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I'm not sure of the name of the book you're looking for, but I think the duck's name is Jerusha.
Q4 quack: can't identify the anthology yet, but the story mentioned is 'Quack!' said Jerusha, by Mildred Plew Merryman, published Sears 1920s?, "an infectious nonsense in verse."
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It was a story of Jerusha the duck who lived in a barnyard with other animals and had an identity crisis, or got lost. She went around the barnyard spending time with each of the animals saying "I think I am a cow....I think I am a pig...."  I remember it it as a short story inside a larger book of children's stories from the 1950's.  The most vivid memory is from the end of the story when the little duck, after comparing herself to other farm animals throughout the barnyard,  proclaims "Quack," said Jerusha, "I think I am a duck."  It sounds a bit like "The Ugly Duckling" it is not.

It's a hard book to find, but it's already on Solved Mysteries: 'Quack!' said Jerusha, by Mildred Plew Merryman, published Sears 1920s?, "an infectious nonsense in verse."
My mom has a copy of this.  It was my favorite.   It is not nonsense, but a darling story of a baby duck who has some cute adventures and grows up to meet her mate and have little duckies of her own!  Great rhymes.
I also remember Jerusha the duck.  It was in a book of stories for children published by Whitman Publishing Co., Racine Wisconsin, perhaps in the 1950's. My aunt worked there, but I do not know the title of the book. I would like to find that book.
Hey!!  Thanks to a highly detailed and footnoted scientific paper(which quoted from "Jerusha" in a chapter heading!), have found the following citation:
"Children's Stories" , pub. Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, WI,  1950, pp.117-136 Author: Mildred Plew Merryman, sometimes listed as Meigs
Mildred Plew Merryman, Quack! said Jerusha, 1930, copyright.  Sear Publishing is correct - but the copyright date is 1930. I have an author signed copy right in front of me! It was illustrated by Mary Phipps and is orange in color. The illustrations are absolutley wonderful! It even shows Jerusha's wedding! I just obtained this book at an auction. Watch Ebay - it may show up there...

I'm pretty sure I've read this too--it was the first time I learned that the root of Queen Anne's Lace is poisonous. Mary Downing Hahn comes to mind, but I'm not certain that she was writing that early.  Most of her books do feature adolescent girls and abandoned buildings, though.
Queen Anne's Lace by Frances Parkinson Keyes.

#B231--Birthday farmgirl pregnant by elf lover:  If you go to the reference page at the Tam Lin site,  by reading descriptions of titles listed there, you can find the ballad on which the story is based and at least determine books it isn't.
Dahlov Ipcar, The Queen of Spells, 1973.  A young girl, Janet meets Tom Linn in an old abandoned farmhouse surrounded by roses, and she plights her troth to him.  He promises to return when she is grown-up, in seven days.  He returns in seven years, and she becomes pregnant.  He is not a free man, though, having been captured by the Queen of Spells when he fell off his horse as a boy, and he became the Queen's Knight of Roses.  On Halloween, he will ride in her entourage, and if Janet can pull him off his horse and hold on to him no matter what he changes into, the Queen will lose all power over him. She pulls him down, and finds herself at a circus.  She holds a serpent, which becomes a cold iron bar, a hoop of fire, a bear, a Tarot card, a valentine card which catches on fire, etc.  She holds on to the objects until at last he turns into burning coals, which she throws into well water. When she comes to, she is in a gypsy wagon, with Tom beside her.  They return and wed the next day, to discover that months have passed and her father has died.  The story is a retelling of the scottish ballad Tam Lin.
One of the many versions of Tam Lin. Several can be ruled out: Cooper's, Pamela Dean's, Wynne Jones', Storr's, Pope's. Can't find a description of Never Let Go by Geraldine McCaughrean, but the title is promising. Here's a link that might help.
Dahlov Ipcar, Queen of Spells, 1973.  New York: Viking Press, 1973.  (Simultaneous publication in Canada by Macmillan) Childrens'/Young Adult Fiction. Chapter-book set in the more likely nineteenth century  Janet is the daughter of a land-owning farmer who gives her the abandoned house on his property as a gift.  She meets "Tom" Lynn there, and he gifts her with roses, which she returns to pick subsequently.  Seven years pass between their first meeting and the occasion on which Janet, then eighteen, is impregnated. her father then, following the ballad, is both kind but disappointed and determined to find her a mortal husband.  The unusual time-component of Tom's capture has him spending alternating time in both the real world and faerie through his childhood, thus allowing him to be known in Janet's community and of her age, while having dwelt for many years as the chosen of the Faerie Queen.  Janet's Halloween rescue of Tom takes place over the course of an entire night of nightmare images in an otherworldly gypsy carnival, which is found to have been a six-month period by the following "morning"  Janet's father dies during this time, allowing an element of price-paying and darkness into the story.  The ballad (Child 39 A) is reprinted on the final pages. (C+P from the Tam Lin Pages)
I can't identify the specific book but it is clearly based on the old Scottish folk ballad of "Tam Lin" the plot as described sounds like a slight modernization of that of the song.
This sounds like a retelling of the Tam Lin story, although it is not the one by Pamela Dean.
Jane Yolen, Tam Lin, 1990.  If this isn't the Jane Yolen version, it certainly sounds like _some_ version of "Tam Lin" (an old Scottish ballad which has been rendered into story numerous times -- it's not Pamela Dean's, however, so don't even bother to go there).  A description of this version:  "In this retelling of an old Scottish ballad, a Scottish lass, on the Halloween after her sixteenth birthday, reclaims her family home which has been held for years by the fairies, and at the same time effects the release of Tam Lin, a human held captive by the Queen of the Fey."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Baum, L. Frank.  Queen Zixi of Ix: or the Story of the Magic Cloak.  Illustrated by Frederick Richardson.  Dover Publications, 1971.  Paperback.  Front and back covers have crease marks and spine shows signs of wear, but interior is clean and unmarked. G, $4.

Stephan Hanna, The Quest, c. 1968.  (Originally published in England and Germany under the title: The Long Way Home). "Fact-based story of a 5-year-old German boy who is captured and adopted by a Russian officer during World War II and spends the next nine years wandering throughout Asia in an attempt to return home to a mother he only vaguely remembers."
I wanted to write and thank you so VERY much. All three of the books I sent in as stumpers have been solved. It was so fun to go to your website and check for results - a little like waiting for Christmas.  Your service is wonderful, and I thank you a hundred times over.  The books you found for me were: O67 - "Orphan girl" which was Faraway Dream  I71 - "Indian boy," which was Komantcia And G236 "German boy," which was The Quest.

S248 This is just a shot in the dark, but the description reminded me of A QUESTION OF TIME by Dina Anastasio, 1978. It was also published as a Scholastic Club book (but not a Weekly Reader). And the town is in Minnesota. I don't remember many details, but after a young girl moves to a small town, she becomes intrigues with carved wooden dolls in that look like her ancestors. I can't confirm that there's a girl ghost who plays marbles. It might be worth looking at though. ~from a librarian
S248 is NOT Bianco The doll in the window
[S248] This one rings a bell. Could the name Laura be in the title, or Sydney?
A Question of Time--that's it!!  Thank you so much as I have been looking for this book for years.

T19 is the short story Sound of Thunderit is in R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury and maybe other collections.
T19 is a short story--The Time Machine--by Ray Bradbury found in R is for Rocket and probably in later collections as well. Try to find R is for Rocket, though, because it's a very nice selection of thought-provoking stories, crafted with care. Just remembering it makes me want to read it again right now.

Thank you so much!  I gather you don't have one for sale.  I think your site is the neatest!  Will continue to check back, meanwhile I will look for the book on the auctions, etc.  thanks again!

The person MAY be thinking of the Rabbit and Skunk books by Carla Stevens and illustrated by Robert Kraus. I don't which title it was though - RABBIT & SKUNK AND SPOOKS; RABBIT AND SKUNK AND THE SCARY ROCK and there may be others. I wouldn't want the person to spend the money and not have it be the right book, but maybe they can do some online searching or ask their local library. But maybe the person can't find the book because it's not a raccoon?
I have a copy of Rabbit and Skunk and the Big Fight, in which Rabbit and Skunk dress up as a ghost to scare a big woodchuck, until Rabbit plays dead and all three decide it's better to be friends than enemies.  No Rowdy boys, but definately ghost tactics.
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I remember this at about 8 years old; I'm 34 now, 2008.  But it was at an older relative's house, so it may have been from her children, who are approx 15-20 years older than I am.  It was about an animal (bunny?) that got a pumpkin stuck on his head.  He ran around hollering "OOOOOOOOHH" because he was scared/in pain, and he scared everyone else.  I seem to remember simple pictures, maybe a hollowed out tree stump.  He had a few animal friends.  Thanks!

Ariane, Gustaf Tenggren (illus), The Lively Little Rabbit, 1943, copyright.  Possibly this one? A Little Golden Book, reprinted many times.  A squirrel, several rabbits, and an owl disguise themselves as a dragon/monster, to frighten a weasel who wants to eat them. They shout "Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!" in loud voices & the owl flaps his wings, and they chase the weasel away.
Carla Stevens, Rabbit and Skunk and Spooks, 1976, copyright.  This was part of the Rabbit and Skunk series. R and S were friends, but they did tend to argue a lot. In this book Skunk insists on dressing Rabbit in a ghost costume with a pumpkin head that gets stuck on Rabbit's own head. There are a few scares and a lot of confusion, of course everything turns out okay. Hope this helps.
I think I have the answer to Book stumper B625!  I think this person is looking for Rabbit and Skunk and Spooks, by Carla Stevens, pictures by Robert Kraus, 1967.  Skunk brings Rabbit a pumpkin to wear on his head for a Halloween costume and it gets stuck.  Hope this is the right one!
I sent in Stumper B625, and 2 people have the answer!  Rabbit and Skunk and Spooks is totally it!  I found a picture on the internet and confirmed it.  Thanks so much for this fabulous resource!  I am SO excited!

Checking lists of Caldecott : nearest one so far: 1993 Honor bk  Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young (Philomel Books)
Could this be a version of Thumbelina?  A blind mole is part of the story.
Could it be the 1943 Newbery winner, Have you Seen Tom Thumb?
kenneth grahame, Wind in the Willows, 1908.  I know it's the wrong year, but definitely has a blind mole.
Robert Lawson, Rabbit Hill, 1944.  This won the Newbery, not the Caldecott, but it does seem to fit the description. There is a Mole character in it, who is blind, along with a lot of other animals most of them have names but he is just referred to as The Mole.
Jim Moran, Sophocles the Hyena, 1954.  There is a blind mole in this story named Miff who plays the bagpipes  anthologized in the series Best in Children's Books).
The name of the book I remembered was Rabbit Hill.  Thank you to your helpers.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Lawson, Robert.  Rabbit Hill.  Viking Press, 1944, New paperback edition.  $6

ooooo, I remember this one...  A slick North-South publication perhaps, or akin to Gregoire Solotareff's Don't Call Me Little Bunny (also a great book along these bizarre lines, but not the one you're looking for).    I'll keep thinking.
B361 ??? Lloyd, David    Thomas the rabbit    Barbara Firth    Scholastic    1985    escapes - juvenile fiction; rabbits.
Steiner, Jorg, Rabbit Island, Bergy Pub. Group, 1984.  "Follows the adventures of two rabbits after they escape from the rabbit factory."

Wiese, Kurt, The Rabbit's Revenge, Coward-McCann, 1940. Old Man Shivers planned on killing rabbits for a coat.  The rabbits found out and made a plan to stop him.  The rabbits, with the help of nature, caused the old man's house to float away and they never saw him again.

I think this is Garth Williams' The Rabbit's Wedding, a classic early children's book of racial tolerance. I'll hunt for a copy for you.
H. A. Rey & Margaret Rey, Spotty, 1954.  Under the heading Rabbit's Wedding, a book illustrated by Garth Williams was suggested as the answer to a question about a rabbit named Spotty and his sister, a white rabbit named Rosie. The correct answer is the delightful "Spotty" by the Reys.  It is indeed a non-preachy book about discrimination and the key line  - "'I LIKE Spotty,'" said Rosie" - became a family saying at our house.

This sounds a lot to me like Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix, in which a young girl named Jessie discovers that her 1840's town is a reconstructed village in a museum for tourists.  That book was published in 1995, though, so it's probably too late to be your book.  I think it's worth reading anyway, if you enjoy that story conceit.
Piers Anthony, Race Against Time.  Another suggestion.
Alexander Key, Escape to Witch Mountain, 1975, approximate.  A long shot, but for some reason this one is coming to mind.  Siblings Tony and Tia Malone have no memory of their past, and when their adoptive grandmother dies, they are placed in a detention home. A man claiming to be their uncle comes for them, but he really wants to exploit them for their telepathic powers. After a harrowing escape, in which they are pursued by their alleged uncle and others, they are eventually reunited with their own people, who share their psychic gifts.  It's been a REALLY long time since I read this, but I think that they are some sort of aliens.  There is also a sequel to this book, called Return From Witch Mountain.
I don't think I'm right but could you be thinking of "Anna to the Infinite Power"  (Mildred Ames)? Set in a futuristic, computer-controlled society where they must ask permission via the computer each time they want to leave the house, Anna and her brother do not follow protocol before going to the mall. There they discover an Anna look-alike. Soon they discover that Anna is actually a clone and her family isn't really her family and I think her neighbors were actually goverment employees too. Anna is taken to a governmnental compound/lab and it's up to her brother to help her escape.
I loved the book, even though Anna was so hard to like in the beginning. I haven't seen the '83 movie but I've heard that it doesn't follow the original story too closely.
I believe Piers Anthony's "Race Against Time" is my solution, however, I have to locate the book to be sure.  Thanks : )

Amelia Elizabeth Walden, Race the Wild Wind, 1965. This is definitely Race the Wild Wind by Amelia Elizabeth Walden, 1965.  I have a copy, and I doublechecked to make sure that all the characters are there--Marty, Glory, and Garth.
Amelia Elizabeth Walden, Race the Wild Wind, 1965. I think that Amelia Elizabeth Walden is the author you are looking for. The name Marty rings a bell. Unfortunately I can't dig up my Walden books to doublecheck this and she wrote about 3 skiing books. The title Race the Wild Wind came to mind but I'm not sure if this is the title.
I've been so busy I almost forgot to check back on my book stumper.  I cannot thank you enough!!  I am absolutely THRILLED to find the name of this book which has been puzzling me for so long.   Now I can purchase it.  This service is absolutely wonderful!!

This is Rackety-Boom by Betty Ren Wright ('53).
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This was a story of a "nice old truck." It was blue, I think,  and got stuck in the mud at the top of the hill and took the family to the fair.  I can't remember much more, but it was generally the story of a faithful family truck.

Ok, so maybe I should have read a little more before sending the stumpers--I found my old blue truck in the solved stumpers.  Its called Rackety-Boom by Betty Ren Wright and I'd love to get a copy of it.  Can you tell me how much a copy would cost?

Finally I got it.  I knew the title was familiar.  Rackety packety house is Racketty packetty house by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  These are fairly available used.  I was interested to see that Harrison Cady is the illustrator.
I've also been racking my brain about a series of books I read in around 1982-1984 about a dollhouse of dolls that were alive, although I'm going to see if Rumer Godden's books are they.  Are there any other books that spring to mind about living dolls?
There seem to be a lot of stumpers about dolls and doll houses.  Two different books we have are Moppet and Rackety Packety House.
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The story I'm searching for was about 2 little girls who found a doll house in their attic, I think. They played with it...the dolls were living their own lives when the girls weren't around...and at the end I believe the royal princesses (so I'm guessing this was set in England) took the doll house back to their home and refurbished it???? Sound familiar?

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Rackety Packety House.  I'm pretty sure this must be what you're looking for. It's about family of china headed dolls and their dollhouse which are passed from generation to generation. The dolls have their own life though they are much loved by each little girl in turn. They are neglected by the most recent descendant of the family when she receives a brand new dollhouse complete with dolls. At the end of the book, the granddaughter (great granddaughter?) of Queen Victoria comes to visit her since the first little girl's grandmother was something like a lady-in-waiting to the queen. Queen Victoria's granddaughter ignores the fancy new dollhouse and falls in love with the old dollhouse and dolls. I think she takes them away with her.
D184 Not sure, but try THROUGH THE DOLLS' HOUSE DOOR by Jane Gardam, 1987~from a librarian
I think that's the one!!! I'm so excited...I can't wait to track down a copy to read. Thank you very, very much.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Racketty Packetty House

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Racketty-Packetty House.  As Told by Queen Crosspatch.  Illustrated by Harrison Cady.  Derrydale Books, 1906, 1992.  Modern reprint, small format, glossy cover.  VG.  <SOLD>

I posted this response on another board that had the same query, but there was no indication that the poster saw it.  So here goes again:  I found a book called Railroad ABC by Jack Townend (note there's no 's' in his surname), published in 1944. It was adapted from a British book called Railway ABC by the same author.  It's 57 pages with color illustrations, and the size is 11 cm tall and 14 cm wide. Illustrated by Denison Budd. I found several copies for sale, but note that for some reason, the books are in there with the illustrator's name, not the author's.  I also found an interesting picture from this book on this webpage (look at the fourth picture up from the bottom of the page). It shows that "N is a night train running full speed." That seems to have the same rhythm as the A & B - so this could well be it! If you'd like to know for certain before ordering, most booksellers will be happy to look at their copies and can tell you whether it matches your Gram's memories.
Some wonderful person who visits your fabulous website posted a possible soultion to my posting.  Thanks soooo much!

Similar to The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, but not quite....
I solved this one on rec.arts.books.childrens a couple of years ago.  It's The Rainbow Dress and Other Tollush Tales by Ilse-Margret Vogel. "Tollush and her mother live at the edge of a village and are very poor. But with love and imagination, a salt sandwich tastes heavenly a birthday-party dress looks as beautiful as a rainbow a rocking chair becomes part of a magical journey through the sky and pieces of autumn and a forgotten photography make a cherished Christmas gift. Four stories which capture Tollush's world with beguiling warmth and imagination. Author's b/w illus enhance the timeless old-fashioned flavor of this charming little book."  (Thanks to Deja Vu books of Bolingbrook IL for providing such a detailed description!) 

Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons or Life Among the Savages.  sounds like a part of one of these 2 books by Jackson, don't have them available to check.
There is part of a chapter in the Raising Demons book that involves the kitchen, but it has to do with a foul odour that is thought to come from a malfunctioning refrigerator.

