A picture book from the 1980s, potentially from the 1970s, about a little boy who wishes to be older. His neighbor grants his wish (with her magical garden I believe) but he decides to go back when his mother doesn’t recognize him. I believe the illustrations are in a style similar to Ron Barrett.
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278B: Girl returns to Malaysian rubber farm after the war (Solved)
I read this book in my early teens and have been trying find it for years. A father sends a young girl away from rubber farm during the war. Upon her return from England, she finds she is an outsider due to not suffering the same pains those that stayed suffered. Her childhood friend (a boy) helped the villagers/prisoners by going night fishing to help keep people fed. The story resolves her relationship with the boy and her father.
278A: Rocket Club but not the Rocket Boys
This is a book written in the 60’s about a group of boys who have a rocket club which meets on the farm of an old army general.
They design various rockets, and at one point there is an accident because two of the boys decide to include dangerous design changes. I think they eventually get a trip to see a launch in Florida. This is NOT Hickman’s “Rocket Boys” or “October Sky”. It is also not “Countdown to Zero”.
277C: The moon landing and family drama (Solved)
I used to get books in the mail — “Me and the Terrible Two,” “Alvin’s Secret Code” — and one of them was a book about a boy who watched the moon landing all summer while some family drama was also going on. The book had a low-key melancholy tone. I read it in 1974 or 75, when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I wish I could remember more about it, but I’m stumped!
277B: Little Girl Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the bed (Solved!)
I am searching for a children’s picture book that I had read to me as a child. I can’t recall the name of the book and after much Googling, I am still no closer to finding any results. I am 30 years old, from Australia. I have checked all databases recommend by Loganberry Books.
The storyline went as follows – A little girl woke up on ‘the wrong side of the bed’. She went about her day to day tasks only to find that everything went wrong and she felt generally irritable. Toward the end of the book she goes back to bed and literally gets out of the other side of the bed and is in a better mood. I distinctly remember that the main character was a little girl, there was a scene where she was in brushing her teeth and I think she may have worn striped PJs. This book was an older book, my best guess is 1960s based on the illustrations.
Anyway, I can tell you that the book is definitely NOT ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ and from memory the book illustrations were blue and orange (illustrations were sort of done using a painted effect for lack of better description) only which tells me the book was most likely released published anywhere from the 1950s – early 1980s. It was not a Golden Book. I have searched on world cat and other such sites and it is NONE of the books that come up in the results. PLEASE HELP! None of the books ‘The Wrong Side of the Bed’ that I have found have been the right book. Please help me!
277A: French-Canadian Fur Trapper Family (Solved)
I don’t know the real title. I suspect the character names, except possibly the central female character, are French. I probably read it between 1968-1972. An orphaned girl lives with a family of French-Canadian fur trappers, possibly on the St. Lawrence River. The girl is a young adolescent at the time of the story. She was seriously ill with a fever as a child and they cut her long dark hair to her shoulders. She keeps it that way, because it suits her, and wears a blue ribbon in it. There at least two sons in the family. One of the sons, an artist, is attacked by a bear. His hand is mauled and the father amputates it with a fire place poker. He survives but is depressed and the girl spends a lot of time trying to cheer him up. The eldest son is secretly jealous. He and the father leave to hunt and return with bundles of animal pelts. The father reveals that the older son is in love with her and carried her ribbon with him.
276F: Scuba diving adventures
Juvenile fiction from late 1960s or early 1970s with color illustrations of a teen boy and his father/uncle and their adventures scuba diving. I worked in the school library when I was 13-14 and was fascinated by this book, which piqued my interest in oceanography. I’ve searched on and off for many years. It’s not Sea Hunt and it’s not a Hardy Boys book. Any help locating a copy of this book would be much appreciated.
276E: A Pekingese puppy and a mystery (Solved)
The book that I’m looking for was written sometime between the 1940’s and 1960’s (or so). It was about a young woman who moved to live with her glamorous aunt in London. Her aunt gave her a Pekingese puppy that she named “Peke Ah Boo”. There was some kind of mystery having to do with the house next door and possibly a young man who turned out to be a spy? It may have been a YA book – the copy that I had was hardcover in robin’s blue but there may have been a dust jacket at some point since I don’t remember any identifying marks on the cover.
Any help would be appreciated greatly, it’s driving me crazy!
276D: Picture book told from the POV of dogs (Solved)
I am looking for a humorous picture book that was published at least 35 years ago. I do not know the title or the author.
It is told from the point of view of the pets. The owners, whose legs are all you see in the illustrations, are looking for a guard dog to protect them from robberies. They get new dogs but the old pets in the house persuade each new dog that everyone who comes to the house is a friend.e.g. the milkman, the postman. Eventually a robber comes to call. The pets play with him. He doesn’t rob the house so everyone is satisfied. Would love to find this book for my son who remembers it with great fondness from his childhood.
276C: A family tries to sell their house
I’m looking for a book that a friend of mine read between 1978 and 1982 but the book may be older than that. It is about a family that wants to sell their house and each prospective buyer wants them to change something about the house (paint the inside, fix something outside etc). Over time they make so many changes to the house that the family decides not to sell. They end up liking the changes they’ve made and stay put.