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Perhaps the book is Storytime Tales-A Treasury of Favorite Stories Pictures by Corinne Malvern A Big Golden Book; 1950, Simon and Schuster   I have this book and I was a child in the 50s. It's big and red.  The
cover shows a boy and a girl sitting on a red chair looking at a book. A little dog is perched on the arm of the chair. Stories include Never Worked and Never Will by Margaret Wise Brown, several fables, animal stories, poems, songs and some "modern" stories (Carl Sandburg).  I think your site is fascinating.
Pauline Rush Evans, The Family Treasury of Children's Stories. 1956. 'I had these books as a child in three grey volumes, but have since found the same books in two red volumes that are thicker.  They contain many nursery rhymes, poems, short stories, fairly tales, and excerpts from books.  Included are T.S. Eliot's Macavity, Thurber's "The Night the Bed Fell", Robert McCloskey's story about Homer and a doughnut machine, an excerpt from Tom Sawyer, My Friend Flicka, The Call of the Wild, and Kon Tiki, Custard the Cowardly Dragon by Ogden Nash, the story of the Seven Chinese Brothers and other Grim and Aesop fairy tales, and many more storys and poems.  If this is it, you may have had only one of the two books in the set, so you may not have had all of these stories.  The first book has a LOT of nursery rhymes.  If you think this might be it, I can list more of the contents for you (when I found them after 30 years, I bought 6 sets--for all my brothers and sisters and my mom and an extra set for me just in case!).
Editor Augusta Baker, Best Loved Nursery Rhymes and Songs, 1963.  Could it be BEST LOVED NURSERY RHYMES AND SONGS from Parents' Magazine Press? This book is about 250 pages long. I've been looking for a similar book and think this may be it (I'm waiting for it to arrive in the mail to be sure). My book had a very particular feature--I think it was a group of pages in the middle of the book that were of a different color, and may have been an ABC portion.
Various, Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, 1956, approximate.Could this be the "Better Homes and Gardens Story Book?" I had this as a kid and finally remembered what it was called. I have one for my daughter. It was white with red font on the cover.

Sounds a lot like the cover of The White Mountains by John Christopher, a post-apocalyptic novel.
Funny that you said hats and scarves; Christopher wrote a trilogy about tripods, and it has to do with people reaching a certain age and getting "caps," mandatory metal mind-control devices.
Actually, this sounds like a picture book. It would be nice to have a vague date and whether it was a picture or chapter book.
T26 The person didn't say whether the three mountains book is a picture book or intermediate fiction. If it is a picture book, then I have a long shot. There is a book titled THE THREE ROBBERS by Tomi Ungerer, 1962. The cover shows the large, hill-shaped hats that the three robbers are wearing, and their eyes. The hats do look like mountains. The robbers also live in the mountains. They rob people until one day they end up robbing a
stagecoach where there is nothing of value except a little girl. The girl helps them mend their ways, and they open up an orphanage. No scarves in the book, but the robbers all wear capes. Just a total shot in the dark. ~from a librarian
This sounds like one of my favorite books, The Catalog. Tiny picture book, simple line drawings. Three mountains order pets from a catalog, but when winter snows come they realize they are ill-equipped to take care of them. Final illustration shows the 3 mountains with giant hats on (ordered from the catalog) under which the animals can snuggle and stay warm.
Jasper Tompkins, The Catalog, 1981.  Sorry I didn't give the author info yesterday. Also, the publisher is Green Tiger Press/Simon & Schuster.
Since you mention mountains and fog as hats/scarves, I'm wondering if it might be Joan Aiken's The Whispering Mountainwhich includes a poem/prophecy, "When the Whispering Mountain shall scream aloud/And Fig-Hat Ben shall wear a shroud..." (turns out to mean fog on the mountain).

This sounds like a combination of two time travel stories I've read: Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce, which has the old house and  a grandfather clock as the key to the travel, and Ormondroyd's Time At the Top in which the time traveling girl's father stays in the past to marry a woman there -- but the time travel device in that book is the elevator in the modern family's apartment building.
I think the person is thinking of TIME AT THE TOP by Edward Ormondroyd. A girl who lives in NYC unknowingly helps a fairy in disguise and is granted "3". (If this part doesn't ring a bell, don't worry. It's a minor part right in the beginning) Turns out the "3" is three trips into the past. She takes the elevator in her building to the top, but when the door opens, she finds herself in a Victorian house in the past. The two children in the house (a brother and sister, I believe) take her in. They are worried their widowed mother is going to marry a slimy suitor. The girl returns to her own time, and brings back her widowed father, who ends up marrying the children's mother.

#T44--don't know about the tooth fairy, but there's a Rand McNally Junior Elf Book on a lost tooth called Tommy's Tooth.

T46 - could this be Jonnesty? The little man's head is made of an honesty seedpod, but the rest sounds right - think author is Winifred Mantle
Thanks for reading my inquiry, but the book I am looking for is not Jonnesty.
Margaret Martignoni (editor), The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature, 1960. I don't know of any "Weekly Reader" connection  but it seems to fit the description in other ways: big anthology for all ages, including nursery rhymes children's poems  folk tales and excerpts from books ranging from "The Velveteen Rabbit" to "Penrod" to "Tom Sawyer" to "David Copperfield".
T46 thistle-head: this sounds as if it might have been a children's annual, since it contained more than one story and a crafts page. I don't recognise it, though, so that's not much help.
I'm pretty sure the illustration went with a story about a little tailor/toymaker named Quillow, who was thought by the townsfolk to be quite strange and therefore kind of ignored. But when a giant threatens to destroy the town/eat everyone, Quillow comes up with a plan to save the day. I liked the story quite a bit, but I don't remember what the book containing it was. Sorry.
Your solution suggests James Thurber's The Great Quillow. A toymaker named Quillow saves his town from destruction by a giant.

Looks more general, but there's Thank-you Book by Francoise (Seignobosc), published Scribner 1947 "In simple text, the child says 'thank you' to the things and the creatures that help to make the world a happy place for him."
I have this book!  I will have to find it, I think it is at my parents' house. I will send title asap.I am almost positive it is in a series of 3 books, and I believe I have all three.
there's a picture book with the title Thankfulness: What is It, by Janet McDonnell, illustrated by Linda Hohag, 32 pages, but it was published recently, and seems to be a collection of ideas, rather than a straight story. Same illustrator but different author is a companion book called Responsibility: What is It.
Carol Fernpheil, I Read About God's Love. Hi There, I was looking for the exact book that you were and stumbled across your urgent request....I searched under Thankfulness for hours on the internet with no luck...Little did I know, my older sister had the book the whole time.  This is definitely the book you are looking for..don't thank me, thank the man.... It is actually a book with a few stories in it and this is just one of the stories. Hopefully, now you will be able to purchase it and read it to your children!

T61 tall ship: maybe Aboard the Lizzie Ross, by Harriet Vaughan Davies, illustrated by Nancy Grossman, published Norton 1967, 221 pages? "Life aboard a sailing vessel in the last century. Ages 10 up." (HB Apr/67 p.147 pub ad) "the Lizzie Ross was a Canadian ship, and Captain Vaughan was a Canadian citizen. His fun-loving Yankee wife, Ann, came from Maine, and the three Vaughan children were born during different voyages: Chad, the oldest, in London; John Colin two years later off the coast of Maine; and Harriet, the youngest, during a tropical storm on a voyage to Argentina." No information on the shape of the book, though.
Caroline Tapley, John Come down the Backstar, 1974. Summary: In 1857 a 177-ton sailing ship, Fox, was equipped for a trip to search for Sir John Franklin and his men, who were lost in the Arctic since 1845. This is an account, told from the perspective of the youngest seasman aboard, as he might have written down his experiences in his diary. This is a Jr. Literary Guild selection, chosen as a outstanding book for older readers (C Group).
T61 tall ships: another possible is Clipper Ship, by Thomas P. Lewis, illustrated by Joan Sandin, published NY Harper 1978, reprinted 1992, 63 pages, 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (if that counts as tall?), an I Can Read History Book. "Captain Murdock, on a clipper ship run from New York City to San Francisco, takes his wife and children along - fortunately, since his wife can take over when he becomes ill and the children can also help. Lively 3-color drawings." (Children's Books 1978 p.3) The cover of the reprint can be seen on Amazon.

Smith, William, Thorndale : or The conflict of opinions, 1859.  Classed as British fiction by LC.

Drawing a blank on this one, but it keeps reminding me of Martha Alexander's Blackboard Bear which has a very similar storyline. The first book came out in 1969, though.
maybe too late again - Midway by Anne Barrett, illustrated by Margery Gill, published London, Collins 1967 "Mark, middle boy in a clever family, feels unable to compete with the witty assurance of the older two or the complacent assurance of the younger twins. Even at school he is unbearably teased. In his solitude, an imaginary friend appears - a tiger, mentor and guide (and voice of his own speculations?). With this helper, and his own instinctive 'sense' about people, Mark is able to save his father's precious notes from a sinister rival Doctor (about to fix his claim in a broadcast talk) and to find his own confident place as an individual." (Best Children's Books of 1967, Naomi Lewis)
Perhaps Andy and the Lion by James Daughtery?  This was first published in 1938, but it's been reprinted often..  Andy helps a lion out by removing a thorn stuck in his paw, the lion is very grateful, and Andy gains great confidence in himself.
T68 Tommy and the lion: Could be Andrew the Lion Tamer by Donald Hall with pictures by Jane Miller, published in 1959, 56 pages, cute illustrations. "Great vintage children's story of a little boy named Andrew and what happens when he gets "lion" seeds and decides to grow his own lion!"
T68 tommy and the lion: just possibly Timmy and the Tiger, by Marjorie Paradis, illustrated by Marc Simont, published Harper 1952, 246 pages. "Although Timmy was ten years old, he was still - to his own disgust and
shame - secretly afraid of many things. His valiant attempts to conquer his fears make an important part of a rather unusual story. It comes to an exciting climax when a next-door neighbor actually brings home from a big-game hunting expedition the live tiger which gives the book its title." (HB Aug/52 p.241) It's a real tiger, though, not an imaginary animal.
Could this be The Thirsty Lion by Karine Forbes (Crowell-1950)?
Marek Veronica ( correctly Veronika), Tommy and the lion. (1964 approx) Hutchinson /London published it.
Tommy and the Lion.  I remember this book as it was my favourite bedtime book. It was definately called Tommy and the Lion, not Andy, and it wasn't a tiger!  I too would love to know how to get hold of a copy for my own daughter.

