Books that Aunt
Book Has Identified
Page 1
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Something Hidden in a Hat Box
"My fourth grade teacher read aloud to
us. One book I think was called The Redwood Hat Box, about a
family traveling to the West by wagon train. It seems like in the
lining of the hat box was something that helped in the end:
money, stocks, map, I forget what, but it saved the day. I think
it was told by the girl of the family traveling."
Solution: The Secret of
the Rosewood Box, by Helen Fuller Orton. Illustrated by
Robert Ball. Lippincott, c1937. LC 37-28568. Went
through at least 20 printings.
"When the King family journeyed westward from
New York State to Michigan to make a new home, young Charley and his
sister Mabel shared the fun and work and adventure of settling in the
wilderness and helping it to become a place of homes and
neighbors. From the first excitement of deciding to go, packing
and setting out, the events and incidents of the story are always
interesting. Charley took charge of Grandma's rosewood box on the
long journey, but not even he knew all that it contained. When it
was lost, his exciting and at last successful search for it was all the
more rewarding after the secret came out." (from the jacket
flap). Picture
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Two Girls at Boarding School
"I am hoping [you] can shed some light on a
book I read about 30 years ago (elementary school) and can't seem to
get out of my mind. I remember that it is about two little girls
going to boarding school. I think one was privileged and one
wasn't. I do remember it involved a May Basket, a reflecting pool
in the woods near the school and a really nice head mistress. I
believe it ended with the teacher and the two girls walking away from
the pool hand in hand. I have been racking my brain to come up
with anything remotely close. I read this story in elementary
school about 100 times and just loved it."
Solution: The Secret
Language, by Ursula Nordstrom. Illustrated by Mary
Chalmers. Harper & Row, c1960. LC 60-7701
"Victoria felt terribly lost and alone her first few days at boarding
school. Then she met Martha, who taught her the secret language,
and pretty soon Victoria had no time to be homesick. Martha
didn't like boarding school either. In fact, Martha seemed to
hate everything. 'I hate all the buildings and all the rooms, and
the food, and I even hate the swings,' she told Victoria. It was
going to be exciting to have a roommate like Martha! Who else
would insist that they dress up as pistachio ice-cream cones for the
Halloween party? Who else would decide to break the rules with a
midnight feast?" (from the jacket flap).
Picture
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A King and His Friends
"Can anyone help me find this book? My
boss is looking for it, but he doesn't remember what it is
called. It is a picture book about a man who wants to marry the
king's daughter. The king makes him do seven tests. The man
has seven friends who help him with these tests. Each of the
friends has magical power, such as turning into an animal or fire,
water, etc. He recalls that the book had really great
illustrations."
Another query: "It's about a king who wanted to reclaim his
kingdom by passing a series of tests. Along his journey he meets up
with guys who are a tree, an elephant, fire. His tasks were to eat a
huge feast and drink all the wine. The elephant took care of the wine
and the fire guy burned all the food. Then he had to get a golden
egg or something out of a tall nest and used the tree to do it. I
read the book in the U.S. For some reason, I think the title is
The King and His 7 Friends but I Googled the title and none of
the books are it."
Solution: The King With
Six Friends, by Jay Williams. Illustrated by Imero
Gobbato. Parents' Magazine Press, c1968. LC 68-21078
Picture
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French Boy at School
"I think [the book was] called YOUNG NICHOLAS,
about a young boy in France attending boarding school and calling the
Headmaster 'Mr. Potato Head' because he was always saying 'Look me in
the eyes.' It's a humorous book with pen and ink drawings."
Solution: Young Nicolas,
by
Jean-Jacques
Sempe' and Rene Goscinny. Translated from the
French Le Petit Nicolas by Stella Rodway. Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.
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Reversible Book About Grandmothers and
Grandfathers
"I am trying to find out the name of a book
that I saw a few years ago that probably isn't too old. It is a
book about grandmothers and grandfathers. The different thing
about the book is that it is reversible. On one side is the story
about the grandmother. You turn the book over and there is the
story of the grandfather - so the pages appear upside down from one
another."
Solution: What Grandmas
Do Best / What Grandpas Do Best, by Laura Numeroff.
