Category Archives: 1960s

316N: 3-D Glasses Lead to Magic World

I am looking for the title of a book I read when I was a child, in about 1965 or so. It was about a girl who was at home, ill in bed, while her friends went to the 3-D movies. She couldn’t go due to her illness, but her friends brought her a pair of the 3-D glasses. When she put them on, she was transported to a magic world. It seems to me like there was lemonade rain but I’m not sure.

Does this ring a bell with you?

316M: Colouring a grey kingdom leads to misfortune

A man (possibly the king of a realm) lives in a kingdom, its quite likely grey, and he discovers various colours in his castle / dungeon. You see a brilliant patch of colour in an otherwise totally grey scene as he discovers each colour. He rushes outside and paints the entire land colours, but this makes the inhabitants sick / depressed / angry etc. based on the characteristics expected of that color. Colors include (from memory) pink, cyan and yellow.

I first had this read to me in the late 70’s and as it was from my public library so may have been published considerably earlier, perhaps 1950’s or 1960’s.

316E: The 3 little ones ate all the fruit

I am looking for a children’s picture book. I probably had this book in the mid to late 1960s.  In the story there are 3ish siblings (I think animals, but possibly children) that play outside while their mother is visiting a friend. The mother’s friend has a picket fence that encloses her yard. On the fence is a grape vine or berry bush. The 3 little ones eat all of the fruit. They feel badly about their behavior and replace the fruit the next day by tying fruit that they bought to the fence.

316B: The mystery of the dead cousin

It’s a mystery/thriller, with some paranormal overtones. I was born in ’66 and I believe I’d read it by the time I entered high school in ’80, so it must have been written sometime before then. Possibly way before then, as I recall the book was a beat-up paperback when I picked it up.

It’s about a set of female cousins. One is dramatically beautiful, outgoing and rich, and kind of mean; she dies (I think before the book’s action begins) and leaves her estate to her cousin, who bears a certain resemblance to her but is kind and introverted. The good cousin moves into the house and begins thinking her dead cousin was murdered, I think? She also starts behaving oddly – more like the dead cousin. She dyes her hair to match the dead cousin. I vaguely recall a reference to “silver blonde” or something like that.
There’s a love interest for the cousin – I want to say he’s a lawyer? And that he also had some kind of relationship with the dead cousin? Maybe?

I think the dead cousin’s name is Cathy or Kathy, or maybe it’s the surviving cousin’s name? I don’t remember how the book develops the ghost angle – whether the ghost is real or just the cousin’s imagination – but I’m pretty sure it turns out she was murdered.

There’s a supporting character who’s a friend of the living cousin. I remember she shows up at one point and is described as an earth mother type, I think, and says something about the coffee she’s offered – like “heavens, yes, keep it coming” or maybe “I like my coffee like I like my men” but I could be wrong on that.

God I hope that’s enough because it’s driving me nuts, and I can’t find it, and this is all I recall.

315W: A lion of a tale

It's a children's book, kind of big, maybe 8"x10", old, probably from the 60's or earlier. Hardcover. There is a lion on the front, I think the cover was pinkish. Multiple stories, one involving a lion that gave his hair to birds and lost it all, so they brought him leaves. I think another was about monkeys. I've been searching for years. Halp! 😀

315T: Psychedelic lollipop trees

I was born in 1975. There was a short children’s book that I have forgotten the name of. I seem to remember that it was more landscape format than portrait. The over-riding memory of the book was psychedelic landscapes and one in particular was made up of trees made of lollipops. Possibly other landscapes and scenes made up of different objects.  That’s all I remember.

315M: Swathed in Scarves and Coats

Hi, I have the memory, but not the title, of a thin paperback? book that was in publication around 1960 or so. It was the story of three (I think old) women who lived together. Their furnace goes out and they have to go the basement to try and fix it. They are all swathed in scarves and coats and they have pointy red noses and they always go together when they have to go to the basement because it is scary. I don’t remember how it turns out. I have looked for it in every children’s bookshop that I know.

315K: First Train Ride

I have been looking for a book from my childhood about a young girl’s first train ride. I’m thing it could have been copyrighted in ‘50’s or ‘60’s. I loved it & recently rode the train from Kansas City to Chicago. It brought back memories of this book.

 

315F: A Good Dog with a Good Bone

A Children’s book from the mid-50s to 60s about a small dog who is adopted by a circus. Every night he gets a bone from the cook, who says, “To a good dog, a good bone!” He buries it but can’t find it in the morning, getting more and more upset until one night he stays up and realizes the circus moves during the night. He perks up, realizing that since the circus does a circuit, he’ll have a bone to dig up in every town!  I believe the illustrations are charcoal, black and white.