Category Archives: 1980s

283F: Faint memories of a bad day

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I’m looking for the title of a children’s picture book suitable for maybe grades 1-2 from late 1970’s or early-mid1980’s.  I can’t remember barely anything except an illustration of a checkerboard floor and spilled peas, another page with a character with black hair and red shoes.  I think the theme was how to cope with a very bad day or getting along with your sibling.  I remember it as big, like 12″x 8″, maybe 15 pages.  It’s absurd to ask given so little information but i can’t stop thinking about it!

283E: Martian or Moon dweller, visits earth

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I’m looking for a vaguely remembered children’s book. It’s a picture book. I can’t reconstruct the whole plot but it had the following elements:

– EITHER a martian, extra-terrestrial or man-in-the-moon visiting earth, OR a boy that wants to fly to space. The former is more likely.

– This protagonist is reminded of his planet or the moon or the sun by seeing a balloon, and maybe also other round objects throughout the book.

– There is definitely a scene, towards the end of the book, where the protagonist walks back to his space vessel in the evening sun or moon.

– I remember the book had a melancholic feel. Maybe the protagonist is homesick or something. It was NOT a spectacular book on space travel. The martian is not scary, but cute and a little sad.

– It must predate 1983, possibly a book from much earlier (60s?) that my mother purchased at a library that got rid of old books.

282A: A dollhouse with a little witch living inside

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This is a book that was in the library when I was in grade school so early 90’s. It was already vintage then, probably 70’s-80’s, but I actually have no idea as to the publishing date. It is about a young girl who acquires/has a dollhouse with a little witch living inside who is alive and rides around on her broom. If I remember correctly the house is in the room where she is staying with an old relative. I think someone’s name started with an S, possibly Samantha, but I could be mistaken.

280G: Learn to tell the time

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The book I am interested in is one I had as a child, I think around 1988-1993 ish. It was a small white hardback cover and came with a watch which you could see in the cover (I’ll attach a picture of what I think it was or was like).

watch

I remember that it was an illustrated book based in castle or palace or similar, the characters were either king, queen, prince, princess, and I remember one page was about them using a sundial to tell the time.

That’s all the information I have on it I’m afraid. I’m from the UK, so I’m not sure if this was also a U.S. issue book or not.

280F: Lost Cat in Rome found in Mouth of Truth Statue

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Hi there, hoping you can help find a book. I remember reading it in the late 80s/early 90s. It was about a child in Rome who lost his or her cat. They go all over the city looking for it and eventually find the cat in the “mouth of truth” (La Bocca della Verità) statue. I remember it was a blue cover and fairly larger than a regular sized book. It was in English. Hoping you can help track it down!

278E: Young Chinese monk loses way while transporting books (Solved)

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This is a picture book probably published between 1988 and 1995 set in the distant past about a young Chinese monk who lives at a library in rural China. He’s always sleeping in, and one day the monastery needs to relocate because of a disaster (flood? war?). He sleeps in that day, too, and he and his donkey of books set out late in the day to try to catch up.
That night, he takes shelter in a cave where there are two old men playing chess with white and red pieces. They feed him and the monk stays up to watch their game. He falls asleep, and when he wakes up he’s been transported many years in the future.

He leaves the cave and soon comes across a huge battlefield with soldiers in white and red. Somehow, his arrival and the books he carries stops the battle. At the conclusion, he’s grown up to head a monastery-library of his own… and he always wakes up early.

277B: Little Girl Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the bed (Solved!)

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I am searching for a children’s picture book that I had read to me as a child. I can’t recall the name of the book and after much Googling, I am still no closer to finding any results. I am 30 years old, from Australia. I have checked all databases recommend by Loganberry Books.

The storyline went as follows – A little girl woke up on ‘the wrong side of the bed’. She went about her day to day tasks only to find that everything went wrong and she felt generally irritable. Toward the end of the book she goes back to bed and literally gets out of the other side of the bed and is in a better mood. I distinctly remember that the main character was a little girl, there was a scene where she was in brushing her teeth and I think she may have worn striped PJs. This book was an older book, my best guess is 1960s based on the illustrations.

Anyway, I can tell you that the book is definitely NOT ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ and from memory the book illustrations were blue and orange (illustrations were sort of done using a painted effect for lack of better description) only which tells me the book was most likely released published anywhere from the 1950s – early 1980s. It was not a Golden Book. I have searched on world cat and other such sites and it is NONE of the books that come up in the results. PLEASE HELP! None of the books ‘The Wrong Side of the Bed’ that I have found have been the right book. Please help me!

 

276C: A family tries to sell their house

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I’m looking for a book that a friend of mine read between 1978 and 1982 but the book may be older than that. It is about a family that wants to sell their house and each prospective buyer wants them to change something about the house (paint the inside, fix something outside etc). Over time they make so many changes to the house that the family decides not to sell. They end up liking the changes they’ve made and stay put.