Category Archives: Solved

279A: Children’s rhyming story about a king & his taxes (Solved)

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I remember a story (read in the 1960s – 1970s), and I’m not sure if it was a stand-alone or a featured story in a collection. It was a funny rhyming story about a king who started taxing everything in his kingdom, until finally the people revolted. I only remember bits and pieces, but the lines I remember are:

“A plague (?) on Max’s taxes! They are anything but fair. He taxes both our income and our patience, we declare!” and…

“So up they rose upon their toes…” and then something about going into the palace. The final line is something like “they stuck their tacks in Max!”.

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

278F: A picture book with a doll, a bear and a kitten (Solved)

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I read this children’s book in the 1960’s. It contained photographs, not illustrations, and featured a stuffed bear, not plush, a doll with long blonde hair and a kitten. I think there is a scene in a barber shop where the doll’s hair is cut and I also seem to recall a ball of yarn being involved. The book was large format and I believe it was in color.  The bear was one of those that had movable mechanical limbs. The doll was also mechanical in that her arms and legs could be positioned. She reminds me of one of the early talking dolls from that era that were about two feet tall.

278E: Young Chinese monk loses way while transporting books (Solved)

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This is a picture book probably published between 1988 and 1995 set in the distant past about a young Chinese monk who lives at a library in rural China. He’s always sleeping in, and one day the monastery needs to relocate because of a disaster (flood? war?). He sleeps in that day, too, and he and his donkey of books set out late in the day to try to catch up.
That night, he takes shelter in a cave where there are two old men playing chess with white and red pieces. They feed him and the monk stays up to watch their game. He falls asleep, and when he wakes up he’s been transported many years in the future.

He leaves the cave and soon comes across a huge battlefield with soldiers in white and red. Somehow, his arrival and the books he carries stops the battle. At the conclusion, he’s grown up to head a monastery-library of his own… and he always wakes up early.

278B: Girl returns to Malaysian rubber farm after the war (Solved)

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I read this book in my early teens and have been trying find it for years. A father sends a young girl away from rubber farm during the war. Upon her return from England, she finds she is an outsider due to not suffering the same pains those that stayed suffered. Her childhood friend (a boy) helped the villagers/prisoners by going night fishing to help keep people fed. The story resolves her relationship with the boy and her father.

277C: The moon landing and family drama (Solved)

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I used to get books in the mail — “Me and the Terrible Two,” “Alvin’s Secret Code” — and one of them was a book about a boy who watched the moon landing all summer while some family drama was also going on. The book had a low-key melancholy tone. I read it in 1974 or 75, when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I wish I could remember more about it, but I’m stumped!

 

277B: Little Girl Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the bed (Solved!)

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I am searching for a children’s picture book that I had read to me as a child. I can’t recall the name of the book and after much Googling, I am still no closer to finding any results. I am 30 years old, from Australia. I have checked all databases recommend by Loganberry Books.

The storyline went as follows – A little girl woke up on ‘the wrong side of the bed’. She went about her day to day tasks only to find that everything went wrong and she felt generally irritable. Toward the end of the book she goes back to bed and literally gets out of the other side of the bed and is in a better mood. I distinctly remember that the main character was a little girl, there was a scene where she was in brushing her teeth and I think she may have worn striped PJs. This book was an older book, my best guess is 1960s based on the illustrations.

Anyway, I can tell you that the book is definitely NOT ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ and from memory the book illustrations were blue and orange (illustrations were sort of done using a painted effect for lack of better description) only which tells me the book was most likely released published anywhere from the 1950s – early 1980s. It was not a Golden Book. I have searched on world cat and other such sites and it is NONE of the books that come up in the results. PLEASE HELP! None of the books ‘The Wrong Side of the Bed’ that I have found have been the right book. Please help me!

 

277A: French-Canadian Fur Trapper Family (Solved)

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I don’t know the real title. I suspect the character names, except possibly the central female character, are French. I probably read it between 1968-1972. An orphaned girl lives with a family of French-Canadian fur trappers, possibly on the St. Lawrence River. The girl is a young adolescent at the time of the story. She was seriously ill with a fever as a child and they cut her long dark hair to her shoulders. She keeps it that way, because it suits her, and wears a blue ribbon in it. There at least two sons in the family. One of the sons, an artist, is attacked by a bear. His hand is mauled and the father amputates it with a fire place poker. He survives but is depressed and the girl spends a lot of time trying to cheer him up. The eldest son is secretly jealous. He and the father leave to hunt and return with bundles of animal pelts. The father reveals that the older son is in love with her and carried her ribbon with him.

276E: A Pekingese puppy and a mystery (Solved)

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The book that I’m looking for was written sometime between the 1940’s and 1960’s (or so).  It was about a young woman who moved to live with her glamorous aunt in London.  Her aunt gave her a Pekingese puppy that she named “Peke Ah Boo”.  There was some kind of mystery having to do with the house next door and possibly a young man who turned out to be a spy?  It may have been a YA book – the copy that I had was hardcover in robin’s blue but there may have been a dust jacket at some point since I don’t remember any identifying marks on the cover.

Any help would be appreciated greatly, it’s driving me crazy!

276D: Picture book told from the POV of dogs (Solved)

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I am looking for a humorous picture book that was published at least 35 years ago. I do not know the title or the author.

It is told from the point of view of the pets. The owners, whose legs are all you see in the illustrations, are looking for a guard dog to protect them from robberies. They get new dogs but the old pets in the house persuade each new dog that everyone who comes to the house is a friend.e.g. the milkman, the postman. Eventually a robber comes to call. The pets play with him. He doesn’t rob the house so everyone is satisfied.  Would love to find this book for my son who remembers it with great fondness from his childhood.