I think the poem you are referring to might be Palmer Cox's Brownie's Year Book. Month by month, Cox details the sport
and activities of the brownies, told in rhyme. It is definitely found in The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature by Margaret Martignoni but I would guess it could be in other anthologies as well.

I'd suggest Return of the Viking by Eva-Lis Wuorio, illustrated by William Winter, published Toronto, Clarke Irwin 1955, 208 pages. It's not a perfect match, but close. 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 actually only the first story of 4 in the book, all involving time-travel and Canadian history, and
the same children and their friends. Nobody named Crystal, though and the door is in a museum, not a study, and it takes place in Ontario, not Minnesota. 

Philippa Pearce, A Dog So Small, 1960s?  The picture on the dw of this is a tiny dog on the palm of a hand.
Most likely is - A Dog so Small, by Phillipa Pearce, about a boy who imagines a tiny black chihuahua as his pet. Less likely would be - No Flying in the House, which does involve a tiny mechanical dog, but I'm not sure whether he needs a key. Longest shot is - Aggie, Maggie and Tish, by Betty K. Erwin, which does feature a tiny black bulldog held in a girl's hand. On another track entirely, perhaps - Peanut, by Ruth and Latrobe Carroll,
published Oxford Univ Pr 1951, 48 pages "Peanut is a tiny puppy who lives in a teapot and eats out of a bottle cap, until a Great Dane becomes a pet in the same family. Poor Peanut decides to run away. His adventures are illustrated in soft two-color pictures." (Horn Book Dec/51 p.380 pub ad) The review, p.406 says that he sits on a spool of thread and plays under a geranium in a plant pot, and that there are 'fine pictures on almost every page.'
Another, somewhat less likely is The Smallest Dog on Earth, by Rosemary Weir, illustrated by Charles Pickard, published London, Abelard-Schuman 1963 "This is a delightful story about a chihuahua pupy and the transformation of her character as a result of exciting experiences with several owners - film star, riverside outcast, and the little girl she really loved." illustration shows a black chihuahua standing. (Junior Bookshelf Oct/63 pub ad)
another possible is Little Peewee Or Now Open The Box, by Dorothy Kunhardt, pictures by J.P. Miller, published Simon and Schuster Little Golden Books 1948, 42 pages "This is the story of Little Peewee the
teeniest weeniest dog in the world. He performs in a circus, but one day he starts to grow and grow and grow. He can no longer work in the circus with all his friends. Now what will poor Little Peewee do?" Peewee is a tiny
dalmatian, and the cover shows a circus scene.
I submitted the Stump the Bookseller for the Tiny Dog.  I was looking a copy of Water Babies by Charles Kingsly and there was an illustration of a boy a dog and a giant.  I know I had a copy of this book as a child but the illustrations were different.  I am now thinking that maybe this is where I saw the picture.  The dog is not tiny, he is being held by a giant.  I would love to know if there is such an illustration in Water Babies and who is the illustrator.
Not sure if I understood T82's question right, but I had an illustrated copy of Charles Kingley's Water Babies, and my recollection of the giant was that he lived on an island where everyone ran backwards (and Tom, the protagonist, had to travel backwards as well at this point in the story). As I remember the illustration of the giant, he was a sad-looking fellow in glasses, who had crowds of people fleeing from him. I do not recall him holding Tom's dog, or anything about a key. Hope this helps.
In an old school Ginn reader, Ten Times Round, there is The Rice Bowl Pet. Ah Jim lives in a small apartment in Chinatown. He is told he can only have a little pet, one that will fit in a rice bowl. Rest of the story involves Ah Jim's hunt for a petite pet. Finally he finds a very tiny puppy (from China). While the puppy is golden it is pictured in a dark rice bowl as he carries it homeward.

Lionel Davidson, Under Plum Lake, 1983.  May not be the one but I thought it was worth a try !  If you're lucky enough to get your hands on a copy it's well worth reading .

Could this be Dangerous Island by Helen Mather-Smith Mindlin?  Three kids, Frank, Dorothy and Pug, are stranded on an island, which eventually disappears. The island has gold on it or something.
Maybe Two On an Island, by Bianca Bradbury, illustrated by Robert Maclean, published Houghton 1965, 139 pages. "On an uninhabited Maine island from which their rowboat has drifted away, nine-year-old Trudy and twelve-year-old Jeff endure a three-day trial of survival. The plausible framework for this unusual test of endurance has more than mere detail of hunger, sunburn, and nighttime cold. Miss Bradbury skillfully develops the heightened class of different personalities - Trudy with a more generous nature, so willingly sharing the tiny bit of food with their great dog; Jeff, a lone-wolf kind of boy with an aggressive habit of scolding and bossing - through a gradual change from bickering to affection. Later, Jeff knew there was 'so much he and Trudy hadn't told and might never tell.'" (Horn Book Aug/65 p.386)
Possibly September Island, by Rosalie Fry, illustrated by Margery Gill, published Dent/Dutton 1965, 112 pages. "A trailer camp holiday turns into a great adventure when three children are stranded on a storm-created sandbar island." Martin and Linda are on a caravan holiday when a terrible storm floods the river. When a girl is washed away clinging to a tree, they take a boat out to rescue her and all three are washed up onto a new sandbank thrown up by the flood. With the tree and some flowers that are washed up this is just like a small desert island, and as they had some shopping with them they are able to spend a very pleasant day and night, and are rescued before danger can spoil the adventure. (Junior Bookshelf Jun/65 p.146)
Given how we tend to mix up details and even different books on occasion, is it possible you're thinking of
Two on an Island by Bianca Bradbury, 1965? The boys 12, the girl is 9, they head out to an island with their German Shepherd and as the tide comes in, the girl carelessly lets the boat drift off. Since they've always fought constantly, they have to learn to overcome this over the next four days (they know no one will miss them until that point) while they figure out how to survive with minimal food and water - and how to protect it against the rats on the island. Not to be confused with the Elmer Rice play of the same name.
could it be An Island for Two, by Ludek Pesek, translated from the German by Anthea Bell, published Bradbury 1975, 166 pages? "Desert island dreams come true. Traces the development of a relationship between two young social misfits who find through each other a new maturity."
T90 two stranded: another possible is Summer Adventure, by Finn Havrevold, illustrated by E. Wallenta, published Abelard 1961, 127 pages. "Tine Tron, a 14 year-old girl on holiday with her parents and small brother is unhappy because she has no friends of her own age with her, except Jan, who knows nothing about sailing. Defiantly she decides to go by boat to the shop, though she has been forbidden to sail alone. Jan and Peik the dog go with her, but a squall arises and they are marooned on a bare island. Jan proves himself more useful on shore than afloat but the difficulties of existence for even two days have a sobering effect on Tine." (JB Dec/61 p.348)
Lindbergh, Anne, Worry Week.  NY, Harcourt 1985.  It's not a perfect match, as the island seems to have always been an island, but worth checking out. "Left alone for a week in their family's summer house on a Maine island, Allegra and her two sisters scrounge for food andsearch for the treasure supposedly hidden somewhere on the premises."

T55 teddy bear tea party sounds like T94 teddy bear tea party. The described size is similar and the mention of a picnic or tea party (Teddy Bear's Picnic?)
Jimmy Kennedy, Teddy Bears' Picnic, 1947.  T94 The song 'Teddy Bears Picnic' by Jimmy Kennedy published in 1947, and performed by a myriad of artists, spawned innumerable book versions. "If you go down to the woods today, you're
in for a big surprise... Picnic Time for Teddy Bears! The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today..." Hope you find your special book!

Have you tried searching at photo stock agency websites like Corbis? A lot of textbook photos come from stock agencies, and many now have on-line catalogs you can search.

Tworkov/Duvoisin, Tigers Don't Bite,1956? Just a guess, I can't find any description of the story.
This is Mrs. Welladay's New Tabby Cat by Kathryn and Bryon Jackson. I found it in the old school reader-Treat Shop by Eleanor Johnson and Leland Jacobs. Perhaps it is a stand alone book as well.

People travel through space by flivvering in Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.  I think it's in print.  The protag is named Gully Foyle.
It's definitely not The Star My Destination. In that book instantaneous travel through space was called "jaunting" NOT "flivering".
T102 time travel: I'm pretty sure that in The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester, teleportation (space, not time) is called 'jaunting', not flivvering. What do they call teleportation in Zenna Henderson's The People stories?
T102 just a comment:  In Zenna Henderson'sThe People, it is called lifting.
Madeleine L'Engle, Wind in the Door.  I thought I would just drop a note that "kything" is the word L'Engle
uses for time/space continuum travel in her "Wrinkle in Time" trilogy.  I know you said "flivering," but sometimes I am amazed at how my memory twists things!
just a further note.  In Madeleine L'Engle's books, the ability to move across time and space is called "tessering".  The previous contributor's word "kything" is, in Madeleine L'Engle's books, the ability to connect mentally and more important emotionally with a person who is not with you (separated by time and space.)  The tessering concept she got from scientific principles the kything from Celtic religion, I think.
Actually, I think Madeleine L'Engle's "kything" is the blending of one's soul with another's-- specifically for the purpose of combating evil. "Tessering" is using tesseracts or "wrinkles in time" to move about the universe.
"flivvering" - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World uses this term, I think both as noun ("a flivver") and verb ("flivvering").  But there's no time travel...
Flivver, the Heroic Horse by Lee Kingman and illustrated by Erik Blegvad, 1958.  I don't know if Flivver is in involved in time travel, but I couldn't resist adding this namesake to the Flivver discussion.   The story of an adventurous horse who is used to hauling a Boston fruit cart, but who becomes involved in other activities in a Massachusetts fishing town called "Smuggler's Cove".
I know that there are vehicles in the Star Trek novels that are called Flivvers, and the books do occasionally incorporate some type of time travel. Perhaps you read one of these?

