This was a large, white-bound treasury of short stories and craft ideas, likely published in the 1980s or very early 1990s. The stories were all in British English, but took place around the world. One story was about a brother and sister exploring Montreal’s Underground City during the winter (I believe the brother’s name may have been Sean, with an accent on the e). Another story was about a girl named Tracey who had a pair of silver sandals that never got used. The sandals were sad when they saw her wear all her other shoes day after day, but they finally got worn for a fancy party. I would love to find this collection again! Thanks for your help!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
My brother remembered another story from the book: two kids can’t decide what colour their father’s new car is — one says blue, one says green, and they eventually agree that it’s turquoise. Thanks for any help anyone can provide!
We had that story in a French translation–I’ll have to track it down. But the book with those stories had only very short stories…doesn’t sound like there would be room for a story about exploring in Montreal. But I’ll have a look.
I would guess that it’s one of these, all published by Hamlyn:
100 Magical Stories
100 Day by Day Stories ..
100 Bedtime Stories
100 Playtime Stories
Oh wow that takes me back – someone gave me 100 Bedtime Stories and 100 Magical Stories as a present in the ’80s. I read and re-read them so many times. Unfortunately when my family moved to New Zealand we could not afford to bring everything. I have looked for these books but Hamlyn doesn’t seem to operate anymore? I think one of the stories was about a boy who finds out how TV works when he stays up one night and discovers all the little TV characters popping out of the box and taking a break.
Thanks for your reply! These do sound familiar, so you may be right! Amazingly though, I can’t find excerpts of these titles or even images of the covers anywhere on the web, so I’m awaiting copies through my interlibrary loan to see if the mystery has been solved. I’ll report back 🙂
SOLVED! The book is My Biggest Playtime Book Ever, published in 1986 by Exeter Books/Bookthrift in the USA, and in 1980 by Hamlyn. I’ve finally received a copy in my hands. Thanks for your help!