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E1: Everglades
As I've gotten older I've enjoyed reading books from my childhood. One of my favorites, which was in several school libraries in the late 50's, was about several kids living someplace like the Everglades or Bayou. They explored in a canoe or similar boat. They discover an Island (I think) in the swamp with an uprooted tree. They discover an old Indian grave which has been exposed when the tree fell over. Some time after the discovery they are camped out there and get scared by the skull. As I remember, a professor or archeologist was trying to scare the kids off. The book may have been a Weekly Reader book club book, I'm not sure. Any ideas how to track this down? Thanks!

E1--Sounds as though it may be The Secret of Crossbone Hill by Wilson Gage.
I don't want to be discouraging, but I also don't want to see someone go off on the wrong track. I read The Secret of Crossbone Hill over the weekend and I don't think it's the solution to the book described. The Secret of Crossbone Hill is about a brother and sister, spending their summer at the beach in South Carolina with their bird-watching mom and researcher dad, who think they've found a pirate's treasure map woven into a bird's nest. They go through a series of adventures before they find out it's actually a map showing where a certain kind of rare bird is nesting. The box they find containing what they think is treasure contains undeveloped film, lost by an old man whose hobby is bird-watching and who has been photographing the birds.
I'n not a 100% sure, but E1 sounds vaguely like one of the Happy Hollister books, The Happy Hollisters and the Sea Turtle Mystery.  All the details don't exactly match, but the time would be right. The six siblings, boys and girls, are visiting in Florida and solve a mystery on Sanibel and Captiva islands. It involves Indians, and criminals who try to scare the children away.  I don't think there were any skulls involved.
Might this be The Secret Raft by Krantz?
A few possibilities to add to the mix: Barbour, Ralph Henry, Mystery on the Bayou NY Appleton-Century 1943, hardcover, 237 pages, illustrated by Thomas McGowan. Sackett, Bert, Hurricane Treasure: the Secret of Injun Key Random House 1945, 298pp. adventure story, juvenile mystery, "novel set in the Florida Keys Novel of a boy trying to save his father's land in the Florida Everglades. Map endpapers" Though the boys here look too old to be frightened off by a skull. Urmston, Mary, Swamp Shack Mystery NY Doubleday 1959 illustrated by Grace Paull, "Further adventures of the Arnold children; Roger, Clayt, Dunc, Red, Mark, Linda and Judy." juvenile mystery
Yet another possibility: The Secret of Mound Key by Robert F. Burgess, illustrated by Vic Donahue, published Cleveland, World 1966 "A hunt for buried pirate's treasure leads two boys into adventure they never expected. The exotic swamplands, shell islands and blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico offer adventures of their own. An unusual story of Florida coastal waters. Ages 9-12." (Horn Book Feb/66 publishers ad p.105) More on The Secret Raft by Hazel Krantz, illustrated by Charles Geer, published by Vanguard 1966, 190 pages "Opens as an everyday adventure story of scatterbrained, impulsive Howie Blake and his friends the Matson twins. Starting with an early morning jaunt to see a sunrise on the river, the 3 children discover what they believe to be a trio of foreign agents. On a home-made raft they trail their quarry up the river into the forbidden, dangerous swampland, only to find that their 'spies' are actually a professor with two medical students engaged in antibiotic research on an uninhabited island. Later the children return and help with some of the chores; they are introduced to the painstaking methods of scientific investigation and the joys of eventual success."
Same as C56?    Zapf, Marjorie. The Mystery of the Great Swamp


E2: elves
I hope someone remembers this book. I read it often at my Gramma's house when I was very young (4-6), and it had originally belonged to my dad, which would make it from the 30's or early 40's. It was about a little boy. One night a little elf came down from the sky and took him up to the moon, and then they spent the night painting the stars. There were a lot of elves, all painting stars--it was their job. Since reading the book, I found the poem that goes "Someone needs to go polish the stars, they're looking a little bit dim" or something like that, but this book is NOT that poem.

I wonder if E2 could be The Garden Behind the Moon by Howard Pyle.
This wasn't a Howard Pyle book.  It was a picture book, and the illustrations were in bright primary
colors.  I remember the boy went to bed, and the elf woke him up.  I *think* they rode a rocket to the
moon, but I'm not positive.  (If not, how did they get there?)  They painted stars all night, and then when morning got near, the elf took the boy back home.  I remember a two-page spread picture of stars, all with elves on them, holding tin pails of paint and little whitewash brushes.  And were they singing?  They might have been singing, too.  Aarrgghh!

The Starcleaner Reunion by Cooper Edens, published by Green Tiger 1979 - if it is a reprint of an earlier book? * Later - nope, doesn't look like a reprint.
Not much to go on but the title - Paul's Trip With the Moon, by E.W. Weaver, published New York, Merrill 1912 (c.1899) 92 pages, blue pictorial cloth cover. This looks too late - The Moon Painters and Other Estonian Folk Tales by Selve Maas, illustrated by Laszlo Gal. It was published by Viking Press, 1971, 143 pages, beautifully illustrated throughout with nicely rendered pencil drawings. 15 tales plus a glossary of terms.
not much to go on, but perhaps Karl's Journey to the Moon, written and illustrated by Maja Lindberg, translated from the Swedish by Siri Andrews, published New York, Harcourt 1927. "A slight but pleasing
modern fairytale. Its illustrations in clear, beautiful colors and interesting design make of it a delightful picture book." (Children's Catalog 1936 p.406)
Something about this description makes me think of an old book I had as a child, Greta in Weatherland. A little girl goes out on a dark windy rainy night, opens up her umbrella and is swept away to magic land where weather is made. One illustration has elves or gnomes hammering out sunbeams.
Twinkletoes.  I'm the original poster of this stumper, and my Mom finally thinks she remembers what book I'm talking about!  She says it was called Twinkletoes, but doesn't have any other information.  I'm sure I would recognize it immediately if I saw it.  How about it, Harriet?  Can you finish the puzzle?
Well, there's a Shirley Temple's Twinkletoes from 1936, and a Tiny and Twinkletoes from 1978 by Audrey Tarrant, and also Twinkletoes by Gwen Evrard, Colleen Moore and Thomas Burke.
E2 elves: going only by the title, maybe Twinkle Toes and his Magic Mittens by Laura Rountree Smith, illustrated with full page plates in colour by F. R. Morgan, published Whitman 1919, thin octavo, pictorial cloth boards, decorated endpapers, 6 colour printed dustwrappers, "from the elusive "For All Children from 5 to 10" series, an exceptionally rare title."


E4-A: Eileen and Eddie
This was something I read when I was very young - about six.  It was about two children called Eileen and Eddie who got into some kind of fairyland.  It was all very modern and they got driven around in a car.  Despite the fact that it was written for children, I remember the humour in it being very dry, but I can’t remember any specific examples.

#E4-A:  Eileen and Eddie.  The only fairy story with cars which comes immediately to mind is The Gnomobile by U. B. Sinclair, only in that one, it was the humans who drove the gnomes around, not the other way.  And if
you read it at six, you're truly a genius:  it's about twelve-year-old reading level.  Disney made a movie of it.  Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, from "Mary Poppins," played the two kids.
Possibly The Cinematograph Train by G.E. Farrow (once well-known as author of the Wallypug books), illustrated by Alan Wright, published London, 1904. Bobbie and Evelyn go to the cinematograph (the famous first moving picture showing a train rushing toward the audience) and find themselves on the train station platform. This is Dreamland Junction and they take the train to Fairyland, where a they are met by an odd little driver with a
"well-appointed motor-car". He drives them to meet the Queen of the Fairies - they and the car shrink as they go, to fairy-size. The humour is whimsical and could be called dry. "A stuffed Griffin with a cold is such a stupid thing to be" laments one creature from Nightmare Forest. Fairy baking powder is put into cakes which make those who eat them lighter than air so they can levitate and escape from the evil giant Mam-on who keeps his subjects as slaves. The names aren't quite right - but there's a Prince Eddie in another story, who becomes a Fairy Tale Prince for a while, and discovers it's harder than it looks.


E5: Elizabeth doll
Solved: Elizabeth



E6: Elephant dung
Story line. Short story. Man cleans up after elephants in circus. Getting teased by 2 locals. He convinces them that elephant manure has secret properties (I can't remember what). He not only gets them to do his job but sells them the manure as well. Same kind of twist as Tom Sawyer and painting the fence. I read it about 45 years ago. Wasn't new then. Thought O'Henry but couldn't find it under his writings.

McGraw, Eloise, Sawdust in his shoes,1950.  This is not a short story, but the young man here runs off to join the circus and this sounds like one of the chapters.
E6 elephant dung: another possible title is Elephant Tramp, by George Lewis as told to Byron Fish, published Little Brown 1955. "Lewis was only 16 when he ran away from home and got his first job as a pony 'punk' just to be near elephants. His greatest ambitions were realised when he took over, at varying times, the two biggest and meanest tuskers of them all - Ziggy and Tusko. The book is full of elephant lore and experiences funny, dangerous and disastrous." (HB Apr/55 p.132) Again, it's a book, not a story, but it could have been excerpted.
This is absolutely NOT Sawdust in his Shoes by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. I know and love the book, and there is nothing about elephants in it at all.
Spangle.  Searcher is looking for a short story about a man in a circus who sweeps up after the elephants, gets teased, and turns the tables in a Tom Sawyer's painting the fence trick.  Check out the book titled Spangle. This is NOT a short story but a very thick and heavily researched fictional account of circus life.  It is "gritty" and NOT for children.  However, the elephant dung story appears in the book in slightly altered form and I think the book has lots of references and notes at the end, so it may point the searcher to the original story.



E9: Early American ghost stories
The same aunt who gave me Paulus and the Acornmen also gave us an oversize hardback anthology of Early American ghost stories. I remember specifically there was a story concerning General Wayne and one about Natchez. I think the dust jacket was white with black letters but the words escape me; there was a ?shades of black and grey? watercolor illustration in a square in the center under the title. Usually I remember the image of book covers but I'm not 100% sure of the cover; just Natchez and General Wayne. I'm not even sure it was for children specifically. Kudos to your site and thanks again!

Some possibles - the first doesn't look bad: Harter, Walter, Osceola's Head and Other American Ghost Stories illustrated by Neil Waldman, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall 1974, 71 pgs ISBN 0-13-642991-2,   "Juvenile. Ten stories present the historical backgrounds of ghosts still haunting Valley Forge, the White House and other places in the United States." Baker, Betty, ed. Great Ghost Stories of the Old West Four Winds Press 1968 "A collection of eight eerie, spooky, mysterious, and terrifying ghost stories for young readers that proclaim that ghosts followed the Westward trails of America." Smith, Susy, Prominent American Ghosts Cleveland, World Publishing 1967 blue cover with black lettering, illustrated by photographs.
Another one is Ghosts that Still Walk: Real Ghosts of America by Marion Lowndes, illustrated by Warren Chapell, published NY Knopf 1941 "Sixteen stories of friendly, famous ghosts that still come back in America." The picture of the cover shows a large bare-limbed tree, with a steep-roofed house in the bush behind it, rather dark.
E9 early american ghost stories: more on one suggested - Osceola's Head and Other American Ghost Stories, by Walter Harter, illustrated by Neil Waldman, published Prentice-Hall. 71 pages. Contents include: THE GHOST AT VALLEY FORGE, BLOODY HANDPRINTS ON THE WALL, JAMIE DAWKIN'S DRUM, OSCEOLA'S HEAD, THE HOUSE THAT HATED WAR, THE ACTOR WHO WOULDN'T STAY DEAD, THE GHOSTS OF FOLEY SQUARE, THE GHOSTLY INHABITANTS OF FORT MONROE, THE WITCH IN THE POND, THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLD DOUBLOONS. I don't know anything about
American ghost lore, so I don't know if these correspond to the remembered stories or not.



E14: Efi
Solved: Where's Wally?


E16: Elevator Operator
Solved: Strange but True - 22 Amazing Stories


E19: Encyclopedia Brown with a twist of magic...pre-Potter!
Solved: Lemonade

E20: Eighteen cousins
Solved: Eighteen Cousins 

E21: Enemy Brother
Solved: Enemy Brother

E22: Elmer
Solved: My Father's Dragon 

E23: Earth, behind-the-scenes
Solved: Caretakers of Wonder


E24: Elevator goes back in time
Solved: Time at the Top

E25: Essay Contest Winner wants Bicycle
Solved: Nothing Rhymes With April

E26: Escape Outside
Solved: This Time of Darkness


E27: Everything turned to sweets
Solved: The Sweet Touch
E28: Enchanted Valley, Fairies, Goblins

Solved: Shadow Castle

E29: Elf in a jar
Solved: Poppy, the Adventures of a Fairy

E30: Etiquette and grooming for girls
Solved: Betty Cornell etiquette series
E31: English policeman holds childrens hands

REWARD FOR THIS BOOK: red cloth book about 5 x 7-maybe a little larger. On the front is a London policeman holding two childrens hands,a little girl on one side and a little boy on the other. It has several color picture pages in it throughout the book.I think the first picture in the book has a tissue-like paper over it. I think the story is about a widower with two children in London who hires a mean nanny. The children try to run away and meet a policeman who guides them back home.My copy got put in a garage sale when I was a little girl.Now I want the book back to give to my daughter. The book is for older children.THANKS TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP!!!

Ford, Jenifer, The House in Hyde Park, 1956, illus by Joan Robinson.  I know this is a long shot.
Shaw, Jane, Susan's Helping Hand.  Children's Press 1960.  A bit doubtful about this - some editions do have a pictorial
cover showing a boy, a girl and an English bobby, but the cloth is usually green, and Children's Press usually only had a frontispiece illo, not plates throughout. Plot description is that Susan's habit of being helpful leads her into trouble.
L.E.Tiddleman, A Bright Little Pair (1913 approximate) Definitely the book,but comes in different editions with different pictures on front.


E32: Eloise Wilkin
Solved: A Child's Year 

E33:  English girl, snowstorm brings neurosurgeon
Solved: Zara
2002

E34:  The Easter Hanky Bunny
Solved: The Tale of the Napkin Rabbit 
E35: elephant in closet, different color

Solved: Pink Elephant with Golden Spots 
E36:  European five chinese brothers

Solved: The King With Six Friends
2003

E37:  Elephant's career choice
Solved: Fuzzy Wuzzy Elephant


E38:  Easter egg painter
Solved: Grandpa Bunny Bunny



E39: English children on Holiday
Solved: Five Fall Into Adventure


E40: Easter Bunny magic shoes
Solved: Grandpa Bunny Bunny


E41:  Embalming, sun people, tree people
Solved: The Faraway Lurs


E42: English children's camping adventures
Solved: The Far-Distant Oxus


E43: English kids discover secret tunnel
Solved: The House of Secrets


E44: Eskmo child lost storm igloo
Solved: Their First Igloo on Baffin Island


E45: e is for eagle balding and spralding
I'm looking for an ABC book.  It has in it E is for Eagle balding and spralding and Z is for Zmu

E46: East Indian fable
An East Indian fable about a boy, who when asked if he had learned his writing lesson, replied that no, he had not.  His teached proceeded to beat his for failing to learn the lesson. Apparently in India, writing lessons contain spiritual or moral lessons.  I do not remember what the spiritual lesson was, but later the boy returned to the teacher and told him that he had mastered the spiritual lesson.  The teacher was very ashamed when he realized that the boy had been trying to learn the spiritual message and not just the words themselves.

E47: Ever So Much More So
Solved: Centerburg Tales


E48: Entering a strange city
Solved: Notes on Arrival

E49: Everglades-boy pulls raft to solve swamp mystery
Solved: Mystery of the Great Swamp


E50: Embalming, sun people, tree people
Solved: The Faraway Lurs


E51: Evacuation from Europe
I would have read this story sometime in the 1970's; almost certainly not later than 1980. It is a young adult book.  It concerned a girl(?) who was evacuated from her home during World War 2. What stands out in my mind was that she was relocated to a camp of sorts, not to someone's home. I believe that she attended one camp, returned home briefly, and then went to another camp.  I also seem to remember a scene where the group of young people are trudging through a blizzard, possibly when they first arrive at the camp. There may also be a scene involving peeling potatoes (or I may have that confused with Anne Frank). My memories are sketchy, so any ideas are most welcome!

Esther Hautzig, The Endless Steppe.  Set in Siberia. A likely possibility.
Thanks, but I'm certain that it's not The Endless Steppe.
This is only a possibility, as I don't recall plot details, but you might try The Ark or Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert.
Could this be When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit?
Anne Holm, North To Freedom.  This could be North To Freedom.  That story is about a boy named David.  I probably read it somewhere around 1970-1972.
This doesn't sound like The Ark or Rowan Farm.  the family in The Ark has been displaced from their home in Pomerania and is forced to relocated to a city somewhere else in Germany  later they move to a farm outside the city and Margaret, the oldest girl, helps breed dogs. There is some mention of them living in refugee camps, but that happens before the book starts.
Lois Lowry, Number the Stars.  Could this be Number the Stars?  "Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life."
Levitin?, Journey to America
Ian Serraillier, Escape from Warsaw Escape from Warsaw is about two sisters and a brother who escape from their bombed-out house in Warsaw and end up in several displaced-persons camps in Europe, trying to find their parents. Much of the story is told from the point-of-view of the older sister, Ruth. My copy was published in 1963 by Scholastic, and the cover shows the children walking through snow.
Christine Arnothy, I am fifteen and I don't want to die, 1956, copyright.  I haven't read this in a long time, but I think it fits the description.
Marietta D. Moskin, I Am Rosemarie, 1970, approximate. As I was writing a comment here about this book as a possible solution, the name suddenly came to me!  I was a weird kid and read everything about the Holocaust that I could get my hands on.  I remember specifically ordering both I Am Rosemarie and The Endless Steppe from the Weekly Reader book selections we used to get in school.  Not sure which one had the blizzard, but I will mos def be rereading them both, and then sending them on to my neice, who's another slightly weird kid.  :)



E52: english kid locked in pantry with nitroglycerin
Solved: The Case of the Silver Egg


E53: English teen (or preteen) whose parents are killed in a car
Solved: High House


E54:  English girl in Vicksburg during the civil war
Solved: The Tamarack Tree


E55: Experiment, afterschool homework
Solved: Notes on the Hauter Experiment


E56: Elementary 1950's Reading Book
Solved: More Times and Places


E57: Essay collection
Solved: Christian Mythmakers


E58:  Exchange student -American in Mexico
Solved: Alicia


E59: Exchange students in America
A young adult book that seemed contemporary when I read it in the early 1970s. An American college student befriends some exchange students - I'm thinking from the Middle East. She accompanies them while they look for an apartment and she is struck by how some of the property owners are very obviously prejudiced against the foreign students. She and one of the young men fall in love, and he gives her a saphire ring. They go to a jewelry store where he buys her a gold chain so that she can wear the ring as a necklace. Then his parents summon him to come home because they have arranged a marriage for him. The book ends much like Betty Cavannah's A Time For Tenderness with the girl heart-broken because he won't defy his parents in order to be with her.

E60: eagle nest summit
In the late 60's I believe, I read a book from a high school (or earlier Jr High?) library about a young man who had an injured/withered arm (or congenital birth defect?) that involved his climbing an eagle nest as a symbolic goal to conquer a formidable personal challenge and his romance with a young woman.  In the end, the young man tragically fell or died somehow after a climb that saw him meet his goal, leaving the young woman and her unborn child to survive him.  His will to live freely, to enjoy nature and his zest for life despite some  personal problems was unique. I seem to recall a title that included the word 'Citadel' but have been unable to find the book through many 'Net searches, so that keyword may be an error.  I don't remember the author but have tried to scan author lists for a last name in the middle of the alphabet (I seem to recall finding the book in the middle of the fichtion - H to M -section), but have been unable to find good lists of authors for young people from the late 60's.   Any help would be well worth $2!!

James Ramsey Ullman, Banner in the Sky, 1956, paperback 1967.  This sounds like it.  It involves climbing a mountain in Switzerland called the Citadel in the 1860s.  I believe its based on a true story about climbing the Matterhorn.  It was a Disney movie in the late 1960s-early 1970s.  I checked imdb.com and another name for the book and/or movie seems to be Third Man on the Mountain.
Please note that E-60, "Banner in the Sky" was not the solution.



E61: Elephants stringing pink pearls
Solved: Fuzzy Wuzzy Elephant


E62: EIGHT
Solved: The 18th Emergency


E63: Encyclopedias for children
Solved: Bookshelf for Boys and Girls


E64: Elephants
I have asked at least 6 children's librarians about this and no one seems to recall. I read a book as a young child that had a sick boy, who dreamed of riding an elephant one day. He had some kind of ceramic elephants in his room. One day he really does get to ride a real elephant, it comes with a circus or zoo. It may be set in Britain? Maybe just a city. Thanks.
2005


E65: Ellie?  Emma?
Solved: Never Miss a Sunset


E66: Elephant - little girl with stuffed toy elephant
A little girl has a stuffed toy elephant that she carries around with her in her backpack.  The elephant has a spaghetti stain on or near its trunk from the little girl trying to feed it. I believe the little girl was somewhat sad/lonely/misunderstood.  The elephant may have been her only friend.  Perhaps she had moved recently?  In the early 80s, I lived in Orlando, FL, and I checked this book out of the St. John Vianney Elementary School library over and over again. I think about it all the time, but have never found anyone who has even heard of the book.  It would mean so much to me to be able to read it again.  Thank you for your time and attention.

Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother, 1980s.  This may be way off, but Ramona Quimby had a stuffed elephant, named Ella Funt, that she carried around with her.  In Ramona and Her Mother, she sews her a pair of pants.  She had had Ella Funt for a while, so there may have been a spaghetti stain on her somewhere, I don't remember.
Norma Simon, Elly the Elephant, 1962, reprinted 1982.  This is just a possibility - I can't find a picture of the cover anywhere.  Two summaries: "Wendy and her beloved Elly are inseparable until the toy is left at school one day." And "Wendy tells incidents in the life of her nine-year-old toy elephant who goes to school with her, but never grows older."  Hope this rings a bell.
E66 Shot in the dark, but it could be ELLY THE ELEPHANT by Norma Simon. Wendy loves her toy elephant (one summary said she sings to it?), and then one day she leaves it at school. I couldn't find a picture or further summary, so I'm not sure if this is a match~from a librarian
Thank you for the suggestions!  I obtained copies of both Elly the Elephant and Ramona and her Mother, but unfortunately, neither is the book I am looking for.  I believe my book has more pictures (perhaps in color) than Ramona and Her Mother, and is not long enough to have chapters.  Also, my book feels more modern than Elly, and I'm fairly certain is written for a slightly higher reading level.
Nancy K. Robinson, Oh Honestly, Angela!, 1991, reprint.  "Kindergartner Angela has her problems, also. She takes her favorite stuffed elephant to show and tell, only to find out that she is expected to donate it to the school's Christmas drive for the needy."
I revisited the site for the first time in a while, and the stumper is now listed as Solved: Oh Honestly, Angela!However, that is not the book.  In my book, unlike this one, the little girl and her elephant are the main focus of the book.
Did the elephant go to visit its cousins when it was misplaced by the girl?
Another poster asked, "Did the elephant go to visit its cousins when it was misplaced by the girl?"  This doesn't sound familiar to me, but it's been well over 20 years, so it's possible.  I would appreciate it if you would share the title of the book you're thinking of, if you know it.  Thank you!



E67: Eton student reunions with girl-protagonist
Solved: Through A Brief Darkness


E68: Easter egg, black
Solved: Surprise for Mrs. Bunny


E69: Empty packing boxes
Solved: Christina Katerina and the Box


E70: Elizabeth I
Solved: Elizabeth the Great


E71: Eagle steals baby
Solved: Tatsinda


E72: Elaine going to or from Hawaii
Solved: The Really Real Family

E73: Erin
Adventures, 1950-1975.  I'm searching for a book I know very little about.  I know it is a children's book about a little girl named Erin who has adventures.  A good friend of mine read it when she was a little girl and I thought I would get it for her...She even named her daughter Erin as a result of reading this book.  My friend is 45 years old, so I thought it might have been written in the 60s.  Thanks for your help!


E74: Timothy Chism
Solved: The Runaway Train


E75: alligator under bed/house with eyes
I don't know which grade the book was for because though I was a first grader, I also read my older siblings reading textbooks. This particular book included the story of a boy with an alligator under his bed. The other story I just remember a house with eyes. I think a man may have lived in it. Maybe the cover had burgundy-ish colors? Maybe not. I am 22 now and would very much like to have that textbook once more. PLEASE HELP!!!

Mercer Mayer, There's An Alligator Under My Bed.  Sounds like this Mercer Mayer classic.  Also, 3 of these stories were published together as There's Something There (alligator under the bed, monster in the closet, something in the attic), so that could be the collection you mention.
Some commented in the stumper, but it's the correct solutionThe book I am looking for is not a collection of 3 books. It's a textbook.
[I just noticed this Alligator stumper is filed under E.  I have no explanation for that.  But I'll keep it here so the original requester can find it.]



E76: eagle chicks
I'm looking for a children's book that I read in Australia, back in the '60's, when I was in grade school. (I seem to recall that it was a relatively thick novel.)  The plot centers around a boy who trains eagle chicks to carry him (in a basket) into the air, once they have grown.  That's all I've got.  Thanks for any assistance that you can offer!

E77: Easter Eggs
Solved: The Easter Egg Artists


E78: Eleven children; first four are boys
Solved: But Daddy!


E79: Eve and goblins in shadows
note: I believe this picture book features a little girl named Eve (I think) who sees Goblins the shadows in and around her home. I recall one picture being of a tall book shelf.  I thought the title was actually Eve and the Goblins, but have not been able to find any information based on this title.  It would be at least 15-18 years old. 

E80: Escape Into Light
Solved: Escape Into Daylight


E81: Emergency landing on experimental farm
Solved: The Airplane Boys at Cap Rock


E82: Entomologist
Solved: Henry Reed series


E83: Evil Doll
The book was probably from the eighties or even early nineties.  It was about a girl might have lived in some sort of orphanage or something.  She gets this doll and it turns out to be evil.  She and a friend bury it in the woods one night, and the doll is back in her room in the morning, covered in dirt.  The cover was dark, with a dark-haired girl looking frightened as she held up a blonde doll.

E83 Shot in the dark, but it might be worth looking into THE WITCH DOLL by Helen Morgan~from a librarian
The book was probably from the eighties or even early nineties.  It was about a girl might have lived in some sort of orphanage or something.  She gets this doll and it turns out to be evil.  She and a friend bury it in the woods one night, and the doll is back in her room in the morning, covered in dirt.  The cover was dark, with a dark-haired girl looking frightened as she held up a blonde doll.  I think that the name of this book is a girl's first name.... And although i may be wrong about this, I think that it may be an "A" name, like Anabelle....
The book Im thinking of (see below) is Annabelle by Ruby Jean Jenson: "bandoned by her mother and neglected by her emotionally distant father, a little girl is drawn to an old derelict mansion in the woods near her home. To the lonely little girl the house is her very own castle and it seems to call out to her with a ghostly chorus of voices. Inside she finds a family of dolls that welcome her along with a strange portrait of a woman who smiles down on her like the mother she lost. But this house is no playground. It echoes with the memories of a tragedy that took place nearly a half century ago and the event is still being played out by forces beyond the grave. Dolls come to life, seeking to protect a mysterious girl named Annabelle and a ghostly wraith stomps through the old mansion, crazed with a demonic rage... Ruby Jean Jensen delivers a creepy haunted house chiller with her trademark style and resident killer dolls. A must for Jensen fans and a fun read for horror lovers."
Ruth Arthur, A Candle in her Room, 1966.  Sounds like Ruth M. Arthur's A Candle in her Room to me.  The girl in the book moves into a new house and (I think) finds the doll, either in the attic or in a hollow tree.  The doll's name is Dido, and she is evil.  Somehow, she convinces the girl to do magic.  I remember the girl burying Dido and trying to burn her...and both times she comes back.  I don't, however, remember the resolution!  The cover has a picture of a girl standing over a bonfire, poking it with a stick.
The plot of the Evil Toy returning sounds a bit like Steven King's story about an evil clockwork monkey. I do recall both the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery featured dolls bent on revenge against an evil father figure--the NG one was quite terrifying with her dark eyes and big teeth! She did have blonde hair, would this be similar?



E84: Elizabeth
Solved: The Fairy Doll


E85: Encyclopedia for children
Solved: Childcraft


E86: elephant and boy
Solved: Pete's First Day at School


E87: English-style riding stable
Solved: Pony School

2006


E88: Elf-mortal wedding
Solved: Shadow Castle


E89: elizabethan girl kidnapped by fairies
Solved: The Perilous Gard


E90: Evil Antique Store
Solved: Beware of this Shop


E91: Elephant's coat shrank
late 70s early 80s-grandmother read me kids book about elephant with new coat, but the coat shrank in water?

Tony Brice, Little Bobo and His Blue Jacket. Also published as part of the Rand McNally Book of Favorite Animal Stories



E92: Earth is flooded by aliens
Solved: Conquerors from the Darkness


E93: English parochial school
I'm seeking a YA book about a girl (16 or so) whose father moves them to England after her mother dies.  Her new school dress code is so strict that she is not even allowed to wear the locket that is her very special keepsake from her mother.  I remember one scene where the protagonist is at a rugby match with a guy she kind of fancies, and she feels slightly too dressed up in her American jeans and nice sweater.  Thanks in advance.

E94: Elephant at school
An elephant spends a day in a school and makes things like a biscuit and ( i think ) a cup and other things but all the things he makes a way too big and all the kids get to enjoy the things he makes cause they are so so so big in different ways to their intended use.. it is a picture book from the 60's or 70's..  i would love to find this book..  the idea of the site is a wonderful one.. may it prosper!

E86 (and E94???).  Clevin, Jorgen , Pete's first day at school, 1973.  This must definitely be the solution to E86 and it could be the solution to E94.  The cover shows Johnny and Pete - and Pete is a regular large elephant, so his size could have come into the story.  Pete, the elephant, has happy experiences on the first day of school.  "Johnny and Pete live at number 14 Flower Street. Where do you live? Shall we say hello to them? That red knob is the doorbell. Press it with your finger and say : dingalingaling."  Pete the elephant goes to school for the first time. Reader answers questions at each stop-light. Final story page has a 'blank' TV screen with a message seen only when held up to the light !Cover is indeed white as remembered



E95: Eddie spaghetti
Solved: Spaghetti Eddie

E96: Earth Gone, New World, Dirt
Solved: Journey to Terezor


E97: E Eater machine likes to gobble up Es
Solved: The Book of Foolish Machinery

E98: Enslaved human boy uses rhyme to fly spaceship
Solved: The Silk and the Song


E99: English children find cave
I read a series of maybe four or five books in the early seventies, though the books would have been written earlier I think, in which a family of children, I am pretty sure English, find a secret cave.  I recall that the entrance to the cave is facing out over a steep isolated cliff so is mostly unknown, but they find it by a little hole in the ground, which goes down through the top of the cave.  They build campfires and the smoke goes up through the hole.  There were probably some mysteries involved, but I do not think it was a mystery series per se.

The description of E99 in the book stumpers sounds to me like Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton.  I read a series of maybe four or five books in the early seventies, though the books would have been written earlier I think Enid Blyton's famous five series was reissued in the early seventies, in paperback editions published by Knight books. The series (of 21 books in total) was first written in the late 40s to early 60s. The one I think it is would be Book 3.  in which a family of children, I am pretty sure English  The four children in the series are English: Julian, Dick, Georgina (who wants to be a boy and prefers to be called George) and Anne find a secret cave.  I recall that the entrance to the cave is facing out over a steep isolated cliff so is mostly unknown, but they find it by a little hole in the ground, which goes down through the top of the cave. They build campfires and the smoke goes up through the hole. This is what makes me think it could be this book. In Five Run Away Together the five stumble across the cave quite by accident, when one of them falls down the hidden hole in the ground. Further exploration reveals that the cave cannot be seen from the front entrance in the cliff. Also, when a fire is lit, smoke escapes through the roof hole.   There were probably some mysteries involved, but I do not think it was a mystery series per se.  Well if it is this book, it is part of a mystery series, so perhaps I'm wrong... would be my suggestion though!
Blyton, Enid, Five Run Away Together (Famous Five #3), 1944. I have read this book and I think this is the one the requestor wanted.  Four children and a dog go to a uninhabited island and find a cave with a hole in the ceiling.  They lower their stuff through the hole and lower themselves through it too, to save them having to climb the rocks to the front entrance near the beach.  (which can't be seen from the mainland).
They Found a Cave.  I can't remember who wrote this book, but I read it back in the 60s. 4 or 5 children find a cave - I recognise the description with the secret entrance in the top, and run away to live in it -I think one of them was called Nancy. Only problem I think it was set in Australia.
Ransome, Arthur, Swallowdale,1931. In Swallowdale (the second of the Swallows & Amazons series), the Walker family find a secret cave in the cliff-side of a valley in the English hills. (re other postings, note that one of the Amazons is Nancy).



E100: English girl fears her step brother is a murderer
Solved: I Start Counting


E101: Escaped Slaves join Trail of Tears
Escaped Slaves join Trail of Tears

Scott O'Dell, Sing Down the Moon. (1970)  Fourteen-year-old Navaho Bright Morning and her friend Running Bird are kidnapped by Spanish Slavers and sold. Bright Morning later escapes, but when she returns, she finds her village under occupation by the "Long Knives", or American soldiers. The Americans force the Navaho out of their lands, and onto the Trail of Tears.
Before 1988, approximate.  This was a wonderful store of escaped (or freed slaves) living in the hills. The only parts I clearly remember is an older woman painting an apron for the protagonist. The picture was of the protagonist wearing the apron, so it went on for infinity. Eventually they end up joining Indians in the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. It was a children's book, with chapters that I read in 1988.
Dolores Johnson, Seminole Diary: Remembrances of a Slave. (1994)  Might this be the one you're looking for?  "An African American woman and her daughter find the diary of Libbie, one of their ancestors who was sold into slavery. The diary describes how in 1834 Libbie, her father, and her sister escaped from their cruel master. The family is eventually taken in by the Seminoles. Unfortunately, their peaceful new existence doesn't last long as the United States government forces the Seminoles to give up their land in Florida and move to a reservation in Oklahoma. Illustrated with oil paintings."


E102: Elephant missing; escapes on ice blocks
Solved: Big Max



E103: Egyptian slave girl named Sari
A book my teacher read to us in the early 1970's...I've tried off and on to find it again. It was set in Egypt, there was a young Egyptian boy who was the son of I believe a landowner so was wealthy, and Sari was one of the girl slaves. They became friends. That is all I can remember, other than I loved the tale and would love to find it again.  Thanks!

McGraw, Eloise Jarvis, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, 1953.  I wonder if this book is Mara, Daughter of the Nile Mara is a slave with powerful friends. She works as a double-agent spy and eventually earns her freedom.
Could you possibly be thinking of Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise McGraw?
Definitely not Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGrawCo-incidentally, I was re-reading that one this afternoon, and it doesn't match at all.  Main characters in that one are Mara, a slave, and Sheftu, a nobleman.



E104: evil mirror world
late 80s or 90s.  There were three children and their parents had just died, I think. They end up befriending their images in a special mirror and the images keep telling them what a wonderful world the mirror world is and asking them if they would like to join them in their wonderful, carefree, happy mirror world.  The children do, but it was all a trick so the evil spirits could get out of the mirror where they were trapped.  Now the children have to find their way through the evil, harsh mirror world to find their way home.

