Category Archives: 1980s

376F: A Brother and Sister and their Cat

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Three short stories about two children and their cat. They are a brother and sister. In one story, the cat eats all their aunt’s goldfish, one at a time on successive visits to her house, and they manage to gradually replace them one at a time so that she never realizes. In another story, burglars break into the children’s house when they’re home alone and the cat scares them away. My grandmother bought this book for me in the mid-80s. I believe the format is somewhat taller and narrower than a standard book. It has illustrations throughout, they are sketchy black and white, possibly with touches of red, blue and yellow. Not sure whether it would be classified as a picture book or an early reader.

376E: A talking horse and an aloe plant

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Looking for a slim paperback from the 80s. It might have been from either Starbooks or Scholastic Book Club. Written at the early reader level, a little less than a full chapter book. Set in the American West. A boy goes to a livestock auction and encounters a horse who can talk. He’s a recently captured mustang who wants to rejoin his herd. He persuades the boy to buy him and they become friends but the horse always wants to return to the wild. Somehow the boy smashes his mom’s potted aloe plant, which she needs to treat a burned hand. The horse offers a deal where he will show the boy where to find one growing in the wild in exchange for his freedom. They make a secret journey into the wilderness at night to find the plant. I think the title is something obvious like “The Horse Who Could Talk” but I can’t find anything online.

376D: Farm Book

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The book is about a family living on a ranch/farm in the American West, sometime between 1970 and 2000. I remember three key details about the book: 

A. The families father was killed by a bull during a rodeo. He was gored to death.

B. At one point in the book, a member of the family is in the hospital with a boy who lost his leg to a lawnmower accident. His siblings visit in the hospital and say they are not allowed anywhere near the lawnmower. The boy is in the hospital to get a larger prosthetic leg attached. 

C. The children live on a ranch/farm and often play in a pasture near the house. They go there to hide at one point, but I do not remember why. 

375Z: Scholastic Book Club, 1977-81, children’s book, thriller, white paperback with cover art, kids at night, carnival with Ferris wheel with swinging lights (Solved!)

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Have little to go on. Believe purchased via Scholastic Book Club or at Scholastic Book Fair between 1977 and 1981; a short-read, 1–2” children’s novel; think it’s published by Scholastic; it might be a supernatural or science fiction thriller; white paperback with cover art, possibly with kids and a Ferris wheel; main characters are kids, with the climactic event at a carnival with a Ferris wheel with swinging lights?

375U: A children’s book about cousins

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It was a book my sister and I owned when we were children and we were born in 1990 and 1992. The copy we owned had the cover ripped off so we can’t remember anything based on that. From our memory it was a children’s picture book – the images we specifically remember are a tire swing and a blue minivan. We can’t remember if the character had a cousin or a friend that came to visit or if she went to visit them. But what we remember is that during this visit (most likely with a cousin but possibly a friend) she had all these plans for what they would do together and then nothing turns out as expected and she’s disappointed. I think there is something about her being annoyed about her little sister and wanting to exclude her and then in the end she realizes her little sister is actually great. My sister thought that maybe something was culturally different between the two girls, but it could be getting mixed up with another book. When we googled, it seemed similar to the book “When the Cousins Came” but it’s not that book and that one was published too recently as well. It definitely takes place in the summer or in warmer weather. My Mom remembered that the girl might have had red hair, but my Mom’s memory isn’t always the greatest so I wouldn’t say that is definitely a part of the book, but figured I’d add it just in case. I know this is pretty obscure but hopefully you can help!

375R: Pregnant girl gets her man

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The book I’m looking for was published 1970s-1980s. It takes place in the country, and horses figure prominently.
The plot is that a 17-18 year old girl is in love with a slightly older man. They live on farms near each other. His family is wealthy and raises prize horses. Her name is Ellen, his is john Waters or Watson. She keeps coming by to watch him train horses, and eventually they have relations. After she tells him she’s pregnant, he goes away on business. Meanwhile his family’s prize horse is stolen, and vanishes. While Ellen waits for John to return, her pregnancy advances. At the end of the story, she goes for a walk, and by chance discovers the stable where the prize horse is hidden. She goes into labor, and barely makes it into the stable before she passes out. When she comes to, her baby boy is wrapped in a flannel shirt. John is there, and finally admits the baby is his.
I know this is a weird plot line, but can you help me remember the title? I’d love to have it if I could find it because it was a coming of age story for me.

374X: Ben’s Mom on a Business Trip

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I am looking for a library book from my childhood. The book is from the 1970s or very early 1980s, and focuses on a little boy named Ben. In the story, Ben’s mom goes on a business trip, leaving Ben and dad at home for a few days. They get off to a rough start with dad being late to pick up Ben from school and some other minor mishaps, but things improve before mom gets home. The entire book is illustrated with black and white photographs of what could be a real family – mom, dad, and son Ben. There are no drawn illustrations, just photographs. I believe there were also one or two more “Ben” books- maybe it was a small series- but the one I remember most centers on Ben’s experience while mom is on work travel.