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Ballet at a Summer Hotel
"When I was a child, in the late '60's-early '70's, I had a paperback book about a girl who goes to the beach for the summer with her family. They are near a resort or hotel at which is staying a famous ballerina and her family. The girl has studied ballet and loves it, and the ballerina is persuaded to put on 'The Nutcracker' at the hotel for all the guests. The girl is disappointed that she does not get the part of Clara, until the ballerina explains that all Clara does for the second act is sit and watch. Then the girl is happy with her roles, which include Dew Drop in the Dance of the Flowers."
Solution: Susie and the Ballet Family, by Lee Wyndham. Illustrated by Jane Miller. Originally published by Dodd, Mead in 1955; reprinted in paperback several times by Scholastic. This is part of a series that includes A Dance for Susie (1953), Susie and the Dancing Cat (1954), On Your Toes, Susie! (1958) and Susie and the Ballet Horse (1961), all published by Dodd, Mead. On Your Toes, Susie! was also reprinted by Scholastic, though the others were not. Picture
Sick Kitten Cuddled on a Feather Bed
"The time that this book was in our elementary school library was around 1976-1978. It was an illustrated children's book that took place in fairly contemporary times (at the time of reading it), but I think the setting was a rather old-fashioned farmhouse or cottage. The main characters were an old, grandma-type lady and the many animals she had that lived with her in and/or outside her house. The story centers mainly around one of the animals, a little black kitten. One night the kitten gets accidentally caught or left outside overnight, inside the chicken coop or some such structure. The night brings a fox or a wolf who tries but can't reach the kitten, but whose nearness scares the kitten anyway. Other noises and problems arise, and it's cold and dark, with no food or water.
"By the next morning the kitten is sickly and weak and barely conscious. The grandma finds the kitten in such a state that she hurries and puts the kitten to rest in the big master featherbed among the big, fluffy white pillows. The kitten is fed and cared for in an attempt to revive it and nurse it back to health. The entire household/farmstead is worried sick and grandma and all the animals surround the bed in worry and wait. The kitten eventually pulls through and everyone is greatly relieved.
"All that is described in my message above is shown throughout the illustrations in the book. I can't recall the medium of the illustrations. They may have been drawings. I don't think the medium was anything as heavy as gouache or tempera."
Solution: Pitschi, by Hans Fischer. Harcourt, Brace & World, c1953. Recently reissued by North and South Books. The books was originally written in German; the author is Swiss. Aunt Book thanks another of her Dear Nieces for her help in identifying this book.
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Evil Baron, Fox that Turns Into a Wolf
"The book I've never found is one that I read from the library a number of times when I was a child, though usually I didn't read books set in foreign countries, or translated from other languages. This one was called -- I think -- THE HOUSE IN THE MOUNTAIN. It took place -- I think -- in Switzerland. There was an evil Baron (I think he was a respectable businessman who sometimes had a Dr. Jekyll change of personality) and a secret house where some sort of nefarious activity was taking place, way up on the mountain. There was a very scary housekeeper/witch character, and there was a fox that turned into a dangerous wolf when it went from the innocent village to the secret chalet. That really creeped me out! The children solve the mystery while they went out pretending to be Christmas carolers, and sang all the verses of Good King Wenceslas. Being a musician, that impressed me no end. I think they ended up in a horrible, long tunnel through the mountain. A lot of my childhood dreams or nightmares seem to have devolved from my frequent readings of this vibrant book."
Solution: The House in the Mountains: A Swiss Story, by Averil Demuth. The British version, published by Hamish Hamilton in 1940, was illustrated by Grace Huxtable. The American version (Harper & Brothers, 1941) was illustrated by Ninon Macknight. Description from the jacket flap of the British edition: "Max and Lisel first fell foul of the Baron Murtigrad through rescuing Mr. Trog, the large and lovable bear, whom the Baron was hunting. Then Max and Ernstli upset Mrs. Schtitzenppfitz, the Baron's housekeeper. The Baron, who was studying Magic in his spare time, hoping to be revenged on the children, gave them a bag of peppermints which it was well for them they left untouched. Thwarted in their first evil design, the Baron and Mrs. Schtitzenppfitz, aided by that slippery customer, Mr. Fooks, kidnapped the Count's little daughter, Huguette, on the afternoon of the toboggan races: and naturally enough his young friends set out at once to rescue her, with Mr. Trog and [the] dog [R]uffin."