Ralph on the Railroad: four complete adventure books for boys in one big volume by Allen Chapman, illus. by Clare Angell and Charles Nuttall, Grosset & Dunlap, 1933.  Contents - Ralph in the round house [sic] / Ralph in the switch tower / Ralph on the engine / Ralph on the Overland Express.  Ralph of the Roundhous: or, Bound to become a railroad man was also published separately by Grosset and Dunlap in 1906.
R68  Allen Chapman, Railroad Series, 1900s through 1920s.  Only one book is called "Ralph of the Round House" (note the break in the last word).  Titles include Ralph of the Round House, Or Bound to Become a Railroad Man; Ralph in the Switch Tower; Ralph on the Engine, Or the Young Fireman of the Limited Mail; Ralph on the Overland Express; Ralph on the Army Train (#6); Ralph on the Midnight Flyer (#7)  Or, the Wreck at Shadow Valley; Ralph and the Train Wreckers (#10).

This story is called Forest Babies.  I have it in an anthology of stories called The Rand McNally Book of Favorite Animal Stories.  My anthology lists the author of this story as Jean J. Parrish with illustrations by Elizabeth Webbe. The line "Hello, World!" begins the story of  "Buffin Goes Everywhere."  He visits some ants and gets his nose stung. Then he falls out of a tree into a cocklebur patch.  Finally the Mother and Father Bear find him.  My book also includes "Roly and Poly Get Dizzy", the story of raccoon twins and "Little Deer Gets a Name."  I loved this collection of stories as a child.
This story is called Forest Babies.  I have it in an anthology of stories called The Rand McNally Book of Favorite Animal Stories.  My anthology lists the author of this story as Jean J.Parrish with illustrations by Elizabeth Webbe.
Thank you for solving this for me!!!!  This definitely is the book!  I hope I can find it!!  I remember my parents reading this to me often.  Thanks again!
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The third book was a collection of four stories.  It was a large red, glossy hard back with four pictures of the different animal stories on the front.  One of the stories was about an elephant or hippo who gets his clothes wet and they shrink, another was about a mother cat and her kittens and the first story although I don't remember what it was about it had a picture of a goose carrying long greenish candles with a bunch of other animals to some kind of a party.  I hope you can help me I have been looking for so long. Thank you.

I remember a hardback book that I either had in the 60's or had for my children in the late 70's that was a sort of 4-in-1 book that contained 4 Little Golden Book titles. It had one of those cheap cellophane covers that disintegrated after a few years. The cover showed the complete covers of the 4 books (including the gold bindings.)  The elephant book was The Saggy, Baggy Elephant and I believe one of the other titles was about a "scraggly??" lion.
The story about the lion is titled The Tawny Scrawny Lion. I don't remember the titles of the other two books included in this particular edition, but I believe that all four were originally Little Golden Books.
Would suggest - Favorite Animal Stories, published Rand-McNally Elf Books 1959. Contains these stories: The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane; Forest Babies; Little Bobo and His Blue Jacket; and Mommy Cat and Her Kittens. Little Bobo is an elephant whose blue jacket is shrunk in the wash, and I believe one of the animals in Bayberry Lane is a goose or duck who makes bayberry candles.
A55 animal stories: the Rand McNally book Favorite Animal Stories was reprinted in 1980, and a photograph of the cover on Ebay shows a red book with 4 pictures on it, which include the little elephant Bobo in his blue jacket, and the little chipmunk with his postman's hat and jacket. Unfortunately the photo was too fuzzy to provide clear detail on the other two pictures, but the contents do seem to match up fairly well.
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I believe this was an oversized children's book.  The characters are animals dressed like people.  There is a pig lady who is always waiting for her squirrel mailman by the mailbox.  He feels bad because she never gets any mail.  I remember how sad her face looked!  He and the other animals in the community decide to have a party so she can be invited.  There is a picture of her after she gets out of the tub, and she's drying herself off with a towel.  There's some misunderstanding, and no one shows up for her party.  The other animals save the day by having a surprise party for her. There are other stories in the book too, but this is the only one I remember.

HRL:  This sounds like the Rand McNally Elf Book: The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane by Ian Munn and illustrated by Elizabeth Webbe, 1952 (see Solved Mysteries), which chronicles the travels of a chipmunk mail carrier.  It's small though, so perhaps you remember a larger book anthology that had several Elf books reprinted?
Ian Munn, The Rand McNally Book of Favorite Animal Stories, 1959.  You've got it!  Thank you so much, it was driving me crazy!  I have found a copy and I bought it.  Thanks for your site!
This book was reprinted in 1956 as a Rand McNally Giant Book (40 cm tall).
I had an oversized copy of The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane. It was one of my first books. Still have it, somewhere:)

Rand McNally Book of Favorite Pastimes, 1963.  I'm not sure if this is the book since it includes boys as well as girls, but
here's the description: "Boys and girls in these four stories work hard to master ballet dancing, riding, baton twirling, and swimming."  The four stories are Little Ballerina (D. Grider), Little Horseman (M. Watts), Little Majorette (D. Grider), Little Swimmers (V. Hunter).
Hi,  My stumper was solved!!!  L93- the book is definately The Rand McNally Book of Favorite Pasttimes.  I can't believe that someone  recognized this book from my clues!  I am so happy to have the title.   Now, my quest is to find the book.  Any suggestions?  Thanks, again.

#K27--Kidnapped:  Paperback title is Five Were Missing, author is Lois Duncan, and there's a different, hardcover title, which escapes me at present.
I think this one is The Solid Gold Kid by Norma Fox Mazer and Harry Mazer.  The protagonist is a 16 year old rich kid named Derek Chapman who is standing at a bus stop with four other teenagers when they hitch a ride in a van to escape the rain.  They are kidnapped and held for ransom.
Lois Duncan, Ransom, 1993, reprint. Glad to help!
Pretty sure this is a Lois Duncan book.
Lois Duncan, Ransom. The solution to K27 is Ransom by Lois Duncan, one of her great mystery/suspense novels I read in the late 70s or so.
K27: Could it be Ransom by Lois Duncan?  Five were missing--a terrifying ride into a nightmare! In the beginning it's just another bus ride home from school. But the driver is a stranger . . .
The Solid Gold Kid. I'm not sure if this is it, as I read it when I was seven, and was so terrified I've blocked almost all memory of it.

Barbara Leonie Picard, Ransom for a Knight. (1956)  Alys and a boy servant travel across medieval England to Scotland to ransom her father and brother, taking with them a horse, Blanche, who has a foal on the journey and has to be left behind. Alys takes her dowry, her dead mother's jewellery, to pay the ransom.  They can't use the jewellery to pay for the journey and their money runs out so they nearly starve. The Scottish lord is so impressed with Alys' bravery that he gives her back her dowry and trusts her father to send the ransom when he gets home.
Yes!!! That is it. Thank you so much!  I see that I was mistaken about a few of the details, but that is certainly the story.

Clare Bell, Ratha's Creature, 1983.  This book is definitely Ratha's Creature. Here is the description from the back of the book:  "Conquering the Red Tongue, Ratha claims the flickering creature as her own, for no wild cat before could tame mysterious fire.  But now the bold she-cat must suffer for her triumph:  the jealous leader of her clan orders her into exile.  Banished, Ratha ventures to the enemy's domain, where she must at every turn outwit predators who stalk her.  With no one to protect her, Ratha must gather strength and cunning to survive."  There is a sequel, "Clan Ground," in which Ratha struggles to overcome the tyranny of her old clan's worship of the fire.  According to the book jacket, the first book was made into a CBS Storybreak Special.
Clare Bell, Ratha's Creature.  Thank you so much for solving this.  It's been making me crazy.  I'm going to see if I can find an affordable copy, and then i'm going to re-read it.
This is Clare Bell, author of Ratha's Creature, Tomorrow's Sphinx and others.  I think your site is wonderful!  I just wanted to let you know that Ratha's Creature and the other books in the series are  being reprinted by Viking Penguin Children's Books in the Firebird line, along with a new novel, Ratha's Courage.  They are due out in Spring 2007.  Thanks for including my work on your site.  I thought you might like to check out my new little website.  I'm still building it.

Wayne Anderson , Ratsmagic, 1976, approximate.  "The evil witch steals Bluebird for the contents of the egg she is about to lay. The animals of the Valley of Peace count on Rat to save her." The illustrations freaked me out a fair bit as a kid.  The eyes in the trees were nothing compared to the frozen witch and the Kate Bush/"Never For Ever"album cover-style menagerie of creatures. There was also the repeated phrase, "'Um,' said Rat," that always comes to mind when I think of this book.
Thank you- someone replied and I am almost certain it is the same book- Ratsmagic by Wayne Anderson.  I have googled it and now purchased a copy online, just to be sure.  I am so excited I am calling my sister in italy to tell her!!

Edward Ormondroyd, Michael the Upstairs Dog, 1967.  This is the story of a big German Shepard named Michael who lives in the city in a second-floor apartment.  He is sad because he has to stay inside all day, so the owners put a ladder up to the back window.  Unfortunately, Michael teaches all the neighborhood dogs to use the ladder and they destroy the apartment!  In the end, the family moves to the country. Illustrations are by Cyndy Szekers.
I have re-read the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, and this is not one of them.
#M206--Messy Woman Cleans House:  Anyone know what Pink Like the Geranium, by Lorraine Babbitt, is about?
Pink Like the Geranium : "A Mexican American boy is unwilling to start school until his grandmother changes his mind."
This is definitely not a one-story book. There is a central plot which uses stories told by the central character to give examples of how different people overcome problems, i.e. the dog learns to overcome his fear of stairs, the poor woman learns how to improve her own life rather than blame others for her problems, etc.
this is the same book that is being asked about in book stumper # M-206. It was definitely one of several short stories in a
book.
Jane Thayer, Read Aloud Funny Stories, 1958.  I am the original requester of this stumper. I have since found the book in a box. Thanks for all of your input. Also, I believe this is the same book that is requested in M-55 of the stumper list.
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My wife read the book in 2nd grade.  Sorry the info is so sketchy.  The storyline is of an owner of a house in a run-down neighborhood.  He begins repairing his home and later places a potted geranium on his stoop.  Neighbors begin copying his actions and soon the whole neighborhood is uplifted.  We would appreciate any help you might give.

I'd love to get a copy of this story, which may have been included within a short stories anthology.  It's about a  woman who's a real slantern and can't cope, but someone then gives her a magic geranium, which she puts on the kitchen table.  After that she sees that the table is broken and rickety, and so she fixes and paints it.  Etc. with the kitchen chairs, and then cleaning the kitchen, making curtains ... until the whole house is sparkling new and painted.  At the end of the story her husband comes home to a brand new house and happy, cleaned up wife!

#M55--Magic geranium:  the best-known book along these lines is Miracle of the Flower Boxes, by Peggy Mann, about black and hispanic juvenile gang warriors who come together to plant flowers.  When I was in first grade, my mom sent my friend and I to the library for The Secret Garden and we came home with a book called The Hidden Garden, which proved to be about city dwellers converting a vacant lot into a garden (the stump about the vacant lot into a baseball diamond reminded me of this).  A New Home for Billy by May Justus, also concerns urban renewal.  Don't know whether any of these is the book in question but they are all great stories of urban renewal.
Another book on the same theme is Kate Seredy's A Tree for Peter published Viking 1941 "When lame Peter was given a little red spade it became a sword to fight ugliness and to plant the seeds of beauty and contentment and hope. A lovely story of the transformation of Shantytown from a dingy, discouraged settlement to a town with grass and gardens and white painted homes."
if these are two different books, the first may be - Little Red Flower, by Paul Tripp, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, published Doubleday 1969, 48 pages. "To a dusty mining town where nothing ever grew, except children, came Mr. Greenthumb to live, and in a window sill flower pot he grew a bright red flower. Astounded, the citizens laid the miracle to the man's green thumb (accidentally stained with paint). When he became ill and neglected the little flower, Joseph, the doctor's son was the only one who thought he could save it, and in the process taught the town a lesson."
M55 magic geranium: this is kind of off-the-wall, but The Clean Pig, written and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, published Scribner 1952, 34 pages, has a very similar plot - "transformation of a run-down, broken-down farm after a clean little pig arrives. The "string-bean farmer looking like a mussed-up bed" becomes "a farmer proud as a father", and his wife "dirty as a potato root" is "all polished rosy red like an apple". The grinning little pig now smelled like a geranium!" (HB Jun/52 p.170) Why renovation is associated with geraniums I do not know, but I had to send this because the pig smells like one.
Sniff out those book stumpers, that's what I say...
The Magic Rose Geranium, 50's ??? My copy was typed from the actual book (which I don't own).  Unfortunately, it doesn't have the authors name on it. The story follows the summary exactly.  Here are the last few lines of the book - "May I ask what has caused this remarkable change in our poor old shabby house?" Mrs. Wistful looked at Mr. Wistful. She looked at the rose geranium in the middle of the table. Then she smiled. Mrs. Wistful said, "It is all because of this wonderful, beautiful magic rose geranium!"
Just a title match- Flowerpot Gardens by Clyde Robert Bulla. I don't know if this is fiction or non-fiction.
this is the same book that is being asked about in book stumper # M-206. It was definitely one of several short stories in a
book.
I think we are talking two different books here. The first looks just like Paul Tripp's The Little Red Flower. (Doubleday and Company, Inc.-1968) In the dusty dismal mining town, where no grass, or trees, or flowers grow, there is great debate throughout the town as to what that red and green thing in Mr. Greenthumb's window is! It is a flower! Lines start snaking through town as people walk by to view this phenomenon. Soon everyone' minds are dwelling on this geranium!-children are drawing flower pictures in their classrooms, women are whistling and humming as they scrub and clean-the men with their pick axes down the mineshafts are all dreaming of the flower.  At story's end every home and storefront window has a geranium in it!
Jane Thayer, Read Aloud Funny Stories, 1958.  I am the original requester of M206. I have since found the book in a box. Thanks for all of your input. Also, I believe this is the same book that is requested in M-55 of the stumper list.
Jane Thayer, Read Aloud Funny Stories, 1958.  This book contains 21 short stories, including The Magic Geranium. In this version of the Magic Geranium, it is the kitchen that is transformed by the flower being placed on the table. The woman, Mrs. Wistful, repaints the table, the chairs, the walls, hangs new curtains, etc. The rest of the stories are just as short, cute, and have a moral as well. The author is Jane Thayer, and the illustrator is Crosby Newell.
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Margaret Weyworth Johnson ?  Story of an old lady living in a rickety old house. She receives a red geranium. Displays it on her kitchen table. The red geranium made the table look horrible, so she fixed it up and painted it. This made the chairs look shabby, so she painted them. This made the rest of the kitchen look horrible, so she proceeded to fix up her whole house. End of story is the lady and her house sparkled and flourished all because of the red geranium.  I read this in grammer school and have not been able to locate the book or even the story.

This appears under Solved stumpers. Read Aloud Funny Stories-Jane Thayer, 1958. The story is called The Magic Geranium.

Hello! I am 51 years old (born in 1953) and for at least 25 years I have been trying to remember and then find a short story about a geranium that transforms a woman's house.  Today, as if by magic, I stumbled upon your web site and found "Read Aloud Funny Stories" by Jane Thayer, published in 1958, in which "The Magic Geranium" appeared.  I am SO GRATEFUL to find the short description (below).  After all these years of longing for this story, it is absolutely delightful to know who wrote it and have the ability to locate it on a rare book site and buy two copies.  Thank you so much for this service.  Melinda Hawley

Jane Thayer, Read Aloud Funny Stories, 1958. This book contains 21 short stories, including The Magic Geranium. In this version of the Magic Geranium, it is the kitchen that is transformed by the flower being placed on the table. The woman, Mrs. Wistful, repaints the table, the chairs, the walls, hangs new curtains, etc. The rest of the stories are just as short, cute, and have a moral as well. The author is Jane Thayer, and the illustrator is Crosby Newell.
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I'm looking for a book I read as a child about 40 years ago. A woman was poor and while at the store bought a flower pot. When she brought it home she placed it on the table and realized the rest of her home needed fixed up. She made curtains, painted and worked until the house looked bright and cheery. The illustrations were basic, it seems like mostly black and white and stick type drawings.  Thank you.

Read Aloud Funny Stories (and other versions). This stumper was driving me nuts: I remembered the story very well also, and that the flower in question was a geranium, but nothing more.  So I did a keyword search on the internet and found the solution, believe it or not, right here on Loganberry, under solved mysteries. Look under R for a couple of different versions of the story.

Caroline Kramer, Read-Aloud Nursery Tales, 1957. Hey, I'm the one who printed this in the first place.  I happened to find the answer on another site. The book is titled Read-Aloud Nursery Tales retold by Caroline Kramer and illustrated by Pheobe Erickson. On another site I saw these comments  "An oversized book containing some ten children's stories, the last of which is TMCM(59). Both mice are female and dressed, the city mouse elegantly.There are five lively illustrations for his fable like all the illustrations in the book, they alternate between color and black&white."  This was enough for me to realize that this indeed is the book I was  remembering.  I'm very happy to have accidentaly solved my own mystery.
I sent in a book stumper recently about a book my sister and I are trying to find.  I spoke to her yesterday and she sent you a stumper on it too.  Well, we found the book.  It is Read-Aloud Nursery Tales by Caroline Kramer. Thanks for offering the book stumper area on your web site.  It has great info on old books.  We used it as a starting point for our quest.

Jacobs, Leland B., comp., The Read-It-Yourself Storybook, 1971.  Contents:  The monkey and the bee, by L. B. Jacobs.--Tony and his friends, by K. Wagner.--Emily's moo, by T. Gergely.--Come on! Play ball, by I.-M. Vogel.--Peek-a-boo, by I.-M. Vogel.--Eddie's moving day, by J. Deering.--Too many Bozos, by L. Moore.
Leland B. Jacobs (editor), The Read-It-Yourself Storybook,  1971.  A Deluxe golden book.  Contents: The monkey and the bee, by L. B. Jacobs.--Tony and his friends, by K. Wagner.--Emily's moo, by T. Gergely.--Come on! Play ball, by I.-M. Vogel.--Peek-a-boo, by I.-M. Vogel.--Eddie's moving day, by J. Deering.--Too many Bozos, by L. Moore.  Republished in 1996 with a different cover and possibly interior illustrations.
Leland B Jacobs, Read-It-Yourself Storybook.  This is a solution to my stumper but it was already posted on your site. I found the title in Stumpers Solved soon after I sent my request. I don't know how I missed it the first time I looked. Thank you so much! It's fun to read about the books people are looking for.

Jerry Lucas, Ready, Set, Remember, 1978.  Maybe this one: "Presents systems for remembering the states and their capitals, Presidents of the United States, and the multiplication tables. Also presents techniques for remembering spelling and vocabulary words."  Lucas has a website, and sells the state capital book separately now.  Here's a link to a sample (Arkansas).
My stumper has been solved!!! Yeah!  Thank you so much for this service! How great is that? Now I will be on the hunt for my book armed with the title and author's name.