Possibly Elsewhere and Elsewhen, ed. by Groff Conklin, Berkley Pub. Corp., 1968.  Contents:  Introduction / Groff Conklin -- Elsewhen: Shortstack / Walt and Leigh Richmond.  How allied / Mark Clifton.  The wrong world / J.T. McIntosh. World in a bottle / Allen Kim Lang -- Elsewhere: Think blue, count two / Cordwainer Smith. Turning point / Poul Anderson.  The book / Michael Shaara.  Trouble tide / James H. Schmits.  The Earthman's burden / Donald E. Westlake.  Originally published in two volumes: Science Fiction Elsewhen (London: Rapp & Whiting, 1968) and Science Fiction Elsewhere (London: Rapp & Whiting, 1968).
Conklin, Groff, editor, Crossroads in Time, 1953.  Maybe this one.  Sixteen stories and two novellas.  The publication date looks like a plausible match
This sounds like something I have read, but I have no idea who edited it. The poster of this book stumper could look up Roger Elwood or Martin Greenberg in hopes of seeing if their anthologies sound familiar.
Perhaps memory is conflating two Groff Conklin anthologies? Conklin's 1952 anthology INVADERS OF EARTH is divided into sections that sound like what's wanted (The Distant Past, The Immediate Past, The Immediate Future, The Distant Future).  However, it is not an anthology of time travel stories, but of alien invasion stories.  Conklin did do a time travel anthology, CROSSROADS IN TIME, but it is not arranged in that manner.  In any case, content information for all  English-language sf anthologies and single-author collections published prior to 1984 can be searched on this website, so questionner could see list of contents of each and determine if they sound familiar (or if any other of the 3,900 books indexed there do. . . .)
The answer to T120 is not, I regret, Elsewhere and Elsewhen.  This is one of my favorite S.F. anthologies.  It's a great collection, very wide-ranging in theme, but not including time-travel.  Good hunting! 

T121 Sounds like it might be LITTLE MONSTER'S BEDTIME BOOK by Mercer Mayer, 1978 (one source said it was a Little Golden Look-Look Book, but other sources listed it as a publication of Merrigold Press). It also looks like it was republished in 1991, but is now out of print. ~from a librarian
I think this person has two books confused. Mercer Mayer does indeed have a book with a Wild-'n-Windy  Typhoonigator in it, as well as a Paper-Munching Yalapappus, a Stamp-Collecting Trollusk, and a Letter-Eating Bombanat.  It's called One Monster After Another and they're all trying to get Sally Ann's letter before it reaches her friend Lucy Jane.  But it's not about manners and there's no Kibitzer in the book.  There are several books about monsters & manners (Monster Manners by Joanna Cole, Magic Monsters Learn About Manners by Jane Belk Moncure, Monster Manners by Bethany Roberts, Modern Manners for Little Monsters by Wilson Rogers) but I didn't see a Kibitzer in any of those, either.
Looked up TYPHOONIGATOR on Google and found one guy'e poem using it, and then one ref to a Mercer Meyer book, One Monster After Another, but it doesn't seem to be about manners.
Mercer Mayer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book. It's the Baby Great Glern of the Sea and the poem goes, "The Baby Great Glern of the Sea, gives annoying advice constantly, now if that hand were mine, id play the nine, my goodness, you'd lose without me." then the picture by his head says "kibits, kibits, kibits" i can recite all the poems.
Mercer Mayer, Little Monster's Bedtime Book, 1978.  Yes, this is indeed from "Little Monster's Bedtime Book."  All of the Little Monster, Monster, and Professor Wormbog books (including "One Monster After Another") have similar / same characters, especially "Little Monster's Bedtime Book."  "Little Monster's Bedtime Book," is the only "Little Monster" book that has poems for each character.  I am a huge collector of Mercer Mayer books (well over a few 100).  Mercer Mayer's "Monster" universe is pretty seperate from his "Little Critter" universe.  "Little Monster's Bedtime Book" has two different covers too: One is Blue with a circle showing Daddy Monster reading to Little Monster and his Kerploppus, and the other shows a close up of Little Monster in bed and dreaming/thinking about the characters.

Hardie Gramatky's Little Toot  is definately a small boat in a harbor with huge boats, but her claim to fame is rescuing an ocean liner during a storm.
Gertrude Crampton, Scuffy the tugboat Scuffy was a toy tugboat, but the rest of the details sound right.
T129 Of all my little toot type things, this title sounds like the best-- Hogner, Nils    The lost tugboat    illus by NIls Hogner    Abelard Press 1952.  tugboats; New York City - juvenile fiction
T129 if it helps  any, all the illus are red and green in Hogner. The tug's name is Betty Ann. The skipper loses his way in the fog and they end up near a big ship which needs the help of a tug.
Date-1964. Could this be Little Toot on the Thames?? Tug gets towed across the Atlantic by accident and gets lost in the London Fog!

Jack London, The Star Rover. Possibly?
Bradley, Marion Zimmer.  I think that this might be one of the Darkover books. There are lots of them. Take a look at this website.

Any possibility this illustration could be associated with the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses?  The princesses travel to a wondrous underground land each night to dance  the huntsman following them in his invisiibility cape is fascinated by the trees with leaves of silver and gold, but maybe in some versions the leaves are crystal or glass.
The 12 Dancing Princesses.  This could be one of the many, many versions of the fairytale "The 12 Dancing Princesses" where the girls have to sneak out because their father won't let them "date."  They go (usually) through a tunnel in their bedroom floor through wondrous places to a ball where they dance all night.  Their dancing slippers are always worn out every morning and the father cannot figure out why, since he locks them in their room at night.  Anyhow, most versions have them going through areas full of trees with glass leaves, golden leaves, jewelled leaves, etc. to get to the ball.  So this might be it, the challenge would be in finding the version that you remember the pictures from!
Henry Van Dyke, The Foolish Fir Tree.  1911.  Alternatively, this poem (and variants I've seen online) also talk about a tree with glass leaves.  "A Presbyterian Minister, Henry Van Dyke is perhaps best known for The Story of the Other Wise Man and for the Hymn of Joy ("Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, ..."). He was also a prolific poet, and the above poem can be found in: Van Dyke, Henry. The Poems of Henry Van Dyke. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911."
T137  This woldn't be Coleno again, would it?
See also T157.
Watson, J. W., Twelve Dancing Princesses. Try this Golden Book it may be the one.  The old soldier who follows the princesses through a jeweled forest snaps one of the leaves off, scaring the youngest princess.  He ended up marrying the eldest.  The illustrations are lovely.
J. W. Watson, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It could be this -- a beautifully illustrated version, Golden Book.
Sounds like the Foolish Fir Tree to me, I do remember the various pictures of the tree with its various leaves. The glass ones got broken by rain, gold ones were stolen by a passerby, there may have been some kind of red leaf that also got ruined. Don't know if it was a poem or a story.

Clare Newberry, Babette.  Or possibly another of her cat books  though I think this is one that definitely features Siamese cats. Alternatively, if the book in question is an illustrated book for adults/ older children, rather than a picture book, then it could be one of Doreen Tovey's series beginning Cats in the Belfry or possibly Irene Holdsworth's Little Masks.

Same as H67.
Roberta Moynihan, Futility the Tapir, 1959.  Might not be the right book, can't find a copy or a description anywhere online.
I found this description of Futility, the Tapir:  A quietly hilarious picture book about a tapir who, upon awakening, begins the struggle to force his ungainly body to stand, and who at day's end exclaims, "What an exhausting day! I really must get some rest. After all, tomorrow I may succeed." Nicely humorous illustrations by the author.

There's a book titled Queen Titania's Radio Fairies by Oliver Garrison Pirie, Bower & Pirie, 1924, 116 pgs. (alt. title is Radio Fairies).  Sorry, no description.

Ruth and Harold Shane, The Twins, The Story of Two Little Girls Who Look Alike.  This is a Little Golden Book, with illustrations by Eloise Wilkin.

There's a Little Golden Book called, Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather, but I haven't read it so I don't know if there's a Tommy in it.  Good luck!
Negative on Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather.  But for more info on her, see the Most Requested pages.
Mother used to read Timothy Ticklefeather to us when we were kids on the farm.  For the past 20 years we have been searching for a copy of this poem.  I was so pleased and surprised to see it spring partially into view when I put the title on the web.
Adolph Soens, It was written by my grandfather in the early 20th century in Colorado along with other peoms catagorized as "Humor and Whimsey"
Timothy Ticklefeather, 1940. 'Timothy Ticklefeather, L.L.D., lived in the top of a very tall tree.  He caught the rain in his godpapa's cup, and nibbled on nuts that the squirrels brought up.His shoes were brown and his beard was gray, and he sat and talked to the birds all day.  His beard was gray and his shoes were brown, and he lived in a tree and never came down. "Poor Mr. Ticklefeather, Silly Mr. Ticklefeather, what are you doing in that very tall tree?  It's all very well to be friends with the birds, but suppose you fell, you mark my words.  Come down Mr. Ticklefeather, silly Mr. Ticklefeather, down on the ground and play with me."
But, old Mr. Ticklefeather clicked his heels and said, "I know how the skylark feels.  I've go my nuts and I've got my cup, and I won't fall down and I can't fall up."So, he polished his shoes and he brushed his beard, and he climbed a little higher,AND HE DISAPPEARED.  And all the policemen came out from town, but old Mr. Ticklefeather never came down.Poor Mr. Ticklefeather.  Silly Mr. Ticklefeather.  Where did he go with his beard on his knee, his shoes of brown and his godpapa's cup?  He didn't tumble down, so he must have tumbled up. But, I really, Mr. Ticklefeather, said "Mr. Ticklefeather, "Better come down and play with me."

I was born in Colorado in April of 1941, so the date one of your other readers sent sounds about right.  My mother recited this and Little Orphan Annie so often, that by the time I was five I had memorized them both.  Glad I could help.

Regarding the tapestry story, a similar one appeared in Children's Digest Magazine, probably between 1971 and 1974, of a princess or lord's daughter about to be forced to marry against her will.  An expert needleworker, she tried to drown her sorrows while waiting for the inevitable marriage by working on an enormous tapestry.  Upon stitching a likeness of her dog into the tapestry, her dog disappeared, the likeness being so perfect he couldn't exist in two places at once.  Realizing what
had happened, the girl stitched herself into the tapestry to escape the unwanted marriage.  This isn't Andre Norton's Through a Needle's Eye, about a girl crippled by polio who meets an old woman with similar needleworking abilities.
Mrs. Molesworth, The Tapestry Room, 1879, copyright. Possibly this is the story of Hugh and Jeanne, two small children who find a way into the great tapestry via various means little rubber attachments on the feet or by wings.  Try this link
These are not the correct books.  The title I am looking for is The Magic Mountain.  It is a collection of short stories.  The first story in the book is also The Magic Mountain.  The last story in the book is The Tapestry.
Neither of the two suggestions fit the book I'm inquiring about.  I believe the cover of the book shows the two children climbing a mountain, but I no longer believe the name of the book to be The Magic Mountain.  It may be Children's Stories.  The tapestry story still holds.

