From the 50s/60s. A family and the neighbor boy take their station wagon to a pumpkin farm. There are lots of pumpkin displays like a scary pumpkin witch and some horses made of pumpkins pulling a wagon. They head home with the back of the station wagon full of pumpkins, and the son and the neighbor boy carve jack-o-lanterns while the mom bakes two pumpkin pies and sends one home with the neighbor. The neighbor boy may or may not have been black.
Category Archives: Solved
242F: Orange kitty has adventures on a farm (Solved)
I am looking for an illustrated children’s book that was read to me in 1960s (possibly translated from French) It is about an orange kitty (Pitche? Mitche?) who has adventures on an old lady’s farm (foxes in hen house, getting a fever, being put to bed).
242E: Brother and sister use pocket watch to time travel (Solved)
I am trying to find a kid’s book published in the mid 80s. The story is about a brother and sister that find a pocket watch and use it to time travel to the 1700s to find/rescue their father that is lost in time.
242D: Bunny with large family (Solved)
I’m trying to find a book that my daughter remembers me reading to her in the 80s when she was about 5 years old. In the book there’s a female bunny with a large family. They annoy her so she runs away and creates her own house. Eventually she realizes that she misses her family. It was illustrated on each page with small black and white illustrations. It was also a small sized book, a little smaller than a trade paperback. My daughter remembers it as a long book, but that is probably a kid’s impression. Probably no more than 20 pages.
241B: Mother goes on a road trip (Solved)
A picture book I read around 1995 about a woman with grown children who lived in different areas – a farm, the city, the mountains, the beach. She retired, bought an airstream(?) and visited each child before returning to the farm. An apple farm?
240F: A girl pretends to be a witch (Solved)
The book is a children’s picture book about a little girl in witch school, or living with witches. But she is not a witch, or she doesn’t look like one, but she is pretending. Every day she puts on her robe and hat, and also a fake witch’s nose to hide her small nose. The book had line drawing illustrations (black and white), and at least one involved spiders and her bed. The girl was swept away by a real witch on Halloween, having been mistaken for a real witch girl, and finds herself at this school quite by mistake. I’m afraid this is quite a stumper, as I have only the fuzziest recollections of the book, but would know the illustrations instantly. I have looked and looked, and can’t find it!
240E: Death of a King (Solved)
I can’t remember the title of the book but I vaguely remember something about a bird maybe. I do however, remember some plot of the book. There was a boy who grew up from nothing, he is very charming and everyone loves him. He makes a best friend another boy and they travel together. They meet a girl and she is completely devoted to the charming boy, but he doesn’t spare her the time of day. The best friend is taken with her. At the end of the story there is a tournament to win the kingdom and the hand of a lady. The charming boy wants her really bad but she already has a guy and when they fight in the tournament the lady’s guy loses and charming guy wins the kingdom and her hand in marriage. The plot twist was that the lady and her guy stab the charming guy in the back and he ends up dying at the very end. His best friend takes over and gets vengeance on the lady’s guy. And he ends up ruling the kingdom with the girl that charming guy had no time for.
240C: A family of animals underground (Solved)
I was born in the late 1960’s. There was a children’s book that had to have been published before 1973 that I remember that had these illustrations it in about either a mole, a rabbit or a mouse whose family lived underground. The book had illustrated cut-aways that showed the ground above, the tunnels going down and their little house down in the earth (like a little kitchen, bed, etc.). For years it has been driving me nuts trying to find this book. So if you have any information please let me know.
Thank you!
239I: Photos of frolicking kittens (Solved)
This book would have been published before 1978 but probably after 1960 or 1965. It was a children’s book with photos (probably black and white) of a pair of frolicking kittens. The kittens had black and grey stripes. There may have been short captions of the pictures. The pictures were of the kittens leaping and jumping in funny ways.
239H: Animal steals a cherry pie from window sill (Solved!)
I was read this book by my mom when I was about 7 years old. It was probably published before 1995. It’s part of a collection of stories, possibly with the word “treasury” or “collection” in the title. The book was hardcover, a royal blue color, maybe a little bigger than a standard piece of computer paper, and about an inch thick. It may have been designed to be a bedtime book, but I don’t remember anything about sleeping.
I don’t remember anything other than a bit about one of the stories. I think they may have all been about animals, though. The one story I do remember involved a raccoon or black and white animal (but not a skunk) that steals a pie that was set to cool on a different animal’s window sill. I think the pie was cherry and had a lattice top crust.
Please help me find this book. I’d love to read it to my son.