In the book The Family Nobody Wanted, a true story written by Helen Doss, one of the adopted daughters is named Elaine, and she comes to the family from Hawaii with her half-sister, Diane. I wonder if it could be her story that you are remembering.
Thank you for these extremely significant clues!  I hadn't remembered a half-sister named Diane, but this is now ringing faint bells.  I do think this could be the story, and the 1954 publication date sounds right, but I'm not sure this is the actual book I have in mind. The book that I read was geared for elementary school children, and was mostly comprised of b&w photos. I used to borrow it from my elementary school library. Is it possible that it is another book written by Helen Doss, based on The family nobody wanted, a kind of abridged version for kids?  I did a search and have come up with The really real family which she wrote in 1959. It seems to contain photos, but I cannot verify if it is the story of Elaine and Diane, specifically.  In any event, I do want to read The family nobody wanted.  Thanks again for steering me in what appears to be the right direction!
E72 Yes new poster set me on the track.  I speak of a diff book by Doss:  Doss, Helen [Hellen].  The really real family.    photos    Little c1959. photographs illustrate how orphan sisters, Elaine and Diane, are adopted into the large, multi-ethnic family made famous by Helen Doss' book, The family nobody wanted.
I can verify that the book the poster is seeking is indeed The Really Real Family by Helen Doss, first published in 1959.
Thank you everyone for your clues and your confirmation that the book I was looking for is The really real family by Helen Doss!  From reading the segment where Elaine and Diane join the family, I realised that they definitely were the girls in the book I have been searching for.  However, as I suspected, this is not the actual book, wonderful as it is.

Gene Zion, Really Spring, 1956.  This is a terrific book by the author of Harry the Dirty Dog.  The town paints flowers
and plants all over buildings only to have them wash off in the rain which starts the real spring.

Eloise Jarvis McGraw, A Really Weird Summer,1977.  While staying with relatives who live in an old inn, twelve-year-old Nels finds a secret passageway to a part of the building that no longer exists and meets a strange boy whose family is trapped in a leftover pocket of time.
A really weird summer.  Eloise Jarvis McGraw.  1977 While staying with relatives who live in an old inn, twelve-year-old Nels finds a secret passageway to a part of the building that no longer exists and meets a strange
boy whose family is trapped in a leftover pocket of time.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis, A Really Weird Summer. NY Atheneum 1977.  I agree with this suggestion. The date is right and the plot description is very close, including names: "Summary: Four children in Oregon spend the summer of their parent's divorce with a little-known aunt and uncle. There 12 year old Nels finds a long-unused room, sees a mysterious image in a mirror, and finds his way into a secret world that is secure and happy." "Isolated during his parents' divorce in a strange old Oregon inn in the care of his withdrawn great-aunt and uncle, Nels retreats from his younger siblings to the happy world of the secret tower. Did he invent his new friend Alan, or is he real?"

I remember reading a story like this (probably an excerpt from your book) in one of my mother's magazines around 1960.  I was fascinated by the large family, and I remember Katie feeling responsible for the others.  Brendan was only about 4 or 5, and I think was injured somehow, which made him quiet and thoughtful growing up.  It was either in McCall's or the Ladies' Home Journal, probably the former as it published a lot of fiction.
Cunningham, Julia    Dorp dead      illus by James Spanfeller    Pantheon     1965     orphan - juvenile fiction; apprenticeship -  escape from - juvenile fiction; England - juvenile fiction; by award- winning author
I just leafed through Dorp Dead, and I think it's fairly safe to say that it is not the book that the original poster is looking for.
Mary L. Wallace, A Reason for Gladness,1965. I believe this is the book asked for. It's about an Irish-American family who lived in Boston. Brendan was the youngest and a separate book called that was about him as a grown-up was published in 1966. They were both in McCall's, as well, I believe.
I submitted this stumper awhile back and just checked again.  SOLVED!  Wonderful. YES!  This the book.  I have been looking for this one for ages.  Thank you so much.'

Josephine and Richard Aldridge, Reasons and Raisins.  "A naughty little fox takes the raisins his mother tells him not to touch and then his adventures begin."
figured it out.... Reasons and Rasins! Now I just have to Google for the author...

I answered my own stumper, or rather, my sister did. It's The Reb and the Redcoats (1961) by Constance Savery. She has a copy, so now all I have to do is pry it out of my niece's fingers.
Constance Savery, The Reb and the Redcoats, 1999 (reprint). The book was originally published by David Mackay in 1961 or earlier, but has been reprinted by Bethlehem Books.  "In an interesting turnabout, the Revolutionary War is seen through the eyes of a British family to whom an American prisoner of war has been entrusted.Technically the young prisoner is in Uncle Laurence's custody, but the children soon forge a forbidden friendship with him after he nearly dies in an attempted escape. He becomes the Reb and they, his Redcoats. But when they learn of some events leading to his coming to Europe, even Uncle Laurence, embittered by the unjust death of a friend in America, thaws toward him—but this doesn't stop the Reb from scheming to escape. As usual, Constance Savery deftly weaves themes of trust and forgiveness into an interesting plot with likeable characters.

Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm  I'm not sure whether you may be recalling more than one book, but the episode with Mr. Ladd and the Excelsior Soap Company is from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (there may also be a bit of New Chronicles of Rebecca in your recollections).
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm The soap-selling scene is from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm I think this is what you are looking for.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm This is a guess, because it's been so long since I've read it. She does live with aunts and she sells 300 cakes of soap to a man. The book is available free online and here is the chapter where she sells the soap.
Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm. (1903)  The first part of your post does sound like Up a Road Slowly. But the lasr part sounds like Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm.  In chapter 14 Rebecca sells a great amount of soap to Mr. Aladdin. I believe he helps her with college somehow. She lives with her Aunt Miranda.
Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.  I think some, although not all, of what you are remembering is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, in which Rebecca leaves her loving but slovenly family to live with her strict Aunt Miranda. In particular, there is an episode where Rebecca and her friend Emma Jane go out selling soap door to door in order to raise money for a poor family. Her spiel contains the fact that the soap is so pure that it could be eaten by an invalid "with relish and profit." They meet a young man called Adam Ladd, whom she thinks of as Mr. Aladdin, and charms so much that he buys her entire supply of soap (and we get a pretty strong suspicion that one day the two will fall in love).
Hunt, Irene, Up A Road Slowly.  I am 100% certain that this is the correct solution for this poster's query. This was one of my favorite childhood books and I have read it so many times that I have huge passages memorized and often annoy my children with random quotes.
Thank you all.  It looks like I was remembering a combination of at least Up a Road Slowly and Rebecca of Sunnybrook (title I had completely forgotten).  Thanks for the reminder!

Nina Bawden, Rebel on a Rock.
Thanks! That definitely looks like it!

Jack Lovejoy, The Rebel Witch.  The Rebel Witch is about a girl, Suzie, who is a witch's apprentice. An evil warlock is about to let loose ghosts and monsters that have been trapped on the alternate world, Veneficon.  The warlock imprisons Suzie's teacher.  Suzie steals the Wand of Necromancers and attempts to stop him and rescue her teacher.  She is aided by twin acrobats (a boy and a girl) and the Wand's Servant, Wumpo, a frog-like man.  Wumpo is at first confused because only necromancers use the Wand to summon him.  Wumpo is a very vain person and is greatly concerned about his appearance and there is a scene where Suzie compliments him on his cloak.  Suzie travels to the alternate world in order to find her teacher and ends up doing battle with the evil warlock.  While the protagonist is a girl, many of the plot elements are similar to the description.
Diana Wynne Jones.  It sounds like her sort of plot, though I can't identify a specific book.
Thank you!  This is definitely the book I was seeking. 

Don Stanford, The Red Car, 1954.  Here's the URL for a synopsis.

Dorothy Lyons, Red Embers, 1948.  This matches many of the elements of the book you are looking for. "This is the story of Phil Blake and her desire to play Polo and train ponies.  She is the daughter of a renowened polo player and friends with the sons of another ex-player.  The story continues with her joining a polo team and seeking her dreams."
Dorothy Lyons, Red Embers.  Perhaps it's this one?   It's aout a girl from a polo-playing family who then goes on tour with a women's polo team.
Dorothy Lyons, Red Embers, 1948.  This sounds like Red Embers by the popular Dorothy Lyons. Not technically part of a series, but one of the dozen girl and horse books she wrote between 1939 and 1973, most with lovely cover art by Wesley Dennis (the cover art for this title also appears in Marguerite Henry's Album of Horses, under Polo Pony). The similar cover art makes many think its a true series, but she had only two recurring characters: Connie in Silver Birch (English pleasure), Midnight Moon (hunter/jumper), Golden Sovereign (western pleasure) and Copper Khan (thoroughbred racing), and Ginny in Java Jive (western and English pleasure) and Smoke Rings (Olympic showjumping and three day eventing). Her other heroines appeared in one book each....Blue Smoke (quarter horse racing), Dark Sunshine (competitive endurance riding), Bright Wampum (rodeo), Pedigree Unknown (hunters/jumpers), Harlequine Hullabaloo - also reprinted by Grosset and Dunlap as Bluegrass Champion (American Saddlebred) and Red Embers (polo). Titles were always the horse's names, and horses were always named based on their color.  In Red Embers, the girl begins riding and training polo ponies on her father's ranch....she and her brothers get up matches with boys on a neighboring ranch, but she is the real pro, with the deepest interest in the sport. She goes on to join a team of girl riders, with international hopes....a great read.

William Mayne, The Changeling. I haven't read it, but it's a possibility. Another, less likely, possibility is The Changeling by Rosemary Sutcliff
Fischer, Marjorie, Red Feather, 1937.  In Fischer's story, mortals are indeed prized for their housekeeping abilities, and
so the Queen of Fairyland wants a mortal maid.  The changeling is made, alas, a little too perfect in every detail, and when interrupted in the swap the fairies can not tell for sure which baby is human and which fairy.  Was the human or the fairy whisked away to work in Fairyland? In which world does Rosemary and in which does Lisa belong?   The Queen does, indeed, inspect for cleanliness by running a white-gloved hand over surfaces she is outraged to find gold dust.
Thank you, thank you, for the solution to my changeling story.  I even remembered the right name, but didn't include it in my request because every time I looked up that title I got something quite different (I think it had to do with Native Americans). Now to find the book.

Hans Christian Andersen, "The Red Shoes,"I have this story in a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's work. It is a short story of only a few pages.
Hans Christian Andersen, "The Red Shoes,"1850. The story you're looking for is undoubtedly Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes." The publishing date is a guess on my part based on when his story collections and plays were being printed. It's been included in many, many short story collections since then, so its hard to pinpoint the exact book you might have had....if it was an all Andersen collection, it would probably also have included "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Match Girl," "the Little Mermaid" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," among others. "The Red Shoes was also the basis for a movie of the same title, released in 1954 and starring Moira Shearer.
This is Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Red Shoes."  You can find it in any of his anthologies, but if you're looking for an exact book, you'll need to provide more info -- cover description, other stories you remember, etc.
Hans Christian Andersen, "The Red Shoes."There are different versions of this fairy tale, but I think the one you're looking for is Hans Christian Andersen's version.

Marzollo, Jean, Blue Sun Ben, 1984, Dial.  "In a world of two suns, Ben, who is a boy during Red Sun and a chipmunk during Blue Sun, falls into the clutches of the Animal Singer, an evil man who changes people and animals into
shapes to suit his own purposes."
Jean Marzollo, Claudio Marzollo, Red Sun Girl, 1983.  One of my all-time favorite "easy-reader" books.
Marzollo, Jean and Claudio, Red Sun Girl, illustrated by Susan Meddaugh.  NY Putnam 1983. "In a world of two suns, Kiri is the only human being who does not change into an animal each day after the blue sun rises, but a magic ruby and the Animal Singer help her out of her predicament." This is probably it - I read it once, and the Animal Singer is an old woman in the desert. All the people turn into different sorts of animals, and I remember scenes as described. I kept wondering what they ate, and what if one person turned into a predator of another? The book struck me as questionable in several ways. Kiri's family and village are unaccepting of her difference, and she must learn to be the same as them, at considerable risk,
before they welcome her back. The Animal Singer gives her a ruby that keeps her from dying of thirst, and she trades it to another magical person for the ability to transform, but the ruby comes back to her magically, so she never pays for her new ability, nor is it a gift, because the other magical person wanted the ruby and did not return it willingly. When she returns home, no one in her family seems particularly distressed about her having vanished, or the possibility that she might have died of thirst in the desert. I don't demand a moral in children's books, but the morality in this one seemed to be negative!

Betty Stirling, Redwood Pioneer, 1955.  I've been looking for this book for ten years, and I've finally found it.  My thanks to all the inter-library loan librarians who've gotten me copies of books that I thought might be this one.  (The book in my hands today was lent to me in Ohio by the library of Los Angeles State College.)  Unfortunately, it took so long for me to find the book that my own kids are now too old for it... Grandkids, perhaps?

Possibly Ruth Sawyer Old Con and Patrick Viking, 1946, illustrated by Cathal O'Toole. "Patrick, crippled with infantile paralysis, is given two pets by his grandfather, a puppy and a bluejay with a shriveled leg."
Maybe Reggie's No-good Bird by Burchardt, Nellie, illustrated by Harold Berson, published New York, Franklin Watts 1967, 8vo Weekly Reader "A heart warming story about an inner city boy who rescues a baby blue jay and how as the two grow up he finds a purpose for his life."
B54 bluejay: more on one suggested - Reggie's no-good bird, by Nellie Burchardt, illustrated by Harold Berson, published New York: F. Watts, [1967], 140 p. illus. 21 cm. "When the biggest troublemaker in the class injures a baby blue jay and decides to care for it and raise it, he finds himself without the time or interest to get into trouble."

V-6 sounds similar to Bjorn the Proud by Madeline Polland.  I haven't read it for years though, so I'm not sure that's it.  She did write a couple other books about Vikings, I think.  It may be worth checking out!
It's not Viking but Norwegian, but there are points - The Secret Fiord by Geoffrey Trease, illustrated by Joe Krush, published Harcourt 1950, 241 pages. "What happened to their father, a master stone mason who was working on the cathedral in Bergen about 1400, is the problem that the twins, Jillian and Roger have to solve. Escaping from their treacherous uncle, they fall into the kindly hand of Adam Dean, who allows them to flee England aboard his trading ship, bound for Norway. Here they feel the power of the Hanseatic League and also find kindness on the part of the Norwegian people, which eventually leads to a happy ending."
Another possibility, but still not really Vikings - Simon's Way by Margery Evernden, illustrated by Frank Newfield, published Walck 1963 "Simon's search for his father leads him from France to Norway, where he
becomes involved in the struggle for the Norse throne in the 13th century." (Best Books for Children 1965)
Rita Ritchie, Ice Falcon. I've kept coming back to this one for months... I give up. I'll just jump in with this even though I'm not sure. I *am* 100% sure I've read the book described, and Rita Ritchie "feels" right as the author. (I dearly loved and focused on her Mongolian novels, but also read and enjoyed all the rest of her historical fiction I could get my hands on.) I'm not sure if ICE FALCON is the right one--and can't find any sort of synopsis, or even a bibliography, to give me a clue. (Very frustrating!) She tended to use her research in more than one book, which means there's probably more than one Viking-related story out there if this isn't the right one.
Ruth Harshaw, Reindeer of the Waves, 1934.  You can FINALLY put this one to rest!  Cathy, of ExLibris The Lost Boards,  has found this for me and returned a chunk of my childhood to me.  I have cried my eyes out looking at these pages again after nearly 5 decade!  I so appreciate the attempts many of you have made, and did obtain and enjoy some of your suggestions, and just had to let you know the answer!

Hi!  I DO remember this book - think it is at home on my bookshelf.  I am almost sure the author is Edith Nesbit, and the book is The Phoenix and the Carpet or The Carpet and the Phoenix -   the phoenix in the story is quite a grumpy bird.  Hope this helps!
Nesbit, E.  The Phoenix and the Carpet.  Originally, 1904.

Actually I solved my stumper.  And the title is The Relucant Princess, published by Tuttle in Vermont in 1963.  It's a tale from Siam.  I found a copy and it's as wonderful as I remembered. Thank you for responding.

Maestro, Giulio, The Remarkable Plant in Apartment 4, 1973.  "A boy's little green plant causes turmoil when it grows overnight into all the other apartments in his building."
Zion, Gene, Plant Sitter.  I think this might be it.

Rice, Eve, The Remarkable Return of Winston Potter Crisply.  NY Greenwillow 1978.  I think it's this one - "When they discover that their older brother, supposedly studying at Harvard, is secretly visiting New York, Becky and Max decide to do some sleuthing which leads them to a series of rollicking adventures."

Lynn Hall, Riff, Remember, 1970's.  This is the story of Riff, a Russian Wolfhound (also known as a Borzoi), whose owner, a boy named Gordy, is killed.
Lynn Hall, Riff, Remember, 1973.
I'm writing to say "THANKS!!" to whomever it was who remembered the title and author of my book!  I'm so excited.  thanks for your wonderful service--it is very much worth the price.

Check out the poetry of Roger McGough -- he was associated with Peter Max and the Beatles.
John Lennon sketched a bit himself. Possible he illustrated the book you're seeking?
John Lennon, In His Own Write,1965.  Just an idea. I never actually got to read the book, because it was always out at our
library.  It was probably stolen, I realized later.  This sounds like it could be it.
I know In His Own Write is blue...  but I don't have one in stock to look for the quoted poems.
Lillian Morrison, Remember Me When This You See - A New Collection of Autograph Verses by the compiler of Yours till Niagara Falls, 1961. Illustrated by Marjorie Bauernschmidt - black line-drawings.  The size of the book is 5 inches tall by 7.5 wide. The cover is green with an illustration of a boy and girl and flowers. The endpapers are illustrated with black line-drawings of flowers. This book is a compilation of "children's folklore"- playground verses and silly sayings collected by a children's librarian. The original edition contains the "potatoes" verse (repeated in Jennifer Donnelly's "A Northern Light" (2004) as "Never make love in the country the potatoes have eyes and the corn have ears" :-) .  Since you also remember the parody Christmas carol "We Four Lads From Liverpool Are", you might want to try a later edition of Remember Me it may have been added post- British invasion (1964) ; or try one of the author's other compilations. "We Four Lads" was also recorded by the British folk group The Spinners on their 1972 Christmas album, "Sing Out, Shout With Joy" (part of the medley "Kid's Carols") it is also in the textbook An Introduction to Poetry, eds. XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia.

