Category Archives: 1930s or earlier

258D: Brother and sister make a perilous journey

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The book I’m searching for is one I read as a girl. It was an old book then. I was reading it in the early 1950’s.

 

All I recall of it was a story of a brother and sister who had to make a perilous journey by foot, crossing a mountain range somewhere in Europe. They had the help of a kindly woman who sewed coins for the trip into the darts of the sister’s dress. This was so no one would steal their money. After they left her they made it to safety on the other side of the mountains.

 

The book was a standard size hardback, with a faded cover, as I remember it. I borrowed it several times from my aunt, who treasured the book.

 

255D: Afternoon in the garden…sees fairies (Solved)

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A chapter book (possibly), with green binding, printed pre-1950s I’d say. Suitable for the 8-12 group, I think. It’s about a girl who is home (possibly sick), and goes outside. The garden is described beautifully with winding stone or brick pathways, and as she walks down them, she finds fairies among the plantings.

255C: Mary Ann nickname Pigeon

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This particular book was written in, I believe, the 1930s, and is about a fairly large family; the youngest daughter is named Mary Ann/Marianne, but is known in the family as Pigeon. A large part of the plot toward the end of the book involves a new teacher who is mean to all of her students; someone decides to set off a stink bomb or something similar, and the teacher ends up keeping Pigeon after school until she tells her who did it, because she admits that she knows but can’t tell. While Pigeon is sitting at her desk, she notices the teacher is crying, and quietly walks up and offers her a sandwich from her lunch, at which point the teacher puts her head down on the desk and starts sobbing. She finally asks Pigeon why the kids don’t like her, and the reply is “Because you don’t like us,” which clearly gives the teacher pause. The teacher is about to let Pigeon go when one of her brothers shows up to get her for a family picnic (it’s wintertime); they bring the teacher along, and she (the teacher) makes friends w/the family and becomes a much kinder and happier person. That spring, Pigeon is picking flowers for the teacher before school when she falls down an embankment and almost into a river, getting very muddy in the process; she ends up being rescued by a young man, who turns out to be the teacher’s former fiance (now we know why she was so miserable at first!), who is hoping to mend their broken relationship. The teacher and fiance are reunited and decide to get married after the school year ends, and ask Pigeon to be in the wedding, because she helped bring them back together. There’s also a subplot at one point involving a young boy whose mother died when he was very young, who finds out that his father is planning to remarry and immediate worries that he’s going to end up with an awful stepmother. While he’s out in the woods, he runs into a very friendly, outdoorsy young woman who’s camping, who ends up telling him that she’s getting married soon to a man with a little boy, and is worried he won’t like her–needless to say, this is the prospective stepmother, and all ends happily for them. Anyway, I can’t remember the title of the book or the author, and I’d love to find it again!

249D: On the trail of a stolen dog

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This is a book my 84 year old grandma talks about reading as a little girl, in the 4th grade– it would be so special to find it for her! She believes it was a golden book, circa 1940. The book features a man with a red and black plaid shirt that stole a little boys dog. The man denied stealing the dog, but eventually the dog got away from the mean man and made it back home. When he got home, he had a piece of the man’s red and black plaid shirt still caught in his tooth. The little boy and his father then had proof in the piece of cloth and confronted the mean man. Sorry I don’t have more details for you! Let me know if there is more I can do to aid in your search and I will ask my grandmother for further details.
Thanks again for your time and consideration.

246I: A “cave boy” survives on his own

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This is the first book I remember reading on my own, which would have been about 1954-55. The book was much older than that. From my hazy recollection of its appearance, I’d guess late 1920s through early 1940s. I have no memory of the title or the author. It was written at what was then probably considered a third- or fourth-grade level. There were some facing-page illustrations, but I don’t remember them clearly. It’s a story about a “cave boy” who becomes separated from his family, survives on his own, grows to young manhood, and is reunited with his family at the end. Besides that, I can remember only one specific incident: lightning strikes a tree, causing a fire, which is the occasion for the boy to discover the use of fire.

Would be delighted to find it again.