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351Q: Italian Immigrant Artist-Sculptor Love Story

Love story about Italian immigrants in the US around the early 1900s. The young man is a laborer, possibly at the railroads, during the day and an artist-sculptor at night. The setting is a city. He does not readily tell his girlfriend about his artist-sculpture work he does in his off time. I think it was a statue of a woman when finished. Read in the 1980s, about 200 pages of dense writing, paperback, pocketbook size. May be considered a romance novel.

351O: Mr Widdle and the Sea Breeze? Woman Builds Odd House

I have a children's book stumper to solve. I remember a book from my childhood (born in 67, so the book must've been published before 1977 or 78). It was about a woman who built a house and painted it gray with pink shutters. Or maybe pink with gray shutters! For some reason I associate this memory with Mr. Widdle and the Sea Breeze by Jo Ann Stover, but I don't have a copy to check if it's the one. Thanks for any help!

351N: Children’s book about a girl who won’t go to sleep, with inbuilt music

This is a hard cover children’s picture book and story about a little girl who won’t/can’t sleep when everyone else goes to bed, and stays up trying to play… but every attempt to do so – with her dolls, teddies, pets (?) has them also asleep and quiet and in the dark. She is all raring to go at any of the usual places around home she usually plays but it/they aren’t.
I recall a picture of her doll house with them all asleep and quiet like the rest of her house/family … but what makes this book different is an inbuilt music element that at the end you play a lullaby type song (that I guess is what helps her get to sleep in the end) and that was built into the back of the book. I think the book tied up with a ribbon too.
This book was a very special memory for me and my sister/cousins at our Gran’s house and I have tried many times to identify it to hopefully find an old copy. I hope you may be able to help me.

351M: Family Relocates to Alaska

The book I am searching for is a young adult novel I read in the 1980's about a family relocating to Alaska.  They lived in an isolated cabin, walked to a lone general store to get supplies and place an order for clothing and household items through a Sears Catalog.  They ordered in summer for a delivery of winter items, items didn't arrive until Spring.  A teenage girl with at least one sibling, mom gets depressed, and either dad or brother or both get lost and possibly killed. One chapter talks about them laying in supplies for winter and the girl sleeps on pallets of canned food.  It was a paperback book, white cover, the title had something to do with Alaska without saying Alaska, referencing the 24 hours of sun / dark I think.

351L: Art Book about the Wind

This was a beautiful hardcover book that I owned in the mid-1980’s. It was probably published sometime between the mid-70s and mid-80s. It may have been a small printer, or art book type thing. The size was probably 9x12 or a little larger, maybe 1/2” thick. If I remember correctly, it had a tan canvas-type cover, and a slide-in box that the book came in.

The artwork in the book was beautiful. It may have been acrylics or oils, or some type of print work. On each page was a description of wind force. If I remember correctly, the first page talked about when there is no wind, the next page when there is a light breeze, and so on. In the end there is a full hurricane. The book is nonfiction (and I found it very boring as a young child). Each page shows the same location — with some grass, people, trees, sky, and the ocean — as the wind increases. I believe there was even a description of wind speed on each page.  The language was simple and descriptive. It said things like “Now there is a light breeze. The leaves on the trees move a little bit. When the wind is like this...” etc. One page mentioned that this is a good wind speed to fly a kite, another mentioned that the waves start to have small white tips. There are no characters, no plot/story, just information about wind.

351J: Large Red and Yellow Kid’s Storybooks

Looking for info on 2 books from my childhood. All I can remember is one was red and one was yellow. They were both large, like 12×16 maybe. The content was mostly stories and nursery rhymes accompanied by artwork and maybe some general science for kids. The covers may have been embossed. Mid to late 60’s is when i was reading them. They may have accompanied the My Book House series but don’t count on that. I just remember those at the same time perhaps. Any help would be appreciated. fiosco@bell. net. Thanks, Scott

351I: Dollhouse view of building with bakery in it throughout the day

This book was probably from the 70s or 80s. I read it from the library in the 90s. Every page was the same dollhouse view of one building at different times throughout the day with different things going on in each room. There was a french bakery on the ground floor with baguettes, the baker came in early to bake. There maybe was a clock saying what time it was on each page? It could have been a learning to tell time book. Either wordless, or minimal words. Illustrations were small in scale, I think done in pen and ink and watercolor or gouache. Similar to Roser Capdevila or Ljiljana Rylands. My mom thinks it was French-Canadian or French or from somewhere else in Europe. It was large in scale— maybe 11×13”.

351H: Goose and Gorilla kid’s book? (Solved!)

We’ve got a memory of a kids book about a goose and a gorilla.
It was published before 1990 for sure, but it could be quite a bit older.


It had a similar feel to the recent hit “Boy Mole Fox Horse” book in which a child is taught various lessons by different animals.


Anyway, that’s what I’ve got to go on, basic google searches got mired down in ‘mother goose’ and ‘good night gorilla’ type books.


Thanks for the help,