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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 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.

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.

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).

The rhyme quoted is a very old mnemoic verse to remember the order of the zodiac. Most frequently quoted as:  The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, / And next' the Crab, the Lion shines, / The Virgin and the Scales. / The Scorpion, Archer, and the Goat, / The Man who holds the Watering Pot, / And Fish with glittering scales.  It's all over the web with no source quoted.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Valley of Song. (1951)  This sounds like it could be 'The Valley of Song'. Tabitha, the main character of Valley of Song, has red hair. She visits a fairy world, most often entered through a local quarry, but at least one of the main trips involves an adventure under the sea.  The visits to the fairy world are themed around the rhyme mentioned.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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?

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.

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!

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...

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.

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).

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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).

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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,