I, too, have sought for a book about 'Twinkle and Boo', two kittens who get into michief.  I actually had memorized the  poem-story in about 1st or 2nd grade. (opening stanza) "There were two little kittens with eyes of blue, One was named Twinkle, one was named Boo They tried to be good and do what was right But they got into mischief from morning till night!"  I too checked all variations of Twinkle and Boo book names!   BUT....I didn't have the right title!  The answer is.............  The Kitten Twins  by Helen Wing I sure hope I make somebody's day happier by having this title and author!
Your web site says Under entry T168 - the name of the book is The Kitten Twins  -  This is NOT the same book - Can you help?

Three stray guesses:  Julian, Lee, Fire Dog, Lewis, Frank, Kerry the Fire-Engine Dog or Browning, James, Sparky the Fire Dog

Dorothy Grider, The Little Ballerina, 1959.  Might this be The Little Ballerina?  Check out more on the Solved Mysteries pages.
i did see your results, and that was not the book i'm looking for. but if i could see a picture of the cover, it would help.
Here's the picture of The Little Ballerina posted on the Solved Mysteries page.

Meader, Stephen, Long Trains Roll,Randy MacDougal and his family, in Pennsylvania during WWII, are heavily involved with the world of trains, from his father, an engineer, to his brothers, serving in the armed forces in India and Africa.  Randy, a high schooler working on the railroads in the summer, finds himself tutoring a newcomer.  After breaking in newcomer Lew Burns,  Burns disapppears,  having lost a mysterious notebook, which Randy finds. Randy begins to suspect Burns of being a German spy.  Randy finds himself saving the railroad from a dynamite explosion, apparantly set by Burns and some compatriots, and ends up  defending the railroad in a fig leaf "kilt", because he was jumped, and left clothes-less. Stephen Meader is a very skilled writer of boys'' adventure book. it has been surprising not to see his name listed here more often.

Gladys Baker Bond, Patrick Will Grow, 1966, llustrated by David K. Stone, Western Publishing/Whitman, Racine. from the book: Two beds were in the living room. Grandpa, Grandma, and Patrick's tallest sisters slept there. In the back bedroom a bed sat between Grandma's trunk and Mother's cedar chest. Patrick slept in the middle of that bed between Mike and Tim. "I'm glad Patrick is small," Mother said. "I don't know where we cold put another bed." "Patrick will grow," Grandma said wisely....Patrick's new bed was delivered and put in the back bedroom. But, oh, my! Mother could not walk between the beds. Grandma could not open her trunk. "What'll we do?" they cried. Grandpa knew what to do. He cut the legs of the cot in half. Then he slid Patrick's cot under the bed which now belonged to MIke and Tim. When night came, Grandpa pulled it out again..."

Patricia St John, The Tanglewoods Secret.  There's a book called The Tanglewoods Secret by Patricia St John, first published 1948. I've just given my copy away so can't check details but it's a Christian tale, set in England, where the girl who narrates it and her brother, Philip, live with their Aunt Margaret. She's naughty and rebellious till she finds God and peace.
NOT the Tanglewoods Secret.While The Tanglewoods Secret (1948) is a wonderful story, it is nothing like the description given in this query. In this story, it is a (British?) brother and sister who move in with their maiden aunt while their parents go off to India as missionaries, but when WWII breaks out, the parents are unable to come home for years. The girl struggles with rebelling against her aunt's child-rearing while her brother is a real saint.  They befriend a gypsy boy and his mother, there is a terrible accident, and the results lead all the characters to learn about what it means to love others as God loves them/us.
Margaret Flora, The Tanglewood Animals, 1922, reprint. Long shot (I don'\''t know what the book is about) but it'\''s the right genre, title and date.  Hope this helps.

Kenize Mourad, Regards from the Dead Princess: Novel of a Life
Someone has suggested Regards from the Dead Princess: Novel of a Life, by Kenize Mourad.  Thank you.  But sorry, that is NOT the solution.  Mourad's book is about a TURKISH Princess (not Tunisian) who went to Libya and India before winding up in Paris.  That story is somewhat parallel to the story about the Tunisian Princess but it's not the same.  (Funny thing is that I first learned about Kenize Mourad just this past January when I was in Paris.)  Anyone have any other suggestions?

Edith Unnerstad, Twilight Tales.  A collection of Swedish fairy tales  at least one was about a troll. I haven't read the book since my own childhood, so can't remember whether it fits the description in other ways.
i've read a story about a baby stolen and replaced by an ugly fairy. I think the ugly fairy was called a changeling, although I don't remember the name of the book. I hope it helps spark a memory.

Lyon, Elinor, Rider's Rock.  Chicago, Follett 1958.  Not a lot of information to go on, but perhaps this one "Since a tidal wave covered it years before, a seaside village has remained buried and intact beneath the sand. Then four children discover how to tunnel into the buildings and are exploring when another wave hits, with revealing results." No description of the cover, unfortunately.
William Mayne's Low Tide (1994) has 3 New Zealand children trapped by a tidal wave, but they are lured out by a low tide to see a shipwreck, not any place with windows.
Elinor Lyon, Rider's Rock,1958. The cover you describe definitely belongs to this book The children are trapped in the house they have uncovered when another tidal wave hits and she saws her plait off to secure the window. This was a favourite of mine when I was about 8 .
Lyon, Elinor, Rider's Rock, Follett 1968, copyright.  I've seen the cover of this book <http://pictures.abebooks.com/LEMMAYJ/854406976.jpg> and it's exactly as described in the query.

Helen Wind, Kitten Twins.  Rand McNally, 1960.  Found this on your Solved page.
Your web site says Under entry T168 - the name of the book is The Kitten Twins  -  This is NOT the same book - Can you help?

Palmer Brown, The Silver Nutmeg
The Silver Nutmeg: the Story of Anna Lavinia and Toby  by Palmer Brown ; with pictures by the author.  New York : Harper, 1956.  Here's the only plot description I could find: "The protagonist of The Silver Nutmeg is a child who loves nature and learns an understated lesson about love."

Not a complete answer, but maybe it will contain some clues to help you. The title A Friendly Bear (or The Friendly Bear) turned up, by Robert Bright, BUT the description says that a boy goes to visit his grandfather to have him read a book, but there's a friendly bear there instead. So this may be throwing your search off. The Norwegian tale about a bear and trolls sounds like CAT ON THE DOVREFELL (the trolls think the bear is a giant white cat and are scared off). I also found a variation of the story by Jeannette Winter called THE CHRISTMAS VISITORS. It seems like CAT ON THE DOVREFELL is the more familiar title, but I couldn't find a flip book that contained it.~from a librarian

Diana  Kimpton, The Bear that Santa Claus Forgot.  A bear, not a town, but could be the one!

Marjory Schwalje, I Walk to the Park.  Published by Whitman in 1966--a possibility?  I think the opening was something like "I walk to the park, and what do I see?--something, something, da dum, dee dee (you get the idea)."  It was written in rhyme. 

Possibly one of these?? Timmy Tiger to the rescue /  Rae Oetting  Vic Cantone  / 1970 / Oddo Pub. / "Timmy Tiger's brother Tommy finds himself in serious trouble when the two young tigers fail to heed their mother's warning and wander too far from home."  Timmy Tiger and the butterfly net / Kay D Oana   Rosemary Bonnett / 1981 / "Tommy has a terrifying experience with angry bees, but his brother Timmy comes to the rescue with a butterfly net."   Timmy Tiger and the masked bandit / Kay D Oana   Rosemary Bonnett / 1981 / "Tommy and Timmy go camping deep in the jungle where they are frightened in the middle of the night by a masked bandit."
1987, approximate.  I am sure that this book is "Timothy Tiger to the Rescue". (he is also called Timmy in the book)In this book, Tommy tiger strays too far from home and is captured by men who want to put him in a zoo. Timmy must rescue him. From what I remember, these books were set in Asia, probably India from what I remember. I have an ISBN number for you as well: 0877832161 Hope this helps!

Diane Duane, High Wizardry.  This is a long-shot, but in High Wizadry, part of The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane, Nita and Kit follow Nita's little sister Dairine to a distant planet of machine-like lifeforms. They take along Machu Pichu, a talking bird.
I can think of two possibilities for this one, neither of which is a perfect fit.  The heroes of Eleanor Cameron's The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet take the chicken Henrietta along on their journey to save the planet Basidium, but the chicken doesn't talk.  And in Emergence, by David Palmer, the heroine has a talking parrot, but most of the action takes place on Earth.
Gerald Durrell, The Talking Parcel, 1974.  Peter, Simon and Penelope stay in Greece and one day find a large talking parcel on the beach.  It contains a parrot and his spider (they both talk).  They journey with the parrot into Mythologia where they help HH, the wizard who created Mythologia, to fight the cockatrices who are trying to take control of the country. A  Very colourful and inventive tale full of mythological beasts and great words. Was reprinted in 1999 under the title The Battle for Castle Cockatrice.

Du Bois, William Pene, Tiger in a Teacup.  I've never read this book, and I'm not positive about the title, but the cover shows a tiger in a tea cup. It's a small picture book.
I noticed in this entry that someone offers a solution that is incorrect on two counts:  it's not the right book, and the title/author as given is incorrect.  The original post asks about an animal tea party in the jungle.  The book offered as a possible solution (which the poster admits they have never seen) is definitely not about this subject, and so is not a match.  And it's "The Tiger in the Teapot" by Betty Yurdin, illus. by William Pene du Bois.  Sorry to be pedantic, but that answer steers the original poster to the wrong book, which is out of print, so not easy to check on.  Thanks for listening!

T250 Carlson, Bernice Wells.  The junior party book.   illus by Magdalena Tolson.  Abingdon-Cokesbury c1939.  games; parties [Peter Rabbit party, Daniel Boone party, Robin Hood party, ones for holidays, etc, etc]   I haven't dug it out to see if Hawaiian in it. She has also written: The Party Book for Boys and Girls,  Let's Plan a Party, The Party Book
Saunders, Rubie, The Calling All Girls Party Book, 1966.  This may be too old, but it's a possibility.  It has ideas for theme parties for preteen girls and young teens.

t253 and t252.  Pamela Sargent, Alien Child, 1988.  Yeah, I found it!!!  The only human left on earth being raised by aliens.  Or so she thinks until she meets the boy who has also been raised by an alien.  The two learn together of the history of their species and try to determine its future.  Thoughtful and raises a number of good questions. Website.
Alien Child is definitely the book. I love this site!

