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257D: Adventure at sea (Solved)

Read this book in the late 1970s, but think it was written maybe in the 50s.  It was set after WWII, about an ex Navy LTJG who was salvage diving, came across a young stowaway and put the boy to work for him on his boat.  It was an adventure story, with a run-in with an octopus, storms and bad guys, but in the end they found the treasure.  Ring any bells?

 

Many thanks!

257C: The adventures of Dot (Solved)

This was a children’s story about Dot, a little girl, around 7 years old, and her day-to-day life and small adventures with her friends. I believe the book was the first in a series, for example, the next book might have been titled, “Dot Goes to the Beach”. The books themselves were hardcover – I don’t believe they were ever released in paperback – and the stories were written for 7 year old girls. I can only guess that they were written in the 1950s or 1960s.

 

One story had Dot and her friends going on a field trip. Dot’s mother had given her a box that advertised salt water taffy. When the children arrived at their destination, the box of taffy everyone now eagerly anticipated, turned out to be a box that had *once* held taffy, but now had Dot’s lunch (or something else mundane).

257B: Children’s bedtime story about a man called Harum Scarum

The book was either published in the 1970-1980’s I believe, since late 1970’s was when I read it. It was a children’s story about Harum Scarum, an old man that was known by the children to be mean. Harum Scarum became nice and gave the children his candy. It was a beautiful short story about how the man was a good person, but just because the kids thought he was mean, they didn’t interact with him. They found out he was a nice person when he gifted them candy. If I’m not mistaken, the setting was a farm or the outskirts of town. The story was in a book that had several bedtime stories in it. I can’t find the title of the book or the name of the story. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

256F: Kids move away, create secret clues (Solved)

This is a kids book I read in the 1970’s – paperback. It is about two families and one family with two children move away. The second family’s children are very sad. Suddenly, mysterious clues start appearing around and the old family has to decipher the clues. It leads them somewhere, like through the woods, to where the new family had moved to.

256E: Big book of fairy tales

The book I’m looking for is definitely older. It is a large, aged, dull lime green or olive green hardcover. I can’t remember what’s in the front, but there is a picture of what may be a friendly green-faced (again, duller green) troll with a white wig and a red shirt doing a cartwheel on the back cover of the book, along with a short description below it.

It is about a foot tall, 8″ wide, and 3-4″ thick. It has 600+ pages, I think… definitely more than 300.

This book looked old to me back in the 90s, so I’m guessing it is from 1990 or earlier.

Looks like it might contain a collection of Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen tales as well as some other stories.

Some of the stories definitely include (from memory):

– The Nightingale (Aesop)
– The Water of Life (Grimm, German)
– Sinbad the Sailor’s 4th Journey
– Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
– The Tinderbox (Aesop)
– The Emperor’s New Suit / Clothes (Aesop)
– Stone Soup
– The Pied Piper
– The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Grimm)
– The fisherman and his wife
– The Golden Goose (Grimm)
– The Princess and the Pea

There are illustrations in the book with the stories and it is done in a very old-fashioned art style… I would think to date it to before 1980, but I’m not an expert.

I know this is pretty hard considering the lack of detail. I’ve been looking for this book for a long time. =(

256D: A surprise at the end of a treasure hunt

The book I’m looking for is a beautifully illustrated oversized (aprox. 11 X 14) softcover picture book about a boy who wanders alone through what I think is his eccentric aunt’s house. Starting at the front gate he finds a note with a poem on it which leads him to the next place. This is repeated through the garden and by the pool and then into the house until he ends up in the kitchen where everyone jumps out and there is a big banner that says “Surprise!”

I hope someone knows the book I am asking about. I read the book to my daughter when she was young and she is now 15 years old. She is learning to read to children herself now and very much wants to find that book again which we lost in a move several years ago.