Category Archives: 1960s

309C: 60s or 70s urban YA

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This will probably be too little to go on, but I’ve been racking my brain for a year trying to remember a book I read when I was in middle school. It was YA and from the late 60s or 70s. It may have been a bit more of a pulp paperback than YA, but it was definitely geared towards young readers. It had an urban setting and there was a racial understanding component to the plot. I think the protagonist was white and he ended up befriending an African-American classmate. Almost anything else I try to remember about the plot (was there gang tensions? were they accused of a crime and had to hide out?) then convince me I’m remembering a different YA novel I read around the same time. The one thing I do seem to remember is totally pointless and trivial, but the main character sees the girl he likes in a corner store and causes her to lose her balance by knocking her in the back of the knees. I know it’s not much to go on, but I’m open to suggestions and guesses. Thanks!

307S: A kiss on the the elbow

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I remember a library book about a group of children who discovered they had magic powers. I don’t believe it was any of Edward Eager’s books, and I also don’t think it was Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians.

The tell-tale sign of magical ability was being able to kiss one’s own elbow. (Spoiler: I can’t.)

Can you help? I would have read it in the early 1970s, but I have no idea when it was published. I’m guessing the 1950s.

307L: A white mouse hidden in the illustrations

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Looking for over sized, illustrated book of fairy tales, likely published in 60s or 70s. It was about the size of an Encyclopedia volume. Green cover with a giant on the spine. Illustrated by many artists, not a singular illustrator. 3 Little Pigs illustrations had a white mouse hidden in the illustrations. The illustrations in Jack the Giant Killer were scary and realistic. The book contained Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, The Tinder Box, Matchstick Girl, The Brave Little Tailor, and many others. Your help is appreciated.

307I: Boy and Agoraphobic Sister Orphaned in NYC (Solved)

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I am looking for a fiction book I read as a child, probably in the 1970s, about a brother and sister living in New York City (possibly Soho?).  They are left alone and their parents do not come home, so the brother learns to scrounge food on the streets.  His sister is afraid to go outside.  The boy meets a children’s book illustrator in another building, who begins using him in her drawings.  She takes him to the beach (the Rockaways?) in her convertible, and I believe she eventually adopts the boy and girl.

306O: Crushed Toys (Solved)

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Hello, I remember a set of books (we had 2 but there may have more to the set) they where hard back and about 2in thick. Plain cover with no illustrations, short stories with just a title on the cover. Each story was about 10-15 pages long and had a illustration at the beginning of the story. I remember one illustration with a car that was 1950’s looking. One story was about a kid leaving his toys (toy cars maybe) in the driveway and dad came home and ran them over. I really don’t remember any other stories from the books. I think the covers where dark blue or grey. The stories where life lessons and not really fantasy, no talking birds or stuff like that, as far as I remember.

306A: 1960s/1970s anthology of women in history kids

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I’m looking for a book that I read many years ago – it would have been mid-1970’s or so. I’m not sure if the book was printed then or earlier (1960’s). It wasn’t a picture book, but rather, a chapter book (I had it in a hardcover edition). Although I was young when I read it, this wasn’t a typical children’s book. It might have been more along the lines of a young adult book.  It was an anthology of women in history and included chapters with summary bios on Clara Barton, Jane Addams (of Hull House), Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, and Susan B. Anthony (I know these women were included). Amelia Earhart might be another. Abigail Adams or Dolley Madison might have also been included, but I may be wrong about them. I can’t remember much about it other than the subjects were all women and it was the first I had read of Jane Addams and Hull House.

 

305T: The Dragon Under the Lilac Bush

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I am looking for a book that I believe was called The Dragon Under the Lilac Bush. It was filled with pull-tabs and pop-ups. This book was a favorite of a dear friend when she was a young child, and she’s in her mid-50’s now. So the book probably came out in the late 50’s or early 60’s. It may have been a San Francisco Bay area regional publication, as I have not been able to find any reference to the book anywhere.

 

305I: Using your imagination

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I am hopeful you can help me in my search for a book I had as a child.

Unfortunately I do not remember the title.

I believe it was about using your imagination and starred two children (boy and girl) and possibly their family.

The entire book had simplistic pen and ink illustrations in black and white with washes of pink and blue ink as the only colors in the book.

One of the main illustrations I remember was of the children eating clouds, they had plates of clouds and were eating them like spaghetti, wrapping them around forks and having a grand feast.

Date range: I had this book as a child between 1975-80, but the book could easily be from the 60’s-70’s.

If I remember correctly, the book was a paperback in horizontal format, approx 9 or 10” wide by 5 or 6” tall.