Category Archives: 1960s

248F: Door in a tree with stairs leading down underground

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This is just a fragment! But if you could help me I would so appreciate it.
I grew up in Australia in the 1960s-1970s, and was obsessed with a picture book that featured the main character finding a tree with a small door at its base. The tree had gnarled/ exaggerated roots. The character went through the door and down a flight of stone stairs into what I remember to be a kitchen/witch’s den, lit up with yellows and oranges from an open fire. I cannot remember what happened next – but obviously it is terribly important if I keep searching for this book! 🙂
It is not the Berenstain’s Scary Tree story although slightly familiar in concept.

Thanks so much
Julia

248B: He dreamed of pheasant hunting

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I am looking for book I read back around 1970 at our local library-already checked with them.

It is a short hardcover bound youth book written probably for ages 8-12. I suspect it was probably written no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1970, by I suspect a minor author.

The short story, as I recall, is about a young boy who obsessively thinks and dreams about going pheasant hunting, he eventually does go pheasant hunting, gets all scratched up in the thickets chasing the elusive ring necked pheasant and after a long unsuccessful day of hunting I believe his father ends up buying some pheasants to take home so his son does not feel unsuccessful.

As I recall the book had a blue cloth cover with black impressed line drawing of a pheasant or two and perhaps a shotgun.

I would like to buy this book, not really concerned about the price-want to give it to my son.

It is for sure not “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Thanks

247F: Peccaries in the Rain Forest

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This was a book for littler kids, ages 8 and under, more or less.  This book was read between 1972-1980.  I vaguely remember it being a thin but large paperback.

The main characters were rain-forest animals and the book took place in a rain forest and at least part of it was set at night.  There were peccaries as characters.  Something was happening in the jungle, at night, that the animals were preparing for. The peccaries were really funny characters.

 

247C: A tiny dwarf/gnome who wears a gold ring as a belt (Solved!)

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My sister remembers this from our school library when she was little.  She would have seen this between ~1976-1986.  It was illustrated, a book intended for 10-and-under children.

She remembers there was a character who was very small, a dwarf of gnome-like creature who wore a gold ring intended for a human, as a a belt. I’d love to find it for her and her kids!

247B: Girl in the Mirror/Night Carnival

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In this short story/book a girl finds herself in a night carnival.  The climax in this story is very similar to the, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes.

This short story, however, I found it at a library a library and was never ever to re-find the story on the shelves or in its database.  I believe the story was in an anthology of short stories.

The story is centered in an almost 1950s style where a little girl interacts with another girl in a mirror.  The girl (main character) mysteriously falls into her mirror and finds herself in a dark somewhat spooky place.

As I recall, she sees a carnival in the distance. I believe the carnival is a type of ethereal place and is ghoul like.  My favorite excerpt, “she found herself on a path dimly lit by the dancing of fireflies.”

I recall she sits down and cries.  She tries to get back into the mirror that she fell out of and it appears she cannot escape the dark, Gothic world in which she landed. Her sobbing countenance becomes the reflection that a new girl sees in her mirror.  This temporal/spatial rift that the girl finds herself in is somehow a trap that is now the main character’s punishment for her self-obsession.

What was most intriguing about this story was that it was dark, twisted and yet eerily beautiful. Strong visuals paint the story and it was from the late 1960s to early 1980s.  That is, within the time frame of the Reader’s Digest short story anthologies.

 

 

247A: Search for an ember and strange things happen (Solved)

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I am looking for a children’s book that I read repeatedly at the public library back in the 60s. It was about 2 brothers that fought nonstop. One evening as they fought down a road into deep woods it started getting dark and cold. They decided to stop fighting long enough to start a fire to warm up to. Spying some “ember” up in a tree they climb the tree to “fetch” it and start the fire. Once they get up the tree they realize that it is an wild animal or monster. The remainder of the book is the brothers trying to get away from it. I always thought that the title was the Strange Thing. But I must be mistaken as I cannot find anything at all on that.

Thanks Again!

246J: Stories for Girls to Live By

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I read a book of short stories in 1963. My memory is that the title or description following the title was “stories for girls to live by”. I believe one of the shorts was by Betty Cavanna. I do remember one of the stories had an excerpt about a girl on a sandy beach applying nail polish (crazy fragment to remember, I know). I have been searching for this book in vain forever. I lent it to a girl friend in 1964 and never got it back. If you can help me I’d so appreciate it as I would love to find a copy.

Thank you
Mary

246F: Children’s Book about How to Drive a Car

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My dad said he used to read a book that “taught him how to drive a car.” He was born in 1959, so I imagine this book was published in the 60s or maybe early 70s. It was a children’s book. That’s all I have to go on for now, as I hope to get him this as a surprise Christmas gift. I may ask him to provide more details if this doesn’t ring a bell with anyone.

Thanks!

246D: Two jaunty fellows

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I read this children’s book in 1977. It was about two men (I think they have beards and old fashioned clothing) that drive around the countryside in a locomotive that has a miniature Victorian Queen Anne style house on the top of it. The book is illustrated with black ink line drawings. At one point the two men “save” a woman tied to railroad tracks who looks about to be run over by a train, only to find out that they ruined a flat set-piece train because the woman is an actress and was filming a Western.

I hope you can help! I would like to find the book and get a copy to read to my two year old twin boys.

Thanks, Austin