I’m also looking for a book probably written in the 50’s/60’s about a witch that would grant wishes but the children had to give something in payment. So one boy wanted to be able to talk to his dog, but because it was French poodle, it only spoke in French. Another girl wanted a wish granted and the witch asked for her eyebrows.
Hi, I am looking for a young adult novel, published sometime in the late 60s to mid-70s.
Plot details:
An older man, somewhat down on his luck, lives alone in an apartment in a big/bigger city. He sees young boy (orphaned? abandoned?) wandering the streets. He takes him in, even though the man doesn’t have much money himself. He buys the young boy new clothes (which he almost can’t afford). At Christmas they decorate a small tree with the silver foil from inside boxes of cigarettes. They become a family. Possible names: Teague and Me? Me and XXXXX?
I read a junior fiction trilogy in middle school in the early 70s.
It was about two brothers who build a flying machine (NOT the Wright brothers – as virtually all my searches return).
I think it was set in either England or New England, possibly on a farm; likely at the turn of the 20th century. I think their mother is one of the characters. I remember specifically a description of cool linen sheets – of all things!
I think both brothers may have liked the same woman. (They might have been cousins but I don’t think so…)
One of the brothers was injured at some point – either in a crash, or maybe in war? Walked with a limp and a cane after that.
I remember rich detail in the writing.
Any thoughts or ideas would be welcomed. I’ve been hunting for years!
Greetings from upstate New York!
I hope you can help me identify and find a book I had as a child.
I do not know the title or what the cover looked like because my copy was missing the cover. But here are the facts as I remember them:
I was born in 1960, so this book had to be late 50’s early – mid 60’s
It was a Christmas book – containing many different stories/legends from the birth of Christ to the real Saint Nicholas to Christmas legends like the Christmas Spider
It was a large, oversized book, say 12″ x 18″ ish. It was not a thick book.
What was so great about it was the artwork – very beautiful renderings – not cartoony or modernish, more like realistic paintings. So the art was appealing for even adults, but the stories were short, maybe one or two per page. If I had to guess, I would say the art style was something similar to this picture below.
As a child, the images I remembered the most was the story of St. Nicholas paying the dowries of three poor women. They were all sleeping in a bed and he threw a bag of gold in through the window.
There was also a story of this flying ( but I don’t remember it with wings!), hairy, red-eyed beast with sharp tusks/teeth, but I can’t remember the story. LOL – I don’t think it was Krampus, because it was more like an animal (wolfish) than a human devil guy.
Another feature was the rich colors of the end papers. Like a renaissance fabric pattern. I think red with a little blue and gold in a repeating diamond pattern, I think – it has been a long time since the book was lost or given away.
So I know these are a lot of random details – I wish I had the title and publisher, but maybe you can help me – my desire is to purchase a replacement copy to pass on to future grandkids.
I read this in the 60’s when I was in grade school. It is a mystery. Involves two or three children and a mysterious painting that ends up having two poodles painted on it. The Green comes from the name of the children (i think) It has been too long ago to remember all the details.
Probably read this in the early 1970s Two children, boy and girl, are turned into buttons by a woman (witch?). As buttons, they looked like carved bone and I think they were dressed as Pilgrims. They had to escape before they were sewn onto anything, because once they were sewn on, the change was permanent.
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
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
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.
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!