Don Torgersen, The Girl Who Tricked the Troll, 1978.  I finally found this book! The Girl Who Tricked the Troll. A troll rides in on a black horse and causes trouble on a farm in Illinois. Two children try to get rid of the troll by asking questions he cannot answer. Eventually, they succeed in their task and, as part of the deal, he leaves the Barn and returns to the forest. He sits beneath a tree trying to think of the answer to the question that the children had asked, and after a long time, he turns to stone. He still sits there to this day, as a funny looking rock. There is actually a site on the author and his other works, should anyone else be interested! 

Evelyn Scott, ? The Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter.  Could this possibly be it? The bears are not teddy bears, but are cuddly and friendly looking. They do all sorts of things (ice skating, swimming, eating ice cream). My own treasured copy of the book (given to me in the early 80's) is much bigger than a normal picture book. Hope this helps.
HRL:  If that it is the book, check out the Most Requested page.  It's been reprinted and I have plenty of copies!
I also read this book in a remedial reading class circa 1975-1977. I think the book was called Teddy Bear Teddy Bear. It only had 8-12 pages & was made of thick cardboard with 3D type illustrations of puppets. I also remember there being a couple others with the same type covers but different subjects,one was a train I think. I'm pretty sure they were of well known titles but specially made for kids with learning disabilities if this helps.
Tadasu Izawa (illustrator), Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, 1971. "A Preschool Puppet Book."  "A Puppet Board Book."  Izawa also did the fairy tale books with lenticular 3D cover illustration for Whitman, all with posed puppet illustrations.  I don't know if this is the book the original poster wants, but it sure sounds like it!

Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver. This is a long shot, but maybe it's what you are looking for?

Peter Heath (which is a pseudonym author's reall name was Peter Fine), Assassins from Tomorrow, 1967.  This is almost surely Assassins from Tomorrow. I've not read it but know the premise was that time travellers killed JFK, and how many times can someone has spun a whole novel out of that?  It was an original pb from Lancer Books in 1967 and I believe there's also a Magnum Books pb a bit later.  It's the middle of a three-volume series others are The Mind Brothers <and> Men Who Die Twice -- don't know the plots of the other two.
No, the book in question is definitely NOT Heath's "Assassins from Tomorrow."  The President in the book is fictional and definitely isn't JFK, who of course died in Dallas and not at Camp David.  Thanks for trying, though.
John Jakes, Time Gate, 1972.  From the description online: "John Jakes's novel is a fairly standard time travel tale. Scientists in the near-future have a time-travel device that they use to research the past; the project leaders have to scramble to stop an intern who uses the machine to travel into the past in order to assassinate the president, a man promoting a nuclear disarmament treaty that the intern opposes."

There is a poem by Edward Lear called "The Pobble Who Has No Toes", about a Pobble who swims across the Bristol Channel,but there isn't anything in it about Tumbleweed Tea or Cowboys. Maybe it was some kind of poetry anthology that had Sally 'traveling' through various poems...?
Yes, now that I'm thinking back there was a few pages about the Pobble who has no toes and Aunt Jabisca...So you might be right as fas as this girl "Sally" traveling through several stories and poems.  Seems like there was also a page about a yak...And from what I can remember "Sally' had short wiry red hair and freckles.  And when she is talking with the cowboy and having tumbleweed tea, I think there is mention of Timbuktoo, and his 10 gallon hat.
Louis Untermeyer (editor), The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense.  I actually don't think this could be it b/c I'm sure there was no Sally...and I don't remember cowboys, although tumbleweed tea sounds SO familiar...  BUT--it has Lear's Pobble poem in it and also has "The Yak" by Hilaire Belloc. (and "The Quangle-Wangle's Hat, also by Lear, which is large, but I don't think a 10-gallon =)
I looked up The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense, and nothing about it sounds familiar...I can picture the cowboy in my mind, and the little girl Sally, her name could also be Elizabeth...but I'm definately postive about the Tumbleweed Tea...and the front of the book or some of the pages being bright blue and/or orange.

Lee Kingman, The Peter Pan Bag, 1974.  Just a guess  the book description I found says it is about a 17-year-old girl named Wendy who runs away from home and ends up spending a summer in a hippie commune in Boston where she meets many different characters and experiments with drugs.
Anonymous, Go Ask Alice.  This book is written as the "diary" of a teen girl who gets addicted to drugs, runs away, winds up in a commune at one point, and I think maybe also winds up pregnant in the end. (I'm not sure it really is a real diary - just written as if it were one.)  Could it be this?
Famous book.  I think it was a real diary, thus the anonymous author?
I'm fairly certain that the book described is not Go Ask Alice. None of the details that the poster gave match the plot of that book.
Don't know the book sought, but since the side comments bring up GO ASK ALICE and suggest that was a real diary rather than a hoax/novel, I wanted to point out that GO ASK ALICE was *not* "for real" -- see the Snopes entry.
Dragonwagon, Crescent, To Take a Dare, 1982.  I'm wondering if this stumper is referring to To Take a Dare by Crescent Dragonwagon.  It's about a runaway who takes up with other hippies, does drugs, and gets pregnant.  I don't recall if it had a character in it named Curly Red, though.
This definitely isn't To Take a Dare- the heroine of that book does drugs with her suburban friends before she runs away, but has stopped long before she settles in a town popular with leftover hippies.  She also doesn't get pregnant-  she catches gonorrhea before running away, and later finds that it caused internal damage so that she can never have children.
I cannot find this book's title, but I know it is not Go Ask Alice; it's also not Lee Kingman's The Peter Pan Bag, which I own. So that might help in the process of elimination. Good luck!

This is a real long-shot, but I couldn't help noticing the similarity in names.  If you check R53 in archives on this site - "Rat called not-polite", one of the possible solutions is a book entitled "Twirlup on the moon" by Laura Bannon.  I thought of "Trilliwip" because I had read your intriguing post earlier.  It may be a real stretch, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway..rats and rabbit-like creatures.

Edgar Eager, Time garden.  Eliza, Jack, Roger & Ann have adventures similar to those described in a time (thyme) garden. There are others in the series: Half Magic, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden, and Magic by the Lake
Keith, Donald, Time Machine To The Rescue and Mutiny In The Time machine, 1960s.  Time Machine To The Rescue and Mutiny In The Time Machine were both books published by the Boy Scouts Of America. Rescue was an anthology, while Mutiny was a novel. The short stories had appeared in Boys' Life magazine. The stories continued to appear after the books were published, so if you remember something that was not in the books, you probably read it in the short stories. I remember the boys running afoul of a farmer named Jay Henney (Haney?) and eventually transporting him back to the American Revolution so he could fight in it. A short story in the 1970s in Boys' Life re-visited this character. If you can find a library with old issues of Boys' Life, you may be able to get all of the stories.
Ruth Chew, Summer Magic, 1977.  Sarah and Timothy are transported into the past while visiting a display of an old house at the Brooklyn Museum.  They stay with a couple named the Maartens and meet some Indians.  Just bought and read this Scholastic book.
Andre Norton, Lavender Green Magic, late 60s/early 70s.  Could this one be Lavender Green Magic, by Andre Norton?  It's about three children who somehow travel in time through a combination of smelling a pillow they found in an old attic trunk and walking into a garden maze.  It's a book I loved as a child, but I can't remember much more than that.  I think the people they ended up living with in the past were former slaves who had joined a Native tribe, but I'm not sure if that was my interpretation or part of the book.

Cabell, James Branch, Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice, 1919.  The washerwoman sounds like Mother Sereda in JURGEN, whose function is to bleach all the color and meaning out of life, and the reference to Beardsley-like artist is probably a memory of Pape, whose illustrations have been reprinted in many editions of JURGEN.  I don't recall the specific scene with all of the old loves (it's been many years since I read it), but it sounds very much like Jurgen's preoccupations.  Many reprints exist, and the book is available online (with illustrations) here and here.
James Branch Cabell, Jurgen- A comedy of Justice, 1919.  Thank you for solving this - it was driving me (and my wife) crazy.  A little research showed that the copy that I had was a Dover Press reprint released in 1977.  I want to buy a paperback copy, I did find it on Amazon, but I'll give you a chance 1st if you want to sell me a copy.

Elizabeth Hart Ritter, Parasols is for Ladies. (1941) I just read this post from someone looking for this book, and here is the description they gave:  "A wonderful children's book published in 1941 by the John C. Winston Co. About 3 little girls in the Deep South who get brand-new colorful Easter dresses and matching parasols for Easter Sunday. Hardcover, 96 pages."  I thought it sounded a lot like this stumper.
Elizabeth Ritter, The Three Parasols, 1940-41. Elizabeth Ritter wrote a 5-part series for Jack and Jill magazine that started in the November, 1940 issue.  It was called "The Three Parasols," and I assume the book mentioned above is a book version of the stories.  In it, three sisters, Gennie, Nolie, and Rellie, see the parasols in the store window and can't afford them.  They end up earning the money by taking care of a cow and selling the buttermilk.  At one point the money they have saved is lost it turns out that one of the little girls has buried it in the hope that it will grow into more money.  No mention of the mom making dresses that match, but I don't have all the issues of the magazine, or it might have been added to the book.  That might help the seeker decide whether Parasols is for Ladies is the right book.

Charlotte Steiner, Little John Little, 1951.  This is the book, and I have it, but am having trouble locating it.  It's a Wonder Book, and Charlotte Steiner did the illustrations as well as the story.  As I recall the book, Little John Little is a very tiny fellow who, at the very beginning of the book, is inadvertently swept out the front door of his house by his normal-sized mother and proceeds to build his own tiny house to live in, I think out of matchsticks.  There's an illustration of him picking a huge (to him) blueberry from a ladder (probably also made of matchsticks).  He befriends a ladybug named (I think) Reddy, who becomes his pet.  One day he goes swimming.  I think I recall a picture of him diving from a lillypad into the water, near a frog.  I think he then falls asleep on a leaf and is blown by the wind for some distance.  He ends up near a cow eating grass who's about to (inadvertently, again) eat him when a bird swoops down and saves him.  She takes him to her nest high in a tree with her young ones.  He thanks her and asks her to take him home, but she thinks he's better off with her and takes off.  He gets help from a squirrel, who first takes him to her home in a hole in the tree and feeds him along with her children.  I'm quite sure there's an illustration looking from outside -- where it's become dark -- through the hole into the lighted home, where Little Johon Little is eating at a table with the squirrel family.  After that the squirrel gives him a ride down the tree.  He's still feeling somewhat stranded, but I think a passing mouse gives him a ride home on her back, and I think I recall Reddy waiting at the door to the lighted home as Little John Little arrives.  I recall the last illustration being of Little John Little sleeping in the matchbox bed with Reddy up on the "headboard" (which I think is the top of the matchbox turned up).  The illustrations are great, very much like those in A Surprise for Mrs. Bunny, which Charlotte Steiner also wrote and illustrated.

