I am searching for a children’s book probably published in the late 30’s or early 40’s.
Category Archives: 1930s or earlier
346X: Fairy Tale Collection From Pre-1950’s Era
346Q: Fairy brings clay animals to life (Solved!)
American book published some time around 1930 about a little blond boy on a farm. The farm animals were all his friends. One day there was a storm and all his animals were carried away and he was heartbroken. He went down to a stream and started making little animals out of clay in the shape of the animals he had lost. He fell asleep and a fairy who was riding around on a throne made of pink clouds saw him and had pity on him and used her magic wand to bring the animals to life. The book was illustrated in color and the title might have included something like Happy Valley Farm or Sunny Valley Farm.
345J: Young Girl Decries Dangers of Reading When Chased by a Bull
Read this book when I was around 8, which puts it at 1960. I am sure it was not new at that time.
Written by someone like Thurber or Ogden Nash, it was a collection of children’s short stories. The only one that I can remember clearly was about a little girl who couldn’t read. At the end, when she is being chased by a bull, she comes to the conclusion that reading (words?) are dangerous. The sign she couldn’t read said something like, ‘beware of bull.’
Hoping you can help me.
344K: Love Stories Around the World
Daughter of the Sun (I thought) was the title.
343Z: Minda the Little Indian Girl
I’m searching for an old child’s book about a little Indian girl named Minda. My father bought it used in the 1950s. It was a child’s reader and I remember very colorful. We lived in Ohio and my father had a store where he sold things, like thrift stores today. He was so excited to find it for me. My fathers mother passed away when he was 9 in 1928 her name was Minda. I was named after her. I was always told she was Indian. I think Cherokee. My mother passed away when I was 17 in 1969. I never knew what happened to my book. I’ve searched many years now. Of course both parents are gone. I don’t know the name of the book. I never knew anyone else named Minda but I know there are. I’m hoping you can help me. Thank you.
339N: Who is the author? Begins with Stephen…not King or Crane (Solved!)
I am recalling an early short story writer, from the 1930s and 1940s, he wasn’t known as a science fiction author but wrote a piece of science fiction about a take over of the world by machines. They weren’t AI or anything that sophisticated. No microprocessors. The takeover included automobiles and even irons and vacuum cleaners. The machines just revolted. I think that the story was told by a person in an enclosed room waiting to die, telling his tale. The writer’s first name was Stephen. My parents had a copy of “The Complete Works of Stephen….” or “The Collected Works of Stephen….” but I can’t remember his last name. Does anyone who it might be? I believe he also wrote some poetry included in the set. I think there were two volumes.
337Q: Hearts and Flowers
I am looking for a 1920’s-30s romance, where the heroine earns her living being a professional letter writer, and she begins a correspondence with a young man (invalid/injured?) using the persona of an elderly motherly woman. The only other detail that I can recall is she sent the young man some women’s hats and requested that he choose the one he liked for her.
337P: Tearjerker
I am looking for a 1920s-30s illustrated children’s book where the plot revolves around a rich little boy who is injured (toy boat explosion), who stays at home communicating through his window with the poor little girl who lives across the street. His head is wrapped in gauze. The format of the book may be square?
337N: Earth History As Scenes In A Play (Solved!)
Children's illustrated science book about earth history, in which each age (formation of the solar system, age of dinosaurs, building Egypt's pyramids, etc.) is presented as a scene on stage in a play, with curtains to the sides. Last scene is at a typical house in the present day. Might have been printed in the 1930s or 1940s, was available in a grade-school library in the late 1970s.