Category Archives: Early Reader

278D: Halloween story featuring a new teacher

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I have been searching for this book for so long with no luck.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember the title.

I got it when I was in elementary school in the 1970’s.  It was probably published early to mid 70’s.  I got it through one of the school’s reading program catalogs, so it may be a Scholastic book or another company like that.  My best friend and several other students also purchased it.  It was a Halloween book.  It was about school students who have a young, pretty new teacher come to their school.  Her name was Miss – something.  Maybe Miss Grey.  (I don’t trust my memory that far though.)  The students think there is something odd about her.  She wears a big, wide-brimmed hat.  Of course, she’s suspected of being a witch.

The book was a thin paperback.  The illustrations were pencil drawings in black and white.  That’s about all I’ve got on it.  It was such an unusual story and I’ve never seen the book again.  Wish I knew where my copy got off to.  Probably gave it away when I felt I was too old for children’s stories…  geez…

 

When I search online, the later 80’s series about “Miss Nelson” pops up, but that is not it.

 

Thank you for your time!

275A: Using Thinking Cap to get to Imaginary Lands (Solved)

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Three? children are gifted (by a scientist /older man?) magical thinking caps, which increase their capacity to imagine. They use these hats to create/connect to and explore a magical world. I remember the antagonist wanting these hats so that they can free themselves and enter the other world. The children are careful to only go to the land together for safety. The antagonist has an agent that can move in between the worlds, a Slinky/Shadow/Sneaky Cat. This cat convinces the girl to come back alone with him to it’s yarn house. The other two? children go on a rescue mission with the scientist? who has his own hat, but because he is an adult is not able to use is as well as the children.

I read this book with my elementary school class around the time when we transitioned off of picture books to shorter novels, so I would expect this book to either be the latter, or one of those children’s novels with some pictures. It would have been published no later that 1998.

I appreciate any and all help! I will mail a check to you all tomorrow.

274D: Girl with Possible Shepherd (Solved)

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Here’s what I can tell you about the book: It was published in or before 1988; which was when I read it in paperback. It was intended for young adults or children. The story is about a girl who either moves in with a farmer/shepherd and his family or she goes to live with them for an extended period of time (possibly a summer). I think it may be her cousin and his family. While  there she gets into a great deal of mischief. She climbs into the rafters inside the house and is afraid to get down. She tastes fresh milk for the first time while it’s still warm. She learns to ride a horse and won’t get off when they tell her she should and then she’s so sore that she can neither sit nor stand comfortably. There is some sort of celebration she’s to attend – she goes into her room to see lots of colorful skirts laid out for her. She wonders which one she should wear and is told to wear all of the skirts.

 

I genuinely appreciate any help you can give me. My mother and I read this book together and laughed until we cried over parts of this story. I’d love to find it again. 

272E: Mr. Apple’s Family (Solved)

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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.

272B: Magical gift inhibited by silver in braces

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I’m wondering if you might be able to help me track down a book that my SIL vaguely remembers from her childhood. The main character is surrounded by people who have magical gifts, but he (she?) apparently has no gifts. Then he/she gets his/her braces removed, and it turns out that the silver was inhibiting the magic, and he/she actually does have magical powers.

She read it in the mid-80s, and the fact that there were braces in it leads me to believe that it wasn’t written too much earlier than the 70s or 80s.

 

267D: Dick-and-Jane-esque, Plus Gyp (Solved)

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I have to tell this story first – I found Stump the Bookseller around a decade ago when I was in grad school in Illinois, and you all helped me find some dear books.  Then, my husband got his medical residency in Cleveland and someone told me about Loganberry Books, and I went, AND FELL IN LOVE.  Then I made the connection, and it rocked my world.  Another reason why I adore Cleveland: it has Loganberry.  (When I was in grad school, it was just a theoretical cool bookstore, not a concrete reality!)  Visit here if you can.

My stumper: my grandma had this series of square, paperback books, probably from the 50’s, that were like Dick and Jane but not – the same kind of easy-reading format, but the little kids had different names.  There was a boy, and a brunette girl, and a blonde girl, I think.  They did various things (the books had little stories per volume, I think); one of them involved the little blonde girl going shopping with her mom in town, and picking a bow for her hat.  I don’t remember their names, but I do remember that they had a cute little brown dog named Gyp.  My grandma is still around, but someone in the fam (understandably) took the books, and I so want to find them again.

Thanks!!! 🙂