Category Archives: 1940s

331L: War Kids Seek Treasure

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The book I am trying to identify was written over 60 years ago, and it features a group of children ages five or so through 14, or thereabouts.  They have been sent to the country because of the Second World War, and they become convinced there is lost treasure in the vicinity.  The only scene I remember takes place in church.  The younger kids are shocked and scandalized during the service as the collection basket enters their pew.  The eldest, instead of putting a coin in, pulls one out!  This is their first real clue.  The coin turns out to be a genuine gold doubloon.  The eldest boy may have been named Emil.  Do you know which book this is?

331E: Red Wagon, Romani Adventure Novel

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When I was a young girl in the 70s, there was a chapter book that my mother used to read to me. This book stayed at my great grandmothers home, and we would read it when we visited. It was probably written for young adults. I think it was written before the 30’s or 40’s. All I can remember is the story was about this gypsy girl’s adventures. I remember a picture of a Romani style wagon, and the color red. I loved it, but can’t recall the title or the plot. Please help. I would love to revisit this book.

330X: Wealthy Uncle Watches Orphaned Siblings Take Care Of Elderly Stockman “Uncle”

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I discovered your website when googling several key words of the book I am seeking.  Someone else had also looked for it but I couldn’t find your answer to them.
The book is about four orphaned siblings who move from Britain to Australia as their guardian is an unknown great-uncle.  The young people are Alice, Betty and Sigismund plus another brother whose name I can’t recall.  Due to a case of mistaken identity they end up caring for a weak, elderly stockman in the outback as they think he is their uncle.  Their actual uncle is a neighbouring wealthy grazier who watches over them from a distance but wants to get a sense of their characters and ability to cope with adversity.  He has a grandson, Gene, who befriends the teenagers.
I believe it is set in the late forties or early fifties.  The copy I read was a slim green book without a dust jacket.  It was quite an old looking book in the library of my small prairie high school in Manitoba in the mid-sixties.

330S: Boy Bitten By Burro, Burro Arrested

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My grandmother used to read to me an illustrated children's book - hardback- small book - (about the size of Peter Rabbit). The plot was about a little boy who tried to give a cute burro a carrot but he got bitten by accident. The police came and arrested the burro. She read it to me in the early 1960’s but the book seemed pretty old. It may have been from the 1930-1940 time period. I want to read it to my grandsons! Thank you!

329F: Creatures on Venus

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The book I am interested in is a juvenile / YA science fiction book most likely written in the late 40s or 50s or very early 60s before we landed space probes there. The main character is a boy. They land on Venus and find deserts and no life, but along the way the main character gets lost and finds a valley with dinosaur-like creatures and small primate creatures. Eventually, the primary expedition finds him and all turns out well. I have searched the net but have not found any trace, I checked it our from our public library many times in the 1980s. Thanks!

328J: Topsy Turvy (Solved!)

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This was a book passed to me by my mother in the early 1950s. I think it might have been published in the early 20’s-40s maybe? It was a small book in size, grayish cover, with real photos. As I remember it, there was a young girl (maybe blond with curls) in a hospital. She got her name Topsy Turvy because she had to be hung in some manner that put her upside down, maybe? I believe she was an orphan and was eventually adopted – similar to “Daddy Long Legs”. The only reason I think this is a different book from that is I clearly remember a lot of hospital pictures in it.

My mother was a nursing student in Boston in the early 40s so it maybe it was something they produced?

327F: Bard and his warrior best friend

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Children's book, probably from the mid-20th-century (I encountered it as a child at my grade school's old library in the 1980s in a post-war style hardback), about a young boy who's training to be a harpist/bard.  He has a good friend who is either an invading Saxon prince or a Celt defending against the Saxons, or something like that. Thanks for any help!

326L: Beautiful Dresses From Night Sky

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I live in the UK and I am looking for a Children’s anthology of stories (I think), which I had as a child in the 1950s (it may have been older).   It included a story about three poor princesses called Cordelia, Sylvia and Arabella who were invited to a ball but had to make their dresses from old curtains.  The animals and birds helped to make them beautiful dresses from the night sky, sashes of rainbows, ice crowns and stars for their hair and fluffy cloud cloaks.  It was a lovely story, illustrated with black and white drawings.  I have been searching for it for years with no luck.  Maybe someone might recognize it and be able to tell me more.

325L: Ringmaster is a balloon who inflates himself! (Solved!)

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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?