Category Archives: Unsolved

297Q: Like a Canadian Little House on the Prairie

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1950s (or earlier) Canadian series about a family.

My mother is looking for a series she read in the 50s but she doesn’t know whether it was published for her generation (born in the 40s) or the books were from her mother’s childhood. They seemed pretty contemporary however. She grew up in Canada and the books were all set in Canada.

The main characters were a boy and a girl, possibly twins. There may have been additional siblings. They moved a lot and each book took place in a new town, much like Little House. Their father may have worked for the government. Or possibly he just was sent many places and they regularly visited him.

One book took place in a logging camp with lumberjacks. In another, they moved to Montreal and dealt with the language barrier, being English-speaking. She particularly remembers them having trouble figuring out the French labels for hot and cold on bathroom sink faucets.

297O: A brother he never knew he had

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My daughter’s BF started this book but moved before he could finish. He read it in New Mexico, USA in the last five years. But his sister had it and is an avid reader so it could be old or new and she, of course, can’t remember it. He said it was a very big book that starts with a boy in an orphanage who has a brother show up unexpectedly he never knew he had. The brother takes the orphan to his house that is strange and there is a fireplace on the second floor that has a Narnia-type portal in it.

We would love to surprise him with this book. If anyone can help we’d be so very grateful! Thank you for your time.

297N: Billy and the Spinach Fairy

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I’m looking for a very old book called Billy and the Spinach Fairy. It is a story that appears in a few places, but I’m specifically looking for the illustrated stand-alone book.

Billy and the Spinach Fairy is a book from the early 1930s or earlier. The latest it would be published would be 1936, but I suspect it is older than that.

I found one unillustrated copy of the story in “A Story for Every Day: 365 Bedtime Stories,” Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, Wisconsin, c 1931: Feb. 4 story, pp. 34-36. (No individual author listed).

A reprint of the story, with slightly different text, appeared on page 67 in the October 31, 1943 edition of the Oakland Tribune. It was on a page of story submissions from children. It was supposed to have original stories, but a child plagiarized the story and submitted it as her own. I have attached a digital copy of the page, a digital close up of the story, and my own retyping of that close-up, which is difficult to read in the digital newspaper copy. I corrected two spelling errors in my retyping, but otherwise it is identical to what appears in the newspaper.

If I could find this book, I would make my 85 year old mother very, very happy. She is an avid reader, and this book is the first book she learned to read when she was a little girl. She and her older sister remember it vividly and have described it to me in great detail, so I know it exists. They both speak of a detailed picture of a fairy living in a quilt on a little boy’s bed. The fairy has a hat with a feather.

I have done an extensive search, including: AbeBooks (my query from 2010 is still posted on their website); I have contacted a rare children’s book dealer in NY; I’ve gone to the reading room of the Jewish Heritage Center in NYC, that has a book called The Story of a Boy Who Did Not Like Spinach by Abraham Hyman Friedland. That was a Hebrew book and was a different story entirely. I’ve gone to the Princeton University rare children’s book center and looked at Lois Lenski’s book, Spinach Boy, and that’s not it either.

Billy and the Spinach Fairy is out there. Somewhere. In someone’s attic; on a shelf; or in a box. Please help me find this book for my mom before it’s too late.

297M: In a fever dream she dances with snowmen

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I’m looking for a children’s book I read as a child.

There’s a dark-haired little girl (maybe a Sarah, but I’m not sure) who goes outside to play in the snow (I think they build a snowman), but doesn’t put on her coat/mittens/hat/etc.  When she comes back in, she gets sick.  I think they give her a bath but it doesn’t work and she’s basically bedridden for most of winter.  At some point she has a fever dream where she’s dancing with snowmen in some sort of winter world.  When she wakes up, it’s springtime and I think she goes to a grandparent’s house, where the trees are in bloom, and the white blooms look like the winter world and she runs happily through them since she’s been cooped up for so long.

Beautiful illustrations.  Would love to look for a copy for my daughter.  Thanks in advance!

 

297K: Very Afraid Little Blue Monster

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I’m looking for a book from my childhood (born in 1977).  The main character was a little blue monster, and if I remember right, he was very afraid of just about everything, and was quite little compared to the other monsters of his kind. I think the book ends with him feeling safe after finding his monster mommy. This illustrated children’s book’s main character is dark blue, with a large head vaguely shaped like a devil, or maybe a tear drop (wider at bottom, narrow at top, perhaps with two ear-like horns?). He might have had a tail, and his body may have been “textured” with some black lines, and typically was depicted with an open mouth (indicating fear).  I vaguely recall that most of the book was devoid of color in the illustrations, save for the slightly panicked looking monster. My hazy memory makes me think that the book was published sometime after 1960, likely in the 70s, and certainly before 1983 or 1984. I think we had a hardcover of it growing up.

297I: Grosset and Dunlap Children’s Anthology from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s

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I’ve looked all over NYC for my favourite children’s book to no avail. It contained stories with elves as well as several more modern city stories. It had black and white illustrations , probably pen and ink. The book was in memory slightly  smaller than 8 ½ by 11 in two dimensions and over an inch thick. It had a pearl grey hard cover that was pretty shiny in the 1950’s. That’s all I remember and it’s not much to go on, but I’d love to find a copy.

 

297H: A boy who turns into a wolf

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I remember having this book as a child, it was a picture book about a boy who turns into a wolf and becomes part of the pack for a season. At one point the pack travels close to his old home, and when he sees his family he remembers them and turns back into a human. I can’t for the life of me remember the title or the author, and at this point.  I’m pretty desperate for any information. Thank you!

297F: Poor Susie Cruthers

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I had cousins that used to read to me from a book during the years 1942-1945 that began something like:

Poor Susie Cruthers

Had no sisters

Had no brothers…

I don’t remember the rest but it went on to say things she liked to do.

Thank you for you willingness to search for the treasures of childhood.

 

297E: Martha with matching initials

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This is a children’s book from the 1960’s, about a little girl, whose name I believe was Martha, who had matching initials (her last name also began with M).  Because she had matching initials, she was able to go on amazing adventures with such characters as Timmy Turtle and Willie Whale, all around the world.