Category Archives: Anthology

348Z: The Griffins Who Loved Tragedies and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

2 Replies

Collection of magical and wacky short stories for children, I believe it was an anthology of different authors, but I’m not sure. The edition I read in the 2000s had a cover illustrated with dancing pumpkins entwined with various characters from the short stories. It was old, maybe 70s or 80s? One story was of the pumpkins, someone tended them too well and they danced around the town causing havoc, another involved too much bubblegum. The only story I remember in detail was one of an author who wrote comedies. Everyone loved them, but he dreamed of writing tragedies. Whenever he tried submitting tragedies to his publisher, he was turned down. Being the father of two boys, he can’t afford to stop writing his jokes. These two boys also wanted a swimming pool. One night the author threw his tragedy out the window, and the pages floated to the mountains. The next few nights he heard crying coming from the mountain – and finally he went to investigate. There he found a griffin, crying over a few pages of his manuscript. Griffins, apparently, love tragedies. So the author offers to write him more, and give dramatic readings, and the griffin brings his friends, and their tears flow down the mountain, and become a natural swimming pool for the author’s boys, who become the best swimmers at their school.

348Y: The Magician’s Windows and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

4 Replies

Seeking a collection of magical, short stories for children illustrated with grayscale sketches. I believe it was one author. The edition I read in the earlier 2000s was older, maybe 60s or 70s, and had black and white sketches for each story. The stories I remember include one of an acrobat who had never touched the ground since the day they were born, and it ends sadly when their lover is hurt and they fall from the sky?; a magician who had different colored window panes in each room of his house, and to the children who visited each window looked out to a different world, a yellow desert, a green jungle, a blue Atlantis; and two sisters whose parents each separately made deals with the sun and the moon so the babies would live – when the girls were grown they were light and dark, life and death. The light girl was always singing and keeping the parents happy, but the dark girl never sang until the parents were tired of the light girl’s songs – then the dark girl sang her only song, a song of eternal rest. Mostly what I remember from the book was how mystical and melancholic it felt.

348O: Book with a page that is a dream about nose turning into a pickle w/ illustration (Solved!)

2 Replies
It is a kids book from the 1990s, possibly got it through Scholastic book fair. The book is a disjointed collection of chapters or stories that are all related to night time, getting ready for bed, dreaming. The page and the only part of the story I remember most vividly is about having a dream that her nose turns into a pickle and she breaks it off and eats it, and on the page is an illustration of a kid with a big pickle nose.

Book was hard cover, dark blue, about the same size and length as Graeme Base’s “Animalia”.

The title itself is not about the pickle nose dream, and possibly is a little generic and so it is hard to search for, because the page I can remember and the title are likely unrelated (i.e. pickle is not in the title of the book) but the illustration of the kid with the big pickle nose is etched into my brain.
The illustrations were very beautiful, almost surreal, a little bit like Chris Van Allsberg but less realistic and more cartoon-ish, almost cubist. I remember one page had an illustration of a lone house at night time and all the windows are illuminated and it was very beautiful.
This is a long shot, but in searching on reddit I actually found other people who are trying to figure out what this book was called!

348G: Stories for Five Year Olds

1 Reply

My Stumper request is for a book entitled either “Stories for Five Year Olds” or “Five Year Old Stories”. I purchased this as a paperback in the 1990’s.

Short stories include “A Drink of Water”, “Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf” and “The Little Boy and His House”.  This was a favorite book of my daughters when they were young. I’m now trying to find it for my granddaughter. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

347W: On the Wing of a Lark – Children’s Poems

2 Replies

This was a short book of children’s poetry I had as a child and it seemed like an older book even then. So it is at least 35 years old but likely more. I remember a few of the poems vaguely. One was about the changing seasons, I remember Autumn had apple trees and children collecting them. And another about the day passing using birds i.e. the sun rises with the robin…night come on the wing of a lark or something like that? There was also one about a toothache. What I remember the most is the illustrations. They were very delicate with children that had chubby cheeks. The trees were drawn with curly cues. For the toothache one the little girl had a handkerchief tied around her face. It was in English but maybe British because of the words that were used like lark and morning tea.

The book itself was about the size of a sheet of paper and covered in light blue cloth. The cloth was much like my Hardy Boys books. The title was on the binding and for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. Something like: The Robin Brings the Sun or the Robin Sings the Morning…I’ve tried googling a lot of variations but since the book is older I’ve given up trying to find it that way. Due to how I remember it and since the front of the book didn’t have the title I’d assume it may have had a dust jacket that had gotten removed at some point. I was hoping to get it from my mom for my daughter but they’ve moved so many times it got given away at some point. Would love to find it as it was a favorite when I was little.

346X: Fairy Tale Collection From Pre-1950’s Era

2 Replies

I currently have part of the book, but the first 30 pages are missing. Also the binding is worn away and the final pages are missing. The book is a collection of folk tales, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, etc. I always called it the Wolf Book, but I’m sure that is not the title. It was published around 1950 at the latest , but could have been considerably older.
Some of the stories in it are: The Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, The Lion Hearted Kitten, The Hole in the Ground, The Gingerbread Boy, The Three Sillies, The Tortoise and the Hare, Little Red Riding Hood, The Cap that Mother Made, The Boasting Bamboo, The Musicians of Bremen, Silly Will, Hans in Luck, The Ugly Duckling, and many more.

 

346B: Search for Children’s Anthology with Precious Few Details

2 Replies

I am (and have long been) searching for a children’s anthology I read and re-read as a child in the early 1960’s.  With the passage of time, my memories of the book have faded, but here’s what I still remember:  The book had both stories and poems, with some illustrations.  It had a chapter which, if I recall correctly, was called “From Baffin Bay to Patagonia.”  There was a story about Snowshow Thompson delivering the mail.  I recall a poem by Carl Sandberg and maybe a story about Abe Lincoln.  The binding was grey or brown, and I do not recall the binding having illustrations.  I wish I could remember more, but alas, I cannot.  Hope you can help.  I would love to re-discover the book.

345V: Elementary school reader – Pigs trying to sell their house

1 Reply

Hi! I'm trying to find a school book from the late '60's or very early 70's. Probably a second grade reader but I'm not certain. It has multiple stories and the one I remember is about a married couple of pigs trying to sell their house. Each animal that comes to look at it suggests something they would like changed about the house. The pigs change each thing and by the end of the story they don't want to sell their house anymore. Does anyone remember this book? It was read with the classic Dick and Jane books for sure.