Category Archives: 1950s

147A: 1950’s book…COLONIAL GIRL TURNING SPIT, ROCKING BABY IN CRADLE

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I read this book in the 1950’s…it was purchased I believe during a vacation on Cape Cod. It was the story of a family from the perspective of the daughter. She helps her mother with the chores, sweeping with a corn broom, turning the spit and tending a cauldron and fire while rocking the baby in a cradle.The book describes their clothing…both their everyday working clothes and their dress clothes that they change into to meet this important person the whole community is waiting for…Peter Stuyvesant…Governor of New Amsterdam.
The illustrations were done either in colored pencils, water colors or pastels…not quite sure which after all this time.
Thanks for your time and efforts.

 

145R: older version Lovely Summer

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The book I am looking for is NOT:   Lovely Summer, The by Marc Simont (Mar 1, 1992).  The book is about two rabbits Gladys and Tyrone, Globby the Woodchuck, two vacationing humans with a cocker spaniel, and a conflicts in use of a garden.  Pub. in 50s or 60s (?)
b & w illustrations, blue cloth cover

 

144B: 1950’s YA boy & dad visit Abe Lincoln sites

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I Have been looking for over 50 years for a book I read during the late 50’s, most likely an offering from from the Weekly Reader’s Book Club or some other monthly book club of the era.

My hazy memory is that a boy and his dad (perhaps whole family), visit Lincoln’s birth site, etc., on some kind of vacation or road trip. Another book in this club was No Children, No Pets. Help! This is a chapter book.

 

144A: A Shipwrecked Rabbit Reflects (solved)

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This is the second of two books I read in elementary school more than 50 years ago, circa 1960. (I describe the first one in the “A Salmon’s Life Story” stumper.) They connected me with thoughts and feelings way beyond my tender years. I’ve never forgotten either one and would love to read them again.

This book was about a rabbit whom I’m fairly sure was a farmer. Early in the book he ignores a neighbor farmer who happened to be a skunk, because one simply doesn’t talk to skunks. Once shipwrecked, he has time to reflect on his life and realizes he had been wrong to snub his neighbor. The sentence that sticks in my memory is “he wished he had been kinder to the skunk,” or words to that effect. I’ve included a sketch of what I seem to remember the rabbit looked like – very sketchily drawn, very little facial expression.

The rabbit stood upright and wore only pants which I believe were solid black.  (It’s possible I might be remembering a rabbit from an entirely different book, but I’m fairly sure he’s in the one I’m seeking.)

This was more than a half century ago, but I’ve never forgotten either of these two books. If I’ve grown into any kind of thoughtful person, they definitely helped point me in that direction.

Thank you!

 

140B: A Yukon Adventure (solved)

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I am trying to locate a book for a friend.  The title is not known and it was probably published in the late1940’s or early 1950’s.  Some Disney friends went looking for gold in the Yukon and ran into Peg-Leg Pete.  While trying to escape him one of the friends shook hands with a totem pole and a trap door opened up to save them from Peg-Leg. 

 

138B:main character paints all of the landscaping overnight bright and beautiful colors

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I am trying to find a book that I remember reading as a child.
I do not remember the title but I think it was from the 1950’s.
It was a thin book about the size of a Golden Book.
At the end of the story the main character paints all of the landscaping overnight bright and beautiful colors, which surprises everyone the next morning…  🙂