I just sent a query regarding the children’s story Never Worked and Never Will. Looking to find the book that contained this story that we read in the mid to late 1950s.
169A: Never Worked and Never Will
12 Replies
168G: Story about grandmother and mittens
1. I’m not sure if this is a book or just a story. Don’t know title or author.
2. It’s about a little girl who is learning to knit. When she finishes her mittens, she shows them to her old world grandmother, who throws them into the fire in the fireplace. The grandmother says that is how other people will treat your product, so get used to it – or some such moral. Harsh lesson, I thought. I have the impression it was a Polish or Russian or Scandinavian author.
168F: 70’s/80’s dark futuristic Sci-fi novel
70’s/80’s dark futuristic Sci-fi novel about a cop chasing a human serial killer between planets. Very violent and gory. The killer has an alien insectoid henchman that looks like a 7ft tall mantis that eats children as payment. Possibly published by Tor or Ballantine.
168E: Non-fiction book on making wooden toys
I am looking for a non-fiction book that I took out in the 1990s. Last week I contacted my old junior high in hopes that they still might have it, since there were encyclopedias there from the 60s and 70s when I went there…who knows how long old books languish in the stacks.
1. Woodworking book with fun and simple projects
2. All the information I can remember about the book and what I tried is here: This is what I remember:
- Black and white photographs, line drawings for the patterns
- Cover was blue with black and white photographs
- It seems it would have been published in the 1960s or 1970s
- It was not exclusively aimed at young people
- The projects included a castle, castle residents (I traced these onto balsa wood :-)), a catapult, a siege tower, a modern bungalow dollhouse, wooden boxes with a combination lock, possibly a puzzle or two like a tanagram, an elephant with a mahout. The projects were pretty unique and charming
I started my search on Alibris and ABE, but I fear that the title was something generic like “Making Wooden Toys” (of course!) or “Wooden Toys You Can Make”. I went to World Cat to narrow it by year and got a decent list of titles, but looking them up on Google gives me results that I don’t remember and that don’t sound like the book. Or, sellers have not provided a photo of the book. Woe! I can tell you that the book is:
- Not part of a series or published by a sponsor (Dover, Time-Life, WOOD etc)
- Not by Richard Blizzard
- Not More Wooden Toys That You Can Make by WG Alton
Unfortunately I can only find out what book it is *not*. The search is made difficult by the generic title it had, which of course, I can’t remember exactly. Is this enough detail? The book was in English, and I read it in Canada, which means that the publisher could have been American or British.
168D: Teenage boy protaganist with Vampires
Trying to remember the name of a book. Basically it’s a fantasy book with teenage boy protagonist. His aunt has lied to him his whole life, learns who can control all the elements and starts a romance with a female vampire who also passed the test he did. Two sets of vamps.
168C: Book with map of town in back and scary verses
may be scary book. Inside back cover a map of the town. A Mr. Foxy’s house (gloomy) a dump and store at the top w/ “Gone Fishing” on door. story of animals & clam bake. Halloween poem goes “witches & goblins prowling about on this shivery, hween night. A monster jumps out from a tree w/a shout”
168B: children witches shrinking
Read a children’s book in the 1980s; it may be older. I remember two or three children, boys and girls (siblings?), maybe in London, England, who encounter coven of witches. I think there is at least one chapter involving the kids shrinking in size. At least one scene of Broomstick flight.
168A: The Something-Somethings Go To The Zoo
A friend is looking for a pop-up book from her childhood that I’d like to surprise her with. She said it was a pop-up book about a family that goes to the zoo and everyone but the little boy gets eaten by the animals. She said the tag line was like “If you hunt for me, I will hunt for you”
167D: Girl wants to play, toys are asleep (solved)
Picture book about a little girl who doesn’t want to go to bed. Her parents tuck her in and after they leave she gets up to go play with her toys, but they are all asleep so she goes to bed too. I think I remember blocks and dolls. Book was published in early 80s or earlier. Maybe Little Golden Book
167C: Purple Monster with inflatable (elephant) trunk. (solved)
I read these books as a kid – it had a purple monster with an inflatable trunk(like an elephant)?
The story was somehow a brother and sister have to go back in time to rescue their father who got sent back to the dinosaur age. When they get to the dinosaur age they find this creature that becomes a friend. It is a 4 legged big bushy purple monster with an elephant trunk. The monster can inflate his trunk to fly and help solve other problems as the 3 go looking for the kids father?