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Allen W. Eckert, Song of the Wild. This has to be it.  Here is a description: "A young boy's remarkable ability to transfer his consciousness at will into any living organism and to share what it experiences proves to be an exhilarating but bittersweet gift."  (I had also forgotten the title but knew that it was by the author of Incident at Hawk's Hill, another favorite.)
Lawrence, Harriet, H. Philip Birdsong's ESP, 1969. I wonder if you're thinking of H. Philip Birdsong's ESP, which features a boy, son of a vet, who discovers he can communicate with animals while playing the recorder that's been handed down through his family.  There's definitely a dog with an eye for color and a stubborn insistence on her cushion color:  Dolores, the Pekinese.  Phil creates an exercise contraption for her out of an old rollerskate - Dolores is overweight. Main thread of the story involves saving the neighbor's dog Bozo from the nasty neighbor who has her eye on Bozo's owner.
Lawrence, Harriet, H. Philip Birdsong's ESP, 1969. Sounds like you're remembering H. Philip Birdsong's ESP.  The boy's  father is a vet.  The greatly overweight Pekinese, Dolores,  is the dog that sees in color.
Solved! Thank you to the two people who correctly identified that book.  I've been trying to remember that book title for years!
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A book (late elementary level) about a boy who woke up on his birthday (10th or 11th?) and discovered he could communicate with the animals at his father's vet hospital. I remember one of the animals was a large sheep dog.  His talent saved the day somehow at the end of the book.  Early 70s maybe?

T. Ernesto Betnancourt, The Dog Days of Arthur Cane, 1977, approximate.  It could be The Dog Days of Arthur Cane-Arthur ends up turning into a dog though, and has to do something (now I can't remember what, but it was difficult) to be turned back. Maybe not the right title, but it was the first one that came to mind when I read your query.
Thanks for the suggestion, but no, I checked an online review, and the book I'm looking for is definitely not The Dog Days of Arthur Cane. My hero doesn't turn into a dog, and it's set in a rural area or small town, not NYC.
Harriet Lawrence, H. Philip Birdsong's ESP, 1969, approximate.  The description provided reminds me of H Philip Birdsong's ESP.  Did he communicate with animals through a recorder?  And was there a spoiled Peke named Dolores, as well as the Old English Sheepdog Bozo?  And the creepy lady with the electric car?  The title character is a boy, father is a vet, they live in a rural-ish area.  He's also got a sister named Jane.
Lawrence, Harriet, H. Phillip Birdsong's ESP.   That's the one! Thanks, so much!

Haugaard, Erik Christian, Hakon of Rogen's Saga (1963) and/or A Slave's Tale (1965). After some further googling, I hit upon the author, Haugaard, and turned up the two titles/books that may have merged into a single memory. Was Helga not a sister, but a friend to the protagonist? Do these books ring a bell with anyone?
Hagar and Grete. Viking Brother and sister--I believe book title was their names...blank and blank, Hager and Gerte or something? It was powerful and very heart breaking. At one point I remember an adult character restrains the brother from reacting to some event by saying (iambically) "The wind can't break a blade of grass, but it can fell an oak." I wish I could remember something more useful!

I don't  remember the name of this story, but I read it when I was in school.  It seems to me (I could be wrong about this), that it was in one of those Reader's Digest magazines they used to have in schools.  I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.
Robert Zacks, Half a Gift, 1947.  I have a huge stack of those Reader's Digest Skill Builders and this story was in only about the seventh one down.  Trouble is, as I pointed out before with my "Butter and Egg Lady" stumper, identifying any one volume of these is extremely difficult because they are all titled either "Reader's Digest Reading Skill Builder" or "Reader's Digest New Reading Skill Builder" followed by "Part 1" or "Part 2."  Anyhow, this is "Reader's Digest Reading Skill Builder, Part 2," copyright 1959, and can be identified by four butterflies in the foreground of the cover chased by two children in a meadow in the background.  The original poster might actually do better going to a library which keeps old magazines or microfilms and looking for the original story, or writing the publishers for a copy.  It appeared in Collier's, May 17, 1947, and The Reader's Digest, October 1947.

I think this is a book by Edward Eager, possibly Half Magic, but more likely one of the follow ups.  Carrie the cat was magically allowed to speak. It wasn`t a success; as the magic was only half magic, her young owner wished that the cat might only be allowed to say the word "music" [assuming that she`d then say "Mew"]. She actually said "Sick, Sick sick sick---" And she looked it.  A wonderfully funny and inventive book. I must read it again.
Half Magic.  Yes, it sounds like the episode with Carrie the cat from Half Magic, except there were four children.

Possibly Natalie Savage Carlson's The Half-Sisters (A 12-year-old girl looks forward to a summer filled with many events, especially showing her half-sisters, arriving from boarding school, how grown up she is) and Luvvy and the Girls (12-year-old Luvvy is delighted that she is at last old enough to accompany her older half sisters to boarding school)??
Natalie Savage Carlson, The Half Sisters, Luvvy and the Girls.  Here's the plot of  The Half Sisters:  "The story takes place in the years around 1915 on a farm near Frederick, Maryland. Luvvy, Maudie, and Marylou's mother remarries a man who has 3 older daughters. Luvvy (Luvena) is almost 12 and thinks that she should be one of the older girls now and not have to have 7 year old Maudie hanging around her all the time or have to take care of little 4 year old Mary Lou. During the year Luvvy grows up quite a bit and learns that sometimes it's nice just to be a child and not to want to grow up too fast."
Natalie Savage Carlson, The Half Sisters, sequel: Luvvy and the Girls 

#S219--seal baby or sea lion grows up:  "The White Seal" appears in The Second Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling.  Since most of these stories appeared separately as picture books, probably this one did, too.  This was also an animated CBS special, with the voice of Roddy McDowall, done quite well.
I've ordered a copy of Kipling's story to check it out.  I'll be surprised (but pleased) if that's the answer, because I would have been familiar with Kipling, so it seems I would remember that it was one of his stories.
Ewan Clarkson, Halic:  The Story of a Gray Seal, 1970.  This is a book I read as a child, and it certainly fits your description.  "In writing that evokes the very sound and smell of the sea, Clarkson follows Halic's growth to maturity. There are long periods of calm as Halic forages the ocean for food, then sudden dramatic moments of danger. His life is menaced by sharks and killer whales, and by man, his greatest enemy. But other men work to ensure his survival."
This is the right answer to my query.  Somebody else sent it in a while ago, and I finally got a copy of the book to check.  Yes, this is the terrific story - thanks so much to whoever it was that solved it!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Clarkson, Ewan.  Halic: The Story of a Gray Seal.  Drawings by Richard Cuffari.  Camelot Books / An Avon mass paperback, 1970, 1971.  VG.  $6

Edna Barth, Witches, Pumpkins and Grinning Ghosts, 1972.  Here is one possibility--Witches, Pumpkins and Grinning Ghosts.  It tells where most of the Halloween symbols came from and does talk about black cats.  I couldn't find anything about finding witches by putting one's shirt on backwards, though.
Lillie Patterson, Halloween, 1963.  Published by Garrard Publishing Company, Illustrated  by Gil Miret.  Could this be it?  It's at my parents' house so I can't look at it myself (had Dad e-mail the info!), but your stumper reminded me of this book, which I loved as a kid. I remember more of a focus on traditions from the past rather than from other countries, but still, the time is right, and I think it has an orange hard cover.
Patterson, Lillie, Halloween.  This is the correct book.  On page 31 it says, "Put your clothes on wrong side out.  Walk backwards to a crossroads on Halloween night.  At midnight you will see s witch."  The contents:  It's Halloween (includes The Strange visitor story), How It All Began (the Celts & Druids), The Apples of Pomona and the Eve of All Hallows, Ghosts Ghosts Ghosts, Witches and Black Cats, Wee Folk, Halloween Customs from Many Lands, Magic Tests - Chants - Charms (Who is my true love? What is his name?), Halloween Comes to America, Halloween with a Heart (UNICEF trick or treating).

His name is Hamilton.  I get lots of requests for this one, and only recently got my hands on a copy.
that's it!  and all these years i've been wasting time looking for "homer."  when i went to college, my mother took my copy to her office for the kids in the waiting room to read.  one day her "helpful" coworker threw it, and the other books i'd mentioned, out because they looked raggedy.  she replaced them with a bunch of cheap supermarket junk.  some people are just confused about what constitutes a good book.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Peck, Robert Newton.  Hamilton.  Illustrated by Laura Lydecker.  Little, Brown, 1976.  Hard to find!  This copy is unfortunately musty, and the boards are a bit warped.  I try not to have musty books, but it was the first time I'd ever found it!  Aside from that, it looks good.  Poor.  $30

M13:  Hangin' Out With Cici by Francine Pascal (And there was an ABC Afterschool Special based on it. It was called My Mother Was Never A Kid).
It looks like my stumper has been solved--now I know the name of the book. Wouldn't you know, it is out of print!  I would be very interested in purchasing a good reading copy (it doesn't have to be in collectable condition), if you have one.  Thanks!
The stumper identified as "Hangin' Out With Cici" is - *I* think, Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers. Still in print. :)
Hangin' Out With Cici - I'm going to agree on this ID and disagree with the suggestion of Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers, published Harper 1972. Freaky Friday takes place in the 70s, there is no time travel, and Annabel and her mother switch bodies, rather than being girls together.
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Had to be pre-1985.  This isn't much to go on, but it's worth a try.  My wife remembers a book in which a young girl travels back in time to the World War II era.  There (and then) she meets her mother and apparently learns a great deal.  That's about all I can tell you.  Any auggestions would be great. Additionally, it could be either a children's or a juvenile book.

Hangin' Out With Cici by Francine Pascal, I'm almost certain.
This is a remote possibility since the copyright date is 1988 but this might be The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.  During the family's Passover Seder, Hannah travels back to WWII Poland and experiences the horror of a concentration camp.  Don't think she meets her mother but she does meet some relative, maybe a great aunt or something.  It's been a while since I read this one but it's a great book.
I think this may be HANGIN' OUT WITH CICI by Francine Pascal, 1977 (republished 1991). Victoria always seems to be in trouble with her mom.
When she travels back in time to 1944, she meets a girl she relates to, one who has streak of rebellion - and finds out it's her mom as a teenager! It was also made into the 1981 ABC Afterschool Special MY MOM WAS NEVER A KID~from a librarian
Just a quick note...I submitted a solved stumper for T241, and in reviewing the new stumper page, noticed that T239 is very likely the same book. Hope
this helps! (Hanging Out with Cici by Francine Pascal.)
Pascal, Francine, Hangin' Out With Cici, 1972.  Victoria goes back in time to 1944, and meets her mother, who is rebellious (I distinctly remember a scene with shoplifting) and otherwise very unlike the adult Cici.
Mabel Esther Allan, Time to Go Back, 1972, copyright'
 comments='Could it possibly be Time to Go Back?  Sarah goes back in time to WW II England where she meets her mother and her family.  Near the end of the story she knows that her aunt is going somewhere where she will be killed by a bomb and can'\''t say anything about it.  It was a very poignant story.
Pascal, Francine, Hangin' out with Cici.  I think that both T239 and T241 might be the same book about the time traveler who meets her mother in the 1940's.  The girl's name is Victoria and she discovers that she and her mother share the same ability to get into trouble.
Just wanted to add that this book has been republished recently under the title My Mother Was Never a Kid.
Mabel Esther Allan, Time to go back, 1972.  Another possibility if your book was set in England - A girl called Sarah from London goes back in time to Liverpool during WW2, and meets her mother (Clemmie), and an aunt (Larke) she never knew who was killed in the bombing. When she tells the story to her mother much later, she is told she was named Sarah after a mysterious stranger who her mother had known in the war - so she was named after herself!
I was the original poster of this stumper.  I was waiting to give the book to my wife as a gift before I could determine whether the query was properly solved.  I gave her the book this weekend and am happy to report that , yes, the solutions posted were absolutely correct!  Another stumper solved.  (-:  Thanks for the help!
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The book was at the local public library, in Liverpool, NY, back in  late 70's early 80's. I am 36 and now live in SC, and would love to read this book that had such an impact on me.The plot of the book is a girl who is not getting along with her mother, and getting into trouble, so her mother sends her on a train to go live with relatives for the summer. Something happens on the train that causes her to hit her head, and when she gets off of the train, she sees a newspaper that has the date as 1950's. She realizes that she has traveled back in time, and is very scared and doesn't know what to do.She meets a girl around her age (I can't remember how) and the girl befriends her and takes her in. Gradually they become really good friends, and the reader learns that the girl is actually her mother when she was young.

Francine Pascal, Hanging Out with Cici, '86.  I remember this book distinctly, I love books about time travel, and I thought this one was done very well. A nice picture of the mother as a child during WWII.
Pascal Francine, Hanging out with Cici, 1977.  This is definitely the book.  It tells the story of Cici who has a typical teenager's relationship with her mother and feels like she doesn't understand what it's like to be young. As the stumper remembers, during a train ride she travels back in time and becomes friends with her mother.  I remember this book because it was the first time I had heard of "penny loafers".  Cici begins to understand that her mother once was young and was probably even a little wilder than she herself is!
Pascal, Francine, Hangin' Out With Cici.  This seems to be the same as T239. Victoria hits her head on a train ride and is sent back in time, where she meets her mother, who, far from the straitlaced adult she will become, is a rebellious girl.
Pascal, Francine, Hangin' out with Cici.  I think that both T239 and T241 might be the same book about the time traveler who meets her mother in the 1940's.  The girl's name is Victoria and she discovers that she and her mother share the same ability to get into trouble.
Just wanted to add that this book has been republished recently under the title My Mother Was Never a Kid.
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Girl bumps head, goes back in time, befriends mother. There might have been a subway involved.  She didn't get along with her mother but becomes best friends with her when she goes back in time to the 50s, I think.

Francine Pascal, Hanging Out with Cici, 1977, copyright.  The author of all the Sweet Valley books wrote this one--the actual title is "Hangin' Out with Cici: or, My Mother was Never a Kid".  Victoria is in huge trouble with the "perfect" mother, who she resents. She bumps her head and ends up on the subway in the 40s with Cici, a kid she really likes. Cici takes her home, where she eventually figures out that Cici is really Cecilia, her mother.
Hanging out with Cici!!!  That's it.  Is it completely ridiculous that I'm sitting here crying?  THANK YOU!!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Pascal, Francine. Hangin' Out with Cici.  Archway, 1978.  Paperback.  G+.  <SOLD>

W121 Sounds like the voice of Holden Caulfield, could Salinger have written a similar character? ...or Vonnegut?
Sounds like Heller's Catch-22.  I read it in high school and the only thing I remember is some guy sitting in a tree and a discussion of the Army's Catch-22 clause.  You could be released from the Army if you were 'nuts,' but if you were aware that you had psychological problems, then you weren't 'nuts' enough so you could not be released from combat duty.
Could be Catch 22 by Joseph Heller?
Nope, not Catch 22.  Nor Schlessinger, as far as I can find.
Dean Koontz, Hanging On, 1973.  Hillarious book about an Army Engineer unit in WW2 setting. Different than Dean Koontz usual, but with his usual talent. I recommend it for anyone who's been in the service, especially on the ground.

The answer to H30 is HANNIBAL'S ELEPHANTS by Alfred Powers; NY, 1944. The 13 year old boy is named Agenor. The book is 272 pages and is illustrated by James Reid. 

caffrey, nancy, Hanover's Wishing Star 

This is tooo freaky! Ten minutes ago I was hunting for another stumper and looked through a Wide Horizon- Scott Foresman reader and came upon Hans and Peter by Heidrun Petrides. Now I come here and find this query! Wow! It matches!! Hans lives in the attic and only sees roofs- Peter in the basement only sees feet and legs! In the introduction it states this book was written and illustrated by a fifteen year old girl.(English translation, Oxford University Press -1962) It is a stand alone book as well.
Wow!  I have been looking for this book for YEARS!  Thank you to whatever providence led you to the Foresman reader and then to my query!   THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!
I forgot one key piece of information regarding the Wide Horizon reader. It is Book 2 in the series! Sorry for the omission. 

The Thumbelina refrain sparked these remembered lyrics (probably not exact): "Thumbelina, Thumbelina, tiny little thing,/ Thumbelina dance, Thumbelina sing,/ What's the difference, what's the difference, if you're very small?/ For when your heart is full of love, you're nine feet tall." My guess is these come from a Disney recording, because that's what my siblings and I listened to (over and over) as children.  I don't remember a book, though.
T-10  If it helps at all, I remember Danny Kaye told a version of  Thumbelina where the song went: "Thumbelina, Thumbelina, tiny little thing.  Thumbelina dance, Thumbelina sing.  Thumbelina, what's the worry, though you're very small, when your heart is full of love, you're ten feet tall."
T10- I think I have the record you are talking about.  It was my favorite and I have passed it down to my children. However,I don't remember it as a book.  The record is Tina the Ballerina and it came out in the mid 1950's.  It is a 45 R.P.M.  PeterPan record. Tina always wanted to dance and when she the prima ballerina couldn't go on, she got her chance.  The refrain:Tina, the ballerina, the belle of gay Paris; dancing, dancing on her toes, round and round and round she goes...  Hope thishelps.
The song is one from Hans Christian Andersen: the musical. 

B123 birthday plant: perhaps worth looking at The Happy Birthday Present, by Joan Heilbroner, illustrated by Mary Chalmers, published Harper 1962, Weekly Reader I Can Read Book, 63 pages. "Charming tale of little Davy and how he makes the perfect gift for mother's birthday. Two young brothers, Peter and Davy, search all over town for a birthday present for their mother with a dime. At the end, they have a 'happy birthday tree.'"
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a sister and brother don't have money for a gift and end up decorating a plant with paper clips and other found/donated objects.  Monochromatic illustrations, more realistic than cutsey.

Joan Heilbroner.   illustrator Mary Chalmers, The Happy Birthday Present.  I think this is one I had as a child.  The end result involved a pinwheel and a seashell and was hideous, in my opinion!  I remember resenting this book.  The drawings were realistic pencil drawings.
I'm sure that's it!  I remember the shell and pinwheel now.  It may suck, but I remember it fondly.  This is the best $2 I ever spent it's been bothering me for YEARS!  Thanks so much.There was a book that we borrowed from the Davis California public library around 1988-1990 for my daughter. It was a wordless childrens book with a little dog (I think, or maybe another animal) that would blow up a balloon at different times in the story. The book did not look new when we had it, but I dont know how old it was.  The illustrations were very simple.  I wasnt a fancy book and Id guess its no longer in print, but Id love to find an old copy as a gift for my daughter.  If I remember correctly, the word "balloon" was in the title.

Inkpen, Mick, The Blue Balloon. Kipper the dog finds a blue balloon in the garden and a boy blows it up, but the balloon is full of surprises.~from a librarian

Happy Dog
I wanted to thank the librarian that posted a reply to my search (B697 Balloon).  I thought this might be the book, too.  But sadly it isn't.  The book I am looking for is a wordless picture book. That was part of the fun when "reading" the story to my daughter when she was little.  We made up our own story as we looked at the pictures.  Her favorite part was when we blew up our pretend balloon with the dog in the story.  My daughter was a very easy going toddler, but she cried very loudly in the library when we had to return this book.  This daughter is grown now and an avid reader, we really wish we could a copy of her first favorite book.  I worry that it may be too obscure and impossible to find.

Hideyuki Tanaka, The Happy Dog, 1980, copyright. This was the only wordless book that I could think of that had a dog and a balloon. From Amazon description: "Presents without words the misadventures of a small dog as he soils a newly washed blanket with a ball, gets stuck in a mud hold, and loses a balloon on the limb of a tree."
Hideyuki Tanaka, The Happy Dog, 1983, copyright. Maybe this? "A series of wordless short stories has sunny, comic illustrations with plenty of easy-to-follow action.  There are three stories, and each is told via three or four framed pictures per page. The dog, who never walks on four legs and actually might as well be a child, gets into trouble in the first tale when he dirties a sheet drying in the sun and ends with the sheet over him as he tries to clean it. Next, he gets thoroughly, happily wet on a rainy day  last, he has a few problems with a red balloon." (The Best in Children's Books, Sutherland, p. 417)
Mari, Iela, THE MAGIC BALLOON, 1967, 1969. Okay, I did another search, this time on wordless books. This is a long shot, but maybe it's THE MAGIC BALLOON by Iela Mari. The illustrations are very simple. If you search online with the terms "Magic balloon Iela Mari" you can find images. This may not be the one though - I didn't find any mention of a dog. The summaries I came across said the boy blows a bubble that turns into various objects, but the title does say balloon. Anyway, once you see the illustrations, at the very least you could rule it out.~from a librarian

This is it!!  This is it!!  I am so happy to have found this little book!!!  I honestly didn't think it would be possible to identify it, especially with the minimal amount of information I had - more a memory of reading to my daughter than a detailed description of the book.  I purchased a copy of the book on-line and it came in the mail this week.  I wasn't sure if it would be the right book, but I am delighted to report that it is.  Thank you with all my heart for taking time to answer my stumper - this is the best $2 I have ever spent!!!!

Jerry West, The Happy Hollisters,  1953-1970.  Could it be this series?
#F84--Family series:  At least two different authors wrote series about families named the Tuckers, Virginia Baker in the 1940s and Jo Mendel in the early 1960s.  The Tuckers in Baker's books appear to be English and the American editions were published in Chicago by Moody Press.  Mendel's Tuckers appear to be American. Her books were published by Whitman in Racine, Wisconsin, meaning they were those flimsy cardboard hardcovers printed on cheap, quickly-yellowing paper, which wouldn't last long in a library, but many copies can still be found.
Regarding my request F84, I think someone solved it. I went to my local library and checked out several Happy Hollisters books to verify. Although my memory is sketchy, this must be the series I was searching  for; all the pieces fit. In less than one week, a personal mystery has been solved. Thanks for your service! 

I accidentally omitted a critical piece of information - the third character in this book is an old man, a "hobo".
This could be the book The Family Under the Bridge.  I don't remember much about it except there are some homeless children and a hobo who "adopts" them.
Natalie Savage Carlson The Happy Orphelines, Brother for the Orphelines, Family Under the Bridge etc,  The
Hobo, Armand, lives under the bridge in  Paris and carries a large black umbrella.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Carlson, Natalie Savage. The Happy Orpheline.  Illustrated by Garth Williams.  NY: Harper & Row, 1957.  Pictorial boards, bookplate in front free endpaper. Very slight must.  G+/VG.  <SOLD> Carlson, Natalie Savage. The Family Under the Bridge.  Illustrated by Garth Williams.  NY: Harper & Borthers, 1958.  Ex-school-library copy, corners worn, clean interior, green cloth.  Slightly smaller format than other 2 listed for sale here.  G+ $10 <SOLD> Carlson, Natalie Savage. A Brother for the Orphelines.  Illustrated by Garth Williams.  NY: Harper & Brothers, 1959.  Ex-library copy with rear pocket removed, small stain on rear of cover and glue stain on endpapers.  Clean interior, Nice dust jacket.  G+/VG.  $18

The Happy Owls--that's it! Thank you so much!

Helen Wing, The Happy Twins.  I think this may be your book.  It's about blond twins, a boy and a girl, that have a happy day with many activities.  It's an Elf book.  There's one picture with them holding their grandfather's hands and walking through the park.  They have balloons.
Yes!  That�s the book!  Thank you!  I found it online for under $3.00!  I love this website!

Fern G. Brown, Hard Luck Horse, 1975.  This is absolutely the book! I searched for it myself for ages. All I could remember was Woody Dip's name, but I finally found it. The girl's name is Cristi Barnett, and she wants to pay for a lifesaving eye operation for Woody Dip, even though he doesn't belong to her.
I just ordered the book, I can't wait to see her face when she opens it!

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron, 1961.  Classic SF story.  From Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House".
Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House, 1970.  This sounds like the short story Harrison Bergeron from the book Welcome to the Monkey House.
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Burgeron.  This science fiction short story was originally published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine in 1961.  It has since been anthologized widely, often for student use.  The following link leads to text online.
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, short story. 

Zion, Harry the Dirty Dog. I can't remember details, but this could be the right one.
Zion, Gene, Harry the Dirty Dog, 1956. Could this be Harry the Dirty Dog? A little white dog with black spots runs away from home, gets very VERY dirty until he looks like a little black dog with white spots, and when he comes back home his family doesn't recognize him until they give him a bath.
Marion Beldon Cook, Waggles and the Dog Catcher, 1951. This was originally illustrated by Louis Darling, but the Scholastic paperback that came out later had illustrations by John Peterson that I like better (possibly because they were the ones I knew as a child)

This sounds an awful lot like Harry and the Terrible Whatz-It but I can't seem to locate my copy of the book, so I am not sure of the date, author, or even quite sure how to spell "Whatz-It!"
Harry and the Terrible Whatzit is by Dick Gackenbach (Clarion, 1977.)  The pictures are done in red, brown, and black.  Harry's mom didn't come back up from the cellar so he went downstairs, armed with a broom,  to save her from the double-headed, three-clawed, six-toed, long-horned Whatzit that lives behind the furnace.  When Harry attacked it with his
broom, the Whatzit got smaller and smaller because Harry wasn't afraid of it anymore.  When it was the size of a peanut, Harry sent it to live in the cellar next door because "Sheldon Parker's afraid of everything." 

m64   I'm pretty sure that that they are describing Harvey's Hideout, by Russell Hoban.  See description for H14
Yes!!!  Thank you so much!!!!!!! (Now if only someone remembers my tall ships book stumper .....)
Thanks again!!
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It had a main character (small furry animal) like Frances (of Bread and Jam...), but it is not one of the Frances books in print now.  The main character runs away with a hobo pack (stick with a handkerchief tied on the end). She then makes a house in the dirt and eventually finds another animal is living in a den next to hers.  They have some sort of hole in the dirt between them like a window.  It had black and white illustrations much like Lillian Hobans.  I tried to look in the Library of Congress index, but there were not subject descriptions on a lot of the Hoban books.  Any ideas?

