Category Archives: 1960s

341C: Spoiled siblings are reformed by fixing up an old house

Probably written in the 60s or 70s, this is a YA book about a pair of spoiled siblings growing up in the city (I think the opening scene is of them terrorizing a babysitter). Their parents announce quite suddenly that they (the parents) are going away for the summer and that the kids will live with a relative (an aunt or a cousin) in the country. Their aunt has a husband or boyfriend who I think is Native American and the kids are both afraid of him and passionately unhappy, especially since they are expected to help fix up the big old house in which they are all living. Eventually they start working (I remember clearly a scene in which they scrape all the old paint off of tall pillars out front) and gradually are reformed so that their parents hardly recognize them when they return.

340X: Man Befriends Ghost At Haunted House

I am looking for a picture book that I enjoyed when I was a child in the late 70s. It was hardbound and told the story of a man who had a long-nosed coupe and inherits/comes into a mansion and after a foggy drive there and inhabiting it discovers it is haunted. He discovers a secret tunnel underground (under a lake?) and ultimately makes friends with the ghost and I believe is led to a stash of treasure. I loved this story as I scared easily but was fascinated with ghosts, and in recollecting it reminded me slightly of Edward Gorey’s work. I think he might have been a bit Sherlockesque with a coat, hat and pipe. Had a very 60s/70s style and sensibility in the illustration. Would love to have a copy. Thank you for your sleuthing!

340Y: Hidden Paintings and Blueberries

I am looking for a children’s mystery book about several siblings who are spending the summer in an old house and find several paintings hidden in the house by a deceased but famous painter. It seems as though their grandmother is with them and they spend time picking blueberries. I thought the name of the book was Blueberry Summer or The Blue Boy but these titles don’t match the book I remember. The book is about 50 -60 years old.

340X: Fun With A Doctor’s Mother And A Quaker Mother

This book was written for young women, maybe 10 years old, and written in the late 50’s or maybe early 60’s.  For whatever reason, the words How Many Miles to Babylon has always been in my mind, but I know that book and this isn’t it.  The young girl has a doctor who is a hard-working doctor in a hospital, the mother is a “doctor’s wife” — very lively and fun and I think there is a sibling, maybe a little boy.  There is also the woman’s grandfather who I remember as a little stuffy and patrician.  The girl has a friend who is Quaker and has a mother who is a widow, I’m assuming.  They live alone together.  I remember wonderful details.  The Quaker mother makes lunch and asks the girls to set the table and they pick the blue dishes because they look so pretty against the raspberries.  The doctor’s wife mother picks her daughter up and says they are going on a road trip and I think that the sibling will stay with Granny.  Then they drive to the hospital and grab the husband because he needs a road trip!  The mother drives and the father and daughter laugh because she says rude things to the rest of the drivers.  She’s pretty hip.  I remember they stop at a roadside motel with cottages and the mother tells her to wear her bathing slippers in the shower because who knows!  The last thing I remember is lobster.  They have some kind of wonderful lobster.

I think they are in Philadelphia, or maybe Main Line suburban Philadelphia, but the only reason I think that is that the friend is Quaker.  That’s it!  The book I remember as illustrated but maybe it was just my imagination.  Thanks for anything you can find.

340W: Tiny Girl Flies On Cockroach

My mom is looking for a book from her childhood.

We do not know the title. She remembers reading it when she was in 4th or 5th grade, so it might be from the late 50’s early 60’s.
It’s a hardback around 20 pages and there were pictures and words on each page (half and half). The story is about a tiny girl (elf size) possibly with black hair; it could be set in Paris, she does remember the Eiffel Tower. The tiny girl is poor and befriends a cockroach. The cockroach gives her rides throughout the area, there is a pin on the cockroach…sort of like the pole on a carousel horse…for the girl to hold onto. She also rides in the sky in a walnut shell attached to a red balloon.
This is NOT Thumbelina.
Good luck!

340U: Talk Show Goes To The Dogs

This book is fiction, and could be a novel, short story, or novella, but set in the current time and real world when the book was published (sometime between 1960-1985). A famous night-time talk show (along the lines of The Tonight Show during the Carson age) hosts a segment featuring a guest who is a man with a very smart dog; the guest claims the dog can understand spoken conversation, beyond just verbal commands. There are a number of conflicts that arise; the main conflict is the sponsor of the show (a dog food company, I think) wanting to use the dog in advertising, but the dog’s owner refusing. I think it is set in Manhattan, and the book culminates in a dog fight on the ice of a pond in Central Park (between the smart dog, I think a golden retriever, and a doberman pinscher).

340K: Separates

Looking for a book from about 1960 about a young teen girl. Her mom makes all her dresses, but she wants to babysit for extra money so she can buy “separates.” She babysits children who come down with diphtheria and she must work hard to save them while in quarantine. Good luck!

340C: Old Children’s Storybook: Hot Water Williams, Over-Fishing Fishermen, and More

When I was a child we had this big storybook with a red cover that must have been published sometime between 1960-1990. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on the Internet by searching details that I remember and I can’t remember the title. The first story I remember was about an old grumpy man whose bathtub begins to overflow because the bathtub knob gets stuck and he needs the help of the whole community to turn the knob. Everyone comes together to help him even though he is so grumpy and mean. I believe this story was called Hot Water Williams, but again this search phrase pulls up nothing for me on Google. The other story I remember is about a boat of fishermen who overfish and their boat starts to sink. The illustrations were very 70s-style. There were several stories but these are the only two I remember. If anyone can help me find it I would be so happy because it was one of my favorite books ever. I’ve been trying to find it for years.

339Q: My House is Cozy – Bedtime Poem (Solved)

I was born in the late 70’s and my mom used to recite a bedtime poem to us each night. I can remember three different verses:
Opening verse:
My house is cozy warm and wide.
It has the nicest things inside…
A knife, a fork, a yellow cup,
For drinking all my cocoa up…
Closing verse:
Outside my window I can see,
The moon and stars shine down on me.
Basically the poem was a tour of a child’s home. I believe there was a stop in the kitchen, bathroom then finally the bedroom. I don’t believe it was an original work, and seem to recall my mom saying that she got it from a book, although I don’t ever remember her reading it to us. She was born in the 50’s, so it could be from her childhood. My uncle (her youngest brother) was 10 years older than me, and it may have been a book from him that arrived in disrepair and so she memorized it to recite. My thought is that it is from a compilation/treasury of bedtime poems/rhymes/stories between 1950 and 1980. Googling hasn’t yielded anything. On a whim, I recently purchased Rene Cloke’s Bedtime Book to see if it was from there, but it wasn’t.
Thank you for any help you can provide! We lost our mom 4 years ago and I would love to find the source of this to share with my brothers and sister.