a delightful daughter and something to do with the dreadful dragon of Dundee.  The book used alot of "D" words.  It was such a fun book!

This is William Wise, The Lazy Young Duke of Dundee (Rand McNally, '70), ill. Barbara Cooney.
I'm happy to offer a copy of The Lazy Duke of Dundee:
Wise, William.  The Lazy Young Duke of Dundee.  Illustrated by Barbara Cooney.  Rand McNally, 1970, 1st printing.  Some light soiling and edgewear, VG.  <SOLD>



Legends of the United Nations
This was a hardcover library book with a blue or blue-and-white cover, called something like "United Nations Book of Fairy Tales" or "Fairy Tales from the United Nations."  It had some stories I'd never seen elsewhere two I recall were "The Blue Rose" and something like "The Bells (or Kingdom) of Ys."  In the first, a (Chinese?) princess sends her suitors on a quest for a blue rose they bring her things like a carved sapphire and a painted teacup, but the victor brings a white rose which looks blue to her.  In the second, there are some kind of bells which ring to warn a French kingdom of a flood which eventually engulfs it.  I read this book in the early 70's, and it didn't seem new at the time.

There is a book called Ride with the Sun: Folk Tales and Stories from all Countries of the United Nations, compiled by the U.N. Women's Guild in1955.  I have a copy right here (F/F, $12) but I can't find the two stories you mentioned listed (unless they have different titles, of course).  Then again, there could be another volume....
Thanks so much for your reply.  Unfortunately I've seen this book in  libraries and it's not the one I remember.  Your website is wonderful, with  some of the most reasonable prices I've seen for old books;  I'm having so much fun sharing the memories and trying to help solve the stumpers.  I'm  sure I'll think of more I'd like to find.  Thanks again!
Perhaps Legends of the United Nations edited by Frances Mary Frost, published by McGraw 1943, 323 pages? 47 stories from Britain, Poland, China, Norway etc. Contents list includes "Blue rose" and "Ys and her
bells". Hm, think we have a match.
Oh my goodness, I think that's it!  "Frost" rings a bell.  Thank you! 


Legion of Time
I believe it starts with a "J" (1958 to 1963) A young boy is on a road, sees two objects, picks up one, and that determines destiny for the world (in this case bad). He becomes a scientist, invents a way to travel in space/time, gets crippled and is a wheel chair, has a a red-headed football player named Denny  from college, who helps him in his adventures.I remember them fighting giant ants, with Denny dying (later to be alive again due to time travel). The hero via time/space travel eventually gets back to the correct point in time and has the young boy (himself) pick up the other object, thereby sending the future into a good track.

Jack Williamson, The Legion of Time.  This is definitely THE LEGION OF TIME, by Jack Williamson.  First published as a serial in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in 1938.  First book publication around 1950, I think, and several subsequent paperback reprints.  Most recent reprint as part of a Willimson omnibus collection, SPIDER ISLAND, in 2002 (Haffner Press hc):  " One of Williamson's most famous novels, "The Legion of Time," appears here in the form it took when it ran as a three-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction. Dennis Lanning holds the fate of two different timestreams in his hands. Will he heed the innocent supplication of good girl Lethonee, or respond to the primal allure of bad girl Sorainya? Whatever his choice, one woman must remain forever unborn."
Amazing! You guys solved it! I'm so happy. Three plus decades wondering what the heck the title of my favorite childhood book was. The Legion of Time, by Williamson, is definitely it. Thanks again for your help.


Lemonade Trick
Trick I'm trying to remember the name of a series about a boy (he was about 11 or 12 yrs old I believe) who owned a chemistry set/ magic set that led him on wild adventures.  If I remember correctly, there was some kind older person with magical qualities who provided guidance along the way.  I read these books back in the mid '70's.  A little like Encyclopedia Brown, but with a twist of magic.

E19: Most likely the Trick series by Scott Corbett! The first one, I think, is The Lemonade Trick, where he gets the chemistry set from Mrs. Graymalkin. He also wrote a couple of pleasantly scary books (1st or 2nd grade) about a boy, a dog and Merlin - Dr. Merlin's Magic Shop and The Great Custard Pie Panic. I WISH they were in print!
These are the "trick" books by Scott Corbett.  Mrs. Graymalkin gives Kerby and Fenton her son Felix's old chemistry set which seems to have a touch of magic and the boys have many adventures. There are at least ten
books in the series published from 1960 to 1977. The first one is The Lemonade Trick. The Mailbox Trick is my favorite.
More on the suggested series - Lemonade Trick, by Scott Corbett, illustrated by Paul Galdone, published Atlantic-Little 1960, 103 pages "Kerby delights to receive a magic chemistry set from Mrs. Graymalkin (who might be a witch?). Ordinarily he faces household chores and choir duties in the manner of any real boy we'd know; how he handles them after a few drops of her magic fluid, which makes him feel 'good', will also be believed because Mr. Corbett has built up so real a personality and situation for his very down-to-earth hero." (Horn Book Apr/60 p.128)



Leningen vs. the Ants.
a science fiction thriller about an army of ants - at the end they form a bridge to cross over water by some of them giving up their lives (drown) for others to cross (title???? Leningrad, or Army??? can't remember)

Carl Stephenson,Leningen vs. the Ants. Short story, not for the faint of heart. Online here:
Carl Stephenson, Leiningen and the Ants. This is it, a frequently anthologized short story
Carl Stephenson, Leiningen Versus the Ants, 1938. There's no science fiction element, but given description and the "Leningrad ?" note,requestor must be thinking of "Leiningen Versus the Ants."  Description at here:
carl stephenson, Leinigen versus the ants. Maybe Leinigen versus the ants?  This short story is in lots of collections.
Also a 1950s Charleton  Heston Movie called "Naked Jungle"
This story was made into a film entitled "The Naked Jungle" starring Charlton Heston.



Leo The Lop Series
The book description isn't much, but I'll do my best.  It's a paperback book that was sold at Texas book fairs.  All the stories took place in the forest and it had colorful illustrations.  There was always a moral at the end of the book that was told by a grandma rabbit (?).  They were really thin paperback books and it was a series in the 80's I think.

Stephen Cosgrove, Leo The Lop Series, Serendipity Books, 1978.  This sounds a lot like the Leo the Lop series, which I read in the early 80s.  There are very colorful, late 70s style forest illustrations and the characters are all rabbits.  they learn things like "I'm normal and so are you," and at least one was called  Grampa Lop.  That one was reprinted as Leo the Lop: Tail Four in 2002 by Price Stern Sloan.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Cosgrove, Stephen. Grampa-Lop.  illus by Robin James. Price/Stern/Sloan, 1981.  1982 printing. the magic of olde folks' stories.  paperback original, very good.  Serendipity Books  $6

Cosgrove, Stephen. Leo the Lop.  illus by Robin James. Price/Stern/Sloan, 1978.  21st printing 1986.  self-image; courage; bravery.  paperback original, a bit of surface damage, otherwise very good. Serendipity Books   $5



Lessons In Fear
I am looking for a mystery I read in 1989 or thereabouts.  I think it was written around that time.  I can't remember the main character's name but she had a friend named Merry and a smart older brother named, I think, Justin.  In it, a teacher she dislikes is injured when someone spills glycerin on the floor.  I think she is believed guilty so she tries to solve the mystery.  There is a subplot about her brother dating a really popular girl.  The main character has her bike's brakes tampered with landing her in the hospital, where she comes down with salmonella poisoning.  There is a clue involving words cut out of a magazine to write a threatening letter and it turns out that the brother's popular boyfriend is the culprit.  I believe the brother and sister live with just their mother, who is described as having green, almond shaped eyes, like a cat's.  The main character has eyes, "as round as quarters."  It was an inexpensive paperback, possibly bought from a book club.  Any help would be appreciated.

Diana Shaw, Lessons In Fear, 1987. There is no question in my mind that this is the book -- I read it when I was young, and still have my copy from then.  I even did a book report on it at one point!



Let's Go to the Park
children's book published between mid-1960s and 1980--thick, cardboard pages with glossy coating? pictures are actually photographs, not illustrations, of a dog and cat on a picnic in a park.  the dog and cat are actually little dolls/fuzzy toys, and the scenery, picnic blanket, basket, food, etc. are similarly all small (from a human's perspective) and primarily plastic.  it seemed to be Japanese, perhaps?

I'm the one who posted this stumper and have some information to add:  when I say it "seemed Japanese," I was referring to the photographs/an original edition--the actual book was an English (language) edition, most likely published in the United States.  Also, the title *could* have been something like "A Day in the Park" or "A Day at the Park."  I'm fairly certain that the dog and cat (dolls) were using a little swingset in one of the photos.
 Let's Go to the Park, Photographs by Gerry Swart, no date in book.This book is a Golden Book. No author noted and no book date.  Marked as Golden Press Western Publishing Co, Inc. Racine, WI. World Rights Reserved Printed in Japan Photographs by Gerry Swart.
I have this book.  It is exactly as you describe.  The pictures are actual photographs and the siamese kitten and puppy ride a motorcycle (on cover), slide on a slide, visit the zoo, ride an elephant, go swimming, have a picnic & look at an fish tank.  Not many words in the book.


Let's Go Swimming
Book about a brown bear family, mom dad and child. Mom puts child in front yard to swim in baby pool.  Dad comes home from work and offers to take child to public pool to learn to swim.  They go on Saturday and child relaxes when he sees his friends there having fun, one of which is a turtle.

Shiego Watanabe, Let's Go Swimming,1990. Let's Go Swimming...I don't remember the turtle, but the rest is here!
Shiego Watanabe, Let's Go Swimming, 1990. Thank you so much to whomever knew this!  My daughter will be thrilled.

Let's Pretend
beautifully illustrated collection of fairytales; "Cinderella", "Rumplestiltskin", a story about leprechauns, and I believe I remember firelies and a magician with gems in the sky(I'm not sure). But one thig I remember distictly was Cinderella at the ball with ling flowing blond hair and wearing a white soft flowing dress trimmed in ermine. I want this book so bad, I can taste it. I've looked for years. You're my last hope I'm afraid.

C225 I have not read it or seen it, but THE FULL COLOR FAIRYTALE BOOK (also listed as THE FULL COLOR FAIRY TALE BOOK) by R.C. Scriven, Gramercy Pub., 1974 includes, among other stories, "Cinderella" and "How to Catch a Leprechaun". The summaries indicated that it had beautiful illustrations, and that the front cover showed a giant eating soup surrounded by other characters from the fairy tales. So I have no idea if this is the right one, but it might be worth checking into. ~from a librarian
Let's Pretend.  This sounds a lot like my mother's wonderful Let's Pretend book of fairy tales, published in the 1940s or so. The stories include Cinderella (and I think that her dress was white with ermine), Rumplestiltskin, a story about Childe Rolande and his sister Elaine, Little Moonbeam (a Chinese fairy tale), and an Irish tale about a man with a crooked back who catches a leprechaun and wishes to be straight and tall to attract a girl.
C225/I48: Same book perhaps?
The dress and hair remind me of the Cinderella found in a Walt Disney collection I had.
Just wanted to add to the info I sent in before, regarding my mother's book: Let's Pretend, by Nila Mack, illustrated by Catherine Barnes (Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company) 1948   Contains five stories “adapted from the famous radio program Let's Pretend heard over the Columbia Broadcasting System”: Cinderella, The Leprechaun, Childe Roland, Princess Moonbeam, Rumpelstiltskin.
I have checked my Full Color Fairytale Book by Scriven to see if it is a match- unfortunately Cinderella does not match.
Nila Mack, Let's Pretend, 1947-48.  THere is absolutely NO Doubt that the book the Stumper seeker wanted was Nila Mack's Let's Pretend, published by Whitman Publishing c. 1947.   I got my copy in 1952-  and like others who posted -- remembered the color, the size, etc. but not the title.  My mother threw mine out ca. 1960-61 as I had totally worn it out--covers torn, off etc.  She never knew how much I loved the book.   I searched for it-- not remember author, title-- but only the chartreuse green cover, and the best lovely illustrations of fairy princesses, princes, roses, knights, etc.  Found a copy in an quaint antique shop driving on I94 between St. Paul and Chicago this August -- and I've been forever grateful.  Mine was very inexpensive -- but check E-bay once in a while.  Today -- Dec. 9- or yesterday, they had a copy that at last check was going for over $100.00  There is no doubt this is the book-- Cinderella indeed has ermine on her dress.  But note-- much of the nostalgia in remembering this book is due to its fabulous illustrations -- these were done by Catherine Barnes. I've been doing more research into her various illustrations in the 50s.
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When I was in first grade I got a book that had stories from different countries.  It was yellow and about the size of today’s coloring books but hardcover. This was about 1952-53.  One story had a girl that was supposed to go to the emperor; she had earthly parents but was actually the daughter of the lady in the moon.  She cried tears and they became pearls and the Moon Mother took her from earth so she didn’t have to go to the emperor.  Another story was in Ireland and was about a girl names Colleen and a boy named Michael that had a hump on his back and he was trying to catch a leprechaun to make his back straight so Colleen would love him.  Turned out she loved him anyway.  There was a story about and tower where a lady was imprisoned, the tower was covered in jewels and there was a man named Roland.  Cinderella was one of the stories also.  This was the only story that I have ever seen in any other book.  I feel pretty sure that there were other stories but I don’t remember them at this time.  This book had the most beautiful illustrations I have ever seen.  I have been looking for this book for years as I gave it to a friend’s children when I was 16 and they tore it up.

Nila Mack, Let's Pretend, 1948.  This is definitely the wonderful book of stories from the Let's Pretend radio show, with Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Childe Roland, the Leprechaun, and Princess Moonbeam. The illustrations are by Catherine Barnes. You can read more about it in the Solved Mysteries.
Mack, Nila, Let's Pretend, 1948.  Found this on the web--could it be the one?  I know that the Princess Moonbeam story was on a Let's Pretend record my children had in the seventies.
1948 Let's Pretend, by Nila Mack, illustrated by Catherine Barnes (Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company).  Contains five stories “adapted from the famous radio program Let's Pretend heard over the Columbia Broadcasting System”: Cinderella, The Leprechaun, Childe Roland, Princess Moonbeam, Rumpelstiltskin
Just a few extra bits: the story of Roland was the "childe Roland to the dark tower came" one where he has to go widdershins around the tower and rescue someone (his sister?).  And Cinderella had three dresses, an ermine-trimmed one (illustrated), a silver one (not illustrated) and a gold one (illustrated).
Nila Mack, Let's Pretend.  Thank you for reminding me of this book which I received as a child and still have.  It has some of the most marvellous illustrations I've ever seen and I still like to look at them from time to time!
When I was in grade school I picked out a fairy tale book from a book sale. I took it to my grandmother's house for a long weekend. She saw the lime green cover of the book and was sooo ecited. She had a copy when she was younger and it was lost. It quickly became "our" favorite book and stayed at her home. Grandma passed recently and between the funeral and grief, I forgot about the book. When I remembered, the house and her belongings were dispursed. I was sick. Today my uncle found the book and I can't tell you how good it is to have this beautiful book back. I hope that you find a copy and treasure it forever. The book is Let's Pretend by Nila Mack illustated by Catherine Barnes, 1948 by Whitman Publishing Co. Racine:Wisconsin



Letter People -- Reading Readiness Program
I'm looking everywhere for a an alphabet/record boxset I had as a child in the early 80's. It had a record for every letter of the alphabet, and a corresponding book. Inside the book were black dots that you had to chose from to pick the right answer to the questions. You selected the dots by touching a strange plastic man in a cape's metal prongs to the black dots and his eyes lit up if you were right. Very strange and funny from what I remember!

The Letter People -- Reading Readiness Program. I'm almost certain you're looking for The Letter People reading program.  We used it in kindergarten in 1975-76.  The one we used had each consonant as a "Mister" and each vowel as a "Miss."  Mr. T with Tall Teeth, Mr. M with a Munchy Mouth, Miss A with "Achoo!" etc.  A word of warning, though, it apparently was completely redone in 1996, so if you go to buy it, look for an older version published by World Book or Childcraft.



Letter, The Witch And The Ring
This book was for young adults and was published (I believe) in the 1970's.  It was about a tomboyish girl who uncovers the evil-doings of a witch.  I am pretty sure the title had "witch" in it.  The paperback cover I had showed an ominous shadow coming down a rickety staircase, with the young protaganist looking fearful, sitting in a chair reading by candlelight.  The book had creepy illustrations, at the beginning of each chapter (one of which was looked like a strange hound from Hell, among others), plus illustrations throughout.  The witch was bosomy and mean-looking, with her hair pulled back into a white bun.  It's driving me crazy - what is the title???

John Bellairs, The Letter, the Witch, and The Ring, 1976.  This is absolutly what you are looking for. In this, the third book in the Louis Barnavelt series, Louis' tomboy friend Rose Rita goes on a roadtrip with her friend Mrs. Zimmerman, and they have to defeat an evil witch. You can see a picture of the cover online.
John Bellairs, The Letter, The Witch And The Ring.  This is it!  Thanks so much.  I will definitely use this site again.
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Supernatural book was probably mid-70s to early-80s. There was an illustration of an old-fashioned gas station, and then the girl had to go into the underground cellar by an entrance on the outside of the house.  Once inside, they found a dead witch (?) and had to put coins on her eyes.

John Bellairs,  Illustrator: Richard Egielski, The Letter, The Witch, and the Ring, 1976. This is definitely your book. One small discrepancy: when Rose Rita breaks into the evil witch's house attached to the old gas station, the witch paralyses her by placing the coins over the girl's eyes. You can find a book summary at the author's website, here:  http://www.bellairsia.com/the_work/letterwr/index.html Also, you can follow the 'cover gallery' link on that website to see reproductions of the covers of various editions.
SOLVED: Thank you so much for solving this!  I can't believe so few details prompted a solution!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!



Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
a fictional account of the life of Santa Claus. It was very long, like over 300 pages. It had him inventing the Christmas tree, and making the toys himself. I know this isn't much to go on.

Kathryn Jackson's The Santa Claus Book?  A Big Golden Book, 1952.  It's big, but also nicely illustrated.
Here I am again. Looking up books when I should be working. Could S19 possibly be the LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS by L. Frank Baum.of Wizard of OZ fame.
Tolkien wrote a book about how Saint Nicholas got to be Saint Nicholas, but I can't remember the title.
Oh, this is fun!  I'll bet your listing number S-19 (a book regarding Santa Claus) was a childhood favorite of mine. The title is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane, illustrated by someone named simply Hokie. It was originally published by The Santa Claus Publishing Company of Boston, Massachusetts in 1932, and was re-published by University Microfilms, A Xerox Company located in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1967. The total pages of this book, however, number 144.  The book describes how Nicholas, a fisherman's son, is orphaned by a terrible storm. He is temporarily adopted by the individual families of the fishing village. They each agree to take him for a year and then he will move onto the next family. Nicholas begins giving toys to the children of the families as a gift on the day that he leaves them -- Christmas Day and continues it throughout his young life. It goes on to describe how during his eighteenth year he goes to live with a bitter old woodcarver, but through his good nature changes the old man's life and becomes a skilled woodcarver himself over the years. After the old man goes to live with his sons, Nicholas maintains his affection for the children of the village and continues to carve toys for them. The book goes on to describe how he gets his red suit (sewn by a lady who created it thinking of the size of his heart, not his slender figure) and how he eats to fill it out so her feelings won't be hurt. It describes how Holly is named for a little girl who conquers her fears to bring him the bright beautiful berries from the dark woods because she had been ill and could not bring him flowers. It describes how he acquires his reindeer and shiny red sleigh and why he began using a chimney to deliver his gifts. It covers how children began to hang stockings for him to fill and how the first Christmas trees came to exist for the gypsy children who were spending their Christmas in a forest. It covers his entire life until our beloved Nicholas, now a very old man, dies sending the village into grief. However, as reward for the faith of a young boy named Stephen, Nicholas continues to bring joy to the children of the world even after death on Christmas morning. It even covers how one of the village children, too young to refer to his as Saint Nicholas as the older people do, manages to stammer out "Sant' Claus".
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Hello!  Once I was one your site looking at all the wonderful books people are looking for, when I found one that I had had about st Nicholas. The story was very loosely based on St Nicholas, it was mostly fiction. It started at boyhood. THe illustrations were done in green ink. He found a little girl named Holly who got lost in the woods. Anyways, it was a solved mystery and I thought I would remember it but now I cannot find it on your site. Can you help??? Thanks!

Lane, Julie, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.  There is a long description of this book on the Solved Mysteries pages.
S144: This IS in Solved Mysteries, it's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane, NOT to be confused with the book by L. Frank Baum! It's not an accurate picture of St. Nicholas, which they admit, but there are links to his life in it.



Life in the Fat Lane
A teenager wins homecoming queen or beauty queen.  Then she starts gaining weight and can't figure out why, and can't lose it.  The chapters are named after her weight.  I listened to this book on audio, but I'm sure it's in print, too.  Thanks!

Cherie Bennett, Life in the Fat Lane.  The description of the book says that a girl named Laura with a supposedly perfect family wins homecoming queen, then starts gaining weight.  She has to deal with the metabolism problem and with her family falling apart because her father is having an affair.  eventually she triumphs over her problems.
Sounds like LIFE IN THE FAT LANE by Cherie Bennett, 1998~from a librarian
Cherie Bennett, Life in the Fat Lane, 1998.  "Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen, is distressed and bewildered when she starts gaining weight and becomes a fat girl."
Bennett, Cherie, Life in the fat lane, 1998.  Beautiful Lara Ardeche has it all -- she is named homecoming queen her junior year, she has the ideal boyfriend, and a sweet personality to top it off.  Until she gains more than 100 pounds.  At first Lara blames her allergy medicine, but when she keeps gaining despite a strict diet and exercise routine, she seeks a new explanation.  When she is diagnosed with a metabolic disorder, she faces the awful truth that she may spend the rest of her life trapped in a fat suit!  Lara finds out who her true supporters are when she embarks on the most difficult battle she has ever faced.


Life is So Good
African/American man aged 98 goes to school to learn to read and write.  He actually goes to school with some of his grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He was married x 3.  All of his wives died.  I think he had about a dozen children in total.  He lived and worked all his life in the Southern States of the usa.  ( Not South America).  When he had learnt to read, he was quite shocked at what he read in the newspapers etc., as he doesn't remember events happening as was described in the newspapers.- My son-in-law loaned me the book to read.  When I asked him if I could read it again, he said that he had lent it to someone and he couldn't remember who it was.  So we have lost track of it.  The book was written about 3 years ago and if the gentleman is still alive he would be about 103!  I would really like to get a copy as it is a very morallistic type of book.  'Why children NEED Grandparent'.  'Why we should treat others with respect'.  It is the type of book that really should be in a school Library.  I have forgotten the Title of the Book and the Name of the Author.  I hope that you can help me.  Even just the ISBN would help. Thank you.

George Dawson and Richard Glaubman, Life is So Good, 2000.  From your description, I'm almost sure the book you're looking for is called, "Life is So Good." It was written by George Dawson and co-authored by Richard Glaubman. The copyright date is 2000 and it was published by Random House.
George Dawson and Richard Glaubman, Life Is So Good  (ISBN 0-375-50396-X) 2000.Richard Glaubman and George Dawson's tutor were featured speakers at our agency's fundraiser.   Dawnson's story is very interesting and inspiring. He passed away at the age of 103 in July of 2001, I think.
George Dawson, Life is so good.2001, approximately.
George Dawson, Life is so Good, 2000 (Random House).
George Dawson, Life is so good, 2001.  I wouldn't really consider this a children's book, although it is a very
uplifting story and a quick read.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.  For finding out the name of the book for me. (Life is so Good). I couldn't believe my eyes when I turned on my computer today and found that my stumper had been solved.  I will go to my library tomorrow and I will also ring up a couple of our BIG book stores to see if I can get it.  Thank you again.   It was $2.00 well spent.



Life Story
Children's book outlining the history of the world, set on a stage.  With each page, you see another view on the stage, starting with a big galaxy, then formation of the planets, then the development of life in each epoch and age.  Ends up in modern times.  And there's a narrator standing on one side of the stage, sometimes interacting with the prehistoric animals.

Burton, Virginia Lee, Life Story, 1950s.  Begins w/ prehistoric times, continues to the present -- some of the final sequences show Burton's house in spring, with apple trees in bloom.  Burton's standing at the side of the stage with her easel.



Light a Single Candle
This one was a teen book about a set of friends (boy and girl) who grew up together then the girl ended up going blind and was sent away to a special school then comes home with a seeing-eye dog and long auburn hair and...I can't remember anything else! I believe I read it in late 70's early '80's.  Thanks for any ideas!

Beverly Butler, Light a Single Candle, 1962.  This sounds a lot like Light a Single Candle - the boy and girl friends (Pete and Cathy), the school and the seeing eye dog.  I'm not positive about the auburn hair.
Two suggestions:  Beverly Butler, Light A Single Candle.   Mine for Keeps by Jean Little
Butler, Beverly, Light a Single Candle
Butler, Beverly, Light a Single Candle, 1962.  I'm pretty sure this is the one.  Cathy is slowly going blind, and her condition affects her life-long friendship with the boy next door.  She goes away to a boarding school for the blind, and then eventually comes home and goes to a regular high school with her guide dog Trudy.
Light a Single Candle (1962) by Beverly Butler, maybe? The sequel is Gift of Gold. Also, see E113. She's written at least five other books.
Re: B519....THAT'S IT!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I searched for it to see if I could get the blurb and once I saw the cover with the girl and her long,flowing red hair with her wonderful guide dog, I knew that was it! Oh, how I loved this book when I was a young teen! I'm so excited now I will be able to read it again!  I can't thank you enough! KUDOS!! I simply cannot believe how quickly it was solved! You ALL are wonderful! Hugs all around! I have recommended your site already to all my family and friends and NOW they are going to just freak when they hear how fast this was solved! YAY! Best $$ I have EVER spent! I can see I will visit again and again! LOL!
Beverly Butler, Light a Single Candle, 1962.  I think this clinches the deal:  from page 8 of Light a Single Candle, "She did not even dawdle over combing her short hair, as she usually did, sqinting into the mirror to see if it were showing any signs yet of darkening to the glowing auburn of her mother's.  Everyone, aunts, grandparents and friends, kept predicting that someday it most surely would..."
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A coming of age story about a girl (maybe her name is Elizabeth) who has brown hair. She goes blind and gets a German Shepard as a seeing eye dog. It may be a series of books about this one character. I remember she has a boyfriend who wants her to move somewhere with him but I think she decides against it. Through the story (stories) she is waiting for her brown hair to turn to a beautiful red color which happens to the women in her family. At the end, although she can't see it herself, it does turn red. The story may be from the early 80's. Thanks!

Same book as B519?
This sounds like B519. Is it Light a Single Candle?


Light Princess
I think this is probably a Victorian children's story.  It was some what sad.  A princess/girl that is buried up to her neck at the bottom of a pond who eventually cries so many tears (or someone else does!) that she drowns. I think the illustrations were black and white line drawings a la Sendak's Little Bear books.  This story has haunted me since I've become an adult. Your thoughts would be most welcome!

P147: This is almost certainly The Light Princess by George MacDonald, 1864.  Here's a link.  It's described briefly in M154. The prince gets saved from drowning in the end and the princess cries non-stop when he opens his eyes - plus, the rain also pours non-stop till the lake is full again. Maurice Sendak did indeed illustrate one edition of it! Arthur Hughes was the first, but I prefer William Pene du Bois' edition - the illustrations are humorous in just the right fashion and it's also necessarily abridged. MacDonald was seldom this funny! Lots of puns and Freudian implications. Here's a link  for Princess & the Goblin with lots of gorgeous illustrations.
George MacDonald, The Light Princess,1864.  I strongly suspect this is the story, though some details are different I have no idea what edition, though, since it was written in the 19th century (though it looks like it was illustrated in one edition by Maurice Sendak -- those might be your haunting black and whites). "It is the tale of a princess who is cursed by a mean, jealous, witch so that she has no gravity, both weightlessness, and lack of gravity in her character.In the way of things, a Prince appears, falls in love with the Princess, and thwarts the curse by the selfless behavior, which results in the Princess recovering her gravity: not an unmixed blessing, but one which her new maturity allows her to realize is best in the long run." The Prince is the one who puts himself in the situation to be drowned in order to save the Princess. 


Lightning Strikes Twice
I have been looking for another book and I'm sorry I don't know the author or title of this one either.  I read it around 1965, but I think it was my mom's from the 1940's. The plot line  I remember is a little sketchy- it was something about a teenager who was taking ballet lessons and argued with her friend about who was going to do the solo with a boy who was supposed to be good-looking.  I thought the title was something like Lightning Never Strikes Twice, or Lightning Strikes Twice, but I have not been able to find it. I do remember that it had a surprise ending; I think she broke her ankle or the boy got hurt while ice skating or skiing. Talk about vague memories.  Any help would be appreciated!!

The book in L-3 is  Lightning Strikes Twice  by Marguerite Dickson.
Hi, I wrote looking for Lightning Never Strikes or a book title similar to that.  I bought it in a used bookstore the other day.  It was called Lightning Strikes Twice and was by Marguerite Dickson.   It was from 1946 and was close to what I remembered.  Thanks so much. 


Like Jake and Me
I am looking for a children's picture book where the Mom grows a peach in a jar on the tree and everyone wonders how she got it into the jar when it is picked.  I think there is also a son.

Mavis Jukes, Like Jake and Me This is a picture book about a boy adjusting to having a stepfather.  His pregnant mother grows something in a jar- it could be a peach but I think it was a pear.  At the end the boy saves his stepdad from a spider and feels proud of being brave.  It's a caldecott book.
It's already been solved! Like Jake and Me is exactly the right book! Thanks for an excellent website.


Like the Lion's Tooth
I recall reading a book between 1975 and 1980 about a few children who are living in a shack beside either a railroad or a river. There is a scene of a child (not an infant) nursing at the older girl's breast.  There's also a water tower scene. It's all so vague, but the imagery has stayed with me all these years.  I don't think my mom knew what she was buying for me.  So strange and different from anything I'd ever read before.  Also, it either quotes the following or t's included in the title: Love is like the lion's tooth.  Thanks!!

If the title in question was a poetry collection, here's a solve:  Love is Like the Lion's Tooth:  an Anthology of Love Poems.  Frances Monson McCullough (Editor).  New York:  Harper and Row, 1984.  An anthology of love poems.
Contents: A Painful Love Song by Yehuda Amichai, To Carry On Living by Yehuda Amichai, Lullaby by Wystan Hugh, Auden Verses Of The Same Song 9 by Wendell Berry, Deep In Love by Bhavabhuti, 2. by Bible, Insomnia by Elizabeth Bishop
Marjorie Bradley Kellogg , Like the Lion's Tooth, 1973.
Marjorie Kellog, Like the Lion's Tooth, 1972.  The description that I came across mentions that the book deals with some abuse issues and that while it's a YA novel it's probably too disturbing for most teens.
Marjorie Kellogg, Like the Lion's Tooth, 1972.  "The world of Like The Lion's Tooth is a world of children, specifically children who find themselves the almost unknowing victims of their parents' savagery or obliviousness or simply misguided love."
Love is Like the (a?) Lion's Tooth.  I think that this book is by Marjorie Kellogg.  To the best of my recollection, it involves 2-3 children who have rough lives(abuse, etc.) living together and making a place for themselves in the world.  I'll double-check my copy and let you know if the specifics match.
Like the Lion's Tooth.  I re-read this last night and here are further plot details: it takes place in/around a children's reform school.  Two of the children, Madeline and Ben, have constructed a shack out of an abandoned piano crate on the banks of the Hudson River.  It is a really disturbing book---focuses on the abuse that many of the children suffered prior to coming to the school.
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This was a book I read in the late 70's, very early 80's.  It shocked me because it was the first graphic book I read concerning child abuse.  I believe the book was not long, written for kids or young adults, and was paperback.  There were two teens or older kids in it. (Boy and Girl)  I remember the boy's father was a sailor and he tied up the boy and raped him.  The mother and rest of family were in next room.  The boy and the girl may have wound up in some sort of protective facility but I am not sure.  I was a young teacher at the time and it taught me to watch for child abuse.  Very powerful book but no one remembers it!

Kellogg, Like the Lion's Tooth.  This may be Like the Lion's Tooth.  I don't recall the detail of the father being a sailor but know that it does fit the time period and is about abuse.  There is a brief description on the solved mysteries page.
C302 just a guess: Bradbury, Bianca. Those Traver kids.  il by Marvin Friedman.  Houghton, 1972.  stepfathers - juvenile fiction; child abuse - juvenile fiction.
Hi!  You found one of my books!  I am C302 and the book IS Like a Lion's Tooth by Marjorie Kellogg!  Now I hope
someone comes up with T216!  Thank you so much!! =)
Kellogg, Marjorie, Like the Lion's Tooth.I'm sure it's this book.  The main boy and girl meet in a protective facility, and both have been sexually abused.  The father of the boy was a sailor, and the family had tried hard to hide from him.


click here for pictures & profile pageLi'l Hannibal


Lili Backstage
In this book, a girl wanders back stage at a large theater (the Met?) looking for a relative (her uncle?) who plays a particular brass instrument (probably french horn). Along the way she sees neat sights--the set being constructed, costumes going on. Then at the end she finds who she's been looking for. Only in the illustration, he's playing a *tuba.* Ouch. Due to this horrific blooper it probably was not very successful. Probably came out late '80s or early '90s.

I actually have tracked it down: It was Lili Backstage by Rachel Isadora.


Lillan
A girl whose parents are recently divorced must come to terms w/ her new situation. Mother has had to go to work and finances are tight in comparison to when father was there. Father sends blood oranges.  Girl sees ivory netsuke at an antiques dealer.  Longs for it to give to mother and at one point pockets it but returns it.  set in Denmark or somewhere in northern Europe.