John Brunner, Report on the Nature of the Lunar Surface, 1960.  first published in ASTOUNDING SF magazine for August 1960.   reprint sources include:    *  Sixth Annual Edition: The Year’s Best SF, ed. Judith Merril, Dell 1961     * No Future in It, Gollancz 1962 <a John Brunner collection>  * From Frankenstein to Andromeda, ed. James Goldie Brown, Macmillan UK 1966     * First Flights to the Moon, ed. Hal Clement, Doubleday 1970  * Wondermakers 2, ed. Robert Hoskins, Fawcett Premier 1974     * Alien Worlds, ed. Douglas Hill, Heinemann 1981

Richard Peck, Representing Superdoll
Richard Peck, Representing Super Doll, 1974.I think this might be the one you're looking for. Verna has scored an all-expenses-paid weekend in New York-if she promises to keep an eye on her friend Darlene during the Super Doll USA finals. It's an offer a farm girl can't refuse. But what sounds simple starts to fall apart under the bright lights of the big city. Darlene may be as dumb as she is gorgeous-but she's wising up fast. And if anything goes wrong, it's Verna who has to come up with an explanation.
Richard Peck, Representing Super Doll. Thanks to whoever figured this out -- I recognized the title as soon as I saw it.

Wilanne Schneider Belden, The Rescue of Ranor, 1983.  I did some searching on some library sites.  Thanks to all of
those librarians out there who create "suggested reading" lists with different categories. 

#W69--WWII Gold:  Hardcover title The Rescue of the Hidden Gold, Scholastic paperback title Snow Treasure, author Marie McSwigan.
W69: Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, 1942. A true story of children outwitting Nazis.
W69 is definitely Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan.
W69 It's SNOW TREASURE by Marie McSwigan, 1942. I believe it appears on the Solved Mysteries page ~from a librarian
W69 WWII gold: This has got to be Snow Treasure, by Marie McSwigan, illustrated by Mary Reardon, first published New York, Dutton 1942, reprinted several times by Scholastic. The story is about Norwegian children smuggling gold past the occupying Nazi army, hiding it in snowmen and moving it on their sleds. Probably 20 other people will know this one too, it's a classic.

This sure sounds just like T303. I would have to say my suggestion is The Rescued Heart by Edgar and Annabel Johnson.
T-303 & T-312:  Aren't these two the same book?
Miklowitz, Gloria, A Time to Hurt,  Time to Heal, 1974.  This is just a total guess based on the title.  I can't find a plot summary, but a scan of the cover online reads: "Tracy was miserable at home...but then she met Randy!"

The Resident Witch.  Sounds like this one.  The little girl witch makes friends with a human girl (they meet at a carnival). I remember something about a spaceship ride at the carnival.  I have it at home, I will check and see if the details match up!
Y20 It's NOT Cassie Bowen takes witch lessons, by Anna Grossnickle Hines. For one thing it is published in 1985.
I wrote this book stumper, and I bet you're right that it is The Resident Witch. I remember the spaceship ride at the carnival.  I bet this is it.
Thanks for the help with this stumper!  It IS The Resident Witch.  I was lucky enough to find one recently after being given the title here on this website.  Thanks!
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My mom read me a book about a little girl who was a witch.  I think she went ot an amusement park.  Maybe had an aunt in the story. I was pretty young 7-8?

Marian T. Place, Resident Witch.  A witch in training works in an amusement park to try to get a promotion.
Marian T. Place, The Resident Witch, 1970.  This sure sounds like The Resident Witch, by Marian Place.  A young witch (Witcheena) goes to a carnival to cause mischief, but instead makes a human friend (Nancy). She can't let humans discover that she is a real witch, or she will turn into a toad, so she magically disguises herself in human clothes, sneakers, & sunglasses, but still talks frequently about being a witch to Nancy, who doesn't believe her. She enchants a Moon Ship (from a carnival ride) and flies around in it, preferring it over her broom because it is warm & dry inside. She and her aunt, with whom she lives, must move from their house to a cave, because Nancy's father has purchased the property on which their allegedly empty house was standing, to build an amusement park. She later enters a contest at the new amusement park, to be chosen as the Resident Witch of the park. The contest is held by Nancy's father, with the winner selected by children attending the park's opening night. All of the other contestents are human adults & children, pretending to be witches, so Witcheena must pretend to be a human child, pretending to be a witch. She is also trying to get herself promoted to the rank of Junior Witch by the other witches, and to convince them to establish a new rank of Resident Witch at schools & amusement parks around the country, to give Junior witches something to do.
Marion Place, The Resident Witch, 1970.  Maybe? "A lowly apprentice witch seeks a promotion in witchdom by becoming Resident Witch for a children's amusement park." This one is listed in the Solved Mysteries.

Several weeks have passed and my stumper has not yet been "unstumped".  I hope I haven't become delusional!  If so, maybe I could submit the poem as my original composition and become famous (NOT!!!!).  Surely there is someone out there who knows about this little ditty.  It is hard to believe that my junior high or high school English literature class was the only place on earth where this poem was considered in the 50s.  I had the thought that it might have been derived from a real person who lived in the 1600s in colonial Maryland, Margaret Brent, who was entrusted with the task of settling the affairs of Cecil Calvert, "his Lordship Baltimore" upon his demise.  She was "a woman ahead of her time" who sold off assets to pay mercenaries in the employ of Calvert and, in that role, made "restitution" for the debt incurred.  I have the rest of the words and will resubmit the entire poem at a later time though the author and title still have not materialized.  I live in hope that there will be a resolution to my "quest".

Stumper should rest assured that s/he is not delusional  I KNOW I had to read this when we studied Maryland's history in fifth or sixth grade and I have been racking my brain for the name of the woman in the poem, which I'm sure will lead us
to the poem itself.

She lived in Old St. Mary's on the wide Potomac shore,
In the pleasant, happy province of His Lordship Baltimore.
She was young and gay and merry and polite to all she knew,
And her name if you'd believe it was Restitude Tu.

There were Margarets, there were Carolyns and Janes
There were Sarahs and Luisas who walked through the township lanes.
There were Eleanors and Lucys, there were Charlottes quite a few.
But the girl who's best remembered was Restitude Tu.

She dwelt within a cottage that was called St. Peter's Key
But no Tu ever set a lock on hospitality.
The door had but a wooden lock with string upon its frame
To give a silent welcome to anyone who came.

She worked, did Restitude at spinning wheel and loom.
She carded wool, spun harness twine and, once, she made a broom.
She washed the windows of the house she polished silver plates.
She kept the cows from coming through the little garden gates.

She helped make candles in the spring and soft soap in the fall.
She planted ivy where it grew upon the garden wall.
Her days passed, oh, too swiftly, the hours were all too few.
For all the happy tasks which came To Restitude Tu.

Is this why she's remembered?  For butter, cakes and pies?
For weaving and for patchworks, for knitting and for dyes?
For deeds that all the other girls of Maryland could do?
Oh, no! She's known because her name was Restitude Tu!

Need a book -   This is a story about 3 British children, they lived in or near the Brontes Cottage   Branwells tin soldeirs came alive   Heard one say  Brontes fan   thought they said something like a dinosaur word or Brontosaurus    Susan Cooper?
B55  This may be a false lead because the description of the book made it sound like there was only one kid, but how many books could there be about the Bronte's toy soldiers coming to life? THE RETURN OF THE TWELVES (originally titled THE TWELVE AND THE GENII) by Pauline Clarke, 1962, reprinted 1981
Pauline Clarke wrote a book about the Bronte's toy soldiers coming to life which was published in England as The Twelve and the Genii, and in the US as The Return of the Twelves.
B55, about the Brontes' toy soldiers coming to life, is Pauline Clarke's Return of the Twelves (which was issued under a different title in Great Britain, I believe).
About Bronte action figures?  Must be Pauline Clarke's The Return of the Twelves.  Hope this helps, I discovered your site today and enjoyed browsing through the mystery books.
#B55 (Brontes) I can DEFINITELY, BEYOND THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT, identify!  Its British title is The Twelve and the Genii, its American title is The Return of the Twelves, its author is Pauline Clarke.  It won the 1962 Carnegie medal (British equivalent of America's Newbery medal), and I have an extra copy! Actually, I'm saving it for my nephew, but if you're willing to cough up more than I think my nephew is worth, we'll talk.  Really, though, it's well-known and shouldn't be *that* hard to find.
B55 is The Twelve and the Genii by Pauline Clarke. It was also republished under a different name which I unfortunatelt cannot remember (I own an original hardcover)
B55 sounds like The Twelve and the Genii by Pauline Clarke.
B55 - I am sure of this one.  It is The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clarke.  Great book!
Thank you so much for finding the title -- THAT'S IT!!! -- but (and thanks again) I don't think I want it now. But I'll save this letter, and I'll recommend you to everyone!
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Toy Soldier...  I am trying to find the title and author of a juvenile fiction story about the lives of the bronte children, from the point of view of their toys, specifically a toy soldier.

T106 Sounds like it could be The Return Of The Thwelves by Pauline Clarke, 1962, 1981. It's on your solved mysteries page.
Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelves, 1962.  A young boy's discovery of twelve wooden soldiers that once belonged to the Brontë children leads to an exciting adventure. Awarded the 1962 Carnegie Medal for the outstanding children's book by an English author.
Pauline Clarke, Return of the Twelves
Clarke, Pauline, The Return of the Twelves,1981, c.1962.  Originally published under the title: The Twelve and the Genii, c. 1962 by Coward-McCann.  Republished in 1981 by Gregg Press.  The description reads:  In his new home a young boy finds twelve old wooden soldiers with definite personalities and a fascinating history that once belonged to the famous Bronte children.
#T106--Toy soldier:  This is on the Solved Mysteries page under its American title, The Return of the Twelves.  Its British title is The Twelve and the Genii, author Pauline Clarke.
Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelves, 1962.  Eight-year-old Max finds twelve wooden soldiers under some floorboards. They were brought to life through the play of their original owners, the Bronte children.
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This is so vague, but I miss this book terribly.  It reminds me a lot of the Chronicles of Narnia, in feel and in when I read it: late 60's, early 70's (about age 10).  Some kids (a brother and sister?) were staying at grandparents (?) and were bored.  They explored I think their old Victorian home and found these toy soldiers.  They played with them and then the soldiers came to life and led them into these adventures, leading them into their world.  Kind of a cross between Narnia and Jumanji, come to think of it.

Knight's Castle, Edward Eager, 1956.  This might be the one -- details on it are kind of sketchy, but it basically fits. "When Ann and Roger spend summer with their Aunt,they are disappointed but soon learn that this will be the most wonderful summer ever! They & friends end up magically in the days of Ivanhoe!" (Well, they end up in the days of Ivanhoe with their toy soldiers, anyway...)  If that's not it, check out Elizabeth Winthrop's The Castle in the Attic, though it fits the description a little less well.
Edward Eager, Knights Castle
Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelves, 1962.  Maybe this one? The Return of the Twelves  by Pauline Clarke, illustrations by Bernarda Bryson. What is the power of make-believe? That's the question most books for young readers ask, and few answer it with as much charm and conviction as this delightful little story that begins when Max Morley, age eight, discovers, beneath a floorboard in the old farmhouse his family has just moved into, twelve old wooden soldiers. Under his careful watch, the "Twelves" come to life. There is also a connection to the Bronte children. Originally published in 1962.."
Edward Eager, Knight's Castle.  Very likely!
T166 ?? Clarke, Pauline  The return of the twelves. Max loved all twelve wooden soldiers, [in the attic] and he longed to share his secret about them. They were alive!
#T166--Toy Soldiers Come to Life:  In some ways resembles The Return of the Twelves, by Pauline Clarke.  British title The Twelve and the Genii.
Pauline Clarke, Return of the Twelve. Yes! I loved that book and just last month asked at the bookstore to see if it was still in print (no). A complete gem! I'm sure that is the one you are talking about because I also was crazy about Narnia at the time.
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Fiction novel, circa 1960, about the Brontes as children, and a set of toy soldiers that came to life....

Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelves.  I think the British title was The Twelve and the Genii.
Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelves, 1921.  This was available from acommonreader.com a few years ago.  May still be in print.
Pauline Clarke, Return of the Twelves.  More under "solved mysteries"
Clarke, Pauline, Return of the twelves, 1962.  On your solved page.  In his new home a young boy finds twelve old wooden soldiers with definite personalities and a fascinating history that once belonged to the famous Brontë children.
Clarke, Pauline, Return of the Twelves, 1962.  Found this on your Solved page.  It was released in England with the title The Twelve and the Genii.
B321  This was published in 1962 as THE TWELVE AND THE GENII by Pauline Clarke, and later republished as RETURN OF THE TWELVES in 1981.~from a librarian
Pauline Clarke, Return of the Twelves.  I found it in the Solved Mysteries section... is this a different book?
Pauline Clarke, The Return of the Twelve, 1961.  The British title is The Twelve and the Genii. "The Bronte children first brought the twelve wooden soldiers to life, and now, more than a hundred years later, they are rediscovered by two modern-day Genii, Max and Jane. But the undaunted soldiers are now so dangerously previous that collectors from all over the world are searching for them. The modern Genii must find a place where the Twelve can be safe for ever. This is a story of great imagination, linking the present with the past."

Harbison, W. A., Revelation, 1983.  Can't remember all the details but it sounds familiar.  I think that a giant monument appeared on the Temple Mount or some other simular place and Jesus walked out of it.

Check out The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge on the Solved Mysteries page.
Carl Jacobi, Revelations in Black.  This is a short story about a vampire.  The narrator finds a book in an antique shop
and everything he reads about in the story happens to him.  He meets a beautiful woman named Perle who wears a lot of heliotrope that seems to mask something terrible.  She vanishes.  It turns out that she is a vampire, but can only attack someone who reads the book.  Great story.  I have it in an anthology called Monster Festival (c. 1965), edited by Eric Protter and illustrated by Edward Gorey.  It might also be in Jacobi's book Disclosures in Scarlet.
Jacobi, Carl, Revelations in Black, 1965. Thank you! It's definitely Revelations in Black  I remembered the title and even the author name once I saw it. I can't wait to get the book. I remember it as a great story and I read and reread it as a kid. Thanks again to the person who solved this!

Reverend Randollph series
In college in the early 80s, a friend told me about a book, or series of books, about a pastor who married a secular/worldly/agnostic woman. I think he was then called to a church in Manhattan.

Charles Merrill Smith, Reverend Randollph and ...,  1970s.  This was a mystery series, set in Chicago.

Rhode of Blair Rose Hill by Belle Gray published in 1929.
Thanks so much for this information.  I didn't think I was that much off, but I was a kid when I read it (lots of times).  I have ordered the book from the local library --they are REALLY great about finding things for me.  It was kind of you to do this search.  If this is the right book, I'd want a copy--just to show the grandchildren how times have changed!

I'm so excited to post my first answer! It's Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever (82 Wonderful Round-The-Year Stories and poems) My copy is the second printing,1969 Golden Press.
S 61 And T 25:  This is the same book, Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever.
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I am looking for a children's book probably published from 1967-1975. There are several stories in the book.  I think it might be a Richard Scarry book, but I haven't found anything like it in the list of his books.  The first story in the book is about Tugboat Tom and begins "Tugboat Tom was a sailor."  There is also a hippopotamus character either in this first story or in another story in the book. My children loved this book and memorized it word for word.

T25 might be Richard Scarry's Best Stories Ever published by the Golden Press in 1971.  It is 175 pages and includes stories on Tubgoat Tom, The Fox and the Crow, Chicken Little, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.
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I have been looking for a children's book that we had in the mid seventies when our kids were little tykes.  The book was new then.   We later gave several of the children's books away to our siblings as their children came along and regret losing this one and would like to find a copy. We remember it as follows.  It was large (quattro?) size, brightly illustrated and had large type.  The story line was a bear family of three in the far north as they fished and hunted moose.  I remember Pierre as being the father bear rather than the cub bear who he took hunting and fishing but I could be mistaken. Lots of recurring text like "for Pierre was a great hunter" or "for Pierre was a great fisherman."  They were also dressed like French Canadians.  My internet searching has yielded the following. (1)  Little Treasury of Pierre Bear by Elizabeth Ivanovsky, Random House Value Publishing, Nov 1992, 5 or 6 volumes. This is obviously not it but may be a good one to pursue if Ms. Ivanovsky is the author.
(2)  Pierre Bear's Day by Elizabeth Ivanovsky.  Out of print.  No more info. I am going from memory on this one and for some time thought that it was the one until I ran across the one below by Scarry...
(3)  Pierre Bear by Patricia Scarry, 1954 I think this was a golden book, not sure. My wife remembered the author as being Richard Scarry but then he is a household word for children's books. Obviously, our copy would have had to have been many editions later. If we could only isolate the story line to either author, that would be a great help. Thank you for your consideration.

It certainly sounds like Pierre Bear to me, but I don't know of a large format for this Little Golden Book.
Richard Scarry, Pierre Bear, 1954.  I have this book, it was one of our favourites as children. It has the
lines "for Pierre was a great fisherman" and "for Pierre was the bravest hunter of all the North." My copy is a later printing, little Golden Book edition.
Richard Scarry, Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever.  1975, approximately. P78 is definitely Pierre Bear from Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever.  I LOVED this story as a child.  However, this story has been removed from the current edition of this storybook.  (At the end of the story, Pierre and his young son kill a family of seals to make fur coats.  Not exactly politically correct.)
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This was a collection of three stories.  I think the first might have been the country mouse and the city mouse, but am not sure.  The second was about a duck who couldn't/wouldn't swim until he had to to save a friend.  The third one was about three bears--mother, father, son--who were getting ready for winter--making their coats, etc, by actually cutting out patterns.  My mother always said it was by
Scarry, but I've searched all Scarrys long and hard and come up empty.  Any help would be appreciated.

I sent an e mail last week asking about a book with 3 stories-about a duck, a bear family and perhaps the country mouse/city mouse.  After reading through some solved stumpers (I absolutely love your website!) I've now realized the bear story might be "Pierre Bear"--apparently it was included in the earlier editions of Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever.  I would love to get a copy of it (with the duck story, if at all possible) and wonder if you might be able to help.  Thank you so much for the site--it is just great and a lot of fun.

Francis Kalnay, The Richest Boy in the World,1962.

What a lark.  A group of feminists I used to work with who call themselves Red Hen, could learn from this lesson too.
This is only a suggestion, but based on what you've said about the book's origin, I wonder if it could have been, not an original Russian folktale (since you've explored that avenue very thoroughly) but a -- I don't really know what to call it -- a "concocted" book, of a type that was fairly prevalent at the time you mention: a sort of propaganda, often privately printed, I suppose to give "red diaper babies" something to read while their parents were folding leaflets :)!  I only mention the possibility because it may give you a different direction to explore in (and because I once saw a similar "storybook" from the other side, telling all about little Johnny's awful first day in school after "They" (the communists) had taken over). Are there Socialist-oriented used bookstores?
Eduard Petiska, The Richest Sparrow in the World, mid 1960s. This is definitely the one, originally Czech.  Unfortunately there are no copies available anywhere on the net at the moment, so perhaps try interlibrary loan...
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I remember this book from around late 1970's early 80's, it was a collection of stories with very vivid images. The stand out story for me was called Dirty or Lazy Margaret, and was about a filthy girl who didn't want to clean her house, so eventually the house (a quaint thatched cottage) and everything in it (plates, cutlery) washed her. I also remember a story about a fox and a rabbit/hare having a chase on some ice. The book cover was green I think, and maybe had a picture of a bird and a pile of grains on it. The most memorable thing about this book were the lovely pictures - and I'd love to share it with my children now. I appreciate any help you can offer - thanks!

