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Dabbitse
I am looking for a book set in China about a man named Obstinate Ho, and his son.  They ate rice and cabbage for breakfast.  They have a water buffalo called Dabitse (sp) who, one day, swims into a fancy house's water lily garden.  He eats the lilies and the daughter of the house cries to see them gobbled up.  She wore earrings.  The illustrations were grayscale/ink drawings.  I believe the book is British.

Chiang Yee, Dabbitse, 1955


Daddy's Birthday Cake
This was a Golden Book, perhaps illustrated by Corinne Malvern.  In the book, a little girl makes a birthday cake out of clay for her Dad.  We hope you or someone else out there might know the titles of these books.  Thanks so much!

There's a chance this may be Daddy's Birthday Cake (Rand McNally,'53), by Miss Frances (Frances Horwich) of Ding Dong School fame. The Ding Dong School books resemble Golden Books.



Dagger and the Bird: A Story of Suspense
Here are the details of the book I'm trying to find:  It was sort of a children/young adult fantasy story about a girl named Birdie? who suspects that her younger brother is a changeling. So she takes her brother on a trip through the woods to try to find where the fairies live so she can trade her changeling brother with her real one. Another detail I remember is that an older brother or some male relative carves a wooden bird for her (because of her name) and cuts himself while carving it, making a bloody red stain on the breast of the bird to resemble a robin. I think the bird comes to life later on in the story. If anyone knows which book this, I would be extremely appreciative to know and I would love to buy it!

F71 fairy/robin: could be Wild Robin, written and illustrated by Susan Jeffers,  published Penguin and Dutton 1976, pbk edition 1986 "Wild Robin, a lazy and unruly boy, longs for home after he is captured by the fairies, but he must wait to be rescued by his brave and loving sister." The story is based on one from Little Prudy's Fairy Book, and is a reworking of Tam Lin, where a young man is stolen by the fairies and rescued by his pregnant lover, Janet.
Jeffers, Susan, Wild Robin, illustrated by author, NY Dutton 1976.  The names are reversed, but this has a similar story. Robin is a wild and lazy young boy who is stolen by the fairies and rescued by his loving sister. I haven't read it so can't say about the carving, but it sounds worth checking out.
Margaret Greaves, The dagger and the bird : a story of suspense, 1975.  It could be this, but I haven't read it to know for sure.  There is no Birdie, though.  "When Luke and Bridget discover a changeling in their family, they set out for the mysterious fairy world to find their real brother."
The girl's name is different, but maybe this will ring a bell:  The dagger and the bird : a story of suspense / Margaret Greaves  Laszlo Kubinyi, 1975  New York : Harper & Row. "When Luke and Bridget discover a changeling in their family, they set out for the mysterious fairy world to find their real brother."
Margaret Greaves (author), Laszlo Kubinyi (illustrator), The Dagger and the Bird: A Story of Suspense, 1971.  The book is NOT Wild Robin, as was previously suggested. That is a fairly short picture book, there are only two siblings instead of three, the abducted boy is not replaced by a changeling, and the girl does not have a carved wooden robin.  This is definitely The Dagger and the Bird: A Story of Suspense.  It's a children's book with fifteen chapters, but it's only 133 pages long.  The girl's name is Bridget, but her nickname is Biddy---easy to confuse with Birdie, because "biddy" is another name for a hen.  Bridget's elder brother, Luke, makes the carved bird for Bridget's birthday, but accidentally cuts his finger and stains its breast with his blood.  Bridget's younger brother, Simon, is emotionally unstable and vicious, and refuses to go near their blacksmith father's forge because he is a changeling and cannot abide cold iron.  When Bridget and Luke discover Simon's secret, they all travel to the world of the fairies to recover the real Simon, who was abducted in infancy. 


click for image of bookDamon and Pythias
My husband remembers a book from his childhood about two deer named Damon and Pythias.  It told about them growing up and being hunted and how they avoided the hunters. I would love to find a copy for him.  Sorry I don't have have more into but if you have any suggestions please let me know.  Thanks.

This must be your book.  Terhune is best known for his dog stories, but he wrote some other animal stories too.
Terhune, Albert.  The Story of Damon and Pythias.  <SOLD>
A lady asked about a book with two deer named Damon and Pythias. The book she is searching for is DOUBLE CHALLENGE written by Jim Kjelgaard in the 1940s.


Dance, Dance, Amy-Chan!
A picture book I read around 1975, but may have been older.  A little Asian girl (possibly Japanese, but I am not certain) is the main character, and one of the things she does is practice several different traditional dances with other little girls (maybe preparing to perform at a festival of some kind?).  One of the dances is a "butterfly" dance.

Is the book poetry or prose?  If it's poetry and there's also a section where the girl talks about being a nurse, I'm searching for the title too!  My copy never had a cover---we always called it "the Ling book" but I don't think that has any relation to the actual title.
Hawkinson, Lucy, Dance, Dance, Amy-Chan! 1964.  I am the one who posted this stumper, but I have found the answer myself.  Amy and her little sister Susie visit their Japanese grandparents in an American city, where they prepare to dance in a street festival.  Amy misses the beginning of the dancing when Susie is lost and she must find her, but makes it back in time to perform her favorite dance, the "butterfly dance".


Dance for Susie
Can't remember the title or author but I'm trying to find a book about a girl who always wanted to be a ballerina - she learns labanotation (a way to write down choreography) along the way and when she's hurt and can't dance any more, she realizes through her disappointment that she really enjoys choreography. HELP!

One Fainting Robin? in Dancers, Dancers, Dancers. Are you sure it was a whole book, not a short story?  I remember one story in the book Dancers, Dancers, Dancers, called "One Fainting Robin", and I'm almost
sure it was about a young girl who has to stop dancing after an injury/accident, and decides to teach/do choreography.  It may not be what you're looking for, but the story is similar.
Lee Wyndham, "Susie" series: A Dance for Susie etc. 1950's or 60's.  I am certain the book you are describing is one of the Susie books by Lee Wyndham. Susie is an American girl studying ballet and befriends a French ballet family and  in the process they teach her Labanotation. These books hardback are almost impossible to find and quite pricey but Scholastic reprinted these in the 60's and these are more readily available.
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Story about young ballet student - 2 books in series, I think - one about dancing in the nutcracker and one about ballet notation systems.

B197  This is the Susie series by Lee Wyndham---it's on the solved mysteries page, which I remembered because there
aren't that many books on labonotation!


Dancers, Dancers, Dancers
Well, here's a stumper for you!  I am looking for a book I read between 1965 -1975.  I think it was called either "Dance, Dance, Dance" or "Dancers, Dancers, Dancers."  It was a collection of stories about dancers (duh), and I believe that the first story was about Salome dancing at a banquet.  As I recall the hardcover book had a blue cloth cover.  I would dearly love to find this!

#D44:  Try Phyllis Reid Fenner as editor.  All her anthologies had the title word repeated three times.
Re D 44 - thanks, and that's a logical suggestion, but unfortunately, I cannot find anything by Phyllis Reid Fenner having anything to do with dance!  So I'm still looking....
I found the book!  Well, actually, someone else found it for me, for which I am very grateful.  It's Dancers, Dancers, Dancers by Lee Wyndham. 



Dancing Star
The book tells the story of a poor young girl, who finds her way by studying at a famous ballet school  it was set, I think,  in pre-revolutionary Russia. I remember particularly the arduousness of the ballet training. Possibly a translation into  English from a European language. I read it in the early 1950s and it felt like a very old-fashioned book: an inch or so thick,  dark cover, a few (?) old fashioned looking illustrations. I associate it (perhaps falsely) with a book about a young (Central?)  European boy who was a prince in disguise.

This doesn't answer the main request, but the book about the prince in disguise might be Frances H. Burnet's The Lost Prince.
I remember reading a young adult biography (whose title and author I don't remember) about the young Anna Pavlova, who left her poor family in order to study ballet in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg.  I wonder if this might be the same book.
M Kay, A Circling Star. Also wrote a book about girl in Russian revolution called "Masha"
Gladys Malvern, Dancing Star, 1960.  I read a young-adult biography of Anna Pavlova which sounds a lot like this, too. It was called Dancing Star - hard cover, pale blue (I think), a few line illustrations.



Dandelion
I remember this book as a child in the 1970s and it had a yellow cover; seem to remember “Daniel” or “Dandelion” in the title.  Anything you can find out would be great!! I am thrilled that I stumbled upon your website. I did so in search of what I finally found were the Suzy books – the squirrel that lived in a dollhouse, etc. I just ordered it and I can’t wait to share it with my two daughters!! I could cry! Thank you for providing such a wonderful and invaluable service! I plan to tell ALL my friends about you!

Don Freeman, Dandelion.  Lion gets his hair fixed to go to a party, but the hostess doesn't recognize him all dressed up.
This is definitely DANDELION by Don Freeman~from a librarian
Don Freeman, Dandelion.  I remember this one! It's by the author of Corduroy, Don Freeman. The lion has his mane done up in curlers. It was one of my little brother's favorites.
Don Freeman, Dandelion, 1964.  Are you thinking of this classic book, in which the usually-sloppy Dandelion the Lion decides to get himself "dandied up" for a friend's party, only to be turned away when the hostess does not recognize him all groomed and well-dressed?  It has a yellow cover and is still in print.
Don Freeman, Dandelion
Don Freeman, author and illustrator, Dandelion, 1964.  Dandelion the lion decides to gussy himself up for Jennifer Giraffe's Tea and Taffy Party.  He gets a haircut and manicure and wears a spiffy new coat, and is turned away from the party when the hostess doesn't recognize him!  As the stumper requester remembers, the cover of the book is yellow.
This sounds like Dandelion by Don Freeman.  The lion gets all dolled up for a party, but then no one recognizes him.  I believe this book is still being published. Hope this helps.
I just want to thank you and your users for solving my submitted stumper! When researching the author, Don Freeman, I saw that he also wrote ANOTHER of my favorite childhood books – Mop Top. The wonderful memories of sitting in my room as a little girl and reading for hours come rushing back. I’m thrilled to be able to share these books with my daughters!  Again, you provide an amazing service and I thank you so very much!



