I read it in the early 1970's and I guess it was a 1950's book. Four children without their parents go to live with an older male relative (NOT Narnia!!). They arrive on a dark night to a dark house and the oldest girl has to cook their meals.
Category Archives: 1950s
336H: A unique, darkly humorous children’s picture book
336C: Girl Plays In Orchard
I’m looking for a children’s book from the 1950’s about a girl, probably 8 or 9 years old. The memorable thing for me is the picture of her outside playing in a yard or orchard and the trees have benches built around them. It’s all I can remember but somehow important to me to learn the name of the book. It was a favorite of mine as a child.
335V: Children’s Book Cir. 1955
The story – two young kids are in the park one day, somehow hear from the insects that tonight is the coronation of the King (or Queen) Bee. They sneak out of the house that night to attend the grand coronation in the park.
334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)
I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.
334T: Young Boy Learns To Swim
This was a very small (maybe 3” x 3”) thin paperback book(let) that was possibly free, as part of I think a bread purchase (maybe Colonial?) in the late 50’s or 60’s. About a boy, very scared of the water, who learns to swim, I think with his family on a camping trip. Name is something like Noah or Jonah, but it is not the book called Noah Learns to Swim. Also not Noah’s Swim-a-Thon.
334N: Lutie Doesn’t Want To Go To School (Solved!)
Looking for a book about a little boy named Lutie (or Luttie) who lived in the country and put up a big fuss about having to go to school. Probably published in the 1940's or 1950's. I had a lot of drawings.
334L: Old lady looking for her missing glasses
I am looking for a children's picture/story book about an old lady who lost her glasses. She looks everywhere in her house for them; under flowerpots, etc. The story ends when she finds them on her back. She had them on a string tied around her neck. There was a companion book about a farmer, but I don’t recall what that was about. It was at least 8x10, tan and not a thick book. Thinking it was 50’s/ early 60’s.
334K: Evolved Rats Vs Devolved Humans In Once Radioactive City
When I was young, 12 maybe, I checked a book out of the local library, reading it several times, which initiated a life long live of post apocalyptic fiction. In the book a young boy about my age lives with a tribe outside the ruins of a large city that might have been Chicago. The tribe is at the hunter gatherer level of technology. And his main weapon is a spear. The city itself is a blast zone/dead zone no one is allowed to go in because it is supposedly radioactive. I don’t remember why but he heads into the dead zone and discovers the radiation is no longer deadly. But living in the ruins are a race of evolved rat beasts that are six feet tall, stand on their hind legs, and are spear wielding. The rat beasts come after him and he has a series of near misses until he escapes the dead zone and is rescued in a big showdown between the human tribe and the rat tribe, being saved by the adults whose rules he defied. The book had large-ish print and excellent pen and ink drawings sprinkled throughout. I went back to the library that I got it from but the destroyed my old library card and no longer have the book. It would have been published in the 1950’s or first part of the 60’s. Any help finding it would be greatly appreciated.
333S: Teenage Girl Helps Orphaned Foxes in their Den
My mom (born in 1960) has long searched for this book she read in her childhood. She consulted with librarians and even wrote a letter to the Toronto Star, but none of the suggestions were it. She gave up in the '90s. It was a picture book (for children) about a teenage girl who finds a den of orphaned fox cubs and cares for them in the den, rather than taking them home. The illustrations were in pencil crayon or pastel style. She believes it wasn't an old book back then, so it was probably published in the late '50s or '60s.