E105: Evil dolls haunt and cause mischief
This is such a wonderful site,you have already helped me track down a book from my elementary years. I am currently looking for a book that I remember checking out from the library when I was in 6th grade-1990-and it seemed to be an old book then. It was a collection of short stories about different dolls and in each of the stories the dolls haunted people or caused mischief of some kind. I vaguely recall one story that mentioned a doll found sitting in a chair behind a desk, and this was unusual to a character in the story because the doll had obviously moved. There may have been several black and white sketch-like illustrations and it was a thick book, so it probably contained 10-20 stories. I think the cover may have been a sage or pale green, but this was the protective cover that the library kept on it. I have thought about this book often in the past 16 years, please help me prove it wasn't a figment of my imagination! Thanks!

Could this maybe be The Mystery of the Silent Friends? The three dolls in that one are anamatronic not haunted, but they are at the centre of the big mystery in the story. See solved mysteries for more details.
Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis, The haunted dolls: an anthology, 1980.  Doubleday, 1980. Christie, A. The dressmaker’s doll. Timperley, R. The peg doll. James, M. R. The haunted doll’s house. Blackwood, A. The doll. Jerome, J. K. The dancing partner. Danby, M. The grey lady. Andersen, H. C. The steadfast tin soldier. The Doll’s ball. Hawthorne, N. Feathertop. Tapp, T. The doll. The Life of Aunt Sally, alias Blackmore, alias Rosabella, alias Amelia, as related by herself. Pearce, J. H. The puppets. Manley, S. The Christmas of the big bisque doll. Crawford, F. M. The doll’s ghost.
There's a book THE HAUNTED DOLLS: AN ANTHOLOGY selected by Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis, 1980. The stories include: "The Dressmaker's Doll" by Agatha Christie, "The Peg-Doll" by Rosemary Timperley, "The Haunted Doll's House" by M.R. James, "The Doll" by Algernon Blackwood, "The Dancing Partner" by Jerome K. Jerome, "The Grey Lady" by Mary Danby, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen, "The Dolls' Ball", "Feathertop" by Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Doll" by Terry Tapp, "The Life of Aunt Sally", "The Puppets" by J.H. Pearce -- "The Christmas of the Big Bisque Doll" by Seon Manley, "The Doll's Ghost" by F. Marion Crawford.~from a librarian.
Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis, The Haunted Dolls: An Anthology,1980. I'm certain that The Haunted Dolls: An Anthology is the book you want. In addition to the details provided by other contributors, I would like to mention that the cover is indeed pale green in color.



E106: evil mirror world
late '80's/early '90's.  There were three children and their parents had just died, I think.  They end up befriending their images in a special mirror and the images keep telling them what a wonderful world the mirror world is and asking them if they would like to join them in their wonderful, carefree, happy mirror world.  The children do, but it was all a trick so the evil spirits could get out of the mirror where they were trapped.  Now the children have to find their way through the evil, harsh mirror world to find their way home.

Jane Langton, The Diamond in the window.  I'm wondering if you're referring to The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton.  There is one chapter in which the two children (who are orphans being raised by their uncle and aunt) are trapped in a world behind a mirror that reflects their own images as they grow older.



E107: exploring an abandoned house
I believe this book was an award winner around 1974. I read it in the fifth grade. The story takes place at rundown summer cabins. A kid staying there along with a nother kid, explores an old abandoned house in the woods. I remember something about light bulbs being out, so instead of the sign at the cabins saying one thing, it seemed to say another. ak sar bin is Nebraska backwords, it wasn't that, but very similar.

Nancy Woollcott Smith, The Ghostly Trio, 1970s. This was a Scholastic Book Club book that I read way back in the mid-70s.  All I remember of the plot is three friends, two boys and a girl, exploring (and breaking into..even though they didn't take anything or do anything) summer homes.  At one point, there's groaning in one of the houses, and the kids have to figure out if it's ghosts, or a more logical explanation.  I think one of them had some connection with the cottages--maybe the parent was a caretaker?  Flashlights figured prominently, for some reason.  Just a possibility!  Good luck.
Margaret Goff Clark, Mystery of the Missing Stamps, 1967.  Could it be this one?  Mark's new stepfather is the caretaker for a summer camp. (Think cabins in a resort area that families rent for the summer, not sleep away camp.)  His new friend, who works as a busboy at the restaurant, is accused of stealing.  Along with jewelry and other portable things, a valuable stamp collection goes missing, and Mark is determined to discover who's doing the stealing and prove his friend innocent.  There's also a younger girl, staying at one of the cabins, who becomes involved in the mystery.  At one point, there's something about the lights going out and the sign for the camp being changed as part of the mystery.  Maybe worth a try!
No, I don't recognize either suggested solution. It seems that the name of the summer cabins might have appeared to be tar pin et pin dar, because of some of the light bulbs being out on the sign.
Elizabeth Enright, Gone-Away Lake While the story is not quite the same, "tar pin and pin dar" could be "Tarquin et Pindar" written in Latin on the "philosopher's stone" discovered by Portia Blake and her cousin Julian.  The abandoned summer cabins are there on the swamp that used to be a lake but I don't remember the lights. See the Solved Mysteries for more.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Enright, Elizabeth.  Gone-away Lake.  illus by Beth and Joe Krush.  Harcourt Brace and World, 1957.  Ex-library edition with usual marks and edgewear, but interior and dust jacket both very clean.  VG-/VG+.  $12 

Enright, Elizabeth.  Gone-away Lake.  illus by Beth and Joe Krush.  Harcourt, 1957, 1990, 2000.  New hardcover edition.  $17



E108: Evil witches, good dragon
I read this in the late 1970's-early 80's- I believe it was a new book at the time and was geared towards age 10 and up. A bunch of kids go down a manhole, where they enter another world in which witches are bad and dragons are good. They break into the witches' house while the witches are out and look thru all their potions (eye of newt, etc.) The witches get home early and catch one of the kids, the boy who was the know-it-all. They put him in a cage and plot to kill him? I believe there was some sort of witches council that was going to occur. Meanwhile, the other kids escape and go to find the dragon, who is good and can help them. I think he may be one of the last remaining dragons. He lives in a cave an is rather weak. He feeds them blue pudding, and somehow musters the strength to go fight the witches. He flies with the children on his back to get there. That's all I can remember!

Alison Farthing, The Mystical Beast.  This is the one! Check it out in the solved stumpers.



E109: Elaborately illustrated 1970s chapter book
Solved: Victoria at Nine


E110: encyclopedia type volumes of childrens stories
group of maybe 8-10 encyclopedia like volumes of childrens stories. One volume was an index. Memory says they were some combination of  cream and light blue/grey color. May have published in the 1960's or early seventies. Huge collection of stories. Many are not you typical endings, etc. ie:I think it was the end of the cinderella story that had her evil step mother dance in hot iron shoes... a little weird. Alladin went into the cave of wonders and ate fruit that looked like jewels off of trees there. Beauty of Beauty and the beast had a ring that would transport her back to see her beloved father. Her jealous sister messed things up.  It would mean so much to me to be able to find this set, any help would be greatly appreciated. I whiled away many a rainy day with those stories as a child.

The Junior Classics The stories you mention are all in the ten volume Junior Classics,complete with the unuusual endings, and the tenth volume is an index.  My set is more colorful than you describe, though.  They were given away with Collier's Encyclopedias in the 1950s and 1960s.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Martignoni, Margaret E, series editor.  Collier’s junior classics.  Collier, 1962.  10 vols, cloth, each a different color;  linen interior hinge; all good, with all pages good; vol 4 has a 3/8’  dig in spine; child’s name     The young folks shelf of books.  [NHQ19915]  $80 plus postage



E111: Evacuees Trading Places
Solved: Searching for Shona


E112: Eileen's nicknames
Solved: Many Names for Eileen


2007

E113: Elizabeth, blind
Solved: Light a Single Candle
Light a Single Candle


E114: Elephant: very shy, named Emeline?
Solved: Ella the Elegant Elephant (series)


E115: Esther preparing to be queen
Solved: Behold your Queen

E116: Elf boy (?) and children stop wilderness development
Solved: Beneath the Hill


E117: English and German spies meet in Africa
I am asking about a book I saw as a Readers Digest condensed in the 1970's, about an Englishman and a German meeting in Africa before WW1.  The book was a spy novel, the Englishman takes on the German identity.


E118: English inheritor asks butler to bring him used soap
Solved: Frances Donaldson, Edward VIII, 1978.


E119: English Sister/Brother Win American Trip
My sister and I  vividly recall reading a library book during our grade school/junior high school/possibly even high school years from approximately 1963-1973.  My sister will be 55 in November, and I was 52 in July.  This was a book that made a great impression on us because we both checked it out often and have thought about it for years but cannot recall the author (we think it was a British writer), title, or any of the characters' names.  We were fascinated by it because it took place in England, and we had paternal grandparents who had immigrated to the USA in 1908 from Scotland.  What we can recall about the plot:  The story takes place somewhere in England and is about a family of four, a mother and father and their two children, an older boy and younger girl.  The boy may have been 12 or 13; the girl may have been 9 or 10.   I may be confusing some of the details and may be mixing them up with bits of storyline/plot from other books from the time we read this book, but I am almost certain that when the book begins, it is the morning of the girl's birthday, and she may be in a play or some other special school function because I seem to recall that she 'dresses up' for school.  Or she may be dressing up because it is her birthday.  This book had some simple, black-and-white line drawing illustrations throughout the book, and the illustration that my sister and I think we remember is a half-page picture of the girl with her long, wavy hair (her hair may have been blonde).  The book explains that she wore braids to bed so that when she woke up the next morning and brushed out her hair, her hair was wavy from being braided.  I think she received some birthday presents at the breakfast table.  I may be confusing this with another book, but I think she received a box of chocolates, which she took to school with her to show and share.  But when one of her friends at school chose one of her dearest favorite chocolates, I think she was horrified and 'took back the box and quickly shut the lid', or words to that effect.  As the story unfolded,  their school announced a chance to win a trip to America that the students could win by studying American history/geography and earning the highest test score, and maybe the winner of the contest could take another person on the trip.  The boy was very good in school and may have expected to win.  Or maybe the girl expected to win.  I think this English family had some relatives that had previously immigrated to America, and I think that the parents and children all hoped to go to America on this trip.  We think that money had to be saved/earned for the parents to go.  We just can't remember, but we think they did get enough money so that all of them could go, but the money was lost/misplaced and/or believed stolen.  Finally, at the end, the boy, or the girl, won the contest by getting the highest grade on the test, the lost passage/trip money was recovered, and they were looking forward to the entire family's taking the trip.  My sister and I would be SO grateful if anyone remembers such a book.  We are beginning to doubt ourselves.  I tried Abebooks BookSleuth Forum but had only one response, and their recollection didn't match how we remember the book.  Since we both read this book so frequently, we are amazed that we have no recollection of the author, title, or the characters' names.  This may have been an older book (1940's? – 1950's?), but we checked it out from the school library from 1963-1973.  Thank you for your time and help.


E120: Evolved dolphins, scientific expedition
Solved: The Secret Oceans


E121: environment, blobby family, pollution
Solved: Barbapapa


E122: "Elbert, the Littlest Elf" story book
Solved: Come Follow Me... To The Secret World of Elves and Fairies and Gnomes and Trolls


E123: 80s Teen spooky fiction: Alien fireflies incubate in your ear and grant powers!?
I read this book *ages* ago, so only remember a few details, I'm not sure if it was part of a series though, the ending seemed to set it up for a sequel.  Here's what I remember, some of these points may be wrong, it's probably 15+ years since I read this:  Contempory setting (1980s forest america).   Family on vacation in a log cabin in a forest, son and daughter are the main characters.  Features a waterfall.  Alien gasbags behind the waterfall?  Glowing alien fireflies in the forest attracted to lights + people.  Fireflies enter your ear and gestate inside!  Characters with bugs go deaf in one ear.  Fireflies are vulnerable to loud noises.  Sister character turns her Walkman up high at one point and kills the bug in her ear.  Infected characters get sugar cravings.  Fireflies portrayed as creepy for most of the book, but it turns out they're beneficial symbiants that give special powers to their hosts when they reach maturity.  End of the book had a character accidentally stepping through into a different dimension because of symbiant.  Not Animorphs (this has already been suggested).


2008


E124: Emanuel and Levi
Solved: Wonderful Good Neighbors


E125: Evil Dolls, young adult book
I remember reading a young adult book about evil dolls that started making bad things happen for a family.  I don't remember much about the book except that there was a grandfather clock, and there was a line in the book about how February was the month when all the bad things happen.  I think the dolls possibly were alive.

Sleator, Among the Dolls
.  Not sure, but it sounds similar to Sleator's book, about a girl who gets drawn into a dollhouse full of spiteful, ill-tempered dolls. The girl had had issues with her family, things only made worse by the enchanted dollhouse; once inside it she faces a very severe life. Hope this is some help.
Ruth M. Arthur, A Candle in Her Room, 1966, copyright.  Could this be it?  I have not reread this recently but it is a fabulous but scary book about evil doll Dido and how she haunts and changes the lives of three generations of women.
Sleator, William, Among the Dolls, 1975, approximate.  Could it be Among the Dolls, by William Sleator?  I think there was a grandfather clock, but what I most remember is the family of dolls pulling this girl Victoria into their lives...and that they were scary!  The dolls were mis-matched (and I remember William, the baby, was bigger than some of the adults) and I think they were all, except for one, evil.  (The non-evil one ended up helping the girl to escape.)


E126: Evil spirit from past haunts young girl
Solved: Jane-Emily


E127: easter book
I have been looking for this book since I was little (in the eighties). I don't remember much about it except that I think it was about a little boy who was waiting for Easter and the Easter bunny to come. The most vivid memory of this book I have is the full-page illustration of an Easter basket somewhere within the book, with a tall chocolate bunny sitting in it. I used to have a lot of Golden books, so I'm not sure if it was one or not.


E128: Evil step-mother, disabled brother
The book was written in the 70's about a missing father/evil step mother, there was a painting of the woods, and a disabled younger brother. The step mother turns out to be a witch. The book was for young adults, and had a stark black and white dust jacket.

Josephine Poole, Moon Eyes.
  The children's father has gone away on a vacation to relax from stress, leaving the children alone in the house with a housekeeper that comes in daily to help out.  The younger child, a boy, doesn't speak.  A woman shows up who is a step-Aunt.  She moves in against the girl's wishes and she turns out to be a witch.  A big dog with "moon eyes" keeps turning up.  The girl has to fight against the witch to save her younger brother.  "First we'll wait, then we'll whistle, then we'll dance together."


E129: Elephant that likes gumdrops
The story was about an elephant that liked gumdrops. At the end of the story, people would give her pennies to buy gumdrops from a gumball machine.


E130: Easter story about young boy and old man
I can't remember a great deal about the book, but it was probably read to our class by my teacher in the 1950's. It may not have been an Easter tale, but for some reason I think it was.  Vague recollections that either the young boy or the elderly man had polio and the man lived at the top of a hill. It seems that it was an inspiring story because it's been on my mind all these years, but those are all the details I can recall.

Dubose Heyward, The Country Bunny & the Little Gold Shoes,
1939, copyright.  It's a longshot, but the country bunny has to hop up the biggest hill with the Easter egg for the sick little boy before the sun rises.


E131: Elf must reunite scattered crystals
I have been looking for this book for years to read to my children.  My teacher read it to me when I was in school so it was probably early 80's.  Seven ( I think ) crystals are scattered around the world and it is an elf's job to travel all over the world to reunite these crystals into one before the villain can get them. I remember that it was almost like seven stories because every time he finds a crystal it is an adventure.  Thank you.  By the way I think this website is a wonderful idea!

A.C.H. Smith, The Dark Crystal, 1982, copyright.  Perhaps this is too obvious a suggestion, but have you looked at this one? Based on the Jim Henson movie, it tells of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so they have exterminated the race, or so they think. There remains one male Gelfling, the orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics. The Mystics were once one race with the Skeksis, until the splitting of the Great Crystal split the tribe into good and evil halves. To save his world, Jen must embark on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their power) and restore the balance of the universe, before the three suns converge. Along the way, he is aided by new friends Kira (the last female Gelfling, raised in secret by the Pod People), Augrah (a wise old woman), and Fizzgig.  (The A.C.H. Smith version is an approx. 180 page novelization of the movie; if you are looking for more of a picture book, you could also try "The Tale of The Dark Crystal" by Donna Bass (c. 1982) which is a 48-page version.)
No, I am afraid that isn't the book.  This book has two children looking for the crystals and I think the villain in the story may be the elf and they have to find the crystals and unite them before he does.


E132: Eric and Tricia, Hawaii, surfing lessons
This is a book about a guy in Hawaii named Eric who meets a girl named Tricia who gets surfing lessons and they fall in love.  Her grandmother has him arrested and he ends up on the run.


E133: enclave men roam controlled
Solved: The Shore of Women


E134: English children traveling in a canal boat
Solved: The Big Six


E135: Ex-warrior, spinal injury, post-apocalyptic world
Solved: The Black Mountains

E136: Etoile
Etoile is the main character of a book read by a family member in the mid to late 1800s.  The book is important as this family member named her daugher after the Etoile in the book and so became the first Etoile in the family.  Her granddaughter was later named after her, as was her great great great granddaugher (my baby).  I know that the original real Etoile was born in the late 1800s in Louisiana.  This is all that the family knows of the book.  I would like to find the book and give a copy to my baby's grandmother and keep one for our family, too.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Walter Crane, Princess Belle-Etoile,
1874.  You can find the story for free on Project Gutenberg.
Walter Crane, Princess Belle-Etoile, 1874.  There is a lovely illustrated free! copy of this short story on Project Gutenberg.
Terry, Rose, The Assassin of Society, 1857, approximate.  Google-searched and found this short story, with a character called Louise Etoile. If I find more I'll post them.


E137: England invaded by socialist forces, adults killed, orion, charlemagne
Trilogy i think? Maybe late 60s/70s?? young adult book, England has been devasted by a virus, most adults killed, invaded by socialist army (known as Freaks?)  Group of kids /young adults flees to London, meets gangs at St. Pauls, crippled child who hears voices, betrayed/captured, one flees to Germany.

Rosemary Harris, Quest for Orion.


E138: EL train goes by girl's neighborhood
Girl lives with family in busy neighborhood in Chicago (?)  Maybe during the depression or right after. I remember some comments about the EL train rumbling by.

Frieda Friedman, Dot for Short,
1947, copyright.  This could be the book being sought but it is set in N.Y.C. in the 40's.  Ten year-old Dot Fleming lives on Third Avenue facing the El tracks with her cabbie father. mother, two older sisters and younger brother.  They're used to when "the El train roared past and the sound filled the room for several seconds."  Dot is self-conscious about both being short and not as pretty as her sisters.  She ends up having a wonderful year full of accomplishments.  One of Friedman's best books about girls growing up in N.Y..
Frieda Friedman, Dot For Short, 1947, copyright.  Dot and her family live in a New York apartment near a train. They would always have to pause their conversations when the loud El train went by.
Maybe Dot for Short (1947) by Frieda Friedman? It's in NYC and Dot is the 10-year-old daughter and third child (out of four) of a cab driver. (Friedman often focused on happy, working-class families.) Dot finds a way to raise money when her dad has a heart problem. Also, her 12-year-old sister asks permission to "care for a baby" and her dad is shocked because he's never heard of babysitting.


E139: eskimo girl survives banishment
Solved: Nuvat the Brave


E140: Elephant's knees and Chocolate Cake
This book was teaching children about how somethings can be made fair (chocolate cake) and some things are just that way (Elephant's knees which bend differently than other animals).  I thought the name was That's Not Fair, but I can't find it anywhere.  I read it to my children in the mid 1980's.  I would love to find at least two copies.

Jane Sarnoff, That's not fair,
1980, copyright.  I don't know if this is it.  The only description I can find is: "Becky thinks her older brother Bert has the best of things in their family and "that's not fair."
David Henry Wilson, Elephants Don't Sit On Cars, 1977, copyright.  I am only mentioning "Elephants Don't Sit On Cars" because another website claims this to be the answer... but after listening to an audiobook sample, I am pretty convinced that this is NOT the "That's not Fair" book... unless there was a part about an elephant doing "number 2" on a car. I do not think that "Elephants Don't Sit On Cars" is a picture book either.


E141: Elves working in cave
before 1971, childrens.  I believe it had several different stories in it. I know it had an illustration on inside of front and back cover that showed many elves working or partying in a large cave or underground dwelling. All illustrations appeared to be mostly black pencil not much color. received it in 1971. probably about an an inch and a half thick. possibly had fairies or tales written on front cover. Cover exterior was either plain yellowish orange definitely quality binding. received it as a first baby book. No way it was made after 1971. Received it in Florida.

2009


E142: "Everyone waits for Joe"
Hello, I have a memory of a book where, "Everyone waits for Joe."  Joe is a train conductor and the contents of the train include potatoes and tomatoes and each little segment ends with, "everyone waits for joe."  "The cow waits on the hill" is another line from the book.
I just remembered that I forgot to tell you that "Joe" from this bookstumper is a train conductor and he travels from town to the country where the book, children's book, takes place.   This book was a gift in the early 70s.  I remember one page featuring a horse who also waits for Joe.

Betty Ren Wright, Train Coming!
  This is a Whitman Tell-a-Tale book.  "This is a train whose name is Joe. Listen! Hear his whistle blow?  Ooooh!  Ooooh!  This is the shiny, silvery track that Joe must follow to town and back, with a car full of milk, and a load of potatoes, a car full of carrots, and one of tomatoes- and a red caboose that comes along with a bangety, bumpety, rattle-y song. Everyone waits for Joe.  The farmer waits, and the hired men, the cow on the hill and the pig in the pen, the big old rooster making lots of noise, and the farmer's Thirteen girls and boys. Everyone waits for Joe." etc.

E143: English translation of russian book: Burn, Burn, My Star: How to Sing
Book on Opera Singing by famous singer Boris Shtokolov.  Title translated by Wikipedia as "Burn, Burn, My Star: How to Sing." Found the Russian version on Worldcat: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40354430 .  Looking for an English translation.

E144: Evil siblings, young adult novel, 70's or 80's, horror
Teen lives next door to four siblings, youngest is evil, older ones seem weird but Cat is his friend - discovers the parents experimented to try to get evil kid, each more succesful than last but Cat is second youngest.

E145: Elementary Twins
Elementary book - girl seems to change day to day. school classmates notice when she eats something she had said she was previously allergic to. It turns out the girl is a twin and her and her sister alternate going to school. details maybe sketchy! haven't read in years.Putnam, Polly, The Mystery of Sara Beth'

Putnam, Polly, The Mystery of Sara Beth, 1950. I loved this book as a kid! The twins, Sara and Beth, are from a poor family that has recently moved to a cold climate from a warm one. Their family can only afford one new coat for the girls, so they take turns going to school, pretending to be one girl named Sara Beth. Another girl at school figures out their secret by noting inconsistencies in their behavior, which as you said, changes constantly. For instance, one of the girls loves the class pet, a guinea pig, and her twin is afraid of it.


E146: Egg Society
A thick, hardcover with a white jacket.  The characters are egg-shaped in the illustrations (if I remember correctly -or were born from eggs?) and their color determined what they were to be in life - i.e. blue =doctor.  But one character decided to go against what his society expected him to be.

E147: Englishwoman goes to France in search of family history
Book from my school library--must have been 1950s or early '60s.  Middle-aged, unmarried Englishwoman goes to France searching for family history from clue in old photo album--picture of a girl in a garden restaurant?  She got a new dress made by sister seamstresses and learned about father's past.

I think E147 is Family Album by Antonia Ridge.  Dorothy Durand goes to France in search of her father's family following clues in her father's photo album.  There is a photo of his family's hotel/restaurant in Nimes.  She eventually meets up with her cousins who are ribbon makers in Saint Etienne.  The dress is made for her cousin Catherine before she sets off on a round the world trip.


E148: Even Steven
I'd love to find a book I read in camp in the late 60s.Boy named Steven lives on island, goes to school by ferry.  He likes to draw and/or paint, often when he's supposed to be doing something else. This gets him into trouble at home and in school. The phrase "Even Steven" is used at least once.
E149: Evergreen Tree Embossed on Cover
Solved: Jim Forrest

E150: Edith Wouldn't Go to Bed
Circa 1970s, children's story. The story is about a little girl, named Edith, who didn't want to go to bed.So, her parents let her stay up all night but I believe she wasn't allowed to play with anything and there was no one to play with or talk to. In addition, she got very tired and eventually wanted to go to bed because she realized that she wasn't missing anything, but sleep, in the night.

Johanna Johnston, Edie Changes her Mind, 1964, copyright. You were close - these are the "Edie" books by Johanna Johnston (apparently written about her own little girl).


2011

E151: Explorers of Kentucky
1920 - 1950, nonfiction. Probably a textbook for grades 4 through 8.  Believed to have been written or co-authored by a lady who lived in Paris, KY during the 1940's and maybe 1950's. The book tells about Daniel Boone's travels in Kentucky along with some of the other early explorers including George Rogers Clark.

E152: Emmaline Eliza Porter Brown
Date, 1950.The main character is a little girl named Emmaline Eliza Porter  Brown.  My name is Emmaline so I thought it was wonderful. The little girl had a horse, and she and the horse raced a train.  Of course, they won.  That is all I really remember about the story.
My first granddaughter will be born soon, and I would love to find this much loved book.  Her name is Emmaline.

Madye Lee Chastain, Nellie.

E153: Elevator, time travel, girl
YA paperback novel about a girl who enters a time traveling  ( elevator?) and goes back into time to when her mother was young-her age. I believe it was an Apple Paperback? Sometime in the early 1980's.

Francine Pascal, Hanging Out with Cici. From the "creator" of Sweet Valley High a novel which is bibliotherapy-ish, but quite entertaining for all that. It might just conceivably make life a bit easier for a teenage rabel and her mother. Present-tense narration by 13 year-old Victoria who wants her mother to treat her as a pre-adult, not a silly little kid: ''I can't believe she was ever my age. I think she was born a mother. No wonder we can't get along.'' Victoria is in big trouble with her mum, when a time warp throws her into the company of Cici, a lively, naughty and strangely familiar girl of the 1940's. They fool about, share jokes and experimental smoking: Cici attempts to shoplift and cheat in a school test. Of course, Cici is her mother and when Victoria eventually jolts back to the 80's, she and her mum get on much better. Should be popular in the library and might be considered for class use, to explore the generation gap.
Edward Ormondroyd, Time at the Top, 1970. I wonder if you're thinking of Time at the Top. Susan does take an elevator in her building to the top floor, but she ends up in a 1900s world. She makes two friends, and helps them save their mother. In the end, she brings her widowed father back in time to meet their widowed mother, and...There is a sequel, where I think Susan returns to the present to bring back something to save her step-mother...so maybe that's the one you're looking for. 


E154: East and West Winlock
SOLVED: Joanne Oppenheim, On the Other Side of the River, 1971, approximate.

E155: Evil (ice?) queen transforms prince
An evil (snow or ice?) queen puts a spell on a prince and turns him into an animal/monster. His love must grab him in the forest and hold on while he transforms into terrible things in her arms. He finally transforms into a very hot/molten rock, so she throws him in a well. May include "midsummer."

Tam Lin.
This would be some version of the legend of Tam Lin.  It's been retold many times, so it's hard to know what your book is exactly.  If you look up Tam Lin on Wikipedia, there is a list of books based on it--none on the list have the word Midsummer in it, though. 

E156: Elephant escapes
This book is about a female elephant (I believe named Queenie) who escapes (I believe from the circus).  People search for her, and she's eventually found standing in front of a billboard that has her picture on it.  I seem to recall that she is wearing a tutu and some sort of headdress.

The Boy Who Stole the Elephant?
In that book, the elephant's name is definitely Queenie. Author: Julilly H. Kohler. Illustrator: Lee J. Ames, a Disney artist. It was turned into a Disney TV-movie in 1970, starring Mark Lester.
William Johnston, Bozo and the Hide-and-Seek Clown, early 1970s, reprint. This is a golden book about an elephant named Queenie who hides by standing in front of her own billboard.  Bozo the clown goes all over town looking for her, until he finds her.  This is definitely the book you are describing.
Not very helpful, I'm afraid, but I remember a book about a boy who stole an elephant and traveled with her, trying to hide her from a cruel owner. I thought her name was Queenie, but I don't remember the title of the book or the author. I don't think it was The Boy Who Stole the Elephant, because that doesn't look or sound the same. The one clue I have to the book I remember is that I think it was illustrated by Lynd Ward, and that either the author or the boy's name was Robert, but looking online, there doesn't seem to be a title that looks right. Still, just in case that jogs someone else's memory...

E157: Eating with ghost/devil on back
SOLVED: Pura Belpre, Oté

2012

E158: Eighth-grade grammar textbook with a humorous twist
SOLVED: Paul McKee et al.,
Perfecting Your Language, 1951.

E159: Exiled to desert planet, finds earth-like forest with other exiled children
SOLVED: Monica Hughes, The Other Place.

E160: Elephants named Momsy, Popsy and Babsy
What is the title of a children's book from the 50s about 3 elephants in India who were put in chains? The elephants were named Momsy, Popsy and Babsy.
Bigham, Madge A., Sonny Elephant, illustrated by Bertha and Elmer Hader, Little, Brown, 1930.  Story of baby Sonny Elephant, and the rest of his family, Papsy, Mumsy, Mogul, and Rajah.  Free to roam the jungles and plains at their leisure in the beginning, Sonny and family are captured and enrolled in "elephant school", then become performers/laborers in Daddy Siva's traveling show.

E161: Evil female character has "sweet tooth" necklaces
All I remember about the book is something about these people/kids (maybe troll like?) that garden alot but one of them eats too many sweets? and something about shining teeth on necklaces and theres definitely a villian who I think is female. There might have been a map on the inside cover?

E162: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales
I am trying to locate a book that I had as a child in the 1950's. The book was part of a set of three books.  The books MAY have had Encyclopedia in the the title. One book in the set was Fairy Tales, and another was a book of  fables, I cannot remember the subject of the third book in the series, but it may have been a book (encyclopedia) of poetry.   The books had gray covers, they were 8" x 11.  The pages were printed on glossy paper.   One book had an orange spine, one had a brown spine, and the book of Fairy Tales, (the book that I am attempting to locate) had a blue spine.Although, I do not know all of the stories in the book, I do know that Cinderella, and the Elves and the Shoemaker were two of the stories.  The Cinderella story had beautiful pictures.

E163: East of the Sun and West of the Moon
This is a collection of stories from our reading class in the third grade (1969). It includes East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Aesop's Fable re: the contest between the Sun and the Wind, The King's contest for a dessert as cold as winter and as hot as summer, i.w., the hot fudge sundae, the Glass Mountain and many others.


E164: Elementary school girl, lots of clothes, home and school life
SOLVED: Stephen Roos, The Terrible Truth: Secrets of A Sixth Grader.

E165: Elephant
SOLVED: The Big Elephant.
E166: English (?) girl mystery series
I read a series (2 or 3) in the early 1980's about an English (?) girl who rode a train and had adventures/solved mysteries. I remember her being alone at different locales. Thanks for this great service.

E167a: English children's book(s), 1950s, train, skinny engineer(?), Suess-ian landscape
Series of heavily illustrated children's books, 1st published in the early '50s.Stories took place in a fantastical, Suess-ian version of English countryside.Published in England, perhaps only imported into US, not published here.Main character(s) work on train.1 is very skinny. Rails on trestle

E167: Etiquette, self-improvement, single women, 1960's
 Author's last name possibly "Johns" could be hyphenated. This was a book that my older sister consulted as a reference when she was in high school/college during the l960's - early 70's. I was fascinated by it, but she practically kept it under lock and key. It wasn't quite as salacious as Sex and the Single Girl, but it did have its spicy bits. I think the author was a British woman...Anyway she was very no nonsense. It gave instructions on how to hem up a skirt, appropriate dress for work, parties,etc. as well as...dating and men (wow!)It was along the lines of Glamour Magazine in that era i.e. Do's and Don'ts. Very heady stuff. I'd like to locate this book because I'd love to show it to our daughters...they'd probably get a good chuckle  - or maybe learn how to hem a skirt!

Could this be Barbara Johns Waterston's  Pull Yourself Together; Or, How to Look Marvelous on Next to Nothing (1967)?  It talks about fashion, a little about dating, etc.
E167 could be Barbara Johns Waterston, Pull Yourself Together: Or, How to Look Marvelous on Next to Nothing (1967)


E168: Emily the Field Mouse
I hope this is easy though I realise I don't have the author or date. Its from the '70s or '80s. Assume its English rather than American. I think Emily The Field Mouse is the title but have had no luck with it. It's a cartoon children's book with very special and minimal text. Plot: Emily the field mouse goes foraging in the forest - she finds mushrooms, blackberries and other natural things which she takes home to make a nice meal - its very cosy! Think she lives in a nook in a tree. Would love it if you could help! My sisters and i have been reminiscing. :)





F5: father died
Solved: The Haunting of Julie Unger

F7: families across the street
Solved: Robin

F8: fish eyes and glue
Solved: Susannah at Boarding School
F13: farm colors

Solved: The Wild Whirlwind

F17: Forest Fires
Solved: The Forest Fire Mystery

F20: FISH
For older reeaders, it is about a girl called FISH, ,which stands for Felicity Imogen Stanley Holmes.  This might even  have been the title of the book.  She is poor and orphaned and turns out to be an heiress and much of the book is taken up with detailed descriptions of her new clothes and room.

F20 fish: two really long shots - The Magical Cupboard, by Jane Louise Curry, Atheneum 1976, involves an orphan called Felicity in a dreadful 18th c. orphanage run by nasty Parson Grout, who steals a magic wooden cupboard that lets Felicity into modern times. Then there's Fish, also titled A Boy Called Fish, by Alison Morgan, Chatto 1971 about a boy whose birthday, school desk, and even name belong to someone else, and the dog he cares for.
Eleanore Jewett, Felicity Finds a Way, 1940s/1950s.  Another very long shot all I know about this book is the title, and that it was set in post-Revolution New York, and is a book for young people.  Almost certainly not the Alison Morgan book in any case  apart from the fact that the central character is a boy, it does not have a similar plot.
The Little Countess. This is definitely a book called "The Little Countess".  I read it in the early 60's.  It's actually Fish's elder sister who inherits the title from a distant relative and becomes the "little countess", but the book is more about Fish - Felicity Imogen Stanley Holmes.  They were poor and are suddenly rich!  If anyone can supply the author's name ....?
Frances Cowen, The Little Countess, 1954. It was a good read for a young teenage girl in the late 50s/early 60s.  Wonder how it would read today????


F21: Fairy, tiny
Solved: The Land of Happy Days

F22: Flowers nod
Solved: Song At Dusk

F26: Fiona the beautiful
Solved: Fanona the Beautiful
F27: Fairies and where they live
One is for a friend who remembers having a book about fairies read to her when she was a child (around 1960). The book described where fairies lived (in tulip petals) and their houses in general.

Louisa May Alcott, Flower Fables.  A collection of six original fairy tales written by the acclaimed Louisa May Alcott. These stories are part of a large body of fantasy fiction the author wrote throughout her career. Each story features adventures of elves and fairy sprites in fairyland and are imbued with the lushness of Alcott's love of the natural world. Each story is between 12 and 18 pages with full page illustrations.
Cicely Mary Barker, Flower Fairies books
Cicely Mary Barker, Flower Fairies  series.  A possibility.
Maybe Fairy Elves by Robin Palmer and Pelagie Doane (1964)
Maybe The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibb (Gibbs?) 1940's- I think there are newer reprints. 