Dandelion Cottage
Here is the problem: I am not sure of the author's first name and not 100% sure of the last name, but Warren seems to ring a bell.  A brief explanation of the book. It is called Dandelion Cottage.   It  is about four (4) young girls fourth grade age, who find a cottage or a little house in town and it is for sale.  They talk to a policeman about how they could own this house to play in and he says he will see what he can do.  Somehow it ends up that if they clean up the house and take care of it. And they make sure it looks nice outside, the mayor lets them have it.  It will take a considerable amount of restoring for it to be able to look like a house but they come every day after school and work on it.  etc. etc. They decide to call it Dandelion Cottage because there were dandelions all over the place surrounding this house and it looked like a cottage to them. Now, my fourth grade teacher read us this book when I was in fourth grade.  I am now 35 years old to give you an idea of how long ago it was.  I remember that the book was a cornflower blue colored book.  And that our teacher showed us pictures every now and then.  The pictures were simple black lined drawing.  No color.  The pages were a sort of cream color.  I don't know if my teacher owned that book or if it was from the library.  I love this book so much, I have been looking everywhere asking flea market people who came to Grand Forks, ND to look for the book, if they found it to bring it when they came around again.  I am one that likes to collect old books.  I would also like to learn how to tell the worth of a book, but that is for another time.I really appreciate your trying if you can.

Here's what I found: Rankin, Carroll Watson. Illustrated by Mary Stevens. DANDELION COTTAGE. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1966. "When Bettie and Jeanie, Mabel and Marjory dug the dandelions from the lawn of the little square cottage near the church they earned the right to use the cottage as their own for a whole summer. And an eventful one it was in the Northern Michigan village on Lake  Superior.."
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Probably 20 years ago or so, I read a book that I remember that I really loved.. and for years I have tried to find it.. so I thought that I would ask you guys if you remember reading it. Problem is, I can only remember the gist of it, and bits and pieces.. any of this sound familiar?  I *think* 4 girls, young teenagers find an abandoned house, and turn it into a club house. I can remember them cleaning it up, because it had been abandoned for years. One bit that I remember is one of the girls trying to sweep the floor, but it was so dusty that dirt was flying everywhere. She discovered that if she sprinkled just a bit of water, then the dust didn't fly so much.  I seem to remember them hanging up red and white checkered curtains, and several pictures to hide cracks and holes in the walls.  And also something about them hosting a dinner party in the new clubhouse for their parents.. they cooked everything in the house, and invited their parents over. All of this was over summer vacation.  This is not Foxfire by Joyce Oates, I've checked that one.  Any other ideas?

Kathryn Kenny, Trixie Belden:  Secret of the Mansion.  might be a Trixie Belden.  The first one of the seires has the Bob-White Club fixing up an old building
Elizabeth Enright, Gone Away Lake, 1957.  This sounds a lot like Elizabeth Enright's Gone Away Lake (a Newbery Honor book)....all the details you mention are there, but while there are four children, they're not all girls. The story takes place during the summer when a girl and her younger brother are visiting a cousin...they discover a small resort town of (mostly) abandoned houses by a lake that has gone away(its marshland now). You might remember the elderly brother and sister who are now the sole inhabitants of the "town", or the children dressing up in old fashioned evening clothes, or the younger brother getting stuck in the marsh. Hope this helps! (and just an fyi...there was also a sequel, called Return to Gone Away Lake).
Carroll Watson Rankin, Dandelion Cottage, 1966, reprint. I bet it's this one.  Four young teens (Bettie, Jeane, Mabel and Marjory) have their eye on a cottage owned by a church -- they'd like to use it as a play house.  But there's a catch -- they have to weed the lawn, which is covered with dandelions.  The house is also dirty and in bad repair -- it does contain a scene the girls "sprinkle" the dust with Aunty's watering can before sweeping.  They have many adventures in the house, but the plot mostly centers on inviting Mr. Black (the town banker) and Mrs. Crane (a widow) to dinner.  Unbeknownst to the girls, the two are actually estranged siblings and the whole town is pulling for their reunion.  This is a terrific and very touching book!
This isn't Secret of the Mansion but it might be a subsequent Trixie Beldon book. In the Gatehouse Mystery - the third in the series - teens Trixie, her two older brothers and friends Honey and Jim discover an abandoned gatehouse and plan to fix it up for a club house. But first they must solve the mystery of a diamond they found in the gatehouse's dirt floor. It's been many years since I read this series but I'm certain they didn't get around to fixing up the gatehouse in this book, though, but they do eventually.
Rankin, Dandelion Cottage, circa 1904.  This sounds a little like Dandelion Cottage.  Four girls, neighbors, are given permission to use a small cottage (after weeding dandelions from the front lawn).  They clean it, fix it up, briefly rent it to a young woman, almost lose it to a pushy girl (new neighbor), and ultimately have a dinner party.
Christine Govan, The Curious Clubhouse, 1967.  If there were boys involved as well as girls, this could be it.  There was a mystery involving a sinister looking portrait in the old house.  The children found the old house when their parents told them to find someplace to put all of their collections of toys, junk, etc.  There was  a party for the parents at the end.

I was reading one of the solved stumpers about a book that is published where I work!  The book about four girls and the little cottage they get to have as a playhouse after pulling all of the dandelions out of the yard is called Dandelion Cottage.  You definitely got that right!  I just wanted to let you know it is still in print and available through the Marquette County History Museum.  The author lived in Marquette and wrote the story for her daughter and friends.  There actually is a Dandelion Cottage in town which inspired the story.  It still stands today!  If anyone is interested in the book or wants any more information about it, check out our website, marquettecohistory.org


click for image of bookDandelion Library
I used to have a boxed set of 12-15 books or so...they were hardcover and the distinguishing feature was that each book had two stories in it. Each story started at the cover and they ended in the middle, one right side up, and one upside down. If you turn the book around and start from the back cover, then it would be right side up. They included some pretty obscure stories. One I remember was about these three horses, Blackie, Whitey, and Browney who were sad because they had no friends. This man shows up and teaches them to walk on their hind legs. He gives them masks so they look like pretty girls, dresses them up, and takes them to town to meet the mayor. They are found out, and he is put
in jail. I don't remember it after that. Also there was a story about a raven or a crow and every page
ended with "...in the garden." I think there might have been some Babar stories in them too, but I never read those because they were in cursive and I didn't know how to read it yet. My parents may still have a few of these around, but most of the set was destroyed by dampness and mildew. These might be as old as the 50s maybe older. I really have no idea. If anybody knows what the name of the set is, please help!!!!

Worm, Piet. (1958). Three Little Horses: Blackie, Brownie and Whitey.  New York: Random House. It's from the Dandelion Library collection.  Each book contained two stories printed back-to-back but upside-down, so that the book actually has two covers.  The flip side of the Worm book is a story about a hippo called Veronica by Roger Duvoisin.   I used to have three or four of them, although I can only find the one containing the stories by Worm and Duvoisin. The reader is right in remembering a Babar story in one of the books.
H23: Horses in split books -- The split book series were the Dandelion Flip Books. The THREE LITTLE
HORSES-BLACKIE, BROWNIE, AND WHITEY book had VERONICA on the flip side and were by Roger Duvoisin and Piet Worm.
H-23 - I don't know the name of the series, but the second story that is described, with the crow and the reiteration of "...in the garden," is probably L. Leslie Brooke's Johnny Crow's Garden.  Perhaps one could work backward and find out in what books that story has been anthologized and get an answer that way.



Danger Rock
I read this book in the late 'fifties or early 'sixties, on talking book, so please forgive any bad spelling.  It was a sea adventure.  the names I
remember are something like Jim Nailer or Naylor, Pibworthy, Bowman, Semple, and Shelby.  Jim is the protagonist, maybe in his teens, as is Pibworthy, the antagonist; Bowman and semple are a bit younger and Shelby is a grown man.  A misunderstanding about possible cheating on rationing during the island stay erupts into a fight between Jim and Pib, but later hostilities fade as they all work together, and by the end it turns out that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.  eventually the group either is rescued or finds the way back to civilization.  as I recall, it was a fast-moving, well-constructed sea story.  Probably meant for adolescent boys, but I say girls can enjoy it too.

Hmmm, looks like this might be a hard nut to crack.  i am writing to share with you that I sent the inquiry to the Bookshare volunteers and you would be surprised (or not) to know how many immediately thought i was referring to Lord of the Flies.  This is partly because in trying to discuss my reading of the book i mentioned that the talking book was narrated by William gladden, whereupon they confused that with author William Golding! I had tried to be specific about names, and I even threw in another detail about condensed milk, but I suspect most of the guessers hadn't read Lord of the Flies in quite some time if at all.  Or perhaps they just don't trust my memory, at which i take no offense, not trusting it all that much myself.  Mr. golding wrote a far more compelling and horrifying book than the mystery one we're looking for; this is just a nice little sea adventure where eventually everyone lives happily ever after and nobody gets his brains scattered over the beach.  Still, it's fascinating to me that my description led to this interesting conclusion.
A search in the National Library Service website for books narrated by William Gladden showed two anthologies of sea stories: True tales of the South Seas (Selected and edited by A. Grove Day and Carl Stroven, 1966) and Post true stories of daring and adventure (selected by the editors of the Saturday Evening Post, 1967). The titles in the second one sounded more like WWII stories, while the first contained stories by several famous 'sea tale' authors. This story may be in one of those anthologies.
Sorry, but F189 is not a short story and not included in an anthology to my knowledge,  it is an independent novel.  Also, the young men are wearing oilskins during part of the book if that helps any.  I don't think there was any reference to World War II or any other, but that's debatable.
 Danger Rock, 1960.
Richard Armstrong, Danger Rock, 1960. The person who suggested this title was right.  I found a copy and am reading it now.  I had begun to give up hope but should never underestimate the readers who flock to this site.  Many thanks!  It's great to have this exciting sea adventure to enjoy all over again.



click for image of bookDangerous Edge
The book was a mystery/suspense type book from probably 1982 or 83.  The book is set in Marseilles, France.  It starts out with a bunch of guys digging through the sewer system to get to the bank and robbing it. They spend the whole long weekend doing this.  The wife of the head criminal runs a perfume or cosmetics shop or boutique.  She has no idea her husband is a crook.  The police officer who is investigating the bank robbery, happens to walk by her store and instantly becomes smitten with her.  He of course doesn't realize he's looking for her husband either.  In the end, the crooked husband disappears and is presumed dead.  The policeman and the wife end up together.  Ken Follet wrote a book similar to this story, but his was based on a true bank robbery.  I think this was a fictionalized version of that true story; because it sounds so similar.

