I am looking for a picture book that I enjoyed when I was a child in the late 70s. It was hardbound and told the story of a man who had a long-nosed coupe and inherits/comes into a mansion and after a foggy drive there and inhabiting it discovers it is haunted. He discovers a secret tunnel underground (under a lake?) and ultimately makes friends with the ghost and I believe is led to a stash of treasure. I loved this story as I scared easily but was fascinated with ghosts, and in recollecting it reminded me slightly of Edward Gorey’s work. I think he might have been a bit Sherlockesque with a coat, hat and pipe. Had a very 60s/70s style and sensibility in the illustration. Would love to have a copy. Thank you for your sleuthing!
Category Archives: Status
340W: A Children’s Book about Racism in a General Store
This was a book used to discuss prejudices and racism in 5th grade classrooms in the late 90s. The characters in the book go to a general store and are treated poorly by others in the store. The N word is used many times throughout the book. I recall many Mildred D. Taylor books being used in this curriculum, so this could just be a specific chapter in one of her books, rather than the entire book? Perhaps The Friendship? I recall a specific young character in the book really wanting a piece of hard candy from the general store!
340Y: Hidden Paintings and Blueberries
I am looking for a children’s mystery book about several siblings who are spending the summer in an old house and find several paintings hidden in the house by a deceased but famous painter. It seems as though their grandmother is with them and they spend time picking blueberries. I thought the name of the book was Blueberry Summer or The Blue Boy but these titles don’t match the book I remember. The book is about 50 -60 years old.
340X: Fun With A Doctor’s Mother And A Quaker Mother
This book was written for young women, maybe 10 years old, and written in the late 50’s or maybe early 60’s. For whatever reason, the words How Many Miles to Babylon has always been in my mind, but I know that book and this isn’t it. The young girl has a doctor who is a hard-working doctor in a hospital, the mother is a “doctor’s wife” — very lively and fun and I think there is a sibling, maybe a little boy. There is also the woman’s grandfather who I remember as a little stuffy and patrician. The girl has a friend who is Quaker and has a mother who is a widow, I’m assuming. They live alone together. I remember wonderful details. The Quaker mother makes lunch and asks the girls to set the table and they pick the blue dishes because they look so pretty against the raspberries. The doctor’s wife mother picks her daughter up and says they are going on a road trip and I think that the sibling will stay with Granny. Then they drive to the hospital and grab the husband because he needs a road trip! The mother drives and the father and daughter laugh because she says rude things to the rest of the drivers. She’s pretty hip. I remember they stop at a roadside motel with cottages and the mother tells her to wear her bathing slippers in the shower because who knows! The last thing I remember is lobster. They have some kind of wonderful lobster.
340W: Tiny Girl Flies On Cockroach
My mom is looking for a book from her childhood.
340V: Illustrated Hans Christian Andersen Anthology
340U: Talk Show Goes To The Dogs
This book is fiction, and could be a novel, short story, or novella, but set in the current time and real world when the book was published (sometime between 1960-1985). A famous night-time talk show (along the lines of The Tonight Show during the Carson age) hosts a segment featuring a guest who is a man with a very smart dog; the guest claims the dog can understand spoken conversation, beyond just verbal commands. There are a number of conflicts that arise; the main conflict is the sponsor of the show (a dog food company, I think) wanting to use the dog in advertising, but the dog’s owner refusing. I think it is set in Manhattan, and the book culminates in a dog fight on the ice of a pond in Central Park (between the smart dog, I think a golden retriever, and a doberman pinscher).
340T: Philosophical Conversation All The Rage On Worldwide Network
Looking for a science fiction novel which starts with an older man on a park bench having a conversation with two or three youths (I think young men, teens). It is a philosophical conversation, mostly about economics and society. The interaction is recorded via a smart device, and uploaded to the worldwide network; it becomes enormously popular, the old man becomes quite wealthy and the teens are viewed as somewhat famous (infamous?) for their part in the conversation as foils, even decades later. This may have been a novella or short story, as well, and may have been by Vernor Vinge or David Brin; it would have come out after 1990 or thereabouts.
340S: Boy meets crows on a chessboard
Seeking a children's/teen book I read in the 90's, the central character is a boy who went to a pond/lake when he was told not to and developed warts on his hands as a result. These are cured by a magician? in an early scene, a friend of his father maybe? I only remember two more scenes, one in which he remembers trying to pull a wart from his skin, and another in which he dreams? of a giant chessboard. The white pieces are standard king, queen, knights etc, but all of the black pieces are crows. Crows and chess pieces were a recurring image in the book, but I don't remember what purpose they served. Thanks to anyone who helps with this, it's stumped me for years!
340R: Daycare Abuse
I believe this book was from the 80s after the real case of day care abuse and Satanic worship came out. This was a girl (early teens) who has a little sister or brother enrolled in the same day care that she attended. Things her younger sibling says to her begins to trigger memories of her own time there and the abuse (I believe sexual) that she suffered. No one will believe her because the teachers are so well loved. She has to find proof of the abuse by speaking to the children who attend the school.