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333A: Anthology – Tiger Fable, Dog Discipline, Bake a Cake

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I read this anthology of children’s literature when I was younger than 12 (I’m 29 now). These probably are not definite, and I don’t know if I would recognize the cover if I saw it, but here’s everything I can remember from it.

There was a Chinese (or some other Asian culture, possibly Indian but I think it was probably Chinese) fable about a group of village children who befriended a tiger. The village’s men chased off this tiger, and then the crops didn’t grow that year, or some similarly implied consequence ensued. I remember this story having an illustration of the children and the tiger under a tree. Or the tiger peering out from the branches of a tree.

There was also a story about a group of kids baking a cake for their babysitter, but they botched it up somehow, getting the ingredients wrong. I think that the babysitter found out about it, and was so grateful for their thoughtfulness that she bought or baked them a cake herself.

Then there was a poem about a kid explaining how he disciplines his dog with a rolled up newspaper. I also remember an illustration with a full-view of a backyard with some kids building a tree house, and there might have been a sign that said “No Girls.”

I don’t know when it was published, but the style was similar to the 40’s and 50’s style used in the “Dick and Jane” books. It might have a similar title to Good Times with Our Friends (a book by Dorothy Baruch) because I asked my Mom for it when I was a kid, and she confused the titles. I thought I’d found it when I ordered Through Golden Windows: Good Times Together, but although there were many similarities, the tiger story, dog poem and tree house picture weren’t in there.

332Z: Exceptional Animals, “Goodness Gracious!” (Solved!)

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Seeking a children’s rhyming picture book, published sometime in the last 10 – 30 years; describes major characteristics of several animals (i.e., big ears of a fenec, sharp teeth of something, big spots of leopard) using the phrase “Goodness gracious!”;  final page is “Goodness gracious, what a noise . . . from girls and boys!” and it shows children playing outside at recess.

332Y: The Figure In The Shadows (Solved!)

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So here’s what I have:  I have very few details about this book. Read in late 1970’s-1980 (no later than 1980, but believe to be earlier).  Book (paperback) was a gift so I think it could be earlier than 1970s.  Geared toward 10-12 year olds.  Category: suspense, supernatural or mystery.

In the beginning of the book a boy (think it’s a boy, could be girl) is walking down the street when a newspaper or flyer wraps around his leg.  He looks at it and reads the word veni in Latin (I come or I am coming) and smells wet ashes.  Later in the book the figure/ghost is beckoning him to jump in a well (?) or off a cliff – he’s saved by someone, but that’s all I remember.  Hope you can help.

Edit: The author of this post found the title of the book before I got around to posting their Stumper: The Figure in the Shadows!

332X: Momma and Poppa Make a Midsummer’s Lantern on their Woodland Farm (Solved!)

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I’m searching for a children’s picture book: The illustrations are in somewhat muted colors. I read it growing up in the ‘90s, but am not sure when it was actually published. The characters are momma and poppa, and they live on a farm in the woods. They have made a lantern (which has a face in it in the illustration) for midsummer. Momma walks through the woods, gathering strawberries and birch tree saplings into her basket. Poppa gathers eggs from the hens. Back home, momma makes a custard or shortcake with the eggs and strawberries, uses the birch saplings to make a maypole, hangs the face lantern on the pole, and they dance around it into the evening. Please help!! This has been driving me crazy.

332W: Wise King Shows We See That Which Is Sought

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I am looking for a Children’s book, from the 70’s or 80’s. It does have pictures. It may be a Golden book, but that is just a stretch of my memory.

The book is about a Kingdom in strife. Lords and Ladies are backstabbers and no one is happy. The King is fed up with it

The King comes up with a plan: He summons a page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom. He instructs the page to go out (on his horse) into the kingdom and find all that wrong. Find that which has sharp thorns, plants that are poisonous and so forth.  Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

When the 1st page has left the castle grounds he summons a 2nd page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom.  He instructs the page to ride forth into the kingdom and find all that is beautiful. Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

The first page comes back. He is cut by thorns and has rashes from the poisonous plants. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The page replies that the kingdom is in terrible shape. It is covered with ugliness and poison plants everywhere he searched.

Shortly thereafter the second page returns. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The second page replies that “the Kingdom is covered with nothing but beauty”. He has the flowers with him to show it.

The King somehow make the point to those in the court that we see that which we seek; not only in nature but in each other. Of course that changed everything and from then on (as I recall) the Lords and Ladies interacted respectfully with each other, seeking to see the best in those around them. Great story. Applicable to today. Hope you can help.

332V: Witch Balls & a Cursed Child’s Palm

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I read this book at some point during late grade school/junior high, probably between 4th & 8th grade, so somewhere between 1980-86. It was a pre-teen horror of the old school, by which I mean it assumes kids can actually handle seriously creepy, potentially life-threatening stuff. It was an older library book that our awesome school librarian recommended to me. Maybe published in the 50's or 60's? Definitely before the late 70's, given the age of the library's copy & when I read it. Unfortunately, there's no cover art I can reference as it had a green cloth binding with no dust jacket.

