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D181 Pretty sure this person is thinking of UKELELE AND HER NEW DOLL by Clara Louise Grant. It was a Little Golden Book, it is out of print and collectible, so it may be expensive or hard to find. Ukelele has a wooden doll that she loves, but when a ship comes to the island, one of the men give her a fancy doll. But the fancy doll can't do the doll things that the girl wants (eat sand cakes, fit in the little doll hut) and she goes back to her wooden doll. There are some nice photos of it online. ~from a librarian
D181 Parrish, Anne.  Floating Island.  illus by Anne Parrish    Harper 1930.   survival on desert islands; dolls - juvenile fiction.  I'm pretty sure this is it.
No doubt-It's Ukelele and Her Doll. A Little Golden Book, 1951.
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Child's book about a little girl (I think polynesian) who had a clay(?) doll that she played with in the sand.  A sailor from a schooner gave her a doll with pretty hair and clothes, but she found out she couldn't play with her in the sand.  This is an old book because I had it when I was little and I was born in 1948.

Clara Louise Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951, copyright.  A cute Little Golden Book, illustrated by Campbell Grant.  A kindly ship's captain gives Ukelele a beautiful store-bought doll, but after a day of being unable to really play with it the way she can with her old doll, for fear of spoiling it, Ukelele decides that she prefers the old doll.
Clara L. Grant, Ukelele and her new doll.  This was a Little Golden Book.  I have it in an anthology, A Treasury of Little Golden Books, published in 1972. (The stories are from between 1942 and 1960.)
Clara Louise Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951.  A Little Golden Book about a South Seas island girl whose handmade doll is wooden.  When a Western sailor comes to trade for coconuts, he gives Ukelele a big china doll.
Clara Louise Grant, illustr. Campbell Grant, Ukelele and Her New Doll, 1951.  See solved mysteries, under UV.  It's a Little Golden Book about a girl named Ukelele who lives "on a beautiful green island in the South Seas."  Ukelele has a wooden doll that her dad made her, and she plays in the sand with it "all day long."  A sailor from a sailing ship gives Ukelele a "big china doll," but she can't play with it in the sand, and she ends up going back to playing with her "dear little wooden dolly."  I have this story in a treasury of Little Golden Books.

Again I have found this one as well. It's title is: Ultra Violet Catastrophe: or The Unexpected Adventures of a Walk With Great Uncle Magnus.

Orson Scott Card, Unaccompanied Sonata.
Orson Scott Card, Unaccompanied Sonata. Definitely! And here's a link to Omni stories.

J42: Umbrella by Taro Yashima, 1958? I adore this one, the blurred watercolors make me very nostalgic for my own brief first six years in NYC.
#J42--japanese? illustrated picture book:  Here's the only japanese umbrella book of which I know: Lifton, Betty Jean.  Illustrated by Fuku Akino.  New York, Atheneum, 1968.   One day a Japanese boy sees a strange one-legged creature fly over the mountain.  All the villagers gather around it but no one knows what it is.
You didn't mention a title.  I think you're referring to Betty Jean Lifton's The One-Legged Ghost.
Could this be James and the Rain, by Karla Kuskin?  It's not Japanese, but does tell about James and his adventures with an increasing number of animals.   "What do you do in the rain? said James. Have you any excellent rainy day games?"
Taro Yashima, Umbrella.  This was one of my own childhood favourites.  Momo receives an umbrella for her third birthday but has to wait for a rainy day to be able to use it.
Taro Yashima , Umbrella, 1958.  This was a Caldecott Honor Book.  The cover is predominantly yellow.  "On her third
birthday, Momo (whose name means "Peach" in her parents' native Japan) receives rubber boots and an umbrella. Impatiently she waits for a rainy day so she can try out her new apparel."

Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen, circa 1965.  This sounds a lot like THE UNCHOSEN, which I read as a kid in the early 70s. One of the girls is pearshaped and overweight. When her penpal announces he's coming to visit, she goes on a starvation diet and ends up looking saggy and unhealthy. And I think one of the girls was very thin and her glasses were always dirty.
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen.  I don't remember the plot details, but this may be Nan Gilbert's The Unchosen, for which there's a brief summary (some details match) on Loganberry's Most Requested page under the author's 365 Bedtime Stories in the Comments section.
Nan Gilbert, The Unchosen, 1961.  I found this reader's review, and it seems to match: "Follow the foibles of Ellen, Kay, and Debbie as they come to terms with the concept of popularity. Written in the first person, Ellen secretly names the trio the "Unchosen," and describes their individual attempts to tackle self improvement. From Ellen's horrifying steak and water diet to her "romance" with her mysterious pen pal, Norris, you will find yourself laughing out loud and hoping that she'll ultimately succeed. Kay pulls no punches...rude at times, but always painfully truthful as to the situation of the "Unchosen," and poor Debbie, who will do virtually anything to find romance...this beautifully written book is funny, entertaining, and sometimes sad."
What a great service!  I have been trying for years to remember the names of those books and you got them solved in a matter of days.  W178 is Patricia's Secret (I checked on the Internet and they even had one with the cover, which I remember, so I know it's the right one), F204 is The Unchosen and M325 is Marsha, thank you, thank you.  The last one, V40, sounds like Miracle on Maple Hill which I have read, but I don't think it is that one, although I want to get it from the library and double check before submitting a denial, it was a very good guess.  You have made my day, you have no idea!

This suggestion is so obvious that it probably isn't right.  What about the Babaar books? There was an uncle in those books I believe.
#E11--Arnold Lobel wrote Uncle Elephant, but leafing through it I didn't find anything about being fierce or using fish oil.
E11 Elephants, fierce, who use fish oil -- There's a series by J.P. Martin about "An elephant of eccentric benevolence rules a castle kingdom so vast that he is still exploring its byways, while carrying on a sporadic war with disagreeable neighbours. Comic fantasy." The series includes Uncle (1964), Uncle Cleans Up (1965), Uncle and his Detective (1966), Uncle and the Treacle Trouble (1967) and Uncle and Claudius the Camel (1969).
I think I can confirm that this is the Martin book. On page 32 of Uncle Uncle asks "Have the windows been well rubbed with Babble Trout Oil?" "Babble Trout Oil is a special preparation made from the babble trout, a small fish, difficult to catch. It renders glass tough, so that it is impervious to crossbow bolts and other missiles. Uncle often has his lower windows rubbed with it when trouble is threatening." Uncle's brother Rudolph arrives to help him with attacks from the Badfort mob.

I know that the Childcraft books are orange-red and were probably sold door-to-door. They had various illustrators, though, and I'm not sure that they were as moralistic as the set you describe.
S-10--Uncle Arthur's Bedtime stories?  The early ones had orange-red covers, but it's been awhile since I've examined the art.  They were definitely sold door-to-door and were all stories-with-a-moral. They were issued as paperback "volumes" and then as orange red books with four "volumes" per book.
Sure!  Uncle Arthur... Written by Arthur Maxwell.
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I am looking for a book I read as a child. I am 48 y/o, so it had to have been published before 1951. It was a collection of children's stories, black and white print, shiny stock, large printing. The only story I remember from it is "Georgie and the Policeman". It also had black and white pictures. Don't have aclue of the title or author and don't know if I would recognize it by title - butI would know it if I saw the book.... Thank you.  There was another story in it Iremember (but not the name) about a boy in the hospital who is afraid to die and theother children tell him that Jesus comes through the hospial every night to take thechildren who are very sick and he just has to keep his arm up so Jesus will see him.
He is too sick to do that so the other children prop up his arm with pillows and hedies that night. Even though it sounds so, I do not remember it as a sad story. Thanks, again.

