Category Archives: 1960s

313S: Missing Clock Tower Automatons (Solved)

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A girl goes on dangerous magical quest to find missing clock tower automatons. I read this book sometime in the mid-1970s. It may have been published from the 1950s-1970s. Statues or automatons have disappeared from the town cathedral or clock tower (I lean toward the clock) and if they are not restored by midnight (?) on a certain day, chaos will ensue. There is a European city feel to the magical yet current-day setting. Toward the very end, some adults are talking, “I’m letting her sleep. ” There is a sense that she has done things which were not quite lawful but she is excused because of her accomplishment. The adults may be a mother and aunt, or maybe aunts only.

311Q:Deployments And People Of Power

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In 1954 I read a book about POWER. The thrust of the book was observed methods or deployments people of power use. I.e., In a meeting the attendees will sit automatically by their importance to the chair. The most important will sit to the right of the chair while the least important will sit left of the chair. The author states, Power is so important in society it should be taught in schools.

311O:A Boy With A Train Set

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I suppose I read book after about 1960 but don’t know if it was new then. It’s about a boy with a toy train set who dreams, in chapters, about being small enough to live in his toy train world and experience the perceptions attending the physics of being so small.

311L: Lost Little Girl (Solved)

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My mother is looking for her favorite book from when she was in school. She remembers the cover art was a girl sitting on a wood fence. Her top is a white tank top and she has a long skirt and long brown hair. In the background there is a dirt road leading to a house. My mom says the title is something along the lines of ‘The Long Road Home’ or ‘A Long Way From Home’, and she says it might have been published in the 60’s or 70’s.

311G: Jacobites and Second Sight

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Hello.  I’m looking for a children’s/ young adult novel I found in a school library in 1977.  I thought of it then as an “older book,” so I’m guessing the publication date to be between 1945 and 1965.  It’s historical fiction that takes place during Scotland in the Jacobite period.  The main character is a teen girl who sometimes has visions via the “second sight,” a gift that allows her to help save the prince at the end.  It’s not a Sally Watson book.

311E: An Old Abbot’s House

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The book I am thinking about would have been published before 1968 I believe because i read it when I was about eight or nine in 1967.  I live in England.  I believe i borrowed it from the library or the school library.

The book was about a group of children staying in an old Abbot’s house or at least close to an old monastery.  Virtually all I can remember of the plot was the finding of an old map in a settle in the house, which led them to find treasure in the monastery garden.I seem to remember the treasure was actually from the church and it was important for some reason that it had been found.

310N: Oregon in the 19th century

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I read this book between 1958 and 1964. Here is what I remember about it  a youth-oriented novel (there was no category of Young Adult in those years)set in Oregon in the 19th century.Involved a young boy who was a drift in some way and got involved with trees included the word “Yus,” in place of “Yes,” as a dialectical expression may have had a reference to tall fir trees in the title.
I have searched for this book on the Internet quite a bit, without result.  It is a very good book that I have wanted to recommend to kids, but I could not!!

309C: 60s or 70s urban YA

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This will probably be too little to go on, but I’ve been racking my brain for a year trying to remember a book I read when I was in middle school. It was YA and from the late 60s or 70s. It may have been a bit more of a pulp paperback than YA, but it was definitely geared towards young readers. It had an urban setting and there was a racial understanding component to the plot. I think the protagonist was white and he ended up befriending an African-American classmate. Almost anything else I try to remember about the plot (was there gang tensions? were they accused of a crime and had to hide out?) then convince me I’m remembering a different YA novel I read around the same time. The one thing I do seem to remember is totally pointless and trivial, but the main character sees the girl he likes in a corner store and causes her to lose her balance by knocking her in the back of the knees. I know it’s not much to go on, but I’m open to suggestions and guesses. Thanks!