Tag Archives: winter

366C: Bear Gets Tail Caught, Loses Coat

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A picture book, mid century American, 40s-60s possibly. 
A man lives out in the woods, it’s winter. I believe there is something about pancakes. He has to go outside to do something, he takes out his winter coat which has been eaten by moths. At one point he runs into a bear, but his gun powder has gotten wet so it doesn’t work. He ends up tying the bears tail in a knot, which gets caught between trees and the bear is running so fast he jumps out of his skin. The man wears it as a coat and goes home to eat said pancakes. 

363I: Making Red Candles for Winter

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I’m a librarian, and here’s how the patron described the book she remembers:
This would have been in the early to mid 90s. I recall a children’s book that described preparation for winter and the most vivid thing I remember was candle making with red berries. I think it was set in New England and possibly discussed pilgrims??
The candle making method was hand dipping these red candles for winter.
Very vivid pictures, deep saturated colors, simple illustrations, not too much detail, more landscape focused.

(Someone has suggested Tomie DePaola’s An Early American Christmas, but that’s not it.)

348K: Fat girl runs away from home by taking canoe to an island and living in the forest

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I think I read this in the 4th grade (I was born in 1979). This girl was really unhappy at home, so she took a boat and rowed away to an island. On the island she learned to fend for herself. She made a cozy home either in a kind of dug out, or a hollowed out tree. She survives the winter, and eventually returns home feeling much better about herself because she has lost weight and is independent.

330B: Mittens On A Scrawny Tree

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I’m looking for a children’s book we read in the late 80s/early 90s, but I’m not sure when it was actually published. It was about a girl who had or came across a scrawny tree and to protect it from the elements in winter, she wrapped it in a scarf, mittens, etc. It may have begun finally sprouting a leaf in spring, but I may be wrong about that detail. It’s not The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen, unless it’s been re-released with new illustrations I don’t recognize. Thank you! I’m hoping to give this to my sister for her baby shower, because it was our favorite book as kids and we’ve never been able to track it down.

291W: Girl wants tassels for her sled (Solved)

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This book must date back to the 1940s. I remember finding it at our summer home in NH, where there were all kinds of odd books for young people about.

It is a picture book. The illustrations are similar to pen-and-ink drawings that have been colored in, quite bright, beautiful sense of line.

The story is about a girl (and her brother) in a northern country (Scandinavia?). In the winter (Christmas?) they decorate sleds with strings of colored tassels for some procession. The girl cleans house for an old woman who makes her the tassel string. The girl gets caught in a terrible snowstorm on the way home and takes shelter in the root-hole of a much loved ancient oak tree. (The oak tree is a character in the story too.) This is where she is found.

I have never encountered this book anywhere else. It doesn’t ring a bell with anyone I have ever talked to.

Thanks for your suggestions!

239G: Old woman and a wolf? (Solved)

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I have been trying to conjure up what this book is that I had as a child. I could have sworn it was The Old Woman and the Wolf, but I’m not sure. I have stumbled onto The Wolf and the Old Woman, but I can’t find a description of what that book is about, plus the illustrations look wrong in the one image I saw of the cover (not to mention it was published in ’94, much too late for what I’m looking for).
As far as I can remember, it was about a lonely woman who lived by herself in the woods and a wolf would come to visit her. I think at first the wolf was pesty and she wasn’t fond of it, but over time she and it became friends and at the end, either she or the wolf dies. I remember it taking place season after season, over several years, and for some reason the winter season rings a bell. Like she keeps getting colder and colder every winter.
I know that it was a larger book, about the same size as Make Way for Ducklings. And it possibly had one of those medal insignias on its cover, although its possible that I’m mistaking that for MWfD.
I’ve been searching for this book for years and would do a great big happy dance if anyone at your store is able to somehow help me out with this. I want to get a copy for my own kids. And it certainly wasn’t a cutesy book by any means, had a darker vibe than a lot of children’s books.

I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed!
-Nicole