Mother Holle.  In this German fairy tale, two sisters take turns working for Mother Holle, who lives at the bottom of a well.  The polite, hard-working sister is covered in gold dust when she leaves  the rude, lazy one is covered with pitch.  Text can be found online.
The Brothers Grimm, Mother Holle (also known as Mother Hulda).  The story is "Mother Holle" by Grimm in The Red Fairy Book (edited by Andrew Lang, published by Dover), also known as "Mother Hulda" in Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales (published by Nelson Doubleday).  If you search for "Mother Holle" you can find many websites that have the entire story online.  I suspect the version you're looking for is a picture book, not a story in an anthology, so you might want to look at Mother Holly by the Brothers Grimm, retold and illustrated by Bernadette Watts (Crowell, 1972) or Mother Holly: a retelling from the Brothers Grimm by John Warren Stewig, with illustrations by Johanna Westerman (North-South Books, 2001).
Yesterday, I suggested John W. Stewig's Mother Holly: A Retelling From the Brothers Grimm (2001).  I'd like to withdraw that suggestion, as Stewig says in his introduction, "In all previous editions, pitch or tar fell on Blanche.  Because that would be difficult to remove, I changed it to barbs, bristles and burrs, which are miserable but not impossible to remove."  Other English language versions that Stewig suggests include Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales by Alison Lurie (Crowell, 1980) "Mother Hulda" by Lucy Crane in Household Stories (Dover, 1963) Mother Holle" by Wanda Gag in More Tales From Grimm (Coward-McCann, 1947)  and Mara Pratt's Selections From Grimm (Educational Publishing, 1894.  These are all collections of stories, so if the stumper requester is looking for a book with a single story in it, Mother Holly by Bernadette Watts (Crowell, 1972) may be the one sought.
Kingdom of the Cats.  I read a similar story in a Reader's Digest collection of fairy tales.  It was called "colony of the cats" or "kingdom of the cats," something like that.  The good woman who took care of the cats was dipped in a barrel of gold, while the bad woman was dipped in oil and got a donkey tail in her forehead.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Brothers Grimm.  Grimm’s Fairy Tales. illus by Leonard Weisgard.  Junior Deluxe Editions, 1954, book club  edition.   dust jacket a little worn;  gray boards with black spine; VG-  [YQ##]  $7

Platt, Kin, Sinbad and Me and Mystery of the Witch Who Wouldn't.  Sinbad and Me is the title of the 1st book, then he wrote a sequel or two, one of which is entitled Mystery of the Witch Who Wouldn't.  These books by Kin Platt are the ones you're looking for.
Kin Platt, Sinbad and Me, 1966.  This is Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt, an Edgar winner (this is an award given by Mystery Writers of America) for Best Young Adult Mystery. Sadly out of print, and somewhat hard to find.
Kin Platt, Steve Forrester Young Adult Mysteries, 1961-1980.  The dog is an English bulldog named Sinbad.  He belongs to Steve Forrester, the protagonist of four young adult mysteries by Kin Platt:  The Blue Man (1961),  Sinbad and Me (1966),  The Mystery of the Witch Who Wouldn't (1969),  and The Ghost of Hellsfire Street (1980).  Each book combines supernatural elements with action/adventure as the protagonist solves a mystery.  Steve does have an elderly friend, Mrs. Teska, who is a shopkeeper, and she appears in more than one book, but I can't remember if she's Polish.  I read these books so long ago that I'm not certain which one you're looking for, but it is probably either Sinbad and Me or The Ghost of Hellsfire Street.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "S" page for more information.

Elisa Bialk, Tizz is a cow pony, 1961.  There are lots of Tizz books.  They were published by Childrens Press.  Titles include:  Tizz & Company, Tizz at the Fiesta, Tizz at the Stampede, Tizz in Cactus Country, Tizz on a Pack Trip, Tizz on a Trail Ride, Tizz Plays Santa, Tizz Takes a Trip, and Tizz on a Horse Farm.

Two possiblities for T302.  Sandra Ziegler's At the Hospital: A Surprise for Krissy published by Children's Press in 1976 or Arthur Shay's What Happens When You Go to the Hospitalpublished in 1969 and is about a girl named Karen who goes in to have her tonsils removed.
I believe I know what book you are talking about.  It's called Good-bye, Tonsils by Anne Welsh Guy published as a Whitman BIG Tell-a-tale (not to be
confused with the more recent book Good-bye Tonsils by Juliana Hatkoff published by Puffin)  I had this book given to me when I got my tonsils removed in 1972!  What jogged my memory was when you mentioned ice cubes.  I remember that specifically from the book.  The picture on the front shows a girl with black shoulder-length hair in bed with a nurse leaning over her holding a tray.

Annabel and Edgar Johnson, The Rescued Heart, 1961.  "Forced to spend a year at an isolated California desert trailer camp with her parents, who are worried about her emotional and physical health, a sixteen-year-old girl meets a variety of drifters and migrant workers who influence her future." I have a copy of this book and have read the first part. It seems to be the one you are looking for.
T-303 & T-312:  Aren't these two the same book?

Elizabeth Winthrop, The Castle in the Attic or The Battle for the Castle.  Not sure if it would be either of these, but they have similar elements...castle, attic, soldier, battles...
No, I'm afraid it's not "Castle in the Sky"...
Beyond the Midnight Mountains. I have the paper back bought through a book club in 1980ish as a child.

Garth Nix, Shade's Children.  I read this about a year ago, and can't find my copy now to check details, but it sounds a lot like it. However the date given is 1997 so may be too late to be the right book. Here is a description I found online:  IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE YOUR FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY IS YOUR LAST WHERE ONLY ONE THING CAN SAVE YOU AND WHERE EVEN YOUR PROTECTOR MAY NOT BE TRUSTED  In a brutal city of the future, human life is in the hands of the evil Overlords who have decreed that no child live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest - his brains and muscles are used to construct machine-like creatures whose sole purpose is to kill.  The mysterious Shade - once a man, but now more like the machines he fights - recruits the few children lucky enough to escape. He gives them food, shelter, and the training they need to fight the Overlords. But Shade's sent many children out on mission - and fewer of them are coming back.  By luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children - Ella, Drum, Ninde and Gold-Eye - have come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power - and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become....
Alexander Key, Escape to Witch Mountain,1968.  The story is about two orphans, Tony and Tia, who have moderate paranormal abilities. After their "granny", the elderly woman who took them in when they were very little, dies, they are placed by social services in a juvenile detention home under grim, unwholesome conditions. Both have repressed memories of their past, but discover clues -- a map and a huge amount of money -- hidden in the bottom of a leather box owned by Tia. When a man claiming to be the brother of their deceased father shows up at the detention center to take custody of them, they instinctively know he is not their uncle and has ulterior motives. With the assistance of a tough-nut inner-city Irish priest, the pair run away, following the map's route leading towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. As their memories begin to return, they realize that they are actually of extraterrestrial origin, and in the end they find their way to their own people.
Alexander Key, Return from Witch Mountain. (1978) I'm sorry if I gave the impression I thought T310 was Escape to Witch Mountain. Actually I think it's the sequel. Alexander Key hadn't intended to write one but Disney made a feature film based on the first book and then did a sequel, Return from Witch Mountain, so Key wrote a book based on the script. Tony and Tia have been living among their own people and improving their psychic abilities. On a visit to Los Angeles they are separated. Tony uses his gift to stop a couple of accidents and is seen by people who work for a mad scientist's experimental lab where he has kidnapped a number of telekinetic kids to work for him (this idea was also used by Dean R. Koontz, in "Door to December". Tia enlists the help of a street gang to find and free Tony. The psychic elements and the story in general are much less subtle and more "showy" than the original (naturally, since it started out as a movie). If T310 isn't Return from Witch Mountain, check Door to December and see if that might be it.
The book is not Escape to Witch Mountain, but might be Return from Witch Mountain. The details match up -- the boy uses his telekinetic powers to prevent an accident and draws the attention of a mad scientist who wants to exploit the gifts of psychic children, etc. You might look this up on amazon.com or wikipedia. The film version starred Bette Davis and Christopher Lee, and is regarded as high camp, but Alexander Key did write the novelization you may have read, and put his own unique touches in.

McCloskey, Robert, Time of Wonder, 1957.  If it was a picture book, two Caldecott winners are possibilities: McCloskey's Time of Wonder has a sailboat on blue water as the prominent item on the cover  Shulevitz's Fool of the World and the Flying Ship has a ship sailing over green fields.
Captain Alan Villiers, The Windjammer Story, 1958.  This is a long shot, but...*if* the book was non-fiction and *if* the date is right (depending on when you were in elementary school), it's a possibility.  It's subtitled on the cover, "with School of the Sea and Sailing a Square Rigger", if that helps.  It was based on a movie.  The book includes "Diary of a Cadet Aboard the Christian Radich" [sail-training ship], along with diagrams of a square-rigger, old sailors' superstitions, nautical terms, and the explanation of sailing a square-rigged ship.  It is definitely "a thin paperback with a sailboat on the front" -- the book is light blue and the sailboat is the Christian Radich under full sail, at an angle that makes her look tall and thin.
Hyla M. Clark (text), introductions by Frank O. Braynard and Tony Gibbs, The Tall Ships: A Sailing Celebration, 1976.  What year did you go to school?  Could this be the book you're looking for?  This book was published in association with Operation Sail, which celebrated the Bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by gathering tall ships from around the world and sailing them into New York Harbor in time for the 1976 Independence Day celebration.  Over 50 full-color photographs, plus additional photographs in black and white.  Paperback, with a picture of a sailing ship against the Manhattan skyline on the cover, blue borders.  It's about 130 pages long--I don't know if that's thin enough for you!
I have recently remembered more details. 1) Fiction novel set in approx.1870-1910 Alaska. Female love interest is named Florence. She has several brothers and one is named Gregory . He marries an Indian girl.
Margaret Bell, Watch For a Tall White Sail. (1948)  I think this may be the book you want.  From an online review: "The story is about a young girl who moves with her family to an isolated area where the only contact with the outside world is by sailing schooner that stopped two or three times a year with supplies, news and mail brought by a handsome young captain."  I don't remember whether the details match, but it definitely takes place in pioneer Alaska.