Illustrated by Lynne Munsinger. Simon & Schuster Children's
Publishing, c2000. ISBN: 0-689-80552-7. This is a
companion book to What Mommies Do
Best / What Daddies Do Best.
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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
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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."
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Three Boys Who Become Friends
"The book I've been trying to find is a
children's picture book about three boys. One boy has red hair,
and one boy is handicapped (he is missing an arm). The book is
about how they meet and become friends. I read the book about
four or five years ago. I think one of the characters was named
Willy and another was named Carrot Top, and I think the name of the
boys was in the title of the book."
Solution: Harry and Willy
and Carrothead, by Judith Casely. Greenwillow, 1991.
ISBN: 0688094929. Aunt Book did not know this book, but one
of her Dear Nieces was able to identify it, for which Aunt Book hereby
thanks her.
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Four Children, Radio Actress, Pooled
Allowances
"This book was set before WWII- it was
about 4 children, a father, no mother, I think they were rather well
off. It takes place in Manhattan.The oldest girl who must be
about 16 is dying to become an actress, so her father
arranges an audition on a popular radio program, which she wins. The
rest of the kids decide to pool their allowance and one of them will
get to do what ever they desire with the collected funds. This could be
a series because I remember at one point they go to their farm for a
few weeks."
Solution: The Melendy family books, written and illustrated by
Elizabeth Enright. The Saturdays
(Holt, Rinehart & Winston in one incarnation; now Henry Holt;
probably had various other names!, c1941); The Four-Story
Mistake (c1942); Then There Were
Five (c1944); Spiderweb for
Two (c1951).
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Travel to Another World Via Carousel
Horse
"I'm trying to remember the title of a fantasy
book I read as a young teen, back in the early '70's. The plot
concerned a girl who was thrown into our world via a carved wooden
carousel horse (?). There was a mechanism of some kind in the
horse's ear, I think. Her world was the reverses of ours - one of
her country's greatest men was Maharba Nlocnil (Abraham Lincoln), for
example. She befriends a boy, and stays with him, and they have
adventures trying to get her back to her world, which finally happens
via another hurricane or storm of some sort. I had thought the
title was Ride a Winged Horse," but nothing at all is coming up..."
Solution: Ride a Wild
Horse, by Ruth Christoffer Carlsen; illustrated by Beth and Joe
Krush. Houghton Mifflin, c1970.
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Live Dolls in a House in the Woods
"A girl (probably an only child) about 10
years old or so is out wandering in the woods by her house (maybe
somewhere she has just moved) and comes upon a clearing with a house
that is unoccupied by humans, but has teddy bears and dolls in it- and
I think the teddy bears and dolls may come to life. It was
a chapter book, and had illustrations that somewhat resembled
Garth Williams' style. I believe the author had a last name in the F to
K section of the library."
Solution: The Secret
Museum, by Sheila Greenwald. Lippincott, c1974.
Jennifer is living in the country with her parents, two artists.
She follows the sound of crying in the woods, and comes across a small,
deserted house that is a replica of a nearby mansion, filled with dirty
and lonely dolls: a King, a Queen, a Jester, and many
others. The crying had come from the queen doll. Jennifer
cleans up the dolls. She makes friends with Lizzie, a girl who at
first messes up the doll house, and the two of them decide to run the
house as a museum to make money so that Jennifer's parents do not have
to abandon their artistic dreams and go back to their teaching jobs in
the city.
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Empty House Used as a Clubhouse
"A brother (I think his name was Henry) and
sister and some of their neighborhood friends find that a house in the
neighborhood is empty, so they start using the place as a
clubhouse. Each kid gets a room to use as he likes, so the sister
makes the butler's pantry into a dollhouse, and the boys move their
collection of things into the house. Maybe someone (a man) is
actually living upstairs in the attic, though? It's not the
Beverly Cleary book Henry and the Clubhouse. It has illustrations
(more a Michael Rosen style illustration) and is probably from the
1970's. There may have been other books about these same kids,
and the author was probably in the F-K section of the alphabet."
