Category Archives: 1950s

370F: Kids exploring cave during the depression era (Solved!)

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I’ve been searching for this book for years.  I cannot remember all the details but the basics:
Farm kids during the great depression, I think a boy and a girl.  They go exploring a cave nearby and pretend its their mansion.  So they don’t get lost they use breadcrumbs but birds eat it.  They decide to use string instead.  A mystery of some sort is solved.  I seem to recall mention of the Hobos that would come around looking for work, and their family took one in and fed him a meal.  At the end of the book he left markings on their fence that was code for “friendly family” or something like that.  Other details: I THINK they took a canary into the cave, there was something to do with the underground railroad, and ration books were mentioned.  

I read this book when I was in 6th grade, possibly 1977/78.  It was an old book at the time, hardbound with the old fabric book covering. I think it had illustrations but can’t quite remember–I read a LOT in those days.  This book belonged to my mom who was born in 38–sadly its been long lost.

370A: Book about a Japanese Girl & Girls’ Day (circa 1959) (Solved!)

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I’ve been trying to remember the title of a book that I read many times back circa 1959. The book was fiction about a young Japanese girl living in Japan. She was learning about Girls’ Day, which involved setting up an elaborate display of traditional dolls representing the Japanese Emperor and Empress and other figures. The girl and her mother had tea and tradition food so that the girl could learn manners and decorum. The book was hard-covered and illustrated with hand drawings in black and white. I don’t remember if the entire book was about Girls’ Day, or if that was just my favorite part of the book.

369O: The Wheel of Time (Solved!)

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The book I am looking for is a young adult novel published sometime before 1975- most likely late 50s or 60s.
In the book, a war widow with a boy and a girl takes a job as caregiver to an old country house. The children find a book in the library to “”change the wheel of time.” They some how see three children of a century before and become involved with them. At the end of the book, they children are discovered to be the heirs of the house.
Thanks in advance-I appreciate the information!

368T: Hidden riches turns out to be rare books

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I’m looking for a mystery/adventure book I read in the 1980’s in my elementary school library.  I believe it came from the same section where the Nancy Drew, Three Investigators, etc. books were and so could have been published in the 70s, 60s, or before.  I don’t remember if it was part of a series or a stand-alone book.  I believe the main character was a female who was investigating a mystery that involved a mansion.  In the mansion there was a library with lots of books that she would visit.  I don’t remember any of the main plot but the end stuck with me.  The man who owned the house was said to have hidden his riches somewhere.  In a twist at the end of the story the main character realizes the books that are in the library are rare originals (e.g. first-edition Shakespeare, early edition Bible, etc.)  The riches were hiding in plain sight all this time in the form of these rare books.
Can anyone help me locate the title or more information about this book?

368G: Searching for a Children’s Book with a Valentines Day Theme

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1950s or early 1960s children’s picture book. Little boy has some sort of issue on Valentines Day; maybe a fight with his brother? I think he loses a valentine card, maybe one that he made. I remember an illustration of him in his pajamas outside in the snow. I think he finds the missing valentine outside in the snow. 

367I: A Magical Trip

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As a fourth grader in 1980, I had a teacher who kept a personal library of paperback books for us children to read when we were finished with all our other work. I read dozens of books in Mrs. Cohn’s classroom.
So assume this book to be anywhere from 1950s-1970s publication, a novel but fairly short. Things I recall:
There were at least two boys on the trip to another world/realm/dimension which they may have accessed via a cave.
Somehow they were equipped with a small wooden box of sausage and cheese. Intending to conserve their rations, they only ate half of each and discovered upon reopening the box that the food had regenerated to the full, original proportion.
They also had a blanket that would cover them both but fold down to pocket handkerchief sized and a “magic” match that could be struck and used again and again and even be stuck in a crevice and (perhaps rotated?) to become bright as a torch.
In one scene they passed a gangrel/beggar/wastrel on the road and as he came toward them he morphed into a well-clad, upright gentleman with a sandwich board or a handbell and advertised some type of ware or service and upon passing, returned to his former low state.

366X: Knocking over petrified Soviet soldiers

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I’m looking for a British book written probably between 1946 and 1953. About a group of teenagers and a professor who escape world apocalypse by petrification in a balloon. They travel all over the petrified world and visit the USSR where they topple Stalin’s petrified soldiers like dominoes. I remember thinking the book to be very gory for a children’s book. My Mom read this book when she was a teenager and said the author was fairly well known in Britain at the time.

366L: The Mouse’s House by the Waterhole

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I’m trying to find a children’s book my mother read me over 50 years ago.

I remember vividly.

The mouse tells all the animals at the waterhole:

There’s a creature in my house yelling and screaming and throwing the furniture out of the windows.

He says this to lions, tigers, giraffes.  In the end, it turns out the creature is  an owl that the jungle animals trumpet and roar at, and it flies out of the mouse’s house in the tree.

Then, the lions realize they are hungry, and the giraffes and zebras etc. run away before the lions and tigers can get them.  The mouse returns to his house in the tree.

366C: Bear Gets Tail Caught, Loses Coat

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A picture book, mid century American, 40s-60s possibly. 
A man lives out in the woods, it’s winter. I believe there is something about pancakes. He has to go outside to do something, he takes out his winter coat which has been eaten by moths. At one point he runs into a bear, but his gun powder has gotten wet so it doesn’t work. He ends up tying the bears tail in a knot, which gets caught between trees and the bear is running so fast he jumps out of his skin. The man wears it as a coat and goes home to eat said pancakes.