G178 Could it be this? Norris, Gunilla Lillan.    illus by Namcie Swanberg. Atheneum    1968  divorce; Sweden
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Norris, Gunilla.  Lillan.  illus by Namcie Swanberg. Atheneum,1968.  Ex-library; jacket in plastic, cloth and pages all very good.  Overall, G+.  [21379YQ]  $9
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Children's fiction book ordered from Scholastic in early to mid 1970s about a girl who lives in Stockholm  (post WWII I believe)and wants to buy a little pink porcelain elephant for her mom but can't afford it.

Norris, Lillan, 1968.  Maybe??  "A young girl's father divorces her mother in Stockholm in the early years after WWII. They have to rent out part of their appartment to make get by and Lillian wonders if she or mother will ever be happy again."  It was published by Scholastic.
Lillian.  I read this recently & it does have a porcelain elephant. Lillian actually steals it at one point-- but thinks better of her actions & returns it. Her mother's new boyfriend ends up buying it for Lillian's mother.
Now that you mention the title, Lillian, you are exactly right.  Thank you for solving the mystery.  I am not even really interested in finding a copy of the book, I just wanted to remember the name of it.  I have third grade twins now, and I spend a lot of time trying to remember books that I loved in my pre-teen years.  This was just one of those things that nagged at me and I could not remember!  I look at your site regularly now and hope someday I can solve a mystery for someone.
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I'm looking for a book that I read in the early to mid 70's.  It was paperback, and the illustrations were very nicely drawn in black and white I believe.  The only clear memories I have are: the young girl in the story had a mother who worried about money (probably divorced/widowed and a single parent), but gave her daughter a much coveted carved wooden pencil box for school.  The girl had short, straight hair, parted on the side and I think held back with a little barrette.  I think they may have lived in a city or even a foreign city in a Scandanavian country like Denmark or Sweden.  One thing that stands out is the mother took her daughter out for dessert and tea or coffee at a cafe and it was such a treat to them because of lack of money (maybe it was during WWII?).  Thinking back now, their clothes do seemed to have been a style of the 1940's. Also, at home her mother would run her hand worriedly over the "oilcloth" tablecloth (I never heard of oilcloth so it sticks in my mind).  I know I read the book over and over and I would love to see it again.  It gave me alot of comfort. Thank you.  I would be so grateful for any help in identifying this book.

Gunilla Norris, Lillan, 1968. Somehow this reminds me of Lillan, but it's been ages since I read it. Do you remember the girl in the story stealing a small (I think glass?) elephant figurine to give to her mother? Lillan's mother is divorced, so money is tight. Also, Lillan is having a hard time adjusting to the idea of her mother dating again.
SOLVED:  Lillan by Gunilla Norris. My request was solved - such an awesome website this is!  I would like to order the book so I will be doing that in the next day or so.  Thanks to everyone.


Linda Carlton, Air Pilot
The heroine of the novel is a rich young girl, raised by her aunt when her parents died. She drove a car of a blue that matched her eyes. She had an absolute passion for flying. She solves a mystery involving the theft of a pearl necklace belonging to one of her friends. A young man she liked, who worked at the airfield she flew from, has been accused of the crime. It turned out the thief was the young man's father. The father had abandoned his family when the young man had been just a little boy. He looked a lot like his son, which is why everyone thought the young man had done the crime. That is about all my mother remembers. Since some of her books had been old when she read them, she can't be sure of when it was written. She can't remember the name of the girl, the title or the author. Her book was lost in a burglary soon after she read it. I'd love to find this for her.

Lavell, Edith, Adventure series of Linda Carlton, 1940's. I am not entirely sure, but this is a series of a young rich girl who flies and solves mysteries. They were published in the early 40's and other than that, you could shoot for the stewardess series similar to the Nancy Drew books.  I think that character's name was Vicki...one of the books was called Silver Wings for Vicki.
Julie Tatham ( also author of Cherry Ames), Vicki Barr series, 1950s.  Could this be the old series Vicki Barr, Air Stewardess series by Julie Tatham? (1950s).She solves mysteries  there are many in the series. OR could it be the even older books by Harrison Bardwell?(1930s) Airplane Girl series or Girl Sky Pilot series? These seem to all be mysteries,too. Roberta Langwell seems to be the main character. She sounds like she has money! Hope this is a fit!
Edith Lavell, Linda Carlton, Air Pilot,1931.  This is definitely the book -- it fits the poster's description exactly. I'm looking at it right now and the first paragraph talks about Linda's eyes being bluer than the blue paint on her car. Linda has a father but her Aunt Emily has cared for her ever since Linda's mother died when Linda was a baby. The dust jacket flap
reads in part, "No sooner does Linda Carlton graduate from high school than she begins to study flying. ... Using her plane in her travels, she recovers a string of pearls stolen from a friend, proving the innocence of the instructor at the flying field ..."



Linda Craig and the Palomino Mystery
I read this book in the 1980's, and it was older then. It was about a girl visiting her uncle who owned some horses, one of which was a palomino. The horse gets stolen, she finds it in a canyon, painted another color. The people who stole it were running a spring water business. Thoughts?

Clyde Robert Bulla
wrote a similar story - is it Star of Wild Horse Canyon (1953)? Other juvenile books that include palominos are Wild Palomino (1973) by Stephen Holt, Golden Cloud: Palomino of Sunset Hill (1974) by Leland Silliman, Golden Sovereign (1961) by Dorothy Lyons, and Linda Craig: The Palomino Mystery (1962) by Ann Sheldon.
Ann Sheldon, Linda Craig and the Palomino Mystery.  I think I figured my own stumper out: I have been searching and I think this story was one of a series, by Ann Sheldon about "Linda Craig" and her horse Chica d'Oro (obviously a palomino horse).


Linnets and Valerians
I remember this book from reading it in the mid-1960's. Three children are sent to their uncle's house, arriving in the middle of the night in cart drawn by a pony or I think a rather large dog. the uncle has an owl, and eventually we find that he is a warlock who has some pretty magical powers. I thought the book was by the adult novelist Elizabeth Goudge, but that book was only about one little girl. This story takes place in Britain, possibly at the turn of the century. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Cooper, Susan, Over Sea, Under Stone.  One of the Dark is Rising Series. The three Drew, Jane, Barney and Simon, children are on vacation in Cornwall, at the old sea-house with their Uncle Merry (not an actual relation). At first all is well. But while searching for adventure, the children stumble into a crumbling old map - a map dating back to King Arthur's time. But this map is not just an antique curio - but the key to finding a mystical grail...
This could be Linnets and Valerians, by Elizabeth Goudge.  (The book by her about one girl is probably The Little White Horse.)  It's four children, rather than three, but they do arive at their uncle's house in a pony-cart, and the uncle is a magician.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians. This is indeed by Elizabeth Goudge, just not the one you're thinking of (it's _not_ Over Sea, Under Stone).  Probably the best book she ever wrote, IMHO, and one of the easiest to get hold of.
There's no way this is Over Sea, Under Stone---the children arrive by train and there's no beekeeping.  Their uncle is kind of a wizard and the only owl association in the story is that the enemies hoot like an owl to communicate danger to each other.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians.  Four children sent to live with their nasty grandmother run away and hitch a ride in a cart drawn by a pony to an old man's house.  This happens to be their great Uncle Ambrose.  He is a minister and former teacher who lives with a servant, Ezra, and has a pet owl.  He agrees to take the children in a raise them since their father is in the army.  The children get involved in a mystery concerning an old
lady, Lady Alicia, and her missing husband and son.  They also run into another old village woman, Emma, who is reputed to be a witch.  While Uncle Ambrose is not a wizard, there is reference to magic in the book because Ezra believes that the bees in the beehives in the backyard should be paid respect.  One of the children also finds notebooks containing magical spells and a voodoo doll.  Ezra makes his own good magic voodoo dolls to protect the children.
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I think I read this book in the mid-70s to late 70s.  I think it takes place in England.  Either one or two children come to live in small village.  In the village there is a woman who lives in a large house, her son went missing a long time ago.   I recall a scene with a ‘mandrake root’ or some sort of root with pins stuck in it, a spell was cast on her son to cause him to go missing.  I think there is also a young man who was a gardener or something and I think it turns out that he is her son?  In the end her son comes back to her.

Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians.  It's been a while since I read this but I think this is the one you're looking for.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians.  It's been a while since I've read this book, but there seem to be a lot of similarities:  children going to live with an uncle in a village, an old woman with a missing son, mandrake root, and a memorable gardener.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians, 1964.  This is one of my favorite books for children!  Linnets and Valerians is the story of the four Linnet children who are sent to live with their grandmother in England while their father travels in Egypt.  The children end up running away to live with their Uncle Ambrose in a small English town.  One of the women in town, Emma Colby, is a witch who uses a mandrake root to make Lady Alicia's son mute.  Other wonderful characters include Moses, Lady A's singing servant, Ezra, Uncle Ambrose's helper, and the bees!  Elizabeth Goudge also wrote the delightful story, The Little White Horse.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians.  Still one of my favorite books! See Solved Mysteries for more info.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians, 1964.  I think this may be the book you're thinking of.Not all the details matahc but it seems to have the same 'flavour' The four Linnet children (Robert, Nan Timothy and Betsy) are sent to stay with an eccentric great uncle in the country. There is a gardener (with a wooden leg) and a missing son who turns out to be a local hermit. There are definantly Mandrake roots, used to curse people. the book is set in about 1890, if that helps.
Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets and Valerians.  It's four children instead of two, but I'm almost certain it's the right book.  A witch fashioned mandrake roots into dolls that she stuck with pins and cast spells on.  It caused a husband and son to lose their memory and wander off. The doll of the son had pins in his tongue, so he was also mute.  In the end the dolls were found, the spell erased, and the men returned to their family.  Most of the story of Linnets and Valerians deals with the four children, but the bit with the mandrakes and the lost son and husband is definitely in there.
I just had to write to you to THANK YOU so much for your Stump the Bookseller website.  I still can’t believe how quickly my bookstumper was solved. I have been trying to recall the name of one my favorite books for decades and in just a few short days of placing my stumper M334 on your website it was solved!!!  Many thanks to you and all those who helped solve my stumper.


Lion's Bed
I am looking for a children's picture book from the ealy 70's probably.  It is the story of how all the animals in the jungle work together to keep out the lion (tiger?).  The anteater, the snake, the birds of some kind, all make life miserable for the lion so he won't want to stay in their part of the jungle.  The repeated line is "That's what I do best". Thanks for you help.

Perhaps - The Lion's Bed, by Diane Redfield Massie, published Weekly Reader, 1974 "All the animals unite to outwit the lion who is coming to their neighborhood. They make him a soft bed, but coconuts fall on him, ants crawl over him, pecarries play tag over him. He decides that to get a good night's sleep he will go away."
This same query was posted on the Alibris board, and I contacted the seeker by email to ask about The Lion's Bed. She confirmed that it was the correct title and that her husband had posted the stumper here. 


Lisa and the Grompet
I have been searching for this book for many years and would be grateful for any help.....The story is about a the youngest child in a family who is constantly told what to do by everbody else in the house.  One day the child (a boy?) decides to run away and discovers a small creature living alone in the woods (under a mushroom?).  The creature is tired of always having to do everthing by himself and not have anybody to tell him what to do.  They go home together and the boy has someone to tell what to do and the creature has someone to tell him what to do.  At the end of the book is a picture of the creature (who looks like a thumb-print) swinging in the pull-ring of a window shade.

I'd suggest Lisa and the Grompet, written and illustrated by Patricia Coombs, published New York, Lothrop 1970. "Tired of being told what to do, Lisa runs away from home. When she stops to rest and 'think about things' she encounters a grompet. This tiny, furry, winged thing longs for what Lisa abhors - someone to boss him around. Lisa appoints herself master and takes him home, where they presumably live happily ever after. Softly modeled illustrations in black and white with pink and brown overtones - Lisa changes from belligerent to sad to happy while remaining delightfully untidy; the grompet is a cute, cuddly creature." (SLJ Book Review 1969-70 p.4)
Thank you!  This is indeed the book I have been searching for for over 20 years!  Thank you!!!
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It is a tiny book about a grumpy little girl.  She doesn't like to tie her shoes, wash her hands, or brush her hair. She talks to a tiny hairy creature/man who does't like to do those things either.  Sometimes he sits on her shoulder or on the sink.  I think he helps her become more cooperative.

Patricia Coombs, Lisa and the Grompet
I think this is the book you're looking for.  Lisa doesn't like being told what to do and she finds a "grompet" in the woods who feels the same.
Patricia Coombs, Lisa and the Grompet, 1970, copyright.  Stumper solved!  I found a picture of the book and it is definately it!  Thank you so much, I've been looking for this book for years!

Small, fuzzy/furry/feathered creature in 1970's young illustrated children's book. Ends with picture of this creature going to sleep in the window (or window shade pull) of the child's bedroom. He's a companion to the child & helps the child. Title of book is this ceatures name and is light brown...

Coombs, Patricia, Lisa and the Grompe. A longshot but possibly "Lisa and the Grompet".

F350: Fuzzy/Furry/Feathered IS SOLVED!! thank you, I have been looking for that book for AGES!! it's the ONE ...THANKS FOR A GREAT SERVICE!!


Lisette
I am looking for a children's picture book (I read it in the late 60's/early 70's at the library) about a poodle named Lisette who lived in Paris who went outside and got lost. The opening lines were "Lisette was a poodle/an exquisite thing/she was light as a snowflake/ and lovely as spring." My mother and I can't remember the title or author, but I would appreciate anything you might have in mind...Thanks!

Doing a search of the web, I found this entry:
Holl, Adelaide Lothrop, Lisette, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin (NY: See & Shephard, 1962). 30pp. Lisette comes to the USA aiming for immediate movie stardom; instead, gets lost in New York City. Sounds very similar to what was described in L1 (though the publisher should probably be Lee & Shepard).
I believe my grandmother still has my story about the poodle who got lost.  I’ll check with her next time I’m out her way, and let you know.  I know it was from the ‘60s. 


Literary Lapses
early 1900's, anthology. I read this humorous short story in high school in the mid-60's, in an anthology as required reading.  A man takes a very small amount of money to deposit in a bank.  He is extremely nervous about doing this and when he enters the bank, he is in awe of the surroundings.  Because of his hesitancy, he gives the bank teller the impression that he is wanting to deposit a large amount of money. Before he realizes what is happening, he is escorted by the bank president down to the vault to secure his deposit.  The humor lies in the fact that what he has is very little but the entire bank is led to believe that he is in possession of something of great consequence, but at this point he cannot summon the courage to confess that all he has is a mere $5. (I believe that is the amount.) This was just a very short story, very humorous and I think, written before my time, possibly in the early part of the 1900's, although it may have been written to appear that way.  I remember that I thought it seemed to be written in an old-fashioned style but I liked it very much, as I have never forgotten it.
Stephen Leacock, Literary Lapses. The story is "My Financial Career."  It appeared in Leacock's first book, Literary Lapses.
SOLVED: Yes, you found the short story, My Financial Career.  It is funny how memory can play tricks on a person.  Thank you.

Little Animal series
I have vivid memories of a hardcover children's picture book from my school library, possibly one of a series, I read and re-read sometime between 1975 and 1978.  The characters were animals and I'm certain one was a brown hedgehog, and another a blue mole.  It had simple, bold, cartoon illustrations on bright white backgrounds, similar to the "Mr. Men" series but even "chunkier".  The book may have been British.

I may have solved my own stumper I sent yesterday. After some more Web searching, I think the series I remember is the Little Animal series by Karen Gunthorp.  The book I recall most vividly is Spring Comes to the Forest, illustrated by Attilio Cassinelli.  Do you know if the whole series of Little Animal books was illustrated by Cassinelli?
Looks like most of them are illustrated by Cassinelli!


Little Babs
A Friend for Babsie, 1940.  Girl lives in the woods with her father who is away every day cutting wood.  She is lonely and wants a friend.  Yet she never has the time to go find a friend because of all the very time consuming chores she must complete every day.  Then the fairies of the water, dishes, broom and the clock etc. collaborate to buy her the time she needs to find a friend.  She finds the friend in the end.  The illustrations are intricate and beautiful.

George Mitchell, Little Babs, 1919.  This is one of the beautifully illustrated books done by the Volland Company. I have my mother's copy of it.
Eureka!  Someone knew the book!  My stumper is already solved.  I am thrilled!  Can I buy a copy of this book as well, if you can get a copy?  Author: George Mitchell, Title: Little Babs, published: 1919?  While I am in
the process of collecting old well loved children's books, how many of author William Steig's books can you sell me?   Thank you for all your help.  I loved your site I know I'll be back again and again.


click here for imageLittle Ballerina
I love your web site! I'm looking for a book about a little girl who takes  up ballet to strengthen her ankles. It's a short book--I remember it as a  Little Golden Book, but I'm not sure that this is accurate. It's heavily illustrated. One of the first pictures shows the little girl looking out the window at the other children playing outside.  Thanks very much for this service! Next time I'm in the Cleveland area I plan to stop by the shop.

My parents have this book. We grew up with it. The title is Little Ballerina but I do not know the author as it is sitting in my parents'  house over 100 miles from where I am. It is an oversized picture type book. We do own another one in the series, Little Swimmers, for I  recognize the illustrator--Dorothy Grider. The publisher is Rand McNally and Company and it has "A Rand McNally Giant Book " on the front cover. The main character is named Carol and her legs are weak, perhaps from an illness so ballet lessons are recommended by the family doctor. My sisters and I all loved this book and I now read it to my 8 yo ballet loving daughter when I visit my parents. Sorry I do not know the author.
Right you are.  Here's the full book description:
Dorothy Grider. Little Ballerina. Rand McNally, 1959.  4to, unpaginated.

I'm looking for a book I loved in the early 1960's.  The main character is a little girl who is not strong.  Her doctor recommends to her mother to put her into ballet class.  The mother helps sew the costumes.  The children have a ballet recital in the book, with a little boy as Jack Frost.
I've been looking for a book for years, but can't remember the name. I'ts about ballarina's, I just remember seeing little girls in different colored tu tu's. I thought it was a little golden book, illustrated by Eloise Winken, but not sure. It's was from the late 50's or early 60's.
B24 could be Little Ballerina, a Rand McNally Elf book
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I am looking for a book that I read when I was about 7 or 8, so it would have been published late 50's or early 60's. It was a book about ballet and the illustrations were beautiful. There was one page with all of the little ballet dancers dressed up in dresses resembling flowers and they had matching hats...pink, yellow, green, purple and blue. There are other pages with the ballet dancers practicing. Would love to find it.

B82 ballet dancers as flowers: a picture much like this appears in Dorothy Grider's Little Ballerina, published Rand McNally 1959, unpaginated. There are also pictures of the little dancers practicing.
Grider, Dorothy, Little Ballerina. Rand McNally Elf, 1959.  The girls in the ballet class dress as flowers in pink, purple and yellow, with little green 'stem' caps. One boy is dressed in green with a 'stem' cap, and another is dressed in brown with a segmented front, perhaps a beetle?
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Golden Book, 1958-1963.  Large picture book about a girl who had an illness that weakened her legs.
Doctor recommends ballet lessons. Book shows her painful efforts to become good enough to dance in
the recital.

Dorothy Grider.  Little Ballerina. Rand McNally, 1959. See more on the Solved Mysteries page.
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1966, Little girl with dark braids, with legs weakened by some illness, begins to take ballet to strengthen her legs. This was the type of book you found in the grocery, possibly a Golden Book. In the end she dances a solo at her recital in a white tutu.

Dorothy Grider, Little Ballerina, 1958. Definitely this one!  Little girl is named "Carol" and the book opens with her watching other children play from the window, and wanting to play with them, but she can't because her legs are weak. When she dances her solo she plays a fairy queen, reviving the "flowers" wilted by Jack Frost.  A sweet book, beautifully illustrated by the author, published by Rand McNally. (My copy is a Tip-Top Elf Book, and is about the same size as a Little Golden Book, but I'm pretty sure I've also seen a smaller Junior Elf version, as well.)
Dorothy Grider, Little Ballerina, 1958. I am pretty sure this is the book.  It was published in both a small (Little Golden Book size)and large ("Rand McNally Giant Book") format.  Carol's doctor prescribes dance lessons to strengthen her legs. The book describes her class and introduces several ballet terms.  In the end she is the star of the recital.  This has been a favorite of mine for about 45 years!


Little Bear's Visit
a book about a bear, same date, who went to visit his grandmother who made special cookies for him.

Elsa(?) Minarik, Little Bear Visits Grandma.  Illustrated by Maurice Sendak, there were several titles in the Little Bear series.
Another possibility is - Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow, over in the Solved list. Written by Sharon Boucher, illustrated by Dean Bryant, published Rand McNally Elf Books 1948. The little bear misses out on a visit to grandma because he is always late, then is consoled by having her visit him and make giant cookies for him.
Minarik, Else Holmelund, Little Bear's Visit, 1961.  Many in this series - currently in print (and animated
series, available on video)
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I am looking for a children's storybook about a little elf or goblin who is walking through the woods and gets scared (I think he hears a "bump in the woods"), and jumps out of his shoes and begins to run home.  As he is running home he hears footsteps running behind him, thinking that he is being chased. It becomes clear in the end that the footsteps running behind him are nothing more than his shoes that were running home after him -- moral of the story that he had nothing to be afraid of but his own shoes!  The story had a picture of the elf jumping out of his shoes, and also of the shoes running home behind him.  I think there may also be a picture of a large tree with a hollow in it (where the elf hears the "bump in the woods") or possibly a cave.  The illustrations in the Little Bear series of books remind me of the pictures that I remember from this book.  I thought perhaps the story was a story within a story from the Little Bear series(perhaps Little Bear's father telling him a story), but I can't seem to find any Little Bear stories like that.  This was one of my favorite story books when I was a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Thank you so much for any help!

Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear's Visit, 1961.  I knew I had read this as well, and seen it as a cartoon episode on Nickelodeon's Little Bear series, so I went and searched through my childrens' books and sure enough there it was. It's just as the poster described, told as a story to Little Bear by his Grandfather.
Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear's Visit, 1962.  This is definitely the book.  The contributor was right about it's being a Little Bear book, although I think it's Little Bears grandfather, rather than father, who tells him the story.  (The "visit" in the title is to Little Bear's grandparents' house.)
My stumper has been solved!  Thank you so much!!
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I read the book when I was little in the mid to late 70s.  There was a character walking in the woods that thought he was being followed because when he walked he heard "pitter pat, pitter pat." (That's the only thing I remember clearly from the book.) But it wasn't a person.  Maybe magic shoes??

Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing, Timothy's Shoes or The Fairy Shoes. Timothy is given a pair of shoes by a fairy, and to his chagrin they don't allow him to misbehave, carry him directly to school instead of playing, etc.  He makes several efforts to "lose" them but they always return home.
Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear's Visit, 1961. It sounds a lot like the chapter from Little Bear's Visit called "Goblin Story" Grandfather tells Little Bear the story of a goblin who is startled by a big bump and goes running through the woods. All he hears is pit-pat-pit-pat chasing him. It turns out he was so scared he jumped right out of his shoes, and they had been trying to catch up to him.
SOLVED: Else Holmelund Minarek, Little Bear's Visit, 1961. This was my daughter's original question, but I was able to find a tape recording where my daughter was "reading" the book, and I learned that it was a goblin that was being chased by his shoes.  With that key word (goblin) we were able to find the book. We originally couldn't remember if it was an elf being chased or what it was that was running from its shoes.


Little Benny Wanted a Pony
I am looking for a story or book for a good friend.  Her mother recently passed away and she has now forgotten the words to this story that her mother would recite by heart to her as a child.  She'd like to carry this on with her own children.  It may have been popular in the 40's 50's...mayyybe early 60's...  these are the words remembered:Little Benny went to town / wearing a frown / upside down / painted pony.  The deal is Benny has all these adventures on his way to town and ends up smiling. I am aware that there are major gaps in this story.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This is a wonderful old Golden Book called, I believe, Little Benny Who Wanted a Pony.  The original printing had a mask with a big downward frown bound into it.
It is indeed. The correct title is Little Benny Wanted a Pony written by Olive O'Connor Barrett and illustrated by the great Richard Scarry in 1950. It was issued with a mask in the back of the book. 


Little Bitty Raindrop
Book from my childhood....1950's. Child's picture book about a little raindrop or a baby raindrop up in the clouds preparing to fall to earth. Little raindrop had a cherubic face. The cover of the book had dark blues or grays in it, like stormy rainy weather. I've had no luck looking at book and paper shows or earching the internet. Thanks for any help.

Peggy Usher, Little Bitty Raindrop. 1948.  Illustrations by Marguerite Hanson.  I don't know for sure if this is the one, but the date is right, and the cover is blue.
Thanks for solving my stumper so quickly!! I would be very interested in obtaining a copy of this children's book.


Little Black Sambo
(1858, approx)  My Grandmother told me about a book that she read to my father and his brothers and sisters that was about a lion, a black boy, and butter.  I know it sounds crazy, but she knows she read it to them.  She think it's called Jambo and the Lion, but I can't seem to find it.  She feels it became out of print due to the boy in the book being called colored, or something to the effect.  My father is 53 years old if that helps.  Thank you for your time.

Little Black Sambo.  This must be what you are looking for.
Bannerman, Helen, Story of Little  Black Sambo.  Wonder how many responses you'll get to this one.  Many reprints but it looks like Amazon.com has a reprint of the original.
Bannerman, Helen, Little Black Sambo.  Surely they must be thinking of Little Black Sambo - replace the lion with a tiger and the details would be correct
Helen Bannerman, Little Black Sambo.(1880)  Could this be Little Black Sambo? It involves a group of tigers that take Little Sambo's finery and then chase each other around and around a tree until they melt into butter, which his mother serves to him on pancakes. This charming story has been reissued with more appropriate Indian names as The Story of Little Babaji. The illustrations are darling!
Helen Bannerman, Little Black Sambo.  This sure sound like Little Black Sambo - just substitute tigers for the lion. A little boy walking through the jungle is threatened by a series of tigers.  To each one, he gives an article of his clothing (a coat, trousers, shoes, an umbrella, etc.) which the tiger believes makes him the grandest tiger in the jungle.  At the end, the tigers fight over which is the grandest.  They grab each others tails, trying to eat each other up, and run in a circle around a tree so fast that they all melt away into a pool of butter, which Sambo's mother uses to make pancakes for her family. The book has been printed many times, with different illustrators. Helen Bannerman's original illustrations are rather crude and potentially offensive, in an Aunt Jemima-ish way, but most others, including those by Gustaf Tenggren, Florence White Williams, and Fern Bisel Peat, are beautifully done.  (Also, despite the word "black" in the title, the text and most versions of the illustrations place the story in India rather than Africa.) While the story has fallen in-and-out of favor, as people try to be "politically correct," it remains popular, causing older versions of the book to be highly sought-after and expensive.  However, the original version with the Bannerman illustrations was reprinted in 1996 and again in 2003, and is available new.  There is also an edition illustrated by Christopher Bing that is new in print. There are also other versions of the story, including "The Story of Little Babaji" by Fred Marcellino and "Sam and the Tigers" by Julius Lester.
Helen Bannerman, The Story of Little Black Sambo. (1899) I would guess this is the book.  Little boy meets up with tigers and gives the tigers his clothes.  The tigers run around a tree until they turn into butter which Little Black Sambo then brings home and his mother makes pancakes out of.
Little Black Sambo.  I wonder if it could be Sambo, not Jambo, and tigers instead of the lion?
Little Black Sambo.  Hi, I don't know the name of the author, but the story sounds like Little Black Sambo, later renamed Little Brave Sambo to be more PC.  Sambo's mother made him new clothes, which he wore into the jungle, only to meet a series of tigers.  Sambo was able to trade articles of his clothes for the tigers not to eat him.  Sad about the loss of he fine clothes, Sambo happens upon the tigers arguing about which of them looks finest.  The tigers start chasing each other around the tree so fast, they melt into butter.  Sambo then collects his clothes and takes the butter home to have with pancakes his mother makes.
Bannerman, Helen, The Story Of Little Black Sambo.  At the end, the tigers race around a tree so fast they turn to a pool of melted butter. It was popular, then shunned as being racist, then popular again.
This book sounds like Little Black Sambo.  His mother made him new clothes, and he wore them to take a walk in the jungle, but he was chased by tigers.  He gave the tigers his clothes so they wouldn't eat him, and the tigers began to chase each other around a tree, faster and faster until they turned into buttermilk, which Sambo's mother made into pancakes.
Yes!  It is The story of Little Black Sambo!  We looked it up online and my dad rememebered the book!  I am so excited !  I am so thankful!



Little Bookroom
A book my daughter read in mid-sixties, a collection of short stories. Three of the titles were "San Fairy Ann" (about an unusual wooden doll),  "And I danced mine own child", and "The girl who kissed the peach tree" (or possibly that was the theme). My daughter was between 8 and ten, and I'd love to find this to give her for her 52nd birthday.  Setting is possibly England.

Eleanor Farjeon, the little bookroom, 1926, approximate.  I found this myself just after posting it. I searched for English short stories for children and found it on ABE, then queried to be sure the stoies I wanted were in it, and even saw the cover which I recognized! Book is on its way to my daughter!
Eleanor Farjeon, Edward Ardizzone (illus), The Little Bookroom, 1955.  Includes all three stories: The Girl Who Kissed the Peach Tree, And I Dance Mine Own Child, and San Fairy Ann. Other stories in this book include: The King and the Corn, The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon, Young Kate, The Flower Without a Name, The Clumber Pup, The Little Dressmaker, The Seventh Princess, The Connemara Donkey, The Glass Peacock, The Goldfish, The Giant and the Mite, and many more (27 stories in all). The book was reprinted in 2003.
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, 1955, copyright.  These are not standard issue fairy tales but unique creations which have been sadly neglected in present times. Most people only know Eleanor Farjeon as the author of the lyrics to the hymn "Morning Has Broken" (the tune is an ancient Irish carol). You will find a few of her books at Amazon. Most are out of print, but this one was re-issued in 2003. Try to find her autobiography "A Nursery in the Nineties", the Martin Pippin books, Ten Saints, The Silver Curlew (her re-imagining of Rumplestiltskin) and The Glass Slipper. There is another collection called Eleanor Farjeon's Book (Puffin, I think). Many of her books were illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, the same artist who did Eleanor Estes' The Witch Family (another one worth checking out). There is some background on her life at Wikipedia. I found out about her through The Green and Burning Tree, a collection of essays about children's literature by Eleanor Cameron. The last chapter tells how she discovered her connection to the Joseph Jefferson family, Miss Farjeon's maternal relatives.
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom.  Definitely the one.
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, 1955.  One of my absolute favorites! Stories include "The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon," "Westwoods," "The Barrel-Organ," "Leaving Paradise," "And I Dance Mine Own Child," "The Glass Peacock" and more.
Eleanor Farjeon, Edward Ardizzone, The little bookroom : Eleanor Farjeon's short stories for children chosen by herself, 1955, 2003.  contents :   The king and the corn -- The king's daughter cries for the moon -- Young Kate -- The flower without a name -- The goldfish -- The clumber pup -- The miracle of the poor island -- The girl who kissed the peach-tree -- Westwoods -- The barrel-organ -- The giant and the mite -- The little dressmaker -- The lady's room -- The seventh princess -- Leaving paradise -- The little lady's roses -- In those days -- The Connemara donkey -- The Tims -- Pennyworth -- And I dance mine own child -- The lovebirds -- San fairy Ann -- The glass peacock -- The kind farmer -- Old Surly and the boy.
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom.  This is definitely The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon.
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, 1955, copyright.  Originally printed in 1955, it still gets reprinted once in awhile and should be easy enough to find in some form or another.  This book contained: "The King and the Corn" "The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon"* "Young Kate" "The Flower Without a Name" "The Goldfish" "The Clumber Pup"* "The Miracle of the Poor Island" "The Girl who Kissed The Peach Tree" "Westwoods"* "The Barrel-Organ" "The Giant and the Mite" "The Little Dressmaker" "The Lady's Room" "The Seventh Princess" "Leaving Paradise" "The Little Lady's Roses" "In Those Days" "The Connemara Donkey" "The Tims" "And I Dance Mine Own Child"* "The Lovebirds" "San Fairy Ann" "The Goldfish" "The Glass Peacock" "The Kind Farmer" "Old Surly and the Boy" "Pannychis".
Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, 1955, approximate.  This is definitely Eleanor Farjeon's The Little Bookroom. I had it as a child too. San Fairy Ann, And I Dance Mine Own Child and The Girl Who Kissed the Peach-Tree are all the titles of stories in this collection.
Farjeon, Eleanor, The Little Bookroom, 1955, copyright.  This includes all three of the titles mentioned, as well as many others.


Little Boy & His House
definitely English,  late 1960-early 1970.  Boy and uncle traveling around the world looking for a suitable house: A little boy lived in a tent and in the winter he was too cold, in the summer too hot, in the spring he got wet and in the autumn his tent often blew down. (there were illustrations for each of these 4 seasons.)So he set out around the world with his Uncle looking at houses and the reason why they wouldn’t work for him at home in England. Although I can not remember all the places he went,  but here are a few I remember, Africa, where he saw native round huts, North America where he visited native Americans living in a teepee, somewhere Morocco, I think, – where they lived in caves but the caves in England would be cold and wet so wouldn’t work for him. He definitely went to the West of Ireland, but the house there was built from stone which was readily available in the fields around about. Unfortunately no field stone was readily available back at home. He eventually arrived home and built a little brick house, and all the house owners where he visited came to visit him in his house. The Book was illustrated, for each location there was a illustration of the housing and then next picture was an illustration of why the house wouldn’t work for the little boy. One of the last illustrations was his house and all the head gear of the guests hanging by his front door.

Stephen Bone and Mary Adshead, The Little Boy & His House,  1937.  This was first published in 1937 but reprinted in 1967, and is definitely the book you want.  Here is a description I found of it: "A little boy and his uncle visit houses all over the world. Each house suits the climate and materials at hand, but it isn't quite right for the boy. Brick is right for England! A little text on traditional home design with cheerful drawings"
Yes, this is it. Thank you so much, I am convinced reading this book as a child is the reason I became a structural engineer.


