This children’s picture book was always hanging around our vacation home, and in the mid-fifties it looked old, so I guess it was from the late thirties or forties. Definitely not after mid-fifties. It was a book about a balloon ringmaster who blew on his toe and inflated himself and then I believe he inflated the rest of the circus. It had some color in the pictures, I think, not many pages, hardbound. The ringmaster was round body, round head as you can imagine. Any ideas?
Category Archives: 1930s or earlier
321B: Two boys go to Switzerland.
A family takes their two boys to Switzerland, and they have many adventures. My aunt can’t recall whether it was a fiction or non-fiction book or whether it was written for children or adults. She read it as a child, and it belonged to her grandparents who lived on a ranch in Southern California. My aunt thinks it may have been written in the 1800’s (she was a child in the 40’s).
Anything you can do to help will be much appreciated!!
319A: Aeronautical Adventures
1930s or 1940s adventure books (of short stories) for boys featuring airplanes. I remember a story that featured a crew of men attempting a record breaking non-stop (transcontinental? Transatlantic?) flight, in a 3 engine plane that could be refueled midair. I remember a scene where one engine was shut down for in flight maintenance.
One story featured two pilots flying an old biplane in a barnstorming content that was won because the co-pilot dumped itching powder down his partner's back. Another featured WWII aircrew captured by Germans and they manage to escape and steal a German plane equipped with skis for the snow. These books had belonged to my father, and were probably given to him by his uncle, who was a pilot.
318X: Child’s Introduction to Holland
I am looking for a children’s book I memorized at age 3 in 1945. I believe the title is: The Land of the Dutch, Dutch, Dutch. I do not know the author or illustrator. It is a child’s introduction to Holland. As a child, I recited the book to any guests in our home. As a teenager, I was an exchange student in Holland.
318V: Caribbean Caravan
The book I have been trying to remember was likely published in the 1930s. What i recall is that two children and their Mom or Dad were on vacation in the Caribbean. I think the title was Caribbean Caravan. The Caravan they traveled in was one of the old silver ones.
317C: Three children fall under the spell of fairies in early 20th century illustrated book
I grew up in Pennsylvania but we moved back to Europe in my early teens and the boxes containing all our children's books got lost in the move. There is one that I have been pining for ever since! It was given to me by an old lady who was the grandmother of some people my parents befriended in the States. She lived in a big house and had an amazing library and I used to love looking at all her old books. She really sweetly gave this one to me as she could see how much I loved it. It was a big thick children's book with black and white illustrations and wonderful colour plates and it must have been written somewhere around the early 20th century - I think. It was about three siblings who are sent to the country to live with I think their grandmother, in a big house. There are lots of stories about fairies around, and it is clear that the grandmother and the staff have seen them. The fairies are not always benign. Their grandmother starts calling the children fairy names like Puck and Robin. Eventually the children see the fairies too. There is some disquiet that the youngest child, a little boy, is falling too far under the fairies' spell; for example he falls asleep in the middle of a circle trampled in the grass by the fairies, which apparently means they 'own' him. It is a very beautiful and sweet book, and I am hoping it might ring bells. I can't tell you how much I miss it - it has been 40 years since I last saw it.
316C: Anthropomorphized objects
Seeking a big red book from the 30's with anthropomorphized objects.
316B: The mystery of the dead cousin
315W: A lion of a tale
It's a children's book, kind of big, maybe 8"x10", old, probably from the 60's or earlier. Hardcover. There is a lion on the front, I think the cover was pinkish. Multiple stories, one involving a lion that gave his hair to birds and lost it all, so they brought him leaves. I think another was about monkeys. I've been searching for years. Halp! 😀
315I: The Marvelous Train Trip
The book was hardcover, dark blue, large (10″ x 7″) about 1″ thick. The characters in the story: Fritz, a workman who has restored a venerable steam locomotive, a boy who takes the locomotive on a trip across the United States.
The locomotive cannot stop, but can slow down for a variety of adventures, such as traveling through the New York subway, and rescuing people from a forest fire (perhaps inspired by the fire at Pestigo, WI). Upon return, Fritz announces that the “bearings are burned out,” and the final picture shows the locomotive’s diamond stack off to one side, and a deer’s skull and antlers on the wall.
This book was in my Grandmother’s home in Berkeley, California. I would have paded through it when I was six in 1949. I was overseas in the Army when she died. The house, and all the books, were sold.