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U1: Uncle Wiggily
Solved: Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator

U2: UFO's and aliens
I'd like to find a copy of a science fiction book I read in the mid 1950's. I don't remember the title or author but the main characters were three young men who were involved with crashed UFOs and alien technology. One of the characters was an electronics whiz. Any ideas?

Maybe one of the Rick Brant Electronic Boys series? They were written by John Blaine in the late 1940s. Rick and his friend Scotty lived on Spindrift Island with Rick's father and other scientists and solved mysteries. No idea about UFOs, though. Maybe The Rocket's Shadow 1947?
Raymond F. Jones, SON OF THE STARS. 1952.
Jones, Raymond F., Son of the Stars, Winston 1957.  More information on the suggested title, but it doesn't confirm anything. "In 'Son of the Stars', Raymond Jones has written of a forthright friendship between a young castaway from space and his earthly counterpart. How a cold and suspicious military, recognizing Clonar only as an alien from an astonishingly advanced civilization, turns friendship into treachery that threatens earth's existence, makes this an electrifying story with a thought-provoking theme. In scenes uncomfortably vivid, you'll meet soldiers and citizens of a typical American city  people like calculating General Gillispie and frightened Mrs. Barron, whose reactions to an 'interplanetary' situation bring the world to the brink of destruction.." The term 'castaway' suggests that there may be UFO crash technology involved, but only the alien boy Clonar and his friend young Barron are mentioned, not 3 boys. If it helps, Clonar has 6 fingers.
I don't know the teens and UFOs novel sought, but it's none of the Rick Brant series.  Rick Brant gets involved in some mildly sftish situations with new inventions and such, but the only trace of aliens in the whole series are some thousand-year-old ambigious radio signals from space picked up in THE EGYPTIAN CAT MYSTERY.


U5: Unexpected wilderness survival esperience
This is a book about either a boy or a boy and an adult friend that went for a hiking experience in the mountains. They wind up with a snow storm that strands him/them in a high valley for the winter. The book talks about the things that had to be improvised to survive. I believe it talked about tanning deer hide. And I think there was some reference to cinnabar (an ore from which mercury is derived). It seems the book ends as spring arrives and he/they are able to return home.

#U5--Unexpected wilderness survival experience:  The plot is somewhat like Walt Morey's Canyon Winter, but not enough to be the book described.  The main differences are that the stranding was due to a plane crash and I don't believe there's anything about deer hide tanning or metal ore--just a lot about tree conservation. The deer hide tanning is like My Side of the Mountain, but that wasn't an accidental experience--Sam did spend the
winter, and did have a friend, but went up there on purpose.  It is also definitely not Viereck's Terror on the Mountain, as that takes place during the summer.
Would this be one of the Gary Paulsen books?  I was reminded of either The River or Hatchet.  Neither match exactly, though.
U5 unexpected wilderness survival: Not an exact match, but there's Lone Woodsman, by Warren Hastings Miller, illustrated Kreigh Collins, published Winston 1943, 230 pages. Dan Pickett loses all his supplies when his canoe capsizes on Lac Seul, leaving him with his belt knife, swim trunks, and dog Pepper. He makes his way to Factory St. Joseph to meet his father, foraging for food, killing animals with a hand-made bow and traps, tanning hides, smoking meat and so on. He loses supplies and shelter once to a wolverine and once to a moose. Diagrams are provided for several of the things he makes. Couldn't find a reference to cinnabar, though. Most of the journey takes place in snowy weather.
Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain.  A long shot.  Parts of the plot don't match, but the parts about a boy tanning deerskin and surviving a winter alone in the mountains do.
U5: Unexpected wilderness survival experience - just a note from the original poster of this puzzle. I have checked in every few months and pursued the suggestions. In fact, I have enjoyed purchasing and reading My Side of the Mountain. Unfortunately, none of the suggestions is the book I remember. Thanks for making this forum available - and I hope someone will yet be able to help me find this book.
Hobbs, Will, Far North, 1996. You might take a look at Far North by Will Hobbs. Two teenage boys and an elderly man (who dies part way through) are stranded for the winter in a high valley in Canada's Northwest Terr. after a float plane accident.

Farley Mowat, Lost in the Barrens, 1956, This mystery reminded me of this book, which I really enjoyed as a kid. Some elements sound similar but it may not be the one either. Either way, thanks for reminding me of it!



U6: Upon my word
Solved: Alice and Jerry primers


U7: Upset house
Solved: The House That Had Enough
U8: Under One Roof

Solved: Under one roof

2003

U9: Underground river with families living on rafts
Solved: Journey Outside 
U10:  Unicorn healing

Solved: The Beast with the Magical Horn


U11: Underground lost world
Solved: The Perilous Descent


U12: unicorn & geraniums
Solved: The Little White Horse


U13: underground stream or bush bower
book was read in the late 1940's or early 1950's by teacher in a rural school for children 6-12 years old.  In book children had a bower on a hill made of brush or tall weeds. Also there was a portion that talked of a river or stream that ran under a house.  There was a ladder that went down into the stream.

Goudge, Elizabeth, Henrietta's House, London, Hodder, 1942.  I wonder if it might be this. Henrietta, her brother Hugh
John, and assorted adults go for a picnic in the hills. The story blends fantasy and reality. There is a sinister hulking gatekeeper who is like the Giant who had no heart in his body, and an old gentleman who builds bowers in the forest for imagined Sleeping Beauty and Babes in the Woods, and a mysterious house fitted up just as Henrietta had dreamed. Hugh John and the Bishop find an underground river and a boat, and go down it, to find a robbers' den and the place where the young saint of the hills may have prayed. I believe there is a ladder out of the den.



U14: Useful Cart
believe it was published in UK, c. 1970.  described all the uses children found for a wagon. not a lot of text, no plot.

Mollie Clarke, The Useful Cart, 1966. No description, but the title's right, it was published in the UK, and there was a
reprint in 1969.
U14 Do you want me to look in Petersham's The Box with Red Wheels to see?
I don't think The Box With Red Wheels fits the description; it's a very short story about some animals wondering what could be inside that box with red wheels (it turns out to be a baby).



U15: undersea animals (starfish, etc.) interact
Solved: The Garden Under the Sea


U16:  Unicorn awakes after 500? years
Solved:  Unicorn Magic


U17: Up the Hill
Solved: Up the Hill


U18: Utensils teach child to cook
Solved: The Mary Frances Cook Book

U19a: Under the Sea
Solved: Valley of the Song



U19b: US sailor with smuggled puppy
1955 - 1958. I remember a book about a US sailor (homesick?) in a ship in the Med Fleet, peacetime, post WWII. He finds (and smuggles aboard)a puppy while on shoreleave in an Italian(?) port. Many adventures later, the book ended and simultaneously broke my heart and began a life filled with the great joy found on the printed page. This was the first "real book" I read. Borrowed it from the Carrol Park Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

U20: Ugly (or evil) dolls
I have only foggy memories of this book, but what stands out is that the protagonist(s) are afraid of a certain house or person because this person (an old woman?) makes really ugly dolls with patches for eyes, and yet the dolls seem to "watch" people and know what they're up to. It was really creepy and it seems to me that these dolls, as well as the protagonists, are part of some mystery. Any help would be appreciated.

U20 Sounds like it could be REVENGE OF THE DOLLS by Carol Beach York, 1979. Definitely creepy. The old aunt makes ugly evil dolls. They do not have patches for eyes, tThey have glass button eyes, and they do watch. Although, as revenge for Paulie destroying one of her dolls, she creates a sinister pirate doll which has an eye patch. So it might be worth looking at. ~from a librarian



U21: Underground City Children Escape
Solved: This Time of Darkness


U22: Unfortunately
Solved:  Fortunately

2004


U23: Up the stairs
Solved: Surprise for Sally


U24: Under the ? Tree
Solved: Beyond the Pawpaw Trees


U25:  Unfinished Stories (Illustrated)
Solved: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

2005


U26:  Under the Maple Tree
Solved: Miracles on Maple Hill


U27: Upside down book
I am looking for a book published in  the late 1940's or early 1950's. I don't remember anything about it except  that you had to turn the book upside down and there was another related story that you read when you turned the book upside down at the end of the first story. I know this is very farfetched, but it is a book that I loved when I was in kindergarden around 1958-59 and I want to locate it and buy it for my granddaughters.

There are several Wonder and Elf books that fit this upside-down theme: Good Morning and Good Night by Frank Luther, The Goody-Naughty Book and The Sunny-Sulky Book by Sarah Cory Rippey, and  The Goody Naughty Book by Mabel Watts.  If these were longer juvenile stories, there's a whole series of Dandelion Books, but the stories aren't necessarily related.  Check the Solved Mysteries pages to see if any of these work.
Upside down books.  I had one of these books in the 50's when I was a child.  It wass called Just Like Mummy/Just Like Daddy.
Charlotte Zolotow, When I Grow Up???, 1950's.  CZ has  a book like this where one side is a little girl, "when I grow up, I can wear party dresses to school, etc."  The other side is a little boy. Maybe this?
Margriet Heymans Annemie, The Dolls' Party
Annemie and Margriet Heymans, The Doll's Party.



U28: Underground Railroad
Solved: Steal Away Home


U29: Umbrella, hat and broom
I had a book when I was a kid in the 70s....it was a collection of stories and one included an umbrella, a hat and a broom - they could talk and I think it was a rainy day and they found something to keep themselves busy.....  It's driving me NUTS!

I want to say that this is an Enid Blyton story.  There's a vauge recollection of having read this, and I had a lot of the Blyton short story collections as a child.  However, there are a lot of short story collections of hers to check!  The smuggler's cave and other stories has a story called "The surprising broom."
I think this sounds a lot like Stumper D186.  Both have unbrellas, which seems unusual.



U30a: Umbrella
Hi, I am looking for a book I read as a child around 1968-1972.  Story was about a young girl and her adventures.  Something somewhat magical from what I remember.  The only clue I can offer is that at one point she had to jump from a cliff so she opened her UMBRELLA and she drifted safely down to the ground.

Brown, Palmer, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees.  When I read this stumper, my first thought was of this book.  Didn't she always carry her umbrella?  And the description of her jumping off a cliff and floating down with her umbrella sounds familiar.
Palmer Brown, Beyond the pawpaw trees: the story of Anna Lavinia, 1954.  I also think this could be the book you're looking for. Maybe some of this description will sound familiar?  Pages 60-63 of the 1973 Camelot Book reprint describe how Anna Lavinia has thrown stones, a tea cosy and a jar of pawpaw jelly over the cliff and noticed a peculiar phenomenon. She has then watched her cat Strawberry fall over the edge of the cliff with no ill effects.  She decides she has no choice but to follow him, pushing a carpet bag and gardenia bush over the edge ahead of her. "Finally, just to be on the safe side, she opened her umbrella and reached into her pocket to squeeze the silver key for good luck.  Then she took a deep breath and stepped off into the air."
Just to confirm, U30 is indeed Beyond the Pawpaw Trees: The Story of Anna Lavinia by Palmer Brown. I just read it a few weeks ago and remember the scene quite clearly.



U30b: Uncle sends lion skin for birthday, boy gets back at sisters
After all these years, I am still seeking a PICTURE BOOK about a little BLACK BOY (maybe in an urban setting) who is picked on by his MEAN SISTERS. At one point his sisters lock the boy in a CLOSET and eat his birthday cake while he watches through the KEYHOLE. And all they save for him is a candle with a little bit of cake stuck to the bottom! His uncle sends a LION SKIN (head and all--like a rug), or some other large cat, from somewhere abroad (Africa perhaps), and with it, he's able to scare the beejeebers out of his sisters and exact revenge.  My best guess is that it could have been published between 1960 and 1975, definitely not as late as 1980.  While the plot is remarkably similar, it is not JAMES THE JAGUAR, by Mary Lystad, illustrated by Cyndy Szekeres (1972).   Please help!  Thank you.

This description is nearly identical to B282, which is still unsolved.
Also, just so you know, I was indeed the one who posted B282--perhaps two years ago.  I too hope the mystery is solved soon.
Ruth Cavin, Timothy the Terror, 1972.  Very rare and hard to find, expensive too (saw a copy for sale which cost $104.99). Great story though.



U31: Unicorn Tapestry Mystery
Solved: Secret of the Unicorn


U32: ufo short stories humor flying saucers
Weekly reader or Scholastic magazine had a special issue that had short humorous stories about flying saucer experiences.  My recollection is that they were penned by Buddy Hackett (the late comedian).  One story starts "I was flying my private plane to Lubbock Texas to bomb some people whose religious proclivities I didn't wholly agree with"  another ends with a description of the effects on a mans wife "she had to be pulled around on a dolly and could only communicate with the aid of a hand puppet". Any assistance in finding these stories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

U32 Do they remember if it was 8 1/2 x 11?  If so, it might be this:  The Scholastic Funfact book of UFOs.  Scholastic, 1977.
U32 Please keep trying :-) The short stories I'm trying to find were purely fiction. Thanks.



U33: Unicorn book with necklace
I'm looking for a kids book about a unicorn.  The book was probably published in the late 70s or early 80s, and the book came with a little necklace (I believe the necklace had a unicorn on it as well).  I know that's not much info to go on, but I'm trying to find both the book and necklace for a friend.  If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it!

Perhaps it was one of the books by Elizabeth Koda-Callan. She wrote a bunch of books that came with charm necklaces around that time and some are still in print, I think. Good Luck!
Thank you for the response.  I checked into this author, though, and she doesn't appear to have written any books about unicorns.  Also, my friend who had the book was a boy, and these are all books for little girls.
Scholastic frequently packaged necklaces or such that related to a books subject.  Escape of the Unicorn by Suzanne Lord or Sarah's Unicorn by Bruce Coville were both publish by Scholastic in that era.



U34: "Underground Railroad" Jeanie Quakers Orphan
Solved: Voices in the Night


U35: Upside-down or backwards book
I am not sure of the correct term but it was an "upside-down or backwards book" with 2 stories in one book both about a child's bedtime, sleep, not wanting to go to bed.  I am pretty sure that there were 2 Covers, 2 titles, 2 fronts to the book. You would read in one direction , one story. Flip the book over and there was another cover and another story.  The 2 stories were on reverse pages, upside down, as I recall , if you looked over the page of story #1.  Year I read this would have been in the early 1950's, maybe even the late 1940's.  One story was about a little girl who did not want to go to sleep and stayed up all night wandering through the empty house, as I recall.   the other story , when you  flipped the book, was about what goes on in the house when everyone is asleep.   I just recall it was quite clever and really got the message across that it was better to go to sleep than stay up all night,.  I would so love to find this book  Thanks for any help.  Such a cool web site.  I was able to solve one of them...

U36: Uncle-niece thing
Solved: Me, My Goat, and My Sister's Wedding


U37: Underground monsters
This is a book I read in the late 50's.  I am very vague about it, but it was fairly large and had many full page black and white or sepia drawings.  It had as many pictures as a normal picture book but more writing.  A boy goes ?underground in a ?castle, or possibly down a well and comes to a world with many strange and grotesque creatures.  It's more like an art book, can't really remember the plot, but I think he has to try to get out.  I'm not certain if the creatures are threatening him or not.  Not much to go on, I know!

Could this be George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin? You can read it online here.
Thanks, but it's definitely not The Princess and the Goblin.  It's not a fairy or folk tale, I'm sure, but a modern fable of some kind, with the emphasis on the artwork and strange underground monsters.
I remember reading this book but i haven't a clue waht it's called, although i recall the pictures looking vaguely like those in where the wild things are by maurice sendak, maybe it was by him?



U38: Unicorns
Solved: The Secret of the Unicorn Queen

2006


U39: Underground maze
Solved: The House of Stairs


U40: Utah pioneer
Solved: The Great Brain Series


U41: Underground Society
I happened to browse onto your page in search for This Time of Darkness.  I also have a very (quite similar) issue.  I am also looking for a book about an underground society.  Since you seemed to be (somewhat) versed, at least reading three books on the subject ( This Time of Darkness, Outside and The City Under Ground), I was hopeing you can help me out.  When I was a kid, I read 1/2 way threw a book and my mom returned it, without my knowledge, and we just never bothered getting it out of the library again (something I truly regret).  So anyway, this is what I remember from the book:
* The society did live underground
* The main character was not over the age of a teenager...but most likely pre-pubesent.  Not sure of the gender, but I think it was male.
* There was a scene with a "town meeting" where the male and female adults stood on opposite sides of the room (maybe a theme of segregation?) and the children were either not present or split from both groups of adults.
* The main character describes a "beating" he received for looking up a "smoke stack" to the surface to see the sky.  Something that was obviously forbidden.
* The main character and his/her friends went exploring, following "train tracks" to somewhere...something i believe was also forbidden.
The last two bullets, the overall idea I'm sure is correct, but I am fuzzy on the details.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Below the Root, 1975.  I think you're looking for the Green-sky trilogy - the books are "Below the Root", "And All Between", and "Until the Celebration".  The novels are about a planet with two different groups of people - the Kindar, who live in villages in the treetops and wear long, wing-like outfits that allow them to glide from tree to tree, and the Erdlings, who have been imprisoned underground and developed an industrialized society.  A Kindar teenager named Raamo is invited to join the ruling council, and finds out about the existence of the Erdlings.  The clues you provide sound a lot like descriptions of the Erdling tunnels.
The book or series described in the query wouldn't be Green-sky. No child abuse (almost no violence at all) or gender segregation in those books. Could you be remembering two different series with similar ideas?
Ayn Rand, Anthem, 1937. Not everything matches, but you might be looking for ANTHEM.
Jean Duprau, City of Ember. The plot sounds like Duprau's book about Ember, where people had gone to escape some coming global catastrophe. By the time of the book, two children had discovered a route "up there". The time doesn't sound right for it though.


