Category Archives: Anthology

273D: Ethereal Little Mermaid Illustrations

3 Replies

I’m looking for a Hans Christian Andersen collection of fairy tales from the early 90s. I read it when around 1994-6 but it could have been published a little earlier. I remember it for its Little Mermaid illustrations. They were so beautiful and seemed to glow. Lots of pale mermaids with long blonder hair. Like angels. The pages I remember most are the pictures where the Little Mermaid’s sisters are hoisting each other up out of the sea to hand her a dagger to kill the prince. The last page is the Little Mermaid floating to the sky as an angel after she kills herself to save the prince. It was hardcover and I believe it also had The Princess and the Pea and The Tin Solider stories in it, but I think different illustrators worked on them.

 

Hope this was enough to be helpful. I tried to look up books published in that time frame with Hans Christian Andersen author credits, but couldn’t find a comprehensive list.

272E: Mr. Apple’s Family (Solved)

5 Replies

Collection of children’s stories containing Mr. Apple’s Family and also a story about a little girl and a goat who live in a house with a roof made of grass. I think the goat gets into mischief? The edition we had was an orange hardcover.

Additional info:  This was a book at my grandmother’s house, and she is a big second-hand shopper, so I have no idea on original publication date, etc.  I was enjoying this book in 90s, and it was in relatively good condition at that time.  The illustrations were not very colorful, mostly black and white I think with a few splashes of color here and there.  The above stories are the only two I can remember for sure being included in the book, but there may have been one about pancakes(?), and maybe also some poetry.

269A: Fairytale Compilation from 70s or 80s (Solved)

2 Replies

I was born in 1985 so I must have had the book in the late 80’s early 90s, My mother purchased it from ToysRUs and it was a hardcover book with what I believe was a blue and white dust jacket. It is not the blue book of fairytales or the Richard Scarry book. It included Henny Penny, The Princess and the Pea, I believe also Anasi the spider and a story about a jackal or fox. There were about twenty stories in it. Please help! Thanks!

267B: Myths and monsters

6 Replies

The book (or possibly book series) I am looking for (to the best of my memory) is a children’s collection of short stories involving myths or legends or fairy tales.  I had the book in the early 90s and it may have been an older book.  I believe some (or all) of the stories may have been foreign tales.  I remember a story with a chimera.  I also remember a story about a village and a small dragon/lizard type creature.  I think he hid in wicker baskets along the streets possibly visiting a particular two story house.  These two stories fascinated me as a child because the creatures were scary.  I believe the other stories in the book may not have had monsters like this. I seem to also remember a story about a tree. possibly the moral of this story was one bad apple spoiling the bunch, or an apple not falling far from the tree.  I seem to remember that most of these stories had a moral theme like this.  I feel like the book had an older vibe like the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson.  There may have been pictures but the book was mostly words.  Please let me know if i can provide any further detail. I don’t remember the name of the book but i seem to think it may have had the word MYTH in the title.  I really hope you can help!!

 

266F: Collection of Fairy Tale Stories From Childhood

6 Replies

My mom bought me a hardback collection of fairy tale stories in December of 1996, 1997, or 1998. She remembers purchasing it from Barnes and Noble, and recall it was a special holiday edition. I do not know the title, though I think I vaguely remember the worlds “Once Upon a Time” on the cover. I remember that the cover was a royal blue, and I think there was a picture of a castle/kingdom centered on the front. I think the book was almost square in shape. The pages were gold, that was one of my favorite things. I remember a couple stories from it, the Princess and the Pea I remember distinctively, and I know there was one about a man stealing herbs from a witch’s garden because they would heal his wife’s illness, but they made a deal to give the witch their first born child, so maybe this is a Brother’s Grimm book? I know there are a lot of stories I think may be in there, but those are the two I remember very well, so I don’t want to accidentally give a story that is not there.

It was such a beautiful book, and all I want is to find it and have it for my children to enjoy as well.

