When I was in grade school, late 1970s/early 1980s, I read a book in which a girl was in a mansion-type house that had a library. In that library was a window seat where she would sit and read a diary. The main story was the diary.
The book I am trying to find was one of my favorites in the mid 1980s – not sure when it was published. The entire book is illustrated in an interesting way – every page is sort of sepia/black and white. The plot: a boy who is invited over to his friend’s house for dinner, but when he arrives at her house, no one is home. He sits on her stoop feeling sure that the friend doesn’t like him anymore. Later, the friend and her mother come home, and the friend tells the boy an incredible story about why they were so delayed. She tells him they were stuck in a parade – and I seem to remember something about a truck spilling molasses or some other gooey substance all over the street at the parade. The boy thinks the friend is lying, but the next morning he realizes she was telling the truth because it’s in the newspaper. The girl’s name MIGHT be Emily and the boy’s name MIGHT be Horace (these names could be wrong).
It is a children’s hard page book. I had it in 1987. The lines that I can remember are:
Look at all of baby’s toys!
Big ones and little ones
Shiny toys and cuddly toys
Some to push and some to pull
Toot Toot! Here comes the truck.
Choo choo! Here comes the train
Ok – that’s all I got. 🙂 I know this is a long shot. It was my daughter’s favorite book – and she just had my first granddaughter. It would be such a great treat if I could find this book!
Thank you!
Adolescent book from 1980s: Girl and her lovely sister move to New England; the sister gets cancer and dies. They meet and interact with all kinds of characters, including a pregnant couple they think is not really married and a photographer. At the end of the book, she goes to an exhibit called Faces of New England and sees her own face among the portraits submitted by the photographer friend, and sees herself in a new way. Beautifully written, a book that stayed with me a long time as a teenager.
Thanks for your help!
Picture book. Featuring a snail called Selina (sp?). Was beloved by my grandpa when he was a child – he was born in the late 1930s. He recalls the illustrations as fantastic. Unsure of title or author. Possibly an Australian title. Google searches haven’t turned anything up. Look forward to hearing from you. Can contact me at moo_haha@hotmail.com.
Regards, Sharni
Unicorn picture book, black and white drawings, no text
My kindergarten library had this book in 1985, and it did not look new. It was a red hardcover that was much thicker than other children’s books. I think the title included the word “horse” or “unicorn.” The story was about a little girl who finds and then hides a white long-legged foal that develops wings and a horn, but there was no text; the entire story was told in detail with lovely black and white pencil or charcoal illustrations. I remember it being relatively sad, with the unicorn flying away/escaping in the end.
I wish I remembered more! I’ve checked my kindergarten’s digital library catalog with no success, as well as other online catalogs, but there are so many unicorn and horse books out there!
Thank you!
Title of story ‘In Lucky & Lazy Land?’ About kids eating thru spaghetti mtn and cooked pig running around w/fork in him. Moral was about things coming too easy (laziness).”
I could have story title wrong but that’s what I remember. Title of book is unknown but looks similar to Favorite Stories Old & New.
I wish I could look at TOC for every book from that style and publisher. Gist of the story is about two kids I think who ate through a mountain of spaghetti together to this special land where every thing was done for them. Food walked around already cooked or growing on trees ready to eat. No work required. People sat back and were lazy.
A book that my 6th grade teacher read to my class back in 1978-79. It was about a family – I think they were on vacation – and the kids were separated/lost their parents. The kids began a journey traveling across the country – the thing I remember the most is that they slept in stores/maybe shopping malls…
Thank you for your help – I have been looking for years!
The title is Stone Soup. I don’t know the author or year, but the main characters were pigs instead of humans and I think all the townspeople were various other animals but I’m not sure. I believe the background of the cover was light blue and there was a picture of the pigs on front. Also, it was hardcover. I read this book probably in 1985-1986, but I don’t know when it was actually published.
My wife’s father read this book with her when she was little, so it must have been published before 1964. Here is what she could recall when I asked her for more details:
“The book title was MAX. But anyways there are no photos of the book covers here so hard to say. This book is an over sized hard cover book (like the I Spy kids books). I remember the cover being yellow and turquoise – the illustrations are hand drawn (the cat is black line drawn) – he is a chubby cat. In one sequence he grabs the hair dryer and is looking at it inquisitively – it turns on accidentally and it blows his hair every which way as he tries to figure out how to turn it off.”