This is Robert Daley, The Dangerous Edge (S&S,'83). The "master criminal" responsible for the heist, Alberto Spaggiari, also wrote an account, Fric-Frac: the Great riviera Bank Robbery ('79). (The film, The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, also came out in '79).  The robbery takes place in Nice; Spaggiari engineered similar heists in Marseilles & Nice.



click for image of bookDangerous Island
I've been trying to find a book for several years, and so far no one seems to be able to help.  It was read to us in second grade in the mid-60s.  I remember very few details. It is about a bunch of kids who are marooned on an island.  I don't recall how they got there, but I want to say they went out for a day of boating and wound up on this island.  Seems like they find treasure or something, maybe some bad guys also wind up on the island, I can't remember.  The thing that is very very clear is that the island was sinking!!  By the time the kids are rescued (& I seem to remember them getting pulled of the island via helicopter), the kids were standing on a very small section of land and are about to go under water.  The island completely disappears.  There are no little people, fairies, or other magical creatures on this island!  (I've had several friends suggesting books, such as the Lilliputians, etc). Hope someone can help.
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My sister is looking for this one.  It's a Weekly Reader Book from probably  about 1958 or so.  And it's something like "Mysterious sinking Island".  It's  about a couple of kids shipwrecked on an island that is slowly sinking.
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What was the title of the weekly reader children's book club selection circa 1957-1962? that was about some kids marooned on a very small mysterious sinking island in the ocean?  They got off the island just before it officially sank beneath the waves. Thanks for any help.

I6: This was a Weekly Reader Book Club book called something like Dangerous Island...can't think of author.  (late 1950's - 1960.)
Mindlin, Helen Mather-Smith. Dangerous Island. New York: Dodd,Mead & Co., 1956. Weekly Reader Book Club
A bit more information on the suggested title:Helen Mather-Smith Mindlin Dangerous Island NY, Dodd, Mead, 1956, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club Edition, 178 pages. Illustrated by Manning de V. Lee. "When three young children are carried out to sea on a raft, they become modern day Robinson Crusoes on a remote island. They discover buried treasure too."
Wow!  That question was months ago!  Imagine my surprise to get an answer now.  Thanks for the information.  I'll see if I can find a copy of the book, to confirm that it really is the story I was trying to remember.  I'll let you know if I want you to search for me.  Thanks again!!!!
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This book is about kids who are looking for shells (I think) and end up on a very small island.  They find gold bars on this island and, of course, someone else wants the gold.  At the end, a helicopter rescues the kids and the gold and the island sinks into the ocean.  I always thought it was called "The Lion's Paw", named for one of the shells they were looking for.

in reading through your list, someone's reply to T90 seems to be the answer to my stumper.  I am looking for a story about kids who are looking for shells and find an island with gold bars and they get rescued at the end by a helicopter and the island sinks.  Is this  Dangerous Island?  I don't know the plot of that book....can you help me?

Robb White, The Lion's Paw.  I'm not sure if this is the right book, but The Lion's Paw is about a boy and girl who stow away on a boat.  The girl's name is Penelope, and the owner of the boat ends up sailing someplace tropical and I think they do find treasure.  And yes, the lion's paw was a seashell.  I don't remember a sinking island, but it's been years since I read the book.
White, Robb, Illustrated by Ray, Ralph and Beck, Charles , The Lion's Paw,  1968.  You remembered the title correctly yourself, I believe... my fourth grade teacher read us "The Lion's Paw" one chapter at a time.  An online search gave this: "Ben, Penny and Nick are running away. Searching for them are Ben's uncle, the Coast Guard, everybody. Will they make good their escape? And will they find the Lion's Paw?" (must be the cover teaser.) I remember distinctly that the tide comes in and they bearly escape... thus the "sinking island".
White, Robb, The Lion's Paw, 1946.  This book has absolutely nothing to do with a sinking island.  It concerns two orphan children, Nick and Penny who stow away on another kid's (Ben's) boat. They sail across Florida to Sanibel Island where they look for a rare shell (the Lion's Paw). There is a happy ending. This is probably the most beloved Florida children's book.  It is scarce as a hardback except through librarys. Paperbacks can be found weekly on eBay for about $15.  Sorry that this doesn't solve the mystery.
I'm the person who sent in this stumper.  The book I was looking for is Dangerous Island and I found a copy. The Lion's Paw is, of course, another book I must have read as a child.  I'll try to find that one as well.  Thanks everyone.
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My stumper:  It's called either "Vanishing Island" or "Sinking Island"  I don't have a clue as to who wrote it.  It was a Weekly Reader book from the 1950's.  It's about a couple of kids who get marooned on an island they didn't know was there.  They're reduced to eating seagull eggs etc. and the island starts sinking and the tension rises -- will they be rescued in time... which of course they have to be since it was Weekly Reader in the 50s and people weren't allowed to die back then.

HRL: Mindlin, Helen Mather-Smith. Dangerous Island, 1956. See Solved Mysteries for more.
You are a marvel!!!! It's solved already and I was surprised at how many other folks were also looking for it!  It was Dangerous Island by Helen Mather-Smith, 1958.  Thanks so very very much... now I have a title etc. to go hunting a copy!
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Mindlin, Helen Mather-Smith.  Dangerous IslandIllus by Manning de V. Lee.  Dodd, 1956. Weekly Reader Book Club edition.  G+   $9



Daniel Boone: The Opening of the West
The book was about Daniel Boone.  In one chapter, Daniel sneaks up on a meeting of a bunch of renegades in the forest.  Simon Girty is in that circle of renegades.  I remember reading this book in 5th grade (1965) in Roseburg Oregon.  I am assuming that it was published sometime in the late 1950's or early 60's

D 140 This biog has quite a bit abt Simon Girty. If it helps ring bells, all of the illustrations are brown. Brown, John Mason.  Daniel Boone; the opening of the west.   illus by Lee J Ames.  Random, Landmark series, 1952. 


click for image of bookDanny Dunn series
Hi, I'm looking for a child's book that I read when I was about 10 years old, which would have been around 1964.  Unfortunately I don't remember the author or title.  It was the first book I ever read that featured a computer.  The boy in the story was also about 10 years old, and he had access to his father's ENIAC-style, mainframe computer (you know the kind we all had in our living rooms in the '60's).  The boy eventually programmed it to do his homework and that of his 'gang'.  He had to troubleshoot mechanical problems and repair a sabotage attempt by some of his jealous classmates.  He may have even solved a crime or two and helped his scientist-father solve a few work problems.  When he was finally discovered, the school authorities concluded he had probably learned as much programming the machine as if he had done the work 'the hard way', and his punishment was pretty light.  I remember being very inspired by this little genius, and would very much like to rediscover this book with my own kids (who are now very much into discovering their own way around the computer).  Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Stumper C5 sounds like it might be Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin.
I am pretty sure this is Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Ray Abrashkin.
Congratulations !    You and your readers solved my stumper (formerly C-5), Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine.  Once armed with a title and author I was able to conduct some other online searches and found several sources for the book.  When I saw a picture of the cover, I recognized it instantly, though it's been over 35 years since I'd last seen it. I was even more pleased to learn that there was a series of Danny Dunn books, so now I will be acquiring even more.   Your service is so great because I have previously made this same request to other long-time book dealers and children's book specialists, but none had a clue.
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This book had a sci-fi flair to it, it wasn't exactly a children's book but more of a young adult's adventure kind of story.  It seemed to predict the advent of virtual reality.  The story involved a young boy who befriended a scientist who had developed a flying device with "eyes and ears".  It was in the shape of a dragonfly.  A person could control this dragonfly by wearing goggles and putting on a pair of gauntlets.  Everything the dragonfly saw could be seen through the goggles and its claws could be controlled by the gauntlet.  It was really cool because it was like you actually "were" the dragonfly.  At the end of the story the dragonfly is destroyed in a fire of some sort, because I remember the boy's hand feeling really hot.  I don't remember the author or title, but if any of you recognize this please let me know!

G3-Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy
I think I can confirm the red poster's guess on the second story as Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy by Jaw Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, illustrated by Anne Mieke, published 1974, 134 pages. "When Professor Bullfinch invented ISIT (the Invisibility Simulator with Intromittent Transmission) it seemed just as fascinating toy. For his young friend Danny Dunn and his friends Joe and Irene the 'flying' of the dragonfly-like probe opened up a whole exciting new world of experience." The cover illustration shows Danny with a motorcycle-type helmet with a visor (much like a VR helmet) and gauntlet gloves with wires leading to a box. The mechanical dragonfly hovers in the air above him. On page 125 "The clear plastic of the dragonfly's body burst into flame. It had not occurred to Dan that he would feel the pain of the burning. Involuntarily he snatched his hands away from the controls. But they were still in the gauntlets, and he could still feel the fierce, terrible heat."
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This was a funny, lighthearted book I read sometime in the 70's that would be extremely dated now and I'm sure it's long out of print.  A boy and a girl - I distinctly remember her name was Irene- have something to do with computers.  These were the giant computers of the 60's or whenever that filled entire rooms.  I remember that Irene tried to use the computer to write a homework assignment at school, but the computer produced page after page of gibberish (I guess programming code).  I have a mind picture of Irene standing at the front of the class trying to read it aloud.  Does that ring a bell for anyone?

