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296E: Littlest Joe (Solved)

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About a mutt dog, a many-paged book and the longest I’d read at age 11 in 1957, who goes through many awful experiences through his lifetime and dies at the end. I think the dog was part pit bull and maybe bulldog, definitely a short, squatty and solid guy. I had checked it out as many times as possible, then finished it all through the night so I could drop it off at the library the next day. Intending to reread it, I found that it had been withdrawn for repairs and never returned to the shelves.

296D: The Great Dane…

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Looking to obtain/locate a copy of a children’s book which MAY have been titled “The Great Dane, the Koala, and the Guri Guri Bird.” Likely Australian in origin; child borrowed it from a library in Kentucky in the 1980’s; has watercolor illustrations.

 

296C: An English village and an American cousin

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Sometime around 1956 when I was in the Millville School District 2nd or 3rd grade, maybe the 4th we had a hard-bound reading book with a dark blue cover that was page by page beautifully, color illustrated with 1930s era style artwork not unlike the covers of Jacqueline Winspear books.

The story lines, at least one, involved an English boy about 3rd or 4th grade age living in an English village and his having an American cousin, similar aged, visiting and he showing him around his village.

I do not recollect a title nor publisher, but have been searching for such a book for the last three or so decades. That book and old geography books still in use in our school, circa 1926, contributed to my Anglophilia.

296B: A secret note or message or clue

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I have no idea what the title is but the book would appeal to a 8-10 year old girl. It was in my grade school library. I remember that the girl was orphaned or sent to live with a relative, possibly a grandmother or aunt. I’m leaning toward aunt. The place is mysterious and there is a mystery of sorts. The key part I remember is the young girl protagonist finds a secret note or message or clue on paper under a loose brick, I believe around the pool or on the patio, but I’m 99% sure it was around the pool. This would have been around 1978-80, although the book may have been slightly older.

295Z: Grand Old House in nondescript new neighborhood

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Children’s picture book I read before 1995 (not sure when it was published though) about an old mansion. The mansion stood alone in a field until a suburban neighborhood packed with little nearly-identical houses sprang up. The mansion may or may not have been sentient. The house felt more and more out of place and eventually it/the owner decided to replace the old house with a new one just like all the others. All the neighbors couldn’t find their own houses anymore because they used to use the old mansion as a reference point. Eventually they convinced the old house/owner that its uniqueness was important to the neighborhood and somehow restored it.

295Y: Young Reader Adventure with Plane Crashes, Loch Ness, and Balloon Races (Solved)

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This book was read in middle school. It featured four stories with the same gang of young boys. One story was of them faking a Loch Ness Monster using radio-controlled boat in their lake. Another was their search for a crashed airplane using radio direction finding. A third was their competing in a hot-air balloon race. The fourth I do not remember. This was probably published in the 80’s or late 70’s.

295X: ‘Through the chamber door’ or something about a conch (Solved)

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I am looking for a children’s chapter book that I read in the mid to late 80s about a brother and sister who become trapped in the center of a conch shell and have to solve riddles in order to open up each chamber of the conch to work their way back out to freedom. I can’t remember the author or title. The title might have included words like ‘through the chamber door’ or something about a conch, not sure.

295W: Good Morning Mr. Sun

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Here is a direct passage from the book that I cannot find: “Good morning Mr. Sun. Time to rise and shine. I must get dressed. The day looks fine. Muffins for breakfast with strawberries and cream. I eat it all up and brush my teeth clean. Some of my friends come over to play. We run and climb and tumble all day. Off to the garden to rake and plant seeds. Water the ground and pull out the weeds. Time to eat dinner then off to my room. All tucked into bed. Goodnight Mr. Moon. ” The book is yellow/orange in color with a bear on the front.

295V: Trapped in a snow globe as pets (Solved!)

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It was a paperback about two girls on a trip with their family and they stop at some mine or cave. The younger sister runs off into the gift shop and the older follows. The evil gift shop owner ends up trapping both in a giant snow globe as pets for a giant family in the cave system. They really just wanted the little sister so the elder is a freebie. They end up escaping when the older girl melts the snow globe on the fireplace or something and they run out through the tunnels.  Might have been apple paperbacks or similar.