262D: 80’s book. Collection of Fairy Tales, Fables and Nursery Rhymes (Solved)

3 Replies

I can not remember if the book itself is from the 80’s or if it was a bit older. ( I was given it in the 80’s)   I’m not 100% sure if it had “Mother Goose” in title. It had all the classic fairy tales with illustrations. I know for sure it had Gustave Dore’s illlustration for Cinderella  as well as Walter Crane’s for Beauty and the Beast. These illustrations were the ones I remember being in the book.

pic1 pic2 pic3

 

261A: A collection of children’s tales

2 Replies

I remember two books of short stories, a part one and two though I cannot remember any part of the titles. They were hardcover and fairly large, the spines were at least half an inch thick. One was blue and one was yellow, and the books were illustrated in color. The biggest problem I have had in searching for them is that the stories I remember are not ones I have heard anywhere else. It is very possible that they contain well know stories as well, but I cannot be sure. One story has some humble person who needs something from a kingly man. The man likes riddles and makes a riddle something like, you must come back here not on foot or on horseback, not clothed but not naked, and not empty handed or with a gift. A little girl (his daughter I believe) solves this riddle by coming back riding a hare, wearing a fishing net, and holding a bird. I remember a picture of that scene. I think it was actually a second riddle, I don’t remember the first part. Another story I remember less of has a misbehaving boy who takes a deep breath through his mouth and inhales a tiny man (or two possibly). The man or creature talks to him and I cannot remember if he was good or bad but the boy stops misbehaving (possibly yelling too much) in the end.

 

I cannot remember anything else at the moment. but hopefully you all will have more luck that I have so far.

Thank you!

260A: Shorts stories with biblical references

Leave a reply

I’m looking for a collection of short stories, possibly by Saul Bellow.

The book may have chapter headings which are names of Bible books, such as Job, Exodus, Psalms, etc). The collection may include a humorous story about a man on a ledge, ready to jump, but he keeps moving, and so do the well-meaning people down below who are ready to catch and help him.

259C: Young adult book of short stories from 80’s

Leave a reply

My father was a middle school teacher, and I believe he brought this book home for me as he did with so many.  I believe this would have been classified YA maybe 5th grade and up?

 

(Stories are not in order, just as I think of them)

 

  1. a girl who went into the ocean and a shark bumped the back of her leg but didn’t bite her.  Narration was that sharks bite some people but not others, based on smell, etc.
  2. a boy in school was always lying to his classmates.  One of his lies was to say his parents belonged to the circus.  One day he disappeared from school and when they asked, they were told his parents came to take him back with them to the circus.
  3. A girl was delivering newspapers in a storm and she got swept into a drainpipe where she was holding on for her life.
  4. Someone was out on a boat on a lake and met a man who turned out to be a ghost (I think).
  5. A boy was skiing down a mountain, not paying attention, and the mountain was talking to him.  Then because he wasn’t paying attention, I think he fell and broke his leg.
  6. A boy found a pair of boots on a street corner, put them on, and the boots made him run without being able to stop.
  7. Someone walked into a café (I think) and began talking to someone else (someone had crutches).  When the older boy got up to leave, the other person noticed that he was missing a leg.

 

*There were definitely black and white illustrations.

 

I have been searching for this book for over 15 years – I surely hope you can help me!

 

257B: Children’s bedtime story about a man called Harum Scarum

12 Replies

The book was either published in the 1970-1980’s I believe, since late 1970’s was when I read it. It was a children’s story about Harum Scarum, an old man that was known by the children to be mean. Harum Scarum became nice and gave the children his candy. It was a beautiful short story about how the man was a good person, but just because the kids thought he was mean, they didn’t interact with him. They found out he was a nice person when he gifted them candy. If I’m not mistaken, the setting was a farm or the outskirts of town. The story was in a book that had several bedtime stories in it. I can’t find the title of the book or the name of the story. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!