Little Boy from Shickshinny
This was titled something like The Little Boy From Shikshinney or something like that... I don't know about the spelling of the  last word.  It was a simply illustrated children's book about a (possibly?) Amish or Penns.  Dutch farm boy who was always trying to do things around the farm that he was to small to do.  The ONLY phrase I remember is something like:..."Sharp knives make the fingers off." I would love to find this book but evidently don't have the title right, as every possible search I have entered for it has come up with ZERO!

This has *got* to be Little Boy from Shickshinny by Frank Anders. It's out of print, but some copies turn up
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My stumper question is about a children's book we once had during the 70's (possibly 80's) that was about a little boy that was grumpy and kept the farm animals all upset. I thought his nickname was "cross mouth" but in the end he learns to be nice. It was written like it was told with a Norwegian accent. The library of Congress couldn't find it.

Frank Anders and Eileen Daly, The Little Boy From Shickshinny, 1965, copyright.  A Whitman Big Tell-A-Tale Book about a litle boy who became angry because he was too little to do what the big people could do. He became so disagreeable that all the farm animals called him Mr. Crossmouth. After a surprise meeting with a bear, he changed his ways and became more pleasant.
The Little Boy From Shickshinny by Frank Anders and Eileen Daly was the answer to my question and I thank whomever solved it for me.


Little Broomstick
It's NOT Witchcat.  I have vivid memories of part of the story: a girl sneaking into the lab of a witches' school (?), sets the animals free and escapes, I think, on a broomstick.  I remember she had a friend who was a cat, in fact the cat may even have been a witch herself.  It was published by Dell Yearling about 23 odd years ago (which is why my memory is so hazy).

Almost certainly The Little Broomstick, 1971 - it's Mary Stewart's first children's book! Mary Smith, age
ten, stuck miserably at her great-aunt's house in Shropshire (England) with no one to play with, gets swept off to Endor College on an enchanted broomstick with a mysterious cat named Tib. She enjoys playing along as a student for a while, but soon realizes that the place is evil. She gets home only to find that Tib has been taken prisoner for transformation experiments and she has to go back to rescue him in the dead of night. In doing so, she liberates all sorts of beautiful woods creatures from their ugly transformations, plus Tib's brother Gib! She's chased by Madame Mumblechook and Dr. Dee, discovers a new friend, and together they manage to escape. In doing so, Mary has to forsake magic forever. One might callthis the flip side of "Harry Potter" - or, more simply, that the story is about learning how to succeed and become happy through your own efforts, not through any sinister "magic". I remember thinking, as a kid, that Stewart's writing style was just the way I would write if I could!
W57 witch sets free the animals: yes, this is most likely The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, illustrated by Shirley Hughes, published Brockhampton 1971. The story is about Mary, staying at Great-Aunt Charlotte's house, bored until she meets the black cat Tib and finds the purple flower fly-by-night that makes the little broomstick fly. In chapter 10 'gay go up and gay go down' Mary hides in Endor College, the witch school, after hours and finds Tib transformed into a frog (Madame Mumblechook had taken him from her as her entry fee). She recites the Master Spell to release him. "It was a simple, gay little rhyme, and it ended on a phrase that might have been (but wasn't) 'the dancing ring of days'. With a clicking and cracking like a million billion nuts popping under the feet of a hundred elephants, the locks of the cages - all the cages - flew open. And out of every cage the creatures jumped, flapped, crept, shuffled, clawed their way, till they swarmed all round Mary's feet on the ground. Under Mary's eyes a lame hedgehog stretched and grew and became a young deer, dappled and big-eyed and supple as willow; a shuffling pangolin swept into the air with the knife-wings and scarlet throat of a swallow; the glass frog, rolling to her feet, melted into the steely velvet of a beautiful smoke-grey cat; then all round her were wings and the joyous cries of birds, and the light-flecked coats and tossing antlers of deer. And from the little metal cage with its burst lock leaped Tib, eyes wide and brilliant, and landed on Mary's left shoulder, as the grey cat swarmed up her other arm to anchor every claw in the collar of her coat. ... Then she shouted: 'Run, everyone! This way!' And tore out through the strong-room door and across the lab."
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Stewart, Mary. The Little Broomstick.  William Morrow & Company, 1972.  Ex-library copy with usual markings.  G+/G+.  <SOLD>  


Little Brute Family
In about 1970, I read to my daughter from a book about the Stone Family (I think) - life was mean - father went to work gathering stones, the kids ate stones, etc.  Then the little daughter discovered a flower, and the family became happy.

Sand and gravel porridge just doesn't taste good.  Then one day Baby Brute found a little wandering lost good feeling in a field of daisies, and he caught it in his paw and put it in his tiny pocket.  And he felt so good that he laughed and said, "How lovely."  Thank goodness for daisies.  And reprinted classics.
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perhaps British or Canadian?, 1960s.  The Grump family was an unhappy lot. The ate sticks and stones for soup - their kites would not fly. The rest is vague - but in  the end something turns their lives around, and I think it has something to do with flowers.

Daisies cure everything!  Back in print.
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This was a young children's book about a family of grumbling, grumpy creatures who are very rude to one another. Something happens, and they learn to be nice to each other. It is a very short little picture book. I don't remember much about it, but my sister would like it for her young daughter.

This is Little Brute Family by Russell and Lillian Hoban.
Joanna Cole, Monster Manners, 1985, copyright.  In "Monster Manners," a mother and father insist their daughter, Rosie Monster, misbehave and they get Rosie's cousin to help (because being impolite is what monsters do).  Their house ends up flooding and Rosie is nice on the phone with a plumber. BUT if you remember the characters going throught the seasons (jumpin in the pond and sinking like rocks) then it is "Little Brute Family" by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban.
Lillian and Russell Hoban, The Little Brute Family, 1966, copyright.  Definitely The Little Brute Family by Lillian and Russell Hoban. There is also a sequel, called The Stone Doll of Sister Brute, published in 1968.
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it was about a little family of creatures in the woods and they were mean and snarly and they ate rocks and sticks.  and then one day the little kid creature found a warm fuzzy or something and came home and was nice to the mom and dad and then they were all very pleasant.  Circa 1980s.

This is definitely The Little Brute Family by Russell and Lillian Hoban.  A great, classic story!
Lillian and Russell Hoban, Little Brute Family, 1966, copyright.  Definitely The Little Brute Family by Lillian and Russell Hoban. There is also a sequel called The Stone Doll of Sister Brute (1968).
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Hoban, Russel.  The Little Brute Family.  Illustrated by Lillian Hoban.  Macmillan, 1966.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a Sunburst Book, 2002.  New paperback, $5.95


Little Child's Book of Stories
I'm looking for a collection of children's stories, published sometime between 1910 and 1940. One of the stories is about a little girl who loved potatoes. The story describes the many ways the potatoes were prepared, including "baked golden brown amongst the warm ashes upon the hearth" (sic), etc. A recurring line in the story is, "Potato, potato, come back, come back, or my mother shall scold me, alack, alack," whence the potato sprouts legs and runs away from her.  As I recall, the book was cloth bound, orange in color. It was approximately 9 x 7 x 1 1/2. It had a color plate on the cover, as well as color plates throughout. It may have been illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, and could have been published by David McKay Company.

Ada M. Skinner, A Little Child's Book of Stories, 1988.  When I first saw this stumper posted on Loganberry's main page the memories flooded back. When I was young we had what must have been the same edition, orange cover and pictorial plate. The only story that I remembered was, about the little girl and the potato. It has been a labor of love searching for this book and finally, I asked a seller on ebay if this book contained the story and they wrote back and said "yes, the name of the story is "potato, potato". This book has been in print off and on since the 1940's, the one on ebay was published in 1988. Ada Skinner had two other books, one called A Child's Book of Stories and the other A Very Little Child's Book of Stories. Make sure that you get A Little Child's Book of Stories, it is the only one that has the story in it. I hope you find and enjoy it, I know I will!


Little China Pig
I am looking for a children's story book, perhaps a "Little Golden Book" that I had in that I had in the early 60's. This was one of the smaller-sized books, and nearly square-shaped.  The story line (or at least what I think I  remember), is about a little boy (girl???) who is on the way to the five-and-dime. He (she?) sees a single (and lonely) piggy bank sitting on a shelf that is too high for the him/ her to reach and the store owner. The piggy bank is very happy to be taken down, but is very disappointed to find that the kid has sticky hands and is thinking about how uncomfortable he-(the piggy bank) is. I don't remember the rest of the story, but I remember some of the illustrations. One was of the kid pointing up to the shelf where the piggy bank was, and the man who owned the store taking it down, and another is a close-up of the pinkish-colored piggy bank with maybe some flowers painted on it's side.  I'd love so much to be able to find this book!  I wonder if this has anything to do with my tendency to feel really sorry for the last stuffed animal left on the shelf or my compulsive handwashing??? (Just kidding about that last part....)

The Little China Pig, 1954.  I think I've solved my own stumper, but I'm not positve yet. Does anyone have a copy of a Rand McNally book with the above title? Does this title match the story line below? I am in the process of trying to find a copy of the book to buy, but have not done so yet.


Little Colonel series
Hello, My sister and I are trying to find a book from our childhood.  We were born in 1959 and 1960 respectively.   I think it is a book we were reading around 8 or 10 years old? The theme is a little girl gets a ball of yarn from Grandma? or other family member and is disappointed until she starts to knit and small surprises fall from the ball (maybe charms?)  and when she is finished with the ball she has something maybe a braclet or necklace or many things and also learns a lesson from her surprise? These names kinda ring a bell: A Surprise for (name) Emily, Sally? really not sure A Birthday Surprise ? We have blown fuses in our brains trying to remember this book.

I vaguely remember this book, too -- but mostly I remember making my own yarn balls with trinkets inside!  There is a Little Golden Book called Surprise for Sally by Ethel Crowninshield, illustrated by Corinne Malvern, 1950, but I can't find any plot summaries.  The cover shows a girl running, holding a puppy in her arms, which doesn't look familiar to me....
#Y2--Yarn and Grandma:  Definitely not Surprise for Sally, a book which has become rare and expensive!
Annie Fellowes Johnston, The Little Colonel's Hero,  1903.  In this book in the series, the ball of yarn is used as a plot device, and alludes to another (German) story, "Marguerite's Wonderball." The citation: "...It was a green and gold volume of short stories, one that she had read many times before, but she never grew tired of them. The one she liked best was "Marguerite's Wonderball'' and she turned to that first, because it was the story of a happy birthday. Marguerite was a little German girl, learning to knit, and to help her in her task her family wound for her a mammoth ball of yarn as full of surprise packages as a plum cake is of plums Day by day, as her patient knitting unwound the yarn, some gift dropped out into her lap. They were simple things, nearly all of them. A knife, a ribbon, a thimble, a pencil, and here and there a bonbon, but they were magnified by the charm of the surprise, and they turned the tedious task into a pleasant pastime. Not until her birthday was the knitting finished, and as she took the last stitches a little velvet-covered jewel-box fell out. In the jewel-box was a string of pears that had belonged to Marguerite's great-great-grandmother. It was a precious family heirloom, and although Marguerite could not wear the necklace until she was old enough to go to her first great court ball, it made her very proud and happy to think that, of all the grandchildren in the family, she had been chosen as the one to wear her great-great-grandmother's name that means pearl, and had inherited on that account the beautiful Von Behren necklace."
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Little Colonel series,  read in the 50's.  I remember a dusty little girl sitting on a porch in the Arizona desert where she'd moved.

Exactly that.  Johnston, Annie Fellows.  The Little Colonel in Arizona.  Little Colonel series.  Page, 1904.
A. F. Johnston, Little Colonel's Chum May Ware.  The dusty little girl is Mary Ware, who figures in a number of other books set in Arizona and elsewhere--even back in Locust
I just sent an inquiry about  this  and then solved it by reading a stumper in your archives and researching from there!
What a great service ~ thank you!  Your cats...excuse me...make that kittens... are precious!
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Johnston, Annie Fellows.  The Little Colonel in Arizona.  Little Colonel series.  The Page Company 1904.  30th printing, 1937, in pink cloth with gilt lettering.  Front hinge beginning to split, but still intact.  Corners dirty, otherwise VG.  $12



Little Cowboy's Christmas
I'm looking for a children's Christmas story, possibly a Golden Book, from the 50s.  I remember a father going out to look for a toy for his child, late on Christmas Eve when all the other shops were closed.  I remember a picture of the shop that he finds -- looks like a small cottage with a multi-paned picture window in front, surrounded by snow.  I think the story continues that when he goes back the next day either the shop has vanished or the building is simply a house.

Marcia Martin, A Little Cowboy's Christmas, 1951.  I've read your stumper several times and I keep thinking of A Little Cowboy's Christmas.  It is a Wonder Book and a little boy asks Santa for a horse for Christmas.  His father gets worried and tells Santa that the only thing HE wants for Christmas is for Santa NOT to bring a horse for Christmas.  Later, when the father realizes that it is the only thing his son wants for Christmas he promises his son he will try and find Santa and tell him it is ok to bring it.  He drives through the snow and finds a store with the window you described where he sees a beautiful white horse in the window and the jolly white bearded man gave it as a gift to the man for his son.  This may not be it but I thought I would put it out there.
Marcia Martin, A Little Cowboy's Christmas
Marcia Martin, A Little Cowboy's Christmas, 1951.  A Wonder Book.  A little boy tells Santa he wants a white horse for Christmas but his father tells Santa not to bring one.  Little boy is so sad his father relents and goes out looking for one late Christmas Eve.  He comes upon a shop out in the country he's never seen before, all lit up in the falling snow.  The santa-like proprietor gives him a white rocking horse that he brings home to the little boy.  Everyone is happy.  "Yippee!  Hi-Ho!"
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Pretty certain it was a little golden book.  She says that it must be from around the '60's or '70's.  It is a story about a father who is trying to get home to give a gift to his daughter.  Cover has a picture of a car driving through the woods in the snow with the headlights illuminating the sky.

Marcia Martin, A Little Cowboy's Christmas.
  If it could possibly be a boy instead of a girl it might be this one.  There's more information listed on the solved page but basically the father drives through a snowstorm to try to get a toy horse for his son in time for Christmas.
Marcia Martin, A Little Cowboy's Christmas, 1951, copyright.  This is it!! Thank you so much for solving my book! It was JUST IN TIME for Christmas!!!! My grandma is going to be so happy!! :)
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I'm searching for a Christmas book or story from the 50's or 40's I had as a child (I was born in 1955)  The story was about a father searching for a gift for his son on Christmas eve.  While driving on stormy night, found house or shop with old man (santa claus?) who had the gift he needed.

Marcia Martin, Little Cowboy's Christmas.
  Look on the solved page for more details.  A little boy wants a horse for Christmas but his father most emphatically does not want him to have a horse.  The father tells Santa not to bring a horse but when he realizes how dreadfully disappointed his son is he drives out into a snowstorm to try to find one for him.  He finds a shop with an old man in it who sells him a white rocking horse and his son is thrilled.
My inquiry was under C601, about the Christmas book with the father searching for a gift for his son on Christmas Eve.  Someone directed me to solved mystery under "A Little Cowboy's Christmas."  I had no memory of the book having anything to do with a cowboy, so I had my doubts if this was the book, but found it on the internet for sale and ordered it.  I was so pleased to find it WAS the book!  How fun to see it again!  The memory is a strange thing as I remembered the cover in the same way the other person who was looking for the book did-  with a car and headlights in the dark.  This was the picture inside the cover!   Anyway, thanks so much for your great service and the joy it provides!



Little Donkey
Thought it was a little golden book but may have been part of another children's series (didn't realize there were so many). About a baby donkey that wants to go to town with his mother.  But when he is finally allowed to accompany her, he finds he doesn't really like going to town as much as he thought he was going to.  He meets a girl donkey while he is in town and he gets into some cactus (ouch!!) on his way there.  "Donkey Goes To Town"? We think "Donkey Goes To Town" is probably the most accurate choice.

Jessica Potter Broderick, Little Donkey,1964. A charming Rand McNalley Junior Elf Book about a little donkey's adventures on his first trip to market. Illustrated by Jean Tamburine.
Jessica Potter Broderick, Little Donkey, 1964.


Little Fishes
The book was about a boy (I think Italian or in Italy). It was in the middle of WWII and he was traving alone and was trying not to be found I think at some point he lived in a cave. I can't remember if he had a family or was looking for his family. Our teacher reas this to us 3o years ago in the 5th grade (early 70s or before) and I think possibly it was an award-winning book.

Erik Christian Haugaard, The Little Fishes. A possibility.
Maureen Daly, The Small War of Sergeant Donkey, 1969.  set in 1944 Italy. ill. Wesley Dennis "Twelve-year-old Chico Filippo, whose own donkeys were confiscated years before by the German army, can&#8217 t stay away from the newly set up American Remount Depot. Here, in the last months of World War II in Italy, thousands of supply mules and donkeys are processed and sent onto the fierce mountain fighting in the Apennines. One of the handlers introduces Chico to a small courageous animal the boy names Sergeant Donkey. Drawn into friendship and then into unexpected danger, Chico must demonstrate his own simple courage." I believe this courage includes an overnight mountain journey in which he may sleep in a cave.
John Patrick Carroll-Abbing, Journey to Somewhere, 1955.  "Here in story form is the dramatic account of the life of a boy in Italy in World War II."  I can't find many more details, so I don't know for sure if this is the one, but it is by the founder of the Boys Town in Rome, so it might have been considered a noteable book.
B238 I spent a lot of time trying to find out from Google, etc more abt plot. The boy's name is Guido.  The Little Fishes, 1967; Jane Addams Book Award: Children's Books that Build for Peace.  A tale of the tragedy of war: the story of a twelve-year-old orphaned beggar in occupied Italy, his daily search for food and for meaning in the life he witnesses, and the development of compassion and understanding that will help him survive.  SO THEN I WENT OUT AND DUG THE BOOK OUT AND I DO BELIEVE IT IS IT. I SEE ONE CHAPTER TOWARD THE END IS "THE CAVE"
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Haugaard, Erik Christian.  The Little Fishes.  Illustrated by Milton Johnson.  Houghton Mifflin, 1967.  Second printing.  Ex-library copy, missing front free endpaper.  Brown cloth.  VG-.  $10
order form


Little Foxes Sleep Warm
Hi, I was looking for a nursery rhyme and ran across your web site.  The story is about a family of foxes and a man and his wife.  The man doesn't have enought money to feed his wife so he freezes her and puts her in the shed for the winter.  In the spring, he goes to get his wife and he finds a family of fat foxes.  Can you help?

Hi.  I have the answer to F-3.  It is a short story titled Little Foxes Sleep Warm by Waldo Carlton Wright.  It was copyrighted in 1971.  It can be found in "Alfred Hitchcock: Stories To Be Read With the Door Locked"--a title in his anthology series.
And I have it!  Your story Little Foxes Sleep Warm is in Alfred Hitchcock's Stories to be Read with the Door Locked, nice shape with dj.  <SOLD>
Is the story about a man and his wife.  They are so poor that he decides to freeze her and put her in the barn for the winter to save on food?  And during this time a fox has babies and they end up living on her to survive? 



Little Foxes Story Book
I am searching for a book, or a story within a book, about little foxes whose faces froze.  They were part of a family, all wore clothes and lived in a community of other animals (rabbits, etc) who also wore clothes and had homes within their holes with kitchens, etc. When the little foxes were cranky they made horrible snarly faces and their mother warned them that if they continued to make such horrible faces, their faces might freeze that way.  One day when the little foxes were snarling and fighting they faces did freeze.  Their mother did everything she could and Mother Rabbit came over to help and put hot compresses on their faces but nothing helped.  When their father came home he looked at their snarly faces and began to laugh, then their mother laughed and Mrs Rabbit laughed. Then the little foxes looked at each other's snarly face and they began to laugh at themselves and at that all their faces unfroze.  This was a big book (8X11 or larger) with lots of color illustrations.  My mother began reading it to me in the late 1940s.  I told my children the stories and now that I've discovered Book Stumpers I''m hoping you can help me find a copy for my grandchildren.

The book you are looking for is titled The Little Foxes Story Book by Hilda H. Roth.  The publishing company is The Saalfield Publising Company, Akron, Ohio.  I have a copy that was given as a gift in 1944 - I bought it at a used book store.


Little Fur Family
--a little bear searching thru the woods/forest for his red ball-i must have read this to my son in 1974 to 1979?--he is 33 and an artist-says this book was a major inspiration for his art!!

Margaret Wise Brown, Little Fur Family, 1946.  This may be the book, as it features a little fur animal playing with a red ball in the woods.  (I don't think it was a bear -- it was an unidentified fur creature -- but similar in appearance to a bear.)  It's another of the many wonerful collaborations between Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams.  The illustrations are great, and I could easily imagine a young artist being inspired by them.
I seem to recall that in one of Elizabeth Upham's Little Brown Bear books, the bear plays with a red ball.
HRL:  I'm guessing it's the first of these, as the Margaret Wise Brown book has been (mostly) in print for decades, and the Upham would have been remembered as a vintage book even in the 70s.



Little Gipsy Dandelion
My father in law told me of a story, poem or song his mother used to tell him.  It would probably be about a hundred years old now.  The words included something like "Little Gypsey Dandelion dancing in the sun and where have you gone for bread with your golden crown" according to my father in law.  Any ideas?

Little Gipsy Dandelion.  If you spell "gipsy" with an "i", you should be able to track it down in old songbooks.  The words don't seem to be online, though.
Carfra, Pat, Songs for Sleepyheads & out-of-beds, 1984, LL Records, Dist. by A & M Records of Canada.  "Little Gypsy Dandelion" can be found on this tape.


Little Girl and the Tiny Doll
Hello! This has been driving me crazy for YEARS. It is a children't picture book that I read in the 70's. Unfortunately, I don't remember the title, author or cover of the book. It is about a little doll that was left behind in a supermarket and she's waiting for someone to find/notice her. The only illustration that stands out in my mind is the one where she is in a freezer, playing tennis by herself against a box of frozen peas. The peas were her tennis balls and her racket was one of those wooden spoons you use for icecream cups. In the end a little girl finds her, takes her home, and the doll gets to live in a nice doll house. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!! :-) Thanks.

I think I've solved the doll in the supermarket stumper. Today I got a book at the library (an anthology of doll stories called The Silent Playmate, ed. Naomi Lewis) that has a section at the back with references to other books about dolls. This is the very first one mentioned, under "Picture Books":  The Little Girl and the Tiny Doll (Longmans, 1966) by Aingelda Ardizzone and Edward Ardizzone:  "A perfect doll tale set in a modern supermarket. Doll, abandoned in deep freeze section, hopefully waits. Nice little girl perceives, plans rescue, 3 to 7 year olds."
I can not BELIEVE someone has solved my stumper!!!!!  I'm almost POSITIVE that this is the book I have been searching for.  Years and years of asking Children's Librarians have turned up NADA.  Everyone looked at me as if I were crazy  Harriett, your site is a little piece of heaven for people like me!!! :-)  If you can find a copy for me and it's not outrageously expensive, I would love to purchase the book.  Thanks so much!!!!!
Good morning- I have been trying to remember the name of a book I used to love when I was a child.  The story was about a tiny little girl who lived in the frozen food section at a grocery store.  Unfortunately, all I can recall about this book is a crudely drawn picture of the little girl in the freezer near frozen peas, and that at the end of the story she is taken home by a real little girl who finds her while food shopping with her mother!  The book must be fairly old, and was a favorite of mine when I was 5 years old.  If there is anything you can tell me about this one, I would be extremely grateful!
You are amazing! Thank you so much for your prompt reply and assistance!
In this children's book, a tiny little girl is in the grocery store, and she plays tennis with frozen baby peas.
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the story was a  book that i checked out of the charlotte nc library in the early 70's - it may have been older about a little girl who when she went to the grocery say a tiny girl living in the frozen food section in the actual freezer case. the peas i think. as i recall she made little clothes and furniture for her and in the end i think took her home.

The Little Girl and the Tiny Doll (Longmans, 1966) by Aingelda Ardizzone and Edward Ardizzone.


Little Girl Story
I'm looking for a children's book that I read in the late 60's early 70's. I'm not sure how widely it was distributed because I bought it at the neighborhood drugstore in Topeka, Kansas. In any case, it was a bright pink, filled with beautiful illustrations, hardback, but rather smallish book about a little girl lamenting getting bigger. (I somehow have the memory that it was on the occassion of her 5th birthday.) She said that now she was too big to put her hand in the pickle jar, she was too big for her favorite  chair etc. I know that's not much to go on!! I think that by the end of the book she started to see the good side to getting bigger. Thanks for all your help!

Phyllis Krasilowsky, The Very Little Girl.  Could possibly be this one, or The Very Tall Little Girl by the same author. Another possibility would be one of Charlotte Zolotow's  e.g. I Like to be Little.
THE LITTLE GIRL STORY. I remember a cute little book published by Hallmark that my Grandma gave me in the 70's. I don't remember the author. The little girl got too big for her hobby horse, but now she could learn to ride a real horse. She was too big to fit in her playhouse, but now she could invite friends for a tea party. She got too big to have all her dolls in her crib with her, so her parents got her a big-girl bed. Could this be it, and if so, does anyone know the author? One more thing: the end papers were pink with little pink handprints all over them. Cute!
Dean Walley, The Little Girl Story, 1965.  I'd just like to thank the second person who responded to this query.  They put me on what I think is the right track. Finding this book means so much to me because my father who is now deceased bought it for me and as such it carries great sentimental value for me.
Dean Walley, illustrated by Arlene Armacost and Gloria Nixon, The Little Girl Story: A Child's Experience of Growing and Helping,1970, Halmark Children's Editions.This book is definitely The Little Girl Story! Other incidents from the book include outgrowing her dollhouse, a button popping off the back of her old pink dress (she gets new clothes) and not needing a chair to help her mother wash dishes in the kitchen sink.  I read it as a little girl in the late 70s.
Your website is fantastic!! I've solved this bookstumper - I remembered it exactly from the description and had my mom confirm the details: The Little Girl Story A child's Experience of growing and helping,1970.This book is definitely The Little Girl Story! Other incidents from the book include outgrowing her tiny table, a button popping off the back of her old pink dress (she gets a new pink dress) and not needing a chair to help her mother wash dishes in the kitchen sink. I loved this book - it was one of my favorites! I read it as a little girl in the late 70s.


Little Golden Holiday Book
This was, I believe, a Golden Book about a boy and girl celebrating various occasions - I remember birthday accessories, and an Easter egg hunt.  I had these in the early 1950's, but was the eldest cousin, so......  Thank you so much for your time and effort!  I really enjoyed your website!

L31 LGB holidays: okay, now that I have the reg number, suggesting The Little Golden Holiday Book, by Marion Conger, artist is Eloise Wilkin, published 1951, Little Golden Library 109, "a beautiful story of a child's view of holidays, and precious drawings of childhood innocence, an extremely rare book with a wonderful story and beautiful drawings. The holidays covered are Valentines Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. The Halloween drawings are reminiscent of the Halloween segment of the movie Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien." 



Little Green Caterpillar
Attempting to find the title of this book for a library patron who wrote: In 1979 or 1980 we were given a book about a caterpillar.  We have been searching for this board book, with one finger hole through the whole book. Rhyme goes like this: Two hungry little caterpillars, sitting on a fence. (can't remember the middle part - on to) They crawled into some ice cream that was melting in the street. Ugh? Exclaimed the caterpillars, this can't be our lunch, we'll have to look around for something tastier to munch. It is NOT the caterpillar book by Eric Carle. Book was originally purchased in Seattle, probably at the Bon Marche.

Hooker, Yvonne, The Little Green Caterpillar, illustrated by Giorgio Vanetti.  London, Methuen 1978.  "A hole board book with each page leading to the next. Caterpillar eats his way thru the book to become a beautiful butterfly."


Little Hiawatha
Childrens book, possibly from the early to mid 90s. Indian boy. I *think* It was something like " The Little (blank) Warrior". Great illustrations. I only remember that it's a little indian boy, like a toddler, with a bow and arrow. Another memory is that I had a hard time pronouncing part of title.

Thorson, Charles, Keeko,
1947. When I read that the Indian boy looked like a toddler, I thought of this book.  Little Keeko has the typical plump body of a toddler in the many colorful illustrations.  Keeko is determined to win a feather headdress like that of his grandfather, Old Chief Running Horse.  He searches high and low for feathers, falls asleep, and dreams of a grand adventure high in the mountains.  Using his little bow and arrows, he rescues a baby eagle whose mother rewards Keeko with a whole headdress of feathers. 
Disney, Little Hiawatha, 1953. I think you must be looking for Little Hiawatha. It was based on the Walt Disney animated movie Hiawatha, and has been reprinted many times over the years. In 1953 it was issued as a Little Golden Book. The LGB has been reprinted a number of times over the years. Disney also released the book as part of their "Wonderful World of Reading" series, and there was an edition published in 1990 as part of "Walt Disney's American Classics" series.
Little Two Feet?
SOLVED: Disney, Little Hiawatha. Little Hiawatha is it! Thank you so much!!


Little House
This is a book I had as a child. (late 60's) It's a story about a home in the country that ends up getting moved back out to the country after the ever increasing city eventually builds up around it. Thats it. pretty basic, but, it primarily was based on the pictures, which, as I recall were quite colorful. Like they were drawn with oil pencils. I would really like to find this book.

This is The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, a real classic. I have a brand new hardback edition for $15 plus $3 postage (book rate).
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I'm afraid I have very little information, but I recall reading an adorable book in the mid-60s when I was around 6 or 7 about a little white house with a verandah that had huge skyscrapers built around it. It was right in the middle of a busy street downtown. I think that people wanted to tear it down but the owners didn't want to move.  Does anyone remember this cute book?

Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1948.  great, classic children's book from the author of mike mulligan and the steam shovel.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, c. 1943.  This book won the Caldecott in 1943.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942.  From the website:  "The little house first stood in the country, but gradually the city moved closer and closer. "The pictures are full of life and movement . . . Virginia Lee Burton tells the story of a little house which wins its way into the very center of our heart.” –Horn Book  "The Little House was based on our own little house which we moved from the street into "a field of daises with apple trees growing around." -Virginia Lee Burton  I used to read this to my kids - it's a wonderful story
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  From your description, this sounds like The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. This book is still in print and should be fairly easy to find. I checked on Amazon.com and the version they had for sale still had the same illustrations that I remember from reading this book in the early 1970s. Good luck!
Virginia Lee Burton , The Little House.  This delightful 1943 Caldecott Medal winner, is still in print in Houghton Mifflin's 1978 edition.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942.  The book you're looking for is The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton. I knew it as soon as I saw the request, because her illustrations are so vivid. It must have been reprinted, because I owned a copy as a child in the late 1970s. Houghton-Mifflin mentions it on their Web site.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942. Won the Caldecott Medal in 1943, the Little House is a book where the city grows around the house (so years & years later, the descendants of the original family move the house back out to the country.)  This might be the book...at least, there is an illustration that matches the requestor's memory.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942.  I believe this is the book you're looking for.  I remember it fondly from my
childhood -- never knew it was so old. You can view the cover here.
Virginia Hamilton (I think), The Little House (I'm sure of this).  1950s-early 1960.
Clymer, Eleanor, Tiny Little House, 1964. A possibility --
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  You probably already thought of this one!  But I thought I would pass it on just in
case.
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  I read this book often to my kids when they were little.  It's a very sweet book
with appealing illustrations.  It's unusual because the house is the main character  people come into the house's story from time to time, but the story revolves around the house itself.  Burton also wrote the well-known book about Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel.
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You have made me a hero once before, let's see if we can do it again! My fiancee is looking for a book that she loved as a child. Synopsis: There is a happy house living on a hill, and the family moves out and a city sprouts up around it. The house is lonely and unhappy, until finally someone comes and buys the house (?) and moves it to another location, with a happy family. The book might be called "The House on the Hill", but my web searches have brought back nothing. Thanks!

Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House One of my children's favorites!
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  This is the book.  The charming illustrations show a house being overtaken and choked by runaway industrialization and urbanization and finally removed to a new location.  Classic.
Virginia Lee Burton, author and illustrator, The Little House, 1942.  This is it!  Please see the Solved Mysteries L page for more information!
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1976, reprint.  A childhood classic! (And a Caldecott Medal winner.)
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942.  This must be The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (the same author who did Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel).  I love this book! The artwork is great--the house appears to be smiling and then has a sad expression when the city grows up with skyscrapers, pollution, etc. The country setting mentions the apple trees and fields of daisies. The little house could never be sold for gold or silver but the great-great-granddaughter of the man who built the house recognizes it and moves it back to the country. From a children's librarian.
Virgina Lee Burton, The Little House, 60th anniversary.  My first memory of this story was hearing it read on Captain Kangaroo!
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  Loganberry comes through again. Right after I posted this, I read through the other postings to see if someone else was looking and I found a suggestion for H36, and that suggestion was the solution to mine!
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House.  I remember this book from my child as well.  I'm almost positive that this is the one you're looking for.


 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Burton, Virginia Lee.  The Little House.   Houghton Mifflin, 1942. New Hardback, $14.95  New paperback, $5.95

Little House in the Fairy Wood
My lost book: In my grandmother's collection was a children's or YA novel--at least 100p., no illustrations--from possibly as late as the early 70's, more likely 50s or 60s? Blue binding (isn't that helpful?) The book opens on an "Indian Summer" day. Boy, an orphan, lives in a boarding house, works in a factory, but skips work that day and goes into the woods, where he meets a girl who is part wood-nymph and her mother (full wood-nymph?). They live inside a tree and invite him to stay; he meets other forest denizens, they go to the seashore once... I have been looking for this for years, in used bookstores, libraries with old collections, bibliographies, books about the history of children's literature, etc. I have a feeling it was a first novel that never went anywhere--too bad because in memory at least, it was a wonderful book.

