This is a query about a book published in probably the 60's or early 70's, about two boys who want to build a go-kart from a soapbox derby car. They get in a fight and take their things and go home. I know one builds a scooter instead. One boy is African American and one is white. I believe the illustrations are either sketched with pencil or maybe watercolor. Thank you.
Category Archives: 1960s
334Y: Girl, Ocean Liner, and Seagull
I am looking for a child's picture book with a girl, ocean liner, and a seagull. There is an ocean liner on the cover. It's contemporary to the 1960s. Thanks!
334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)
I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.
334T: Young Boy Learns To Swim
This was a very small (maybe 3” x 3”) thin paperback book(let) that was possibly free, as part of I think a bread purchase (maybe Colonial?) in the late 50’s or 60’s. About a boy, very scared of the water, who learns to swim, I think with his family on a camping trip. Name is something like Noah or Jonah, but it is not the book called Noah Learns to Swim. Also not Noah’s Swim-a-Thon.
334L: Old lady looking for her missing glasses
I am looking for a children's picture/story book about an old lady who lost her glasses. She looks everywhere in her house for them; under flowerpots, etc. The story ends when she finds them on her back. She had them on a string tied around her neck. There was a companion book about a farmer, but I don’t recall what that was about. It was at least 8x10, tan and not a thick book. Thinking it was 50’s/ early 60’s.
334K: Evolved Rats Vs Devolved Humans In Once Radioactive City
When I was young, 12 maybe, I checked a book out of the local library, reading it several times, which initiated a life long live of post apocalyptic fiction. In the book a young boy about my age lives with a tribe outside the ruins of a large city that might have been Chicago. The tribe is at the hunter gatherer level of technology. And his main weapon is a spear. The city itself is a blast zone/dead zone no one is allowed to go in because it is supposedly radioactive. I don’t remember why but he heads into the dead zone and discovers the radiation is no longer deadly. But living in the ruins are a race of evolved rat beasts that are six feet tall, stand on their hind legs, and are spear wielding. The rat beasts come after him and he has a series of near misses until he escapes the dead zone and is rescued in a big showdown between the human tribe and the rat tribe, being saved by the adults whose rules he defied. The book had large-ish print and excellent pen and ink drawings sprinkled throughout. I went back to the library that I got it from but the destroyed my old library card and no longer have the book. It would have been published in the 1950’s or first part of the 60’s. Any help finding it would be greatly appreciated.
334B: Teen romance, wheelchair, wheelchair basketball (Solved!)
Read this the summer of '72 in Santa Maria, California. It was a library book. A girl in a wheelchair and her older sister are shopping and the chair gets 2 flat tires. A young guy (ex-Army, I think) with a prosthetic leg helps them get home. He and the older sister date, but he steps on her foot as they dance. He plays wheelchair basketball, his chair tips and he's standing upright for a second, then face-plants and everyone laughs. I know this isn't much to go on, but it's all I've got.
333W: A Ducky Fairy Tale
Looking for a fairy tale that was last read in the 1960's, story of a duck who goes to the north, south, east, and west winds and pleads for them not to freeze his pond for the winter. The duck swims and swims to keep his pond from freezing, not sure how the tale ends. It was in a collection of Scandinavian fairy tales.
333S: Teenage Girl Helps Orphaned Foxes in their Den
My mom (born in 1960) has long searched for this book she read in her childhood. She consulted with librarians and even wrote a letter to the Toronto Star, but none of the suggestions were it. She gave up in the '90s. It was a picture book (for children) about a teenage girl who finds a den of orphaned fox cubs and cares for them in the den, rather than taking them home. The illustrations were in pencil crayon or pastel style. She believes it wasn't an old book back then, so it was probably published in the late '50s or '60s.
333K: Juvenile Fiction On Car Racing (Solved!)
Seeking a whole series of juvenile fiction books on car racing from the 1960s or 70s. The main character raced at Le Mans and the Baja 500, among other races. Devoured these books when I was young, but can't remember any of the titles or the author.