F28: Fairy tale figurines
When I was very small my eldest sister (she was born in 1950) had a book that I loved...It had fairy tale figurines right inside!  I think it had the Wizard of Oz crew, three bears, etc...it looked just like a book from the outside, but when you opened it the inside had all these little cubicles with fairy tale figurines in them. Any idea what it was called or where I can find one?

Not the same book, but a similar idea - perhaps a series? Dale Payson, Magic Castle Fairytale Book New York, Random House 1978 8vo over 9" illustrated board covers that open up to reveal on the left side - paper pages for the three fairy tales included, which are The Golden Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty. On the right side the boards unfold again to reveal pop-up castle. In a separate envelope are paper cut-out characters to go along with all the stories. Paper engineering by Ib Penick.
there was a short series of toy/books published in the mid-late 1950s called Playbooks, of fairy tales, including the Three Bears (but not Wizard of Oz, which is copyright) which opened to show a box containing little plastic figures of the characters and some props.
F28 fairy tale figurines: more on the Playbook series - published New York, Playbook 1958, each book being approx 6x4", with the fairy tale in a 12 page front section, and the figures in a box/hollow book after that. Titles
included Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Three Little Pigs, and Hansel and Gretel "with true-to-life playfigures", slogan - "read the books, play with the figures".
We have this book somewhere in our family!  My nan used to have it and it was exactly as you described - the figures were for looking at = couldn't play with them.  On the opposite page were little nursery rhymes stories associated with each scene.  My nan gave this book to one of my cousins so I'll email her and find out the name and publisher!  I'm looking for a copy myself!
Fairykins Story Book, 1962. After much searching I think I found the book the original poster was looking for.   It was made by Marx and an image can be seen here.



F30: Fairy Princess Crystal
A fairy story from well before WWII (I think): The fairy Princess Crystal nearly loses her godmother's blessings at birth due to her King-father's faux pas. She sprouts wings at some point before adolescence - as do all fairies - and a male fairy tells her: "That's nothing. I cut mine last night." She accidentally destroys a caterpillar's house. He takes her prisoner later on. She is rescued and when they seek revenge on the caterpillar, he's discovered to have already been eaten by a bird. I think it was a red hardcover with glossy black and white illustrations. 

F31: Family adventures at home on rainy days
There was a series of books about a nice family that rearranged their furniture on rainy days to pretend they were going on adventures. A table would become a hut in a desert island, etc. It may have been british.

This possibility The Cherrys on Indoor Island by Will Scott, published by Brock Books in England, 1958 "The 'happenings' in the Cherrys books could be those of any family - and the neighbours join in. On this wet day the house becomes a desert island crowded with incidents!" (Junior Bookshelf Jan/58 ad) Other titles include The Cherrys of River House (1952), The Cherrys to the Rescue (1963), The Cherrys and Company (1953), The Cherrys' Mystery Holiday (1960), etc.



F32: Flying device
Solved: Skyjets for Fliers of Tomorrow


F33: Flowers taste better than oatmeal
Solved: The Boy Who Ate Flowers

F34: Flying bed and witch--not Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Solved: Timothy and Two Witches 

F35: Flood!
An action/suspense story about a brother and sister whose parents leave them and go to town in a wagon, and the river starts rising, flooding, and traps the children at the homestead on high ground.  And wild animals from the surrounding areas come up to take shelter from the flood waters which are continuing to rise.

#F35--Flood!:  One of Lois Lenski's more obscure titles is "Flood Friday."  Since it is based on a true story which took place in Connecticut in 1955, it is doubtful there's anything about going to town in a wagon.  One story set in rural America in the past was "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes."  This was a movie around 1946, part of which dealt with farm children in a flood.
Another guess, but F35 could very well be An American Ghost by Chester Aaron. I haven't read it, but I have seen the TV version. The plot concerns a pioneer brother and sister who are left alone on the family farm while their father takes their mother into town to have a baby. While they are gone, there is a huge flood and the children't home washes away down river. They still have some animals, and later a cougar takes up residence in/near the house.
F35 flood: a long shot, but could it be Champ, Gallant Collie, by Patricia Lauber, published Random House 1960? Champ is left to guard the farm, the river floods, and a mountain lion menaces the farm animals. No idea if
there are children at home as well, though.
F35 flood: the Chester Aaron title, An American Ghost, has some differences. According to a review, the main character is a boy alone, the story is set in the 1800s, and he is "left in charge of a Wisconsin farm house which is swept away down the Mississippi with him inside it. Alone? So he thought until he discovered a mountain lion caged in by a fallen tree at one end of the house." (Children's Books of the Year 74 p.61)



F36: Fairies take girl to their leader
I remember reading several different books and/or stories about fairies. One involved a girl who falls asleep in the woods and awakens to discover she is as small as the blades of grass upon which she slept. It seems there were fairies or elves who take her to meet their ruler. There were either some evil fairies along the way, OR the fairies at first thought the girl was an evil intruder and they capture her and take her through the small world in the earth (or fairyland, wherever?). Some of the other queries came sort of close to what I remembered, but not quite (as in, close but no cigar). She eventually is returned to her normal size and can go home, but I think she is able to return (and does). They sleepi in flowers, drink dew...lots of that sort of stuff. The only other tidbit I'd love to know what the title of this book is, et cetera.

F36 fairies take girl: could it be Joan in Flowerland, hardcover, by Margaret Tarrant and Lewis Dutton, illustrated by Margaret Tarrant, published Frederick Warne, no date, 60 pages. "Joan is a little girl who believes in fairies, and when the gardener tells her that the best place to find them is among the flowers, she goes in search of them. Tinkler the elf acts as guide and Joan makes some wonderful discoveries." The fairies in Annabel and Bryony (Solved List) are military and take prisoners at times, but the children get into fairyland through a flower, not by falling asleep, so it probably isn't that one.
Haldeman, Linda, The Lastborn of Elvinwood,1978.This charming novel has enough elements in common with the requester'\''s stumper to be worth investigating.  English actor Ian James follows his local vicar into a wood, discovers a tribe of tiny faerie folk dwelling there, and is charged by Oberon to aid in finding a bride for the last prince of Faerie -- a task which may involve facing down Merlin himself, and casting a spell over the infant daughter of a visiting American family.  There are more parallels to the poster'\''s description than this summary may suggest, although the match isn'\''t perfect in any event, however, Haldeman is a superb writer and the book well worth seeking out.  The date given is for the original hardcover edition
 there was an Avon paperback issued in 1980.
Ullman, Barb Bentler, The Fairies of Nutfolk Wood. I'm not positive, but this sounds like The Fairies of Nutfolk Wood. A young girl moves with her mother to a trailer in the woods and I think visits fairies when she falls asleep. The cover has a picture of a tree or tree stump made into a fairy house. At any rate, it's a charming story and worth checking out.


F37: Fortune hunters
Solved: Merlin's Magic
F38: Flying apple
Solved: The Apple 
F40: Full circle house
Solved: The House the Pecks Built 

F41: Future forest cities
It's about a boy who goes into the future and the cities are all like parks or sunny forests, with modest amounts of people and high technology providing a quiet, clean environment.  I think the name of the society began with a "T" or "Th."  I think there was another type of society on the same planet that wasnt' doing so hot.  I wish I remembered more about it.

#F41--Future Forest Cities:  Part of the description reminds me of a chapter from E. Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet and part of it reminds me of  Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky trilogy but it's probably neither one.
perhaps - A Time to Choose: a story of suspense, by Richard Parker, published Harper 1974 151 pages. "When Stephen Conway, aged 17, borrowed his father's car to transport props and costumes for his school play, he not only dented a hubcap but caught a glimpse of an uncanny, bright vision in the windshield. So began the strange adventure of a youth caught between two words existing simultaneously on the banks of an English river: the 20th century world of overpopulation, traffic and pollution; and a future world of idyllic, communal living and skillful utilization of water and wind power. Stephen and classmate Mary Silver soon found themselves able to leave and enter the 'brave new world' but ultimately had to make a choice - to live there permanently or to stay in a world of indifferent or nagging parents, and school examinations." (HB Aug/74 p.385)
F41 future forest cities: another possible is The Magic Meadow, by Alexander Key, published Westminster 1975 "Five young hospital patients escape to a delightful future. Ages 10-14." (HB Apr/75 p.196 pub ad)



F42: Flood Friday?
Solved:  Hills End

F43: Fog Magic Time reversal
Solved:  A Sound of Crying

F44: Fairy tales
I am looking for an elusive book: a very special book of classic fairy tales that my mother would read my brother, my sister, and I. I remember it was hard bound with a collage of images from the collection of classic stories inside. The book, if I can recall properly, was heavily illustrated, and also trimmed in a dark blue coloring. I remember the various stories recounted were The Owl and The Pussy Cat, The Wood Cutter's Daughter (featuring a wood nymph?), I believe, and many others.  I also think there was a story about a magical wooded place in which all objects were formed from candy, and another story about a little girl who must journey far to fetch water with a special silver bowl, or pan to help her ill mother.  I think Robin Red Breast may also have been part of this collection, but that memory is suspect.

Post #F44.  It seems to be the same book that I am diligently searching for.  The story of the ill mother was about the big or little dipper.  The theme of many stories were of how things "became" like the story of spring (?)or was it the wind and good character or values/morals.   If memory serves me well, Midas and the Golden Touch was included, and there was the story of the little pine tree whose needles became something else.  I can almost see the beautiful illustrations but too vaguely to describe.  It was a favorite book to trace from!  I also remember a story of Anderson's Red Cap.    I just stumbled onto this site which is simply fantastic.  I have been glued here all night and have decided to move in. : )  Back to reading the posts!
I believe it is Folk Tales Children Love...  tadaaaaa. Good night now.  Safe tomorrow
Barbara Leonie Picard. I'm guessing this is a collection by Barbara Leonie Picard.  She wroteThe Faun and the Woodcutter's Daughter, but the other stories aren't in the book by that name (which are all original stories by her).  However, she did also retell a lot of fairy tales and legends as well as write her own, so it's quite possible she's got a collection out there that contains them all. A more traditional collection by someone else wouldn't include The Faun and the Woodcutter's Daughter, however (which is what I'm pretty sure the first story is).



F45: Folk Tales
The next book I am searching for is one that I often read during my first years in the grade school library. In retrospect, I think by the images, and the resurgence of folk tales during the 60s and 70s that this book was printed around then, but I read it in the early 80's.   It was a hardcover collection of fairy tales and folk tales.  It also had a collage of images from the stories held within.  One smallish image on the front always held my attention, because it was a rather shapely female figure composed of either melting gold, flame, or wax...I cannot remember which one. This was a richly, beautifully illustrated book as well.  This book contained many not so main stream tales, but the one that most fascinated me was a story about a princess, or special girl, who is carried off in a special net by a flock of swans who, I am not sure were her brothers, or just magical beings.   Any help you could give me would be very appreciated.  Thank you so much.

I don't know the name of the book, but the story about the swans is The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen  Maybe adding that title to searches would yield some results?
I am looking for the same book.  The book also has a wonderful story about a male spider trying to entice a shy female fly into his web.  I cherished this book as a child and would also love to find it.   Thanks!!



F46: Frogs
Solved: We Four Together


F47: Fairy-Tale Picture Book Series
Solved:  The Maxton Series 

F48: Funny Animal Poems
This is a children's book purchased in the early 80's.  It was a hard cover "pop-up" book.  i taught my daughter how to read poetry with that book.  She loaned it to a friend and never got it back.  Please let me know where i might find another copy or two.  THanks!!

F48 funny animal poems: I guess My Pop-up Funny Animal Poems, by Ronne Peltzman, published Zokeisha 1985 would just be too obvious?



F49: Fog leads back through time
Solved: Fog Magic

F50: Frances Imposter
Solved: Harvey's Hideout
F51: Family of clothes-pegs

Chapter book for 6-8 year olds, line drawings. Probably UK, written before 1970. Family went to sea.

Enid Blyton, Mary Mouse series. Not 100% sure of this as I don't have any copies to check.  They were small strip books with thin card covers approx 8 inches long by about 3 inches high with 2 boxed line drawings to a page with text underneath.  The clothes pegs were often dressed in sailor uniforms & Mary Mouse worked for them.  They are very collectible now.
Possibly The Big Book of Pegman Tales by Ella McFadyen.  Plot summary: "Contains favorite stories with an Australian flavor from Pegman Tales and Pegman Go Walkabout.  Carved from clothes-pins, the Pegmen become animated and go on a sea voyage."


F52: Fairy who couldn't fly
Solved: The Fairy Who Wouldn't Fly
F53: Food on trees

Solved: Patrick



F54: Fairy Tale Book
Solved: Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales

F55: Frontier brothers' adventures
Solved: The Great Brain 
F56: Family vacation grand canyon

Solved: Henry Reed's Journey
F57: Fairy tale collection

Solved: Great Swedish Fairy Tales

F58: Fairy Stories
Very whimsical with many fairies on the cover - beautiful illustrations One story was about a spider inviting the fly into his web. This is all i remember.  I would love to find this book as i cherished it as a child.

Any chance this is Elves and FairiesCheck it out.
No,  I am afraid that is not the book.  This book had beautiful fairy's on the cover. I believe there is fire in the center with female fairies flying around it .The story about the spider inviting the fly into his parlour is the only story I remember.  I recall it may have been more of  a rhyming book and extremely whimsical. Thanks for the prompt reply!!!
Howitt, Mary,The Spider and the Fly (poem only).  I don't know the exact book the poster is looking for, but the poem about the spider and the fly is in many collections and can be read here.
Here's a possibility! Treasury of Stories and Verse (no author or editor) Gallery Books 1989. If this time frame is too late- this book was originally published as Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Poetry, Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Children's Stories and Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. The first or third may be a lead! Good luck.
This might be it! Fairies on cover and The Spider and the Fly covers 4 pages, lavishly illustrated. Treasury of Stories and Verse-1989- Gallery Books. It seems to be a collection drawing from three earlier sources: Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Poetry, Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Children's Stories and Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.  Hope this helps!



F59a:  farmer, yellow
Solved: McBroom's Ear

F59b:  fairy tale anthology
Solved: Dean's Mother Goose Book of Rhymes 

F60:  fairytale compilation 1950-60
Solved: The Fairy Tale Book

F61:  Fireflies and girl
Solved: The Golden Name Day
F62: Family of entertainers in 1800s west

Solved: Mr. Mysterious and Company

F63: Fairytale anthology
Solved: It Must be Magic


F64: fish beach suffocate woman
Solved: Walter Fish
F65: Fairy Tales

Solved: Storytime Treasury
2002


F66:  Fairy tales with claymation-like figures
Solved: Puppet Treasure Books

F67: Food
Solved: Cheese, Peas and Chocolate Pudding 

F68: Fair-haired Celt with Sword
Solved: The Sword of Aradel 
F69: Falconry and Genghis Khan

Solved: The Golden Hawks of Genghis Khan 
F70:  Fairytale anthology
Solved: Fairy Tales (Hadaway)


F71: Fairy/Robin story
Solved: The Dagger and the Bird: A Story of Suspense


F72: Frogs, three
the book I am looking for I read as a child (I'm 47 now!) it was about three frogs, one was named Percival. That's all I can remember!

F72: This is a long shot, but I'm reminded of Walter the Lazy Mouse(1937) by Marjorie Flack. He gets accidentally abandoned by his family because he's so slow to follow them at anything they practically forget he exists. He has to fend for himself and takes up with the creatures at a pond, including three forgetful frogs, who inspire him to pull himself together and stop being so lazy (so he won't wind up as backward as them, maybe?) He gives them names, since they have none, and tries to be their teacher. He finds his family eventually.
If you put Percival and frog in Google you get over 1000 items, so I decided not to take the time to see if by any chance it would yield the answer to F72. What other word could we add? {Of course it may be the Flack, but I've sold both my copies.]
FYI, the three frogs in Walter the Lazy Mouse are Leander, Lulu, and Percy.



F73: fiddler
Its a story which takes place in a rural setting. A farmer, I think, is met by a peculiar man with one cloven hoof, justone. This character plays a fiddle. Now I know this sounds like Charlie Daniels "The Devil went down to Georgia" but this was a book in the kids section of our neighborhood library-Schenectady N.Y. Many of our favorite books were on Captain Kangaroo and we then got them out of the library .I think this was one such. The illustrations were of a Thomas Hart Benton Americana style, Pen&Ink.  Remember?

Bill Brittain, The Wishgiver, 1983. "The Devil and ..." stories are prominent in American folklore, however, this description put me in mind of a fantastic story of wishes gone awry.  The original edition of this book features b&W drawings.  I haven't read this book in a long time, so if it doesn't work out, you might also want to try looking for the many variations of Bearskin.
Possibly The Devil and Daniel Webster,by Stephen Vincent Benet?
mean jake and the devils, 1981.
Natalie Babbitt wrote and illustrated THE DEVIL'S STORYBOOK and THE DEVIL'S OTHER STORYBOOK. These are collections of short stories, but the one you're looking for might be in them. (In any case, they're wonderful.)



F74: First Year in Womens' College or Boarding School.
I read this paperback (a Scholastic paperback?) in about 1964-1966 time period.  The principal character is a young woman in her first year of a woman's college or boarding school.  Late in the book, she is Christmas shopping for a present for her younger brother and is excited about buying him a wonderful blue radio when she suddenly realizes she just wants to buy him this extravagant gift so that he will think what a great sister she is and that she would do better to buy something for someone else--who that is or what the other gift is I no longer remember.  There is another character in the book named Meredith (I think) whose father is a politican accused of some sort of corruption. I've wondered for years what this book was and hope that through you I will be able to find it and buy it.  Thanks.

I remember a book about a girl who went to boarding school.  The main character was Lovey or Luvvy, and the book may have been called Lovey's Girls or Lovey and the Girls.  It sticks out in my mind because I seem to remember that the main character was not quite perfect, in fact, there were sticky issues in the book. . . . LOVE THE SITE!
Beth Gutcheon, The New Girls, 1979.  Not a match, but maybe would be satisfying to you. This one comes a bit later, and does not have the blue radio incident, but has many other similarities. Here is the synopsis from HarperCanada Books: The New Girls is a resonant, engrossing novel about five girls during their formative prep-school years in the tumultuous mid-sixties. Into their reality of first-class trips to Europe, resort vacations, and deb parties enter the Vietnam War, the women's movement, and the sexual revolution. As the old traditions collide with the new society, the girls lose their innocence, develop a social conscience, and discover their sexuality -- blossoming into women shaped by their turbulent times. Characters names are: Jenny, Ann, Sally, Lisa, and Muffin
I enjoyed playing Stump the Bookseller, and fortunately, the Bookseller won! I appreciate the information and now know what to look for.



F75: Friends go back in time
Solved: The Summerhouse 

F76: Frog Prince
Solved: Jerome 

F77: furry troll/mystical creature finds safe warm haven underwater
A troll or other (furry? fuzzy?) mystical or made up character finds a pond, or lake that he/she can venture into and breathe, either by magic or a special device. In the water it is safe and warm and dark? I think...the book was light green, hardcover, I believe it was a beginning chapter book. It took more than one sitting for our teacher to read it to us. Pictures, I believe were in green ink, drawings, not colored in, and not many drawings.  This story was read to me in second grade, 1992 copyright at the latest. If you have this book, or know a story similiar to it, please please note it for me.

There is a series of books by Don Arthur Torgersen about Tumble Town and it's inhabitants. One of the titles is The Troll Who Lived in the Lake.  The cover is blue/green and shows the troll sitting in the lake with just his eyes above the water line.  Most of the illustrations are done in a green/blue hue.  It's about a troll who is angry because a group of boys has started fishing in his lake and they've taken all the fish.  The water has turned slimy and the troll isn't happy living in his lake anymore.  Grandma Troll gives him "fifty fresk frisky fish" from her lake to restock his lake, and he returns the bikes and fishing poles that the boys abandoned when he scared them away.  The kids promise not to take too many fish and not to litter, and the troll promises not to scare them anymore.  Could this possibly be the book you're looking for??
The main character, I'd like to say was a troll, but it could have easily been a different made-up creature though. He was pictured on the front of the book too. (Could've been a she too). He or she has long hair or fur all over, and I seem to remember his name might have been something along the lines of Furry,Hairy, or Wuzzy or Fuzzy (yes I am aware of the fuzzy wuzzy books- I don't think those are the same…)  This book already looked old when my teacher read it( early 90's). I remember it was smaller than a picture book- novel size I guess. There were probably only 5 drawings in the whole book. I have a feeling this is going to be a rare story that not that many people know about. I'm pretty sure he was a 'nice guy' he could've been sad too. I remember the story taking place where there is a forest, or nature, and there might have been a gate with a key to unlock it that was given to the "troll"  by a fairy…This gate/key/ fairy part is the most vague info- I'm not sure if I'm remembering that part perfectly clear. And then of course there's the part that I remember the best- (these are the only 2 parts I remember, my whole class loved it when the teacher read it though, which was odd, because usually children, younger ones anyway, need more pictures than what this book had to keep their attention, we loved that book! I remember the whole class would all yell the name of the main character together- if only I could remember what that was?)  ok the part I remember best- This "troll" he or she, goes underwater. At first he was scared, then he finds he can breathe (how this all comes about, I don't remember) The feeling I got each time she read it to us (I love books) was that when the "troll" went underwater it was safe, quiet?, dark - I seem to oddly remember specifically that it was dark underwater- or something black. also it was warm underwater and it's possible that the "troll" could be a bear. my book might be very old, but sometimes good stories get printed again, or rewritten by another author, and the covers of the books change all the time. This was probably an easy reader, beginning chapter book. It's possible that it might be a part of a collection of stories somewhere, not too likely though. Thanks for listening to me!   In response to The Troll Who Lived in the Lake - It's possible that this is my book, …I don't remember any trash or environmental issues…but it's possible. I guess I would have to get the book first and read it through to find out…I know that if I read a whole book and not just an excerpt I would know if it was my book or not. I'll let you know, and thanks soooo much for taking the time out to help me with my stumper!! 


2003


F78: Father/son bears in a kayak
Solved: Pierre Bear 

F79: First Grade Reader Book?
Any help will be forever appreciated. What I know....It is a First Grade Reader Book from the 20`s or 30`s. I believe it contains the words, "First Grade Reader" or something like that in the title. It is a Hardback. I think it had a Gray cover with a Sun and a Rabbit on the cover. It is approx. 1 to 1.5 inches thick and about 8"tall x 6" wide. It is full of short stories with some color illustrations.  Most Important is I know for sure two of the stories were,"The Rabbit that caught the sun" and "Little Black Sambo"  It was my Grandmothers First Grade Reader Book and she used to read me the stories as a child.  I have been searching for it for years!!!!

I couldn't find the specific book referenced, but the Loganberry Most Requested Anthologies page  lists compilations that contain the stories you're looking for. Folk Tales Children Love, edited by Watty Piper, published by Platt & Munk in 1934, has "How Bunny Rabbit Caught the Sun," and Eight Nursery Tales, a 1938 title by the same editor and publisher, has "Little Black Sambo." The 1950 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, edited by Betty O'Connor, apparently has "Little Black Sambo" as well, though some later reprints do not.



F80: Family Goes on Camping Trip...
Solved: Camping Adventure 

F81: Fish Children Crystal and Wakefield
Solved: The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield

F82:  Father & son move to country; aid Sandra & daughter from brainwashing
Solved: Children of the Sones


F83: FRIAR AND DONKEY IN ITALY
Solved?: The Little World of Don Camillo
looking for a series of childrens books regarding a chubby catholic priest, friar or brother who travelled from village to village in italy with his donkey. the books were humorous and told of his encounters with the lives of the villagers. I read these books in the mid to late 50's. I appreciate any help .

Don Camillo? Guareschi, Giovanni  Trans by Una Vincenzo Troubridge    The little world of Don Camillo    illus by Guareschi?    Grosset & Dunlap    c1950
Sorry, but this series is not the Don Camillo one.  Those books are aimed at adults, not children, and Don Camillo didn't ride a donkey.  [I'm guessing this is from the original poster, but can't tell]
I made the original request and I think little world of don camillo may be correct. the "little world" phrase in the title lights up a few neurons...... do you have a copy in stock ?
I still think the friar on the donkey is NOT Don Camillo.  Those books were very political and mature, and not aimed at children, plus Don Camillo didn't ride a donkey.  But the reader may be conflating a couple of different books.



F84: Family series
Solved: The Happy Hollisters


F85: Foggy silhouettes?
This is a childrens book perhaps oversized, perhaps not, but the whole feature of this book was it's clever use of tracing style paper layered with perhaps acetate, and pages of strong silhouettes of cars and stoplights etc. as you turn the pages shapes emerge from the "fog" and you can determine what things are that may have been mis-interpereted by the foggy shapes you can't see thru the parchment.  I would love to know the title and author of this book. It would take me back to probably before 5th grade @ Rockford Road Library in MN. These are the only details I remember about this book. I was fascinated by it, and one day it disappeared.

F85 This might be CIRCUS IN THE MIST by Bruno Munari. It was reissued within the last few years by an Italian art society/publisher (Edizioni Corraini). Just be sure to get the English language edition! The pictures I remember best are the cat's eyes and the headlights. However, maybe you could inter-library loan it through your library to make sure it's the right one.  ~from a librarian



F86: Fanciful Irish settlement history
Fictional account of exploration and settlement of Ireland. Epic battles between Celtic peoples and supernatural forces including banshees and leprechauns.  Paperback book, 1985, Green cover, of course.

Kenneth Flint aka Casey Flynn, Gods of Ireland Vol. I & II, 1991.  This seems like a likely prospect -- Mr. Flint (aka Mr. Flynn) has also written a number of books about Irish mythology/history under his own name, dating back to the mid-eighties, so even if this doesn't pan out, you might still want to check out his other works.  "The peaceful Nemedians have crossed vast seas in search of a new home. At long last they discover a lovely green isle and decide to settle in its single beautiful valley-already, mysteriously, equipped with huts ready for occupation."  Two books:  "Most Ancient Song" and "The Enchanted Isles" -- the third was never released.



F87: Fairy Tale collection
The book I am seeking is a Children's fairy tale collection- I  owned when I was perhaps 8-10  (approximately 40 years ago). It was a large book (maybe 18" high) with gorgeous iillusrations- both collor and ssepia. The  collection included Donkey Skin, and a Sleeing Beuty which I think was unique since there was a coda to the story which described the Princess's relation with her wicked mother-in-law. There was I think a tinder Box as well as a story about a mute girl whose brothers had been chaanged into swans.  The illustrations are what I loved.

Check out the Ponsot/Segur collection on the Most Requested Anthologies page to see if that rings a bell.
Marie Ponsot, trans., Adrienne Segur, Illus., The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, 1958, approximate.  The Golden Book of Fairy Tales is MOST definitely the book described here!  There is a 1999 reprint commonly available at a reasonable price.



F88: Fish for Breakfast
a woman that in the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland. She could get her breakfast out her front door because she lived right at the beach.  I read the book in the early sixties.

Lillian Beckwith, The Hills is Lonely, 1959.  Just a guess. This site might help. 



F89: fatapoofs and thinifers, and some fairies, I think
Solved: Fattypuffs and Thinifers


F90: fairy royalty found under tree
Dear Friends,  I have vague memories of a book I read and re-read in 3rd grade (1953-4). My memory is of a child, probably a boy, who sits down under a tree and suddenly finds himself in a land of fairy royalty.  As a librarian, I’ve tried to locate this book, but have failed.

Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle,1945.  Long shot, but could this be Shadow Castle?  It is a girl, not a boy, but she does go out in the woods and after a tunnel and some other things, meets a fairy and "travels" (through his stories) into a land of fairy royalty.
Jane Werner, Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies, 1951.  Simon and Schuster, New York. Pictures by Garth Williams. One of the stories in this oversize (13" x 10") anthology meets this description.  Does you remember illustrations?  This book is lavishly and beautifully illustrated. See Most Requested Books.
Not sure but Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H.White



F91: Fisherman builds house for Friends
A man (fisherman in a yellow slicker jacket and pants?) arrives at a house and then invites his friends to come and stay. He adds on rooms based on their sizes and personalities. The house at the end of the book is a fantastic mish-mash of styles.  This is what I remember about a book we took out of the W. Hartford, CT public library in the early 50's.

Someone sent in a solution to another stumper that sounds vaguely reminiscent of this one, though the person who owns the house is a woman, not a man:  Mrs. Caliper's House by Muriel Cooke and Headley & Anne Harper, illustrated by Sherman Cooke, NY Knopf 1943, 63 pages.  "Nonsense picture story book about Mrs. Caliper, who was so very friendly that she invited everyone who came along to live in her house. Rooms were added for the farmer, the milkmaid, the small boy Peter, and at last for the old lighthouse keeper. Finally rooms had to be built on top of the house, which made it possible to expand almost indefinitely."



F92: Family travels through US in trailer
Solved:  Trailer Tribe


F93: Finding my book
See F96

F94: Fat merchant noodles
My mother describes a children's book of her youth in which poor little Chinese children look in a window at a fat merchant eating noodles. They are starving. She now calls lomein etc "fat merchant noodles." Any idea what the book is?

F95: Fairy Tale Anthology, p.s.
When I was a child (40 years ago give or take), I owned a Fairy Tale anthology which had a collection of stories that were familiar but  a bit more maturely presented and somewhat darker than normal. The collection included Sleeping Beauty version in which there was  post script after the happy ever after marriage - The Princess's mother-in-law  was very cruel to the children for example. There was a Donkey Skin in which her own father wanted to marry her because of her resemblance to her late mother. The Tinder Box was part of the collection as was a story of a young woman whose bothers had been changed to swans and for whom she had to collect stinging nettles to weave into shirts for them to change back to men. The book was large perhaps 18" high, and the illustrations were spectacular- color and black and white drawings which is really why I wanted to get anther copy. Thanks for your help.

Just in case, I checked the Ponsot/Segur collection, but there are no dark post-scripts included there.  At least, not in the recent reprint.
The Enchanted Book.  I think I have that correct book, but I am not certain  it may have been among Hans Christian Anderson's tales.  I think the stories were compiled by another editor. I too loved that book and repeatedly checked it out from my local library over very many years.  I would love to have a copy in my book collection.  My two favorite stories from it were The Twelve Swans and Dwarf Long-Nose.  I hope you find your book.
Marie Ponsot, trans., Adrienne Segur, Illus., The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, 1958, approximate.  I think the original respondent was incorrect in ruling out The Golden Book of Fairy Tales.  It is EXACTLY as described here! The illustrations are as described and all the stories mentioned are in this book. Sleeping Beauty DOES have a dark coda; when the prince turned king goes off to war, his mother (an ogress by birth) decides she wants to EAT the little grandchildren and asks the cook to prepare them (a day apart), but is fooled by the cook with a lamb and a goat.  Then the ogress decides she wants to eat the queen and the cook serves her a deer.  One day, the ogress discovers the hidden queen and her children alive and decides to kill them in a basin of snakes, vipers, toads and spiders.  Her son returns home and the ogress jumps into the basin instead.



F96: Father's Treasure
As a boy, circa mid 1950's, I had a book where a boy was in search of his fathers treasure. It was illustrated simply I recall and the boy went from place to place, animal to animal in search of his fathers treasure. He asked the cow, "Do you know where my father's treasure is?" The cow sent him to another animal and so on. In the end I think he did find a pot of gold which was his father's Treasure.   As a grandfather now, my son-in-law is serving the US Navy in Bahrain and I read often to his children. It would be a wonderful surprise to find this book that has memories for me so I could read it to them in their father's absence. PS. I found you through the NPR feature and I commend your service whole-heartedly. Great Idea!

F96 (and F93?)  Adda M. Sharp and Epsie Young, Gordo and the Hidden Treasure, 1955.  I was just looking over this at my parents' house at Christmas  I loved this book.  A boy _raccoon_ travels in search of the "golden treasure" his father had, I think, told his family of (presumably the father had died, I don't remember).  He asks lots of animals if they know where he can find the treasure (I think he may even say it's his "father's treasure")   I don't recall if there was a cow, but I don't think so.  It takes place in the Southwest, crossing over into Mexico, apparently.  I remember the sometimes colorful illustrations of pinatas, a bell tower, a ringtail, a kangaroo rat, a boat and market filled with flowers, maybe a beggar . . .  In the end Gordo happens upon a cornfield, and it turns out that ears of corn were the "golden treasure" of his father.



F97: Fox family moves, Dad puts a fox on new mailbox
I remember a story, it was either a book or a story within a collection of short stories, about a family.  I think their last name was Fox because they moved to a new house and the father made a fax (I think he carved it out of wood and painted it red) to display on their new mailbox.  I remember agreeing with the kid(s) in the story that this was a very clever thing to do!  I really enjoyed that reading experience and would love to have the book again (it hasn't turned up anywhere among my family's book).


F98: Fuzzys
Solved: The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale


F99: FLIBBERTY GIB(B)ET
Solved:  Flibbity Jibbit


F100: five chinese brothers
Solved: The Five Chinese Brothers


F101: fairies, irridescent bubbles or globes
1946-1952.  A picture book, large and very beautiful. Fairies in woodland gatherings have bubbles or balls that are irridescent they also have brightly colored pieces of cloth. My memories of this date before I could read, so I have no knowledge of the plot, but I don't think there was much of one.

David Cory, The Magic Soap Bubble, 1922.  I'm not certain this is the book that you are looking for because I haven't had time to finish reading it.  However, there are fairies and elves, etc., in the story.  It's about a boy who is taken to a magic land in a soap bubble.  Published by Grosset & Dunlap.
1946 -1952.  Sorry, can't name book but  F101 and F144 I think both of these might be looking for the same thing.  F101, the book was large with a smooth illustrated board with a white background, illustrated on the back cover as well?  inside had fairies sliding down water slides made from narrow leaves fed from raindrops above?  Were the coloured cloths bits of spiders webs coloured by sky and sunlight? No story as I recall, just pictures - if there was any text it was minimal and in the full page illustrations.  Also fairies riding in a cart pulled by ?ants?



F102: Fairy tale journey
Solved: The Farthest-Away Mountain


F103: Fairy Tales
Series of bookes, at least 4 in the series, with black binding, size approximately 5"x8"x1", lovely ink drawings often colored, illuminated-like text at the start of each story, very lengthy versions of classic fairly tales, originally published before 1942.  I think one of the books had a paiting of two young women with long flowing hair petting a bear.

I don't know anything about the books in question, but the illustration sounds like it could be from "Snow White and Rose Red."  Perhaps this detail may jog someone else's memory.
Andrew Lang.  Andrew Lang wrote around 20 fairy books such as The Red Fairy Book, The Violet Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book... you get the idea. They were fairy tales and the covers are along the lines of what's described, though I don't recall the exact one mentioned. Some of them are in print but others are not. 



F104: Fish named Isabelle and Wakefield
Solved:  The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield


F105: Flying Machines
Solved: Flying Machine Boys series


F106: Flying people living in trees
Solved: Green Sky Trilogy


F107: fish family adventures
Solved: The Big Joke


F108: frog toad
Solved: Frog and Toad are Friends


F109: For Peter, to think is to do
The childrens book I am looking for has the line in it "For Peter, to think is to do."  The book is a juvenile book and geared to fourth(?) grade or so.  Published before 1955(?).   The book as I remember it is about an inch thick and 8 1/2 inches by 5 inches.  It is color illustrated as I recall and I think the cover was brown.  The illustrations had a lot of orange in them.  Thank you for helping me find this book...one thing I am sure of it has the line "For Peter to think is to do."
--Additional info--
It is the story of a boy (Peter) who lived in the city and always wanted a garden.  His family and he moved to the suburbs or the country and his mother said now he could have his garden.  And as soon as she said that Peter planted his garden.  Revision on what I thought the size was: Now I am not sure how thick the book was, it might have been an inch or as thin as a "golden book."  Cover was brown (?) and the story had colored illustrations.  I am sure on the line "For Peter, to think is to do."

