Looking for a children’s book from the late 70s/early 80s. I believe the main characters were Timothy, Clyde, and Violet. They were anthropomorphic - one was maybe a fox(?). One of the characters (Timothy or Clyde) was trying to make friends with the other - he’d say things like “hey, you’re wearing the same shirt as me!” and the other one would rudely respond, “no, YOU’RE wearing the same shirt as ME.” My late father used to read it to me and I’d love to find it.
Category Archives: 1970s
340G: 1970s book, set in California, the story of a man and his wife, their relationship, divorce, his subsequent wife, Orange Julius
340C: Old Children’s Storybook: Hot Water Williams, Over-Fishing Fishermen, and More
When I was a child we had this big storybook with a red cover that must have been published sometime between 1960-1990. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on the Internet by searching details that I remember and I can’t remember the title. The first story I remember was about an old grumpy man whose bathtub begins to overflow because the bathtub knob gets stuck and he needs the help of the whole community to turn the knob. Everyone comes together to help him even though he is so grumpy and mean. I believe this story was called Hot Water Williams, but again this search phrase pulls up nothing for me on Google. The other story I remember is about a boat of fishermen who overfish and their boat starts to sink. The illustrations were very 70s-style. There were several stories but these are the only two I remember. If anyone can help me find it I would be so happy because it was one of my favorite books ever. I’ve been trying to find it for years.
339Q: My House is Cozy – Bedtime Poem (Solved)
339O: Children’s Book of Short Stories Published in the 1960s or early 1970s
Hello. When I was around 5 or 6 years old (1972 to 1973) I loved a book of short stories. I think it contained around a dozen or so stories.
One of the stories was about a lost cat (or kitten). The cat is lonely, cold, and hungry. The cat wandered around and found a pond with a fish in it. The cat tries to grab the fish, but is pulled into the water. (I think there may have been a fishing pole, and the cat got tangled in it.) When the owner of the house heard the ruckus outside, he went out to retrieve the fish and cat. The cat then lives happily thereafter with the owner, and the owner cooks the fish for the cat.
Another story was about some people who went for a short boat ride on a lake in a rowboat. To make sure everyone person was accounted for, the organizer of the voyage had everyone wear a similar hat. Her plan was to count the number of hats before the journey, and then afterwards. If the number matched, then everyone was accounted for. I recall the voyage had some problems. I think the boat started to sink because someone forgot to install the drain plug. But it wasn’t dangerous because the lake was very shallow. At any rate, at the end of the voyage the organizer was worried & upset because the number of hats she counted afterwards was one less than the onset of the voyage. But someone pointed out that she forgot to count the hat on her head, and everyone laughed.
Thank you
339M: OLD book with uncolored illustrations where a girl saves 3 other girls from a dragons belly
I’m guessing it was from the 70s or 80s, maybe earlier. softcover, fairly thin, and beautiful uncolored illustrations inside. From memory, it was about a girl who lived out of an old single carriage (starts with an illustration of her standing next to it) and traveled, with short stories of her adventures.
The one I remember best is her going to three towns, singing in one and being told singing is banned because a dragon took the towns best singer, dancing in another town and being told the same, and (I believe) telling a story in the third town? Later on, she finds the dragons cave where he has the three stolen girls in his stomach, and from the best of my memory, the three girls in his stomach tell him a story and sing him to sleep, then dance in his stomach until they’re spit up, and the main character saves them? I perfectly remember there’s an illustration at this part with all 4 girls escaping on a horse together, and I used to stare at that page for so long.
Later on in the book, all I can seem to remember is another point where she’s in a forest and meets some kind of shapeshifter / kelpie or similar creature… but that’s all I’ve got. I believe the girl is on the cover, and I seem to remember the cover art being very neutral/earth toned. I re-found this book on amazon years ago, but now I can’t find it again and cannot for the life of me remember the title or author. It was my absolute favorite book and i’d love to be able to find it again.
339J: Children’s fantasy from 60s/70s with invisible magician/wizard/enchanter (Solved!)
I borrowed this book from the library, probably during the 1970s, but it may have been published earlier. My vague memories include: two children, probably a boy and a girl, had magical adventures. There was a friendly witch or female magician and a good but scary male magician who was always invisible. This may have been by choice, and there was a backstory of a romantic relationship with the witch. One of the children was transported by the invisible magician and found it rather frightening but eventually trusted the magician. This was not the main plot!
The book was almost certainly British and would have been a chapter book (not a term used at that time).
Thank you!
339F: Baby Girl Cries Out For Her Big Old Cat
338Z: Witches and a Magic Stone
A young girl spends the summer with her Aunt Margaret (sometimes called Meg). The young girl finds an unusual stone that unknowingly to her, belongs to a forgetful witch named Lanie, who needs the stone in order to be able to fly. The witches come back looking for the stone, but the young girl has hidden it. Most of the book is about their efforts to get the stone back. At the end of the story, the young girl discovers her Aunt is actually the queen of or head of those same witches and in fact, is herself a witch and she has a pet black cat as her familiar. This is a young adult chapter book with pictures that I read in the 70’s.
338X: Secret Playhouse In The Woods
Looking for an illustrated children’s book (perhaps 12″x”12 and ~48 pages) about a group of kids who discover and clean out an old abandoned cabin in the woods and fix it up, paint it in vibrant colors and decorate it. I read it at my public library in Vancouver, Canada in c1974 and remember it being full color on all pages so am guessing it was published in the early ’70s. I can’t recall the title or the author. That book was so magical because the kids had a secret playhouse in the woods that no one knew about. There was no adversity/bad in the book that I recall (other than overcoming the shed’s dilapidated condition) and I believe it ended with the kids hosting a party there?????
Thank you in advance for your efforts to figure out what the book was.