Solution: The Curious
Clubhouse, by Christine Govan, illustrated by Leonard
Shortall. World Publishing Company, c1967.
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Diary of Nellie Custis
"I'm looking for a historical fiction book that's
supposed to be a diary by Nellie Custis."
Solution: Nelly Custis'
Diary, by Miriam Anne Bourne, illus by Heidi Palmer.
Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, c1974.
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Small Dog in Woods Leads Lucy to a
Magical Place
"A little girl lives with her aunt. One day
she decides to go exploring in the woods. A small dog appears and
she is off to a place with dragons, fairies, ogres, kings, queens,
etc. I remember that the girl's name was Lucy."
Solution: Shadow Castle,
by Marian Cockrell, illustrated by Olive Bailey. Whittlesey
House, 1945. Reprinted later by Scholastic Books.
Backinprint Books has just issued a "new, expanded author's edition
with material never published before." You can see information
about it if you go to Amazon.
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Scary Summer Camp
"A girl goes to summer camp and, if I am remembering
correctly, it is the same summer camp to which her mother went. I
think something really scary happens during the course of the
summer. I want to say that the title was Allegro, Allegra, Sing
Allegro, something like that."
Solution: Allegro Born,
Allegro Dead, by Barbara Corcoran. Atheneum, 1981.
Later reissued as You're Allegro
Dead.
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A Little Yellow Monkey in a Banyan Tree
"We have a patron who remembers reading a poem to
her daughter (as a toddler a long time ago) that read something like
this: 'A little yellow monkey in a banyan tree / Once got the
giggles, going "tee, hee, hee..."' It may have been in a small
book of poems."
Solution: The poem "The Banyan Tree" is in Rimskittle's Book, by Leroy F.
Jackson, illustrated by Ruth Caroline Eger. Rand McNally,
1926. It begins:
"A Little Yellow Monkey
In a Banyan Tree
One morning got the giggles,
Going tee-hee-hee."
Aunt Book wishes to thank Orrin Schwab of Orrin Schwab books, who was
kind enough to check a copy of the book that he has for sale to confirm
that this was the correct poem.
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Tourist Trips to Another Land and Time
"I am looking for a book, maybe a series, that has
the following storyline. There is a family that lives in a
magical house, full of magical animals. The father of the family
has a job to arrange tourist visits to this fantasy land. Groups
of tourists come from another land/time and dress up in clothes of the
period. The people in the land they visit are all actors who put
on fake battles and other exciting stuff for tourists to watch.
There are lots of problems because sometimes tourists get hurt in fake
battles. Sometimes in the story some evil group tries to ruin the
fake battles so they turn real. The main character ends up going
to some other land/time to resolve the problem. I just remember
that all the actors are tired of acting for the tourists and problems
get worse as the story progresses. The main character spends all
his time trying to deal with all these problems the tourists
cause. The book or series is at least 7-8 years old."
Solution: The Dark Lord
of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones. Greenwillow,
1998. ISBN: 0688160042. (Has been reprinted as a
paperback by HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN: 0064473368.
There is a sequel called Year of the
Griffin).
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Chess Pieces Mystery
"Next, there was a girl who went to live in a
strange place, maybe a lighthouse, with her father. There was
some secret being held, perhaps involving secret passageways, and the
whole plot hinged on something to do with chess pieces. I
remember the binding of this book was blue (perhaps library rebinding)
and featured a rook from a chess set on the cover. There was a
segment where the girl was sick and feverish and while in this
condition discovered something about the secret her father was keeping
but upon getting well she couldn't exactly figure it out. The
book ended with the girl discovering that her father had kept the
secret because he loved her so much and wanted to protect her."
Solution: A Spell is Cast,
by
Eleanor
Cameron. Illustrated by Beth and Joe
Krush. Little, Brown, 1964. The girl in the
book is named Cory, and she goes to stay with her Uncle Dirk at his
house, Tarnhelm. Part of the mystery involves a unicorn necklace
that Cory wears.
(Note: Aunt Book is assuming that this is the correct book.
Alas, the original inquiry was sent to her some years ago, and she has
since changed computers, and somehow in the transfer of information the
address of the person who was searching for this book was lost).