Sounds like Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin.  to me.  Check out the other postings and copies for sale on the Solved Mysteries page.
Yaayy, that must be it!  Sorry I didn't see it on the solved mysteries page - I'll go back and plow through all those for more.
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There was a series of books I read in the late 70's that had a boy who was something of a scientist.  He had many adventures through the use of science and his inventions.   As I recall he lived at home on the second floor and possibly only lived with his mother.  I believe there were also a couple of friends (a boy and a girl?) who often helped him.

Jay Williams, Danny Dunn series, 1960s.  The description sounds like the Danny Dunn series
Jay Williams?,  Possibly the Danny Dunn series.
Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, Danny Dunn series, 1958.  This is a series of books about a boy who lives with his mother and an inventor (Professor Bullfinch). In one story he invented a homework machine (a computer).  In another, he travels back in time.  His bedroom is on the second floor of the house he lives in.
Jay Williams, Danny Dunn and ....  try looking at the Danny Dunn series by Jay WIlliams.
Jay Williams, Danny Dunn books.  S417: Series of books about boy scientist who lives at home.
I think these are probably the Danny Dunn books--Danny Dunn and the Antigravity Paint, etc.
Jay Williams, Danny Dunn and...  early sixties.  This sounds like the Danny Dunn series. Danny and his mom live with "the professor, I think. Danny is always inventing things, like a Homework Machine. His best friends are Joe (a writer) and Irene (a scientist). Great books!
Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin, Danny Dunn and... (series), 1960's - '70's.  This is a possibility:  Danny Dunn lives with his mother and a science professor, Euclid Bullfinch (his mother is the professor's housekeeper  his father is long dead).  Danny and his friends, Irene Miller and Joe Pearson, get into a lot of adventures involving the professor's experiments and projects. Irene wants to become a physicist  Joe is often reluctant to follow Danny's enthusiasms, and composes poetry while he waits for disaster to strike.  Some titles are Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (about an early computer), Danny Dunn and the Automatic House, Danny Dunn and the Anti-gravity Paint.
This sounds like the Danny Dunn books. His mother rented a room to Prof. Bullfinch, a scientist. Danny's friends were Joe and Irene. One title was Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine. There were several books.
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1970. This is not The Mad Scientist's Club. I read this book in the mid '70s and would guess that it was written about 1970. Two teenage boys are involved in a number of amateur science/engineering adventures. For example, they mount an ultrasonic generator on the back of a jeep to use in suppressing brush fires. In another, they conceal a miniature military surplus homing proximity fuse inside a golf ball to steer it toward the hole. Each chapter was another of their escapades. The stories had a "serious" tone. The father of one of the boys was an engineer, I think in the aerospace field. I also remember that the events were set in California. It seems that most of their endeavors failed to go as intended. The copt that I read had a blue cover.

Could this book be earlier than 1970?  Because it sounds a little like one of the Rick Brant Science Adventure series books.  (Either The Flaming Mountain or the Flying Stingaree--I can never remember which is which of those two).  If it is Rick Brant, the author was John Blaine.  Rick and his friend Scotty work for Rick's father, who runs a scientific foundation off of Spindrift Island in New Jersey.  They help him out and usually end up solving some mystery in each of the books through science. The series started in the 50s (or maybe even late 40s) and the last volume was written in the late 60s.
This is not from the Rick Brant/Spindrift Island series. (Thank you for the suggestion!) I remember reading the first three or four of these books and what I am looking for is not one of these. While I don't think that I made it as far into the series as the titles that you have mentioned, I do clearly recall the characters Rick and Scotty. I should have also mentioned that the book I remember is not the Carl & Jerry adventures in electronics series that appeared in Popular Electronics magazine, or the Brains Benton mysteries. What I remember had a "backyard" or a "down the street" feel about the individual stories. Each account was a chapter and there was, as far as I know, just one book about these two boys. These stories weren't the grand adventures of Rick Brant. I am reasonably confident that they were written about 1970. That was the period for the hardware that the boys used.
Not sure- but maybe one of the Danny Dunn stories??
 Danny Dunn series, 1950s - 1970s. 'The basic setup sounds like the Danny Dunn stories.  Danny Dunn is a young teenager whose mother is a housekeeper for Professor Bullfinch, an absent-minded genius inventor/professor.  Danny and his pal Joe Pearson get involved in all kinds of adventures with Danny's inventions, none of which ever work out the way Danny expects them to.  Several of the books also featured a female friend Irene Miller who also wants to be a scientist.  Each of the books has one 'main' invention that drives the plot, but most of them also have several other side plots involving other inventions.
 
 Interpreting
Condition 
Grades
Williams, Jay and Raymond Abrashkin. Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint. Illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats.  Whittlesey House, 1956.  Children's Weekly Reader Book Club edition, 1957.  Pages acidic, otherwise VG/VG.  $20

Williams, Jay and Raymond Abrashkin. Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine. Illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats.  Whittlesey House, 1958.  Children's Weekly Reader Book Club edition, 1959.  Pages acidic, otherwise VG/VG.  $20

Williams, Jay; Abrashkin, Raymond. Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave.        illus by Brinton Turkle    McGraw    1961    Young Pioneer edition 1967      boards rubbed, soiled; pages good    [YQ8313]  G  $7

Williams, Jay & Abrashkin, Raymond. Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster.      illus by Sagsoorian,  Paul    McGraw   1971    Weekly Reader edition    boards good;  a few page  corners crunched  [EQ19573]  G  $10

Williams, Jay and Raymond Abrashkin. Danny Dunn, Scientific Detective.  Illustrated by Paul Sagsoorian. McGraw-Hill, 1975.   Ex-library with the usual marks, mended dust jacket.  G/G  $8




Dapple Gray
The primary element is a dapple gray rockinghorse, which comes to life.  I don't think it's Away with Galloper, c.1960.   In my mind it often gets mixed up with Merrylegs, the pony in Black Beauty.  It was a square picture book, and the illustrations I remember were black and white.  The rocking horse became a real horse to the children.

Possibly Dapple Gray, the story of a rocking horse by John Symonds, London: G.C. Harrap, 1962.  "Even though his new
owner is a nice little girl, a rocking-horse decides to run away to find his old master and clear up some unfinished business."
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At night a boy's rocking horse (or perhaps statue of a horse?) becomes real.  The horse is white with a black mane and tail.  It's possible that, like Pegasus, the horse flies. I think this was a short book, with lots of illustrations.  The illustrations were bright and colorful, and rather cartoonish and flat, not realistic.

Dapple Gray, the story of a rocking horse by John Symonds, London: G.C. Harrap, 1962.  See more on the Solved Mysteries page.
Hi, I was just reading part of the description of Dapple Gray.  Part of it said a boy's statue of a horse comes to life and flies like Pegasus.  I owned several of these books when I was a child.  They were about the size of Little Golden Books and the illustrations were indeed colorful and cartoonish.  The boy's name may have been Timmy and the horse's name may have started with an L.  The boy would chant, "O winged horse of (something something), Oh, take me on a magic flight!"  The horse, which was a statue on the boy's chest of drawers or bedside table, would then turn into a real winged horse and the the boy would ride it on all sorts of all adventures.  It was definitely a white horse with a black mane and tail, not a dapple-gray rocking horse. 


Dar Tellum: Stranger from a Distant Planet
Looking for a book from my childhood. I don't recall the title or author. I do think it was published by Scholastic Book Club. I would've had this book in the mid-70s, so it was published then or earlier. The little that I can remember of the story: there is a boy whose father is a rocket or space scientist of
some kind. This young boy is in (telepathic?) contact with a boy on another planet. The father's project is endangered somehow and no one can come up with a solution... but his son, with the assistance of the other-planetary boy, figures out that they need to put algae on the spacecraft to generate oxygen? Somehow, I seem to recall that the words "Tom" or "calling" may have been part of the title. I know it sounds weird, but that's how I remember it.

B122: Dar Tellum: Stranger from a Distant Planet, by James R. Berry, 1973. Global warming and melting polar caps are the problems, and Ralph and his E.T. friend figure out the solution is to scatter a special algae that will turn the gases into cool oxygen with the help of a rocket. The main tools used are telepathy and telekinesis - and careful deception, since Ralph generally knows better than to expect anyone to believe him.



Dark Is Rising series
Its a fantasy story about a boy who has to find 6 talismans in the shape of a circle with a two bars crossing in the center.  One is iron, one is wood, one is fire, one is water, and I can't remember the other two.  He kept them looped on his belt, and there was a man trying to get them from him.  It was published pre-1990, and I think there was at least one other book written as a sequel to it.

Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising, 1973.  On his eleventh bithday, Will finds out that he is one of the 'Old Ones', destined to protect the world against the evil Dark. His first quest is to find the six signs that must be joined to aid in the battle. He keeps the ones he has found looped on his belt. There is a prequel and three sequels to the book.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising This is definitely The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.  It's part of a series of books-  Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising, 1973.  This is Susan Cooper's Newbury Honor book The Dark is Rising. Part of the Dark is Rising sequence, which also included Over Sea, Under Stone, Greenwich, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising,  1973.  You all have no idea how great this is to finally get to reread this book (and the rest of the series).  Thank you all so much!!!
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It has 5 parts, split between two different sets of sibling main characters, with an old "great uncle" as a thread connecting them.  This "uncle" is a wizard (if not Merlin himself), and the children (I am fairly certain) are from different time periods.  The uncle sets them on mini quests.  In one instance, the kids have to travel into a sea side cavern to get a piece of cloth or the holy grail or something.  The first and third books focus on one set of kids, while the second and fourth focus on the other set. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Susan Cooper, Dark is Rising series.  Sounds like the Dark is Rising Series...one set of children do refer to the wizard character as their "Uncle Merry," but Will Stanton (in The Dark is Rising) calls him Merriman.
Susan Cooper, Dark is Rising series.  This is the Dark is rising series which includes Over Sea, Under Stone in which Jane, Simon, and Barney search for the grail under the guidance of their great-uncle Merriman;  The Dark is Rising in which Will Stanton realizes his role as an "Old One" and gathers together the symbols of power;  Greenwitch in which Jane shows compassion to the Greenwitch and completes another part of the quest; The Grey King in which Bran Davies, son of King Arthur is introduced;  and Silver on the Tree in which all the children work together to vanquish evil.  A classic series.
Cooper, Susan, The Dark is Rising series
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising series. Definitely!
Susan Cooper, Dark Is Rising series. Books in the series are: Over Sea, Under Stone,  The Dark Is Rising,  Greenwitch,  The Grey King,  Silver on the Tree
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising series. a great series of 5 books, still in print.
T289 is possibly Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequenceOver Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, The Silver on the Tree. 1 & 3 are particularly about Simon, Jane and Barney Drew.  Will Stanton features in 2, 3, 4 & 5.  Great Uncle Merry or Merriman is the old man in all of them and there is travel to other times and places.  Currently available in UK Puffin as a collected book of all 5.
Susan Cooper, Dark is Rising, 1973.  This is the Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. Titles are: Over Sea, Under Stone (1965), The Dark is Rising (1973), Greenwitch (1974), The Grey King (1975) and Silver on the Tree (1977). Dark is Rising was a Newbury Honor book, The Grey King won the Newbury Medal. The two families are the Drews (3 children) who first appear in Over Sea, Under Stone, and the Stantons (a large family, Will Stanton, the protagonist and last of the Old Ones is the 7th son), who appear first in The Dark is Rising. The Merlin character is Merriman, another of the Old Ones, known as Great-Uncle Merry or Gummery to the Drews...Merriman appears in all of the books. A fantastic series, luckily all still in print.
Could this be part of THE DARK IS RISING series by Susan Cooper? Titles includes OVER SEA, UNDER STONE; THE DARK IS RISING;  GREENWITCH; THE GREY KING, SILVER ON THE TREE~from a librarian
Easy stumper.  This is absolutely Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series.  The underwater cave with the grail is from Over Sea, Under Stone.
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I'm looking for a book/series that I read in the eary 80's.  The subject of the books is a boy that has to collect these medallions and place them onto a belt.  It seems that the story takes place in Europe, Wales area.  I remember there was alot of references to crows/ravens when something bad was going to happen.  People have pointed me to Deltora Quest but that wasn't out when I read this series.  Thank you for the help.

Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising,1973. This is the first book in a series of 5.  The Dark Is Rising chronicles the adventures of Will Stanton as he struggles to find the 6 signs (or medallions) that will hold back the Dark and allow the Light to triumph in the final battle.  This is his path as the last of the Old Ones, which he discovers he is on his 11th birthday.  Once he has found the first sign (which is brass) he starts threading them on his belt in order to keep them together and safe.  The ravens are agents of the Dark and, as you remember, frequently portent something ominous or downright evil occurring.
Cooper, Susan, The Dark is Rising. On his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical signs that will one day enable his kind to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark. This is part of a 5 part series.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising. And its sequels.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising. Will Stanton is the last of the Old Ones. His quest is to seek the six signs, circles quartered by a cross.  He does keep them on his belt until he has all six.
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising,1970.This is the book you are looking for (soon to be made into a movie).  The first, or second (depending upon how you look at it), of a series by Susan Cooper and one of my favorite books of all times. "When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back,/Three from the circle, three from the track/ Wood, bronze, iron/ water, fire, stone/ Five will return, and one go alone." With these mysterious words, Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined."
etc.
Cooper, Susan, The Dark is Rising. Thank you!  That is exactly the one I was looking for!


Dark of the Cave
I'm looking for a chapter book that I read in the elementary grades back in the mid-60's.  The main character is a boy who makes friends with a blind boy who moves in next door.  He's unsure about having a blind boy as a friend, (as I recall, it's because he thinks the blind boy won't be able to do anything) but the sighted boy is amazed at how well the other boy can do just about everything. He can play chess by keeping track of the board positions in his head. At some point they explore a nearby cave and get lost.  After their candle/flashlight goes out, the blind boy is somehow able to aid in their rescue.  I have been looking for this particular book for years.  Has anyone read this book and knows the title?

there's The Dark of the Cave, by Ernie Rydberg, illustrated by Carl Kidwell, published McKay 1965 "Ronnie and Garth each have a secret. Since 9-year-old Ronnie cannot see his new friend, Garth, his choice of friend shows the natural unprejudiced values of a youngster." At some point they are both trapped in a cave, and Ronnie is blind, so this may be it. 


Dark Sunshine
It's about a girl who has just recovered from polio or another debilitating disease, and is using crutches to walk. The two main themes are her determination to ride again (I think her horse is a mare named Goldie or Gold-something) and her pursuit of a college scholarship. She studies diligently and ends up class valedictorian, I think. I read this in the late 60's or early 70's. Thanks.

This is Dorothy Lyons'  Dark Sunshine -- pretty easy to find used.
Possibles: Vian Smith Tall and Proud Archway, 1970 "A little girl recovering from polio finds that love for her horse and his faith in her, will help her learn to walk again." Dorothy Lyon Dark Sunshine Voyager, 1951 "When a young girl named Blythe with polio moves to an Arizona ranch with her family, she eventually decides to ride horses. One one ride she finds Dark Sunshine, a magnificent buckskin mare trapped by a landslide and sets about to save her."
More on the suggested title - Dark Sunshine, by Dorothy Lyons, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, published Harcourt 1951. "This newest book by the author of Copper Khan and Golden Sovereign portrays a girl's valiant struggle against the crippling effects of infantile paralysis. Blythe's efforts to train her horse, Dark Sunshine, for an endurance ride have more far-reaching results than she anticipated. Ages 12 up." (Horn Book Sep/55 p.285 pub.ad)



Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed
I read this story in Middle School - so around 1984.  The story was about a group of people, to include a preteen/young teenage boy.  The people land on a planet and begin to colonize there.  Over time the boy realizes that all of the human things that they have brought have begun to change to resemble the alien environment.  I remember something like the green grass turned pink and the cow grew a third eye.  Eventually all of the people changed from their human forms into an alien forms.  I believe there was something about it happening because they ate the alien plantlife or drank the water.  I would love to find this story but I have no clue as to the author, title, or publication year.  Thanks.

Ray Bradbury, "Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed", 1949.  Ray Bradbury's short story "Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed" has this basic premise. I don't recall it well enough to say if it matches the exact plot points given.  It's also been published as "The Naming of Names."  It's been reprinted in several anthologies and in several Bradbury collections, including S IS FOR SPACE and A MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY.
Various Authors, Three Green Men and Other Stories, 1966.  The title story fits your plot pretty well.  Here's a detailed summary I found, no mention of grass turning green or three eyed cows, though  :(  "Once, many years ago, three men in space suits went to Mars. The Martian exploration team enjoyed the red planet... but there was something odd about it. Everywhere they looked, there were green cukes growing. Each cucumber was about the size of an eggplant and covered with pretty patterned leaves. Two of the astronauts were afriad of the cukes. But the third man wasn't afraid of the cucumbers. He noticed that they didn't seem to be bad, or growing poorly. Most of them were about the size of an eggplant... only green and cucumber shaped. So one day... when the other two slept... he snuck out and got a cucumber. He ate it with his breakfast... and didn't notice his skin was turning green. With each bite, his skin became greener and greener... until it was green as the cucumber. He also found it changed him around on the inside... it changed him so he could live on Mars. He slowly convinced the other two men to eat the strange cucumbers as well, so they could conserve their food supplies and oxygen...Then their spaceship broke, and they were stranded on Mars. Many, many years later... more astronauts came to Mars.. and were surprised to see a colony of Martians, who looked strangely human... only with green skin."
Ray Bradbury, Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed, 1949. Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed is definitely it.  As soon as I saw the title I knew it was the story I remembered.  I found a copy online and was pretty close on some of the details - The grass turned purple and the cow grew a third horn.  Now I just need to pick up one of the Bradbury collections with this story. That was fast!  Thanks for your help.
I was the person who suggested Bradbury's "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed."  I've since had a chance to reread the story and I'm pretty much certain this is the story being asked about.  (The cow grew a third horn rather than a third eye, though.)  Also I should have made clear that Bradbury has used "The Naming of Names" for two different stories -- that was the original title for this story when it first appeared in a magazine, but he later reused that title for a different story when he changed the title of this one for book reprints.  All rather confusing, actually...



Dark Triangle
Children's book about astronauts who crash land on a planet/underwater world (can't remember which) run by dolphins.  Read in about 1983.  Thought it was called The Blue Triangle but can't find it anywhere.

