Category Archives: 1970s

248H: A deaf girl is abducted

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Hi,
In the early 80’s, I ordered a book through either Scholastic or Arrow. The book was about a a young (possibly teenage) girl who is deaf. She gets kidnapped. Her abductors cut her hair and dress her in boy clothes to make her look like a boy. At one point in the book, either she or one of her kidnappers draws a bird on the wall of the room in which she is being held. The cover had a picture of a dark-haired girl on it and I want to say the deaf girl’s name was Katie, but I could be wrong. If you could figure out the title/author of this book, I would really appreciate it! Thanks.
-Amy Jones

248G: Farida story in reading textbook

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Hello Book Stumpers,
I am looking for an old reading textbook from grade 4, 5, or 6. Publication would have been late 1970s to early 1990s. I recall the cover had an underwater photo of a scuba diver or snorkeler, but this memory is a bit fuzzy. The cover was dark in color; lots of deep blues and blacks. A particular story I remember from the book was a Middle Eastern, Arabic, or African folk tale about a girl named Farida (or something similar). The story illustrations included a camel. This story may have involved weaving or a loom, but I am not positive about that point.
Some other information that may be useful. This book came from my grandmother, who taught grade 5 and 6 reading. Her school tended to use the Scott, Foresman readers and Ginn readers. For example, she also gave me “The Sun that Warms” Ginn reading level 11 (c) 1973, “Dream Chasers” Ginn reading level 11 (c) 1989, and “Three Cheers” Scott, Foresman reading level 10 (c) 1987. The book I am searching for may be from one of those series.
Thank you for any help or advice you can give.

248F: Door in a tree with stairs leading down underground

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This is just a fragment! But if you could help me I would so appreciate it.
I grew up in Australia in the 1960s-1970s, and was obsessed with a picture book that featured the main character finding a tree with a small door at its base. The tree had gnarled/ exaggerated roots. The character went through the door and down a flight of stone stairs into what I remember to be a kitchen/witch’s den, lit up with yellows and oranges from an open fire. I cannot remember what happened next – but obviously it is terribly important if I keep searching for this book! 🙂
It is not the Berenstain’s Scary Tree story although slightly familiar in concept.

Thanks so much
Julia

248B: He dreamed of pheasant hunting

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I am looking for book I read back around 1970 at our local library-already checked with them.

It is a short hardcover bound youth book written probably for ages 8-12. I suspect it was probably written no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1970, by I suspect a minor author.

The short story, as I recall, is about a young boy who obsessively thinks and dreams about going pheasant hunting, he eventually does go pheasant hunting, gets all scratched up in the thickets chasing the elusive ring necked pheasant and after a long unsuccessful day of hunting I believe his father ends up buying some pheasants to take home so his son does not feel unsuccessful.

As I recall the book had a blue cloth cover with black impressed line drawing of a pheasant or two and perhaps a shotgun.

I would like to buy this book, not really concerned about the price-want to give it to my son.

It is for sure not “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Thanks

248A: Woodland Creatures’ Christmas

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I am looking for a book that was given to my brother in the late 70’s possibly very early 80’s. It was a beautifully illustrated children’s book, similar to Jan Brett. Woodland creatures in a snowy forest, including a hedgehog or porcupine, celebrating Christmas. The end of the book has them finding a candle lit carousel in the woods. Those are the only details that I remember! Have been looking for this book for a long time!
Thank you!

247F: Peccaries in the Rain Forest

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This was a book for littler kids, ages 8 and under, more or less.  This book was read between 1972-1980.  I vaguely remember it being a thin but large paperback.

The main characters were rain-forest animals and the book took place in a rain forest and at least part of it was set at night.  There were peccaries as characters.  Something was happening in the jungle, at night, that the animals were preparing for. The peccaries were really funny characters.

 

247D: Beautifully illustrated, cobwebby witches: Agatha and Hecate (Solved)

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This was a paperback, and I was born in 1974 so I would have read this sometime between, day, 1980 and 1988.  Probably suited for ages 6-12.

There were beautiful spidery-looking line drawing illustrations –  almost like Edward Gorey’s but a bit more complex and not so cartoony.

 

There were witch sisters, Agatha and Hecate.  They were not good witches.  There was a misguided/bad man who worked for the witches named Oswald.  The main characters were (maybe) siblings and the other main character was a girl they met who knew her way around the magical world where the witches were, and the lot of them got out of troublesome situations by stomping three times on a manhole cover.  when they did that, they would instantly be whisked out of the place and land somewhere else.  They used this at least once to escape the witches and Oswald.

247C: A tiny dwarf/gnome who wears a gold ring as a belt (Solved!)

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My sister remembers this from our school library when she was little.  She would have seen this between ~1976-1986.  It was illustrated, a book intended for 10-and-under children.

She remembers there was a character who was very small, a dwarf of gnome-like creature who wore a gold ring intended for a human, as a a belt. I’d love to find it for her and her kids!

247B: Girl in the Mirror/Night Carnival

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In this short story/book a girl finds herself in a night carnival.  The climax in this story is very similar to the, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes.

This short story, however, I found it at a library a library and was never ever to re-find the story on the shelves or in its database.  I believe the story was in an anthology of short stories.

The story is centered in an almost 1950s style where a little girl interacts with another girl in a mirror.  The girl (main character) mysteriously falls into her mirror and finds herself in a dark somewhat spooky place.

As I recall, she sees a carnival in the distance. I believe the carnival is a type of ethereal place and is ghoul like.  My favorite excerpt, “she found herself on a path dimly lit by the dancing of fireflies.”

I recall she sits down and cries.  She tries to get back into the mirror that she fell out of and it appears she cannot escape the dark, Gothic world in which she landed. Her sobbing countenance becomes the reflection that a new girl sees in her mirror.  This temporal/spatial rift that the girl finds herself in is somehow a trap that is now the main character’s punishment for her self-obsession.

What was most intriguing about this story was that it was dark, twisted and yet eerily beautiful. Strong visuals paint the story and it was from the late 1960s to early 1980s.  That is, within the time frame of the Reader’s Digest short story anthologies.

 

 

246F: Children’s Book about How to Drive a Car

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My dad said he used to read a book that “taught him how to drive a car.” He was born in 1959, so I imagine this book was published in the 60s or maybe early 70s. It was a children’s book. That’s all I have to go on for now, as I hope to get him this as a surprise Christmas gift. I may ask him to provide more details if this doesn’t ring a bell with anyone.

Thanks!