Category Archives: Early Reader

321P: Boys Communicate By Flashlight

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2 boys, best friends, who live next door to one another, communicate with one another at or near bed time by writing messages on window shades and shining their flashlights up onto the shade. One of the boys may have been named Andrew. Early chapter book and it was a small series of books. The last one our teacher read to us, one of the boys was moving away at the end. This was read to my class in the 2nd grade (1989-1990), don’t know if it was newly published or something the teacher had been reading to her classes for some time.

320M: Fairy Baking Competition

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Hi there, I'm looking for a book, I can’t seem to remember the title. It’s a children’s book. Hot pink cover with a fairy on the front on top of a cupcake and it has sparkles on the cover as well. Book for ages 4-8. It was a book about a baking competition and it had a recipe in it. Small print writing. That’s all I remember.

319V: Children’s Series About Shoes

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I’m looking for a series of early reader books about shoes. The series was already old (in my recollection) in 1981, the books were square, and the one that stands out in my mind had a red party shoe on it? Maybe it was sparkly, maybe it was patent leather? Not sure.
As I search for it I keep coming up with the series by Noel Streatfield but those were probably too advanced for a kindergartner.
Please let me know if you remember this book.

317N: A Man with Unoriginal Neighbors

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Looking for a children’s (early reader?) book. I read it during the 1970’s but not sure when published. The story line is as follows: a man lived in a house on a street where all houses looked exactly the same. So he paints his house. Everyone paints the same color? He plants a bush. Everyone plants a bush. Not sure if that was the order of sequence as to what he did to make his house look different. I cannot remember the title.

317A: Child Takes Tree House Too Literally

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A hard cover children’s story book (thought it was by Helen Oxenbury but can’t find it) about a naughty child who manages to grow a tree inside the house that grows out and through the whole house. Think it was one of those “two colour” story books before they had full colour printing ability. Probably intended for 6 -8 year olds.

316U: Magic blue paint or a magic window in a boy’s bedroom

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My teacher read this story aloud in elementary school (mid 90s). I'm not sure if it was a short story or a chapter book. What I remember is that a boy is in his bedroom, which has no windows, and decides to paint a window onto his wall. After he paints the scene, it actually becomes a real place that he can travel to by climbing through the window. I also remember that the scene he painted was of a maple tree farm, and that when he climbed through he tasted some of the maple syrup that was coming from the trees.

315Z: Boy falls off a raft in a cave, discovers the outside world

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This was a book that an elementary school teacher read aloud to us (mid 90s), and she deliberately kept the title a secret so that we would have to come up with one on our own. What I remember of the book is that the boy lived with his community (family, friends) on rafts on a river that is entirely in a cave system. Importantly, they never leave the caves (I think the boy hypothesizes at one point that the people used to go into the caves for the winter, but lost their way out and have forgotten the exterior world over time?). The boy falls off the raft one night while everyone else is sleeping and loses his family because the rafts keep floating down the river. He eventually finds a hole to climb out of the cave and is stunned by the sunshine. After that, I don't remember any more of the story.

315F: A Good Dog with a Good Bone

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A Children’s book from the mid-50s to 60s about a small dog who is adopted by a circus. Every night he gets a bone from the cook, who says, “To a good dog, a good bone!” He buries it but can’t find it in the morning, getting more and more upset until one night he stays up and realizes the circus moves during the night. He perks up, realizing that since the circus does a circuit, he’ll have a bone to dig up in every town!  I believe the illustrations are charcoal, black and white.

314G: Duck Looking for Water (Solved)

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The book I am trying to find is about a little duck that is looking for water but there is no rain so he finds a truck that is spilling water out of the back to follow. My father-in-law had this book as a child in the 1950’s and passed it to my husband but it is now lost. They don’t remember a title or even possible words, they do recall it having wonderful pictures and illustrations. Any help is appreciated!