Category Archives: Solved

140B: A Yukon Adventure (solved)

I am trying to locate a book for a friend.  The title is not known and it was probably published in the late1940’s or early 1950’s.  Some Disney friends went looking for gold in the Yukon and ran into Peg-Leg Pete.  While trying to escape him one of the friends shook hands with a totem pole and a trap door opened up to save them from Peg-Leg. 

 

140A: Childrens book with an animal (bunny or mouse) that wins the lottery (solved)

I have been searching for a book that I read in first grade, and I can not find it to save my life.

The book is about a rabbit or possibly a mouse. He works in a grocery store, and wins the lottery. He wastes the money he wins on a car with no engine, a mansion that is too big for him, and a motorcycle so that he can move back and forth through the mansion.

The book ends with the mouse or bunny broke, and returning to work at the grocery store. he buys another lottery ticket on the last page i think.

I was in the first grade in 1988-89, so my memory may not be that great of the details. I think this was a scholastic book- we had book fairs and mailers come home all the time, and that might have been how I ended up with this book.

 I have a first grader that is starting chapter books, and I would love to give him this book. I have very fond memories of reading and laughing at how silly it was. Your help is much appreciated.

 

139A: frog’s birthday party (solved)

This is a picture book from the early seventies featuring, I believe, a frog who invites people to her birthday party but no one ends up coming. I think this is because she holds it in the water and serves foods that only she likes.  I have a distinct memory of an illustration in which the frog is sitting alone on a lily pad with a party hat askew on her head.  She has prepared many gelatin molds with flies and they are beginning to melt.  She ends up arranging a different party with food to suit her guests and everyone comes.  Please help me!

 

138A: Title character is Bernie (solved)

picture book circa 1985
Title character is Bernie
Little boy running away from home. Stops at various shops in his neighborhood Shop keepers give him things for his journey Baker gives him a loaf of rye(?) bread Pet shop owner gives him a puppy Green grocer gives him four purple plums

The book was paper bound, oblong shape, and may have come from a book club subscription.

137D: Boy Flees Village (Solved)

In 1973 I read an old hardcover book containing European children’s stories.  The stories were probably written in the early 1900s.  In one story a boy is working for a man in a village and unknowingly helps the man rob a house; the man uses a ladder to enter the second story of the house.  Someone pulls up the driveway and they flee.  Days later the boy returns to the village, is forgiven, and continues to be friends with the girl who lives in the house.  He tells her how he fled through the woods and fields for days.  He tells her that when he was fleeing, he met the man again by a lake, and the man said to keep running.  There is no magic involved in this short work; it is not a fantasy.  The story was written for ten to twelve year old readers.

 

136G: brother and sister, kitten soap carving, puppet show (solved)

I have been trying to remember the title of a sweet YA chapter book I read in the early 90’s that was probably written in the 50’s or 60’s.  It was about a small family who had a little boy and a little girl and I remember two stories from it distinctly. One was about the sister; there was a soap carving competition at school and the sister had worked hard on her carving.  She left it in the basement, and the mother thought it was to be used for washing and used it to do the laundry.  The little girl was distraught, and the mother had her look at it to decide if it looked like anything familiar.  The little girl ended up carving it into a kitten, and I remember there was an illustration of it in the book. Another story concerned a puppet show that the children did with their friends; I remember it being something like a diorama depicting stairs down to a dungeon or something Hamlet-like. 

That’s all I can remember, but I appreciate any leads!