Jenny Seed, Peter the Gardener. An 'Antelope' book. I haven't read it since I was a child, and can't remember if it contains the phrase you mention. However, I think it is of about the right reading level  and it is about a boy called Peter who has a garden.
F109 I just read some of Yates A place for Peter and decided it is NOT that one.
Well, Peter the Gardener wasn't published till 1966.  I found another possibility, though:  Peter and Penny plant a garden by Gertrude Dubois, published 1936, 210 pp. and illustrated.  I found this description.  Maybe it will help jog your memory or rule it out.  "Dark green cloth w/orange spade/leaf design/lettering, flower Illus endp, TP vignette, & small illustrations throughout text, which is organized by month, starting w/September, index. A story format for a garden for pre-teens."  If this isn't it, though, don't give up - it's just harder to find older books as they don't have good descriptions and keywords in the library databases (yet).



F110: Fred the Bed
Solved: Johnny and His Wonderful Bed


F111: Flood mystery
Solved: Mystery in the Flooded Museum


F112: fish children visit castle
Solved:  The Adventures of Idabell and Wakefield


F113: family detective series
Solved: The Saturdays

F114: feminist book about a girl named Cress
Solved: That Crazy April


F115: Fairy Stories
Solved: The Children's Hour


F116: Funny Girl--not Fanny Brice
Solved: The Funny Guy


F117: Fisherman finds baby inside fish
I remember a beautifully illustrated fairy tale in the 1950's of a childless fisherman and his wife.  One day he comes home with a fish.  (The fish may have spoken to him.)  When he cuts the fish open, they find a beautiful baby girl.

I remember this story-believe it was Japanese? the baby is a girl who turns out to be a princess? Can't remember the title, sorry!
There's a similar Japanese tale about a fairy princess found in a bamboo stalk. The famous Momotaro story is about a fisherman who catches a giant peach with a child in it, but here it's a boy.



F118: First grade reader circa 1930- Sun is Up
I've been hoping for years to find my mother's first grade reader used in Manchester NH   around 1930.  I have the the first few lines as she used to recite it to me.  It was illustrated in turquoise & orange ala Howard Johnson's.  Can anyone identify it so I can try to get her a copy?  The sun is up, the sun is up. / Little boy, little girl, the sun is up. / Who can wake the little boy? / I can said the rooster. / "Cock-a-doodle-do"  said the rooster. / But the little boy did not wake up.

I do not have the book to check for you but your memory of the turquoise and orange illustrations ( HoJo's color scheme) make me think of the Elson-Gray Readers that were used in the 1930's! Put out by Scott Foresman, they were the precursor to the Dick and Jane (New Basic Readers) series.You  might want to locate Book One in the series! Good Luck- Oh! Another set of books to check out-Child Library Series, companion to the Elson-Gray set- same coloring- extends the lessons and vocab of the Basal reader. Locate Book One in this series as well. Hopefully one of these "seeds" will bear fruit! 



F119: Fantasy Trees Little People
Solved: Green Sky Trilogy


F120: Forest waterway
Solved: Where the Brook Begins


F121: fish necklaces
Solved: Firebrat


F122: Farmer Friendly  Little Dog Trumpet
Solved: Trumpet


F124: fishing story really about teasing
Solved: Simon's Hook: A Story About Teases and Put-Downs


F125: friendly witch "catalog"
Solved: The Witch's Catalog


F126: Fuzzy polkadotted dragon stumper
Solved: A Dragon for Danny Dennis


F127: Fortunately, Unfortunately
Solved: Fortunately


F128: Fantasy - girl going over bridge
Solved: Loretta Mason Potts


F129: Family vacation to Florida in Apartment complex
Solved: No Children, No Pets


F130: Fancy and Mercy
Fancy and Mercy or Mercy and Fancy, 1950.  The book was about two kittens -- Fancy was the "bad" kitten  and Mercy was the "good" kitten.

F132: Fairy Tale collection
Solved: The Tall Book of Make-Believe


F133: Five and Dime
Solved: Little China Pig


F134: Fantasy gamers trapped by dungeon master
Solved: Sleeping Dragon


F135:  Five Leaf Clover in Fairy tale
Solved: Fairy Tales of France


F136: Fairytales book--Princess Atop Glass Mountain
Solved: Yellow Fairy Book


F137: Fairy Tales
This is possibly a Whitman Publishing book.  It is a collection of fairy tales, listed in order here: The Shoemaker and the Elves,  Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, The Golden Bird, The Three Little Pigs, Childe Rowland, The Widow's Son, The Princess Who Lived on a Glass Hill, The White Snake, The Ass, The Table and The Stick, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, The Sea Maiden, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, Farmer's Tom and the Leprechaun, The Six Swans, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Snow White, The Emperor's New Clothes, and Tom Thumb.  The cover of the book has been missing for years, but it seems to me it was similar to the "What A Jolly Street, 365 Bedtime Stories" book, which leads me to believe it was published by Whitman.  It is illustrated with line drawings for each story and is 224 pages long.

Fairy Tales, 1950s.  This is the title of the book, and I would love to have a copy if it's available. It was published by Whitman in 1950 and has a glossy hard cover with some of the characters from the stories on it, most prominently Puss in Boots and a castle in the background.
I have a Whitman book called The Magic Realm of Fairy Tales with copyright dates ranging from 1944-1968.While it has some of your stories- not all are present-- However at the back of the book they list some of their other offerings. There is one called Favorite Stories- a collection of the best-loved tales of childhood, illustrated by Don Bolognese, Betty Fraser, Kelly Oechsli. Maybe this one is worth checking out!



F138: Fairy Princess flies with little cat
Solved: No Flying in the House


F139: Florida hurricane redeems outsider family
Solved: No Children, No Pets


F140: family with house that grows
Solved: The House the Pecks Built


F141: Fairy tale collection, 1930's or 40's
Help!  I am trying to locate the first book m father ever remembers reading. He read it in the early 1940's so it was printed then or in the 30's.  It is a classic fairy tale collection, oversized green cloth hardbound book.  The cover has a scroll-like gold border running around the front cover, and the title is a gold script running the length of the spine (not block letters).  There are about 15 to 20 stories, so it is not a very thick book, and the ones he can remember are "the one with the tower and hair"- Rapunzel :) and maybe Hansel and Gretel.  He also remembers it to be more text than pictures, but the illustrations were colored and the font possibly oversized.

F142: fingernail moon
When I was little I was taken to see a play in New York.  In it a pioneer family's two ? children were kidnapped? saved? by some Native Americans.  They were to think of their mother when they saw the fingernail moon....

F143: Figurines that come to life
Solved: No Flying in the House


F144: Fairies
I'm searching for a book that, unfortunately, I remember very little about. I had it sometime during the 1950's (I was born in 1946).  The book was about the size of a Golden Book, but I'm not sure if it was indeed a Golden.  There were fairies that I remember were pictured sitting on leaves with flowers for hats.  That's about all I remember.  I get warm fuzzies when I think about the book.  You'd think I could remember more.  Thank you.

Anderson, Hans Christian, Thumbelina, 1953.  This is a Little Golden Book illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren.  I haven't been able to locate my copy to confirm this, but my memory is that the Tenggren depictions of the little flower people at the end of the book (one of whom, the king, Thumbelina ends up marrying) had them sporting fairy-like wings and wearing little upside-down flowers on their heads.  I bet this is the book the requester recalls.
Hi, Harriett.....This is F144 e-mailing you with a bit more info about the book I'm longing to find.  I'm remembering that the little fairies were sitting by a tree with a door in it.
WALLACE, IVY, POOKIE. I wonder if it might be this old favourite about a bunny named Pookie. There are certainly lots of fairies in the story and there is an illustration of a tree trunk opening into a little room. It has recently been republished after years out of print.
BARKER, CICELY MARY, FLOWER FAIRIES.COULD IT BE ONE OF THE MANY BOOKS IN THE FLOWER FAIRIES SERIES?  THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE EXQUISITE.  MANY OF THE BOOKS ARE COLLECTIONS OF POEMS BUT I THINK SOME OF THEM ARE STORIES.  THEY HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR MANY MANY YEARS.
Sorry, can't name book but F101 and F144 I think both of these might be looking for the same thing.



F145: Fairy Tales with Turnip story
Solved: Fairy Tale Treasury


F146:  fox hunted by rural family
Solved: Haunt Fox


F147:  Fireside Concert
Hi, I would be very grateful for any help in finding a book that I have been searching for 20 years! The book is for my mum who cherished it when she was a child. She doesn’t know the title of the book but has given be a good description.  She owned it in the 50’s so that gives an idea of the date. It was annual sized and contained stories and poems. Hear is her description of the stories:  Fireside concert. The fire, copper kettle and all the fireside equipment come to life and have a concert after the humans have gone to bed. Little gray bear. A boy has a little gray bear and is bought a big brown bear.  The little bear gets pushed to the back of the toy cupboard.  He decides to run away but the other toys help him.  They get the boy to realize what he has done and they all become good friends. Poems. The storm. Sometimes on winters nights when winters shine cozy and warm, says the wind with a sigh as it wraps on the pain, won't you please let mea in from the storm.  {I can't remember the rest}  The land of nod.  So off we go to the land of nod, down winding lullaby lane, with nightlight fairies for company, till morning comes again. The teapot song. Neat and round and brown am I, merry little fellow, patchwork cozy on my head. Red green and yellow. Gather round the table now draw the curtains tight, firesides the place for me on a winters night. {That’s all of that one}  There were other poems and stories about mice, a girl who lost a red shoe.  Elves and fairies, on the inside of the cover and I think a picture of the fireside concert on the front.  In fact I have just had a thought.  Maybe the title of the book was Fireside concert. My ultimate aim is to obtain a copy of this book but if anybody recognizes the description from there personal collection I would really appreciate any info you can give, title, date etc. Thank you.

These are just guesses since I don't have copies of the books to check the stories/poems you mentioned-- Fireside Fairy Tales: profusely illustrated: a popular and interesting collection from all sources / Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co, ?1890-1899 / Illustrations and engravings by H Tuck, Kate Greenaway, Harrison Weir, Lizzie Lawson, E Sears, Richard Samual Marriot, Thomas Cobb.  Notes: fairy tales, stories, and poems.  Fireside Stories. Veronica S Hutchinson,  ill. Lois Lenski/  Putnam, 1927 / Minton, Balch & Co., 1927  {Lois Lenski has a very distinctive style - just check the internet for examples of her illustrations and you should be able to rule this book out if the illustrations don't jog your mom's memory}



F148: Folk or Fairy Tales
Solved: Once Long Ago: Folk and Fairy Tales of the World

F149: Faberge Eggs in Upstate New York
SOLVED: Sold!,


F150:  Fencing School Sword Father Duel
Solved: A Man of Peace


F151:  Fat Phil, Seminole Maurice and Murderous B. Sutcliff
Solved: Arthur the Kid


F152:  Family Adventures
Solved: The Tuckers series


F153: Forest Fire drives animals to new home under Tree
It's a beautifully illustrated children's story from the 50's or very early 60's of a group of small forest animals driven out of their homes by a forest fire. They each save what they can but realize they must cooperate if they are to survive while they rebuild. The roots of a partially undercut tree provide the framework for a communal living space that at first is meant to be temporary. By the end of the story they decide that sharing the space and the work is nicer for everyone. The protagonist is a mouse or a possum or something like that, who, in helping rescue some of the babies, has no time to rescue any of her own stuff and has difficulty seeing that being the organizer of their little band has as much value as the contributions of food and tools that others are able to offer. I don't remember the cover but I remember an illustration from after they have built up the spaces in the roots and the little doors and windows all over under the tree.  I think the name of the story is either "The Friendship Tree" or Under the Friendship Tree".

I was in the archives to see if I could solve anything and ran across A153 which sounds a lot like the book I'm looking for. I don't remember the raft or the map but the rest sounds the same.
Harriet Weed Hubbell, The Friendship Tree, 1962.  I haven't read this book and can't find an online synopsis, but the title and date certainly match.  Published by T. Nelson, 217 pages.  I hope it's the book you're looking for!
Sorry, it is not Hubbell's The Friendship Tree I remember it as a fairly large book, maybe 9x12 with about 40 pages or so. Colored pictures to the edges of the pages and about 6 - 10 lines of text on each page. I have found three authors using the title but they are all novels, not children's books. Thank you so much for trying to help. From the lack of recognition, I'm afraid this might be a lost cause even with someone else on this list looking for the same book.
I have been looking for this book for several years.  My sister and I used to check it out from the small library in my hometown in Michigan back in the 1960's.  It must have been published in the 40's or 50's as the copy we used was showing its age. Is it possible that this is a book from Canada or England?  As I recall the illustrations seemed to be influenced by Milne. I hope someone can find this one.  I would like to by a copy for my sister.
I am the original poster and it is highly possible that this is from a Canadian publisher as my mother was Canadian and brought this book with her when the family moved to the States.  Hey, that's three whole people who remember this book!
Friendship Valley by Wolo.  NY: William Morrow & Co, 1946.  A story packed with illustrations about a variety of animals, large and small, who work together to make a home after the tragedy of a forest fire. Endpapers are a pictorial map of "The Little Lake and Friendship Valley," color pictorial paper over board.
Friendship Valley is definitely the book being sought!  A group of small animals (badger, woodchuck, racoon family, squirrel, hedgehog, and frog) escape a forest fire by floating downstream on a raft.  They rescue a kitten and establish a new home at the base of a large pine tree.  Dorinda the squirrel loses all of her belongings by helping the racoons save their babies.  When the key to their storehouse is lost at the bottom of the lake, Meedlepoo the frog, who is too small to do much work, saves the day, leading the badger to conclude "that the smallest one among us is just as needed as the biggest one."  With profuse illustrations in black and white and in color, this is a wonderful book.



F154: fantasy story grade school
Solved: The Amazing Vacation

F155: French school girl's affair
Solved: A Matter of Feeling


F156: Four friends
Solved: Seniors series


F157: Fox
Thinking back the  illustrations remind me of Breugel paintings. The story had to do with woodsmen and winter, a fox who was thrown into a pot of boiling water! Since this is all I remember I confess that my obsession to find this books seems a bit silly. But I think about it often.

Tales of Brer Rabbit (NOT the title).
I don't know if this helps, but I remember a book full of "Brer Rabbit" stories, an in one story, he convinces "Grinny-Granny Wolf" that she can be rejuvenated by jumping in a pot of boiling water. Then he uses her skin as a disguise, I think, and feeds her to someone. Sounds gruesome, but this wasn't one of the new cleaned-up/politically correct collections of stories :)


F158: Fairy Tale
Solved: Storytime Treasury


F159: Felicia
Solved: Felicia


F160: Fairy Tales, Oversized Hardback, Beautiful Illustrations
Solved: Storytime Treasury


F161: Flying Trunk
Solved: The Flying Trunk


F162: fiddler
Solved: The Road to Raffydiddle


F163: Fair Minou
Solved: Forest of Lilacs


F164: Found Journal
I am searching for a book I read as a child somewhere around 1954 or 55. The story was about a little girl whose parents were relocated. The bought a very old two story house. The girl was very unhappy as she did not want to move. One day she found a journal written by another little girl who had lived in the house many years before.After reading the journal she was much happier in the house. I do not remember the book's name or the author but I hope someone can help me. I have been pondering over this book for some time.

Norma Kassirer, Magic Elizabeth.  Could this be it? Sally is sent to live with her Aunt Sarah while her parents are away. She find a diary written by another Sally who lived in the house when it was new ( in the Victorian era) and talks about her doll, Elizabeth who she thinks is magic.The modern Sally is somehow tranported back to the Victorian Sally's time and lives the episodes out of the diary.  Eventually this leads the modern Sally to find the doll , Elizabeth, in the present.
Elisabeth Lansing, Lulu's Window.  I think you are looking for Lulu's Window.  Young girl has to move to a new town and new house with her father who is a minister.  She doesn't want to move, and is treated meanly by other girls in the town who are unhappy that she has replaced "Lulu" the little girl who previously lived in the house.  She finds Lulu's diary, and eventually Lulu's secret room and makes friends with the local girls.


2005


F165: Fantasy Island
Solved: Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles


F166: fantasy book of kids and jade
I have been trying to find a series of books I read in the late 1970's early 1980's (I know I was around 6-8 grade).  They were kept in the sci-fi/fantasy young adult reading section at our library.  They were about kids who time traveled with the help of jade-I remember that jade was very important (I got some from my grandparents that year because of these books).  I know there were a bunch of books and that the kids moved through time or place to find other kids, but that is all I can remember, besides loving the books.  I have kids now I want to share these with, but I can't remember any more about the books than what I have written.  I hope you can help.

O'Dea, Marjory, Of Jade and Amber Caves, Heinemann 1974. I'm actually suggesting 2 books: Six Days Between a Second is the first, published 1969, but the title of the sequel sounds closer to what's being sought. The blurb for the first "Would you recognize a basilisk if you saw one? And what would you do if you discovered that a tribe of them had come to live in your district and was threatening to poison the water supply? The place is Canberra, where the Collard children are faced with the problem of saving the city from extinction. With the help of other creatures - unicorns, fabulous bees and dolphins and, best of all, Burleigh the Gryphon, they ... but read about it for yourself!" The second says "But much has changed ... the children are a few years older (and perhaps shrewder) and the fabulous animsls they meet have their worries too. There could be something wrong with their fantasy world, which older children and adults will realise is not so far removed frou their own contemporary Australian one." The list of characters includes the Collard children: David, Barbara, Genevieve and Peter, Dryads (named Semolina and Vermicelli), Ermines (Tirian, Miniver, Regis), Unicorns (Bucephalas and Onegar), Dolphins, Basilisks and Bees. The endpapers of the second book have memorable spectrum-tinted maps.



F167: Figurine comes to life, Felicia?
Solved: No Flying in the House


F168: Frispy
Solved: Fripsey Summer


F169: Fear of  mother
The book I've been searching for, for quite some time, was a hard cover text, about 100 pages long.  It contained vivid full-length illustrations, and the only one I can remember is of the two characters, brother and sister, dancing in their bedroom (possibly to a record player).  They were wearing bell-bottomed pants, and the book seemed to be published in the 60s, maybe the early 70s.  Talking with my older brother, he too, had strong memories of this book, and he added that it was about two children who were afraid of their mother, who would go on supernatural adventures to escape from their home.  He remembers one picture of the two kids flying through a mountain, and he says the end of the book resolved the childrens' fear of their mother.  He thought it was a moralistic story, but he says it was possibly intended for an older audience, due to its extensive narrative.  The only other detail he remembered was a picture of the children holding action figure dolls, and play-fighting with each other through the dolls.  He says the book contained social-political undertones, and may have been some kind of social commentary. I'm sure these descriptions are vague and silly, but I appreciate your giving me the opportunity to post a search.  Good luck, and I'll continue my own search as well. 

F170: FERNANDA
Solved: Tomas Takes Charge


F171: Four sisters with red hair
Solved: Spring Comes Riding


F172: fairytale collection thick detailed illustrations
In the 1970s my grandfather from San Francisco gave us a new fairy tale book that looked expensive.  It was very thick like the old catalogs.  It had a hard cover with a detailed and realistic greenery vine and different characters from the stories partially hidden in the leaves on the cover and/or in the inner covers.  There were aproximately 40-50 stories that included classics like "Cinderella" and "The Shoemaker and the Elves" and lesser known fairy tales like "Snow White and Rose Red", "Jorinda and Joringal", and "The Snow Queen". The stories were classified in the Table of Contents but I do not know how.  There were many illustrations that were close-up, detailed, and realistic.  I have come across different versions of a "Snow White and Rose Red".  This one was about 2 kind sisters who were sent on a series of errands and continued to run into a grouchy troll-like man who was in trouble and needed help of some kind.  One of the times he had gotten his beard caught in a fish line(illustration).  Though he was cross and never said thankyou the sisters continued to be kind to him.  In the end was a bear who, I think, had had a spell cast on him.

Sounded like it might be the Segur/Ponsot Fairy Tale book, but I don't think it has all the stories you mention.  Check out the Anthology Finder to see if there are any other possibilities there.
World's Best Fairy Tales.  Reader's Digest published this 800+ page fairy tale book in 1967, 1970 & 1977. (Beginning in 1977 it also appeared as 2 volumes.)  While the cover doesn't really match the description of the vines and people hiding, all the stories you mentioned are in this book.  I don't know what the endpapers look like.  I found lots of copies for sale online, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding a picture of the cover to compare to your memory.  Here's a complete contents list from the 1967 edition.  It should be the same as the later editions.  Contents: Pied Piper of Hamelin -- Snow White and Rose Red -- It's perfectly true! -- Tom Thumb -- Nightingale -- Chicken Little -- Frog Prince -- Cinderella -- Princess and the pea -- Ali Baba and the forty thieves -- Golden goose -- Why the sea is salt -- Ugly duckling -- Jack and the beanstalk -- Two frogs -- Snow queen -- Six sillies -- Hedgehog and the rabbit -- Thumbelina -- Sorcerer's apprentice -- Red riding hood -- Little mermaid -- Five wise words -- Goose-girl -- Beauty and the beast -- Town mouse and the country mouse -- Snow White and the seven drawfs -- Tinderbox -- Little fir tree -- Bronze ring -- Three billy goats gruff -- Boy who kept a secret -- Magic kettle -- Jorinda and Joringel -- Puss in boots -- Emperors' new clothes -- Billy Beg and his bull -- Little one eye, little two eyes and little three eyes -- Red shoes -- Steadfast tin soldier -- Snegourka, the snow maiden -- Three little pigs -- Shoemaker and the elves -- Doctor knows it all -- Six swans -- Dick Whittington and his cat -- Rapunzel -- Aladdin and the wonderful lamp -- Three bears -- Rumpelstiltzkin -- Golden-headed fish -- Hansel and Gretel -- Brave little tailor -- Gingerbread man -- Horned goat -- Seven Simons -- Little match-girl -- East of the sun and west of the moon -- Musicians of Bremen -- Blue beard -- Princess on the glass hill -- Half-chick -- Sleeping beauty -- Magic carpet -- Jack the giant killer -- Twelve dancing princesses -- Little Claus and big Claus -- Colony of cats -- Sindbad the sailor.

Various, Twice upon a Time. I've been looking for a book that my mom read to me and it was also like school tectbook size and it was beaut iful! it had a nice cover and really nice illustrations. i thought i had found it because i remembered the cat from "puss in boots" somewhere in the cover, but sadly it wasn'\''t it. but yes a recognized the cover you described and i think it's Twice upon a time.
Jane Carruth, The Giant All-Color Book of Fairy Tales, 1971. I KNOW this is the right book, because I have been looking for it for so long, myself!  The green illustrated cover is lush and features a giant in front of a tree, vines, and fairy tales characters in the vines.  The vine theme continues on the beginning title pages, and each story is illustrated by a different artist.  The subtitle is "50 Best-loved Stories," which is the part I remembered best, and threw me off the trail for so long. You can see it here:  http://www.librarything.com/work/2647288'



F173: fingers
Solved: The Gingerbread Shop: A Story from Mary Poppins


F174: French Fairy Tales
Solved: The Golden Phoenix and Other French-Canadian Fairy Tales


F175: Fairy Godmothers
I'm looking for than name of a Fairy Tale.  It is about a girl (princess?) who, when she is born is given gifts by three fairy godmothers:  Happiness, beauty and sorrow.  The mother does not want her child to be said, so she hides the vial of sadness.  The girl grows up happy and beautiful, but something is missing in her life.  After she is grown, she finds the vial of sorrow, drinks it and is very sad.  Later however, she is much happier, having known sorrow.

F176: Frontier life
Solved: Singing Wheels


F177: Flocked bunny changes colors
Solved: The White Bunny and His Magic Nose


F178: favorite book
I read this book in 94 or 95.  It is a historical romance book.  I thought Brenda Joyce wrote it but I checked all her books and can't find it.  It was my favorite book, unfortunatey I borrowed it and gave it back to this book club group I belonged to then.  The only part I remembr is when ...."she was on a horse and they were riding with his troops up the side of a cliff by a river.  And to escape she slid off her  horse into the river and he jumped in after her....."  I really did love the book even though that is all I remember.  Crazy, huh???  This is a tough stumper

F179: Flower Fairy Alphabet
I acquired this book through one of the book clubs in 1985, available through schools such as Scholastic, Troll, or Trumpet.  It was a large book with a hard back like the "Big Golden Books".  It had beautiful, imaginiative scenes of fairies in shimmery dresses, each representing a flower and a letter of the alphabet.  Text, as I remember it, was limited.  Perhaps the title had the word "Garden" in it.  Is this enough to scout it out?  I would love to have it again.  I have no idea of the author/illustrator.  Pure serendipity that I found your website!  What a find, hope you can solve this mystery! Thanks!

Manson, Beverlie, Fairies' Alphabet Book, Doubleday, 1982.  "An illustrated alphabetical introduction to fairy folk."  If you're not talking about Cicily Mary Barker's famous flower fairies, and I don't remember any of them being in a bigger format, then this is a possibility.  The description says it's 29 cm long, which is about right, and Doubleday has book clubs though I'm not sure if they're affiliated with any of the clubs that sell in the schools.
F179  Just some possible leads: FAIRIES' ALPABET BOOK by Beverlie Manson; A FLOWER FAIRY ALPHABET by Cicely Mary Barker ~from a librarian
Cecily Mary Barker, Flower Fairy Alphabet.  Barker produced several illustrated books of fairies in costumes that rather cleverly mimicked different flowers.  She was English, and I believe she is much better known in the UK. I loved this book as a kid, and can even still recite some of the poems from the facing pages opposite the illustrations.
Barker, Cicely Mary, A flower fairy alphabet, 1985.  Blackie (London) published an issue of A flower fairy alphabet in 1985.



F180: Fairy Tale Book
Solved: Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales


F181: Feelings series
Solved: Feelings....  Children's Press


F182: Fairy Story book with photographs of puppet/dolls
Solved: A Puppet Treasure Book of Nursery Tales


F183:Farmer
Solved: Gwendolyn the Miracle Hen


F184: Frogs Going to School
Solved: Froggy Goes to School


F185: Florida town of mystics exposed
Solved: Spirit Town


F186: fantasy sci-fi childrens book
Solved: A Wrinkle in Time


F187: Fairy Ball
Solved: Shadow Castle


F188: Fairy tale compilation
I read this book of fairy tales growing up in the late 1960s. It was my mother's book, so I believe it may have been from the 1940s or earlier. There were lots of unusual stories that I have not seen in any other fairy tale book, such as "The Lad Who Visited The North Wind", "How The Sea Became Salt", "Snow White and Rose Red", and "The Selfish Giant", as well as many of the more common fairy tales. The book was maybe about 6" x 9" and had a blue-green or brownish cover. I think I remember it having a small embossed illustration on the cover, and several black and white illustrations throughout the book. I read from the book to my sisters almost every night, and would love to read it to my children now.

Folk Tales, 1900's , John S Swift Co.  I found a book that had 3 of your four stories, as well as several unusual titles.  Are you sure The Selfish Giant was in your book?  If so, this isn't the one you're looking for.  Contents: This is the house that Jack built -- The old woman and her pig -- The story of the three little pigs -- Scrapefoot -- The three bears -- Johnny-cake -- Henny-Penny -- Lazy Jack -- Mr. Vinegar -- Jack and the beanstalk -- The history of Tom Thumb -- Whittington and his cat -- How Jack went to seek his fortune -- The Hobyahs -- Mr. Miacca -- The three wishes -- Teeny-tiny -- Cinderella -- Beauty and the beast -- Puss-in-boots -- Toads and diamonds -- Drakesbill -- The twelve months -- The elves and the shoemaker -- Bremen town musicians -- The fisherman and his wife -- Sleeping beauty -- Hansel and Gretel -- The frog prince -- Snow-White and Rose-Red -- Little one eye, little two eyes, and little three eyes -- The golden goose -- Snow-White -- Mother Hulda -- The queen bee -- The wolf and the seven kids -- Rumpelstiltskin -- The blue light -- Thumbling -- Billy goats gruff -- The pancake -- The doll in the grass -- The lad who went to the north wind -- The sheep and the pig who set up housekeeping -- The princess on the glass hill -- Why the bear is stumpy-tailed -- Why the sea is salt -- Boots and his brothers -- East of the sun and west of the moon -- The straw ox -- The flying ship -- The turnip -- Fulfilled (A legend of Christmas Eve) -- The mirror of Matsuyama -- The tongue-cut sparrow -- The little half-chick.
Unfortunately, "Folk Tales" does not seen to be the book I am looking for.
Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book.  I immediately thought of this book when I read your post. There are many unusual fairy tales found in this plus some more adult versions of some familiar ones like Sleeping Beauty. I found a site with a list of the titles that I'll try to paste here:  The Bronze Ring, Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Yellow Dwarf, Little Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn what Fear Was, Rumpelstiltzkin, Beauty and the Beast,The Master-Maid, Why the Sea is Salt, The Master Cat or Puss in Boots, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, The White Cat, The Water-Lily. The Gold-Spinners, The Terrible Head, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, The History of Whittington, The Wonderful Sheep, Little Thumb, The Forty Thieves, Hansel and Grettel, Snow-White and Rose-Red, The Goose-Girl, Toads and Diamonds, Prince Darling, Blue Beard, Trusty John, The Brave Little Tailor, A Voyage to Lilliput, The Princess on the Glass Hill, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, The History of Jack the Giant-Killer, The Black Bull of Norroway, The Red Etin.  The Selfish Giant isn't listed but I'm sure this is what you are remembering. The original books had the most beautiful illustrations, woodcuts I believe. There is a whole series, The Red Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, etc. so the one missing story may be in one of them. My library had about 6 or 7 in the series and I absolutely loved them. I hope this is what you are looking for.



F189: Five people shipwrecked on island
Solved: Danger Rock


F190: fly/boy killed, becomes bones
The 20 Scariest Stories Ever?, 1960s/70s.  This book consisted of a collection of short stories with bizarre themes.  The most memorable story was about a boy who started doing magic.  Soon he could fly or levitate.  He changed into a fly in front of his sister or friend.  The boy/fly was big and scary.  Either the cat saw it and jumped on it or his sister swatted it.  The corpse of the dead fly/boy became a pile of bones and blood.  This book was oversized and had a paisley cover and was in my local library in Michigan during the late 70s/early 80s.  The story has haunted both me an my brother for years.  Any help would be great!

Hitchcock (ed) ??????  Don't have any for-sure answer on this, but I would be looking at the various "Alfred Hitchcock" story collections if I were you.  There were AH's tales of mystery, AH scary stories, etc.  They were bound as oversize hardcovers and aimed at juvenile audiences, but had many scary moments.  I definitely remember that story (oh, by the way, it WAS the cat, not the sister...and I seem to recall the presence of another child...friend maybe?) and it unsettled me, also.
Wish I had more info hope this helps a bit.



F191: frontier adventures, kentucky/ohio
Solved: Young Trailers series


F192: Fairy Tale Book
Solved: Five Fairy Tales

F193: Foster homes for safety during WWII
Solved: All The Children Were Sent Away

F194: Foster Kids Brought To Island families off N/E US Coast
Solved: Star Island Boy


F195: Farmer Brown or Jones
I'm searching for a book my grandmother read to me as a child.  I think it was a little golden or tell-a-tale book from the 60s, maybe called Barnyard?.  It was about a farmer who awoke grumbling that nothing ever happened around this place(the farm). He sets out to do his chores and is greeted by many new baby animals.  The book ends with him dancing a jig.  My grandmother recently passes away, and I'd love to find a copy of this book to share with my children.  Thank you so much for your help.

Watson, Jane Werner, Jolly Barnyard, Golden, 1950.
F195 It is  not Bedford, Annie Norton.The jolly barnyard.  illus by Tibor Gergely    Little Golden #67,  1950.  The farmer starts out giving each animal something special since it is his birthday.  It is also not Gale, Leah.  The animals of Farmer Jones.  illus by Richard Scarry [earlier editions illus by Rudolf Freund]. Golden 00-52 no copyright or publication date given.  eating time for farm animals & humans -  It starts w the amimals calling for Farmer J to come and feed them



F196: Family wedding
Solved: Wedding in the Family


F197: Fish
A children's book: A little boy gets into a boat that drifts out to sea and is caught in a storm. Fish rescue him and take him to an underwater cavern filled with treasure, then take him back home where he participates in a festival parade. Story ends with mother serving him fish for dinner.


F198a: fox in a box
Solved: Cinnabar, the One O'clock Fox


F198b: Flourescent blue cover with apple
Solved: The Apple


F199: Futuristic family home
I read a book about a family of four: the parents and their two children, a girl and a boy.  They live in a futuristic house or a space capsule??? They do not leave the house, the kids go to school inside the house.  When they had to visit their grandparents, they had to watch a hologram of their grandparents or something like that.  The daughter is a teenaged girl and she is bored with this kind of life.  One day she looked around the house for a way out, she knew there had to be a way in and out of their house.  Finally, she found an escape and off she went.  From this point on, it’s all about her adventures outside the house.  The world outside her house seems to be dilapidated but she found some people.  She met a man, and I believe she fell in love with him.  They lived in a dilapidated house, but she wasn’t used to the environment so she got sick...in the end she had to go back home. I read this book in 1991 but I don’t know how old the book was when I read it, I don’t know the title and the author either.  I only read this book once.  It seems like this book is for pre-teens or teenagers. I remember the book being thin and yellow, regular pocket book size...I mean, the same size as those Sweet Valley High books, about the same thickness as well.  It is not illustrated inside.  The outside is yellow graphics, I don’t remember there being any pictures of faces on the outside cover, just futuristic yellow graphics.

Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains. I've only skimmed Heroes and Villains (many years ago), but the plotline described here rings a bell.  There's a synopsis here.
A Very Private Life.  Could it be A Very Private Life? The plot sounds pretty accurate, about a girl called Uncumber who leaves her home... thingie and finds the outside world, and I remember that the cover was yellow as well.
Vonda N. Mcintyre. Rather a long shot, but this reminds me of a short story/novella by Vonda Mcintyre.  I unfortunately can't recall the title, but it had a similar plot.  It was fairly dark though...the teenage daughter was sent out deliberately to become the mistress of the (wealthy) man she met.  He gave her pretty clothes and jewels and I think a pet bird, but when she gets sick (as all the shanty town residents eventually do because of radiation) she goes home again.  I got the impression it was set in the same world as McIntyre's  Dreamsnake, but inside the domed cities instead of outside on the plains.



F200: Fletcher
1980's or 1990's.  It was a boring day on the farm and the main character [a pig ?] named Fletcher got all the animals to go with him on an adventure , taking the farm truck,  I think they pretended that they were on a pirate ship and they crashed the truck and they all fell in a mud puddle and the story ends saying that it was just another boring day on the farm.

Nope, it's not Devlin's How Fletcher Was Hatched.
Oxenbury, Helen, Pig Tale, 1973.  Yes, I know this is older than the requester posted, and it doesn't have any character named Fletcher in it, but please look at it anyway. The similarities are such that perhaps your poster is remembering it and another book they had. Hope it helps.
Hans Wilhelm, Pirates Ahoy!, 1987, copyright.  This Parents Magazine Press selection is the delightful book described here.  Fletcher (yes, a pig), on a slow morning on the farm finds an old wagon that the animals pretend is a pirate ship.  They crash it into an apple tree and spy a bus coming down the road.  They commandeer it, all get ice cream but decide it isn't fast enough. SO, they find a fire engine.  They come to a circus, so they climb up the firetruck's ladder and fall into the tent, where they stage their own circus.  But they decide they still need a ship, so they find an airplane.  They do a few loops (turning green and looking ill), then crash into a mud puddle, right back on the farm, where they get bored again.  The illustrations are adorable; I love the bored animals lazing around (one pig standing on his nose on the fence)!!