2007


U42: Uncle gloves mansion cabin snakes wash basin
This is a paperback book I read about 10 yrs ago, might have been written sometime in early 90's: A boy is sent to live with his evil aunt and uncle in a giant old creepy mansion (I believe he is orphaned, and he might have had a sister who went too...)   His uncle and aunt put him to very hard labor; his hands get very blistered, and  on his birthday, they only give him work gloves (!).  In his bedroom, there is a scary wash basin painted with a scene of a very chaotic and violent cavalry battle (that happened a few hundred years ago).  Eventually, the boy flips over the basin and finds a secret passage, which he follows down to find a log cabin buried deep within the house where a nice old lady lives, who helps him.  He even crosses a snake pit at one point, I think.  I forget how the happy ending wraps up...


U43: Uncle Popacatapetl
I dimly recall reading, circa 1965, a children's fantasy novel which I suspect was published at least thirty years earlier. The book was written in third-person narration, but always focusing on the child protagonist (as in Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz) The main character was a little boy I can't remember his name for certain, but it might be Peter. At one point in this book, the boy meets a very jolly bald fat man whose name is Uncle Popacatapetl. I'm pretty sure of that spelling. In real life, there is a volcano in Mexico named Popocatapetl notice the spelling difference.I don't remember the name of the book's author or illustrator. At one point, there is an illustration when the boy meets a lot of human or humanoid figures. One of the figures is a pair of tongs or a pair of pliers walking upright, with a male human face. The strange thing about these figures is that they seem to be parodies of the "Happy Families": these are characters in a children's card game which is very popular in Britain, similar to American children's games such as Old Maid and Go Fish, except that Happy Families requires a special dedicated card deck. I think that these characters in this book even have names similar to the names in the Happy Families card deck: Mister Cutts the Butcher, and so forth: surnames linked to a trade, and punning on it. I get the impression that this novel was written and published in America (I saw it in a shipment of books from the USA), but the presence of the Happy Families characters might indicate that the book originated in Britain. Any ideas?

Not a direct solution, but I found reference to your Uncle P. character being in a book titled Alternative Alices (Twenty stories by different authors giving an alternative picture of the heroine of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Often less flattering than the original, they were written between 1869 and 1930) --   so here's the contents of that book.  Hopefully, you'll recognize the story you're looking for in there.  Contents: Mopsa the fairy : Reeds and rushes;  Queen's wand;  Failure / Jean Ingelow -- Amelia and the dwarfs / Juliana Horatia Ewing -- From Speaking likenesses / Christina Rossetti -- Behind the white brick / Frances Hodgson Burnett -- Wanted-a king, or, how Merle set the nursery rhymes to right / Maggie Browne -- New Alice in the old wonderland : Peggy the pig;  Dutchess and her house;  Tweedles
 Pageant / Anna M. Richards -- Justnowland / E. Nesbit -- Ernest / Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen -- From nowhere to the north pole: a Noah's ark-æological narrative : How Frank fared in Teumendtlandt;  What happened to Frank in Quadrupedremia / Tom Hood -- Down the snow stairs, or, from good-night to good-morning : naughty children land / Alice Corkran -- Davy the goblin, or what followed reading "Alice's adventures in wonderland" : the moving forest / Charles E. Carryl -- Wallypug of why : Way to why;  Breakfast for tea;  Girlie sees the wallypug;
 What is a goo? / G.E. Farrow -- New adventures of "Alice" : Found in the attic;  To Bunberry Cross, or along came a snipe;  Peevish printer
 Fire!! / John Rae -- Uncle Wiggily in wonderland : Uncle Wiggily and wonderland Alice;  Uncle Wiggily and the march hare;  Uncle Wiggily and the cheshire cat / Howard R. Garis -- From David Blaize and the blue door / E.F. Benson -- Westminster Alice : Alice in Downing street;  Alice in Pall Mall;  Alice and the liberal party / Saki -- Clara in Blunderland : in a hole again / Caroline Lewis -- Alice in Blunderland, an iridescent dream : off to Blunderland;  ownership of children / John Kendrick Bangs -- Alice and the stork: a fairy tale for workingmen's children : Alice visits the American eagle / Henry T. Schnittkind -- Alice in the delighted states : Through the drinking glass;  Jealous island;  Humble pie
 Censor incensed / Edward Hope
Benson, E. F., David Blaize and the Blue Door,1918. Acting on the above information, I found that the story in the book Alternative Alices with Uncle Popacatapetl is "David Blaize and the Blue Door," by E. F. Benson.  I'm not certain it's the right book, because there is only an excerpt available in that book, but it seems like a good lead!



U44: Upside Down Land
Thanks GOD for this site! There is one book I’ve been looking for this book for YEARS! Please help! I used to take this book out from the library when I was very very young, maybe 15 or 20 years ago. It was in the Children’s section, one of those thin hardcover picture books. I remember that the cover was brown and possibly and the cartoonish picture on it like the inside of the book. What I REALLY remember is the pictures. The story was about a young boy who traveled to all these different worlds. Like most picture books there wasn’t a lot of words but big pictures of these worlds. One of them was an “Upsidedown land” where everyone walked with their shoes on their hands and birds flying upside down and people walking around doing handstands. Then he traveled to a chocolate World (possibly Chocolate and Marshmallow it was all brown and white) Actually that was the world that reminded me of the book (Anyone else seen the Chocolate Quik commercial where everything turns to chocolate – that’s what triggered my memory) Now this book looked like it was written in early 80s, possibly older (by a few years, nothing more than 60s) Please Please help!

James Flora, Pishtosh, Bullwash, and Wimple.One of my favorites as a child.  A boy has three friends (Pishtosh, Bullwash, and Wimple) that take him on wonderful adventures.  One place is upside down land, another is growly forest (where trees growl), another is chocolate lake (my favorite!) where they go fishing for marshmallow fish with vanilla wafer fins and he catches a big chocolate fish with a peanut eye.  Once he catches a peppermint turtle.  At the end of the book they have to find the north pole (taken by a polar bear to share with his homesick relatives in a zoo) before all the gravity spills out of the earth.  They replace it in the nick of time, just as everything is floating off of the earth.
Not a solution, but this sounds similar to a book I've been trying to unearth from my memory for a long time. The one I read would have been in the 70s.
Mattel, Upsy-Downsy Land,1969.You may be thinking of Upsy-Downsy Land - one of our all-time favorite books!  It lists no auther - just "Mattel."  Brilliantly colored cartoon pictures where everyone walks on their hands...



U45: Unfinished picture book
Solved: The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

U46: Uncle Toby, boys adventures
I vaguely remember 2 boys in a children's book who had an uncle Toby who sent them on really fantastic, almost surreal trips.  I think there was a series of the books.  Sadly, I can't remember much else.

Gordon Boshell, Captain Cobwebb.  That could be this long series - the uncle was Septimus Cobwebb (and was invisible) but Toby was one of the boys (his older brother was David). If Fanty the elephorse, the Leopillar, the Golden Cactus, the shershl (an invisible bus) and/or being kidnapped by a sort of ground-effect horseshoe crab with tentacles ring any bells then the requester's looking for this.



U47: Ugly Duckling
The Ugly Duckling, publication date approx. between 1950-1960; large edition, approx. 8 1/2" x 11"; white boards; final page in book has small drawing in a box centered in upper half of the page (maybe a plain white page after that).  Good luck!!  I've spent a LONG time looking!


U48: Upside Down Hatbox Cake
I am looking for a children's book from my childhood. It featured a group of animal characters that acted like people. There was a Mrs. Duck (I think - some kind of "Fowl") The premise of the book is that there is a village fete going on where baked goods will be sold. "Mrs. Duck" makes a cake and places it in a Hatbox on a shelf in her closet to cool. When she goes to retrieve the cake it tips upside down. She's upset, but takes the cake anyway. It sells and the folks want more! She makes another, puts it in the Hatbox and turns it upside down. The "Up side down Hatbox Cake" is born. Any of this sound familiar? I got the book from my Elementary School Library.  It might have been part of a collection of stories. Somewhere around 1965, although it wasn't new then.

Miriam Clark Potter, Mrs. Goose series.  The story "Hatbox Cake" is anthologized in Let's Hear a Story - 30 Stories and Poems for Today's Boys and Girls, ed. by Sidonie Matsner Grunberg, c. 1961.  The story is from one of Miriam Clark Potter's "Mrs. Goose" books, but I'm not sure which one.  Titles in the series include "Mrs. Goose of Animal Town" (1939), "Hello Mrs. Goose" (1947), "Here Comes Mrs. Goose" (1953), "Our Friend Mrs. Goose" (1956), "Mrs. Goose's Green Trailer" (1956), "Just Mrs. Goose" (1957), "Queer, Dear Mrs. Goose" (1959), "Goodness, Mrs. Goose!" (1960), "No, No, Mrs. Goose!" (1962), "Goofy Mrs. Goose" (1963), "Mrs. Goose and Three-Ducks" (1964), and "Mrs. Goose and her Funny Friends" (1964). "Hello Mrs. Goose" was reprinted in 2000, and "Just Mrs. Goose" was reprinted in 2004.
Miriam Clark Potter, Mrs. Goose, 1957, copyright.  This sounds like it could be a Mrs. Goose book. There are at least three of them: Just Mrs. Goose, Mrs. Goose and her Funny Friends and Goofy Mrs. Goose.
It's the only reference I could find to a 'hatbox cake' so maybe------Let's hear a story: 30 stories and poems for today's boys and girls / Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg / 1961 [1st ed.]. English  Book : Juvenile audience 160 p. illus. 29 cm. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday.
Miriam Clark Potter, Our Friend Mrs. Goose, 1951, copyright.  This is in response to a question about where to find "The Hatbox Cake" story by Miriam Clark Potter.  The story, according to the acknowledgments in an anthology containing the story, was originally in Miriam Clark Potter's "Our Friend Mrs. Goose," published in 1951. The anthology referred to above is:  Let's Hear a Story, by Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg (1961).



2008


U49: Unicorn, maiden, greyhounds
The book features a beautiful maiden, a white unicorn, and white greyhounds that hunt the unicorn. It is a children's book that contains mainly illustration, as opposed to text. The drawings are detailed, elegant, and realistic. I believe there may be a tapestry feel to the art and layout. My strongest image is that of the unicorn being attacked by the white greyhounds. I also recall the maiden having beautifully illustrated hands and fingernails. I encountered this book in the mid-eighties, and I have no idea what the title or author could have been.

Gale Cooper, Unicorn Moon, 1984, copyright.  "One night a lonely princess dreams of a handsome hunter on a unicorn, forever riding through the land of Unicorn Moon. His only companions are his hunting hounds. He is enchanted by a powerful spell - and can be freed only if she solves a great riddle: What is the meaning of true love?" Front cover shows a unicorn and two white greyhounds running, with a full moon behind them. The dogs are on either side of the unicorn, with open mouths and tongues hanging out, and could be construed as either attacking it or as simply running alongside and panting. There is an interior picture of a blonde prince, in lavendar tights & shirt, with a burgundy tunic, sitting at the edge of the water, with three white greyhounds sitting behind him and a full moon over his shoulder. He is reflected in the water, and the unicorn is standing in the foreground.


U50: Upside down world
Solved: The Silver Nutmeg


U51: Underground Society and Names
This book was found in a middle school library. It may have been a children's book, but then again, it may not have been as it contained some things I would consider very adult.  I am fuzzy on the plot of the book. Its been so many years; all I recall is a vague impression of the two main characters getting themselves into deeper and deeper trouble until they fled to a passageway above ground I'm not sure they believed existed.  I know the premise was that long ago a society had to go underground due to war or possibly environmental catastrophe, and believed they could never go back again, and that this was the world the main characters lived in. The entire book except the very end takes place underground.  One of the traits I do recall about the society was how they passed on names. If someone died, they would take the names of the person who died and give it to a newly born babe. So, say your father was named "Sam" and he died...the first male child to be born would then carry the name "Sam."  This became especially vivid when the main characters (a boy and a girl, not fully grown, I think) escaped to above ground up a long staircase (again, I think). They found a group of people who lived on the surface, and in the course of things one of the above-grounders died. One of the main characters asked who would take on his name, and the question earned them a lecture on honoring the dead.  Help?

This almost never happens to me, but as I was reading your stumper to post it, I suddenly had this thought that I might know what this is.  It reminded me of this movie trailer that I saw just yesterday (when I went to see Prince Caspian), called "City of Ember."  From the trailer, I gathered that there was this underground society, a refuge from Earth, meant to last 200 years; now the electricity generator is failing, and these 2 teens have to find the way out to save their society.  I did some online research and found that it's based on a young adult novel by Jeanne DuPrau also called The City of Ember, which is the first of the series Books of Ember.  I could be totally wrong, since these books are only a few years old and I don't know how long ago you found your book, but this just flashed into my mind, and I had to write this down. :)
City of Ember.  This also sounds like City of Ember to me, though I don't remember the part about the names being taken. There is also the Windsinger series, in which a brother and sister have to leave their town because they get into trouble.
The City of Ember is not the right book. The book I found was back when I was in middle school, and I'm 32 now. It was a lot of years back. However, there are some similarities, enough that I have wondered if the writer of "City of Ember" also read the same book.
Logan's Run.  
Okay, as I read the description again, there were a lot of similarities to the movie Logan's Run. I never read the book, but it could be what the reader is looking for--has the staircase and the upper/lower world with the belief that the world didn't exist anymore.

Gregory Maguire, I Feel Like the Morning Star, 1989, copyright. I haven't read this, and nothing mentions the names, but the book sounds right in other ways. There's a post-nuclear underground society, rigid, static, and frightened, which is shaken up by three teenagers who are determined to be free.
Louise Lawrence, Andra. I remember the book Andra having an underground society with a strange way of choosing names.  But the rest of the details don't fit, and Andra had quite a downbeat ending that i thought would be mentioned in the query.  So it's not a strong possibility.
I remember this one!  The city underground is cramped and dirty and overcrowded.  The girl and boy decide (there is some overwhelming reason) to just keep going up the staircase until they find out where it ends.  I remember one level, the girl has to go to the restroom and pretends she has to vomit to move up the line of women waiting quickly. It was definitely published in the mid to 1980's.  I will try to jar my memory some more about this book.

U52: Underground girl
I think that this was a serial in Jack and Jill magazine in the 1950's.  A girl lives both on top of and under the ground.  This seems to be in tunnels and perhaps in Ireland.  I don't remember any time traveling taking place but just that she goes underground when there is trouble on top.  Thank you.


U53: Unicorn kept on apartment roof
The Secret Unicorn (maybe?), 1975.  This is a children's novel about a girl who lives in the city (I believe it was NYC, but it may have been Chicago or another big US city) who secretly owns a unicorn and keeps it on the roof of her family's apartment building. Eventually the unicorn becomes unhappy living there and the girl has to let it free -- a very sad, but sweet ending.  I remember it having a light blue cover with a whimsical illustration of a unicorn, possibly with a girl riding it. I think the type may have been orange. I think I may have ordered the paperback from a school book fair.

Georgess McHargue, Stoneflight,
1975, copyright.  Any chance it was a griffin, instead of a unicorn? Set in Manhattan in the 1970s, Stoneflight is about a pre-teen girl (Janie) who escapes her parents marital problems by hiding out on the rooftop of her apartment building.  There, she spends her time cleaning a beautiful stone griffin (whom she calls "Griff") until he finally comes to life for her and she is able to soar over the city on his back. Janie then travels around New York City, discovering other stone animals decorating the City’s architecture and bringing them to life.  However, when the animals start to turn her into stone, she learns that having feelings is the price of remaining human. Front cover shows Janie riding on the back of the griffin. Dominant colors are blues, greens, and lavender.
Foster, Elizabeth Vincent, Lyrico: the only horse of his kind,
1970. This crops up twice on your site! And answers the above! THanks for a fantastic resource!
I am trying to find this book as well. It is not a unicorn but a pegasus and the title might have something like ''rico'' in it. It was scholastic with a blue cover, and in the story the horse might have needed a certain (alpine?) plant to survive and this is why she lets him go. Mid 70's.


U54: under a purple moon
Hi there. I remember reading a book when I was kid during the late '70's, early '80's and I swear it's called Under the Purple Moon. It was set in the future and cars would fly. I remember the little boy in the book traveling to a different world that was under the purple moon.

Lionel Davidson, Under Plum Lake,
1980, copyright.  I wonder if you are thinking of Under Plum Lake. Another person remembered it as "Under a Purple Moon", or "Under a Purple Sea". It is the story of a boy who is taken to a fantastic, futuristic subterranean world. See the Solved Mystery pages for more.
Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon, 1955.  Perhaps it is Harold and the Purple Crayon, or one of the other Harold books?  Wikipedia says, "The protagonist, Harold, is a curious four-year-old boy who, with his purple crayon, has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it. Harold wants to go for a walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one. He has nowhere to walk, so he draws a path. He has many adventures looking for his room, but, in the end, he draws his own house and bed and goes to sleep."


U55: Undertaker fakes ghosts to rob town
Solved: The Ghost on Saturday Night

2009

U56: Underground Railroad Christian novel?
A teenage girl is sold as an indentured servant to her uncle.  A man named Freeman receives an inheritance but must get married and have a child in order to get the money.   He marries the girl.  The Underground Railroad is involved.  A Christian historical fiction novel.

Stahl, Hilda, The Covenant, 1991, copyright.  I FINALLY found the book!  I did another search on a Christian bookstore website and got a hit!  Ive been trying to remember this book title for more than 16 years. :)


U57: Urban Fantasy
A friend of one of my cousins was telling me about this one, its kind of an urban fantasy in which a scientist working somewhere very cold (the guy telling me about the book said someplace like Alaska or the Yukon Territory) discovers that there are really elves and fairies in the world. At first he wants to reveal them to the scientific community, but decides to protect them instead. He got the book at a public library in Denver, Colorado, but couldnt remember the name, title, or a whole lot of important plot stuff. I sincerely hope that this book is not a figment of his imagination, as I would VERY much like to get my hands on it because it sounded really interesting.

Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident. Just to eliminate the obvious, could your friend be thinking of the Artemis Fowl series? One takes place in the arctic.

No, it wasn't Artemis Fowl-he's exploiting the fairies that he found, and this was published before "The Arctic Incident"'


U58: Uncle Wiggily
1970s uncle wiggily book- christmas book - I think it was about someone getting lost in a snow storm on christmas eve.

U59: Up All Night
Children's book about a little kid who stays up all night for the first time. Definitely a children's book, not young adult; kinda short, and I seem to recall more pictures than text. Gist of it was how the noises and shadows in the house, and outside in the street, change as the night wears on. This book had to be published sometime between 1960 and 1990. Updated: So far, the book stumper page lists 3 possible books for my mystery book, # U59. I just wanted to report back that I've gotten copies of all 3 books and, sadly, none of them is the right one. I'm hoping for some more suggestions...

Bill Harley, Nothing Happened, 1995, copyright. A possibility. Jack stays up all alone one night because he believes that everyone else stays up and has fun all night, but all he experiences is the small noises of his quiet house: a cat, the furnace, etc.
Teddy Jam, Night Cars. Maybe Night Cars?  Daddy and sleepless baby looking out the apartment window at the night's goings-on, told in rhyme. "Chocolate for baby, coffee for dad, even night cars go to bed."
Harriet Ziefert, I Won't Go To Bed!,1987. It sounds a lot like this one.  Harry refuses to go to bed, so he stays awake all night and finds out that it's not so much fun being awake alone.

I remember this book, too and she's right  it's not any of the 3 suggestions. I remember that the little girl's name was Amy and her dig stays up with her, tho I don't recall its name. Her name, Amy, is in the title, something like Amy Stays Up or Bedtime For Amy. I so hope you can find it!
Nancy Garber, Amys Long Night

U60: United Nations picture book explains children living in different conditions
I believe this is a hardcover children's picture book published by the United Nations.  The pages were large.  It explains to children how some children in the world don't have enough food, or clean water, or live in war conditions, etc.  I think I saw this book in the 1990s.

Annabel Kindersley, Children Just Like Me, 1995. This book was printed w/ cooperation of UNICEF.  Each page spread shows a real child, and has details and photos about where the child lives, what he or she wears, eats, and studies at school.
Barnabas & Anabel Kindersley, Children Just Like Me, 1995. This is a book of photographs of real children living in various countries around the world with accompanying text describing their various living conditions and what they do.  It has a foreward by UNICEF.  It is a DK book and spawned "Children Just Like Me Celebrations!"

Sorry, the book I'm looking for is definitely not Children Just Like Me.  The one I remember had much, much simpler pages and pictures.  Like, just one or two sentences on a whole page.
Kermit the Frog/Louise Gikow, For Every Child, a Better World, 1993. A United Nations book about children around the world who lack basic necessities. One 2-page spread per idea.

2011

U61: underground homes, mushrooms, flowers, trees, dwarf like characters
1970's children's picture book; underground homes, mushrooms, flowers, trees, dwarf like characters

Arlene Mosel, The Funny Little Woman,
1973. Might this be the Caldecott winner Funny Little Woman?  A large part of the story takes place in an underground world occupied by the Oni.
Sibylle von Olfers, When the Root Children Wake Up, 1906, approximate. This has been re-issued several times since its original publication, with various illustrators. Little Men Underground by Austria's Ida Bohatta? Translation: Mary Lee Theobald. Bohatta did several books about gnomes, plants, animals, etc. so you'll want to look at as many titles as possible - especially in Google Images. Only trouble is, that book was supposedly written in 1981. (Bohatta lived from 1900 to 1992.)
Berton, Pierre, The Secret World of Og, 1974. I think this could be your book.

U62: Under the Big Umbrella
I've been looking for a book that was read to me as a child in the early 1980s.  It had the phrase "under the big umbrella."  I had in my mind that it was a Golden book, but I really do not remember.  My mom thought it may have had the word "beach" in the title.  I know it isn't "Harry by the Sea."

Literature Committee of the Association for Childhood Education, Told Under the Green Umbrella. There was a series of anthologies of folk tales and other short stories for young children: Told Under the Green Umbrella, Told Under the Blue Umbrella, Told Under the Magic Umbrella, etc. I don't know if you're thinking of one of these books?
Under the Big Umbrella was a Golden Book that my mom read to us, and I think it was earlier than the 80s.  "Under the big umbrella, mother sits from the sun.  Under the big umbrella, there was only one."  The book builds up to 10 under the umbrella, I think, and then maybe takes the people under the big umbrella down again.  Sorry I can't be more helpful.  But I keep hoping I'll find it, too!

U63: Unicorn coral necklace
The book was about a little girl (? Astrid) who had a coral necklace. There was a stream at the bottom of the garden and the necklace broke into the stream, tinkling into the stream and then she saw a tiny unicorn drinking from the stream. I'm 40 now so I would have read this in the 70's.

Irmelin Sandman Lilius, The Unicorn,
1965. "The story of Muddle's search with her doll Aster-Pippi for her broken pieces of coral necklace left her by the tiny unicorn has a quiet, dream-like quality and is a dream-like ramble through a series of incidents in a fantasy world." Muddle and Aster-Pippi appear again in The Maharajah Adventure.

2012

U64: Unrequited Love
this is to find a book/story.  I thought it was by Edith Wharton, but can't locate it.  It is about a man who is in love with a woman whom he can't tell.  In his old age he finally decides to find her and tell her how he feels.  He finds the house but sits outside on a bench and does not go in.

Edith Wharton, Age of Innocence, 1920.




V1: Valley of Mystery
Perhaps you may be familiar with a series I remember reading in 1947 while in grade school concerning a boy detective who resided in the town of Edinburgh, Scotland. After the mystery presented itself, the boy would track down clues by riding his bicycle to various locations in and around Edinburgh. I cannot recall either the name of the author or the name of the boy detective, but I believe one of the books was entitled The Valley Of Mystery. Thank you for any assistance you or your online readers can give me.

V 1's search might focus on part of the "Plupey" (Plupy?) series my brother read as a young boy.
Although the name "Plupey" doesn't sound familiar at the moment, this is the first clue I've received.  I'll do searches under that name and will let you know of any positive findings. Thanks so much for the information!!
The Plupy series was written by Henry Shute and published in the 1900s. It was set in small town America, NOT Edinburgh, and had no apparent mystery themes. Sorry to be negative, but it's a false trail.
Not likely, because of the date, but William Mackellar wrote The Mystery of the Ruined Abbey, a boy's mystery set in Scotland, 1954; Danger in the Mist 1956; Ghost in the Castle 1960; and many sports stories. I haven't been able to track down any earlier books, though.
Well, a possible author, anyway. Agnes Mary Robertson Dunlap, who wrote under the name Elizabeth Kyle, was writing juvenile mysteries in the late 1940s to early 60s, published in England by Peter Davies and in the States by Houghton. Several are set in Scotland. Titles include The Provost's Jewel 1950, The Holly Hotel Mystery 1947, The Mirrors of Castle Doone 1947, Mally Lee 1947, Mystery of the Good Adventure1950, etc.
Oswald Dallas, The Valley of Mystery. I haven't read the book but at any rate it's the right title.


V3: Vardon, Beth
Solved: Davie and the First Christmas
V5: Viking ship

Solved: The Ship That Flew

V6: Viking ship again
Solved: Reindeer of the Waves

V7: Victorian lady
Solved: Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather 

V8: Vacation cottage
Solved: Fun With Decals

V10: Viking boy
Solved: Young Viking

V11: Visual Perception
I have been searching for a children's book that was popular 20 years ago in pre-school. It was a large book with grand illustrations of scenes and objects that fooled the eye. One page that I remember was of two stem wine glasses but if you turned the book up side down the image became that of mountains. The entire book, of 20 - 30 pages, was about visual perception. Do you recall such a book? If so can you obtain a copy for me?

I think of  Tana Hoban's work, and a picture book called Black and White which tells one story front-to-back, and another when you turn the book upside down and read it again, but I don't think either is your book. I'll post this as a stumper and see what other ideas come up.
V11 Visual Perception: Maybe Mitsuma Anno'sTopsy-Turvies Walker-Weatherhill 1970? I don't recall that specific illustration, though.
V11 - Anno's Topsy-Turvies is about a pack (deck) of cards, but this picture could be in one of his other titles.
Perhaps - Topsys and Turvys, author-illustrator Peter Newell, published by Dover 1965, 72 pages 9"x6" "Selections have been made from two of Peter Newell's books, first published in 1894 and 1902. The pictures are to be looked at first rightside up and then upside down, a device that used to delight six- to eight-year-olds" (Horn Book Aug/65 p.406)
Not a lot to go on, but maybe - Now This, Now That: Playing with Points of View, written and illustrated by Howard Baer, published Holiday House 1957. "Through simple text and bold, full-page drawings, the young observer is encouraged to discover the fun of looking at things in different, imaginative ways. Ages 3-6." (Horn Book Oct/57 p.338) The illustration shows a thin book wider than tall, with a cover showing two boys with backs to each other, each with short dark hair and slightly old-fashioned clothes, wide collars and Norfolk? jackets, one smiling, the other looking surprised.
I immediately thought of Beau Gardner's books from the 1980's.  On each page is a bold, 2-color graphic. The reader can turn the page a quarter turn and the picture appears to be something else (ex. - teddy bear foot, pipe bowl, periscope, & lamp).  I've checked The turn About, Think About, Look About Book and The Look Again...And Again, And Again, And Again Book but didn't see any wine glasses.  However, he does have several other books (What Is It: A Spin About Book, etc.) that may have the wine glasses picture.  Incidently, I think the black & white book mentioned above is Round Trip by Ann Jonas.  It portrays a trip out to the
country, then you turn the book around and the pictures become a trip back to the city.  Hoban's Black On White & White On Black are board books with simple outlines of common items for babies to look at.
I wonder if the bookstumper V11: Visual Perception might be Graham Oakley's Magical Changes. There are no wine glasses and the book is not turned up-side down, but it is definitely a "large book with grand illustrations of scenes and  objects" and there are many pages with items that have long stems similar to wine glasses.  The pages are split horizontally and you flip them to make different combinations.  I've had the book at least twenty years, so the time frame is right. Thanks for maintaining this wonderful site!



V12: Vocabulary book
I'm looking for a reprint of a late ninteenth or early twentieth century children's vocabulary  book.  I think it was reprinted by Dover or Merrimack in the 1970s (at least that's when I  received it).  The book is fairly small, about 4 by 7 inches, and has a hardcover, possibly  green.  Each two-page spread has a largish engraving, surrounded by smaller engravings of words related to the large picture.  For example, one double page spread shows a ship at sea.  Around the margins are words and pictures
such as "astrolabe," "sextant" and other nautical terms.  I loved reading the unfamiliar, old-fashioned words when I was given this book.  It was definintely a reprint of a children's book, but I have never seen it since my copy was tossed in the give-away pile. Please help!

DMIRAL W.H. SMYTH, THE SAILOR'S WORD-BOOK OF 1867, 1867. AN ALPHABETICAL DIGEST OF NAUTICAL TERMS.  This book has been re-released.  I don't know if it has pictures or not.  Just a long-shot



V13: Vanishing Airliner
Solved: Bringing Down the Air Pirate 

V14: Vegetable children
The book I am looking for is a book that my nursery school teacher had.  I'm 39 and it was old then.  The characters were children who were all vegetables (really)!  They had names like Little Miss Endive and Baby Brussel Sprout.  I've been thinking about that book for years.  I you have any luck I'd love it.

Sounds like Vegetable Children in your solved pages.
V14 vegetable children: maybe Mother Earth's Children: the Frolics of the Fruits and the Vegetables, by Elizabeth Gordon, published Volland 1914, 95 pages, reprinted Derrydale 2000. Less likely is When the Root Children Wake Up, by Sybille Olfers, English text by Helen Dean Fish, published Lippincott 1941, 22 pages, reprinted by Green Tiger 1976.
The Elizabeth Gordon books (Flower Children, Vegetable Children, etc.) feature animated creatures (ie, Daisies or Carrots with human baby faces and hands) with short rhymes underneath each illustration.  I do not believe the rhymes are related to each other in any way, but they do often have cute names.  So if the book sought is a portfolio of characters rather than a story with a plot, the Gordon may well be the one.


2002


V15: Viking Game fictional book
In the late 1960s or early 1970s I remember reading a book about a boy who found an ancient Viking game similar to chess. I think that when he held the pieces he may have been able to talk to a Viking, who explained the Viking way of life. The book very intrically explained the game and Viking ways. There were many line drawings in the margins. This book probably would have been 4-6th grade reading level.

Not a solution, but a possible lead.  There was a beautiful Viking chess set discovered about the time the enquirer read the book, and perhaps the book was published by a museum, like the British Museum?  I'll try to find out more.
Moyra Caldecott (pseud of Olivia Brown), Weapons of the Wolfhound, 1976.  This may not the book you're remembering, but the Lewis Chessmen almost certainly are the game pieces the boy holds. Here's an interesting note on them from the Guardian 30 Oct '99: "The Lewis chessmen Probably Scandinavian, walrus ivory, 12th century, when the Outer Hebrides were part of the kingdom of Norway.  Finest medieval chess set in Europe. Confused records of discovery, 93 pieces found buried in a sand dune in Uig in 1831, possibly in a stone lined burial chamber. Some in National Museum of Scotland. Isle of Lewis council has repeatedly requested the return of the set."
Would the following word help solve the mystery? There is an ancient Viking game something like chess called hnefatafl.


V16: Volcano in the basement
Solved: The Fiches Fabulous Furnace 
2003

V17:  Very long-necked girl
Solved: Struwwelpeter: Phoebe Ann


V18: victorian house with lady and alligator
Solved: Alexander and the Magic Mouse


V19: Vanishing Lessons
Solved:  Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons


V20: Virginia, a horse that secretly talks
Virginia is a horse owned by a little girl.  Virginia talks only to the girl, and they keep this communication a secret. The girl and horse learn riding, teaching each other.  At the end, they win a big race, like the Grand National (National Velvet style), with the horse talking the girl through the course.  This book was maybe 200 (or fewer) pages, had a red/orange hard cover, about 5x8".

Hallowell, P. C, Dinah and Virginia. Great horse story, very nice illustrations.  Virginia, the horse,teaches Dinah, her owner, to ride and jump.  They didn't win a race, but the open jumping event at a horse show.  Virginia retires from jumping to have a foal.  Dinah, the girl, had a younger brother who wanted to be Roy Rogers.This should be it.  Virginia (the horse) teaches Dinah (her new girl owner) how to ride.  Ultimately, they win the open jumping event in a horse show.  Virginia retires to have a foal.  Dinah has a younger brother who wants to be Roy Rogers.  Her father is allergic to horses.  The illustrations are a cut above.



V21: Viking
Erik,  The Red-Tempered Viking, c.1970.  Erik (Eric) was an irrasible cartoonish seafarer of about the eleventh century, who sailed the northern seas in search of conquest and adventure with his crew.  An explorer/real estate developer, he was from Denmark or Norway.  He started his career in grass-covered island he called "Iceland" and talked some settlers into joining him, but after a time they pushed him out of the colony because he was always making trouble.  He sailed west, discovered a huge ice-covered place which he named "Greenland" in order to entice settlers.  After a time the Greenlanders also voted him off, and again he sailed west.  This time he found an even better place he named "Vineland" but when nobody believed his tales of discovery, he learned a lesson.   The illustrations are very funny, and kids, especially boys  find many lessons in behavior, manners, truth-telling and other social skills. I think it might be Houghton-Mifflin publishers.

As for Eric the Viking, these are details from the life of Leif Ericson.  The book could be The Story of Leif Ericson, by William O. Steele (1954), as Steele sometimes wrote about historical figures with exaggerated humor.
V21 The book for younger children, Leif the Lucky, by Erick Berry, tells of his father, Erik, and his grandfather, Thorvald, both having been evicted from their countries because of arguments. They and Leif went from Greenland to Iceland. I'm saying that the wanted book may indeed be about Erik, even though Leif might be in it.
#V21--Viking:  Also try Leif Eriksson:  First Voyager to America, by  Katherine B. Shippen.  Harper, 1951.
Nathaniel Benchley, Beyond the Mists: A Novel, 1975.  Found this while searching for something else.  Here is a brief description: "The ambience of eleventh-century Scandinavian life is portrayed through the eyes of an adventurous youth who travels to Vinland with Leif Eriksson."



V22: velvet purse
In the late 50s I had a book about a little girl who goes shopping with a velevt purse. Can anyone recall a story like this?

Sounds like Sally to me.  Louise Eppenstein, Sally Goes Shopping Alone, 1940.
The book I'm looking for may be Sally Goes Shopping Alone, I'm not sure  though. Would you have another copy available? Does she have a velvet purse?
I don't have a copy of Sally Goes Shopping Alone right now, but I have a sequel called Sally Goes Travelling Alone, in which she refers constantly to her "little red purse."  She doesn't actually call it velvet, but it looks like a small hand-held purse with a string handle.  Maybe?
Hey! That could be her. It's amazing the impact books have on us as children that stay with us and hold such tenderness in our hearts. TY so much. I'd like to get it.
Just recieved Sally Goes Traveling Alone and am sorry to discover that it is not the book I am looking for, so Sally took an adventurous trip once again. The book I remember had a sepia look to the art work in it and I think the hardcover had a kind of fabric texture to it and may have been brownish. The size may have been 6 x 8.5" approximately, if I recall it correctly. This would have been in the late 50s that I had it as a child. The search continues.



