Category Archives: Anthology

232D: A much loved collection of poems

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I’m looking for an old book of children’s poems. It was rather thick. My mom would read it to me when I was around seven years old back in the late fifties.

It was hard covered and if memory serves had a light colored cover. I don’t remember any illustration on the cover. Looking back, the book design reminds me of a series of Grimm’s Fairy Tales books we had in the house they had plain beige covers on them.

Anyway, I checked your list of books on your site and while one book of poems comes close in content, the cover is not the same and it is missing at least one of the poems, Jabberwocky.

Here are the poems I remember that it contained: Winken and Blinken and Nod (sketch showed 3 boys in a balloon, pic was on the right side of the page), The Owl and the Pussycat (one sketch showed the piggy with the ring in his nose in the wood – pic on the left side of the page), The Duel (The Gingham Cat and the Calico Dog – the stuffed animals were depicted and the clock), Wadsworth’s’ The Girl with the Curl (when she was bad she was horrid – this short poem was at the bottom of a page on the right), The Walrus and the Carpenter (depicted the little oysters following them with little legs to carry them. Also a pig with wings), e.e. cummings, a poem that started,” I’ve never seen a purple cow” and ended with. ” I’d rather see than be one” (which I’d thought was by e.e. cummings but it’s not), I think it had an e.e. cummings poem or two, and Jabberwocky.

I’m trying to remember other poems in the book. If I do, I’ll send you more identifying information. I loved this book. I loved reading it over and over. I’ve loved to read and read voraciously. My mom had a great sense of humor and always loved the Walrus and Carpenter especially when the little oysters turned blue (starting to realize they were to be eaten).

I wanted this for so long and tried searching the internet several times. I’m usually pretty good at finding information and have found several books of which all I could remember was the story, but I cannot find this way. Searching recently, I came upon your site! I hope you can figure it out and I don’t stump you!

Keeping my fingers crossed….

232C: Anthology of folklore and fairy tales

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Multiple fairy tale/folklore children’s book 1960s. Stories include, Billy Goat Bluff, a wolf that got attacked by geese and had all red welts all over him, the Sun and the Wind story, a man trying to dig the moon reflection out of the water, a little boy (prince maybe) who kept pulling off his hat but another one would show up on his head. More stories in this one book but I can’t recall details.

228A: A collection of short stories with a black and white cover

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My grandmother used to read this to me when I was a child. I don’t remember a whole lot of details but I’ll do my best. It was a very thin book and I believe it was stapled as opposed to bound. It was a collection of children’s short stories, and I mean SHORT. It was a black cover I think with a white border around it and white lettering, maybe some red? Two stories stand out to me, but there must have been 5 or 6, maybe more in the whole book. One was about 2 little girls, one was over at the other’s house I think and was a bit of a whiner or always trying to one-up her friend. The other was about an old man, I think he wore cowboy boots and hat and had like a long stalk of grass he chewed on in his mouth, and lots of different characters in the town including animals. Illustrations I believe were only black and white, and were very Shel Silverstein-esque, but it wasn’t his. I don’t even know if all the stories were written by the same person or not. My grandmother used to own a bookstore in Hartland, WI the early 80s so I suspect it was from there around that time, but could have been older, I don’t know.

227M: A forgotten anthology (Solved!)

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I think this book is an old vintage reader from the 1950s or 60s.  It has some very good stories in it I’d like to read again.  In one story there is a flood and a grandmother and a boy or girl move up to the attic.  There is a cook stove up there and Grandmother makes cookies while the water rises.  The illustrations show her rolling out the dough for the cookies. In another story a young boy tries to teach an old Indian how to drive.  I’d love to read these stories again as I cannot remember how they ended.

Thank you!

223A: Poem about girl eating her first peach (Solved)

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This was a book I had when I was very young. The illustrations had children dressed in early 1900 clothing and it may have been published in that time frame. It was a compilation of stories and poems. One poem was about a little girl eating her first peach. I do remember a line from that poem “I’ve eaten it cloth and all Mama but what shall I do with the bone?” She was referring to the peach pit. Another story in the book was about a little girl who was picking blackberries and could not reach the best ones high in the branches. A gentlemen offers to bend over leaning, on his walking stick and let her stand on his back to reach the berries and she refuses saying she would be to heavy etc. The young man remarks that it would be rude to refuse a kindness and the little girl accepts his offer. There was a picture of this scene in the book of the little girl standing on his back and picking the berries.

217G: 3-year-old tiger; duck with duck-head umbrella (Solved)

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I was born in 1947 and probably owned this story book (illustrated with line drawings) when I was 4–6 years old. My memory is fuzzy, but here goes! One story, more or less in verse, was about a 3-year-old tiger who “lumbered along and lumbered along,” searching for 3-day-old meat. (He eventually found that 3-day-old meat was too old to eat.) Another story was about a mother who took her son clothes shopping and bought him 3 of everything: 3 shirts, 3 belts, 3 pairs of shoes, etc. A third story was about a duck who had a umbrella with a duck-head handle. I believe there was also a story about a stray cat who eventually found a home; the story possibly involved bottles of milk outside the door of a house.

216A:Big Blue Book of Children’s Stories

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In the 1950s I was in the hospital and my grandmother gave me a book that she read to me every day. I was around seven-years-old at that time. It had a blue hardcover with black lettering. It had stories like “Billy Goats Gruff”, “Why the Bear had a Stumpy Tail”, “Town Musicians of Bremen”, and “Shingabis and the North Wind”. I do not remember the title of the book, but wish to find it to give it to my daughter for her children. I can still repeat the Shingabis story almost word for word as I had to have that story read to me every day.

214B: Collection of Life’s Lessons For Children (Solved)

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This book is probably from the 40s or 50s. It was a series of stories that taught children how to make good choices. One story featured a greedy little boy who always grabbed the biggest cookie or cupcake for himself. To teach him lesson someone makes a nice spread of food featuring one very large muffin or potato etc. but something is always wrong with the biggest piece. For example a large pie has almost no filling inside! When he grabs the biggest one he always gets disappointed.

212B: Boxed set of 4 nursery rhyme books

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When I was growing up ( I was born in 1968) my mother had a set of World Book Encyclopedias and on the same set of shelves she had this boxed set of four : grey with red/maroon lettering . I could be wrong but I recall all four of the books having nursery rhymes/poems e.g. Jack Spratt, Old Mother Hubbard, Itsy bitsy spider, there was one about black birds baked in a pie. There was even one about a purple cow and the last line of it was I’d rather see than be one – and on the top of the page was what you could tell was a color picture of a Holstein cow but they had mad it look purple. The quality of the books were the same as the encyclopedias- hard shell, thick feel of the paper. I loved those books. I have a co-worker who also remembers the same set of books but her mother also did not keep them to her dismay and she and I both have been trying to figure out who published them and could you still find a set. There were tons of poems/ rhymes and I loved them all but the purple cow was my all time favorite. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated .