Category Archives: Unsolved

148B: Little Boy Flies on Quilt Each Night

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I am looking for a picture book that was one of my favorites when I was five or six, so that would put it around 1968/1969, or possibly older if it wasn’t newly published. I remember borrowing this from my public library in NJ and my mother reading it to me.   I’ve searched your Stumper results and haven’t found the one I was looking for. What I remember:  a little boy leaves his room each night and flies through the air on his quilt. I think he flies all around his town, maybe has a few adventures.  I think it was a patchwork quilt, and maybe at the end he comes back and takes his little sister out with him.  Almost all of my other Stumpers have been solved, and this is one of the last beloved book memories I am trying to solve.  Thanks for your help!

 

148A: Yellow-checkered (?) apron with ruffles

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I read this in the 1970s but it was probably from the 1950s. I believe it was a short picture book in which someone is making an apron out of (possibly) yellow-checkered or calico cloth, but there isn’t quite enough material. She ends up sewing a ruffle on the bottom to make it work.

This book might have had other fashions in it and been printed in just three colors – blue, pink and yellow?? – with black outlines. I have a recollection of ’50s-style flared A-line skirts and tiny-waisted tops. But I might be confusing two different stories.

 

147D: “Going Swimming”

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. I will be amazed if you can find this book as I think it was just published locally in the UK. It was written by a mother who does swimming lessons I think. It is a small book, paperback, pretty sure the title is “Going Swimming”. It is about a boy william and his mother and baby sister Vicky going swimming. William has a swimming lesson. At the end they all have a cup of tea and biscuit. On the back of the book is a black and white photograph of the author with her daughter swimming in a pool. The pictures in the book are very distinct, they are quite lifelike, the children are quite ugly! It is strange because white children in the book have not been “coloured” in and black children in the book have a sort of grey hue to their skin. I think it was very cheaply published, maybe even as an educational book for a local council???

I can decribe the book in much more detail if you want but don’t know the author or illustartor. It is so annoying. It is a childhood book of mine which I have now been reading to my daughter so I remmeber it clearly as we have only just lost it recently (2 weeks ago). Because it is so old and obscure I have not been able to find it on google searches. If you can find it I will be so happy!!

147C: Kids’ Island Nation

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I was very happy to find your website. I am currently stumped by a book I read as a child (lets say, during the 70s). Generally speaking, the plot is that a group of kids/teenagers take over an island in between Canada and US and create a nation.  The book opens (I think …) with the sister arguing with her brother who is in a band (I think …) and she has red hair (I think … ).  I believe (I think …) the ending does not work out that well for the newly formed nation / the kids, and that there is some “father knows best” sentiment, ultimately.  In any case the bit I am most confident about is the nation / island / US-Canada waters. 

Thank you for any help!

 

147B: Heavily Illustrated book of North Ameriacan Wildlife

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I am looking for a book that I read in my elementary school library when I was a student in the first half of the 1970’s. It was a heavily illustrated book of North American wildlife. I don’t remember the title or the author, but I have photocopies of several of the drawings. I liked the book enough to make copies of the illustrations, but unfortunately none of the pages have text on them to help identify the book. All the illustrations were full page with a single animal. Given that the image of the grizzly includes a frontiersman/mountain man, I searched for things like Davy Crockett, Hugh Glass, Louis and Clark, etc. without any success.

I also tried a google image search. The image of the grizzly returned 2 hits, one of which was in Japanese.

Help is greatly appreciated.

147A: 1950’s book…COLONIAL GIRL TURNING SPIT, ROCKING BABY IN CRADLE

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I read this book in the 1950’s…it was purchased I believe during a vacation on Cape Cod. It was the story of a family from the perspective of the daughter. She helps her mother with the chores, sweeping with a corn broom, turning the spit and tending a cauldron and fire while rocking the baby in a cradle.The book describes their clothing…both their everyday working clothes and their dress clothes that they change into to meet this important person the whole community is waiting for…Peter Stuyvesant…Governor of New Amsterdam.
The illustrations were done either in colored pencils, water colors or pastels…not quite sure which after all this time.
Thanks for your time and efforts.

 

146C: children in a large family

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This book focuses on the children in a large family and centers around a young girl, maybe 12 or 13, and her best friend.  One of the chapters in the book is titled, The Quarry, where the kids would go swimming every summer.  I beleve someone almost drowns there or is hurt in some way.  Additionally, all of he children are allowed to decorate their rooms using their own themes and the decorating is kept a secret until the great reveal with the entire family going to each room for the big surprise.  The oldest daughter, maybe 16 or 17, chooses a pink theme and paints her entire floor pink.  This oldest girls is a very girly girl and spends a lot of time polishing her nails and sunbathing to get ready for a date with her boyfriend.
I must have been 10 or 11 when I first read this book and my sister was13 or 14.  We used to walk to the library in Brooklyn, NY every Saturday and this book ALWAYS was checked out.