Category Archives: 1980s
352A: World’s Scariest Ghost Stories for Kids
I’ve been trying to locate this children’s ghost stories book for decades now –
I got it through a school Weekly Reader form back in the 80s and the title was something like World’s Scariest Ghost Stories Ever …or something extremely close.
The book’s cover I had had a penciled like art on the front with a huge cloud in the sky with a mean looking old mans face blowing wind down at someone walking up a path.
It has multiple sub titled stories in it all teaching a lesson of some sort by the end.
One story is about a young girl who has 3 Golden Orbs and is made to sleep overnight in a haunted castle and must keep her orb until morning…again that’s the gist of it from my memory.
Another story is about a cook in big house and there’s is a little man who lives in the kitchen in a hole in the wall and makes a deal with the cook I think I believe the title of the story was Darby O Grady?
Yet another story was about skeleton’s skull that keeps crying out in a creepy old house in a room at the top of the stairs I think for “Crust of Bread”.
It was a paperback book I got it from a school Book Weekly Reader and I believe the book was published in the 70s originally as the book did have random art pages in it and the art was old time art with a renaissance clothing stye in the art. I remember in one art page there is a giant, who is a ghost in this big mansion who was chasing the little girl or something and the picture has a Giant in front of a large open shuttered window from the inside and the giant is standing but only has from his waist down and is missing his whole top half of his torso while holding a sword. He has renaissance knee high pants and high stockings like they wore in Benjamin Franklin’s era.
Another pic was from the Cook story where they show the cook standing in the kitchen at the stove area all of the art line illustration like a feather pen or pencil type simple but classic illustration. Only a handful of art pages scattered have art on them I believe its one art page for every sub story or less.
I am dying to find this book and capture a small piece of my childhood. If you can Help me at all in any way so that I can track this book and possibly buy one I would be Eternally Grateful.
Again thank you so very much for all your time and help with this 28 year long search.
351R: Doll Runs Doll Hospital (Solved!)
– cover was a cool tone color?
351Q: Italian Immigrant Artist-Sculptor Love Story
Love story about Italian immigrants in the US around the early 1900s. The young man is a laborer, possibly at the railroads, during the day and an artist-sculptor at night. The setting is a city. He does not readily tell his girlfriend about his artist-sculpture work he does in his off time. I think it was a statue of a woman when finished. Read in the 1980s, about 200 pages of dense writing, paperback, pocketbook size. May be considered a romance novel.
351P: Fire Chief vs. Student in Spelling Bee (Solved!)
I’m trying to find a children’s book for a friend in which a fire chief or some other first responder goes up against a student in a spelling bee. One of the words they have to spell is barbecue. The book was probably published between the 1960s and 1980s.
351M: Family Relocates to Alaska
The book I am searching for is a young adult novel I read in the 1980's about a family relocating to Alaska. They lived in an isolated cabin, walked to a lone general store to get supplies and place an order for clothing and household items through a Sears Catalog. They ordered in summer for a delivery of winter items, items didn't arrive until Spring. A teenage girl with at least one sibling, mom gets depressed, and either dad or brother or both get lost and possibly killed. One chapter talks about them laying in supplies for winter and the girl sleeps on pallets of canned food. It was a paperback book, white cover, the title had something to do with Alaska without saying Alaska, referencing the 24 hours of sun / dark I think.
351L: Art Book about the Wind
This was a beautiful hardcover book that I owned in the mid-1980’s. It was probably published sometime between the mid-70s and mid-80s. It may have been a small printer, or art book type thing. The size was probably 9x12 or a little larger, maybe 1/2” thick. If I remember correctly, it had a tan canvas-type cover, and a slide-in box that the book came in.
The artwork in the book was beautiful. It may have been acrylics or oils, or some type of print work. On each page was a description of wind force. If I remember correctly, the first page talked about when there is no wind, the next page when there is a light breeze, and so on. In the end there is a full hurricane. The book is nonfiction (and I found it very boring as a young child). Each page shows the same location — with some grass, people, trees, sky, and the ocean — as the wind increases. I believe there was even a description of wind speed on each page. The language was simple and descriptive. It said things like “Now there is a light breeze. The leaves on the trees move a little bit. When the wind is like this...” etc. One page mentioned that this is a good wind speed to fly a kite, another mentioned that the waves start to have small white tips. There are no characters, no plot/story, just information about wind.
351K: Lemonade Stand
I read this in the late 70s, maybe early 80s. I think it was Binky’s Lemonade Stand or maybe Pinky’s. I don’t have any other information, unfortunately.
351I: Dollhouse view of building with bakery in it throughout the day
This book was probably from the 70s or 80s. I read it from the library in the 90s. Every page was the same dollhouse view of one building at different times throughout the day with different things going on in each room. There was a french bakery on the ground floor with baguettes, the baker came in early to bake. There maybe was a clock saying what time it was on each page? It could have been a learning to tell time book. Either wordless, or minimal words. Illustrations were small in scale, I think done in pen and ink and watercolor or gouache. Similar to Roser Capdevila or Ljiljana Rylands. My mom thinks it was French-Canadian or French or from somewhere else in Europe. It was large in scale— maybe 11×13”.
351B: Girl Endeavors to Foil Jewel Thieves in Department Store
I am looking for a book that I read in the 80’s about a girl trapped in a department store with jewel thieves. She has hid the jewels (I believe among costume jewelry) and the thieves are looking for her. She removes her shoes so she doesn’t make noise and at one point rolls herself up in carpet to hide. Can you help?