Category Archives: 1980s

341K: 70s-80s Book About Colors

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I don’t remember if there were characters or much of a plot, but what I do remember is that it had lushly illustrated two-page spreads where each spread was devoted to a single color. I think yellow was a picnic in a wheat field with buttered bread…I also think there was a spread that depicted the beach (not sure what color it might have represented). Also, I think in each spread there was a teaser color spot or object that represented the next color’s scene. I think the book ended with a scene of all the colors. I would have read this in the late 80s, but it might have been 70s etc. It was certainly bigger than a Golden Book or board book.

 

341D: Early Reader Vocabulary Picture Book (Solved!)

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This English vocabulary learning book from the early 1990s (could be older though) featured the daily life of a family in beautiful large center pictures of various scenes, with the outer rims of the pages containing objects from that scene to be found and named.
My most poignant memories are of a night time scene of the children casting shadows with their hands onto the bedroom wall, and a scene with a cross section of a fantastically large tree house with multiple connected rooms.
Any help is appreciated!

341A: Boy Lost In Fog

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I can’t remember much about “BOY LOST IN FOG” (not the actual title), but what I can remember (or what I think/believe I remember) is:
  • it is a children’s picture book, written in English, with black and white illustrations
  • I read, or the book was read to me between 1980 and 1988, no clue as to the publishing date
  • there is something in there about a small boy leaving home, perhaps on his own
  • there might be something about him being on or following the sidewalk
  • there is something about fog, or getting lost in thick fog temporarily – this is the main thing I remember
  • there might be something in there about encountering a stranger in the fog, or someone who helps or scares him
  • there might be something about a lighthouse

340Z: A bully/mean girl and a cupcake/birthday cake

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This is a children’s picture book I read in the 1980’s. The protagonist “despises” (I think she uses that word) a mean girl/bully. In the end I think she discovers that the bully doesn’t have any friends and is sad, and would like to be the protagonist’s friend. There is also a cupcake (it might have a candle on it). I think the bully gives it to the protagonist to try and make friends but the protagonist is suspicious of it and wonders if it’s poisoned. The bully wears a frilly dress. I think at one point she has a lollipop.

340U: Talk Show Goes To The Dogs

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This book is fiction, and could be a novel, short story, or novella, but set in the current time and real world when the book was published (sometime between 1960-1985). A famous night-time talk show (along the lines of The Tonight Show during the Carson age) hosts a segment featuring a guest who is a man with a very smart dog; the guest claims the dog can understand spoken conversation, beyond just verbal commands. There are a number of conflicts that arise; the main conflict is the sponsor of the show (a dog food company, I think) wanting to use the dog in advertising, but the dog’s owner refusing. I think it is set in Manhattan, and the book culminates in a dog fight on the ice of a pond in Central Park (between the smart dog, I think a golden retriever, and a doberman pinscher).

340R: Daycare Abuse

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I believe this book was from the 80s after the real case of day care abuse and Satanic worship came out. This was a girl (early teens) who has a little sister or brother enrolled in the same day care that she attended. Things her younger sibling says to her begins to trigger memories of her own time there and the abuse (I believe sexual) that she suffered.  No one will believe her because the teachers are so well loved. She has to find proof of the abuse by speaking to the children who attend the school.

340P: Trying To Befriend A Rude Companion

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Looking for a children’s book from the late 70s/early 80s. I believe the main characters were Timothy, Clyde, and Violet. They were anthropomorphic - one was maybe a fox(?). One of the characters (Timothy or Clyde) was trying to make friends with the other - he’d say things like “hey, you’re wearing the same shirt as me!” and the other one would rudely respond, “no, YOU’RE wearing the same shirt as ME.” My late father used to read it to me and I’d love to find it.

340O: Incredible Sunday? (Solved!)

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This is a YA book from, I believe, the 80s. It’s about a preteen (named Sunday or Sundae) whose mother gets her an agent, so she can audition for TV commercials. I remember that her signature look is a French braid or two braids? She has some difficult auditions including one for peanut butter where she has to do a cartwheel,  and the directors loudly discuss how awkward she is in front of all the other girls. She eventually makes a friend who is a young actress who is obsessed with Virginia Woolf’s suicide,  and eventually she finds the friend by the ocean wearing a raincoat stuffed with rocks contemplating suicide. I think the book was called Incredible Sunday, but I haven’t been able to find it under that name.
Thanks so much!

340N: Fairy Tale Anthology, Blue Cloth Cover, 12 Dancing Princesses

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I had a collection of fairytales in 1990-1995, though it may have been published prior to that (c. 1980-90).  It had a royal/dark blue cloth cover with a small, embossed-gold pegasus in the center of the cover (possibly with children riding the pegasus).

The collection was rather thick (perhaps a half inch) and contained at least 20 stories.  Each story was illustrated with at least one color illustration on each page (some small alongside the text and some full page). There were different illustrators throughout.  The text was regular-sized font.

I specifically remember these stories, though there were more (I’ve listed the more rare first):

  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses (I specifically remember the exquisite illustrations of the prince breaking off a branch of the silver tree)
  • The Snow Queen (illustrations of Kay and Gerta with the penny on the window, the snow queen in her carriage driving away, the garden of flowers Gerta visits, and her red shoes)
  • The Water Babies
  • The Little Match Girl
  • Cinderella
  • Rapunzel (an incredible full-page illustration of the witch’s garden)
  • The Sleeping Beauty (illustrations of thickets of thorns, sleeping kitchen maids)
  • Rumpelstiltskin
  • The Frog Prince
  • Hansel and Gretel
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • There may have been some Aesop’s fables as well, but there my memory gets hazy.
Thank you for your assistance in finding this book!

340F: Outdoor Toys and Playsets

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I am hoping you can help find a book for me. It is a book about outdoor toys and playsets. It is a large size book with a couple of pictures on the book cover. The main picture I remember is of a young boy sitting in a wooden old time looking brass era car on the left side of the cover.The body was green and the hood was made of a galvanized steel trash can, maybe chrome. In the background, I believe there was a yellow covered sandbox with a couple of kids playing in it. In the foreground on the right, there was a kid on a pair of tin can stilts. The title was above. The background was white with a red border, maybe green. Most of the book cover I believe was green with the white background main pic on the front. The contents of the book involved plans for and pictures of various outdoor toys and playsets. I believe it may have been published by Better Homes and Garden, but it could have also been published by Popular Mechanics, Home Mechanix, Mechanics Illustrated, Readers Digest, Southern Living, Blizzard’s or any sort of DIY or home repair/decorating magazine or book series. I believe the book was published in the 80’s. It was a pretty good size book, maybe 14 inches tall, 9 inches wide and decent number of pages but not super thick. Probably less than 200 pages. I am including a rough drawing of what I remember it looking like. Thank you for any and all help.