W9--This sounds similar to Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatly Snyder...or maybe Magic in the Alley by Mary Calhoun?
Just so nobody gets off on the wrong track;  W9 is definately not Black and Blue Magic by Snyder.
#W9--Wood Nymphs:  this description is not VAGUELY like Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder or Alley Magic by Mary Calhoun, fercryinoutloud! It is at least vaguely like Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley, but that kid was a chimney sweep, not a factory worker.
My first thought is someone like Frank Stockton or Robert W. Chambers, but none of theirs seem to quite fit. The best I've found through keyword search has been The Enchanted by Elizabeth Coatsworth, published by Pantheon in 1951, illustrated by Robert Winthrop White "Story of a young man's strange romance in the Enchanted, an actual and magical region in the Northern Maine Woods." A further search described the young man as a farmer, though, so not so likely.
barely possible: Garrott, Hal Snythergen New York, McBride 1923 "The magical adventures of the boy who went to the forest to live as a tree and learn about nature and the important things of life. Beautifully illustrated with 4 color plates and in black & white throughout by Dugald Walker."
At 157 pages not likely (too short), but because the author seems possible: Stockton, Frank R. The Lost Dryad Riverside, Hillacre Book House 1912  28 pp. "Published posthumously. This charming story about a tree spirit whose kiss could remove ten years from a person's life was dictated as a unique gift for the author's friend, Mrs. Florence Gotthold in 1901."
B143 boy ran away into forest sounds close to W9 wood nymphs. The possible publication date is similar, and both begin with a boy working in a factory who escapes into a forest setting where magical things happen.
I have been looking for this book too and was beginning to believe it was all in my imagination! It was a wonderful book and the author should be thanked, whoever she/he is. It got me through a very difficult childhood.  I lived in this book for years. To add more to the story: each night the fire in the fireplace turned into a beautiful lady and covered the orphan boy with a warm blanket. They fed him warm cream & berrys and roasted chestnuts. But the book ended sadly.  He woke one morning to discover it was all a dream.  He was back in the factory, looking out a window, daydreaming of living in the forest with his friends.
Ethel Cook Eliot, Little House in the Fairy Wood, 1918.  I think this is it!!! The author also wrote Wind Boy and many others. I found it on ebay!!
Ethel Eliot, The Little House in the Fairy Wood.  It is Not Black and Blue Magic!! This book is The Little House in the Fairy Wood by Ethel Eliot.  A great old book.
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Can you please help?  I would like to find an old favorite.  I read it in the 60`s as a little girl but do not remember the author or publication. It`s about a young, poor boy who worked hard in a factory all day.  One day he ran away into a nearby forest (I think the wind beckoned him to follow it) and found a safe place, a small cabin or house.  The animals of the forest took care of him and became his friends.  I think there were faries and maybe elves that lived in the forest and also took care of and played with him. They had chestnut parties. Each night the fire in the hearth would turn into a beautiful lady and covered him with a warm blanket.  At the end of the story he woke and it was all just a dream to escape from his unhappy life. He was back in the factory looking out of a window (at the forest) wishing he was back there. Thank you so much for your help in hopefully finding this old book for me to buy.

B143 boy ran away into forest sounds close to W9 wood nymphs. The possible publication date is similar, and both begin with a boy working in a factory who escapes into a forest setting where magical things happen.
YES!!!  I think it's the same book!  I'm so desperate to find this book that I'm willing to put up a reward (plus the cost of the book) to any one to who finds it. Would that be too tacky? This book means a lot to me, it got me through a very abusive childhood (a way to escape).  I didn't want to mention that but I want you to know why this book is so important.  Thank you.
Ethel Cook Eliot, Little House in the Fairy Wood.  1918.
The Little House in the Fairy Wood, by Mrs. Ethel Augusta Eliot, published New York,  Stokes, Toronto, Butterworth, c.1918, 121 pages, colored frontispiece, colored plates. 22 cm. "An unusual and beautiful fairy story in which a little Earth Child has wonderful adventures with Snow Witches, Star People, and in particular with little Ivra who is 'part fairy'." The author also wrote Wind Boy, (Doubleday 1923) "unusually lovely tale of fancy ... two little war refugees in America, whose only playmate was the Wind Boy." That was reprinted in 1996 by Raven Rocks Press - maybe they'd be interested in reprinting this one as well?
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Many years ago your "Stump the Bookseller" feature helped me identify this book. I only ever found one copy for sale and it was $450. But the New York Public Library has a reference copy. Since it's out of copyright, I scanned it and it is now publically available at Project Gutenberg. (I got the images courtesy of Rachel from rachelpages.com ). I wonder if the other people looking for it ever found copies? It's not the same as having the physical book, but if you'd care to pass the link along, it's: http://gutenberg.net/1/0/4/6/10463/  Thanks again!



Little Lame Prince and Adventures of a Brownie
Don't remember whether this was a book or in an anthology. Read a long time ago. A Brownie (like a Pixie) who lives in the coal cellar of a house. Story is set in another country because I remember it saying it was good luck to have a Brownie live in your coal cellar. He came out every night to drink his supper--a bowl of milk that Cook would leave out for him so he wouldn't cause mischief. Old cook leaves and new cook comes. She is lazy and doesn't clear the dinner table until morning and also doesn't leave the Brownie any milk for supper. So he goes to look for his dinner. He finds the dinner still on the dining table and starts to feast. He leaves tiny footprints from the dust of the coal cellar all over the white tablecloth. The cook sees the mess the next day and changes her ways: she cleans up right away and always leaves out a bowl of milk for the Brownie. I'm thinking this is probably a short story; I don't think it took that long to read, so maybe part of an anthology? A really nice story and would love to have it again.

Diana Maria Mulock Craik, The Little Lame Prince and the Adventures of a Brownie, 1948.  This sounds like the right book---see B351 (above) for a description!
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Brownie and the Cook.  This is the story.  Its in The Junior Classics (1958) Vol. 2 Stories of Wonder and Magic.
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, The Little Lame Prince and the Adventures of a Brownie, 1948, reprint.  The story described is "Adventure the First:  Brownie and the Cook."  Also includes the Brownie and his adventures in a cherry tree, on a farm, on the ice, and washing clothes.  This is a collection of stories by Craik.  Besides The Little Lame Prince and the Brownie, there are 3 other stories:  "The Invisible Prince", "Prince Cherry", and "The Prince With the Nose."
B354  The vol 2 Jr Classics is possibility, see A221 for more on series.  Williams, Mabel; Dalphin, Marcia, eds    The junior classics Vol 2: Stories of wonder and magic.  Illus by John Batten et al.  Collier, 1949.
The Little Lame Prince and Adventures of a Brownie.  I sent away for this title based on the feedback I received on my stumper. The book arrived today and it is indeed the correct book which includes the story I remember. Thank you so much!


Little Leftover Witch
For years, I have been searching for a book that was read to me every year at Halloween in elementary school, during the mid to late 70's.  It is a story about a little witch named Lucinda who crashes her broom into a tree (on or around Halloween).  She befriends the little girl whose bedroom window is next to the tree.  The rest is sketchy, but if memory serves, she is taken in to the family and lives with them for a year and goes back to her home the next Halloween???   The book was small, had a yellow hard back and was divided into chapters.  The illustrations were pencil drawings.  Can you help me find it?

W39: Sounds like Little Leftover Witch (1960) by Florence Laughlin. Her name is Felina, but she chooses
to stay with the Doon family and changes her name to Mary Lucinda George Doon, I believe. Because of the
way the story develops, one might say this falls less into the category of witch stories than, say, adoption/adjustment stories.
I don't have a copy to doublecheck the witch's name, but I'm pretty sure the person is thinking of THE LITTLE LEFTOVER WITCH by Florence Laughlin.  The little witch crashes into a tree and breaks her broomstick, stranding herself until the next Halloween when the witches return. She stays with the Doon family. The witch is very naughty at first, but eventually, with their patience and love, she becomes kinder. She may even choose to stay with them when Halloween returns.
this sounds an awful lot like Little Leftover Witch by Florence Laughlin, only the witch is named Felina. Happy Anniversary!
This story is The Little Leftover Witch, and the author's name is Laughlin.
Thanks so much for everyone's help with solving my mystery.  After years of searching, I have found a copy of The Little Leftover Witch and am waiting on its arrival.  I cannot wait to share it with my niece and perhaps my one day, my own daughter.  This site is truly wonderful!!  Thank you again!!!
The other one I read about 1972 or 73.  It's about a child witch who was adopted by a non witch family and gave her a birthday of 10/31.  *later* After I sent this email I looked through your Solved Mysteries and one of my mysteries was solved.  The witch book I am looking for is Little Leftover Witch.
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When I was a little girl (early 1980s) I got this book out of the library and it was about a little girl witch who was sad or lonely.  I can't remember why she was.  For some reason I think there might have been a part where she gets an outfit that is "normal" i.e. not witch clothes.  I'm thinking that this might be Little Leftover Witch but I'm not sure; I'd like more information about that plot, if that's what you think it is. Please help me!  I loved that book and have wanted to find it for years.

The Littlest Witch.  The witch cries, spiders make a web around her, and her tears adorn it.
The Littlest Witch?  This reminds me very much of a book I used to love when I was in grade school, where a family finds a little witch in the tree in their yard, and convinces her to come into the house to live with them.  She insists at first on hanging onto her raggedy robe and hat, and eats unusual things, but ultimately the family convinces her to dress in normal clothes and eat normal food.  I think it might have been called The Littlest Witch.
This one does sound like The Little Leftover Witch.  The witch's name is Felina, and she comes to live with the Doon family after getting left behind on Halloween.
L108 Massey, Jeanne.  The littlest witch.  illus by Adrienne Adams.  Knopf, 1959.   the newest, littlest witch, becomes a
special witch - good, kind one.  --or-- Laughlin, Florence.  The little leftover witch.  illus by Sheila Greenwald.  Macmillan Reading Spectrum, 1960. unhappy little witch, Felina, marooned on earth when her broomstick broke, and adopted by a family, finally gives up her witchiness by donating her pointed hat to the snowman the neighborhood children have made.  will  snowman incident tell her if this is it?
Yes!  This is the book!  I bought it used and have read it already.  I love this book, especially the part where the witch is adopted by the family.  What a sweet story.  Thanks to everyone for your replies.
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1970s childrens book.  A little girl sees a witch (another little girl, I think, whose name is Belinda/Melinda) outside her window after a storm. The witch lives with the family. I can picture an illustration of the little girl witch with a pointy nose sitting bythe window.

Florence Laughlin, The Little Leftover Witch, 1971.  Illustrated by Shelia Greenwald. This is probably it. The witch is named Felina  she falls off her broomstick one stormy Halloween, and gets left behind in the human world, and can'\''t get back to the witch world until the following Halloween.  She is taken in by the Doon family, who have a daughter the same age, named Lucinda - Lucinda is the one who finds Felina on a branch outside her room.  Felina slowly loses her "witchiness" and becomes a member of the Doon family, and doesn't go back to the witch world the following Halloween.  The book is out of print, and used paperback copies start at over $40.  This book seems to have been a favorite of a lot of people.  (I didn't like it as much as a child - I always wanted Felina to stay a witch, because that seemed so much more interesting!)
Laughlin, Florence, Little Leftover Witch, 1960.  This sounds like the ever popular Little Leftover Witch.  On halloween night a little witch's broom get broken and she is stranded in a tree outside a family's house.  The little witch's name is Felina and the family name is Doon. The little girl's name is Lucinda Doon.  It was written in 1960 and my copy of this book is from 1966.
Florence Laughlin, Little Leftover Witch.  The girl is Lucinda, the witch is Felina, and the cover of one edition I've seen has the witch sitting in a tree outside the girl's window.  Felina crash lands on Halloween night and does live with the family for a year, till Halloween rolls around again and she can go home.
Florence Laughlin, The Little Leftover Witch.  Maybe this one? The little witch is called Felina, I think.
W216: Most likely The Little Leftover Witch(see Solved Mysteries). Simple, poignant and sweet. The illustrator is the same who did Leo Tolstoy's Fables & Fairy Tales.



click here for pictures & profile pageLittle Lost Angel
A book written for younger children (that I received for Christmas in the early sixties), which was called The Littlest Angel, but NOT the book of the same name that seems to be all over the Web these days. It was a large picture book, at least 12" wide by 14" high, illustrated in colour, about a very small angel named Dorcas, who was with the other angels singing in the sky on the night of Jesus' birth. She becomes tired and decides to land and have a nap. When she awakes, everyone is gone and she doesn't know how to go back to Heaven. At various points in the story, she gives away her halo, harp and wings to help others, and I remember her having sore, bleeding feet. She ends upon earth for the rest of her life, and people love her because she's so good, but nobody knows she's really an angel.  I would be thrilled to find any or all of these!! And I'd love to see your store too, if we ever get down there (I'm in Toronto).

Not the Chareles Tazewell classic, eh?
regarding L5-Littlest Angel; this is definitely Little Lost Angel by Janet Field Heath (her name isn't on the cover though), it was a "Rand McNally Tip-Top Elf Book" (1963).  Best of luck finding a copy, it's a wonderful book, the only childrens book I've constantly kept with me, but incredibly sad too,especially when the angel gives her wings to the lame shepherd so he can walk and then winds up permanently lame herself.  Best Regards from Australia (this is a great website - reading your Solved Section cleared up  a number of books I've been wondering about for years - Thank You!)
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Help! I have longed to find a book from my chilhood I'm 31, I was referred here and it is my first glimmer of hope. This was a red, material covered hardcover (missing the dust jacket when I had it) children's bedtime stories. I believe there were 4 stories 2 I remeber. One is about an angel, you do not know she is and angel at first I believe the story begins she is in a field of lambs sleeping she goes to a house with a light on, the strangers care for her feet which are cut & bruised from walking on the ground. You find out she has given her gifts away such as her wings to a lame boy, her harp to an older person I think?

Little Lost Angel
Janet Field Heath, Little Lost Angel, 1953.  I think this would be the angel book.  The little angel comes with the angels on christmas eve to announce the birth of Jesus.  But she gets tired and falls asleep in the field.  When she awakes the angels are gone.  As she looks for them she gives away her harp to a sad man, her crown to angry woman, her wings to a lame boy. She follows a light looking for heaven but finds a home instead with a couple who had been praying for a child.   The people to whom she gave her treasures went on to become good and kind people. This was/is one of my favorite stories.  It is a Rand McNally Tip Top Elf Book. number 8680.
Janet Field Heath, Little Lost Angel, 1953.  Don't know about the whole collection, but the angel story is Little Lost Angel, for sure. Nice color illustrations by Janet Laura Scott. Still makes me weepy when I read it at Christmas.
#B167--Bedtime Stories, angel, fire truck:  The angel story is Little Lost Angel by Janet Field Heath.  Since this appeared as a Rand McNally Elf  Book in 1953, you might want to get a guidebook of these and look for fire truck books done by Rand McNally around the same time.  Several of their stories could have appeared in a collection.
B167 The story about the angel sounds like Janet Field Heath's LITTLE LOST ANGEL. It sounds like it was included in a collection of stories, but I couldn't find it. Heath did write a book of 18 illustrated stories, THE HYGIENIC PIG AND OTHER STORIES, 1946, but I didn't find a list of the stories included, and it sounds too long. ~from a librarian
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Heath, Janet Field.  Little Lost Angel.  Illustrated by Janet Laura Scott.  Rand McNally, 1953.  Junior Elf Book.  VG.  <SOLD>  



Little Lost Kitten
I'm looking for a beautiful oversized book from my childhood (1960's). It's about a kitten who ventures out of the barn (I think) and gets lost. The other farm animals she meets help her get home to her mother. The illustrations are just beautiful and so soft. Hope you know of it.

Cathleen Schurr, The Shy Little Kitten, 1946.  Could this be an oversized version of The Shy Little Kitten? When a mother cat leads her kittens into the barnyard sunshine, one kitten lingers behind and thus begins her adventures. She takes a walk with a mole through the countryside and the two happen upon a frog whose enormous mouth sends them into gales of laughter. A shaggy puppy then offers to lead the kitten home but not before he busies himself yapping at a squirrel who drops a nut on his nose! Home at last, the kitten joins a barnyard picnic but a bee-stung frog causes a stir and everyone dives into the brook for safety! It isn't long though before merriment is restored. 'This was the best day ever!' the little kitten exclaims. Tenggren's illustrations are lovely and most pleasing.
I'm fairly certain the person is looking for Lois Lovett's Little Lost Kitten -- it's oversize and fits the plot description.  (Kitten chases a butterfly and gets lost; asks various animals like Mrs. Pig how to get home.)  Here's a cover scan if the person seeking it wants to see if that cover looks familiar.
Yes, I think Little Lost Kitten is the one.



Little Maid series
In the late 1950's I read a series set in various American colonies during the Revolutionary War.  I believe the titles began Little Miss (name) of (name of colony).  It seems that they had blue covers.

Alice T. Curtis' 1950's Little Maid series....  includes A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia, A Little Maid of Ticonderoga, A Little Maid of Massachuetts Bay Colony, A Little Maid of Provincetown, A Little Maid of Connecticutt, A Little Maid of New England, A Little Maid of Narragansett Bay, A Little Maid of Old New York, A Little Maid of Maryland, A Little Maid of Virginia, A Little Maid of Mohawk Valley, etc. 


Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane
A Little Golden Book, the story of the little mailman and his neighbors, all of whom are adorable little animals.

It's actually a Rand McNally Elf Book: The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane by Ian Munn and illustrated by Elizabeth Webbe, 1952.
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L76: The Little Postman of Blueberry Lane.  This was a favourite childhood book of a friend of mine, who is a children's librarian. All I know is the title, as I remember her telling it to me. I would like to find a copy and surprise her with it.

You're close, and it's remembered by many!  It's a Rand McNally Elf Book: The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane by Ian Munn and illustrated by Elizabeth Webbe, 1952.


Little Miss Busy
I think it was called sommething like "Mrs. Hurry" about a woman who was always in a rush. At one point she walks along the street so fast, she falls into an open manhole. My recollection is that book was done only in white, black, and yellow, and that it was either a picture book or what we now call an easy reader.  I hope you can help me.

Roger Hargreaves, Mr Men and Litte Miss series, 1971.  This sounds like Roger Hargreaves' 1970s British series of "Mr Men" and "Little Miss" children’s books. The characters were colorful, anthropomorphized happy faces each named for his or her cardinal trait: Mr. Nosey, Mr. Messy, Little Miss Chatterbox, Little Miss Fickle, &c. Fate usually dispensed some sort of mild but ironic retribution for their behavior. In that way it was kind of like Struwwelpeter but with out the death and dismemberment.
If the person remembers the book being small, with kind of round abstract-looking characters, then it could be one of the "Little Miss" series by Roger Hargreaves. It could be LITTLE MISS BUSY. ~from a librarian
Edith Thacher Hurd, Hurry, Hurry, 1961.  One of the "I Can Read" series. 


click here for imageLittle Mommy
just discovered this site.  I'm looking for a book from the sixties, think it was a little golden book.  it reads; this  is  my house and I am the mommy.  My children are Annabel, Betsy, and Bonnie.  They are good little children and do just as I say.  I put on their coats and they go out to play.  Billy is daddy and lives in the city.  He has a new car , isn't it pretty?

Sharon Kane, Little Mommy, 1967.  This was a Golden Book called Little Mommy.  I just looked on
Bibliofind, which gives the author/illustrator as Sharon Kane and the date as 1967, and says it's "very hard to find."  I remember reading it at my grandmother's around 1970, and loved it because they miniaturized the household tasks.
Maybe the Little Golden Book Little Mommy by Sharon Kane, illustrated by Esther Wilkin? The cover shows a little girl sitting in a chair holding three dolls, which could be the three children named.
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No idea on author; illustrated by Eloise Wilken, c. 1965.  I cannot recall the title of this Golden Book but it started with "This is my house and I am the mommy.  These are my children Annabelle, Betsy, and Bonnie."  It most likely was published in the 1960's.

Sharon Kane, Little Mommy.  I taught my little sister to read with this book. It is hard to find and quite pricey!
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I am looking for a children's book that would have been read out by the late 60's or earlier.  It's about a girl who cares for a dolly that has "Mumbledy Bumps".  My wife swears such a book exists but I can't find any reference for it in Google or on your site.

Sharon Kane, Little Mommy, 1967.  Little Mommy is a beautifully illustrated book about a girl who cares for her dollies.
One of the dollies is "ill" and a boy dressed up as a doctor comes and diagnosis "She'll be well as quick as a wink, its just the mumbledy bumps I think"  It is a Little Golden Book marked C-569 in the upper left corner.


Little Monster's Bedtime Book
Mercer Mayer's Little Monster Series from the early 80's?  I used to read this book to my son around 1984.  It is the little monster series.  At the end of the book the mother monster is telling her son, who is a monster, to "sleep tight and don't let the zipperropazues bite"  The spelling might be wrong, but I hope you get the gist!  Thank you.

Mercer Mayer, Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-A-Zoo.  Not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe this Zipperump-A-Zoo story is the basis for the one you're looking for. The Professor collects creatures, and has a specimen of all animals from A-Y. He's missing the Z-A-Zoo. He travels all over the world in his quest, but is unsuccessful. Of course, at the end of the book he goes home in defeat and goes to bed, and a whole gang of Z-A-Zoos come out and play in his house. A great story.
This book is about one of Mercer's little monster who is having a bad day.  On every page there is a whimsical spider.  At the end of the book the mother monster is tucking in the little monster and she tells him not to let the "zipperumpazoos" bite.  I beleive this series of books came out before the Little Critter series, although the little critter series still has the little spider in some of the stories. I am desparately lookin for this book!
Mercer Mayer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book, 1978.  I enjoyed reading this one to my son- very funny, especially the little asides, like the character who keeps saying "my mama never told me 'bout this stuff..."
Are you waiting for the original poster to confirm an ID? I am 100% sure of this solution that I posted a while back:  Z2 is Mercer Mayer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book, 1978.
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This is a children's book, possibly by Mercer Mayer. The last lines of the book, as the mom monster is putting the little monster to bed, are "Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the zipperumpazoos bite" I believe that in the same book, they refer to yippyucks that bite toes and ride along on feet, holding on to the person's leg. <then again, that could be another one--I read hundreds during the kids' early years!>  Please help me find the zipperumpazoos!

Sure sounds like Mercer Mayer. There's  Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-Zoo, Golden Press, 1976.  But this one is surely Little Monster's Bedtime Book, 1978. See Solved Mysteries for more.
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A picture book I remember from the late 70's early 80's. The pictures were quite elaborate. Each page seemed to be about a different monster, fantastical creature. I remember very early in the book, there were these little black fluffy creatures, and one had a speech balloon saying "we're rock cooties...count us". They were throughout the book. The only other creature I remember was a giant blowfish with a lantern on the top of his head. I can't remember anything else, and it is beginning to drive me crazy!

Graeme Base, The Sign of the Seahorse.  Could this be it?  Very elaborately illustrated...
Mercer Meyer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book, 1978.  See solved mysteries.  There are little black cootie creatures hidden on each page, and a monster called the "Glowfish Blowfish"



Little Old Man
This is a children's picture book that I had in the early '70's that my mom purchased from a children's book club. It was a about a little old, bearded man who lived on a very tidy houseboat.  He had a pleasant routine, but he was lonely, and somehow acquired some kittens which made his life much happier.  It was a very sweet story with wonderful illustrations of the ship-shape houseboat. I would love to read it again.  Thank you very much.

Little Old Man by the Sea
My sister and I have been looking for a book for the last few years and have made no progress.  Here's what we're going on:  It was a book we grew up with (late 60's early 70's), it was about an old man (long white beard - we think), he lived on a boat (docked - we think), with a cat or a bunch of cats.  We thought the title was something like "The Little Old Man by the Sea".  It had lots of pictures and a few sentences on each page.  We're sure it's out of print.  Any ideas?

Ha!  Hemingway for kids!!
Not much to go on, but maybe Grandfather Todd of Old Cape Cod, by Joseph E.Hanson, illustrated by Jean Porter, published New York, McKay 1959 "Seven stories as fresh as a Cape Cod breeze - about a most "magical" grandfather and his two young charges (Kate and Gregg) who spent an enchanted summer exploring Cape Cod. Ages 7-10" (Horn Book Apr/59 pub ad p.160) There's a line drawing showing a man with a long white beard and captain's hat, carrying a basket, walking with two children wearing striped shirts and shorts, one with a fishing rod, the other with a sack. No mention of cats.
Might this be Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats?  The very old man goes to find a cat to keep company with his very old woman.  He roams far and wide, and brings home every beautiful cat he finds, in short, "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats."  It's more about the cats of course, but the image of the old man with the long white beard made me think of it.  A classic, in print almost continuously since its publication in 1928.
Natalie Norton, A Little Old Man by the Sea, 1959.  [Thank you for helping me find the author to Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett!!!!!!!!!!!]
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It was around 1972 in VA.  I read an illustrated book about an old man on a little island with a cat.  He lived in a little house, or boat up on stilts. He seemed to be preparing for a flood (a little like Noah's Ark).  Towards the end of the book it did flood and he and his cat/s were safe and snug in their boat.  It was probably published around the 60's?  Don't remember the title or author.  Help!  Thanks.

#B177--Boat:  This was solved.  I remember your comment was "Hemingway for kids?" but that phrase didn't turn up with a Google search, and, of course, I can't remember the title.
From the Solved Mysteries page: A Little Old Man by the Sea, by Natalie Norton.


Little One
This is a book with a little girl whose name is Percis (not sure if I spelt this correctly).  She rides on a turtles back into the forest.  My grandfather used to read this book to my mother and myself.  Now that I have a daughter of my own - I would love to read this book to her.

P97 percis rides a turtle into forest: Is 1959 too recent, or could this be The Little One, by Dare Wright, published Doubleday 1959? "Persis was a dusty doll in an old house until Nice Bear and Cross Bear showed her the fun of the bright outdoors. Ages 2 to 6." (HB Dec/59 p.448 pub.ad) The cover pic shows the little doll talking to a turtle or tortoise, but don't know if she rides on him. 


Little Orphant Annie
What an interesting website you have.  I wonder if you can help me - a stumper for you.  My grandmother had an ancient victrola machine (the crank kind).  She used to play a record that had a verse. The verse went something like “Little Orphan Annie came to our house to stay, to sweep, etc.”  I believe it ended with “you’d better be good or the goblins’ll get you.”  Any ideas on source of this verse?  Any book that has it?  Thanks much.  I just finished over an hour at your website.  Fascinating.

O5-Orphan Annie:  This is hard to locate because of spelling.  The poem is Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley.  Dover Publications puts out an inexpensive book titled: Little Orphant Annie and Other Poems  by James Whitcomb Riley.  It is a Dover Thrift Edition - - unabridged.
In response to O 5, the poem Little Orphant Annie was written by James Whitcomb Riley and appears in many anthologies of his writings.
Little Orphant Annie is written by James Whitcomb Riley, and is probably in a number of classic poetry books, though I have it in a book called This Singing World, by Louis Untermeyer (a collection of poems for young adults).
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As a child in the 50's (book may also be early 60's) I read a children's book of poems and stories with one poem in it about Orphan Annie.  I remember the illustration which showed a large fireplace and hearth area with goblins dancing around in a circle in front of it. (Annie may have also been in the picture, seated in a chair by the hearth).  I think the last line of the poem was, "...the goblins will get you if you don't watch out".  The theme was about being good.  It seems that the entire book contained both poems AND stories, but it is possible that it was only poems.  I seem to recall that the book was somewhat oversized.

Little Orphant Annie  by James Whitcomb Riley.  See more on the Solved Mysteries page.

I happened to notice that in the Solved Mysteries, under "Little Orphant Annie," the second inquirer is looking for a specific book in which she found the poem.  The answer, based on her description of the unforgettable illustration for that poem, can only be The Golden Book of Poetry, which is also on your Solved Mysteries page [Jane Werner (ed.), The Golden Book of Poetry, c1947, 1949, reprint 1971. Subtitled "85 Childhood Favorites," this book contains all the poems mentioned, including "Little Orphant Annie." Charmingly illustrated by Gertrude Elliot. I had a copy as a child in the 50s.]  I still have my  childhood copy, the 1971 reprint.



Little Oven
Here's one for my grandmother . . . a story she used to read to my aunt years (at least 30) ago.  The story is about a little girl who keeps asking for a little "oven", when what she wants is a  little "loving".  My grandmother thought this book was called A Little Oven, but I haven't been able to find anything under that title.  I'd greatly appreciate any help.  Thanks!

A Little Oven by Eleanor Estes.


Little Peewee, or Now Open the Box
This is I think a Golden Book, current in the 1950s. I think the little dog's name may be PeeWee, and the title may be PeeWee the Circus Dog or PeeWee the Wonder Dog. He was a black-and-white spotted doggie who could change size, becoming tiny or very very tall.

Dorothy Kunhardt, Little Peewee Or, Now Open the Box, 1948.  A Little Golden Book #52. "Peewee is a Dalmatian dog the size of a mouse who grows to the size of an elephant."
See more on Kunhardt on the Most Requested pages.
Dorothy Kunhardt, Little Peewee, the circus dog, 1948.  Also known as Little Peewee, or, Now open the box.  I found a picture of the cover.  It is a Little Golden Book.


Little Plum
I am trying to find a book about an English girl who moves into a new house next door to two other children (brother and sister?).  I believe her mother has died and her father is gone a fair amount of the time. The girl has no friends and is very lonely until she gets to know her neighbors.   I don't remember how, but the children end up with three Japanese dolls for whom they make clothes and build an authentic Japanese doll house.   Much of the story is actually told by the dolls.   I believe the author also wrote several other books about children and fantasy experiences of some kind.

Rumer Godden?
Godden, Rumer,  Little Plum.   Viking Press/1962, Scholastic/1963.  "The new girl who moves into the mansion next door is a mystery to her eight- and nine-year-old neighbors who plot to become her friends when they learn she too owns a Japanese doll."
Rumer Godden, Little Plum.
I think the person who suggested Rumer Godden is thinking of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, which certainly fits some details.
Rumer Godden, Little Plum, 1987, reprint.  This book is either Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, or the sequel Little Plum.  The first is about an orphaned girl who learns to create a home for herself by caring for her Japanese dolls.  (Miss Happiness and Miss Flower are joined by Little Peach at the end of the book.)  The second is about a war that erupts between neighbors, when a new girl moves in and neglects her Japanese doll, Little Plum.
Rumer Godden, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower.  England is the last place Nona Fells wants to be. No one asked her if she wanted to leave sunny India to live in a chilly English village with her aunt's family -- and her cousin, Belinda, just hates her! But when two dainty Japanese dolls arrive at Nona's doorstep, everything begins to change. Like Nona, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower are lonely and homesick, so Nona decides to build them their own traditional Japanese house. Over time, not only does Nona create a home for the dolls, but one for herself as well.  There is a sequel, Little Plum.  In the sequel, Belinda is trying to make friends with a new girl who has moved in next door.  The new girl also has a Japanese doll.  The good news is that Miss Happiness and Miss Flower has been reprinted.
Rumer Godden, Little Plum?  Sounds like it could maybe be Little Plum...a lot of the details fit well, but some don't.  Worth checking out though.


Little Pond in the Woods
I am looking for the title and author of a book that was read to me over and over when I was a child.  It is a story about the forest animals that lived around their little pond and what they had to do when the pond dried up.  The first line of the book is "Deep in the woods was a little pond."  I loved this book so much as a child that I am hoping to find a copy to read to my grandchildren.

Possibles - The Pond, by Carol and Donald Carrick, published Macmillan 1970 "Children's story about animals living in or at the pond." - The Animals at Small Pond, by Phoebe Erickson, published Grosset 1960, "A lovely nature book for early readers, illustrated with line drawings." - The Beaver Pond by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, published by Lothrop 1970, 34 pages "The story of the life cycle of a pond and the creatures it creates and sustains."
Muriel Ward, Little Pond in the Woods, 1948.  I'm pretty sure this is the book.  It's a Little Golden Book (Simon and Schuster) and was illustrated by Tibor Gergely.  Several animals -- a duck, a bird, a bee, a bear, a butterfly, a deer, a rabbit, a squirrel, and a grumpy frog -- all live in and around a pond.  A drought dries up the pond and forces them to travel to a lake, led by the duck. Eventually the rains come, and they all travel back to
the pond.
Muriel Ward, Little Pond in the Woods, 1948.  Little Golden Books (Simon and Schuster), illustrated by Tibor Gergely.  I put in this solution a few days ago and neglected to include the clincher: the first line of the book is, indeed, as set forth in the request.  The book begins, "Deep in the woods was a little pond.  Its water was blue -- blue when the sky was blue.  The sun made yellow paths on it -- bright sparkling yellow paths that danced up and down when the breeze ran past." 


click here for pictures & profile
          pageLittle Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings



Little Rhody
Middle Button: I'm pretty sure this was the title of the book I'm looking for.  It was set in the very early 1900s or late 1800s, in sort of a pioneer setting.  The middle daughter in the family was always "too big" to get out of chores, but "too small" to have her older sister's privileges.  One episode I remember is that she was given a box of candy with one of her very favorite kind of chocolate in the middle of the box.  When she had to be polite and offer the candy to the other guests, an old lady took that one favorite piece of candy.  Then the girl discovered that there was a second layer of candy with many more of her favorite kind.

there was a Middle Button written by Kathryn Worth and illustrated by Dorothy Bayly: Doubleday 1941.
M32- I don't know how often books are given the same titles, but I have an old book called The Middle Button about a family in the South.  The Middle girl wants to become a doctor and in the process learns to manage her selfish temper and her troubles with being in the middle.  It is by a Kathryn Worth and takes place in 1880.
Sure!  I remember it being in the West, not the South, but I could very well be wrong.  The "become a doctor" bit sort of strikes a chord.  I can't afford more than $25-30 or so, but if you can find a readable copy within that range I'd love to have it.  Thanks!
I know this mystery is supposed to be solved already under the title Middle Button, but I distinctly recognize the description of the adventure where the middle sister gets a box of candy and hopes the old lady she is offering the box to doesn't take the piece she wants (but does) and how the second layer of candy is all that favorite piece.  The book I read with this adventure in it was called Little Rhody and it's a story of a girl named Rhoda as she grows up.  There is another adventure in the book where the family is going on a train ride and their mother makes boiled eggs for the children to eat on the train (there are a significant number of children in the family).  Little Rhody's brothers get 2 eggs, Little Rhody gets one.  She thinks that's unfair so she eats one before the train ride (it's awful, without salt) and then replaces the eaten egg in the lunch basket with a raw one.  On the train, she retrieves the raw egg but on her way to dispose of it the train lurches and she smashes the egg on the edge of another passenger's seat, splashing raw egg all over the passenger (an unforgiving lady) and her misdeed is revealed.  She goes through several such embarrassing/harrowing adventures as she grows up and at the end of the book, she has a birthday (I think) and the family starts calling her Rhoda (her given name) instead of "Little Rhody."  I recall it was a light lime green paperback with a drawing of a young teenaged girl in pigtails with a pale blue gingham dress.
Neta Lohnes Frazier, Little Rhody, 1953.   I feel pretty confident that my solution is correct and the name of the book is not Middle Button, based on the event the person seeking the book described.  Little Rhody's birthday was June 14, 1875, so the timeframe matches the one the person looking for this book identified.