In A Baby Sister for Frances, jealous Frances makes a hobo stick and runs away... underneath the dining room table.  I don't think she even got outside.
Hoban, Harvey's Hideout.  Brother and sister muskrats aren't getting along  they each have a secret hideout and it turns out their places are right next door to each other (brother accidentally tunnels into sister's place).
I wonder if this could be Harvey's Hideout again.  They certainly end up with two burrows close to each other, and ultimately make just one hideout.  The illustrations are Hoban, but I don't know about the hobo stick as I don't have the book any longer.  The submitter might want to read the solved listing as well as the stumper listed as H14 with lots of plot details to see if it sounds familiar.
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I am looking for a book that I have described to all my siblings and several bookstore clerks, but no one seems to remember. I can see the illustrations in my mind so I really don't think I'm making this book up.  I think I read it in the early 1960s when I was a little girl.  The illustrations are very similar to Bread and Jam for Frances.  So the illustrator must be LILLIAN HOBAN or maybe Russell Hoban.  The story is about two muskrat/otter/beaver/badger siblings--a brother and a sister.  They are not getting along well.  They both tell each other that they are going to their own private, secret clubhouses and Nya-nya-nya who needs you anyway?!  The mother calmly packs them each a lunch IN A PLASTIC BAG and they swim across a river WITH THEIR PLASTIC LUNCH BAGS IN THEIR MOUTHS.  As it turns out there is no one else at the brother's underground clubhouse but him.  I remember a CALENDAR hanging on the clubhouse wall with a picture of an INDIAN muskrat/badger/otter/beaver on it.  The boy feels sad.  Next door there is no one else at the sister's underground clubhouse either.  She has some girly things in there, maybe a muskrat/beaver/otter dolly, some flowers, and a tea set.  She is lonesome and begins to cry.  They didn't realize that their clubhouses were right next door to each other.  I think the brother hears the sister begin to cry.  They tear down the adjoining wall and make one big clubhouse and are happy to play together in their new secret club.  This book reminds me of my younger brother and me, the two youngest of five children.  I would love to find it.  My parents have died and we did not come across this mysterious book as we sorted through their estate.

H14 is HARVEY'S HIDEOUT  by Russell Hoban  It was was my little brother's favorite book.  I don't know why, I was a very nice big sister.
This sounds like Harvey's Hideout again.  Check H14 for description in Stump the Bookseller and in solved mysteries.
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This was a title I read in 1970's.  It was about a family of beavers or muskrats???  There was a brother and sister and I remember the sister was going to a party so she had to put her dress in a plastic bag so she could go to the party.  I think this is an illustration I remember.  I don't recall the plot.

B83 sounds like Harvey's Hideout, by Russell Hoban.  There is a better description somewhere in Stump the Bookseller.
Harvey's Hideout.This is definitely Harvey's Hideout. Another one of my favorite books! I remember the part about his sister going to a party and putting her dress in a plastic bag and carrying it in her mouth when she swam accross the stream. Other plot points: Harvey doesn't get along with his sister and finds an old hole in the
ground which he makes into his "hideout". He cooks there, I think bacon and eggs. She eventually finds out about it. They become friends in the end. Hope this helps!
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I am 35 years old and enjoyed this picture book as a child. I believe the cover is primarily dark blue. The story is about a brother beaver and sister beaver (named Mildred??). At least I think they were beavers. The brother builds a raft. The sister has a tea party in a cave and wears a fancy dress. No one comes to her party. Her brother shows up and they quarrel. He throws dirt at her, messes up her dress and makes her cry. At around the same time period I was also enjoying the books "Miss Suzy" and "Never Tease a Weasel". I just cannot remember the name of this book or its author. Can you help?

Sounds like Harvey's Hideout by Russell and Lillian Hoban.  See more on Solved Mysteries.

I found mention that the story "Good Morning Herr Muller" could be found in Chassidic Tales of the Holocaust by Yaffa Eliach, but could find no further information.
J37: Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, 1982 (pb reprint 1988).  Alternate spelling: Chassidic Tales of the Holocaust

So, I managed to solve my own question with one of the paypal queries I sent you earlier today, regarding the Italian story of the fellow who had a false leg with a wheel. It is "The Hat," by Tomi Ungerer, 1970.  Thanks, though!  Have a nice coffee beverage on me.

There was a famous Nip and Tuck book in the 30's...  look on the Solved Mysteries page under Nip and Tuck to see if that's the one.
N37 Hadn't thot of it for yrs, but it was always one of my favorite books from 75 years ago. By Caroline Emerson, Oh, I
DO have it here behind me on my daughter's old bookshelves. A hat-tub tale. Dutton c1928 1st ed 1928 Sorry to make you
drool I see 3 requests for it on ABE's want list. Does customer live anywhere near central WA state - to come read it -
or to photocopy it?

B367 Could it be Hattie instead of Batty? I've sold my copy of Don Freeman's Hattie the Backstage Bat which was a Viking Seafarer paperback
I'll bet you're right!
Don Freeman, Hattie the Backstage Bat, 1970.  Hattie the bat lives in a theater. I'm pretty sure the cover was blue and pictured the bat flying around.
thanks for finding a solution! i've been looking for the book off and on for probably 15 years. i looked up the title on ebay and found a picture and it is indeed the book i remember. I must have called it batty because of the bat and since it was so close to hattie.  thanks again.

F146 possibly  Kjelgaard, Jim.  Haunt fox.  illus by Glen Rounds.  Holiday House, 1954.  I've just skimmed the book. Fox is a 6-toed one, named Star. Father and son, Jeff and Jack, as well as a bounty trapper, named Dade, hunt him. After a year, Jack finds the fox in one of Dade's traps. Instead of shooting him, he decides to free him  from the trap, and let him go [and pay Dade the money he would have made on him.]

Could the two siblings maybe be five siblings? If so, it might be one of the Happy Hollisters series (I think they are from the 1950's)
Margaret Sutton, The Haunted Attic.  This is the second book in the Judy Bolton series, which is a Nancy Drew-like series. Judy and her family have just moved into the house, which was given to them as a reward (Judy's brother Horace warned the town they originally came from that a dam was going to break in the first book in the series.) Horace discovers the haunted sounds are caused by the branch of an old tree scraping against a window, a parrot (now dead), and a white cat he names ghost. But there is more to the haunting than that, and it's Judy who finally puts all the pieces together. The house is on the dividing line between the rich part of town and the poor part of town, and Judy's rich friends don't approve of her making friends with the mill-working girls on the other side.
Margaret Sutton, The Haunted Attic.  Thankyou for all the help! This one is solved!!

H144 It's been a while since I read it, but it might be worth looking into THE HAUNTED CHURCHBELL by Barbara Ninde Byfield~from a librarian
Barbara Ninde Byfield, The Haunted Churchbell, 1971.  What a wonderful little mystery book! Thanks to the tipster who correctly solved my own little mystery. This is a wonderful book for kids 7-9 years old.

Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove.  Definitely! The last line: "Why should I be? She's my great grandmother, and it's her organ."(speaking of Theodora Zagrodzky)
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove. (1971)  This is definitely the book being sought---I remember it from my own childhood!  Twelve year old Kevin MacAlastaire and his ten year old sister Christie spend the summer holiday in a seaside cottage in Oregon. They meet a mysterious local girl named Mora, who tells them ghostly tales about the haunted cove.  The mansion on the cliff above the cove is apparently inhabited by a flute playing three eyed witch.  Every day at sunset, the witch stands on a rock in the ocean and charms the local marine life with her music.  The three children eventually learn that the woman is Theodora Zagrodsky, a very talented musician who wears a jewel on her forehead that looks very much like a third eye.  Followed by a sequel, The Treasure of Kilvarra (1974): While visiting Ireland, eleven-year-old Christie fulfills a prophecy and finds a treasure.
The Haunted Cove.  THATS IT!!!  Thank you so much!  I had given up hope of ever finding that book again.  Also, I didn't know there was a sequal, so I will have to find that as well.  Again, THANK YOU
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove.  This should be moved to the solved section. I have this book in my possetion and there is no mistaking the last line or the plot. I was always one of my favorites!
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read in the early 1970's. This was a book about some children (don't remember how many or their names) tnat were on summer vacation to the ocean (I think the east coast).  There was a large, apparently deserted mansion that the children thought a witch lived in.  There was a large whirlpool, and cemetery close to the house. The children had to climb out on a dangerous point and under a chainlink fence to get to this house.  I also think they believed the witch had turned someone into one of the monuments in the graveyard.  The story ended with the house actually being a hideout for robbers or something other than a witch.  I checked this book out from a small elementary school library in Missouri--if that helps.

Kin Platt, Mystery of the Witch Who Wouldn't, 1969.  This sounds very much like one of the Sinbad and Steve mysteries written by Kin Platt.  I'm not sure I'm matching the right title to the plot though.  Steve, his bulldog Sinbad, and his friend/enemy Minerva, the sheriff's daughter solve mysteries.  In this particular title, they save an old lady who has the reputation of being a witch from a group of criminals who are trying to steal her land.  Some of the other titles are Sinbad & Me, The Ghost of Hellsfire Street and The Blue Man.  Good luck!
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove.  Again! See solved stumpers.
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove, 1971.  This is one of my all time favorite books from my childhood, The Haunted Cove by Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton. Note that there are two different cover art versions for this book...one, by Xerox Family Educational Services, is sort of dark blue and creepy looking, showing two children running away from a dark house. The other, by American Education Publishers/Weekly Reader Books, is "sunny" in comparison, predominantly light green, with the two children climbing the promontory above the cove. There was also a second book with the same children (1974 Xerox publishing, only one cover) called Treasure of Kilvarra, in which the siblings have mysterious adventures in Ireland.
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove, 1971.  Thank you so much--this is certainly the book I was looking for.  When I looked back in the archive I found this puzzle already solved, but with an entirely different set of details from the book that I had completely forgotten. I think it is amazing how certain images from a book that I read 30 years ago can remain so vivid in my mind.  From the requests that I have read on your site, I see that my experience is not an infrequent occurrence.  I wonder if authors realize what an impression they can make on young minds.  I am most grateful to them all for sharing their stories and imaginations with us. I also thank you for this wonderful website.
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Young adult/children's book read around 1982-83 about kid or kids living next to a spooky house on a promontory that may contain witches. I remember the word "coven", thought it was the title. Definitely remember the word "promontory". I remember the book having a dark blue picture on the cover.

This sounds like a book I've been searching for forever!  I thought the title was The American Witch, but it was by an author whose last name was something like Mc or Mac-something.  Whenever I look, I find The Good American Witch, by Peggy Bacon, but I don't think that's the book I'm looking for. It might be the one you are, though!
Anyway, I don't know how much help that will be, but it might be a good starting point.
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove, 1971, copyright.  I'm sure the book you're looking for is The Haunted Cove by Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton. Brother and sister, along with mother, vacation in a cottage on the coast of Oregon. Next door is a spooky house on a promentory, the owner is said to be a witch! You'll probably remember the "witch" standing on rock out in the cove playing the flute, with the seals coming in to listen to her. Also the two ways the kids get close to the house...once under a chain link fence, where the girl almost falls, the other time along the coast at low tide....that time they're trapped by high tide and have to stay till tide goes down again.  There were two printings of the book...one, the Xerox printing, has the blue cover you describe, the other, a Weekly Reader printing, has an entirely different cover....light green. Text is same for both, and both printings very available and inexpensive. There was another book with the same siblings called The Treasure of Kilvarra, where they vacation in Ireland.
Holly Beth Walker, Meg and the Secret of the Witch's Stairway, 1967, copyright.  Could it be one of the Meg mysteries, published in the late 60s/early 70s by Whitman?  The one that sounds the most likely is The Secret of the Witch's Stairway, but that wasn't the cover I remembered when I looked it up.  Maybe The Mystery of the Black Magic Cave?  I remember a cove being in one of the books.  Good luck!
Jay Jackson MacNess, The American Witch, 1966, copyright.  I can't help with the original question, but The American Witch is by Jay Jackson MacNes, illustrated by Don Bolognese, and published in 1966 by McGraw-Hill.   I searched for it for a number of years, too!
Elizabeth Baldwin Hazelton, The Haunted Cove.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is the book I've been looking for for ages! I loved it back then and can't wait to read it again.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Hazelton, Elizabeth Baldwin.  The Haunted Cove.  Illustrated by Ned Butterfield.  American Education Publications, 1971.  Weekly Reader Children's Book Club edition.  Hardcover.  VG.  $4.

Edward Gorey, Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, Amphigorey Also,  earyl 1980s.  If the illustrations could be drawings rather than photographs, this description has Edward Gorey written all over it.
the book was NOT edward gorey.  It was absolutely black and white  photos for sure.  I think that's what freaked me out so much, because  she was a real girl.
Bruce McMillan, Ghost Doll, 1983.  Maybe???  "In a rare blend of suspense and wonder, Bruce McMillan has captured, in these evocative black-and-white photographs, all the timeless mystery of a little girl's love for a special doll."  Photographed in an old mansion in Kennebunkport, Maine, this short but eerie story has a surprise ending for Chrissy and all the young people who read it.
Terry Berger, The haunted dollhouse, 1982.  Or..."On her thirteenth birthday, Sarah wakes up inside the mysterious Victorian dollhouse she has wished for, and spends the day there alone in an atmosphere of doom."  Illustrated with photographs by Karen Coshof.  (Some color illustrations.)
yes...  I think its the haunted dollhouse (by terry berger)  I'd have  to see the cover to know for sure though.
thanks so much for id'ing that book.  Sorry, I was so jazzed, I bought a copy yesterday from [big bad competition]!

Just a note if you're searching for "pot licker", Yankees! We either spell it "pot likker" if we're feeling quaint or "pot liquor" if we ain't!
White, Robb, Haunted Hound.  NY Doubleday 1950.  "The hard-to-find story of a lonely boy named Jonathan and a black-and-white hound dog named Pot Likker." The cover is red with an illustration of the dog. Someone else looking for it said the dog liked to jump on trains, but I haven't read it so I don't know. The story opens "Jonathan Barrett put the report card and the note from his teacher between the pages of his arithmetic book. As he walked slowly through the schoolyard he felt hopeless. And lonely. For a little while, as he walked across the school playground, he wondered what his father was going to say about the report card. But, as Jonathan turned and started down the avenue, he knew that his father wouldn't say much, if anything. He never did. he just looked for a long time at the red F's Jonathan made and then looked away."

The Haunted Spy by Barbara Ninde Byfield, 1969  A spy retires to a castle in the country, only to discover it is haunted by a ghost (in one picture he is shown rowing in a small boat with the  ghost to get to the treasure)
Hi, I came across your site and just had to read some of the stumpers. See, I'm a children's librarian and stumpers are my favorite (although they can drive me insane at times!) I had to send you the answers to some of your posted stumpers- The stumper about the castle, crypt, spy, ghost, dog: It's THE HAUNTED SPY by Barbara Ninde Byfield (1969). And your customer might be interested to know there were sequels (THE HAUNTED TOWER, THE HAUNTED GHOST, THE HAUNTED CHURCHBELL) although I myself think THE HAUNTED SPY is the best one.
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Pre 1980's children's short mystery - definitely not an adventure book...no children characters in the book.  A man witnesses something strange in a distant castle or mansion on an island and boats over to investigate.

Sounds like it could be THE HAUNTED SPY written and illustrated by Barbara Ninde Byfield, c1969. It's a picture book, but not a babyish one, and there are no children in the book. A spy gets tired of the spy business, so he buys a small castle set on an island. But the castle is haunted. If it helps, the spy has a basset hound. A Google image search with the keywords "haunted spy" will turn up an image of the cover.~from a librarian
Barbara Ninde Byfield, The Haunted Spy, 1969, approximate.  Thank you so much to Loganberry Books, and to the librarian that solved this for me, and now I even see it was previously on the solved page!  I was so obsessed with this book that was in my elementary school library 25 years ago - the last 4 pages or so were torn out and I never got to see how the story ended, but I still pulled that book out almost every time I went to the library.  Maybe I was wishing the pages would reappear.  I can't wait to find a copy and find out how it ends!  Thank you!!
Just wanted to say that Barbara Ninde Byfield was the author of the funny Eating-in-Bed Cookbook (1962) and the tongue-in-cheek occult encyclopedia, The Book of Weird, aka The Glass Harmonica (1967). She wrote at least 7 more mysteries and illustrated 6 books by other writers, including Herb Caen's The Cable Car and the Dragon. Sadly, she died at age 58 in 1988.

Shirreffs, Gordon D., The Haunted Treasure of Espectros.  Chilton 1962.  I believe this is on your Solved list - there can't be too many teen mysteries where canned peaches play a role! Gordon D. Shirreffs, Mystery of the Haunted Mine, 1970, reprint.  Copyright 1961--Formerly The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros  From the back cover: "Somewhere in those canyons is a fortune .... The Indians say it is guarded by ghosts -- but Gary and Tuck refuse to believe that ghosts use live ammunition!"  Tuck's cousin Sue is in the story also.
I am very sure you are thinking of Mystery Mountain by Florence Laughlin. (1964)
The Haunted Treasure of Espectros.  Thanks for this information. This sounds like it right down to the names of the kids. Who would have thought the canned peaches thing would be the tip-off? Thanks again for solving this 20-year-old mystery for me.
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This is a story of legendary lost treasure in the mountains.  There are two antagonistic groups searching for it, including the main characters of the story who as I recall where a boy and a girl.  The most memorable detail that I can recall was the legend of the recluse that had found the treasure and then disappeared years before.  He had been well known for his favorite food, soda crackers and canned cling peaches.  During the course of the story, a mummified body is discovered in a cave and identified as the recluse as it was found among an old stockpile of the before mentioned food.  This book was published by Scholastic, I believe.

Shirreffs, Gordon D., The Haunted Treasure of Espectros.  This one keeps popping up, doesn't it?  And it's the peaches that give it away no matter how else the book is described.
Shirreffs, Gordon Donald, Original Title:The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros Retitled: Mystery of the Haunted Mine, 1962.  This book is in the Solved Mysteries pages under "H" for The Haunted Treasure of Espectros, the original title, and "M" for Mystery of the Haunted Mine, the reprint title.  You can read descriptions of the plot on both pages, and you can see the book's cover on this website.  I have not read this book, but it was published by Scholastic and both of the Solved Mysteries pages describe the canned peaches.
Gordon Shirreffs, Mystery of the Haunted Mine. I loved this when I was a kid- it was originally published as The haunted treasure of the Espectros. Shirreffs also wrote Rio Bravo, and other Westerns.
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This book was read to me in fourth grade in 1971.  My memory of it is pretty weak at this point.  The name "The Lost Expectros" (I am not sure of the spelling) had somthing to do with the book, but I now know it wasn't in the title.  It may have been the name of a mountain range the book was set in or around.  I remember it being about two boys trying to solve a mystery or find treasure, a mine, or "the lost expectros"?  It was set in the west or southwest.  I remember one part about them having to swim under a submerged ledge in to get from one area to another.  I don't remember if this was in a cave or not.  It was not a picture book, it was a longer book and I think it was an older book as well.  Unfortunately, at this time, "The Lost Expectros" is the main thing I remember, I just don't remember what exactly it had to do with the book.

Shirreffs, Gordon Donald, The Haunted Treasure of Espectros, 1962.  Reprinted as Mystery of the Haunted Mine.  Please see the "Solved Mysteries" pages under H and M for more information.
Shirreffs, Gordon D., Haunted Treasure of Espectros / Mystery of the Haunted Mine.  OK, they didn't mention peaches this time, but it's got to be the right book.
Shirreffs, Gordon D, The Haunted Treasure of Espectros.  Here it is again. This must be a memorable book!
Gordon D. Shirreffs, The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros, 1962.  This one is on the Solved Mysteries page.  It was apparently retitled "Mystery of the Haunted Mine" in later editions.  It is about a boy named Gary and his best friend Tuck who set out to find a lost treasure on an allegedly haunted mountain.
Shirreffs, Gordon D., The Haunted Treasure of Los Espectros, (Mystery of the Haunted Mine).  NY Chilton 1962.  I believe this is on the solved pages already, with mention of both the original and the Scholastic titles. Lost Expectros sounds a good deal like Los Espectros.

Vivien Alcock, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, 1980.  This is it - I just read it.  "Thirteen-year-old Cassie Palmer, the seventh child of a seventh child, has inherited the gift of second sight. Unsure whether or not she even believes in ghosts, Cassie heads to the cemetery to test her ability to communicate with the Other World. She starts with the departed spirit of a harmless child: CHARLOTTE EMMA ELIZABETH WEBB, BORN 1840 DIED 1847. But when a mysterious man appears, Cassie finds a new companion. Is he a gravedigger? A bum? Or did Cassie's inexperience cause her to bring back Charlotte's frightening neighbor: DEVERILL 1720 - 1762?"
Vivien Alcock, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer,1980.  Definitely.  The requester even got the protagonist's name right!
Vivien Alcock, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer
Vivien Alcock, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, 1980.  Thank you so much!  That's it.  I can't believe that I couldn't remember the name.  Now I can go find it!  This is such a wonderful site and such a wonderful service.  Thank you for helping me remember this book!!!
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A book about a girl who lives with a lot of relatives and her mother who works from home as a fortune teller but the girl knows it's all a hoax, her mother doesn't have 'the gift', but the girl does because she's the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter or 14th of a 14th.. something like that. I read it in the mid 80's but have no idea about an author or title.

Hey, me again, i was searching the archives and found the book i was looking for. "the haunting of cassie palmer" the new cover design is what threw me off, it was done in 1990!  Thanks for such a wonderful helpful site, but you don't have to post my query.
Posted anyway, in case someone else happens to be looking for a good book!

Dorthy Francis, The ghost of graydon place, 1982.  main character is tracy.  She and her friends get snowed in the Graydon mansion.  She has a visit from victoria Graydon, a ghost girl from another century.  Victoria says she can't rest because she murdered her sister.
Karleen Bradford, The Haunting at Cliff House, 1985.  This takes place in an old house, not an inn, but Alison, the protagonist, does find a diary belonging to a long-dead girl (Bronwen) behind a brick in the fireplace.  The two girls (living and ghost) are the same age, and are facing many of the same problems.  Hope this helps!
It's been solved!  The book is titled The Haunting of Cliff House by Karleen Bradford (1985 Scholastic).  If you can find a copy, I would love to buy one. 

F5 - This has some similarities to Jean Little's Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird where it is a boy who has to come to terms with his father's cancer and death, and a girl who wears odd clothes that help him do so.
F5--Just wanted to say "Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird" is a novel which would have been published quite some time after this short story.
Not too sure, but - THE HAUNTING OF JULIE UNGER by Valerie Lutters, NY, Atheneum 1977, 193 pgs, cloth. "Julie finds she is living in Maine with the ghost of her beloved father, a ghost she has built out of love & guilt. The wild geese, an old neighbor & a boy with a dog help her back into life with the living." Julie isn't exactly an unusual name though, so I'm not too certain about this.

Farjeon, Eleanor, Faithful Jenny Dove. 1930s, reprinted 1950s. This was the title story in a short story collection by E F - it may well have been anthologised separately - girl ghost waits in the lane where she promised
to meet lover who has gone away, and meets another ghost instead.
Hi!  I wanted to let you know how thankful I am for your site.  I posted a stumper to your website a long while back & someone finally replied that one of the stories in my stumper was "Faithful Jenny Dove" by Elanor Farjeon.  I had to let you know how imensely it helped.  I got my local library to search for anthologies w/H.G. Well's "The Magic Shop" and "Faithful Jenny Dove" in them & they found my long lost anthology!  It is titled Haunting Tales edited by Barbara Ireson and published in 1973 and even has illustrations by Freda Woolf.  If you ever have a reasonable copy in your shop, you have a customer!

Sounds like The Ghost Belonged to Me by Richard Peck (see Solved Mysteries). The 1978 Disney movie was "Child of Glass."
Thanks for the info - but the book is not The Ghost Belonged to Me. In my book, the girl died in a fire -  not murdered. Also, I believe the book was part of series in which the ghost does a good deed each book for one her relatives. Thanks for your help though!
Emily Cates, Haunting with Louisa trilogy, 1990, approximately.  Almost sure this is it.  Dee, a girl of 13 whose mother has just died, is sent to live with her aunt, an innkeeper on a small island.  Dee discovers a ghost girl named Louisa Lockwood in her room  Louisa and her family died in a fire in the 1800s and Louisa must help four Lockwood relatives before she can rejoin her family.  Titles are The Ghost in the Attic, The Mystery of Misty Island Inn, and The Ghost Ferry.
Thank you so much! These are the books I have been looking for! I am so excited - I have been looking for years. I cannot stress how much I appreciate all of the help. Thanks!!!!

