Looking for a children’s book about understanding love/ emotions? – at the end the child (a boy?) is looking up into a tree and some of the leaves are green gems / jewels, representing people’s hearts (I think?).
354B: Crocus Walk
This children’s book is about a mother and daughter who take a walk outside and look at different things on their walk. In particular, I remember that they looked at crocuses. The book was a large hardback book with a matte white cover. The illustrations were pastel colored, maybe using colored pencils. I remember that in at least one illustration the mother and daughter were holding hands. It was probably written around 1985 or a bit earlier, because I remember reading it with my mother when I was five or so. That’s all I can remember. Hopefully there are enough clues!
354A: Dog who can drive and lives in a mansion
When I was young (likely about 5-9 in 1987-1991) my mom would often read me a hardcover kids book about a dog who wanted to live like a human. He could drive a car and he lived in a mansion.
The cover was a turquoise-shade and on the cover was the dog and the mansion he lived in. It was the size and shape of a Doctor Seuss book and about a similar number of pages.
Likely relevant: we lived in Nova Scotia, Canada and the book was in English.
353Z: Children’s Book with a red cover about a flying bunny
353Y: Dad bakes tire cake that is secretly pretty (Solved!)
I’m looking for a children’s book that I read in the early 2000’s. The plot is that there’s a baking competition at this boy’s elementary school. All of his friend’s moms sign up to bake, but when he goes to ask his mom she can’t for whatever reason (I think she may have had work? I vaguely remember him lying in bed trying to fall asleep and hearing her type, but that might be wrong). His dad volunteers, and the kid is kind of embarrassed but he agrees. He wakes up the next morning and his dad has the cake under a cake server lid so he can’t see it. At some point he shows him the cake, and it basically looks like a large black tire. The kid is stressed that it’s not as pretty as the other cakes. The parents (all moms except the one dad) line up in a row and the teacher goes around tasting the cakes. When the teacher gets to the dad, he asks her for the knife to cut it. The kid becomes even more embarrassed because he thinks the dad is trying to be chivalrous. The dad takes the knife and instead of cutting the cake, he starts carving it. All of these beautiful rainbow flowers and designs start to appear and everyone is stunned and suitably impressed. I think they end up winning first place and there’s a happy ending.
353X: Child gives last ration of chocolate away
353W: Hoaxes and Frauds Collection for Kids
I am looking for a book I got in a school book order around 1978-1983, either Scholastic or the other one (Troll, was it?) It was a collection of short accounts of historical hoaxes, like the Piltdown Man, the Cardiff Giant, the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, the New York Sun reports of life on the moon — I think it even had Howard Hughes’s autobiography. I have searched library catalogs and Ebay for “Hoaxes and Frauds,” but I see a book that is far too recent for me to have bought it in elementary school.
353V: Orphan Cathy Runs Away to Scotland and Learns True Name (Solved!)
I’m looking for a British children’s book, likely from the late 1940s, about an orphan girl who lost her parents in the Blitz. She’s found wandering London with a torn tag that says only “Cat” so the orphanage calls her Cathy. Several years later she has a sudden recollection that makes her feel that her family is in Scotland and runs away to find them. Meets some siblings who help her and have a kind uncle named Alastair. Lo and behold, the kids end up being her cousins, her name isn’t Cathy, it’s Catriona(?) and she is reunited with the family who have been searching for her all these years. Might be the first in a series, a la the Boxcar Children. Thank you!
353U: English collection of children’s stories
Looking for a children’s collection of stories – Peddlar Pat, Sometimes It’s Fun to be Fooled, Edward’s Magic Marble, The Talking Cat. Possibly an English collection.
353T: Teen girl road trips with grandma & kidnappers
The book I’m seeking was written in the 1960s or 70s. A young lady (probably a teenager) was going on a cross-country road trip with her grandmother. They were to meet up with her boyfriend coming from the other direction. The girl drove, not the grandmother. They each put colorful pieces of material on their antennae so they could spot each other on the road. At some point, the ladies decided to give a ride to hitchhikers who ended up ‘hijacking’ them and holding them hostage as they drove for days. Eventually, all turned out well and they met up with the boyfriend.