Just wanted to add some things I have also remembered: - I think the bird on the cover may have eaten the corn and choked or something, and the name "Corky" sounds relevant.  This is driving me slowly mad now!...

The Richest Sparrow in the World and Other Stories.  I think this must be the one. The title story is about a sparrow named Rufflehead who gets stuck in a train car filled with grain. A reviewer on Amazon mentioned that another story in the book is Lazy Margaret. There seem to be a couple of editions of The Richest Sparrow in the World, but the collection of stories appears to have been published in 1974.
Whoo hoo! Thank you so very much - this sounds like the right book, just have to find a copy now. I am so happy, thank you for your help!
Eduard Petiska and illustrated by Zdenek Miler, The Richest Sparrow in the world and other stories, 1965.  This is already in your solved list, I am so grateful to find out what it is, but it seems to be a hard to find book, so if anyone locates a copy I would be extremely grateful to hear from you! Thanks so very much.
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Picture book from the 60's illustrated in the bold style of Charley Harper. In a snowy city, a little sparrow sees a boxcar full of seed and isn't content to eat the spilled seed on the ground with the other birds, but goes into the boxcar and gets locked in. Please help me find this one! Thank you!

“The Richest Sparrow in the World” is the name of the book I was looking for.  I only remembered that the sparrow wasn’t satisfied with eating the spilled seed on the ground along with the other birds, and when he saw the huge pile of seed inside the boxcar at the train station, he went in to eat and was locked inside.  My brother is the one who remembered more about it and found it for me on the web. He has an incredible memory and is three years older than I am. I should have asked him first!  The book is by Czech author Eduard Petiska and illustrated by Zdenek Miler and was published in English in 1963 by Golden Pleasure Publishing, London. There were several stories (I think five) in the book but I only remember the one about the sparrow. It was a veiled communist tract but many western children enjoyed it regardless for the cute characters and illustrations (including author Kate Mosse).  Speaking of illustrations, that is why I was interested in this book to begin with. I would love to know more about Zdenek Miler.

Blaine, John, Rick Brant Science Mysteries, 1940s - 1960s.  This sounds like a combination of a couple of the Rick Brant series books.  Sort of like a scientific Hardy Boys--Rick is the son of a scientist who is working with a foundation on Spindrift Island, his best friend Scotty is a former soldier who was honorably discharged because he lied about his age.  In the first book, The Rocket's Shadow, they're trying to build a rocket to reach the moon.  In another, later in the series, there's a code that's solved with the assistance of a young Indian boy named Chaka who's memorized the 1920 World Almanac.
L129 is solved!  It is John Blaine, The Caves of Fear!  Thanks so much!
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I was about 8 or 9 years old (circa 1964), and I remember this book about a boy who straps, or invents a rocket packpack, straps onto his back, and is able to travel around in the sky, seeing his home, the farmland, the town he lives in.  Thai is all I can remember.

Lands of Pleasure, 1965.  Just a possibility- there is a story in a school reader, called Lands of Pleasure (published by Macmillan in 1965), about a boy named Hap who straps on a helium jetpack at a fair.  The rope breaks, and he goes flying.
John Blaine, Rocket Jumper, 1966.  See picture(cover and inside picture) online here.  Rick Brant, son of a famous scientist, makes a dream of free flight come true when he fashions a rocket belt in the famed Spindrift Scientific Laboratories. Experiments with the belt are interrupted by summer jobs for Rick and his pal Scotty at a top-secret military project in Nevada. The boys are assigned to operate a missile tracking station, and to help counterintelligence find the spies who are collecting information about the missile project and selling it to Iron Curtain countries. A ring of ruthless espionage agents, the inferno of a raging forest fire, a dangerous and daring rocket jump––with the lives of two girls at stake––all go to make this a fast-moving, high-tension yarn of Rick Brant action.

I remember this one!  I'm pretty sure it was published in "Jack and Jill."  May have been in serial form, probably in the mid to late '50's.  It is about a rather poor southern family who hides the silver service for their wealthier neighbors during the Civil War.  They dug a hole in the basement floor to hide the silver and scattered apples on top.  When the soldiers came, they saw the fresh earth and demanded to know what was there.  The mother said, "It is a lovely set of silver."  The soldiers saw the apples poking out, laughed and said, "No, thanks.  We'll take our apples from the barrel," that was standing nearby.  The silver was eventually dug up and reburied under a young apple tree.  Years later -- when the story actually took place -- the black caretaker, "Old Ned," I think, finally recalled that he never could figure out why that tree never grew straight.  His granddaughter was friends with the children of the house and she was a central character in the story.   She was helping to nurse a sick piglet to health---called it a "poor little lamb."  I don't recall the name of the story but maybe these details will help.
Maybe Mystery at the Red House by Cornelia Meigs, published Macmillan 1961 "Valuable jewels in an old well and a deserted room decorated for a birthday party provide an intriguing myster for a whole family." (Best Books for Children 1965)
Another possibility, though very scanty information - The Secret of the Old House, by Margaret Leighton, illustrated by Ruth King, published New York, Winston 1941, 210 pages, cover shows old black man leaning on cane, dark haired little girl and blond boy by white pillars of house.
Let's try this one - Sycamore Silver, by Nancy Byrd Turner, illustrated by Victor J. Dowling, published Dodd, Mead 1943, 330 pages "Mystery story for grades 4 to 6. Describes happy summer vacation on a Virginia plantation some fifty years ago (ie 1890s) where the small heroine and two companions, as well as several colored children, search for lost family silver." (Book Review Digest 1943 p.819) This sounds like the first suggested answer for the book, rather than the book itself, though ....
don't have much information, but perhaps Mr. Alexander and the Witch, by Emmy West and Christine Govan, illustrated by Leonard Shortall, published New York, Viking 1969. "A mischievous pet squirrel monkey helps two youngsters solve a mystery as old as the Civil War. Ages 9-12." (HB Dec/69 p.732 pub ad) The cover pic shows the monkey sitting on what looks like a board-covered stone well, while 5 children look at him from the bushes. More on a previous suggestion - Mystery at the Red House by Cornelia Meigs, illustrated by Robert MacLean, published Macmillan 1961, 160 pages. "In a reversal of the usual order this story begins with the finding of a treasure of rare jewels. How the jewels happened to be in the old well where eleven-year-old Nina found them and what they had to do with the sudden disappearance of a family that everyone in the little New England village respected and loved were mysteries that too many weeks to solve."
(HB Oct/61 p.441) Which makes it less likely to be the book wanted.
C45 civil war treasure: yet another - Fortune Hill, by Cora Cheney, illustrated by Jerome Weisman, published Holt 1956, 123 pages. "A secret house and a strange man add suspense as two sisters hunt for the family fortune buried during the Civil War. Ages 7-10." (HB Feb/56 p.74 pub ad)
C45 civil war mystery: there's no old black servant, but the Meg mystery The Secret of the Witch's Stairway, by Holly Beth Walker, has some similarities. The children searching are Meg and her friend Kerry and Glenn Morgan who are staying with the old Ashley sisters to help while one recovers from a fall. The family silver was hidden during the Civil War to save it from looting soldiers, and the young daughter of the house disappeared. Glenn is her long-lost grandson and has clues to the treasure. Other clues are found in the dolls the girl once owned and in  secret drawer. The clue 'seven up and seven down' leads them first to bricks in the chimney left standing after the plantation house was burnt, then to the steps of an old staircase and the cool cellar.
C45 civil war treasure: maybe, Secret of the Closed Gate by Margaret Leighton, illustrated by Sandra James, published Winston c1944, hardcover with B&W illustrations. "Children's mystery - Nancy and friends find a
secret room in an old cellar of a burnt house. They get old Caesar to tell them stories of the house." I would assume that old Caesar is a black servant or former slave? This is the second Leighton title suggested here, I notice, so if neither of them is right, maybe other works by her are worth a look?
Kathryn Kenny, Trixie Belden Series.  Maybe our stumper helpers are all on the wrong track and this is actually a Trixie Belden or other family mystery book. Often the children in various series go to the south and find treasure. I think that Trixie did when they went to the Missippi River.
Another possibility--The Riddle at Live Oaks by Augusta Huiell Seaman, 1934.  There are three children who are looking for family silver hidden during the civil war.  They do find it in an old well and there is an old slave who does sing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen".

Alexander Key, ???  Alexander Key wrote a lot of children's books, often with telepathic children growing up with aunts and uncles, frequently with animals.  I'd need more details on this one, but I can easily imagine that it's one of his.
No, this isn't Alexander Key -- I know his books quite well (and don't forget it's the second half of the alphabet).  I have the feeling this is somebody really obscure, because I'm usually the one solving these things!:)
Robert A. Heinlein, The Rolling Stones, 1950s.  There is a rather large family with a lot of little animals similar to tribbles called flatcats.
Not an Andre Norton story is it?? She has a lot of Star titles. Star Born, Wheel of
Stars, Stars Are Ours, Exiles of the Stars, Star Ka'at World, Unchartered Stars. Just a suggestion. (Her stories are all older.)
Madeleine l'Engle, Many Waters.  Or one of her other books e.g. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, etc. I can't think of any *one* book that fits *all* the details, but the combination of family life, science fiction, and animal communication is quite characteristic of l'Engle's books.
No, it's nobody well-known, I'm absolutely sure of it -- I'm very well read in
YA fiction, and I'm also good at tracking down obscure books.  This is something waaaay off the beaten track.  (Plus, not only is the author in the second half of the alphabet, but I'd be reasonably certain they were at least as far down as "R", but I'm not entirely certain).
Louise Lawrence.  Another possibility writes children's books that sometimes interweave mythology, science fiction and animals. At least two of her books do have 'star' in the title: Star Lord, and The Power of Stars.
Henry Winterfield, Star Girl. Yet another possibility. I don't have clear memories of it but know that it did include a girl who was alien or part alien. At least it meets the criterion of the author being near the end of the alphabet!
No, this book isn't by Heinlein or Key or anyone well-known (and the author is in the second half of the alphabet).  It takes place in the present-day (ie. 1970's, I think) U.S.A., no starships, etc.  The animals are normal earth animals, there are just a lot of them.  This is a real puzzler -- if it were obvious, I would have had it a long time ago.
Ruth Christoffer Carlsen, Ride a Wild Horse, 1970.  This is set on a ranch with lots of horses, etc. The family who lives there takes in a girl, Julie, who they think has amnesia. And if I remember correctly, they think she's a cousin. She's actually from another planet. She reveals her powers to the 12-year-old boy in the family, Barney, and shows him how she can make one of the horses, Diablo, fly. She uses the horse to get back to wherever she came from.

This isn't much help, and I can't find the book, but this was one of the stories in Elson-Gray Basic Readers, Book 3--the 1936 edition, I believe.  If you can find a copy, it might give a credit up front for the story.  If I ever find my own copy, I'll post any info that's in it.
Miriam Clark Potter, A Ride to Animal Town.  After another poster identified this as a story in a reader I looked through some of mine and found A Ride to Animal Town by Miriam Clark Potter in Streets and Roads a Scott, Foresman and Co. publication from 1946-47.  It may be contained in several different readers but this is definitely the story you are looking for.  Billy Beaver is driving a cart pulled by Johnny Fox.  They meet up with a tired old bunny and give him a ride.  He keeps complaining so they finally make him get out but he asks for a second chance and later says "Hot sun, bumpy road, tired old bunny feet.  Glad to ride."
Googled it!  Here's the website that has a sample pdf file containing the story, or try this.

B4 Is not beavers but otters. It is either Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell (there's the "shining" part) or it is the shortened version for children entitled  The Otter's Tale by Gavin Maxwell.
B4 could be Tarka the Otter although I've forgotton the author.

In further research, this does seem to match. And I currently have these books by Gavin Maxwell available, as well as two photographs of Maxwell himself with birds:
Maxwell, Gavin. Ring of Bright Water, VG/G+, 4th <SOLD>
... Raven Seek Thy Brother, VG/VG, 1st am, x-l, $10
... The House of Elrig, F/VG, 1st, $22
... A Reed Shaken by the Wind, VG/VG, 2nd, $25
... The Otters' Tale, VG/VG-, 1st, $25
2 photographs of Gavin Maxwell, $10

O'Brien, Jack, Rip Darcy, Adventurer,illustrated by Bunty Witten.  Toronto, Winston, 1938.  Okay, this is it. Rip Darcy and his terrier Junie are found in a wrecked ship on a small Pacific island. His father, Captain Darcy of the trading ship South Wind, and all the crew, were swept overboard in a storm. He is found by Captain Gus Brown, and taken to New York, where he is "adopted" by the Adventurers' Club, and taken under the wing of several of them in turn, to have various adventures (some life-threatening - where are the Child Welfare authorities!). The Adventurers' Club is real, and so are the men with whom Rip has adventures in various countries - Frank Buck, Bob Ripley, Sacha Siemel, and Gus Brown.

G71 THE RISE AND FALL OF A TEEN-AGE WACKO by Mary Anderson, 1980. Laura is spending a lot of time alone in NYC. She fantasizes that she is in a Woody Allen film, and finds that she has walked across the camera of the real Woody. He offers to keep her in the movie, but she later finds out her "scene" has been cut. ~from a librarian
Hi I originally posted the stumper question and the answer on your site is absolutely correct! Thank you to the librarian (as she is listed) who answered this stumper -- it's been on my mind for years now! Thank you so much!
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Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko
This book was about a family with a teen daughter (I think her name was Laura-because she identified with the old movie "Laura".  They went away for the summer, but she wanted to stay back in New York City by herself. She babysat, went to auctions.  I just can't remember the name of the book. Please help!

Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko. This one's already on the solutions page--I remembered that the girl thought she was going to be in a Woody Allen movie, so I searched for that on the site and came up with the answer.
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I am trying to recall a book from my middle school years-teen yrs. I took it out of the library time and time again, but can’t recall much about it. This is what I do recall……..a teenage girl lives in NYC, I *think* her parents went to the country for the week and she is to meet them soon. This girl dreams of being a famous actress. At some point in her weekend she visits Saks, or Bloomingdales and purchases a large floppy hat that she can’t resist. She feels it makes her look mysterious. She also walks onto a movie shoot and tries to get in the movie. I believe toward the end of the book she visits her family and spends time at a swimming hole. I was a young teen in the early-mid 80s, this book was most likely from the late 70s. Thank you.

Anderson, Mary, The Rise And Fall Of A Teenage Wacko, 1982.  This is it, it's in the solved stumpers.  I knew exactly what book you were talking about, and I couldn't remember the name either - but I managed to remembered a few more details (specifically, the Woody Allen references) that enabled me to find it in solved stumpers. Glad you reminded me of this book - it was a favorite of mine.
Mary Anderson, The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko.  I can't believe it. I am overcome with happiness that someone responded to my stump! It is The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko and now I recall that Woody Allen part of it. I loved Woody Allen which is probably why i loved the book. I really read this over and over. many many thanks.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Anderson, Mary. The Rise and Fall of a Teen-age Wacko.  Bantam Books, 1982.  Softcover.  VG, $10.

Slepian Jan, Risk n' roses, 1990.  In 1948, newly-moved to the Bronx, eleven-year-old Skip longs to shed her responsibility for her mentally handicapped older sister and give her whole attention to her new friendship with the bold and daring girl who sems to run the neighborhood.  mr Kaminsky is the neighbour who befriends older sister Angela.  The gang is the "dare club" where  Jean who dominates the neighbourhood, dares each girl to do more and more naughty things ( like shoplifting) and ultimately Jean dares Skip to cut the heads off the roses that Mr Kaminsky grows.
Risk N Roses  That' it! Move this to the Solved page. Thanks!!!!

I1  This is a longshot: could it be The River by Rumer Godden?  I  never read the book, but the 1951 movie version was about a British family living in Bengal, India.  I saw the movie more than 20 years ago and don't remember very much about it.
It could be, I will check into it. When Rumer died a year or so ago I read about her in the NYT, and got excited for a while. Her whole approach--children's books, India, great style--seemed like it could fit, but nothing quite matched.

David Kherdian, The road from home : the story of an Armenian girl, 1979.  A biography of the author's mother concentrating on her childhood in Turkey before the Turkish government deported its Armenian population.  Born to a prosperous Armenian family, Verna Dumehjian spent a happy childhood until 1915, when the Turkish government deported her family. She faced many tragedies the following years, but eventually arrived in the United States as a mail order bride in 1924.
Have you tried The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian?  It's described on Amazon as a biography of the author's mother concentrating on her childhood in Turkey before the Turkish government deported its Armenian population and is set in the late teens/early twenties.

In response to the book in P-8, you might want to try either Hans Christian Andersen or Grimms' Fairy Tales. The beggar in the story was a magical being in disguise and his asking for food was a test for the old woman (she
obviously failed). I don't know the name of the story but I remember my father telling it to me and it sounds like it could be from either of those two authors.
P8: This isn't the same exact story, but I just wanted to say that I know 3 versions of this - A Legend of
the Northland (a 19th-century poem by Phoebe Cary, it includes Saint Peter); a Native American version (both stories include pancakes and a woodpecker); and "Baker's Daughter"inClever Gretchen, where the beggar is a fairy, the food is bread, and the selfish girl becomes an owl. (This is the source of some of Ophelia's lines in Hamlet.) There are also versions where the beggar is Christ.
I regularly check the book stumpers and had seen the replies.  Based on follow-up research I don't think book is a Hans Christian Andersen or Grimm's Fairy Tale anthology, since the story doesn't turn up in any "complete" editions of their stories.  I was pleased to read the Phoebe Cary poem, which
turns up in Bennett's Book of Virtues that was a best seller a few years ago, and the references to similar stories in annotated editions of Shakespeare, but of course that's not the childhood book itself.  However, the fact that this folk tale was at one time well known gives me hope that I will find the
particular book someday.  Of course I'd be interested in purchasing it from you if you were able to find it.  I am very appreciative of the information and efforts of you and your friends from cyberspace.
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Watty Piper, The Road in Storyland, 1932.  I am the person who submitted this book stumper.  I am writing to let you know that I finally found the book and to thank you for having kept it posted so long.  It's The Road in Storyland, edited by Watty Piper.  The story that stuck in my mind all these years was the Old Woman who Wanted All the Cakes, one of the 20 stories in the collection.