Little Richard
i'm looking for a book that i bought in europe in 1970 i was 4 yrs. old it was the only english book there was. i believe it was illistrated by cyndy szekeres and i think the title was something like little richie or little richard. the story goes something like this this little rabbit (richie) is home with his mother and he goes out tracking foot prints of different animales and comes across a procupine and takes him home with him to eat cookies that richies mom baked and they become friends and the porcupine sleeps over or something . please help i would love to have this book for my children.

Patsy Scarry, Little Richard. Ill. Cyndy Szekeres. (McGraw, '70) 



Little Riders
I am looking for a book I read as a child in the mid 1970's to early 1980's.  I believe it took place during WWII.  It was about a soldier who befriended a young girl.  The girl was somehow involved with a carousel that was being dismantled to use as scrap metal to add to the war effort.  The soldier helped her hide one of the carousel horses either in a crawl space, attic, or behind a wall or wardrobe.  It was a wonderful story and I long to read it to my own daughter.  Please help me find the title.

Could there have been a Disney movie based on this in the 1950s? I think I remember watching this on the Disney show.
The Little Riders.  I remembering reading a part of this story, up to the part where the girl is discovered trying to hide the horse.  The hiding place was a door into a crawl space in the back of someone's closet in the girl's house.  The story takes place in the Netherlands or a similiar country and Germans have invaded the country.  In fact, a German official is living in the house.  The horse or horses have some sort of special significance and the father of the girl feels they must be saved and hidden. The words "The Little Riders" keep coming to my mind.
Here's the description of Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin (Peter Spier illus.) Juvenile audience, 76 p., c.1963.  "An American girl living in Nazi-occupied Holland resents the presence of a German soldier quartered in her grandparents' home until the night she tries to hide part of the town's treasured clock mechanism."


Little Sallie Mandy and Tommy Whiskers
My name is Jill and I am 54 years old. When I was a child (reading age) I had a book that I really loved and it was about a cat (I think) that ran into the forest and his master couldn't find him. The name Tommy Whiskers or something similar to that sticks in my mind. I would love to find this book for my granddaughter. I don't know the author. It was a rather small thin book. Do you have any ideas what this book could be or where I might find out?

published 1935   Little Sallie Mandy and Tommy Whiskers author Helen R. Van Derveer  I am not sure, but maybe it is the one - maybe she can identify through the title ?
I found another one I know about. Number T1, about Tommy Whiskers, definitely refers to the Little Sallie Mandystories, of which there were several. I can't recall the author's name.



Little Squeegy Bug
I was born in 1950 and we had this (mainly picture) book before we were 5 years old. It involved a caterpillar (??) who finally finds help from a spider wearing a top hat. Big picture of a spiderweb and a friendly (though still creepy) spider. I'd love to have a copy.

Martin, Bill and Bernard, Little Squeegy Bug, 1945.  The Little Squeegy bug is sad because he wants to be a bumblebee with silver wings and a gun in his tail. His new friend Creepy Caterpillar takes him to Hauncy the Spider (who where a black tophat) who spins him silver wings, and then gives him a lantern to put in his tail, making him a firefly.'  I also should add that if you are looking for Little Squeegy Bug, there is a new version out that has *very* different illustrations.


Little Store on the Corner
When I was a kid (mid-70s) I had a book about an ice cream shop I'd like to track down again.  It was a young children's picture book, maybe like a Little Golden Book or something similar. (A smaller simpler book with illustrations filling the tops of the pages and 3 or 4 lines of text on each page) It was about an ice cream shop in a small town that everybody loved to  visit.  But the owner had to retire or turn the business over to new owners (maybe his son or something?). Everyone was very disappointed at how stingy the new owner was.  They never put the little bit of ice cream in the bottom of the cone the way they old one did, they didn't give out as many free tasters, etc.  If I recall the story still, everyone complained enough to get the original owner to come back and everyone was happy again.  I have no idea about the title, but I hope my description here is enough to jog some memories...? Thanks!

THE LITTLE STORE ON THE CORNER by Alice P. Miller. I went crazy trying to find this book myself. I found out there are two versions - one illustrated by John Lawrence, 1961 and the other illustrated by Lisl Weil, 1973.
That sounds like it..  I haven't been able to find any mention or copies of that book on the net, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.  ;)
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I was referred to you by some librarian friends. I am trying to find a book for a friend. Here is her description of it:  I have no clue about the author or title, but Captain Kangaroo used to read it on his show (in the 60s).  It's about a man who ran an ice cream shop, and for some reason his son (?) had to take over for him, but he didn't make the cones the same way - the father put in a little bit of ice cream first so there would be ice cream all the way to the bottom of the cone.  thank you for any help you can provide.

I13: Ice Cream Business:  Wow! I grew up on this book (the Lisl Weil illustrated version) and never knew it had any connection to Captain Kangeroo. Since this book was published twice with two different sets of illustrations, I'm curious which one Captain Kangeroo used. I sent in the answer when someone else asked for this book - it's now on your solved mysteries page under LITTLE STORE ON THE CORNER (by Alice P. Miller). And I am 100% sure of this - I own both illustrated versions (no, not willing to sell them!)
This is fabulous! thank you so much, I passed it on to my friend and she was thrilled.  She has family in Cleveland and said she will definitely stop by your store.  I've left it up to her to find herself a copy.  Thanks again.  I think there should be a book which lists all the books that were read by Captain Kangaroo.  I just bought Caps for Sale today for my daughter.
I am a Librarian (Virginia Beach Public Library) and I've tried any number of sources and search tactics to find this book - for years.  I just used one of your "Solveds" to end a years long search by one of my customers (it was the Little Store on the Corner).  And on behalf of a staff of nearly 30 and one very happy customer, I must say: "Thank You.  Very much."
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I had this book as a child, so it was most likely published sometime in the early 70s or earlier (possibly as early as the 30s or 40s).  The story was about an ice cream/candy shop owner who had to leave his shop (for a vacation or some other reason).  He left the shop in the hands of his nephew (I think or some other young, male relative).  All the kids were so sad to see him leave (even for a short time) and they did not like the nephew (or whoever he was).  The nephew served up the SMALLEST scoops of ice cream and didn't give the kids candy and balloons (I may have made up the last part). Anyway, the kids eventually teach him how to scoop up the big huge scoops and be a great shop clerk.  By the time the ice cream man returns, his nephew is doing a great job and he is so happy about it.   I cannot for the life of me remember what the title was and would love your help!

THE LITTLE STORE ON THE CORNER by Alice P. Miller. See Solved Mysteries. There are two editions with different illustrators.
This was a personal stumper of mine some years ago, and I hunted high and low and finally found the answer. It is definitely THE LITTLE STORE ON THE CORNER by Alice P. Miller. I found out that there were 2 different editions with different illustrations. John Lawrence illustrated one, and Scholastic published a paperback copy in 1973 illustrated by Lisl Weil.~from a librarian



Little White Horse
There WAS a book (now you mention it) that had a scene with a whitewashed cottage with geraniums in windowboxes in a deep green valley, lit by slanting rays of light under a purplish cloud-filled sky and with an atmosphere of impending storm and danger to the characters (one of whom might have been an independent little girl like myself)... that vivid mental picture is really all I can remember, except for the lasting impression of REALLY ENJOYING the story..

G32 and G44 Goudge, Elizabeth, Little White Horse, 1946.  I'm pretty sure this is G44 - and may well be G32. The beautiful illustrations are by C. Walter Hodges. The story is about Maria Merryweather, a spirited orphan who travels from London (with her governess Miss Heliotrope and King Charles spaniel Wiggins) to the home of her uncle in the valley of Moonacre. There she is helped by a (once supposed imaginary) boy named Robin to right the wrongs of her ancestors and restore peace to the valley. The little white horse of the title is actually a unicorn, symbol for the "moon Merryweathers", who must learn how to companion the lion or "sun  erryweathers" (yup, England's heraldic beasts) so harmony reigns. The gnome or dwarf with geraniums is Marmaduke Scarlet, her uncle's cook, who has kept them in secret after the previous generation's moon and sun representatives (Maria's uncle and mystery fiancee) quarreled and parted. The geraniums play a key role in mending that quarrel. Yes, the story is a bit twee, but I read it when very young, so I'm still rather fond of it! :) My copy is the fifth impression, dated 1958, published by the University of London Press.
Elizabeth Gouge, The little white horse,1946.  University of London Press,-reprinted 1948 (released in Canada thru CLARKE, IRWIN & CO LTD,480-486, University Avenue, Toronto, no address for US. Bound in Mid-blue with gold impression of unicorn on bottom right corner. Inside in flyleaf there is a colour plate of "Maria's Own Room" in the tower, complete with star in centre of ceiling. Excellent book, I recently re-read it. A little sad for a 29yo. Just want a little bit of childhood back.
G44 geraniums in windowboxes: my friend who asked this stumper says "I finally found and re-read Goudge's Little White Horse, which was just what I would have fainted and died for at age 9 and was charming enough
even now.  I can see how I compounded various elements into the vivid mental picture I still have, but that picture/scene never actually happened in that book." So I think we can move that to Solved.
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I am looking for a book that I read in the time period of 1965-1969.  I do not think the book was written durnig that time.  I seem to recall an old looking hardback book.  The book main character was a girl, who either lived in a house near the woods or visited someone there.  The house had salmon pink geraniums on the steps and maybe in the windows.  There was also a unicorn in the woods/forest.  I would like to find this book for my daughter to read.

Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse The little white horse turns out to be a unicorn, and geraniums come into the story in several places.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse Would it be this one, by any chance?
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Book number two was about a gnome, he loved geraniums and grew them to proffusion.  Again, no author or title but the book was a material covered book like the one above and probably had a dust jacket originally.  This one however had the most beautiful colour plate pictures in it that were every childs love...least in my childhood they were.

Just possibly - Mr. Garden by Eleanor Farjeon, illustrated by Jane Paton, published Walck 1966, 39 pages. "The story tells of a family's return home after a long absence to find the garden a tangled jungle until a strange little man appears mysteriously and makes the garden more beautiful than it had ever been."
G32 and G44 Goudge, Elizabeth, Little White Horse, 1946.  I'm pretty sure this is G44 - and may well be G32. The beautiful illustrations are by C. Walter Hodges. The story is about Maria Merryweather, a spirited orphan who travels from London (with her governess Miss Heliotrope and King Charles spaniel Wiggins) to the home of her uncle in the valley of Moonacre. There she is helped by a (once supposed imaginary) boy named Robin to right the wrongs of her ancestors and restore peace to the valley. The little white horse of the title is actually a unicorn, symbol for the "moon Merryweathers", who must learn how to companion the lion or "sun  erryweathers" (yup, England's heraldic beasts) so harmony reigns. The gnome or dwarf with geraniums is Marmaduke Scarlet, her uncle's cook, who has kept them in secret after the previous generation's moon and sun representatives (Maria's uncle and mystery fiancee) quarreled and parted. The geraniums play a key role in mending that quarrel. Yes, the story is a bit twee, but I read it when very young, so I'm still rather fond of it! :) My copy is the fifth impression, dated 1958, published by the University of London Press.
This definitely is NOT Farjeon's Mr Garden- no geraniums - or not in profusion, anyway!
Hiya,  I have emailed you before to let you know that my bookstumper was solved and is indeed The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.   I have since bought myself (a reckless treat to celebrate!) a first London printed edition in hardback.  I cannot thankyou enough for yours, and your website visitors help in bringing back my memories...there is nothing more precious than returning to your childhood imaginations. I cannot recommend your site enough...a GOLD MEDAL TO YOU AND YOURS. 


click here for pictures & profile
          pageLittle Witch (Bennett)
I am looking for a book I read in elementary school in California. It was about a little girl whose mother was a mean witch. She was made to do all of the chores at night while the mean witch was away. She became curious, and began letting the fairies & spirits the witch had caught out of their bottles. Finally, she lets a beautiful fairy loose, who turns out to be her real mother. I remember the book as being a hardback, reddish orange in color, but I could be mistaken.

To the person from July 1997 looking for a story of the little girl with a mean witch mother, and the girl does spells to make a fairy appear (using colored powders), then it turns out her REAL mother IS a fairy under the spell of the mean old witch: It's Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett original copyright 1953. The copy I have is a Scholastic version illustrated by Lisl Weil with a new copyright by Scholastic of 1961. I also lost my first childhood copy, then found this one at a garage sale a few years ago! Hope you can find a copy for your client; it is one of my all time favorite books!
Thanks for the tip, here's a copy I have for sale:
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth. Little Witch. Illus. by Helen Stone. NY: Lippincott, 1953. Twelfth printing, ex-library. Pictorial boards, clean and tight. VG-. <SOLD>

[more requests for the same book!]
I am trying to find a book I loved as a child. I read it around 1974. It is about a girl who is a witch's daughter. What I remember about the story is that she befriends a woman who is a beautiful fairy with a beautiful daughter and she wishes this fairy was her mother. The little witch's mother often goes out at night, dresses her in ratty clothes and treats her poorly. I also remember the little witch admiring the hair ribbons the fairy's daughter wears. At the end of the book, the fairy does turn out to be her mother. Somehow the girl was kidnapped when she was a baby. I have done numerous searches and I believe the book is out of print. I would appreciate any help I can in finding this beloved story. Thanks so much!
You are a miracle worker! Yes, I am going to buy the book! I am truly amazed you were able to find it since all the search vehicles I used online turned up nothing. I am recommending you to all my friends who are interested in finding their own little piece of nostalgia. Thanks again!
Your site is the greatest discovery I have made so far in this new millenium. I have often wondered how I would be able to find this book. I only new the name of the book and what it was about. I had bought the book for 10 cents, when I was in second grade, at an old resale shop called " The Attic ". I am now 29 and would like to once again read about Miniken (Minx). Thank You.
I have been trying to remember the name one one of my favorite children's book since it "disappered" from the school's library may moons ago. It was about a little girl who was being raised by a very mean witch. She meets some regular kids and together that start messing around with the witch's magic powders when she leaves every day. Wonderful and strande things happen as they stir up different potions from the magical powders. One day they conjur up a fairy who tells the little girl that SHE is really her mother and the witch has imorisioned her and stolen her (the little girl). I cannot remember the exact title, but I thought it had "witch's daughter" or something similiar in the title. Can you help me? I highly doubt that it is still in print anyway, but...
 cannot thank you enough! I so-o-o-o-o-o love the interent for its information exchange cabilities. I NEVER expected to find the name of that long lost favorite Little Witch. I have searced through the children's section of every library I've been in for over 25 years, hoping I'd recognize a cover or picture... I almost cried when I read the "Mysteries Solved" secton of your web site because yes, this IS the book I've been searching for! Thank you! Thank you!
My daughter is 7 and I am starting to rebuild my library of books I remember and never should have gotten rid of.  Can you believe I just found a copy of Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.  She loved it!!
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This book involved a small girl that saw a beautiful princess in the mirror whenever she brushed her hair.  The girl was being held captive by an evil witch who at some point threw the brush at the mirror, shattering the mirror, and setting the princess free -- who turned out to be the mother of the small girl.

Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch.1953.  The story about the little girl who sees her mother's reflection in the mirror could be Little Witch.
M150: Little Witch? Except no one throws a brush at the mirror and it's only the spell that gets broken, not the mirror itself.
M150 Sounds like LITTLE WITCH by Anna Elizabeth Bennet (appears on Solved Mysteries page) ~from a librarian
This sounds like Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. The witch had raised the little girl as her own daughter, but the fairy in the mirror was really her mother.
This was actually answered by W-84 which is the same story.  The girl with the colored powders is the daughter of the princess in the mirror.  What sets the princess free is the evil witch throwing a hairbrush at the mirror because that is where the little girl witch always sees the princess.
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Hi~ I am looking for a book about a witch-I cannot remember the name or author.  It is a book I loved as a child, I read it in the early to mid 1970's.  The main thing that I remember is that the neighbor is a witch who has many jars of colored powders for spells.  I wish I could remember more as I did love it so--any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1953 and 1961.  This may not be the same book that the poster is thinking of at all, but the colored powders part sounds like a scene out of Little Witch.  Nine year old Minx is a witch's child, but not a witch herself. She is forced to do horrible things she doesn't want to do, such as making Black Spell Brew.  Her evil "mother" witch has "jars of magic powders and liquids on the shelves.  There were hundreds of them, all different colors".  This is just a tiny detail in the book, but it was a detail I always enjoyed, because I wanted to have hundreds of different colored magic powders, too.  Anyway, Minx later discovers that her real  Mother is a fairy who has been bewitched by the evil witch.
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch, 1953.  This is definately it.
This could be Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett - a very popular book. It wasn't a neighbor who had magic powders, but Minikin's (the daughter) own "mother" who actually isn't. She uses different colored powders to try to make a beautiful fairy appear, but it takes a few tries.
The colored powders mentioned in W84 might refer to Little Witch.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1963.  This one is on the Solved Mystery page.Sounds just like this  book--my favorite part was always when they experimented with the colored powders!!
Sounds like Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, 1953. It's in Solved Mysteries. Wonderful, clever and very original for its time (especially Frances' grandma, I think), but try to get the edition with the more sophisticated drawings.
This sounds like Little Witch.  There's a lot more to this story but the little witch, Minikin Snickasnee, uses the colored powders to cast a spell to help the enchanted lady she sees in the mirror.
Coombs, Patricia,  Dorrie and the Blue Witch, 1964.  Could be any one of the "Dorrie the Witch" stories. I loved them so as a child in the 60-70's.
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If I remember correctly, this was a fantastic book for children, a slim paperback that may have had short chapters with a few black and white ink drawings for illustrations.  It was about a little girl named Lavinia (I'm about 90% sure of that).  I believe that Lavinia's mother had been a good witch, but either died or disappeared into another dimension.  Lavinia either lives with or visits the old house, where her two evil aunts still live.  I think Lavinia has to find her mother's old spellbook, and at some point she or the aunts make a potion.  In the end I think it turns out that Lavinia herself possesses some power for good, and she may make the aunts disappear into another dimension.  But of one thing I am almost certain: her name was Lavinia!

#L59--Lavinia, little witch girl?:  In some ways sounds like Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.
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I have just a vague recollection of this book, but what I remember is still quite vivid in my mind.  It was a children's book that involved a witch whose "pantry" was filled with magic potions of all sorts of different colors, maybe pastels?  My memory is that the potions were like chalk and kept in bottles -- something like the tempera paints that we used to have in elementary school.  The children have some sort of an adventure where they possibly have to mix the potions together for some unremembered purpose.  I  am 51 years old, so my elementary school years would have been early 1960s.  I went to grade school both in Long Island, New York and Abilene Texas.

Anna Elizabeth Barrett, Little Witch,1953. Maybe this book, which appears in the "Solved Stumpers" section?
bennett, Little Witch.  The witch "daughter" and her friends mix together powders and conjure up several creatures trying to find a fairy.
This might be it: Little Witch Anna Elizabeth Bennett,1953. "Minx hates being a witch's daughter, and sneaks off to school to make friends. But her wicked mother threatens to spoil everything, until a beautiful face in a mirror reveals who Minx really is."  As I recall, there was quite a deal about her mixing powders of different colors to find some solution to her problems as well.
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1950's.  A series of books (I think it was a series) of a witch (a good one I think) who had flower pots on her window sill that she had turned into flowers from children.

Bennett,  Little Witch again.  Check Solved Mysteries.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch.  See more about this book on the Solved Pages. The witch (Minx's adopted mother) in this has turned children from her village into flowers and she keeps them in flowerpots by her window, so this detail definitely matches.  But she's a bad witch, not a good one.  And I don't think this is part of a series.  So this may not be it.
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This book featured a wicked sorceress who turned children she did not like into flowerpots (I think).  Her name was something like Madame Snickernee.  I found this book in my elementary school library in 1960 or so and have been looking for it for years.  I would imagine that the protagonist was not the sorceress but rather (presumably) some child or children, but every detail of the book not mentioned above has gone out of my memory. I will be extremely grateful to anyone who can give me the title and/or author! Many thanks.

With a name like Snickasnee, it has to be Anna Elizabeth Bennett's Little Witch. Illus. by  Helen Stone. NY: Lippincott, 1953.  See more on Solved Mysteries.
Wow!  Thank you so much for that swift solution. Little Witch--and I thought I must have hallucinated that flowerpot angle!  I am going to submit a more difficult (I fear) stumper soon--another fragment that's been haunting me. What a wonderful resource you offer.
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I read this book in elementary school (1967-1974).  It was about a young mistreated girl who lived with 2 cruel witches.  She was treated like Cinderella having to do all the housework.  She talks to a woman in a mirror and it ends up being her mother who was imprisoned there by the witches (I think).  She is befriended by a child/children and they experiment with the witches brightly colored potion powders, etc.  That's all the details I can remember.

Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch. Again! See Solved Stumpers.
Anna E. Bennett, Little Witch. Definitely Little Witch, by Anna E. Bennett. I had forgotten the name too and found it again when someone else posted a stumper here some time ago!
This is "Little Witch" by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch, 1953.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1953. This has to be Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. Minikin (Minx) lives w/ Madam Snickasnee, a wicked witch, whom she believes to be her mother. Minx wants to be a normal child, and finally sneaks off to school, where she makes friends with the other children. She teaches her friends to ride her broom, and together they experiment w/ Madam Snickasnee's magic colored powders. The powders cause various creatures to appear, including a centaur, a water nixie, a fairy, and the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who helps them free a bunch of other children that Madam Snickasnee had turned into "flower pots" (potted plants) with her Black Spell Brew. The beautiful woman whom Minikin occasionally glimpses in the mirror is a nymph named Moonfire, and she is Minikin's real mother.  Madam Snickasnee had enchanted her and stolen Minikin, when she was a baby. At the end, Minikin breaks the spell, freeing her mother, and Madam Snickasnee is turned into an anteater.
Bennett,  Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch. Description matches exactly except there is just one witch.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1953. See more on the Solved Mysteries "L" page!
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch, 1953.You probably read the Scholastic version from 1961. Madame Snickasnee turn boys and girls into potted plants.  Minx, her supposed daughter, spends her time trying to free the lady she sees in the mirror with Madame Snickasnee's colored powders. The lady turns out to be Moonfire, a fairy and Minx's mother.
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I think this may have been a Scholastic book, I read it in the early 1960's or even the 1950s (late). We ordered these books through our school. It was a soft cover book about a girl who saw a beautiful woman in a mirror in her room.  The mirror was full length, oval and set on a stand.  The girls supposed mother in the story was a witch, dressed in black, who made her work hard, doing housework and such.  By the end of the book the girl discovers the beautiful woman is her real mother and then somehow frees her from the mirror, a spell put on her by the witch. On the cover I think there was a drawing of the girl looking at the woman in the mirror, the woman in the mirror looked somewhat spritish.  Hoping you'll know what this one is. Thanks.

Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1953.  This sure sounds like Little Witch.  The little girl's name is Minikin (Minx for short) and the wicked witch with whom she lives (and whom she believes to be her mother) is Madame Snickasnee.  Minx wants badly to go to school and have friends like a regular child, so she sneaks out of the house. She and her new friends experiment with Madame Snickasnee's magic powders, summoning assorted creatures, including a water nixie, a centaur, a fairy, and the pied piper, who rescues a group of children whom Madame Snickasnee had turned into "flower pots" (potted plants) with Black Spell Brew. When Madame Snickasnee finds out, she tries to turn Minx's friends into flowerpots. The beautiful lady that Minx sometimes sees in the mirror is a nymph named "Moonfire," whom the witch had enchanted when she stole the infant Minx. Minx breaks the spell and sets her real mother free by saying, "I love you" to the reflection. At the end of the story, Madame Snickasnee perjures herself in court, and is turned into an anteater. I'm sure this is the same book, but the cover of mine has a different picture - Minx riding on her broomstick, illustrated by Helen Stone. The only picture inside the book that shows Minx looking in the mirror shows a smallish mirror atop a bureau, not a full-length mirror, and it is Minx's own reflection in the mirror in that picture. There is another edition of Little Witch, illustrated by Lisl Weil, which shows on the cover Minx holding a broom, possibly sweeping, with Madame Snickasnee standing on one side of her, and Scorcher, the black cat, on the other. There may be other editions as well, that do show the mirror on the cover?
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch.  I'm sure this is in solved mysteries.
M366: Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. See Solved Mysteries. BTW, there were two illustrators for the book, and one - the prolific Lisl Weil - died at age 95 in February of 2006.  The other was Helen Stone  (you can google their artwork).  By the way, Bennett was born in 1914 and is possibly still alive in 2006 - in Southampton, NY! She only wrote one other book, I think. Don't know if it's a kid's book or not.
Anna E. Bennett , Little Witch, Scholastic (August 1976).  Madame Snickasee is a witch who's fond of turning local townfolk into flowerpots when they get in her way. Whe daughter Minx goes to school and makes some friends, her investigations into the magical potions in the house lead to surprises and a happy ending for Minx.
Little Witch.  I don't have any other info, but I also remember the mother in the mirror, smiling at the girl. I'm pretty sure this is the same book.
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This was a children's book I remember reading around 1976 or so.  There was a young girl (early teens?) being held by a witch (I think against her will?), and every night the witch went out, and told the girl not to leave or use any of her things.  And every night the girl used the witch's cauldron and some of her test ingredients - they were either powders or liquids, all different colors.  I remember one night the girl used red and yellow together, and they didn't mix, they stayed on opposite sides of the cauldron.  I believe that one made a clown? The girl might have been named Blanche or Blythe.

Bennett, Anna Elizabeth, Little Witch.  See Solved mysteries.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch. (1956 approx)  Sounds like Little Witch, see solved mysteries L. Minx is an unhappy little girl, mistreated by the evil witch, not allowed to have friends. When the witch mother goes out at night, Minx uses the witch's colored powders and cauldron to try and conjure a good fairy to help her. The witch turns the neighbor children into flowerpots when they bother her.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch. (1953)  This is definitely it. See the solved page for more details.
Girl tests witch's ingredients  - Sounds like Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, again!
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I remember loving the following book in first grade, which was 1969 - 1970. It was about a little girl ( a little witch, I think) who lived with a very mean witch whom she believed to be her mother.  She was very unhappy.  The mean witch used to go out and leave her at home by herself, and sometimes she would see a sad, lovely lady in a mirror, who turned out, in the happy ending, to be her mother.  At least, I think it goes something like that. There is pretty definitely a mirror involved, and a mystery about this mysterious lady. I would love to read this book again. Thank you so much if you can help.

Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch, 1953. Details match exactly.
The book is without a doubt Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.
This sounds more like Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Lippincott, 1953.  Unless it was also published as Weeny Witch?
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch
Thank you, I did figure out that this was LITTLE WITCH   while searching the site before the book stumper was even posted, but I also discovered that I'd read and remembered WEENY WITCH, so now I will get both for my nine-year-old daughter.  Thanks to all who helped!



Little Witch (Preussler)
I read a book as a child back in the late 80s. The story is about a witch or maybe an old lady. I remember the book was hardcover (possibly brown) and the illustrations inside were simple line drawings. I'm thinking the witch/woman lived in the forest or woods. She may have had a crow or a raven. I actually can't remember the story at all, but a few days ago the illustrations came to mind. I know my sketchy details make this a long shot, but maybe someone out there knows the book I'm thinking about?

Lorna Balian, Sometimes it's Turkey, Sometimes it's Feathers. A little old lady, Mrs. Gumm, finds an egg in the forest. She and her cat watch it hatch, then eat everything in sight. The implication is that they're fattening it up for Thanksgiving, but then the turkey ends up eating at the table with them.  A long shot, but the drawings are line drawings, and the pages are a darkish brown color.
Sometimes it's Turkey, Sometimes it's Feathers isn't the correct book. Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe someone else has an idea?
I remember the witch walking through the forest/woods in one of the illustrations. I don't think she's a mean or scary witch. The story might have something to do with her broom? Or maybe a potion? And I didn't mean to be confusing about the look of the book. The cover might be brown, but the pages are white. There are simple pencil line illustrations, though. That's the one fact I'm sure of.
Ida DeLage, The Old Witch and the Crows, 1983. If there's a chance that the witch lived in a cave, maybe this is the one you're looking for?  The old witch disguises herself as a giant crow, to help the King of the Crows drive off a great horned owl who has been terrorizing the crows & preventing them from sleeping.
The Old Witch and the Crows isn't it, either :(
Chris Van Allsburg, The Widow's Broom, 1992, copyright.  This is a very, very long shot, especially as it was published in the early '90s, but here's hoping you got the date wrong! A witch's broom loses its flying power, and she crashes in an old lady's garden. The witch leaves, but the broom stays with the old lady and turns out to be alive. I becomes her friend. Good luck!
Otfried Preussler, The Little Witch, 1979, reprint.  I've solved my own stumper after almost one year! After countless searches, a friend on a message board solved my mystery. This book was written in German and translated to English. I think it was written in the late 1950s to early 1960s. I was right; there is a raven in the book. His name is Abraxas. The little witch is told to be good by her older sisters, who leave her behind for a while. So the little witch helps people and does good deeds. When her sisters return, they're angry at her for being so good. Being good to a witch acutally means you're supposed to be bad. It's a really cute story!



click here for imageLittle Wooden Doll
I had a book in the 1960's about a wooden doll living in an attic. The book was sold with the doll, which had hinged joints, was about 8-10 inches tall and fine yellow yarn for hair.   if I remember correctly, the doll was lonely had no other friends in the attic. Any ideas?  I do not know the author or title. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure this is The Little Wooden Doll by Margery Williams Bianco. Plot summary: "A charming story about a wooden doll that had been left in the attic for many years, and although the mice were her friends, she wished to be loved by a child. How the animals help her to find someone who cares for her is very resourceful."
D74 doll in attic: I think The Little Wooden Doll, by Margery Williams Bianco, published first in 1925 and frequently reprinted, had an edition come out with a wooden doll to match the character. Perhaps the 1961 or
1965 edition.
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I loved this book when I was a child (pre-1950).  A carved wooden doll was unwanted because she was too sharp (I'm not 100% sure of the title).  Through her experiences over time, her features became softer and she finally found a good home with someone who loved her.

Could be The Little Wooden Doll, by Margery Bianco, illustrated by her daughter Pamela Bianco, published Macmillan 1925, reprinted several times. It's about a wooden doll who isn't very pretty, and is left in the attic
with spiders for her friends.
Another possible is Nobody's Doll, by Adele DeLeeuw, illustrated by Anne Vaughan, published Little Brown 1946 and 1955, 85 pages. "The curious adventures of a wooden-headed doll and Mr. McHugh, a Scottie." "An
old-fashioned doll encounters mishaps aplenty until Mr. McHugh, a dour Scotty dog, befriends her."
D67 doll too sharp: this actually looks like a better bet - Victoria Josephine, by Margaret Baker, pictures by Mary Baker, published Dodd, Mead 1936. Victoria Josephine is "an old wooden doll dressed in a strange
looking gown of white muslin" sent to Diana by her great grand-aunt Jessica. Diana is a rough little girl who doesn't want "an ugly old doll" so the puppy takes Victoria Josephine out to the woods to see the world
instead. She is almost eaten by a cow and a baby, is swept up by a crossing-sweeper and tossed into a rose arbor, found and remade into a sailor doll with a new nose. Then she is 'lost at sea', floats past cows
and fishing children and finally comes to shore where Diana is picnicking. Diana is very happy with a sailor doll and ready to "take him home and love him because he was nearly drowned." The illustrations are silhouettes,
which might help confirm or disqualify this possibility.
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This is a book about a doll who is abandoned by a little girl.  She throws it out a window where it lies in the grass.  Eventually it is pitied by Fairies maybe, or birds, etc. who dress it in spiders webs and foxgloves and beautiful flowers.  I think the book is pre-1950's.  In the 1970's it was reissued in a box with a doll included.  Anyone know this book?

Vaguely reminiscient of Dare Wright'sTake Me Home or The Little One, but I don't believe those abandoned dolls ever get dressed.
Margery Williams Bianco, Little Wooden Doll, 1925.   I submitted the query "Abandoned Doll".  Going through your submissions I found Little Wooden Doll which had a photo accompanying it..and Viola! it was my book.  I got a lot of the info wrong--memories aren't always that good.  Thank you for your web sit.
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my sister had a small book, blue cloth cover (i think) about a small wooden doll who had been forgotten in a cabin or something like that.  Mice found her and helped her get back in shape and was given to a little girl.  There were illustrations on every other page or so.  Would like to find the name to give as a gift to my sister.

Bianco, Margery Williams, The Little Wooden Doll, 1926.



Littlest Snowman
Probably published late 60s or early 70s. On the cover, as if from a distance, kids are sledding down snowy ice cream splotched hills. Some kids are eating the icecream splotches. The story line is possibly that an ice cream factory or store explodes, covering the hills with ice cream.  Please help!

