Category Archives: Solved

263D: A girl and her teddy bear (Solved)

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Hello, I’m looking for a book I had as a child. It’s about a teddy bear who is owned by a little girl, and on her birthday she has a party. He can hear all the noise and excitement and gets curious. So he sneaks down the stairs and watches what’s going on through the railing. The girl is opening her presents and is so excited and happy that the teddy thinks she must not want him anymore. So he goes back upstairs and crawls under her bed to hide and be forgotten. Some time later, the little girl and her friend are playing in her room and happen to look under the bed, and they find the teddy bear, he is all dusty and ripped up. The girl is so happy, and her and her friend get the sewing kit and play hospital while they sew him up.

 

I have been searching for years and so has my mom. She has suggested that perhaps I remember two books as one, but I know that’s not the case. Please help! Thank you so much!

263C: Fairy fantasy from the 60’s or 70’s (Solved)

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I read the book around 1978-1983. It was a fantasy with a child who stayed with family and went into the woods and found a passage to a fantasy world of fairies which she ended up traveling to. The book had a title that was a play on Maestro or some other musical name. The cover of the book was brownish red with the face of one of the fairies. The face was very large and very round(side-wise oval) and with a very wide mouth. I was between 9-12 yo when I read it but this is what I remember.

 

263A: Old man with mustache tells grandson the story of how his hair turned white (Solved)

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I would have read this book in the early to mid 90’s but I’m not sure if that’s when it was published. I remember that it was shelved with the Halloween books at my local library. An old man who has a white mustache is telling his grandson (may have been multiple grandchildren) about how his hair turned white. In his story he is pictured as a young boy but he still has the mustache, I remember thinking this was hilarious as a child. The gist of the story as far as I remember it is that when he was young he went into a haunted house or witch’s house on Halloween night and when he came out his hair had turned white. I have been wracking my brains for ages trying to remember the title of this book, I would love to read it again. 

262E: Welsh Coal Mine Ponies (Solved)

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I loved this chapter book in the 1970s.  It took place during a much earlier era.   A coal mine in, I believe, Wales is closing which employs most of the people in the town.  The town children are afraid of what will happen to the ponies that work in the mine pulling the coal carts. They want to “retire” the ponies to a field.  The parents are worried about losing their jobs and don’t have the money to help the children save the ponies.  I believe the children make an appeal to the wealthy owner of the mine, who is sympathetic.  There may also be descriptions of the miners being sick, and of a canary dying from gas in the mine.  I remember this book having the same kind of feel to it as “The Wheel on the School.”  Thanks everyone for your help!

262D: 80’s book. Collection of Fairy Tales, Fables and Nursery Rhymes (Solved)

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I can not remember if the book itself is from the 80’s or if it was a bit older. ( I was given it in the 80’s)   I’m not 100% sure if it had “Mother Goose” in title. It had all the classic fairy tales with illustrations. I know for sure it had Gustave Dore’s illlustration for Cinderella  as well as Walter Crane’s for Beauty and the Beast. These illustrations were the ones I remember being in the book.

pic1 pic2 pic3

 

262C: A girl fascinated by different lifestyles (Solved)

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I’m looking for a short story I read years ago about a girl from a well-off family who snuck out while everyone in her house was napping. She walked around until she found some kids from a less well-off family playing in the street. She played with them and was entranced by the fact that they didn’t have adults following them every minute, and by their different language patterns and food. Eventually, the little girl’s nurse (nanny) showed up to take her home. The kids she was playing with were fascinated by the little girl referring to the nanny as her nurse. They asked if she was sick because she had a nurse, but she explained that the nurse just took care of her.

261D: Fairies Kidnap Girl (Solved)

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I’m looking for a children’s book that was available around 1990 (not sure if that is the publication date or not).  The story details I can remember are that a girl is either kidnapped or befriended by a fairy, and her mother tries to get her back.  When the mother finds the daughter, she is told she has to hold on to her no matter what.  The fairy then turns the daughter into different things trying to get the mother to let go (snakes, thorns, and finally hot iron).  As the mom holds on to the hot-iron version of the daughter, the metal melts and turns back into the actual girl and they can leave together.

 

The version of this book that I remember had gorgeous illustrations in sort of an art-nouveau/greek style.  Very detailed and beautiful.  Thank you for the help in identifying the title/author!

 

261C: Children build a mechanical horse (Solved)

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I first read it when I was somewhere between first and third grade, in the early ‘70’s, and, unfortunately, don’t know what its cover or illustrations looked like, since I read it in braille. I have only the vaguest description, but hope this helps me find its title so I can now read it through adult eyes. It involved several kids who built, I think, a mechanical horse that time-traveled (maybe). Their workshop was someone’s basement—I remember they had to move some “lead weights” periodically, and I remember this only because, at the time, having never encountered the word as pronounced “led”, it took me a while to catch on that they weren’t “leed weights,” but were, indeed, “led weights”. I’m guessing it may have been 150-200 pages in print.

260G: An East Indian (Mid Century Illustrated) Children’s Book: Parrot and a Princess (Solved)

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This book is one of a series of books by a female illustrator (and for some reason I think she has an Asian name).  They are all different stories from different cultures.  The one I am searching for (and found years ago on a site from Australia when I still remembered the actual name but neglected to write it down) is a story about an East Indian Prince who listens to a parrot’s advice about a Princess.  The Princess has many sisters and an overbearing father.  The Prince is cast out into the wild, I think he’s beaten up by other Princes, and the parrot is there with him to give him advice.  I can’t remember if the parrot is more of a trickster parrot who gets the Prince into trouble, or a helpful parrot.  I think they end up together (Prince & Princess) and I don’t know what happens to the parrot. Regardless, the illustrations are simply beautiful and with crisp and clear colours belonging to the mid-century era of illustration.  I believe it’s oriented landscape, about 8”x11” (or smaller, but not by much), and it’s paperback.  My Mum bought it in the early 1970s Victoria, BC, Canada, but I’m not sure if she bought it used or new.

260F: Girl raised by witches is really a fairy (Solved)

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There was a book that I always took out of my elementary school library between 1975 and 1978.  Although I do not have the title, what I recall is as follows:

The book is about witches and fairies.  The little witch in the story never felt right with the other witches, they were mean. I think she used to see the fairies and wish she was one of them.  The middle gets fuzzy but towards the end she discovers that when she was a baby she was caught in the witches web and that’s how she came to be with them.  But she was really a fairy and was returned to them.

I know this is not much but at 47 years old I cannot put this story out of my mind.  I have always been an avid reader and hope to find this book.  It will haunt me otherwise.