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339Q: My House is Cozy – Bedtime Poem (Solved)

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I was born in the late 70’s and my mom used to recite a bedtime poem to us each night. I can remember three different verses:
Opening verse:
My house is cozy warm and wide.
It has the nicest things inside…
A knife, a fork, a yellow cup,
For drinking all my cocoa up…
Closing verse:
Outside my window I can see,
The moon and stars shine down on me.
Basically the poem was a tour of a child’s home. I believe there was a stop in the kitchen, bathroom then finally the bedroom. I don’t believe it was an original work, and seem to recall my mom saying that she got it from a book, although I don’t ever remember her reading it to us. She was born in the 50’s, so it could be from her childhood. My uncle (her youngest brother) was 10 years older than me, and it may have been a book from him that arrived in disrepair and so she memorized it to recite. My thought is that it is from a compilation/treasury of bedtime poems/rhymes/stories between 1950 and 1980. Googling hasn’t yielded anything. On a whim, I recently purchased Rene Cloke’s Bedtime Book to see if it was from there, but it wasn’t.
Thank you for any help you can provide! We lost our mom 4 years ago and I would love to find the source of this to share with my brothers and sister.

339G: Woman Befriends Person Built Of Household Objects

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The book I’m looking for is a children’s book. If I remember correctly, it’s a book with multiple stories in it. The one I’m looking for in particular is about an elderly woman that wishes for a friend. And this person is built out of random household objects. Like the body is a flour or potato sack, the head is a bucket, and she’s got long arms because she paints the sky.

339C: Lost Maiden Wanders Castle

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Looking for a peek through picture book. I owned this book as a small child in the 80’s or early 90’s at latest. My family lived in both Europe (Italy) and US, and the book had English text. The book wasn’t aged, so the printing must have been recent to the 80s.

Story: minimal text and background. A beautiful young girl is lost or just wandering in the woods. In the forest she comes upon a seemingly abandoned castle or ruin. She wanders through halls and grounds covered in vines with broken branches. She meets no one but passes a suit of armor, an owl, possibly a fancy clock (may be confusing clock with The Last Unicorn). There might be a wizard or something in the background, but not sure. The page cutouts are windows or broken walls showing part of the next page. The book has a somber, ominous tone but she finally finds a way out.

Character: Not sure if she has a name, maybe Elsa, Ilsa, Ella Beautiful maiden with dark flowing hair. Wearing a simple dress, maybe white dress. See examples: storyberries. com/fairy-tales-little-snow-white-by-brothers-grimm/ pookpress. co. uk/shop/beauty-and-the-beast-john-hassall/

Book: a gorgeous picture book with intricate cut outs or peek throughs. The top of the pages form a layered forest of trees, ruined walls and arches. Think something like A Walk Through The Woods by Louise Greig barnesandnoble. com/w/a-walk-through-the-woods-louise-greig/1127544173 Thicker pages to support the cut outs. I’d think the book was intended for 4-9 years old

Illustration style: Vintage fairy tale. Limited color palette: black hair, white dress, cream/tans/brown/gray walls, green vines and leaves I’d love to figure out this book. I had a number of well done peek through books and panorama books as a child. It doesn’t seem like there are as many of these books available today.

338X: Secret Playhouse In The Woods

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Looking for an illustrated children’s book (perhaps 12″x”12 and ~48 pages) about a group of kids who discover and clean out an old abandoned cabin in the woods and fix it up, paint it in vibrant colors and decorate it. I read it at my public library in Vancouver, Canada in c1974 and remember it being full color on all pages so am guessing it was published in the early ’70s. I can’t recall the title or the author. That book was so magical because the kids had a secret playhouse in the woods that no one knew about. There was no adversity/bad in the book that I recall (other than overcoming the shed’s dilapidated condition) and I believe it ended with the kids hosting a party there?????


Thank you in advance for your efforts to figure out what the book was.

338V: Bedtime for African-American Babies

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I am looking for a baby book for African-American kids, starts with Sweet brown eyed baby sleepy one you're tired from a day of fun, come here baby rest your head it's time for you to go to bed. Read to babies in 1995. Not sure of author or book title, Maybe Bedtime for Baby. Thank you

338N: Book of Marys (Solved!)

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I am looking for a young adult book, dating back to the mid 1930s, with 12 chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a famous woman named Mary–Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), Mary Lyon and 9 others. The cloth bound volume was blue.

338M: YA fiction Ruby Cross of Acapulco (Solved!)

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I’ve been searching for this book for years. I read it in the 6th grade, twenty-one years ago. My old teacher didn’t remember it, and I don’t recall the title or author. It seems that it was an older book, possibly from the 50s or 60s. There were a couple black and white sketches in it.
I remember most of the plot. A girl named Samantha lived in Boston with her mother (father deceased), who then died, leaving her an orphan. Her mother’s dying words were something to the effect of keeping the family heirloom safe. A ruby cross stolen from Acapulco.
Samantha is sent to live with her relatives in Hawaii (during the life of Princess Liliuokalani – I think she even had tea with her, or met her in the story). She has a cousin her own age and she experiences lots of new things there, but trouble turns up as men seeking the ruby cross, which she hid in a cave. She ends up kidnapped and having to show them where it is, but is rescued my a family friend, Andrew. All ends well. She ends up marrying Andrew, and they return the cross to Acapulco at the end of the book.

 

338L: Boy in India Who Gathers Orchids to Buy Books

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Please help me find a book I read 30+ years ago. The plot is about a young, very poor boy in India (I believe) who gathers rare Orchids to sell to a rich white (I believe) woman. With the money he earns, he is able to buy books. The books are rare and precious treasures to him. Every time he finds a rare orchid she buys it and he hides his money under his sleeping mat until he has enough to buy a book. I will try to remember more if possible. Thank you, this is a book that has stayed in my memory and I wish to find and read it again.