I’m trying to locate a book I read in the 80s about a boy who lived on one world in one of 9 universes. Since he only existed in one universe, he possessed 9 lives and magic without knowing it. A family member put his lives in a matchbook so they could use his magic. Then he found out and got his remaining lives back and had adventures in the different worlds.
I believe this book is from the 60’s or 70’s. I read it around 1993 so it certainly is earlier than that. The illustrations have simple cheerful pen/line work. My recollection of the plot is a kid puts money in a gumball machine and is granted wishes genie style and/or it releases a cherub who just decides to make fun things happen. There may or may not be three gumballs. At one point kids are skipping with a very long piece of licorice or some other candy.
I recall the flying cherub is just a white body (as white as the page) with a black outline. He may or may not have curly hair. I also think that the page backgrounds are all white. The illustrations do have colors though, but there is not much visual texture – it is very flat with black line outlines on everything.
That is all have. I read this book only once and have been collecting picture books for years now and have never seen anything even close. Thank you so much! I’d be thrilled to find it.
The second story I am trying to track down from my childhood is an anthology of weird and horror stories (not really gory given the era, and written for children). It was in our school library in the early 80s and worn, so it could easily date to the 1950s through the 1970s. The story is about two children (a brother and sister) who come across and old house in the woods and find that a family of children live there who are very strange. They have silver hair and no parents. Eventually the unusual children hold a party with a big cake that has a sleigh with two small dolls that look like the brother and sister. The brother and sister find out that when the sleigh rolls down the hill of the cake they will be trapped forever to stay with the silver headed children. They flee the house and when they return the next morning they find nothing but ancient ruins. Apparently the silver headed children are ghosts that only occasionally turn up and wanted the brother and sister to join them. I'm afraid I don't recall any of the other stories in the anthology. Thanks!
I'm looking for a book I had as a child in the 1970s, though the book may be from the 1960s. It was a small paperback with a light blue cover. It was about a cat, I think named Henry, and his mother. The drawings were very simple pen & ink drawings. There may have been a little blue in the drawings too, but mostly I think they were back and white and were simple. The cat was always getting in trouble, and had to be sent to his room. His mom was cooking in the kitchen. They both walked upright - and the mom wore an apron. I think it may have been a series and there were other stories about him.
I’ve been looking for this book forever! I read this book around 1985, in Taiwan. The book was written in another language, not sure which, mostly likely English, and translated to Chinese.
Kids / Young Adult / Teen book about a teen / pre-teen girl competing with one of her classmates about everything. The entire book was written in 1st person telling the reader how much she envies one of her classmates because that person had everything. I remember her describing the other girl’s hair and the smell of her shampoo. She loves photography and drama. Once she took a close-up photo of a tree for a contest, thought it was perfect lighting, perfect shapes… etc, but it ended up getting her in trouble because there were a curse word on the photo upside-down that she never saw. She went to a drama camp and completed for the leading role, only to found out that she had stage fright so bad that she can’t do anything. At the end she realized that she was a great director, as soon as the spot light is not on her, she does very well.
Hope you can help.
This was a book passed to me by my mother in the early 1950s. I think it might have been published in the early 20’s-40s maybe? It was a small book in size, grayish cover, with real photos. As I remember it, there was a young girl (maybe blond with curls) in a hospital. She got her name Topsy Turvy because she had to be hung in some manner that put her upside down, maybe? I believe she was an orphan and was eventually adopted – similar to “Daddy Long Legs”. The only reason I think this is a different book from that is I clearly remember a lot of hospital pictures in it.
My mother was a nursing student in Boston in the early 40s so it maybe it was something they produced?
It's a collection of children's stories. Possibly bedtime stories? The only one I can remember is about a baker's cat. The town find him annoying. One day he drinks yeasty water that the Baker left out then sleeps in the sun and grows huge. The town has a dike and it springs a leak but the giant cat lays down in front of it until they can fix it so he's a hero?? They bring him food and scratch under his chin with pitchforks to keep him in place.
I read it in the 1970s, probably published then or perhaps in the late '60s. A young boy (maybe 10 or 11) and his older sister (young teenager?) from a noble family become embroiled in a mystery and they run around town (possibly Athens, but I think it was ancient Rome) hunting for clues. They wear togas. 🙂