Author Archives: admin

325N: Children’s book of holiday stories from 60’s/70’s?

3 Replies

I was born in the late 70’s and my mom would read to me a used children’s book of holiday stories with anthropomorphic characters. I remember an owl (or maybe a family of owls); a mouse that ate paste in the Valentine’s story; a Halloween story and a Christmas story. I seem to remember the cover was orange and the illustrations were in black & white with a dash of orange. The illustrations were definitely done in the unique style of the late ’60s/early ’70s. Any ideas? Thanks!

325M: Illustrated Stories Collection, Perhaps Golden Book?

Leave a reply

I am hoping you can help me track down the following book:

  1.  I am not sure of the title.
  2. I believe it was a collection of Golden Book stories, but I am not too sure. My grandmother read it to me frequently in the 1980’s. I believe it was a yellow, hard cover children’s book with a collection of illustrated short stories. Here are the stories I remember:

2a. A lion at a zoo has a cold. The kids would pick on him because he had lost his roar while sick.

2b. A young boy wants to play with the older kids, so he puts on many many layers of clothing and fools them. The story talks about how hot he is in the summer heat with all the clothes. As he runs around, the layers start to fall off, revealing his true self.

2c. Three sisters live in an apartment. One is fat, one is skinny. I think I remember the story takes place in summer and the fat sister was too hot and wanted the window open while the skinny sister was too cold and wanted it shut.

2d. I think there was a story about firetrucks or possibly a tug boat.

I wish I could remember more. I have been searching for this book for about 20 years …

325L: Ringmaster is a balloon who inflates himself! (Solved!)

4 Replies

This children’s picture book was always hanging around our vacation home, and in the mid-fifties it looked old, so I guess it was from the late thirties or forties. Definitely not after mid-fifties.  It was a book about a balloon ringmaster who blew on his toe and inflated himself and then I believe he inflated the rest of the circus.  It had some color in the pictures, I think, not many pages, hardbound.  The ringmaster was round body, round head as you can imagine.  Any ideas?

325K: Giant Baby Studied By Scientist In Warehouse

Leave a reply

All I had was a memory of reading about a giant infant brought to a warehouse, where a man studied him.  L158 “Large Child Playing With Real Cars” indicated the story was from a 1950’s or 1960’s elementary school reader, which seems right–the book was from the library back when I was 8 or 9 in the early 60’s.  It mentions the warehouse, which I remember, the man, which I do recall must have been a scientist, but other than this I’m completely drawing a blank.

Thanks for any help you can give,

325J: Flipping Over Tails

Leave a reply
I am looking for a children’s book, I believe it was a 1/2 page type flip book (not where you open up a small flap).  I read it to our son when he was about 2 years old.  He was born in 1994.  We use to get most of our books second hand so I would guess the book would be from 1980’s or 1990’s.  It was about animal tails and I believe the last pages showed a little boy with 1/2 the flip page showing a peacock tail then you flip it over and it just shows the boy and he says, “hey, I don’t have a tail!”.
I know it’s not Tails or A Tale of Tails (A Little Golden Book).
Thank you for your help!

325H: Boy And Duck Are Best Friends

Leave a reply

There’s a little boy and his best friend, a duck. They play together every day, and then one day, the little boy is nowhere to be found. The duck looks in the house, at the pond, and everywhere he can think of. He’s very sad when he can’t find the little boy, but then the little boy comes home and tells the duck he had been at school. I believe the illustrations were in a watercolor-like style. This book was read to me frequently as a child; I have few clear memories of it, and my parents don’t remember any details, including title, author, or publication year.

325F: Disappearing Girlfriend’s Sister Turns Out To Be The Missing Woman

1 Reply

I recently read a book, it was a “psychological thriller”.  Basically there was a guy from Ireland (calling him Shane) who had moved to England and stayed with a male friend. Shane got a girlfriend who was lost in London and he took her under his wing. They eventually went away together and on the way back, they stopped at a rest stop and he told the police she went missing while he was in the rest stop bathroom.

Shane was initially questioned as she was never found but never charged with her murder.  The London flatmate eventually suggests that they put a bench out in honor of the missing girl. The girls sister shows at this event.  Eventually Shane and the missing girl’s sister connect and become engaged.  Once it becomes announced in the paper, odd things start to happen, including the leaving of the small inside of a Russian nesting doll all over the place for Shane and fiancee to find.

Eventually, we find that the fiancee is actually the missing girl and that her sister had actually died years ago by her abusive dad in some small, hard to get to island town.

Any idea what this book is?

325E: Dan and Dee’s Diving Adventures

Leave a reply

This is a tough one.  I am looking for a kid’s book from when my daughter was 5 (2000). It was a book that my mother-in-law got second hand….not sure what year it was.  It was a kid’s picture book with not too many pages (probably less than 20). We have tried and tried to find this book online and no luck. It was about Dan and his wife Dee and their diving adventures. Want to get it for my daughter as a birthday gift, if I can ever find it.