M. Masters, Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams in...  1983-1985.  There were about 12 or 14 books in this "Can You Solve the Mystery?" series about a blonde, bespectacled boy named Hawkeye Collins and a redheaded girl named Amy Adams.  Amy solved mysteries based on Hawkeye's drawings of the crime scenes.  The reader was invited to try to solve the mysteries before seeing the solution, which could be read using a mirror.  Each title in the series contained eight to ten different mystery stories, and I am afraid I do not know which title contained the "Tomato Stealer" story.  I also do not recall Amy being called "Spitfire", but it is quite possible.  The first title in the series was "Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams in the Secret of the Long Lost Cousin and Other Mysteries".
M Masters, Hawkeye Collins & Amy Adams in the case of the video game smugglers & other mysteries, 1983.  I'm not sure if this is the exact title but the description fits one of the Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams mysteries.  Hawkeye always carried the sketch pad and made drawings that helped to solve the mystery.  The answers to the mini-mysteries were always printed backwards in the back of the book so that you had to hold it up to a mirror to read the answers.
Masters M, Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams mysteries (series title: can you solve the mystery?), 1980s.  These are the Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams mysteries.  All titles begin Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams in the case of the... and include: The case of the kidnapped brain (1983) The case of the chocolate snatcher (1983)  The case of the video game smugglers (1983) The case of the mysterious dognappers;  The mystery of the haunted house; The case of the double alibi (1985)  the case of the clever marathon cheat (1985).

He Went for a Walk
This was an English book written by Dorothy Evelyn Smith.  It is about a little boy who goes looking for his soldier father after his home is bombed during the Blitz in London.  His mother is killed and the father goes looking for the boy.  It was written, I think, during the war.  So around 1944 maybe.  The boy's name might be Simon.  I have other books by Smith but haven't seen reference to this one. Thanks again.

Dorothy Evelyn Smith, He Went for a Walk, 1954.  Not sure but the title ties in perfectly with the description and the fact that you can't find the book. It's somewhat hard-to-find.
Dorothy Evelyn Smith, He Went for a Walk, 1954.  Sounds like a plausible title, though I haven't read it. Other possibilities include Lost Hill, O the Brave Music, Beyond the Gates, Huffley Fair, Proud Citadel, Brief Flower, or My Lamp is Bright.
I could only find 3 books that Smith wrote in the 40's - O, the Brave Music (1943), Proud Citadel (1947), and My Lamp is Bright (1949).  Her other books were written in the 50's & 60's.
Dorothy Evelyn Smith, He Went for a Walk, 1954.  This sounds like it might be the book I'm looking for.  The other Smith book , O,The Brave Music is definitely not the one--it is my favorite book and I still own it, and the others don't sound right.  So I hope He Went for a Walk is correct.  I'm ordering it anyway.  Thanks again. 

A Head on Her Shoulders
A group from a community decides to move west after their area is devastated by a tornado. For some reason, the children of one family are traveling alone -- all of their belongings are in a railway boxcar. One time, I think someone gets off the train to pick skunk cabbage and almost gets left behind. I read this in the 70's, but I think it was written earlier than that.

Is this the same book as T228?  Someone suggested Gladys Baker Bond, A Head on her Shoulders  for that stumper and it certainly sounds like the same book.
Bond, Gladys Baker, A Head on Her Shoulders. I checked out T228, and that description is the book I've been looking for. Thanks so much. I LOVE THIS SITE -- you're batting a thousand with my stumpers!
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The second book was about a family living in Texas, whose house was destroyed by a tornado.  The town people decide to leave and take a train to Oregon.  The father is going to travel in a box car with the boys and the animals, but on the day of departure, he breaks his leg.  The young daughter has to take charge, and go on the boxcar with her brothers.  On the way there, they meet a gypsy girl who's father has died, and she stays with them.  I remember that they run low on money and food, and the gypsy girl is able to get her father's trunk and gives them food and money from it. They reach Oregon safely, and the parents agree to take in the gypsy girl.

Gladys Baker Bond, A Head On Her Shoulders (1963). I posted this stumper two years ago.  I had been racking my brain for the title of this book for almost 20 years.  A week before Christmas, while sitting in church during the Offertory, the title A Head on Her Shoulders sprang into my head.  I almost jumped up in the middle of Mass and yelled EUREKA!  As soon as I got home, I checked eBay, and a few copies were up, with a synopsis of the book.  I had my title, and I bought a copy of the book.  I was really happy about this!  I must have read it around 20 times since then!

Headless Cupid
This was one of those books about girls playing with magic.  Amanda wants everyone to believe she has magical powers. She wears a small triangular mirror on her forehead, to make herself look mysterious, and conducts seances and things like that. In a way it's similar to E.L. Konigsberg's "Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth..." in that the girl is just trying to create a more interesting life for herself.

Snyder, Zilpha Keatley. The Headless Cupid.  When Amanda comes to live with her new stepfamily she creates quite a stir with her interest in the occult, her weird hairdos and clothes and the triangle on her forehead.  This book is the first of a series of adventures of the Stanley family.
Amanda with a mirror triangle in forehead: The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  At least three sequels don't quite live up to the original, but are fun to read.
Zilpha Keatly Snyder, The Headless Cupid. 1975, approximate. Amanda is very unhappy about her mother''s divorce and subsequent remarriage, so she wraps herself up in occult studies and even invents a poltergeist with which to frighten her new family.  She wears a little mirrored triangle on her forhead and calls it her  "third eye".  She also wears her hair in many tiny braids and wears witchy looking clothes.  There is a mystery involving a headless cupid in the story.
I'll add my voice to the likely chorus - probably The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, published Atheneum 1971, where proto-goth Amanda joins the Stanley family and tries to make herself special by conducting seances, claiming to be psychic, etc. "When the four Stanley children meet Amanda, their new step-sister, they're amazed to learn that she studies witchcraft. They're stunned to see her dressed in a strange costume, carrying a pet crow, and surrounded by a pile of books about the supernatural. It's not long before Amanda promises to give witchcraft lessons to David, Janie, and the twins. But that's when strange things start happening in their old house. David suspects Amanda of causing mischief, until they learn that the hosue really was haunted a long time ago. Legend has it that a ghost cut the head off a wooden cupid on the stairway. Has the ghost returned to strike?"
a Newberry Honor Book, 1972.

Book from the mid-1970s about two girls who were reading a book about how to become witches and performing the tasks needed to become a witch - one of the tasks was walking on the furniture in order to not touch the floor.  I think another task involved a frog.

Hildick, E.W. , The Active-Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch, 1973, copyright. I dont remember the part about not walking on the furniture, but Allison and her sister Jeannie find a book on how to become a witch while on vacation and perform all the tasks to do so.  
E.L. Konigsburg, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. Theres more about it in the Solved section, it is still in print and easily available.
Zilpha Keatly Snyder, The Headless Cupid 1970s, approximate. Amanda offers to teach her new stepsiblings magic.  She resents her mothers remarriage, so she makes up "ordeals" for the stepsiblings that she hopes will be disruptive to the whole family.  One is not walking on the wood floor, which results in climbing on the furniture  another is carrying a reptile (frogs count) on ones person for a whole day.  Others are not touching anything made of metal and not speaking for a whole day.  The ordeals are only a part of the overall plot.  Excellent book.
E.L.Konigsburg, Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. This one might be Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by Konigsburg.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Headless Cupid. Could it be this one? Its not two girls, but one girl (Amanda) who has four new step-siblings who shes trying to convince that shes a witch. Theres definitely an episode with all the kids trying to prove they could be witches too, by trying to get around the room without touching furniture. As I remember, the youngest kids cheat somehow, and Amanda gets disgusted. ZKS has written many books though, and I could be confusing the titles.  It could be The Witches of Worm.
E. W. Hildick, The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Wtich. I think this is the right one.  And, if it is, theres a sequel:  The Top-Flight, Fully-Automated Junior High School Girl Detective.

E. L. Konigsburg, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, 1967. This is it! Elizabeth meets a new friend Jennifer, who takes charge and decides they will learn to be witches. A wonderful beek by a wonderful author.
Headless Cupid. This is the answer!  Thank you so much!!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  Headless Cupid.  Illustrated by Alton Raible.  Dell Publishing: a Yearling paperback, 1971.  1985  printing. Signed by Snyder on a sticker placed on front free endpaper: "From one author to another."  Corner tab of front free endpaper is clipped.  VG.  $20 Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  Headless Cupid.  Illustrated by Alton Raible.  NY: Atheneum, 1971.  Hardback early edition.  Slight stain on title page and ex-library copy with usual marks.  G/G.  $10  <SOLD>

Patricia Hermes, Heads I Win,  1989.
Hermes, Patricia, Heads, I Win, 1988.  "There's something for you in the freezer," she said.  ....  "Go look."   I crossed the kitchen and opened the top part of the refrigerator, the freezer part.  It was packed -- packed full -- with boxes and boxes and boxes of frozen macaroni and cheese.  There must have been fifty boxes in there!I turned around to her.  "For me?" I said.  And knew it was a stupid question.  Ms. Henderson nodded.  "For winning.  I was pretty sure you'd win."  "But there's so many here!" I said.  "Well," Ms. Henderson said, "you're going to be here for a long time."
Patricia Hermes, Heads, I Win, 1989.  I went to [that big megalithic online seller] and read the comments to make sure this was the book. I ordered a copy this morning. Thanks for the help!

??, Heads Up! (at least in Scholastic edition), c. 1960.  I'm 99% certain of the title on this, but my copy's been in storage for 10 years and inaccessible at the moment.  It *may* have had a different title originally (I seem to remember one of those notices in parentheses on the cover.)  I do recall it was one of the Scholastic Book Services paperbacks I bought in elementary school.  The girl's name was Peg or Peggy, and either the family or
their son (or both) were called Tuck, short for Tucker.  I think the horses were referred to as "Liberty" horses -- one of the tricks may have involved standing on the horse's back  posing as the Statue of Liberty.  Good luck -- hope this helps.
Patsey Gray, Heads Up!, 1961.  This is definitely the book.  A summary I found online told about the story exactly as I remembered.  Thanks to the person who wrote in with the title so that Iwas able to look it up.
O19 orphan rodeo: more on the suggested, Heads Up, by Patsey (Patricia) Gray, illustrated by Leonard Shortall, published Coward-McCann 1956, reprinted Scholastic 1961, 191 pages. "a girl and a horse have their problems but amidst a setting of California State Fairs and horse shows, they are straightened out with a healthy realism" ... "story of little-known life behind the scenes of horse shows and fairs and the sensible handling of a warm family relationship" ... "seems improbable that a girl of ten would be allowed by the authorities to sleep by herself in a stable". None of which really confirms anything, though.

Martha Reben, The Healing Woods, 1952.  "Author chose to return to nature and the woods as a last resort to gain back her health. The story of how she found peace and health in the quiet of the Adirondack mountains and the friendliness of the wildlife." Sounds like it's right on the money.
A136 Reben, Martha.  The healing woods. illus by Fred Collins. Crowell, 1952. Saranac Lake; New York State.

T.A. Barron, Heartlight,1990. Kate's astrophysicist grandfather, using his discovery of the relationship of light to the human soul, travels through the universe in search of a cure for Earth's dying sun. Following him to the star Trethoniel on the back of a giant butterfly, Kate becomes caught up in a dangerous and wonderful adventure in the end it is not science, but human love, that triumphs over the Darkness. Barron relies heavily on description, which tends to slow the movement of the plot. Characters are not sufficiently developed for a story with only two human protagonists. Given the book's blend of science fiction and Christian ethos, comparison with the work of Madeleine L'Engle is inevitable.
Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder. There is, of course, the famous short story by Ray Bradbury that involves time travel and a butterfly: It's not a book - but sometimes the memories can get hazy...
Jay Williams, Magic Grandfather. Not sure if this is it or not, it has a grandson instead a girl and I don't know about the butterflies but they are pictured on the cover
Heartlight.

Hearts in Trim
In the mid-sixties, I belonged to a book club called Best Loved Girls Books, and I have been trying to find some of these wonderful books again. I can't remember any of the titles, and there was one in particular which is driving me crazy.  The main character was a girl named Squeak.  The story centered around an elderly and wealthy neighbor of Squeak's who had died and left her property to a relative who was an actress.  Part of the woman's estate consisted of a huge personal library, which was of great interest to Squeak.  I remember that Squeak had a younger brother, Johnny I think was his name, and two older sisters, one of them preparing for her wedding.  Do you have any idea what the title of this book could be?

S76 Squeak and S83 Shakespearean treasure hunt sound similar (can you say that 5 times fast?)
This is Hearts in Trim by Lavinia R. Davis.
Davis, Lavinia R Hearts in TrimNew York, Doubleday 1954, "Serena Bruce, commonly known as Squeak, learns that old Mrs. Frostgate has left her a legacy. They begin to organize the books for selling and try to unravel the mystery of a glamorous actress who had settled in the village." "Serena and Cliff find themselves in hot water when they set about making the most of an unexpected legacy. Ages 12-16."
Davis, Lavinia R. Hearts in Trim New York. Doubleday 1954, "Serena Bruce, commonly known as Squeak learns that old Mrs. Frostgate has left her a legacy. They begin to organize the books for selling and try to unravel the mystery of a glamorous actress who had settled in the village." "Serena and Cliff find themselves in hot water when they set about making the best of an unexpected legacy."

David Almond, Heaven Eyes. Three "damaged children", orphans or foundlings, run away on a make-shift raft, and run ashore on the Black Middens, and are found by the mysterious Heaven Eyes, and her strange granpa, and are introduced to their wierd, out-of-synche world
David Almond, Heaven Eyes, 2001.  Thank you! I am quite sure this is the book I was looking for. The title sounds like the kind of thing I'd gravitate to and pick up -- likewise the cover. I remembered flipping through it at Borders when it came out, and thinking I would look for it at the library, but neglected to write down the author or title. I have requested a hold on it at the library, and with that, I consider this mystery solved. Thank you once again and thank you to Loganberry!

HECKEDY PEG! I solved my stumper, shortly after I posted this! oops! oh well..I'm glad I found it! I think Heckedy peg was already submitted, but it didnt ring a bell when I read it, I know remember, yes the children all had different names of the week. I found it through the library of congress, all I did was enter, "mother child witch" under keynotes, and I found it! yippee!!
Iona and Peter Opie, Childrens Games in Street and Playground,  1969.  This is unlikely to be the actual book that you read  but it does describe the story as a traditional British folkstory/ acting game. It is described under the heading "Mother, the Cake is Burning" (pp. 317-329  see especially pp. 323-325). 

Keith Robertson, Henry Reed's Journey, 1963.  This is a definite answer to this stumper!!  This is one of my all time favorite children's books!! There are four Henry Reed books this is the second in the series. Henry has lived overseas his whole life and come to spend the summers with his aunt and uncle in New Jersey. He travels across the U.S. with his friend Midge Glass and parents in order to experience the U.S.
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A young male (Henry?) has an engineering bent, but he is interested in being an entomologist. He meets a girl (with a "turned-up nose") who asks him--as she nibbles an apple-- does he plan to do *pure* research or *applied* research? The town buys a big metal swimming pool but it won't be available for use on the promised grand opening date of 4th of July because the crane needed to lower it into the already-dug hole is unavailable.  The boy becomes a hero when he thinks to put ice in the hole and slide the pool onto the ice.  When the ice melts, the pool will sink gently into the hole (he learned this from a Hopi Indian trick in which a metal container of burning material sinks magically into the ground).  A man, upon hearing the idea, says "Blast it Henry, when are you going to quit chasing butterflies and study engineering?" Henry is honored to be the first to jump into the pool, but forgets to test the water...it is cold from the ice, brrr!!!!  He wavers on whether to go public with the source of his inspiration.  The girl objects to him telling, saying "The Hopis couldn't have done that trick before white men provided them with ice."

I wonder whether this is one of the Henry Reed books by Keith Robertson, illustrated by Robert McCloskey.  There are five titles in the series: Henry Reed, Inc. (1958), Henry Reed's Journey (1963), Henry Reed's Baby-Sitting Service (1966), Henry Reed's Big Show (1970), and Henry Reed's Think Tank (1986).  I haven't read them all, so I can't be sure, but the descriptions of Henry and his friend Midge certainly sound appropriate!
Keith Robertson, Henry Reed series.  The scene where Henry meets Midge, the girl with the apple ('pure or applied research?') is in Henry Reed, Inc.  The swimming-pool scene may be in another book in the series- or perhaps in the Homer Price series?
Robertson, Keith, Henry Reed's Journey.  The story of Henry's journey across the U.S. with his friend Midge and her parents.  The incidents of the Hopi Indians and the swimming pool definitely match!
Keith Robertson, Henry Reed, Inc.,   Henry's Reed's Babysitting Service, Henry Reed's Journey.  This is from the Henry Reed series by Keith Robertson.  Henry and his friend Midge Glass have a series of adventures in Grovers' Corner, New Jersey.  Henry is quite brainy, if a little square, due to his years as an expat (his dad is in the Foreigh Service.)  each book is presented as Henry's journal, composed for the edification of his European classmates.  I remember the pool sequence -- it's not in Henry Reed, Inc. -- I think it might be in the Journey one (Henry travels out West with the Glass family.)  All three are very funny.
Keith Robertson, Henry Reed, Inc./Henry Reed's Journey(?), 1958/1963.  Could this be a conflation of two or more of Keith Robertson's Henry Reed books?  I haven't read "Journey," but I have seen plot summaries which mention the Hopis.  I have a copy of Henry Reed, Inc.  The description of the girl matches that of Margaret "Midge" Glass:  "She had a small face which was covered with freckles and light blue eyes that didn't miss a thing.  She was nibbling on an apple like a little rabbit.  If she hadn't had such a sharp-pointed nose, she would have looked like a rabbit too" (pp. 42-43).  On Page 44, she asks Henry whether he intends to pursue pure or applied research.  Midge is a character in all five Henry Reed books.  The only discrepancy is that Henry and Midge keep larger animals (rabbits, turtles, pigeons, and a dog) rather than insects, but Henry's mother did keep bees (p. 31).
KEITH ROBERTSON, HENRY REED.  THE GIRL'S NAME WAS MIDGE.
I am thrilled, the internet and your service are a heck of a combo. 

For some reason I thought of Mark Taylor's Henry the Castaway (Atheneum, 1972; illustrated by Graham Booth), and lo and behold, there is a series of them, including Henry the Explorer (Atheneum, 1966; illustrated by Graham Booth), Henry Explores the Jungle (Atheneum, 1968; illustrated by Graham Booth), and Henry Explores the Mountains (Atheneum, 1975; illustrated by Graham Booth).

H44 is definitely Henry's Awful Mistake by Robert Quackenbush
H44 It's HENRY'S AWFUL MISTAKE by Robert Quackenbush, published by Parents Magazine Press in 1980. ~from a librarian
H44 Henry and the ant: This is one of the suggested answers to A56 ant and flood: Henry's Awful Mistake, by Robert Quackenbush, published Parents Magazine Press 1980 "Henry the Duck attempts to chase an ant from his kitchen and ends up sinking his house!"
A56 ant and flood: Suggesting also Andy Ant, written & illustrated by Pops Winky, published Pacific Publishing House 1977, 34 pages. It's a picture book with bright detailed illustrations of ants working. "Firdale was the
largest ant town in the forest. The town gate, a big old ant hill, stood among the trees not far from the crossroad ... Through many trials and tribulations, Andy Ant finds his worth and value in the working world."
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There was a book that I used to read every time I went to the dentist, but they moved  offices and the book was lost in the move.  I was very little when I read it, and all I can  remember is that it was a story about an ant and a flood.  The pictures were so vivid and I always wanted to be part of the story.  I would say it was printed in the seventies, maybe early 80's.  I know that's not a lot of information, but if you have any ideas, I'd appreciate it so much.  Thank you!

Could this possibly be Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun by Janet Frame?  Mona is a house ant who meets and spends the summer with a field ant and has outdoor adventures.  My sister and I had it in the early 70's, and made our grandmother read it over and over.  Ours was a somewhat oversized hardback with chapters and, I think, a yellow cover, and the illustrations were big and detailed. The ants traveled down the stairs, a big undertaking, and Mona had a "stair game" involving things like a spider swing.  Near the end, a queen gave birth.  I didn't find out the book was by a famous writer until quite recently-  remembered the title but not the author.  It had a magical, evocative mood, with what I recognized even then as beautiful prose.
well, maybe - Quackenbush, Robert Henry's Awful Mistake Parents Magazine Press 1980 "Henry the Duck attempts to chase an ant from his kitchen and ends up sinking his house!" Nothing mentioned about the illos though.
Another ant story, no mention of flood, and a bit early - Nimblefoot the Ant, her Adventures, by Vytas Tamulaitis, illustrated by Pranas Lape, published New York, Manyland Books 1965  hardcover octavo. "Author won the Lithuanian Red Cross Literature for Juveniles Award. Story of a black ant captured by red ants and her escape home. Illustrations are delicate line drawings."
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The book I am looking for is a children's book from somewhere b/w 1975 and the 1980's.  Story is about a duck who is trying to get rid of an ant in his house and ends up destroying his house.  I think it was called either Andre and the Ant or Andy and the Ant.

Robert Quackenbush, Henry's Awful Mistake, 1980.  Twenty fifth anniversary edition published in 2005. Henry the duck tries all sorts of methods to rid his kitchen of an ant before his friend Clara comes to supper.
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I am looking for a book that is about a duck (I think) who is having company and finds an ant in the house and then destroys her house ( breaks walls even) trying to get the ant.

Robert Quackenbush, Henry's Awful Mistake. (1981) Definitely the book you're looking for
Robert Quackenbush, Henry's Awful Mistake
Robert Quackenbush, Henry's Awful Mistake. (1980)  Henry the duck tries all sorts of methods to rid his kitchen of an ant before his guest comes to supper.
Henry's Awful Mistake

Beverly Cleary, Henry and Beezus.  I think it's this one of the Henry Huggins books.
While searching for something else, I came across a reference to a record about a boy and his wagon: "Betsy, Betsy, I'm a little messy.  I've been painting my wagon green."  Could you be looking for a song rather than a book, or possibly one of those book & record sets?
Not sure if this will help you but, I was at a scholastic book fair recently and found several small books who featured a little
girl named Messy Bessie. In one she made cookies, in another she cleaned her room (put it all in the closet!). I can easily imagine her being in a story with a boy and paint!
this was definitely a record, although there may have been a book as well.  I can still hear the tune in my head, "Bessy, Bessy, I'm a little messy..."
I have been looking for this book for years and still can not find it.  It was a picture book and it was read to me middle to late 40's.  Bessy was the black maid or house keeper.  Yes. it was about a little boy who had a red wagon and left it out in the rain.  He painted it green.  The inside cover of the book had green hand prints on it.  The last words in the book were "bessy, I'm a little messy.  I hope someone can help us.
peg dikeman, henry's wagon,  1946.  I have been looking for this book for 50 years.  Finally  found it on ebay.  There are several reprints but 1946 is the original. It was so good to see that someone else was looking for the same book.  the hint that it was Henry, gave me the clue I needed

Gene Stratton Porter, Her Father's Daughter
yes i did find it. from the reviews i read it seems to be a pretty anti-japanese book. i have absolutely no memory of that. just that i was fascinated by the flora and fauna stuff and probably had something to do with my moving to california in my twenties. thank you so much,you provide a wonderful service. 

Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Ray Abrashkin?
Maybe Hazel Wilson's Herbert series? Titles include Herbert's Homework (1960) and Herbert's Space Trip (1965). All illustrated by Kurt Werth, published by Knopf.
More on a suggested title - Herbert's Space Trip, by Hazel Wilson, illustrated by Kurt Werth, published New York, Knopf, 1965 "the fifth fabulously funny tale about that fabulously funny boy, takes him to a planet run by canny canines. Ages 8-12" (Horn Book Oct/65 p.544 pub ad) A picture of the cover (from another source) shows a boy crawling out of a barrel-like spaceship section? watched by a hound dog, with two other boys standing behind.

HRL:  I think this is Clare Turlay Newberry's Herbert, the lion, 1931.

Alice Low, Herbert's Treasure, 1971. Just coincidence that my little boy checked this book out from the library last time we were there!  Wonderful story my boys had me read over and over again. Pictures are by Victoria de Larrea.
H47 herbert's treasures: more on the suggested Herbert's Treasure, by Alice Low, pictures by Victoria de Larrea, published Putnam 1971 "To Herbert, his room was his castle-a castle filled with exciting treasure. To his mother, his room was a total mess bulging with useless junk." Sounds like a good match. 

Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Here and Now Story Book: Two- Through Seven-Year-Olds.
I found it!  The first line of the story is: "Once there was a little girl and her name was Marni Moo."  The story sought is "Marni Gets Dressed in the Morning" in Here and Now Story Book: Two- Through Seven-Year-Olds by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, illustrated by Hendrik Willem Van Loon and Christine Price.  The copy I found says "New Edition, Revised and Enlarged, copyright 1921 by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., copyright 1948 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell.

Albert & Arabella (raccoons) are Lillian Hoban characters, featured in Here Come Raccoons (Holt, Rinhart, & Winston, '77) & The Case of the Two Masked Robbers (Harper & Row, '86).
Thank you so much.  I had myself found them through a library search site and have obtained The Case of the Masked Robbers.  It was even incredibly cheap!  So, if you could find Here Come Raccoons for cheap that would rock!  Otherwise, I'll have to wait until I have a more disposable income.  Thank you so much though, what a great site!

