Category Archives: 1970s

362F: Daughter Schemes for Piano from Estate (Solved!)

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I am looking for a book that my mother-in-law was reading in the late 60s early 70s. It is a book based in San Francisco.
From what she remembers it is a story about a mother or a family member like a dad who dies. The daughters need to split up the estate.
They start in her house on the top floor.They are assigned an order that they must keep the entire time. One of the daughters desperately wants the piano which is on the bottom floor. Each of them takes a turn. The daughter who wants the piano is constantly negotiating with the other two sisters. She’s making side deals with them by telling them that she’ll get this item but she’ll trade it for the piano.
My mother-in-law never read the end of the book. She went to a wedding and she left the book in the hotel. So she never found out what happened at the end and if the daughter was successful in getting the piano.

362B: Bopeep’s Lost Book

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I’m looking for a book from my childhood. I read it somewhere in the 80’s. It a book about a cowboy & I think he had a bad attitude. It’s about the adventures he had. Somewhere in the book it was prophesied that he would die after seeing a bird fly upside down. The book had colorful illustrations. I remember the chapter was upside down in the air somehow & he saw a bird flying. Because he was upside down in the air he therefore saw a bird (I think it was a buzzard) flying upside down & I believe he died after that. I must have read the book when I was somewhere around 4th grade which would have been about 1986-1990 but I believe the book may have originally came out somewhere near the late 70’s. I could be wrong about that though. I think the cover of the book was white.

362A: Monkey eating crackers

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I have very little to go on. I remember this book so fondly from my childhood. I would guess from middle school years. I remember just laughing and laughing about a passage from it while reading on a plane ride to England.
A young girl has a pet male monkey who is hidden in her bag or piece of luggage perhaps on an airplane or maybe a train. The monkey is eating some crackers I think and starts sort of spitting them. The description of it just had me laughing out loud. Sort of the words to describe the sound of it. Maybe ‘pffft’, no that is not right.
The girl may have been the daughter of a diplomat? I think the monkey may have snuck into her luggage and she hears him eating the crackers. I think bits of crackers come out of the piece of luggage as she opens it. I’m not sure though.
I do not know if the book was American or English. It had a mostly purple cover 🙄 and was hardback.
I know that is a minuscule amount of information to give you. Oh, I would have been in 8th grade in 1982 but moved to England after finishing 7th grade. I think it was a fairly newly written book.
I have always hoped that I would be able to remember more and be able to find it. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the monkey or any of the other characters.

361T: Jasper the music stealer

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This is a 1970s children’s book featuring a kind of hippie spy/hero who (may have) flown around on a magic cloud and had a base (?) in the Himalayas. He had an enemy called Jasper, who stole (all of the) music.

I heard this as an audio book on a cassette (where I recall a song with the words ‘Jasper, Jasper, where has all the music gone?’)

361S: Tiny Grandma Comes Out of Phone

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I am looking for a children's book

- Guessing it may be written in 1970’s to 1980’s (I read it in the 80’s)

- A little boy is being babysat and ignored by his sitter. He calls his grandmother and falls asleep when he’s on the phone with her.

- He dreams that a tiny version of his grandmother slides out of the old rotary phone, and dances and plays with him all night.

361R: Portal Fantasy Novel for Kids

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I’m trying to find a book that I read when I was in elementary school.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall many helpful details about the book—including its title and author—but I do remember loving the book and recommending it to a non-reading friend who also loved it.  I would very much like to find it so that I can buy it for my daughter.

The following is all I can remember about the book:

–It is a portal fantasy novel about a boy and possibly also a girl who somehow enter another world in order to help save a troubled kingdom or land (not very unique, I know).

–The plot involves a castle, mountains, wolves, and a race against time.  Magical/mystical talking(?) wolves play a role in the book, from what I remember.  I believe they were either the antagonists or the servants of the antagonist.

–From what I remember of the cover, it has a white border or partial border around it with a colorful collage of images from the book against a dark background.  I believe that a castle, mountains, and wolves were all present in this cover collage.

–I checked out the book from my elementary school library when I was in either third or fourth grade, but I believe the target audience of the book is late elementary readers (4th to 6th grade?).

–I read this book in the mid-1980s (between 1983 and 1985?), so it was published prior to that.

–I do not think that it was recent publication at that time, though it wasn’t a very old book either.  My guess is that it was published between 1950 and 1985—probably in the 1970s.

–It is a fairly long chapter book (perhaps 200 to 300 pgs?).

–The copy I checked out from my library had a small trim size, but was fairly thick with small type.

–It was written and published in English, probably either from the U.S. or England.

–It is a stand-alone novel, not part of a longer series.

–I do not believe it is a well-known or famous book.  I have not, for example, run across it on lists of best fantasy novels of the 20th century.

–The title is strange, or, at the very least, not particularly appealing to an elementary school reader because I remember telling my non-reading friend to read it despite the odd title.

–I think the title might have the words in it like “nowhere,” “other,” “land,” or “world.”

–The letter “O” also stands out in my memory as an important part of the title.

361A: Amazing Looking Witch

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I am looking for what I think was a weekly reader or Scholastic book from late 70s or 80s. It was a Halloween book with a witch. I actually can’t remember a ton about the story but the graphics were amazing. The witch would fly on her broom and there is a distinct image of her in front of the full moon about halfway through the book. I would love to share with my kids!

360L: Abandoned Lake House

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The book I vaguely remember had something to do with a child or maybe siblings going to spend the summer with an elderly aunt (I think) who was living on a lake where most of the houses were abandoned. It had once been a vibrant summer community ca. 1900 (I think), but was now mostly deserted sans aunt’s household. There may or may not have been a mystery component to it. I think I read it around 4th grade maybe ca. 1977?

360K: Last blue canister plagues cop

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Book is from the late 70s/early 80s, I think, because I believe I read it in high school or college. Paperback. Author name was something ridiculously simple that I was sure I would remember. I was naive in that assumption. Many thousands of books later, I still remember this as worthy of re-reading.
Plot: cop searching for a serial nerve gas bomber. Four blue canisters of gas in total, first attack was on a subway or train, with nuns and children among the victims. Cop eventually finds the culprit, but not the last canister. We, the reader, know it’s hidden in the desert and unlikely to ever be found. Last scene in the book is the cop in bed with his honey, unable to sleep, and she asks what he’s thinking about. Answer of course is the location of the last canister he’ll never find.
I remember thinking someone ought to alert the authorities that such a terrible plot was now “out there” for people to see. Again, naive, but it was a very different time than we know now.
I was reading a lot of Robert Ludlum and Jack Higgins at the time, so someone of the similar mindset might remember this one. Great writing, engaging characters, enough plot twists and storyline development to be worth trying to find.  I have googled “blue canister nerve gas fiction book” so many times I’m surprised the authorities aren’t looking for me. Oh well.