Author Archives: admin

298Y: Wee Beastie

The book is a children’s book, found in Denmark in 1965, possibly originally Japanese, if so then published somewhat earlier.

A tiny Scotsman encounters Nessie the Loch Ness Monster. Far from being afraid be becomes her friend and calls her “Wee Beastie.”

 

298X: The sky was purple all the time

I am looking for a book I read in 4th grade ~(1975). The book was fiction. It took place in a fantasy world. The sky was purple all the time in this fantasy world. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much more than that.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on what it might be. For the longest time I thought it was a Judy Bloom book, but now I don’t think it is.

298V: Foster Care on a Ranch

I remember a book about a boy in foster care. He was placed with a couple that owned a farm or ranch. I think the boy was the only child in the house. The clearest detail I can remember was the boy and foster father moving irrigation rigs around the ranch to water all the crops. I think the setting was Oregon or Washington state, but I am not sure. I was in elementary school in the mid 1980s, and this book was in our library. Thank you for any help you can provide!

298U: Look at me, Mama! (Solved)

The book I am looking for was published in the early 1970s or possibly late 60s. It was a large format children’s book (probably around 15″ tall by 10-12″ wide). If I remember right, it had a black and white checked border on the cover, similar to The Real Mother Goose. It was an anthology of children’s stories. There was a story about a little girl who picks her neighbors flowers, and her mother explains to her that she shouldn’t do that and they plant a garden for the little girl so she has her own flowers. There is another story about a little boy picking huckleberries and pretending to be a bear or maybe running into a bear in the woods. There is another one about a little girl who reads The Little Red Hen and then she pretends to be the red hen. There is also a poem called “Look at Me, Mama” wherein a bunch of different bugs do things and tell their mothers to look at them – there is a line that goes something like “And when a little water bug sticks his face – his WHOLE FACE – into the water and says ‘look at me, mama!’, she does!”

The graphics in the book are all very much straight out of 1968 – 1975.

For the life of me, I cannot remember what this book was called and I’ve not seen a copy of it for years. I’ve been googling everything I can think to google. It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and I want to share it with my son, who is now about the age I was when my mom used to read it to me.

I hope you can find it – thank you!

298T: Family takes a trip in a loaded up station wagon

I’ve been looking for a picture book about a family that goes on a road trip (I think).  I remember the pictures being detailed, I think the family had a loaded up station wagon with many things tied to the roof.  They go to the beach, I think,  among other places.  I was born in 1974, , so it might be late 70’s, early 80’s?  The illustrations almost had a Where’s Waldo look to them, though NOT a find and search book.  I think there was a baby in the family, maybe three kids.  I remember winding roads and color illustrations.

298R: Late 1970/ early 1980s fairy tale book with 12 Dancing Princesses

I checked in the fairy tales page but didn’t find my book amongst the ones listed. I am looking for a child’s fairy tale book that was probably published in the late 1970s or early 80s and possibly in Canada as my parents lived in the Niagara Falls area and it may have been purchased in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The book was oversized and probably around 100 pages with a pale bluish cover and contained many tales including The Nightingale and I think the very last story was the 12 Dancing Princesses. It was heavily illustrated with beautiful colour illustrations that had a very “silky” look to clothing and hair of the characters. I’m pretty sure it was a generic title such as Fairy Tales or maybe World’s Best Fairy Tales  and it is NOT the Reader’s Digest book from that era. I think there may have been a prince and princess on the front cover and there was a round vignette illustration on the back of scenery I believe.  Any help would be appreciated!

298Q: A solitary confinement no one seemed to mind

In 1981, in a Utopian literature class at the Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo, I read a book that haunts me because of its prescient look ahead. People live in sealed homes, connected digitally by video and audio to interact with friends and clean versions of the world outside. The interior walls of homes fill up with these images. A kind of solitary confinement no one seemed to mind. Food and goods were delivered to homes through portals by a working class of people exposed to a toxic world outside. I don’t remember details beyond that except that it was written by a man. My online searches for it have failed me!

298P: A girl who cried all the time

I am looking for my mother-in-laws favorite childhood story. She was born in the 40s and her mother read it to her all the time. They lived on a farm in Iowa.

The story was about a girl who cried all the time. First her aunt left because of the crying, the her uncle, and soon it was just the little girl with her mom. Her mom always warned her if she didn’t stop crying that people would leave and they did. My mother-in-law thinks even the animals left. When the girl realized that everyone left because of her she stopped crying and learned her lesson.

Can you help me find this book?