Mitchell, Lebbus, Here, Tricks, Here!, 1923.  I couldn't find any description other than it's a juvenile book that's 232 pages long.  But the title sounds promising.
Mitchell, Lebbeus, Here, Tricks, Here, 1923  Cupples and Leon.  I found anecdotal evidence on the Internet that Tricks is a Boston Terrier who does get lost and then found.
I apologize for taking so long to confirm this, but it took a while to find a copy of this book!  The book I was searching for is definitely Here, Tricks, Here! by Lebbeus Mitchell.  Here is a corrected synopsis for your website.  Barry Cayliss and his sister Ethel meet a lost dog in Forest Park.  (The city is unspecified, but the story takes place in the United States.)  The dog is described as a white and brindle Boston bulldog, which is the old name for a Boston terrier.  While in the park, the dog performs some tricks, but he doesn't stand on his head until later.  The dog follows the kids home and the scene with the cane and father happens.  The father places a newspaper ad, but no one claims the dog but a man who says that Tricks is his dog Boxer.  The man is clearly a fraud, and Barry keeps Tricks for a year.  Tricks is then dognapped by a ring of thieves who steal pedigreed dogs, then return them for the reward money or sell them out of state.  Barry helps to locate the thieves and rescue the dogs, and the story is published in the newspapers.  Nicholas Burton recognizes a photograph of Tricks in the paper�it is his dog, Major, who was part of his vaudeville act before he was stolen.  Mr. Burton and his wife claim Tricks, but the dog clearly misses the boy, and they return him after six months.  The dog is put between the man and the boy, they both call him, and Tricks runs to Barry.  Thank you for helping me find this old favorite!

Captain Kengaroo used to play a song with the refrain: "He's Herkimer -- Herkimer -- Herkimer the lonely clown." The name and the homely/lonely rhyme make me suspect this is what the searching person remembers. I checked the Web and Amazon for song titles including "Herkimer" but came up empty. Nonetheless, even being reminded of the real name might be a relief.
Herkimer the Homely Doll.  I remember this song from Captain Kangaroo quite clearly, and still find myself humming it sometimes. I couldn't find the lyrics on the web, but remember the lines "I'm the loneliest [or homeliest?] little doll you ever did see, I'm Herkimer, that's me!" I did turn up sheet music for the song on sale.

Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown, 1984. The is the fantastic Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley...a Newbery Award Winning book, too. There is also another book set in the kingdom of Damar (at an earlier time than Hero) called The Blue Sword...this book was a Newbery Honor book. McKinley promised one more book set in Damar, but to date none has appeared.
Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown, 1984. Sounds like this one to me! It's really a great book.
McKinley, Robin, The Hero and the Crown. Bits and pieces sound like this book.  The brother doesn't fit, though.  If you haven't read this one, you should - even if it's wrong!!
McKinley, Robin, The Hero and the Crown. Yes, that's the book.  I had some of the details confused, but this is definitely the one.  Thank you for the solution!

Williams, Jay, Hero From Otherwhere. A trip to the principal's office for fighting sends two boys to an alternate universe where they reluctantly work together to fight a wolf shapeshifter.
The Hero from Otherwhere by the late, great Jay Williams?
Jay Williams, The Hero from Otherwhere, 1979. That's it!  That's the book I've been looking for.  Thank you so much!
I�ve been looking for a book for about 6 months and just found your website today.  Lo and behold, at about the 9th submission on your list I found the answer!  I will be sure to use you in the future.  This is so great.  Thanks!
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Two boys, not at all friends, must work together on a quest to find "magic strings" that need to be woven together and bind the wolf  Fenrir and prevent the end of the world.  I thought it was "A Childhood's End", by Clarke, but it obviously isn't the same at all, so maybe it has a similar title?

Williams, Jay, Hero From OtherWhere. Two boys get into a fight at school and are magically transported to another land where they must work together to save the world from Fenrir.
SOLVED: Williams, Jay, Hero From OtherWhere.

Heroes of Zara Keep, Guy Gregory?
Guy Gregory, Heroes of Zara Keep, 1982.  Wow, that took all of two days... Thanks!  I've been trying to remember this for twenty years!

I think this poster is referring to the Strawberry Shortcake series of the early 80's.  They were dolls such as Lemon Meringue, Blueberry Muffin, Apple Pie, and Starwberry Shortcake.  They were all dressed in different
colors.  There were books and cartoons as well.
The Charmkins, 1980s.  I'm not sure, but I think the previous poster may be wrong about this being a Strawberry Shortcake book. The female villain in that was called Sour Grapes, IIRC. The only one I'm familiar with that fits that description is Charmkins. The villainess was named Poison Ivy. It was primarily a toy/cartoon line, but there were also some books: The Charmkins and The Charmkins Discover Big World by Edith Adams and The Charmkins' Sniffy Adventure by Denise Fleming.  There's also a Charmkins web page.
Herself the Elf, 1983.  I'm pretty sure that was Herself The Elf.  I still have a cartoon on video from the 1980s.
I don't know the book, but I'm almost 100% sure that's Herself the Elf.  The other characters were named after flowers: Snowdrop, Willow Song, Wood Pink, and Meadow Morn (probably the green & yellow one).  The villainess was Creeping Ivy, who could make Ivy grow out of her hands, I think, and there was some other minor
villainess named Vendetta who was all green.  Also, there was a boy wood sprite with a 'wooly-worm'-type caterpillar for a hat.

Hautzig, Deborah, Hey, dollface, 1978.  Set in a private New York school, tells the story of Val and chloe.
Judith St. George, Call Me Margo, 1981.  Could this be your book?  It does involve a girl at a boarding school.  She's quite keen on tennis and spends a good deal of time with the tennis teacher at the school (weekends etc), not realizing until late in the book that the teacher is a lesbian.  There is no cheating on a test, but the main character freezes up (to the point that she can't function) every time her English teacher calls on her.  The cover shows "Margo" with her tennis racket in the foreground and the sort of A-group of three girls making fun of her in the background.
the bookstumper is listed as solved, but I dont remember that title at all.  The author does sound familiar though, so I think that must be it.  Do you have a copy of this book?
Stephanie S. Tolan, The Last of Eden. (1980) A possibility -- it's about a bunch of girls at a boarding school, and the protagonist's best friend (Marty) gets involved in a lesbian relationship with a very unpleasant new girl (Sylvia) and a lot of angst ensues. The cover shows all the characters standing on an outdoor balcony, except for one who is below them looking up they're laughing, making faces, etc.

Sid Fleischman, The Hey Hey Man, 1979.  This book is most definitely The Hey Hey Man-- I'm the original seeker, and found the book myself through a series of coincidences.  Thanks!  This is a great service.

Hertz, Grete Janus, Hi, Daddy, Here I Am, Lerner Publications, 1964.  "Mette plays hide-and-seek every evening with her father. But one time she found a hiding place that was almost too good."
I got an answer!  Thank you so much! 

Lois Lenski, Prairie School.  It's been quite a while since I read this book, but I thought of it when I read the stumper. Was there a snow storm in the book? If so, it may be this one.
It is not Prairie School; I have that book.  But thanks.
Catherine Marshall, Christy, 1967, copyright.  "The Great Smokies. When I left my city home to be a schoolteacher at a backwoods mission, I dreamed of adventure. I wasn't ready for the real challenges of life in these mountains. I'd have given up, if not for the children. I came to Cutter Gap to teach but they show me everyday I'm here to learn." - spoken by Christy Huddleston.
Isabel C. McLelland, Hi! Teacher, 1952, approximate.  "A pleasant story of a young teacher's first year in a small Northwest settlement. The families of her thirteen children have come from varied cultures to form a strong little community." It has been a while since I read it, but your details seem to fit.
Isabel C. McLelland, Hi! Teacher, 1952, copyright.  Right after I sent my vague description of the book last night, I was able to find my copy. Here is the synopsis from the inside cover:  "There is a sense of reality in this story of a first, frightening, paicky year of teaching.Alison began her career in a small community in the Pacific Northwest. it was a difficult year for a  new teacher, as she followed the well-loved Miss Blackie, whose every action was quoted to Alison. She learned Slowly, with many defeats and some unexpected victories, to have control over her thirteen pupils in the one-room schoolhouse."  And yes, Miss Blackie, when she finally meets her, does turn out to be lame and wears a brace. And there is a romantic interest, though not overtly, with a young man who drives a jeep.
I am the one who originally posted this stumper, and yes, Hi! Teacher is the title of the book I described.  Many thanks.

Hidden Cave
One is about a child in New York City who finds a magic door in either a fountain or an arch.  I think the child meets a wizard and they have an adventure.  I can't remember whether the child was a boy or girl.

M52 Sounds very much like a Ruth Chew book.
Could M52 be The Hidden Cave, by Ruth Chew.   Two children Tom and Alice go through a hidden drainpipe-cave and come out on the other side and find the enchanted tree that Merlin was trapped in.  They let Merlin out and  bring him to places like the library and the zoo.  Merlin also enchants the wading pool in the backyard so it is like and enormous lake for the children.  He then goes back in time to help Arthur.
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I remember a book from the 70s about a brother and sister (sister older) who turned their backyard wading pool into a lagoon by tossing in some magic herbs.  The summer is spent swimming in the ocean and eventually tangling with pirates.  I seem to remember a visual of the kids sneaking out of a ship's cabin, leaving behind fluffed bed linens and locks of their hair as decoys.  They somehow acquire doubloons, and end up telling their  father they 'found them in the back yard'. Of course the dad proceeds to dig up the yard....and that's all I remember.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Chew, Ruth, The Hidden Cave, 1973.  Tom and Alice go through Hidden Cave and find magician Merlin.  They have a few
adventures.  The last half of book Merlin gave them special herb that turns wading pool into ocean with pirate and gold coins, Etc.
Edward Eager, Magic By The Lake.
This isn't Magic by the Lake.  That has four kids, features a magic turtle, and is lacking many of the details described in the stumper.

Bennett, Mabel R., The Hidden Garden, J. Day, 1955.  Sorry, no description other than the cover -- light green cloth with red flowers and red lettering on the spine.
When I was in Kindergarten or First Grade, my mom sent my best friend, about a year older, with me to the library for The Secret Garden.  My friend picked up The Hidden Garden instead and said, "Only one word different in the title, how different could the story be?"  We brought it home and my mom read the book, and, as I remember, enjoyed it.   It must be scarce, as I can't find ANY copies in my favorite used books database.  I still remember certain plot incidents if it helps.  It was about a little girl, about the same age as Mary in "The Secret Garden," perhaps 9 or 10.  Her name could have been Anna.  There may have been illustrations, as I picture a blond white girl with medium length hair dressed in 1940s/1950s style, cotton-dress-white-socks type.  She was living in a tenement building in a very poor neighborhood in a big city.  It could have been New York.  The main part of the plot concerned renovating a vacant lot, which must have been concealed from public view somehow, and therefore "hidden," into a garden.  A lot of trash and garbage had to be hauled out of it.  The girl was also interested in "renovating" human relations.  In one case, she stepped between neighbors in a violent argument.  A heavy blow, intended from one woman to the person she was fighting with, hit Anna (I'm just assuming that was her name) instead and knocked her cold.  As I remember, the woman started screaming that she'd killed a child and lamenting having killed a neighbor's child (as if, had she killed her own child, that would have been somehow not as bad).  Finally someone said the child was not dead, only unconscious.  Anna recovered, and the neighbors tried to get along better after that.
I'm glad to know this is in fact the correct book...I had found The Hidden Garden at a couple of sites, but wasn't sure it was the correct book.  Can you find me a copy of this book? I would love to have a copy for my own!

Could this be Susan Cooper's "Over Sea, Under Stone"?
And I second the suggestion of  Over Sea, Under Stone for H9.  It's the first book in Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising series.
This isn't by chance The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Gardner?
I checked your website last week and saw the reference to Susan Cooper's book.  I put a hold on it at my library this week and just got it last night.  I haven't had a chance to read it yet though... I will let you know.  I think this website is a wonderful thing...I located another lost favorite, others had asked and id'd it.
H9 - sounds more like Alan Garner's Elidor
H9 - I've been looking again at Alan Garner's Elidor and am now not so sure about it as an answer to this query. Plot summary - 4 children get into a Manchester (England) church scheduled for demolition which is one of the doors to the world of Elidor. They escape into their own world with 4 'treasures' of Elidor a lance, a stone, a sword and a grail-type bowl. These are disguised as rubbishy items in this world but send out electrical signals to give the people of Elidor a 'fix' so they can find them. Eventually a unicorn comes through to Manchester and is killed by the 2 'treasure seekers' from Elidor. It's dying song fulfils a prophecy and Elidor is saved. By contrast Susan Cooper's Over Sea Under Stone has 3 children going on holiday to Cornwall and working out, with the aid of an old map, where the Grail had been hidden for safety 'over sea, under stone' - in fact on a ledge in a cave only accessible at low tide. Their 'Great Uncle Merry' - an avatar of Merlin - helps them, and various people on the side of the Dark try to hinder and get the Grail for themselves. Eventually they succeed and the Grail gets put in the British Museum.
Eleanor Jewitt, Hidden Treasure of Glaston, 1948. Alan Garner is too recent. Crippled boy named Hugh is left at abbey by Crusader father. Has been reprinted recently.
I'm fairly confident of H9, but it's a common theme, so could be something else. Here's more detail, if that helps.
Eleanore Jewitt, Hidden Treasure of Glaston, 1948. Crippled boy named Hugh is left at abbey by Crusader
father. Together with another boy, he explores old tunnels and caves beneath the abbey, has a vision of the death
of King Arthur, and sees the Grail which cures him of lameness.  More details here.
The Hidden Treasure of Glaston, by Eleanore M. Jewett, illustrated by Frederick T. Chapman, published Viking 1946, 307 pages. "A story laid at the famouse Abbey of Glastonbury whose association with the cherished memory of King Arthur is even yet aglow. It was a crippled boy named Hugh, left by his father at the Abbey on a stormy night, set to do scriptorium work, who with his friend Dickon discovered lost pages of a precious book about the Holy Grail. ... background involving the underground chambers of a great Abbey, the monastery life with its library and reverence for old parchments, the retreat of a mad hermit, the manor castle of the King. The illustrations happily combine the actual and the visionary." (Horn Book Nov/46 p.472)
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i read this paperback in the late 60's -early 70s.  midieval times. i recall a character named hugh, a boy who is a sort of apprentice monk.  the major episode/event is that the monks are searching for the grave of a famous king&queen (maybe arthur and guinevere) and find it.  they open the casket and the beautiful king and queen with their jewels etc are perfectly preserved. as everyone raptly looks, suddenly the king, queen, and all their clothing & jewels dissolve into a pile of dessicated dust and are lost forever, and the monks wail in horrible regret and distress.  the imagery of this scene is unforgettable.  i may have the connection with "hugh" wrong, but the major scene is correct to the best of my knowledge. thanks so much for any illumination....

Eleanore M. Jewett, The Hidden Treasure of Glaston.  This is a very accurate description of a scene from The Hidden Treasure of Glaston (and yes, the boy was named Hugh)!
Eleanore Jewett, Hidden Treasure of Glaston, 1955.  I believe this is the right book.  "Amidst great mystery, Hugh is left in the care of Glastonbury Abbey by his father who must flee England too swiftly to be burdened by a crippled son. Ashamed of his physical weakness, yet possessed of a stout heart, Hugh finds that life at the abbey is surprisingly full in this year 1171, in the turbulent days of King Henry II. Hugh, his friend Dickon and their strange friend, the mad Bleheris, uncover a treasure trove and with it a deeper mystery of the sort that could only occur in Glastonbury where Joseph of Arimithea was said to have lived out his last years. Before all is done, more is resolved than Hugh could ever have hoped."

Sterling E. Lanier, Hiero's Journey.  If the hero rode a moose/horselike creature called a "morse", this is the book.  There's also a sequel called The Unforsaken Hiero.
Sterling Lanier, Hiero's Journey.  The other poster is correct.  This is Hiero's Journey.  The telepathic animal is a bear, not a cat, I think.  The two Hiero books were published together in one volume as Hiero Desteen.  Lanier only wrote a couple of other books:  Menace Under Marswood, about Martians attacking an Earth outpost  The War for the Lot, a children's book about a boy telepathically defending wilderness from rats  and a book of collected short stories about Brigadier Ffellowes. I heard that Lanier had been in a terrible automobile accident and could no longer write.  This is sad, because he sort of left the Hiero sequence unfinished.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! After 15 years of looking for this book your bookstumper came up with the author and title. My husband is soooo happy.

Nan Chauncy, High and haunted island.  I'm pretty sure this is Nan Chauncy - High and hunted island, OUP 1964. The names Tess and Vicky fit, also the living on an island with the strange sect who I think are called the Circlers or similar.
High and Haunted Island.  Thank you so much -- that was it. I'm very very grateful!

Honor Arundel, The High House.  Sounds like a possibility, though it's set in Edinburgh, not London.
Honor Arundel, High House.  Yes!  Yes!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I never thought I'd be able to remember. You've saved me untold hours of racking my feeble memory.  Thanks! 

I'm pretty sure this is High Hurdles, and I think the author is Frances Duncombe.
I am so excited!!! The book I asked about may have been identified!!! I am H 82 in Stump the Bookseller Queries. I haven�t checked for ages, checked today and, lo and behold, there was a comment with a possible identification! I have been trying to find a description of the book on the internet with no luck so far.Is there any way you would be able to help me with this? The possible �find� is HIGH HURDLES by Frances Duncombe.

N23 noonday rocket: would suggest High-Noon Rocket, by Charles Paul May, illustated by Brinton Turkle, published Holiday House 1966, 34 pages. "Wilson Watson Wooster got a present from his Aunt Alice. It was a small balloon basket with rocket attached for him to fly to visit her in the West. He rescues a lady off the roof of her apartment building when she got locked out. He rescues a farmer who has gotten caught on his water windmill. He finally rescues his aunt who has climbed up on a tall pole with pigeon houses on top. Each time he is invited for lunch since it was 12 o'clock noon. He learns about time zones and has an adventure too." 

This sounds like a slightly garbled version of Vivian Breck's High Trail. The girl is 17, the guys are 19-20 (in college). The girl's father breaks a leg while fishing; she makes him comfortable, promises to hike out the long but safe way, but changes her mind & tries to make it over Foreter Pass, & runs into a storm. She ends up charming one of the guys; the book ends with them going off for a rock climbing date. I always thought the guy was based on David Brower.
definitely High Trail by Vivian Breck.
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Possibly called MOUNTAIN HIGH.  Teenage adventure story about a girl who goes camping with her dad in the mountains.  He breaks his leg and she had to hike out for help.  Two young men befriend her. After they get downt to a town and summon help, she transforms herself with clothes her mom had taught her to pack in tissue paper and a romance is on the way.

Breck, Vivian, High Trail.  Loved this book as a kid!
Vivian Breck, High Trail.  This is on the Solved pages, with a plot description that matches the query.

Interpreting Condition Grades

[related title] Breck, Vivian.  Hoofbeats on the Trail.  Illustrated by Hubert Buel.  Doubleday, 1950.  First edition.  Dust jacket missing an inch from top of spine and worn at edges.  VG+/G.  $20 See also the Horse Book Catalog.

Phyllis A. Whitney, The Highest Dream, 1956.  I believe this is the book your are looking for, I recently purchased a copy from a used bookstore myself and greatly enjoyed it.  The description on the back is as follows: Dominated by her famous father, Lisa strikes out on her own for the first time.  Falling in love is no part of her plans as a United Nations tour guide...but it happens!
Whitney, Phyllis A., The Highest Dream, McKay 1956, Scholastic 1969.  "Lisa Somers finds romance and excitement as a guide at the United Nations."

I don't know the plot, but Elinor Lyon wrote a book entitled Hilary's Island in 1949.
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Amaryllis is, I think, the title of the library book from around 1960 that I am searching for. The book is written from the perspective of a young girl. Another young girl comes to spend some time (I think a summer) with a relative in town (I think an aunt). The narrator meets the visitor in the relative's house. They may have had tea. The narrator describes the visitor's feminine appearance and says she is well dressed and quite reserved. The visitor  says she would never run around outside to play. As the story unfolds, a new young boy is seen around the village, he may have been a mischief-maker, I can't remember exactly what he did. Eventually you come to find out that the prissy girl is dressing up as a boy and sneaking out and doing all sorts of tomboyish things. I don't think I am quite doing the story justice because there was a sense of mystery about the boy's identity that the narrator conveys and as a young child myself I found it to be a very exciting story.

Elinor Lyon, Hilary's Island, 1948.  This sounds like Hilary's Summer.  When two girls visit their uncle for the summer, the community is being plagued by a mysterious boy.  The next door neighbors are 2 maiden aunts who are raising their neice Amaryllis who is very prim and prissy.  The mysterious "boy" turns out to be Amaryllis who is really a tomboy.
It sounds like this could be my long lost book. I can't wait to get it and see...

Watts, Mabel, Hildy's Hideaway, 1961.  This is the only "hideaway cat" I could find:  WATTS, MABEL, Illustrated by Winship, Florence Sarah Hildy's Hideaway. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing, 1961 Pictorial Cover.  Tip Top Tales. Sweetest light brown kitty on the cover. Hildy's hidaway in the attic is a perrrfect place to have kittens!

Alas, I don't have a copy...
Your description sounds like Hill's End.  I think the author's name is Strasser.  I'm sure it's not Lois Lenski.  I remember having this book.  I must have gotten it from the Scholastic Book club back in the late 60s or early 70s.
#F42--Flood Friday?  I do happen to have a copy of this extremely rare Lois Lenski book, which I haven't read.  It is the true story of a flood which  struck in Connecticut on August 19, 1955.  Most of it seems to involve
children taken to a schoolhouse, not as a punishment, but as a safe place until they can be released.  There is another famous story, Hills End, by Ivan Southall, about how seven Australian children survive after their town
is wiped out by a storm.
Southall, Ivan, Hill's End. Hi.  I just wanted to correct myself.  I previously sent in a solution to this book.  This title is correct, but the author is a different Australian writer. The correct author is Ivan Southall, I believe.
Ivan Southall, Hills End,1968.  Here's the back cover blurb for this book: "The remote logging town of
Hills End is deserted.  All its inhabitants have set off on their annual picnic. Left behind are seven chidlren who, with their schoolteacher, are exploring nearby caves in search of Stone Age drawings.  Suddenly without warning, a violent storm breaks -- When it is over, six of the children find themselves cut off from all adult help and from the outside world.  Isolated by wild mountains, forest country and a flooded river, with their homes in ruins, they must face urgent problems and perils: How will they handle the enraged bull set free by the storm?  Can they find their missing schoolteacher and one of their schoolmates?  What are they going to do about food and shelter?"
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Another one I may have read in middle school (1971-1973). I remember the plot quite well, because I owned and read it over and over. It took place in England, in small town. Everybody in town went on a picnic in the country, and a group of 7-10 children of varying ages were exploring a cave or something, when a severe storm with high winds and flash flooding hit. The group of children were somehow able to get back to town, but nobody else was. So they had to survive on their own. They had to figure out what they would use for shelter, and find food, and repair (?) an electic generator  and then started a clean-up process. The most memorable character was a mentally-challenged boy, who was wearing dress shoes on the picnic and suffered a lot of blistering and foot pain before the storm hit, and then had to be nursed or taken care of during the rest of the story. He also had a memorable incident in which he found the sausage making machine, and tried to make sausage (having watched the butcher do it before), but with his adenoid problem, or whatever, his very poor sense of smell prevented him from realizing that the meat was rotten.

#C103--Children disaster a flood England:  Check out Hills' End on the "Solved Mysteries" page.
Southall, Ivan, Hills End,1968.  You remember many details correctly, except for one important one:  The story takes place in Australia, not England.
Southall, Ivan, Hill's End, 1962.  I was looking for this book earlier and a helpful person pointed it out to me.  It takes place in Australia, but the rest of this story is correct, down to the little boy whose nose doesn't work right and can't tell the meat is bad when he makes strings of lovely sausages.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Southall, Ivan.  Hills End.  NY: St. Martin's Press, 1962, 1963.  A very clean ex-library copy with nice dust jacket.  VG-/VG.  $15 Southall, Ivan.  Josh. NY: St. Macmillan, 1971.  Very clean ex-library copy.  VG/VG.  $15

H3 was my request after about 3 years of independent searching.  Tonight after I looked at your page, I went to the LOC and just started reading book titles that have begun w/ the word "Hippo."  I feel certain that I have found "my" book at last:  Hippo, Potta, and Muss by Barbara Lovely, illustrated by Tony Veale.  I have requested a copy from a dealer and am eager to see if it's as good as I remember!  Thank you for the service you provide! 

Hazel Wilson, His Indian Brother, 1955.  I read this book too and remembered that the Indian boy's name was sabattis, so looked it up that way and the white boy was brad Porter.  In the end brad's parents find him and he is torn between friend and family but of course goes with parents.  I'm glad to reconnect with this one too.
In 1955, Hazel Wilson wrote His Indian Brother, a fictionalized story based on the adventures of 14-year-old Theophilus Sargent.  Theophilus was temporarily left alone in the Maine wilderness in 1802 by his father.  Theophilus almost starved when a bear destroyed his food supply and his father's return was delayed by typhus.  Theophilus was rescued by a local Native American chief and his son.  Later, Elizabeth George Speare wrote Sign of the Beaver, a better known fictionalized account of the same adventure.  Personally, I think His Indian Brother is more fun for kids to read.

I think the book from your March 1997 doll book inquiry might be: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field. It might have won a Newberry Award. I seem to remember that a lot of students studying to be schoolteachers had to read it. I hope this helps.
Well now, I have that!
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Illus by Dorothy Lathrop with 3 color plates and many black & white plates. NY: Macmillan, 1929. Newbery Award winner.
Copy 1: 1933 edition. Front free endpaper clipped. Larger format. VG-. $36ppd.
Copy 2: 1941 edition. Dust jacket is worn and has small chips. Smaller format. VG/G. $38ppd.
Hitty even has her own homepage and photos of the original doll and her traveling clothes!

