The poem which I can neither remember nor forget starts off something like:
If I’d been born in Bethlehem
So many years ago
I might have seen the ***
Passing to and fro
I am fairly confident it is a poem, but perhaps not?
It was definitely part of a Christmas story
From the early 1950s?
The book I’m looking for is as follows:
Children’s book – from the UK
I read it in the UK when i was a kid in the 1970s
It was illustrated but with line drawings – was for older kids, maybe 7/8 and up?
There was a story in it about a family who takes an elevator down into the ground, and they whistle to each other if they get lost.
It was a collection of stories for kids.
It might have also had poetry in it
This story has haunted me for years, no idea if it will ring a bell with someone somewhere
When I was a child in the late 90’s there was a book of I think children’s rhymes in my grandmother’s house in North Carolina that she used to read to me. I think it was already an old book at that time, possibly from her years as a teacher or from my father’s childhood. It had the phrase “I hate the dope who thought up soap.” And something like “I wish he’d eat it!” Something along those lines. I’ve googled this phrase and found only the books by Megan McDonald, but those were published starting in 2000 so are too recent to be what I’m thinking of. Help please?
This might actually be in the title of the book. It may have been published in the 70s or before but definitely not later than the early 80s. I believe it was a book of children's poems about an old lady and one of them was "There was an old lady who wanted to ski, she wouldn't take lessons - it's easy said she! She tried and she tried but she just couldn't go. Nobody told her she had to have snow."
This was a short book of children’s poetry I had as a child and it seemed like an older book even then. So it is at least 35 years old but likely more. I remember a few of the poems vaguely. One was about the changing seasons, I remember Autumn had apple trees and children collecting them. And another about the day passing using birds i.e. the sun rises with the robin…night come on the wing of a lark or something like that? There was also one about a toothache. What I remember the most is the illustrations. They were very delicate with children that had chubby cheeks. The trees were drawn with curly cues. For the toothache one the little girl had a handkerchief tied around her face. It was in English but maybe British because of the words that were used like lark and morning tea.
The book itself was about the size of a sheet of paper and covered in light blue cloth. The cloth was much like my Hardy Boys books. The title was on the binding and for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. Something like: The Robin Brings the Sun or the Robin Sings the Morning…I’ve tried googling a lot of variations but since the book is older I’ve given up trying to find it that way. Due to how I remember it and since the front of the book didn’t have the title I’d assume it may have had a dust jacket that had gotten removed at some point. I was hoping to get it from my mom for my daughter but they’ve moved so many times it got given away at some point. Would love to find it as it was a favorite when I was little.
Large light blue hardcover (8"x10"?) with a child sitting in a field with a fairy on a mushroom on the front cover. The only poem I remember had the line "If you never talked with fairies. . . . ". May have also had the "Mr. Nobody" poem in it.