The optrician I went to when I was a kid had this book!  I clearly remember the story about the boy and the arm.  It was a religious publication, and was called something like Favorite Children's Stories of Courage
Both stories are from a book called Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  There were a couple of volumes of the books.  They are all stories with a moral, and there were also Bible stories at the back of each book.  And the boy in hospital wasn't afraid to die, he wanted to because he was very sick (I think he'd been in a fire) and wasn't going to get better - that's why it wasn't a sad story. They must have been pretty popular books because we had them as kids here in Australia too.  Hope you can find them! **Later...
In addition to what I sent previously..........the books are by Arthur S Maxwell, and I think they were published in book format and in magazine format. Georgie and the Policeman has to be in either Volume 1 or 2 of the books, because I remember the story and they were the only volumes we had at home.
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  I had this series as a child, and I definitely remember the story about "Jesus coming through the hospital ward and 'taking' children who had their hand raised, to Heaven to live with him."  This particular story really frightened me, and for many months I slept with my arms underneath the covers so that God wouldn't think that I wanted to die, and make a mistake and take me to Heaven accidentally. (Okay, so I wasn't a particularly bright child!)
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THE BOOK I'M LOOKING FOR WAS READ TO ME BY MY MOTHER WHEN I WAS YOUNG (A LONG TIME AGO!) I WAS A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES ABOUT CHILDREN WITH A MORAL OR AN EXAMPLE OF THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE A PARENT HAS FOR THEIR CHILD. ONE STORY IS ABOUT A LITTLE GIRL NAMED JUNE WHO TORMENTS HER YOUNGER BROTHER, MAKES HIM CRY, AND TELLS HER MOTHER, "HE LIKES IT".  SO THE MOTHER DOES SOMETHING TO HER, I THINK SHE SQUIRTS HER WITH THE WATER HOSE, JUNE CRIES AND ASKS HER TO STOP.  HER MOTHER SAYS, "BUT JUNE, YOU LIKE IT". ANOTHER STORY IS ABOUT A YOUNG SINGLE OR WIDOWED MOTHER WHO HAS TO LEAVE HER SLEEPING BABY ALONE FOR JUST A FEW MINUTES TO BUY MEDICINE OR MILK AND RETURNS TO FIND THE APARTMENT IN FLAMES. SHE RUSHES IN TO SAVE HER BABY, BUT IS LATER FOUND DEAD WITH THE BABY IN HER ARMS.     I THINK THE FIRE WAS STARTED WHEN HER CAT KNOCKED OVER A KEROSENE LAMP. I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME!!!  I THINK THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1935 AND 1955.

Arthur Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories,  1966.   I don't remember the June story, but the mother/baby/fire one sounds a lot like "Mother's Hands".  In that story, a mother leaves her baby to talk with a
neighbor and returns to rescue her from a fire.  Years later, the girl comments on the mother's ugly hands, scarred in the fire.  This story appears in volume 13.
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I AM 45 YRS OLD AND REMEMBER THIS BOOK FROM WHEN I WAS UNDER THE AGE OF 10 YRS OLD (1962). I REMEMBER THE CLOTH COVER BEING A BURNT OR DARK ORANGE COLOR. IT WAS PLAIN ON THE FRONT AND BACK. IT MAY HAVE HAD SOME KIND OF DRAWING ON THE FRONT. TWO THINGS STAND OUT. WHEN YOU OPENED THE HARD COVER OF THE FRONT OF THE BOOK AND THE BACK OF THE BOOK THERE WERE WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL PENCIL DRAWINGS OF A WHOLE BUNCH OF DIFFERENT SCENES. EX: BOY FISHING, BOYS SWIMMIMG IN WATER HOLE, ETC... THE ONE AND ONLY STORY I REMEMBER IN A BOOK WITH ALOT OF DIFFERENT STORIES IS THE ONE OF THE SICK LITTLE BOY THAT WAS GOING TO PASS AWAY. HE WAS I BELIEVE AT HOME AND BED RIDDEN. IT WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS....HE NEW HE WAS GOING TO DIE, AND I BELIVE IT WAS AN ANGEL THAT CAME TO HIM. HE WANTED TO KNOW HOW HE WAS GOING TO GET TO HEAVEN. I THINK IT WAS THE ANGEL THAT TOLD HIM IF HE RAISED HIS HAND, GOD WOULD SEE IT AND TAKE HIM TO HEAVEN. BECAUSE HE WAS SO SICK AND WEAK HE HAD THE ANGEL OR HIS MOTHER PROP UP HIS HAND (ARM) AT NIGHT WITH A PILLOW. THAT EVENING HE PASSED AWAY. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A CHRISTIAN BOOK BUT I'M NOT SURE. IF ANYONE CAN FIGURE THIS ONE OUT I WILL BE MORE THAN THANKFUL AND SIMPLY AMAZED. THANK YOU!

