Please try to locate a book my children had, perhaps sometime in the ‘50s; unfortunately, I don’t have it’s title, but it was a book that featured numbers. Each page contained a poem that emphasized a certain number: the one I remember was the number four. The poem was as follows: “Selma Snitch, the halloween witch, had four brooms, she was very rich! She had four bats, and four pointed hats, and four of the biggest and blackest cats!” Thus, each page featured a different number; the first page had a poem with the number one, the second, two, etc.

I am looking for a mysterious children’s book from what I am guessing is the late 1960s. It was hardbound, unusually tall and narrow, and illustrated in a sort of kooky 60s style. It was about a little girl who lived in the city and whose birthday is right around the corner, deep in winter. Somehow, a wealthy eccentric woman who lives nearby has the same birthday, and decides to invite the little girl over for a special fantasy day. I remember that the woman sends over a dress and coat the day before–– I want to say it was a blue dress with a blue satin sash– so the little girl will have something lovely to wear when she comes. On the day itself, a special coach arrives to pick her up and take her to the woman’s house, and she goes over there, And she and the woman and have a madcap day. I feel like I remember an illustration of a room filled with books, and perhaps a hammock strung up in it. Very Bohemian but very ritzy. I can’t really remember anything more except for the fact that a cat has kittens at the end of the story.

This book was read to my class in Australia in 1975, when I was 5 years old. It was about how a little water (or rain, though I seem to remember a watering can) makes the desert bloom. I remember vivid illustrations. The flowers looked like lollipops. Story told with secretive wonder.