The person who posted that may actually have been thinking about another book, called (I'm *pretty* sure) The Secret in Miranda's Closet. I had this book as a girl - I think it came through Scholastic. It was about a sort of frumpy girl with a "feminist" mother who was proud of the fact that her daughter "hated" dolls. Except one day, said daughter found a beautiful old china doll with a trunk of clothes in the attic of a friend of her mother's (?) and was allowed to "adopt" it. At first, Miranda has these huge plans for the doll - to build a house for it in secret in the closet and all. I also remember a harrowing scene with an antique dealer who tries to rook her out of her doll. In the end, her mother discovers the secret, and the doll seems to become less special to Miranda - she doesn't build the fabulous dollhouse and all. I thought it was sort of a depressing ending, personally. I don't remember the author, but I'm pretty sure of the title.
You had another reader who was looking for a book title about a china doll with a trunk of clothes you and another reader said the book must be Hitty but that can't be right. Hitty was carved out of mountain ash by a peddler who stayed the winter at the Preble farm. She had a dress and a little chemise that had her name crossed stiched and that was all, no trunck, no china head. I was an avid reader when I was young and have kept almost all of my books, Hitty is just one of them.
Readers sent in the Hitty titles, but there's another book called The Wonderful Fashion Doll by Laura Bannon. It's about a girl who finds a trunk with a china doll with a beautiful and exceptionally detailed wardrobe. I remember something about the girl learning that the doll was used to advertise the latest fashions before fashion mags became popular.
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I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK FOR A LONG TIME!! I'm only 13 years old and my mother used to read it to me when I was about 5.  The story is about a wooden doll, and she comes to life. In the beggining she is all dusty and old.  I remember the story being very majestic and on the cover there is a picture of the wooden doll looking out her window.  I think  the writer was a female... but I'm not sure? LOL - sorry for the lack of information
#S46--Sandalwood:  this sounds like Hitty:  Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field.  Even if it isn't, read it anyway; it's great.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Field, Rachel  Hitty: Her First Hundred Years.  Illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop.  Newbery winner.  Macmillan, 1929.  31st printing, 1964.  Wear to corners, otherwise VG/VG.  <SOLD>

C251 Davis, Lavinia R.  Hobby Horse Hill  [Hobbyhorse Hill]      illus by Paul Brown    Doubleday    c1939
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY YOU HAVE MADE ME! thank you one and all!
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It's a kid's book about a stolen horse that (it turns out) had been dyed to disguise it. The horse's name was Cassandra, I believe, and somehow a girl was involved in solving the mystery and identifying the stolen horse. Thanks!

S378 Davis, Lavinia R.  Hobby Horse Hill   juvenile horse fiction; Cassandra
Clyde Bulla, Star of Wild Horse Canyon, 1953.  I remember reading a book like that when I was younger, but I think the horse's name was Star, because it was white with a dark star on its forehead, and when it was dyed brown, the protagonist could see the star through the dye.  Could it be Star of Wild Horse Canyon by Clyde Bulla?  I don't have a copy, so I'm not certain that it is the same book, but the descriptions say something about a kid's favorite horse disappearing mysteriously, and the name Star sounds right to me.

Cameron, Eleanor, Beyond Silence, NY Dutton 1980.  Though it isn't a complete match, this sounds close enough to nvestigate. "Troubled by a recurring nightmare following his brother's death, Andrew accompanies his father to the family castle in Scotland where he has several encounters with one of his forebears." "Hoagy should be her, I thought. Any other way never even though tof. But no use thinking. Just take everything for now, for the moment. Don't go outside it or back. Don't go back.-- But the trip to Scotland, to the castle where his father had spent so many memorable childhood days, was a going back, no matter what Andy willed for himself. Furthermore, the past that he found was not his own--."
I would never discourage anyone from reading Eleanor Cameron's Beyond Silence it's a wonderful book.  But I own it and can say it does not match the poster's query -- no game, no Brian Boru, no old man or banshee, no mother present (she stayed home the father is alive and in Scotland with Andrew).  It's half psychological study and half time-travel story, completely fascinating, as Andrew's forebears help him understand his mind in the present.
Coyne, John, Hobgoblin.  NY: Berkeley 1982, reprint.  This time for sure - I had the book in hand, and the boy's name is Scott Gardiner, he plays D&D and his character is Brian Boru. His father dies and his mother gets a job at Ballycastle. Wierd things happen - Scott sees the ghost Black Annis and feels that the unfriendly kids at his new school are Gorfs. In the meantime his mother is caught up in an investigation of the discovery of the very old corpses of 3 young women, and it appears that they were once servants at the castle. It gets worse when they discover an old photo album showing young women being abused and tortured - and their faces match photographs of staff at the castle. This is NOT a kid's book, even though Scott and his girlfriend are adolescents.
? John Coyne, ? Hobgobliin, 1981.  Here's another possibility, from an online review [found with Google search words "book 'role-playing ''Brian Boru"]: "Though this novel is now out of print, it is usually available at public libraries or secondhand paperback bookstores. It is an intriguing novel about a teenager whose perception of reality becomes blurred when his favorite hobby, a Dungeons & Dragons-type roleplaying game based on Irish mythology called "Hobgoblin", seems to intrude upon reality. When Scott Gardner, the teenaged protagonist of the novel, thinks he sees a Black Annis creeping around the woods of his new home, I guarantee that you will be hooked into reading this story. This novel came under some criticism, perhaps justifiably, when it was released because the lead character "matures" (?) by giving up role-playing games at the end of the novel."  Brian Boru is mentioned in another review, but I quoted this one because it gives the character's name and also the hag's.
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I read this book sometime in the early-mid 80's. The boy in the book, I believe his name is Brian, recently lost his father (who had a heart attack after shoveling snow), and moves someplace new with his mother (for her job, I think). He has trouble in his new high school and he spends a lot of his time playing a Dungeons and Dragons type game. The character he uses is named Brian Boru and he refers to a Black Annis in the book also. There is also some weird old butler guy and part of the story involves the owner of the castle? they move into. I think this is a horror kind of story, since there are murders in it. I can remember just about everything except the title and author.

I forgot to mention, this is not a children's book, but maybe it will be familiar to someone anyway.
John Coyne, Hobgoblin, 1981, copyright.  Hobgoblin is just a game. Ballycastle is just a house. Scott is just a lonely teenage boy... Until one Hallowe'en, a Hobgoblin kills everyone he loves. The worst nightmares are ones we choose for ourselves. Scott Gardiner chooses Hobgoblin, a sword-and-sorcery fantasy game as popular at his prep school as Dungeons and Dragons. Scott's mother Barbara chooses Ballycastle, an ancient Irish mansion transported to the banks of the Hudson River by an eccentric millionaire. An art historian, Barbara has been hired to trace the heritage of the mansion. But once she brings her son to this isolated medieval estate, both their lives veer frighteningly out of control. Lonely and unhappy, Scott drifts deeper and deeper into the myth-laden world of Hobgoblin, where he wages war under the name of Brian Boru, a legendary knight of Ireland. Barbara tries to fight her son's immersion in the game - until the night the deadly truth about Ballycastle emerges, shredding the fabric between reality and Scott's nightmarish fantasies.
John Coyne, Hobgoblin, 1981, copyright.  Yes, that is the book! Thank you very much, it was driving me crazy!

#T138--Tirpy or Terpy (dogname):  This is a story in one of my Beacon Readers, most of which I finally located!  The paperbacks I have were published in 1957 and reprinted in 1962.  In this version, Book 4, "Careful Hans," contains the story "The Hobyahs," in which the hero is a black dog, "little dog Turpie."  The original Beacon Readers were copyrighted 1922 and some dated as early as 1912.  The author is James H. Fassett.  The older hardcovers turn up quite often while the paperbacks tend to be extremely rare and expensive.  The trick would be in knowing which of the many original volumes included this story!  The 1916 collection "Animal Folk Tales" may contain it.
T138: Well, if it is The Hobyahs, here's Joseph Jacobs' version, with illustrations.

Kathleen McLaine, Jean at St. Hilary's,1949.  I cannot find a summary of the book other than that it is about a girl who plays field hockey.  Does this title sound familiar?
Scott Corbett, The Hockey Girls, 1976.  Think this might be the one - it's about the introduction of compulsory
sports at Wagstaff High.  No-one was keen except a 9th grader, Irma Tuttle, who used to walk along whacking crabapples with a crooked stick she called Old Faithful.  A coach spotted her and she joined the team so her friends did too.
C112 crabapple girl: more on the suggested - The Hockey Girls, by Scott Corbett, published Dutton, 1976, 104 pages. "While Irma Tuttle walked alone whacking crabapples with a crooked stick she called Old Faithful, she was observed and recruited by the hockey coach and her life changed dramatically." "Irma's only solace was whacking and dribbling crab apples on her way home with a crooked stick -- Talent-scouted by Miss Tingley, the wizened but spry field hockey coach". This sounds like a good match. My first thought was one of the multitudinous English girls' school stories, but those girls are always already playing compulsory games, so thankfully that was out.

Just a slight correction to the stumper I submitted - as so often happens with childhood memories, I had combined the details from 2 different books.  The part about the girl dreaming of a horse with "flowing mane and tail" is from Doodlebug by Irene Brady, as is the auction where the girl buys the horse, to prevent him being sold for horsemeat. I don't remember how the girl in the book I'm looking for acquires the horse, whether it was also purchased at auction, or was given to her, but it was definitely a dingy greyish-whitish color, and she was disappointed with it (hence her attempt to brighten it up w/ bluing).
Beverly Cleary, Emily's Runaway Imagination.  This could be the 2nd book you are looking for - in this one Emily is trying to impress her visiting cousin (who is obsessed with horses) by dying their dingy off-white work horse bright white by scrubbing it with bleach....
B438 Brady, Irene.   Doodlebug. illus by Irene Brady    Houghton, 1977,  Weekly  Reader.  horses; ponies - juvenile horsefiction; pony Doodlebug;  Jennifer
B438 Would you believe Google has 31,000 entries for horse bluing? I quit after 200 and yielded not a single book.
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't think it was Emily's Runaway Imagination because it was definitely bluing, not bleach, in the story I'm looking for. (This was the first time I'd ever heard of bluing, which is why I remember it.) Doodlebug is also not the book I'm looking for. I've got that one, and it's about a black pony, not an off-white horse. I only mentioned it because I'd mixed a few plot details from it into my recollection of the book w/ the blue horse.  One additional detail - The story *might* have been in a school reader, rather than a stand-alone book.  If so, it was probably around a 5th or 6th grade level book.
Pat Kibbe, The Hocus-Pocus Dilemma.  The bit with the horse is actually a side story. The main focus of the book is a girl about ten years old who thinks she's psychic, but all of her predictions turn out to be wrong, or at least misinterpreted. It was her older sister who dyed the horse. "It was dark in the barn! I thought the bluing instructions said Use daringly, but it was Use sparingly!" I forget how this tied in with the wannabe-psychic plot, but I know it was in that book.
Pat Kibbe, The Hocus Pocus Dilemma.  I think this is it! I don't remember the part about psychic predictions, but it's possible that I only read an excerpt from the book, rather than the entire story.  Either that, or I've forgotten what the book was actually about - not too improbable, considering that I'd previously mixed in bits of Doodlebug with my recollections! The part about misreading the directions ("use sparing/daringly") sounds spot-on, and I've ordered a copy to make sure.  Thank you so much for your help!
Pat Kibbe, The Hocus-Pocus Dilemma.  Chalk up one more for the solved list! I just read the book this evening, and it is indeed the one I was looking for. I suspect that I originally read only an excerpt from this book, because while the chapter with the blue horse is exactly as I remembered it (minus the bits from Doodlebug that I'd mixed in), nothing else in the entire book sounded familiar. Thank you so much for your help!

Judy Van der Veer, Hold the rein free. (1966) It could be this one: A horse on a Western ranch escapes and breeds with a 'scrub' horse from an Indian reservation. The owner orders the foal shot when it is born. A girl who is vacationing at the ranch and an Indian boy whose father works there steal the horse and hide it in a canyon. In the meantime they must avoid a detective sent to find it, curious cousins of the boy, and a forest fire. In the end they are caught because of the fire, but the foal has turned out so well that the owner decides to keep it. I can't recall the cover picture, but mine was a hardback reprint and may have had a different cover anyway.
Hold The Rein Free. (1966)  My paperback copy (3rd printing, 1971) has a yellow cover with a sketch of the horse (and a burro in the background) on the front.  From the back cover: "...Amy is horrified. Why would anyone want to kill a colt- especially Mia's..." Kiko the ranch boy explains that "the owner won't have anything but thoroughbreds on his ranch."
Hold the Reign Free.  I can hardly believe other people remember this book. I have been looking for it for YEARS! This is definitely the book. Thank you all so much!

This was solved very recently on this website as Hold the Rein Free by Judy Van der Veer (author) and Bernard Garbult (illustrator) (1966).  Please see Stumper G326 for more information!
Judy Van Der Veer, Hold The Rein Free.  This was just solved recently! See solved stumper #G326.
Judy Van der Veer, Hold The Rein Free.  Mia is a beautiful two-year-old throughbred.  The ranch owner threatens to kill her foal when it is born.  Kiko, the ranch boy, and Amy, a girl vacationing on the ranch,  hide Mia and her foal in a canyon.
Judy Van Der Veer, Hold the Rein Free. (1966)  This has to be the one you're looking for:  "When the colt is born, shoot it!" orders the owner. Amy is horrified. Why would anyone want to kill a colt - especially Mia's? Mia is such a beautiful horse! "But her colt won't be a thoroughbred," explains Kiko, the ranch boy, "and the owner won't have anything but thoroughbreds on his ranch." Suddenly, Amy makes a desperate decision. "We won't let them kill the colt!" she tells Kiko. "We'll save it - no matter what we have to do!
Judy Van Der Veer, Hold the Rein Free. (1966)  The horse Mia's colt will not be a thoroughbred, so the owner orders it destroyed. The two children hide the horse until the colt is born so they can keep it safe.
Judy van der Veer, Hold the Rein Free. (1966)  This one is Hold the Rein Free by Judy van der Veer

Zenna Henderson, The Taste of Aunt Sophronia, 1971.  This is definitely it!  It's on page 129 of Holding Wonder, a collection of Zenna Henderson short stories, and it has probably been published in other anthologies.  The disease is brought back from space by an Explorer probe.  It quickly kills the men who examine the probe when it returns to the Space Base, then kills their children, then infect the women who remain.  The disease is called Prober Pain, and the only escape from the relentless agony is suicide.  The six remaining survivors are put into Suspension, and awakened periodically to test new remedies.  Then one woman, Thiela, remembers a tonic her Aunt Sophronia used to make that was "good for what ails you."  She brews the concoction, puts it in a green glass bottle, and dispenses it with a large metal spoon...  Zenna Henderson is best known as the creator of the People, whose stories are collected in the anthology Ingathering.  Check it out!
Zenna Henderson, The Taste of Aunt Sophronia.  This is a Zenna Henderson short story collected in Holding Wonder.  It (of course) is not in print, but there seem to be numerous used copies around.
Henderson, Zenna, The Taste of Aunt Sophronia, 1971.  This sounds like the short story, The Tast of Aunt Sophronia, where 6 women, the first survivors of a space bug are kept in suspension and re-awakened periodically, people are still catching the disease and the men and children die. One of the women remembers her aunt, known as the Weed Woman made a concoction 'For what ails you'. It tastes terrible, when she makes up the recipe, but helps her fellow sufferers to survive a further period in suspension. She makes up more but can only produce a limited amount. It appears in Henderson's collection Holding Wonder.

The Hole Book is an early novelty book (1908) by Peter Newell, who followed its success with The Slant Book (1910).
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I am looking a children's book (I believe it was English) that belonged to my grandfather who was born in the early 1900's.  It was about a boy who fired a gun and it travels around the neighborhood.  All I remember  is at the end of the book, the bullet ended in a woman's cake (that part I am sure of). It may have also gone through a man's hat.

Do you remember the bullet tearing through the town, and its visual representation as a hole in the page of the book through the illustration?  If so, then it's definately The Hole Book by Peter Newell, 1908.
Peter Newell, The Hole Book, 1908.  This is a remarkable little book. Check it out online at nonsenselit.org. The complete book is reproduced (free) in ebook format, and you can turn the pages by clicking on the "hole" on each page. The last page illustrates the bullet finally being stopped by the sturdy cake baked by "Mis. Newlywed".

Sounds like Rootie Kazootie, Detective.  See more on Most Requested.
I just figured out my question.  It turns out that it was not a children's book, but a cartoon.  The name of the Warner Bros. cartoon is "The Hole Idea".  Mel Blanc did the voice for Prof. Calvin Q. Calculus who invets a portable hole that falls into the hands of a criminal. Details here.

Lobel, Arnold, A Holiday For Mister Muster, 1963.  Possibly??  "Mr. Muster the zookeeper has trouble bringing his animals back to the zoo after their outing at an amusement park."
Z10 I didn't quote this because when I looked at it, it didn't quite fit. He visits zoo every day on foot and animals love him so they go to his house. Zookeepers then give him a job at the zoo.  No cars with giraffes sticking out.  Lobel, Arnold. A zoo for Mister Muster. illus by Arnold Lobel    Harper,  1962.   Mister Muster is such a friend to all the zoo animals that they escape to his house - and he ends up with a job at the zoo -
HRL:  A Holiday for Mister Muster is a later book in the series of Mister Muster books, and may well be the one.

Durell, Ann, illustrator Ursula Koering, Holly River Secret.  NY Doubleday 1956.  This sounds possible. "Children will enjoy the sponaneous summertime fun in this modern mystery tale and some will identify themselves with Joey (Joanna) Baird, who preferred jeans to dress-up clothes, or her older twin brothers who sometimes acted like superior beings, although they had to admit that she often got there first. Their joint discoveries of historical information and treasure take place on a cranberry farm in southern New Jersey. The children's attitudes toward each other, to their overly-concerned visiting grandmother and other adults ring as true as does their love of exploring." (Horn Book Oct/56 p.353)
What a coincidence! I just read this within the last 5 months!! Joanna, called Joey, her brothers and a friend, Baptista Lorenzo,  solve a very old mystery. Holly River Secret by Ann Durell (1956)
This is definitely the book I've been searching for!  Thanks so much for providing such a unique service, and many thanks to the people who recognized the book from my meager description and took the time to respond.

Hollywood Dream machine, Zindel Bonnie, 1984.  Gabrielle and Buffy's long and firm friendship becomes strained when Gabrielle visits Buffy in California and finds her swept up in a new and very different life style.
Just wanted to let you know that whoever suggested Hollywood Dream Machine by Bonnie Zindel was right. That's the book I've been looking for. Thanks so much.

Mildred Hark and Noel McQueen, A Home for Penny, 1959.  This book has a scene in it that matches the desciption.  Penny lives in a children's home with lots of other children and really wants a family of her own. At one point, Penny is carefully drawing a picture of what her mother would look like if she had one.  While she's drawing the red polka dots on the "mother's" apron, Penny gets distracted and her crayon slips. She draws a line that looks like a tail instead of a polka dot.  At the end of the book, Penny does not have a new family, and she realizes that her picture looks like Mrs. Brown, the director of the home.

This is the inimitable Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey (NY,'43). Always in print. With reason.
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A series of 1940s or 50s hardback books featuring a young kid who would solve mysteries and crimes in his small, midwest-type town.  I think the series was named after the main character who was young teen.  One of the mysteries involved a donut caper - he tracked some crooks down in the countryside.  It was maybe 4th or 5th grade level reading.  Trying to remember this has bothered me for years.

Mc Closkey, Homer Price series.  perhaps?
Robert McCloskey, Homer Price, Centerburg Tales, 1940s.  Has to be Homer Price.  I think you're mixing up at least two of the stories, though.  Check the Solved Mysteries Pages for more info.
Sobol, Donald, Encyclopedia Brown. Short mysteries solved by You and Encyclopedia.
Robert McCloskey, Homer Price and Centerburg Tales.  This may be the Homer Price series -- one of the tales had a donut machine that wouldn't stop making donuts.
Robert McCloskey, Homer Price. Robert McCloskey wrote several books about Homer Price and one has a story in it about a donut machine that makes everyone sing about donuts.  Could these be the books you're looking for?
I immediately thought of the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald Sobol, but the first book - Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective - came out in 1963, not the the 40's or 50's.
Robert McCloskey, Homer Price.  This has got to be Homer Price.  The Doughnut story is the most remembered but the one where he tracks down criminals involves a skunk and is also difficult to forget!
McCloskey, Robert, Homer Price, 1943.  These stories are from the wonderful Homer Price book (and also read the sequel Centerburg Tales).  Not so much a detective series but more small American town tales. There are several chapters in the book each a complete story.  In one, Homer captures  robbers aided by his pet skunk Aroma. Perhaps the most memorable is the Donut machine story - I know it's one of my most enduring childhood reading memories.
Thank you very much the help in solving my book mystery.  It is indeed Homer Price.  I�m amazed at how fast folks responded.  You�ve helped clarify one of my childhood memories that has bugged me for years. 

Susan Cooper, Seaward.  Some of the details don't fit, but this seems very close to "Seaward".  West and Cally meet up in an alternate reality type of setting--they've both lost their parents and must cooperate together on a mysterious quest.  There's a castle where each one of them encounters their ideal room.  There's also a chessboard with live people--they must win the game in order to proceed across the chessboard.
This rings a distinct bell, but I don't think it's Seaward.  It almost sounds more like Diana Wynne Jones' The Homeward Bounders, but again, some of the details don't quite jibe. Argh!  I'll try to wrap my brain around it.
Diana Wynne Jones, The Homeward Bounders, 1981.  Forget what I just said -- I think this is The Homeward Bounders.  It's just too close for coincidence.
I'm sure you get messages like this all of the time, but I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to see my stupmer actually solved!  The book was in fact The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones.  I looked up a description and all of the other details (the mythology references in particular) came flooding back.  I love you site - have told everyone I know about it.

This sounds fairly likely: Mason, Miriam E.Hominy And His Blunt-Nosed Arrow. New York, Macmillan 1967 "Children's story about a small Indian boy from the Miami Woodland Indian tribe who with his little bow searches for a silver arrowhead to kill the Bad Luck Bird." Illustrated with B&W line drawings by George & Doris Hauman.
Mason, Miriam E., Hominy and his Blunt-Nosed Arrow, NY Macmillan 1950.  "Indian boy seeks silver arrow so he will be a real hunter." "A small Indian boy from the Miami Woodland Indian tribe who with his little bow searches for a silver arrowhead to kill the Bad Luck Bird." "Young Hominy, a Miami Woodlands indian, is give a small bow with some blunt-nosed arrows to hunt rabbits. He goes in search of a silver arrowhead so that he can really hunt. But he ends up bringing home something far more valuable than a silver arrowhead." "The daily life of a young child in an unspecified northern forest tribe. Pleasant little drawings of village life and Hominy, who caught a crow's tail feathers as a baby and goes around in full headdress."

L48: Honestly, Katie John! (1963) by Mary Calhoun. Simply has to be. Third(?) of the Katie John series. There were at least four. I should re-read it, because from what I remember, she had quite the identity crisis - first she's disgusted with boys and their ways, but when the girls start acting girly-girly, she rebels and becomes a "vulgar" tomboy (as one girl put it - I, myself, reading it in the late 1970's, couldn't grasp why Katie would wear a skirt to school during that phase) because she can't bear the idea that her idea of 6th-grade feminine maturity isn't the norm. Or that she can't make the girls conform to it. (Writer Deborah Tannen would have a field day with that!) "Slam books" are part of the story, and there's a boy with whom she has a long rift before they're friends again. Mary Calhoun truly knew how to write and was almost certainly ahead of her time in her creation of Katie.
L48 (lipstick eating outsider girl) is most definitely, without a question, positively Honestly, Katie John! by (I think) Mary Calhoun.  The girl that calls everyone "sugar" is Priscilla, and Katie and her friend Sue go to a fair in the first chapter.  Katie finds an old book about female etiquette and tries being "a lady" briefly, then tries being the complete opposite to protest the "girly" behavior of her classmates, especially towards boys.  She eats Priscilla's lipstick before a school concert.   Her antics cause the other girls to ostracize her for a time.
Mary Calhoun, Honestly, Katie John!  I'm pretty sure this is the book. There is a series of Katie John books, and in this one, the 'tomboyish' Katie John becomes something of an outsider when her classmates become preoccupied with boys and make-up, etc. The lipstick episode is an example. Priscilla is the popular girl who calls everyone 'sugar'  but she hasn't just moved to town - I think that must be something from another book.
Wow, I remember reading this same book.  I don't know when the first book in the "Alice" series was published, but I have a feeling it might be that one (the series is by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor).  I think there's a description of how grossed out the girl is when she bites into the greasy lipstick.
Honestly, Katie John!  I can't believe it!  This is the book I have been looking for for absolutely ages and here it is a week later and it's been solved.  Thank you all so much!  I can't wait to read this again.
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I'm trying to locate a book that was a favorite of mine when I was in elementary school, in the early 1970s.The book was likely written in the 1950s or 60s. It is probably set in middle America, during the Depression or soon after. I only remember a couple of scenes. A young girl (about 10) happens upon an abandoned farmhouse while out exploring. The house looks like it was vacated quickly by the family who lived there. The girl pokes around and finds a Farmers Almanac and reads in it that there wasn't enough rain that year, so she guesses that the family left because they couldn't sustain their farm. In the kitchen, above the sink, the mother of the house had made herself a "picture window" to look at while washing dishes, because there wasn't a real window over the sink. One of the items pasted up was a homemade Valentine from one of her children. The little girl in the story imagines the mother toiling at the kitchen sink, with only her picture window to entertain her.She visits the house often and it becomes her special secret place. There might also be a scene in this book where the young girl visits the local fair and sees a fortune teller.  It's possible this book was written by the author "Mabel Leigh Hunt," but I've no idea if it was and if so which title fits the description. There aren't any books by Hunt in our libraries so I can't search through them. If it's not by her it's in her genre.That's all I remember! I would love to locate this book and share it with my daughters. That abandoned farmhouse story has stayed with me all these years, and I'm nearly 40 years old!

