Author Archives: admin

320F: Kids Find Clues To The Pirate Treasure

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I read this book when I was in elementary school sometime between 1960 and 1964, so i know it was written before then but don't when. It was a big book, not very high quality paper (not expensively bound). It contained many different stories (each with entirely different characters). One of the stories in the book was about a family (with children) who move to a seaside town for a summer. The kids aren't all that enthused until they start to discover clues. They follow these clues to a hidden pirate treasure, at some point becoming close friends with some of the local kids from the town and solving it all together. I seem to remember there being a big old empty house involved (perhaps the big old house they rented for the summer had attics or basements or something where they found clues? Maybe there was an old house that the townie kids thought was haunted?) I LOVED this story as a kid and have been stumped on what it was called for years until my daughter suggested I contact you! I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful with the details, and I hope someone is able to track this down!

320E: Anthropomorphic Animal Mystery Story

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I’m looking for a children’s book I read in the late 70s although I don’t know if it was published around that time or earlier. I was about 7-10 years of age. I had just read The Wind in the Willows and I was interested in this book because it also featured anthropomorphic animals. I want to say that the main characters were squirrels and foxes and the like. They were human-like in that they wore clothes, lived in houses, etc. I believe it was a mystery story perhaps involving a burglary or missing property. I don’t recall it being a picture book although I think it had spot illustrations. Unfortunately, I can’t remember much else except that I enjoyed it a lot, but the details have faded from memory over time. I would love it if someone is able to help me identify it.
Thanks so much!

320C: Teen Girl Befriends Contessa On The French Riviera

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I remember an excerpt of a novel for teens, reprinted in some English literature compilation under what I think was the title “The Contessa and Me” but that was not the title of the book it came from. A teen is at a hotel that her possibly British or American parents run on the French Riviera. She befriends a Contessa there. There is a scene where she cleans up after a party where I believe the Contessa had too much champagne to drink. It’s kind of a coming of age story. The excerpt was one part of the book which I think was divided into three parts total or possibly was a series of short stories on the same characters. At one time I read the other two parts somehow but don’t recall the overall name or author.

320B: Funny Honey Bunny

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My mother used to read a book to me non-stop. It was a rhyming book and I believe the mother and baby bunny played peek-a-boo. I think it was a cardboard / board book.
Part of the book goes like this:
I see a bump
Oops the bump jumped
Who’s under there?
It’s someone funny…
It’s my funny honey bunny!

320A: Rich girl on vacation solves mystery

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A series, turn of the century? I'm looking for a YA or children's mystery book I read in the 1990s, though I'm not entirely sure that's when it was published. It was from a series, and this particular book was about a wealthy girl who solved a mystery while on vacation in Europe. It may have taken place around the turn of the century? It wasn't a popular series and the book itself was thin; I think I probably got it at Zany Brainy (if that's of any relevance). The cover was hand drawn, I think featuring the protagonist in a garden of some sort? Hoping someone remembers this!

319Z: Turn, Turn, Turn

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This young adult book from the 1960s or 1970s was set in the Southwest, maybe Arizona or New Mexico. A girl's parents have divorced so she is sent to live with her father, I think. The song "For everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn" is featured in the story somehow. Some of the characters in the story are Native American but I'm not sure whether the girl and her father are, or not.

319Y: Elephant Behaves Badly, Suffers Consequences

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My daughter checked the book out of her school library in first grade, the year being 2001.

The book is about an elephant who exhibits bad behavior and suffers the consequences. She gets angry and therefore stomps in the water due to her anger. Because of that, the water becomes muddy and she has no clean water to drink. She also gets angry and therefore knocks her tree over and therefore has no place to take shelter from the sun.

My daughter pronounced the elephants name as “Moolaui”  or “Moo lau ee”. I really hope you can assist in finding this book as we shared many laughs as she read it to me.

Thank you so much.

319W: Artist Grandfather Helps Punished Granddaughter

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I’m not sure if you can help or not, but I’m trying to remember a story that I either read or heard as a child. It goes something like this:

There once lived a famous artist.  He was highly respected and thought of everywhere, as a great man.  As fate would have it, the great man happened one day to travel through the city where his daughter and granddaughter lived.  So he called and asked if he could join them for dinner.  Of course he was invited with open arms.  His daughter was very excited and determined that all must be perfectly arranged, for after all, her father was a great man.  In time the father came and they sat down to dinner.  Soon a soup was served, and the man’s little granddaughter, paying more attention to her grandfather than her manners, made a bit of a mess. This embarrassed and angered her mother.  So after dinner, the little girl was sent to stand in the corner until she could learn manners. The grandfather said nothing, and in time they all retired for the evening.  The next morning the daughter came to prepare for the morning meal and was startled to see her father painting a beautiful mural in the corner where just the night before his granddaughter had stood.  It was the most beautiful mural she had ever seen, and it was obvious that her father had been up all night painting it.  Why, she asked, why have you painted this?  Then the grandfather said to her, if my little granddaughter has to spend so much time standing in this corner,  I want to be sure she has something beautiful to look at.

319V: Children’s Series About Shoes

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I’m looking for a series of early reader books about shoes. The series was already old (in my recollection) in 1981, the books were square, and the one that stands out in my mind had a red party shoe on it? Maybe it was sparkly, maybe it was patent leather? Not sure.
As I search for it I keep coming up with the series by Noel Streatfield but those were probably too advanced for a kindergartner.
Please let me know if you remember this book.