I’m looking for a children’s book I checked out of my elementary school library in the mid/late 1980’s, so the book is from that period or earlier. I can’t recall much but it concerned a family of animals (pigs, sheep, lambs?) that lived in an urban setting (I think), an apartment with bunk beds (maybe) - there were lots of “kids". The parents go out for the night and the baby sitter turns out to be a wolf! Chaos ensues... That’s about all I’ve got. The book was illustrated.
Category Archives: Solved
334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)
I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.
334O: Orphans adopted by sadistic older couple (Solved!)
I read a YA series of (I believe 3 books) in the 1980's about 3 children who were orphaned and sent to live with an older couple off of the eastern US coast in a large mansion (perhaps Maine). The children were regularly subjected to gaslighting and emotional abuse. No adult believed them until the end of the very last book because the couple was so well regarded in the town. There was a cliff near the house where the tide came in very quickly and that played into the books very frequently.
334N: Lutie Doesn’t Want To Go To School (Solved!)
Looking for a book about a little boy named Lutie (or Luttie) who lived in the country and put up a big fuss about having to go to school. Probably published in the 1940's or 1950's. I had a lot of drawings.
334E: Argyle Socks For Birds Unravels Business Plans (Solved!)
This is an illustrated children’s book about a little Scottish boy (possibly named Angus) who makes friends with a sparrow in the winter. The boy’s family owns an argyle sock factory. The poor little sparrow is so cold outside in the winter, it sits shivering on a tree branch, switching from one foot to another in an attempt to stay warm. The little boy has the “perfect” solution to this problem: make his little bird friend a wee pair of argyle socks.
Well, the little sparrow is so chuffed about his own new cozy warm socks, he goes to the other birds in the trees to show them off. Soon, all the birds think they too should have a pair of lovely warm argyle socks, and so either the boy or the bird decides to go into the factory (full of huge spools of wool yarn), and make thousands of pairs of wee birdie socks.
In the morning, the boy’s family comes to work, but alas, there is no more yarn left for their business. They will be ruined! So, feeling bad for taking advantage of the little boy’s kindness, all the birds unravel their socks, and reassemble the giant spools of yarn. The factory is saved! Afterwards, the birds get to live in the factory rafters, where they are always warm, and don’t need socks.
The book may have originally been brought back by a relative from the UK (they’ve since passed), but it was read in Kentucky if that helps pinpoint the origin.
Thank you for your help.
334B: Teen romance, wheelchair, wheelchair basketball (Solved!)
Read this the summer of '72 in Santa Maria, California. It was a library book. A girl in a wheelchair and her older sister are shopping and the chair gets 2 flat tires. A young guy (ex-Army, I think) with a prosthetic leg helps them get home. He and the older sister date, but he steps on her foot as they dance. He plays wheelchair basketball, his chair tips and he's standing upright for a second, then face-plants and everyone laughs. I know this isn't much to go on, but it's all I've got.
334A: High school romance, heirloom chickens (Solved!)
I read it sometime in the early 70's. All I remember is that a girl is in science class and the teacher is talking about how certain breeds of chickens are gone because they've been cross-bred out of existence. The next day, a male student brings in cages filled with the birds that the teacher said were extinct. The girl is impressed by the boy and asks to see more.
333Z: Australian Teenager on the Road, Searching for Biological Mother (Solved!)