Mary Calhoun, Honestly, Katie John!  This is definitely, without a doubt, it - the details about the house are dead on.  Katie John and her friend find the house. This was my very favorite book in the series- must have read it a dozen times.
Mary Calhoun, Honestly Katie John.  This is one of the Katie John books - I think it's Honestly Katie John, which is the 3rd book in the series (4 total).
Mary Calhoun, Katie John. There are 4 Katie John books, but I think the one you are looking for is the first.
Mary Calhoun, Honestly Katie John.  This is definitely Katie John and I think this is the correct book. (If not, then "Depend On Katie John") This was one of my favorite of her adventures...I always wished I could find an old abandoned house like that...
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Could this be it?  I clearly remember the made window, but I can't remember if it was from this book and my copy is missing so I can't check.
Mary Calhoun, Honestly, Katie John! 1963.  Although it is not set in the Depression, I am pretty sure you are thinking of this third book in the Katie John series.  Katie John does indeed visit a fortune teller at a fair, and she does find an abandoned house with a pasted-up "picture window" over the sink.
Mary Calhoun, one of the Katie John books.  I remember the "picture window" perfectly... it's from one of the Katie John books, not the first one... I think maybe Katie John and Heathcliffe

Hi.  I also read the book that the stumper read.  I cant recall the author or the title either but i do remember that the kid who was at odds with her mother had a few words with the black nanny.  When she learns that the nanny's name is Vanilla she says, "But you're not vanilla you're chocolate." To which the nanny replies, "Your name is sugar?  Well you sure arent sweet." Or words to that affect.  I thought maybe the book was called Sugar, or Candy, but i cant find anything with that name either.  I also remember that the girl loves having Van do her hair for her.  She cuts and styles it beautifully. The girl ends up conning her mother into buying her a new hairdryer so that she can duplicate Van's hairdo.  Cant remember anything else except that at one point Van was sunbathing and the girl was confused as to why a black woman would enjoy taking in the rays.  Hope this helps!!

Helen Cavanagh, Honey, 1979, copyright. Finally found a used copy!! All the pieces of the story came together...now I'm saving it for my daughters!

The one that is driving me to gnash my teeth is B61.  I actually own this book and thought I knew exactly where it was.  Went home to check the title and can't find the book.  It was my mother's when she was little so is probably from the 20's or 30's.  I think it is called Honey Bear or something similar.  It is told in verse...a little baby toddles away from her house in the forest. Mother and father are frantic.  Baby is found by a friendly bear who gives her honey to keep her happy.  Parents find her, safe and sound, covered in honey...and the poem ends up saying something about that is why all babies are now called honey...it's an adorable book with darling illustrations and as soon as I find my copy, I will post the title and author if no-one else yet has done so.
Yes!  I know this one now-- it's illustrated by Frank Lloyd Wright's sister, Maginel Wright Barney, and published by one of the greats of American children's book publishing, Volland.  Very art deco.  I hear, also, that this was a favorite of Dare Wright when she was growing up.  Here's a beautiful copy for sale:
Willson, Dixie.  Honey Bear. Illustrated by Maginel Wright Barney.  P.F. Volland, 1923.  12th edition. A Sunny Book.  Excellent color illustrations.  Spine paper worn off in places, wear to corner, otherwise VG. A scarce title.  <SOLD>
I noticed Honey Bear illustrated by Maginel Wright!  She is the mother of  Elizabeth Enright!! I only recently found all these family  connections. I  knew the author of Gone-Away Lake was no mere mortal!

B72  Could these be the Honey Bunch and Norman books?
B72 Bobbsey Twins not quite -- Could this be Howard Garis's Cherries series (published c.1924)? One is
called Two Wild Cherries at the Seashore. The same author wrote the Curlytops series including The Curlytops at Sunset Beach (1921). He also wrote the Bunny series mentioned. Another possible, though I think less likely, is Elizabeth Gordon's Dolly and Molly books, which include Dolly and Molly at the Seashore.
Ran across this description while looking for something else: Margaret Kent The Twins at the Seaside Harrap 1949, 96 pages "Prudence Penelope Inglis and Christopher Malcolm Inglis aka Sugar and Spice."
Helen Louise Thorndyke, Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the Seashore, 1924.  One of many Honey Bunch books! 

Don't you think this is A Rocket in My Pocket?
Before turning to Loganberry Books, I did some footwork in the children's library and the book I'm seeking is not Rocket In My Pocket, nor is it McClintock's What's In My Pocket?
S359 The cover of my Scholastic edition of A rocket in my pocket says Favorite Rhymes from A rocket in my pocket so there is still a slight possibility that the poster's poem is in the orig edition. This one has the title poem [kind of dumb] "I've got a rocket in my pocket. I cannot stop to play. Away it goes! I've burnt my toes. It's Independence Day."
Lucia and James L. Hymes, Jr., Hooray for Chocolate and Other Easy-to-Read Jingles, 1960, copyright.  Thought I'd report back, just in case anyone else remembered my book of children's poems and wanted to know the title.  I recently googled one of the poems I remembered, and up came an educators' website, complete with a credit to the book I'd been searching for for years!  I ordered it online.

Hooray for Pig!
I am looking for a book that I read as a child.  I don't remember the title or the author.  To the best of my recollection, it is a picture book.  It is about a pig, and an otter and they go on a picnic and eat peanut butter sandwiches.  Incidently, the otter likes to play on a slide next to a pond.  It was probably written in the seventies or early eighties.  This is driving me crazy. Please help!

P4.5 pig and otter: it sounds awfully Richard Scarry, and the time is right for his books - with all the Scarry fans out there, can't someone recognise it? (I don't like his books, myself)
Carla Stevens, Hooray for pig! 1974.
P4.5 pig and otter: okay, right after I suggested Richard Scarry, I ran across this - Hooray for Pig! by Carla Stevens, illustrated by Rainey Bennett, published Seabury and Scholastic 1974, Weekly Reader, 48 pages. "Pig is very fond of picnics. His idea of bliss is a picnic with loads of peanut-butter sandwiches. He would really love to swim, but doesn't feel brave enough to try. So while all his friends - Raccoon, Otter, Beaver and Muskrat - wallow and splash in the cool water, he endures a few hot, lonely summer days." (Children's Book Review 1976 p.13)  "Easy to read text matched with illustrations in relaxed cartoo-line decked with brown or green wash, describing the traumas and accidents that occur because Pig allows Raccoon and Otter to teach him to swim." (Growing Point Sept/76 p.2934) So there's a pig, an otter, and peanut-butter ...

Two possibilities - Hop Little Kangaroo / Patricia Scarry (Golden, 1965) and The Kangaroo Who Coldn't Hop  and, The Cloud Wallaby / Pixie O'Harris (Golden, 1979).  Since your 'childhood' could be anywhere from 10 to 80 years ago, maybe you can narrow it down by the copyright dates.
I've read it and the cherry pie is definitely there. Scarry, Patricia.  Hop, little kangaroo.  illus by Feodor Rojankovsky. Little Golden    1965

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Scarry, Patricia.  Hop, little kangaroo.  illus by Feodor Rojankovsky. Little Golden Book, 1965.  Corners worn, some soil; 1 or 2 pp have smudges, 1 a little ink mark. Overall, G.   $8

Trina Paulus' Hope for the Flowers.  A word-of-mouth marketing miracle from 1972.
Hope for the Flowers.  This is definitely it. I just read the book a couple of years ago.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Paulus, Trina.  Hope for the Flowers.  Paulus Press, 1972.  Large paperback, slight wear.  VG.  $6

About G31, that is the same book I am looking for! My entry is T81.
"The Shadow" by Goldsmith is in HORROR TALES: SPIRITS, SPELLS, AND THE UNKNOWN ed. Roger Elwood (Rand McNally, 1974), which as I recall is indeed a "slightly oversized hardback" (and the date fits).  But Mendoza's "The Devil's Pocket" is not in that book--it is in THE CRACK IN THE WALL AND OTHER WEIRD TALES (Dial, 1968) by Mendoza and in the Lee Bennett Hopkins (ed) 1977 anthology MONSTERS, GHOULIES AND CREEPY CREATURES.  Possibles, anyway.
This isn't much help, but there is a story called Tom and moT, by Max Trull, published 1930, 178 pages, about a little boy (the nursery rhyme one who threw pussy in the well) looking down the well and seeing his own
reflection, which changes places with him. He then has to live moT's life in the topsy-turvy underworld. He finally reaches home, much improved by his experiences. If this is the same story, it must have just been a chapter excerpted for the collection.
Roger Elwood, editor, Horror Tales: Spirits Spells and the Unknown.  1974-75 Mystery solved! The book I first described is indeed Horror Tales edited by Roger Elwood! THANK YOU! By the way, the story with the children and the echo is not The Devil's Pocket it is called something about El Dorado. And the Tom-Mot story is different too.
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I am trying to find some very beloved books from my elementary school days in the '70s.   The first is a collection of somewhat gruesome scary short stories.  I think it was at least slightly oversized, hardback with illustrations.  I only remember three stories - one was about a tree that cast evil shadows inside a bedroom, one was about a boy who called things into an echo canyon and the words that came back to him were very different from the ones he had called and the third one I remember the most vividly.  A boy and a girl discover a formula to turn things into gold - unfortunately (inevitably!), something goes wrong and the girl is turned into a fly - the cat smushes the fly, and the story ends with the boy running up the stairs screaming because the fly is turning back into the girl...and she's smushed.  Yech.  (see what I mean about gruesome?!)

I don't have the exact book - but I can tell you two of the short stories' titles and authors, and this might help your search. The echo story may be The Devil's Pocket by George Mendoza. Two brothers are playing in a
quarry nicknamed the devil's pocket. One throws a penny in, and the quarry echoes back his voice as he calls out. But when he finds a penny, his brother insists it's not the same one because it's too shiny. The one insists "IT'S MY PENNY" and the quarry doesn't echo back his voice. And then when the brother whispers "better not take it", the quarry echoes his voice, getting louder. The boys take the penny, but during the night they both have the same nightmare that the quarry is calling, and in the morning, the penny is gone. It's a creepy story.  The tree casting an evil shadow sounds like The Shadow by Howard Goldsmith. The tree, planted over the body of a hanged witch, casts it's shadow into the boy's room.
The Devil's Pocket is anthologized in The Haunted House and Other Stories edited by Vic Crume.  Tthe cover featured a haunted house with a psychedelic aura.  Probably not what you're looking for, but very creepy.
About G31, that is the same book I am looking for! My entry is T81.
"The Shadow" by Goldsmith is in HORROR TALES: SPIRITS, SPELLS, AND THE UNKNOWN ed. Roger Elwood (Rand McNally, 1974), which as I recall is indeed a "slightly oversized hardback" (and the date fits).  But Mendoza's "The Devil's Pocket" is not in that book--it is in THE CRACK IN THE WALL AND OTHER WEIRD TALES (Dial, 1968) by Mendoza and in the Lee Bennett Hopkins (ed) 1977 anthology MONSTERS, GHOULIES AND CREEPY CREATURES.  Possibles, anyway.
T81 & G31: Laughing Shadow - Eldorado.  Hope this info helps, I recall both stories mentioned as one's I read in grade-school...  The story with the shadow - about a boy moving to a new town, house has a tree in backyard, supposed to have a witch buried under it (former owner), warned not to disturb tree (he does) and the  shadow-witch is let loose.  I loved this story and I believe the book was The laughing shadow and other tales (or stories) - searching this title alwasy pulls the 3 investigators title of the alfred hitchcock series - not an easy find.  The story about the boy and the canyon of echoes, is not the devil's pocket, but was called El Dorado, and the setting was in California (I remember wanting to go find this place after reading the story)  A boy hiking gets lost and or a storm comes up, he takes shelter in an old ghost town, and during the night he hears crying and calls for help from a nearby ravine, it turns out to be the ghosts or "echoes" of a boy and a girl.  "we are only echoes, echoes echoes... waiting...."  pretty creepy!!  Hope this Helps

Horse and Pony Stories for Girls, 1971, copyright.  This book has the story about Christine and Jet, called "Racing Rivals" by Marjorie Stace. The other stories are "The Battle for Blandy Common," "Leave it to Lady," "I Wanted a Pony," and "The Ghost Horse of Hidden Valley." It is published by Hamlyn.
Varied, Horse and Pony Stories For Girls, (Hamlyn 1971), copyright.  I'm not sure when this was solved but its not that long since I checked.  It was terrific to have it solved I can't say how much I appreciated it I was so excited, thanks again.

Marjorie Reynolds, A Horse Called Mystery, 1964.
Marjorie Reynolds, A Horse Called Mystery.  This is definitely the book! The boy, called Owlie, has to wear a brace on his leg and has a deaf mother. He finds and helps a lame horse, and makes friends with a doctor who is hiding on an island because he has been disfigured in a fire. Owlie eventually uses the horse to swim to the island during a storm and convince the doctor to leave because someone needs help (I think maybe his mother broke her leg?).
marjorie reynolds, A Horse Called Mystery.  That's definitely it!! The title rings a bell, as does the leg brace - I remember there being something 'different' about the kid, but couldn't remember what it was. I have been trying to find this book - punching words into serarch engines and browsing lists of horse books - for years, to no avail! Thanks to this site, my second-hand copy is on now its way. Thank you!

Karen Bendick Watson, A Horse Named Summer, 1965. 

Possibly Found: One Orange-Brown Horse (1957) by Patricia Lauber, author of Clarence the TV Dog. The book is in fact illustrated by Shortall, I think!
#H21:  The one I'm thinking of was like Found:  One Orange-Brown Horse  but can't be the same book as I have that one and the one I'm thinking of I never had.
Nancy Caffrey, illus. by Paul Brown, Horse Haven, 1950's.  The exact scene you describe is in this book.

B130a boy sky green: a story at least similar is A Horse of Another Color, by Nathan Kravetz, illustrated by Susan Perl, published Little, Brown 1962, 58 pages. "In this all-so-true-to-life story about Henry who loves to paint horses, the author, an elementary school principal, reveals a concern for the independent and imaginative child. As a non-conformist in the use of color, Henry fills the school authorities with anxiety, although he seems to be happily normal in every other respect. It takes the College exhibit, to which Henry's horses in blue and green are sent by mistake, to bring down the worried eyebrows, for a time at least. Cartoonish drawings have the right kind of humor." (HB Oct/62 p.478)

The book is The Horsemasters, by Don Sandford, he who also wrote Red Car. It was made into a Disney move starring Annette Funicello, and was about the English Horsemastership Program. The old horse mentioned was Cornish Pastie, who was messy, aged, and a phenomenal hunter.
Thank you!! Yes! Please! The book IS The Horsemasters by Don Stanford. If you cd try to locate a copy for me at a good price, that wd be great! (eBay has a copy, but I'd prefer to support your great service if I can afford it!) Let me know.
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The book I'm looking for was about a girl going to a special school where she learned about horse care and riding. She got a really ugly horse but then ended up loving him and doing well. That's about all I remember! Please let me know
if this works!

G113  Stanford, Don, The Horsemasters.  See Solved Mysteries
Don Stanford., The Horsemasters, 1970s.   Puffin book. Would seem like one possibility.
Don Stanford, The Horsemasters.  This stumper sounds like The Horsemasters, about a girl named Dinah who goes to a
riding school in England where she is assigned to a homely horse named Corny (short for Cornish Pastie).  She dislikes him at first, but eventually grows to respect him.
G113 This must be a darned good story to have even Scholastic copies so expensive! Stanford, Don; foreword by Sheila
Willcox    The horsemasters.  dust jacket by Doremus.  Funk & Wagnalls c1957 American girl learns firsthand about training by the British Horse Society for a Preliminary Instructor�s Certificate; horsemastership course
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"Heads Up!" Not the famous one by Patsy Grey, it was about a boarding school/riding school with boy and girl students from all over the world. The riding master was either German or Austrian, a good man but very strict. You had to be meticulous about your own and your horse's appearance. One of the students was a tall blonde girl called Ingrid, and she pointed out early on that the main character was not a very good rider compared to the others, so how had she qualified for the school?

She then realized her question was less than polite and said "I have been again stupid." But the main character was not offended by the question and agreed cheerfully that "I stink". She had some kind of an "in" and had managed to be accepted hoping to improve her riding.
Don Stanford, The Horsemasters. Sounds like Stanford's "The Horsemasters", about a group of young people in a British training school for teachers of riding.  Did the heroine ride a horse called Cornish Pastie?
SOLVED: Don Stanford, Horsemasters, Funk & Wagnalls 1957. That's it. Now I remember reading this in 1970, and the title definitely was Heads Up!, but this is the book, no question.  One of the reviews mentioned the name of the main character's best friend. She was called Bee Bye. That's what clicked. Her name was Beatrice Byington Smith. Another mystery solved! Thank you very much

H112  I've sold one by Patsey Gray called Horsepower. My subject headings were horses, Calif, Blanco.  and I have: Montgomery, Rutherford.  Walt Disney presents El Blanco - the legend of the white stallion.  illus by Gloria Stevens   Scholastic,  1961.
Patsey Gray, Horsepower.  I am nearly certain this is the book - THANK YOU!!  I have ordered it and should have
it within a few days - I'll let you know for sure then.  The description of the book matched my recollection almost exactly.  (I know it is NOT the Disney El Blanco the White Stallion.)
Thank you thank you thank you for this marvelous site; I'm in the process of collecting all the wonderful juvenile fiction my husband and I enjoyed as children, and there are two books that have haunted me because I didn't know the titles or authors.  Within minutes (literally, maybe two) of browsing through your site the first time I logged on (last week...) I just happened
across a title that resonated; it was one of the books I was hoping to find (the Best Loved Doll).  Within three days I had the book in hand.  Now that the other book I wanted was posted you seem to have solved that one the first try as well (Horsepower).  Wow...  I won't say I can't tell you how much this means to me because I think you know very well the bonds we have with our books.
Could this be The Horsemasters by Don Stanford?? Sounds vaguely similar! And the time frame is right. The book is found in Solved Pages!
Patsey Gray, Horsepower.  Thanks again - this is it for sure, kelly green wall and all.

Regarding question M15 "Morel Mushroom", the book is Hothouse by Brian Aldiss; the novel is out-of-print, but still excellent in its descriptions of the carnivorous plants, flymen, etc.

I remember listening to a record when I was young that had Tubby the Tuba on it, the others you listed I can't remember but there was also a song about Hans Christen Anderson.  The record, which included stories and songs, was by Danny Kaye (from UK).
This second memory is surely Hans Christian Anderson: The Musical (see Solved Mysteries), but I don't believe the original stumper here is Anderson.
Danny Kaye, Tubby the Tuba and other stories.  At home I have a Tape with stories about Tubby the Tuba, and songs such as Thumbelina, Inch Worm, Hans Christian Anderson - it is NOT the musical.
You have the "record with Tubby the Tuba, Bartholomew Cubbins" etc. stories in the SOLVED half, but the original query wasn't solved, only a spinoff query.  Here's the record original questioner is looking for:  An Hour of favorite stories for children, vol. 2.  [New York]:  RCA Camden, 1957.  The furthur adventures of Tubby the tuba (Ray Middleton with Russ Case and his orchestra  Herbert Jenkel, tuba) -- The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (Paul Wing) -- Peter Churchmouse (Paul Wing with Henri Ren� and his orchestra) -- One string fiddle (Paul Wing with Clark P. Whipple, Hammond organ  Frank Novak, violin).

Averil Demuth, The House in the Mountains, 1940.  This may be a possibility for H142.  It is described as a Swiss story and was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1940.
Averil Demuth, The House in the Mountains,1940.I think this is the one you're looking for.  Was the bear's name Mr Tog/Trog or something similar?
Averil Demuth, The House in the Mountains: A Swiss Story,1940.Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (1940).ASIN: B000J1JN9O
Averil Demuth, the House in the Mountains,194. fits at least some of your description. I haven't got a copy to hand, but I remember the tunnel and a talking bear, set in the Alps. I believe she's a UK author.
Sorry, I can't identify the book for you but if you're still curious about aniseed balls, I can help there.  They''re British sweets, traditionally sold loose from large jars. So presumably the book was British too (or perhaps a British translation).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniseed_ball has a photo, if you want to see what they look like.

Pamela Sykes, Come Back, Lucy, 1973.  Known as Mirror of Danger in the U.S. (I read it under that title).  I'm pretty sure it's this book because just about everything fits except the African part. What the poster seems not to recall is that Lucy travels back in time and meets a girl named Alice who wants to keep her in the past forever. I loved this book as a kid.
Penelope Lively, The House in Norham Gardens, 1974.  Clare is an orphan living in an old house in Oxford with her elderly aunts and two boarders, one a young man from Africa.  In the attic she finds a shield and other artefacts from New Guinea and becomes intrigued by the encounter between a Victorian anthropologist and a stone age New Guinea tribe. A wonderful book by an award-winning author.
A222  My answers could be totally wrong OR the person may be combining memories from 2 different books. The part about Lucy not being sure about her relatives wanting her reminded me of MIRROR OF DANGER by Pamela Sykes (also published under the title of COME BACK LUCY). Lucy is raised by an aunt, and when the aunt dies, she is sent to live with distant cousins. She is having trouble adjusting, and then (details are getting fuzzy here) she finds a mirror which is connected with a ghost named Alice, who causes Lucy's further estrangement from the family and becomes a threat to Lucy. Eventually the ghost's grip is broken, and Lucy realizes the family wants her (although I can't remember if a letter is involved). But I also came across a book which seems to have more of the other elements posted in the stumper. It's HOUSE IN NORHAM GARDENS by Penelope Lively, but the main character is named Clare Mayfield. She lives in a house with older relatives, and it is filled with artifacts from around the world. There's a mask from New Guinea which has a strange dangerous power over her. Some summaries of the book said it caused her travel back in time, other summaries said it caused her frightening dreams. Hope this helps.~from a librarian
Pamela Sykes, Come Back, Lucy, 1973.  I think this is two books mixed up. Come Back, Lucy has the character who lived with her elderly aunt, packed a trunk of her possessions, and wouldn't read the letter from her relatives.  Mirrors are very important in the book and at the end she makes it up with the mother and hurts her hand.  I don't know the book with the African connections.
Penelope Lively, The House in Norham Gardens, 1974.  To the Librarian poster:  THANK YOU!!! You were right -- I had mentally "smushed together" both Pamela Sykes' Mirror of Danger with The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively.  I think what happened is that I found The House in Norham Gardens a bit too scary at age 11 and so returend it to the library and was recommended Mirror of Danger  instead, and the two must have gotten a bit mixed up in my memory. Again, THANK YOU!!!
My grandmother had this book, and I have no idea what it was called, but I loved it, too.

House of Four Seasons
I read the book I am looking for in late elementary school or in junior high.  I am now 54.  I remember a house in a meadow.  The rooms of the house were decorated like the seasons.  The kitchen was winter and the large second floor room was fall.  At one point in the story there was a fire in the woods.

Duvoisin, Roger, The House of Four Seasons, 1956.  "When a family buys a new house, each member has a different idea of what color to paint it." Maybe? 

Have you looked at Enid Blyton?
Enid Blyton, The Enchanted Castle.This stumper does sound very close to the plot of The Enchanted Castle.
Nina Bawden, The House of Secrets/The Secret Passage (UK title), 1963.  Worth a look? John, Mary, and Ben Mallory go to England to live with Aunt Mabel, who keeps a boardinghouse. Young Ben meets the eccentric , elderly boarder Miss Pin, who tells stories of her fabulous treasure, and of the secret passage in the cellar. The passage leads to the big house next door, where the children meet a mysterious girl who has run away from school. 

Meindert DeJong, House of Sixty Fathers.This is the book.  He started out with only a pig and a duck but had to leave the duck behind.  After much travel and hardship he (and the pig) were taken in by a group of American soldiers.  He never gave up looking for his parents from whom he had been separated and finally found them again at the end.
DeJong, Meindert, The House of Sixty Fathers, 1956.  I am pretty sure this is the one you are looking for. Tien Pao is all alone in enemy territory. He has the family pig with him. He does encounter a wounded American soldier who gives him some chocolate, I don't remember gum, though it could be there too. He definitely has to hide in some rice paddies. Hope this helps.
Meindert deJong, House of Sixty Fathers.  Maybe?
Clark, Ann Nolan, To Stand Against the Wind, 1978.  If it's Vietnam and not China, then this might be the book. The animal was a water buffalo.
DeJong, Meindert, The House of Sixty Fathers. My 4th grade teacher read us this book!  The pig's name was Glory of the Republic.

William Sleator, The House of Stairs
William Sleator, House of Stairs. One of my favorite books-- my daughter just read it too, and loved it.
William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1974.  I have read many of William Sleator's books, and enjoyed most of them.
C102 HOUSE OF STAIRS by William sleator, 1974 (make sure it's by that author. There's another book with a similar title) ~from a librarian
Sleator, William, House of Stairs, 1974.
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I read this book when I was in Jr. High, in about 1978 or so. It was about a group of kids, runaways I think, who were captured or led to a room that was nothing but stairscases and stair landings.  No furniture, no rooms, just stairs.  They were rewarded by acting a certain way which they had to figure out by trial and error.  Their food, their clothes, everything was given out once they exhibited the behavior "they" wanted, whoever "they" were.  At one point, attacking one of the kids led to the attackers being rewarded with food.  All of the behavior was being monitored. At the end two of the kids remained "normal," while the others had been "turned" or brainwashed.  At the very end as they were all leaving, they were walking down the street, the traffic light turned red, and the "turned" ones all started to dance.  And that was the end. The book had quite an effect on me emotionally and mentally in that to conceive such a thing might actually exist was  unnerving.  I'd like to read it again now as an adult to see if it has the same impact.  Any help in finding it would be greatly appreciated!

