Dim memories, 30+-year-old book; very dark illustrations, about a young boy who lives with his uncle or grandfather and his tall and sort of shady assistant/mad scientist. They build a boat/ark, there is a huge storm, and they wind up shipwrecked in a zoo.
I am trying to find a kids book I used to read to my kids when they were young (15 years ago.. omg). I can’t remember the title, or the author, and all my searching and asking has led me nowhere. So I will ask here just on the outside chance someone knows.
It is the story of a Hedgehog that has awoken in string and is in a bad mood, he goes around talking to all the forest animals before finally feeling better. The refrain he says is “I am a prickly hedgehog, i have just awoken from a long sleep. I am sullen, angry, mean, and moody. Woe betide those who cross my path”
Any help here?
Looking for a children’s book about a lion who either got a haircut and was unhappy with it or for some reason his mane was cut off… don’t have a title… wish I could give you more to go on.
This was a book I had when I was very young. The illustrations had children dressed in early 1900 clothing and it may have been published in that time frame. It was a compilation of stories and poems. One poem was about a little girl eating her first peach. I do remember a line from that poem “I’ve eaten it cloth and all Mama but what shall I do with the bone?” She was referring to the peach pit. Another story in the book was about a little girl who was picking blackberries and could not reach the best ones high in the branches. A gentlemen offers to bend over leaning, on his walking stick and let her stand on his back to reach the berries and she refuses saying she would be to heavy etc. The young man remarks that it would be rude to refuse a kindness and the little girl accepts his offer. There was a picture of this scene in the book of the little girl standing on his back and picking the berries.
Looking for a book I checked out several times from an elementary school library in the mid-80s (not sure how old the book was). It was NOT the Verne story but was about a group of people who walked across the bottom of the ocean between the continents. They had some sort of tanks that allowed them to eat and breathe underwater.
based (I think) in 1900 New England. I remember the cover was solid blue and I thought the title was just Phoebe. Read it when I was 12 or 13 .. chapter book. I believe the girl was an orphan and went on a train to live with a relative.
I’ve been trying forever to remember a book that I read when I was young. I think I was 10-13. Mid-80s. There was a girl who moved to New York City in the summer. Because she had no friends yet (I think), she spent a lot of time exploring the city by herself. She rode the bus by herself and she went to the movies by herself. She was really into fashion and talked a lot about the outfits she was putting together every day. I think that there was a department store that she loved and maybe fantasized about buying something there? I think she did a lot of window shopping.
I don’t remember her interacting with any other characters, so I have no idea what the plot was. I just remember thinking that it was so cool that she was getting around the city by herself, and that she was so fashionable.
I have been trying to find this book since my first child was born 15 years ago. It was my favorite when I was about 8 or 9, I think, but I never owned it; I would just choose it over and over again from its spot on the shelf in our local library, never committing the title or author to memory.
The protagonist is a young girl who has a wacky family—perhaps they’d be described as “dysfunctional” nowadays but that was not a term at the time. The story is full of mishaps and made me laugh out loud each time I read it. There are line drawings in the book and one I can recall is of the girl (or maybe her father) heading out of the house for a beach trip loaded down with supplies. The dad is kind of grumpy, as I recall. I was reading it in the late 70s so I assume it was published earlier that decade. It was of that era and the copy I read was hardcover.
This is not a lot to go on, I realize. But perhaps someone out there will recognize my brief recollections. I hope!
I have been trying to remember this book for so many years, this is what I remember:
It had actual black and white photos, not illustrations. The character was a little girl and at the beginning, it is her birthday and she is happy and the setting is bright and cheerful and she is in her bedroom. Then as you turn the page, it is dark and creepy and she is alone in a home of some kind, so I think that she may have been dreaming. From what I remember, there are several photos of her exploring wherever she is, there is a kitchen, basement, garden grounds, etc.
The very last page is an image of blurry figures or what appear to be ghosts. I remember wondering of those were her parents.
There may have been a pet in the story as well. It wasn’t a long book, 20 pages at the most. I read it in the mid 1980’s, in about the 3rd or 4th grade.
I’m hoping you can help!
The book I am seeking was called Hyppo the Hippo. I’m not even sure how it was spelled. We pronounced it with a long I – Hypo?. It was a book very like the Barbar books in shape and had colored illustrations of hippos in human clothes. The baby hippo was left on a doorstep in a wicker wash basket. I imagine it was published in the 40’s