Category Archives: 1950s

235A: A young girl shares her weathervanes with her neighbors (Solved)

I was born in 1953 and think maybe the book was for 8-10 year olds so, if it was newly-published, maybe it was from the early 1960s? I have only vague memories of it, of course.  The story of a girl who has moved somewhere new–a place that, to a kid like me from Los Angeles, stuck with me as exotic, like maybe Florida? I think the plot is that the girl has this collection of weathervanes and, when family relocates to a housing development where all the homes are identical, she gets this great idea of giving each neighbor one of the different weathervanes to make life easier for everyone! (The movie “Inside Out” made me think of this book–what happens when a plucky little girl moves?)

233G: Prudence and Plum


Children’s book, I read this in the 60’s probably. The main characters were two young orphaned sisters called Prudence and Plum. It was a thick book. Don’t remember much about it except it was recommended to me as a child by a kind librarian who let me borrow it from a back room stack of books about to be discarded.

233F: Child Musician Automatons Mystery


Children’s book, read this, maybe, in the late 60’s. It’s a mystery that starts with, I think, children finding a clue in a large (almost life size?) automaton, or moving mechanical toy, of a child playing an instrument. There are three of these automatons, one who plays a small piano, created by a gifted artist. The stories are about the children’s hunt to find the entire set. Toward the end of the book they meet a woman who is related to the artist.

233E: A book with a dumbwaiter, hair embroidery and a bat with writing on its wings


Children’s book, I read this book(s) in the late 60’s. It was a library book and I don’t remember it looking new, just a canvas textured hard-covered book with no paper jacket, so it may have been written sometime earlier. It was quite thick, and there may have been more than one book with the same characters. There are 3 (?) children, two boys and a girl, in a large old house with lots of interesting historical references. One thing I recall is a picture of the same house embroidered with human hair, a type of Victorian handiwork. I looked it up – I don’t think the book was clear on that point. The book did mention the difficulty of embroidering with a black child’s short curly hair – so it may have predated political correctness. My apologies. There was a feeling of almost time travel, or of dreams of events in the lives of the house’s past occupants, and of something mystical about the house. I also remember a dead bat nailed, wings spread, in the bottom of a wooden box. The bat had writing on its wings. There was a dumbwaiter in the house, large enough for the children to ride in. There was younger boy named Ben, not sure if he was one of the children mentioned above or someone from the past. There was something about Ben and a pet monkey, and how Ben related his short suit (suit with shorts rather than long pants, like you sometimes see young boys wearing in old pictures) to the clothes the monkey wore.

233C: A series follows a young girl to adulthood (Solved)

The main character, Jennifer? Jennie? Jenny? Possibly on the farm could’ve been the first.
These were a series of chapter books featuring an American girl who (moves?) to the country, detailing her charming life on a farm. There were several from when she was about 6-8 to almost 20 I believe. There were animal characters, a boy she might have married, various family members. She takes up ballet in later books. She wears her hair in looped braids. I read these as a child in the 80’s but they were clearly written much earlier. I would say 40’s or 50’s. Possibly 30’s or 60’s but doubtful.

I would so very much love to find them for my own daughter! I adored these- not only because she had the same name as me. I remember being even fonder of them than the Betsy Tacy books. In a way they were in between those and the Little House stories. Set the stage for Anne of Green Gables. So curious to know why they’ve disappeared!

233A: Native American boy skips school to hunt

I need the title and author for children’s book from 1960’s. American Indian boy skips school to go hunting, encounters animals small to large who send him to the next bigger animal (gopher,rabbit, bobcat, wolf, antelope, bear). Finally bear with cubs admonishes him for hunting for fun while she only hunts when hungry which is NOW so he runs back to the little schoolhouse. Illustrations are brown tones. Cover is white with little Indian boy in a long chief’s headdress. Possible title Littlest Braveheart or Little Braveheart? Maybe Scholastic or Weekly reader paperback.
Thank you for any help you can provide which will help me get another copy of this book.