Author Archives: admin

308O: A shy lighthouse keeper

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I have a library customer searching for a children’s book, but she doesn’t remember the title or plot. She thinks the author’s last name was Harper. It was a hardback picture book about a lighthouse keeper who was a shy man. The cover illustration was of a man in a long yellow rain slicker with a yellow rain hat over his face. It was published around 1948 or so. She said that her grandfather, Alonzo Washington, worked for a family called Harper who ran a publishing business in the Greater Philadelphia (Chester County) area, and one of the family members wrote this book for her when she was a child. She’s positive it was actually published, not a one-off. Her name is Marcilene Brown, if that will help at all. I haven’t been able to find any ties between her “Harper family” and the NYC Harper publishers. I hope you can help solve this mystery! Thank you very much for your help.

 

 

308N: Surrounded by junk

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I have been trying to find this one for my Mom for years.

I am sorry to say I have no title or author or publishers to help out. You can see how tough that makes it.

Here is what I know and what she recalls.

She bought it as a paperback in the mid to late 80s

She thinks she remembers it was set in either the great depression or late 40s-ish, I am not sure about if that is exact because the character in the story is very poor and lives in the mid west or mid south west.

A woman lives on a run down section or property, maybe a farm.  It is surrounded by junk,  junk cars and trucks etc.  She is afraid of the dark and always has to leave a light on.  She lives there with her son and one day a strange man shows up and he helps clean up her land, gets an old vehicle or tractor running and hooks up the electric power for her. My Mom says she thinks she vaguely recalls the man may have been an escaped prisoner or on the run from the law or from something or some reason.

She read the book long ago and loved it, but the years do what the years do and she has long lost it in moving and life in general.  Being in her late 60s doesn’t help the memory much either I’m afraid.

If you could help It would be amazing

308L: Mole in the hole (Solved)

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A mole is asleep in a hole but a bear (I think) thinks that he fell in and is hurt. He tries to get help but has to bargain with other animals e.g. horse has a rope but he wants a brush to swap, so bear goes to squirrel to get a brush but he wants nuts (I think) … eventually bear gets back to mole to find out he was only asleep

308K: Dear Brains Trust

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I am on a search for a particular children’s picture book. The description I can give is very vague, and I have no title or author name. It *might* be a foreign book translated into English, but I can’t be sure. I got a copy of this book in about 1986 – but it is probably a fair bit older than that. I’m guessing 1970s, but maybe even earlier.

Basically the book is about a naughty little boy who gets sent to his room. He is an angry young man and begins tearing up his room. The one specific thing I remember about the book was that the little boy tore all his wallpaper apart, and this separated the male shepherds from the female shepherds who were shown in the picture as very sad and crying.

The only other bit of information I can add is that I remember the illustrations were not very brightly coloured – they were pastel and had a sombre tone, but kind of brilliant (and a little scary when you’re 5 or 6).

I have googled my heart out with no luck so I’m hoping you can help!

308J: A baby runs away to the moon

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A book about a baby that runs away to the moon. The book cover was of a baby angel sitting on the moon (maybe with a red polka dot hobo sack) I don’t remember much about the book but it maybe came out in the early 90s. I would check it out in elementary so I would say that was 1997-2003. He had black hair and a halo and he was sad and packed a sack and ran away to the moon.

308I: The Cat with Amber Eyes

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The title somewhat resembles: The Cat with Amber Eyes or The Cat with Green Eyes

(In all honesty I’m not sure myself.)

Some of the details I remember from the book are that the cat had multiple brothers and sister that had (if the main cat had amber eyes) green eyes, or (if the main cat had green eyes) amber eyes. I remember the flowy and descriptive language describing how the cat would move from the trees to the ground.

It was (from the small fragments I remember) a book about a cat who felt like an outcast since his eyes didn’t match his siblings. Sorry that wasn’t much.

I don’t remember when it was published, nor by who, but I believe the cover had an illustration of a black cat with either green or amber eyes. (Another detail, I’m also sure the cat was all black).

I remember the book to be like a short novel a second grader can read, with large font; hardcover.

I’m sorry I don’t remember much, but I do hope you can find it with the little information I’ve given you.

Thank you very much,

308F: Straw Soldier in a Lollipop Field

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Large format anthology children’s book with 1930s or 1940s art deco artwork. The only details I remember about the stories is one involved a joey that ate a lot of lady fingers and sodas in a drugstore before being found by his mother and another story which includes a scene where a child gets chased by a scarecrow-esque straw soldier through (I think) a lollipop field. I was given the book back in 1970 and it was quite old then. The two scenes I described above were illustrated so they stand out as a memory. The pictures were in color but only in that two-color green and orange that was popular back then (the book may even be as old as the 1920s. . . the style of art was certainly in line with that era).

Thanks!