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No Golden Spot on Him
"I'm trying to find a children's book by Max
Lucado. Here's what I remember (somewhat fuzzily): It's
about a little guy who - because he's not handsome enough - doesn't
have a golden spot on him like the others, so he starts going up the
hill to the woodcarver to talk things over. He goes every day,
and begins to feel better. He meets a sweet young female who
helps him realize that who we are is on the inside..."
Solution: You Are Special,
by
Max
Lucado, illustrated by Sergio Martinez. Crossway Books,
1997.
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A Little Cowboy's Birthday
"It told the story of a little boy, growing up on a
ranch, I think, who, each year for his birthday, received a present
appropriate to a cowboy. At his first birthday, he got a cowboy
hat (I remember an illustration of an infant, maybe in a highchair,
with the hat down over his head). In subsequent years, he got
chaps, etc., until on his tenth birthday he received his own horse!"
Solution: Read to Me
About the
Littlest Cowboy, by Inez Hogan. Dutton, 1951. The little
boy's name is Corky, and on his fifth birthday a colt is born, and the
colt is his present. Aunt Book is grateful to Dorothy Meyer,
Bookseller, for her help in identifying this book.
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A Frog and a Toad and a Motor Car
"I remember a book about a frog or a toad and there
were several other characters in the book. They all talked and
had a system of government (of sorts) - not sure if I am mixing up my
books but I am pretty sure that one of the characters had a motor car,
too."
Solution: The Wind in the
Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Many different editions over
the years.
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Dogs named Dumb Jumbo and Lovely Lulu
"I am trying to find out the title of a children's
picture book from the late 1940's and early 50's about some dogs named
Dumb Jumbo and Lovely Lulu. A little boy shares a cinnamon roll
with another mutt type of dog."
Solution: Little
Wiener, by Sally Scott. Illustrated by Beth Krush.
Harcourt, Brace, 1951.
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Rain Cloud Follows Man
"There was a story in one of my elementary
school reading books about a man who had a rain cloud that followed him
everywhere he went. No matter where he went or what he did, the
cloud rained on him. This made him sad all the time.
Finally, he came to the realization that his cloud could be
useful. He traveled in a helicopter to all the drought-stricken
areas of the world and used his cloud to give the people much-needed
water."
Solution (possibly): Wet Albert, by Michael Cole
and Joanne Cole. Methuen (UK) or Follett (US), 1967. (I am
not able to get in touch with the Dear Niece who submitted the query to
confirm the answer, but it seems to be the correct book)
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Man With Dog Falls In Love With
Princess
"I read it here in the United States. A man (I
forgot his name) and his
dog (again, don’t remember the name) were best friends until he came
upon a castle, where he fell in love with the princess. He became
either
king or prince, and he hardly had any time for his dog anymore, but his
dog was happy with just one pat on the head a day. Well, the prince or
king had a baby and someone tried to hurt the baby. The dog
protected it, but the prince/king thought the dog was the one who tried
to hurt the baby so he got mad at the dog, and that’s all I
remember."
Solution (possibly): The Mightiest Heart, by Lynn
Cullen. Illustrated by Laurel Long. Dial, 1998. A
Dear Nephew wrote to suggest that this is based on the story of Gelert,
a dog who belonged to Prince Llewellyn of Wales. Information
about the dog can be found here:
http://www.antiquepooch.com/faithful_gelert.html
Cullen's
is only one book that features the story. The Dear Niece
who submitted the query did not reply when I asked whether this was the
book; it is possible that it was instead another that retells Gelert's
story.
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Sea Monster Called Zifarompa Zoom
"I remember my dad's reading me a book when I was
little. It had a
sea monster, called a "Zifarompa Zoom" or something close to
that. The
sea monster ate everything it could find. This is all I can remember,
unfortunately."
Solution: Professor Wormbog in Search for the
Zipperump-A-Zoo, by Mercer Mayer. Golden Press,
1976. Since reprinted by other companies. The Professor has
samples of animals from A to Y; now he goes in search of a one whose
name begins with Z.
