This is one of two books I read in elementary school – more than 50 years ago, circa 1960 that connected me with thoughts and feelings way beyond my tender years. I’ve never forgotten them & would love to read them again.

The first one followed a salmon from his birth and throughout his life to his serenely accepted death. The part I remember most vividly is when he swims to the ocean where he meets a whale with an aura about him, a whale who, although the book never expresses it outright, is more than just a whale. The salmon comments on the aura, and the whale is impressed – very few animals are able to see it.

The book ends at the pond where the salmon was born. He comments (via the 3rd person narrator) how it looks so much smaller to him now than when he was young; and then peacefully lets same fisherman he eluded back then catch him, ending the story.

I did an Amazon search and came across several books tracing the life of a salmon (both fiction and non-fiction), but none of them was the one I’m looking for. A few years ago I read a review of a book with a similar theme and wrote the author asking if the book I’m trying to locate was an inspiration for him, but he had no knowledge of it.

Another ghost story.  The “ghost” is also from the Revolutionary War.  The ghost was murdered for some reason and his body hidden (in a well, I think).  He befriends a human modern-day boy and together they solve the mystery of the ghost’s demise.

The first book is about a modern day boy who lives in New England.  Every time the fog rolls in, a mysterious village of Revolutionary War era appears in the woods.  The boy develops a relationship with the villagers and eventually realizes that his own father also had a similar experience.  Either the boy or his father was gifted a pocketknife by the ghost villagers. 

Circa 1945-60. Main character: Petey/Pete, youngest child of rather large family.  Chapter book.  Scenes include:  Christmas he just wants a little matchbox car, gets many; snow day makes a quilt with siblings; likes milkman’s mule and visits his farm, meets family (including daughter, I think).

1960’s/1970’s storybook- This was a short, very colorful story within a book of many stories. It was about a gnome/ old bearded man who scented and colored the flowers. One day he was carrying his glass bottles filled with his potions and they fell into the stream. Some fish tried to help him and there was a young girl/ fairy type character who was with him. Her named could have been Melinda or Belinda. There also may have been a part to the story about some matches getting wet.. It was written in a comic book strip style ( at least that is what my mother recalls.) I feel like the book was red and white and don’t remember the other stories.