Date of Publication: 1950’s.
Contains a story about the Scarlatti (spelling?) family that did things backwards, such as giving presents to their friends when it was their birthday.
332N: Big or Giant Book of Bedtime Stories
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Category Archives: 1950s
332M: “Throw the Handkerchief” and Other Romantic Stories (Solved!)
Looking for a young adult romance series, published circa 1950-1965. Young women find love in various times and places: the Netherlands, roundheads and cavaliers in England, and more. Very innocent. I remember the phrase "throw the handkerchief" as a proposal.
331U: Old Woman Who Cleans
Hello, the book I'm looking for is old, most likely from the 50's or 60's. There is an old woman (skinny) who lives in a cottage or house that is messy. She starts out cleaning one thing and then obsessively has to clean the rest of her house, and there was a picture of the kitchen with a blue checkered tablecloth.
331R: Sabre Jet Pilot
This book is autobiographical. I read it somewhere between the fall of 1973 and summer of 1976, acquiring it from my junior high school library. As I recall, the book is about a young Canadian who becomes a Sabre jet pilot and becomes stationed in West Germany during the Cold War. It covers the missions he flew, but it is also about what led him to flying and his engineering education and career. At one point during college he builds a small hovercraft using a vacuum cleaner motor. Of course, that intrigued me, a teenage boy with an interest in science and engineering. I’ve Googled and googled, but while there are lots of books about men who flew the Sabre, I can’t find this one.
331Q: Children’s Book With Bunnies And Colored Eggs
It’s a book from the 1950s or 1960s, I believe. I thought it was a Little Golden Book, but I’ve reviewed all their titles and I don’t think it is. It’s little rabbits (pretty sure rabbits — it’s not the Color Kittens) who each end up with a different color egg. Blue like the sky, green like clover. One, I believe, ends up with a black egg. The eggs were deeply saturated colors, and I remember thinking how beautiful they were.
Any ideas?
331N: Colored Triangles on Page Corners
Looking for a children’s picture book, probably mid- to late-1950s or early 1960s. Size of a Golden book, but not that publisher. There were large-ish colored triangles on top corners of each page (maybe bottoms, too). May have had an illustration of a little child dressed up as a cowboy; I seem to remember something about a lasso. Maybe a lasso acted as the frame of a page or pages as well. Bright, cheerful colors.
331L: War Kids Seek Treasure
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?
330X: Wealthy Uncle Watches Orphaned Siblings Take Care Of Elderly Stockman “Uncle”
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.
330A: Scarecrow Soldier
I am looking for a children’s picture book possibly printed between 1930’s/1940’s – 1980’s. Not sure when it was printed. My husband remembers reading it when he was a kid at his grandparents in the 1980’s. My guess is it’s from the 50’s, 60’s, or 70’s.
The book takes place on a farm or in a large garden. One day the animals notice a stranger (the scarecrow) on the farm or garden and get scared. The weather elements try to get rid of the scarecrow. The wind blows as hard as it can at the scarecrow. The rain pours on it, the sun beats its heat on it, until one day there’s nothing left of the scarecrow except maybe the pole he was on. My husband remembers the scarecrow looking like a soldier, or at least having an old uniform and a sword.
I believe he said the cover was blue with the scarecrow on it? Not really too sure on that.
I appreciate any help in finding this book.
329G: Silver Headed Ghost Children (Solved!)
The second story I am trying to track down from my childhood is an anthology of weird and horror stories (not really gory given the era, and written for children). It was in our school library in the early 80s and worn, so it could easily date to the 1950s through the 1970s. The story is about two children (a brother and sister) who come across and old house in the woods and find that a family of children live there who are very strange. They have silver hair and no parents. Eventually the unusual children hold a party with a big cake that has a sleigh with two small dolls that look like the brother and sister. The brother and sister find out that when the sleigh rolls down the hill of the cake they will be trapped forever to stay with the silver headed children. They flee the house and when they return the next morning they find nothing but ancient ruins. Apparently the silver headed children are ghosts that only occasionally turn up and wanted the brother and sister to join them. I'm afraid I don't recall any of the other stories in the anthology. Thanks!