Merryman, Mildred Plew, The Road to Raffydiddle.  Abingdon, 1966 / World's Work, 1967.  Illus. by Frank Aloise.  The author died in 1944, so there could be earlier versions, too.  I also found a reference that said the poem could be found in The Big Golden Book of Poetry, edited by Jane Werner, illustrated by Gertrude Elliott, Golden Press, 1947, 1949
F162 Google says it is Raffydiddle. That led me to an ebay thing which I didn't understand - supposedly a rare item, now gone?
Merryman, Mildred, The Road to Raffydiddle, 1966.  Thank you for solving the mystery-- I'm very happy to have the title and author. Hope you can find a copy for me to buy.

I don't have the answer, but I have found out a bit more about the (possible) series: the other "Robbie" book is Robbie's Birthday Wish ('50); both are from Murfett (Melbourne). Murfett's other big children's series, Peg Maltby, Pip & Pepita (mice), doesn't seem likely for the stretcher arm. There is a book about the gnome who mends fairies' shoes, Meet Mr Cobbledick! ('48), that might include the arm...does any of this sound familiar?
Jean Elder also illustrated Sylvia Chew, Little Chiu (A Series of Stories) (Murfett, '47), but this sounds even less likely.
I am looking for the hard cover children's book Robbie's Trip to Fairyland by JP Elder and P Johnson.  I saw it mentioned on your site and that it was published by Murfett Melbourne.  I was really excited because I thought that reference to it would be harder to find!!  The book had been given to my mum when she was a little girl and unfortunately my brothers and I weren't so careful with it when we were young.  She still has the book, but it has many missing pages and many pages torn in half.  I always feel terrible that my brothers and I wrecked it, because it was such a beautiful book.  I would love to find another copy for her.  I guess it would kind of be a trip down memory lane for her.
Hi -- your book stumper pages are a wonderful thing, and I have so much enjoyed going through them.  Under "solved stumpers", listed as "Robbie Books" under QR, you have someone looking for a character with a long reach.  It was''t entirely clear that the problem was solved with the list of Robbie books, so I thought I might mention another book with a "stretcher arm" -- Frank L. Baum's Queen Xixi of Ix, in which a character gets just such an arm.

Heilbroner, Joan. Robert the Rose Horse. Illustrated by P.D. Eastman. Random House Beginner Book, 1962.
Heilbroner, Joan, Robert the Rose Horse, 1989.  When the horse sneezed, everyone had to hold onto their hats!

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Heilbroner, Joan. Robert the Rose Horse.  Illustrated by P.D. Eastman.  Random House, 1962.  Book club edition.  G+.  <SOLD>

Both Margaret Baker and Marchette Chute did stories with silhouette illustrations, but I haven't managed to confirm this story for either of them.
F7 families across street: don't know much about the story, but there's Robin, by Bertha and Ernest Cobb, published Arlo, 1934, 225 pages. Red cloth with black titles and silhouettes, decorated endpapers, illustrated with silhouettes by Lucy Doane and K.W. Berry. The cover shows a boy and girl in profile in ovals, like silhouette portraits. The endpapers show two girls lifting up a smaller child and a boy swinging. It seems to be stories about Robin, a little boy, and girls called Amy and Joy?

Could the book being looked for under number P23 be one of the Tim books by  Edward Ardizonne (spelling?)? Tim was always running away to sea (his parents were most understanding) and he had numerous adventures in various books, including run-ins with pirates.
P23 Pirates -- from The Horn Book, Sept-Oct/43, an ad for The Pirate's Apprentice written and illustrated by Peter Wells, published by John Winston. "The author of "Mr. Tootwhistle's Invention" with a new picture-story of a boy who wanted to be a pirate. Ages 6-10." The drawing shown is quite cartoony, showing a boy with a striped stocking-cap, a turned-up nose and a shirt with a black skull-and-crossbones on it. Not enough plot description to be helpful, though.
Could this be Tenggren's Pirates, Ships, and Sailors, or another illustrated by him called Pirate's Loot?
There's also Tom Benn and Blackbeard the Pirate by Le Grand, published Abingdon 1954, 63 pages "Eleven-year-old Tom had always longed for the life of a pirate, and one day he finds himself aboard Blackbeard's pirate ship. Blackbeard teaches him a thing or two about pirates, and how Tom becomes
involved in the capture of this fierce and terrible man ..." "Lieutenant Maynard would never have caught Blackbeard if it had not been for Tom Benn and a big wooden bathtub. This new regional tall tale has the authro's usual high-handed nonsense in text and drawings."
Another one - The End of Long John Silver, by David William Moore, illustrated by Henry Pitz, published Crowell 1946. "A rip-roaring story which tells of the adventures of two young Rhode Island cabin boys who met Treasure Island's Long John in Vera Cruz, sailed with him to Paris and finally fought with him on the Bonhomme Richard. A new slant on the American Revolution. For 9 to 12 year-olds." (Horn Book  Nov/46 p.418 pub.ad) It's two boys, though, not one, so may not be right.
P23 pirates: here's another possible - Pirate Brig, by Mildred Wirt, published Scribner 1950. "An exciting adventure novel about Blackbeard the pirate and his cabin boy Ben. Older boys and girls." (HB May/50 p.242 pub ad) Nothing about the illustrations, though. A pirate book that definitely has cartoonish illustrations is Captain Pugwash, a Pirate Story, written and illustrated by John Ryan, published Criterion 1958. "A jolly spoof on piracy in a picture-story book. The two-color and four-color caricaturish drawings of pirate crews suit the tall-tale spirit of the text. Together they picture the clever way in which the modest cabin-boy Tom saves the life of his vain pirate leader, Captain Pugwash, after an encounter with the rival captain, Cut-Throat Jake, whose 'heart was blacker than his beard.'" (HB Feb/58 p.32)
Richard Platt, Pirate Diary. The journal of Jake Carpenter.  This is an oversized 64 page book that has very beautiful and detailed illustrations by Chris Riddell. The book is about a 9 year old boy, Jake, who keeps a diary for a year about his adventures on a pirate ship. It's not a pre-school book, it's probably aimed at 9-10 year olds. One very memorable full page illustration within the book is almost completely yellow, it's of a page with two pirates.
P23 pirates: this one looks good - Robin and the Pirates, translated by Isobel Quigley from a story by Ermanno Libenzi, illustrated by Adelchi Galloni, published London, Hamlyn, 1974, unpaginated, about 56 pages. It is a large/oversize book, being 10x12", but not thick. It has very detailed and colourful cartoony illustrations that cover the the pages and are often from odd perspectives. Piratical types with peglegs, hooks and eyepatches are featured. The text part of the page is relatively small, but the reading level is at least the level of a Jolly Roger Bradfield book. The story is about young Robin, who lives in an old lighthouse with his grandfather Tobias. He is captured by a pressgang along with the other men of his village and forced to join the navy. He escapes onto a ghost ship, saves Moby Dick from Captain Ahab, lands on a pirate island and meets Captain Hook, who takes him along on an attack on a Spanish treasure ship. They are wrecked by a hurricane and live in a huge tree in the Bahamas with Robinson Crusoe, until rescued by Captain Nemo. And so on. Except for the cover being mostly blue, this is a pretty good match physically.

This must be A Rocket In My Pocket: The Rhymes & Chants of Young Americans  (edited by Carl Withers and illustrated by Sussanne Suba).  The first edition was published by Henry Holt in 1948, but it was subsequently published in shortened form titled Favorite Rhymes from A Rocket in My Pocket by Scholastic in 1967 and 1990.
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The only thing I remember about this book is a non-sensical poem, some of which goes:  Ladles and Jellyspoons, I come before you to stand behind you to tell you something I know nothing about. Next Thursday, which is Good Friday, there will be a Mother's meeting for Fathers only.   If you can come please stay at home.  I checked with an English professor and he said it doesn't seem like Ogden Nash, whom I had always thought it was.  But I searched Nash with no luck.

Carl Withers, A Rocket in My Pocket :the rhymes and chants of young Americans.  1948, 1988.  Check this one to see if it's the one you remember.  I found a web source citing this book as having this poem but I can't verify it myself.
You can find that 'poem' in A Rocket In My Pocket  the rhymes and shants of young Americans (compiled by Carl Withers, illus. by Susanne Suba, Holt, 1948).  It's got a dark cover and I think the title is written in rope-like script.  It's filled with humorous verses and sayings.
Typing 'ladles and jellyspoons' into a search engine yielded results. Here are two good links. OneTwo.
Oh, my goodness!  That poem my friend and I memorized in junior high!  We found it in The Nonsense Book.

Chris Babcock, No moon, no milk, 1994.
Devine, Louise Lawrence, A Rocket for a Cow, illustrated by Irma Wilde, Rand McNally Elf 1965.  Could be this one. Cover shows a cow sitting on farm machinery tied together to make a rocket. Plot description - A "fat old cow" yearns to jump over the moon.
#C126 A Rocket for a Cow is the correct answer.  I would like to ask the poster if they know whether or not this is a Little Golden Book, or an Elf Book?
I agree with the blue poster that this is an Elf book.

Lawrence, D.H., Rocking-Horse Winner.  A sad short story by D.H. Lawrence.  It can be found on-line or in a number of short-story anthologies.
D.H. Lawrence, The Rocking Horse Winner.  Short story by D.H. Lawrence, online here:  http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Lawrence.html .  Also made into a film.
Lawrence, D.H., The Rocking-Horse Winner. This certainly sounds like Lawrence's short story. You can read it online here.
D H Lawrence, The  Rocking Horse Winnner, 1926(?).  This is definitely it.  It's in lots of collections, easy to find.
Lawrence, The Rocking Horse Winner.   read it online here.
D.H. Lawerence, The Rocking Horse Winner. I believe this is what you are looking for.  I think it is often included in high school literature books.  When the little boy rides his rocking horse he somehow finds out the names of the horses who will win at the races. He tells his uncle the names and the uncle bets on the horses.  Among other things the family buys fresh flowers in winter.  Finally the boy dies of a "brain fever" from all the riding, etc.
D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking Horse Winner. Could this be it?: In London, the teenager Paul Grahame ( lives with his upper class but financially broken family. His wasteful mother Hester Grahame is a compulsive buyer, spending all the family money in new expensive dresses, jewels and objects for their home. His father Richard Grahame is a gambler, losing money in the horse races. His uncle Oscar Cresswell is permanently covering the Grahame family debts. When the servant Bassett is hired, Paul finds that he can predict the winner of the horses' races rocking his wooden horse. Paul asks Bassett to become his partner, betting their money in the races, trying to prove that he is lucky and silencing the permanent whisper of the house needing more money. But the prize is high and fatal.
D. H. Lawrence, The Rockinghorse Winner, 1926.  This is a short story that seems to have been a staple of high school literature textbooks for many years.  The boy rides his rocking horse and then has "luck" in picking the winners of horse races that his father bets on.  They make more and more money, but want more and more, and so the boy has to ride the rocking horse more and more, until he finally dies.  It appeared first in 1926, then in the first volume of Lawrence's short stories, and then was widely anthologized.  If you find a high school British literature textbook of the 1960s-1980s period, you'll probably find the story.  Or it might be available in another anthology.
D. H. Laurence, The Rocking Horse Winner. I first read this in a collection that also included "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "A Canticle for Leibowitz."

Solarbabies or Solar Warriors.  The only thing that clicked was a pretty awful movie made in 1986 called "Solarbabies" (aka Solar Warriors on the IMDB).  This meshes with what you were talking about, but I couldn't find if it was inspired/based on a book, or not.  Hope this helps!
William Harrison, Rollerball (movie), 1975.  This sci-fi movie explored surrogate violence.  The story was later written as a short story "Roller Ball Murder" (1981).  The movie tagline was: "In the future there will be no war. There will only be Rollerball."  As a sci-fi fan this is the only storyline I recall which had roller-skating as a major theme.
Rollerball.  It's futuristic, it's got rollerskates in it.  But it is sort of apocolyptic and painful.  Don't know if this helps or not.
William Harrison, Rollerball Murder and Other Stories, Early 1970's.  The movie Rollerball was written by William Harrison and was based on a short story that he had written and published in the early 1970's. The name of the book it was in is Rollerball Murder and Other Stories. 

Alice-Leone Moats, Roman Folly, 1965.  Definitely this book.  "'Princess del Tevere can teach you what I cannot,' Lloyd
Howard has said to his granddaughter Perdita." (from the inside cover).  Also has characters Nino (Princess' nephew), Bibbina, Nino's mother, a wacky millionaire from Brazil, a zany English lord, etc.  I haven't read this in a long time, but I remember it being very funny.
I have just seen the reply posted and recognized it at once.  I had been sure that "Roman" was in the title, but when I searched for it on my own I kept pairing it with "Scandal" , "Holiday" and so forth.  And I'd been sure the author was a man, but I see my recall was faulty.  Thank you to the responder! 

Could this be the story "Ladies First" from Free to Be You and Me, written by Marlo Thomas and friends in the early 1970s.  I don't remember the exact words, but in that story, a bratty girl (who thinks she should be treated like a lady) is eaten by a crocodile.
C33 is _not_ the story "Ladies First" from Free to Be You and Me -- that one is about a little girl who always insists "ladies first," so she ends up being the first one eaten by cannibals.  I don't know the story that the requestor is asking about, but we sang the song as children: "She sailed away on a happy summer day on the back of a crocodile / You see, said she, he's as tame as he can be / I'll float him down the Nile / The croc winked an eye as she waved them all goodby / Wearing a happy smile / At the end of the ride the lady was inside / And the smile was on the crocodile!"
C33: Just to let you know, in Free to Be...You and Me the girl gets eaten by tigers who are only too glad to treat her as a "tender sweet thing". That story is by Shel Silverstein.
I remember the words to the song. She sailed away on a bright and sunny day on the back of a crocodile. "You see" said she "he's as tame as he can be.  I'll ride him down the Nile." But the croc winked his eye as she waved them all goodbye, Wearing a happy smile. At the end of the ride the lady was inside And the smile was on the crocodile.
Wow! Thank you. I had thought everyone had long forgotten about me! I will pass this on to my customer and see if jogs the memory a bit more.
---And from another requester---
Do you know a children's book/song, "riding down the nile on a crocodile"? It's been driving my friend NUTZ for years.
C33:  This is probably NOT the book you remember, but that song is reprinted in a book illustrated by Marc Brown (I think that's his name) (of the "Arthur" series fame), along with the tune.  The book had lots of other fun story-songs in it too.
This is a long shot, but I can visualize those drawings--could it be one of the books that Sendak illustrated, called What Do You Say, Dear? or What Do You Do, Dear? both by Sesyle Joslin? Maybe this only sounds familiar because there is a crocodile in one of those books. They are both books on manners.
I have been looking for this book for years!  It was sometime around 1974-1977 (I think).  It was a scholastic book type...we ordered it from school and it came with a plastic record in the back. The song lyrics were the story words in the book.  I can't rember any of the lyrics but "riding down the nile on a crocodile."  I too have asked everyone for years and only my brother remembers it.  I even contacted Scholastic books...they didn't know of it.  It might have been another book company. Is this question or any information still on your website???  Please Help! This is the first I've been able to find of anyone asking or mentioning it in my research.  Thanks!
*later* Ok...so this book from Marc Brown...do you know the name of it? The song that is mentioned in the top of C33 (not reprinted in this email) is not the song that was in the book that we are trying to find.  I remember the book having pictures of a little boy riding on the crocodile (I think he ws in a jungle outfit???) and I think he also rode by the pyramids (???) I also seem to recall that it was done in a sepia color instead of black and white or color.  Foggy, but seem to recall all that...not sure. Ugh, this is driving me crazy!  Let me know if you find out anything further or if you know the name of the Marc Brown book...thanks so much!
This sounds like a song that my children have on one of their tapes that they play in the car, which I think is called "Never smile at a crocodile". I'll try and find it and check the lyrics.
*later* I listened to my son's tape in the car today and it wasn't the same song.
I don't know about the book, but we used to sing the song at camp:  She rode away on a bright summer's day / On the back of a crocodile. / You see, said she, it's as plain as can be / That I'll ride him down the Nile. / The croc winked his eye as the lady waved good-by / Wearing a great big smile./ At the end of the ride the lady was inside / And the smile was on the crocodile!
C33 crocodile eats lady: a long shot, but Beasts and Nonsense: verses and pictures, by Marie Hall Ets, published Viking 1952 contains "Zoo animals - gay nonsense verses and beguiling scribbly pictures. Mrs. Ets delights in the oddest and homeliest: ridiculous hippopotamuses in bonnets, alligators eating ladies, and warthogs at the dentist! Perfect for reciting. Ages 5-10." (HB Oct/52 p.280 pub ad)
Sendak, Maurice, Nutshell Library, 1962.  This is a collection of 4 books by Maurice Sendak. Chicken Soup with Rice, a book of months (I also have a copy of this in a Scholastic paperback version) has a picture for September of a boy riding a crocodile past a pyramid and text: "In September, for a while, I will ride, a crocodile, down the chicken soupy Nile. Paddle once, paddle twice, paddle chicken soup, with rice."  Also included in this collection is Pierre, a cautionary tale about a boy who gets eaten by a lion because he "doesn't care". The other two titles are Alligators All Around and One Was Johnny. Published by Harper & Row. This set has the components Sendak, riding down the nile on a crocodile, past pyramids and being eaten.  I also own a tape of the set of books being read aloud "Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and other stories by Maurice Sendak, performed by Tammy Grimes, a Caedemon Audio Cassette. Could be that the story was recorded and included with a copy of the book.  I also found the song mentioned in one of the responses, though it appears to be unrelated - try searching on www.kididdles.com under subject index, animals, crocodile: The Crocodile Written By: Unknown Copyright Unknown She sailed away on a sunny summer day / On the back of a crocodile / "You see," said she, "he's as tame as tame can be, / I'll ride him down the Nile."  // The croc winked his eye as she bade them all goodbye / Wearing a happy smile / At the end of the ride, the lady was inside, / And the smile was on the crocodile!
edward lear.  I remember reading this poem and could swear it's Edward Lear - the "Owl and the Pussy Cat" guy.
The Romper Room Book of Finger Plays and Action Rhymes.  "She sailed away on a bright and sunny day on the back of a crocodile."  This song and finger play can be found in The Romper Room Book of Finger Plays and Action Rhymes.
Yes, I'll bet it is.  June Pierce, The Romper Room Book of Finger Plays and Action Rhymes.  Illustrated by Ruth Wood.  New York: Wonder Books, 1955.

R18 Could this be Room for Cathy by Catherine Woolley?  The Leonard family moves from an apartment into a new house with more room for the five family members.  Cathy, the oldest, is especially happy because she is getting a room all to herself with her own bathroom and closet.  After all the rooms get painted Cathy starts decorating her room and fashions her own bookshelves.  Then the dad misses out on a promotion he was expecting, and they have to rent out some rooms. (You guessed it, Cathy's room is one of the rooms rented out)  Does this sound familiar???
A Room for Cathy by Catherine Woolley
Hi, I'm visiting your site for the first time and saw the book stumper of the week. The first thing that came to my mind was A Room For Cathy by Catherine Woolley. This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and I even have my childhood copy to this day.
A Room for Cathy by Catherine Woolley.  Its kind of hard to find,   But I enjoyed reading it again after many years!
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A girl named Cathy moves to a new house with her family and is overjoyed at not having to share a bedroom with her little sister (Chrissy?) anymore.  She fixes up her new bedroom but then there is some kind of financial crisis and her family is forced to rent out bedrooms for money, so Cathy ends up sharing with Chrissy again.  There is a sort of sequel to this book that focuses more on Chrissy, and involves a very grand trip to Canada by train with her father.