Alan Dean Foster, Cachelot, 1980.I don't remember a blue triangle and you don't mention how old you were when you read it, but this is about humans (a mother and daughter figure prominently) who crash on a planet colonized by relocated whales and dolphins.  I think it's out of print.
Cachelot doesn't ring a bell and I don't recall a mother and daughter.  I remember the dolphins were telepathic however.  I would have been about 12 when I read it.  Thanks for the suggestion though.
David Brin, Startide Rising, 1984.  Ok, how about this one?  It is about an adult human crew who fly a spaceship along with modified dolphins and chimpanzees.  The theory is that humans must "uplift" client species.  They crash land on a watery planet, chased there by a host of intergalactic enemies.  One of the humans is a young boy.  The dolphins communicate with one another and with the humans using modified haiku.
Have done some more hunting around and think this may be a book called The Dark Triangle by H Walters.  Does anybody else think this may be correct?
The Dark Triangle.  I have managed to track down a copy of this book and I think it's the right one!  I can't wait to read it and find out that it is! :o)  Thanks to everyone for their help



Darkangel
This was a book I read as a teenager about a slave girl who was assigned to work with a girl her age who came from royalty(?) and gets abducted by a vampire-like creature.  She attempts to rescue her and finds out that this "icarus" holds the souls of several young women in a vial around his neck. She is put to work by him and secretly befriends a dwarf/gnome (?).  In the end she discovers that he was actually a prince put under a spell by an evil vampiress and only her true love can save him.  I seem to remember "Icarus" possibly in the title and I was pre-teen when I read it (oh about 22-24 years ago!)  Thank you!

No idea on the book, but could the poster mean "incubus," rather than "Icarus"?  That word would fit the character's description more accurately.
Pierce, Meredith Ann, The Darkangel: The Darkangel Trilogy vol 1.  c.1998.  classic YA fantasy novel.  Protaganist is Aerial, the gnome is the duarough and the darkangel is called Icarus.
Pierce, Meredith Ann, Darkangel, 1982.  Could this be Meredith Ann Pierce's The Darkangel, first book of her Darkangel trilogy?  Aeriel is the name of the main character, and the dark-angels (vampire-like, indeed) are also called icarus.  The other books in the trilogy are A Gathering of Gargoyles and The Pearl of the Soul of the World.
Meredith Ann Pierce, The Darkangel, 1982.  I daresay lots of people will answer this one!  It's very atmospheric and memorable - I read it from the school library fifteen years ago and I still have vivid recollections.  It was reprinted (in the US) a few years ago, so it should be easy to find.  Oh, and it's the first of a trilogy.  Opinions seem to vary rather on the third one, but I gather the second is well worth reading too.
Pierce, Meredith Anne., Darkangel.Boston, Little Brown 1982.  I was going a little crazy, because I knew I'd read this and couldn't remember the name!  The servant girl Aeriel's friend and mistress is stolen by the Darkangel, a vampire-like being with black wings. When she follows, she finds that her mistress has already had her soul sucked out by the Darkangel, and is a wraith like his other wives. Aeriel is to be his last wife and make his power complete. She stays to care for his wraith wives (and her friend) but finds herself falling in love with her captor and wanting to redeem him - which leads to a strange quest through dangerous desert lands and a revelation of his true nature. First part of a trilogy, the others being A Gathering of Gargoyles and The Pearl of the Soul of the World.
DarAngel.  That's it!  That's the one!  Thanks so much - I've already ordered it and can't wait to read it again!  (what an awesome site this is)


Date with a Career
In this book, a young girl wants to be a clothing designer, and at one point designs a skirt with appliques that look like fall leaves. Another girl gets wind of this and copies it, wearing it before the first girl is finished.

A possible - Designed by Suzanne, by Kathleen Robinson, published Lothrop 1965. "A warm, sympathetic novel in which Suzanne faces the decision of whether to embark on an early marriage or a career in designing clothes. Ages 12-16." (Horn Book Apr/65 p.133 pub.ad)
This sounds very familiar to me.  I vaugely remember a book like this from my childhood, and for some reason I remember it as being by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  Does this ring any bells?
L36 leaf skirt: here's another - Design for Ann, by Darlene Geis, published Crowell 1949 "How Ann made her love of beautiful things lead her to be a famous designer. Girls 12-16." (HB May/49 p.177 pub.ad)
L36 leaf skirt: another designer-career book is Flair for Fashion, by Betty Ferm, published Messner 1967. "Set against the background of the fascinating multimillion dollar fashion industry, this is the story of a girl who learns you can't cut corners to achieve success." (HB Oct/67 pub ad)
L36 leaf skirt: another possible is Whirl of Fashion, by Marjory Hall, published Westminster 1961. "A career story about a girl who has few clothes and fewer friends - until she becomes interested in dress design, and by talent and hard work wins a fashion scholarship to Paris. Girls, 12 to 15." (HB Oct/61 p.487 pub ad)
1950's or early '60's.  I'm sorry my books are in storage, so I don't have the title or author, but I remember one about a teenage girl named Saphronia (!) who wanted to be a designer. (Eventually someone uses her middle name, Lee, which *may* be in the title.) She goes to live with her grandmother while her mother is on tour or something, and tries to make friends and fit in in a small rural town in New England. The episode about the autumn-leaf skirt is part of her rivalry with the other girl, including competing for the attentions of a boy named Jonathan  she also makes hooded capes for a Christmas-carol group. There are several other subplots, including a boy, Sidney,  with a jalopy and a little girl, Louisa, who plays the piano. I hope this will jog someone's memory to give you more data. If this sounds right, I can try to dig it out.
Styles by Suzy.  I'm pretty sure I remember the leaf skirt being part of the collection of Tyrolean stuff Suzy designed.
I hate to reopen a Solved Stumper but I have come upon a book that fits the "leaf skirt" book perfectly but it is not Styles by Suzie! (Actually this solution was never confirmed. Someone did list some detail correctly but didn't have the title.)  Saphronia Lee Adams goes to live with her grandmother Mrs. Saphronia Endicott in Fairmeadows, Mass. while her actress mother is on tour in Australia. Lee, as she is called, is interested in fashion design but she has little sewing experience. Her boyfriend's (Jock's) mother, Mrs. Bradford offers to help Lee with her original design, the Autumn Leaf skirt, to be worn at the big Square dance. Mrs. Bradford brings the skirt to her sewing circle to complete the applique, inadvertently setting the stage for the duplicates! When Lee arrives at the dance, Beverly (the archrival) and her five member dance committee all have on the same leaf skirt!! The book: Date with a Career by Jan Nickerson (Funk and Wagnalls Co.-1958)
I can't remember the title either but it isn't any that anyone has named so far. It was a children's book club selection in the late 60's or early 70's. The girl had a rival who stole her designs and showed up in school wearing them. I definitely remember that the girl used real leaves as templates for her appliques. This book is probably still in my mother's attic, but she has gotten very funny about anybody going up there...



Date with a Career
Looking for a preteen-teen book, don't know the name or the author.  Had characters named Meg and Beverly, a poem starting "beneath a canopy of gold, we walked the bright October day, speechless before such beauty, we found no words to say..."  Also made reference to skirts with brown background with leaves of different colors sewed on.  I read this book at about 13 years old (early 60s), would really love to find it again for my granddaughter.

Jan Nickerson, Date with a Career.  This is a long shot but there is a part of the book where the main character (Lee) makes an autumn skirt with leaves on it.  The names don't match what you remember, though.  Look in the solved section for more detail about this book- maybe that will help you rule it in or out.
thanks so much for a terrific service!   My search was answered within 24 hours of being  posted!  I was able to locate the book,  purchase it, and it arrived today!  I am  thrilled!  Thanks again!



Date with a Career
I read this book in Jr. High in the early 60's, but it was probably older.  A high school girl named Saffaronia Lee (went by the name of Lee)was sent to live with her grandmother.  She had trouble being accepted at school until she designed a dress with multi-colored leaves on it for a school dance.

Jan Nickerson, Date with a Career More info available on Solved Pages.
This book is “Date With a Career,” by Jan Nickerson, published in 1958. Saphronia Lee Adams dreams of being a clothes designer. She spends her senior year in high school living in a small town with her grandmother while her actress mother is working in Australia.
Jan Nickerson, Date with a Career.  Thank you so much for the help.  I was able to order the book from an out-of-print website and have just received the book.  I'm looking forward to reading it again!



Daughter of the Empire
It is a Science Fiction novel. I read the book when I was in sixth or seventh grade.  The story begins with a young woman in a temple during a ceremony in which she is going to dedicate her life to a god or goddess. In the middle of the ceremony a soldier from her father's estates interrupts to take her away because both her father and brother have died. She must now rule and begin to play in politics to save her family's future. At one point she marries a rival family's son (who is considered an idiot) to secure protection from any invading armies. She has a son by him and somehow manuveres him into a situation where her husband must kill himself to retain the family honor. She secures a treaty or trade agreement with creatures whose description reminded me of overgrown ants. And the reason she secured the treaty or trade was because she told the inheritor that she was beautiful. The ending involved a large gathering at the emperors home, her almost being murdered, and the emperor's magi recreating the scene. I would love to know the name of the book, author and if there where any others that followed.

Janny Wurts (author), Daughter of Empire, (1991). A series by Janny Wurts.  The first is Daughter of Empire (1991), next is Mistress of Empire (1993), and finally Servant of Empire (1997).  The ant-like creatures are the Cho-Ga, I believe.  (This series is linked to another by Raymond Feist, beginning with Magician:  Apprentice.  There are about a dozen of those.)
Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, Daughter of the Empire, 1987.  Definitely Daughter of the Empire, jointly written by Feist and Wurts. Book 1 of a Trilogy featuring Mara of the Acoma. I'd class it as fantasy, not science fiction. Feist had previously written Magician, which featured a character Pug being taken prisoner by invaders who came from another world. This other world was the setting for the Empire trilogy and expanded the reader's view of the invaders world, politics and mindset, as well as a being a good read and a strong female character. It's one of the ones that started me reading fantasy.


Daughter of the Mountains
a little girl living in Nepal (or Tibet?)  She gets a dog and the fortuneteller/astrologer who names people according to stars or other signs gives the dog the same name as the girl.  then I think the dog is lost or for some reason the girl leaves home on a quest of some sort.  '70s or 80's.

