Category Archives: 1960s

259B: Blind girl and a horse

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I am looking for the title of a book I read over and over when I was in primary school. I am 50 this year so around 40 years ago. I got the book from the school library and borrowed it over and over again. The book is about a Blind girl who befriends a wild horse, I don’t remember many other details but the girl has a operation to restore her site, the horse goes wild while she is away and I feel the horse was shot just before she returned, not the happiest story line but this book had a huge impact on me when I was young. Any help would be appreciated.

259A: A shameful delicious lunch (Solved)

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My query is on a book I read in the mid 1960’s, however I don’t know when it was published.  It was a child’s book about a young student (I  believe a girl)  whose parents worked in a restaurant.  Because of that, she “had” to bring lovely, delicious restaurant leftovers for her school lunches.  I vividly remember the descriptions of her covering her desk with a checked cloth, and taking out all this elegant, gourmet food.  The twist was that she was ashamed of her lunches, for being different.  I hope you can help!

258B: A little girl and her boarders (Solved)

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I so enjoyed reading this book in grade school (mid to late 1960’s).  It was about a young girl whose mother or grandmother had a large boardinghouse with many renters.  The story’s timeline may have been in the 1940’s or 1950’s (it could have been during WWII).  I don’t think it was based on a true story.

 

There was either an elderly gentleman or an elderly woman who the little girl was fond of.  Naturally, she interacted with many of the boarders.  I remember thinking that this house was quite large with many rooms and as a child, I wished my house was that big.  I believed she had a friend that she walked to school with.  Her mother may have been a WWII widow, as I don’t recall her having a father.

 

I don’t know what it was that drew me into this story as much as it did, if it was the story-line or the many characters or if it was the girl herself, I’m not sure.  What I do know is that fifty years have passed and even now, at age 57, I still think about this little girl and her boarders.  It must have been a wonderful tale for me to still think about it after all these years and more importantly, to ask for help – to help me solve this mystery, as it is.

 

Thank you in advance!

257D: Adventure at sea (Solved)

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Read this book in the late 1970s, but think it was written maybe in the 50s.  It was set after WWII, about an ex Navy LTJG who was salvage diving, came across a young stowaway and put the boy to work for him on his boat.  It was an adventure story, with a run-in with an octopus, storms and bad guys, but in the end they found the treasure.  Ring any bells?

 

Many thanks!

257C: The adventures of Dot (Solved)

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This was a children’s story about Dot, a little girl, around 7 years old, and her day-to-day life and small adventures with her friends. I believe the book was the first in a series, for example, the next book might have been titled, “Dot Goes to the Beach”. The books themselves were hardcover – I don’t believe they were ever released in paperback – and the stories were written for 7 year old girls. I can only guess that they were written in the 1950s or 1960s.

 

One story had Dot and her friends going on a field trip. Dot’s mother had given her a box that advertised salt water taffy. When the children arrived at their destination, the box of taffy everyone now eagerly anticipated, turned out to be a box that had *once* held taffy, but now had Dot’s lunch (or something else mundane).

257B: Children’s bedtime story about a man called Harum Scarum

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The book was either published in the 1970-1980’s I believe, since late 1970’s was when I read it. It was a children’s story about Harum Scarum, an old man that was known by the children to be mean. Harum Scarum became nice and gave the children his candy. It was a beautiful short story about how the man was a good person, but just because the kids thought he was mean, they didn’t interact with him. They found out he was a nice person when he gifted them candy. If I’m not mistaken, the setting was a farm or the outskirts of town. The story was in a book that had several bedtime stories in it. I can’t find the title of the book or the name of the story. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

256A: Tale of a girl buried in a mound

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I was 11 or 12 when I read an age-appropriate book about a mound burial of a young girl. It took place in the southeast. It had an archaeological aspect—the items found in the burial were used to tell the story of this young girl. “The Lock,” “The Tell,” “The Mound”—I recall it was a one-word one-syllable title. “The Loor”—spelling? comes to mind as possible title. I checked it out twice from my hometown library as an elementary grade student but when I went back to find it as a high school student I could not. This would have been in the 1960s that I read it.

255B: Children conjure a quetzalcoatl (Solved)

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Looking for kids’ fiction book between 1965-1976 that is about a quetzalcoatl. I remember that it was scary. I got it in my elementary school library so it was about 3rd-5th grade level. Children conjured up a quetzalcoatl by accident and it turned out to be evil and dangerous? Possibly turned an old feather boa into a quetzalcoatl using some magic dust they may have found in an old jewelry box.