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Brothers Who Capture Rare Big Game
"I’m trying to remember a series of books I read as
a child. I think they are probably quite well known. As I
remember it was a pair of brothers who were commissioned to go and
capture different exotic and rare big game for zoos (e.g. white
rhinos). Not very PC nowadays, but I remember loving them and
think my son would too!"
Solution: Adventure Series
by Willard Price: Amazon
Adventure, South Sea
Adventure, Underwater
Adventure, Volcano
Adventure, Whale
Adventure, African
Adventure, Elephant
Adventure, Safari
Adventure, Lion
Adventure, Gorilla
Adventure, Diving
Adventure, Cannibal
Adventure, Tiger
Adventure, Arctic
Adventure. The boys are named Roger and Hal Hunt.
The books were published between 1949 and 1980. Information about
the books can be found here: http://www.squidoo.com/Willard_Price_Adventure_Books#module24988892
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First Manned Missions to the Different
Planets Series
"I am trying to identify an entire series of
books that I can remember taking out of the public library (in
the UK) and reading time and again. The series was about
the first manned missions to each of the planets in the solar system
and the team that went on them (same team for each flight!). The
first mission was to the moon and the youngest member of the team was a
teenager and not meant to be on the mission. He either stowed
away or got onto the mission by some other nefarious means. The
next mission, to Mars, he became for some strange reason a formal
member of the team and remained such through their missions to Venus,
Mercury, Jupiter etc. I must have been reading these in the
mid-1970’s but they are probably rather older than that on reflection;
the technology and approach to how things could be done was naïve
and, thinking back, from a generation before we saw Apollo etc."
Solution: Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series, by Hugh
Walters. The series began with Blast Off at
Woomera (also known as Blast Off at
0300), published in 1957. There were 20 published books in
the series, and one unpublished one. Many thanks to the Dear
Nephew who provided this solution.
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Boy Wins Butler in Contest
"My favorite book that I read as a child was about a
boy who enters a contest and wins a butler for a year. The butler
comes to live with his average family. I read the book in the
mid-'70's and cannot remember the title or the author. The
butler's name might have been Higgins. He was trained in Britain."
Solution: Hawkins,
by Barbara Brooks Wallace. Illustrated by Gloria Kamen.
Abingdon Press, 1977. It was reprinted by Scholastic as The Contest Kid
and the Big Prize. Sequels include The Contest Kid
Strikes Again (1980) and Hawkins and the
Soccer Solution (1981). Many thanks to the Dear Niece who
provided this solution.
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Colorful, Sparkly, Musical Mushrooms
"It's a book that I read when I was very
young. All I can remember about it is that it was about a group
of bright, colorful, and sparkly mushrooms who would play instruments,
and when the evil witch would come about they would bring out their
mushroom tops and cover themselves. Also, I think they found a
land that was covered in a crystal dome to protect them forever.
This could be incorrect but I am also thinking that they might be
called kindles, or kendalls, or something of that sort. I think
the cover of the book was yellow."
also
Mushroom Caps, Crystal Dome
"I'm trying to remember or find the name of a
children's book that I think was published in the mid to late
1980's. It had characters that had what looked like mushroom caps
on the tops of their heads and they lived in a crystal dome, and I
think there was something about crystal fruit. They would hide
from the 'evil' character when he flew over by crouching down and so
they would look like mushrooms from above."
also
Color Fairies Living in a Crystal Dome.
"I had the book as a child around the late 1980's or
early 1990's and lived in Michigan.
"I believe the cover had the girls or fairies and
the dome on it. From what I can remember of the book is that
there were fairies, each one a different color. They lived inside
the dome with lots of plants and creatures. I think there was an
old man or wizard, and I think there was either an evil element to the
story or they wanted to go out side the dome or something. it was
a paperback kids' book and rectangular, with the binding side being the
short side of the rectangle."
Solution: The Kindles
Find a Home, by Jolie Epstein. Sequel, The Kindles
and the Lady of Light, by Nancy Krulik. Both published by
Scholastic, 1985. Many thanks to the Dear Niece who provided this
solution.
