Author Archives: admin

270C: A bedtime favorite

A book my father used to read to me every night.  It might have been called Almost Three.  It was about a little girl and the things she could do at her age.  There was a picture in it of the daddy picking the little girl up by her feet and putting her in bed.

270B: Young Girl Living in a Cottage in the Woods

I am looking for a book that was on the Elementary School Library shelf in 1960.  A young girl lives in the woods by herself. She spends her time baking treats for all her woodland friends. I can only recall that she made honey cakes for the deer.

This book has stuck with me since my childhood. To this day, I am almost sure that it is my idea of a perfect existence.

270A: Girl joins circus, performs blindfolded trapeze act

Girl has always loved hanging upside down, manages to join circus and be trained as a trapeze artist. Her trainer (and later love-interest & husband) catches her flying with her eyes closed and after much convincing, they turn it into a blind-folded act with silver dollars against her eyes and then covered by a blindfold. One mayor of a small town does not believe they are really blindfolded and arranges an accident. One of them is sent off course and the other must hurtle himself into her at an angle that will bring her into the net rather than a deadly impact.

In looking for this book I wondered if my adolescent self could have misunderstood the gender and relationship but MZB’s the Catch Trap doesn’t seem familiar enough.

The book was near Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters in my small middle school library so I believe the author’s name likely started with either an H or a nearby letter.

 

269F: Girl Lost in Woods/Mountains with Man Chasing Her

I read this book probably in the mid 1970s, may be from the 1960s or a little earlier. I checked it out from the library in what was then the Children’s section, probably considered young adult today.  I have no idea of title or author.  The girl’s name may be Gail, not sure, about 15 or 16 years old.  She is camping? with her family: mother, father and I think one younger sibling. She becomes separated someway and I believe she may be trying to get to a Ranger’s station or something.  Some weird guy is following/stalking her. I don’t remember if he is just after her, a young girl, or if she saw something he did & is trying to stop her from getting help.  That’s about it, not a lot to go on, but I remember the book and would like to read again if I can find it!  I was probably 12 or 13 when I read it and it was very suspenseful to me at the time, different from Nancy Drew & Trixie Belden books I read.

269E: Greek mythological mash-up

This was a YA or middle-grade novel that I read in the late ’90s. It was a very loose Greek myth retelling that mashed together many familiar mythological elements into an original plot. Possible characters: Perseus, Medusa, Pan, Echo, Iphigenia. Some or all of it took place on an island which had a network of caves. One of the characters–maybe a plucky young girl–was stranded(?) on the island and encountered someone who became a friend/ally while exploring these caves. I also remember music magically wafting through the caves. Maybe that’s where Pan comes in?

The copy I had was paperback with some blue and purple on the cover. The physical book and style of writing didn’t strike me as “old-fashioned,” so I’m guessing it had been published in the ’80’s or ’90s…but I could be wrong about that.

I’m fairly certain the author was a woman.

Thanks so much for helping me solve this mystery! I remember absolutely loving this book.

269D: Everyone wear Hats

Looking for a children’s book I read around 1983 (possible a board book, it was small in size), about a girl in a house with her family and a poltergeist that plays tricks on them. Not scary. At one point the poltergeist shuts the lights out and when they come back on “Hat, Hats, Hats, Everyone wear Hats” or something like that.

 

269C: Vintage Girls Skipping Rope

The book I am looking for is a hardback, large sized (slightly bigger than A4), picture book that would have belonged to my mum, so printed early 60’s maybe?  It had a pastel green cover with a picture of several girls playing, at least one of them was skipping rope.

The girls were drawn with the chubby cheeked vintage look similar to Strawberry Shortcake/Holly Hobbie.  The pictures closest to what I remember are the books by Maria Luisa illustrated by MR Batlle.  I think they wore the puffy caps similar to Strawberry Shortcake too, and maybe wore aprons over their dresses?  I seem to remember one of the girls wore glasses.

I don’t remember what the actual story was about but it may have been about going to school.  I have absolutely no idea of the title or author sorry but I would love to be able to find this book again!

Even if you had some clues about authors/illustrators that had similar style drawings I would be grateful.