Charles Tazewell, The Littlest Snowman,
orig 1955, illust 1958, copyright.  There is a book called The Littlest Snowman where on a fresh snowy Christmas-time morning a little boy makes The Littlest Snowman.  The Littlest Snowman comes to life when his heart is pressed in place.  The townspeople parade to the center of town where the biggest Christmas tree is all decorated.  The Littlest Snowman lights the tree and the weatherman in attendance predicts a white Christmas.  Later, the Snow Ball is held and snow people from all over town come to party.  Suddenly the thermometer starts dropping and the snow people start melting.  The temperature stays high for weeks and weeks and the Red Cross is called in to care for The Littlest Snowman who has been getting too thin.  All the other snow people have melted.  It's Christmas Eve and the weather man is very upset that his prediction was wrong and there won't be any snow for Christmas morning.  They go and buy all the flavored ices at the factory and the Littlest Snowman eats them all up and gets very fat again.  He climbs to the top of  the Christmas tree and lets the wind blow him all over town all night long.  All the different flavored ices spread all over town in drifts of rainbow-colored snow.  It is a most beautiful  Christmas morning and the townspeople look for the Littlest Snowman, but of course, he's missing.  Everyone gathers up the white part of the snow and takes it to the little boy who made him.  The little boy builds him again and feeds him four gallons of ice cream.  They place him back on top of the big tree where his heart is still laying.  They place his heart back on and he enjoys all Christmas week watching from the top of the tree.   So, could this be the book you remember?  It was and is one of my favorite childhood books.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANKYOU!!!!!! This is the book. I definitely got the book cover description wrong and some of the details, but this is definitely the book!!!! A 20 year search is over.  THANK YOU!!!


Littlest Star
I was just wondering if this story rings a bell, and if you might have it in your magical shop. The story involves two sisters, an older (about nine or eleven) and a younger who is about five, and I *think* named Susie. The older sister takes ballet lessons, and Susie does too. One day she goes into the city with her big sister to attend her ballet class. It turns out that the dance teacher needs a child for a small part in a recital and the little girl gets the part. The book was published around 1965-ish, was approximately 12"x10", had a dusty pink binding with a shiny tip-on cover, was probably a 48 page layout (including pasted down sides) and I remember the illustrations as being pen and ink with watercolor washes on it.

Book Stumper S58 about Susie and ballet could be On Your Toes Susie by Lee Wyndham.  I can't really remember the story but the title sounds right on.
The cover blurb for On your toes, Susie! makes me think it isn't the right one.  Susie has waited three years and finally gets pink toe shoes, but now has to compete against the new girl, Mimi.  And then Susie sprains her ankle just before the big recital (oh, no!).  However, there is "A note to parents" by the author at the end of this book that indicates this is part of a series, which began with A Dance for Susie, in which she received pre-ballet training at age six.  Other books in the series are Susie and the dancing cat and Susie and the ballet family.
Other details that might help tell if this is the right series:  Susie's surname is Peters  the school is Miss Mara's School of Ballet.  Miss Mara has a French poodle named Coco.  the city is Ferndale.
this sounds like a good bet - The Littlest Star, by Sally Jackson, illustrated by Dick Martin, published Chicago, Reilly & Lee 1961, 32 pages. "An Easy-to-Read Picture Story. Each and every year thousands of little girls enter the enchanting, magical world of ballet dancing. Susie is one of those little girls who, clutching her leotard and slippers, knows how it feels to be on the sidelines while she watches the older children succeed. Readers of all ages will rejoice as stubborn Susie finds her first success. Here is a book which any first grader can really read alone. Ages 4-8, 8 1/2 x 11" (HB Feb/61 p.101 pub ad) The illustration shown is a line drawing of a little girl wearing a rabbit-eared cap and wide frothy tutu, her hair in two braids, curtseying. One of her slippers is undone.
S58 susie and ballet: more on one suggested - A Dance for Susie, by Lee Wyndham, illustrated by Jane Miller, published Dodd 1953, 56 pages. "Susie, younger than the other girls in her neighborhood, was left out of
everything and had begun to think there was nothing a six-year-old could do. Then one day she saw in a magazine a picture of ballerinas just her age. How she entered a dancing class, studied hard and surprised her friends at the school talent show makes a happy story." (HB Aug/53 p.275) However, I'd put more money on The Littlest Star, by Sally Jackson, after seeing pages shown on EBay. It's an early-reader level story, and Susie is in class with her older sister, when she is offered the part of a bunny in the performance (they need a small child). Susie is told she will only need to hop, and says she can hop and she can dance too.


Living Grammar
I am looking for a poem my 4th grade teacher handed out to help us deal with learning the parts of speech.  This would have been 1957 or so.  The only part I remember is: "Nouns are just the names of things, like 'rice' and 'birds' and 'snow' and 'rings'.  The articles are 'the' 'a' 'and'.  They point out nouns; 'The boy', 'A man'."  The rest of the poem continued on to talk about the other parts of speech.  It was really helpful and fun.  Thanks so much.

Winifred Watson and Julius M. Nolte, A Living Grammar, 1938.  I don't know the poem (I learnt a different one at school), but I typed the first line into Google, and got two hits.  One was this site.   About half-way down is a review of "A Living Grammar".  It quotes the first few lines of the first chapter, which happen to include the first few lines of the poem.  I expect the book itself contains the whole poem.
Yes!  This has to be where the poem comes from.  Thank you so very much.  Another mystery solved.



Living Hope Library Series
I have another book (or series of books actually) that I would love to find again...  I remember they were Christian books about girls who had troubles (some were drug related, crime, sex, etc.) and they were all Titled with a girl's name.  (IE:  one of the books I remember was named SUZIE or SUZI)  I believe in one of the stories, the girl was in jail, and a woman (a Nun, maybe ?) found her and invited her to this half-way house or recovery home for girls. I remember one of the girls left the program but returned. All of the girls basically learned and grew from their experiences and found Christ. Does this ring a bell for you at all ?

?John Benton.  I wonder if the series you're thinking of has anything to do with the Walter Hoving Home (a Christian organization) in New York which takes in young women with drug/alcohol etc. problems. I know the organization used to publish small paperback books with the stories of the young women and the titles of the books were often the girls' first names. I think John Benton, the founder of the organization, wrote the books.
Here are the books in Benton's series: Augie (1984) / Candy (1983) / Carmen (1983) / Cindy (1978) / Connie (1982) / Crazy Mary (1977) / Debbie (1981) / Denise (1983) / Jackie (1981) / Julie (1981) / Kari (1984) / Kristi (1985) / Lefty (1981)  / Lisa (1986) / Lorene (1985) / Lori (1980) / Marji (1980) / Nikki (1981) / Patti (1978) / Renee (1986) / Rocky (1985) / Sheila (1982) / Sherri (1980) / Stephanie (1983) / Suzie (1979) / Vicki (1981)
John Benton, Living Hope Library Series, 1977-1986.  John Benton wrote a series of inspirational books (identified as either "true life stories" or "Christian fiction") about young women in trouble.  According to various on-line sources, titles include Marji, Marji and the Gangland Wars, Marji and the Kidnap Plot, Crazy Mary, Candi, Lori, Nikki, Carmen, Cindy, Sheila, Kari, Jackie, Renee, Lisa, Julie, Lorene, Valarie, Stephanie, Connie, Tasha, Patti, Sherri, Sandi, Denise, Debbie, Terri, and Suzie.  Many of these titles were reprinted in 1994 as part of the Living Hope Library Series.  I haven't read any of these and cannot comment on the contents.



Living in America Today and Yesterday
Although there are a LOT of pre-1975 textbooks I'd like to have, one that particularly stood out was pretty new when we had it in 1970.  It followed Mark and Kathy King, whose parents took them to form a new community in the desert.  I am pretty sure this was in the United States, but in some perfectly godforsaken stretch of Nevada or Arizona.  Mark was eight years old, with blond, curly hair, reminded me of Mark Lester.  Kathy was almost six, with straight dark hair in a page boy cut.  While on the road, one of the kids exclaimed about a "mountain" and their father said he'd show them mountains that would make that look like a hill and Mark said, "I want to see the mountain that will make that look like a hill!"  Their location was so remote they either couldn't buy ice cream or it would melt on the way home, so for Kathy's sixth birthday they bought an ice cream maker.  The delivery man started to say to Mrs. King, "I brought your--" and she hushed him and motioned towards Kathy, indicating the ice cream maker was a surprise for her.  I know the family's name was King because the town was so new it was named after them, Kingstown or Kingsville.  It was obviously not Kingsport as that would have been just plain silly.  The people had to vote on whether to have a hospital or a park and voted for the park, which concerned Mr. King very much.

Living in AMERICA Today and YESTERDAY by Prudence Cutright and John Jarolimek (editors) Macmillan Co.(1969) The town is Kingston and when the old fashioned ice cream freezer is delivered to the King's trailer the man also brings a large box of ICE!! Through the character of Old Timer a great deal of history, especially history of  Native Americans, is explained in detail. The book does a wonderful job showing how a community slowly evolves and with it the need for schools, fire department, police, TAXES etc. This is the book! 


Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp
Maybe you can help me with this one.... I'm looking for the name of a book and all I remember about it is it was abouta little black girl (maybe with pigtails) and some type of swamp monster. Something makes me think it takes place in New Orleans because I vaguely remember the dialogue written with some kind of southern or Creole dialect. I remember one illustration (I think) where she is standing on a rickety woody bridge leaning over to talkto the monster. This is pretty much all I remember. The first and only time I saw it was when I was little somewhere between 1972 & 1984...  Can you help me?

S7 Liza Lou & the Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer, 1976  A little black girl has to go through the Yeller Belly Swamp to run errands for her mother, but there are dangerous creatures lurking there - including the swamp monster that the girl talks to while standing on a wooden bridge. 


Lizard Music
I do not remember much of this book, just that midway through it, the main charcter (I believe it to be a little boy) ends up following someone or something out on a lake. In the middle of the lake whatever it was he was following dives into the water and the little boy follows. He ends up swimming into some kind of invisble barrier, but finds his way around it buy diving way deep to go underneath. When he emerges from the water he comes upon an island that he has never notice on this lake before. As he starts to explore the island he discovers that the inhabitants are lizards. However not your ordinary lizards for they live within a city inside house ect. I do remember this book be quite the adventure and bing almost some what scary. However I was only around 8 or 9 when I read it (85-86). I also rember it being along book, probably 100 pages or more. I think that the cover may have also had a picture of the lake with the island in the back ground. I would love to rediscover this book so I can pass it onto my neices and nephew. I think they would enjoy as much as I did. Thanks in advance for anyone who can help, it is appreciated. Best wishes!

Daniel Pinkwater, Lizard Music, c. 1976.  Definitely.
Daniel M. Pinkwater, Lizard Music.  If the names Walter Cronkite, Claudia, Chicken Man, and Reynold ring bells for you, it's gotta be one of my favorite books of all time - Lizard Music.
Daniel Pinkwater, Lizard Music, 1978.


Lizzie's Twins
I am looking for a book that I loved (though it scared the snot out of me) when I was a little girl.  It's a picture book, and I used to check it out of the children's section of the Grinnell Library in Wapppingers Falls, NY ... this would have been in the early to mid 70s. In the book, a little girl loses her doll in the woods or at a park.  I seem to recall that the doll is returned to her, though -- maybe her dad finds it for her? The thing that sticks out most in my mind is an illustration of the lost doll: she is upside-down, at the bottom of the page, her hair wild and a scary look on her face. The reader can see that she has tumbled down a hill, or something.  It's a line drawing, but I don't remember if it's in color or not. Sorry, but that's all I can recall!

The Lost Doll by Pegg Mann, Random House, 1972, 54pg., illus. Could this be the book?  "With the help of a number of city officials, Emily finds her very special lost rag doll."
Adelberg, Doris, Lizzie's Twins, 1964.  I think this is the one -- I still have my childhood copy at home (liberally scribbled-in, unfortunately), since it was my favorite preschool book. I haven'\''t looked at it in years, but I recall the main character lost her prized doll, and it had a line illustration of the lost doll similar to the one described. Lizzie ends up with two dolls -- her "twins" -- since her parents buy her another one in an attempt to console her.  She'd forgotten her doll because she'd started playing with a friend or something.  If I recall correctly, she finds the lost doll herself after a whole season or so has passed -- upside down in a tree stump. If this is the right book, e-mail me and I can actually dig the book out, verify my fuzzy memories, and give you any info you need.
This makes me think of the "Galldora" stories, which are British. The name is an anagram of "A Rag Doll." There may be more than one book - I read some of the stories in the British kids' magazine "Treasure" from the 1960's or early 1970's. The doll, who can think and talk, is always getting lost, which leads her into adventures (even though she can't actually move on her own, IIRC).
I think the second guess posted on the site is probably as close as I'm going to get ... the person who responded offered to look up the book if I thought it might be the one ... since I can't find "Lizzie's Twins" by Doris Adelberg or Doris Orgel, I'd like to ask the person is s/he would be able to post a photo from the book or something ... or even if s/he can confirm the title/author (since I'm finding NOTHING).
D86 doll lost: here's more info if that helps - Lizzie's Twins, by Doris Adelberg and N.M. Bodecker, published NY Dial 1964. "Unexpected events befall Lizzie's doll Beatrice, told in gay verse and captivating pictures." If the illustrations are by Bodecker, who did several of Edward Eager's books, they should be fairly distinctive line drawings. Does the seeker remember whether the story rhymed?


London Men and English Men
Russel and/or Lillian Hoban, late 1960s.  This is a book with many children in it.  Rosemary Rose was called either a friend to man or beloved of men.  Both my daughter , to whom I read it, and I have been unable to find this book.

Russell Hoban, London men and English men,  1962.  Three children, playing at being London men, English men, and Madame Rose Mary Rose, travel across the sea to hunt whales, play golf, and have tea, before leaving on another journey--to school. 


Lone Pine series
During the years 1950 to 1957, when I was around 8 to 15, I absolutely loved a series of books written by someone similar to Enid Blyton, similar to the Famous Five books.  They were about a small group of friends who used to solve mysteries and suchlike.  I'd always get one for Christmas, read it over and over again, then have to save up to buy another one for myself during the year.  (How times have changed!)  I think my mum gave them all away when we emigrated to Canada.  Can you help?  Love your site.

Malcolm Saville, Lone Pine Series, 1950s.  Could this be one of Malcolm Saville's mystery series - Lone Pine or Witchend?
I reckon the books your correspondent is searching for is the series about The Cherrys by Will Scott (I think that was the author's name). They were excellent mysteries as I remember. There was a whole series, the first being The Cherrys of River House. Hope this helps
B101 Blyton-like series: The Malcolm Saville books seem more likely, being about young friends who solve mysteries, rather than a family as the Cherry books are. They're also a very easy read, similar in style to Blyton's
Famous Five and Adventure series.
Malcolm Saville.  I thought some more info might help decide if this query is in fact the lone pine series. The lone piners were:David, Richard (dickie), Mary, Petronella (peter), Tom, Jenny, Jonathon and Penny. They were accompanied by Macbeth - black scottie dog. Some of the books were mystery at witchend, seven white gates, gay dolphin adventure, lone pine five, secret of grey walls, lone pine london. There were lots more and he wrote several other series as well.
Maybe the Enid Blyton type story is A Young Warrender by Ivy L Wallace, characters - Di & Derry, Christopher & Caroline (both sets of twins) & Belinda (Binkie).


Lone Swimmer, Haunted Island
Series of paperbacks featuring either Cindy or Skipper or both, presumably spin-off of the famous dolls.  Mystery/adventure series, one of which was set in Capri, and another set in Scotland, latter featuring a character called Angus.  I guess aimed at 9-12 year olds.   I don't think there can have been many printing runs as I have never come across a second-hand copy in over 35 years (and I have looked!
My query was about a series of mystery/adventure books published in the 60s/early 70s featuring I think Skipper - of the Mattel doll family - one story set in Scotland and another set in Capril??

As a long-time Barbie doll collector whose specialty is Skipper dolls, I can tell you that none of the Random House/Wonder Books Barbie and Skipper doll stories published in the United States fit your description.  However, that doesn't mean that there weren't European exclusives that I don't know about, and there might have been Sindy doll stories published in England.  Also, the Ideal Tammy dolls also had their own lines of books, which is another possibility.

1967, approximate. Note that the doll's name is spelled Sindy.  There are six "A Sindy Adventure Story" books, published by Young World Press around 1967.  LIGHTHOUSE MYSTERY  CURIOUS CLOCK  DOWN TEXAS WAY  DESERT ESCAPADE  LONE SWIMMER  HAUNTED ISLAND.

Solved: Lone Swimmer, Haunted Island et al. Sindy Adventure Series Sindy Adventure Series is right.  Once I saw The Lone Swimmer and Lighthouse Mystery the titles rang bells for me.  Many thanks to whoever solved a 40 year old mystery for me!  Next hurdle is to try and get copies of these books....


click here for pictures & profile
          pageLonely Doll
I'm looking for a book from the 70's (I think!) about a girl who had a doll.  I remember in the book she wrote on the mirror with lipstick and had a tea party with her doll.  The pages were in black and white.  I'm pretty sure it was photographs and not illustrations.  I remember reading it along with another book called Amy's Doll.

Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll.  Lipstick on the mirror sounds like The Lonely Doll, but in that book it was Edith (the doll) and Little Bear who wrote "Mr. Bear is a big silly" with lipstick there are no children in the book.  It (and its sequels) is illustrated with b/w photographs.
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll, 1957? The book had a pink and white checked cover and black and white photographs of Edith, the lonely doll, who writes on a mirror with lipstick.
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll, 1957.  if it's not this one, it might be another of wright's books.
For more on Dare Wright, and available books for sale, visit the Most Requested Pages.


Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson
I had this book in the early 60's about a little girl who stays in bed sick one day and her teddy bear cuts her hair off.  The illustrations are beautiful rosey-pastel photographs of a doll and teddy bear posed to represent the characters, and it was very easy reading.

Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson, 1961. In this book from the series, Edith the doll neglects her friend Mr. Bear when she gets a new kitten, but when she ends up in bed with the chicken pox, she realizes her failure to be a true friend.
I think this is one of the Lonely Doll books by Dare Wright. That was a very popular series -- should be easy to find.
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll series, 1950's-1960's. This sounds like one of "The Lonely Doll" books, about the doll Edith, Mr. Bear, and Little Bear.
Dare Wright, http://www.darewright.com/  This sounds like a Dare Wright book.  The author led an odd life. Her books/stories were told with photos.  She has a website with an extensive bio.
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson, 1961. Pretty sure this is The Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson, one of the Edith, the Lonely Doll stories by Dare Wright. It might be the one that caused all the controversy when Edith got spanked by Mr. Bear!
SOLVED:
Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson



Loner
I read this book in the late '70s or early '80s but it was probably written during the '50s and it's almost certainly set in the Depression. A boy in his mid-teens has no name because he never had a family. He subsists as a migrant farm worker, and occasionally he joins with other workers. Once a girl whom he has, rarely, befriended is about to name him, but just as she is going to utter the name a threshing machine kills her. Eventually he arrives at an older woman's solo sheep ranch. They mistrust each other, probably there is a dog, either his or hers, who makes for problems but then solves them and the woman eventually names him David, because now he is a shepherd. It is a very moody, expressionless book, as emotionless as the boy is. Naturally with the name come proper human emotions and attachments and maturity.

Wier, Ester, The Loner. McKay 1964.  Pretty sure this is it. "He has no home, no name, nothing. Once he remembers, there was a mother who was nice to him, but that was too long ago." "A touching story of a young boy with no name, no home, no parents, who makes his way in life." He is taken in by a woman sheep rancher called Boss, who names him David. Later published by Scholastic, and a Newbery Award winner.
Ester Wier, The Loner.  Although this book's publisher and date are Scholastic and 1991, I wonder if it's a reprint, because this is what I was looking for. I found it on a list of books &c for children about homelessness.
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I can only remember that the boy is either a runaway or orphan (he is locked in a shed of some kind before he escapes?) and during his adventure he meets a friend (on a farm?) who eventually dies in a farming accident (possibly a hay baler). Could have been written anytime from the seventies to the very early nineties. Seems like the target was for young adults. Wish I remembered more. I was in the 6th grade. Please help!

Esther Wier's 1962 Newbery Honor book, The Loner, includes such an incident right at the start. The boy wasn't locked in a shed but he did live alone on the fringes of migrant society.
Ester Weir, The Loner.  That's the book! Thank you so much, it's been driving me crazy.
Henry Alain- Fournier, Le Grand Meaulnes (the Wanderer),  30's - 40's?  Try this book. It may be the one


Lonesome Traveler
Just ran across your site.  I have been looking for this book for many years.  It was a paperback purchased in early 70s.  Thought "Lonesome Traveler" might be the title...or that "Lonesome" might be in the title.  It is about a boy who lives in Oregon with his aunt and uncle.  The boy's mother is in a tuberculosis recovery clinic in the southwestern US (New Mexico?).  The 17 year old boy decides to walk with his cart, donkey or pony, and dog (?) to see her.  The book is a story of his adventures while
making the journey to his mother.  Many truckers befriend him on the way.  I owned the paperback but it was "borrowed" while I was teaching many years ago and never returned.

L8 -- This one I'm almost certain of: Hill, Weldon, Lonesome Traveler. 320 pages. McKay, 1970, LC 75-114740 "Clem Marlow, on his way from Eastern Oklahoma to visit his tubercular mother in New Mexico, isn't a very lonesome traveler. He has the constant, splendid company of Duke, his dog, and Pedro, his burro, besides the almost daily meeting of new people: Gaylord the black motorcyclist who turns up several times and shares Clem's most unpleasant experience of the trip; Ken Whittle, the truck driver who drops mail, doughnuts, and news from back home; Dixie, with whom he falls in love; and many others. Though a boy on his own trip is no new idea, Clem Marlow has an engaging personality, and his story is fun to read." (School Library Journal Book Review, 1969-70)
L8 lonesome traveller: the suggested title seems like a very close match by title and plot. The only differences are Oklahoma instead of Oregon and burro instead of pony. 



Long Secret
I am trying to remember the title of a book, probably published between 1968 - 1972.  It centers on a young, newly teenaged girl on summer vacation (possibly living at her grandmothers house) - and the story concerns the mystery of notes spontaneously appearing throughout town.  Townspeople begin finding hidden notes left for them in the beginning of the summer, and then it "heats up" as summer moves on-  the cashier is a recipient,  someones dad, even the sheriff. In the end, the main character who has been "trying to solve the mystery" turns out to be the culprit.  I thought the title was something like "the note" or "the letter."

The Long Secret.  Sequel to Harriet the Spy.  You'd remember the girls being "newly teenaged" because part of the story concerns "puberty stuff."
Fitzhugh, The Long Secret, 1965, copyright.  Definitely The Long Secret, a sequel to Harriet the Spy. I loved this - even more than the first Harriet book.  While at the beach for the summer, Harriet tries to uncover the author of mysterious religious notes that appear all over town, and which make her ponder her own beliefs, and Beth Ellen meets the mother she last saw when she was four years old.
The Long Secret, sequel to Harriet the Spy?
THANK YOU!!!  best $2.00 i've ever spent! and even though I remembered several lines from the first page, almost verbatim, I couldn't find this book or any info on any of the search engines.  wow! I've been thinking of this book for years!  ....now what'll I wrack my brain about?


Long Way to Go, A
A paperback, mass market sized young-adult fiction, probably published in the 70's. It's entitled something like JOURNEY OF THREE or THREE JOURNEY HOME and is about three children who are on vacation with their parents. They're left in the hotel baby-sitting service while the parents go shopping and the parents never show up to get them. The hotel is planning to turn the kids over to social services the next day, and the kids sneak out during the night and try to make it homeon their own. The rest of the book is about their journey accross the country trying to evade authorities. En route they acquire some animal companions, a duck, a dog and a horse, I think, and these animals were in the original title of this book. The cover has a picture of the kids and the animals with the ducks wings spread open.

I think the title of this book is The Long Journey Home or The Long Way Home.  And I think the author is Borden Deal.  I have this book on my shelf at home and I'm certain it's the same one; they collect a dog, goose and mule along the way.  The kids' names are Ashley, Brett and Shane, and their journey starts out somewhere in the Florida Keys. **Later...
OK, I have the book in front of me now, and I was close.  It is indeed by Borden Deal, entitled A Long Way To Go.  My paperback copy was printed in 1967 by Avon Books, copyright is 1965 by the author and originally
published by Doubleday.
Also  J6 is not Journey For Three. Journey for Three is about a determined young girl whose parents were missionaries in foreign countries. Her parents died of a jungle disease. She has two younger 'brothers' that her parents picked up in thier travels, one a little boy from India who dresses like a Native American, carries a blanket, has read the Golden Bough  and prides himself on acting very grown-up, and a blonde toddler who went by the nickname 'Fat Buttery' who doesn't like to wear clothes. They were sent back to the United States and she is trying to keep them all together as a family. They show up at her adult cousin's house hoping for a place to stay. He doesn't want to take them in because he's a writer and bachelor who values his solitude and privacy.
J6 journeying kids: the Borden Deal book sounds like an awfully close match, has the original poster ever responded?
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I am trying to find the name of a book.. the synopsis is:  3 children are on vacation with parents on coast of fla. kids  are left with hotel babysitter.  parents are involved in accident and have nothing on them to indicate where they are staying.  hotel is about to turn kids over to social workers but kids hear and decide to walk home to ga. (about 500 miles).   story is about adventures along their journey home.  it's a great book on self reliance.

Borden Deal, A Long Way To Go, 1965?  This is on the solved pages under Long Way To Go, but I'm pretty sure the correct title is A Long Way To Go.  I loved this when I was little, and I can't find it now on the Internet for under $80 or so.  I seem to remember that the little girl named her duck Mr. Man or something like that, but I can't remember the ending.  I'd love to find a copy to read again that doesn't cost a fortune.


Long White Month
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for solving my first stumper (M. Chase's Pigeon Ladies)!!  Here's another one:  I had a book in the mid-to-late seventies that I dearly loved, about a young girl (who I think was an orphan).  She lived with grandparents or an elderly relative until her fairly young, slightly eccentric aunt (or older cousin maybe), who is a writer, takes her to stay for the winter(?) in a remote log cabin in the woods.  The story is mainly about this lonely city girl with no real family learning to be happy with her aunt in the woods, I think.  I remember a major shopping trip for warm winter clothes before they went to the cabin, and a yellow kitten named Marigold, and feeding the birds outside, and I think toward the end, the aunt meets a nice handsome young doctor (?), and the young girl decides to stay there and live with the aunt rather than go back to the city.  And, for some reason, I recall that MY copy had an error on the dust jacket or back cover that called the aunt "Jane," because I remember thinking "Hey!  That's not her name in the book!"  I think the name of the girl or the aunt might have been "Susan," but I know it wasn't "Jane!"  (Funny how our memories work, huh?)  Please tell me you know the book I mean!

Dorothy Canfield, Understood Betsy, 1916.  The poster's description varies somewhat from this book, but the basic plot is similar.  Betsy lived with her great-aunt and adult cousin in the city since she was a baby.  When her aunt gets seriously ill, she ends up with her great-aunt and uncle and adult cousin from the other side of the family in the country.  While she dislikes it at first, this family doesn't coddle her her and she learns to be self-reliant and starts to love it there.  Her kitten is Eleanor and she ends up staying on the farm when the original cousin gets married.
Dorothy Canfield, Understood Betsy. No, sorry, that's not it.  There weren't any older relatives, just the young girl and the youngish (early 30's?) aunt.  Thanks for trying though.
I'd put a small amount of money on this: The Long White Month by Dean Marshall,    illustrations by Theresa Kalab / Published by E.P. Dutton 1942 "Little Priscilla Newell lives with her aunt Millicent in a well-staffed apartment in uptown New York. She is loved and well cared for and managed to the point where she is not sure of anything, except that for just once she would love to have an unplanned day, rely upon herself occasionally, and not worry about taking cold. Then, one day, Aunt Millicent is obliged to go to California for a rest and Cousin Susan takes over… Now Cousin Susan lives in a log cabin in the woods of Connecticut, and she and Uncle Roger, Priscilla's guardian, are good friends. Uncle Roger takes Priscilla out and buys her sweaters and snow suits and all the things she has always longed for. (Aunt Millicent preferred smocks from Liberty's.) Then, in the midst of a thorough-going blizzard Cousin Susan and Priscilla set out in Susan's car, for the little house up in the woods. Priscilla is to remain there for a month while further "plans" for her future are being made. What a month it is for the city child who has dreamed of just such an adventure, but has never experienced it! The bird lore alone in this delightful book is enough to recommend it to any young reader. Priscilla learns to build fires, to cook, to darn stockings, and sew on buttons. She makes friends with the many birds who flock about the little house in the snow, and when Uncle Roger brings her a book of bird pictures she learns to identify each. The pleasant Prescott family, up the road , are an added attraction, and the 'long white month' passes all too quickly. At last there are signs of Spring, and now again 'plans' must be made. Priscilla is desolated for she wants to stay with Cousin Susan. It develops that she may for Cousin Susan and Uncle Roger are to be married when spring comes and live in the big farmhouse across the road from the Prescotts'. The little house in the forest will always be there to use for week-ends, so the story has the happy ending all little girls demand." (from the dust jacket)
THAT'S IT!  I've been trying to remember the name of this book for about ten years!  How do you do it?!  Anyway, I'm thrilled just to know it actually exists because I was starting to think there was no such book, but just out of curiosity, you don't have a copy, do you?
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The Long White Winter, 1946?  Aunt Millicent, who was the guardian of Priscilla, became ill and Priscilla had to apend the winter with her cousin(?) in the Maine woods.  For the first time, the seamstress did not come in to make Priscilla smocked dresses for school, but her cousin took her to a department store and they got all sorts of warm clothes.  The winter describes the birds at the feeder, making snow ice cream and all that neat stuff to a kid from Hawaii. The last time I read the book was from the Eugene OR public library in 1972!  I have been unable to find it at abebooks or alibris under the name above.

I believe you have the title correct, but I couldn't find it either.  Written by Marshall?  Something like that?
Or Walter Dean Myers?  Not that I can find this anywhere...
Dean Marshall?, The Long White Month?  Is this any relation to The Long White Month in your Solved section?  I don't know either book, but they sound similar.
A-ha!  Yes!  That's what I was thinking of!  It is hard to find, but at least I know it exists.  Illustrated by Theresa Kalab, published by Dutton, 1942.
Dean Marshall, The Long White Month, 1942.
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When I was a little girl I used to read a book and cannot remember much about it. I read the book in the mid 70's. There was a girl who got suet from the butcher to feed the birds in her yard so they wouldn't starve. I remember it was very cold and snowy and at night she would warm bricks to put at the bottom of her bed to keep her feet warm. I also remember that she would leave the window cracked and wake up with icy breath. I can't remember anymore about the book but remember that I always enjoyed it and would love to find it again.

This has to be The Long White Month by Dean Marshall.  A little girl who has always lived in a big city goes to spend the winter with her aunt in a cabin deep in the woods.  Another relative sends her bird feed, suet, etc. and she makes a bird book of her own by studying the birds she feeds.  The aunt warms her bed with either hot bricks or an old-fashioned bed warmer.



Long White Month
I've tried to find this book for years - looking in all of the elementary school libraries that I visited when with my children - and now even with my grandchildren.  It is about a little girl (Pricilla?) who lives in a big city but must for some reason go and live with an aunt or cousin in a cabin in the country.  I seem to remember her being fitted for clothes to take on the journey.  Once there, she learns to love her relative and country life and doesn't want to leave.  She watches birds, and I remember the description of her feet in the morning on the cold wooden floor.  The female relative is rather young and has a young man who is very kind to both of the female characters.  I must have been about 12 years old when I read it.  I would love to find it again.

Dean Marshall, The Long White Month. (1942)  I sent this earlier in the week--don't know if you received it.  G339 is The Long White Month by Dean Marshall, one of the best children's books--ever!
To the person who wrote in regarding my stumper:  Thank you - Thank you!  The Long White Month is the book I've looked for all these years - I've just read a summary of it on a Dean Marshall website!!!  I can't wait to buy a copy of my own!  I can't believe I remembered the little girl's name after 45 years.  I've wanted to live in the country ever since.


Look Out for Pirates
I am looking for a book that I read as a child, but I have no memory of the title or the author.  A story involved a small salvage ship that recovered a chest of gold from the ocean floor. The diver wore an old fashioned copper helmeted diving suit, and encountered a shark while recovering the gold.  Somehow the gold was stolen  from him by pirates in a huge black sailing ship that flew the Jolly Roger flag.  The captain of the salvage ship recovered his gold by dropping a large wasps nest onto the pirate ship.  The pirates vacated and the salvage crew recovered their stolen gold.  The book is not a chapter book, nor was it a traditional picture book.  There were a lot of illustrations, but also a lot of text.  The book was about 7 inches by 9 inches and about a half inch thick.  It had very thick pages.  My guess is the the book is about a second grade level.  That is about all I can remember.  It has been twenty-five years since I have seen the book.  Help!  I really want to find this book.

P107: Look Out For Pirates! by Iris Vinton, 1961. A Beginner Book that's quite entertaining.
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There is a childrens Pirate book that i read in 1971 that I've been going crazy over trying to locate for over 20 years.  The cover and the pages were the same stock as the Dr. Suess books.  i believe it was called "Pirates Gold;" maybe.  There is a deserted island and the pirates send a diver to the bottom for their treasure with an old time diving helmet and an airhose.  The cover of the book has yellows and blues in it and the pirates are on a tropical beach.  I heard about you guys on NPR here in Los Angeles and thought the service was TERRIFIC!!!  Thankyou

There is a 1961 Random House Beginner Book called Look Out for Pirates! by Iris Vinton.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Vinton, Iris. Look Out for Pirates!  Illustrated by H.B. Vestal.  Random House Beginners Books, 1961.  First edition, glossy pictorial boards, chid's writing on dedication page.  VG.  <SOLD>  


Looking Glass Factor
A library book I read in the early 1980s. Juvenile science fiction. A girl in the future went to a school where about a third of the students were human-sized cats. She liked science, but her parents were
professional musicians (her father tried to teach her piano) who didn't understand her. She somehow acquired the ability to go through walls, and to put her hand right into solid objects and feel how they were balanced. Any ideas? The title might have had the word "mirror" in it. Thank you!

m47 is The Looking Glass Factor by Judith Goldberger.
I'd just like to add that I saw a page from this book illustrated on EBay and yes, it shows a girl and some human-sized cats 'merging' into a wall or something similar. Looks interesting!
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Cats merging molecules with inanimate objects The main character is a girl who is friends with two cats. It's set in the future and the cats are human size, walk on their two back legs and talk. And they are conducting experiments merging themselves with inanimate objects (the cover of the copy I  ad showed the two cats and the girl, and one of the cats was partly merged into the wall). It opens (I think) with the girl rushing home from boarding school at the urging of the cats because they've had this big breakthrough in their study of how to merge (one of the cats is 'in' the wall). I was fascinated with the descriptions of how it felt to have the molecules of your body interact and co-mingle with those of a wall. Also, when I reread it as an adult I was shocked to read a passage that I think was describing her dad eating pot brownies (?) Please help!! I would love to have a copy of this (my friends think I'm making it up) Thanks.