I definitely remember this story. But I read it in a book that used to be present in every pediatrician's office or dentist office. It was a Christian book. It was blue on the cover and had "Bible" in the title and was a collection of stories (not all bible stories). I know that's not much, but this was such a COMMON book, perhaps you know the book I mean, and from there can find the author of this particular story - I'm guessing the book your customer remembers was a different printing since his book cover is different from the one I remember.
#B149--Boy passes away--hand propped up with pillow:  Almost certainly an  Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories story, "Jesus Understood."  The boy in the  story was hit by a car and was in the hospital with most of his bones broken, in too much pain to live.  A boy there told him Jesus walked through the hospital wards at night and to raise a hand to attract his attention.  The boy explained that with two broken arms he was unable to raise a hand, so the other boy propped his hand with a pillow.  In the morning, there was the bandaged boy, dead, his hand still propped up, and people said, "Jesus Understood."  To this day the sight of a hand protruding from a cast or an arm propped on a pillow causes me to utter these words.
a story from Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories...
I've read this book as well, but can't tell you the title.  I recall it as 1950's in style, and was an anthology of Christian stories with morals.  As I remember, the boy was injured in an accident and was sent to hospital, where the boy in the next bed told him about the hand trick.  Late one night, the next bed boy asked the protagonist to help him put up his hand  in the morning, he was dead, but with a beatific smile.  The anthology also included
another winner about a boy who had a friend his mother (?) considered a bad influence--she showed the protagonist how one bad apple can turn all the apples around it bad, warning him that his evil friend would do the same to him.
The Uncle Arthur Books are put out by the Seventh day Adventists . If you check with the pastor of a church near you they can help you get them.
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this was a set of Bible stories that had a cardboard case. Each book was large and hardcovered with a dark maroon color and a photo on the front. I loved these Bible stories! There were (I think) 4 books in the set and each contained many bible stories. I don't quite remember which illustrations were on the covers but I THINK one was that man being lowered from a window in a basket. Each book had tons of beautiful color illustrations to go with the stories.

I have a four volume set in a cardboard case.  No photo on the covers, but books contain many illustrations, including coloured pencil sketches by Rafaello Busoni, and engravings by Gustav Dore among others.  Is this
what you were looking for?  Mine was published by Educational Book Guild, New York, 1956, and was edited by Turner Hodges.  Sorry, not for sale, but maybe the info will help?
This may be Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I just saw a copy of one yesterday and the cover was marroon. The part about the man being lowered in a basket was probably a story about Paul from Acts 9:25 in the Bible. This was one book of a several volume set. Hope this helps!
This could be Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I've seen it with marroon covers. The story about the man in the basket is probably about Paul from the Bible - Acts 9:25.
Kenneth N. Taylor, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, 1950's.  I am holding a reprint of part of this book.  It has a coloured picture for each story.  Each story is very short and simple, but the picures are full colour and realistic.  The one of St Paul being lowered in the basket is particularly striking.  Only one volume, but who knows how many different formats these works take over the years?
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As a child in the early 50's we had an orange hardback bible story book with our names printed on the front of it. It was approximately 7 inches by 10 inches and about an inch or a little more thick. There were colored and  black and white illustrations in it. The one I remember the best was a black and white illustration of people in the water with very  frightened looks on their faces. This was a scene from the story of  the flood. I think the title of the book might have had the word "bedtime" in it. I just am not sure.

Maybe one of the Uncle Mac's Bedtime Stories series? Some had orange covers, and they definitely included religious stories.
I think you mean Uncle Aruthur?
Yup, I meant Uncle Arthur. The Uncle Mac series was British (BBC?) and not religious. But hey, I've never actually seen either series myself.
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, My Book of Bible Stories  I have a book that is 7 1/2 by 9 1/2, orange with red title on the front (stamped title, so names could have been added to match.)  It is hardback and about an inch or so thick.  Black and white and color pictures, but the flood picture is color.   THis one was printed in 1978, but it's a reprint edition and says that more than 23,000,000 copies had been sold, so an earlier edition could have been yours.  There are 116 Bible stories, grouped in eight parts.  The first part goes from Creation to Flood, then from Flood to Deliverance from Egypt, etc.  The endpapers are dark red orange, the cover more yellow orange.  In the flood picture, there are two elephants standing on a rock, lightening in the background, a mother and child, a man clinging to a tree and a woman on the rock, along with lizards. There is a man reaching out of the water screaming, a cow in the water, and a lion or tiger on a log in the water.  It is raining in the picture.  On the next page, there is a little picture of a dove with an olive branch in his mouth in the upper corner. On the page before, there is a black and white picture of Noah gathering animals and people laughing at him, however, to a child it might appear that the people are crying and screaming.  Noah is pointing his staff at an elephant, other animals are lined up 2 by 2.  I picked this book up at an auction a few months ago in a boxlot, and kept it when it didn't sell on ebay.  The orange color reminded me.
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Arthur S. Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  The different stories that were quoted about the dying child with his arm up, and the mother and baby that died in the fire were indeed all from the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories series.  These
books were changed every few years, so it depends on the edition for which volume your stories were in.  My set had ten volumes in full color with hard covers.  And yes, the covers are red/orange.  These were published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association located in Mountain View, California.  The books were copyrighted by the Review and Herald Publishing Association Washington, D.C.  Library of Congress Cat. Card No. 50-3160.  They were also copyrighted in Great Britian by the Stanborough Press, Ltd. Watford, England.  Isn't it wonderful that these stories made such an impact on each of our lives.

