From the early 1960’s, a young boy invents various devices in his home to solve mysteries. He can’t wake up, so he invents an alarm clock with string attached to his toe – alarm goes off, string winds up and tugs his toe. Does he invent a periscope to spy on a suspicious neighbor?
Name might have been Henry (perhaps with alliterative last name). Several books were published with his adventures, thin young (young?) adult fiction.
I had a book when I was a young person (10 to 12 year old maybe) in the 60’s, where there were two girls living with their respective families on either side of a river. It was written from the perspective of one of the girls, whom I think was poorer than the family on the other side, and she always looked on the other girl’s life with envy. I cannot remember the event that led to her ending up on the other side of the river and living with the other family but when this happened she was then in a position of looking across the river at her own family, missing them and realising the folly of her original yearnings. I have a feeling it may have been a Christian book – maybe Sunday school prize but I’m not certain about that. Any light shed on the name of the book would be appreciated.
PS, someone elsewhere suggested “We Live by the River” by Lois Lenski but this is not it.
Before 1973, poems and pics of imaginary creatures. Two I remember: “What the heck is a bottleneck, I can’t give you a hint to it, but grownups run right into it” and “A frightening beast is the raging inferno, for lunch he eats matches, at suppertime Sterno.”
Probably considered a “first reader” though might qualify as a picture book. Read to me in the late 70’s but could be as early as late 60’s. The book is about puppies in a pet store window waiting for their owners to choose them. The cover (or an illustration inside if not the cover) is a view of the pet store storefront with two windows on either side of the door. Puppies on both sides. In the book people keep coming in and choosing dogs and they all resemble the person choosing them. A take on the dogs look like their owner concept. Tall skinny people with tall skinny dogs…etc. The beagle puppy is waiting and waiting until a boy in a baseball hat (red?) comes in for him. I think the boy had previously seen the dog and had been told he had to save his money.
The illustrations might be mainly line draws and are in yellow/brown/red tones as far as I remember. My mother belonged to a book club that automatically sent books so this may have been a book club selection. It’s so frustrating to be able to remember it so clearly but not be able to find it. Hopefully someone can help!
Thanks!
I read the book around 1978-1983. It was a fantasy with a child who stayed with family and went into the woods and found a passage to a fantasy world of fairies which she ended up traveling to. The book had a title that was a play on Maestro or some other musical name. The cover of the book was brownish red with the face of one of the fairies. The face was very large and very round(side-wise oval) and with a very wide mouth. I was between 9-12 yo when I read it but this is what I remember.
I loved this chapter book in the 1970s. It took place during a much earlier era. A coal mine in, I believe, Wales is closing which employs most of the people in the town. The town children are afraid of what will happen to the ponies that work in the mine pulling the coal carts. They want to “retire” the ponies to a field. The parents are worried about losing their jobs and don’t have the money to help the children save the ponies. I believe the children make an appeal to the wealthy owner of the mine, who is sympathetic. There may also be descriptions of the miners being sick, and of a canary dying from gas in the mine. I remember this book having the same kind of feel to it as “The Wheel on the School.” Thanks everyone for your help!
The children’s book I’m looking for was read to me in the late 60’s early 70s. It was about a dalmatian who wanted to be a fire dog but had no spots. Thanks.
A young, shy, and lonely girl visits her (aunt, grandmother, ?) for the summer. She cuts her long hair, referred to as “her glory,” that her mother refused to let her cut. After she cuts her hair, she experiences a “freeing” self confidence boost. I read this probably in the late 60s to 70s.
I first read it when I was somewhere between first and third grade, in the early ‘70’s, and, unfortunately, don’t know what its cover or illustrations looked like, since I read it in braille. I have only the vaguest description, but hope this helps me find its title so I can now read it through adult eyes. It involved several kids who built, I think, a mechanical horse that time-traveled (maybe). Their workshop was someone’s basement—I remember they had to move some “lead weights” periodically, and I remember this only because, at the time, having never encountered the word as pronounced “led”, it took me a while to catch on that they weren’t “leed weights,” but were, indeed, “led weights”. I’m guessing it may have been 150-200 pages in print.
This book is one of a series of books by a female illustrator (and for some reason I think she has an Asian name). They are all different stories from different cultures. The one I am searching for (and found years ago on a site from Australia when I still remembered the actual name but neglected to write it down) is a story about an East Indian Prince who listens to a parrot’s advice about a Princess. The Princess has many sisters and an overbearing father. The Prince is cast out into the wild, I think he’s beaten up by other Princes, and the parrot is there with him to give him advice. I can’t remember if the parrot is more of a trickster parrot who gets the Prince into trouble, or a helpful parrot. I think they end up together (Prince & Princess) and I don’t know what happens to the parrot. Regardless, the illustrations are simply beautiful and with crisp and clear colours belonging to the mid-century era of illustration. I believe it’s oriented landscape, about 8”x11” (or smaller, but not by much), and it’s paperback. My Mum bought it in the early 1970s Victoria, BC, Canada, but I’m not sure if she bought it used or new.