Category Archives: Unsolved

200A: Children’s collection driving me crazy.

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Children’s collection driving me crazy.

My brother and I have been looking for our favorite childhood fairy tale/folk/fables/story collection from when we were kids in the mid-1980s. What we remember: It was a mostly white cover, with big letters, hardbound. Simple color illustrations that went along with the short versions of the tales. Stories we remember:

– The Honest Woodcutter
– Rumpelstiltskin
– King Midas and his Golden Touch
– Rip Van Winkle
– The Princess and the Pea
– Gingerbread Man
– Twelve Dancing Princesses
– The Fox and the Grapes
– The Salt Merchant and the Donkey

That’s all we can remember.

199G: Too Tall Ballerina in Paris

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I read this in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s, in my public library back when books still had that distinctive library hardcover binding. It was green or blue and rather thick, probably 200 pages or so. I feel like it was probably written sometime between the 1950’s to 70’s, although I can’t remember the time frame of the story.The plot centered around a young American (I think) dancer, tall but talented, who goes to Paris to study ballet. She’s discouraged when her teacher tells her she has no “heart” in her dancing because she’s never fallen in love, and the girl eventually becomes an assistant or something to a properly tiny ballerina who loves that she’s so tall…I remember there’s a scene where she’s intentionally being goofy as she practices and someone comes in and is thrilled at her talent for comedic dance. Maybe she falls in love at the end? I’ve exhausted my skills at searching for this book. I’m curious if it was as good as I think it was.
Help appreciated!

199C: The Children and the Beached Galleon

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I can’t remember the name of the book or the author. A children’s book with plenty of line drawing illustrations, and featured some children who lived near the sea. One morning they go down to the beach to find that an ancient wrecked galleon has been washed up on shore, which I think they explore ( okay, this was before health and safety concerns! 🙁 Then when they go down to play the next day, there has been another storm and the ship has been washed away again.

198H: Black cat escapes from pet carrier

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Late 60’s, early 70’s I want to say. As I remember, it was a black and white picture book about a black cat that gets out of it’s pet carrier(?) an walks through the city. I remember the pictures in this book being high quality black and white photographs. The most I can recall about the “plot” once the cat somehow gets out of it’s carrier it travels through the was once referred to as the “ghetto.” Anyways, it’s a long shot but the book had a huge influence on me about inner-city strife and that we as a people need to try to keep trying to improve everyone’s lot in life. I think this is a great little service you have. Cheers.

198F: Hot air balloon moving book

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Hi! Looking for a childhood book, I grew up in the 80’s. It had a cut out hot air balloon that moved from page to page under flaps and through slots. The premise was children searching for something (a kite I believe?) I remember the hot air balloon cut out being red and yellow striped (and in our familys case very well loved and taped many times). The reader had the balloon follow a dotted path on each page I believe, so that it landed in the right pocket or slot. I dont remember much more, hoping you can help me I’ve been searching for a long time

198E: Picture book 1960s, tic tac toe game

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We borrowed this strange book many times from the library when my sons were small in the late 1960s. It was an American publication, as the creatures played ‘tic tac toe’ which we would call noughts & crosses. Quite a large picture book – little text I think, very detailed soft grey illustrations with small animal characters in greyscale photographic collage on (pencil-drawn?) landscapes. A very peculiar book indeed, dream-like with a minimal plot and not like anything else I’ve ever seen.

198C: The Changeling (I think).

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I read this book in the 70s. It was a chapter book. I’m a little vague on the plot, but I think a few kids get sent away to the country (might have been England wartime a la Lion Witch and Wardrobe). They go outside, and they are in a different world. There are SO many books named Changeling that I’ve been unable to find it. It is NOT the Snyder book.

198B: Dog saves cat from fire

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My brothers and I are trying to recall the name of a book that we read when we were small in the 1950’s. Of course, we would also like to find a copy of it.
The book was about a dog (perhaps a German Shepherd) and a cat who were “friendly enemies.” My oldest brother thinks the cat might have been named Queenie and she might have had three legs. They lived with a family in a cabin near the woods. The story ends with a big forest fire where the dog, despite the abuse he took from the cat, saved the cat from the fire in an heroic sort of way.
For whatever reason, this story rekindles lots of emotion for us. My oldest brother is going through chemo and I am hoping we can find this story for him.