Category Archives: 1960s

379M: Looking for a storybook from 1970s

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I am looking for a large, oversized children’s picture book that I read between 1973 and 1976. It was an anthology containing many stories. One story I remember clearly featured two zebras — a father and a son — who would race each other. The young son could never beat his father, until one day he finally did. The book may have been published in the 1950s or 1960s. Any help identifying either the specific zebra story or the anthology it appeared in would be greatly appreciated.

379K: Lost in the Word Factory

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What I recall: 

-Children’s picture book, read in the 90s, but could be from 60s/70s/80s

– Illustratons were very simple, like James Stevenson or Jules Pfieffer

– Plot about a boy who visits some sort of factory or construction site where words are made- very similar to Charlie and the chocolate factory, but with concepts around stuff like words (and maybe some numbers/math too?)

– I recall a section where a kid gets stuck to a balloon (maybe a speech bubble) and floats away, and has to be rescued by an older gentleman who throws some sort of dart to deflate it. The man runs? The factory and gives the boy a tour.

379I:  Nefertiti with Glasses (Solved!)

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I’m searching for a teen/YA mystery novel from the 1960’s or perhaps the late 1950’s set on a college campus. Two students, along with their archeology professor, try to solve a mystery of a missing artifact. The one detail I distinctly recall is the male student nicknames the female student Nefertiti with glasses. As a very awkward fourteen year old with glasses, that stuck with me, leading me to believe there was hope yet for me! I’m sorry my description is sketchy after 60 years, but I do remember enjoying the story and would love to re-read it once again.

378T: Trying to find this book and/or author

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A guy in his 20-30’s suddenly feels a “ripple” and is transformed into another identity, another situation, and totally different place within the United States. It was paperback, I read it in the late 1960’s – 1970’s in English. Sci- fi main character this one guy, one scene: he leaves his clothes on the bank of a pond to go skinny dipping with a friend (a woman), they go under water and feel the “ripple” and then when they come up out of the water they are somewhere else, with no clothes. They catch a ride with a man in a pickup truck. Another scene he is in Hawaii with a group of people getting ready to walk on a bed of hot coals.

378S: Old Doll Left Behind for New Doll, Then Reclaimed by Girl (1960s–70s)

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I’m searching for a short children’s story I remember from the late 1960s or 1970s, possibly from Reader’s Digest, a school reader, or a children’s magazine. It’s told from the point of view of an old doll.

In the story, a little girl is packing a suitcase for a trip. The old doll is thrilled to be included and looks forward to the adventure. At the last moment, the girl gets distracted by a new doll, grabs it instead, and leaves — the old doll is left behind, heartbroken. Later, the car returns, the girl rushes in, drops the new doll, and takes the old doll with her.

378G: Alien & human boy bond over baseball then alien discards the ball en route out of earth’s orbit, late 60s very early 70s

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I read this book in approx 1974 (latest cut off date), it was more probably between 1968 and 1973. 
The book is about a kid about age 10 who loved baseball, as I did, and he liked to play catch. And meanwhile he meets a new kid about his same age and they become friends, build a bond, which eventually leads to the two playing catch. The baseball becomes a symbol of their friendship. The plot twist is that this friend is actually an alien, whose parents are aliens. I don’t recall much more of the plot. I think the alien kid is waiting until his parents repair their spaceship so they can continue their galactic journey. So when that is accomplished, the alien dad, mom, and son (the alien kid who had befriended the earthling kid) are in their spaceship ready to continue their journey, and they reach a point when they cross it the alien boy will forget everything about his time on Earth. When they do this, one of the alien parents asks the kid, what is that? And they are referring to a baseball which the earth kid had gifted him as a memory/souvenir of their friendship. Only, being past the “point of no return,” the alien boy doesn’t recognize or know what it is, and, being rather meaningless, he or the family eject it from the spaceship (I think throw it through the window, but I could be wrong). Their journey continues. That is the basic plot. I was not happy with the ending!