V23: Virgin Prince and Talking Unicorn

Virgin Prince and Talking Unicorn.  Please help!  Looking for a 1970's-ish short fantasy paperback I read as a child, and would dearly love to find once more.  It's about a virgin prince who is sent on a quest to rescue a princess (from a dragon?) by his not-so-nice older brother (father?).  The prince rides a (talking?) unicorn (a source of much grief, as only virgins ride unicorns), and duly falls in love with the rescued princess while depositing her back at the castle.  He goes on to do great things (?), returns, rids kingdom of not-so-nice brother, and marries her.  Any ideas?  Thanks!

Simon Green, Blue Moon Rising, 1991.  Although this is later than the date in the clue, there is  the second son, Prince Rupert who rides a talking unicorn, and enlists a dragon and a princess (who is supposed to marry his elder brother) in his struggle to save the Forest Kingdom from evil. At the end they knock out his unpleasant brother and leave to find their own fortunes.
Stephen R Boyette, Ariel: Book of Change, 1983.  This is more of a young adult book, but worth a mention. This site has a good summary.
John DeCles, The Particolored Unicorn, 1987, copyright.  Could be this novel.  The unicorn is multicolored (as the title suggests).  The setting is futuristic fantasy.  Protagonist is Piswyck and at some point mentions his family is named alphabetically and there is some prophecy about "when the alphabet runs out".  The unicorn isn't named until the very end as Lifesaver (after the candies).



V24: Vansel
I have a friend (male) who was given a most unusual middle name:  VANSEL based on a character in a book his mother was reading during her pregnancy (mid - 1940's) - but he does not know the book, title, nor author - we assume it was fiction and published before 1947. and of course I'd like to buy the book from you if it can be found. I have had no success finding that name in lists of names (such as name you baby this) - which supports my belief that it was a work of fiction.  {I'd even be willing to buy a book of names that listed it}

Not a solution, but looking on Google, there are lots of mentions of Vansel as a surname, so it was probably a case of someone being given a surname as a first name, thus unlikely to be found in a book of baby names.
This isn't a solution either, but I happened to be looking through "From Aaron to Zoe: 15,000 Great Baby Names" & ran across "Vencel," which I though was close enough to "Vansel" to mention. According to the book, "Vencel" is an unusual Hungarian name meaning "wreath" or "garland."
Not a solution, but an observation. My first thought when I read this stumper was "how would one pronounce this name?" Stories can change when they go from parent to child, over time. If the Mom was a radio fan in the thirties and forties, maybe she heard "Von Zell"  as many times as I did as a kid, (actor/announcer Harry Von Zell) and spelled it the way she preferred it.


2004


V25:  Victorian House is Alive
I am looking for the title of a children's book. This book is about an old victorian house that is "alive". The house has human characteristics. It has colorful illustrations and possibly the old house is on the front cover. The windows served as eyes, etc. This book is from the early 1970's or before. It might be a golden book.

Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House, 1942.  This may seem too simple but could this be it?  I don't think the house is really Victorian but everything else matches.
This could be the Wonder Book Once There Was a House-(1965).  Victorian (GingerBread) House empty and abandoned-one morning feels sick (pain in the boiler, etc) gets up off foundation and goes to doctor (Dr. Pim) "tight squeeze" to get into office! "Nurse surprised!" After thorough exam- "You have mice"! Gets prescription at hardware store- mice gone- Gets New Family! THE END!



V26: Visiting Grandpa's farm
I had a story book in the early 1950's when I was 8 - 10. It was about a brother and sister(I think) that visited their grandpa's farm. They had several learning experiences as grandpa taught them about nature. The book had well drawn line illustrations - I can still see in my mind's eye the drawing of a mud dabber wasp and its beatiful ewer-shaped nest. I think the kids had to crawl under a stone fence to get into the orchard, but I'm not sure. I wish I could remember more about the book. I surely enjoyed looking at it all those years ago.

V26 is NOT Read, Helen,  Grandfather's farm,  1928.
This is a bit of a wild guess, but has the poster looked at the Maple Hill Farm books created by Martin and Alice Provensen? At least two of their books deal almost entirely with animals.  I know the Provensens started illustrating books in the 40s, though I'm not sure of the copyright on the Maple Hill Farm books.
V26 is NOT Provensen. I checked.



V27: Veronica Ganz
Solved: Veronica Ganz


V28:  Voodoo Kit
Solved: Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians


V29:  Very Scary Book
Solved: Grandpa's Ghost Stories


V30: Villain steals town's polka dots
Solved: Rootie Kazootie, Detective

2005


V31: various animal characters go into a cave
Childrens book with pastel coloured fat flumpy cartoon animal characters (think rabbit crossed with pastel coloured fat pillow/marshmallow). They all go into a cave for some reason and use crayons i think to mark there way on the wall.There could have been bats in the cave im not sure.There was a rabbit, a cat possibly a green sheep and a blue dog maybe; i cant think of the rest.Very thin book, mostly pictures.

Sounds like it could be a Puffalumps book, based on a series of puffy stuffed Fisher-Price animal dolls from the 1980s and 1990s. Possibly Puffalump Pillow Tales by Nora Smith, Puffalumps Annual Book, Puffalumps and the Big Scare by Jon Chardiet, 1987, "the story of a Puffalump camping trip and three monsters that they meet" or The Puffalumps Treasure Hunt by Cathy West, 1987.


V32: Victorian House
Solved: Nothing Ever Happens on My Block


V33: Vanishing Island
Solved: Dangerous Island


V34: Victorian dolls
Solved: Behind the Attic Wall

V35: ventriloquism french and indian war
A teenage girl in America, I believe during the French and Indian Wars, is left in charge of two young boys. She knows ventriloquism, and amuses the children by making chipmunks talk and the like. Indians kidnap them and take them to their camp, where the medicine man wants the tribe to go to war against the settlers. The chief doesn't want to, but he gets sick. The girl is present when the chief dies, and suddenly a voice says he is the chief's spirit and that the whites are responsible for his death, and the tribe should go and fight. The girl realizes what is happening, and makes a little bird "speak" and say that the medicine man is wicked and should be thrown out of the tribe. The Indians believe her, and war is avoided.I read this in the 70s, but I think the book is older.


V36: Viking brother and sister
Solved: Hakon of Rogen's Saga


V37: Grandma's Boat
Solved:  The Maggie B.


V38: Vast Cream Bun, Running From
Solved: 123 and Things


V39: visit to the doll hospital
Solved:  Doll Hospital


V40: Vermont heroine saves children's class
Solved: Katie Kittenheart


V41:  vocabulary picture book
OLD! (1940?) childrens vocabulary picture book.  Three elves explain the difference between three closely related words.  On an inital page: a storm is coming up in the forest.  The three elves huddle together and say "what is this? a hurricane? a cyclone? a tornado? The following three pages each illustrate one of these while an elf gives the definition.   The word groups ranged over a number of subjects (not just weather) but this is the only one I remember.  Wonderfully illustrated with rich colors.  Wish I knew the title !!

V42: victorian paranormals
Solved: The Children of Green Knowe


V43: Victorian England
I read this series of books in the mid-seventies at my school library, but they looked as if they had been in print for some time. The stories centered around a very large family in Victorian times, the father of which worked for the Indian Ink Company. The parents had hired a nanny, with possibly a German name, who dressed in black clothing trimmed in jet beads. She was quite magical, and used different forms of magic to get the many children to behave. In one book she turned one of the smaller children into a pig! In my mind, the books were small in size, but not in length- they were decent length chapter books.  Thanks for any info- I have wanted to find these books for a long time, they were so enjoyable.

V43 Go to this site for an excerpt of a book it may be.
Christianna Brand, Nurse Matilda books.  There are three in the series:  Nurse Matilda, Nurse Matilda Goes to Town, and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital.  They are small-format books and she does wear black with jet beads.  If you do a search for Nurse Matilda, you can see a photo of a boxed set of the books.
Surprised no one has yet noted that the Nurse Matilda books have just been made into a movie: "NANNY MCPHEE", starring Emma Thompson.


2006


V44: Vacation Spent Living in Swamp Trees
This is a book about a family on summer vacation in the (Louisiana?) swamps where everyone lives in trees over the water.  Again, probably a Weekly Reader book club issue of late 60's or early 70's.

Patricia Cecil Hass, Swampfire, 1973.  A Scholastic book about "three youngsters camping in the Great Dismal Swamp bite off more than they expect when they decide to catch the ghost horse running loose in the swamp." Except, as I recall, the story is also about two kids from the city who are spending the summer with their family in the swamp. They meet a kid who actually lives in the swamp year round. One theme from the book that always stood out for me was the fact that each of them longed to be more like the other.
Chad Walsh, Nellie and Her Flying Crocodile, 1956, copyright.  Not sure if this fits well enough: this is a fantasy book and originally published earlier than the time period mentioned, but maybe it was reprinted then (it was definitely reprinted 1979). The characters first meet the "flying crocodile" while on vacation, and later on I think they do end up living in houses in trees above the water, which might be swampy.



V45: Visit to Venus by a disabled male
When in sixth grade (1961) the primary school teacher read to students a book which featured a disabled person who went to Venus with other people from earth. I think this was a section where he was examined by a doctor who said that because the planet Venus had a smaller diameter than Earth, that the male character would weigh less on Venus. The nature of his disability: perhaps he was in a wheel chair? I have a vague recollection that the description of the planet Venus included aspects like warm, and had islands. This book ends with a comment on the disabled person "and he didn't need to use the hand rail" or something similar. Can anyone identify this book?

V46: Vicki (?) series, road trip w family
Solved: Meet the Austins

V47:  Vacation with bus and professor
Solved:  Professor Diggins' Dragons


V48: Vikings
Solved: The Faraway Lurs


V49: Vain Girl
Vain girl is imprisoned in a beautiful room where the windows and walls gradually become mirrors.  This was a story in a book of stories for (probably older) children that I read -- once -- in the late 1950s/early 1960s, but the book was old at the time and could easily have been published any time in the previous half-century. It had a dark, nondescript cover and was about the size of a novel. I do not remember any of the other stories in the book, but they probably all had lessons to teach, as this one did. I do not remember any illustrations, but there may have been some. In the story, I do not remember the girl's name, or how she came to be in this situation, but she was made to stay alone in a beautiful but enchanted room, where she had everything she could ask for or want. She spent all of her time gazing at herself in the mirror, and each morning when she woke up, more of the room's walls had become mirrors. She enjoyed having more ways to look at herself, but soon the windows were changed to mirrors also, and there was no light to see herself by. She realizes the error of her ways and, magically, the room becomes as it was before, and she is freed.  Any ideas? I did search your site for "mirror" and "vain," and did check your anthologies page, with no luck.

V49: Sure it wasn't a boy? In that case, it would be Prince Harweda and the Magic Prison (see Solved Mysteries) by Elizabeth Harrison. A 19th-century story you can read online.
I read the same story, but the protagonist was a boy!  A young prince was an only child and utterly spoiled and selfish.  His parents were unable to change his ways, so a magical person (fairy godmother?) stepped in.  She transported the boy to a beautiful tower room where windows and mirrors were alternately placed on the walls.  The room was filled with toys, books, cushions, plates of food, beverages, and a cage with a bird in it.  The boy was so vain and self-absorbed that he spent every day admiring himself in the mirrors.  He didn't notice that the windows were getting smaller and the mirrors larger until one day, he was completely sealed in darkness.  He was furious at first, then self-pitying, especially when he realized that the food and drink were no longer being renewed.  His situation didn't change until he realized that the bird was trapped with him.  He groped around in the dark until he found a small amount of drink, then decided to bear his thirst so that the bird might drink.  The windows opened a tiny bit.  He found a bit of food that hadn't spoiled, and gave it to the bird.  The windows opened a bit more.  Then he decided that even if he couldn't be freed, the window opening was large enough to liberate the bird.  The prince did this, and his unselfish act allowed him to escape his prison.  He returned to his parents, forever a changed boy.  My copy of this story was in a set of books with multiple volumes that included stories, crafts and games.



V50: Visual puzzle book with gears
This was a full color picture puzzle book. All I remember is a two page complicated machine puzzle. There was a prince in the upper-left corner of the left page, and a princess in the bottom-right corner of the right page. She was attached to a death machine, and in between her and the prince were hundreds of gears, pulleys and levers. It was a complex maze-type puzzle, you had to decide which way the prince would turn the gear he was next to in order to free the princess, not kill her. It was very difficult and I could not solve it. The whole book was filled with similarly difficult and fiendish puzzles. I don't remember if there was a plot. I took it out from the library somewhere between 1989 and 1995. I would love to find this book, even more than the book about warring toys.

Steve Jackson, The Tasks of Tantalon
, 1985.  I think this might be it. It was a VERY tricky puzzle book, set in a fantasy world, with knights and princesses and witches and suchlike, and there was definitely one puzzle with cogs and wheels.


V51: Valerie Anne and Alligator Eugene
I remember a series of books from the 1960s that involved a French girl named Valerie anne who travels somewhere and possibly is shipwrecked, or somehow winds up in New York. She has a friend named Eugene who is an alligator. The books were almost like board books but not quite. Perhaps there was 5 or 6 books in a series. They were brightly colored. 

V52: Veronica
Back in the 70's there was a book that was my favorite.  All I remember about it was it was a pink hardcover book and the girl's name in it was Veronica.  She was a little thing with blonde hair and there was a house in the book.  That is ALL I remember.  I believe the title had something to do with Veronica but....don't recall.   Her name could have been Vanessa but I am almost positive it was Veronica.   HELP!

Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz, 1968.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz. This book was about a bully-ish girl always getting into scraps until she meets her match, Peter Wedemeyer, who outsmarts her.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz.
I wonder if the reader might be actually thinking of Marilyn Sach's Amy and Laura . Amy is blond, and Laura does battle with the bully Veronica Ganz during the course of the book.



2007

V53: Viney
Solved: Mystery at Moccasin Bend


V54: Virus on Earth
Solved: The Girl Who Owned a City


V54b: Victorian boy and family, troublemaking antics, series
I am looking for a series of books from the mid to late 1970's.  It's about a boy and his big victorian family.  He gets into trouble quite a bit, and i recall one of the books telling about the "new flush toilet" his dad ordered.  Or how the family ordered every year out of the sears and roebuck.  There were some illustrations at the beginning of each chapter.  I cannot remember the name of the boy.  I think it may have been Ted, or Theodore.  Maybe it was slightly based on how teddy roosevelt would have grown up as a young kid.  It was really tom sawyerish, and I think his dad owned a store in town.  The young boy with his friends, and older and younger brothers were always getting in to scrapes.  My 6th grade teacher read us the series, and we loved them!  Do you have any ideas?  Thanks!

John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain. This sounds a lot like The Great Brain series, by John D. Fitzgerald, although this series was not Victorian
 it was set in late 19th century Utah.  The narrator is the youngest of three brothers, and the books focus on his middle brother Tom, who is something of a juvenile con man.  The incident with the flush toilet is out of the first book (The Great Brain) and I'm pretty sure that ordering from the Sears catalog is mentioned in that book as well.  The other books in the series are:  Me and My Little Brain, The Great Brain Reforms, More Adventures of the Great Brain, The Return of the Great Brain, and The Great Brain is Back.
John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain series, 1967 - 1976. The Great Brain series, set in the fictional town of Audenville, Utah, is loosely based on the childhood experiences of the author. Mercer Mayer did the original illustrations. Tom Fitzgerald is the middle son in this family of three boys, and his clever plans to make money are frequently at the center of the adventures.
John D. Fitzgerald, The Great Brain, 1967. This has to be the one you're looking for.  In the first chapter of The Great Brain, titled "The Magic Water Closet," the boys'father (who has a reputation for buying odd contraptions and inventions, most of which don't work) installs the first flush toilet in town.  Enterprising Tom, with the help of younger brother John (J.D.), charges other children a penny apiece to watch the installation, and later to see the completed bathroom.  This is the first in a series of eight books about the misadventures of Tom and J.D. Their family is Mormon, living in Utah in the late 1800's - early 1900's. J.D. serves as the narrator in most, if not all, of the books, which feature charming black & white illustrations by Mercer Mayer.



V55: Victorian doll's hospital
Solved: Nelly's Hospital


V56: vegetarian agrarian society
I'm looking for a book I read in the 1970's.  It was sci fi.  It was about some future society, many years after a war had reduced mankind to a vegetarian agrarian society.  A boy at the time is able to communicate with the domestic animals.  The pre-war society had been forgotten.  A giant bear with a grudge from the pre-war years appears (never says from where) and begins tearing up the place and turning the animals against the humans.  Can you help me with this?

Alexander Key, The Golden Enemy,1969.
Andre Norton, Iron Cage, 1974.
Andre Norton. I think you're looking for one of Andre Norton's books...but I can't remember which one.  Maybe Iron Cage or No Night Without Stars?



V57: Valiant Woman
Solved: The Valiant Women


V58: Victory cow and Gettysburg Address
1945 to 1950, childrens. A friend had a favorite book I would like to find.  It was set during World War II.  A family with children live in the country and have a Victory Cow.  There is a school assembly where one boy must recite the Gettysburg Address.  He has practiced while milking the cow.  To help him remember during the performance his sister ties a rope to his belt so that he can make milking motions behind his back and keep the rhythm.  I know those are odd recollections but they are the ones that stuck in her mind.  She was born in 1944 and this sounds like a grade school level book so I'm guessing at the publication date.


2008


V59: Veronica
I am looking for a book that I believe had a pink cover.  There was a character whose name was Veronica I believe.  She had arms that could stretch and reach as high as a tree.  Please help!!


