Author Archives: admin

227J: A girl and a woman live in a harem

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Description: This book would have been published before 1954, probably in the 40s. (I checked it out of a public library, children’s section, several times between 1949 and 1954.)

A girl and a woman (the girl’s mother?) who live (as slaves?) in a harem know the mood of the master by the color of the horse he rides that day.

I can’t remember the title, but The White Horse comes to mind. (Not The Little White Horse.) The girl was probably European or American, and I can’t remember how she came to be living in a harem. The Arab master’s mood was demonstrated to his slaves by the color of the horse he rode on a given day.

This was not an easy book. It was longer and harder than Estes, e.g., or Streatfeild, etc. It was a novel, really, with an (obviously) advanced theme. I can’t remember anything else about it. I don’t know if the girl and her mother were rescued at the end.

227I: Told from a doll’s point of view

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I am looking for a children’s book that I read when I was in grade 3 in 1955 in Toronto. C. 1953? American?  It was a small short picture book/easy reader chapters 5.5″x5.5″, black and white illustrations and hardcover.

In the attic, in a trunk there is a doll (old) who wishes that a little girl will find her and play with her. Emily? is playing one day and wanders up to the attic of her house and discovers a small trunk.  I can still feel the hope and excitement of the doll (Henrietta?).  Emily opens the trunk to reveal a beautiful doll with a complete wardrobe of clothes and a parasol.

Thank you so much for searching for this book for me.

p.s. I named my daughter Emily after the little girl in this book!

227H: Plants go crazy!

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A little boy offers to help his neighbor take care of their houseplants while they’re away, and as each day passes the plants grow and grow, until they’ve filled up the house and are spilling out the windows and doors.  I would have seen it as a child in school or at the library in the early 80s, but the book may be from earlier.  I believe hardcover, with color illustrations ( I want to say ink and/or colored pencil?)  I’ve always been fascinated by plants and this book was my favorite!

227G: A book with an alternate ending

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It is middle school aged, maybe 5th and 6th grade, and very much like a Beverly Cleary book, and it was in the mid to late 60’s that I read it. You flipped it upside down to read the alternate ending, which had a different cover. I loved it back then because it showed that bullies and the bullied are not so much different. The boy had a major challenge…to play in a school concert, it was either a bugle or a trumpet, and that was the end of both versions of the story.

I’ve looked all over and it seems not to be Beverly Cleary. I know I read it about the same time I was reading Beezus and Ramona.

227E: City boy and crusty mountain man thwart horse rustlers, catch and tame wild mustang

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Young adult book; city boy spends the summer in the high country with aunt and uncle who are about to lose their ranch; crusty loner/family friend takes boy into the mountains for a few weeks; they catch and tame wild a mustang and thwart horse rustlers and save aunt and uncle’s ranch.

227D: Girl embarrassed by weird family (Solved)

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A book from the 1970s, I think. I read it in the late 80s or early 90s. It centers on a teenage girl whose name *might* have been Margaret or Marguerite – not quite sure though. Her parents were super weird, and I think her family was kind of weird too. Her dad I think was kind of bald on top but grew out his hair on the back and sides. I think there may have been very brief black and white sketches too. Weird things I can remember that they did: sing opera in the back yard, have mattresses for furniture instead of real furniture, they also did a backwards progressive dinner one night (where they ate desert first and worked backwards to the appetizers) and brought home some kind of shrimp appetizers for the kids to eat, which was great for the kids because they had accidentally burned the pizza they ordered in the oven because the left it in the cardboard box and almost started a fire. I think she eventually learned to accept the quirkiness. Also, I think her siblings were kind of weird too and that she considered herself the only “normal” one. I don’t think it’s “Mom, You’re Fired,” nor do I think it’s “Me and Fat Glenda.” Neither of those descriptions seem to match. Thanks!

227C: Duck Decoy with a Heart

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The story of a carver who made a duck decoy with a heart anchor held by a string. When he’s in the water a fish, or crab or something snips the string and his heart falls to the bottom of the lake. I read it in about the late 1950s. I remember the hunter using the decoy part was disturbing.

Thank you. I hope someone else remembers this book.

227B: The creatures that did not make it onto the ark

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I’m looking for an illustrated book, vertical format, that featured all the strange, bizarre, mythical creatures that did not make it onto the ark. There was a looming storm approaching and many of the illustrations show the rising water level of the approaching flood. The artwork was very dark, surreal, and nightmarish, in an unusual style similar to Hieronymus Bosch paintings.

Each page had a different creature and I can remember just a few of them:

• One was two-headed, and for each head was a gun. The two gun-heads were pointed at each other.
• A creature had a body of a glass bottle with long arms and webbed fingers, swimming in the water.
• A creature that had a paddle or oar for a head.

I don’t recall an explicit connection to the story of Noah’s Ark, but instead maybe just a subtle connection.

Hope this rings a bell!