Category Archives: Anthology

379M: Looking for a storybook from 1970s

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I am looking for a large, oversized children’s picture book that I read between 1973 and 1976. It was an anthology containing many stories. One story I remember clearly featured two zebras — a father and a son — who would race each other. The young son could never beat his father, until one day he finally did. The book may have been published in the 1950s or 1960s. Any help identifying either the specific zebra story or the anthology it appeared in would be greatly appreciated.

378Y: Just… Thank You (Solved)

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I have been hunting for the name of a book that I read in my childhood for literally years. Every so often I would come back to my search and try again. Finally, I don’t know what changed this time, but I happened upon your anthology finder page under collectible children’s books. It was Young Years. It was a book given to my mom in 1977 when she was only 8, and then she gave to me. I read it all through my childhood, but ultimately lost it in so many moves. I’m so sad I won’t be able to get back the one that had a note written to my mother inside it, but now I will at least be able to find another copy on ebay or something. Thank you so much for helping, even if you didn’t realize you were.

Signed, a very happy 30 year old in NY trying to find her inner child again.

378S: Old Doll Left Behind for New Doll, Then Reclaimed by Girl (1960s–70s)

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I’m searching for a short children’s story I remember from the late 1960s or 1970s, possibly from Reader’s Digest, a school reader, or a children’s magazine. It’s told from the point of view of an old doll.

In the story, a little girl is packing a suitcase for a trip. The old doll is thrilled to be included and looks forward to the adventure. At the last moment, the girl gets distracted by a new doll, grabs it instead, and leaves — the old doll is left behind, heartbroken. Later, the car returns, the girl rushes in, drops the new doll, and takes the old doll with her.

378J: Scary Story – Mr. Pepper, the stuttering phantom with a sewing machine

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It was a story in a short stories book I read in the mid-1990s. A person describes being woken in the middle of the night by a dark figure named Mr. Pepper who stutters and sews black clods of dirt or shadow using the sewing machine. He also says something to the person who is describing the scene when he/she wakes up like, ” I l-l-like you.”

376O: The Friendly Wolf (Short Story)

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The children’s short story The Dissatisfied Little Lamb by Catherine Jones, perhaps under her maiden name Catherine Hallman, published in a magazine sometime between 1940-80, about a lamb who leaves the farm to go exploring and finds a dog or wolf who is actually friendly and brings him home and he then protects the flock from a predatory wolf or other animal. Probably a magazine published in Georgia or SC.

375O: Children’s anthology of magical stories

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The book had maybe a dozen short stories, all with some magic involved. One of the stories, I think the first, had a father bringing home an ornamental Chinese horn (rhino?) that was rumored to have magical properties. The father’s son took the horn to bed with him, holding it tight, and just before going to sleep wished for a series of things to happen to people he know around him. The next day everything that he wished came true, including people hearing silver bells tinkling when a lady he liked started talking. Another story in the book involved a professor/researcher, maybe named Dexter, researching Roman history, and late one night he falls asleep and dreams he becomes a goose, and has a fight with another goose over a lady goose, and it turns out that all the squawklng ends up being the very thing that warns the Romans of an impending barbarian attack on one of their cities. So the researcher actually became part of Roman history in the dream. The book was probably published in the 50s or 60s, certainly no later than the early 1980’s. I remember reading it after my mom checked it out of the Mayfield Regional Library, near Mayfield High School.

375D: Poetry Anthology Including “If” (Solved!)

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I am looking for what I think is an anthology of poetry, illustrated, that contains an extremely cleverly illustrated version of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Black and white line drawings I believe. I remember seeing it in a bookstore in Ithaca circa 2012 it might have been newly published then. There were other poems in the book, possibly also short stories? And authors besides Kipling?

374H: Cat Lives Happily Ever After, and Other Stories

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When I was around 5 or 6 years old (1972 to 1973) I loved a book of short children’s stories. I think it contained around a dozen or so stories. I recall a bunch of characters on the front cover. I think one of the characters was a knight, and he may or may not have been sitting on a horse.

One of the stories (I think the first one) was about a lost cat or kitten. The cat is lonely, cold, and hungry. The cat wandered around and found a pond with a fish in it. The cat tries to grab the fish, but is pulled into the water. (I think there may have been a fishing pole there, and the cat got tangled in it.) When the owner of the house heard the ruckus outside, he went out to retrieve the fish and cat. The cat then lives happily thereafter with the new owner, and the owner cooks the fish for the cat. There is a drawing of the cat sitting in front of the fire.

Another story was about some people who went for a short boat ride in a rowboat. To make sure everyone person was accounted for, the organizer of the voyage had everyone wear hat. Her plan was to count the number of hats before the journey, and then count them afterwards. If the numbers matched, then everyone was accounted for. The voyage had some problems. The boat started to sink because someone forgot to install the drain plug. But it wasn’t dangerous because the lake was very shallow. At any rate, at the end of the voyage the organizer was worried & upset because the number of hats she counted afterwards was one less than the onset of the voyage. But someone pointed out that she forgot to count the hat on her head, and everyone laughed.