N27: Sounds like Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin and illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Written in 1948. In the last days of the British Empire, a Tibetan girl named Momo (under age ten, I think) gets a pet she's always dreamed of - a rare red-gold Lhasa terrier named Pempa. The dog is stolen by a caravan because a rich (kindly) British woman in Calcutta has requested one. Momo rushes straight after the caravan and all the way to Calcutta in search of her dog. Lots of cultural detail, such as how to greet another person in Tibet (stick out your tongue) and Momo's amazement when meeting foreign people who carry packs rather than having pack-mules to do it for them.
Could N27 be Daughter of the Mountains by Louie Rankin?  I don't remember an astrologer in it & I don't think that the dog had the same name as the child, but the plot says that Momo (who lives on a trade pass in the Himalayas) wants a Lhaso Alpso (sp?) desperately.  When she finally gets one, it is stolen, and she travels down from the mountains into India and actually finds her dog.
N27 Nepal or Tibet: Sounds like Daughter of the Mountains, by Louise Rankin, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published New York, Viking 1948, 191 pages. Nine year old Momo leaves her Tibetan village and crosses the Great Trade Route in her tireless search for her beloved red-gold dog, which had been stolen.
This has to be Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin.  I got my copy at a book fair in the school library around 1973 and still have it.  Momo's Lhasa terrier is stolen by traders passing through her Tibetan mountain village, and she travels alone all the way to India to find him.  Wonderful adventure.


click here for pictures and profileDavid and the Phoenix
I'm searching for a book I read in my grammar school library in Shelton, CT probably between 1960 and 1965.  I recall it was a hardback.  It was a story about a boy who had a close friendship with a Phoenix, which, as I recall, had a nest somewhere in the boy's backyard woods.  I recall them having some adventures, and toward the end of the book the Phoenix does what Phoenixs do, that is, dies and is reborn, but I think not remembering the boy from its past life.  Not much to go on, I guess.

Sounds like David and the Phoenix to me.  Check the Most Requested pages for the reprint now available.



Davie and the First Christmas
My family has been searching and, little at a time, recovering a series of books that were distributed in the 1950s; most were illustrated by Charlot Byi and many were written by Beth Vardon although there were other various authors. We have many of the series but would like to have more copies  for our children. I noticed someone requested Davie and the First Christmas on your list,  which we have three copies of but they are hard to locate.   A few years ago a book called Christmas at the Little Zoo showed up in B. Dalton's book store under a publisher called Joshua Morris Publishing and Wishing Well Books.  The drawings must have been photo copied because they are exactly the same as the original; it was printed in Hong Kong.   How can we find out what steps are necessary to get the rest republished if a publisher would be interested? There was no copyright.  My mother seems to recall they were bought through a greeting card company that went door to door or through schools.

V3 vardon, beth: the poster might want to contact Purple House Press, and ask what the steps are to check whether copyright has expired, etc. This isn't exactly a lost-book inquiry, but I guess there's no other place to
put it.



Davy Deer's New Red Scarf
A deer, named Davy, gets a beautiful red scarf knitted by his mother.  1975? He goes on walk in the woods, and little does he know, the scarf gets caught on a tree branch and as he's walking, it becomes completely unravelled.  He is very sad.

Helen Adler, Davy Deer's New Red Scarf.  Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966.



Day Boy and the Night Girl
This is a collection of fairytale-type short stories.  The most memorable for me is one about a young girl who has never seen light, raised in complete and utter darkness.  There is a young boy in the story who was raised only in the sun and has never been exposed to darkness.  In the end, I think they find each other and are either brother and sister or fall in love, I can't remember!  Please help!

George MacDonald, The Day Boy and the Night Girl, 1882, approximately.  The story sounds like one of George MacDonald's fairy tales, variously known as "The Day Boy and the Night Girl" or as "The Romance of Photogen and Nycteris."  The collection sought might be one of MacDonald's collected fairy tales (or, of course, might be an anthology that reprinted that MacDonald story among others).  The story is online here along with many other MacDonald fairy tales.
George Macdonald, The Day Boy and the Night Girl.  From an online review:  "I absolutely love this story! George MacDonald has a lovely sort of grandfatherly style, and this is perfect to be divided up as a series of bedtime stories. A boy who has never seen night and a girl who has never seen day help each other cope with their fears."  Was the story you had part of a larger collection?
George McDonald, The Day Boy and the Night Girl.  This is The Day Boy and the Night Girl, one of George McDonald's fairy tales. You can probably find it in one of his collections. It may also have been printed separately. And since he's out of copyright, you could probably find the text online easily enough.
G360: Oooooh, this is a beauty! There's more than one collection of George MacDonald's short(ish) fairy tales, but that particular tale goes under two names - The Day Boy and the Night Girl (The Romance of Photogen and Nycteris) and Son of the Day, Daughter of the Night. You can read it online here  - it's from the 19th century. The first lines are: "There was once a witch who desired to know everything. But the wiser a witch is, the harder she knocks her head against the wall when she comes to it. Her name was Watho, and she had a wolf in her mind. She cared for nothing in itself -- only for knowing it. She was not naturally cruel, but the wolf had made her cruel." (Since C.S. Lewis said that practically every work of his has a "quote" from MacDonald, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where the remark about Eustace Scrubb comes from ("though he didn't care much about any subject for its own sake, he cared a great deal about marks (i.e., school grades)...")  The Green Tiger Press has a description of SOTD&DOTN as follows: "Softcover with Dust Jacket. Wonderfully illustrated with full color tipped-in illustrations by Lyn Teeple. 41 pages. One of George MacDonald's last fairy tales and one highly praised by C. S. Lewis." Enjoy!
MacDonald, George, The day boy and the night girl, 1904.  A curse from a witch decrees that a boy will never wake at night nor sleep during the day  while a girl is doomed never to sleep at night nor wake during the day, until a twist of fate brings them together.
George MacDonald, The History of Photogen and Nycteris [“The Day Boy and the Night Girl”], 1879.  This could be from any of a number of collections. The story described is The History of Photogen and Nycteris, by George MacDonald, but I have encountered it in several different volumes. It's available online here.
Charles Finger, Tales from Silver Lands There is a short story in this book that involves a witch who imprisons two children, but lets out the girl by night and the boy by day.  The children eventually escape from her after overcoming their fears (the girl was afraid of the day and the boy afraid of night).  I think they escape using a magical flying stone.


Day by Day
I've been looking for an old book that my Mother used to have when she was little. She used to call it the "Winkie book". The story was about a little monkey. Have you seen or heard of this book. Any help would be appreciated much!

#W47:  Winkie the monkey:  this may be pretty far off, but there's a story in Volume 4 of the 1956 edition of Childcraft, Animal Friends and Adventures, called Wappie's Surprise Cake, and it is about a monkey.
From The Horn Book Sep-Oct/42, p.296, ad for Viking Junior Books Little Lost Monkey by JoBesse McElveen Waldeck "... All sakiwinki monkeys have a bump of curiosity, but Winki had the biggest of all. It involved him with the Bushmaster Snake, and with the terrible wild pigs, but as it also made him such friends as the Labba, the Deer, and the Iguana, in the end he wasn't really sorry - only wiser than before. Illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Ages 8 to 11. October. $1.50."  There's a line drawing beside it of the little monkey squatting on a tree branch and scratching his head. The monkey's name and the date sound about right.
Maybe the series of Quinlan Basic Readers, including Day By Day, by Myrtle Banks Quinlan, published Allyn and Bacon, 1949. These are stories featuring Winky the Monkey, Jane, Billy & David.
w47 winkie book: a possible title in the readers series - Winky The Monkey, (Quinlan Readers) also featuring Billy and Jane, dated 1939, "easy reading for the young learner, great monkeyshines and graphics throughout" 46 pages, 6 x 7 3/4 inches.
In reference to Book Stumper #W47, I don't have a solution but was wondering if the book she is looking for is also one that I  would like to have.  I'm not sure of the title but is about a Monkey named Winkey that went to school.  There was also a song in the book about things that happen to him that went something like this: I am a monkey, I go to school, I do I do I do, I was so hungry, I ate my crayons, I did I did I did and also something about I missed the nail and hit my tail, I did I did I did.  We had this book many years ago (50 to 60) when I had just learned to read and probably belonged to one of my older sisters.  I think it was a book that was used in school as a reader. I loved that book.


click for image of bookA Day in Fairy Land
TO THE THUMBELINA T2 STUMPER, I AM PRETTY SURE THE BOOK YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR IS CALLED  A DAY IN FAIRY LAND  BY SIGRID RAHMAS, IT WAS PUBLISHED BY RAMBORN CORP LITTLE NECK N.Y, LATE FORTIES OR EARLY FIFTIES. THE BOOK I AM THINKING OF IS A LARGE OVERSIZED BOOK WITH THE PASTEL WATER COLORS YOU SPOKE OF IT HAS THE LILLY PAD ETC., AND IS A BEAUTIFUL BOOK. I AM LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK ALSO HOPE THIS WILL HELP YOU.
The book I am looking for sounds very similar to your T2 listing, though  I do not recall it being called Thumbelina.  I think it had the words "Fairies, or Fairy tales" in the title.  I recall the title being in script or 'fancy' print.  The cover also had an illustration of fairies.  The book was an Oversized book of Fairies, Lily pads, Dragonflies, etc.  The illustrations were in pastel watercolors.  This book may have been published around 1948.  Any help would be appreciated.
Harriett's Note:  I just saw a copy of A Day in Fairy Land at a book fair.  It was a folio sized book (read: huge) with beautiful watercolor illustrations.  It was about fairies, but not Thumbelina.  The reader listed in blue above knows what she's looking for (alas, the one I saw was more than $150), but I don't think it's the same as the Thumbelina stumper.  Close, but...
I read your description of the book you are looking for when trying to find more info about a book that I have. It happens to be A day in fairy land, but I don't think it is what you are looking for as it has quite a lot of words, set out in 3/4 paragraphs per page. Also the story is not about a frog but The fairy Queens birthday celebration
---
I received this book as a child in the late 1940's or early 1950's. It was LARGE, an oversized book, maybe two feet tall or more by 12-18 inches wide. It was a story all about fairies, and how they were getting ready for a fairy ball.  They chose their material for dresses, and different designs, and admired themselves in mirrors. They walked pets like catapillars and they used fireflies to see by. I remember the illustrations were beautiful! Please help me find this book for my granddaughter.

