Category Archives: 1970s

349G: Selfish Witch, Disguised as Regular Girl, Does Selfless Favor

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Looking for a beautiful line-drawn picture book from earlier than 1975, about a witch and her daughter who live beyond the seven valleys and the seven seas. The daughter witch is selfish, and does not come home to her mother on time. Her mother sends her away until she can do a selfless favor for someone, while disguised as a regular girl. She is dropped off outside a village. Eventually, she finds a little boy who is also being punished, and helps him peel mounds and mounds of potatoes. She falls asleep doing this, and her mother comes to collect her. Ends with a line something like, "but she could never stand the sight of another potato."

349C: Beaver Patrol?

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Looking for children’s book that my wife had as a child. She was adopted, but remembers this book from her birth mom. She is wanting those memories back. Can you help?

This is a children’s book with illustrations, circa 1970-1980. A family of beavers who wore red jumpers, I think. One of their activities in the book was making pancakes and flipping them with their beaver tails.

348Z: The Griffins Who Loved Tragedies and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

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Collection of magical and wacky short stories for children, I believe it was an anthology of different authors, but I’m not sure. The edition I read in the 2000s had a cover illustrated with dancing pumpkins entwined with various characters from the short stories. It was old, maybe 70s or 80s? One story was of the pumpkins, someone tended them too well and they danced around the town causing havoc, another involved too much bubblegum. The only story I remember in detail was one of an author who wrote comedies. Everyone loved them, but he dreamed of writing tragedies. Whenever he tried submitting tragedies to his publisher, he was turned down. Being the father of two boys, he can’t afford to stop writing his jokes. These two boys also wanted a swimming pool. One night the author threw his tragedy out the window, and the pages floated to the mountains. The next few nights he heard crying coming from the mountain – and finally he went to investigate. There he found a griffin, crying over a few pages of his manuscript. Griffins, apparently, love tragedies. So the author offers to write him more, and give dramatic readings, and the griffin brings his friends, and their tears flow down the mountain, and become a natural swimming pool for the author’s boys, who become the best swimmers at their school.

348Y: The Magician’s Windows and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

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Seeking a collection of magical, short stories for children illustrated with grayscale sketches. I believe it was one author. The edition I read in the earlier 2000s was older, maybe 60s or 70s, and had black and white sketches for each story. The stories I remember include one of an acrobat who had never touched the ground since the day they were born, and it ends sadly when their lover is hurt and they fall from the sky?; a magician who had different colored window panes in each room of his house, and to the children who visited each window looked out to a different world, a yellow desert, a green jungle, a blue Atlantis; and two sisters whose parents each separately made deals with the sun and the moon so the babies would live – when the girls were grown they were light and dark, life and death. The light girl was always singing and keeping the parents happy, but the dark girl never sang until the parents were tired of the light girl’s songs – then the dark girl sang her only song, a song of eternal rest. Mostly what I remember from the book was how mystical and melancholic it felt.

348T: Children’s book about alchemy, 1970s or 1980s (Solved!)

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I had a book when I was a kid that I really liked a lot. I was born in 1976 so it would have been published before the mid-80s, probably. It was about an alchemist, possibly old and doddering, who was trying to turn lead into gold. If I remember correctly it had sort of sepia-toned line drawings, and there were quite detailed illustrations and instructions on how various alchemical apparatus worked. I remember illustrations of him working with tubes and liquids and flames and such. He also needed a unicorn horn so he had to get a young maiden to help him catch one. Can’t remember the title at all.

347V: Shape Shifting Amnesiac Becomes The Thunderbird

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I read this book in the 1970s or early 1980s. It is fiction/fantasy about a man with amnesia (modern times of the 1970s or 80s) who through adventures eventually discovers that he is a shape shifter who morphs into the SW Native (Indian) god/entity the Thunderbird. I think there are two books in the series and I seem to recall a female protagonist who also turns into a Thunderbird and the two characters go off into the sunrise together, but don’t quote me on that! The cover art was intriguing. And the end was sad because to become Himself as the Thunderbird the guy with amnesia had to give up the self he had become while in human form.

347U: Girl Sent to Live with Her Father Who Is a Pilot (Solved!)

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I have been trying for years to remember the title of a book I read in the late 1960s or early 1970s when I was somewhere between third and fifth grade, I think.
Details I can remember: A young girl is sent to live with her father despite her not knowing him well. Over time, though, they develop a warm relationship. The father is a pilot and I believe the story takes place on a military base where the father lives. I may be mistaken but the base could be in Hawaii. I also remember that a Japanese man works at the house, maybe as a butler.
If you could possibly tell me what the title of this book is, I would be beyond grateful.
Thank you so much!

347N: Dinosaur Drive In

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My brother is trying to find a book...published between 1975-1985, he remembers it as dinosaurs at the drive in, but no luck there. It’s about a boy that goes to the drive in and cars turn into dinosaurs, where the t-Rex chases him.  Any help would be much appreciated!

347L: A Japanese Boy Turns Into a Peach

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I am looking for a book from my childhood (1975-1985).  It had the most beautiful detailed pictures.  I remember each one like a painting of another word.   It’s about a Japanese prince …  He flies up to the gods.  Then I think there’s something about dragons … I think he turns into a peach and ends up flying over the land.

Not this book

https://www.amazon.com/Peach-Japanese-Childrens-Favorite-Stories/dp/4805309962

Or this book

https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Childrens-Favorite-Stories-Anniversary/dp/4805312602/ref=pd_lpo_14_img_0/137-7277623-2010309?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=4805312602&pd_rd_r=6c9dc371-9367-4db2-88db-6dde6fcd431f&pd_rd_w=mUtuO&pd_rd_wg=gZAM9&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=APZG11YC4ZCTXYG9JQAG&psc=1&refRID=APZG11YC4ZCTXYG9JQAG

The pictures were so beautiful.  I hope you can find it.

347I: A book named Toby? (Solved!)

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I remember the cover was white with a monochromatic pencil-style drawing of a rundown old house with a bit of grass/ground in the foreground.
A lonely, rejected boy named Toby is forced into this spooky house by bullies, I believe near Halloween. The boy is 12? Possibly younger? I’m sure his name is Toby, and that is likely the name of the book, but I can’t find it by that title anywhere.
He has to spend the night in this old house because the bullies block/locked the doors. I believe he was locked in the attic? Or stayed there overnight. He learned that his fears are in his head and he needn’t fear his imagination.
I read it before 1980, so it would be at least that old, but not much older.
It isn’t long, or large. It might even be a short story, but I’ve not been able to find one by that title that fits the story either.
The cover reminded me of Where the Sidewalk Ends in style of drawing.