Category Archives: 1970s

352B: Children travel to other worlds with animals

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It starts with some kids (possibly siblings, there are two or three kids) in, I think, a shop, a thrift, antique, or pawn shop, with no adults around and they are visited by these creatures. One is like a bear that talks in a phonetic southern-US style accent and one is like a dragonfly whose words allruntogetherlikethis. When I say “like” a bear and dragonfly, I think they were described as similar to these but not exactly the same. I think the creatures come from the kids interacting with an object in the shop.
They visit other worlds or dimensions and at one point they’re in a desert and tiny bugs swarm them and try to get to the moisture in the kids’ eyes and mouths so they have to keep them shut tight. They have to figure out how to outwit the antagonist without opening their eyes or mouths.
That’s all I remember. It was most likely written in the 70s or maybe 80s but definitely no later than mid-nineties. I read it around 2000 and it seemed old at the time.
I’ve spent so long looking for this because I just don’t believe no one else has read this and I think about it every time a gnat flies in my face! I feel like I’m in another dimension myself!!

352A: World’s Scariest Ghost Stories for Kids

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I’ve been trying to locate this children’s ghost stories book for decades now –
I got it through a school Weekly Reader form back in the 80s and the title was something like World’s Scariest Ghost Stories Ever …or something extremely close.

The book’s cover I had had a penciled like art on the front with a huge cloud in the sky with a mean looking old mans face blowing wind down at someone walking up a path.

It has multiple sub titled stories in it all teaching a lesson of some sort by the end.

One story is about a young girl who has 3 Golden Orbs and is made to sleep overnight in a haunted castle and must keep her orb until morning…again that’s the gist of it from my memory.

Another story is about a cook in big house and there’s is a little man who lives in the kitchen in a hole in the wall and makes a deal with the cook I think I believe the title of the story was Darby O Grady?

Yet another story was about skeleton’s skull that keeps crying out in a creepy old house in a room at the top of the stairs I think for “Crust of Bread”.

It was a paperback book I got it from a school Book Weekly Reader and I believe the book was published in the 70s originally as the book did have random art pages in it and the art was old time art with a renaissance clothing stye in the art. I remember in one art page there is a giant, who is a ghost in this big mansion who was chasing the little girl or something and the picture has a Giant in front of a large open shuttered window from the inside and the giant is standing but only has from his waist down and is missing his whole top half of his torso while holding a sword. He has renaissance knee high pants and high stockings like they wore in Benjamin Franklin’s era.

Another pic was from the Cook story where they show the cook standing in the kitchen at the stove area all of the art line illustration like a feather pen or pencil type simple but classic illustration. Only a handful of art pages scattered have art on them I believe its one art page for every sub story or less.

I am dying to find this book and capture a small piece of my childhood. If you can Help me at all in any way so that I can track this book and possibly buy one I would be Eternally Grateful.

Again thank you so very much for all your time and help with this 28 year long search.

351U: Please help me find the actual title of a book I thought was named “Honey” (Solved!)

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I am an author/illustrator of books for children, and am so pleased to have been directed to your bookstore in my search for a favorite old book. Loganberry looks like such a cool shop! I’d love to come do an event some day, post-Covid. I am currently locked down in Malaysia where my husband is working at an international school.

When I was a tween I read and re-read a book that I’d really like to find. Probably published in the late 1970’s, it was a Scholastic Book Club paperback. When I first started looking for the book I was convinced that the title was Honey, but after searching for months I’m wondering if my memory is playing tricks on me. Wouldn’t be the first time. 😊

The cover featured a close-up portrait of a blonde girl (whose name was Honey?), wavy hair pulled back. She was smiling, looking up and off to the left.

The story is told from the girl’s point of view. I remember her explaining the pitfalls of her unruly hair, which may be why I felt so connected to her. Ha. Maybe she played tennis? I don’t remember that as well, but… maybe.
Mostly I remember that she met an African-American woman called Van, short for Vanilla, who helped her with her hair and with her problems. Apparently the girl was missing her mother, because Van explained to her that every child has a “mama pie” comprised of many mother figures.

351S: Book about a girl with a delightful long string of names (Solved!)

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I am searching for a children’s fiction chapter book that I think I read around 1969 or 1970 when I was in fifth or sixth grade. The primary detail that I recall about the book was that the main character was a girl with a really long name of multiple first/middle names.  I believe she was a pioneer girl, and I definitely am sure that her names were old fashioned type names, such as Samantha, Jane, Emily, Sarah, etc.  though my examples here may not have been the ones. I almost think I remember that the first sentence of the book opened with “My name is  . . . . .” The character’s last name may have started with Mc or Mac.  I have zero recollection as to what the title or author of this book was. I have some vague memory that the illustration in the book showed her as having braids.
I would absolutely love to re-discover this book and share it with my daughters (who are now in their twenties, but would still get a kick out of it!), and I appreciate any help you may be able to offer.

351R: Doll Runs Doll Hospital (Solved!)

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– published in 70s-80s, not that old

– cover was a cool tone color?

– girl doll runs hospital where she takes care of all the toys, she is in charge but they are all friends
– there is a china doll that comes in which is sick and running a fever
– all dolls/stuffed animals belong to girl who is terminally ill, she is involved sometimes but the point of view is from the toys’ perspective, maybe 3rd person
– there is a bunny or bear of some sort
– some animals have to have surgery, be patched up/sewn back together
– they are in a closet or something, there are beds where all the patients are
Any help would be great.

351O: Mr Widdle and the Sea Breeze? Woman Builds Odd House

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I have a children's book stumper to solve. I remember a book from my childhood (born in 67, so the book must've been published before 1977 or 78). It was about a woman who built a house and painted it gray with pink shutters. Or maybe pink with gray shutters! For some reason I associate this memory with Mr. Widdle and the Sea Breeze by Jo Ann Stover, but I don't have a copy to check if it's the one. Thanks for any help!

351L: Art Book about the Wind

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This was a beautiful hardcover book that I owned in the mid-1980’s. It was probably published sometime between the mid-70s and mid-80s. It may have been a small printer, or art book type thing. The size was probably 9x12 or a little larger, maybe 1/2” thick. If I remember correctly, it had a tan canvas-type cover, and a slide-in box that the book came in.

The artwork in the book was beautiful. It may have been acrylics or oils, or some type of print work. On each page was a description of wind force. If I remember correctly, the first page talked about when there is no wind, the next page when there is a light breeze, and so on. In the end there is a full hurricane. The book is nonfiction (and I found it very boring as a young child). Each page shows the same location — with some grass, people, trees, sky, and the ocean — as the wind increases. I believe there was even a description of wind speed on each page.  The language was simple and descriptive. It said things like “Now there is a light breeze. The leaves on the trees move a little bit. When the wind is like this...” etc. One page mentioned that this is a good wind speed to fly a kite, another mentioned that the waves start to have small white tips. There are no characters, no plot/story, just information about wind.

351I: Dollhouse view of building with bakery in it throughout the day

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This book was probably from the 70s or 80s. I read it from the library in the 90s. Every page was the same dollhouse view of one building at different times throughout the day with different things going on in each room. There was a french bakery on the ground floor with baguettes, the baker came in early to bake. There maybe was a clock saying what time it was on each page? It could have been a learning to tell time book. Either wordless, or minimal words. Illustrations were small in scale, I think done in pen and ink and watercolor or gouache. Similar to Roser Capdevila or Ljiljana Rylands. My mom thinks it was French-Canadian or French or from somewhere else in Europe. It was large in scale— maybe 11×13”.