Hello! The book I am thinking of could *possibly* be a school book, it was hard cover, and grey-blue in color. It had “Many Moons”, by James Thurber, the last story was by, I believe, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and there was a story about a toy maker making wooden animals for a farm set. The lights went out and he painted all the animals the ‘wrong’ colors and was very upset until someone told him they were even better that way.
I would love to find this collection of stories again!
The book I am thinking about would have been published before 1968 I believe because i read it when I was about eight or nine in 1967. I live in England. I believe i borrowed it from the library or the school library.
The book was about a group of children staying in an old Abbot’s house or at least close to an old monastery. Virtually all I can remember of the plot was the finding of an old map in a settle in the house, which led them to find treasure in the monastery garden. I seem to remember the treasure was actually from the church and it was important for some reason that it had been found.
I know it is very little to go on!
Thanks
A young boy lives in a tower block in a near future wasteland. There is a strange lady who pushes around a trolley with a diamond encrusted tortoise in it. She was a writer and she wrote a book (the manuscript is also in the trolley?). There is a newspaper magnate involved somehow.
A village isn’t allowed to play music because there is a dragon sleeping in a cave above. I think he may have been sad because he couldn’t play music? We think it was called The Dragon on Tattlemouth.
Two people ride a train into a place where there is some disease that makes everyone fall asleep. They tell each other jokes to stay awake. It was a story in a science fiction anthology for young adults. I read it in the mid 1980s in a school library, but it was an old book even then.
My now 21-year old daughter speaks fondly of a picture book that featured a boy getting rescued from a tree by a swan. She says the cover had a boy in a tall woods. There was a monster, a ‘lot about woods,’ and a ‘terrible red mist.’ Possibly Caldecott?
I am hoping to find more information about an Easy Reader type book my teacher used when I was in the first grade, circa 1990.
The book was a series of red books, and the words were phonetic. I believe each book had multiple short stories. I remember one was about an African American boy who finds a Genie. The book definitely had a black boy and a genie, I may be conflating the two.
This cover looked familiar to me. The reader I am thinking of, may or may not be this one or have an image on the cover. I distinctly remember it was red.
I also remember the clothing of the illustrations within the book looked dated to me as a child, which I think means the book may have been published in the 70s or 80s originally.
I’m searching for a children’s book I read as a little girl probably in the early 1960s (do not recall title or author) about a poor village baker who has nearly run out of all ingredients to make his delicious baked goods. He is on the verge of closing down his shop for lack of money and ingredients when a poor beggar appears at his door asking for a meager meal. The baker ponders the request. If I recall correctly, he discusses this with his wife who tries to persuade him not to feed the man, but the baker wastes no time using his remaining ingredients to serve up a meal for the beggar. He also offers him a place to sleep in his bakery. When the morning comes, the beggar is gone, but the baker, to his surprise and thankfulness finds his larder overflowing with all of the ingredients he needs to keep his little bakery open.
It’s a novel I read in the mid 80’s, although I suspect it was written before that. The protagonist is older than average. Curmudgeonly, ego-centric and eccentric. The only scene I remember with clarity is one in which the protagonist is being chased through the precincts of a city or maybe an enemy’s citadel. He comes across a courtyard or walled garden in which there is a bush or shrub decorated with white flowers. Our hero is wearing a purple and green robe, cloak or other outfit and gambles that his clothes – being made up of two complementary colours – will register as white to pursuers in a hurry. Taking a chance on this he hides himself in front of the bush or shrubbery and, sure enough, his pursuers hurtle on past him and through the garden, allowing our hero to escape at his leisure. Identifying this book has been bugging me for over a decade now, so any hints, clues, leads or even an answer will be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance. . .
I must have read this some time in the 70s. Not a picture book, I would say this book was middle grade fiction (aimed at 8-12 year-olds). I’m guessing I read it between the ages of 9 and 11. It took place in Bern, Switzerland, and although I think the protagonist may have been a young girl, there was definitely a clockmaker in it, and his shop. I don’t think it had any elements of fantasy in it, but I remember finding it a magical story. I wish I remembered more about it, but that’s about all I’ve got!