Judith M. Goldberger, The Looking Glass Factor, 1979.  A young girl and two feline friends continue the research of a famous scientist who experimented with a mental process known as merging.
The Looking Glass Factor.  I think this is it! Do you have any copies of it for sale? I did find it online, but I'd like to give you the business if you've got a copy or can find a copy for me. Thanks!


Lookout Mystery Series
A group of kids living near Chattanoga Tenn. have a club called the Cherokee Club.  Then their younger brothers and sisters form a club called the Lookout club.  I think one of the books was called the Mystery at Lookout Mountain.

Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Lookout Mystery Series, 50's-60's.  This is definately the series you are looking for.  It features a group of kids living in Lookout Mountain, Tennesee,  who call themselves the Lookouts.  The older kids had a group called the Cherokees but they're getting older and not as active in the club anymore.  I'm not sure of the specific title you are looking for in the series.  Here is the list I have:
Mystery at Shingle Rock (1955), Mystery at the Mountain Face (1956), Mystery at the Shuttered Hotel (1956), Mystery at Moccasin Bend (1957), Mystery at the Indian Hide-Out (1957), Mystery at the Deserted Mill, Mystery at Ghost Lodge, Mystery at the Echoing Cave, Mystery of the Dancing Skeleton, Mystery of the Vanishing Stamp (1962), Mystery at the Haunted House, Mystery at Plum Nelly, Mystery of the Fearsome Lake (1960), Mystery at Rock City, Mystery of the Snowed-In Cabin (1961), Mystery at the Shuttered Hotel, Mystery at the Weird Ruins.
Thank you for solving my stumper.  I am most interested in Mystery at Rock City, but would like to collect entire Lookout Club series.  Please let me know if you have any copies or when you get one.  Thanks!
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This is a series of books I read from the library. A group of kids living in some small country town- all who ride horses and who solve mysteries. I think some are siblings- the kids are split into an older and younger group, but I think they actually worked together. NOT Robin Kane. One mystery I remember ended with one of the club members riding into a fair or exhibition on a fire engine in order to get there in time to catch the bad guys and save his sister.

Trixie Belden series.  Maybe these? Here's a link.
Trixie Belden Series, 1940s?  This is just a guess, but could it have been a book from the Trixie Belden series?  The series featured a group of adolescents - Trixie Belden and her three brothers, her rich friend Honey and her adopted brother, and one or two others - who lived in a small semi-rural town in the Hudson Valley.  They rode horses and solved mysteries in every book.  They also had a club called the "Bob-whites" and had a special signal and wore matching jackets.  I don't remember the particular story you cite, but I didn't read all of them.
Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny, Trixie Belden Series.  This is just a guess but could you be thinking of the Trixie Belden series of mysteries? Trixie has two brothers and her best friend, Honey has one adopted brother. Trixie has another friend but she is an only child. The whole group rides horses in many of the mysteries - the setting is in upstate NY town called Sleepyside and Honey's parents are rich and own horses. I don't remember one with a fire engine but it has been a long time since I've read them.
Govan and West, Lookout Mystery Series.  -OOps- should have said that it wasn't Trixie Belden. But it's ok, I already found it on another page of this site. I was thinking of the Lookout Mystery Series. This is absolutely it- I could tell as soon as I started reading the entry. I have confirmed it by looking at covers and synopsis on a few websites. Thanks


 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Govan, Christine Noble and Emmy West.  The Mystery at Shingle Rock. Illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman.  Sterling, 1955, 5th printing.
Ex-library copy in library binding with usual markings.  G.  <SOLD>


Lord of the Rushie River
book I read as a child about a little girl who, when her father is lost at sea gets adopted by swans. I think they steal a dress for her when she outgrows her clothes and her dad comes home at the end.

Cecily Mary Barker, The Lord of the Rushie River.  If it was a very small book it might be this one.  The little girl, Susan, is abused by the people she is placed with when her father goes to sea, so she goes to live with the swans on the river.  At the end, when her father is homeward bound with a lovely embroidered dress for her, the king swan flies over his ship and snatches it, to take to Susan who has outgrown her old dress. Beautiful illustrations.
I posed the stumper and this does indeed seem to be the correct book. I also discovered it has a sequel! Thanks very much, a wonderful service.



Lord Rex: The Lion Who Wished
This early 1970s book is about a lion that transforms itself into a creature. The lion is walking throught the jungle meeting all different kinds of animals and takes on their most beautiful or useful traits. I think the lion is dreaming of becoming a better animal by taking on these traits of the other animals. He acquires an elephant trunk, a giraffe neck, and I think butterfly wings as well as other animal parts. I think he runs into a kangaroo, some kind of bird. He ends up being many different colors and looks nothing like the lion he was and then he decides that he like himself better the way he was. The book is very colorful with small paragraphs on the spreads. I remember that it was a hard cover horizontal book and didn't have too many pages.

David McKee, Lord Rex, the Lion Who Wished, 1973. Just a guess based on the description: "A lion, longing for the features of various animals, has all his wishes granted and becomes a ridiculous-looking animal."
Pène du Bois, William.  Lion.  Viking Seafarer, 1956. angelic artists design new animals for earth; the lion starts out being a mixture of other animals with different colors, but ends up as we know it; by award-winning author/illustrator.
I've got a copy of Lord Rex: The Lion Who Wished and I'm sure that's the right book.  Lord Rex met a butterfly and wished he had wings like hers.  And since she is "a magic butterfly I can grant you just one wish.  You have made your wish and now you have your wings."  And he flies around with his new wings until he gets bored.  When he meets an elephant he wishes for a trunk and since the elephant is "a magic elephant, I can grant you just one wish.  You have made your wish and now you have your trunk."  And so on.....he gets a beautiful tail from a magic bird, strong legs from a kangaroo, and a long neck from a giraffe.  But when he looks into a pool of water and sees a strange creature, he laughs "I certainly don't wish to look like you."  Until he realizes he's looking at his own reflection and gets upset.  Luckily he meets a magic lion and gets changed back into himself and is happy.


click here for imageLoretta Mason Potts
see also: Colin's Naughty Sister
The other one is about a family, I think three children, who learn that there is an older child (Jane?), who is coming home to live.  She has been living with a family named Potts or Potter--on a farm, I think, or out in the country.  The youngest child in the family has a favorite doll named Irene Irene Laverne.  Jane runs away to her old home, taking the doll with her.   There is a bridge she can cross, that will take her magically to a castle inhabited by the Countess, who wants the doll.  The children in the family go after her to get the doll back, and end up wanting Jane for herself.  The author's middle name was either Potts or Potter (whichever one the foster family wasn't named), and the book was new in my school library in the mid to late 60's.  Actually, I'd like to have two copies of this book--one for me
and one for my sister, who's the only other person I've ever met who read this book!
This is the same book as W56 -- Loretta Mason Potts, by Mary Chase, a book I remembered from my childhood and searched for for years. Loretta, an obnoxious child, has a hidden exit in the back of her closet -- it leads through a tunnel, over a bridge, to a castle on the hill (inhabited by the General and the Countess, who treat Loretta royally). One night, her brother, hearing music, follows her and discovers the secret; eventually tragedy ensues when Loretta tries to take a beloved doll (Irene Irene) over the bridge to the castle.
Yes!  Is it terribly expensive?  Because I'd really like to have two copies--one for my sister.  Isn't that funny, that I remembered the "Potts" part, but assigned it to the author--and where did I get the name Jane?  No wonder I could never find it!  Woooo-hoooo!  Hooray for Harriett!  : )
When I wrote to you before, I said that I was interested in two copies of  this book.  However, my sister is not nearly as thrilled as I am (that's because she's only been talking about it 28 years, as opposed to my 33), and says she'll just read my copy.  So--I am only interested in purchasing one copy.  Sorry about that, and hope this isn't an inconvenience!
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The first one was about a girl named Loretta who lived in the hills of America, I think!  She was the daughter of a poor family.  She was a totally obnoxious child but she discovered that if she went through the back of her wardrobe it brought her to a magical castle where a rich couple had balls and parties and treated her as their own daughter.  I have absolutely NO idea as to the name or author but it has been bothering me for years...about 30 of them!  The book had no cover but was illustrated with ink sketches.  The pictures portrayed the people as very tall and thin.
W56 sounds like Mary Chase's Loretta Mason Potts, a book I remembered from my childhood and searched for for years. Loretta, an obnoxious child, has a hidden exit in the back of her closet -- it leads through a tunnel,
over a bridge, to a castle on the hill (inhabited by the General and the Countess, who treat Loretta royally). One night, her brother, hearing music, follows her and discovers the secret; eventually tragedy ensues when Loretta tries to take a beloved doll (Irene Irene) over the bridge to the castle.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!  You have just made my day.  Now I know the name and the author is it possible to get a copy of this book?  Or is it no longer available? You are my hero, once again, thankyou.
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Fantasy novel about a girl who travels in a magic sleigh or carriage over a bridge to another land...She has to go back across the bridge to "save?" something.  Somewhat like a Children's Style Brigadoon. Cover had something to do with the carriage and bridge. Book was fairly worn when I read it in 69-71.

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  I wanted to suggest this book because of some similar elements in the description. The poster might check to see if this is it!!
Chase, Mary, Loretta Mason Potts, 1990, reprint.  I've never read the book myself, but I believe that Loretta does cross a bridge to get to her secret land (and that there's a problem when she tries to take a doll across).
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Author's last name around mid-alphabet, early 1960's.  The family visited a farm to buy fruit, but the older sister refused to go back home. Little brother and sister are at the farm to find her.  They explore the bedroom she has been using and find a secret tunnel in the closet.  They follow it and as they cross a bridge at the end they feel dizzy and strange.  Then the castle appears.  Sister is living it up with the fairies.  Brother breaks a teacup at the castle and hides it in his pocket.  Back at the farm he finds the cup but it is as small as the tip of his finger.  Brother and sister figure out that they shrink when they cross the bridge. They save older sister from the evil faries by wading across the river and staying full sized.

M224 This is LORETTA MASON POTTS by Mary Chase. It's on your Solved pages. ~from a librarian
I'm pretty sure that this book is Loretta Mason Potts by Mary Chase.
Chase, Mary Ellen, Loretta Mason Potts
Chase, Mary Ellen, Loretta Mason Potts. Once again... (what *is* it about that book that it stays in so many people's memories?)
I have been looking for this book for 30 years. I even went so far as to browse the Library of Congress. THe librarian there suggested I contact you. How wonderful!  I loved this book so much I think I checked it out of the library over and over again. Unfortunately, when we moved, I forgot about it and could no longer remember the title. So, thanks again. You have made me very happy!
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Some children discover a bridge behind the house they are staying at - when they cross the bridge they become small and interact w/faeries?  I wish I could remember more.

Chase, Mary, Loretta Mason Potts.  Also published under the title Colin's Naughty Sister.  Loretta is a "bad" girl. She's been raised with the milkman, and when brought home keeps running away to be with her friends in a mysterious castle. It turns out that when she (and later her brothers and sisters) cross the bridge, they are shrunk to a small size.
B340  LORETTA MASON POTTS by Mary Chase, 1958.~from a librarian
Check out all the other people who have searched for this book in "Solved Mysteries" under L for Loretta Mason Potts, or C for Colin's Naughty Sister.  I looked for it for 35 years until I found this wonderful web site.
I have been wondering about these two books for a long long time ... and now I have both the titles and authors and plan on trying to find them.  Your service is a wonderful thing and I am so pleased ... thank you so much.



Lost Bear
1960?  I'm looking for a book whose title I remember as above - but it's NOT the Hirsey(sp?) title.  Nor is it *Alfred the Little Bear* by Binzen, which Mr. Price suggested and which is similar but not The One.  But like *Alfred* the book is illustrated, not by drawings or the like, but by color photographs of the little Steiff bear whose arms and legs move, He gets lost in the Very Back of Beyond, I think, past the fence and the lawn, and meets other nice animals (unlike *Alfed*, these may be other stuffed animals, I don't remember for sure) but in the end finds his way home to the child who loves him.  I think in the last picture he's striding through the grass toward home.  I know this book existed in fact, not just in my memory, because once years ago I found it in Books in Print (that suggests how long ago - way before the internet.)  I would be literally more grateful than I can say if you could find a copy.  Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

Durell, Ann, Lost Bear, 1959.  I just googled this: "Lost Bear. by Ann Durell. illustrated with photographs by Desmond Russell. 1959 Doubleday & Company. The story of Little Brown Bear who lives with 13 other animals in The Very Back of Beyond & how he wishes to be loved by a person.... Illustrated with photographs of stuffed animals -- I believe the bear may be a Steiff bear." Here's a link to a picture of the cover.
Ann Durrell, Lost Bear, 1959.  Could this be the one? Photographs by Desmond Russell. Cover shows a light brown Steiff bear climbing a slender tree trunk, looking over his left shoulder, against a sky blue background.
Durell, Ann, Lost Bear, Doubleday, 1959.  Illustrated with photos by Desmond Russell, cast of characters provided by Magarete Steiff.  I saw a copy for sale - the cover shows a blue sky with a bear climbing a tree branch.
Durrell, Ann, Lost Bear, 1959.  photographs by Desmond Russell.  Cover features small Steiff bear on tree branch - photos appear to be color
Ann Durell, Lost bear, 1959.  Lost Bear by Ann Durell and illustrated with photographs by Desmond Russell and published by Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York I think this may be your much sought after book!!!  The bear is in the woods with many animals (i.e. lion, tiger, rhino, monkey that are all like stuffed animal looking in the photos) and some dwarfs.  The good dwarf has a white beard and a feather in his hat.  The bear is crying and no one knows what to do.  The dwarf is very wise and says that the bear needs a small person to love him.  The dwarf says "You must leave the Very Back of Beyond and find a house with a white fence around it.  In the house you will find a small person."  The bear is tan and carries a red and white knapsack.  I hope you will be as lucky as I was on this site and that this is your long missing book.
Five answers, all the same right book.  What a wonderful thing you have set up - it seems like magic.  I am so grateful to you and everyone who answered.  I'm especially moved by the person who sent in the long, loving description.  Many, many thanks to you and the answerers.



Lost Boy
This was a chapter book that I read in high school in the 80's.  The father of a young teen girl brings home her long lost little brother.  I don't know if the brother had been kidnapped but he was very young...maybe 3 or 4 when he disappeared.  When he comes home he must be about 8 to 10 years old.  He doesn't talk much if at all, and he looks different enough that the girl is unsure if this is really her brother. He doesn't seem to remember anything about his previous life with this family, and his return is awkward for the entire family.  I think the mother had died, and I don't think the family communicated with each other much. In the end the girl finds some marbles in the house that reminds her of a game that she used to play with her brother before he disappeared...a marble game that she had made up.  She plays the game with him and he remembers how to play it.

Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Deep End of the Ocean
.  Your description's a bit vague, but could it be The Deep End of the Ocean? The boy in question, Ben, was kidnapped as a 3 year old child, and finally is reunited with his family at age 9. Your description does fit the circumstances, tho the book has, not marbles, but Ben playing basketball with his brother Vincent. Hope this helps.
Leigh, Frances, The Lost Boy.  (Not to be confused with Dave Peltzer's book of the same title!!)  "An English family living in Sabah, Malaysia, discovers a difficult eight-year-old boy who might be a brother lost in a hospital fire years before. Should they keep him? Do they really want him? "  It's a wonderful story--I first read it when I was a child and I bought a used copy a couple of years ago. And yes, the marbles play a key role in the family finally realizing that this is indeed their 'lost boy'.
Frances Leigh, The Lost Boy, 1976, copyright.  The Lost Boy is the book I have been looking for!  Thank you so much for posting your suggestion.


Lost Dream
I am looking for a book probably published in the 1950's through the early '60s. It is about a little boy that wakes up too soon and loses his dream. He goes to the dream lost and found which looks like an old fashioned department store with each floor being a different type of dream. He goes into an elevator which is made from ornate wrought iron and goes up to each floor. He finds his dream on an upper floor, it looks like a furry lion. They hug. The book's illustrations are ink without any additional color.

Chafetz, Henry, The Lost Dream, 1955.  This book has drawings by Ronni Salbert and is definitely a children's book.


Lost In the Barrens
Help, I have been looking for books that I have read during my youth and have found most of them but not all. The book that I am having a lot of trouble with I can't remember the title or author. I don't have a good recollection of the contents. I read it around 1968 borrowed from the high school library. As much as I can recall: They or he get stranded for one reason or another and are forced to spend the complete winter in this remote region with very little resources. They or he builds a crude cabin and finds out right away the reason for peaked roofs and it's use for venting out smoke. He or they are in the north country on a caribou hunt and I remember something about a stone wall or mound that they hid behind because of the caribou migration. It may have been a hunt for survival. I know this book may be a specialty book. But I had to try somewhere and appreciate your offer. It's not alot of information, but if I could get a clue as to one or two words of the title or author, that would be a great help. Thank you.

I e-mailed you yesterday about a book that I was looking for. I am pretty sure that I have discovered the title. Lost In the Barrensby Farley Mowat. I haven't picked up a copy yet, but I am almost sure that is the book that I was trying to recollect. Sorry I e-mailed you a little too soon, but thank you for your service and I will stop by your website from time to time and see if I can help with anyone else.
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The book concerns two teenage boys, one white, one Native, who follow an expedition in northern Canada. They become separated from the main group and end up spending a winter in the Canadian Arctic.  It's a survival story.

Mowat, Farley, Lost in the Barrens, 1957.  I think that L67 and Y12 might be the same book.
Farley Mowat, Lost in the Barrens.
#L67--lost on Canadian tundra:  Lost in the Barrens, by Farley Mowat, paperback title Two Against the North.  This and possibly its sequel, The Curse of the Viking Grave, have been filmed.  Don't remember titles of the films but the actor who played one of the boys, I think the native, Akavak, had the last name of Shields.  A search at Internet Movie Database for
Shields or for Farley Mowat would probably find these movies.
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The book is about a boy on an adventure in Canada's wilderness.  I remember the city The Pas, in Manitoba, Canada was in the story.  The spelling Pas is correct.  I read the book in the late 1950s.

Mowat, Farley, Lost in the Barrens, 1957.  I think that Y12 and L67 might be the same book.



Lost in the Museum
I'm looking for my sister's favorite childhood book.   I don't have much information though, sorry.  All I know is it's about a kitten named Mimi who  gets lost in a museum.  That's all she can remember. I've looked everywhere I can think of. Can you help? (she's 32 now if  that helps with a time frame) Thanks!

Miriam Cohen, Lost in the Museum
THANK YOU , THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I'll start searching immediatly!! If I find it, I'll be sure and let you know. At least I have somewhere to start now.  You are TOO kind! THANK YOU!!! 


Lost Island
Hi, I am looking for a book I remember reading back in the 1950's, I believe it was my mother's which means it may have been published in the 1920's, 30's or 40's....  The plot line involves a young girl in the Yukon who has been out with her father -- trapping maybe? -- and somehow they get separated, I'm not sure whether they are on an ice floe that breaks up and separates them, or whether he gets killed.  She is left on an island in the Yukon with no resources other than her skills and her sled dogs.  I think the leader of the dog is called something like Henkie?  She gathers food and starts drying it on frames she's made out of branches, and I believe they live in a cave, but then there is a huge grizzly bear that also lives on the island that discovers her food stores.  The rest of the book is how her sled dogs
protect her from the grizzly and how she continues to lay stores of food by for the coming winter.  I believe at the end of the book she is rescued, perhaps by her father?  Or a passing boat?  I loved this book a lot when I was younger, and would love to know how to track it down.  I think the name "Island" may have been in the title, but whenever I tell people that they think I'm talking about The Island of Blue Dolphins, which this isn't -- it is in Alaska/Yukon territory.  Thanks, look forward to hearing other folks' feedback on this one!!

Have you checked out Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George?  It's not as early as what you describe, the rest of the details match.
It doesn't sound familiar but I'll check it out.  Thanks for getting back to me!
#Y3--Yukon:  Sorry, but though similar in plot, Julie of the Wolves was published in 1972--WAY too late to be this book.  James Oliver Curwood was a writer of many titles about Alaska, after Jack London, before Walt Morey and Jean Craighead George, and WELL before Gary Paulsen!  He is worth a try as the author.
Perhaps - Lost Island by Nora Burglon, illustrated by James Reid, published Winston 1939, 261 pages. "A story of Alaska for older girls. Solvig Salstrom is left on her own after her father fails to return from the hunt for a lost Arctic flyer. Solvig manages a team of outlaw dogs, is shipwrecked on a lonely island, and finally succeeds in finding her father." (Children's Catalog 1956)
I'm the one who submitted the inquiry about the girl lost in the Yukon with her team of sled dogs (listed as Y3), and I want to thank whoever it was that suggested I try Lost Islandby Nora Burglon, illustrated by James Reid.  The description sounds just like what I'm looking for.  Haven't had a chance to track the book down, but I'm willing to bet this is it!!!  Thank you, thank you.  I can't tell you how many friends and librarians I've pestered with my questions on this one!



Lost Millenium
I read this book around 1970. It starts in modern times with trials for a new power source that explains the origins of the pyramids as the sites of 'atmospheric capacitors' or some similar term. The story then switches to an account of how a disaster befell the Earth when such power sources were common but became somehow overloaded. The atmosphere was flooded with ionised energy or burnt up and the only people to survive were those who on board a (space)ship of some sort. I recall distinctly that it was published 'back to back' with another story that gave the book a 'double cover'. Other than that, I've no clues to author or title.

Madeleine L'Engle, Many Waters, 1986.  A long shot--I don't remember anything about pyramids, but this book deals with
time-traveling back to the days of Noah.
The format described sounds like an Ace Double. Perhaps the searcher could find a familiar cover or title on this site.
Roger Dixon , Noah II, 1970.  I suspect this is NOAH II by Roger Dixon.  A cover scan can be seen here.  This is a 1970 Ace pb original.  The drawback is that it is *not* one of the long-running "Ace Double" series from that publisher  this is a solo title and not a back to back one.  But since Ace was publishing mostly doubles at the same time, perhaps requestor is remembering it as a double even if it isn't?  Also of possible interest: a short story, "Deluge II" by Robert F. Young, whose depiction on the cover of the October 1961 issue of FANTASTIC STORIES OF THE IMAGINATION shows animals marching two by two through heavy rain into an arc-shaped space ship.  But while this story may have been subsequently reprinted, it was never expanded into a full-length novel.  This one is from memory  I can't find a cover image of the issue on the net.
I have recently tracked down 'Noah II' by Roger Dixon.  Looks like a good read but this is not the book I'm after. In the book I'm after there is no time-travelling. The first section is just a sort of prologue / introduction to the main story which is set in the 'pre-flood' times, as previously mentioned. The 'flood' occurs when an atmospheric capacitor is built in the polar region and overloads because it is too close or could even be over the Earth's magnetic pole. The more I've though about this story the more I recall (I only wish it was the title that I could remember).
I have found out the answer to my request listed under S262: Sci-Fi Take on the Ark and the Flood. The title is 'The Lost Millennium' by Walt and Leigh Richmond.  It is indeed an 'Ace Double' (H-29) as was previously mentioned. I didn't recognise it from the illustration when I first checked them out, and the book has since been re-issued under a new title, 'Siva'.



Lost Playground
I am looking for a childrens picture book that I remember reading in my school library in the 1960's. The story line is of a girl that left her doll outside when she was playing and at bedtime realizes it. Her father goes out into the night to retrieve it. The illustrations are what stick out in my mind, as being pastel chalk perhaps and the human figures were elongated and stylized. Hope thats enough!

Patricia Coombs, The Lost Playground,1963.  The story of Jane and her stuffed animal named Mostly. Illustrated with sweet black and white drawings by the author. I still have this book as it was one of my childhood favorites.



Lost Pond
I think the word "lake" was in the title. I read this book around 1970 and don't believe it was more than five years old at the time. A girl about 14 or 15 and her family lived in the country near what I'm thinking was a wooded area. There is a clearing or meadow in the woods and sometimes a lake is there and sometimes it's not. The girl is friends with, and secretly in love with, a neighbor about the age of 20. Near the end of the book they are out walking and come upon the lake. Im thinking it might have been years since the lake last was spotted. The book ends with the reader being told that the young man will wait for the girl to grow up.

Elizabeth Enright, Gone-Away Lake. 1957.  This was a Newbery Award winner. See more on the Solved Mysteries page.
Hate to disagree with you, but this description doesn't sound like Gone Away Lake at all.
Thanks so much for posting my books.  I just wanted to let you know that D151 is NOT Gone Away Lake. You know I actually thought to include in my description that "THIS IS NOT GONE AWAY LAKE." But I thought it would be obvious that they are not the same so I didn't. Since I wasn't clear in my first description I will try to clarify. - Gone Away Lake is about a young brother and sister who come upon the former lake while on vacation. - Mystery book is about a teenage girl and her family who live in a rural area near where this lake sometimes is. - Gone Away Lake is about an actual deserted lake resort. - Mystery book is about a lake that never stays around long enough for a resort to be built around it. Sometimes it's there. Most of the times it isn't. The location can't even be mapped. People just sometimes come upon it. And when they do it's a real lake, not a former one. When it goes it leave no trace of where it has been. Seeing it was almost like an omen that something good was about to happen to the one who saw it. - Gone Away Lake is not a romance. - Mystery book had elements of romance since the main character, the teenaged girl, is in love with a slightly older neighbor and as the book ends the reader is told he will wait for her to grow up.  I hope these clarifications will help someone identify it. The other thing I remember is that in the library from which I checked out both of these books Gone Away Lake was in the juvenile section and the mystery book was in young adults. I think it was in the same book shelf but several rows up from where the Lenora Mattingly Weber books were, which means the author's name may have been mid-alphabet.  Thanks again for your wonderful service!

Melcher, Marguerite Fellows, The Lost Pond, NY: Viking 1956.  This is one I suggested for another stumper (Jennifer Wish) long ago, but perhaps it's right this time! The Lost Pond, by Marguerite Fellows Melcher, published Viking 1956, 190  pages.  "A New Hampshire village in the 1890s is the setting for this story of Pauline Franklin's 15th summer in the beautiful old house to which the Winn sisters brought their families every year. There are exploring trips in the woods, a reception and dance for an older cousin, a County Fair, and various family activities  but the story centers around Pauline's growing up, ... She knows that Lost Pond, so deeply hidden in the mountains that it is almost impossible to find, has a special secret meaning for all who do come upon it, and at the end of this last summer of her childhood she herself finds it ..." (HB Dec/56 p.460)
I’d really have to see The Lost Pond to know for certain if it’s the one I’m trying to find. Regardless it sounds like a book I would like to read.  Although it has been many years since I read the book I am trying to find I had thought it was set in contemporary times, which then would have been the 1960s. But I will try to find a copy of the book just to make sure. Thanks again!
Please put D151 down as solved with a condition, if that’s possible.  I recently found a copy of Marguerite Fellows Melcher’s The Lost Pond and am certain I have read it. I’m now wondering if my memories have combined this book with another similar one, but still not Gone-away Lake. So while one mystery remains solved I hope your readers will suggest any other book(s) with which they are familiar that may have a similar theme. Thanks!


Lost Race of Mars
Congratulations on this wonderful website you've created! I was wondering if you could provide some information.  I've been trying to find a children's book from the early '70s about outer space that my older brother loved as a child.  Unfortunately, he doesn't remember the author's name or the book's title and he has a vague recollection of the plot.  He remembers that this boy travels to outer space (Mars, the moon?) and, in that place, food is grown inside bubbles. The boy had black hair and was dressed in an astronaut suit.  The book had very vivid and detailed illustrations with writing at the bottom.  Can you help me?  I would be INCREDIBLY AND ETERNALLY thankful if this book is found...  Please respond at your convenience..

O3--The Lost Race of Mars. About a boy who lives in a colony on Mars.  I got this from a school book order in '68 or '69.
Harriett, Hello and THANKS A MILLION for your reply!  I would be SO happy if I could get this book for my brother!  Do you have any suggestions as to what I can do to purchase it?  Also, how can I thank the person who posted the info. on my "stumper"? Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond and for ALL your help!
Wondering about this, because the Silverberg book is a 'chapter book' and the book described sounds more like a picture book or early reader. My guess would be either the Wonder Book Tom Corbett a Trip to the Moon 1953, by Marcia Martin, which has dark-haired Tom, a redheaded boy and blonde girl in space suits, or Peter and the Two-hour Moon 1962, by Hazel Corson, where a boy visits a space station, or You Will go to the Moon 1959, by the Freemans, which has a brown-haired boy in a space-suit.


Lots of Love, Lucinda
Story about a black girl who goes to live with a white family.  The girl has little clothing and the white family buys her nice things.  The black girl comes to live with them to go to school and is hurt due to her race.  Keywords: where's your trunk, blouse, inky, lake girls, robe on door.  Thanks!

Bianca Bradbury, Lots of Love, Lucinda. Could this be the right book?  "When Corry and her family read about a program of inviting Southern Negro students to go to school in the North, they think it's a marvelous idea. And when Lucinda Jackson accepts their invitation, they're even more excited. But now things aren't working out exactly as they had planned. Corry finds her social life changing, and she's changing, too, in a way she finds it hard to explain to her family...or to Matt.
SOLVED: Bingo!  You have hit the jackpot.  I can't thank you enough.  I have been searching for this book and another one I found on your site for ten years or more.  I just got lucky one day finding your site.



Lots of Stories
A35: at Christmas from an aunt (1956 or '57), I  received a very thick book of stories.  In it was a lot of different stories dating from the forties, due to the clothing of the children.  One story that I remember most vividly is about a little girl who finds and unravels a golf ball which ends up exploding in school...whereupon the male teacher keeps some boys that he assumes are the culprits afterschool.  She finally admits to the deed and the teacher is astounded and amused..happy ending!   Anyhow, that's all I can remember from that collection...the illustrations were all black and white.  Some poems may have been part of the anthology, but that is very vague....!  Thanks for any help you can gather...like title, author, etc.  If you do locate it, please let me know its price too.  Thank you in
advance.
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A65: I've been trying to find info on a book I've had since childhood. It is at least 40 years old. Only problem is it never had a cover or title page, etc. It is comprised of individual stories with titles. Some of them are: "Lucy and the Leprechaun." "The Little Red Goblin."  "Big Ruth and Little Ruth."  "Rob Roy." "Peter and the Pumpkin." and others.  My Grandma read us the stories over and over and they have always been special to me. I would like to locate an entire book if it can be identified and is available.
A65 anthology with goblins and leprechauns sounds the same as A84 anthology with missing pages. They're both about 40 years old, both missing the identifying parts, and both have "Lucy and the Leprechaun" "The Little Red
Goblin"  "Big Ruth and Little Ruth"  "Rob Roy" as contents. Neither mentions any authors listed with the stories. Could this be one of the numerous story collections published by Saalfield in the 30s-40s?
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A84: I have part of a book that is at least 40 years old.  It is missing the cover, title page, author(s), etc.  It has chapter stories.  I have always been curious as to the title and availability of this book.  Some of the stories in it are The Little Red Goblin, Lucy and the Leprechaun, Big Ruth and Little Ruth, Rob Roy, The Old Roadster.  If you have any information, it would be greatly appreciated.  My grandmother read us the stories over and over and they are special to us.  Thanks.
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C119: This is a large thick old book with lots of children's stories in it. My Mom had this book as a little girl.  Two of the stories in it were Big Ruth and Little Ruth and the other one was about Miss Hintmaster and Miss Toothpick.  She thought the color of the book was pink. Thanks for your help.
C119 children's bedtime story book: oh my gosh, it's A65 and A84 again, with Big Ruth and Little Ruth, only now we have another story title as well, and a possible colour for the cover. Could it be one of the Whitman anthologies?
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M48: I had a book as a child it is mother goose bedtime story book hardback it is gray and has bubbles on it. some of the storys include estell and the chipmunks, the red headed girl that didnt like red-hair. I have been searching for this book for a long time if anyone has any idea where i can find it or has it I will buy it
There is a book called The Bedtime Mother Goose, published by Golden/Western 1980, but it's the Mother Goose rhymes, and the contents described seem to be stories, not regular nursery rhymes. Maybe The Best Bedtime Stories of Mother Goose, by Anne-Marie Dalmais, illustrated by Violayne Hulne, published Derrydale 1987. No information on the cover or contents, though.
M48 mother goose with bubbles: there is an anthology - Lots of Stories, written by Rowena Bennet and illustrated by Sally De Frehn, published Whitman 1946 (probably reprinted later), which has a grey cover showing a boy looking up at bubbles with little characters in them, could this be it? No complete contents list available, but stories include The Talking Lollipop, The Old-Fashioned House, The Haunted House, etc.
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Okay, it's not quite the score of the Valiant Little Tailor, but pretty good, and would this qualify as a Most Requested?
** A35 Anthology, gender-bending.** A65 Anthology, goblins and leprauchans ** A84: Anthology, chapter, with missing pages ** C119 children's bedtime story book ** M48 mother goose with bubbles **

I have in my hands here Lots of Stories, by Rowena Bennett, illustrated by Sally de Frehn, published Racine, Whitman 1946, 382 pages, 74 stories and poems, including (in stumper order): A Golf Ball Goes to School p.366 - Mary and Jill find two golf balls on the way to school. Mary takes the battered one and unravels it in school while the schoolmaster MacFadden, called "Mister Mac" teaches all the classes in the one-room school. Suddenly there is an explosion, because Mary has jabbed the core of the ball with her pen-knife and the compressed air escaped. Mister Mac thinks one of the boys has brought a gun in and asks each of them, but not the girls. Mary confesses and Mister Mac "laughed so long and so hard that sometimes I hear his laughter in my dreams even now." Lucy and the Leprechaun p.259; The Little Red Goblin p.294; Big Ruth and Little Ruth p.211; Rob Roy (and Katherine Kalahan) p.227 (Rob Roy is also in The Rhyming Cat p.151); Peter and the Pumpkin p.287; There is no story about an Old Roadster, but The Roadster's Secret p.146 is about a new blue roadster with a rumble seat. Miss Hintamaster and Miss Toothpick are paper doll "old maids" cut from advertisements on How to Get Thin and How to Get Fat, and they appear in the story Mother's Game p.76; Down the Chipmunk Hole (Estelle the French doll rescued by chipmunks) p.97; Grandma's Story (redheaded Jane learns to like her hair and name when Bonnie Lynn admires them and stops others teasing) p.116.  The book measures roughly 7.5" x 10.5", board cover is grey, with the title in yellow letters. The head and shoulders of a boy are shown emerging from a black circle. He has a book lying open in front of him and a bowl of bubble-mix, floating above are big bubbles showing characters from the stories, including an elf, a dog with a ball, a bunny with eggs, a boy skiiing. More bubbles are shown on the back cover, containing a rainbow, a jester with a lute, a frost elf, and a kite with a clown face. The edges of the pages are a bright pinky-red, so that opened the book does look pink. (I'd almost suggest it for H32 hot pink pages, but that book was new in 1965-72 and had a white cover) also T73 tree unhappy with self: the poem described, called The Unhappy Fir Tree, appears on p.352 "A fairy walked in the forest/ She heard a fir tree whine/ The other trees don't have to wear/ sharp needles such as mine." "I wish that I had golden leaves/ That glittered in the light/ The fairy waved her wand and changed/ The fir tree overnight." The golden leaves are stolen, the glass leaves broken, and the green leaves eaten by a goat, so the tree asks for its needles back. "And thank you for your magic gifts/ You merry woodland elf/ You've taught me that it's best for me/ Always to be myself." This may be the same poem appearing in Children's Stories Selected by the Child Study Association, also published by Whitman, 1950.
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G103: This is one story in a book of stories.  The book was hard bound, about 8.5 x 11 overall, glossy gray cover, and 1-1.5 inches thick.  It did have illustrations, although they were not the focal point.  The goblin boy lived under/in a mountain and the little (blonde?) girl rescued him? turned him into a good real little boy?  c. 1954.