V60: vampire animals on Venus
Solved: Five Against Venus


V61: van, learning, summer holiday on beach
Solved: Professor Diggins' Dragons


V62: Vikings Northumbria Charlemagne Roncevaux Saracens
The book starts and ends in Northumbria, in England, in the eighth century AD - in fact in the coastal area between the Tyne and Wear rivers. The hero helps to fight off a Viking raid at the beginning of the book, and then is sent to Charlemagne's court in France, possibly to ask for help in repelling the Vikings. I remember he meets Alcuin of York at some point, but whether it's in England or at the court I can't remember. I think he is unsuccessful in obtaining any promises of help, but subsequently joins the Frankish invasion of Spain, and fights and is defeated at Roncevaux. Along with a friend (who I think is Welsh), he is enslaved and sold to the Saracens; they row in a galley for some time, but then take the opportunity of a sea-fight with a Christian ship to lead a slave rebellion and free themselves. (I remember that some of the violence is quite graphic, which suggests it may have been a book for older readers.) They then become traders in the Middle Sea, have various adventures and prosper, and eventually return to England. The last scene sees them successfully fighting off a much larger Viking invasion of the same area.

This sounds like it could be one of the many books by Rosemary Sutcliffe, but I can't remember which one would fit best...
Someone's added the comment that the book sounds like it's by Rosemary Sutcliffe. It isn't, unortunately - I'm familiar with all of her books.
I am not sure what this is but am guessing a book by Geoffrey Trease or Ronald Welch.
It sounds a little like one of Madeleine Polland's books, but it's been so long since I read them that I can't remember which is which!  Beorn the Proud was the first one I thought of, but I'm pretty sure that one is told from a girl's point of view, watching Beorn's struggle.


V63: Video game boy
Solved: Demons Don't Dream

V64: Veterinarian and his dogs, adventures
I think the vet's name is Dr. Box. He's got a lot of dogs who ride in his funny car on many adventures. They figure out why the ducks in the park are sinking; they save a gorilla (or find a gorilla?); they figure out why a greyhound is so tired and slow at the races; they encounter a boxing kangaroo. The copy I had was hardcover (possibly library binding) with a balding Dr. [Box?] on the cover. Thanks!

Andrew Davies, The Fantastic Feats of Doctor Boox,
1972, copyright.  Ducks that sink, a gloomy gorilla, and a kangaroo that can't stop boxing.....Who can help them? Dr. Boox, the famous animal doctor, can. Front cover shows a front-view of the balding Dr. Boox and a whole bunch of dogs in a red open-top jalopy.


V65: Very Quiet Forest
My mother read this story to us as children at naptime.  It was SO relaxing and quiet.   Probably in the 1960's -  It was in a volume or treasury of other stories.  My brother and I remember it was a child who went to this "very quiet forest."  I remember some description about a little pool of water, maybe drawing in the mud, picking a little cherry that hung from a branch (there was a picture of this), and maybe something about moss.  Any ideas??!!??  I am pretty certain the title was The Very Quiet Forest.  No idea of author.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

Tibor Gergely (illus), The Golden Story Treasury (A Big Golden Book In Full Color)
, 1951, copyright.  Cover is pink, with a montage of images from many stories, including children flying a kite, a kangaroo, an elephant, a panda, a camel loaded with bundles, a rooster, a fire engine with firemen, a steam shovel, a trolley car, a tugboat, a lion, a frog, a donkey wearing a staw hat, and a sheet with a green jack-o-lantern head on top.  Stories include Samson, Biffington Bop, The Very Quiet Forest, William the Rooster, Genevieve Goes to Bed Early, and many more.


V66: Vet's son communicates with animals
Solved: H. Phillip Birdsong's ESP


V67: Victorian ghost ship
Read in late 60's. Picture book with a large amount of  text.  Hard cover - no words or pics on cover - maybe red. A girl lives in Netherlands (?), goes ice skating past where she is supposed to go, finds a victorian ghost ship, visits daily, last time she goes ice is melting and she can't say goodbye to ship.


V68: Victorian era, man sells fish
Victorian era fiction about a man who builds up his business and family starting by selling fish on the beach. Thought it was called "Hardcastles" or some variation. Was in paperback 15 years ago. He meets his wife when she tries to steal from him at the beginning of the novel. They become rich.


V69: Vain, outcast horse eventually accepted by the other horses and realizes he no longer needs vanity
Hi! Book: around 1979--a horse--vain, outcast from other horses--grew very lonely. He got muddy and was then accepted by the others--they didn't know who he was. Rain returned him to beauty, he no longer cared or needed it--just happy to be loved for him.

The only thing close to this I can recall is a book, name uncertain, by the author of Danny and the Dinosaur. The white horse is wild and free, only to be captured by some cowboys. They treat the horse kindly, brushing his mane and feeding him, teaching him to allow a rider and saying "There, there, big fellow." Eventually the horse does escape back to the prairies, but realizes he misses his human friends. He returns to the cowboys and thier ranch and is accepted back by thier horses. Hope this helps.
Stephen Cosgrove, Nitter Pitter, 1978, copyright.  The is the delightful tale of a horse named Nitter Pitter who thinks his good looks make him "better" than all the other horses. As a result, they exclude him from their games. After being accidently knocked into a pond one day, Nitter Pitter learns that having friends is more imporant than being beautiful. Like the other books in the 'Serendipity' series, this one teaches an important lesson in a subtle and friendly way.

V70: very nosy woman

A cutely illustrated book about a very nosy woman who always had her nose in other people's business.  I remember one page where she was sticking her nose into someone's order at the market--it was live snails, and they crawled on her nose.  It was from the 1970s or earlier (1979 at the latest.)


V71:Vampire comes back from the grave
  I read this horror novel from a library around the mid-1980s. A man falls prey to a (female?) vampire.  He falls at a crossroads; the stake in her heart sticks through his hand, causing him to pull it out and wake her.  Has a recurring phrase something like: 'I am the dead, and I will abide.

2009

V72: Victorian era heroine
Read these books in the late 80s-early 90s, they were slightly worn then!  The heroine was a clever, independent young woman in Edwardian/Victorian times who lived with her father.  I think her name was Amelia or Lydia or Imogene, etc.  The cover was white with pink, purple and blue.  Please help!

More details about the book - I think it was part of a small series.  The main character was the head of her social circle, and was fairly well-off.  She had a suitor (maybe something like Roger or Reggie) and I think they became engaged towards the end of the series.  I think she might have also had a dog to whom she was very attached.  The books (physically) seemed more old-fashioned in their bindings and illustrations, not at all like the other things published in the mid-80s.

Pullman, Philip, The Ruby in the Smoke.This is a longshot, but could you be looking for The Ruby in the Smoke (and the sequels) by Philip Pullman?  The girl's name is Sally, but she's independant. Her father is killed in the first book, but he's talked about enough that he could be remembered as a character.  Everything almost fits...just not quite.
Lloyd Alexander, Vesper Holly series, 1986.Could this be one of the following?
The Illyrian Adventure (1986)
The El Dorado Adventure (1987)
The Drackenberg Adventure (1988)
The Jedera Adventure (1989)
The Philadelphia Adventure (1990)
The Xanadu Adventure (2005)
Martha Finley, Elsie. Maybe the Elsie Dinsmore series?


V73: Vikings Canadian museum time travel
A children's book he read in 1950s: kids in a museum in Canada are transported back to Viking times. Title probably has Vikings in it. (Submitted on behalf of one of our customers).

Wuorio, Eva-Lis, Return of the Viking, 1945, copyright. Viking time-travel: Joan, Wendy and John visit the Royal Ontario Museum on a rainy Saturday during WWII, and meet Thorvald, a young Norwegian refugee who points out the Viking sword exhibit as proof that Norwegians discovered Canada. In the reproduction of an English 16th c. room, they try the "very ancient looking, thick, wooden door" and it opens, to reveal Lief the Lucky on the other side. He fell asleep almost 1000 years ago while exploring "Vinland'', woke up and couldn't find his sword -- which is of course, the one in the exhibit. Lief is invisible to adults, but ends up going for commando training because his homeland is in danger from the Nazis. At the end of the story the children read a news report about a commando raid on a Nazi-held Norwegian seaport supported by a ghostly figure in a strange costume. This is the first story of 4 in the book, all involving time-travel and Canadian history, and the same children and their friends.


V74: vignettes of the flood

Solved: Promises in the Attic


V75: Victoria
Childhood book. small hard cover red book. this is an extract from the book , it is read in a home video on the 9/2/1995 on my 5th birthday. I think i had the book since i was born(1990) 
 A doll named Victoria whom she loved very much indeed. The only thing she wished for was that victoria could walk and talk instead of just lying or sitting perfectly still, staring out with her eyes open. i can pretend you talk to  me and i can pretend you run about and play said Anna. but you don't really and truly and it would be such fun for if just for once you really came alive. anna felt quite certain that if only she could walk and talk she would make her a wonderful friend for anna had no brothers or sisters so she was often lonely that was why she played so much with victoria but victoria just sat and stared. and didn't move a finger or say a word. then one day a very strange thing happened when anna took victoria for a walk in pixie wood although it had such a lovely name anna had never seen any pixies or anything at all exciting in pixie wood it was just like an ordinary woods but today it seemed a little different...Sorry, thats all the information i have. perhaps the doll gets lost through out the story? i hope you can help!

Enid Blyton, The Enchanted Doll."While walking in Pixie Wood Anna finds a tiny pram, a pram that can run away all by itself."


V76: Vampire in winter
I'm trying to hunt down the first book I ever read--or, more accurately, the first book I have a concrete memory of reading. I remember checking it out of the library. I would have been young, no older than five or six, which means at the latest the book would have been published in the early 80s. But I don't think it was a new book, so I'd say it's more likely it was published in the 70s. I want to say it was a young adults book, but maybe it was a children's book. In either event, it was all prose, no pictures. A slim read. It involved a vampire. In my mind I want to remember the title as "The Last Vampire," though it's most likely not that or I'd have found it by now. "Vlad the Last Vampire"? I have no idea. I remember crying at the end of it. I don't think the vampire died, but he made some manner of sacrifice that involved him having to leave the world of humans, and it was pretty heart-breaking for a five year old. The cover had him sledding, I think. I remember it being winter themed, but again, the odds of other books and memories sluicing into this memory are high. All I know concretely is this was an all-prose book for young adults or children, published most likely in the 70s, and involving a single vampire interacting with humanity. This is probably why I keep remembering it as "The Last Vampire." I remember he was it as far as vampires went. I'm now 33 years old and would love to be able to go back and read this book that apparently moved a five year old me to tears. The library I got the book from has since been torn down, and besides I doubt it'd still be in their circulation. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Willis Hall, The Last Vampire. Could it be The Last Vampire by Willis Hall? It's part of a series (Vampire's Holiday, Vampire's Christmas, Vampire's Revenge). The series is humorous, and the vampire (Alucard) is a vegetarian...but he's also the last vampire on Earth, and I think he may make some kind of sacrifice to save the boy narrating the story. It could have made you cray, since it's difficult to know what kids will remember, and how they remember it. (a child I know cannot watch The Little Mermaid and cries every time it comes on because Ariel has no family. In her mind the merfolk can no longer interact with her since she left the sea. )
Willis Hall, The Last Vampire, 1982. This is a British book, first published in the UK in hardback in 1982 (paperback edition 1984).  It's a children's book, 156 pages long.  The front cover is by Babette Cole, and shows a vampire at the reins of a sleigh drawn by four wolves.  There *are* some pictures in the book, but they're black and white sketches rather than colour plates, and they're incorporated into the text rather than being full-page drawings.  Easy to forget they were there, if you were concentrating on the story. The story is about the Hollins family from England, who get lost on their European camping holiday and encounter the rather nice, gentle, vegetarian Count Alucard.  He is having a spot of bother with the villagers... It's a summer holiday, but it does snow at a crucial moment in the story, and the cover picture illustrates that scene, so you'd have come away with the impression of winter. The tone of the book is actually quite light and humorous, but here's your sad part at the end: The family agree to bring the Count home with them, but he's arrested at the border.  He turns into a bat to escape through the bars of the cell, and flies to England, but: "Since flying across the sea and arriving in England, Count Alucard has never once returned to human form.  He has spent all of his time, in the guise of a bat, searching for his young friend Henry Hollins. [...] Go out though, into street or field or garden after dark, stand staring upwards and - who knows? - you could just be lucky enough to spot Count Alucard, the very last of the vampires, scudding across the night sky..." Two notes.  First, your five-year-old self might have been comforted to know that that wasn't *really* the end: Hall eventually went on to write a number of sequels.  Second, you thought the title might be "Vlad the Last Vampire".  Vlad is a fairly obvious vampire name, but you might be conflating the title of the Hall book with "Vlad the Drac" by Ann Jungman, which dates from the same period.  That would definitely only be the source for the title, not the story, though.'

2011

V77: Victorian England, Historical Romance, Love Triangle
Set around the 1880's.  Young woman travels from Cairo to London to visit her sister, Leonie.  Falls in love with her sister's husband though both try to hide their feelings.  Leonie is later murdered, and is revealed as having had a lesbian affair. Written in the 1st person. Published in 80s or 90s 

Leslie O'Grady, The Second Sister, 1984. Just a guess, based on the names and locations, but this could be your book. Described as Victorian Romantic Suspense. Cassandra Clark is happy as the "Right Hand" of jovial Cousin Cyrus in a Cairo tourist hotel when she is suddenly summoned to London by her mother, who had abandoned her years before to marry an Earl. In London she meets her heretofore unknown beautiful (and nasty) half-sister, Leonie. Publisher's description includes references to the mysterious death of one of the Prince of Wales notorious mistresses, scandal, and intrigue.
Leslie O'Grady, The Second Sister, 1984, approximate.

V78: Versailles
Fairly long novel going through several generations of women in one family whose lives revolve around Versailles Palace in France. One of the women paints fans to sell to the royals, then I think her daughter becomes an attendant to the queen, one is kicked out, etc. (not the novel by Kathryn Davis)

Rosalind Laker, To dance with kings, 1988, approximate. Publishers weekly description: Her storytelling skills displayed with panache in this captivating historical novel, British author Laker ( The Silver Touch ) should gain an appreciative audience here. Set during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, the sweeping saga takes place mainly in the Chateau of Versailles and the surrounding town from which the magnificent edifice took its name. The narrative is enriched with intriguing period details, and beautifully paced with fast-moving events, drama and romance. Spanning four generations, the protagonists are the women of one family, named, in turn, Marguerite, Jasmin, Violette and Rose, all of whose destinies are entwined with those of their monarchs as well as the dashing men who bring them love and heartache. Involving her heroines in the art of fan-making, Laker interpolates fascinating information about the fashions of the time and the codes of social etiquette. The sybaritic luxuries of the French Court are set against the brutalities of the Huguenot persecution and the barbaric excesses of the Revolution.
Rosalind Laker, To Dance With Kings.

V79: Visit To City Play Grown-Up
In the 1960's I read a children's book about a young girl who visits her aunt? in the city where the girl has her own room in an apartment and dresses up and is treated as if she were a grown up - going out for tea, I believe.

Maybe this is too obvious, but is the poster thinking of Eloise, by Kay Thompson?  

V80: Valentine's Day book
SOLVED:
Lorna Balian, A Sweetheart for Valentine, 1979.

V81:Victorian romance pub about 1910
frumpy putupon companion to dowager meets duke? at house party and gains his love.  Endangers life by walking to village on errand in rain.  Came with "the rosary" by Barclay.

Grace Livingston Hill?Just a suggestion -- if there is any hint of self-sacrifice or religion in the book, given the date it may be one by Grace Livingston Hill, who wrote "wholesome" stories for girls around that time.

V82: Victorian cab horse
When I was a child I had a picture book about a Victorian cab horse (or omnibus horse) called, I think, Brandy - tho I may be wrong there.  The book was something to do with the horse getting its foot but on a piece of glass, and featured a Victorian scene on the front cover complete with lamp post.

Dorothy Craigie, The Little Horse Bus.

V83: Valentine
SOLVED: Evan Carrol, Valentine. Thank you for solving my stumper. I always thought Valentine was the title but when I tried typing that name into Abebooks, etc. I got hundreds of books about the holiday. I ordered the book and am looking forward to reading it again!






W1:
Wimbly Lane

Here is an almost impossible task. If you don't feel up to it, I quite understand. I don't know the author. I don't know the title, exactly, except that it was something like this: No. 5, Wimbly Lane. It could be any number, but I remember it as a single digit - it could be street, lane, close, circle, avenue, etc - but I am almost positive it is street. I don't know the name of the street. I made up Wimbly. It is about a boy who confounds the neigborhood bully. It would be geared for children 8-11. It is British, fifties or early sixties, illustrated by someone who is, or who illustrates like, whomever drew the pictures for Edward Eager's books. It was in the Dimond Branch of the Oakland Public Library in Oakland, California in the fifties/sixties.

