Category Archives: 1970s

329O: Time Traveling Girl Becomes Subject In Colonial Sampler

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My search is for a children’s book, probably in the 1970-1997 time frame.  The book was a time traveling mystery involving a shy, loner-type girl who escapes to sit in a nearby very old tree.  On rare occasions, while in the tree, the girl time travels back to colonial times where she meets two girl friends in the tree.  At this point, the tree is much younger.  The colonial friends remark about the traveler’s shoes and how different they are.  The shoes are modern sneakers.  On a subsequent meet up, the time traveler brings an alphabet book which shows a picture of a giraffe listed for the letter “G.”  The colonials have never seen a giraffe.  At some point, the time traveling stops and the loner girl wonders what became of her colonial friends.  On a library day, the loner looks up colonial samplers.  She finds the sampler her colonial friends made when they couldn’t find her in the tree anymore.  The antique sampler is of the alphabet with a giraffe for the “G” letter and a stitched picture of the modern girl with her sneakers!  The title of this book is not known to me and i remember it had nothing to do with the possible subject matter of the book; therefore, not colonial samplers, mystery, time travel, etc.  The author was a woman, but I don’t know the name.  Please help locate the title and author of this book.  I am sure my two grand daughters would love this book, which  my daughter read years ago in Virginia.  Thank you!

329I: Picture Book about a Cherub Genie in a Gumball Machine (Solved!)

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I believe this book is from the 60’s or 70’s. I read it around 1993 so it certainly is earlier than that. The illustrations have simple cheerful pen/line work. My recollection of the plot is a kid puts money in a gumball machine and is granted wishes genie style and/or it releases a cherub who just decides to make fun things happen. There may or may not be three gumballs. At one point kids are skipping with a very long piece of licorice or some other candy.

I recall the flying cherub is just a white body (as white as the page) with a black outline. He may or may not have curly hair. I also think that the page backgrounds are all white. The illustrations do have colors though, but there is not much visual texture – it is very flat with black line outlines on everything.

That is all have. I read this book only once and have been collecting picture books for years now and have never seen anything even close. Thank you so much! I’d be thrilled to find it.

329G: Silver Headed Ghost Children (Solved!)

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The second story I am trying to track down from my childhood is an anthology of weird and horror stories (not really gory given the era, and written for children). It was in our school library in the early 80s and worn, so it could easily date to the 1950s through the 1970s. The story is about two children (a brother and sister) who come across and old house in the woods and find that a family of children live there who are very strange. They have silver hair and no parents. Eventually the unusual children hold a party with a big cake that has a sleigh with two small dolls that look like the brother and sister. The brother and sister find out that when the sleigh rolls down the hill of the cake they will be trapped forever to stay with the silver headed children. They flee the house and when they return the next morning they find nothing but ancient ruins. Apparently the silver headed children are ghosts that only occasionally turn up and wanted the brother and sister to join them. I'm afraid I don't recall any of the other stories in the anthology. Thanks!

329C: Ghost of California chicken racer

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Published before 1989, likely current setting is late 70's or early 80's. Teenage girl with mom and brother, no dad, move to a 3 story house off the California coast line. The house has a curved driveway with a tree stump in the grass. The family does not have a car, but the girl keeps hearing a car idling in the driveway. Then starts to see an oil leak when everyone else sees dirt. Later she sees a 50's style car (blue if I remember correctly) and a man in his late teens or early 20's in a bomber jacket. Man died in a chicken race when his car went over the cliff. He is asking the girl to help him find his girlfriend from that time, who used to live in the house. Detail about the house is that the circular window on the 3rd floor always breaks out even after the tree was cut. Which used to be tall enough to reach the 3rd floor window. Below the house is a small cottage surrounded by lots of flowers and the person who lives there befriends the girl. She is the new girl in school and everyone thinks she is crazy, especially when the ghost of the man in the bomber jacket starts to dance with her on the school's cruise along the coast. Of course, no one can see him and everyone thinks she is dancing by herself. The cover has the picture of the girl, brunette I think, standing in the driveway, with a see-through image of the man in the bomber jacket and his car behind her.

329B: Troublesome Cat Sent To His Room (Solved!)

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I'm looking for a book I had as a child in the 1970s, though the book may be from the 1960s.  It was a small paperback with a light blue cover.  It was about a cat, I think named Henry, and his mother. The drawings were very simple pen & ink drawings.  There may have been a little blue in the drawings too, but mostly I think they were back and white and were simple.  The cat was always getting in trouble, and had to be sent to his room. His mom was cooking in the kitchen.  They both walked upright - and the mom wore an apron.  I think it may have been a series and there were other stories about him.

328U: 60s-70s time-travel medieval fantasy, siblings, beautiful illustrations

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I checked this book out multiple times from our public library. Author’s name must begin with Bu-Ea based on shelf location (preceded Eager; after Burnett), is not Ruth Chew after reviewing her catalog. Previous helpful respondents from other attempted search sites have suggested A Walk in Wolf Wood (Mary Stewart) or A Walk out of the World (Ruth Nichols), which are lovely and similar, but incorrect (my lovely childhood public librarians were not illiterate enough to repeatedly mis-shelve this book, and my memory is solid about where it was located on the shelves).

This is a beautifully illustrated, middle-reader American (I think) fantasy book about a brother/sister or possibly male/female friends who somehow stumbled from their somewhat urban home/apartment building into a medieval setting when coming home from school one day in the woods near their home.

Sister ends up spending time with women from the group (I remember some looming?) and brother with the men (possibly becoming a page/squire?) There is maybe a joust, some magic or Merlin-y magician, the illustrations were very lovely with lots of woods/trees. Cover art and some interior pen+ink drawings reminded me of the cover to the film adaptation of Camelot.

I was born in 1970 and was a very early and voracious reader, so this book cannot have been published much later than 1976; my guess (contextually) is that it’s most-likely a little earlier than that.

Many thanks!!

327L: Sort of like the Boxcar Children but in ancient Rome (or was it Greece?) (Solved!)

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I read it in the 1970s, probably published then or perhaps in the late '60s. A young boy (maybe 10 or 11) and his older sister (young teenager?) from a noble family become embroiled in a mystery and they run around town (possibly Athens, but I think it was ancient Rome) hunting for clues.  They wear togas. 🙂

327C: Max Moonpenny

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My mom is searching for a book she read as a pre-teen about a girl named Max Moonpenny. I have searched and searched (and I even work in a library) but I can’t find anything about this book! She’s not sure if the title is Max Moonpenny or if it is something else. My mom grew up in the 1960s & ‘70s in Wisconsin, and a friend of hers also remembers the book and her niece was even named Max Moonpenny after the character from the novel. Unfortunately, the niece is prolific on the internet and clogging up my search results.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!