Category Archives: 1980s

333I: Boy’s Overgrown Chalk Art Washed Away By Rain

Boy chalks beanstalk or garden all over the pavement/sidewalk of his town, possibly as part of an art competition. Then rain washes it away, leaving only what was done in an alley way.

Children’s fiction - read in 1980/1990s. He was given an allotted space to do his chalk art but he went up the walls and through alley ways etc. At the end it was all rained away.

Beautiful illustrations as I recall - not a chapter book but a child’s story book.

333B: Tiny Magic Cat

I am.looking for a book I read between 1975-1980. It was a middle school aged book.  The.main character was a 10 to 12 year old girl. I can’t remember how, but she finds a cat who turns super small – like tiny enough to sit behind her ear. He talks to her and helps her through the trials of her life.
That’s all I can remember.  Thanks so much!

332W: Wise King Shows We See That Which Is Sought

I am looking for a Children’s book, from the 70’s or 80’s. It does have pictures. It may be a Golden book, but that is just a stretch of my memory.

The book is about a Kingdom in strife. Lords and Ladies are backstabbers and no one is happy. The King is fed up with it

The King comes up with a plan: He summons a page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom. He instructs the page to go out (on his horse) into the kingdom and find all that wrong. Find that which has sharp thorns, plants that are poisonous and so forth.  Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

When the 1st page has left the castle grounds he summons a 2nd page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom.  He instructs the page to ride forth into the kingdom and find all that is beautiful. Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

The first page comes back. He is cut by thorns and has rashes from the poisonous plants. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The page replies that the kingdom is in terrible shape. It is covered with ugliness and poison plants everywhere he searched.

Shortly thereafter the second page returns. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The second page replies that “the Kingdom is covered with nothing but beauty”. He has the flowers with him to show it.

The King somehow make the point to those in the court that we see that which we seek; not only in nature but in each other. Of course that changed everything and from then on (as I recall) the Lords and Ladies interacted respectfully with each other, seeking to see the best in those around them. Great story. Applicable to today. Hope you can help.

331Y: Margot Forces Agoraphobic Mother to Leave Apartment

This is a 1970's or 1960's middle reader. Possibly 1980. A girl named Margot lives in a city with her mother, who has not left their apartment since the father left her. She gets along pretty well by having her groceries delivered and such. Margot gets tired of this and decides to spend the night at a library or something to force her mother to leave the apartment to find her. Not sure if her scheme works or not. A neighbor ends up dealing with the police after Margot is found; I remember her spelling Margot's name for them and telling them "The T is silent" and sounding very proud of this knowledge, like it's a family secret. There is also a boy whom Margot befriends.

331G: Paranormal Handbook For Kids

I am looking for a book that I read when I was about 7. It was probably published in the late 80s to early 90s and was basically a paranormal handbook geared towards kids. I would check it out from the juvenile section of my local library and it featured directions for basic ghost hunting and how to test ESP. It featured Shel Silverstein-like illustrations of kids doing the experiments (you know, that line art style that was so popular in the 80s). It may have had any (or none! how exciting!) of the following words in the title: paranormal, extrasensory perception, ghosts.

331A: Russell Raccoon Discovers Wonderful World Of Daytime (Solved!)

This was a favorite book of my children in the 70’s and 80’s and I made the motherly mistake of giving it away, so would dearly love to find a copy.  I don’t think Russell’s name was in the title.

Russell Raccoon was not like the other raccoons.  He couldn’t sleep in the daytime and fell asleep at night when his gang was out scavenging  One day when he couldn’t sleep he wandered out of his home to discover a whole wonderful world of daylight.   He met a little boy with whom he became friends.  There was a delightful picture of Russell riding on the back of the boy’s tricycle.  When the boss of his raccoon gang, Emma Jean Smudge, found out what he was doing she hit him on the head with her purse and told him to stay away from humans.  Picture of that was very funny.  One day when Russell went to visit his friend, the boy brought him inside his house and showed him the bedroom that had been made for Russell, complete with a little bed with his name on it.  Russell decided to move in with the boy.  The last page of the book shows all of Russell’s group including Emma Jean standing in line outside the house door at night as Russell hands out fig newtons.

330O: Stone Forest

I thought this was in the title, but have had no luck. Set in Western Australia, for some reason a teen ends up surviving on their own (maybe a girl) and before rescued burns wood for a fire which actually turns out to be the petrified remains of shipwrecked sailors from the Batavia or other Dutch (maybe) craft involved in spice trade to Indonesia. I really just remember that the key protagonist thinks she’s hallucinating when spirits appear in the smoke. Can’t remember why he/she is alone, maybe family break down or similar. Presume “stone forest” refers to Bungle-Bungles of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. Fairly modern, so maybe published in the 1980’s?