#G103--Goblin boy saved by girl:  No idea of the solution, but check out The Tam Lin Pages.  This sounds like a much more juvenile version of the story, but is obviously the same idea.  Not long ago there were several threads at rec.arts.books.childrens at Google Groups, which can be accessed at www.deja.com on The Red Shift by Alan Garner and other "Tam Lin" inspired stories.  This one might either appear on that list or should be added to it when solved.
G103 & 104: These both sound like The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, from the 1870s.
G103  Bennet, Rowena, Lots of Stories, illustrated by Sally de Frehn, Racine: Whitman, 1946. Sounds like the story "The
Little Red Goblin" on p.294. The mountains are inhabited by little red goblins who do wicked deeds all night.  One goblin befriends a little blonde girl named Mara and has such fun playing with her that he doesn't keep up his wickedness. He turns out to be Hobkin, Prince of Chimney Mountain, but decides to give it up and become human. When the other goblins turn Chimney Mountain into a volcano to destroy Mara's valley, he decides to put an end to the goblins (by giving their blind fish eyes so they can't be caught!). He is starving into invisibility when Mara gives him the flower from her hair, which turns into the white flower they've been seeking to turn him into a human, and he becomes a handsome young boy.
G103/04 For me, this was an example of being disappointed when I reread it.  Macdonald, George. The princess and
Curdie.  cover illus by EM Pilborough. Chariot  Books, 1882, 1979.
Marian Cockrell,  Shadow Castle, 1945.  Another possibility, though a longer shot.  On the "Solved Stumpers" page.
I submitted this Bookstumper and want to let you know the Rowena Bennet book Lots of Stories, Racine:  Whitman, 1946 is indeed the book I was seeking.  "Little Red Goblin" is the story. 



Lotus Caves
I read this in 7th grade in 1974. It's set in the future and the people live in environmental bubbles. Two boys escape (I think they have some sort of implant that prevents them from escaping but they somehow get rid of it) and they swim through the portals coming from the outside. They find that the air outside is not polluted ( sounds like Logan's Run but it's not). One of their adventures takes them to a cave where there are flowers growing that smell really good and the groung is spongy.

John Christopher, The Lotus Caves, 1969.  I believe this is the one you are looking for. I remember it being about two boys who live in Bubbles on the moon. They take a kind of buggy out exploring the surface of the moon and end up crashing into  some caves that have a sentient plant life. Great book by a great author.
Sounds a lot like The Lotus Caves by John Christopher.
I have two possiblities...  The First one is Journey Outside, by Mary Q. Steele, published in 1969.  "The Raft People live in darkness and travel a circular journey on a underground river. One boy finds his way outside and tries to learn as much as possible so he can ultimately lead his people there to the Better Place."  The second one The Lotus Caves, by John Christopher, also published in 1969.  "Rebelling against the monotonous life of the moon colony, two boys go beyond its boundaries and discover a series of caves ruled by a super-intelligent plant-like being."  Good luck!
Wow! You guys are awesome! I've been looking for this for twenty years and you solve it over a weekend! I love this site!!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you !!



Love and Pasta
Around 1970, I purchased a paperback book at a school Scholastic Book Fair which was a memoir written by an Italian-American male.  He looks back affectionately at his and his brother's growing up with Italian immigrant parents (maybe just the mom was an immigrant) in a house (in Chicago area?) in the 30's or 40's.  The two details that have remained with me are the author's wish as a boy that his mother could make a plain American hamburger rather than a flattened meatball and his memory of having to pick the dandelions from the lawn for use in dandelion green salad.  I would love to find this book again but can't remember its title.  Does anyone know it?

Please disregard the solution I submitted for this stumper - I completely missed that the book was purchased in the 70's.  The 26 Fairmont Ave series wasn't started till much later than that. That said, Tomie dePaola may still be the author, though he was doing much more illustration than authoring in the 60's-70's.  The requester can try looking at the list of his work to see if any titles ring a bell. Sorry I couldn't help after all!
Tomie dePaola, 26 Fairmount Avenue. Not sure if this is what the requester is looking for - Tomie dePaola wrote a series of children's books called _26 Fairmount Avenue_ that fits the general description provided.  The dandelion bit rings a bell for me but I can't recall which book I had read - I'd recommend the requester take a look at one of the first four books in the series, as I read it some time ago and the books were published starting in 2000.
Joe Vergara, Love and Pasta, 1968, approximately.  Could this be Joe Vergara's "Love and Pasta"? An excerpt appeared in Reader's Digest, December 1968 as "I Give You Mr. Charley American". See if the names Joe, Al and Wheezer sound familiar - the narrator and his two brothers. Their father was a constant source of embarrassment - wouldn't use a cash register at his shop, and was indignant when they called dandelions "weeds" because they could be used in salad. At last the boys realize their dad's behavior is in the true spirit of American individuality.
I just bought a copy of Love and Pasta  and it is indeed the book I've been wanting.  Thank you so much.  This site provides such a great service.


Love is a Fallacy
A short story, written no later than the 60's, and probably much earlier- like the 20's-40's.  Setting: A college.  Smart, up and coming, arrogant youth has decided that he needs his room-mate's (who might be nicknamed Moose) girl to be his 'helpmate' in life.  She's beautiful, not too bright, but teachable.  Smarty has a raccoon skin coat, but doesn't set any value on it.  Moose (if that's his nickname), is a popular football player and needs that coat to be more popular.  He agrees to trade the girl for the coat.  So Smarty sets out to teach the girl so she'll be a helpmeet suitable for him.  He begins, the author only knows why, by teaching her logical fallacies, such as poisoning the well and a few others.  She learns quickly, and then breaks up with him and returns to Moose.  Smarty tries to talk her out of Moose and into returning to him.  She is able to refute all his arguments by pointing out which fallacy he is using.  He asks her why she's going to Moose, and she says because he has a raccoon skin coat.  Delicious irony.
But who wrote it?  What's the title?  Where can I find a copy?  I _think_ I originally read it as a child (I was a voracious reader) in one of my mothers' old college literature textbooks- possibly a largish volume with a green marbled cover or endpapers.  But I'd like to find it _anywhere._  I realize it's not quite a children's story, but I did read it as a child =)  Thanks!

The short story is called Love Is a Fallacy. It can be found in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis by Max Shulman.
I'm so excited!  I have looked for this for years, but with neither title nor author, I got no 'forrader.'  Thanks to your terrific service, I now have both title and author, and using that information was able to find the short story I particularly remembered online- within days of asking my book stumper.  You have an unbeatable concept with this page.  Thanks so much!



Love One Another
The last time I remember having this book, I was in 1st grade (in 1981).  It was a small book (red, I think) with different translations of "I Love You" on each page.  On each page "I Love You" was written (with pronunciations, too) in a different language and the little boy & girl characters were dressed to match the respective country.  I'm sure it was illustrated (and possibly written) by Joan Walsh Anglund.

Anglund sounds right, but Library of Congress lists 101 titles,  and bookfinder has a great many, but none sounds quite right. My  copies of Love is a special way of feeling are not it. Closer is a  tiny one called Pour toi, a poem of Untermeyer's translated into  French. You might check with her publisher, Harcourt, or the  publisher of Pour toi: French & European Publications, email address:  frenchbookstore@aol.com {a very special store in Rockefeller Plaza]
Joan Walsh Anglund, Love One Another, 1982


Love You Forever
30 year old Marine looking for book read to him by mother- Story of mother who reads/tells story to young son, includes sentence "FROM MY WINDOW TO THE FARTHEST STAR". At end of story the boy is in same room by window telling his old mother the same tale she told to him as a young boy.

Robert N. Munsch, Love You Forever, 1986. A young woman holds her newborn son And looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him:
"I'll love you forever/I'll like you for always/As long as I'm living/My baby you'll be." She still sings the same song when her baby has turned into a fractious 2-year-old, a slovenly 9-year-old, and then a raucous teen. So far so ordinary--but this is one persistent lady. When her son grows up and leaves home, she takes to driving across town with a ladder on the car roof, climbing through her grown son's window, and rocking the sleeping man in the same way. Then, inevitably, the day comes when she's too old and sick to hold him, and the roles are at last reversed.
Robert Munsch, Love You Forever, 1986. This one sounds very similar.
SOLVED: I did check our local library, check out the suggested book, show it to the Marine, and he does remember that book, does think that the window/star and mother/son stories could be getting intertwined, but that the story he is looking for specifically mentions the line “from my window to the farthest star.”  I don’t know how to post this information in the stumper, and I don’t know how to search for another book with just information of one line- and an old memory- but thank you for you service so far anyway!

Luck of Pokey Bloom and Anything for a Friend
A girl named Wallis who enters contests as a hobby.  Early in the book she says that she was named after the Duchess of Windsor.  I think at the end she won a truckload of peanuts or possibly an elephant.  I read it in the mid-eighties, but I'm not sure when it was published.

Conford, Ellen, Anything for a Friend, 1979, copyright.  This is definitely the book about Wallis, who moves around a lot and always has to explain about her unusual name. I remember asking my dad about the whole Duchess of Windsor thing and why the potential king had to give up his crown to marry her. I loved this book growing up, and all of Ellen Conford's books which are laugh-out-loud funny. Only thing, I don't remember her winning anything but the requester may have mixed this up with another Ellen Conford book The Luck of Pokey Bloom who was always entering contests.
Ellen Conford, The Luck of Pokey Bloom, Anything for a Friend,  1975, 1979, copyright.  Thank you, you're brilliant!  No wonder I could never find it since the only two details I was certain of were actually from different books!



Luck of Texas McCoy
I'm looking for a book that I read between 1984 and 1990 (got it from the school library). It seemed to be a fairly recent book (back then). It was a YA type book. It's about a teenage girl who lives on a ranch or farm, someplace with horses. The family is poor. A teen actor (movie star?) comes and I think that he and the girl at first didn't get along. For some reason I'm thinking that the movie people rented the ranch next to the girl's ranch. The girl gives riding lessons to him. And then they filmed the movie at the ranch/farm and the family gets money for it and it helps keep the place afloat. Either that or they used the girl, or her horse, in the movie. Anyway, somehow it seems to fix all their money problems. Also, I'm  remembering initials in the title (the girl's name, maybe). It was always one of my favorites and I would love to read it again. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Carolyn Meyer, The Luck of Texas McCoy, 1984.  I put this question up and I finally found the book on the internet. Thanks so much for your help. I'll definitely put more books on here.


Luckiest Girl
I read this book around 1980, although it was written earlier. I can't remember the title. The book begins with the main character (can't remember the name) expressing her dislike of a raincoat her mother bought her; it isn't like the yellow slickers that the other girls have. Then she goes to live in California (with an aunt perhaps?) for a year. While attending high school there, she experiences some culture shock and has to move away from her preconceived ideas. During her year in California, she works on a fund raiser: she suggests selling donut holes (very popular in her hometown, but the California kids hadn't heard of them), which was a big success. Also while she is there, a freeze occurs in the town and everyone tries to save their orange groves. In the end, she meets a nice boy and appreciates her coat. Any ideas!?!

Definitely sounds like THE LUCKIEST GIRL by Beverly Cleary. ~from a librarian
Cleary, Beverly, The luckiest girl.  The girl came from Seattle and was teased for her "webbed feet."  Publisher    New York, Morrow [c1958] Summary    A young girl leaves her home and friends in Oregon to spend her exciting senior year in a California high school   I love your site - boy this one brought back immediate memories!
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl
I remember this book as well... I read it in 1969, I think. I believe the setting was the 1950s, and the raincoat the girl's mother got for her was a pink one with a velvet collar.  The girl made a list of things she would do when she became a mother herself in order to "improve" on her mother's "shortcomings."  I believe the list changed
at the end of the book as the girl achieves a higher level of insight and understanding.  I think I remember that she had a crush on a boy named Philip at the new school who had a sunburned nose (he turns out not to be such a nice boy after all).  Sorry this isn't the title and author, but I thought perhaps someone else out there whose memory might be jogged if they saw more details.
This is definitely Beverly Cleary's The Luckiest Girl.  I remember reading this when I was in high school and still have a copy buried in my dad's attic along with the rest of my children's books (3 cartons full)!!!
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl  I haven't read this book in a million years, but I'm pretty sure it's right. I think she wanted a pink rain slicker.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl,  2001, reprint.  One of my favorites, and will probably be in reprint forever.  I especially enjoyed how Shelly blossomed once she was out from under her mother's thumb.  I found this book long, long ago when I was a rebellious teen and I cheered!
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I read the book in the early 70's.  It was about a teenaged girl who goes to stay with a family whose live are more casual than she is accustomed to.  One night of the week dinner is always leftovers, with a platter of scrambled eggs to "fill in the cracks".  She tries pizza for the first time, calls it a "spicy, cheesey, tomatoey dish".  Falls for a popular boy but has nothing in common with him, then realizes she enjoys being with another boy, not popular, but nice.  The last evening of her stay she is sitting on a swing, knowing she is leaving the next day, but happy for her chance to experience her first love.

Beverly Cleary, The luckiest girl. (1958)  Shelley Latham spends her junior year of high school living with the Michie family in California.  You remember details well! On Thursday evenings this "casual family" eats leftovers with a platter of scrambled eggs to "fill in the cracks".  Philip is the popular boy Shelley initially falls for, and Hartley is the boy she has far more in common with.  The swing is a rope at the top of a eucalyptus tree and sure enough, that is the final scene in the book.  You'll find this under the "solved pages".
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl.  Could this be The Luckiest Girl? I don't remember the dinner details but certainly the family Shelly stays with is a lot more casual than her own family, and the part about the boys matches.
Cleary, Beverly, THe Luckiest Girl. (1950s) I'm pretty sure this is "The Luckiest Girl" by Beverly Clearly.  I read it over 20 year ago, and for some reason, the "scrambled eggs to fill in the cracks" was a detail that had stuck with me as well. I managed to dredge the title of the book out of my memory and looked it up on-line, and I'm pretty sure this is it. A girl named Shelly isn't getting along well with her mom, so her parents let her spend a year with her mom's old college roommate, Mavis, in Southern California.  Mavis' family is much more easy-going, and Southern California is very different from home. As the "exotic" outsider, Shelly also gets a lot of attention, especially from boys, and overall had a really good time, grows up, etc. (Did you also remember details about her wanting a yellow rain slicker like everyone else, instead of the pink raincoat with the black velvet collar her mother bought her, and introducing her new classmates to doughnut holes? Those were the other detail that had stuck with me from the same book.)
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl
Beverly Cleary.  This is a long shot, but could the stumper be thinking of Jimmy and Janet? There were originally four picture books, but it looks like they've been reillustrated and combined in a new issue. The four were The Real Hole, Two Dog Biscuits, The Growing-Up Feet, and Janet's Thingamajigs.
Beverly Cleary, The luckiest girl.(1959)  This is The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary (1959)
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I read this in the early 1980's. A girl either moves to California or goes to stay with relatives there for the summer. She enjoys the olive tree they have in the yard and the family likes to hang their laundry out by the moon to dry. She wears a bright pink rain slicker with black trim... she might've been wearing it on the cover of the book. I so have a feeling that the book was set in the 50's or 60's.

Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. One of my favorites- about Shelley, who goes to visit the family of her mother's college roommate. She dislikes the pretty pink and black slicker her mother has bought for her.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. Pink rain slicker with black trim.   See Solved Stumpers for this one, I'm sure there will be lots of responses.  Some familiar plot points include the girl (Shelly) eating uncured olives, teaching her classmates what "donut holes" are, and the fact that she hates her pink raincoat and wants a yellow one like everyone else.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. This is in the solved pages and I'm sure you'll get lots of responses!  It's available reprinted.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. This has to be it - Google the book or check the solved stumpers.  (That minor plot detail of the raincoat sure stuck with a lot of readers, me included!)
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. This is a story that Cleary based on her own life, when she went to California as a teenager.  I've read it only once - I prefer her books for younger children - but one of my memories is when the California kids give the visitor an uncured olive to eat and it tastes vile.  I had one of those in Greece once, and ewwwww!  The original dust jacket had her in her pink coat with black trim; The later reprint has a different cover.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. The raincoat makes me think you're remembering Beverley Cleary's THe luckiest Girl, wherein Shelley's mother buys her a pink raincoat with black trim and Shelley has a fit because she wanted a yellow slicker like everyone else.  Shelley gets sent to California  for a year to grow up and cool off.  Did the gal in your book also stuff roses down the garbage disposal?  That's this book, if so.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. Shelley Latham is the girl.  First she dates popular Philip, then she falls for Hartley.  Living in California matures her.
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl. Shelley lives in Oregon and is disatisfied with her life, so goes to live with family/friends in Southern California for the school year.  She doesn't like her pink raincoat in Oregon, but gets compliments on it in California.  Another part I remember is her surprise that California celebrated Admissions Day (we don't anymore, though I remember the day off from school when I was a kid!).


Lucky Chuck
Please help if you can. A children's book, early reader, perhaps second grade level - may be the title is  Doug's Bike, do NOT have the author. Story: a boy gets an old motorcycle, fixes it up, has a run in with a policeman for weaving in and out of traffic.   Mother wants to buy this book if it can be found. Thank you

Beverly Cleary, Lucky Chuck. The boy in this book is Chuck, not Doug, but it sounds like the right one. This is one of Beverly Cleary's lesser-known books but it's a lot of fun while teaching a lot about motorcycles. There's a great review (with pictures) here.



Lucky, Lucky White Horse
I am looking for a paperback book about a little girl who moves to a town and has no friends so a relative tells her a story about having a wish come true if you count like 100 white horses. Everyday she takes a walk and counts horses around town and at the fire station over and over on her way to 100.  As she walks she passes a house with a little girl in the window and as time goes on they begin to interact and by the time the little girl gets to 100 counted horses, she and the little girl are friends.  Have been looking for years, have no idea what the title was, but i loved the story.  A children's book.

H146 This sounds like LUCKY, LUCKY WHITE HORSE by Beryl Williams Epstein, 1965~from a librarian.
Epstein, Beryl, Lucky, lucky white horse, 1965.  New York, Harper & Row.  Illustrated by Mia Carpenter.  Set in Columbus, Ohio.  Ellen is a shy girl and when Ellen moves to a new town, her aunt tells her about the magic of counting white horses.  When you've counted up to one hundred and you walk around the block, you will find a surprise.  Ellen is sure that this will work and so she starts counting white horses right away.
Epstein, Beryl    Lucky, lucky white horse   Columbus, Ohio 1916; Ellen follows superstition of counting 100 white horses to become lucky



click
        here for pictures & profile pageLucky Mrs. Ticklefeather 
Lucy and the Merman

There was a child (probably a girl but I'm not even sure of that!) in her tree house, when a seagull flew over and dropped what at first seems to be a fish.  It turns out to be a merman, whose name is Triton (I feel very sure about that part).  The story then involves trying to get Triton back to his lake or the sea, without the adults finding out.  I think the girl was turned into a mermaid for a while at the end, when she got Triton safely home. Sorry, that's all I have, but it was a fab story!  Hope someone can help.  Thank you!

I remember this, but of course not the title.  I do remember that the book quoted a song or poem: "Flow gently sweet Afton." That might jog someone's memory...
Audrey Brixner, Lucy and the Merman.  Maybe this is the one?
S72 seagull drops: more on the suggested - Lucy and the Merman, by Audrey Brixner, illustrated by Joan Berg Victor, published Scholastic 1977, 112 pages. I have been trying to find a plot description, but no luck so far.
Audrey Brixner, Lucy and the Merman, 1977.  I saw your listing on Lucy and the Merman and thought I would write and pass on some information to you as the listing said you were looking for a plot but couldn't find it. I have this book, and it was one of my favorites from childhood. It's about a girl named Lucy who is lonely because her best friend is away on a trip and she has nothing to do without her. A merman named Triton lands in her treehouse one day, dropped by a seagull that captured him. Triton and his wife Thetis had been searching for their daughter Sabrina, a mermaid who disappeared along the California coast while pretending to be a siren. Lucy returns Triton to the nearby lake, and after finding a way back to the sea and his people he invites her to join them for a day to be a mermaid herself. The majority of the book is Lucy's journey with the merpeople, and at the end she returns home with the hope of seeing them again on the next full moon. The line you mentioned is from a long poem printed at the end of the book, called The Forsaken Merman by Matthew Arnold.  Thanks for the great trip down memory lane. I was thinking of this book and did a search for it on the internet and found your site. As someone who works in children's publishing and was a children's bookseller for a long time, it's so wonderful to see mention of these forgotten favorites again!



Lucy Richards
trilogy

I'm trying to locate an authors name and title of a fiction book I read around 1995.  I believe based on where I was in the library, the authors name will be in the last half of the alphabet.  It was a hardback book.  The story is about a woman, probably in her 30's.  She has a college education and had moved back home after the death of her father to help her mother run their hardware store.  The mother didn't know anything and would order inventory off old orders and stock wasn't moving.  The daughter has turned things around.  She lives with her mother and grandmother in a two story house in a small town (in the south, I think).  The house has  a porch because there is a descriptive scene where it's hot and she can't sleep and she goes out on the porch and can feel the dust under her feet.  The house also has a garden.  There is a description of bees and herbs and flowers.  The young woman decides she doesn't want to be a spinster and looks around town for possibilities in a husband but isn't interested in the locals.  An old college friend (seems like from Kansas or Texas) calls and comes to visit.  They fall in love and marry.  The book has overtones of racial tension brewing.  The newly weds move to the deep south (I think Georgia or Alabama) where it erupts in violence and I believe ends up in the death of a black friend of theirs.  The setting of the book feels like it was probably between the early 1920 - 1940's.  Author really captures the sense of place.  Would love to find this book.  Thanks for any help.

Jane Roberts Wood, A Place Called Sweet Shrub, 1990, copyright.  Lucy Richards helps her mother with the family hardware store and takes care of her aunt and pregnant sister, until the arrival of her long-time suitor, Josh Arnold, brings dramatic changes in her life. Book Two of the Lucy Richards trilogy. The first book in the series is "The Train to Estelline" (Not-yet-eighteen-year-old Lucinda Richards boards the train for Estelline, Texas, in late summer 1911.  She has accepted a job teaching fifteen students in a one-room schoolhouse.  Her contract guarantees $42 a month, room and board, and stipulates she must attend church every Sunday.  As she begins to cope with students too poor to own winter coats, a conflict betwen railroaders and ranchers, and a heated bout between racial prejudice and justice, her romantic notions of independence, adventure, and love give way to the realities of harsh, windblown prairie life, turn-of-the-century morals, and a heartbreaking romance.) The final book is "Dance a Little Longer" (The year is 1931 and Lucy Richards Arnold has moved back to a neglected farm in West Texas with her husband Josh and precocious four-year-old son. Life is difficult, what with drought, the Depression, and trying to run a school in a community with little regard for formal education. But all else pales in comparison when a terrible tragedy forces Lucy and Josh to try to find a way to recapture the joy in their marriage and their very existence.)
Thank you so much!   Within one week some very clever person was able to solve my mystery (D-285).  You're amazing!!!

Lullaby River
In the 90's my little sister had a book with a casette tape about a turtle that plays the banjo and floats down the river visiting other animal friends. It was a book/tape to help children sleep. It may have had the words Lazy or Sleepy River in the title, but I'm not sure. Thank you!

Hanna-Barbera, Touche Turtle. I don't have an exact title for you.  But, I think you may be describing the Hanna-Barbera character Touch Turtle.  Growing up in the 60's, I remember the cartoons on TV and we had some Little Golden Books with Touche Turtle and other Hanna-Barbera characters.  And I'm pretty sure that Touch Turtle serenaded them all to sleep with his lute, or guitar, at the end of their successful adventures.
SOLVED: Linda Danly, Lullaby River. It took a while, but I finaly figured out the book! Thank you for your help though!



Lulu's Window
I am looking for a children's book that I read in the 1960s.  Girl moves to new house with her family leaving behind friends.  Girls in new neighborhood are unpleasant to her because they miss the girl who previously lived in her house.  Finds secret room in the new house that all the girls had used as a clubhouse with previous owner.  This is not Enid Blyton's Secret Room or Samantha's Secret Room or Secret Room at Morgate House.  It's definitely a 50/60's era juvenile.

Here are a few more titles - no descriptions other than they're both juvenile chapter books.  House With the Secret Room by Eunice Young Smith ( bobbs-Merrill, 1956). Karen's Secret Room by Kathleen Mary Duncan (London: Methuen, 1969).
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room
Jean Little, Look Through My Window.  I think this might be it, although the details are a bit off - Emily's family moves to a new house, very big, with lots of rooms.  The room she chooses for her bedroom is way up in the garret, and she finds a box hidden there.  The box turns out to belong to two of the neighborhood girls who had been using the once abandoned house as a clubhouse for their story-writing club.  They are initially hostile towards Emily, but all become friends.
I'm the original requester and it's definitely not either the Jean Little book or the Snyder book (I met her once, she's a WONDERFUL lady!).  I'll try to find and look at the other two.  I'm wondering now if maybe the title word was "Hidden" rather than "Secret"?
Elizabeth Lansing, Lulu's Window, 1954.  I've found it!  The title is Lulu's Window and I've ordered it from Interlibrary Loan.  Thanks to all who researched this for me.



Luvvy and the Girls
I read this book in the 80s, and if I had to guess, I'd say it is roughly from that period, but set in the 1800s.  Girl goes to an all girls boarding school.  She has a friend there, and I think the girl is sort of an outcast, an orphan, I think.  One of them becomes very ill with pneumonia, and I think the main character brings her friend home to be with the family over the summer holidays.  There is some reference to Barbara Fritchie, but I can't remember if she appears in the book at all or if it is just a historical reference to her.  Very good story about friendship.

Carlson, Natalie Savage, Luvvy and the Girls, 1971.  This sounds like the same story.  It's a sequel to The Half Sisters.
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls.  A possibility.
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls, c. 1970.  Luvvy and the Girls is the sequel to The Half Sisters.  I read both books growing up.  I can only put my hands on The Half Sisters right now, though  so I can't be sure that this is what you're looking for.  However, I remember the Barbara Fritchie reference, too.  The school is in Fredricksburg - which was where Dame Fritchie became famous.   Hope this helps!
Thank you all so much!  I'm sure that's it!.
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This book was about school life in a girls school run by nuns. I specifically remember the girls talking about President Woodrow Wilson who
was a bachelor then and whether he would marry Edith Galt who he was seeing, so the book (or at least part of it) had to have taken place in 1915. I also remember one of the school girls fainting and the nurse at the infirmary applying a "mustard plaster" to the girl's feet - which I had never heard of before. The girls also got to go into town from time to time to the sweet shop. I think the book might have been set on the East Coast - perhaps somewhere near DC. The only other thing I recall is that the girls seemed to sleep in a large dorm room together, but in individual beds that had heavy white linen canopies that could close down on all 4 sides.  I read this book from my local library around the time frame of 1972 - 1978.  Thanks in advance for any help that anyone may be able to offer!

Natalie Savage Carlson, The Half Sisters. (1955)  Sounds like it could be The Half Sisters or its sequel, Luvvy and the Girls.  Both took place in Baltimore.  I loved these books!
Luvvy and the Girls is the book! I am so thrilled - I never thought I would find it again.  I am not sure who solved my bookstumper but please tell whoever solved it for me THANK YOU! She/He certainly made my day - if not my year.
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In 1980 when I was in middle school, my favorite book was about a girl my age named Lovey.  The book was about her friends at either a boarding school or private school.  I think one of the characters had a little brother who was also in the story. The book had a pink cover and was hardcover.  Either another girl in the book was named Ivy or it was part of the title.  I never bothered to remember the title of the book because it was always in the same spot at my school's library.  Everytime I see the "Secret Garden" it makes me think of that book for some reason.  There were other books in the series - I think three, but I always liked the original one the best.

Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls.  Sequel to The Half-Sisters.  sounds like the one:  more info here: http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/006454.html
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls, 1971, copyright.
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls, 1950-1960?, approximate.  I'm sure this is the book...one of my favorites too!  Luvvy wants to go to boarding school just like her older half-sisters.  Her little brother is born while she is there.  There isn't an Ivy, but her sisters are Hetty and Betsy, and her friends are Agatha and Amy.  Also, the original cover is pink.  :)  This is the 2nd book in the series, the first is "The Half-Sisters."
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls, 1950, approximate.  This could be the one you are looking for.  I believe it is a sequel to The Half Sisters.  The books take place around Baltimore during the early 1900s.
Carlson, Natalie Savage, Luvvy and the Girls, 1971, copyright.  Luvvy is finally sent off to boarding school, a convent school, that her older sisters attend. This is the sequel to "The Half Sisters".
Natalie Savage Carlson, Luvvy and the Girls.  Maybe this one?  Luvvy has several older sisters and she yearns to go to boarding school with them in "The Half-sisters".  "Luvvy and the Girls" is the sequel to The Half-Sisters and tells of Luvvy going off to boarding school and her experiences there.
It is quite possible that your stumpers solved my book mystery G444.  Turns out that a library around here has a copy of it so I'm going to visit over the weekend to see if, in fact, it is the book that I was looking for (I have to see the cover to know for sure).  Based on the great information that everyone submitted, I can't imagine that it wouldn't be the same book - it sounds identical to the book I loved (and reminded me about a lot of it I had long forgotten).  I'll be forever grateful for the discovery!
G444 Solved - Luvvy and the Girls by Natalie Savage Carlson.  It's the book!  Thank you so much for answering my stumper.  I am so grateful to you all that you have knew this book.  I have a daughter now and so desperately wanted to share this with her.


Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
First my request for a book:  I am in my twenties and when I was in grade school I struggled to read due to my learning problem. The first book I ever read aloud was to some first grader.   The book was about a little boy that find an allegator and made  place it in a bathtub to hide it.  The boy told his friends he was going to bring the allegator to show and tell. His friend did not believe him because he always told tall tales to get attenion from his friends. when the kids saw the real allegator and the boy was telling the truth, the  boy learned  by being honest friends were not hard to come by.  In searching for myself it was suggested that the book might be  An allegater in by basement by captain Kagroo  or An allegator in my Closet and under by bed.  But none of these three had anything the summery above.  The closest title I can think of is something like: The day I took my allegator to school.   It would really mean alot to me if you could find a copy.

I believe you are looking for the book Lyle Lyle The Crocodile. I do not know the author, but my first grade granddaughter tells me this is the story you wrote about. It is a book that may still be in some schools as she has read it recently. Hope this will help you in your search.

Well, I took this advice and found the following:
Waber, Bernard. Lyle, Lyle Crocodile. 1973. $12 plus $3 shipping.
I don't know if you add comments to the solved mystery section or not, but you answered the stumper about the crocodile as Lyle, Lyle the Crocodile by Bernard Waber.  That was not the first book about Lyle.  The original was The House on East 88th Street. There may have even been a third book but I don't recall its title.


Lyrico: the only horse of his kind
Children's chapter book, with many illustrations.  Spoiled, rich New York girl whines endlessly for a horse.  She improves her manners, family friend gives her a flying horse that feeds on the mtn wildflowers her father grows on their apt rooftop garden.  Horse gets sick, family takes it to the mountains to recover, goes on horse-packing trip. Bad cowboy tries to steal horse, removing its magic halter.  It becomes wild and escapes.

Foster, Elizabeth Vincent, Lyrico: the only horse of his kind, 1970. A young girl’s greatest wish is fulfilled when a horse is delivered to her New York penthouse--especially since it is a horse with wings.




 
 
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3/15/13