Enright, Elizabeth, Tatsinda, 1963.  Try Tatsinda, by Elizabeth Enright. It is a fairly short book, 65 pages. Girl lives in a magical kingdom. She is kidnapped by a giant/troll/ogre from the other side of the mountain. The trolls mine "greb" inside the mountain and don't go outside during the day. The girl's kingdom does shine in the sun. There are pictures showing crystal palaces and houses. I hope this helps.
My stumper is definitely not TATSINDA.  The main character is a young child and is living in (basically) the real world.  No crystal palace, no kingdom, just an ordinary kid. Also, I don't remember anything like a kidnapping taking place at all. It was the troll mountain or treasure far away that belonged to the trolls that was shining. Thanks for the guess anyway though. I'll keep checking back.  I want to read it to my kids so badly!

Jesse Stuart, The Thread That Runs So True.  I think there is a good chance T316 is The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart, a Kentucky author.
Conroy, Pat, The Water is Wide.  This is a semi-autobiographical story written by Conroy (later, made into a movie with John Voight, Conrak.)  He travels to Yamacraw, an island off the coast of South Carollina, to teach very poor, isolated, African-American children.  I don't know when it was originally published, but the movie came out in 1974.
Pat Conroy, The Water is Wide, 1972.  The date is wrong, and the location, but the plot is similar.
Pat Conroy, The Water Is Wide, 1972.  Don't know if this is the book you are looking for, but here is the synopsis:  A young schoolteacher struggles to bring literacy and selfrespect to a black backwoods South Carolina school in this affecting work. An early, semiautobiographical novel by the author of THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE and THE PRINCE OF TIDES Filmed, as CONRACK in 1974 by Martin Ritt with Jon Voight and Paul Winfield.
Stuart, Jesse, The Thread That Runs So True.  I'm sure that the book I was remembering was "The Thread That Runs So True".  Thanks so much for the help!
Both of my book stumpers have been solved (H172=Walker Tompkins, T316=Jesse Stuart) and I've tried to indicate that in the reply forms, but I haven't seen that reflected online.  Thanks so much to you and the other responders for this wonderful service.
Jesse Stuart, The Thread That Runs So True, 1949.  This is definitely the book being sought.  It is set in the 1920s, in Kentuckys rural tobacco country.  Eighteen days shy of his seventeenth birthday, Jesse Stuart begins his career in  education in Lonesome Valley Elementary School, a one room schoolhouse in a low-literacy farming community.  He has 104 pupils on the census, but only a third attend classes: the rest are needed for farmwork.  The students have to purchase their own books and classes are held during the summer so that the district doesn't have to pay for textbooks or coal to heat the schoolhouse.  Mr. Stuart is also in charge of maintaining the school grounds (painting the school, putting lime in the outhouses) and teaching his barefooted pupils to maintain public health (no drinking from the same dipper, no chewing tobacco on the school grounds). For all of this work, he earns about one-fourth as much as a worker at the local steel mill who has a third grade education!  The Water is Wide has a similar theme, but it is set about forty years later in an impoverished rural community in South Carolina.

This sounds a bit like Dorothy Edwards' 'The Witches and the Grinnygog', but that has a few more children, and the word in the title is 'Grinnygog', not 'Pucq'

I think the person is thinking of THE KELLYHORNS by Barbara Cooney, 1942, republished by Volo in 2001. When Penny meets Pamela at the fair, they look somewhat alike  (brown pigtails, brown eyes, but one has bangs and some freckles). The father does live in a lighthouse, and if the names Aunt Ivory, Barnabas and Barney ring a bell, then this is the right book~from a librarian

Jay Williams, The King with Six Friends.  Popular title!

Roberts, Susan B, Tim and Sue:  tell-me-time stories and Bible verses, G/L Publications, 1967.  James R Padgett, illus. / 31 pgs. / Gospel Light Publications / title on cover: Everyday With Tim and Sue /  Gospel Light has many Bible curriculum materials, so maybe the sheets you were using came from one of those instead of the book I found, but it's a starting place for you to search.  Good luck!
Hi - I'm the one who originally posted this stumper. Today, someone sent me a website for out of print books and I found it.  It's on it's way so hopefully soon I'll know if this is the right book or not.  Thank you!!!
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I ordered Everyday with Tim and Sue and this is NOT the book.  This was longer stories, that included father telling Tim and Sue Biblical stories, like Noah's Ark, or Moses.  They were long enough that when I read them for my competitions, it took about 10 minutes.  Thanks

Agapeland, The Music Machine, 2006, reprint.  Could this maybe be the Music Machine series from Agapeland? I remember them when I was growing up as Tapes or LPs with an accompanying book and each story was about a fruit of the spirit (ie love, patience, self-control). The very first book/record in the series was about the two little kids who were in most of the stories meeting a man called the conductor who had a machine that looked a little bit like a train, but when you put a word or something into it, it would turn out a song about whatever that word was. Sorry I can't elaborate anymore. My memory's fuzzy on the details and I don't have any of them handy. Maybe check out www.imusicmachine.com to see if anything there is at all familiar.
Thank you so much for your suggestion, but unfortunately it's not The Music Machine. That is a chapter book  (we own the book and tape)and the one I am searching for is definitely a picture book. But I really appreciate your kind input!

Don Stanford, The Treasure of the Coral Reef, 1956.  Never give up on Google! After trying numerous combinations of search words, I finally found the book. I was able to buy it on-line, and even though I had last read it roughly 50 years ago, (good grief!!), I was amazed at how much I remembered when I re-read it. Even though the solution did not come from Book Stumper, the site is wonderful!. Thanks.

Rosemary Wells, When No One Was Looking.  Almost certain this is the one:  Kathy is a young tennis player with enough drive, attitude, and talent to go right to the top. And it seems that everyone around her has a stake in her success. So, when Kathy is presented with an opponent she can't beat, and a tragedy occurs, everyone's motives are questioned. They all want victory badly-but would anyone really kill for it?

T344: Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni? Not sure if what you're looking for is fiction or nonfiction. Lionni's book is more about the fish that is friends with a tadpole. They both grow and learn to accept their differences - especially the fish's inability to travel outside the water. 

I like the echoes to The Five Chinese Brothers here, but there are no travellers in that tale.
Not a solution, but there are variations on this theme.  Tall, Wide, and Sharp-Eye  a Czech Tale (Mirko Gabler, 1994) "On his way to rescue a princess held captive in the castle of an evil sorcerer, a Bohemian prince is helped by three extraordinary friends."  Also-- High, Wide, And Handsome & Their Three Tall Tales (Jean Merrill, 1964).
Mirko Gabler, Tall, Wide, and Sharp-Eye.  This might be the one- three travelers save a princess from a wizard by using their special skills.  There's another similar book - Long, Broad and Quickeye by Evaline Michelow Ness.
Gerald J. Pyle, Wonder Tales Retold,1953. I also have a version of this story in a book called It Must be Magic, book four of the Wonder-Story Books.  The tale "Long, Broad and Sharpsight" is credited as adapted from Gerald Pyle's Wonder Tales Retold.  The king sends his son to find a princess, and of course he must rescue her from a wicked magician. Long can get as tall as he needs to, Broad can expand and suck up rivers in their way, and Sharpsight can break up rocks with his vision and well as see where the princess is being held. 

Allan Eckert, Song of the Wild, 1980. This is the book about the kid who can "throw" his mind into other animals.  What a cool gift!  Really nice book
  I read it myself and enjoyed it.

James Otis, Toby Tyler. I haven't read this book, but I know it's about a boy who runs away to join the circus.  In the 60's, my sister had an edition from Disney which I think was a smaller hardback version.  I think the cover had a dark pink background...
Frances Frost, Windy Foot series, late 1940s, approximate.  I think you may be looking for one of the Windy Foot books.  Boy named Toby, Shetland pony named Windy Foot.  Several stories about farm life in the late 1940s early 1950s.

Schmidt, Stanley, Tweedlioop, 1986.  Tweedlioop - who certainly has an unusual name - is a peaceful alien who happens to look just like the squirrels on earth.  It was a novel for adults, however.  Perhaps it's your missing book? It was reprinted in 2002, with a different cover.
Laura Bannon, Twirlup On The Moon, 1964.  If it isn't the first suggestion, it could be this book, about another unusually named alien starting with T. ".... Is there really a twirlup?  Laura Bannon makes this ambitious little animal so believable that you'll feel sure he exists.  Dippy, the kangaroo rat, who tells the twirlup's story, patiently puts up with being called Drippy, Chippy and Snippy.  Almost without knowing how, he finds himself working on the twirlup's wonderful scheme to launch a manned moon shot, or perhaps it's accurate to say a twirlupped moon shot.  Swiftly, a lizard, unluckily becomes part of the project.  He has never been one to keep a secret, and thus the climax of the twirlup's work and inventiveness has a more unusual audience than any ever gathered at Cape Kennedy. Here's an amusing spoof on our ambitions to get to the moon.  What's more, it introduces a whole colony of little desert creatures, Laura Bannon's lively imagination is at its best in this new tale, and her original sketches have been carefully completed by Will Gordon, a talented artist in his own right ...."
Peter Farrow and Diane Lampert, Twyllyp, 1963, copyright.

Miriam E. Mason, Smiling Hill Farm, 1937.  Hi, this book might be the answer to the T362 poster.  Story of a pioneering family from Virginia who settles down in Indiana, their children grow up, etc. It is divided up into 3 sections, Pioneer Days, the Red Brick House, and the New Pioneers.  Each section has dates  the dates for the Red Brick House are 1847-1857 and covers turnpike roads, stagecoaches, cookstoves, clocks, steamboats, threshing machines, kerosene lamps, and a train. Lots of illustrations in black, red, and white. My children read this book when I homeschooled them and they enjoyed it.
Engine Whistles/The New Engine Whistles.  This one is from the Alice and Jerry series of primers, although it doesn't feature the Alice and Jerry characters.  It is the sequel to  "Singing Wheels", which covers the early history of the Hastings family in the town of Hastings Mills.   "Engine Whistles" takes up the story of a new generation in the same town (now called Hastings) at the turn of the century.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

O’Donnell, Mabel.  Engine Whistles.  illus by Hoopes & Hoopes.  Row, Peterson, 1942.    school used 1951-54.   Alice & Jerry Reading Foundation.  Worn, G-.  [SQ17634]  $14

Margaret Friskey, Three Smart Squirrels and Squee,1942. It actually has 4 squirrels on the cover.  Long shot, but who knows.