I don't remember much of the plot but what I do remember is as follows: A junior-high aged girl goes to visit her grandmother for the summer in a small village. Grandma is a witch (good, natch). Another woman has moved into town & grandma suspects her to be a bad witch. Bad witch tries to start a witch war. I can't remember if it was for a specific reason or just because she was a bad witch & that's what bad witches do. Similar in feel to The House With a Clock In Its Walls series or the Green Knowe books but a smidge darker. I believe it was located somewhere in New England, but I wouldn't swear to it. I *think* there were cars & telephones but the time frame was kinda vague. Or my memory is. And that's all for the overall plot.

I do, however, remember some weird specifics. The grandma hung a witch ball over the front door to see if the new neighbor was evil. She had a bottle tree, too. There were lots of nifty little folkloric witchy things like that. The thing that sticks clearest in my mind is that grandma gets a letter with what appears to be child's hand print. Grandma recognizes it as the actual skin of a child's hand & proceeds to place the skin inside an old Bible, which she wraps up tightly so it can't be opened because said palm skin is a curse. That scene has stuck with me ever since I read it, as one might imagine. It's pretty unique. Other than that, I can remember exactly where it was located in my grade school library but that's probably not much help. (Second from last bookcase on the left, third shelf from the top, right side, below the Nancy Drew books.)

 

332U: Painter Sacrifices Dream For Fellow Artist

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Can you help me?
I’m looking for an old story about two painters/artists who travel to the big city to make their fortunes. It is very expensive, so one painter gets a normal job. By the time the other painter becomes famous the one that sacrificed their dream for the other no longer has hands with enough finesse and softness to paint.

332T: Atlantean? Girl Next Door

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I am trying to find the name of a book I read as a child. The plot is basically that the girl who lives next door to the protagonist is weird and can 'float for joy' - that is, levitate. She turns out to be a descendant of Atlantis or something similar - an elder race in decline now living discretely amongst humans. They cannot interbreed - at one point the Atlanteans are described analogously to horses and humans akin to donkeys. The result is something like a mule. I think it might have been hazardous for the humans and the others to touch? Painful?

Media - Single Book / Novel

Date of Publication - Pretty sure it was in either a children's section of a public library or a school library and it pre-dates 1995. Might even pre-date 1988.

Major Themes - Decline of a race / empire?

Characters - Two children, one human, one otherwise. However, I cannot remember if the protagonist was male or female.

Language - The book was in English and I read it in England.

Target Audience - Older children? Teens?

332S: Stories About A Little Girl’s Wild Imagination

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The book I’m looking for was a hardcover picture book. I can’t remember the name of the book. It was a series of short stories about a little girl and her imagination.
One story was the little girl asking her Mom what she would do if she left the door open and a bear came in and wanted to eat her. Another was what they would do if the watermelon in the backyard kept growing and got as big as the house. Another was what would her parents do if they caught a whale while fishing. Another was what would they do if it never stopped raining. And the last one I remember was one at bed time when she asked them if she was very very naughty, would they keep her and they tell her something along the lines of they would sell her to pirates to guard their castle and she asks if they would really really sell her and they said they wouldn’t sell her for all the money in the world, or the moon and the stars.
Each story was sweet and had wonderful art work. I’ve been looking for this book for years. My parents don’t even remember it! It’s got to be at least 20-25 years old.

332R: I Spy A Raggedy Family In Questionable Locations

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I'm trying to find what I recall to be an unsettling/odd 'find it' book (similar to I Spy, I guess), in which a ragged looking family comprising of a Mum, Dad, daughter, and son (who I think looked around 10) were trying to get somewhere or find something. Every page put the family in a different location, and the reader had to find certain items for the family to progress. There might have been text that strung it together like a story too (i.e., not like a straightforward I Spy book), but I can't really remember. Each page had a different illustration of different places, and the family were always in the picture looking around. I vaguely remember some of the places they went to: 1. They were on a balcony looking down at a circus (you could see the crowds below them, it was outside, and there were hot air balloons in the sky, I think). 2. They were in a decayed looking room (I think the room was dark or dimly lit; there may have been a blue, cold colour scheme) with an old man/skeleton(the figure may possibly have been a giant?) sitting in a chair at a desk, with dusty old spider webs around him and attaching to the desk he was sitting at - he was either dead or frozen, as the children were inquisitively looking at him/touching him. There were spider webs all around the room too. 3. They might have also been in a sewer or somewhere with water at some point, but I could be making this one up. I remember the illustrations being somewhat striking in that they were pretty realistic (i.e., not cartoony), detailed, and unsettling/strange because the family always looked ragged and worn out on every page. The environments they were in seemed mostly uncomfortable, like you wouldn't want to be there. That's all I can really remember about the book. I think I read the book around 2003-2006 in my school library (I live in Australia, if that helps). I've searched the online database for the state library, but as I don't know the title I didn't have any keywords so I was flooded with various picture books that proved too difficult to trawl through. I hope you can help me find this book; it's been stuck in my head ever since I was little and it would mean so much to me if I could FINALLY read it again. Thank you in advance. 🙂