F201: Fairy tale stories, Mother goose rhymes and aesop's fables...
The book has a red cover. It had incredible images and it was quite thick and heavy. On the inside cover it had green and white stripes and in the middle there was a green castle. The stories I remember were Little red riding hood, sleeping beauty and maybe rapunzel? It also had different sections, one filled with mother goose rhymes including Little miss muffet.  I also believe it had "Little boy Blue" rhyme. The aesop's fable section had the ant and the grasshopper and the tortoise and the hare. That's all I can remember.... 

F202: Freda, Prince, Bear, Wind
This was a reader or maybe a separate book 60+yrs ago.  Remembered as:  A prince who had been turned into a bear was found by Freda in a cave.  Freda rides on the wind to find help so she can marry and become a princess.  Thanks

possible east of the sun and west of the moon?  the bear lives in a castle though, but the girl does ride on the wind.
asbjornsen and moe, The White Bear King Valemon This sounds something like a Norwegian fairy story which is best known in the version published by the 19th century collectors Asbjørnsen and Moe, who are Norway's parallel to the Brothers Grimm. In their version the bear is a prince who has been bewitched, and can be a prince only for part of each day. After some failed attempts with her older sisters, he gets the youngest princess in a kingdom to go with him, but is separated from her. She undertakes journeys to try to get back with him and is eventually successful, so the curse is overcome. This story has a lot of overlaps with the story known as East of the Sun and West of the Moon which another reader suggests  that one was also published by Asbjørnsen and Moe. Both stories include many element which can be found in many folk tales, fairy tales and legends from many cultures, however. But Asbjørnsen and Moe do not give their princesses the name Frida in either case.
Huber, Salisbury, O-Donnell, After the Sun Sets, 1938,1953,1962.  I think that in this version of East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon the heroine has the name Freda. (I've been doing an exhaustive search for the 1938 version - I think that's the one my grandmother handed down. Can't find that version, so I can't verify for sure.)



F203: Finding love
Solved: Girl of the Limberlost


F204: Forgotten Ones
Solved: The Unchosen


F205: ferris wheel explosion
Solved: Three Minutes to Midnight


F206: Fern the fox
Something about Fern the fox....  fern the fox was a secondary character in a little golden book. minnie mouse may have been the primary character. they might have been going to a party together.

F207: Farm animals do the work
This is a picture book I read in the late 50s or early 60s. In it, a farmer becomes sick and can't do the farmwork, so the animals (unbeknownst to him) pitch in to keep the farm going until he gets well.

Margery Bianco, The Good Friends, 1934, copyright.  Could this be The Good Friends by Margery Bianco. It is a chapter book but has many illustrations. The animals all have personalities and are helped by a girl named Mary. They hide from a Humane Society officer and the horses hire themselves out to earn food.
Hi: I happened to be looking for the same book as F207. I don't think you found the right book. The book this individual is talking about was published in England I believe. (I was a child living there when I read it.) I read it in the early 60s. It was a smaller picture book, probaby 6 by 9 inches. It was brown. I think the drawings were in brown ink. The publisher published a number of children's books along this same model.  It's a very sweet story about a group of somewhat lame older animals that all pitch in. The horse digs the hole, the pig picks up the plant gently. They all get worn out and sore. I am sure it's out of print. Well, just thought I'd flesh it out for whoever submitted the request.



F208: followed by the 4th of July
Solved:  Arm in Arm


F209: Family camps on island
Solved: The Invisible Island


F210: Fairytales
I have a "Book Stumper" question.  It concerns a large, thick, hardcover collection of Fairytales that my father purchased for me while overseas in Germany in the early 1980's.  (Ranging from 1980-1985).  It had a light-blue/robin's-egg-blue background, and I believe the title was in purple? (maybe?) and was italicized, with a sort of fancy typeset.  It was written in English, and colorfully illustrated, containing all of the classic and well-known fairytales, and others not so well known.  It was at least 1 full inch thick, page-wise, and was large, I'm guesstimating from my memory, about 9x12, give or take.  I believe that the word(s) "Fairytale(s)" may have been in the title, but I'm not completely sure.  That is all the information that I can recall.  I hope it will be enough to ring a bell.  Thanks SO much - what a cool service!

F211: Fruitless search for fairytales
I have been in a fruitless search for a fairy tale book from my early youth (born 1948) that I think started with Cinderella. The illustrations were wonderful, the characters had tall pointy hats and I recall a dress that was gold and white fur. Rumpelstiltskin was also one of the stories. I don't think there were a lot of other stories included in the book and I have no recollection of the cover (I think it was torn off from us looking at it so much!)It might have been more of a picture type story book. I would be thrilled if they "mystery book" could be found...thanks so much!

Nila Mack, Let's Pretend, 1948.  This sounds like Let's Pretend again! See the Solved Mysteries for more info. The book starts with Cinderella, and includes The Leprechaun, Childe Roland, Princess Moonbeam, and Rumpelstiltskin.



F212: francis-like child babysits for little brother: mayhem ensues
Solved: Waddy and His Brother


F213: farm animals
Solved: Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm


F214: fairy in a bike basket
i ahve been thinking about this book i read and read when i was a child but i do not have alot of info about it that i can remember.  all i can picture is that it was about a girl who had a fairy? little person? elf? that she kept in a bicycle basket, and she made a home for it there with fairy size furniture. it was her best friend.i am not sure, it's been 20 years, but i am interested in having a copy if it can be found.  thanks

Rumer Godden (author), Adrienne Adams (illustrator), The Fairy Doll, 1956.  I don't own a copy of this out of print book, and I can't find a detailed online synopsis, but I think that this may be the one you're looking for.  Here's what I remember. Elizabeth is the youngest child in her family.  She is clumsy, easily distracted, uncertain, and is still riding a tricycle because she can't balance on a bicycle.  When a Christmas presentation to an elderly relative goes awry (Elizabeth drops the gift and it shatters), she is given the Fairy Doll from the top of the tree.  She makes the doll a home and the doll gives her the confidence she needs to succeed at various endeavors.  This story was reprinted in 1984 in the book Four Dolls by Rumer Godden (illustrated by Pauline Baynes).  It was also reprinted in 1998 with illustrations by Penny Ives.  If the illustrations are important to you, you'll probably want the original version.
Godden, Rumer, Fairy Doll
Rumer Godden.   I had this story in a collection of four stories about dolls by Rumer Godden. I don't remember what the story was called, but two of the other stories in the book were Impunity Jane and The Story of Holly and Ivy. I think it might have been called something like The Fairy Doll. I think the doll is actually a Christmas ornament and I think she belonged to the little girl's grandmother. The little girl is the youngest in her family and feels she isn't good at anything. She is also clumsy and her siblings pick on her about this. She makes the doll/fairy a house in her bicycle basket and uses various natural things (acorns, dandelions, etc) to furnish the house. I was given this book in England in the late 80's. It was paperback with a red cover, possibly a Penguin book. Hope this helps.
Rumer Godden, The Fairy Doll.  Might be this one- a little girl is given the fairy doll off the top of the Christmas tree.  She plays with it and makes a little home for it.  It gives her confidence to learn how to rider her bike and become more independent.
Rumer Godden, The Fairy Doll.  Elizabeth is the youngest of four and feels like she can't do anything (like riding her bike or getting her schoolwork right), until she starts taking care of the Fairy Doll and gains some confidence.  She does make her a house in her bicycle basket.
Rumer Godden, Fairy Doll I'm pretty sure this is it. Elizabeth is the youngest in her family. She's also the clumsiest and least confident of her cruel siblings. Then she's given the Fairy Doll from the Christmas Tree. As she cares for the doll, creating a miniature world, she gains confidence (and learns to ride her bike). 



F215: football uniform tree
I hope that you can find this book about a child who finds parts of a football uniform hanging in a tree, each time some job is completed. The last surprise is a football. Read in the 1950s.

Kohler (Children's Press), Football Trees, 1947, copyright.


F216: fairy tales
Fairytale Book, large with Red Hardcover, I think it had a stamped impression of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland on the cover and had to be over 300 pages or more.  It's first story was of Robin Hood, and contained other rare fairy tales such as longshanks, girth and Keen, the blue bird, the water babies.  It had mostly black and white illustrations and looked as if it could be from the 50's.


F217: fox boy
Solved: Pure Magic


F218: furniture store
Solved: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler


F219: farm animals
Solved: Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm


F220: Felicia, music box, island
Children's book published in the late 1960's, early 1970's.  I remember it was a hardcover, with a turquoise cover and the front featured the heads of two blonde girls. One was wearing a ponytail. There was a girl named Felicia in the story. It was about an island that had a very bad storm in the past and I think a little girl died. The other little girl years later found her music box in the sand and it had a key in it. The music box was rusty. I think the modern day girl was haunted by the story of the other little girl who had died.

Eleanor Frances Lattimore, Fair Bay. I used to have this book and I recall the dustjacket as being just as described here.  The storyline fits, too.



F221: forest friends
Solved: Old Mother West Wind


F222: flying humanoid creatures licking mud sculptures??
Solved: Earthborn


F223: fog and magician
Solved: Dr. Merlin's Magic Shop

2006


F224: Fairy Tales (Anthology)
Solved: The World's Best Fairy Tales


F225: Fishy ate it
A book of funny poetry I read in the early-mid 70s. The cover was mostly yellow. I remember one of the poems in which a little boy is looking for his missing link - he asks "Have you seen my missing link?" and it ends with, "I think a fishy ate it."

F226: Fairy swings on flower
Solved: A Fairy to Stay


F227: Fox and Fox-shaped balloon
Solved: Tom Fox and the Apple Pie


F228: Frog and Socrates
Looking for a book I read in the 70's about a boy who becomes friends with a frog or a toad, their relationship goes on for years, the boy grows up and goes to college where there is a computer named Socrates.  Seems to me the boy had to come to terms with what he believed and why.  I checked this out of my church library though I don't remember it having a Christian theme - but of course, there is a lot I've forgotten about the book! 

F229: Flying Ship that fits in a pocket
Solved: The Ship that Flew

F230: Fairy Tales
Solved: My Giant Story Book


F231: F73 continued
To take the query in F73 a step further (regarding the stange man in the woods with the hoof), I remember that the man was not a farmer, but a soldier perhaps, and that the cover was red and had a drawing of just the soldier on it.  The stranger (devil) in the woods had a hoof and a cloak, the trees where the devilish character lived were grouped in a circle in a clearing.  It was an illustrated childrens book that I can remember reading in the early 80s.  I also remeber that neither the title nor the text had the word "devil" in it.....and I beleive the title was a simple one, perhaps "the Stranger?"  The reader was supposed to figure out that the Stanger was the devil.

F232: Feather, pick it up, put in pocket
The book I am looking for, to the best of my childhood knowledge, was a collection of poems, and maybe short-short stories, with illustrations for children.  It may have been a children's lit book.  I am positive it contained the "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream" poem, and a poem about a feather (I thought this may have been part of the title, but could be wrong).  The poem went if (or when) you see (or find)a feather, a pretty white feather, a soft and tickly feather, pick it up, put it in your pocket, and then followed by what the feather meant, either it was a message from abird, or it meant remember me always.  I thought if I even knew where the poem came from I could go from there, but have exhausted all research options.  I know it was read to me circa 1978-9.  Thanks!

I landed at this web page because I too am looking for the same poem about a feather.  As I recall it went something like "If you find a little feather, a pretty white feather, a soft and tickley feather, pick it up and put it in your pocket.  A feather is a letter from a bird that says think of me, remember me always or at least until the little feather is gone"...or something like that.  And I do think it was in a childrens lit book because I was in college at Cal State Long Beach at the time and the book belonged to a friend at school.  This was in 1966. 
lee bennett hopkins, zoo! a book of poems, 1971, copyright.The poem is by beatrice schenk de regniers and is in zoo!a book of poems, but that book does not contain the ice cream poem. i hope this helps some.



F233: Friendship Stone or Rock
Solved: The Magic Friend Maker


F234: faith in god
This thick hard-cover book had stories on one page, and pictures relating to the stories on the other page, circa 1958.  This is the one I remember:  A picture of four boys and thre girls, each carrying a candle with bright flames.  The oldest girl was cupping the flame of her candle, because it was about to go out.  The story tells of how the candle light represents out faith in God, and that the older girl' faith was weakening.

Allan Jahsmann, Little Visits With God. (1959)  Sounds like it could be this. There was also a second book called 'More Little Visits With God'. Described as 'devotions for families with small children', each one-page story had an illustration and suggestions for parents and children to discuss the moral of each story.



F235: Faries/elves
Before 1940.  As a child in New York I found a little book with stories and beautiful illustrations of faries and elves. It contained about 10 short stories. Some of the stories discribed how they made their clothing out of the flower petals and lived among the plant leaves. I loved the book and upon moving out west the book was lost. Please can someone help me. Thank you.

Elizabeth Gordon, Loraine and the Little People (series). (1930's)  Possibly one of the books in Elizabeth Gordon's "Loraine and the Little People" series?  These books were originally published in the 1910's, but were re-issued by Rand McNalley in the 1930's. Titles include "Loraine and the Little People" (illus. by Penny Ross), "Loraine and the Little People of Spring" (illus. by Ella Dolbear Lee), "Loraine and the Little People of Summer" and "Loraine and the Little People of the Ocean" (both illus. by James McCracken).  These beautifully illustrated books feature short stories about a young girl named Loraine and her tiny fairy friends.  "Loraine and the Little People of Summer" contains seven stories, including one called "The Flower Gown Maker" - perhaps this is the one you are looking for? The other stories in this book are "Queen O'Weeds", "The Moss Carpet Weaver", "The Shaker of Seeds", "Queen of Loving Thoughts", "The Commodore", and "The Master Colorist."



F236: Futuristic Swamp and Serpent
I remember there was a set of these children's Science Fiction stories in my school library.  THis would have been around 1983 or something.  I believe there was a set of 5 or so, in a continuing story, but I can only remember 2 of them, one with some clarity (the drawing) and the other only vaguely.  The books themselves were small and fairly thin (like 30 pages maybe?) the book dimensions were around 7 inches square.  The one I remember had a very green cover, showing an image of a long-grass swamp.  THere was a serpent coming out of the water threatening two people (maybe a man and a woman, not sure)  That is really all I remember. There might have been a futuristic city in the background.  Anyway, the drawing is as I remember it. THe other book had a red themed cover, and it showed a futuristic city I think, involving robots.  The paintings themselves were very striking, and well done... in fact, it was those images that drew me to the set.  I do not remember if I read any or not, and now wish that I had a chance again.  I hope you find them!

CS Lewis, The Silver Chair. (1898-1963)  Two english children undergo hair raising adventures as they go on a search and rescue mission for the missing prince Rilian, who is held captive in the underground kindom of the emerald witch.  Depending on which print you had, the cover illustration may have had a picture of the witch who turned into a brilliant green serpent and threatened the two children. Also, the second book you are thinking of could be another of the series The Chronicles of Narnia, such as The Last Battle
Unfortunately, that solution that was offered is most certainly NOT the answer to my query.  I know the Silver Chair story well, and the book I was looking for is not a second world Fantasy story.. it is a straight forward Science Fiction story, as I stated... there were robots and blasters and all the rest.. Futuristic City, space ships, etc, etc etc...  And the serpent was coming out of a long grass swamp... very important to the picture!  As per my description, the books were short (30 pages maybe), not anywhere as long as even the shortest Narnia book.



F237: Finds faeries through gate in wall
Hi!  I am looking for a children's book, probably published in the early 60's.  6-9 year old probably.  Kid goes thru a "gate" in a wall or hedge.  finds fairies on the other side.  sounds like the Secret Garden but isn't.  was my favorite book in about 3rd and 4th grade.  was in the book list on either Weekly Reader or Junior Scholastic.  have been looking for years and can't find!


F238: Family blizzard Christmas
I read a book as an elementary student in the late 70's - early 80's which featured a family around Christmas trapped at home due to a blizzard or snow storm.  They were forced to make homemade gifts rather than shop.  I distinctly remember them making gifts for the birds in the back yard as well.  I believe there was  young girl wearing a red coat on the cover with a sled although I could be mistaken. It was a chapter book.

Carolyn Haywood, Snowbound with Betsy.  Definitely the one. It's on the Solved Mysteries page as well.
Haywood, Carolyn, Snowbound with Betsy. (1962) The most popular of Haywood's umpteem novels is Snowbound with Betsy.  Betsy, Star and their parents have unexpected guests just before Christmas, when a mother and her two children are stranded in town during a blizzard and Betsy's parents take them in.  The story kept me so enthralled the first time I read the book that I distinctly remember lying on the living room couch with the book in front of me.


F239: Fog causes sin
I read a book around 1990.  Can not recall the title nor author. . hence my sending you this.  I remember two scenes quite vividly. 1-A young boy was lying in bed and a fog surrounded him and he suddenly felt the urge to gratify himself.  He then sought other young women to engage in sexual acts with. 2-there was a mansion on a hill and several of the townspeople went there to engage in huge orgies.  The clergy was involved in these orgies, and several acts of incest also took place at the mansion. 3-there was a man (Seth I think) and his wife that were very grounded in religion and the main character (Seth. . .I think that's his name) began the crusade to get his wife and himself out of the town before they too were affected by the fog that caused sin.  One part of the book describes a scene where the main character and presumably Satan are talking and it begins to rain.  The main character then realizes that it is not rain, but urine.  That is all I can remember of the book.  It was paperback, so I'm sure that it had several different covers.  I know it is not a lot to go on, but I keep thinking about this book and quite frankly.  .not knowing the title is driving me bananas!  *lol*  Any help you could lend would be very valuable to me.  I would also like to purchase a hardcover copy of this book.  Thanks.

Richard Laymon, Sounds like it could be one of richard Laymon books, horror genre for adults and young adults. Quite full on but not my cuppa tea.  OR it could be The Fog by Frank Herbert.


F240: Flip book ballerina
I am looking for a book my sister and I had in the 60s or 70s. It was a flip book with a little ballerina going through her moves. The cover was primarily yellow . That is about all I remember.  Thankyou, I hope you can help me find this.



F241: Fairy family fairy tales book
Solved: Shadow Castle

F242: Female exchange student in Scottish Highlands
Solved: My Heart's in the Highlands

F243: Fairy tale book with little men in background
I really don’t have a lot to give you to work with.  The book I am looking for is a children’s fairy tale book.  It wasn’t very big (maybe 15 – 30 pages?), and I remember reading it sometime in the early to mid 1980’s.  I think the book was a collection of stories about Trolls (but it could have been about Giants).  One of the stories in the book was the Three Billy Goats Gruff (hence, the Trolls).  The thing I remember most about the book is the illustrations.  It had big, full page, full color illustrations.  These illustrations were very intricate, and I would spend hours looking at the hidden detail in the illustrations.  The thing that stands out most in my mind about the illustrations were the “characters” in the background.  There were these little gnome-type men through out the pictures, rarely (if ever) interacting with the main subjects of the story.  They had little houses carved into their natural and man made surroundings (like the side of a cliff or in the nooks and crannies of a “man sized” town).  These little men also had these little bird-like creatures, sometimes as draft animals, hitched to little carts, but usually just hanging around.  Sorry, but that is all I have, and even these memories are hazy (I was a small child when I first read this book).  Thank you for your help.

George Jonsen, Author, John O'Brien Illustrator, Favorite Tales of Monsters and TrollOne of my all time favorite picture books.   I recognized it instantly because of the excellent John O'Brien illustrations. It contains the Three Billy Goats Gruff, a story about a man who uses a pet bear to scare trolls, and a tale of the youngest woodcutter's son who squeezes cheese to outwit a troll. The illustrations are full of tiny Bosch-like details of little creatures who inhabit the hair and clothing of the main characters. The illustrator also produced a coloring book of fantastic creatures that you might want to check out!


F244: Ferris wheel
Solved: A Night in Funland and Other Stories


F245: Florida, rattlesnakes, snake hunting
This is a book from my youth in the late 1960's. It is about a boy and his semi-catonic father living in a swamp in Florida. The boy collects snakes to sell to help support his father. The boy meets up with some professional snake hunters and learns how to catch rattlesnakes. One of the rattlesnakes almost bites the son, but the father is jarred from his state and saves the boy. The boy is glad to have father back.

Mel Ellis, Ironhead, 1968. The title is the name of an alligator that is part of the book as well as snake collecting and large rattlesnakes. Originally published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.  Reprint in paperback in the 1970's.'


F246: Family takes road trip, camps by roadside
Family takes roadtrip, camps by roadside: In the '70s I read a story in a Reader's Digest Condensed Book about a family who packs up for a roadtrip. There's lots of bickering, and I believe I remember the kids don't want to go. Something happens and the family end up camped right off the side of the road. That's of course illegal and the officials try to make them leave, but they won't. They become sort of a celebrity family since they're right there by the road and are bucking the system. By the end of the story they all end up learning to get along and enjoy each other more, plus they make new friends. A very cute and fun PG story.

Stephanie Tolan (author), The Great Skinner Getaway, (1980). This could be The Great Skinner Getaway or The Great Skinner Homestead.  In the first one, the Skinner kids' father comes home with a huge camper/motorhome and announces the family is going to travel across the US.  The four kids are not happy about it, and their mother isn't too thrilled with the idea either. The motor home breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the family has to figure out what to do. Because they have to work together, they become closer.  In the second title, the Skinners have decided to spend some time (maybe just the summer, maybe a year?) in the broken-down mobile home and the kids detail the humor of it while wanting to get back to civilization.  There are two other books about the Skinners: The Great Skinner Enterprise and The Great Skinner Strike. (I''m not giving a great description, but I do think these are the books in question!)
Richard Powell (author), Pioneer, Go Home. I think this must be the book you are looking for - the details fit, and if this isn't it, then RD must have put out 2 very, very similar stories right around the same time!



F247: Fly-by-Night
Solved: Humpty Dumpty Holiday Stories


F248: Fairy Tales
I am looking for a book I read in the late 60's or early 70's.  It is a large book, hard cover book of Fairy Tales.  The cover was blue and the stories I remember were The 3 Bears, Puss 'n Boots, The Little Match Girl, and Little Red Riding Hood.  What distinquished this book was that the art on the cover was a hologram of Cinderella and the illustrations in the book were posed puppets.  I would LOVE to find this book or at least the title.  I hope I don't stump you.

F248: Possibly the fairy tale board book series by Oscar Weigle and illustrated by T. Izawa and S. Hijikata. (Not all include Weigle's name.) They began before 1970 and ran for years. The different titles sometimes include the phrase A Living Story Book or some variation of Puppet Book. Two stories I remember - with the original "sad" endings -were The Little Match Girl and The Red Shoes. If there are other authors of fairy tale board book series done with puppet photos and holograms, please do tell - I'd like to track them down too.
Shiba Productions, The Fairy Tale Treasury In Living Color.  (1966)  Blue cover with hologram of Cinderella getting out of her pumpkin coach.  Fourteen stories as follows: Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Tom Thumb, Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Duckling, The Golden Goose, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Little Match Girl, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Puss in Boots, and Hansel and Gretel. Beautifully illustrated with the charming puppets of Tadasu Izawa and Shigemi Hijikata. A rare and expensive book.



F249: Family stuck in a car during a snowstorm
Solved: The Snowstorm Jenny Never Forgot


F250: Foster Family
Solved: Heads, I Win


F251: Family lost, survives in desert
I'm looking for a story that was probably written in the 1960's or 1970's. It may have been in a school reader. The style of the story and artwork may have been similar to "Run Away Home."  A family (Mom, Pop, 2 boys, and possibly a girl) is traveling around the U.S.  They are driving through the Southwest desert, possibly Death Valley, when the car breaks down.  To survive, they cut strips of pulp from inside cactus, and suck/chew them for moisture.  They use the car's hubcaps to trap dew, and I think they may have tried eating color crayons.  Someone in the family had to walk across the desert to find help. I don't remember if it was the father, or if he was somehow hurt, and it was one of the boys? He had to walk at night, because it was too hot during the daytime. Any suggestions are appreciated.  Thanks!

Elizabeth Coatsworth, Runaway Home, 1942.  Check Solved Mysteries.
I'm sorry to say, Runaway Home by Elizabeth Coatsworth is definitely NOT the book that I'm looking for. I have a copy of that book, and while the Harding family's car does break down in the desert, they are only stranded for a few hours before help arrives.  There is no lengthy survival ordeal of several days, nothing about sucking moisture from strips of cactus, collecting dew, eating crayons, or one of the boys making the long walk to get help.  As I said, I think the style of the book and/or illustrations may have been similar to that of Runaway Home.  The setting may have been slightly more recent - 1950's or 1960's possibly.  Thank you for your help.
Reader's Digest.  in 1993, at seventh grade overnight camp, I read this story from a photocopy (bedtime story) - it was a Drama in Real Life article from Reader's Digest.  On the WWW, I found one mention in a blog from someone else who remembers it, but it doesn't look as if RD has put up old stuff.
I too remember this story, and as other person mentioned, I also believe it was a Readers Digest "Drama in Real Life" story.  I remember that they were taking about which crayon colors tasted best when they were eating them.
I remember a "collecting dew on hubcabs" storyline and would've read it in the 60s... a scholastic book maybe?
Evan Wylie, Ordeal in the Desert, November 1959. This was published in Reader's Digest and reprinted in one of those "Drama in Real Life" paperbacks.  Someone mentioned in in their blog here: http://astoriedcareer.com/2008/03/where-it-all-began-for-me.html, which is all the details I've been able to find about it, but it was originally in the November 1959 issue of Reader's Digest.
Date: 1960, approximate. This was definitely a Readers' Digest story.  My wife and I both remember it vividly.  I'm pretty certain it was Death Valley, and the people used the crayons as lipstick. I'm pretty sure also that the hubcap episode may also have been about their having to drink their own urine at some point.



F252: Funny Situations
Solved: Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs


F253: Farmer flies into clouds to make them rain
My father remembers a favorite book from his childhood that I hope to find for him.  It was part of a mobile library when he was in grade school (1950-1956).  I only know the plot which is as follows:  A young boy (who I believe lives on the farm) watches the farmer (possibly the boy's father)tend to his crops.  His crops need to be watered and it has not rained in a while.  So the farmer flies his plane over the fields that need rain...cutting holes in the clouds.  The boy goes out to the field after and discovers raindrops on the fences that have been cut.  Instead of being tear shaped the cut raindrops have a flat edge.

F254: Family of Coins living in a bank
Picture book about a bunch of American coins that live in a bank and one of them is kidnapped by a bad guy and the story is how she got back.  It had to be in print before 1963.

F255: Frances scottie dog fox hunting
Solved: The Frosty Filly


F256: Full Fathom Forty by Sybil Burr
I know the title and author I just don't know if it is the sequal to "my candle the moon" and if Pud's love story with the French canadian Louis Sablon continues... No trace in cyberspace.

This isn't an answer, I'm afraid, but the only two copies of Full Fathom Forty listed on Worldcat are in the British Library and the University of Oxford.  Perhaps you could email them, or have a friend in the UK check for you?
Sybil Burr, Full fathom forty. Thanks, Harriet! That's got me much further on than ever before.  I'll get tracking in the UK...  Happy New Year!



F257: French boy
a small boy (French?) is out wit6h his nanny, and is struck by a car or truck, but instead of dying he is turned into a kitten. An older cat takes him under her paw and teaches him how to be a cat. I'm DYING to find this book--

Paul Gallico, Jenny. Isn't this "Jenny" by Paul Gallico? There's a description on the I-J solved page, see if it matches.
Paul Gallico, The Abandoned.  Other readers have mention's Galico's Jenny -- but the book was first published under the title The Abandoned.



F258: Families That Write
Families That Write ( I think),  maybe very late '70s or early '80s.  This non-fiction book was written as a guide for helping your family become a family that writes. If I remember correctly, it had word games, tips, etc.

F259: Fireman's cat
Solved: The Fire Cat


F260: Federation of human-occupied planets
I have no recollection of the book's title or the name of its author.  It is a science fiction novel, and to the best of my knowledge I first read it somewhere between 1969 and 1977, which means it must have been published either during or before those dates.  It was a hard back edition, probably no more than 300 pages in length, and I obtained it from my local small town library.  Given the typical turnover of books one might expect from a small town library during the aforementioned date range, I suspect that the book's original publication date might have been well before 1969, but I can't be sure.  The outline of the story is as follows:  A federation of human-occupied planets, lead by earth, is engaged in a long-running war with another humanoid species.  That war has essentially been a stalemate for years, but the humanoid species hatches a plan to tip the balance irreversibly in their favor. They have identified a flower or plant that produces a pollen or chemical that puts human beings into a nearly permanent state of sleep.  They can only be awakened if given an antidote.  Their plan is to seed the earth's atmosphere with the chemical, put all of earth-bound humanity to sleep, invade while earth's defenses are down, and then bring the rest of the human-based federation to its knees using the entire population of earth as hostage.  The invasion goes off exactly as planned, led by one of the humanoids who has had his appearance surgically altered so that he looks like a true human.  Problems arise for the invasion force, however, when a small band of humans, who have previously acquired immunity to the sleep-inducing chemical, begin to organize and fight back.  Led by the protagonist, a bit of a throw-back who returns from a hunting trip only to find all of civilization asleep, the small band is eventually able to turn the tables on the invaders by capturing an automated defense station.  They use the latter to threaten the invading fleet, thus forcing the invaders to withdraw..  You'd think with all that detail I'd either remember the title or the author, but no such luck.  I've done some searches on various web sites that specialize in science fiction books, but so far I have come up empty.  I'm hoping this description will jog someones memory.  I'd appreciate your help.

William R. Burkett, Jr., The Sleeping Planet, 1967.  Sure sounds like Wm Burkett's SLEEPING PLANET  see for instance this review.
Sounds like it might be by A.E. Van Vogt. There is something about it that puts me in mind of The Weapon Shops of Isher, which you might also like. If no one can identify your book, although I'm sure somebody will, maybe you could write to Gardner Dozois who is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. He will almost certainly be able to tell you. The book sounds like real Golden Age stuff, his specialty. Luck to you.
Re the second comment under the F260 query -- Gardner Dozois retired as the editor of "ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE" back in  2004 and was replaced by his associate editor, Sheila Williams.



F261: Fairy
1925/30.  Fairy stories for children but also included a few bible stories.  I remember a black and white drawing of the Devil with his wings spread.  Front cover was a fairy with pink dress I believe.It now seems strange that fairies and bible stories would appear in the same book.


2007

F262a: Frozen Pet Alligators
A family with pet alligator(s) goes on vacation. The person gator sitting leaves the windows open it gets cold and the alligators freeze. They are revived later I believe.

Cornelia Drexel Biddle, My Philadelphia Father, 1955.  This is one book that features alligators kept by a family frozen, and then thawed out.  The book is a memoir by Biddle of growing up with an unconventional father, Anthony Drexel Biddle.  He kept a boxing ring in the barn where he boxed with prizefighters, kept alligators as pets in pools in the conservatory of his house, organized a movement of Biddle Bible classes, etc.  At one point in the book, a maid opens the doors and windows of the conservatory to let it air out, but it is during winter and the alligator pools freeze over.  The family thinks they are all dead, but when they stoke up the fires in the conservatory and heat it up, they begin to stir.  This book was the basis of the 1960s Disney musical "The Happiest Millionaire," with Fred MacMurray as A. D. Biddle and Lesley Anne Warren as Cornelia.
I think I had a partial solve on my F262. I thought the book I had was Disney. And since it sounds like their was a disney movie associated with an old book I think i had a short disney book based on the "Happiest Millionaire."  I think its a partial solve then because I'm pretty sure the book was not either of those titles. Maybe it doesn't even qualify as a book? thanks.



F262b: Fairier Giants Excursion
I am looking for a childrens book that I don't know the title of … or many of the details.  It's about 1.5" x 2".  It has a bunch of different characters:  -Gnomes -Fairies  -Giants  -Animals  -Dragons  -Etc!  It's a highly-illustrated book and full of color.  You'll know it's the one when it talks about an Excursion. The animals and all the creatures travel by making this building-type thing as the giant carries them off.  I think one of the fairies name was Nettle. She was the more evil one of the group. lol  Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  More details:  The book is fairly long, lots of color and pictures. On one page there's a map of "their" world. The illustrations were amazingly clear-cut.  Date of publication....I would guess early 90s.  Most likely published in the US but could be UK.  It's a hardcover book with glossy pages. There was a story about an excursion. The creatures/fairies of the world decided to all go "travel" the country in these 2 huge "buildings" they created. One of the giants carried these 2 "buildings" as the creatures ride inside. It was more of a box with balconies.  Another thing that happened in the book, was the dwarves/gnomes? were underwater...they were on bikes in bubbles.  When they would pedal, the bubble would move.  There was a fairy that was so bitter that no one really liked her. I think the other fairies were trying to befriend her but she was still mean to them. (lol, I feel like I'm 11 again.) She was riding on...a type of carriage?...that was attached to these wasps? Bees? that pulled the carriage she was on. I think her name was Nettle.  Um....There was a story about a dragon, I think it was a dragon. Either that or a monkey...probably a dragon. That got his hand caught ina  hole that was in the middle of a palm tree. He was trying to reach some fruits on the other side of the tree. Turns out it was a trap. And that, if anyone would try to reach for the fruit, wouldn't get it, because the hole wouldn't be big enough for both his hand and the fruit.

Tony Wolf, The Woodland Folk Meet the Giants, 1985.  This is from a charming series called the Woodland Folk: The Woodland Folk Meet the Giants, Meet the Gnomes, Meet the Elves, The Woodland Folk in Fairyland, In Dragonland.
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Wolf, Tony. The Woodland Folk Meet the Giants, illus by Tony Wolf, Rand McNally, 1983, glossy boards, some wear; pages very good, Woodland  folk    [NQ 16060] $10 



F263: Flamingo, extinct
This is a short story about a young girl living in times where wild animals and nature a quickly disappearing. She really wants to see a flamingo and hears that there is one at a zoo. When she and maybe it's her father get there she sees what she thinks is the last flamingo but it ends up being plastic and she's already lost the chance to see a real one. Any ideas?

F264: fairy tale compilation book
Solved: Big and Little Creatures


F265: Female Camp  Counselor, 1950s book series
Solved:  Donna Parker series


F266: Fingers of ghost/monster through window
Solved: My Mama says there aren't any zombies, ghosts, vampires, creatures, demons, monsters, fiends, goblins, or things


F267: Friends as novelists, romantical
Solved: Two Are Better Than One


F268: Family on prairie, fire
Solved: Katy's Quilt


F269: French restaurant
Solved: It's Not What You Expect


F270: Feminist theme novel
late 1950's. NOTE  this is NOT Best of Everything or The Group. It predates both ( I think) and predates The Feminine Mystique too. I read it as an early teen around 1960 and did not realize until decades later how much ahead of its time it was. And no one seems to know about it! 3 college friends, maybe ten years on, are struggling with their lives the talented actress married a wealthy man who just wants her to be his princess the smart, unattractive woman finds a less capable man and turns him into a success the smart girl reporter is mentored by a journalist who teaches her how to write, dress and becomes her great love. First woman, desperate to express self, goes back to acting and eventually leaves her husband, second is left by her husband for a stupid woman who looks up to him, almost makes the same mistake with a 2nd man, and then realizes she can be fine on her own 3rd is dumped when she beats her lover out for a plum job, and vows- with tragic results- to conduct the rest of her love life "like a man."