Catherine Woolley,  A Room For Cathy, 1956. Definitely A Room For Cathy by Catherine Woolley.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy. This is definitely the book.  Cathy's little sister is Chris.  There are two books about the little sister.  They are Cathy's Little Sister and Chris in Trouble.
Catherine Wooley, A Room for Cathy, 1956. This is definitely Cathy's New Room. I read this series as a kid and was so excited to find them again a few years ago.  There are several Cathy books Miss Cathy Leonard, Cathy Leonard Calling, Cathy's Little Sister, Chris in Trouble, Cathy and the Beautiful People, Cathy Discovers a Secret.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy, 1956. The book you're looking for is A Room for Cathy by Catherine Woolley. The first book in a series about Cathy, it came out in hardcover and as a Scholastic paperback. The other books in the series are Miss Cathy Leonard (1958), Cathy Leonard Calling (1961), Cathy's Little Sister (1964), Cathy and the Beautiful People (1971) and Cathy Uncovers a Secret (1972). Woolley also wrote two other series about girls...one for Libby and one for friends Ginnie and Genevea. Writing under the name of Jane Thayer, she wrote many picture books, including the Gus Ghost series.
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A new room for Susan?  1973, juvenile.  I'm thinking this was published by Scholastic, Inc.  It was not a terribly reflective story but sweet.  A young girl is very excited when her parents move into a nice home.  Something happens financially and they must rent out rooms.  She has to give up her new bedroom which she had spent a lot of time decorating.  She learns that the new friends she has in the boarders far outweigh the material possessions she gave up.

This almost sounds like Eleanor Cameron's A Room Made of Windows.  Anyway the date is right.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy.  A Room for Cathy is the book you are looking for. Cathy and her family move to a victorian house in the country.  Cathy has her own "suite" and decorates it lovingly.  Her family falls on hard time and have to take in boarders.  Cathy is forced to share a room with her sister, Chris.  This is the first book a 5-6 book series.
Catherine Wooley, A Room For Cathy, 1956, copyright.  You were so close, but I believe "Cathy" is the name you are looking for.
Catherine Woolley, Vernonica Reed (illus), A Room For Cathy, 1956, copyright.  It was an exciting event for everyone when the family moved from their crowded suburban apartment to a beautiful big house in the country.  To Cathy it was also the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream.  Although she dearly loved her younger sister and brother, she didn't enjoy sharing a room with Chris and bureau drawers with Jeff.  And now she would have a room of her own!  Life in the gracious house was all that Cathy had hoped for until a change in their financial situation made it necessary for her parents to rent some of their space, including her own precious room.  Cathy was heartbroken.  She wondered if she would ever again be able to read or dream or pretend all by herself.  Her adjustment to the new situation forms the climax of this warm and tender story, whose happy family life, gay adventures, and sure understanding place it high on the list of Miss Woolley's popular books. Part of a series of books about Cathy.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy, 1960, approximate.  I'm pretty sure this is the one you're looking for. Cathy is the oldest child, and it took a long time to get her own room. Then the family falls on hard times, and they rent it out.  A girl and her mother end up renting the room--one of them is named Naomi.
Catherine Woolley, Cathy's Room, 1950, approximate.  This is probably the book you are looking for. Cathy shares a room with her two younger siblings and can  hardly wait to move to their new house, where she'll have her own room to decorate and dream in. Then there are some financial difficulties and her room has to be rented.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy.  Cathy doesn't get to keep her beautiful new room and has to go back to sharing with her little sister, Chris, but on the other hand makes friends with the mother and daughter who rent part of the house.  This is the first of the books about Cathy and her family; others are CATHY LEONARD CALLING, CATHY UNCOVERS A SECRET, CATHY'S LITTLE SISTER, CATHY AND THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, CHRIS IN TROUBLE.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy, 1956, copyright.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy, 1956, copyright.  This is the second book in Woolley's Cathy Leonard series.  Cathy's family moves from the city to a big house in the suburbs and she looks forward to her new room which she decorates with her mother.  Financial worries cause her parents to soon take in boarders and Cathy has to share a room with her sister.  Her relationship with the mother and daughter boarders becomes close and she ultimately values their friendship more than her old room.
Not sure about the details, but I do remember that part about the girl getting her own room at last, one with a semi-private bathroom, then dismayed that her younger sister wanted the room on the other side of the bath. There is a scene where the girl and her sister have to share her room, and the older one puts several boards in the middle as a divider, then repents of the act. I think you're right about the family having to rent some rooms out, not sure for how long.
Catherine Wooley, A Room for Cathy.  I know this one! It's A Room for Cathy by Catherine Wooley. I think there might be a sequel, but I could be wrong. All her books are great.
Catherine Wooley, A Room for Cathy, 1970 (8th printing).  I remember this book well. She's delighted to move to a new house, where she no longer has to share a room with her younger sister.  She paints the room a bright, cheery yellow, and decorates it herself.  Her father then loses his job, and the family cannot afford the home any longer.
Catherine Woolery, A Room for Cathy, 1956, copyright.  Moving into a big house means Cathy will finally get her own room--until they need to rent it out to make money, when she learns about sharing.  Reprinted in 1975 by Scholastic.
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Story of a young girl whose family moves into a new house, where her dream bedroom is decorated in yellow.  All is great until the family falls on had times & takes in a border who shares her bedroom suit.  She learns some lessons & the family's fortune improves again.

Catherine Woolley, A Room For Cathy.
Catherine Woolley, A Room for Cathy.  Definitely this one. See solved mysteries or G508 in the archives for more details.
Catherine Wooley, A Room for Cathy.  This was asked and solved last month!
Woolley, Catherine, A Room for Cathy, 1956, copyright.  This is definitely A Room for Cathy. I loved this book as a child. Besides being a wonderful book, it's easy to find.

I've gotten conflicting answers to this riddle. My friends at Cattermole Books say it's Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories and a customer in Minnesota says it's The Golden Book of Nursery Tales, edited by Elsa Jane Werner. I'll check it out and see who wins...
Well, it isn't surprising that the correct answer is...
Sandburg, Carl. Rootabaga Stories. Illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham. Harcourt Brace, 1922, 1951. Later edition, clean ex-library copy. VG/VG. <SOLD>

Like so many others I don't recall the title or author, however, here is a description of the book for young readers.  There is an inventive farmer and his family who spend their entire savings to buy an acre of land from a shifty salesman.  The land turns out to be an acre deep into mud.  The mud produces incredibly large vegatables and the farmer and his family prosper.  I recall a popcorn and sunshine - powered car but it may be in another book about the same farmer.  Your help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm looking for a book that might be titled something like "Adventures in the Rutabaga Country."  They're on a train, and you need a long, yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it to ride.  They go through a country where people stand on tall ladders and pick balloons.  That's all I remember.
A21 is definitely a tale from Carl Sandburg's Rutabaga Tales.  Don't remember which tale, but it's in there!
Sid Fleischmann. I believe one person's stumper has been incorrectly identified as Rootabaga Stories in the solved mysteries lists.  The person asking about the one-acre farm that grows huge vegetables, the fantastic car, etc.  I strongly believe this request refers to a Sid Fleischmann series, McBroom.  Some titles are McBroom's Ghost, McBroom's Ear, etc.  They had a "Wonderful One-Acre Farm" and eleven children, written as
WillJillHesterChesterPeterPollyTimTomMaryLarryandLittleClarinda.  That must have made an impression on me, cause that's from memory! McBroom could plant anything, not just vegetables, and it would grow to gigantic size.  I do think one of the books in this series is being described, not one of the Rootabaga Stories.
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I am looking for a children's story book that I had in the 1950's. It had a mix of stories, including the Tinderbox and The Huckabuck Family and Rumplestiltskin, and The Marriage Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom, and the Magic Cook Pot, and a BUNCH more! Mom threw it out because it didn't have a cover, so the title was lost long ago. This book has great color illustrations.

Be sure to check out the Anthologies page to see if there's anything familiar there.  Perhaps the Better Homes and Garden Story Book?
Carl Sandburg, Rootabaga Stories.  These are great stories.  The Huckabucks (the Chinese Silver Slipper buckle) was just
re-issued in the last 2 years with illustrations by David Small--very nice.

Interpreting Condition Grades

Sandburg, Carl.  Rootabaga Stories. Illus. by Maud and Miska Petersham.  Harcourt, Brace & World, 1922, 1923, 1950, 1951.  1961 printing.  Red cloth with pictorial dust jacket; both book and jacket in beautiful shape.  VG+/VG+.  <SOLD>

There's a thief who steals Dottie's polk-a-dots in Rootie Kazootie, Detective.
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The book was the size and shape of a small Golden book.  A little girl loves dots and everything she wears and owns has polka dots on it.  A villain, complete with twirly black moustache comes into town and steals every polka dot in town.

Dottie and the evil Poison Zanzaboo again.  It's the original of the Little Golden Books featuring Rootie Kazootie:  Rootie Kazootie, Detective. Pictures by Mel Crawford. Simon & Schuster, 1953. Little Golden Book #150. See more on the Most Requested page.
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Please search for a childrens book published about 50 years ago about a mean man who stole all the polka-dots off of childrens clothing and the childrens efforts to get back their polka-dots

Rootie Kazootie again!  See the Most Requested page.

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This book was about a little girl who hung her clothes out to dry on a clothesline  either her polka dots went away or they appeared when she did the wash.  It's not Little Lulu and I thought it was a Golden book but I've met up with only deadends.  I think I remember it's being a skinny book but it may have been in a book with other stories.  I read it at my Grandmothers when I was young (6-10 yrs. old).  The main theme was the Polka dots...they ended up on everything.  I sure hope you can help.

Well, Polka Dottie does kind-of look like Little Lulu in style, and it is a Little Golden Book, despite the fame derived from its television show component.  It's Steve Carlin's beloved Rootie Kazootie, Detective.  See the Most Requested page for more.
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In the early 50s I had a favorite book about a little girl who loved polka dots, I believe her name was polka dottie. A Villain steals all of the polka dots!

Harvey Comics, Little Dot.  Not quite a solution, but perhaps you're thinking of the character, Little Dot, from Harvey Comics (creators of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, etc.)?  These characters were used, not only in comic books, but also in Wonder Books, Little Golden Books, etc.
Could it have been a comic book? Dot Polka was a little girl who loved dots in a series of comic books.  She was a friend of Lotta Plump's.
Steve Carlin, Mel Crawford (illus), Rootie Kazootie, Detective, 1953, copyright.  A Little Golden Book, in which Rootie Kazootie (a character from a popular 1950's TV show) must help out his friend, Polka Dottie, by tracking down the polka-dot thief.
Steve Carlin, Rootie Kazootie, Detective, 1953, copyright.  If you're remembering Rootie Kazootie, and his girl friend Polka Dottie, look at Loganberry's page about this popular title: http://loganberrybooks.com/most-carlin.html.
Crawford, Mel.  I don't have a title, but Mel Crawford wrote some Little Golden Books based on a 50's tv character named "Rootie Kazootie," and he had a girlfriend named "Polka Dottie."  Probably worth pursuing.
A possibility only--there was a comic books series about a girl named Dot Polka (the same company that did Little Lulu) who loved dots and was surrounded by them. She usually wore a red dress with black dots, and had a best friend named Lola (I think--it could have been Ella). Could you be remembering an expanded version of the comic?

Wiliam Steig, Rotten Island. This is exactly the book you're looking for.
William Steig, Rotten Island. This book was originally published with the title The Bad Island. According to reviews I've read of the reprint, the editors tampered with the text significantly. The original version is very hard to find and expensive.

Clifford, Sandy, The Roquefort Gang, 1981.  "A bold trio of mice help Nicole make a daring rescue of her two charges and the other mice held captive in a dreadful prison."
Clifford, Sandy, The Roquefort Gang, 1981.  A bold trio of mice help Nicole make a daring rescue of her two charges and the other mice held captive in a dreadful prison

well, I didn't know it, but Rebecca did. It's Rosa-Too-Little by Sue Felt.

Possibly this is The Rose & The Ring" by William Thakeray (sp?). The title was from a script of a stage version, but I imagine the books' title wouldn't be too different. Hope this helps. What a wonderful site!!
Hi, great site..   The story the reader remembered about a lost girl who turned out to be "Princess Rosalba", was The Rose and the Ring by William Thackeray (sp?). I haven't seen it in book form, only as a script for a kids' theatrical play.
I have an old Puffin version of that in prose, rather than play, form.

Waber, Bernard, A Rose for Mr Bloom, 1968.  Houghton Mifflin, The life of an ordinary businessman is changed entirely when one day a rose begins growing out of his ear.
You are correct R141 is A Rose for Mr. Bloom.  I have been trying to find a picture of the cover and just recieved an email today from a man who has the book for sale. Thank you so much for helping solve one of the book mysteries from my childhood.  Now if I could just solve the rest.

Could be Let's get turtles, by Millicent E. Selsam, illustrated by Arnold Lobel, Harper & Row, 1965.  A Science I can read book.
Nope, no painting on turtle's shell.  The boys just want to know what to feed their turtles.
There is a turtle painting scene in  Henry Reed, Inc. by Keith Robertson! (1958) scene is illustrated.
Ed Emberley, Rosebud, 1966. Rosebud was one of my childhood favorites!  A little green turtle wants to be different and finally gets her wish when she is caught by a pet store and has a rosebud painted on her back.

Josephine Lawrence, Rosemary, 1922.  Sounds like Rosemary.  There are three sisters -- Rosemary with "red-gold hair", Shirley, and Winnie.  Their brother, Hugh, takes care of them while their mother is hospitalized they also have to put up with their Aunt Trudy coming to help out.  It's largely assorted domestic adventures -- for example, the girls lose Aunt Trudy's ring and Rosemary tries to earn money to replace it many scenes deal with the girls adjusting to Aunt Trudy's presence and Rosemary's stubbornness or "Willis will."  I can't find an injured foot, but Rosemary (influenced by her friend Nina) buys high-heeled pumps when she goes out, her shoe gets caught in a trolley rail and she's almost run down.  The heel breaks and she has to hobble home that way.
YES!!  THANK YOU!!!  :)   I remember these things now, especially the “Willis Will” and Aunt Trudy.  It sounds like I may have blended this story with different book when I was struggling to remember details, but I recognized your description immediately.  Again, thanks SO much!  A 30-year mystery, SOLVED!!!

Perhaps the following will help jog someone's memory?  According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a sleeve dog is "A very small Pekingese, usually 15 centimeters (6 inches) or less in height" but the Oxford English Dictionary says it is "a very small Pekinese dog, usually under six pounds in weight."  And yes, the OED spells the dog's breed without a "g"---it's not a typographical error.  In case anyone is wondering, the book the stumper requester is seeking is NOT Fu-Dog by Rumer Godden.  Fu-Dog is about Li-La, who receives a tiny green satin dog from her Great Uncle for her birthday.  Li-La can hear the toy dog speak, and travels to London's Chinatown with her brother, Malcolm, to visit the Chinese relatives she has never met.  Malcolm gets hurt and the toy dog is lost, but the Chinese and English halves of Li-La's family are reconciled, and Great Uncle gives Fu-Dog back to Li-La in the form of a living "Peking" puppy.  In other words, it's the correct dog breed, but the wrong book.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Rosemary Tree.  I'm sure this is "The Rosemary Tree" by Elizabeth Goudge, which includes an evil headmistress, an abused Pekinese (the 'sleeve dog') and a little girl who steals the dog to save it--as just part of the plot in this adult novel by the well-loved author.
Elizabet Goudge, the Rosemary Tree.  I'm pretty sure that you're thinking of the Rosemary tree. It is about a family (father is vicar, 3 girls in a not-very-good school, elderly nanny. The youngest daugther steals the pekenise (which is referred to as a sleeve dog) belonging to the headteacher because it is overweight and unhappy and she wants her mother to have it. There is also a love story, betweeen the mothers ex-fiancee and the younger school teacher, and reconcilation between Jahn (the father) and his wife. I think you'll find it quite easy to find a copy.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Rosemary Tree.  You guys are terrific! This is the exact book I was looking for! My stepdad has cancer, and my mom has been spending a lot of time at the hospital, so I wanted her to have the book she was "craving." Thank you very much!

Hutchins, Rosie's Walk
Hutchins, Pat, Rosie's Walk.Should still be in print (and definitely in most libraries) -- Rosie  (a hen or rooster) walks around the farm.  Bland and minimal text  describes her walk  only the illustrations show a fox vainly tracking her. (Each time he thinks he has her something goes awry.)
Pat Hutchins, Rosie's Walk.  Fits the description in many ways, though it's a fox, not a wolf, that does the chasing.

R46 rosy nose: should be Rosy Nose, by Bill and Bernard Martin, published Kansas City, Tell-Well Press 1946. By the author and illustrator of The Little Squeegy Bug, "A refreshingly original story about a little polar bear combined with factual documentation about the cold North Pole, colorfully illustrated."

This was something I also had to track down for myself. It's THE ROTTEN BOOK by MAry Rodgers, ill. by Steven Kellogg, 1969, 1985 ~from a librarian
Mary Rodgers (author), Steven Kellogg (illustrator),  The Rotten Book, 1969.  This is definitely the correct answer!  Simon overhears his parents discussing a rotten little boy during breakfast.  When his father says, "That kid's going to land up in jail one of these days...and it'll be nobody's fault but his own," Simon wonders what the boy did.  Did he put his eggs in his napkin and hide it behind the radiator, then wipe his mouth on his shirt?  Simon imagines all sorts of awful things the kid could have done, and the book's illustrations show this dreadful behavior in detail.  In one scene, he imagines putting Silly Putty in his sister's hair, cutting all of her hair off, locking her in a closet when she objects, and then being arrested when the fire department and police arrive and find the key in his pocket.  He imagines what life would be like in jail...then resolves to behave VERY well, and begins by eating his breakfast egg and carrying the family's plates to the kitchen.  This was Mary Rodgers' first book for children.  A talented composer, she wrote the musical Once Upon A Mattress (1959) as well as the children's book Freaky Friday (1972).  She is the daughter of Richard Rodgers, who composed musicals first with Lorenz Hart and later with Oscar Hammerstein.