Sleator, William, House of Stairs.  Five sixteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are
involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.
William Sleator, House of Stairs. This is House of Stairs. It haunted me for a while too, but I was lucky to run across in a library not too long ago. I found it was still very chilling.
William Sleator, House of Stairs.  This is definitely House of Stairs.  The children are selected for the experiment because they will not be missed (are in an orphanage/unloved).  It's a classic illustration of behavior modification in the wrong hands.
William Sleator , House of Stairs. 1974.  Five sixteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are
involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.
William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1975.  No doubt about it and I bet a dozen other people will have beaten me to it already.  Fantastic book.
William Sleator, House of Stairs.This sounds like a pretty accurate description of the plot as I remember it. House of Stairs has been reissued by Firebird.
S304 Gosh! Makes you think of the Iraq prison scandals.
William Sleator, House of Stairs.  Loved this book when I was a young teen! It is definitely House of Stairs by William Sleator. I've always thought it would make an awesome movie!
Sleator, William, House of Stairs,NY Dutton 1974.  Me and a half-dozen other people say it's this one : Five  fifteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.
S304 Without a doubt this is HOUSE OF STAIRS by William Sleator. Be sure to get the right author because there is another book with the same title. I agree that this is a book you can't forget. ~from a librarian
William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1974.  sounds exactly like it.
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I recall several kids being in a maze or underground area (all white iirc).  When a green light lit there was food.  They grew more and more animalistic, kind of a lord of the flies feel.  At the end of the book, they were freed onto the street.  A nearby traffic light went green and they began fighting.  There the book ends as I remember.  It was a dark, disturbing book, but I was young then so dark and disturbing may not be true now.  The word 'pig' comes to mind when I think of it, but I think that was interstellar pig, and I think that is a different book that I must have read near the same time.

William Sleator, The House of Stairs, 1974.  This is definitely it.  You're thinking of Interstellar Pig because both books are by William Sleator.  (Please note that there is another book called House of Stairs by Barbara Vine.  That's not the one you want!)  See the Solved Mysteries "H" page for more information.
William Sleator, The House of Stairs.  okay, so some details way off (not underground, and the light isn't green), but sounds so similar - in House of Stairs, 5 (6?) 16 year olds are trapped in this huge maze of stairs.  There's a thing that flashes red lights and gives food, trains them to do certain things to get the food when the red lights flash, eventually evolves into this very complicated dance. At certain point, rewards them with food for being cruel to each other.  Two resist, and at the end, all are released.  The resisters find out it's been a military type experiment, and the book does end with the non-resisters stopping at a traffic light and going into their complicated dance.
William Sleator, House of Stairs.  I'm sure you'll receive plenty of solutions to this one!
William Sleator, The House of Stairs.  I'm sure this is it.
Sleator, William, House of Stairs.  Four teenagers are forced to participate in a pscyhological study, which created Pavlovian reactions to flashing lights, and brought out savage behavior.
William Sleator, House of Stairs. This stumper has a great recollection, as William Sleator also wrote Interstellar Pig. House of Stairs is a great creepy book about a group of children plucked from their surroundings and imprisoned in a house with nothing but stairs.  Through positive/negative reinforcement, they learn which behavior patterns produce food.
William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1974.  My sixth-grade teacher read this aloud to the class over a period of a week or so. For most of us it was our first taste of this type of fiction and a startling experience. Very eerie.
William Sleator, The House of Stairs.  I suspect this is most likely The House of Stairs, by William Sleator. The traffic light scene and the dancing for food when the lights blinked is definitely from this book. However, it's a building full of stairs going nowhere rather than an underground maze. A very memorable book.
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1975, Please help me remember the name of a book that terrified me when I read it around 1975 at age 10 (and still troubles me a lot that was definitely too young to have read the book) -- I don't remember many details, but there were 4-5 children, unrelated, who somehow found themselves in a facility without any other humans (I think there was a disembodied voice from time to time), and who were then conditioned (like rats) to get food, etc. by reacting to stimuli and being rewarded or punished.  I remember that the punishments were painful and very disturbing, like very severe electric shocks.  The relationships between the children became predictably dysfunctional.  There was a real sense of evil throughout this book.  I think that some of the stimuli were red and green lights -- in any event, somehow at least some of the children escape, but in the last chilling scene they are running across a road and a traffic light changes color and immediately they all respond with the same unnatural movement responses they learned in the prison maze, which gave me a sickening, hopeless feeling.  In any event, hope I haven't upset anyone reading this -- and that someone recognizes this book.

William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1974. I think you're looking for House of Stairs.  Set sometime in the future, five teenagers wake up in a place that consists only of sets of stairs, going nowhere.  There are machines that flash red or green lights, and the kids figure out that by following certain patterns, they can get food.  In the end, two of the teens, the "juvenile delinquent" girl and the "quiet" boy, decide not to play the game, and the other kids try to bully them inot participating. They become so weak from lack of food that the experiment (because that'\''s what it was)ends.  In the final scene, the kids, all together, go past a traffic light, and the three that stayed in the game--boy jock, rich girl and pretty girl, all do the dance, while the other two kids keep walking.  It was a creepy book!
William Sleator, House of Stairs This sounds like your book, a perennial stumper "Five sixteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.
William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1991. I just finally tracked this book down myself
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Boy and girl (brother and sister?) trapped in some sort of maze which turns out in the end to be some kind of psychological experiment.  Read 20-25 years ago.  Lots of stairs, and there were lights and things that conditioned them to do certain things. An indoor maze - huge.

William Sleator, House of Stairs, 1974, copyright.  Ha! I found my own solution right after I sent in the stumper... oh well.  I was a little off though, it had 5 kids, not 2.  Maybe only 2 made it out at the end... I don't remember.  We'll see when it gets here and I can read it again.   Thanks - looks like an interesting site.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Sleator, William.  House of Stairs. Puffin, 1991.  Paperback.  VG.  $9 Sleator, William.  House of Stairs.  Firebird, 2004.  New paperback.  $5.99

Elfman, Blossom, A House for Jonnie O.Boston, Houghton 1976.  This was suggested on another list, and has some similarities. "A story about a group of pregnant 16 year old girls who want to keep their babies after they are born. A group of 16 yr olds search for a fresh and different solution to pregnancy. Lovable. Laugh, cry, and understand. Joanna Olson was 16 and pregnant. She was determined to have two things: a room of her own - and her baby."
I figured out which book this is - its The House of Tomorrow. Thanks anyway.

King, P.E., The house that had enough,1986.  A Big Little Golden Book. I have a copy which was passed to us when we adopted my son. He is not tremendously attached to it, so if the person who posted the query would like our copy, she may have it.

Maybe this one?  The House That Grew by Jean Strathdee & Jessica Wallace, 1979. 32 pages of cute colorful illustrations. "This English book is a story of a big hippie family living in a giant house. They decide to buy a plot of land and build a giant communal house, but they can only build a little bit at a time. This house just grows and GROWS! Vintage English commune hippy story!" Or this one? Mrs. Caliper's House by Muriel Cooke and Headley & Anne Harper, illustrated by Sherman Cooke, NY Knopf 1943, 63 pages. "Nonsense picture story book about Mrs. Caliper, who was so very friendly that she invited everyone who came along to live in her house. Rooms were added for the farmer, the milkmaid, the small boy Peter, and at last for the old lighthouse keeper. Finally rooms had to be built on top of the house, which made it possible to expand almost indefinitely." Though I'm wondering if it isn't one of the Peterkin stories by L. Hale?
This is in answer to F40.  I believe it is called The House the Pecks Built, by Helen and Alf Evers.  They start out with one room, and keep adding rooms on until the house is so huge they need a train to get from one end of it to the other.  They tear all the additions down, and at the very end of the story  one of them says something about needing more room...
F40 full circle house: more on the last suggested - The House the Pecks Built, by the Evers, (reprinted Jan 2001) "As Mr.Peck, a poor carpenter, grows prosperous he begins to add one room after another to the family's one-room house until it covers so much territory that he and his family must take the train to the next town just to get from the living room to the dining room."  Providing a prescient vision of suburban sprawl, The House the Pecks Built by Helen and Alf Evers is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1940. Not content with their one-room house, the newly monied Pecks keep adding on. Soon, it's so large that tourists come to visit the "Biggest House in the World" and dinner guests travel "from the living room to the dining room by train." Three-color artwork adds nostalgic charm." (Publishers Weekly)
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This book was part of a large volume of childrens stories.  The family started with a very small house and then kept adding on room after room till they got lost in the house and needed roller skates to get around. They ended up tearing down the house till it was back to where they started.

Helen and Alf Evers, The House the Pecks Built, 1957?  This has to be The House the Pecks Built by Helen and Alf Evers. The Peck family build on one room after another until their house is so big that they can't find anything.  They end up tearing all the added-on rooms down to the original room.  The story then suggests that they'll start building it all up again!  I loved this story as a child  I read it in Children's Digest.

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A family thought their house was too small, so the father built an addition. He kept building until the house rambled for miles. The children use roller skates to get from one end to the other. Eventually, the father tears down all the additions, leaving only the original house. Thanks.

Helen Evers and Alf Evers, The House the Pecks Built, 1940, 2001.
SOLVED: Helen and Alf Evers, The House the Pecks Built. That's the one. I remember reading "The House the Pecks Built" when I was a kid. It brings back good memories. I can't wait to see it again. Thanks to wheover sent this in.

Bellairs, John, House with a Clock in its Walls.  Lewis Barnavelt parents have died and he goes to live with his Uncle, who seems to be something of a warlock.  Lewis and friend visit a creepy neighboring house and somehow let the evil  out.  The evil is a man and wife (dead) who built a clock that was counting down to destroy the earth.  Lewis hears the clock ticking and he and his uncle and friend must stop it.  This is the first of a series of books about Lewis and Rosa they all have a supernatural element to them.  The series was continued by Brad Strickland after the death of Bellairs.  The illustration are line drawings.
Bellairs, John, The House With a Clock In Its Walls, 1973. Difficult to be sure given the description, but this might well be a reference to the long series of horror/suspense children's yarns by John Bellairs (continued by Brad Strickland after Bellairs'death) -- many illustrated by the legendary Edward Gorey.
John Bellairs, House With a Clock in Its Walls.'I'm not sure if this is the exact book, but it's definitely the correct author/illustrator combo (John Bellairs/Edward Gorey).  Thank you for solving this years-long mystery!

Follett, Barbara Newhall, The House Without Windows and Eepersip's Life There.  NY Knopf 1927.  Although this is an older book than the poster recalls, it does seem to fit: "The story of a little girl who was "rather lonely" and who left home one day to explore the meadows, fields, and woods near by. But she became so enamored of life in the woods that she decided to "live wild" and never go home anymore. She goes to the mountain and she goes to the sea, then back to the mountains, where on one beautiful summer day she becomes a dryad. A rarely lovely book, and the only instance we know where a child has been able to record that longing common to many children under ten to be one with nature. The book was written by the author at nine and rewritten at twelve, as the original manuscript had been burned." There's a book about the young author: McCurdy, Harold (edited by) BARBARA: the Unconscious Autobiography Of A Child Genius Published by
University of North Carolina Press: 1966, 146 pages, with b&w photos. "She was educated at home in New England by literary parents, Wilson and Helen Follett, and at the age of four she began to type out her own imaginative stories. By thirteen she had already published a novel and, with the publication of her second novel a year later, she seemed launched on a literary career. Then the events of her inner life and her outer world seemed to conspire against her vivd energy - the
separation of her parents, the Great Depression, her own frustrating and unhappy marriage. Finally she fulfilled a prophetic vein in her writings, which sought flight from the human world to an enchanted, unsoiled world of nature. In the winter of 1939, in a mystery that has never been solved, Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared."
Barbara Newhall Follett, The House Without Windows.  I'm pretty sure that this is the solution  and I found a description on your Solved Mysteries page.
Follett, House Without Windows, 1968, reprint.  I'm the original poster.  It is the book.  I have found out that it had a limited paperback reprint by Avon in 1968.  Now if I can only find it.... Thanks!

Henry Kuttner, Housing Problem. This is it!
Henry Kuttner, Housing Problem, 1944.  This is a short story reprinted on pages 13-28 of a Bantam Books paperback I own called Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, edited and with an introduction by Ray Bradbury.  The copyright for the paperback is 1952, but on the Copyright Notices and Acknowledgments page it says, "Housing Problem by Henry Kuttner.  Reprinted from Charm magazine of October 1944, by permission of Street and Smith Publications, Inc.  Copyright, 1944, by Street and Smith Publications, Inc."  Your grandmother and sister have remembered the story pretty well.  A man and his wife rent a room to a crusty old man with a covered birdcage.  The old man has amazing luck---he finds money in the street, wins at gambling, and avoids accidents.  One day, he announces that he has to leave for a week to tend to some property he owns up north.  He has to travel on the bus and can't take his birdcage, and cautions the couple to leave it alone.  The man and his wife are extremely curious, and once their tenant is gone, they remove the cover of the birdcage and discover a beautiful miniature house.  Over the course of the next five days, they annoy the reclusive inhabitants by trying to catch a glimpse of them---they peek through the windows, ring the doorbell, and write "LET US IN" on the door.  They finally find the house empty with a "To Let" sign on the lawn. When the old man returns from his trip, he is furious at the loss of his tenants.  It had taken him months to build the tiny house and coax the occupants to move in, and they had always paid their rent---luck---in a timely fashion.  The old man moves out and leaves the birdcage behind. Late that night, the couple discovers that new tenants have moved in, but they don't remove the cover of the birdcage.  After a potentially fatal accident is narrowly averted at the husband's workplace the next day, the couple uncovers the cage and discovers that the new tenants are incredible slobs. The line your relatives remember is, "Our tenants are sloppy pixies, so we get sloppy luck."  The story ends when the couple walk to a local restaurant that night in the rain and narrowly avoid being hit by a bus by falling into a muddy ditch.
Henry Kuttner, Housing Problem.  One of the places this short story can be found is in Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, edited by Ray Bradbury. (Lots of other good stories in the collection, too!) I imagine it has been collected elsewhere, too.

Rogers, Agnes, How Come? 1953. The book in question may be How Come? by Agnes Rogers.  There appears to be a sequel: How Come -- Again, also by Agnes Rogers and Richard G. Sheehan.  More detailed information on both of these books can be found on the following website   (this is a bibliography of books that deal with situational puzzles).
Rogers, Agnes, How Come! a book of riddles, 1953, Doubleday.  If this is the right book, you may be interested to know that there was a sequel: How Come -- Again! (1960)
Rogers, Agnes, How Come? A Book of Riddles, 1953.  There is a book of riddles called "How Come?" from 1953.  It's by Agnes Rogers, drawings by Carl Rose, 63 pages.  I don't know whether the trapeze riddle is in it, though.

How Fletcher Was Hatched

How Fletcher Was Hatched, Wende and Harry Devlin. See most requested.
I actually found it later on your site - When Fletcher was hatched.  Love your site!

How Sam Adam's Pipe Became a Pig!  I found info on two editions of this book.  There are copies of this title
in only four colleges/universities in the US, so I don't know how easy it will be to find a copy for yourself. Don't know if this will help you, but for what it's worth here's what I found: How Sam Adam's Pipe Became a Pig! by John William Kirton (1831-1892), illus. George Cruikshank, pub. by S.W. Partridge (London) 1864. First separate edition -- orig. published 1857 in the British workman. How Sam Adam's Pipe Became a Pig! by John William Kirton, illus. George Cruikshank, pub. by S.W. Partridge (London), 1869 (date approximate).  Series - Illustrated penny readings, 15pg., 2 illus (woodcuts). 

Oh thank goodness, one I know.  I needed that.  Unfortunately, I don't have one in stock, and they're hard to come by!  But I could get an ex-library copy for around $40.
Kraus, Robert.  How Spider Saved Christmas.  Windmill, 1970. 

Robert Kraus, How Spider Saved Halloween, 1974. As Halloween draws near, poor Spider cannot find a costume.  Then, Fly and Ladybug's squashed jack-o-lantern gives him an idea - and he is able to save Halloween from being spoiled by the bullies.
Robert Kraus, How Spider Saved Halloween. Maybe?
Kraus Robert, How spider saved Halloween, 1973. A Parent's magazine press book Fly and Ladybug�s squashed Jack-o-lantern helps Spider think of a costume that saves Halloween from disaster.
Robert Kraus, How Spider Saved Halloween, 1973. Fly and Ladybug's squashed Jack-o-lantern helps Spider think of a costume that saves Halloween from disaster.
Robert Kraus, How Spider Saved Halloween. Yep that's the book!!! I'm so happy to find it. this has been bothering me for over 10 years. Now I can show it (and perhaps others in the series) to my 4 year old daughter. Thank you so much! What a great service!

First Nations fable, How the Chipmunk Got Her Stripes.  This is a long shot, but...there are similar lines in a Native American fable of "How the Chipmunk Got Her Stripes."  There is a bear who sings "I am big and strong and this is my bear song.  I am smart and I am brave and I am never wrong."

Hmm... I don't remember Mr. Mole from The Wind in the Willows getting into any traffic jams...
A mole in a traffic jam sounds more like Richard Scarry than Kenneth Grahame to me- although I thought it was usually a pig or a cat behind the wheel in his drawings.
I stumbled across your site while sending a query out for a children's book my brothers and I have been searching for over many years. The M16 query in your data base looks like it might be the same book. I don't have a
solution, just more details. We believe the book was Czech in origin, translated into English. The car was a pink car, much smaller than regular cars - the mole was able to drive underneath other cars. We lived in England
at the time - we're talking about the early 1960's. It wasn't a long book, but it was richly illustrated with colour drawings. The book was also in a fairly large format. I have no idea if these details will help, but the fact
that someone else is looking for the same book is already encouraging! Thanks for an interesting web site!
Eduard Petiska, How the Mole Got His Car, 1960. This is definitely the book.  It was printed in Czechoslovakia for Spring Books of London and was illustrated by Zdenek Miler.  A mole becomes fascinated by cars  visits a junkyard and tries to build one himself using nuts for tires, etc.  is unhappy when this doesn't work, but then notices a tire rolling down the street  locates the source -- a windup car that a boy has smashed with a hammer  puts the tires around his neck and carries the car to a repair shop, where it's fixed  and then drives it home.  The last picture is of the mole sleeping happily and clutching the key.
Just to complete the story of the Mole and His Car (M16) that was solved under the title How the Mole Got His Car, I recently came across a website for European books in translation that lists the book, along with several others in the same series about the same character. This delightful set of books is illustrated by the same person, Zdenek Miler, but each book is written by a different writer, with Eduard Petiska as the author of the "Little Mole and His Toy Car" book, as indicated by the person who submitted the solution. The books are available online at this site   I bought the set - they are all delightful. 

Ginsburg, Mirra; illus by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey; How The Sun Was Brought Back To The Sky.  1975, Macmillan Pub. Co.  One day the sun doesn't come out and the animals went looking for where the sun lives. They to go up a mountain, over the cloud, to the moon who takes them to the sun.  The sun's sad that the clouds shut him out of the sky and he doesn't know how to shine anymore. So the animals wash him and polish him until he shines again, and the animals slid down his rays back to their home.
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Children's book I had in the early '80s. The sun is sad, and won't get out of bed or shine. Animals go on a quest to find sun's house in the clouds and they convince sun to shine again. Hardcover art used reds/oranges. Not certain but publisher may have been the one with little green monster logo.

Ginsburg, Mirra, How the Sun Was Brought Back to the Sky.  Yesterday, I submitted a request to find the title of a book about a sun that would not come out of bed to shine.  Well, this morning I finally located the title of the book online, so I no longer need the bookstumper services.
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I am looking for a children's book from the 1970's.  It was a book about the sun.It decided it didn't want to shine anymore so all of the animals went up to the sun to cheer it up.  The parts I remember the most were the hedgehog shining the sun with it's bristles and at the end of the book all of the animals slid down the rainbow. I read this book for about 7 years nightly to my two sons and I wanted to get two copies of it so they can read it to any grandchildren I will hopefully have.  Thank you  for any help you can give me My son's were born in 1972 and 1974 so that is the time frame the book should have been popular in.  I bought it from one of those monthly children's book clubs.

Mirra Ginsburg, How the Sun Was Brought Back to the Sky, 1975. When the sun fails to appear for the third day, three chicks go in search of it along with their animal friends (including a hedgehog, a rabbit and a duck). Adapted from a Slovenian folk tale.

Solved: How the Sun Was Brought Back to the Sky
I can't believe someone knew the name of the book I've been searching for!  Now I just need to find copies of it.  Thank you again for solving my mystery.  As soon as I saw the cover of the book I knew it was the right one.  Many thanks

How the World Got Its Color
My sister and I have been trying to find a book from our childhood that I believe is a Chinese or Japanese tail about how color came to the world.  It begins with black and white line drawings and shows a small girl who finds pots of different colored paints.  In each page she paints more of her environment including a peacock, until the entire page at the end is colored. I have no memory of the title, author, or editor of this book.

Possibly - How The World Got Its Color by Marilyn Hirsh (Crown, c1972)  "A little Japanese girl borrows her father's paints, the only colors anywhere, and helps the gods finish the colorless world."

Delia Ephron, How To Eat Like A Child: And Other Lessons In Not Being A Grown-UP, 1978.  Has to be this!  One page chapters with titles like "How To Torture Your Sister", "How To Express An Opinion", "How To Talk On The Telephone."  The language is pretty strong -- you'd definately want to preview it -- it's really written for adults.  There is a children's play based on the book -- using the milder chapters.  It's very funny.  Amusing pen-and-ink illustrations by Edward Koren.
Delia Ephron, How to Eat like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-Up.  Funny book! My sisters and I used to love the lessons on how to blame each other!
Thank you so much!  I'm thrilled to finally have my answer.  Keep up the great work!
Delia Ephron, How to Eat Like a Child.  You also should check out her book, Teenage Romance Or How To Die Of Embarrassment, which is one of the funniest books ever.

When I first saw this last week, it meant nothing to me.  I almost went by it again this week, but a faint memory started gnawing at the back of my mind.  I have no book title or author, but I'm submitting this because I think it may help others to recall the book.  When I was little good friends came to vist us every Labor Day Weekend.  One year, when I was in the younger elementary school years (maybe around 1964 or 1965), they brought a book that I think was sort of a guide for what kids were "supposed" to do to get along in the confusing world of adults.  The father was referred to as "Old Father" (which became my own father's nickname with these friends thereafter).  I don't remember much of the actual content, although little bits and pieces are slowly filtering back.  I think one section had to do with doors, the premise being that adults always want a door you've closed left open, and a door you've left open closed.  I think this part ends with the suggestion that one go through the entire house and open all closed doors and close all open doors, and concludes with someting like the words, "You still won't be right, but at least you'll be busy."  There was another page that had to do with how one should spend one's time, including by flushing foreign objects down the toilet.  I think the book was illustrated -- I vaguely remember black-and-white ink drawings, done in an old-fashioned style.  And I do think that the book may well have ended with instructions on how one should go to bed: by climbing the stairs, getting undressed, getting into bed, etc., and with the final words, "You won't be needed until morning."  I hope this is right and this helps identify the book.  I do remember that my younger sister and I found this book absolutely hysterical at the time.
Robert Paul Smith, "Where Did You Go?" "Out." "What Did You Do?" "Nothing."  1957.  I'm the one who submitted the vague recollections earlier about "Old Father" and opening and closing doors & c.  My sister remembered the name, which sounds right to me.
OK, sorry, same person again, and I don't think "Where Did You go?'' ''Out," etc., is likely the right title.  That book seems still to be in print and to be over 100 pp long, and the book I'm thinkin of was much shorter.  Next time I'm at my mother's house I'll try to dig it up, because I really do think the book I'm thinking of may be the right one.
How To Grow Up In One Easy Piece.  OK, same person again.  The book I'm thinking of is How To Grow Up In One Easy Piece.  Somebody has reproduced it, with some minor changes/updates (e.g., a reference to Nintendo) in a blog called Onemansopinion.  Author there is indicated as unknown.  It's got the part I remember about doors, the part I remember about being in the bathroom and flushing foreign objects down the toilet, has references to "Old Father," and has a section on going to bed similar to the one the original poster recalls, except that the exact final words of the section are, "You will not be wanted until breakfast."
How to Grow Up in One Easy Piece.  Thanks so much for the suggestion. I've not had any luck finding this blog... there are several by that name. Can you send a link, or any other information about finding this book anywhere? I hope I'll find a way to see it someday and see if it's familiar. Seems odd they would change the last line, but this could be it. Thanks very much for the help.
Old Father. You won't be needed, etc.  Okay, sorry about the previous comment, I found it on the blog. I know this has to be it in some form, because the other part that I now remember is the "close your little eyes, close your little ears," etc.  I guess it could be that my dad misremembered the last line about breakfast and said morning.  Funny the rest of it doesn't ring a bell, but this has to be it anyway. I've left a comment asking for the original version.  Thanks to the person who tracked this down for me!

