Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

241F: Cliff Dwellers children’s book ca. 1950

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I owned this book around 1950 when I would have been 7 or 8. This was a thin book of a somewhat large format (8 x 10?), with dark blue cloth covers. The book was primarily text, with occasional full-page lithographed full color paintings. I am pretty sure the title contained the words “Cliff Dwellers”. It was about the “Anasazi” Indians of the Southwest (probably based on Mesa Verde), and was a fictional story involving two children (twins?) and their daily lives, finding water, helping harvest corn, and, what I most remember, negotiating the ladders to and from their cliff dwelling. I’ve searched the LOC on-line catalog, WorldCat, and Abebooks.com, with no success. Hope someone remembers this book.

241A: Chinese Dragons and Witches With Flying Hair

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A fantasy middle-grade novel I read in the mid-80s, with a green Chinese dragon on the cover. The dragon belonged to a Chinese girl who rode it in a circus and put on a thick Chinese accent for the punters, but could actually speak English perfectly.
She was one of the magical characters helping the two child protagonists on their adventure: another was a witch who had long hair which flew about when she was casting spells. She made an illusory double of one of the children (called a Semblance) so they wouldn’t be missed.
At one point the protagonists and their flying carpet were swallowed by some kind of evil spirit that had a dark stormy space inside it. They started calling the spirit the Glutton to make fun of it, and the witch put her head in her hands as if she was despairing so nobody could see her hair flying about when she used her magic to get them out.

240D: A summer of gardens, orchards and mysteries

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My teacher, in either elementary or middle school, read a book to our class about siblings who went to their grandmothers (or aunt’s) house to live for the summer. If I recall, one of the siblings, maybe the girl didn’t want to go. They play outside in the gardens and orchard and end up trying to solve a mystery which ends up having to do with a dollhouse.

236B: Stuffed animal disguises himself (Solved)

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I borrowed a copy of a chapter-book from a preschool acquaintance of mine in Canada in 1991 or 1992. As I recall, though, it was a hardcover with slightly off-white pages, meaning that it might have been much older. As I recall, it was a medium-sized book of short stories about a group of bedroom toys, with black-and-white ink illustrations. The only story I remember in any detail was about a stuffed animal who goes into his owner’s closet and re-emerges wearing a pile of clothing and declaring himself to be ‘_______ _______ III’. At the age I was, I had no idea that this meant ‘the third’, so I always mentally read it as ‘I-I-I’ or ‘one-one-one’. The other toys are astonished at first, but I’m pretty sure there was the predictable unmasking by the end of the story. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

234D: Large Children’s Anthology of Short Stories from the 90s

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I’m looking for a treasury/anthology of short stories for children that was most likely published in the early to mid 90s. I can’t remember too much about it, but the pages were yellow (or maybe had a thick yellow border?). It was about 2 inches thick, and was about 8 1/2″ x 11″. There were all different types of stories and were unrelated to each other. The only one I can actively remember was about the father of the family was trying to cure sunspots. The book contained pictures with most, if not all, of the stories. The stories were probably geared towards ages 6 to 11, as opposed to younger children. I have no idea about author/title/publisher because for as long as I can remember, the front and back covers had torn off!

233C: A series follows a young girl to adulthood (Solved)

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The main character, Jennifer? Jennie? Jenny? Possibly on the farm could’ve been the first.
These were a series of chapter books featuring an American girl who (moves?) to the country, detailing her charming life on a farm. There were several from when she was about 6-8 to almost 20 I believe. There were animal characters, a boy she might have married, various family members. She takes up ballet in later books. She wears her hair in looped braids. I read these as a child in the 80’s but they were clearly written much earlier. I would say 40’s or 50’s. Possibly 30’s or 60’s but doubtful.

I would so very much love to find them for my own daughter! I adored these- not only because she had the same name as me. I remember being even fonder of them than the Betsy Tacy books. In a way they were in between those and the Little House stories. Set the stage for Anne of Green Gables. So curious to know why they’ve disappeared!

230C: Grade school book of mammals

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I remember frequently checking this book out from my grade school library; it was hardcover, no dust jacket; limited to mammals (worldwide species). It was a ‘tall’ sized book and may have had a pinstripe or harlequin design, on the front cover was an oval/circle template with jungle animals. (I do remember a giraffe). The inner illustrations were not photos, but looked painted/drawn. It looked like an old book, maybe from the ‘40s-‘50s?

228F: Town’s largest yarn ball

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This book is an older children’s/YA book, set in small-town America. It was published in the 80s or earlier. The major competition in the town is which of two women had the larger ball of yarn/string. Everyone adds their spare bits to one or the other – I believe the POV character (a girl) brought the string from around a package to add to one woman’s ball.

Eventually, the town decided they needed to know once and for all. One woman’s was measurably a little bit larger, but there was the question of how tightly it was wound, plus there was the rumor that there was a peach pit in the center.

In the end, they decided to answer the question by unwinding each ball around a racetrack or something. I think they may have had to knock out walls to get the balls out of their owners’ houses. Partway through the unwinding one of the balls did indeed start looking notably peach-pit-shaped, and that’s the last I remember.

Thanks for any help!