Category Archives: 1960s

342I: Children playing in a tree

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My brother and I have been searching for a picture book that we were particularly fond of as children. I don’t remember the title but it would have been published in the late 60’s or early 70’s. The story is about a boy (possibly named Keith) who has his father help him built a fort in a large tree in his back yard. Some neighbor children come by to play, and they end up adding their own structures to the tree. I remember one of the friends puts a big wash tub up in the tree and pretends to be an astronaut in a ship. Some girls bring their dolls up in the tree and make a tent with a blanket or some kind of hammock. There’s also a plank that they stand on that is supposed to be a raft? Maybe one of the kids was a pirate? Not sure, but before you know it, all the neighborhood children are playing in the tree. I can still see the illustrations in my mind’s eye and and would recognize it if I saw it. Thanks!

341O: Illustration of giant, dog and boy

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As a child in the mid sixties I was looking through a children’s book and all I can remember is one illustration and I have been looking for this book for years.
The illustration was not a full page, the page included the story.  The illustration was of a giant holding out his ring and a little black dog was jumping through the ring.  The giant had dark hair and beard, kind of reminded me to Brutus from the Popeye cartoons.He was laughing with delight.   There was also a boy in the picture.  I believe the dog belonged to the boy.  It looked like it was sketched with a pencil.

341L: Little girl’s doll makeover at her father’s Doll Hospital (Solved!)

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Looking for a child's fiction/picture book circa 1950's-1960's, maybe even 1940's -Hardcover - Colored pictures drawn like doll wigs of different colors, new clothes in tissue paper, clothes accessories, etc. Pictures are not 'cartoony'; more true to life.

Story: Little girl has been asking her father to fix her doll but he has been too busy at his shop. Finally, on the little girl's birthday, he closes his doll hospital early and dedicates the rest of the day to fixing up her beloved doll with new eyes, face and clothes that she gets to pick out all by herself.

341F: Human Sterilization for Health Care

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It's not a children's book. I probably read this book 20 years ago and it was not a new book then. I'm guessing it was written some time between the 40s and 60s, but that's just a guess. The book takes place in a society where there have been lots of treatments for genetic diseases, so people who used to die before child-bearing age weren't, passing the diseases along, and health of the population was therefore less robust. (Plus possibly the cost of treatment.) So people were only allowed to get medical treatments, vaccinations, etc. if they were sterilized. I seem to recall people living in a sort of health-care ghetto and many people being anti-health care.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!