I'm looking for an elementary textbook from 80s or 90s that had a story about Jokey the Dog, another about a cat that goes to a spa, and small things falling from high places.
341T: Jokey the Dog
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341S: Kids’ Adventure-Wilderness book about two boys settling land while their father returns home
I read this book in the fifth grade so it’s definitely at a lower reading level and published sometime before 2011ish, though it definitely feels like a classic. It reminds me of The Swiss Family Robinson and The Boxcar Children.
I remember the book pretty well so I’ll recount the plot as best I can.
Two brothers set off with their father to settle a piece of land they bought for cheap in Idaho (I think it’s that but I’m not sure). It’s focused less on their journey and more on what they do once they’re there. They cut down trees and begin clearing land for their house and farmland. They begin building the log cabin with their father but then he leaves to go back and bring their mother and sister. I vividly remember how they had to walk around their land to find the best place to put their house and what trees to cut down.
Little do they know, some of their family catches scarlet fever and they have to continue to settle the land and fend for themselves in their father’s absence. They make traps to catch rabbits, use spears to hunt for fish in the river, and when winter comes they even find ways to preserve food for the winter by burying it deep in the snow. They also have to finish construction on the cabin by filling the gaps with mud so they don’t freeze. They learn many skills and assume their father isn’t coming back.
It’s a happy ending when he returns with their mother and sisters almost a whole year later. That’s where the story ends.
Every once in a while I’ll think of the story and try and find it but I haven’t had any luck yet. I remember it really well because when I was a kid I loved the books where characters had to build their own houses and find solutions to fend for themselves.
Please tell me I’m not just making this up!
341Q: Children’s Sea Creature Book
I am attempting to find a childhood favorite for my brother. We were both born in the mid 60s so I suspect his book is from the early 70s. I don’t remember the title but it was an illustrated book about sea creatures. It was very ‘Boys Life’ in its design: realistic illustrations and high drama. The only specific memory I have is an illustration of a fisherman stepping on a deadly stone fish and being supported and carried away by his fishing buddies. I know it’s not much to go on. Good luck!
341P: Boy finds flint arrow head
Children’s picture book available in 1990s. Boy finds a flint arrow head in his garden. Somehow (that night?) he is magically transported back to the time that indigenous First Nations people lived on the land - he sits around their camp fire with them.
341O: Illustration of giant, dog and boy
As a child in the mid sixties I was looking through a children’s book and all I can remember is one illustration and I have been looking for this book for years.
The illustration was not a full page, the page included the story. The illustration was of a giant holding out his ring and a little black dog was jumping through the ring. The giant had dark hair and beard, kind of reminded me to Brutus from the Popeye cartoons.He was laughing with delight. There was also a boy in the picture. I believe the dog belonged to the boy. It looked like it was sketched with a pencil.
341N: 80s/90s dance book: poor teenage girl (Sal?) at local dance school
I am looking for a book I read years ago, probably in the mid-nineties. It was about a teenager who went to a dance school and I think her name was Sal. Her family was quite poor so they often worried about money. I think she stayed at home with her parents for a while but they lived quite a long way from the school so she had to move closer, and they had an argument about that. Her parents weren’t keen on her going to the school anyway: maybe they wanted her to get a 'sensible job'.
The dance style was contemporary or ballet. I don't know about the location except that it was the UK or USA. It was set in the present day when it was written, but that would have been in the 80s or 90s.
I remember very little of the story. At one point she realised she wasn't as supple as some of the other students so she stayed behind to do extra training. At the very end there is a show by the students and she was doing a solo. She got on stage and decided to abandon the dance she'd planned and just improvise with how the music make her feel. At the end she felt it hadn't gone very well but then got loads of applause.
I think there was a romance element as well with another music student, although it wasn't just a romance tale. I've searched through heaps of lists of young adult dance books and on Google Books but I can't seem to find it.
‘Say Goodnight, Gracie’ by Julie Reece Deaver was suggested on another forum, but it’s not that. The dance aspect is central to the story I’m looking for, whereas it’s just a supporting story in ‘Say Goodnight, Gracie’.
Jean Ure as an author was suggested as well, but most of her books seem to be for slightly younger readers.
I don't think this was amazing literary writing or anything, but for some reason I remember this book and would love to find it again.
341M: Chapter Book – Childrens’ House Floats Down River
I am looking for a children's chapter book. The plot involves children whose house is able to float and they float down a river on it. This was a chapter book from the 1970’s or 1980’s. I don’t think it was a houseboat but rather their actual house was put on a raft, but my memory could be wrong. Thank you!!
341K: 70s-80s Book About Colors
I don’t remember if there were characters or much of a plot, but what I do remember is that it had lushly illustrated two-page spreads where each spread was devoted to a single color. I think yellow was a picnic in a wheat field with buttered bread…I also think there was a spread that depicted the beach (not sure what color it might have represented). Also, I think in each spread there was a teaser color spot or object that represented the next color’s scene. I think the book ended with a scene of all the colors. I would have read this in the late 80s, but it might have been 70s etc. It was certainly bigger than a Golden Book or board book.
341J: A Family’s Year of American Adventures
I am looking for a book my uncle read while in 4th or 5th grade in the 1950’s. His teacher had assigned it to the entire class to read as a project. Some key points he remembers are a family pulled their children out of school for the year to travel the United States to experience new places and adventures. They went to a desert, they starred in a Hollywood movie, he also remembers something about birds – sparrow specifically – being in the book. He thinks there was a car on the cover, possibly pulling a trailer behind it.
Please help if you can, I would love to give him this book as a Father’s Day gift and he recently celebrated his 75th birthday too.
341H: Children’s 60s-70s short photo novel
A young boy (lonely? Bad situation?) invents device on a board using electronics, slinky, fishbowl, and contacts space girl/alien whose image appears in fishbowl.