In response to the book with the street name in the title, I remember reading a book in the 5th grade about Pudding Lane. It could have had illustrations similar to Edward Eager's, but I don't remember the plot at all, or the street number. Sorry!
This isn't The Family From One End Street series, is it? There were, I  believe, several stories about the family, all with One End Street in the title.
I did check these out, thank you - very kind of you, but neither is the one.  I'll keep searching until I find it!
I was wondering if you might be thinking of  The Dog on Barkham Street.  Although this book is neither British nor has a number in its title, it was written in 1960 and is about a boy, a dog, and the neighborhood bully.  Here's a descriptive clip I copied: Stolz, Mary.  A DOG ON BARKHAM STREET (8).Edward Frost faces two challenges-the bully of Barkham Street and getting a dog of his own. When his uncle arrives with a collie named Argess, Edward's life begins to change.  There's also another book by this author entitled The Bully on Barkham Street.  I know this book doesn't fit all the seeker's criteria, but the "Street" and "bully" thoughts made me think of this book.
Found a book in a www search (while looking for another title) called # Five Hackberry Street written by Christine Govan and illustrated by Peggy Bacon published  in 1964.  Plot: apparently the children Jessie, Tilly, and Frank have moved to a new house.  No other synopses given.
#W1--Wimbly Lane:  A book catalog description I found of Number 5 Hackberry Street identified it as taking place at the turn of the 20th Century in Tennessee.  If the wanted book took place later and in England, it is not
that one.
#W1--Wimbly Lane:  Jean Fritz wrote a book titled 121 Pudding Street.
W1 wimbly lane: well, it's English, involves a bully, has a street name in the title, and the illustrator did do several of Edward Eager's books - Songberd's Grove, by Anne Barrett, illustrated by N.M. Bodecker, published in the US by Bobbs 1958, 247 pages. "Songberd's Grove lies in London, a street of beautifully proportioned Georgian rowhouses now in slummy condition. The author creates a living picture of the row, particularly of No.1, from which Lenny, a Teddy-boy type of dictator, has ruled the street, and No.7, where 12 year old Martin moves in to establish a new balance of power with a determination to make things peaceable and attractive." (HB Feb/58 p.43)
Stanley Watts, Number 21.  This was illustrated by Robin Jacques. I think that Songberd's Grove sounds most likely  but if it isn't, then this may be a possibility. Yet another possibility is Kathleen O'Farrell's Number One Victoria Terrace, illustrated by Shirley Hughes  but I don't remember a bully.


W2: Watermelons
I am trying to remember a book that I loved as a child. It was about a boy that wanted to buy his mother a present. He raised watermelons on a terraced hillside and when they were ripe he sold the melons to buy his mother a piece of jewelery. I hope you can help because this is driving me crazy because I've seen the name a few years back and saw the book in our library.

I have a bit of information on W2.  I know I read that when I was in grade school, so it dates back at least to the mid-1960s.  I remember it as being an odd size -- squareish like a picture book, but written for 4th to 6th grade readers.  It was about a Chinese boy, and I remember thinking the melons were smaller than I was used to.  I think there was something about the melons or the money going missing, and then either they were recovered,
or something was found for a reward that brought in the same amount of money.I think it may have been published in the same series that 31 Brothers and Sisters by Reba P. Mirsky was published in -- I think it had the same format, and it was also a foreign setting.
P49 Present for a mother sounds the same as W2 Watermelons
Could be Little Wu and the Watermelons by Beatrice Liu, illustrated by Graham Peck, Follett, 1954, 96 pages. "A delightful tale of a small boy of the Hua Miao tribe of southwest China and his efforts to earn enough money to buy a present for his mother. Little Wu wanted to show his mother that he thought her the most beautiful mother in the world and he decided that the way to do that would be to buy her a piece of jewelry. When he finally had enough money, most of it gained from the sale of watermelons he had painstakingly raised, he realized that jewelry was not what she wanted most, but for the family to be able to buy a small field of their own."


W8: World War II
Here's one for you: When I was child in the '50s I remember reading, a book about a little girl whose father, I believe, was killed in World War II and she one day finds an old letter from him in a trunk in the attic. That is ALL I can remember--along with a picture in my mind of an illustration, the girl kneeling next to the trunk, letter in hand. Any clue as to what this one might be??
2002

W9: Wood Nymphs
Solved: Little House in the Fairy Wood
W17: Witch Actress

Solved: Catwitch
W18: West Wind

It was a set of books, undersized hardbacks in my library, that were something like the west wind tales. They were around 150-200 pages each, and I think there were 6-8 of them. The stories were about the west, north, east and south winds, and various things they did...and something else I can't quite remember. I remember one of them had a person waiting in the cave for whichever wind it was to return, and something about riding on the shoulder of the wind.

There's Thornton Burgess' tales of Old Mother West Wind (including several books on her Why Stories, Where Stories, Who Stories, etc.), but this doesn't sound like exactly the same thing.
Maybe George MacDonald?
W18--East 'O the Sun and West 'O the Moon. These are collection of fairytales which have many stories about the wind. I have two books with this same title but they have completely different stories.  One is a small hardback(6 inches or so).


W19: Where's Charlie?
I am looking for a lift-a-flap book that I had when I was little. I think  the title is Where's Charlie? but I'm not sure. It was probably first  published in the late 60's to early 70's and I don't think it is still in  print. The object of the book was to find Charlie who turns out to be a  mouse. Any help would be appreciated!

My sister had this book.  Could the title be "Let's Find Charlie."  Hope this helps.
I definitely remember this book--it was all in very bright primary colours, and I especially remember opening the "refrigerator" flap and all the food inside (I think you could even open the freezer!).  It was all very blocky and cartoonish.  I remember it as being hardback, probably yellow, horizontal.  I'm so sorry I can't remember the name of the author; it was a great book. [And later...]
I think the author's last name may be Arthur.
"Let's Find Charlie" written by Lois Morton, designed and illustrated by Elissa Scott.  Random House.  I adored that book.
Lois Morton, Let's Find Charlie.I found this old children's book.  A little girl looks for her mouse. Lift the flaps of doors, cabinets, etc. to see where he is hiding. Charlie ends up in her dollhouse fast asleep. It took me a long time to find this book, but it was definitely worth it!'


W20: Witch and cat series
OK, I hardly remember anything except that I loved these books.  I now have a  daughter that is about the same age, and I'd love for her to read them ...  You've seemed to work magic elsewhere, so here goes!  While living in Paris in 1972, I read an english-book series that was still being published in paperback at the time.  They were chapter books about a girl who was magical, or a witch.  There may have been a cat in the series too.  My Mom thinks that they were a Puffin series and that the cat's name was Tabitha ... but I cannot confirm that.  There were definitely at least 4 books in the series ... Oh, I can't really be of much help!

Is this the series by Ruth Chew that includes The Trouble with Magic, The Wednesday Witch, Witch in the House, etc.? published by Scholastic, mid-70s.
I am wondering if W20 might also be referring to the Barbara Sleigh's Carbonel series  (see L15) -- although I think there were only two of them, not four.
W20 I just bought a copy of The Wednesday witch. The witch's name is Hilda, and the cat's name is Cinders and they all appear to fly thru the sky on a vacuum cleaner
W20 witch and cat series: Barbara Sleigh's Carbonelseries was published by Puffin and includes - Carbonel (Puffin 1955), Carbonel's Kingdom (Puffin 1961), Carbonel and Calidor (Kestrel 1978), that I know of. The children are John and Rosemary.
Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch, 1974.  This sounds like it could be the Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy but the first in the series was written in 1974. There are 4 books in all and the little witch was called Mildred. Her cat was Tabby. The books are still available in the UK published by Puffin.

Patricia Coombs, Doorie the Witch series, 1970s-1980s.Sounds like the Doorie the Witch books to me. Doorie was a little girl witch (yes she had a cat: Jinx, I think it was). She was always getting into some kind of mischief, but always ended up saving the day. Loved these books as a little girl! I hope this helps :).


W21: Witch upside-down on swing
Solved: A Witch in the House



W22: Witch's eyebrows
I think this is a short story and not a book.  It has to be dated in the 1980s or earlier (probably earlier).  It was for young adults, I think. A pretty little girl wants something she sees in an old woman's window. I think the thing she wants is a doll house, but I'm not sure.  The old woman turns out to be a witch.  The little girl wants this thing more and more.  The old woman offers to trade it to the little girl for the little girl's eyebrows.  The little girl agrees and sees her pretty little eyebrows flit off her face and land on the old woman's face.  I seem to recall that the little girl immediately regrets her decision to trade, but there are no "refunds," so to speak.

#W22--Witch's eyebrows:  A book called The Good American Witch contains a similar premise.
The Good American Witch by Peggy Bacon (Watts, 1957) includes stories told by the children's Uncle Robert about the 'good American witch', one story involving Susan who wanted her black hair changed to gold, another about Rufus who wanted his poodle to talk. Perhaps this was one of these stories, anthologised or read separately?


W27: Witches & Wizards on HBO
Wanting to find out title and author of children's book about witches and  wizards turned into HBO series.

It is the Worst Witch series byJill Murphy.


W28: Widdy Widdy Wurkey
Solved: Sugar and Spice 



W29: Witch's garden
Solved: The Ghost Garden

W31: William Tell's son
I am looking for a book I read at about age 12 back in the fifties that was about William Tell, told from the viewpoint of his son, Walter.  This book is not the Apple and the Arrow, which I do have, but a longer and more fictionalized book. I remember something about the boy Walter being forced to climb a dangerous castle wall as a kind of entertainmentfor the lords and ladies.  Thanks for your help--this site is so much fun to read through!

Regarding Stump the Bookseller, W31:  Could this the The Magic Meadow by Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire?  I haven't read it in a long time, but I know it is about William Tell in the Swiss Alps.
W31 william tell: perhaps William Tell, by Katharine Scherman, illustrated by George Schreiber, published Random House 1960, 52 pages? It's in a historical series for children, but no information on whether it is narrated by Tell's son.



W32: War over redheaded girl
Solved: The Cybil War

W35: Witch book with tragic feel
Solved: Benjamin the True 

W37: Wind is my friend
I checked this book out of the Seattle Public Library, Queen Anne Branch, sometime in the mid-60's.  The title is probably wrong; I think I may be right about the title having the words "wind" and "friend" in it, but can't be positive.  It was a story about a little boy who, for some reason, is alone out in the snow.  He tries to survive on his own, but one of the only parts I can remember clearly is him killing a rabbit for food.   I also remember him lying down to die in the snow at the end.  It was a very moving
story for a young child; without the typical "happily ever after" ending.  It did have illustrations, I don't remember them being very detailed - maybe black and white, but when he killed the rabbit, there was red in the illustration.  I have been looking for this book everywhere, in every possible way, for twenty-five years with absolutely no luck.  I know it exists out there somewhere. I can't be the only one who read this book, or was touched by it.  Please help!!!

W37 - George Macdonald's At the Back of the North Wind has a boy called Diamond (shades of D41 but I don't think this is the answer to that!) whom the North Wind, in the guise of a beautiful woman, befriends, and takes on journeys - including one to the land at her back. There are scenes of some violence though I don't remember a rabbit being killed, shipwrecks feature I think and the ending is certainly very sad.
A very long shot, but just possibly The Magic Forest by Stewart White? It was published in the 1920s, reprinted several times. It's about a small boy who falls off a train in the Northern woods and is found by Indians who take care of him - he is eventually returned to his parents. It's been years since I read it, but I think there was a sequence where he wanders lost in the snow, perhaps before being found by the Indians. Although he doesn't die, the ending is sad, since he's almost forgotten his parents, and will in turn forget his Indian 'family'.
Another possibility - Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, NY Coward-McCann 1952, 247 pages "Runaway 10 year old Jim Keath, trapping for beaver in the vast wild country beyond the Missouri River, is left for dead after a grizzly's attack. Found and adopted by Crow Indians, he grows up knowing only the Indians' wandering restless life." If the first part of this book was anthologised, it might be what the questioner remembers.
Alice Curtis Desmond wrote a story called "The Snow is Your Friend" that was collected in Told Under Spacious Skies (p.313-23), Macmillan 1952. No idea of the plot, but she also wrote American historical fiction and tales of other lands for children.
W37 wind is my friend: this time I'm pretty sure - The Boy and His Friend the Blizzard, by Gregor Marton, illustrated (in 2 colours) by Brian Wildsmith, published Cape 1962."A young orphan boy is making his way
westward from Budapest. His only possession is a medal of St. Anthony, left to him by his dying mother. He encounters another wanderer, a pregnant woman, and shelters her in a shack by a frozen lake during a fierce snowstorm. In the woods he finds food for her, and through a hole in the ice of   lake tries to catch fish. The blizzard he regards as a friend-it shields him from the marauding soldiers but racks his frail body. Fearless of the hostile forces of nature, he responds heroically to the demands of the woman's plight and his own desperate situation while dreaming of a life of freedom on the high seas." The title is close, and the mood of the story is certainly sombre enough.
Cypher in the Snow.  This comment reminded me strongly of a movie called "Cypher in the Snow" that I watched in a religion class when I was young - it was about a young boy who was ignored by everyone, had no friends, and finally dropped dead in the snow at the end!  Maybe a connection?
Gregory Marton, The boy and his friend the blizzard, 1962. The boy and his friend the blizzard is most probably the book your after. I read it this year and lent it to a friend. I absolutely loved it. The boy makes friends with a rabbit and, like the blizzard, kills the boy he kills the rabbit.
The illustrations in the book are monotone of various colors throughout.



W38: Women growing up
Solved: This Year's Girl

W42: When I grow up...
Looking for a picture book--"When I grow up, what will I be?" is a recurring refrain with different professions.  The character is a girl.  The cover is orange.

There's a book in the Easy Reader series, When I Grow Up, by Jean Bethell, illustrated by Ruth Wood, published Wonder Books 1965, with a little girl imagining growing up to be a nurse, cowgirl, stewardess or ballerina. The cover is light orange and shows a red-headed girl in a green plaid dress with her back to us, looking into an oval mirror where her future selves wave their arms in an excited fashion. The boy's version (same title) was published a few years earlier (1961?) and the boy imagines himself as a cowboy, marine, etc.



W43: Why the Maple Leaves Turn Scarlet
Solved:  Perhaps and Perchance: Tales of Nature

W44: Wiggly worm
I was in a children's play about books in the 6th grade. Some of the characters were a wiggly worm and some kind of animal with a sausage nose (yes, believe it or not). One of my lines was, "Wiggle, wiggle, brainy worm. How I wiggle, how I squirm. Through the pages as I munch, yummy, yummy, books for lunch!" Any ideas on the name of the play or how I could locate it?

W47:Winkie book
Solved: Day by Day


W48: Willie's bed
Solved: Tucked-In Tales


W49: Whitman Tell-A-Tale about a cat
Looking for a book I remember my babysitter reading to me over and over (she must have been very patient). It was a whitman tell-a-tales, with green or teal edges outline around the front cover and a drawing of an orange/yellow kitten.  I think it may have had a bow on her neck.  This would have read to me in the early 1960's. I don't really recall the story, but I think maybe the cat came home.

W49- Possibly Pitty Pat The Fuzzy Cat or Big Little Kitty (Tell-A-Tales)



W50: Who needs doughnuts?
Solved: Who Needs Donuts? 

W51: Wright, Dare
I am not familiar with Dare Wright yet one of my friends is looking for one of her books.  I have looked at many titles   yet she thinks the title has something to do with a little girl's prayer.  She thought that the title had the word prayer  in it...but she wasn't certain and I haven't found any such books. She is 21 years old and says she used to read it  every night when she was a little girl, so I'm trying to locate one.  I would appreciate any help that I can get.  The  only thing I know for certain is that the title is NOT "The Lonely Doll."  If somebody replies to this please send the  information to jthylton@rocketmail.com.  Thank you very much.

I don't know any Dare Wright book with Prayer in the title.  Here are the list of non-Edith titles:
The Little One  (features small naked doll lost in woods, small book); Date With London; Lona, a Fariy Tale  (features more sophisticated doll, very large format); Take Me Home (similar to The Little One); Look at a Gull (photography of seagulls); Look at a Colt; The Kitten's Little Boy; Look at a Calf; Look at a Kitten and 10 Edith Lonely Doll books....  nothing religious here, although Edith does sometimes learn a lesson  (as in Lonely Doll Learns a Lesson and Edith and Little Bear Lend a Hand).
W51 wright, dare: Is the poster absolutely certain that this is a Dare Wright book? It keeps reminding me of Prayer for a Child, by Rachel Field, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones, published Macmillan 1945, 26 pages. "This childlike prayer, written for Hannah (Field's daughter), has been printed before, but not in illustrated form, as a book by itself. A realistic, unsentimental picture on each page makes the meaning of the phrases more clear to little children, closer to daily life." (HB Jan/45 p.33) Part of the text: "Bless this milk and bless this bread / bless this soft and waiting bed / Through the darkness, through the night / let no danger come to fright / my sleep ... Bless the lamplight, bless the fire / Bless the hands that never tire / in their loving care of me ..."
W51 Dare Wright prayer: just possibly A Child's Grace, verses by Ernest Claxton, photographs by Constance Bannister, published Dutton 1948. "In this book of exquisite simplicity and vibrant beauty, every alternate page has a photograph of a child, depicting some phase of daily life for which he thanks God. New photographs and a beautiful four-color jacket. Ages 2 and up." (HB Dec/48 p.406) The photo shown is of a little girl with shoulder-length dark hair and a doll-like face.



W52: Willo the Wisp
Hi. I'm looking for the title of this story. It's about a little boy who lives by a marsh. At night he sees lights out on the marsh and his mother tells him it is Willo the Wisp. He goes out in search of this light. I can't remember exactly what happens next, but somehow the Wisp falls into the marsh and the little boy never sees him at night anymore. Can someone help?

#W52:  Willo the Wisp:  An incident like this appears on page 28 of Barbee Oliver Carleton's Mystery of the Witches' Bridge (The Witches' Bridge in hardcover.)"Then Dan narrowed his eyes.  Had he seen a light out there in the marsh?  He stared into the blackness until his eyes shifted in their sockets. Yes!  There it came.  The light winked again, and yet again.  With a thrill of relief Dan realized that it was flashing a signal.  No will-'o-the-wisp would be sending the Morse code!"   The other similarities are that Dan never does see this light again, and there is talk of things falling into salt ponds in the marsh.  Dan's mother, though, is dead before the story starts, and I would guess this is not the one you're after.  I've just been waiting for someone to ask about Mystery of the Witches' Bridge, as it is one of my alltime favorites!
W52 I don't have the answer, but just a hint that might help the search. The spelling is usually will-o-the-wisp or will o' the wisp.
Maybe one of the Willo the Wisp series by Nicholas Spargo? Published by Windward in the early 1980s. I don't know anything about the stories though.
The book wasn't just one story, and the only other story I remember (I was about 3 or 4 at the time, this is pretty good going) was a boy that finds little people and gets turned into their size and walks through underground caverns with them. It's all very vague and the original poster remembered more than me already, but there you go.