I don't remember the pet caterpillars, but this could be the popular The Golden Books Treasury of Elves and Fairies again.  See more on Most Requested Books.  But that's really more poetry than story.  If it's really that oversized, then perhaps it's the rare and elusive  A Day in Fairy Land by Sigrid Rahmas.  I've found two editions: Little Neck, New York: Ramborn Corp., pictorial boards, no date stated, elephant folio.  And surely a later printing:  Charlotteville, N.Y., Story House Corp. [1967].  "The fairies and elves celebrate the fairy queen's birthday in a wonderful and delightful way."
---
Fairy Queen's Birthday? c. 1946-50  What I remember is an oversized, whitish book with a brown fuzzy spine.  Published in Europe. The lllustrations were magical to a little girl.  Fairies wore beautiful ballerina-type outfits.  Plot was fairies and elves preparing for the fairy queen's birthday party.

A Day in Fairy Land by Sigrid Rahmas.   Pretty magical to adults too; it's quite a book production.  See more on Solved Mysteries.


Day Must Dawn
Question: I am looking for a book that I read in junior high (late 1960s, early 1970s).  I lost the book.  I can't remember the title or the author's name but I have some strong memories of the story line.  I would like to find this book again. I do not know the name of the publisher or the year of publication. Basic storyline:  set in pre-revolutionary or revolutionary time frame.  I believe the location was Pennsylvania.  Female protagonist.  Young, maybe 15 or 16?  Lives with mother and father in a cabin.  She is bathing in a tub before the fire when her brother enters the cabin (he has been gone for years...) and he watches her bathing. Both are so shocked by the event that he stays away (at the end of the book you find out he was not her blood brother, but adopted by the family, and they are able to marry).  I believe the main character becomes ill and is dosed with "nanny tea" (sheep manure boiled and strained).  The story contains the recounting of a party where a looking glass is used in a game, and the main character's friend is devastasted to find out that she is not as pretty as the others (smallpox scars?).  Another girl gets pregnant and goes crazy, I think it was after her baby died, and if memory serves she drowned herself.  There's a lot more to the story but I can't remember all of it... probably wolves and Indians, etc.  I really would like to find this book and employing unusual search keywords like nanny AND tea did not get me the results I had hoped.  Can you help?  Many thanks!

This sounds like it could be one of John Jakes' American Chronicles series...The Bastard (1974), The Rebels (1975), The Seekers (1975), The Furies (1976).  I think those were the four I read before I lost interest  I don't know which one it was, but one of them was very similar to your description.  There's 8 books, total, in the series, following the Kent family through the Revolutionary war era.  A list of all the titles can be found on this website.
This story line sounds like one of F. Van Wyck Mason's historicals, available in my local library in the late 1960's and the 1970's.  I checked www.bookfinder.com but couldn't pick out the precise title -- have your poster look through his titles to see whether any of them strikes a spark.
Agnes Sligh Turnbull, The Day Must Dawn, 1942.  I still have this book. The back of the dust jacket encourages us, the readers of books, to protect freedom by buying war bonds. I am a librarian who has just discovered your web site and am
hooked!


Day on the Farm
D113: Title may be (A girl's name) Day in the Country. Small, thin, picture book (like a Golden Book, c. 1955) with colored illustrations and a few lines of narrative. One page was of a girl walking down a country lane. On her left was a (white? fenced horse paddock with a (brown?) horse in it. There may have been a dog running along with the girl. Also, I believe the lane went down a hill toward a house.

There are several  Little Golden Book editions (#407, #203-1, #203-31, #304-56) called A Day on the Farm by Nancy Fielding Hulick, and illustrated by J.P. Miller in 1960.

Yikes, now that I have this in hand, I'm not sure it's the correct solution at all....
 Interpreting
Condition
Grades
Hulick, Nancy Fielding.  A Day on the Farm. Illustrated by John P. Miller.  Golden Press, 1960.  Little Golden Book #407.  Minor wear, but overall VG.  $8


Day the Cow Sneezed
I'm trying to find a book about a little boy who got squashed "flat as a pancake" by a steamroller.  I loved that book as a preschooler.  Guess I've always had a bazaar sense of humor.  My book about the boy who was squashed flat as a pancake by a steamroller would have been published around 1952 as I was 3, about to turn 4 when I had the book.

I don't have full details for this one, but could the person who's looking for a book about a boy squashed flat by a steamroller be wanting The Day the Cow Sneezed?  It's about a bizarre chain of events that does include a
runaway steamroller that squashes people flat.  The narrator's brother chases a rabbit instead of bringing the cow in, so the cow stands in the stream and catches cold.  The cow sneezes, and one thing leads to another, including fireworks and a runaway ferris wheel, besides the steamroller. It was published in the 1950's but there's a much more recent paperback copy of it at our pediatrician's office!  My son, now 3, always digs it out for me to read to him.
Flora, James.  The Day The Cow Sneezed.  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1957.


Day the Sea Rolled Back
Illustrated book.  Sea had dried up and a child was walking through the sea bottom.  Book is probably at least twenty years old but probably older.

Just guesses, but possibly One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer or The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop. Both have parts that deal with the sea drying up.
Both are on the Solved Mysteries pages too; check out the comments there.
Wallace,  Ian, Very Last First Time, 1980's?. Newer than the enquirer indicates, but maybe worth checking ?
A picture book about a little Inuit girl who goes under the ice to collect shell fish while the tide is out.
Spillane, Mickey, The day the sea rolled back, 1979.  Actually a mystery, two boys in the Caribbean discover amazing things on the day the sea rolls back for miles.
A more fantastical take on this idea is The Plug at the Bottom of the Sea, by R. Lamb, illustrated by M. Hopkins, published Allen & Unwin 1968, 143 pages. "Craig and Cindy find themselves washed up on the side of a windmill when their dinghy capsizes in a storm. However, this is no ordinary windmill for its sails only move when struck by lightning. The children shelter there and in the morning awaken to a strange world that has been completely drained of water. So begins a strange journey to replace the plug at the bottom of the ocean and restore the world to normality. On their journey they are joined by a host of strange characters. There is Moses the old sea captain, Captain Tiny who is searching for gold, Windmill the seagull, the seahorse which they carry in a bottle, the penguin, and not least of all the beautiful mermaid who is searching for her ten children." (JB Apr/68 p.104)


Day Willie Wasn't
This book is about a plump little boy with a girl cousin who teases him about his weight, calling him Willie the Wisp to be mean.  He becomes quite thin and then scares her when he's almost invisible.  We checked this book out of a library in a suburb of Philadelphia repeatedly in the 70's, and were quite disappointed when we moved to Miami in 1978 and couldn't ever find it again in any library.  We were told the book was out of print when I tried to order it at a bookstore (maybe in 1980).  My children and I would be ecstatic if we could find a copy!!

I think there's something on the Solved Mysteries pages similar to this, but I didn't find it on first run-thru.
William Corbin, The day Willie wasn't, 1971.  "After his visiting cousin teases him about being fat, Willie overdoes his reducing campaign."


Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales
also Dean's Book of Fairy Tales
and Dean's Mother Goose Book of Rhymes
see also Most Requested Anthologies
I am looking for a book of fairy tales that belonged to my Great-Grandmother that I loved as a child.  It included the stories Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Thumbelina, Tom Thumb, The Frog Prince (but I think i was named somthing else.  The princess had a golden ball that she lost in a pond), and most impotantly The White Cat.  There was another stumper where the searcher described this book, but none of the answers were the book I'm looking for.  The book might have been quite old. The illistrations were very detailed and beautiful.  All the princcesses had very long hair, with curls at the very end.  One illustration from The White Cat showed a hallway with arms on the walls holding torches.  This book was quite large, slighly larger than the dimensions of a piece of paper.  It was about 1 1/2 inches thick.  It was hardcover and the cover was a greyish blue.  I can't remember what was on the cover, the name or the author/editor.  Please help!

I believe this is The Fairy Tale Book by Marie Ponsot and illustrated by Adrienne Segur.  It was a lavishly illustrated volume, one of my most requested, which has at last been reprinted.  It is now available again at an affordable $20, and I have copies available.  Your stumper had me fooled for a while, because "The White Cat" is named "Queen Cat" in this version, but your illustration is there.
Sorry. This is not the book I'm looking for.  I say a description of it from another stumper.  The key is
that the story in it i loved the most was The White Cat.
Dean?, (Dean's) A book of Fairy Tales, 1977, reprint. After reading this, I was amazed to recall reading the very same story. It all came back to me, very vividly. I adored this story as a small child, and frantically searched for it. I hoped it hadn't been sold at a garage sale, like many of my childhood books were. I was a "big girl" then, and wanted to get rid of "kid's books" to show it. It was among the last box of books. I was grateful that my mother had the forethought to save a few of the best books... Here is is bit of extra info, gleamed from the inside  coverpage:  Published by: Playmore Inc., Originally Published as: Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales; Janet and Anne Grahame-Johnstone Gift book of Fairy Tales; Gift Book of Fairy Tales; The White Cat.  Hope this helps!
The solution submitted by a fellow visiter to the site was indeed correct!  I found the book on an ebay
auction and will be bidding on it shortly! thank you so much for providing this service!  I have been