I am looking for a favorite children’s book. Here is all I remember about it:
1) I think it was a Reader’s Digest anthology, but since I have not been able to find it, perhaps it was another common name from the time that sponsored the collection.
2) I believe the cover was blue–but I could be completely wrong about that.
3) I am quite sure that it was at least 9×12, possibly 10×14. It was large enough that I recall the depth of the book (spine width) being only an inch and looking thin in comparison with the rest of the book.
4) I read it between the ages of 6-12 (1960-1966).
5) The stories had enough words that they were either directed toward young adult readers (high school) or junior high.
6) My most compelling memories are of two stories in the anthology:
The first was about a family crossing the desert in the American southwest. Their car broke down and they had to survive by collecting condensation on parts of their car, which they dismantled. They also created signage so that a plane could see them.
The other story was about a pony or colt with a broken leg. The family suspended the colt in a hammock while its leg healed. The vet had told them it would never work, but it did.
This one was discussed before, except I’m not sure how to search archives. The family in the car also ate crayons. I remember a discussion about that earlier. Maybe the book wasn’t solved, but someone else is looking!
Our old archives will eventually be migrated into the new website, but unfortunately they need a lot of tlc to make the systems talk to each other.
This sounds like the ‘Reader’s Digest Treasury for Young Readers.’ Reader’s Digest did release multiple books with this title, but the one I have (the 1961 edition) contains both of the stories you remember. The story about the family whose car broke down in the desert is ‘Ordeal in the Desert’ by Evan Wylie and the one with the horse in the sling is from ‘My Friend Flicka’ by Mary O’Hara. The horse doesn’t break her leg but she does injure it badly when she gets tangled in a barbed-wire fence while trying to escape. The wound becomes badly infected and everyone thinks she’s going to die. The picture of Flicka suspended in her blanket-sling is the last picture in the story.
The 1961 edition is not blue – it has a mostly tan/brown cover with pictures of Blackbeard, Houdini, a minstrel, a scuba diver, and a Native American dancer on the front and pictures of a lion, a rocket, a boy scientist, a woman in a pink dress, and a runner on the back. The front of the dust jacket is dark blue on the left side and red on the right, with all 10 pictures on it.