Bishop, Hamilton, and Bowman, Nan, Sarah, and Clare: Letters Between Friends, 1980. I've only read a short excert so I'm not certain, plus the date is later than you remember, but this book does involve three female friends who are struggling ten years after college.  All three had married and then been divorced.  The letters were written in 1976 and the book claims they are real letters from real people.
Responding to suggestion that this is Nan, Sarah and Clare- thanks very much for the thought, and it does sound amazingly similar, but that's not it. I know I read it a camp counselor's tent, when I was a camper,  which was definitely makes it  around 1959-1960. I'm also pretty sure it was not told as letters



F271: Family, four kids, fitting in, maple sugaring
Solved: Friendly Gables


F272: Female author
Solved: The Family Nobody Wanted


F273: Fuzzy yellow sweater
Solved: Somebody Hides


F274: Fluffy ‘60s romance – girl  gets job and makeover
Solved: Mirror, Mirror


F275: Flying machine, birthday present
A kids' book about a boy whose eccentric aunt sends him a flying machine for his birthday (or some other occasion), instructing him to use the vehicle to visit her sometime. When he does so, he finds his aunt stranded on the roof of her house, and he rescues her. From around 1970.

The Fearless Flycyle. Could this be it?  I can't find a description online, but I vaguely remember the story from my childhood.  Could the author's name be Ormerod?
Are you thinking of The Furious Flycycle by Jan Wahl (1968) (Ormerod's first name is also Jan)?  Here's the description - "Getting the idea from a great inventor who has settled in his town, a young mechanical wizard invents a device that enables him to fly his bicycle on a rescue mission which makes him a great hero."  There's also Alexander's Flycycle by Elizabeth Rose (1967) -- "An unsuccessful inventor makes a final attempt to build a novel and successful invention."  Neither mentions an aunt so I don't think they're the correct books.



F276: Famous Paintings
prior to 1965. 'Pictures of Famous Paintings (in black & white) by various artists with the story behind each painting.  Paintings such as Newfoundland dogs saving drowning children, the praying hands of the artist's brother who had worked to put the artist through art school are the few I remember.  I think that it was a children's book, but I'm not sure.

Leo Rosten, The Story Behind the Painting, 1962. Possibly (based on title and date)
V.M. Hillyer and E.G. Huey, A Child's History of Art: Painting, 1951. This might be the book you are searching for.  It describes the history of painting, from cave paintings up to "modern" painters like Hopper and Rivera. 33 chapters. All the illustrations are in black and white.  It is part of The Calvert Home School curriculum.  Written in a bright, lively style that appeals to children.  However, there's no index and no table of contents, which makes searching for information on a particular artist difficult.



F277: Fairy colony discovered in woods by English Kids after train ride
This is probably a book from the 1950s or earlier, as it was written as contemporary, but had WWII-ish technology, customs, etc.  I remember it was a black cloth-bound library book with slender silver foil letters on the spine. The book concerned at least one but perhaps more English children sent to the country by train (could be the Evacuation of London like Narnia, but I don't remember).  Once they get to the country, they discover a colony of little fairy-folk in the woods on or near the property where they are staying. They become friends with one or a few of the fairies, and get embroiled in the internal struggles of the fairy kingdom.  The wee folk are only about five inches high, and at one point, the kid(s) carry one with them in a small valise, I believe on a train. I believe there are one or more train rides in the book, lonely rides at night and/or in the rain.  I have a memory of the book being mysterious, about secrets, and taking place mostly at night.  Definitely more secretive and mysterious than a Nesbit book. Thanks for your help.

could this be T.H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose?  The tiny people are more Lulliputian than fairies, but the circumstances and the setting is the same.
Jean Fritz, Magic to Burn, 1950's.  I think the book you are looking for could be Magic to Burn by Jean Fritz. The trips were by plane and car, not by train, and the children were Americans on a visit to England with their parents.



F278: Family wants tortishell cat to have kittens
Solved: While Mrs Coverlet Was Away


F279: Family moves to forest
Solved: Eight Children in Winter



F280: Future
Book describes what life may be like in the future with primative illustrations.  Book was probably published in the early to mid 1980s and may have been available in an orange library edition hardcover.  One illustration in the book shows what a future shower would look like with spray nosels all over the shower.

Macaulay, David, Motel of the Mysteries, 1979, copyright.  Could this be it?  David Macaulay, Motel of the Mysteries,1979.  It is the year 4022, all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.



F281: Flying brother and sister
Children's book. About a brother and sister who somehow get these jet packs that allow them to fly, or somehow they get the ability to fly. They fly around and have adventures, great artwork showing them flying around the countryside and neighborhood. At the end of the book, it turns out the kids were actually dreaming this and there are no flying jet packs. It was all a dream.

Jonathan London, Into This Night We Are Rising, 1993, copyright.  A long shot, but when I search for books about children who dream of flying, this comes up.  It describes a night-time dreamworld where children fly through the air, stuffed animals talk, stars sing, clouds can be used for pillow fights, and space is a vast playground.  Another one that might be worth checking out is "Tar Beach" by Faith Ringgold (1991) about a young African-American girl who dreams that the stars lift her up to go flying over all of New York, claiming everything for herself.  I think she takes her little brother along with her on one of her flights.
Donaldson, Lois and Bilder, Arthur K., Skyjets for Fliers of Tomorrow, 1954.  This could be the one. I've seen a picture with a boy and girl wearing flying jetpacks on somebody's blog.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_t4oY2AFkthw/RhMOI_yYdhI/AAAAAAAAAcg/lDrobwkXLe8/s320/index.jpg.



F282: freckles and choices
Solved: The Diamond in the Window


F283: forest treasures
Solved: The Magic Christmas Tree


F284: Fort/playhouse for little girl and dolls
An old children's book about a little girl that makes a fort or a playhouse in a tiny nook in-between two buildings.  One of the buildings may be one in that she lives w/ her family.  I don't remember if this is a play area or if she has to live there.  She uses wooden crates for little tables, etc.  I believe she has baby dolls she plays with.  Possibly takes place in England or another county (besides US) but not sure.


F285: Fortune teller's daughter with real "gift"
Solved: The Haunting of Cassie Palmer


F286: Fluff the kitten
It’s a children’s book of verses and illustrations about a cat or kitten named Fluff. I bought it for my son around 1968. I can’t remember the title or author. The kitten’s owner was a little boy named Bobby.


F287: family of redheaded children
family of redheaded children, one daughter strawberry blonde, in Canada or northern US, in one book the mother has a baby

Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn



F288: first grade reader 1960's
First grade reader circa 1960 featuring a dog named Tag.

Could the dog have been named Tip instead of Tag? My first grade readers for the 1962-63 school year featured siblings Jack, Janet and Penny, their cat Mitten and dog Tip.
This is not a solution, but should help the confusion on this title.  I am -also- looking for the 1st or 2nd grade reader with a dog named "Tag" -- googling that is what got me to your page.  The dog in this reader was unquestionably named "TAG"...  I was born in Chicago, started school in N.Wisconsin in 1966, and was already quite a reader... I could not understand WHY these kids all said "Tag" (and "bag" and "wagon," for that matter!) with a looooong "A" - Even at 5, I was taken up short by dialect.  Long story short, I tell you all of this to verify that the dog was "Tag," and it has been nigh impossible to track it down.  The children in these stories? Who knows... I only -really- liked the dog!  BUT, the girl -may- have been "Susan" -- no guarantee on accuracy there.  Hoping this shows up somewhere.  Thanks so much!
Harris, Creek and Greenman, Dot and Jim, Primer, 1964, approximate.  There was a first-grade series featuring Dot, Jim, and their dog Tag.  I had this in California in 1966-67.



F289: Fantasy world through basement door of boys' reformatory in mountains
The book I'm looking for is about 400-600 pages long. It had red hardcover. I read it in the late 80's or early 90's and lost it in a house fire. I think it might have had the word "Journey" in the title. The premise of the book was a reformatory for wayward boys in the mountains. This group of boys get access to a door in the basement and find themselves in a fantasy world with strange beasts and creatures. They have to band together to make it through a variety of adventures and eventually wind up escaping from the base of the mountains. I also remember turmoil between some of the older boys and the younger ones, but it works its way out by the end. This book struck me as a mix of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "The Chronicles of Narnia"....Lots of fantasy and adventure.


F290: Four Adopted Children
I read this book in 1962 or 1963. It was the story of four children who were adopted into one family. I think perhaps they were two sets of two siblings. I thought that the title was something like "the Family nobody Wanted", but that is not correct. When I tried to look under that title, there is a book by Helen Doss, who adopted twelve children.  The title may be similar to Helen Doss' title.  I read this book when I was in the eighth grade and would love to find it again.

Anna Perrott Rose, Room for One More, 1950's, approximate.  I read this many years ago when I was about 12.  What I remember is that one of the adopted children was named Jimmy John and he had some kind of disability that made walking difficult.  He became active in Boy Scouts.  This was made into a movie with Cary Grant. I wonder if this is what you are looking for.
Murphy, Frances Salomon, Ready-Made Family, 1953, copyright.  The book I'm thinking of is Ready-Made Family, which was published as a Scholastic paperback with a green cover in the mid-1960s.  But it's about three foster children--Hedy, Peter and Mary Rose--not four.  The copyright is 1953.
I'm not sure whether you're looking for a true story or a novel, so I have one suggestion for each.  "19 Steps Up the Mountain" is the true story of the DeBolt family, but there's a vintage Scholastic novel called "Readymade Family" by Frances Murphy, about three siblings that get adopted together--that may be closer to what you describe.  There is an older girl named Hedy, a slightly rebellious boy (I think his name is Pete), and a younger girl.  Hedy worries about "corporal punishment" and about being sent away, especially when Pete misbehaves, but eventually they all adjust to each other.
Could the person be thinking of READY MADE FAMILY by Frances Salomon Murphy, 1953, Scholastic? Three sibling are unwanted by their relatives, and are passed from family to family. Finally they are taken in by a wonderful foster couple. Mary Rose is little and lovable, Hedy is helpful,
but they're afraid Peter's behavior will drive the couple away.
Frances Salomon Murphy, Ready-made Family.  http://www.librarything.com/work/702581.  My copy is from 1973, but I think it was written in the fifties. Cover image in link.
Helen Doss, Really real family.  Take a look at my solved stumper of "Really real family" to see if that rings any more bells.
Anna Perrott Rose, Room for one more, 1954, copyright.  You said "4 adopted children", so this may be incorrect, but I have two thoughts.  First, Cary Grant and Betsy Drake portrayed the true couple George (Poppy) and Anna Rose, a couple with three children who became foster parents to three more children. The movie was based on Ms. Rose's book of the same name.  Second, you may wish to check out the book,  Adoption Literature for Children and Young Adults: An Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes in Sociology), by Susan G. Miles.
Murphy, Frances S., Ready-Made Family, 1953, copyright.  Here's a possibility.  The kids in this story are in foster care.  The oldest girl is determined to do everything just right so that they might be adopted.  The story is a little older than posted - 1953 - but still might be the one.
Noel Streatfeild, The Children on the Top Floor.  Four babies are left on the door step of a famous television personality and he adopts them.  I can't remember if any of them were brothers or sisters.  The children star in commercials and when they get older become involved in different aspects of show business.  One girl gets interested in costume design, another girl acts in movies and one boy becomes interested in camera work.  I read this in 7th grade in 1970-1971.  I'm not sure when it was published though.



F291: funny bunnies
I used to read this story to my prescool class back in 1989. It was a donated book from a little girl whose family really liked it. They had a hard time finding a copy of it and when they did they donated it to us.  So by that I'm assuming that the book was probably written back in the late 70's, from what I can remember of the pictures.  The plot of the book is about a little bunny who lives in a small apt. with his parents. Each time there is a knock at the door more bunnies come into the apt. and by the end of the book the room is filled with "just a bunch of funny bunnies!"  I have read this book so many times for the few years I taught at the school, but all I can remember is the last line of the book about, "just a bunch of funny bunnies!".  I'm hoping you can help me locate a copy so I can get it for my grandchildren.  Thank-you so much for all your help.

Sounds like FUNNY BUNNIES by Robert Quackenbush, 1984. While Lucy is out swimming, bunnies crowd into the hotel room.
Cyndy Szekeres, Learn to Count Funny Bunnies, 2000, copyright.  If it weren't for the date being off, I'd think this was the one.  Wilbur Bunny is all dressed up to greet (and count) the parade of family members arriving at his home, to celebrate the birthday of Baby Bunny. Another possibility, if not for the date, is Szekeres' "I Can Count 100 Bunnies, and So Can You!" (1999) in which Wilbur counts and introduces the 99 members of his extended family, as they arrive to greet the newest addition to the family - Wilbur's baby sister, Sweet Petunia. If there is any chance you could be off on the date, these might be worth a look.



F292: family crossed  tree branch to get over river
A family needed to get over a river/stream and they used a tree branch that bent and got them safely over to the other side. 1960's, children's book.

Was this a regular-sized family, or a tiny family?  Because in one of the Littles books, by John Petersen, I think the Littles use a branch to get across a stream.  Or it could be in The Borrowers Afloat, by Mary Norton.


F293: Fairy Freezes Boy's Face
Solved: Nelson Makes a Face


F294: Forest animals collect crabapples for winter
this was a illustrated book i remember reading in the 1980's about forest animals like hedgehogs, badgers, or mice etc. dont really remember the story, maybe something about autumn coming and all the animals getting ready for winter. the thing i remember most clearly are crabapples being collected for food or to make into juice? it maight have even been a series of books? the illustrations were quite detailed. i read this book in australia too but not sure where it was published, maybe canada or england?

Jill Barklem, Brambly Hedge: Autumn Story, 1980, copyright.  The Brambly Hedge books were published in England in the 1980s and may possibly be what you're looking for. Each one is about a different season. The Brambly Hedge website (http://www.bramblyhedge.co.uk/) may help you determine whether these are the ones.



2008


F295: 5 kids in a fun family - title unknown
Solved: Whirligig House


F296: Family of sisters
The book was  written for children or teenage girls, probably published in the 1970's. It is about a family of sisters in the early 1900's, one of whom is going to become a nun. One of the sisters is named Regina. That is all I remember. I don't know if it was just one book or a series?

Natalie Savage Carlson, The Half-Sisters or Luvvy and the Girls, Early 1970s, approximate.  It could have been either of these two books.
Natalie Savage Carlson, The Half Sisters, 1950s?  This is definitely "The Half Sisters". . . Regina is the oldest and midway through the book announces she is not marrying her boyfriend, Alex, but joining the Daughters of Charity.  Her sisters are Hetty and Betsey, and half-sisters are Luvvy and Maudie.  Hope this helps! :)


F297: Farm boy, horrible teacher
The book I am looking for I read as a child in the '70's.  It was the recollections of a farm boy (late 1800's or early 1900's), and one story in the book involves a horrible male teacher who unfairly punishes and severely beats the boy at school.  The boy's ribs are cracked, and when his father finds out what happened, he goes to the school and beats up the teacher, who then flees the area.  I thought the book was "Little Britches", but I just read this book to my children and this episode does not occur in my copy.  I'm obliged for any help you might provide.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy,
1933, copyright.  Sounds like the book Wilder wrote about the childhood of her husband Almanzo who grew up in upstate New York in the 1800s.  But in this book, the male teacher is victorious against the school bullies and isn't punished for it.  It's possible that the teacher being run out of town occurs in another Wilder book.


F298: Fuzzy koala
This is a book my mother, who is 68, remembers from her childhood.  It a little hardcover about fuzzy koala bear, yellow I think, and the koala feels fuzzy to the touch.  I think the cover was red.  This is about all I remember, but let's give it a try!


F299: Fox called Carlin and a wizard
I remember when I was very young (in infants school) both me and my sister used to really adore a certain book. I can't remember much about it, but I think it was about a boy who managed to find a secret world, and met a wizard. The wizard had a friend which was a talking fox called Carlin. (Possibly spelt different, eg Karlin, I am not sure!)   It is a bit of a long shot but I would so dearly love to find out what this book is! We named a stuffed toy fox after this book and have been trying to remember the title ever since.

Pat O'Shea, The Hounds of the Morrigan, 1985.  Maybe this is the one? A brother and sister, Pidge and Brigit, travel to another land based on Irish mythology where they have to defeat the war goddess the Morrigan. While on their quest they are helped by the Druid Cathbad and a fox (but I don't remember the fox's name.) You can find a very detailed description of the plot here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hounds_of_the_Morrigan.
Julia Cunningham, Oaf, 1986.  Illustrated by Peter Sis.
L.J. Smith, Night of the Solstice.  It's possible that this could be Night of the Solstice or its companion book Heart of Valor. (They're longer fiction titles though, and I'm not sure if you're looking for a chapter book or a picture book.)  The boy in it has three sisters--one older, one his twin, one younger.  The youngest sister follows a fox into a creepy old house, that's occupied by the original Morgan leFay.  The kids get involved trying to help her and the fox (who's her familiar) to defeat a powerful wizard who's trying to destroy her.  Even if it's not the right book, it's definitely worth reading!


F300: Fat girl, pretty roommate
Solved: In A Mirror


F301: Frederick Frog and Herman frog in a pond
This is a childrens book pre 1990. It was illustrated and a book about frogs. Two names I belive were Frederick or freddie and Herman J Frog. It was I believe about a little frog who wanted to sing in the chorus. The illustrations were very detailed.  Any help would be great I have searched for years for this book! Thanks a bunch!


F302: Futuristic novel, people wear sunglasses but no clothes
This is a book I read in the 70's, but it seemed like it was a little older than that. It was set in the future. The main character was a teenage girl. Society had decided the part of our bodies that needed to be private was our eyes, because that's where our emotions lie. So no one wears clothes, but everyone wears sunglasses. No one (of a certain class) leaves their house and all communication takes place via videophones. You can go anywhere via simulations. This girl accidentally (maybe dials a wrong #?) meets this older guy who doesn't wear sunglasses and gets a crush on him and decides to go meet him. Where he lives is a big apartment house where no one has the technology that she's used to. I don't remember how it ends.

Michael Frayn, A Very Private Life.
  If the heroine's name was Uncumber, this is the book.  There's a plot description at  http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/michael-frayn/very-private-life.htm.


F303: Famous boy action figure kidnapped?
Solved: Get Rich Mitch


F304: flying beast steals animals defeated by boy placing spices at stump
1970s (?) Picture book. Boy goes off on journey to find flying beast stealing farm animals. He goes through the forest and there are all these strange creatures. I remember one scene with bamboo-like creatures(trees?) who bend down for him so he can cross a river to the other side. Finally the boy arrives at the lair of the beast. The lower half of its body was a tree-like stump in the ground and the boy placed hot spices there while the beast was away. When the beast returned, he melted (?) because of the hot spices.


F305: Fairy tales collection
Solved: Wonder Tales Retold


F306: Fireman loses family in fire, finds ladybugs
The book is about a fireman who is called to put out a fire.  The fire happens to be at his home.  Upon arriving, it is too late and his wife and children died in the fire.  The significant part is that later after returning to the home, in the places where his family had died, are beautiful red ladybugs.  Name that book??


F307: Fairy Tale Anthology, Genie Cover
An Illustrated book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, possibly a Readers Digest anthology. It had a huge painted Genie on the Hardback Cover. The illustrations inside were monochromatic, reds, blues, and browns mostly. Included "Beauty and the Beast," "Puss in Boots," "Aladdin" "Why the Sea is Salt," and a weird little poem about a wicked dwarf or gnome that ends up chewing his beard.  Had to have been published before 1985.

Collection, Fifty Famous Fairy Tales, 1965, copyright.  Illustrated by Robert J. Lee, part of THE WHITMAN CLASSIC LIBRARY, Whitman Publishing Company. I have this book and the cover is orange with a large genie (one of the included stories is "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp"). Additionally, most of the illustrations are in the colors you describe (though there five or six that are full color).
Fifty Famous Fairy Tales, 1965.  I got so excited when I saw this suggestion, but after tracking down a table of contents and cover art from Fifty Famous Fairy Tales, I realized it is not the right book. The one I'm looking for had a reddish cover, the Genie on it is bare-chested, and bald but with a top-knot. It includes Pinnochio and parts of Alice in Wonderland as stories.


F308: Father with wooden leg
In the 60's, I was in the 4th or 5th grade when I read a book about a girl whose father had a wooden leg that was one of the funniest books I had ever read.  One part I remember was when her father had removed his wooden leg to take a shower, but as he started to hop to the shower, she had left jacks all over the bathroom floor which of couse he was hopping on.  I used to read a lot of Beverly Clearly books so it may be one of hers but I am not able to find it.  There was another author that wrote the same types of books but I can't remember that authors names.  I do remember character names like Ramona, Betsy and Henry.  I thought the book was just Ramona and her Father.  Please help me find this one.  Thanks in advance for helping me with one of my childhood memories.

It sounds like two different books. I've read the one book you're talking about, the one-legged father hopping and landing on his daughter's jacks. (Ouch!) Unfortunately that's all I really remember too; it was basically dealing with the challenges of raising a family. One other cute bit is that his kids loving playing with his old wooden legs, making their friends jealous because thier fathers only had "real" legs.  The other part sounds like Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins-Ramona Quimby series, no wooden legs there.
Tom Buck, But Daddy! : The Hilarious True Story of How Pat and Tom Buck Raised 11 Children - and Survived!, 1967, approximate.  Definitely this book. One of my favorites!
Buck, Tom, But  Daddy!, 1967, copyright.  This is definitely the correct book. This is the true story of a Catholic family with 11 children written in first person by the father. The older children's names are Dempsey, Kern, Mackey, and Rinker. I just opened it to check the date and the details and I am laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes.


F309: Friends share dolls, write story
I think that this book would be appropriate for 10-12 year old girls. It is about two girls who are friends who somehow acquire a pair (one boy and one girl) of dolls. They are quite small dolls and the girls decide that they will share them in turns and write a story about the dolls between the two of them. The one with the dolls writes the "chapter" then hands them off to the other to write the next bit. Title may include the word "friends" and was probably written in the 60s or 70s. Hope someone else has heard of this!

Carol Ryrie Brink, Two are better than one
.  I think this is Carol Ryrie Brink - Two are better than one. The two girls are called Cordy and Chrystal, and the dolls are Lester and Lynette.


F310: forest path gate little people on the otherside
In the 4th grade my teacher read to us a book about a kid, I think boy who was living in a village that had a forest near by.  The forest was dangerous and the villagers didn't wonder into it.  The kid did though and found a path that lead to a big stone gate, on the otherside of the gate are little monsters or aggressive mini people.  In the story I think the kid has to stop the aggressive people from attacking the village.  I think that's how the story goes.  I remember the cover of the book it had a forest with a gate on the otherside from where you were standing, like you were looking out from the village.   It's been driving me crazy that I can't figure out what the book is.  All last year I spent most of my time in book stores browsing to see if I could find it, but I haven't come accross it yet.  Help.

T. H. White, Mistress Masham's Repose,
1946, copyright.  Possibly?  The main character is a girl, and the little people aren't aggressive until she is endangered and they come to rescue her, but she does discover them by looking through a stone opening.  It takes her a while to realize that they aren't playthings or pets, and at one point they banish her, but eventually they come to an understanding.


F311: Futuristic girl who doesn't speak
Science fiction, probably young adult - read this book in the 1990s. The world uses advanced bioengineering, but socially it's a harsh place.  The main character, a teenage girl, does not speak - chooses to be mute. Her father is convicted of being a government dissident along with several others and transformed into a bush at the beginning.  Somehow she loses her mother and brother and becomes a refugee looking for them.  She wears a silver coat with pictures of her family.  Near the end I think she finds them.  She's able to create little toys that are not mechanical, but biologically alive. I remember this book vividly but have been able to find the title or author.


F312: Fish species seek new planet
Solved: The Watch Below


F313: first love, summer
Solved: Summer Story


F314: Family stranded in desert when car breaks down
Resub F251. Car breaks down in desert, possibly Death Valley? Family survives by eating cactus pulp, collecting dew in hubcaps, eating crayons. Family member, perhaps son, walks out to find help. Prev. suggested Readers Digest, but I don't think I read it there. Reprinted elsewhere? Not Runaway Home.

I don't remember the author or title, but I know I read it in an elementary school reader, probably 4th or 5th grade which would make it 1980 or 81. The mother also feeds the kids a box of crayons, after checking that the label says 'nontoxic.' Hope that helps!
I recall a movie that matches this description. The boy relies on a survival manual during his search for help. Eventually he finds a town, but it has been abandoned.  It might be "Survival Guide" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090105/ - but I can't find any more information on that movie.
Evan Wylie, Ordeal in the Desert, 1959.  I'm pretty sure this was not a book but a story published in Reader's Digest.  It appears in Reader's Digest November 1959; Vol 75, No 451. Someone wrote a blog post about it here:http://astoriedcareer.com/2008/03/where-it-all-began-for-me.html.


F315: Frogs at Christmas
Solved: Warton's Christmas Eve Adventure


F316: Firefly wearing derby, learn-to-read 1940's book
This was a common, unremarkable learn-to-read book of the 1940's which I committed to memory as a child.  All I remember about it, aside from being my favorite book, is the cartoonish drawing of a firefly wearing a derby hat and holding a lantern.  I have searched many years for a copy of that little book which was discarded by my parents decades ago when I started school in 1947.  Thanks in advance.

Martin, Bill, Little Squeegy Bug,
1946.  It's a stretch, but it might be Little Squeegy Bug. It's about a firefly that wants a gun in its tale like a bee, but, after talking to a spider, gets a lantern instead. I vaguely recall that they wore hats, but I could be misremembering. Be aware that there is a new version out that has completely, utterly different illustrations, and, sadly, that this new version seems to have taken over the Internet, so I couldn't find any pictures of the original.
Eastman, P. D., Sam the Firefly.  This one might fit the bill.  A perennial favorite.


F317: Fairy tales
Solved: Best in Children's Books


F318: fairy tale anthology
I'm looking for an anthology i received in the mid 70's but that was still sold as late as the 90's.  various  illustrators, profusely illustrated, green background to cover.  one of first stories was rapunzel, also included: donkeyskin, ali baba and the forty thieves, the goose girl, the tinderbox, the little match girl and many others.  thick hardback.  thanks for help.

Bridget Hadaway, Fairy Tales,
1974 thru 1987, approximate.  I've looked at your stumper a few times and finally thought I should mention this book just in case. It has all the stories you list except Donkeyskin and was reprinted a number of times. You can find quite a few descriptions of it on the solved mystery pages.
Ottenheimer publishers, My Giant Storybook, 1972, 1973, approximate.  I don't have it with me at the moment but it has most of the stories mentioned.  On the solved pages, my own original stumper : ) .  Worth checking out.

SOLVED: Jane Carruth, The Giant All Color Book of Fairy Tales, 1971. Finally found it.  It was a solution to 172 that steered me to the right track.



F319: First Grade Level Books
In 1977, I bought several small books by a woman author for my 1st grader, one of which was Billy Goats Gruff.  All were basic beginning readers with very limited, repetitive vocabulary, similar to Dick & Jane books.  I once found her on Amazon, but can't now.  Help!  Who is this author?

Harriet Ziefert
, multiple books.  Try Harriet Ziefert -- she did several like that.
Fran Hunia, Billy Goats Gruff.  Perhaps the Read It Yourself series for Ladybird Books (publisher), now being reprinted by Dutton. Hunia's adaptations include Billy Goats Gruff, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Dick Whittington, Red Riding Hood,The Enormous Turnip, Goldilocks, William Tell, and more.
Margaret Hillert, 1960's, approximate.  I'm not sure she wrote a Three Billy Goats Gruff but she did write a lot of easy readers in the 1960's.
Margaret Hillert, 1960s and newer, approximate.  I think the series you are looking for is by Margaret Hillert.  In addition to her "Dear Dragon" books, she has several based on folktales (like the Three Little Pigs. ISBN 0813650356 and 0813655358 or The Cookie House ISBN 0813650127 and 0813655129).
I think this author may be Margaret Hillert. She's the queen of the beginning reader genre. She has done several easy adaptations of fairy tales as well as a series about Dear Dragon. Her books were originally published in the 60s/70s but many titles have been revised and published again recently. The Three Goats was re-released in 2006.
Hillert, Margaret.  How about Hillert's books?  She did super simple versions of some fairy tales as well as many others, including the Dear Dragon series.  The Little Cookie is the story of the Gingerbread Boy ("Look, look.  See the funny cookie.  It is little.")  The Three Goats is the Billy Goats Gruff story ("See the goats.  One, two, three goats.")  The Cookie House is the Hansel & Gretel story ("Oh, see the little house.  I like it.  I like it.  What fun for us.")  All of her books have word lists in the back showing the many 2, 3, & 4 letter words used in the book.  They were originally published by Modern Curriculim Press in the 1960's-1980's, and are currently being re-published by Norwood House Press.


F320: Floating down river, inner tube
when I was growing up in the 1980's my mother bought me a picture book about a boy who starts at one end of a river and he floats down the river in a inner tube. He stops every once in awhile to look at shells and rocks along the bank. It had really vivid colorful illustrations.


F321: Folon English or Literature Textbook
Looking for an English or Literature Textbook Illustrated by Folon containing poetry and possibly short stories. Published before 1971.


F322: family goes sailing in their house
A boy and his family go sailing in either their house or houseboat and meet natives from an island. I remember them as cannibals... It was a hardback childrens book with lots of pictures in my elementary school in 1978-1981.

Pat Hutchins,
The House that Sailed Away.  Definitely this book!  The house comes unmoored from its foundation, and floats away...with the family in it.  They encounter pirates, and land on an island with cannibals who decide the annoying aunt is their long lost queen. (or something like that--the details are a little hazy.)
Pat Hutchins, The House That Sailed Away, 1975, copyright.  I read this book about 1981, and it became an instant favorite!  The book is set in England and it rained so much that the house was washed out to sea, where they eventually ended up on an island with cannibals.  Very funny and cute story!


F323: Fluffball Angel
80's - 90's, childrens.  This book contains several children's stories, most related to animals i believe. There is one story in this book about a mother cat and her kittens. It talks about the kittens being born, and the mother cat carrying them around in her mouth by the scruff of their necks. The story then goes on to tell about a cat named "fluffball angel" who was mischievious and always getting into trouble. After he would do some horrible thing, he would proclaim "what a wonderful cat i am!". I remember reading this book in the late 80's - my copy was new, so it likely was published in the 80's. One of the pages in the story has a picture of a table with a braided rug, and the cat carrying the kitten. We think the book was shaped so that the pages weren't very tall, but were very wide.


F324: Folklore book, poetic preface
Solved: Beyond the Looking-Glass, Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy


F325: Father trying to get home to daughter
Solved: A Little Cowboy's Christmas


F326: Fairy princess or ballerina
Fairy princess or ballerina. Large, flat book, beautiful, glossy cover. Lovely picture type book. Title might be "Ilona."

Your book may be Little Ballerina by Dorothy Grider (1958). She is a dancer who plays a fairy in the spring recital. See if this looks right.  http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved-little-ballerina.jpg.  more here: http://tadacreations.blogspot.com/2008/06/little-ballerina-and-other-fun-books.html.
Rachel Isadora, Lili at Ballet, 1993, approximate.  Was this moderately recent?  Rachel Isadora has a series of books about Lili (as well as one titled Isadora Dances where the cover has a barefoot girl in a gauzy white dress dancing amid green fields, fairy-like).


F327: funny lists, stories and jokes
I bought this book in 1980 at a school book fair. It had lots of funny lists, jokes and stories in it. The funniest story was of a boys family vacation and all that goes wrong. There was a picture of the dad biting the steering wheel. Green cover?


F328: Flower fairy book
I am looking for a flower fairy book with a picture of a fairy with a plant called a Chinese Lantern.  It is a small thin book published during the 40s or 50s.  The artwork is similiar to Tarrant or Barker, Outhwait or Enwright.  I don't think it is Barker or Tarrant because I have all of them.

Tarrant
or Cloke?, Fairy Lamps at Twilight or Lantern Dance?  I don't know if this will help or not, but Margaret Tarrant did a picture called "Fairy Lamps at Twilight" which shows an old wooden sign post against a backdrop of green leaves, with several fairies perched atop it, another climbing it, and one swinging from it. There is a string of chinese/japanese lantern flowers hanging from the signpost. There are three more fairies flying in front of the signpost - one by herself, and two holding hands. Two of these fairies also carry lantern flowers. The flowers are painted a bright orange-gold, so that they appear to be glowing. I can find this image on old postcards, but I don't know if it appeared in book form or not. I've also seen a postcard featuring a picture called "Lantern Dance" by Rene Cloke. In the foreground are two fairies (a girl and boy) holding hands, each carrying a glowing lantern flower in one hand, and dancing on a bright patch of bare ground. There is mist around them, and three other fairies (also holding lantern flowers) stand behind them, against a backdrop of tree trunks and dark sky. Again, all I've seen is the postcard, so I don't know if it appeared in a book or not. If nothing else, you should be able to look up the postcard images online to see if they match your recollection.
Margaret Tarrant, Cape Gooseberry Fairy.  Found another Tarrant picture of flower fairies w/ Chinese Lantern flowers (aka Japanese Lantern, Winter Cherry, Bladder Cherry, and Cape Gooseberry). The picture is titled "Cape Gooseberry Fairy" and features several sprays of yellow-orange lantern flowers. A little girl fairy is perched atop one of the stems, pointing down at a bloom as if selecting it. A male fairy sits on another stem below her, and appears to be offering the blossom to her. Again, I found it on a card, but it may be in one of her books, too.
Margaret Tarrant, Marion St. John Webb, Seed Fairies, 1923, copyright.  ...and one more time. I just discovered that the picture "Cape Gooseberry Fairy" by Margaret Tarrant is on the cover of her book "Seed Fairies." The Cape Gooseberry, if not the same plant as the Chinese/Japanese lantern, is very similar. Might be worth looking into, in case you don't already have this book and haven't already ruled it out.


F329: fairy tale book with giant on cover
I am trying to find a fairy tale book for my wife that she had as a child in the 70's.  She only remebers it was a hardcover with a giant dressed in red that was laying down across the front and back covers.  She remembers the stories in it were not all the usual stories in most common anthologies.


F330: family of rude little creatures who learn how to be nice
Solved: Little Brute Family


F331: French revolution romance
Read in 1983. It was about a young french artist who goes to a nobleman's house to paint a portrait of the daughter and falls in love with her.  I believe it was set during the French Revolution.  He and the girl have to escape from the house at some point.

Geoffrey Trease, Victory at Valmy.


F332: futuristic childrens novel
50's? childrens.  This is about a couple of children, neighbors i think, who live in now, but the man they know shows them how things will be in the future, and it is as if they are living it. i remember the specific instance of the mother buying grandmothers shoes, and she (the grandmother) insists on ordering a size too small, but they come instantly instead of waiting in the mail like we do. i think the boys name might be billy but not sure. sorry so vague. i read lots of books no one else did i guess.


F333: fairy tales
1960, childrens.  the cover was dark toned predominately browns. Beauty and the beast were pictured. Large book with the following stories that I remember: Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Childe Roland...


F334: frozen witch, egg, dark illustrations
All I remember is it was a dark book and there was an egg that breaks open at the end and there's a bunch of little people and things in it and there was a witch that was frozen.
I forgot to add that this book with frozen witches is an illustrated book.  The cover and lots of pages were dark/black.  Kind of a "children's book", but pretty "dark".  My son (now 31) remembers this book.  Of course, as a mother, I saved Berenstain Bears, Egg in the Hole, and others, but should have saved this one.  Thanks for your help.