Holling Clancy Holling, The Tree in the Trail.  Since nobody has suggested this one yet, I'll try.  This is a book (detailed picture book format, like the rest of Holling's books) about a cottonwood tree in the Southwest, that plays a part in all kinds of events that go on around it.  At the end it gets made into a yoke for oxen, and still has the marks, bullet holes etc. that people made in the wood.
Holling Clancy Holling, Tree in the Trail.No, this isn't right (but thank you for the suggestion).  The book was not a "picture" book although it may have had some artwork.  Anyway, the tree was much, much bigger.  I think so big that many people would have to stand around it to hold hands around its trunk.
Janet Taylor Lisle, The Great Dimpole Oak, 1987, copyright.  This might be the book you're looking for. I have a copy of it and it does mention people carved their initials and stuff in it, and the tree is very important to the people in the town. There are a few illustrations in the copy I have but it isn't a picture book.

Thornton, Jane Foster, Close Harmony,1984.When Harrison Hughes has a near-fatal accident, the band is left without a lead guitarist so super-talented Josh is chosen as his replacement, but will there be a place in the band for Harrison when he recovers and will Josh be Lexi's ticket to romance? It's #2 in the Electric High series.

Daniel Pinkwater, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars.

One of the Cathy books by Catherine Woolley maybe? Titles are: 1. A Room for Cathy, 2. Miss Cathy Leonard, 3. Cathy Leonard Calling, 4. Cathy's Little Sister, 5. Chris in Trouble, 6. Cathy and the Beautiful People, & 7. Cathy Uncovers a Secret. My guess is it's 3 or 4. Woolley is also the author of the Ginnie series.
V.C. Andrews, Flowers In The Attic, 1979. Cathy, along with her mother, brothers, and sister go to live with her grandparents when her father dies. They go by train. At the end of the book, Cathy, her sister, and one of her brothers get on a train and run away. There are five books in the series.
I posted this inquiry-- it is not the V.C. Andrews book.  I am not sure if it is one of the Cathy books as I have been unable to find summaries on any of them :( I'm actually wondering if the girl's name was Cathy--???

Madeleine L'Engle, The Small Rain. Not sure about this one but thought it might be worth a look.  The girl is actually in Switzerland at a boarding school, not France.
Oh, I think I remember this one too (though not the name of the book, unfortunately).  It does take place in France and I remember that the girl poses nude for an artist/the lover?
janine boissard, A Matter of feeling, 1980. Pauline is one of four girls, growing up in France. She falls in love with an older man who is an artist. Her father is a doctor. Her youngest sister Cecile gets on a quiz show, and wins support for an aging horse loved by an older sister Bernadette.

Rosamond du Jardin, Wait For Marcy. This is Wait For Marcy, late forties or very early fifties.  There are several more in the series:  A Man For Marcy, Marcy Catches Up, and Senior Prom.

Eda and Richard Crist, The Secret of Turkeyfoot Mountain, 1957

Nell Stomp Smock, Wiggly and Giggly, Little Twin Bears.

Hallowell, P. C., Dinah and Virginia. Was already under V20.

Georgess McHargue, The Turquoise Toad Mystery, 1980. Could this be it?  The title isn't similar, but Scholastic reprints often changed the hardcover title to something "more appealing". The summary is "After thirteen-year-old Ben and his pet coati Frito join a group of archaeologists looking for Indian artifacts in the Arizona desert, they help expose a ring of thieves." She wrote at least one or two other mysteries. I don't know if they featured the same character, but it might be worth looking into.

I don't know the name of this story, but it was a Twilight Zone episode, so it is probably in one of the published Twilight Zone anthologies.  Rod Serling wrote a lot of those stories himself, so it might be worth doing a search under his name.
A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, Rod Serling
Rod Serling, A Hundred Yards over the Rim, 1961. This is a Twilight Zone episode and must have appeared in an anthology of stories based on the show.
Rod Serling, A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, 1961. Rod Serling wrote this story--A Hundred Yards Over the Rim--for his Twilight Zone series.  It has probably appeared in various sci-fi anthologies.
Actually, while many of the stories broadcast on "The Twilight Zone" were also rewritten as short stories and published in collections credited to Serling, I can't find that "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" was among them, at least under that title.  Serling's *script* for that show was published in the July 1982 issue of
ROD SERLING'S THE TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE (vol. 2 no. 4  pp.89+ ). Aside from the collections credited to Serling (most or all of which were
first published as Bantam mass-market pb originals), at least two collections were written by Walter B. Gibson (better known, as "Maxwell Grant," as the creator of THE SHADOW).  Since I don't recognize the titles of the stories in that collection, I suspect he retitled the stories he adapted and this may possibly be among them.  Gibson's collections were ROD SERLING'S THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1963 Grosset & Dunlap hc) and ROD SERLING'S TWILIGHT ZONE REVISITED (1964 Grosset & Dunlap hc). The former includes a story titled "Back There" and the latter a story titled "Beyond the Rim," either of which *might* describe the story recalled.  Full contents of both are listed online.

George S Zaffo, Tommy on the Train, 1946, Saalfield Pub. Co., 24 pg., ill (some color), 21x26 cm.  Descriptions online look like it's got spiral binding and 4 moveable pull tabs, but sorry - no plot description.
Can you keep on searching for T402?? i showed my dad and he doesn't think it's the correct one by the cover, spiral and pop-ups.  he remembers it being a smaller book (little golden size)  and he thought tommy was on the train looking out the window on the cover. guess i should have really picked his brain before i submitted it.

Emma L. Brock, The Topsy-Turvy Family, 1943, copyright.  Not on the same shelf with Lenski and Lovelace, but the title is right.  The adventures of Tim and Debby Wiggins in their prairie pioneer home in Minnesota. This book was reprinted in the 1960s. Cover is yellow, with picture of Tim, Debby, a baby, a couple of geese, a dog, and a pig. In the background are, from left to right, sunbeams, a rainbow, and dark storm clouds/rain.
Francesca Simon, The Topsy Turvies.  Probably not your book as it is a picture book from 2005 but it is about a Topsy Turvy Family.  I don't suppose you could be thinking about the books about the Peterkins family by Lucretia Hale?  If you have any more detailed information about the content of the book- what the family was like that made them "topsy-turvy"- it would help in the search.
Brock, Emma L., The Topsy-turvy family, 1943, copyright.  New York: Knopf, 86 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. (some col.) 21 cm.
Peter Newell , Topsys & Turvys.  I have this book that you are looking for, excellent condition, $7.00 with free shipping. Thank you Topsys & Turvys by Peter Newell, Dover Pubns, soft cover.

Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book.  Could this possibly be the Fairy book series by Andrew Lang? These had pictures on the front, and were different colors.  See if these are familiar: http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/.  I don't think these were grouped by the age of the reader, though.

Daniel Pinkwater, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, 1979, approximate.  You may be talking about Alan Mendelsohn the Boy from Mars, which was pretty far out for a kid's book if I remember correctly.  It involved a couple of outcasts, telekinesis and a few pranks.
I responded Daniel Pinkwater to book T412 about the boy with telekinesis, then I re-read their description and he said not science fiction, so it probably isn't the book I named "Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars"  Oh well, I tried.
Shusterman, Neil, The Shadow Club, 1988, copyright.  This is a long shot, but I think this may be the book you're looking for.
Richard M Koff, Christopher, 1981, approximate.  Thirteen-year-old Christopher enters a supposedly haunted house on a dare where he meets a mysterious man who teaches him to use mental powers he never knew existed. Several episodes of the book feature Christopher misusing his new powers and his teacher taking him to task over it.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Changeling, 1970, copyright.  Martha befriends Ivy, a poor girl from the disreputable Carson family, and the two of them build an imaginary world together. Google Books has considerable excerpts from the novel, including the duck-washing incident, at http://books.google.com.
Snyder, The Changeling.  This has to be Zilpha K Snyder's The Changeling.  Ivy and her friend - I loved that book.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Changeling.  Sounds exactly like The Changeling. Snyder also wrote a series that takes place in the world they invent in this book.

McPhail, David, Those terrible toy-breakers, 1980, copyright.  A Parents Magazine Press book. Walter and Bernie set a trap for the lion, tiger, and elephant who break Walter’s toys that are left outside overnight.

Hans Christian Andersen, Shiba Productions (illus.), Thumbelina, 1968, copyright.  Sounds like this might be the one you're looking for.  This was published by Golden Press, and has the words "A Golden Book" printed on the front cover, but this is NOT a Little Golden Book.  It is larger (approx. 10" wide x 12" tall) with a black hard cover, featuring a brightly colored 3-D hologram picture of Thumbelina, her prince, and a couple of other tiny people, among flowers. The title, "Thumbelina" is printed above the picture, with each letter being a different color. Inside, the illustrations feature Shiba Productions' pictures of posed puppets or dolls.
Shiba Productions, Thumbelina, 1970's.  This is one of the fairy tale books whose pictures were made by Shiba Productions and which were published by Golden Press.  The illustrations are photographs of scenes with posed dolls, and the front cover of each had an inset lenticular 3D picture (those are the ribbed plastic ones).  There were quite a few of them - Emperor's New Clothes, Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, Puss In Boots, etc.

Al Perkins, Rowland Wilson (illus.), Tubby and the Poo-Bah, 1972, copyright.  "Ah Mee and his little elephant, Tubby, are fishing for Foodle-fish. But their boat isn't big enough for a boy and his elephant, so Tubby goes in search of one that is. When he finds and steals the great Poo-Bah's boat, Ah Mee is locked in a tower. Tubby can't speak, so he needs to somehow show the Poo-Bah that Ah Mee is innocent. What is a little elephant to do?"

R. C. Weir, The Wonderful Train Ride, 1947, copyright.  A Rand-McNally book, reprinted multiple times during the late 40's and 50's (also published as an Elf Book and a Junior Elf Book). The story of two children (Bill and Kay) taking a train from New York to California. Illustrations by Jackie and Fiore Mastri depict the facilities on the train, including sleeper cars/berths, dining cars, observation cars, engines, etc.