First to mind comes Munro Leaf's Manners Can Be Fun, and even How to Behave and Why, both are 1940's and have crude child-like drawings and cautionary tales.  Then there's Gellett Burgess' Goops, which feature silly poems encouraging better manners.  But none of these progress with names through the alphabet like you describe.  Let me think....
M51: Can't resist mentioning a VERY good and funny/serious book on good manners for kids - Delia Ephron's Do I Have to Say Hello? I think it was written in the last ten years or so. IIRC, it sympathizes well with kids' complaints that grownups never notice when they behave, only when they don't. She is also the author of How to Eat Like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being a Grownup and is, of course, Nora's sister.
Have just found my copy of Munro Leaf's Manners can be fun, and there are no individually named characters - just 'types' like 'Touchey' - all hands and no head;  'Snoopies' - who go into rooms without knocking, etc. So whatever it is that depicts Gertie Grab & Polly Polite, it isn't this ...
M51 manners: this one doesn't look bad - Rotten Kidphabets, written and illustrated by Robert Tallon, published Holt Rinehart & Winston 1975. "An A-to-Z parade of deliciously unlovable characters - "Horrible Hanna", "Litterbug Lena", "Ucky Ulysses", and many other incorrigibles - for children to enjoy, laugh at, and learn from. Ages 5-9." (HB Oct/75 p.536 pub ad) It has the alphabet aspect and similar names to those recalled.

Michael Douglas, Round, Round World,1960.  "Allergic to his cat, Mr. Wallaby sends him away farther and farther each time, but the cat always comes back."

Jonas, Ann, Round Trip.  You read the book from front to back and it's a trip from the city out to the country, then turn the book upside down and you take the trip back to the city - the black ground becomes the black night sky.
Jonas, Ann, Round Trip. This is it!
Jonas, Ann, Round Trip, 1983.  Black and white illustrations and text record the sights on a day trip to the city and back home again to the country.
Jonas, Ann, Round Trip. This is most likely Round Trip.  All the illustrations are black & white a family goes on a trip to the city, then you flip the book around for the drive back home. Telephone wires one way become a stream when you flip the picture upside down, etc.
Jonas, Ann, author and illustrator. Round Trip. 1983.  Originally published by Greenwillow Books in 1983, reissued by Mulberry Books in 1990. This is definitely the book you're looking for!  The black and white illustrations and text record the sights on a day trip to the city and back home again to the country. The trip to the city is read from the front of the book to the back.  Then the book is turned upside down, and the trip to to the country is read from the back of the book to the front. The illustrations are cleverly designed to depict completely different scenes depending on which way the book is held. Ann Jonas is a fabulous author/illustrator and has created many clever books with detailed, thought-provoking illustrations.  I encourage you to read as many of them as you can!

Interpreting Condition Grades

Jonas, Ann.  Round Trip.  Greenwillow Books, 1983.  Ex-library hardback with usual marks and looking well-read, but all intact and ready for more reading.  G/G.  $8

This sounds like Jane Wyatt, Rowdy (Whitman, '46). Tell-a-Tale book about a foal who disobeys her mother (about eating apples?).
Hello Harriet, Happy to hear from you! It sounds like this might be the book, so yes please search for a copy. Let me know if anything turns up plus all of the details.
Is this possibly Apron Strings & Rowdy by Aldredge & McKee?
Wyatt, Jane.  Rowdy.   Illustrated by Janet Laura Scott. Whitman, 1956. A Tell-a-Tale Book.

A possible: Pyrnelle, L.C. Diddie, Dumps and Tot, published by Harper, 1920s "A plantation story full of
funny kinky-haired pickaninnies. An old story which deserves a long life." No comment.
Lindman, Flicka, Ricka, Dicka (various) 1960's ??? Part of a series - also a set about three little boys
(Snip, Snap & Snur).
Maj Lindman's series of three blonde Swedish siblings (Flicka, Ricka, Dicka were the girls, Snipp, Snapp,
Snurr the boys) were originally published in the late 1930's and are once again available in paperback.  They are
not black.
Another possible - Rowena, Teena, Tot and the Blackberries, by Fannie Burgheim Blumberg, published
Whitman 1934, 32 pages. "Story of three little colored girls taken on a blackberrying expedition by their
grandmother, and how they almost came to grief when they tried to drive the old horse, Rosie. Colored
pictures on every page." (Book Review Digest, 1934)
M24 matching triplets: more on one suggested: Roweena, Teena, Tot, by Fannie Burgheim Blumberg, illustrated by Mary Grosjean, published Whitman 1938, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2", 32 pages. "Scarce title of charming story told in southern country dialect of Rowena, Teena and Tot, three "little colored girls, who went to visit their grandmammy in a little country town in the south. (The girls are city girls). Grandmammy did not talk like her grandchildren did. When she was a little girl, the colored people of the South where Grandmammy lived had a special way of talking and she never learned to talk any other way." The girls go on a wild black berry picking adventure with a moral to the story."  - they are definitely depicted as triplets, and each has a different coloured sunhat (pink, yellow, white), but all wearing blue gingham dresses.

B32 might be Shirley Goulden, The Royal Book of Ballet.  I can't find the one that's supposed to be around here, but it is an oversized volume, with color illustrations from watercolors or paintings (not photographs) and contains the stories of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, the Nutcracker, Petrushka, and Coppelia.  That's one more than stated, but I should think Coppelia was pretty unusual.  It was published by Follett, and the one I have, 3rd printing, was copyright 1962.
You all are simply amazing!  That definately sounds like the book!  I am very interersted in accquiring it!  Let me know if it's available!
Found my Royal Book of Ballet, so here's some details.  The cover illustration is from Swan Lake, of a large swan with wings spread and a ballerina.  The main colors are blue, white, green, and pink.  The illustrations are by Maraja.  The title page has an illustration of dark pink ballet slippers hanging by their laces, and a yellow rose.  The book is 12-1/2" high by about 9-1/2".   Every story starts with a page with the title and some edging, opposite an illustration; every page has an illustration; and every story has a two-page illustration in the middle of it.  Beneath the DJ, the book is dark pink cloth with the same ballet slippers and rose on the cover in black.

Franklin Russell, Hawk in the Sky, 1965.  I don't know if the hawk's name was Rufus, but this one is from the right era and "Portrays the life of the red-tailed hawk: its emergence from a red-speckled shell  learning to fly, to hunt, and to feed autumn migration and mating."
Garrett, Helen, Rufous Redtail, illustrated by Francis Lee Jaques.  NY Hale 1947.  Yes, spelled Rufous (latin 'red'). Story of a young red-tailed hawk's growth to maturity.
R66 -2  Rufus Redtail by Helen Garrett is on  ABE's want list. More people have it listed as Rufus the redtailed or red-tailed hawk, which is how I remember it; I have had copies in the past.
Helen Garrett, Rufous Redtail, 1947, copyright.  Rufous Redtail is the correct spelling - I know as I am looking at my copy as I write.  It was published by Viking Press.  It is a great story that I have read to each of my 3 children, my 9 year old daughter listening to it avidly over the last couple of weeks.  It does indeed feature a redtail hawk from egg to nest to fledgling to migration to next generation.  It is well written (other than gratuitous use of 'suddenly' every now and again!).

This is only a guess, because I have not read the book. But Elinor Lyon had a book called Cathie Runs Wild and I always thought it sounded like it was the sequel to something. The book described in R24 is approximately what I always imagined the first book, if indeed there was one, would be like, and there is a book by Lyon on abebooks called Run Away Home so it may be the same one.
More on the suggested title - Run Away Home, by Elinor Lyon, published London, Hodder 1953, 192 pages. "If you can accept that a 13-14 year-old girl could run away from an orphanage in London, get as far as Edinburgh without getting caught, fall in with two children to whom she afterwards finds she is related, but of whose existence she has hitherto been ignorant, and trace her home and parentage by the very thin clues provided by a locket and a luggage label, you may be prepared to enjoy this story. Of its kind, it is well written, the chief character Cathie gaining one's sympathy from the first page, Sovra and Ian and her Scottish relations being equally intersting in a milder degree, and the background of mountain and loch being wel realized. It was a pleasant idea to centre the theme on a well-known quotation from Wordsworth. Miss Lyon's silhouette drawings are attractive." (Junior Bookshelf Mar/53 p.70)
---
"Run Away Home" (childrens' chapter book).  Set in London after WW11.  Cathy is found alone after a bombing raid, of unknown family, lives in an orphanage. She reads the lines of a Wordsworth poem that bring to mind a beach with white sands.  She believes this to be the location of her former home.  She runs away to find her home.  Her adventures lead her to the white sands and her long lost cousins.  She also finds out that her name is not Cathy but Catri. This is the Wordsworth poem that sets Catri on her journey: "Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."

Elinor Lyon, Run Away Home
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I read this British children's book back in the early 1960s, although it might have been published some years earlier. It is about a girl living in an orphanage who goes to Scotland (or the orphanage is in Scotland?).  The Wordsworth poem that reads:  "Hence, in a season of calm weather, though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea....." figures prominently in the story, having to do with glimpses of memory that the girl has about her origins, I believe.  I really enjoyed that book, and it caused me to memorize that segment of beautiful poetry at a young age.  I'd love to know what the book was.

Kesson, Jessie, The White Bird Passes, 1958, London: Chatto & Windus.  Just a guess - it's about Scotland, orphanages, and coming of age.  It's described as "autobiographical fiction" and Kesson was "an orphan girl who wanted to write poetry 'as good as Shakespeare' ", so it seems like a logical guess.
No, I don't think that's it (The White Bird Passes), but thanks for the suggestion.  I looked it up on amazon, and the description doesn't match what I remember at all.
Elinor Lyon, Run Away Home.  Orphan, scotland, Wordsworth - it's got to be this one! See the Solved Mysteries.
Yes, thanks so much!  I checked the solved mystereis, and this is definitely the book.  Thanks for responding....it had been so long that I thought this one wasn't going to get solved!

Elizabeth Coatsworth, Runaway Home. This bears a resemblance to Runaway Home, the 3d grade reader from the Alice and Jerry series of primers.  It's about the adventures of a family traveling with a station wagon and trailer from Maine to the state of Washington.   One of the children is a girl.

Frances Solomon Murphy, Runaway Alice.  The original title of this book was A Nickel for Alice.

There are an awful lot of stories about loose carousel horses, though sometimes they take the child rider along. For example - Arabella of the Merry-go-Round, by Lois Maloy, published Hale 1935 "Arabella was a
beautiful merry-go-round horse, but she wanted to travel and see the world. One day Judy and John come to ride, and when she asks them to take her away with them, they do. After some adventures, she ends up in a barber shop where little boys sit on her to have their har cut - and this she does not like at all!"
Later there's - Flight of Fancy, by Elizabeth Honness, illustrated by Pelagie Doane, published Oxford University Press 1941 "Fancy, the elegant merry-go-round horse just could not keep time. When he and Peter fly off into a pile of hay, Peter takes Fancy home. His enthusiastic musical parents attempt to instill a sense of rhythm in Fancy, using seesaw, swing and metronome."
Also - The 'Round and 'Round Horse by Jeremy Gury, illustrated by Reginald Marsh, published Holt 1943 "is about a merry-go-round horse and the little boy who rode him through some unexpected adventures."
For horses on their own, there's The Adventures of Arab, by Louis Slobodkin, published Macmillan 1946, 128 pages "A gay story about a merry-go-round horse who takes on the duties of a coach horse and even acts as a saddle horse for a while. Arab was made of wonder wood and wasn't very comfortable to ride but he was perfect for some other purposes."
In the same year was Sugarfoot and the Merry-go-Round, by Joe de Mers, published by Marcel Rodd, unpaginated, "Picture-storybook about a a carousel horse who runs away to the city." and Gigi in America by Elizabeth Foster, illustrated by Phyllis N. Cote, published Houghton, 123 pages "the Royal Merry-go-Round Horse, traveling along the New England countryside with a gypsy caravan, joins a merry-go-round on the Main coast, where he finds a child young enough to talk with him, and a shipwrecked Rat from the Normandie. Between them they write Gigi's letters and help him on his way to find his old friend Lili."
Best guess though would be The Runaway Flying Horse, by Paul Jacques Bonzon, illustrated by William Pene du Bois, published Parent's Magazine Press 1976 "Merry-go-round horse leaves the carousel & wanders on his own. Story of wooden horse on merry-go-round that wanted to be a real horse, until he found out the life that real horses led."

R Morris, Runaway Girl. (February 1973)  I googled all of the words I could think of trying to find this book, and I finally got it! It's called Runaway Girl by R. Morris! I'll check with my library to see if they have a copy, but I also plan to try to buy this book ASAP. I'm so glad this has finally been solved!
I think the book you are describing is Runaway Girl by Ruth Morris (1962).  I absolutely loved this book as a child!
Ruth Morris, Runaway Girl. SOLVED!! I ordered this book and it came in the mail already! I'm about 1/4 of the way through it and it is JUST as I remember it. Thanks for all of the help with this! It is a treat to finally be reading this book again after 30 years, really takes me back.........

This is probably Runaway Home, the 3d grade reader from the Alice and Jerry series.  The family travels from their woodlot in Maine to a strawberry farm in Washington state, with a station wagon and trailer (pictured on the cover).  On the way, there is an episode where one of the children finds a piece of ambergris.
Elizabeth Coatsworth, Runaway Home.  This sixth grade reader, written by Elizabeth Coatsworth, was part of Row, Peterson Company's Alice and Jerry Series. It was originally published in 1942 with illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren. Runaway Home was reprinted in 1947 and 1949.  I loved this book which I read at school. I always get excited when I go to a a place these children went to. Even now.
Elizabeth Coatsworth (author),  Gustaf Tenggren (illus), Runaway Home (Alice & Jerry series), 1942.  Wow, that's it!  Thank you so much for your help!
L155 I checked content of this and it IS the right book: Coatsworth, Elizabeth.  Runaway home.   illus by Gustav Tenggren. Row, Peterson, 1957, 1963. a reader by winner of the Newbery Award and other honors    Alice and Jerry series; Reading Foundation

Eliza Lewis, The Runaway Kangaroos ('62). Jr Elf Book (Rand McNally)

Brims, Bernagh, Runaway Riders, 1963.  I'm positive this is it, here is a bit from the cover: "David and Susan, twin brother and sister, live outside Belfast, Ireland. For years they have been planning to enter their ponies in the Dublin Horse show. But a week before they are to enter the big event, their parents go off on a trip, leaving the children in the charge of a crotchety old woman who forbids them to make thir long-hoped-for trip. Full of gloom, they are sitting on a bridge contemplating the wreckage of their plans when David has an idea. Why don't they and their two friends who live down the road just pack up their gear, get on their ponies and start out for Dublin on their own?" Their 15 year old sister Marianne who is crippled from polio, stays behind to distract the old woman named Anthea.
I'm sure Runaway Riders must be right.  I haven't found it yet, but at least now I know what to look for!  I don't know who knew, but thank you, whoever you are!

Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Maybe.  In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the dad and the kids and I think the girlfriend are going to the beach and the magic car starts to fly and gets them to the beach much quicker.
No, it's not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but thanks just the same!  The highway actually uprooted itself and carried the car and the family to the beach, where it disappeared into the ocean.  But thanks, anyway!
Stan Mack, The Runaway Road, 1980.  The Puddle family packs for their vacation in the mountains, but the road takes a new course,uprooting itself and taking them past a farm, among other things. The road eventually goes into the ocean, taking everyone with it.
Yes!!!  That's it!!!  I've been checking my stumper every day and was starting to think it might not get solved.  Thank you so much for your solution! 

Creighton Peet, The Runaway Train, 1943. This is definitely  The Runaway Train by Creighton Peet, c 1943, pub. in NY by Harry Holt & Co. Judging from a Google search, it seems to be relatively unknown and hard to find. This was my Dad's favorite book, and he just gave me all the details!

Marilyn Harris, The Runaway's Diary.  I think this is probably the one.
The book is The Runaways Diary/Marilyn Harris.  Thanks for finding it so fast. I was amazed to see it solved.

Trease, Geoffrey, Running Deer. (1941)  This book was published by HARRAP in London in 1941 and illustrated by Lesley W cable
The British Library does list this book in its catalog (though without the illustrator information), and you have the author and date right.  The title given there is slightly different, however: "Running Deer, etc."  The publisher is Harrap, of London.
Wickenden, Dan, Running of the deer. (1937)  Running of the Deer by Dan Wickenden was published by Morrow in 1937.  The date would work.  The Library of Congress description says that it is 343 pages long.  There are any number of copies available for sale.  One of the sellers could confirm the plot details.
One possibility is Running of the Deer (1937) by Dan Wickenden.  Unfortunately, I've never read this book and I can't find an online description.  Here are four possibilities you can probably eliminate: The Tales of Running Deer (1970) by Douglas Monahan (author) and Andre Ecuyer (illustrator) (published too late, very short (48 pages), probably a picture book)  The Running of the Deer (1972) by Ewan Clarkson (author) and David Stone (illustrator) (published too late, plot doesn't match)  The Running of the Deer (1981) by Geoffrey Ursell (published too late, a play)   and Running Deer: Pride of the Chippewa (1998) by Maggie Damsgaard (published too late, no evidence that this is a reprint).
I'm pretty sure that one of the solutions offered is absolutely right - the one where "Harrap" is mentioned as the publisher.

Carl Memling, illus. by Tibor Gergely, Rupert the Rhinoceros, 1960.  This is definitely the Little Golden Book, "Rupert the Rhinoceros," about a rhino named Rupert who charges wildly at everyone, until an eye doctor realizes that he needs glasses. The story is also included in "Tibor Gergely's Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories" (1967), and is available on video ("Golden Book Video - Jungle Animal Tales," along with The Saggy Baggy Elephant and The Tawny Scrawny Lion).

Sounds close: Rusty Samuel Lowe Co. 1959, 1977, A Sunny Book, 20 pages, Illustrated by Emmo, no author listed. "Cute little story about a little boy and his dog Wiggle."
I'm willing to give this a try if you can put your hands on it; let me know! &  thanks SO MUCH for the service you provide here, not only  with your own expertise in the field, but also in providing a forum that actually capitalizes on the expertise "out there" in cyberspace; truly win-win!
Based on the possible solution you provided, I ordered a copy of this book-- it turns out there's no author listed because "Emmo" is the author/illustrator-- and my mom confirms, yes, this is indeed the lengthy bedtime story I always wanted! Thanks again!

Evelyn Sibley Lampman, Rusty's Space Ship, 1957.  That's an easy one - it is definitely Rusty's Space Ship, about three kids who build a space ship and go travelling around the galaxy with a lizard-like alien in tow (I think the alien's name is Tiphia).  You can even see the book's illustrations by Bernard Krigstein at this site.
Thank you so much for your service!  I had forgotten how many of Evelyn Sibley Lampman's books I read and enjoyed as a child.  My children missed out, but perhaps I can find copies for my grandchildren.  Again, many thanks.

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