Category Archives: 1950s

353X: Child gives last ration of chocolate away

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This was a book I read in the 70s, but it might have been written anytime after WWII and it had a certain 50s or 60s vibe to it.
I am pretty sure it took place during WWII and was set somewhere in Europe.
I recall the character — a boy (I think) of around 12 — had a couple squares of his chocolate ration left. He was very hungry and they didn’t have much food, but he gave his ration away to another child — I think a girl, around the same age.
For the longest time I thought it was from Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan but I tracked down that book and read it to my son and there is no such scene.

352Y: Fireside Tales (Solved!)

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The book I am looking for is one my mum used to read as a child. It had a collection of books and poems. She had it in the 1950s but I don’t know when it was published.
She thought it was called Fireside Tales, but this could be wrong as the book cover came off. She remembers there being fairies and elves on the inside cover.
One of the stories was called “Fireside concert”.
Fireside concert is a story about a fireplace and the tools. When the fire is just about to fall asleep, one of the tools says let’s have a concert, so one by one they do a little dance or something fun before they go to sleep.
Another was “Little grey mouse”
She said there was a story about a thread-bare Little mouse. I am not sure if that is the same story or the title of another one.
There are 2 poems she remembers. I don’t know the tites but she remembers the words.
First one:

“Closed are the story books on the shelf

The teddy bear’s fast asleep
The sun has gone from a darkening sky
And stars through the window peep
So off we go to the land of Nod
Down winding lullaby lane
With the night light fairies to accompany us
Till morning comes again
And it that wonderful land of Nod
Are things that bring delight
So hurry along or we’ll be too late

Good night little ones, goodnight”

Second one is about a teapot I only have a small part:
“neat and round and brown am I, merry little fellow, patchwork cosy on my head, red green and yellow. Gather round the table now, draw the curtains tight, fireside is the place for me, on a winter’s night.”
I would be so grateful for any help finding this book as it would mean the world to mum to have a copy. We have been looking for about 40 years now!

352W: Late 50’s early 60’s space fiction

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Late 50’s early 60’s space fiction about a boy on a planet (possibly mars) with his pet.  The boy needs to get to different city/friends home.  Walks via an old highway but the temperature dips extremely, causing the boy to find refuge in a giant cabbage like plant that closes at night, saving him.

Read this from the 5th grade 1961/62 Ellis Elementary School library in Sunnyvale California.

352P: Old YA sailing adventure book

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I don’t know the title of the book.

I believe it was published in the 1940s or 1950s, but I’m not certain of this.

The overall plot is a sailing voyage from the East Coast (Boston, I think) around the tip of South America to San Francisco.

It is definitely NOT the Richard Henry Dana book Two Years Before the Mast.

The main character is a young boy in his teens going to sea (as an apprentice deckhand or cabin boy or some such) for the first time on one of the new, fast clipper ships and he’s got to learn all about shipboard life and work, furling and unfurling sails, coiling ropes, tying knots, etc. He somehow makes an enemy of an older seaman who confronts him at the climax of the story, while a shipboard fire is raging, with the intent to kill him. The boy somehow escapes, but his injuries are extensive enough that he is unable to complete the voyage.

That’s about all I can tell you. I remember it being a ripping good yarn. I hope this description is enough.

351W: 11 Year Old Girl Rehabilitates Horse Named Black Baldwin (Solved!)

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I am looking for a children’s/YA horse story from the late fifties or early sixties.  It features a somewhat broken down horse named Black Baldwin, who was bought/adopted by an eleven year old girl desperate to have a horse.  She rehabilitates him and eventually wins second prize in some kind of horse show event.  The book had small pen and ink drawings throughout.  I don’t remember the book jacket though, I believe it had one.

I searched for a long time thinking the horse’s name was the title of the book.  Either it is and every copy is long gone, or there is some other title.

350K: Battle of Trafalgar

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Sometime in 1960-62 I took an English History course in college. We were assigned reading for extra credit. I read a book about the Battle of Trafalgar, which I remember as riveting. I specifically remember a fulsome description of life aboard the battleship, including descriptions of how food was prepared, how surgery was performed during the battle, and other daily concerns of the sailors. I do not think this was a biography of Lord Nelson, rather a blow by blow of the lead-up to the Battle and the Battle itself. Clearly it had to have been written prior to 1960. I would really like to find this book.

349L: Scaring Moose by Yelling in French

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In the early 1960s we had a picture book that was probably published in the 1950s. It was about a man and boy walking through the woods, possibly in Canada. The man was likely a lumberjack.

At the climactic moment, they encounter a moose on the trail. The man scares it away by yelling “Marche donc!”
This is all I remember about the book.

349G: Selfish Witch, Disguised as Regular Girl, Does Selfless Favor

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Looking for a beautiful line-drawn picture book from earlier than 1975, about a witch and her daughter who live beyond the seven valleys and the seven seas. The daughter witch is selfish, and does not come home to her mother on time. Her mother sends her away until she can do a selfless favor for someone, while disguised as a regular girl. She is dropped off outside a village. Eventually, she finds a little boy who is also being punished, and helps him peel mounds and mounds of potatoes. She falls asleep doing this, and her mother comes to collect her. Ends with a line something like, "but she could never stand the sight of another potato."

349F: Boy with gigantic tall spoon catching clouds

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I am seeking a vintage children’s anthology possibly printed somewhere between 1940s-1960s. Possibly earlier.
The main clue is an illustration of a boy holding a huge spoon, (tall like a ladder) scooping up clouds.
The featured poem with the illustration is
CLOUDS
 by Dorothy Aldis
If I had a spoon
As tall as the sky
I’d dish out the clouds
That go slip-sliding by.
I’d take them right in
And give them to cook
And see if they tasted
As good as they look.
I’ve searched other books and I can usually find this poem, but I cannot find the right illustration of the little boy holding the tall spoon catching clouds.
The book was a hardcover cloth-like blue,  with faded letters embossed on cover. There was no dust jacket.
I thought maybe the book was “Here, There, and Everywhere” by D. Aldis, but as it turns out, it is not the right book 🤔
Size of the book was approximately
 8″ x 11″x 1″ thick.

348D: Orphan Girl Finds Factory Job and Friends

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I was born in 1946, probably read and reread this book several times during the fifties and it burned its way into my psyche.  The story line is a little girl who is orphaned? Abandoned?  At any rate, she is alone and knows she has to take care of herself.  She wanders in the woods and comes across an abandoned hut.  She moves in and goes about making a home and a life for herself.  She is able to find a job in a factory nearby and finds some friends….and there my memories run out….
I have no inkling of the title nor what it looked like. It was not a picture book but I think it did have some illustrations.
Not much to go on,I know.  I don’t even remember her name.  I don’t expect anything, really…just worth the “investment” to have someone on my team.  I’ve been haunting old book sales for years without success.