W53: Willy mouse
Solved: Willie Mouse series
W55: Whaling captain

I'm searching for the title and author of a book I read as a child (aren't we all?!) It was about a whaling captain from Nantucket who took his family with him on a voyage. It was set in the mid-1800s and focused primarily on the daughter in the family. Thanks for any help you can give!

Has anyone suggested Aiken, Joan Nightbirds on Nantucket il by Robin Jacques  Doubleday  1966
Maybe Keturah Came 'Round the Horn: a story of old California by Ada Claire Darby, published by Stokes in 1935 and 1940? "Tale of a New England girl who came round the Horn with her sea-captain father in 1846, to Monterey and Sand Diego, at a time when revolution brewed between the Spanish regime, Mexican rebels, and an American Government that sought California for herself." Or there's Captain Ramsay's Daughter by Elizabeth Fraser Torjesen, published by Lothrop in 1955, 223 pages "Nantucket in whaling times is the backdrop for a story of a teenage girl's adventure." Though that doesn't say anything about actually sailing. Another is Elizabeth CoatsworthThe Captain's Daughter published by Macmillan in 1950 "Adventure and romance are the  ngredients of this delightful novel for young adults, about a young girl's trip to the Orient in a clipper ship."
Yet another - Holberg, Ruth, The Wonderful Voyage illustrated by Phyllis Cote, published Garden City, Doubleday Doran Junior Books 1945 "Eight-year old Randy and her older brother Jay go on the most exciting trip that could happen in the 1850's - a whaling voyage on their father's ship, from Gloucester, around Cape Horn and up through the Pacific Ocean. Randy forgot she was "puny" ... cut the frills off her pantalettes and vowed to do everything her brother did." The cover shows the two children standing by some rigging, with Jay pointing at a leaping whale and Randy's voluminous petticoats blown by the wind. Less likely - Crowe, John Congdon, In the Days of the WindjammersToronto, Ryerson 1959 9x6, 176pp. 9 illus. "This is a factual account of the life of the Captain and his family who lived aboard a full-rigged ships, starting with the launch of the 'BEDFORD' in 1877. This narrative was written by one of Captain Crowes sons who, not in any unique way for the times, lived and sailed with his mother and father."
Rachel Field, Hitty her first hundred years.  I realy enjoyed reading this book. it is a doll's memoirs on  her first 100 yrs. Her first owner was a girl named Phoebe Preble who lived in Nantucket,Maine. Phoebe's father was a whaler. At one point he takes his family on a whaling trip with him and they get shipwrecked on a island and have several more adventures.Then the doll writes about her other owners.
Corinne Demas, If Ever I Return.  About a 12-year-old girl on her father's whaling ship - not sure the location. I think the story is told through letters to her cousin.



W56: Watermelon stealing and its consequences
I remember a story possibly from the early 60's or late 50'sabout a little black child who steals and eats melons from the neighbor. I think he may have also either tore or lost his jacket or some other item of clothing. A large storm brews and he believes it is chasing him possibly as punishment for stealing. Does this sound familiar at all?

W56 - sounds like either Epaminondas or one of Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo/Little Black
Quibba/Little White Squibba etc series
Pal, George, Jasper and the Watermelons,c 1945.  I was looking for a copy of Jasper and the Watermelons" which I remember reading at the home of the librarian who lived across the street from us when I was a little girl in the mid 1950s. When I saw your stumper, I seemed likely this was the book you were seeking. Jasper steals the watermelons, doesn't come home when called, eats until he falls asleep, and is menaced by watermelons, a storm and the fantasy of his tummy exploding. He goes home remorseful and grateful to be in one
piece. I hope this is it, and I hope you find a copy -- I'm still looking.
W56 watermelon stealing - I saw a copy of one suggested on EBay - Jasper and the Watermelons, written and illustrated by George Pal (famous animator and special effects creator) published New York, Diamond Publishing, 1945. "FANTASTICALLY illustrated bit of our past. Little Black boy doesn't listen to Mammy and eats too much watermelon and has wild dreams."



W57: Witch sets free the animals!
Solved: The Little Broomstick

W59: Witch wishes
It was a book about a witch who grants wishes i seem to remember there was a girl and they may have met on a play ground  i remember it being as large as 8 by 10 hard cover possibly light blue it was illustrated any thoughts greatly appreciated.  I read it when i was eight that was in 72 and the book seemed old to me  it was a chapter book

Helen Cresswell, Lizzie Dripping and the Witch, 1970?  It's a long time since I read it, but I know this starts with Lizzie meeting the Witch in a playground.
W59 witch wishes: more on the suggested - Lizzie Dripping and the Witch, by Helen Cresswell, Illustrated by Chris Riddell, published London,  BBC Books 1991 "Everyone knows a Lizzie Dripping. It's the name people call the kind of girl who is dreamy and daring at the same time and who turns things upside down and inside out wherever she goes and whatever she does. But our Lizzie Dripping is even more special. Because Lizzie, out of all the people in Little Hemlock, has her own private witch. A witch that only Lizzie can see and talk to. So that although life for Lizzie is often exciting, or strange, or even rather scary, it is never, never dull. In this book, the author has written six new stories about one of the most delightful and best-loved characters in modern children's literature." The first book, Lizzie Dripping, published 1973, also involved a witch, possibly the same one. "Lizzie knows there is a Witch in the village, but no one believes her." There are several other titles in the series.



W60: W.A.V.E.S. in WWII
The fiction book was about Navy WAVES during World War II. One of the main male characters was a man named, as I recall, Seth and he had salt and pepper hair.  At least some of the action may have taken place in Hawaii.  I remember that the book was hardback and had a dark blue cover.

If it was a really old book (1940s), for middle grades, it might be Sally Scott of the WAVES, by Roy J. Snell, part of Whitman's Fighters for Freedom series.   I don't have a copy to check, but Norma Kent  of the WACs
from the same series has a blue cover. A synopsis of Sally Scott can be found online.  It does NOT mention a character named Seth, but does refer to an older, unnamed man who invented a radio  that apparently plays a key part inthe story.



W61: Weird Illustrated Book
This is a black humor book. It is all illustrations, such as drawings of a car with a "real" picture of a bra for headlights. There was spaghetti bowls with meatballs for swimming. Very weird humor. My siblings and I discovered this book in 1978 but we have no idea when it was published. We can't seem to remember the title at all, but I think that the author's name is Ungerer or Unger. If you can help me at all it would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.

Does either Tomi Unger's Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls or Ron Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs look familiar?  Or perhaps one of the  Harlin Quist books?  I thought it worth a try...
Nope. Also, just so ya know, it's not a children's book really. I mean we found it and it amused the heck out of us, but I don't think it would be "labeled" as a children's book. I really appreicate the help though, it would save me a few sleepless nights! ;)
James Thurber?  This has a strong 'family resemblance' to the kind of thing that James Thurber wrote - often illustrating his books himself, with odd line drawings.
Besides illustrating and writing children's books, Tomi Ungerer also draws quite adult, rather surreal cartoons, some with erotic or misogynist content. There have been a few collections of his work, including Adam and Eve, published London, Cape, 1976; and Testament, covering his work from 1960-1980, published London, Cape, 1983. Given the artist's name as remembered, one of these would be my bet.
Weird black humor!! I would certainly look at Edward Gorey.  Some of his titles around in the seventies- Amphigorey, Too
Cobweb Castle,Epileptic Bicycle, Awdrey-Gore Legacy, and others. Check them out! 



W62: Willy Churchmouse
Solved: Peter Churchmouse

W63: What Miranda Knew
Solved: What Miranda Knew

W64: Willy woo
Solved:  Willy Woo-Oo-Oo

W65: When Herbie McNally was seven...
Solved: The Wonderful Magic-Motion Machine

W66: Woman's autobiography series
Solved: Marty
W67: Witch's cat didn't fit in

Solved: Gobbolino the Witch's Cat
W68: Wormood???

Solved: The Secrets of Hidden Creek
W69: WWII gold

Solved: The Rescue of the Hidden Gold
W70: WWII pig

Solved: Ernestine, the Pig in the Potting Shed 
W71: Waffles & other memories

Solved: What Katy Did at School
W72: Wynken, Blynken and Nod record

I am going crazy looking for this.  I don't know if it's actually a book or just a record.  I remember my mother getting it out of the library several times when I was YOUNG!  I am 25 now ans if ANYBODY knows where I can find info on this great old record I need to know!
I posted this as a stumper but I do not think it ever was a book. I am looking for an old, old record called Winkin Blinkin and Nod.  It had Halley's comet in there somewhere. I got it out from the library so many times as a kid and to this day I am still looking for it. HELP ME!!!   For nostalgia's sake! thanks

Well, I don't know about the record, but the nursery rhyme Wynken, Blynken and Nod was written by Eugene Field and widely anthologized.
#W72--Wynken, Blynken and Nod Record:  Because I am seeking a particular edition of Wynken, Blynken and Nod (Paperback, Wonder Books, 1964), I search for this on eBay all the time.  It appears on LOTS of records!  I find as many recordings of it as books.  The only one I have is a recording by the Irish Rovers, but records come up all the time, including very old ones.  You might be advised to keep doing searches on eBay; there is also some website devoted to old vinyl.  Here's one:  OLD CHILDRENS 78 RPM RECORD This is an old CHILDRENS 78 RPM RECORD. By LINCOLN records #529. Year 1950. songs are, WYNKEN BLYNKEN AND NOD / RAPUNZEL..
I have two records with Wynken, Blynken and Nod.  The first one is mine from the 60's and is titled Song Time for Young People published by Treasure Records. The cover is pink with a circus scene on the front and has 18 songs including Katie the Kangaroo, Over in the Meadow, Pop Goes the Weasel, and Clementine. The other I purchased in 1980 and is a two record set called A Golden Treasury of Mother Goose published by Golden Records.  There are 82 songs and rhymes directed by Mitch Miller.
Little Golden Book records has a record with Wynken Blyken and Nod on side one, Storm in the Bathtub on side two. Is it possible that Storm in the Bathtub makes mention of Halley's Comet? Maybe someone can help with that part. I do not know that song.
The wonderful world of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.  Author(s): Lande, Kay and Denning, Wade.   RCA Camden, 1966. 33 1/3 rpm. stereo.  Contents: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.--We must be brave, brave, brave.--My name is Haley Comet.--Miss Guiding Star's song.-We're gonna go a-searchin' for a rocket ship.--Mister Parrot's lament.--Catch me, catch me.--Trouble.--Due North.--A perpetual cold in my nose.--We're going to Australia to ride a kangaroo.--Sing me a rhyme.--Jack Yak.--Wynken, Blynken and Nod.  Note(s): Participants: Story and songs  written by Wade Denning and Kay Lande  performed by Kay Lande and cast  Wade Denning, arranger and conductor.


W73:  Who spilled the paint?
Solved: Big Orange Splot
W74:  Wishing Tree by Faulkner

Solved: The Wishing Tree

W75:  Werepony
girl who travels around in van and, I think, moves into parallel world where she becomes a werepony; also features a couple who are werewolf and werehuman [wolf who becomes human] and are expecting respectively a cubs and a baby.

W75 werepony: there's a rather odd book that may be it - Horse of Air, written and illustrated by L. Campbell, published Routledge 1957, 160 pages. The author was 15 when she wrote it. "It concerns Lindsey, a girl whose imaginary world becomes her real world. Here she roams with her band of horses, having the ability to become one herself at any time. They journey through countries together, meeting were-wolves or Indians, or cowboys or people from small townships. With two or three of her horses she takes journeys back to "Reality" and occasionally in time. The portrayal of the horses is excellent and each becomes a real personality to the reader." (JB Nov/57 p.258) More likely it's a recent paperback fantasy for adults or YA, though.


W76: World War II U-Boat Stories
Not your usual fare, but I read this book as a teen; not sure if it was really targeted at younger readers or not.  This was a collection of  stories about German U-Boat operations during WWII, and  was probably published in the 50s.  Each chapter was about a different sub, as I recall.  I've tried some searches and I've concluded that "U-Boat" probably  is NOT in the title, but I can't be certain of that. The book itself had a light brown cover with the title on the spine in navy blue;  my copy didn't have any dust jacket.

Could this be one of the Random House Landmark series books for young people. The cover description and date sound right. Check out the lengthy list of titles. Battle for the Atlantic, The Story of Submarines, The History of the U. S. Coast Guard, etc. 


W77:  Witches and Blueberry Pancakes
Solved: Old Black Witch
W78: Whitman publishing?

title: something...Christmas book, maybe My Christmas Book?  Whitman mid 1950s.  containing approx. 20/25 children's Christmas stories mostly about Santa, gift giving, helping those less fortunate  It was about 12in x 8in approx. 150-200 pages with some illustrations the title was "My Christmas Book" or something Christmas Book  On the cover was a big picture of Santa's face with his eyes closed.  Overlayed in his white beard was a decorated Christmas tree with children dancing around the
tree holding ribbons, similar to the Coca-Cola kind of Santa    two stories from book: Bertrum's Reindeer and The Little Blue Dishes.

W78 whitman christmas: the cover description sounds like The Christmas Book, Whitman 1954, which is on the Solved List. The only difference is that the children are dancing hand-in-hand around the tree, though the garlands strung around it do give the impression that they are holding maypole ribbons.


W79:  white poodle babysitter book
Solved: The Bunny Sitter 

W80:  Wilkin book
Solved: My Dolly and Me 
W81: Witch in a Rhododendrun bush

Solved:  Late for Hallowe'en


W82:  Whale, Woman Overboard
Solved: Overboard
W83:  washing machine

I read a book of short stories as a kid.  Probably from the 1940's about a girl named wendy who falls asleep on a washing machine and dreams.  In this short stories book is also a story about invisible elves that come out and are visible at night.  Any information you have would be great I would love to read it to my kids.

In a Ginn second grade reader Around the Corner (green cover)(1966) there is a story called "The Wonderful Washing Machine". In this Ann falls asleep and she dreams she is flying out across the country atop the washer. The story is by Miriam Young and is attributed to Story Parade magazine. I do not see an elf story here, however. 



W84: Witch with colored powders
Solved: Little Witch 
W85:  Woman & Children escape Germany

I am looking for a book I read in the early 80's.  It is about a young Jewish woman who escapes from a ghetto (possibly Warsaw) and ends up hiding in a Convent with several Jewish children, possibly acting as a teacher.  At the end of the book, she and a man from the convent smuggle the children across the border on a train (I think they were in baggage or bundles.) I cannot remember anything else of the content, except that at one point while hiding she has the children act in a play about Purim.

Claire Huchet Bishop, Twenty and Ten, 1952.  I'm a little uncertain whether this is the book referred to, except that the children in the book do act in a play (as far as my memory serves me).  A short synopsis of the book follows:  "During the Nazi occupation of France, twenty ordinary French  kids in a boarding school agree to hide ten Jewish children.  Then German soldiers arrive. Will the children be able to  withstand the interrogation and harassment? Twenty and Ten is based on a true story -- one of many similar incidents that took place all over Europe during World War II. It is a book that has much to say to children of any age." Assuming this is the book (there are a number of books on the  same theme) there was a 1990 made for TV movie based on it,  starring Loretta Swit, called "Miracle at Moreaux".
I still think the book you are looking for is something else, whose title I cannot recall, but a friend suggested a lot of plot elements are like Kathryn Lasky's The Night Journey.
Claire Huchet Bishop, Twenty and Ten.  This is the solution I coulnd't think of last time, and I believe I've got it now.
I do not remember the title, but I taught this book to 6th graders in New Jersey.  Look at the videos at your library  I believe it is also a movie.  You can ask the research librarian to look for the topic with Juvenile literature for 4th to 7th grade material, and she will probably find it.
I'm not positive about this, but W85 might be Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serralier.  It's about  three children from a Warsaw ghetto running  from the Nazis.   This book is back in print.
My Hundred Children, Lena Kuchler, 1987.  This is a book about a woman who helps 100 children (Holocaust survivors) get to Israel. I remember very little about it and it is long out of print, but I thought it might help as it looks like this stumper hasn't been solved.
I checked out briefs on Twenty & Ten, Escape from Warsaw, and The Night Journey, but unfortunately none of them are the book I'm seeking.  I did, however, remember that the name of the main character is Lena or Leni, if that helps.
I do not believe that Claire Huchet Bishop's Twenty and Ten is correct.
Also published under the title The Secret Cave (Scholastic-1969) the story concerns French school children who vote to aid some Jewish children by hiding them at their convent school. There is no adult who is fleeing nor do the Jewish children escape from France in the end. The story merely ends with the Nazis departing, believing they were mistaken. The ten hidden children come out and everyone feast on some food left behind by the soldiers. The children had been subsisting on very meager rations. The school barely food had food for the twenty and they were actually sharing their supply with the extra ten! They were nearly starving!
Lena Küchler-Silberman, translated from the Hebrew by David C. Gross., My Hundred Children, 1987.  maybe? - Trying to find reason to go on living after her family died in the Holocaust, Kuchler-Silberman directed a postwar orphanage for 100 of the few Jewish children who remained alive in Poland. Her aim was to provide physical and emotional wholeness for those children who had lived in closets or forests and for the many who had seen their parents killed. She encountered aggressive anti-Semitism directed toward the children. Finally leaving Poland for safer Czechoslovakia forms the crux of the first-person narrative, but as much drama is found in moving vignettes, such as the intoxicated hilarity the children and staff enjoy, dressed alike in pink flannel pajamas (their first such warmth after the war). Kuchler-Silberman is truly a hero  her accomplishments will be honored in a forthcoming TV movie.


2003

W86: Witch with pastel pantry
Solved: Little Witch


W87: "Who's that happy hippopotamus hopping heavily in the hall"
Solved: Is That a Happy Hippopotamus?