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Girl Visits Friend in New York
"It's a young adult (I think) book where the main
character (a girl) has a friend in New York who reads the New York
Times every Sunday from cover to cover. The girl who lives in New
York lives with only her mother, and the main character goes to visit
her. The New York girl has a book about sex that she's ordered
from the newspaper, and then the main character sends away for the same
book. This isn't the only thing the book is about, it's just the
only part of the book I can remember."
Solution: It's Not the
End of the World, by Judy Blume. The Dear Niece who
provided the solution says, "This is definitely from Judy Blume's
It's Not the End of the World.
I don't think it actually takes place in New York, but all the rest is
right - the main character, Karen, goes to visit her dad after he moves
out (her parents end up divorcing) and the girl who reads the NYT cover
to cover and has the book is the daughter of her dad's new
neighbour. I think the neighbour girl HAS a sex book, but the
book that gets ordered through the newspaper is one for boys and girls
about divorce."
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Raven Who Becomes Beautiful
" I remember when I was younger (1995-1997), I
read a book about a raven (bird), who I think was named Dazzle. He was
kept in a little cage by a witch and the raven was very 'ugly' and
plain. He wanted to be like all the other pretty birds, so he convinced
the witch, or escaped and got into some magic, or something of that
nature and turned into a beautiful, colorful bird. I remember his
feathers were all colors and in the particular book I remember that he
had some holographic feathers, too, and they were really shiny. He
turns beautiful but finds he is still treated 'ugly' by all the other
birds, because he is too pretty and full of himself. That's all I can
remember..."
Solution: Royal Raven,
by Hans Wilhelm. Scholastic, 1996.
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Picture Book That Flips Over and Reads
In Reverse
"The picture book I am looking for is one I used
around 1992. I was a book that you read one way, flipped it
around, and read the rest of the story going back. It used the
same pictures, but looked different upside down. It had something
to do with sailing or boats - very creative picture book."
Solution: Reflections,
by Ann Jonas. Greenwillow, 1987. Her book Round Trip
is the same idea, but done exclusively in black and white. Many
thanks to the Dear Nephew who provided this solution.
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Thoughtfully-written Books by One
Author
"I am looking for an author who wrote several
books that I read in the late 1970s. Topics were not typical children's
fare, although they were meant for children (maybe upper grade school
range). I remember one, with illustrations, about a girl with black
hair that she wore in braids and thick glasses. Another was set in
World War II; maybe the main character was a Jewish child? Another
dealt with a child who was physically abused at home. I read several by
this author, but found many of the topics slightly disturbing. But they
were very thoughtfully written. I wish I could remember the author's
name."
Solution: Jean Little. The book about the girl with
thick glasses is From Anna;
she and her family emigrate from Germany to Canada just before World
War II. Many thanks to the Dear Niece who provided this solution.
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Indian Boy Moves to Town, Does Rodeos
"I'm trying to find a book that's about an Indian
boy who lives in the mountains. When his parents die he is forced
to move into town and do rodeos."
Solution: When the
Legends Die, by Hal Borland. Many thanks to the Dear
Nephew who provided this solution.
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Shipwrecked on the Northern Coast of
Australia
"I read the book in the 1950's. It was
about a young man who was shipwrecked on a northern tropical coast in
Australia. It might have been called The Coral Strand or
something similar. It was a Robinson Crusoe-type survival story."
Solution: The Coral Island, by R.
M. Ballantyne. A description of the book can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coral_Island, and the entire text can
be found here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/646
Many thanks to the Dear Niece who provided this solution.
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Girl Sleeps In Closet; Fan-Shaped Window
"I don't remember if it was a Goosebumps book or a
Fear Street book, but it was about a girl who moved into a new house
because her mother just remarried. She hated her room because it
had ugly floral wallpaper, and at night she heard voices of ghosts or
something. She made a place to sleep in her closet and her mother was
upset with her. I remember something about a fan-shaped
window. In the end she finds pictures of people who died,
possibly the husband was the killer, and their wedding rings or
something, in the room with the fan shaped-window."
Solution: The Locked Room,
by M. D. Spenser (Shivers, #5). Paradise Press, 1966. Many
thanks to the Dear Niece who provided this solution.
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Identified
Books
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