Category Archives: Anthology

134E: Anthology, similar to East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Solved)

8 Replies

I had an anthology of fairy tales, which I thought was called East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Whilst the format is very similar (girl traveling looking for something, told stories by the four winds), none of the versions I can find online match, so I may have the title wrong.
It definitely included the stories of:

 

  • The 12 Dancing Princesses
  • Long, Broad & Hawkeye (picture of a beautiful princess behind a curtain? one takes giant steps, one swallows a lake, one has a cloth covering his eyes)
  • ?The Selfish Girl (little girl who gave away items, including a honeycomb and watermelon, but returned a little while later to demand them back)
  • ?Something about watching a man sleeping and 3 drops of waxing dripping from the candle onto his chest.

The illustrations were beautiful but simple, maybe watercolour over ink lines. The characters were generally lithe with long, very straight hair.
It was a large book, with a picture on the front with a deep red/brown border around it. I would’ve been given it new somewhere between 1975-1985, in the UK.
Really hope you can help!

 

134D: Readers Digest Collection

11 Replies

This was a collection of tales that had been published originally in Readers Digest. Included was a story about a family being slowly poisoned by the lead in a decorative pitcher they drank from every day. There was also one in which a car breaks down in the desert and the children coat their lips with the mother’s lipstick to avoid them drying out. (At one point they get so hungry they eat the lipstick, I think)

 

121I: Pre-Teen Romance Anthology (Solved)

4 Replies

I read this book sometime between 6th and 8th grades, so between 1976 and 1979. It was not great literature but catered very much to pubescent and pre-pubescent girls. It was a mass-market paperback anthology of short stories, and I think they all dealt with romance and/or the characters’ first kisses. There might have been some that were just about the trials and tribulations of being that age, but if so, I don’t recall specifics. I do remember one of the stories mentioning chocolate pudding. In another -or maybe the same story- the protagonist went on her first date (possibly a school dance?), and when she and the boy walked home, he kissed her, and she said his lips tasted sweet like Coca-Cola.

 

107D, solved: Childhood Story Book

6 Replies

I am long looking for my childhood Story Book.  My birth year is 1947.  I do not know if mom had this book previous to my birth.  The cover is gone.  So are the first 16 pages.  No index, no contents.  But, on the upside, I have [a few pictures] of the story beginning and some illustrations. I would love to purchase one or more of these books if it could be identified.

107D1107D2

(Click on pictures for larger view.)

103J: Boy Accidentally Helps Man Rob House (Solved)

3 Replies

In 1973 I read an old hardcover book containing European children’s stories.  The stories were probably written in the early 1900s.  In one story a boy is working for a man in a village and unknowingly helps the man rob a house; the man uses a ladder to enter the second story of the house.  Someone pulls up the driveway and they flee.  Days later the boy returns to the village, is forgiven, and continues to be friends with the girl who lives in the house.

103G: Dangerous Rare Spider

4 Replies

I think it was a short story within an anthology, that involved a rare (maybe Venezuelan?) spider that was the most dangerous in the world, and could paralyze people. I think there was a recluse in his mansion, that included a greenhouse or conservatory, and someone maybe have been trying to get money from him? It was a library book, so I have no idea when it would have been published, but I read it in the early 1990s.

103E: Melting Marshmallows

Leave a reply

The book as I remember it: Soft cover bedtime stories…blue maybe? Looked kinda like a coloring book, but was bedtime stories.
The story: Took place in a candy store, at night all the candy came alive. The only thing I really remember is the marshmallows starting to melt. It would have been in the 1960’s probably. it was my favorite story as a kid and would love to read it to my grandson. Hope you can find it…I have had no luck. Thanks.

102R: Story a Day

4 Replies

Looking for a book that was my mother’s. She was born in 1938 and had a book that featured a story a day for the year. It had a small margin on top of the story on each page that was illustrated in black and white. Published sometime in the 40’s.