Category Archives: 1970s

302B: A hedgehog named Harriet

I am looking for a children’s picture book about a hedgehog named Harriet. The thing that I remember best was that she wore red high heels. This was my baby brother’s favorite book in the 70’s, so I am guessing it was released in the 60’s or 70’s. I don’t think that it would be older than that based on what I remember about the pictures. He recently passed away and my mother would really like to find a copy. I have done a lot of searching and have not been able to find even a clue. Please help!

301G: Your typical high school romance

I read this book in the early 1970s, I’m assuming it came from the 1960s. I don’t know the name of the book nor the publisher. But it was your typical high school romance of the time, where the popular boy in school falls for the less popular girl and her name was Beth.

Obviously the book resonated with me  at the time because my name is Beth I would have read it around the age of 10 to 13.  I always wondered if I could find the book and reread it is an adult what would I think of it.

300H: Best Friends

The book is a juvenile chapter book from the ’70s or ’80s. Called something like _Best Friends_. It’s about a girl who loses her best friend to another girl. I remember that she eats Chinese food with a new friend at the friend’s restaurant. She also participates in a puppet show from Alice in Wonderland and she is the Red Queen. The former best friend comes crawling back after a fight with the new girl but she realizes that she likes having lots of friends vs. exclusive to one best friend.

299Q: Chased by geese trying to get gooseberries

Kids book from 1970s/1980s. Kids solve a mystery based on hidden clues they find – at their grandparents house maybe? I forget where the first clue was or how it started. The second clue (maybe?) is found in a loose stone of a stone fence. Then there’s something about kids being chased by geese trying to get gooseberries. The last clue is found tucked in an Indian Headdress socket where feather would fit in. Thank you! Been searching for years.

299L: A girl is given the power to swim underwater

I cannot remember the title. All I can remember is it was a fantasy book involving a girl who was given the power to swim underwater where she befriended a whale, a dolphin, and it involved rescuing her friends at the bottom of the ocean who were trapped there underneath a bubble. One key character that I remember was a “dimity bird” that was enchanted to move about. Presumably published in the ’60s, early ’70s.

299D: An illustrated non-fiction book of dog breeds from the 70s or 80s

This was a perhaps slightly oversized paperback book with illustrations of different dog breeds.  I believe the cover had a green border. I’ve been been poking around online to see if I could find an old copy with no luck.  So far the closest thing I’ve found that’s similar are the illustrations from How Why Wonder Books Dogs Wild Animals Irving Robbin Martin Keen, 1962.

The illustrations were grouped in a certain way on the page, similar to these (but it wasn’t these books):

 

It’s not impossible that our paperback was a reprint of a 1960s book.  There were no photographs in the book, and very little (if any) information about the care of dogs.  It wasn’t very wordy.  We got it at a garage sale in Michigan in the 1980s.

298U: Look at me, Mama! (Solved)

The book I am looking for was published in the early 1970s or possibly late 60s. It was a large format children’s book (probably around 15″ tall by 10-12″ wide). If I remember right, it had a black and white checked border on the cover, similar to The Real Mother Goose. It was an anthology of children’s stories. There was a story about a little girl who picks her neighbors flowers, and her mother explains to her that she shouldn’t do that and they plant a garden for the little girl so she has her own flowers. There is another story about a little boy picking huckleberries and pretending to be a bear or maybe running into a bear in the woods. There is another one about a little girl who reads The Little Red Hen and then she pretends to be the red hen. There is also a poem called “Look at Me, Mama” wherein a bunch of different bugs do things and tell their mothers to look at them – there is a line that goes something like “And when a little water bug sticks his face – his WHOLE FACE – into the water and says ‘look at me, mama!’, she does!”

The graphics in the book are all very much straight out of 1968 – 1975.

For the life of me, I cannot remember what this book was called and I’ve not seen a copy of it for years. I’ve been googling everything I can think to google. It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and I want to share it with my son, who is now about the age I was when my mom used to read it to me.

I hope you can find it – thank you!

298T: Family takes a trip in a loaded up station wagon

I’ve been looking for a picture book about a family that goes on a road trip (I think).  I remember the pictures being detailed, I think the family had a loaded up station wagon with many things tied to the roof.  They go to the beach, I think,  among other places.  I was born in 1974, , so it might be late 70’s, early 80’s?  The illustrations almost had a Where’s Waldo look to them, though NOT a find and search book.  I think there was a baby in the family, maybe three kids.  I remember winding roads and color illustrations.