Category Archives: 1970s

243I: Isle of Capri (Solved)

Children’s fantasy book from the 50s, 60s or 70s, something about “the Isle of Capri”. I think the cover was basic – black and white, or dark green and white. Perhaps there was a butler and a big house…there was some sort of magic going on, I think. The Isle of Capri might have been spelled “Capris.”  I remember that a child goes to a big house, a mansion, to live and there are mysteries and strange things going on. That’s all I can remember!

243G: Children Speak to Trees

I’m hoping you can help me find a book that I’ve been trying to remember for years.

I can’t remember the name at all, but it’s a fiction book in which children still have a natural ability to speak to trees, but adults have all forgotten how to (around puberty) by losing their belief in childish things. There are rowan trees, elder trees, ash trees and many others but they are the main trees I recall being part of the story.

I’m an eighties kid but it could be an older publication, I used the public library a lot and had a teacher who lent me her favourite childhood books too.

I think the cover had a colour pencil style drawing on it, mostly green in colour, but this is hazy so could be mixing up a memory.

I also can’t remember the children’s names or the story arc so I realise it a long shot!

 

243F: A man, a boy, and a bag of blueberries (Solved)

Probably from the 70’s, as I was born in ’79 and this is an early childhood memory. I have been trying to find for years:

Illustrated story about a boy and his father (or father figure). I think the father gives the boy a bag of something edible (blueberries?) to hold as they journey on foot. The boy walks behind the father, and as they go (through at town at one point?) the boy eats all of the contents of the bag. When the father finds out, the boy gets a mild scolding. The boy ends up with the empty bag over his head at one point, and I think fills the bag with air and pops it at the end. The story might start out with the father/son picking the (possibly) blueberries, or buying them…

Could be part of a collection, or rather short standalone book. In my mind, the illustrations remind me of Maurice Sendak.

243C: Busy Busy Port (Solved)

I am looking for my son’s favorite book when he was a small child. He was born in 1982, and the book dates from early to mid eighties in publication. Its title is “Busy Busy Port”, but I have no idea of the author. It’s a picture book.

The book is essentially nonfiction; there is no plot, nor are there characters. It’s just a picture book close-up of all the activities and the boats, ships and navigational devices and trains that center on a big city port.

The book is a small book, maybe 10 x 8, and nothing like Richard Scarry-type books with lots of flashy colors

242G: Hats!

I’m looking for a book, could be from any time before 1975 or so.
It was a big picture book for young children which I think was primarily about different hats. The main thing I remember is that there was one spread with a woman wearing a fancy hat with netting on it, and there was a fish design in the netting such that the fish went right over her eyes.
My mom thinks it was called something like “My Aunt’s Hat” but isn’t sure. I haven’t had any luck googling that.
She remembers it as being about an older woman, sort of crazy, with “old lady tight curly hair”.
She remembers the image as being “big, falling off the page” and there may have been a tiny little fishing line on the page.

Pretty sure it is not:
Jennie’s Hat
Aunt Lucy Went to Buy a Hat
Aunt Flossie’s Hats
Caps for Sale
Cat in the Hat or any Dr. Seuss including Bartholomew Cubbins Old Hat, New Hat or any Berenstain books

Although if there is a spread with the fish hat in one of these, that’s probably it.

242D: Bunny with large family (Solved)

I’m trying to find a book that my daughter remembers me reading to her in the 80s when she was about 5 years old. In the book there’s a female bunny with a large family.  They annoy her so she runs away and creates her own house.  Eventually she realizes that she misses her family. It was illustrated on each page with small black and white illustrations.  It was also a small sized book, a little smaller than a trade paperback.  My daughter remembers it as a long book, but that is probably a kid’s impression.  Probably no more than 20 pages.

242C: Magic Carousel

I read this book when I was around four or five, so it would have been 1969 or 1970. Two sisters were with their dad at Central Park in NYC and he took them to the carousel and to watch the ice skaters. They rode the carousel and the horses. The carousel and the horses became real and they rode them off the carousel and through central park, maybe this is when they rode past the ice skating rink. From my memory it was evening time. I remember the book as being in pinks, yellows and oranges and I think the illustrations may be similar to those of Alice and Martin Provensen. Here’s to hoping someone knows something about this book! I have never forgotten it.

242B: Caveman brings the first wheel to a birthday party

A caveman is going to a party (I think a birthday party) and all the other guests bring typical cave man presents (bones, perhaps?). The protagonist brings a large round stone as a gift, and everyone makes fun of him. However, it turns out to be the first wheel and it proves useful in some way. This was from deep in my childhood, so it couldn’t have been published after 1990 or so. I believe the illustrations had line work and watercolor, though I’m not sure of that. They were definitely more cartoony than realistic, though. There is a possibility that this story was recorded on for video (I seem to remember an animated wheel rolling down a hill), but my friend who also remembers this story is convinced it is an actual book.

241D: 1970s Children’s Book


My sister had a favorite book when she was about 3–1970. The book was thin and tall with a green cover and we think it was titled “The Two Little Princes”. The story is about 2 little princes who have everything in the world, but won’t share and still want more. Their nurse/ nanny decides to take away all of their toys and leave them in an empty room by themselves. Finally she brings in a basket with a single train track, one blue train and one red train. The have to work together to make the track and then play together with the trains.
The drawings were simple without much color and the nurse wore a white hat with an apron.