B278 This looks like the right one to me, and I've added others to tempt customer with: Weiss, Harvey.  How to run a railroad; everything you need to know about model trains    photos    Crowell,  1977.  McClanahan, Bill Scenery for model railroads.   Kalmbach Books, 1978.    model railroads - scenery    magazine format.
How to Run A Railroad.  This is it!!!  Thanks so much!!!!  I never thought I'd find this book!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Weiss, Harvey.  How to Run a Railroad: Everything You Need to Know About Model Trains.  NY: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977.  First edition, ex-library with usual marks but clean interior.  VG/VG-  $15

Bill Peet, author and illustrator, Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure, 1959.  While sharpening his claws on a rock, Hubert the lion creates a spark that ignites and destroys his elegant mane.  A hornbill bird discovers the now bald Hubert and tells all the animals of his misfortune.  They come to his aid, and the elephant remembers and acquires the cure for baldness---crocodile tears.  Hubert rubs the tears on his head, and while the animals sleep, Hubert's mane grows so long that it tangles everyone in a snare that is impossible to escape. A baboon with scissors saves the day, but leaves Hubert with a very silly haircut.  Told entirely in rhyme, 38 pages long, but there are no children in the story.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Peet, Bill.  Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure. Illus. by Bill Peet. Houghton Mifflin, 1959, 1976.  Hardcover ex-library book, usual marks.  Edgeworn, some pencil marks, but clean in nice dj.  G+/VG.  As with most Peet titles, out of print, and hard to find.  $18

Huckleberry, by Marks, Mickey Klar; Illustrated by Irma Wilde.  Is this the one?
Possibly Mickey Klar Marks, Hucklebones (Whitman, '49)?
H22 hucklebones: more on the suggested title, Hucklebones, by Mickey Klar Marks, illustrated by Irma Wilde, published Whitman 1949. "A Cozy Corner Book. A story of a small horse named Hucklebones who is invited to the Steeplechase Ball and he doesn't know how to dance. Cover illustrated with horse, flowers, and sky." Sounds like a good match.
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Dancing Pony book given to me in 1957 by my Mom. She purchased it from a book cart in the hospital when she was on the maternity floor having my brother.  Book was a shiny pink cover with a pretty horse with a flowing mane and swishy tale.  Story was about as shy pony who took dancing lessons at a dancing studio who had two left feet.  Somehow he became the best dancer and came to the big recital/dance at the end. Thanks for helping me post and hopefully finding this book.

Mickey Klar Marks and Irma Wilde, Hucklebones,1949. I think this must be Hucklebones, published by Whitman in 1949. It was a favorite of mine, too, more for the illustrations of horses dancing with ribbons braided in their manes than for the story.
Mickey Klar Marks & Irma Wilde, Hucklebones, 1949. Thank you thank you thank you.....I have been looking for this book's name for 40 years.  Now I need to locate a copy so I may enjoy it again and again.

Polish girl named Josephine  - This must be the trilogy by Maria Gripe.  They were translated from Swedish, and the girl's name was Anna Gra, or Josephine.  Descriptions I found of the book plots include:  Josephine -  It isn't easy being the youngest daughter of a country parson. There are times when Josephine finds life very difficult indeed: when everything and everybody around her seems so much older than herself - from her six grown-up brothers and sisters, to the vicarage she lives in, to the rickety bed she sleeps on; when no one else bothers about her at all and she feels as thrown out and forgotten as the cast-off clothes she wears.   Hugo and Josephine - "Hugo and Josephine are two very real children. Josephine is the mischievous, wispy-ghaired daughter of a minister in a small Swedish town. At school she is often teased, and at home in the big old parsonage she is sometimes lonely. But when Hugo, a wild, happy vagabond, comes into her life, everything changes. Hugo, who attends school only if he is not too busy carving trolls or tending his spider collection, is more than a match for the school bullies."  Hugo - The adventures of Hugo as he and his friend, Josephine, think up schemes to earn money.
Maria Gripe, Hugo and Josephine.  Maria Gripe's trilogy of books is TOTALLY the answer to this stumper.  Thank you!

Hullaballoo.  I don't know any more than the requester does about the author or title of this one, but I had it too!  "Hullabaloo was a kangaroo who lived in a cage at the city zoo.  Hullabaloo had children too, a girl named Pink and a boy named Blue."  They go for a bus ride through the city.  Hope these details help.
Georgiana (author), Nettie Weber (illustrator), Hullabaloo, 1951.  Whitman Tell-A-Tale #815-15.  It's on Loganberry's Most Requested pages! 

William Saroyan, The Human Comedy, 1943, 1971.  It takes place in California in WWII. "...Fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become the fastest telegraph messenger in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw."  There was a movie made with Mickey Rooney in 1943.

Philip K. Dick, Human Is, 1955.  This sounds like a short story by Philip K. Dick.  Here is a description of the story that I found at another site.  This story is about an unhappy couple. The wife, Jill, resents the husband, Lester, because he is cold, unfeeling, and insensitive. In the story, Lester is sent to another planet on a business trip, and returns with a different personality. He is now kind, caring, sensual and compassionate. After a time it is discovered that an alien has taken over his body. Jill makes no move to recover her husband and send the alien back however, because she likes the alien and feels that he is more human than her husband ever was.  The alien that takes over Lester's body is contrasted with Lester when it is commented that "he loves food." The original Lester "never seemed to care about food." The alien takes pleasure in tastes and smells. In contrast, Lester appeared to have no appetite for these kind of sensual stimuli. This contrast makes the alien appear even more human. It is also commented on that the alien uses "Words that he [Lester] never used before. Whole new phrases. Metaphors." Lester, meanwhile, was said to feel that "metaphors were inexact." Lester is cold, logical, impoetic and unromantic. The alien, however, is creative with his use of language, and is more emotional and therefore more human.
A million thanks, this is definitely the story. Another mystery solved!

Lorna Balian, Humbug Rabbit, 1974.  What a great book! My children love it too. This author has written nine other stories, all seeming to have a seasonal or holiday theme. Good luck!
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The children's book that I'm looking for was available in the late 1970s. It was a lovely picture book that showed a grandmother above ground preparing for her grandkids to come for Easter. Meanwhile, a grandmother rabbit below ground was also preparing for her grandkids to come for Easter. The two were shown doing the preparations on each page with an above ground and a below ground view.

Balian, Lorna, Humbug Rabbit, Abingdon 1974.  "Father Rabbit's reply of "Humbug" to the idea that he is the Easter Rabbit doesn't spoil Easter for his children or Granny's grandchildren. Two stories go on at the same time. One above at Granny's house, one below in a rabbit's burrow. All are related and are about the approaching Easter holiday. See how the two stories merge into one." Sounds plausible and the date is right.
Sounds like it could be HUMBUG RABBIT by Lorna Balian, except it's a grandmother above ground and a father rabbit below. The rabbit children think their father may be the Easter rabbit, and he just scoffs at this.
Meanwhile, above ground, the cat is stealing the hen's eggs, which might ruin the Easter celebrations for the grandmother and her granchildren. I've forgotten how, but somehow the father rabbit saves the day (maybe the cat pushed the eggs into his burrow?) ~from a librarian 

The plot  sounds like a Sid Fleischman book.
Sid Fleischman, Humbug Mountain, 1978.  The hint that this sounded like the plot of a Sid Fleischman book was right!  I looked at all of his books of the right length that could have been read to my class in the early 1980s, and Humbug Mountain is the one!  The boy character is Wiley Flint, the girl companion is his sister Glorietta, and the derelict steamboat IS the Phoenix!  The abandoned town the grandfather had wanted to develop was called Sunrise, not Zenith, but otherwise I remembered it pretty well!

H2: Could the humming hamster be Sylvester of a collection called Sylvester and other stories?  Orange book, picture of Sylvester with, I think, the mandolin he rides in.....
could you tell me more about this book? I'm hoping it's the one! Thank you!
I remember that he plays an instrument, maybe a guitar. I remember something about Sylvester with the musical ear, and I think I also remember a tail, which means he isn't a hamster. Is this possible?
No, unfortunately I don't think that's the book, but I appreciate your efforts.
How about a humming possum? Harold Berson, Henry Possum (Crown,'73) -- or is this too recent to be the book you recall? (Instead of playing possum, i.e., playing dead, he keps humming & looking around.)
Unfortunately it doesn't sound like the book.  But I certainly appreciate your continued efforts and the forwarding of possible matches.
The unsolved mystery listed on your page as "H2: Humming Hamster" sounds suspiciously like a book I recently "rediscovered." The animal was a mouse, and he loved music. He lived in a guitar in a guitar shop, and every night
he would play when the shop was closed. I believe the name "Sylvester" is correct. I know the time frame is right (my aunt read this to me in the early 70's). It was, as the first post suggests, an orange book that's a collection of
stories. As my children's book collection is at my Mom & Dad's house, 8 hours away, I can't put my finger on it. But I'll check while I'm home at Thanksgiveing. Good Luck Hunting!!
H2 Humm the Singing Hamster by Catherine Bing, 1961, a Whitman Top Top Tales book
I think that is the book!!!!!!!!  Do you have it?  Can you find it?  Why is that listing posted with no
additional info?  Did someone enter that info as a possible answer to my search?  The date is right on, and the title sounds like THAT IS IT! Please let me know if you can get this book!!!  Oh I'm so happy my long long search may be over!!!
I've gotten hold of a copy, and it's a small book with picture of a happy hamster on the blue cover.  It's about a
classroom hamster who was very special, because he could hum--but after lunch one day, he disappeared!  The
kids look for him everywhere and finally find him having a Hummburger.
Oh I am SO EXCITED!!!  It's my book!!!!  Oh, how soon can I get it?   I AM SO THRILLED!!!
Score!  Another book and reader reunited.
Oh Audrey, thank you so much -- for getting the book out, for posting the thank you in the solved "section" - and for your friendly and warm personality.  It has been a truly rewarding experience -not just finding my book, but dealing with people like you.  Many blessings to you in the new year.

I have Good-by, Gray Lady by Anne M. Greene published in 1964.  The cover is purple with a large house with columns and railings in the background and a large tree with children in the front.  The main characters, however, are Louisa and Richard Gilbert who are 12 and 10.  The family ghost, Gray Lady, walks whenever the family  home is in danger. I believe it is set in the Carolinas and the children have adventure in the swamp.  I don't know if this is the one you are looking for or not.
I don't believe this is it. The characters were a little older and not brother and sister. There was more of a sinister feel to it. The girl had come to visit or live with an aunt or grandmother, some female relative. Thanks for checking. I'll keep trying to remember!
Could this be a Mary Stewart one? I seem to remember one--the heroine (Dorcas) has always been able to
communicate telepathically with a distant (male) cousin, but never knew which cousin.  She has to choose (romantically) between her two cousins, I think, and she knows the other one is dangerous to her...there's also a question of an inheritance.  "Cat"  may have been in the title...The Grey Cat?  If this isn't the right one, but anyone recognises it, I'd like to know--I really enjoyed it!
The Mary Stewart book the blue poster asks about is Touch Not the Cat published 1976 "When Bryony's father is killed in a mysterious automobile accident, ownership of Ashley Court passes by legal trust to her cousin Emory." Bryony has the second sight. The title refers to the family motto and a Roman mosaic with a cat. I doubt this is the book wanted.
well, maybe The Humming Top, by Dorothy Spicer, published Phillips 1969. "Throughout Dorcas Gray's solitary childhood, in and out of orphanages, she holds onto one treasure - a humming top. One spin of the plaything envelops the girl in a misty other-world, making her witness to events secret and sometimes terrible. When Dorcas' powers of precognition are publicized, evil conspirators recruit the innocent seer for their evil purposes. The villains and their villainies in the ESP thriller are exaggerated, but the heroine, country-hewn and candid, is original." (HB Apr/69 p.195) The book is apparently in print, and a review on Amazon.com mentions that Dorcas is befriended by an elderly woman who wants help finding her missing grandson Steven, and that she is aided by Michael, another relative. 

Eleanor Farjeon, Hummingbird. Yes, sure this is Farjeon's Hummingbird - Dauphin 'hidden' in Watteau fan & eventually finds true love years (?centuries) later... 

Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories, 1971, Parent's Magazine Press.  Includes:  The Patchwork Puppy, Timothy's Tree, Rascal Raccoon and the Thing Changer, Bedtime Giggles, The Magic Teapot, Little Bug and Big Bug, The Magic Pencil, Martin the Magpie, Mother's Little Helper.
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A girl finds a magic pencil that makes everything it draws real. The girl draws a beautiful dress for herself, a fur coat for her mother (let's hope the pencil used synthetic materials ) ) and a car for her father. Unfortunately, everything disappeared at the end of the day, leaving her to return home clad only in her undergarments. This might have been a short story. The illustrations (also done by the author?) particularly captured the imagination. I believe it is in fact called "The Magic Pencil" -- I'm wondering if anyone knows in what format it was published and if it's available. Thanks very much!

The only book I know with a magic pencil is Marianne Dreams (alternate title The Magic Drawing Pencil) by Catherine Storr, but it's a novel and it sounds like you're looking for a picture book.
M101 magic pencil: It's a boy, not a girl, but maybe The Magical Drawings of Mooney B. Finch by David McPhail, published Doubleday 1978 "Moony loved to draw and one day in the park he discovered that if someone touched his picture it became real. Everyone wanted money and riches until Mooney got mad and erased them all and they disappeared. That made everyone attack him, but he drew a quick picture of a dragon and as soon as it was touched it came alive and scared everyone away. But then it turned on him. He quickly drew another picture of a dragon and erased it and the live dragon disappeared. His last picture he drew carefully ..." There's the series of Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson but that's a little boy again, and his adventures are always solitary and daydream-like. There's The Magic Chalk, by Zinken Hopp, where Jon finds a piece of magic chalk and drawns himself a friend called Sofus with whom he has adventures. There's also The Magic Paintbox, by Denise and Alain Trez, which is about a girl, but Dorothee creates a menagerie of odd beasts by painting on the garage walls with her magic paints.  Another magic pencil story is Patricia Ward's The Silver Pencil (US title The Secret Pencil) but that's a chapter book again, and this sounds like a picture book. Also, in the Ward book the magic pencil writes by itself, and isn't used for drawing.
M101 magic pencil: there's a story called The Magic Pencil, by Peggy Johnson, in Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories, collected and illustrated by Kelly Oechsli, published Parents Magazine Press 1971. Sorry, no plot information.
M101 magic pencil: another couple of books with this title, but no match - The Magic Pencil, by Ted Schaag, published London, Hamilton 1976, 28 pages, chiefly illus. and The Magic Pencil, by Scapa, published NY Scribner 1976, 26 pages. "Because Simon doesn't know what to do, Toby draws him an adventure every day."
I think Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories by Kelly Oechsli seems to be the book. Magic Pencil by Peggy Johnson is as described. She draws the car for her father for his birthday- however her car tires are square. Now dad has to save to buy some decent tires before he can drive it.
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book of short stories Lama mama gets her baby lamas in their pjs in the morning the babys discard them on the floor and a mouse family finds them, so when the mama lama needs to get babies to bed again she cannot find the pjs. I beleive another story in the book has something to do with a lazy grasshoper and a busy ladybug and winters coming...

Gisela Voss, Llama in Pajamas
sorry, not a solution but I don't think this is the book by Voss.  That book is a "lift the flaps" book and is about one baby llama hiding from his mother.
Kelly Oechsli, Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories, 1971.  This was a book from Parents' Magazine Press.  Harriett, you have one listed for sale on your Parents' page  maybe you can check the details.  There is a story in this book called "The Llamas' Pajamas" by C. Wirths.  Other short stories are "The Patchwork Puppy" by L. Moore, "Timothy's tree" by G. Stephenson, "Rascal Raccoon and the thing changer" by D. Barclay, "Bedtime giggles" by L. V. Francis, "The magic teapot" by M. Calhoun, "Little Bug and Big Bug" by M. C. Potter, "The magic pencil" by P. Johnson, "Martin the Magpie" by L. Watson, and "Mother's little helper" by L. Watson.
Well, yes, I do have Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories on the shelf... Let's see.... Oh yes, this is definately it.  Starring two little llamas named Yama Llama and Bahama Llama, also Mama Llama, and of course some pajamas.  Very cute.
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25 years ago...  This book contained several stories depicting events about the holidays.  There was one about a Mouse nibbling on colored paper because he liked the taste of the glue (Valentine Story)the title of that story is listed above. There was another about witches and their cats (Holloween Story).  Another about a young girl's Thanksgiving experience with her Family.  Another about Easter.  This is what I remember about the book.  Your help with this request would be appreciated!

T270 Until book is found, poster can  look at this website...
Gouled, Gardner, Moore, Walker, Lewi & Hopkins, Humpty Dumpty's Holiday Stories, c.1973.  Includes such stories as Bascom the Blue-Nosed Bear, Fun on Groundhog Day, The Tasty, Pasty Valentine and the The Mud Turtles' Easter Surprise.
Humpty Dumpty's Holiday Stories.  My request for help was answered and I have purchased the book listed above.  This was a favorite of my three daughters when they were young and I was able to secure a copy for each of them.  Thanks for your help!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Humpty Dumpty's Bedtime Stories.  Illustrated by Kelly Oechsli. Parents Magazine Press, 1971.  Minor doodling on endpapers, otherwise VG. <SOLD> Humpty Dumpty's Holiday Stories.  Illustrated by Kelly Oechsli.  Parents Magazine Press, 1973.  VG+.  $15

F247: Most likely The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart - see Solved Mysteries. Except that the magical FLOWER is called fly-by-night. The cat is named Tib - his brother is Gib. Mary Stewart turns 90 in Sept. 2006.
Mary Stewart, The Little Broomstick1973, A long shot, but is it possible "fly-by-night" was the name of a flower, rather than the name of the cat?  "Nothing could ever happen here, thought Mary, exiled to Great-Aunt Charlotte's house.  But she was wrong.  That very day Tib the cat led her to a curious flower called fly-by-night.  Then she found a little broomstick hidden in a corner....and her strange and wonderful magic adventure had begun." Illustrated by Shirley Hughes.
Parents'Magazine Press, Humpty Dumpty.s Holiday Stories,1973. This was a short story in the Humpty Dumpty Holiday story book! I loved this a kid & still have my copy. I believe there are 2 witches, one who likes to fly Halloween night & one who likes to stay home. They have 2 cats who have the same inclinations, but reversed...story ends with the witches happily exchanging cats.
Humtpy Dumpty Holiday Stories. (1972)  YES! Now I remember-2 witches each had a cat and they switched at the end. Thanks so much to whomever remembered that cause I would have never found it on my own!
I am glad I could help! Felt good to "give back" to the site that reunited me w. so many old lost favorites! You will no doubt have some major flashbacks to the other stories as well - my favorite was always the owl and the pussycat one w. the mud turtles (4th of July)

Maybe it's The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, Harcourt Brace & Co. 1944. Wanda Petronski always wears the same dress but claims to have a hundred dresses at home, so the girls make fun of her for that - though at one point it becomes clear that the "dresses" are just an excuse to pick on a girl with a "funny name" who also has trouble with the English language in school, IIRC. (This theme was too subtle for me as a kid.) I'd rather not spoil the ending, but halfway through or so, there's an art contest, Wanda's family suddenly moves away, her father sends a scathing letter to the class about their prejudices, and it turns out that Wanda has more grace and forgiveness in her than any modern (fictional) child would have, as the secret of the hundred dresses is revealed. BTW, Michele Landsberg, I think, had an interesting chapter in Reading for the Love of It about all the ways this book is superior to Judy Blume's Blubber when it comes to convincing kids why bullying is wrong and how you could be the next victim.
#G137--Girl wears the same dress to school every day:  The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes.
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, 1940.  Wanda is a poor girl who lives outside of town and every day she wears the same faded blue dress to school. All the girls tease her because she claims to have one hundred dresses, and one day her father sends a note to school telling them that Wanda will not be coming back. The two girls who teased her most feel bad and try to find out what happened. At the end they understand about the hundred dresses.
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, 1944.  You'll probably get a bazillion solutions to this one.
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, 1944, several other printings.  Is this the one? I found this synopsis on the Web:  "Wanda is a Polish girl who has moved into a new neighborhood. She doesn't quite fit in with the others and they tease her
about her long, funny-sounding name and how odd her speech is. None of the girls defend her although several are uncomfortable but silent about the teasing. Wanda talks to the girls about the dresses that she has, eventually 100, hanging side by side in her closet. The girls know she is lying because she wears the same blue one every day."
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses.  A little immigrant girl wears the same dress to school every day, which causes some of the other girls to tease her.  She says softly, "I have a hundred dresses at home."  Another girl feels sorry for her and wonders, if she has 100 dresses, why she never wears any of them. Suddenly, the immigrant girl moves away.  The sympathetic girl goes to her house and finds 100 dresses -- beautifully detailed pictures that the immigrant girl had drawn, several with her mean classmates as the models.
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses.  Sounds like the beginning of The Hundred Dresses--poor girl wears same dress to school day after day and classmates tease her.  She claims to have a hundred dresses at home, each of which she describes in great detail.  At the end, she moves away and the hundred dresses turn out to all be drawings.
G137 How about The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes? Newbery Honor Book, explores teasing, right & wrong, standing up for someone, etc.
Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, 1944.  Wanda is poor and wears the same old dress to school everyday.  The other kids whisper about her clothes but she tells them that she has 100 dresses at home and that they're made of silk and velvet.
One day, Wanda doesn't come to school because her family has moved to the city.  The kids feel bad for teasing Wanda.  The teacher shows them the gift Wanda left for them which was 100 drawings of beautiful dresses.
I was the first solver and I wanted to add that since some kids have been known to complain about the book being "boring and outdated," it's all the more important to read it to kids before they become too old and jaded to understand why such "mild" teasing could possibly be considered cruel by Wanda, especially since we never actually hear any attacks on her Polish background first-hand. The attacks, after all, are presumably why Wanda doesn't just tell the truth from the start, since she already feels it's futile to try to "join the crowd," and that has to be spelled out to some listeners. BTW, the teacher's
behavior is questionable too - c'mon, Wanda has to sit with the bad rowdy boys just because her shoes are muddy? No doormat's available? More likely, I think, because the teacher (subconsciously) doesn't distinguish between one slum kid and another, or maybe doesn't distinguish between lazy students and foreign students.
Thanks so much for this wonderful service--it made my wife's day!

Interpreting Condition Grades

Estes, Eleanor. The Hundred Dresses.  Illustrated by Louis Slobodkin.  Harcourt, Brace and World, 1944.  A 1968 ex-library copy in library binding with usual marks and worn but clean dust jacket.  G/G+.  <SOLD>

THE HUNGRY THING by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler, illustrated by Richard E. Martin, 1967 (repub. in 1988?) There are also some sequels.
Thanks for solving  the mystery. THE HUNGRY THING was the book that I was thinking of!
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I think this was a Scholastic book club book. A monster terrorizes a town shouting, "Boop and Prackers!" or something like that. When a little boy figures out he's saying, "Soup and crackers," he feeds the monster and saves the town. This would be early 70's probably.

Slepian, Jan, The Hungry Thing,1967. This is the one. There have also been several additional books in the series.
Jan Slepian, The Hungry Thing. Definitely your book!  My kids love this one.  There's even two sequels: The Hungry Thing Returns and The Hungry Thing goes to a Restaurant.
Slepian, Jan, The Hungry Thing,1967.One day the Hungry Thing came to town.  Around his neck was a sign that said "FEED ME."  The little boy figured out what he was asking for (shmancakes, tickles, feetloaf, hookies, boop with a smacker.)  And when he was finally full, he turned his sign around and it said "THANK YOU."

Barbara Hobbs, The Hungry Sea Monster, 1959. I finally found of copy of the book that I've been looking for through an online search of books with "sea monster" in the title.  The book is "The Hungry Sea Monster" by Barbara Hobbs, copyright 1959, Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston.  The story involves Marta (a girl with remarkable common sense), and her little brother Montgomery, who find the hungry sea monster on the beach.  Through trial and error they determine that the monster's diet consists of people, so they pack it up in a crate and ship it to New York City.  It's an interesting and amusing story. 

Richard R. Livingston, The Hunkendunkens, 1968.  When Mr. Hunkendunken becomes lonely, he buys a wife at the wife store, which leads to getting children from the children store, purchasing names for them from the name store, and so on until they are a happy family on a self-sustaining farm.
You are amazing! I have been trying to find the correct name of that book literally for years, and you solved it in the blink of an eye. I will definitely recommend you to others, and I'm sure you'll hear from me again. Thank you for your help!!!

D75 is NOT   Denan, Corinne, retold by.    Dragon and monster tales    illus by Jennie Williams. Troll, 1980.
Nicholas Stuart Gray, The Hunting of the Dragon, 1965.  This is a short story which appears in the collection Mainly in Moonlight. 

I'd forgotten this book until I read this post, but I loved it too, and I'm almost certain it was called Hurray for Captain Jane.
More on the suggested title - Hurray for Captain Jane! by Sam Reavin, illustrated by Emily McCully, published Parents' Magazine Press, 1971. "Story line centers on girl in bathtub with a wax paper sailor's hat playing with a bar of soap. Suddently the tub water becomes ocean, and Jane becomes the captain of a ship in her imagination." "Jane came home from a party with 3 prizes; a box of jelly beans, a sailor's hat, & a bar of soap that floats" 

I seem to remember a book called Hurry Up, Simon with a similar plot. Couldn't find anything under that title, though. Might have been Don't Dawdle, Simon (man, is that ever an unhelpful memory).
I think the book was called Hurry Up, Slowpoke.  The sister's name was Lucy.
Well then, it's probably - Hurry Up, Slowpoke, by Crosby Newell, published by Wonder Books, Easy Reader 1961, 61 pages. Two little mouse children set off to visit Grandma, but 'slowpoke' dawdles. The cover is yellow and shows the little boy mouse in a red sailor suit, and far off in the distance the grandmother in a long blue dress with white apron, and the little girl mouse in a red dress beside her.

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