My dad said he used to read a book that “taught him how to drive a car.” He was born in 1959, so I imagine this book was published in the 60s or maybe early 70s. It was a children’s book. That’s all I have to go on for now, as I hope to get him this as a surprise Christmas gift. I may ask him to provide more details if this doesn’t ring a bell with anyone.
Thanks!
I am looking for an alphabet book from the 1960’s. The page I remember is “D is for a dear deer doing dishes” Love to find this book. Thank you.
I read this children’s book in 1977. It was about two men (I think they have beards and old fashioned clothing) that drive around the countryside in a locomotive that has a miniature Victorian Queen Anne style house on the top of it. The book is illustrated with black ink line drawings. At one point the two men “save” a woman tied to railroad tracks who looks about to be run over by a train, only to find out that they ruined a flat set-piece train because the woman is an actress and was filming a Western.
I hope you can help! I would like to find the book and get a copy to read to my two year old twin boys.
Thanks, Austin
I read this book in the 1980s and it was almost certainly a children’s book, but a real novel. It was set in Europe I believe.
Long ago a boy lost his parent in a nearby forest. The forest is malicious and very difficult to walk deep into. As you walk into the forest, the placement on trees you had to walk around would gradually turn you back so you exited. Several years after the lost parent the boy has grown up and is determined to enter deep into the forest. He hires an airplane to take overhead photos but winds blow it away. Eventually he does make it to the center and there’s some kind of mystery. I felt it was very well written, a thriller, and scary, too. It seemed to have been set in the 1950s. I hope that’s enough. I’d love to rediscover this book and was glad to pay the fee! Thank you! 🙂
Searching for a children’s book printed no later than the 1990s. The cover featured an illustration of a Hawaiian girl in the foreground, with a volcano in the background. I think the book title may have included a Hawaiian girl’s name, but I’m not sure about that. I believe it had received an award; I think there was a gold seal featured on the cover as well. Hope you can help identify the book title and author!!!
It was a paperback from 1970s about a teen, perhaps named April, who lacks self-esteem and then loses weight. I thought is was called April in the Mirror but cannot find a book with this title. It was probably a scholastic book.
I read this book in the early 1970s when I was ~8-11 years old. It was about a girl who was learning to be a figure skater and was frustrated by all of the time she had to spend learning to cut figures in the ice rather than doing more exciting skating routines.
I read this book in the 70s or 80s. It was titled something like “The girl, the witch, and the cat” or something. I really only remember that the title had a list of 2 or 3 things and said witch. It is not the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I believe there were 3 books in the series. It was about a girl around 12? who befriends a kooky old lady who turns out to be a good witch. The 2 become very close, like family. I believe the girl is an only child. There may also be an old warlock who is friends with the old lady. One part i remember is there is an old friend of the lady who tries to kill or put a spell on her. This results in the girl having to drive the old lady’s car to help save her. When she looks in the rear-view mirror she sees glowing eyes in the backseat; knows this is the bad lady. Somehow it all turns out good. It seems there may also be magical items such as a bowl, a phoenix, the cat, etc. Though I may be mixing those up with another beloved lost story.
The novel was either YA or teen, something I read in the 1980s. It was mass market at the time. It focused on a family, more specifically a teenage girl. One of the first scenes involved her riding on the subway with her older sister. The two see a group of young men attempting to rob an elderly woman. The older sister steps in and is eventually kicked in the stomach by one of the men. This incident reveals that the older sister is pregnant, something that causes some conflict for the family. It is around Christmas. The younger sister spends time with a teacher, in one scene driving around at night looking at the Christmas lights. She also spends a night with a girlfriend of hers, someone who is depicted as a free spirit. I seem to recall that the younger sister was torn by her feelings for her sister – resentment at the attention she was receiving, but also love.
Thank you for your time.
I had this book for 11 years before losing it a couple years ago during some moves. I bought the book from my elementary school library in 1999-2000, in one of those sales where they get rid of old or damaged books. The book was hardback, felt like it had fabric over the hardback material but I don’t know that it ever had a dust jacket or anything. The cover was illustrated, with I think either a tower or the “man in the moon”, or both. The book was a purple-maroon color, possibly a faded dark blue the way dark blues and blacks might fade with bleach, but I’m pretty sure it was the purple-maroon color originally.
Some stories I remember, but can’t find exactly on any searches:
1. A poor man lets some elves/fairies eat the last of his food (bread and cheese), and they repay him by placing a coin on his oven that always is replaced when you remove it. I think it flies in from the window or something. He becomes rich, and marries a woman who is different from the other villagers, I think from another town/city. She is vain, and washes her face in milk to keep it pale, while other villagers wash their face in cold water to keep their cheeks rosy. The wife doesn’t like that no one has ever seen the elves/fairies, so she sneaks up on them one night and they disappear and take the money, leaving the man and wife poor.
2. A man sees these fairies dancing at night (either 8 or 12), and thinks one is incredibly beautiful, and describes her features to be like the moon and so forth. I believe her hair was black, not sure. He ends up kidnapping her to be his wife. She becomes very sad and either stops talking to him or tricks him into letting her go.
3. A girl is given 3 presents, which she opens when she needs help from I think her step mother, who makes her do ridiculous things. I think she helped an old lady, who gave her the presents. They might have just been called colorful boxes. One present was opened when she was told to make a cake, and the box contained a giant cake. The last box had a man/prince in it to take the girl away.
4. There was one about the man in the moon, a man built a Tower to reach the moon and I guess he ended up stuck there. Somewhere in the book is an illustration of the tower and of him in the moon, which was a full moon and a smiling face with crinkled eyes. It’s also possible I’m combining 2 stories, but I’m not sure.
5. A boy finds a leprechaun and gets it to reveal his pot of gold. The boy knows he can’t take his eyes off the leprechaun or it will vanish, but the leprechaun eventually tricks the boy into putting him in his pocket. As soon as the boy does this, he realizes what he has done and the leprechaun has disappeared.
6. There was a version of Rapunzel, not sure if that was the title of the story but I’m assuming so. A pregnant woman gets her husband to steal greens out of the witch’s garden, and the witch makes them give up the baby. The witch locks her in a tower, and eventually a prince rides by and climbs her hair, and they fall in love. The witch finds out and causes the prince to fall into brambles, blinding him, and eventually rapunzel finds him again, and cures him of his blindness with her tears.
7. There is also a version of Rumpelstiltskin, where he helps her spin golden thread for three days in exchange for her firstborn child. Then he gives her a chance to keep her child, if she can guess his name in 3 days. She eventually hears him singing his name, and gets to keep her baby.
I want to say there is a number in the title, like 100 or 50, and a list of all the stories in a table of contents. But I feel like that’s too many, so I could be wrong.