Wayne Anderson, Ratsmagic
, 1976, copyright.  "The evil witch steals Bluebird for the contents of the egg she is about to lay. The animals of the Valley of Peace count on Rat to save her."
Wayne Anderson, Ratsmagic, 1976, copyright.  It might be Ratsmagic by Wayne Anderson.  It's a picture book I've had since I was a little girl.  Bluebird is about to have an egg and all the animals can't wait to see what will be in it, but Bluebird's stolen by Witch Dole, who wants the egg for herself.  Rat and other animals save Bluebird's egg and freeze Witch Dole.  There's a picture of the egg open with a group of people standing in it.  Unusual, beautiful illustrations.

2009


F335: Fantasy Space Children Go Down Slide
I read this book in the mid-80's.  It could've been from that time.  It involved (I think) a boy and a girl who might've been royalty, but they were in a strange fantasy space-ish setting, involving their mom - a queen, I think.  At one point they go on a slide down a chute.

Anne Lindbergh, Nick of Time.
  It *could* be this one...there's a lot of time travel, and the kids go between the future and the past on a slide in a closet. It's set in a "progressive" (and rather odd) school though, and although there's some suggestion of the importance of one of the characters (some kind of future ruler) I'm not sure it's a queen.  The CIP summary is: "Thirteen-year-old Jericho, whose father runs an unconventional school in their home, passes through an invisible gateway into the year 2094 and discovers a future world of uniformity and overpopulation, where his school has been made a national monument."


F336: Female detective solves murders of females
Book was read in the mid 90s mystery/ suspesnse. female detective struggles to solve the murder of females very graphic on the murders.  Either young boy staying with her or neighborhood boy is the killer and he comes after her at the end of the book.  i think his name stated with a j.

Eileen Dreyer, Head Games.  This description would fit "Head Games" by Eileen Dreyer except that I think it was published more recently.
The answer that was added to my post is not correct not even close infact just letting you know that its still an unsolved mystery.


F337: Family of mean creatures eats rocks and sticks
Solved: The Little Brute Family


F338: fairy realm teenagers disappearing boat
juvenile. I remember reading a book that I think is part of a series of young adult novels.  I think it is British, or at least it was set in England or Ireland.  I have an impression of the faerie type of fairies in it.  The faeries lived in an alternate, parallel realm observing humans, but not interacting.  There was a teenaged boy who fell in love with a faerie, kind of like Brigadoon.  There was a faerie boat in the river or the lake near his house that he slept in overnight.  It disappeared, but I don't have the impression that he was kidnapped away or slept away his life.  It seems like he was going to protect the faeries, maybe with a sword.  I read it in the late 80s or early 90s, but I don't know if it was published at that time.  I was reading it at the same time as I was reading Fred Saberhagen novels, but it doesn't seem to be one of his.  That also might be why I remember a sword, so that may not be part of the story at all.  Thanks for any help!  If this book is found, it will end sleepless nights trying to remember more about it.

Margaret Storey, Timothy Travels.
  Details not quite a match, but when Timothy stays over at Melinda's house, he sleeps in a bed shaped like a boat that sometimes turns into a real boat.  In this story, he awakes to find he is crossing a river or sea, going to help the elves in a battle.  I think his elf friends were named Rik and Dag.  Storey had a series of books about good and evil witches set in England.


F339: Fisherman Puts Bandaids on Whales
Solved: Burt Dow, Deep Water Man


F340: fairytale set
Aesop and others, 1965-1975, childrens.  These fairytales were from a mail order.  They were large books with 2 fairytales per book.  The pages were glossy.  They had beautiful illustrations.  Some of the titles I remember were: Snow White and Rose Red, Thumbelina, Hansel and Gretel, Abduhl of the Sea, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Three Pigs, and Red Riding Hood.

At last I've got it--this is the same as another recent stumper.  One of the specific two-in-one titles is Rapunzel- The Treasure of the Three Brothers.  The author is listed as Storytime Treasury Staff, Illustrated by Storytime Staff.  The publisher is McCall but is also listed as Fratelli Fabbri Publishers.  The books were printed in Italy and were sold, I think, in supermarkets.
Some of the two-in-one titles published by McCall/Fratelli Fabbri: Ugly Duckling / the Princess Who Tended Geese; Enchanted Princess / The House in the Forest; Blind Sheik / Donkeyskins; Beauty & the Beast / The Tinderbox; Golden Fish / The Goatherd & the Kings Daughter; Snow White / The Little Tin Soldier; Hans in Luck / The Three Little Pigs; Five Peas in a Pod / Prince Ahmed; Cinderella / The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

F340a: Farmer replaces old dog
Children's book from the 70s or 80s about a farmer with an old dog. The farmer looses faith in the old dog & buys a pup to sort of replace him with. Later something dangerous (maybe a boar or wild pig) gets into the house. The young dog gets scared & hides. The old dog fights it off & saves the day.

F341: fairy tale book 1980s
I'm looking for a fairytale book that had several stories in it with lots of color pictures.  I thought the outside was red but it's been a while!  I was about 6 or 7 when my cousin had this book, about 1986 or so.  The outside of the book had different characters on it.  Here are some of the stories I remember being in the book: Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack & the Beanstalk, Goldilocks & the Three Bears, Henny Penny, The Ugly Duckling, Three Billy Goats Gruff (this was my favorite and it had a scary looking troll), The Gingerbread Man.  I also think that the Three Little Pigs and Rumplestiltskin may have been in the book too.  I have been trying to find out what the title of this book is for about two years now with no luck.  I hope you can help me find it.  Please let  me know if you need more information!

The contents don't quite match, but could it be The Fairy Tale Treasury selected by Virginia Haviland and illustrated by Raymond Briggs, 1972? See Solved Mysteries. The orange cover is easy to find in Google.
Hadaway, Bridget, Fairy Tales.  This could be the book you are looking for. It was reprinted a few times, once in the 80's.  It has all the stories you list (plus more) and many beautiful illustrations. There is more information on the solved mystery pages.

F341a: Female therapist, Male locked-in syndrome
Fictional romance book written sometime between mid 1970s to early 1990 of a female therapist’s new ideas and dedication that help young man who survived a coma but lives in a locked-in syndrome condition recover the use of his body and to be able to speak again.  The author had a wonderful way of helping the readers understand the young man’s feelings, pain and frustration by writing what the young was thinking, like we could hear his thoughts. Young man was in an accident in college (I think it was a football accident) after coma young man is in a locked-in syndrome and he can only blink to communicate. Cared for at wealthy parents’ home by a male aide, then mother also hires female therapist. Therapist then goes back to work at hospital while young man takes a year to get his life back on track. Then he buys female therapist’s skills at an auction so he can have a chance to see her again. Book cover had young man on sofa and female therapist on floor in front of sofa, both dressed in evening cloths, at least that is what I remember. Would love to find out the name of this novel and / or the author.  I don't know why this book has been on my mind so much for the last five years but I have searched off and on for the last five years but have never figured out who the author was or the title of the book. Please help!


F342: family of rats or mice who played with child's toys
The children's book targeted children ages 3-6 years and was written probably in the mid-1960s.  I think it had a yellow cover.  The book was about a group or a family of rats or mice who came out to play at night in the home of a child, when the child was sleeping.  They would play with the child's toys laying on the floor while the child was sleeping.  These mice/rats were playing with a train set, and their tails got stuck under the train's wheels and were severed or cut off, and there was blood.  They regretted having played with the toys because of their injuries.  That's all I can remember.  It sounds like a dream, but it's a real children's book!  I've been searching for this book for about 15 years now, so if someone knows the title and author of this book, they have my eternal gratitude.  I've gone to a number of children's libraries and bookstores, but no luck.  I would certainly buy the book from you if you can identify it.

Sara Asheron, Little Gray Mouse and the Train
, 1964, copyright.  A long shot, but thought it worth mentioning. Front cover shows Little Gray Mouse (wearing black shoes, black pants, a red shirt or jacket with white polka-dots and a blue-and-white striped engineer's cap) hanging out of a toy train that is whizzing along a track, holding a lantern in one hand and tooting the whistle with the other. The background of the cover is green, but the big yellow boxcar takes up most of the space, giving the overall impression of a yellow cover. A Wonder Book Easy Reader, illustrated by Claudine Nankivel. I don't know if the mice (Little Gray Mouse and his friend Squeaky, a little brown mouse) sustain any injuries or not. There is also a sequel, Little Gray Mouse Goes Sailing (1965).
Marie Hall Ets, Automobiles for Mice, 1964, copyright.  "Curious mice do not have fun while taking the evening to play with little Johnny's mice-sized toys. While playing with Johnny's trains, trucks, and cars, the two mice families end up with scratched noses and crinked tails."  I've not read this book so I can't vouch for its being the right one, but it looks promising!

F342a: French girl easy-to-read (picture) books (series)
SOLVED:
the Jeanne-Marie books by Francoise.

F343: friends following picture map solving puzzles
My favourite book c.1950 in  England.  Friends (children or animals?) followed a picture map of  village/town.  Reader solved puzzles and chose direction to go, so various routes to goal (treasure?).  Large thin book, some colour I think.  I remember there were signposts.

Alan George, Treasure Hunt.
  I think this is your book. My mother had it as a child in the UK in the 1950's. It's great! We loved it as kids. Two children are hunting for a treasure, on each page you have to find things, and choose which road they take through the English countryside. There is also a picture map, showing the whole area. On the front of the book it says "A fascinating Novelty. A Maze in Volume form. A puzzle, a picture story-book, a brain tonic"

F343a: Fuzzy black lamb gets red paint on self
Small hardcover book with red cover about a little black lamb. On the pages the lamb was fuzzy. The little lamb gets red paint on himself. I read it around 25 years ago, but it was already an old book then (maybe from 50's or something like that?)

Sterling North, SO DEAR TO MY HEART,
1947. Could this possibly be one of the adaptations of the Sterling North novel MIDNIGHT AND JEREMIAH, which Walt Disney filmed as SO DEAR TO MY HEART, starring Burl Ives and Bobby Driscoll?  The story was about a little black lamb, who was constantly getting into trouble.  I seem to remember my sister back in the early 1950s having a fuzzy board book based on this film, with the lamb (Danny) on the cover.


F344: family finds wounded bird, tries to sneak it across Canadian border
Our 4th grade teacher read this to us in 1971.  I had to leave school before she finished it & always wondered how it turned out.  An American family finds a wounded bird (robin??) and nurses it back to health.  They try to sneak it across the Canadian border for their vacation.  Bird on front cover.

F344a: Field mouse lives in natural history museum

SOLVED: Maribell Cormack, The Museum Comes to Life, 1931.

F345: family picnic ends in restaurant
Childrens book about a young boy and his family picnic. It rains and they end up eating at a restaurant. The boy orders a hamburger with ketchup and pickles and when he bites it, the ketchup squirts out. It might be called "The Picnic"

Beverly Cleary, Ramona Quimby, Age 8.
  A long shot, I know, but the last chapter of Ramona Quimby Age 8 is about a rainy Sunday when Ramona's family's plans are spoiled and they end up going out for hamburgers.  "Ramona bit into her hamburger. Bliss. Warm, soft, juicy, tart with relish. Juice dribbled down her chin."

F345a: Finance explained by growing and selling carrots
Book from late 1970s/ early 1980s that explained finance through the example of growing carrots, then selling them, getting a loan in advance to buy the seeds, etc.


F346: Forgotten Toys In Attic Fly Down on Plane
Book about toys who have been stored up in the attic and forgotten. I'm pretty sure there was a bear and a bunny. The lid to the attic is missing and they're able to look down into the children's room. They decide to fly down on a wooden plane. I was born in '89, so my mom thinks it's fairly recent.

Jane Hissey, Old Bear.
Jane Hissey, Old Bear
, 1996, approximate.  I read this book to my kids when they were little, we enjoyed the story and the illustrations.

F346a: Fairytale collection
SOLVED: Fred Ladd, Famous Fairy Tales, 1978.


F347: Fairy tale anthology, small round picture of little red riding hood in center of cover
I owned ths book in the early 90's, and the stories I recall it having are Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, Toads and Diamonds (possibly under another name, such as "The fairies"), The Twelve Dancing Princesses, possibly The Little Match Girl and The Frog Prince.  It had red binding, no slipcover (?), small round picture of little red riding hood in center of cover.  Thanks for any help!


Grimm, Fairy Tales
.  This could be the Everyman's Library edition of "Fairy Tales" by the Grimms; it has a green binding and square picture but otherwise matches: http://preview.tinyurl.com/q73j89.

F347a: Family raising puppies, docking their tails, late 60s-early 70s
Short novel: family raising puppies (possibly poodles) that had many details about caring for animals, how they are born, how the mother cares for them, and--somewhat traumatic--how their tails were docked in order to get them to grow straight up. Maybe Scholastic, early 70s or late 60s?

Three possibilities: Betty Cavanna The Black Spaniel Mystery; The Green Poodles by Charlotte Baker; The Shy Ones by Lynn Hall. I don't remember if they specifically talk about docking tails, but these three stories all feature families who raise puppies, were around in the late 60s/early 70s, and were good!
It may well be The Black Spaniel Mystery, but it is not The Shy Ones - that was about a Golden Retriever, and there was no plot about a family raising puppies.
Baker, Charlotte, The Green Poodles, 1956. Loved this as a child, and I'm pretty sure it's the right one. The name of the family is Green, hence "Green Poodles."

F348: Fairytale anthology, 1974-6 two volumes, glossy, oversized, hardcover
Somewhere between 1974-6, my parents ordered a fairytale collection from (I think) a children's book club/mail-order publishing company.  The 2 volumes of classic fairy tales/Grimm's tales had identical covers: glossy, w/ white background, the book title in red/pink lettering, and a large grey castle in the foreground. Illustrations were in color, very life-like, almost (but not quite) like Maxwell Parrish's illustrations (very ethereal, dream-like settings).  Book pages were smooth, thick-weight paper with almost a glossy sheen to them.  I've read all the other stumpers & solved mysteries & looked up respective links, but have had no luck.  Thanks for any suggestions!

Golden Treasure Chest, 1968-1975, reprint. Try the Golden Treasure Chest.  I have 3 copies of 2 different editions.  The earlier edition had 4 large books in a case.  My latest edition just had one big book.  Your edition of the 2 volumes of classic fairy tales/Grimm'\''s tales with identical covers: glossy, w/ white background, the book title in red/pink lettering, and a large grey castle in the foreground could have been a "middle edition".  Your description matches both editions that I have, except for the number of books.  I believe that they might have condensed the books in later editions.  Good luck!
Helen Hyman, Treasury of the Worlds Greatest Fairy Tales, 1972, copyright. I believe this is what youre looking for.  The other volume is called "A Second Treasury of the Worlds Greatest Fairy Tales."  They were published by Danbury Press in 1972.  You can find photos of the covers if you google the titles.


F348a: Fairy tale books for kids 2 volumes
Late 70s early 80s 8.5"x11"ish, hardcover, color, first story was ugly duckling, illustrations of thumbelina flying on a swallow, big gold fish, tin soldier floating down river, musicians of brementown, hansel and gretel, saw a reissue a few years ago, might have been both books combined in to one.

Belle Becker Sideman,
The World's Best Fairy Tales: A Reader's Digest Anthology, 1967, approximate. I think this may be the one you're looking for. As far as I can tell, it was originally published as a single volume, then republished as two volumes. There are pictures of the cover online if you do a Google images search.
F349: Fairy turns little girl into flower
Picture book about a little girl who wishes for a fairy to turn her into a flower.  She becomes a flower, realizes that she doesn't like it, and protects the fairy from a rain storm with her petals so he will turn her back into a girl.

Helen Lester (author) Lynn Munsinger (illustrator), Pookins Gets Her Way.


F349a: Fairy tales book, including Cinderella and Puss-in-Boots
Owned in early 60s; possibly printed 1958-1963. Large, thin book, approx 10-12" x 12-14". Color illustrations of characters were defined, not sketchy. There was an illustration of Puss-in-Boots and another one of a girl with toads and snakes falling out of her mouth.

Charles Perrault, Illustrations by Saul Lambert, Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales,
1964. This may or may not be the one you're looking for, but the four stories included are Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Toads and Diamonds and Bluebeard. Descriptions I've found online indicate that it includes color illustrations and is around 12-14" tal

F350a: Fairy tale books
Hardcover, oversized Fairy Tale books. Cover was illustrated, predominantly red. I think was called "Fairy Tales". Lavishly illustrated with two-color art work. The color of the illustrations changed every few pages. Definitely contained Jack the Giant Killer, and I think, Emperor's New Clothes.

Andrew Lang, Red Fairy Book.
All the red on the cover definitely makes me think it could be this book. Jack and the Beanstalk is in it, although I don't think The Emperor's New Clothes is, so that is the only thing that makes me unsure. 
F351: Fairy Girl
About a girl who lived with her parents, but they lived in the woods and "turned" into fairys, but it was all a drug induced world. They drank some potion to be there. I think she wanted to save someone from them.. maybe her sister.

F352: Family Builds Home from Eggs
Childrens book: boy helps hurt bird, bird repays by having mother lay giant egg. Family cooks and sells scrambled egg and uses money to build home inside the now-empty egg shell.

Jay Williams, A Present From a Bird, 1971, copyright. To repay the poor Bimble family for their kindness, the queen of the birds lays a gigantic egg for which the Bimbles find many uses.
A Present from a Bird. Definitely this book from Parents Magazine Press. Wonderful book!

F353: Little Girl in French Revolution, My Copy Published 1970s

  Front cover was a girl leaning out of a window of a tall building with shutters on the windows. The story was set in the French Revolution. I seem to remember the cover being yellow &white/pale colours. The copy i had was prob published 1970s.

F354: Fat man standing on whale
Pictures (drawings) of a man with a large stomach standing on the back of a whale.  One image is far away, on the horizon, another is closer up.  Maybe he has a striped shirt.  He may have a queue or pony tail for hair.  Could this be in French?  Or have some French words?  I would like to know the name of the book, if you find that out, even if you cannot locate a copy.

F355:  Farmer and  Three Sons
This  short fairytale  story  is about  a man wwiht an orchard and his three sons, two lazy and one helpful and kind.  The  father  hints about having a wonderful treasure, and the two lazy  sons dream of findin g  it an d having it one day. Each day the youngest son goes out to the orchard to help his father, while the two older sons sit around and don't help much. When the father dies, the youngest is heartbroken. He left a note, which the older sons hope will lead them to the  treasure. It says that the treasure has been scattered across the land under the cherry and apple trees.
F356: Father killed sister loses legs and man opposes invasion from alternate timeline/dimension
 Father was researching terrorists (possibly called Black Rose) from an alternate dimension or timeline, maybe neanderthal or cro-magnon.  The family van is bombed and the father is killed, the sister loses her legs.  Main char. and lesbian partners battle to stop invasion.  Not Robert Sawyer books.

John Barnes, Pattons Spaceship, 1997, copyright. This is definitely the Timeline Wars trilogy.  Pattons Spaceship is followed by Washingtons Drigible and then Caesars Bicycle.
F357: Fairy tales and myths
1950s anthology with large soft-red hardcover book, thick, maybe 2", small print.  A collection of world fairy tales and stories from Greek and Roman mythology.  I believe there was just black and white small illustrations.  I remember several of the stories, but unique ones might be about a Japanese child riding a fish???, many of the Grimm tales, Princess and the Pea, Snow White and Rose Red.  I was reading this book in the fifties, so it might have been printed in the 1940s. It was not part of a series.  I loved that book. 

F358: Father rescues daughter from cult by learning astral projection
A young girl is kidnapped by a cult, and the father attempts to rescue her. He discovers that the cult leader is an astral projection master, so the father travels to learn astral projection, and eventually fights the cult leader in astral projection. Cover has a teddy bear with a knife. Paperback.

Hallahan, William P., Keeper of the Children, NY, Morrow 1978, copyright. The cover described is the Avon paperback, published 1979.
F359:  Fairy in a tin can
I read this story in grade school, (1963-68 approx). It's about a fairy that lives in a tin can (at least that's how I remember it...sometimes I think I'm mixing stories together).  The can is in the backyard of a house where there are children. This has been driving me crazy for years.

Elizabeth Orton Jones, Twig, 1960s, approximate. I think that I found your book!  I remembered the girls name in the story as "Twig" and I punched in "Twig" on the Internet.  Sure enough, the book came up and I was able to take a peek inside.  Hope that this is what you were looking for.  Good luck!
Bridwell, Norman, The Tiny Family. It might be The Tiny Family. If you Google it, you'll find images, just be aware theres a more recent edition that has very different illustrations from the original.~from a librarian
Gertrude Alice Kay, The fairy who believed in human beings, 1918, copyright. I found this on Google Books (full view available-it looks like a lovely story, with illustrations!) and has a fairy-baby found living in a tin can...it appears his name is Gundy.
Elizabeth Orton Jones, Twig. Twig takes a tomato can and other discards in the backyard of her tenement and transforms them into a home for fairies. Uplifting story of a girl poor in worldly goods but rich in imagination.
1963-68, approximate. I know exactly what story you're talking about.  I read it when I was second or third grade, too.  There is a lonely little girl in the story whose name is "Twig" because she is so skinny.  She lives on the third floor of a 3 story apartment house which has only three apartments.  She comes down the wooden back porch steps from the third floor, and she passes each floor and tells us a little about the people who live on the floors below.  Then she goes out into her backyard and she finds a tin can.  The can is cut open, but empty, and a tiny fairy walks out and talks to her.  Im sorry I cant remember the name of the book, but perhaps these details will match with what you remember and they can get you closer to finding the book.  Im curious about this story,too.  I always liked it.


F360: Freddy and Denny
 A book with two boys as the main characters, Freddy and Denny. One boy is always doing bad things (or making the wrong choice) and the other always does the correct, or polite, thing.  Published anywhere from the late 70s to the mid 80s.  One dimensional, hand-drawn, cartoon-like illustrations.

Freddy and Denny, Highlights magazine, Goofus and Gallant. It sounds like the Highlights magazine comic strip "Goofus and Gallant". Highlights did come out with some books, so maybe it was made into a book or maybe you remember reading them in the magazine?~from a librarian
Robert Burchett, Manners in God's house: with Freddy and Denny, 1972, copyright. Doing a search for books with "Freddy and Denny" in the title I came up with Robert Burchett's book... BUT to me, your book sounds like: "The Secret of Henry and Sam" by Neil W. Rabens 1978...the Secret is sometimes he's Henry- a sweet boy who always does his chores, is quiet in church, feeds his pets, and is quiet in church. Sometimes he is Sam- who is mean to younger children, always thinks of himself first.

I see that there is a response suggesting that this is from the "Highlights" magazine comic Goofus and Gallant.   I checked that out online and my "Freddy and Denny" is definately NOT the same as the Goofus and Gallant comic.  I appreciate the suggestion, but I wanted to let you know that it's something totally different.  I wasn't sure if there was a way for you to post this, so that whoever reads the posts doesn't think it has been solved and overlook investigating it some more.
F361: Fairy tale collection pencil illustrations (1997-2001)
This is a book that I borrowed from a friend, probably sometime around 1999-2001, and I believe it was a new book. I remember that it was coffee table sized (oversized) and it may have been intended as a children’s book, but it had very illustrations. They looked like colored pencil illustrations.  I think it was a book of Celtic Fairy Tales or Celtic Myths and Legends and I remember that it had a blue cover and it might have had a Pegasus on the cover.  I don’t have the exact title or the author or anything (and it might not have been limited to Celtic Fairy tales). I remember one very striking illustration of a boy (I believe) with very blonde hair and teeth that were pointed (like maybe they’d been filed)  the illustration went along with a story that was very similar to “The Snow Queen” but I know for sure that it wasn’t a Hans Christian Anderson story. I’d know the book if I saw it again, but I haven’t, unfortunately. (The illustrations were NOT by Dulac OR Rackham-I’d have recognized THOSE right away.)

F362: Fairy Tales with Alphonse Mucha Art
Looking for and oversized book, Folk Tales or Fairy Tales, many illustrators, or just art used, 70s 80s or 90s, before 1994, many different stories in it, art lovely, some very Alphonse Mucha type art, a specific story about a fairy that gives a girl a choice to happy when she is old or young.


F363:Fairy Tale collection
Children's text from before 1970. I had a fairy tale collection that I loved as a child. Unfortunantly it was missing the cover before I was given it. (I assume it was some sort of hard bound because of the remains of the binding in the back.) Some of the stories in it were Rapunzel, the fisherman's wife, the princess and the glass hill, the brave little tailor, jack the giant killer, puss and boots, rumplestiltzcan, and quite a few others. ( A story where a princess had her nose grow, and another where a fox who helps a boy win a princess though the boy doesn't always listen and puts a bird in a guilded cage instead of a wooden one )The book was at least 8 1/2 X 11 and over an inch thick (without the cover)and was printed on paper that was light brown.  There were many color illustrations drawn though out the book. I have scanned the web and yet to find it. It was my sister's an my favorite book growing up, I would like to share it with my kids and nephews.

The Magic Realm of Fairy Tales, 1963 first, copyright. I'm HOPING this is the book you're looking for!  It was one of my favorite childhood books.  It has every one of the stories that you mentioned and the dimensions, description of the book fits.  It was first published by Whitman Publishing in 1962 and there were several reprints after that.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!


F364: Fairy tale collection
 
I am looking for a book of fairy tales that I had in the late 60s. It was an oversized hard cover book. Two of the stories in it were The Snow Queen and The Nutcracker. I don't remember the rest of the stories, but I know those two. This had some large illustrations with dolls as the characters.

Marie Ponset, Adrienne Segur (illus), The Snow Queen and Other Tales, 1961. I think this might be the one you are looking for. I don't have a copy (too expensive!) so I can't check the illustrations for you to see if any used dolls as characters, but the combination of The Snow Queen and The Nutcracker is an unusual one. This is an oversized Deluxe Golden Book. The stories are translated into English by Marie Ponset and illustrated by Adrienne Segur. Stories include: The Snow Queen, The Nutcracker, Winter's Promised Bride, The Cat Who Became Lord of the Forest, Baba Yaga, Three Dwarfs of the Forest, Jorinda and Joringel, and several others. A beautiful book, but expensive and difficult to find.
Vratislav Stovicek, The Book of Goodnight Stories,1982, copyright. This is one of my favorite books! I'm sure it's what you're looking for.
llustrated by Adrienne Segur, The Snow Queen and Other stories. I submitted this solution before but don't see where it was posted. This is The Snow Queen and Other stories. My copy was a large, green book. Published in the 1960's, probably. Illustrations were beautifully detailed and full page. Also contained the Nutcracker, which takes up almost half the book. Other stories in the book are shorter and are translated from Russian fairy tales.
Andre Bay (for the Russian fairy tales only), The Snow Queen and other tales,1961, copyright. I am looking at a copy of the book as I type (mine, saved from childhood). It is an oversize book published by Golden Press of New York (not Racine). Includes a selection of Traditional Russian fairy tales, Andersen, Grimm, and The Story of a Nutcracker. Illustrations by Adrienne Segur. The cover shows a large doll gazing at toy soldiers, nutcracker fighting the rat king, etc.


F365: Book banned during Communist scare -- Farm, Spaceship, Underground
 Farmer is digging in his field when he hits spaceship. He uncovers series of codes to discover colony frozen in suspended animation. Colony came to Earth because their planet was destroyed. Each member of colony is from the best in his profession. Unhappy with Earth's problems, they self-destruct.
Farmer is digging in his field when he hits spaceship. He uncovers series of codes to discover colony frozen in suspended animation. Colony came to Earth because their planet was destroyed. Each member of colony is from the best in his profession. Unhappy with Earth's problems, they self-destruct. I only had 300 characters to write the summary in the message, so I did the best I could to condense! Thanks very much -- I'm trying to find this book for my dad (whose teacher read it to his class when he was in elementary school in the 1960s) and I thought your site sounded like a great place to start.


F366: Father on Stanton Island
I read a children's book in the 1980's to my children about a father who would leave his family on Staten Island and go into the tenements in New York City (maybe it was about Jabob Riis?). It was illustrated in color, and included pictures of horses and wagons, and took place in the mid-to-late 1800's. There was a focus of the poverty of the children in the tenements. I think the author's last name started with a W.
F367: Falling in a Hole
My wife remembers a story she loved as a child (born 1979), so the book was available in the early 80s. Here's all I know about it:
-main character falls in a hole
-other characters (perhaps looking for the main character?) fall in the same hole -eventually, all characters get out of the hole Sounds like a kids' book from my school days. Small boy is bothered by his four bossy older sisters Molly, Dolly, Lolly, and Solly, they keep saying, "You're a pest!" or the like. He runs into several small animals who also taunt him with the Pest! comment. Somehow his sisters and the animals fall down a hole. The boy, Max? manages to pull them out, at the very end is a large bear who takes Max's side, calling all the others pests.
Crosby Bonsall, Who's a Pest. You may want to check into this one. While it's not exactly as you describe, it has definite similarities. Falling in a Hole.
L. Frank Baum, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, 1908, approximate. If falling in the hole also involved adventures in strange lands, L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (one of the Oz sequels) begins with Dorothy and her cousin (and their horse and buggy and Dorothy's cat) all falling into the earth during an earthquake and coming out in strange lands below.  They encounter vegetable people (who grow on plants and are picked when they're grown/ripe), an invisible race, and others, meeting up with the Wizard along the way.
Baum, l. frank, Tiktok of Oz'.This book includes an episode where the characters fall through a tunnel through the center of the earth and come out on the other side of the world.  Some of them fall or are pushed as they look to see where the others went, as described..
Arlene Mosel, Tikki Tikki Tembo,1968. I was in elementary school in the early 1980s, and I immediately thought of Tikki Tikki Tembo.   
F368: Family trip - car on bridge
SOLVED: Lesley Frost,
The Drawbridge (story) -- from Not Really, 1962.


F369: Family Bakery
Solved: The Baker's Children: A Visit to a Family Bakery

F370: Farming

It's about a white boy whose mother leaves him with family in the South where he picks in the fields and gets really sunburned, goes out picking again. Uncle doesn't plant as much as he should I think it's cotton. Boy ends up in town with older couple. Goes out a window. Goes back to farm to uncle.


F371: Frog Cursed
Kid's Picture book, read early 1970's. B&W. Prince cursed -> frog. Looks for a wizard to turn him back. Finds visual wizard. Wizard cuts and pastes paper to form a b&w full page 'spell' [re images that swirl etc Incl Black squares & fuzzies at junctions], prince changes form several times.

Ed Emberley, The Wizard of Op
. This is your book! some pages of the book have been reproduced.

F372: Fireflies
I'm looking for a pre-1980 book about a little person (i think) who is lost/ran away and tries to get back home...he rides on the backs of birds and fireflies who light his way back home through the woods. I thought it was "tom thumb", but it's not... help!!!
F373: Feather Pillow, Children's Horror StoriesPossibly calle Tales of Terror; it's a 1970s children's book. Large hardcover book with some pictures, first found in my elementary school's library, before it was confiscated as inappropriate (but I loved them)!Collection of horror stories, one about a person who could feel someone's feather pillow to foretell his disturbing future, by feeling the curls of the feathers. Another about people chopped with a hatchet and pieces thrown into a well. Another about two boys playing a prank to scare a friend  one boy painted himself with glowing paint to pretend to be a ghost, but it was dangerous paint that burned, and he couldn't get it off so he was doomed.

Ida Chittum, Tales of terror, 1975. Since this includes a story called "Feather Reader" and another whose title indicates it involves a well, it must be:
Title: Tales of terror  /Author(s):  Chittum, Ida Altschuler, Franz Publication: Chicago : Rand McNally, Year: 1975 Description: 123 p. : ill. 27 cm Language: English
Contents: By the author -- House the Dovers didn't move into -- Vision of roses -- Uncle Ned Kunkle -- Twins -- Snipe hunt -- Yellow cat -- Giant -- Feather reader -- Woman who turned to paper -- Sod Miller's money -- Print on the window -- Haunted well -- Special gift -- Bring back my teeth -- Lovers -- Cruel girl -- Twisting wind -- Courtland wethers and the pit. Abstract:  A collection of short stories set in the Ozarks dealing with natural and supernatural events.


F374: Flying Around the World
Looking for a childhood book of my mothers - circa late 1920s or 1930s storybook about flying around the world; I think female aviator; vividly colorful art deco illustrations on front boards, a few color illustrations inside, mostly b/w drawings.  Might have been a Pan Am book. Title, anyone?

Julianne Devries, The Campfire Girls Flying Around the Globe, 1933, copyright. A long shot, but it might be worth looking into. Dustjacket features a bright, colorful picture of two of the girls in an old-fashioned airplane with an open cockpit. I don't know what, if any, illustrations are inside the book, as I've only seen it online. Part of a series of "Campfire Girls" books. "Five girls of Wa-Wan-Da Camp Fire and their Guardian, Mrs. Evans, are chosen to be the representatives of the national organization on a round-the-world good will flight." Also printed as "The Banner Campfire Girls Flying Around the Globe."
Frances Walton, Women in the Wind, 1935, copyright. A Novel of the Women'\''s National Air Derby, based on the first Women'\''s Air Derby (dubbed The Powder Puff Derby by Will Rogers) Aug 13th-20th, 1929.  The Powder Puff Derby was a grueling, eight-day, dead-reckoning, 1500 mile race between Santa Monica and Cleveland. (Amelia Earhart participated.) Dust jacket shows a beatiful illustration of a smiling female aviator in the cockpit of her plane, holding the hand of another aviator standing beside the plane.


F375: Forest Growing in A House
I remember almost nothing except that a forest begins growing in a house and eventually takes over everything-moss for carpet and such.

From your description of a forest growing and taking over the house, it suggests the beginning of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, where Max's room sprouts trees and bushes, to Max's evident delight. Hope this helps.
Jansson, Tove, Finn Family Moomintroll,1958 (english translation).In Finn Family Moomintroll, one of the scenes is Moominmamma throwing flowers into the magical Hobgoblin's hat.  The hat causes the entire house to be overgrown with a jungle.
Dexter, Catherine, Gertie's Green Thumb, 1987.
Giulio Maestro, The Remarkable Plant in Apartment 4, 1973, approximate. Could it be this one? It's set in an apartment building, but other than that, the storyline is very similar. A little boy brings home a plant that takes over the building!
Mazer, Anne, Salamander Room, 1994, approximate. To quote from SLJ: "Brian's cozy bedroom is gradually transformed into a dark green forest that overflows the pages as the fantasy [of providing a satisfactory home for a salamander] becomes more elaborate."


F376: Friar, cat, mouse, church, line drawings
Solved: Margot Austin, Peter Churchmouse.

F377: Flotilla of strange boats on a river
Solved: Doris Burn, The Summerfolk. 
F378: Fairy Tale Book, Pre-1990s
English. Fairly large hardcover book of fairytales, possibly 70s/80s, no later than early 1990s. Definitely included tale of Tom Thumb Seven-League boots - large colour illustrations, remember ogre's boots being fringed. Most likely included Snow White and Rose Red, illustration of dwarf with white Large hardcover 'clothy' material red no dustjacket maybe lost, definitely Tom Thumb Seven League boots, ogre's boots fringed castle illustration in background, large colour illustrations, likely included SnowWhite RoseRed and story of tailor killing seven flies. English, not really old but pre-90s.

 F379: Fox wants to buy Captain's Hat but can't afford it
SOLVED: Sandra E. Guzzo, Fox and Heggie, 1983.

