Author Archives: admin

356E: Best Cartoons of the World

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Trying to find a book related to Cartoons of the World (I know it was not Abroad).
Cover was I think 10×12 or larger. Perhaps 100+ pages. 
 
“Best Cartoons of the World” might be its name, help please. I might be way off.. 
 
When I was quite young I remember a book of cartoons or illustrations from around the world. I believe that was part of the title. They were in black and white. Book published in late 50’s, maybe early 60’s. I remember a few cartoons in the book. Simply drawn but interesting to me. The book had a cartoon of a man holding a sledgehammer in an attempt to launch a huge rocket by hitting a board with a fulcrum under it. There was another cartoon of a man trying to hang himself but he had to cut a rope which was attached to a number of pullies and other mechanisms. Rube Goldberg like. That’s the best I can do. Thank you for any help.

356D: Two Young Brothers in Texas Gas Explosion

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I believe I read it in 1969. That doesn’t mean that was the year it came out. It was a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. It was about 2 young boys in a large gas explosion in Texas. The older brother chronicles the aftermath with his brother having 3rd degree burns. He makes it so far then asks for a candy bar and it lowers his immune system and he dies. That’s all I can remember.

356C: Five Arabian mares and their boys (Solved!)

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This was a slim hardcover in my elementary school library, so it was likely published in the early 60s. It is a retelling of the Arabian breed origin story, Al Khamsa, which has five friends set out to capture and tame five wild mares. They become the five foundation lines of Arabians when they are the only mares to heed the battle trumpets. The story focuses on the boy who tames the chestnut mare, even though he desperately wanted the white mare. The chestnut ends up having a white foal.

356B: Scary Jack Frost and the Girl Kidnapped by Trolls

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I read a book as a young girl and the little girl in the book’s parents are divorcing or some similar childhood trauma. She has a red backpack (not illustrated). She notices on the ceiling some snails and somehow (?) is turned upside down and finds herself on the ceiling with some little trolls that ride snails and they’re cold! to touch. She is kidnapped. She also meet some good elves/gnomes? The plot is around Jack Frost coming to freeze the pipes and flood the house but the nasty trolls are cutting the insulation from around the pipes and Jack Frost is a big scary entity. Any idea??

355Z: 1940s or 50s U.S. Chapter Mystery – Kids, Summer, a ‘Chateau’, a Diamond Necklace?

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When I was in about 3rd to 6th grade in the early 1970s, my favorite book in my NJ public school library was a hardcover chapter book about kids on summer vacation, possibly in upstate New York, who get involved in some kind of mystery involving a neighboring house they call the Chateau.  I think a diamond necklace came into it, and I’m pretty sure the children of one family joined forces with a boy from another family (maybe living in the Chateau?) to solve the mystery.  Either Chateau or Diamond Necklace might have been in the title, but I’ve had no luck Googling for it.  It was an old-fashioned story at the time, probably could have been written any time from the late 1930s to the mid 60s.  There were illustrations, but a limited number, and I think they might have been listed by caption after the table of contents. I think it was the first time I had heard of a “Porte cochere”, which I had to look up. I think the binding was red, and may have had an imprint illustration of a country house on the cover — but I could be making that up!

I loved it and probably read it four or five times, but these scraps are all I can remember!  I’d dearly love to find a copy.

355W: Contraptions Carry Boy Through Daily Routine

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The book I’m looking for was a children’s book where a boy wakes up in the morning and a series of Rube-Goldberg-like machines get him out of bed, brushes his teeth, makes toast and breakfast, and carries him through many daily tasks until he’s ultimately deposited at the bottom of long staircase that he then climbs for the rest of the day to get back to his bed.

355V: 1970s Judy Blumesque YA Novel

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I’m sure I got this book from Weekly Reader in the early 80s but was probably published in the 70s. Opens with protagonist making a homemade costume for school with spray painted gold boots and a sword. I think I remember parents getting a divorce. I remember main character going into his parents’ bedroom looking for help with costume and mom getting dressed and getting a run in her pantyhose and saying, “Damn!” which I perceived as scandalous as may mother would never use such language - ha! Protagonist has an older high school age brother who is enamored with girlfriend and their song is “Stairway to Heaven”.