A family advertises for a kitten, people from everywhere bring them kittens, then they have too many so they give them away. The children are then sad because they gave all the kittens away when one appears from behind a stove, I think. Probably from the 60’s, Small book that I would of bought myself at a dime store. I think it had a black and white kitten on the front.
I am hoping you can help me find a book I remember from my childhood (probably 40 years ago). The book was about a young girl who lived in an apartment (I believe) and was very lonely. Another young girl moved in and they became best friends. One of the girls found out her family was moving and she was very sad and worried about making a new friend. The first girl gave her a smooth stone and told her when she was lonely to hold the smooth stone and she would feel the warmth of their friendship.
At least this is how my memory recalls the story. LOL!
If I recall correctly the cover had a light blue background and the girls were sitting on the steps of the apartment building.
I have tried to Google search this to no avail.
I am assuming that this book may no longer be in print. Thanks for any help you can provide.
This book I believe would have been published within 1960-80. It was a collection of limericks and poems, black and white pictures only on rough pulpy paper, hardcover woven material,off white. No slip cover (sleeve) photo as I believe it likely had a slip cover at one time, but not once I had it as a child.
The illustrations, there was one for each, I think and they were very character based and they were all black and white. The very closest stories and illustrations that I can find that bear a resemblance is “Backward Bill” by Silverstein.
There is only one poem in the collection that I remember clearly. The illustration was of a skinny man walking on his hands in the sand. He has a pail hanging from his foot by the handle. The poem talks about this certain man collecting periwinkles on the beach and using his foot to carry the pail. I can’t remember the reason he has for doing this. I do remember it being a very comical book.
It would mean great deal if you were able to find this book. If there are any other details that come I can let you know.
I’m looking for a middle school book, what would be YA these days, but they didn’t have YA in the 60’s, when I most likely read this book. The protagonist is a girl, part of whose attention is focused on a night-blooming cereus cactus party that her family will hold on the night that the plant blooms. Surrounding this domestic detail are the events leading up to the Anschluss and the threat that the Anschluss presents.
I was born in the late 70’s and my mom would read to me a used children’s book of holiday stories with anthropomorphic characters. I remember an owl (or maybe a family of owls); a mouse that ate paste in the Valentine’s story; a Halloween story and a Christmas story. I seem to remember the cover was orange and the illustrations were in black & white with a dash of orange. The illustrations were definitely done in the unique style of the late ’60s/early ’70s. Any ideas? Thanks!
All I had was a memory of reading about a giant infant brought to a warehouse, where a man studied him. L158 “Large Child Playing With Real Cars” indicated the story was from a 1950’s or 1960’s elementary school reader, which seems right–the book was from the library back when I was 8 or 9 in the early 60’s. It mentions the warehouse, which I remember, the man, which I do recall must have been a scientist, but other than this I’m completely drawing a blank.
Thanks for any help you can give,
For some time I have been trying to remember the name and author of a book I read when I was around 13 years old, in the 1960’s. I believe the book would have been written in the 1950’s or early 1960’s, although maybe it was earlier from the 1940’s. I borrowed it from the public library in town.
It was by a male author who also wrote adult mysteries. My father recognized the author’s name and so also read this book and we talked and joked about it a little bit that year.
The plot is generally, that there is a boy, (young teen?) whose father is either a doctor or professor or archeologist ,who must speak Greek, because he is called in to talk to a patient who speaks ancient Greek. The patient says that he is from Greece (somewhere in ancient Greece, only to him it is the current and only one). Apparently he died and was sent out across the River Styx and ended up in a hospital or a mental institution in England, I believe.
So he wasn’t really dead when he was sent on his journey to the afterlife. As the father and the patient talk, the father and the son decide to go with the patient to retrace his journey and find the ancient Greek outpost that has somehow survived into the the 20th century. They find it and although I still can visualize this place, surrounded by mountains and cut off from the modern world, I cannot remember the ending of the book either.
I remember odd lines and scenes from the book. For example, the son has decided to read the Bible front to back and reflects upon some of the odd customs and the many battles in the Old Testament. Also, one of the things the patient says is that he prefers to clean himself by stepping into a basin of water and not the contraption where you pull on a chain and you are rained upon.
I have looked at many of the mystery authors of the time and have tried to see if they wrote such a book to no avail. I also looked in the Public Library where I grew up but it was too overwhelming and there is a good chance that book is not only out of print but was put into one of their many book sales years ago.
I cannot remember the title. Did it have “Zeus” in it somewhere? Did it refer to the river Styx? Did it have some cute title like the Greek Urn Cracked? The title must have captured my attention.
I appreciate your help with this as periodically I become obsessed with finding it.
1960’s-1970’s YA mystery short story–people search a castle for a missing keep or room wherein may be hidden a fortune. Many people search. They decide to put a cloth in each window as they search; then they can see from the outside which window has no cloth and is therefore the hidden room. The story is possibly from one of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents Anthologies. It certainly had that feel. Although many others are searching this castle for a missing keep or a room in a keep, only one person finds it. There is some sort of secret entrance, I recall. When the finder discovers the entrance and room, another character (the bad guy) goes with him and murders him there and “hides” the secret entrance to the room again.
I recall (or believe I recall) a line at the end—part of the thoughts of the skeptical castle groundskeeper, I think– “there was no Norman keep.”
Seeking a copy of a book that my father gave me circa 1963 when I was almost 7—the only and last present he gave me before disappearing from my life forever. Narrative follows a young boy sent to a sheep ranch, perhaps as an orphan(?) I believe, but little else comes to mind except a blue cloth binding and white or silver spine lettering. It was a YA book, over 100 pages, with some illustrations, which of course I could only read a few years later.
Inside he wrote: “Keep your right up” as he had tried to teach me to box, but I don’t think boxing is part of the story line.
(I had this copy until my sister sold it at a yard sale when I went away to school at 14!)