It’s possible I’m confounding two children’s books. I remember reading this/these book(s) as a child in the 1980s. Book(s) featured a young boy who has trouble falling asleep. He wakes up or is still awake late at night, fearful of wild animals coming into his house. He is not believed by his parents. After dark he encounters wild animals, including a lion or tiger coming down the stairs of his home. He is afraid but is not harmed. I also remember (possibly from the same book or perhaps from another book) that the boy is at school, daydreaming. He looks out the classroom window and is scolded by the teacher. He sees an alligator/crocodile, who is beckoning him to go on an adventure to return the alligator/crocodile to his home. The boy travels with the alligator/crocodile through water. The alligator/crocodile says goodbye, offering the boy his tooth as a parting gift. The alligator/crocodile has a single tear on his cheek as he says goodbye. The book(s) have a dreamy, whimsical feel and I remember being frightened of the wild animals and enjoying the illustrations.
Author Archives: Lorraine Angus
349S: Picture Book about Spoiled Rotten Princess Who Lives With the Gypsies (Solved!)
349P: Forest Girl Falls in Love with City Boy
349H: 60s or 70s Black and White Silhouette Book
I’m trying to find a book for a friend and wanted to see if you might be able to offer any advice. My friend’s late father was a photographer and had a black and white nude silhouettes book published back in the 60s or 70s. Unfortunately, my friend’s copy was lost many years ago and never found. I don’t have the title, but it would have been published under Bill Coco or Francis V. Coco. Any advice on how I might be able to try and find it? All suggestions are welcome! I’d love to try and make my friend’s holiday by finding this! I hope you can help.
340K: Separates
Looking for a book from about 1960 about a young teen girl. Her mom makes all her dresses, but she wants to babysit for extra money so she can buy “separates.” She babysits children who come down with diphtheria and she must work hard to save them while in quarantine. Good luck!
340G: 1970s book, set in California, the story of a man and his wife, their relationship, divorce, his subsequent wife, Orange Julius
340A: Little Boy in the 50’s with an Air Raid Warden Dad
Seeking a children’s book almost like a graphic novel, comic book/cartoon like, simple drawings, maybe black and white, pictures in bedroom looking out the window, as his father served as an air raid warden, helmet ? Moon out the window maybe, Published in early 50’s, late 40’s ????? I read it in mid 50’s
339P: A Girl, An English Boy, And Plaits
Looking for a children's/middle school age book from 1960s about a girl. A boy from England moves in next door. I think the setting is rural/farm community. She likes the way the boy says bath (baahth). For a special occasion she "plaits" her hair more loosely than usual so the plaits will lie flat when she wraps them around her head or pins them up. She leans over kettle/ pot of steam to create tendrils. That's all I can remember. My mom got it for me from the local public library in Chicago.
336V: Funny Dragon-ish creature (Kaz?)
I think the book was to be one of a series, but I only read the first one. It was set in a land with a limited map, like a world within a land, and the people who lived in the land where unaware of the wider world.
There was a red dragon or lizard named Jaz or Baz or Kaz who was funny and the best friend of the human, who I believe was female.
The cover had the lizard-type creature perched on a roadside boulder, with the road winding down a hill and maybe clouds around the edges.
I believe I read it in the 90’s or 00’s
334U: Children’s Story About the First Apple Pie
I recall a children’s story (I don’t think it was a book but rather a story in a children’s storybook) that I read in the early to mid 1970's. It was set in the times of kings and villages. The king (maybe it was a prince or even the town mayor) had a contest for the best pie. Apparently only savory pies existed at the time, no fruit pies. The story’s heroine, having no meat at hand, made a pie with apples and tried to serve it to the king/prince/mayor. I think she was prevented by the king’s flunkies who were aghast at the thought of a pie with fruit but eventually she got to the king, served her pie with a piece of cheddar and won the day. Voila, fruit pies. No clue about the author or the title.
Thanks!