W88: woodsmen with wine jugs
Childhood book wanted: Read in the 50's. Picture book. Woodsmen with axes and jugs of wine or milk? Trees prominent in pictures

The Golden Goose.  I had a book in the seventies called The Golden Goose, which had all the elements you describe, including a woodsmen being cut with an axe, and treesy, earth toned pictures.
W88: Sounds like the Grimms' The Golden Goose, though the only time I remember seeing it as a book was a pre-1970 edition in which the youngest son is called, not Simpleton, but "Dumming" or some such. A lot of dialogue. Very plain illustrations - what sticks in my memory is when the brothers cut themselves with the ax and you see the gaping cuts in profile, but no blood or redness.
W88  L. Leslie Brooke, The Golden Goose.  Oddly enough, I just saw this in my doctor's office among the books they had
for the kids. It had simple line drawings done in color. Lots of trees in the pictures.
W88 This one?  Brooke, Leslie. The golden goose and other favorites.  ilus by Leslie Brooke. Avenel old fairy and
nursery tales; Mother Goose rhymes.



W89: witches
Solved: Little Witch


W90: The wolf who wanted to be a horse
This was a library book I read to my son in the early 1970s. It was wry and funny and I would love to read it to my granddaughter. I believe it was called The Wolf Who Wanted to Be a Horse. (Or it may have been a horse who wanted to be a wolf.) I simply can't remember for sure.

Kristine Willis, The Long-legged, long-nosed, long-maned wolf,  1968.  It' not an exact match, but it was close enough that I felt I should mention it.  Summary: "The strange wolf doesn't make a very good horse, and the strange man doesn't make a very fierce bandito, but they make a good pair because of the unusual favors they do for each other."  It's 48 pages long, so it's probably an "easy reader" type book.
I have no summaries for these two but the time period fits: Wolf Who Had a Wonderful Dream by Anne Rockwell (1973), Mouse Who Wanted to be a Man by Margaret Howell (1976)



W91: Witch saves witch school with thorn bush
This short story was in an anthology of witch stories. In the story, a young girl, who is a witch, is sent to a (boarding?) school for witches.  There is a portrait of one of her famous witch ancestors on a wall in the school.  Somehow the girl saves the school by growing a thorn bush all around the school.  I think the book was oversized.  It may have had a picture on the cover of a witch riding a broomstick and wearing a billowing cloak.  I read the book sometime around 1977-1983.  Thanks!

Hoke, Helen, Witches, Witches, Witches, 1953.  This is a slightly oversized J fiction with a black cover.
I just thumbed through Witches, Witches, Witches and didn't see a story resembling the above description.  Likewise, A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders and 13 Wtiches by Dorothy Gladys Spicer.
W91 The Helen Hoke book is a collection of stories. I'll read the copy of it that I own to double check it. In the meantime, check SPELL ME A WITCH by Barbara Willard, 1979, 1981. It could be the one you're looking for. ~from a librarian
Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week, 1982.  Could this be it?  "There are, in the universe, an infinite number of worlds, each split off from its neighbors by the turnings of history. In one world, very much like ours, witchcraft is illegal and witches are burned, unless they can manage to escape. A large number of witch-orphans have been sent to Larwood House, a government-run boarding school. A note accusing someone at the school of being a witch is only the beginning of the strange occurrences.  Young Charles Morgan has just discovered that he can cast spells. Nirupam Singh's brother was burned as a witch. Nan Pilgrim has just taken her first flight on a broom. Among the other students at the school are Estelle Green, whose mother used to run part of the witches rescue service; Brian Wentworth, whose father is assistant head and who has begun acting decidedly odd; and the perfect Simon Silverson, whose every word suddenly starts coming true. When one of the students disappears and a note is left blaming the witch, everyone begins to get scared and several students run away. Nan and Estelle, trying to reach the witches rescue service, are given a spell that will summon help, in the form of the wizard Chrestomanci."
It's definitely NOT Witch Week (or anything by Diana Wynne Jones.  It was a short story and I don't even think the anthology was that thick.  I also forgot to add that it was in my elementary school library (Indianola Elementary in Columbus, Ohio).  Thanks for the ideas.
The Worst Witch Ever.  I know the cover of my edition was of the girl flying (looking fairly disheveled) with a cloak on.  She went to a boarding school and was often in trouble, but managed to save the day. A thorn bush sounds vaguely familiar.  There were 2 books I read in the series, I think.  I would have read this book around 1985ish and it was in paperback then.



W92: Witch's house has chicken legs
Solved: Baba Yaga


W93: weather explained to girl
Louis Slobodkin (illustrator),  1955-1965.  In a dream, a girl rises up to a cloud, where weather is explained to her.This was a picture book.

Is the poster sure this book was illustrated by Louis Slobodkin? There seems to be information about all the books he illustrated at http://www.slobodkin.org/books/index.html, but none look like they fit the poster's description.


W94: Willie the Wisp and cousin
Solved: The Day Willie Wasn't


W95: woody woodpecker fireworks popcorn birthday
Solved: Woody Woodpecker Shoots the Works


W96: WWII & Jewish life
a book I read in late 60s, when I was about 10.  Book had four sections, each with a girl's name, one of which was Nina, and it covered WWII & Jewish life.  One of the girls was a dancer but gets killed in WWII.  Her daughter is raised in the next (final?) section by her mother (the girl's grandmother), who one day asks about the child's mother's dancing.  THe girl looks blankly at her grandmother & says that her mother never danced she could barely hobble, they'd burned her feet in the camps.  THanks for looking.  YOu MUST be overwhelmed with NPR--you're a dream come true!!!!

Ruth Arthur, A Candle in Her Room.  I was haunted by this one when I was a kid. I'm sure this is it  it matches in every detail.
I don't think this one is A Candle in her Room by Ruth Arthur. I don't remember it containing Jewish people. It takes places in the English countryside and centers around an evil doll named Dido.
This is really whistling in the dark, but is it possible that the person who submitted the first clue was really thinking of  A Candle in the Dark by Adele Geras & Elsie Lennox? Though I've never read it, I know it's about the Holocaust and the title is very close to A Candle in Her Room.
It is A Candle in Her Room. The section with the evil doll is (mainly) the first generation. The dancer is a second generation girl who moves to Europe. Her child is orphaned and lost after the war. An aunt who had been crippled (because of the doll) has a vision of the child and is healed so that she can go find her. Then the child comes back and deals with the doll.
Arthur, Ruth, A Candle in Her Room, NY Atheneum 1966.  I think this IS A Candle in Her Room. The book is in 4 sections, each narrated by a girl or woman, covering 3 generations of women at an isolated country house. This particular episode occurs - The first narrator finds her grand niece after WWII in the DP camps, her mother having been murdered by the Nazis for involvement in the Polish Resistance. The grand niece is named Nina, and her mother had been a dancer, but the Nazis had burned her feet so that she was barely able to hobble, news which horrifies her great aunt.  Nina, because of her early hardship, is a tough kid, and she is the one who finally has the strength to defy the power of the evil doll Dido and free the family of her influence. The characters are not Jewish, and WWII is mostly offstage, but I wonder if the seeker has invented that memory to explain this incident?

Additional notation regarding the answer to the original question. Thanks first, I've been haunted by the book for years too. I read it as a young girl.  The questioner was accurate. The second or third generation girl(nina) is talking to her grandmother and grandma asks about her daughter(the girls(nina?) mother) and her dancing. The granddaughter(nina?) says "Dance? My mother couldnt dance. She could barely hobble, the Nazis tortured her. They burned the soles of her feet". I remember it verbatim.  Thanks for the info, I've always wondered about the book and have tried to recall the title/author. It was geared to girls about the age of 12-14 because I read it about the same time as I blew through Lois Duncan's books.  



W97: Widowed sisters
Solved: The Widow's Adventures


W98: Whitey the Rabbit?
Solved: Whitey, the Bunny Whose Wish Came True


W99: walnut ship in the park lake
Solved: Pirates in the Park


W100: Wumpy Dump can't fly
We used to read this book to our daughter (now 27) who still refers to herself as Wumpy Dump when things aren't going well! The story concerned a mother and father bird and their baby in the nest. Father bird felt that baby was ready to leave the nest but mother bird said "But wumpy dump can't fly." I don't think it was a Golden book but wouldn't rule out anything. I've checked the title in a number of places so I don't think it contains the words "Wumpy Dump".  The father bird seemed to have kind of a military bearing. I think he said something like, "Get that bird out of the nest!"


W101: Who Needs Doughnuts
Solved: Who Needs Donuts?


W102: World War II book about European girl sent to America
This book features a European girl who had an upper-class lifestyle in Europe (perhaps Paris?) but who was sent to a farm in America by her loving parents in order to get her out of harm's way in World War II. The adjustment to lower-middle-class American farm life is very difficult for her, but she gradually warms up to the American family hosting her. At the end of the book, her parents find her out in a field, dressed very poorly, and are shocked at the change in her.  I would have read this in the late 1960; it is probably written for a late-elementary reader.

Back Home, Michelle Majorian.
Unless the person who submitted the stumper has confirmed it, I think W102 should be reopened - sorry.  Back Home by Michelle Magorian wasn't published until 1984, and while it is about an English girl who was evacuated to America during WWII, it deals with her struggle to adjust to life in England again after the war, rather than focusing on how hard it was to adjust to life in America.
P. L. Travers, I Go By Sea, I Go By Land, 1966.  Maybe?  This is non-fiction and is written in diary form.  Story of an English girl and her younger brother who were sent to live with relatives in America during World War II.
I'm the original poster of this stumper.  Neither of these answers is correct (although I appreciate the help!):  I know I read this book when I was in elementary school in the late 1960s, and it was written in the third-person, as a piece of fiction (even if based on a true story).  I remember that at the beginning of the book, she was very happy with her mom and dad in a major European city and was horrified at her new host family in America or Canada; in the scene at the end when the parents from Europe come to the farm to get their daughter, she is in a field, and if memory serves, is chewing a bit of straw and may even have not had a shirt on!  (She was prepubesent, of course.)  She had grown to love her country life, too, and I think dreaded the adjustment to life back in Europe.  That was where the book ended.  Thanks!
Haywood, Carolyn, Primrose Day, 1942.  This is simply a suggestion.  I haven't read it, so can't say whether it contains the exact details you've described, but the plot sounds right. "Because of the war, 7-year-old Merry Primrose Ramsay goes to live with her Aunt Helen and Uncle Bill in America, where she finds things very different from England."
This book is DEFINITELY NOT Primrose Day, as that is a very sweet and wonderful book with a very happy ending!  And thanks for this great service, because I was actually looking for Primrose Day's title and found it here!!!



W103: Who Dun It
I think I remember this as a 'soft back' book, but (?)! It contained a series of "situations" in a brain twizzler or brain teaser format.... there were pictures or sketches (?) pertaining to each one... seem to remember many murder mystery related puzzlers! I especially remember a particular one depicting a hanging rope......apparently the person hung himself and the puzzle was to find out "how" this was done, because there were no chairs or step ladders or any way for the person to climb up to the rope...... he was found 'dangling' with no clues! I do remember that the answer to this "HOW WAS IT DONE" twizzler, was that the person climbed up on 'dry ice' and that was the end!  I would like to resume my search for this book..... I do not know whether it was called Who Dun it or Who Done It or the book of Who dun/done its..... murder mysteries "May" or may not be a part of the title!

Oh my, I remember that brain teaser.  Brain teasers were part of an oral tradition and dinnertime activity in my family.  I'll be eager to see this one solved.
Well, there's Donald J. Sobol's Two-Minute Mysteries series featuring Inspector Haledjian.  I couldn't find such a case in More Two-Minute Mysteries or Still More Two-Minute Mysteries, though it could be in Two-Minute Mysteries.  A book featuring a female detective with the same initials as Sherlock Holmes is Mini-Mysteries, by Julia Remine Piggin, but I couldn't find such a case in that book or any sequels to it.  All of these came out in paperback from Scholastic in the early 1970s.  The mysteries were about a page each with the solution printed upside-down at the bottom of the page.
Ken Weber, Five Minute Mysteries (series).  Since Weber's books involve murders, I think it's the Five Minute Mystery Series.
W103 Not a definitive answer, but try doing a keyword search on your library's computer catalog or on the internet with the words "minute mysteries". I didn't get a sense of what year you might have read these books, but from the 70s to the present, there are various minute mystery titles - like Two Minute Mysteries, etc. Might be worth investigating. ~from a librarian
Very early- but The Baffle Books by Randle McKay and Lassiter Wren?? (1920-30's)?
I have read the "Two-Minute Mysteries" books mentioned above, and I'm sure that these are the books you are looking for. I remember the exact story you have mentioned. I believe it was the butler who killed the master of the house by hanging him, and claimed that he was merely walking into the house and saw the man kick over the stool he was standing on and hang himself in the attic. The mystery was solved because there is no way the butler could have known it was a stool from way down on the ground. Hope this helps!



W104: Walk In the Forest
Solved: In the Forest


W105: World War II
Solved: Animal Stories


W106: Weasel becomes an ermine
Children's storybook read to me in 1945. Little brown weasel (in Russia or a snowy country) is being hunted by hunters. His brown fur against the white snow makes him very vulnerable. But then he bcomes an ERMINE, and with white fur, now has the perfect camouflage! And, as they say, lives happily ever after,,,,,,

W107: Willie?  Smokey Joe?
Solved: The Cold-Blooded Penguin


W108: White kitten cleaned up and adopted
Solved: Peppermint


W109: West Point Family
Solved: Penny Parrish


W110:  Way out west in Chicago
I was born in 1937 in San Francisco.  My mother read a book to me that began "Way out west in Chicago." It was a collection of stories, as I recall, and I really don't remember much beyond that. The geographical irony of the west being far to our east always stuck in my mind, and perhaps contributed to my lifelong interest in geography.  The book was hard bound and green as I recall.  I have looked at used children's books to try and find this, but without luck.


W111: world champion hammerer
was in a hilton anthology.  It was about a guy who got a job at a factory and at first he couldnt hammer a nail (that was his job). they said they would fire him. Then he got obsessed with it and practiced all the time. He took great pride in it and got really carried away with it. One day the company replaced all the hammerers with a machine. He tried to break the machine.

Sounds a little bit like the story of John Henry, who I think is a fictional folk hero.  Probably in multiple anthologies  I do distinctly remember hearing one where he breaks a machine that threatens to replace him.



W112: We three
Solved: Three Without Fear


W113: witch
Solved: Little Witch


W114: WWI Ace to Ace Dogfighting Game Books
Solved: Aces to Aces WWII Air Combat Game


W115: Will
In 1955 or so, a substitute teacher read a story to a rowdy junior high English class. A man's  will provides that his child may benefit from his estate as long as he wears a cloak. Cloaks go out of fasion, and something else (perhaps coats) come into fashion.  THe will is interpreted so that "cloak" means "coat."  Coats go out of fashion, and something else (perhaps jackets) come into fashion.  The will is reinterpreted so that "cloak" means "jacket."  And so forth until "cloak" comes to mean "scraf."  I think the author of the story was English.  I would like to read the story to my students.


W116: Widget and Wodget
Solved: The Widget, The Wadget, and Boff


W117: Weekend adventures, children take turns
Solved: The Saturdays


W118: Witch in a tree
Solved: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth


W119: Wedding and junior bridesmaids get pearl necklaces
Solved: Aunt Sharon's Wedding Day


W120: Winds, Stories about
This was a story my mother read to me.  The story related the four winds (north, south, east, and west) and their certain characteristics in the form of a short story. I remember something about a cave or montaintop as their home. It wasn't a friendly story.  It was more of a fable, fairy tale, or myth.

This may not be what either is looking for, but let me try to hit 2 stumpers with 1 stone: C 219: Children's book of how stories and W 120: Winds, Stories About could both be Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton W. Burgess, 1910. Put that title, in quotes, into Google, and you'll even find entire online versions of it; for example, chapter 2, Why Grandfather Frog Has No Tail.
Hans Christian Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, c.1838.  W-120, story about the four winds with different characteristics, could this be The Garden of Paradise, one of Andersen's fairy tales?  Here's a link.  As the poster relates, it most definitely is not a friendly story.
W120 is NOT Tresselt  Follow the windNOR Brindze The story of the trade winds NOR Conger Who has seen the wind
W120 Could this be EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON, an old tale from Norway? ~from a librarian



W121:  WW2 Army Engineer unit M*A*S*H-like
Solved: Hanging On


W122: Witch little sister Mousie
Solved: Witch's Sister


W123: wishes
Solved: Pinkety Pinkety, a Practical Guide to Wishing


W124: Warrior
A young man's father (or loved one) is killed by an evil (dark) menacing warrior, who possesses great power.  The young man spends man years preparing to meet this warrior in a final match.  He is coached in his preparation by a mentor.  He must learn to conquer his fears and his anger. (I remember much emphasis on this)  Of course, he is successful.  My shaky  memory places the era in the dark ages a time of heavy armor and heavy swords - and other weapons charicteristic of that age. I remember something that struck me related to this young man washing his hands in water, during his preparation, but I don't remember what or why.  I don't know what is meant by the "approximate date" field above.  I read the book in 1982, but I remember it was well used, thus I'm guessing the book was published some years before.

Rosemary Sutcliffe?  This sounds as if it might be any of a number of young adult novels by Rosemary Sutcliffe, set in early Britain. I am sorry I can't be more specific.
Walter Dean Myers, Legend of Tarik, 1981.  Could this be The Legend of Tarik?  Synopsis: "After witnessing the annihilation of his people by El Muerte's legions, young Tarik undergoes the training, which will enable him to destroy this fierce leader.



W125:Wolf catches girl with medals
Solved: The Story-Teller


W126: William Wigglesworth
William Wigglesworth, 1940s.  I remember this book, from my childhood, as being very gentle and dear, but I don't have any clue beyond that.