F380: Frederick the Frog
This was a book my sister checked out from the school library in 1989 ,which is also the year I believe the book was published.
The book's main character is Frederick the Frog , he has a friend named Herman J Frog. Story is about him learning what frogs are for and jumping,hopping, and swimming etc.  I have some pictures from the book but I do not have the actual book,author,publisher,illustrator...etc

F381: Father, Daughter, pond and moon
A father and a daughter. The daughter can't sleep, so her father takes her into the back yard where there's a pond. The full moon is reflected in the pond. Her father tosses a pebble, and creates ripples in the pond, and the girl tries to hold the moon in her hand.

Charlotte Zolotow, The Summer Night, 1974. My mother helped me solve this one!! (I could have saved myself $2!) It was originally titled "The Night When Mother Was Away."'


2011

F382: Failed drug dog, loves pie, goes to work as a mail room security dog, busts drug ring
Book is about a failed drug dog who is adopted by his handler. they live on a house boat and go to work as nighttime security for a mail depot. stop at a bakery every night on way home. befriend a waittress. handler wants to buy a farm. drug ring uses mail to ship drugs. dog and handler defeat the

F383: Folk and fairy tales including retelling of Psyche and Eros
Book was hardcover, thick (close to an inch or thicker) and huge-- maybe as tall as 18". (I was eight when my mother got rid of it, because despite having the most gorgeous illustrations, the text was--she said, i don't remember the words at all--poorly written) I definitely had to use both hands to carry it around, and I was a strong eight year old. I don't remember the cover illustration at all, though I'm pretty sure it was predominantly, or at least bordered thickly, by white, and the paper was very glossy. (Maybe it was just words, and that's why I have no image-memory?)
 
I think it had at least 40, probably more, different folk and fairy tales from around the world. It had a retelling/variation of Psyche and Eros as the first or second story-- I remember the illustration that went with that one was three half-naked women lounging in a lush bathhouse. The other initial story had a shrew(? It was called "The Taming of the Shrew", or something very like, but was *not* the Shakespeare story. I think it involved a cobra and the illustration involved another reclining woman in exotic, semi-Persian surroundings. She had pointy curled shoes!) I know it had The Mastermaid (illustration: her back to the viewer, golden hair with thin braids at the temple that joined in the middle of her back without any obvious clasp) and (!shocking! to my eight year old self and the neighborhood children I showed it to,) an illustration near the center/back of a fully naked and exposed young woman being dragged upwards/surrounded by brown/grey insectlike creatures/goblins with sharp pointy teeth.
 
I believe they were all done by one illustrator, but each picture was very different in style (possibly to suggest the mood of the story or the culture it came from? too young to recognize that at the time), so it's possible there were multiple artists involved. (Every story had a picture, possibly more than one.) All the pictures, though, were very detailed and thick with color. No empty space or blank backgrounds, probably oils-- no pencil or pen, no black and white drawings. I wish I could remember more concrete details-- 1983 is the latest possible publication, and I suspect it was before 1981 since by 1983 it was battered around the edges.


Indries Shah, World tales: the extraordinary coincidence of stories told in all times, in all places, 1979. The original edition of "World Tales," published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, was about 12 in. tall and contained 65 lavishly illustrated myths and fables.  There is an edition currently in print but without the illustrations.  Many of the original pictures can be viewed on the editor's website: http://web.me.com/shahinfo/IDRIES_SHAH/World_Tales_album/World_Tales_album.html


F384: Frontier West
SOLVED: Beverly Butler, The Silver Key. 
F385: Fairy tale book, published 1940's
Early 1940's oversized green cloth hardcover fairy tale book.  The cover had a gold scroll border, and the lettering on the spine was gold and script-like and ran down the length of the spine.  Largish font, colored illustrations, Rapunzel and maybe Hansel& Gretel were included,15-20 stories in all

Lang, Green Fairy Tale Book.
It sounds like Lang's Green Fairy Tale Book.  There were Red, Blue, etc.--even Lavender!

F386: Feverish girl with curly red hair
Feverish girl with curly red hair is transported in her delirious dreams to hot (where she melts) and cold (where she freezes and breaks) places. She is guided by her come-to-life toys- a Jamaican doll and a donkey with cart, among them. The picture book has a yellow binding and great color illustrations.  I'd guess it was published in the 70's or early 80's. Bought in a thrift shop..my daughter loved it! Cannot remember the name or author.

Collected Stories of Colette. I don't have the slightest idea what this is -- but there are similar surrealist dream-adventures in Colette's classic story "The Sick Child". It's in "Collected Stories of Colette".
Susan Jeschke, Victoria's Adventure, Holt McDougal, 1976. After telling you about Colette's "Sick Child" story I couldn't stop wondering about your book. I finally found an almost illegible snippet from the New York Times Book Review. "Victoria lies in bed with a fever and dreams a night-journey with Boris, her teddy bear, and Jasmine, her Jamaican doll. They visit the North Pole, where Victoria freezes, and the tropics, where she melts away and has to be reconstituted. I'd imagine this might be good company for a child with pneumonia." Although another review said "Don't give this book to a child with fever." (Why not?) Susan Jeschke also wrote and illustrated Perfect the Pig and many others.

F387: Fabric forest, dolphin adventure
All I remember about this book is that I read it in the 1970s, it was about a girl who falls asleep on the beach and then dreams she has an underwater adventure, I think with a dolphin. I remember she comes across a fabric forest that was being attacked by scissors. Thanks for your help!

F388: Family of magicians (lots of sons) on island in lake, or underwater?
Possible Italian legend, maybe for adults?  Fruit trees that bend down?  Flying?  Gold cups and plates?  Possibly black clothbound hardcover with rococo-ish gold figure embossed on front?  Cagliostro?  Sorry to be so vague, loved this book but can't remember more.  Thanks for any help.

F389: Four-legged horse like animals living on a planet
Children's book from the late 60's or early 70's about four-legged horse like animals living on a planet. Humanoid alien's come to the planet build cities pollute the planet and then leave. 

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, 1971. This sounds like it might be The Lorax - that definitely has the 4 legged creatures and the humanoid aliens who come and build cities.
Bill Peet, The Wump World. Bill Peet's Wump World fits your description--I don't remember exactly what the Wumps looked like, but the description fits.
Bill Peet, The Wump World. This sounds more like The Wump World. The creatures in question look sort of like long-legged hippos with fur.
SOLVED: Bill Peet, The Wump World. Solved! I have been looking for this book for years! I am very grateful to have it finally solved. Thank you.
F390: Fountain for cats in Italy
A poor sculptor apprentice in an Italian town wants to build a drinking fountain for all the cats around him. He can't afford nice materials, so he uses whatever he can find to do it. I remember him using pieces of broken colored glass to make it pretty. Novel, I think. Not sure if author is Italian.

Cooper, Elizabeth K, The wild cats of Rome,
1972. I sent a solution to this a few weeks ago but its never been put up.  Illustrator is Don Freeman.  A wild black cat and an old man build a fountain out of odds and ends for all the wild cats of Rome.
Thanks for persevering! Unsure how your solution went astray.


F391: Favorite day
1950/60's children's picture book about mother/child favorite day.  Hard cover, beautiful pictures.  Child wants to know what it mother's favorite day, ie. her wedding day, Decoration Day, 4th July etc. At the end her favorite is the day child was born.

Frances Ullmann DeArmand and Tom Vroman, A Very, Very Special Day,
1963. A Parent's Magazine Press book.
Frances Ullmann DeArmand and Tom Vroman,  A Very, Very Special Day, 1963. A Parent's Magazine Press book. Thank you for your suggestion but this is not the one I remember.  Similar story but the illustrations I recall were possibly pen and ink with color wash, softer and more lovely.
Katheryn Murray, Best Day for Every Little Girl. I think this is the one you want.  It's in the solved section as "Very Best Day for Every Little Girl"- take a look at the description there.
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved-uv.html

F392: Fake diary, celebrity
The book made up of  faked photos / drawings of celebrities as they are remembered by a fictional celebrity whose diary is the text of the book.

Dennis, Patrick, Little Me.
The fake celebrity sounds like Belle Poitrine of Little Me fame  it's a fake biography of a campy actress and her various marriages, movies, children, ups and downs. Belle is wonderfully, hopelessly self-centered, the photos, which may be what you're thinking of, are a scream. Hope this helps.

F393: Futuristic graphic novel/comic about the last acorn or seed
It's set in a world where you have to wear a gas mask while you are outside. A little girl goes to visit a museum and finds the last acorn/seed. She then flies (maybe on a bird?) up above the smog and plants the seed. In her world there are no trees so she is shocked and doesnt really know what it is.

Damon Burnard, Bearded Butterflies and Birds of Tin,
1994. I found this by googling "last acorn" and graphic novel:
Bearded Butterflies and Birds of Tin, Damon Burnard, Paperback - B-format, March 1994, Puffin Books, 9780140362558, 014036255X
In the 24th century, flowers are made of plastic and everyone needs an oxygen mask to breathe outside. Eve refuses to accept that the world was always such a depressing place. On a school trip, Eve discovers the last acorn and, with the help of a bearded butterfly, brings water and light to it.

F394: Fairies Ring Around the Moon
Mid-1950's, childrens. I am looking for a children's book my mother read to us in Virginia around 1954. It had a beautifully colored picture of fairies dancing at night in the forest under a full moon. The moon had a ring around it. There were many fairies, elves and forest creatures and great detail. The colors were enchanting. I do not believe this was "The Big Golden Book of Elves and Fairies" or an illustration by Garth Williams. I believe it was a large book format.
Do you know of any other mid-1950''s children's book that had such an illustration?

F395: Found hedge hog like creature
SOLVED: Ursula Moray Williams, The Moonball. That is it.  Even the cover looks familiar.  I cannot believe how quickly this was solved.  I was not even sure whether this was a book I had read or a dream  the whole story was so surreal and improbable.

F396: 4th [Fourth] Grade Joke Book
Tab or Scholastic book, 1962. My husband remembers this from his elementary school days.  He thinks it was purchased at school through Tab books.  I'd love to surprise him with a copy.

Your Own Joke Book, 1948. It was one of the first books that Scholastic printed.  It was published as a TAB book in 1957.
Laughs Unlimited, Barrel of Laughs, 1965, 1959. I have a couple of joke books I bought from Scholastic in the early 1960s.  One is Laughs Unlimited copyright 1965, black cover with jester in red clothing holding a sign with the title, divided into chapters like Daffynitions, School Daze, etc. The other is Barrel of Laughs copyright 1959 by TAB books, cover dark yellow-orange with a clown dancing on top of a barrel with a dog inside. Contains jokes, brainteasers, science experiments like Dance of the Mothballs and Wheedle the Needle.

F397: Family of bunnies in a tree trunk, boat in chocolate bay and other stories
I'm looking for a collection of bedtime stories from childhood (I was born in 1986). There was a story about a family of bunnies that lived in a tree trunk (each in their own bed) and one about a boat sailing through a chocolate bay with candy. Amazing artwork. I think the book was sewn with string.

F398: Fictitious "manual" of alien life forms
I had this in the late 80's or very early 90's, though not sure when it would have been published originally. IIRC, the book had a title in the form of "Some Name's book of Extra Terrestrials", or similar. It had line art drawings of various alien species w/ descriptions of the anatomy & home worlds.

Barlowe, Wayne Douglas, Barlow's Guide to Extraterrestials,
1987. Sound like the Barlowe book, it's great fun, going into detail about the various alien races, planets (and books they are from). There's a comparative chart in the middle ranging the various species size, which includes a cameo of the author. Hope this is your book!
Wayne Barlowe, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, 1979. I think this is your book. I remember it having very detailed diagrams of the alien anatomy and wonderful illustrations. There is a wikipedia page dedicated to it with a picture of the cover, so you should be able to tell if it's your book!

F399: Fairies and elves
As a child, I had an over-sized book about fairies and elves - and the elves were mischievous and poured water on the fairies - they were washing leaves for a big fairy ball. I had that book for a long time, and then in 1975, when I was teaching third grade, someone made off with it. I now want to be able to share it with my grandchildren - but do not remember the author, or exact title.

Jane Werner, The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies.
Could this be The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies? it really is oversized. The illustrations are by Garth Williams. Easy to find as a reprint. There is also The Big Golden Book of Elves and Fairies also Jane Werner and Garth Williams, but I'm not sure if that one is oversized. Look T the covers on the Internet and see if they ring a bell. Good luck!

2012

F400: Falling
Short story, 30 yrs old or less. Think title is a woman's name and the word 'Falling.' Wealthy male narrator encounters woman at a party as she falls down the stairs. She's superficially inelegant but he notices in her catastophic clumsiness she is astonishlngly graceful. Marry, she diets & has affair.

F401: Farmer has mountain moved/ "Mr. MicMilligan's Mountain"
SOLVED: Wilma Klimke, Mr McMilikin's Mountain, 1969, approximate.

F402: Forehead screens
A youth science fiction short story about the invention of screens on foreheads that scrolled a person's thoughts. The people all ended up just staring at everyone else's foreheads all of the time. I vaguely recall they were on an island? I believe the story was in a collection of stories I read in school in the early 1990's.

F403: Fairy tale book set after characters get married I had in 80s
Collection of fairytales hardcover (pale pink with prince and princess dancing onfront with black+white check floor). Great illustrations. Follow on stories after characters Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc get married. In one evil stepmum\queen tries to kill children but falls into chest of snakes.

F404: Flying bicycle uncle inventor magic
Book about a young boy in the 19th century (C) who goes to stay with his aunt and uncle or some relatives and his uncle is an inventor and has a flying bicycle and some other inventions or magic things.

Wahl, Jan, The Furious Flycyle.  The Furious Flycyle by Jan Wahl?
Dines or Wahl, A quick look brought up The Fabulous Flying Bicycle by Glen Dines which came out in 1960 online... BUT, it could also be The Furious Flycycle, by Jan Wahl, which came out in 1968.  (I think it's probably this one, which was extremely popular into the 70s.)
Jan Wahl, The Furious Flycycle. Could it possibly be The Furious Flycycle?  It's about a boy who visits his aunt and uncle and has to save his family from danger with a flying bicycle, though the boy, not the uncle, is the inventor....

F405: Future with no production costs (fiction)
I read about this book on several occasions but cannot remember the title, author, or when it was written. Basically it was a fiction book, set in the future, where fusion energy or some other technology had made it so that the cost of producing goods was almost zero. The book looks at how creators/artists are in great demand, since there is tremendous interest from consumers for the "best" of everything.  Meanwhile, there are investors who are searching around for these creators/investors to pay them and control their creations.

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward. In Looking Backward, a man wakes up in a future utopian society. I don't remember enough about the story to know for sure if this is your book. However, I am pretty sure there was a long discussion in it about how much artistic creation was worth to the society because all the basic needs (food, clothing, housing) were provided for so work was mostly optional.

F406: Front yard with dozens of signs
Hardcover? (def not paperback) read around 85. Cover (& inside cover?) has old lady's front yard-full of dozens of signs-signs on everything-like "don't touch this branch", "don't sit on the bench". Recall no color on cover, maybe sketch-drawing? Yard may also have fat cat. Sorry-No memory of story.

F407: Flying Machine or Flying Treehouse with Helicopter Blades on Top (from picture on cover)
Chapter book (150 pages ish), likely published in 60's or 70's, about a group of kids that make their tree house fly. I believe the title had flying machine or flying tree house in it. The cover had a black sketch of a treehouse with helicopter blades. I feel like flying over a swamp was involved.

Felice Holman,
The Blackmail Machine, 1968, approximate. I think this is the book you're looking for!  I had the Scholastic paperback, and the cover features a bunch of kids in a flying house, with helicopter-like blades on the top, and a hanging ladder swinging in the wind below.  I don't remember the story, but I'm pretty sure at one point, the kids landed in the mud somewhere.  It might have been the same characters that were in Professor Diggin's Dragons, which I think has also been asked about here.
SOLVED: Felice Holman, The Blackmail Machine, 1968. Thank you so much for solving my book mystery!  I immediately ordered the book and read it in one sitting.  It felt so good to read that story again - I loved that book when I was a kid. 

F408: Fireplace logs form stairs to another land
A memory of this book has haunted me for years, and I would love to find it again. All I remember is an illustration, possibly a woodcut, featuring a girl and a cat in silhouette by a fireplace, and the fireplace logs and smoke are transforming into a set of steps that lead to another (magical) place. The little girl climbs the steps and visits another land, maybe with a castle? I probably read this book sometime in the sixties, but I suspect the book was older than that.

MacDonald, George, The Princess and the Goblins. Could this be from the Princess and the Goblins?  At one point the princess does go up a set of stairs to visit her beautiful  (great, great, great) grandmother...

F409: Flip-book with animals
Each page had a picture of an animal - but the pages were split in half horizontally so you could flip pages and create "new" animals by juxtaposing the top/head of one animal with the bottom/tail of another.


There are two books like that by the same author/illustrator, James Riddell. The first is Animal Lore and Disorder (1940) Reviews say: "This enables the reader to make over 200 humorous combinations of fanciful animals and nonsensical (descriptions)." "Thus a Tortoise and a kangaroo become a Torgaroo or a lion and camel a Limel." The second is Hit or Myth . More Animal Lore and Disorder from 1949. That one has a much better and more attractive layout, IMO. (For one thing, in the former book, the animals are more horizontal than vertical, which practically forces you to squint to enjoy it. In the second book, they're more vertical, so you get to see a lot more.) The comments are very amusing, even when you're just reading the ones for the real animals. For example, next to the rooster, it says: "This is a terribly annoying and stupid creature. It doesn't lay any eggs and its only purpose is to make an awful noise at sunrise and wake everyone up."   Riddell also wrote Ski Lore and Disorder in 1962.
Turns out that for the rooster, it actually says "its only apparent PLEASURE is to make an awful noise at sunrise and wake everyone up." Also, in Hit or Myth, there is, unfortunately, one sadly ignorant description for the gorilla: "This creature is the one most resembling man. For this reason it is best avoided for it is immensely strong and can be very dangerous. Luckily, there aren't many." (For those who don't know, gorillas are shy and gentle - and, of course, very endangered.)

F410: Family of wizards, youngest son saves family from giant
Book about a family of wizards with lots of children -- all the children wear either a red or a blue pointed hat. The whole family goes off to fight a giant, but the youngest son gets left behind because he is too little.  He ends up going after them and saving them all from the giant. Updated: Some additional info -- the giant (monster?) traps the family in a large birdcage before the youngest comes to the rescue.

F411: Four & Twenty Blackbirds
A large format children's book [about 9x11?]of illustrated stories & songs. There were pop-outs...the one I remember was the one for "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie". The image was of the King holding the pie, out of which popped the blackbirds. I think I saw this book as part of an exhibit on children's illustration at the Carnegie Museum in NYC a few years ago.


Harold Lentz (illus), Pop Up Mother Goose, 1933, approximate. If you're looking for an older book, you might look at Harold Lentz's Pop Up Mother Goose, published by Blue Ribbon Books. This is an absolutely gorgeous example of early pop-up books with classically styled illustrations. Another lovely older Mother Goose pop-up book is The Jolly Jump-Ups Mother Goose Book, published by McLaughlin Bros. in 1944. If you remember a more modern book, you could also check out Robert Sabuda's Movable Mother Goose.
This sounds promising. It had been my Dad's childhood book, so the 1933-ish date sounds right. Thank you! Now I just have to find one!
F412: Fireman or Fisherman
 Book was published late 60s/early 70s. Was an oversized book 12" x14",maybe 1/2" thick hardbound, Large 2 page spreads of artwork featuring stories about kids setting on a doorstep telling superhero tales about their fathers SuperFireman, SuperFisherman. Dont know the title.

F413: Fuzzy red sweater, girl
Children's picture book, circa 1960, in the style of a Golden Book.  Little girl gets a fuzzy red sweater, maybe from her grandmother.   the  pages had an actual raised fuzzy red sweater on it.  she hung the sweater from one of the posts at foot of her be. Back of book listed other book titles.

F414: French Canadian family, mystery, windmill
Our copy was from the late 50s/early 60s (but may not have been 1st printing), set in Quebec, about a French Canadian family with two children, Jacques (?) and Aimee (who "switched her skirts" a lot).  It was a mystery story that I think revolved around a windmill, looking for treasure?


Harriet Evatt, Mystery of the Creaking Windmill, 1945. Possibly this one - French Canadian, treasure, windmill.  Jacques is given a blind horse as a reward, and looks for the Chapelain family treasure.  Don't see any mention of Aimee, but she might be in there!
Harriet Evatt, Mystery of the Creaking Windmill, 1945. "Ten year old Jacques delivers coal oil by snow shoe and does other odd jobs in between his schooling. Through a series of events (improbable ones, but it's a sweet story, so let's not quibble), he gains a blind horse when he saves another farmer's horses from a barn fire, discovers the family treasure, and is rewarded for his hard work by being given a partnership in his uncle's business for his 11th birthday."

F415: Flying bear loves salmon
I am looking for a story from the 1950's or 1960's about a flying bear that loved salmon. I can remember pictures of salmon cans and I think there was something wrong with his shoes because I remember illustrations where the shoes were on backward.

Ray St.Clair, The Cannery Bear, 1947, copyright. This sounds like The Cannery Bear, from Jane Warner's "The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies" (1951), which says it originally appeared in the "Story Parade" magazine. The bear loves canned salmon so much that he gets a job at the cannery to try to get more of it. (That's why he's wearing shoes -- albeit on the wrong feet -- also overalls and a tie  he has to look like a human.)  One night a fairy bear in a dream gives him 1) wings and 2) radar on top of his head. These allow him to fly out to sea and alert the foreman about how soon the fishing boats will land, which helps him manage the work at the factory.  He pays the bear in cases of salmon and everyone's happy. There is an illustration at the beginning of the bear taking cans of salmon off someone's pantry shelf in his pre-employment days, and one of him at the factory in his backward shoes, and another of him flying with the shoe soles visible (and still reversed).
The 2008 reprint of The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies is in stock at Loganberry Books. This collection includes The Cannery Bear.

F416: Flying horse lives on roof
A little girl meets a foreign man and later receives a crate containing a flying horse! She stables him on the roof of her high rise building. Once she learns to ride him her parents decide to move the family out west for more room+security. Was told it was already out of print when I read it ~'97.

Elizabeth Vincent Foster, Lyrico, the Only Horse of His Kind, 1970

F417: Farmer puts salve on pumpkin & freezes in winter with icicles in beard
SOLVED: James Flora, Grandpa's Farm.

F418: Fantasy Book with creature named either Red-Eye or Pink-Eye
Would have been written prior to 2002. There was a creature (dragon?) named either red-eye or pink-eye. There is a girl who is the apprentice for a woman. The woman switches places with the girl at some point, possibly to save her life. I also remember something about an amulet/talisman. Thanks!
F419: Family of Bears, fly
Looking for a children's book that is about a family of Bears --- as they are sitting down to a meal -- the father bear sees a fly and starts to try to kill it.   He hits at it and accidently hits each family member until they are all knocked out and the fly exits the door.

Winter, Paula, The bear & the Fly, 1976. Definitely this book. A bear tries to catch a fly with disastrous results.

F420: Family of bears
The book I read to my daughter, born in 1976, was about a large family of bears, around 14,  each introduced namewise and as having a different occupation.  They each lived in an individual tree.

 
Might this be The Fourteen Bears, Summer and Winter by Evelyn Scott? See our most requested page, here: http://www.loganberrybooks.com/most-scott.html
F421: Fairy Tale Storybook
I'm looking for a fairytale book I had in the 60's. I only remember Cinderella because that's the one I read the most.  The book had beautiful glossy pictures-- I remember Cinderella running down the staircase.  The book was a gray hardcover. It might have been one of a series of children's books.

Carruth, Jane, My Book of Cinderella, 1960. It may be My Book of Cinderella, retold by Jane Carruth, and published by Maxton in 1960.
Thank you for the suggestion! What I was trying to describe is an anthology, "treasury" type of storybook that included Cinderella.  As I mentioned, I only remember Cinderella because that's the only one I asked for even though there were lots more! My Mom used to tell me she read it "over and over--every night"!  The only other things I remember are the beautiful pictures (very Louis IVXth) and the gray cover.  I thought it might have been from a series like Worldcraft/Childcraft etc that were popular in the late 50's, but nothing I've seen looks the same! Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

F422: Fairy Tales with orange cover, includes story about a fire man
The book is a collection of fairy tales. I read it as a child (mid-80's). It was hardcover and I believe it had an orange colored cover. A couple of the stories it included are these:
1.  One was about the fire man (not a fireman, but a character that represents fire). I don't know the plot, but I remember a couple lines of a poem it contained: "Take care lest you're awaken for tonight you shall be taken...As the Fire Man dances by."
2. One was about a bet between lady luck and a character that represented money (Mr. Money?). They each use their powers on a man to determine which is more powerful, luck or money. I don't remember all the details but I know Lady Luck brings the man bad luck so his wife ends up getting sick.
3. A third story was about a queen. The queen is pregnant and gives birth, but someone switches the baby at birth for a cat. Later she gives birth again, and this time her baby is switched for a dog. Later in the story, she is on some kind of quest where many people have been turned to stone. Anybody who ventures to that place gets turned to stone if they look back. She looks back and gets turned to stone. In the end, some other character has a pitcher of magical water that releases the people who have been turned to stone. That character puts just a drop on each stone figure and they come back to life.
4. Another was about a prince searching for a true friend. He tests everyone he meets by offering part of his apple. He slices the apple so that one half is smaller. If the person takes the bigger half, then he is not a true friend. He finally meets his true friend and that man saves the prince from a bear attack.

The Orange Fairy Book. Don't recall all the stories, but the one about sharing the apple and finding a true friend sounds familiar.
Storm, Theodor Woldsen, The Raintrude. The first story mentioned sounds like The Raintrude by Theodor Storm, a 19th century German author. It is about a couple who couldn't be married until it rained, and there is a little poem about the Fire Man, who is causing the drought:
Vapour is the wave,
Dust is the source,
The woods are silent,
The Fire Man dances across the fields!
Take care!
Before he awakes,
Your mother will fetch you
Into the night!

The story with the characters turning to stone sounds like a story from The Arabian Nights. It has at least five titles, including Princess Parizade, The Story of Two Sisters Who Were Jealous of Their Younger Sister, The Two Sisters Who Envied their Cadette, The Story of the Speaking Bird and The Talking Bird The Singing Tree and The Golden Water. Parizade is the daughter and third child of the "younger sister" - she has to rescue her two brothers when they get turned to stone. You can read the Andrew Lang's 1898 version here, with H.J. Ford's ink illustrations. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/lang1k1/tale34.htm  In Kate Douglas Wiggin's 1909 version, however, the princess is named Periezade. To read that, see here http://jaimedelacruzblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/arabian-nights-talking-bird-singing.html   It includes a color illustration by Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966). The 1893 E. Dixon version can be read here, with ink illustrations. http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Dixon/dixon02_17.htm

F423: Family rides to school in train-like vehicle
Children's book about an animal Family with lots of kids. The youngest is a girl who wears a big bow. They sleep in a room with the beds all lined up. They ride to school in a train like vehicle and they all wear helmets.

 
The Family Minus, by Fernando Krahn, (Parents' Magazine Press, 1977).  "Eight long- nosed and odd-looking animal children drive to school in Mother's latest invention."
F424: Female slave discovers how to make heat with magic
Young adult book. Society where slaves mine coal for heat. Female slave with circular brand on her forehead is bought by a rich guy and brought to the city. she discovers how to make heat with magic. Gets drunk and dances naked around a fire at one point. Think the author might be Australian.

Sherryl Jordan, Winter of Fire.


F425: Fire flames figures dancing in poems The Jumblies
I would guess this book is circa 1960's, the fantastic illustrations typical of the era also. The hardback cover depicted a fireside with little people formed in the flames. Of the contents, i remember for sure The Jumblies amongst others i'm not sure of. Prob from UK as based here.


Hilda Boswell, Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Poetry, 1968 This could be Hilda Boswell's Treasury of poetry.  There are at least two different cover versions but my childhood cover was in orange red tones - the front cover has three children in front of a fire-like glowing picture with images from the book.  The back cover has the characters from the poems in a much more flamelike cover. There is a poem in it with lines something like  "I like to sit by the fire at stare at the curious things I see  there"  The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.   It definitely has the Jumblies in it as that was my favorite poem along with I think mice are rather nice.  I'm pretty sure it also had an extract of 'The Landing' from The Hunting of the Snark 
F426: Family tries to sell home
A family is  trying 2 sell their home, 1st prospective buyer thinks it would be perfect if it were a diff. color-so they paint.  The next people think it would be perfect if it had a garden-so they plant one.  It goes on until the family realizes that their home is perfect & don't move-read in '80s

F427: Fairy who lives in a clock
I'm searching for a children's story about a fairy who lives in a mantel clock (like a Seth Thomas mantel clock).  The entrance to her house is in the back.  When she is happy, she goes to the very top of the clock and slides all the way down it.  It would have been written/published prior to 1964.

Perez-Guerra, Anne, Poppy or the Adventures of a Fairy. Just checked Poppy to to see if I remember correctly and I did.  There is a scene were she slides down the clock and is fascinated with all of the gears inside.  So this is probably the answer to your stumper.  See solved mysteries for more information. 
F428: Fantasy novel, girl sorceress, "glamour magick"
Fantasy novel about a girl who is a sorceress. She has a hunchback friend/servant. She has to find an amulet or talisman to save the world. I only remember one scene whe she hides in a temple or church and uses "glamour magick" to hide her real appearance but she falls asleep and is revealed.

Your stumper sounds very similar to mine (F418). In mine there was something about an amulet and there was also a creature (dragon?) named either red- or pink-eye. The books I had recommended to me were: The Pern Series, Equal Rites by Terry Pratchet, and The Amulet by Nancy Lawter. None were my book but maybe you'll have better luck! 
F429: Fairy tales including Snow White and Rose Red, Golden Book?
Illustrated book of fairy tales;  the early 60s.  Thought it was a large Golden Book, 9 x 12?.  Slender. Approx 8 stories  incl. Snow White and Rose Red w/ beautiful illustrations of them as young women. Rose arbor. Maybe another story w/ kind girl with jewels coming out of mouth, mean girl w/ frogs.

Gordon Laite, Five Fairy Tales, 1962. This may be the one you're looking for. It's from the Big Golden Book series and the stories were Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Toads and Diamonds, Snow White and Rose Red, and Cinderella. Here's a link to a site with a few of the illustrations: http://goo.gl/Wx2u5

F430: Following the light
Looking for a children's book about following the light, stay on your path, helping people on the way.  It might have been a bunny traveling through a forest.  I think the cover was mostly white?  I read it at Barnes & Noble once but have not been able to find it again. NOT a XMAS book.

F431: Fantasy and science fiction short stories, ca. 1975
SOLVED: Weird Heroes

F432: Fairy tale book, elf on mushroom
 Looking for a fairy tale book, large, hardcover, 1960's or earlier.  The entire cover was an elf sitting on/under a mushroom in the forest talking to a boy and girl & the background had a knight on a white steed on a grassy hill & a castle in the distance.

This may be one of the The Tall Book of ___ by Jane Werner.  I looked online, and found the covers of The Tall Book of Make-Believe and The Tall book of Elves and Fairies.  Neither of them seem quite right, but there may have been alternate covers with different publications.

F433: Family story, "rainbow" in title?
Thought it had the word Rainbow in title? Olden days. Oldest daughter of a big family. Name Etta/Ella? Family makes pull taffy. At some point in the book Mom has miscarriage? Mom has baby, dies at birth. Girl makes pancakes, eats her rolled up with sugar. German?

Could this possible be A Winter's Promise by Jeanette Gigle? I know there is not a rainbow in the title it is in the pioneer days, but the mother has a miscarriage and the main character's name is Ellen and they are German.
I can't find the post about this stump the bookseller. But they said they thought rainbow was in the title, the girl was named Etta or Ella and the mom had a miscarriage.  I believe it is "Never Miss A Sunset" by Jeanette Gilge. The girl's name is Ellen. It's set in Wisconsin. The mom does have a miscarriage or stillbirth. I had this in paperback and can't find it now of course for more details. The mom's pregnancy doesn't go well, she is ill. There's a Christmas program at school. I think Ellen gets strep throat.  They were German I believe. 

F434: Family, house with cupola, diamond in creek
It is about a family with several children moving to a strangely built house. It has a cupola on the top and a closed off room. The children discover the room and spend a lot of time in there fixing it up. They keep it a secret from their parents until the end. I believe in the same book one of the daughters finds a diamond in a creek and uses the money to buy war bonds.

House with cupola, diamond in creek Many readers will recognize "The Four-Story Mistake," by Elizabeth Enright, the second in the Melendy series (The first was "The Saturdays" the third and fourth were, "And Then There Were Five" and "Spiderweb for Two.")  The Melendy children, Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver, move from New York City to the "Four-Story Mistake", a house in the country that does indeed have a cupola and a closed-off room (containing a portrait of Clarinda Cassidy, the daughter of the previous owner).  Simply the best books ever written for children!
Definitely sounds like Elizabeth Enright, The Four-Story Mistake, about the four Melendy children, who move into a three-story house with a cupola, out in the country. The closed-off room had belonged to the builder's daughter and the children spend the summer fixing it up in secret. I also remember how the second daughter found the diamond in the creek, stuck to a caddis shell. Hope this helps!
Enright,  The Four-Story Mistake don’t have pub. Date. This story is a sequel to the book The Saturdays, in which the Melendy family moves to "a charming house in the country. Called the Four-Story Mistake for its odd look and confused architectural history, the house offers the Melendys wonderful quirks and surprises. And though they are disappointed about leaving the city, the four children soon become absorbed in the adventures of the country, discovering the many hidden attractions that the Four-Story Mistake has to offer!"  (Description taken from the Simply Audiobooks website.)  This is the same author who wrote Gone Away Lake.
This is The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright.  And yes, Randy finds a diamond stuck in a caddis house in the brook.
This is The Four-Storey Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. The sequels are Then There Were Five and Spiderweb For Two. It's the second book in the the Melendy quartet.
I believe this is "The Four Story Mistake" by Elizabeth Enright, 1942.
The solution to this stumper is Elizabeth Enright's The Four Story Mistake, the second in the author's Melendy series.  The Melendy kids move to the country and into a grand house with a cupola which they explore.  They discover that a famous ballerina lived in the house.  And Mona, the eldest daughter, finds a diamond in the creek.  It was published in the 1940's.
F434 is definitely the Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. Melendy family moves to the country. House has a cupola, children find a hidden room in the house where the door has been wallpapered over.  One of the children, Randy, finds a diamond woven into a caddis (type of insect) house in their brook that cuts across the property.  She sells the diamond to buy war bonds,  One of my favorite books!

F434: is definitely Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright.
It is the Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright
The Four-Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright, published in 1942. One of my most favourite series of kids books ever. :)

F435: Fairy tales, picking up seeds, smashing ant hills
When I was young I had a set of books (3-4) late 70s early 80s (that were older than that) and they had stories like fairy tales I hadnt heard before or since.  I remember the pictures were beautiful it reminded me of paintings.  The one story I most remember was about two men traveling (separately) to a castle with a princess? and encountered the same tasks but treated them differently to succeed some quest.  One man had to pick up seeds from a field and enlisted the help of ants to get it done.  The other man smashed ant hills and didnt pick them up.   Anyway I think they were knights and at the end I believe the female of the story turned into a dragon or something for the 'evil' one.

One version of this story is called The Enchanted Princess, which Fratelli Fabbri published it as part of the Storytime Treasury, which was lavishly illustrated. It was also part of their Once Upon a Time series, which had a book/cassette combination. There may be other versions in other publisher's collections as well.




 
 
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3/14/13