Arthur Maxwell, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, 1950.  Pretty sure this is what you're looking for. "Just a Minute Janet" is in Volume 3, I think.
"Just a Minute Janet" can be found in v.3 of the 1950 ed of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  There was a version printed in the 1970's but I don't know if every story was reprinted.
J75 It's not in vol 5
Arthur Maxwell (Uncle Arthur), Uncle Arthurs Bed Time Stories.  This Was It! Thanks!!!!!   :)  :)

I am interested in finding a copy of a book from my childhood. Unfortunately I do not remember the title.  It could be something like Disney’s Folklore.  It containted storys about Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and Mike Fink.  It was a slightly oversized book, with a yellow cover w/pictures?  And probably published in the 50’s (I’m thinking later 50’s).  If this rings a bell and you can find a copy in good to vg condition without a lot of effort, let me know.

There are many book versions of the Uncle Remus stories before Disney got their hands on the stories, and then there are many Disney versions based on the movie "Song of the South," and then there are modern reinterpretations. Here's what I have in stock:

Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus. Selected and introduced by John Tumlin. Savannah: The Beehive Press, 1974. Discretely ex-library. Tall 8vo. VG/F. $18 postpaid.
... Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. Foreword by Marc Connelly and woodcuts by Seong Moy. NY: The Heritage Press, 1957. Excellent condition. F in F box. $26 postpaid.
... Palmer, Marion, adapt. Walt Disney's Uncle Remus Stories.Adapted from the original stories by Joel Chandler Harris. Pictures by Al Dempster and Bill Justice. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1947. A Giant Golden Book. First Printing. Large 4to format, 92 pages. Gorgeous full color printing. Minor edge wear, retaped spine with cloth binding tape. A gem of a first edition Disney book! <SOLD>
... Walt Disney's Brer Rabbit and his Friends. NY: Random House, 1973. From Disney's Wonderful World of Reading (a beginning reader book). Slick pictorial boards, some wear to edges of spine, otherwise VG+. $12 postpaid.
... The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Illustrated by Frank Baber. NY: Rand McNally, 1980. Pictorial boards, 4to. VG. $15 postpaid.
... Jump! The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Adapted by Van Dyke Parks and Malcom Jones. Illlustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. Beautiful condition. F/F. $16 postpaid.
... Jump Again! More Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Adapted by Van Dyke Parks. Illlustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987. Beautiful condition. F/F. $16 postpaid.

I don't know which book this is from, but it is definitely an Uncle Wiggly book.  When I was young, my father used to read us the Uncle Wiggly stories at bedtime.  (My favorite color was sky-blue pink).  The author is Howard Garis.
Howard Roger Garis, Uncle Wiggily Bedtime Stories. I haven't seen the book to be sure, but one online review of this book mentions the skillery-skallery alligator. The edition I saw was a paperback edition pubished by Dover under the Children's Thrift Classics label.
Garis, Howard R., The Little Golden Book of Uncle Wiggily, 1953.  This is definitely the book.  The only discrepancy is that nobody is actually painting a house sky blue pink, but the first line of the book does read, "Nurse Jane ought to like the
bungalow much better after I paint it sky blue pink,' said Uncle Wiggily as he stood on a ladder putting some dabs of color on his hollow stump house."  In fact, Uncle Wiggily is attempting to paint his house red as Billie Wagtail and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow arrive.  As a practical joke, the three hand Uncle Wiggily some green paint which he starts to apply as he is distracted by his conversation with his friends.  The skillery-scallery alligator arrives on the scene with the intent of nibbling Uncle Wiggily's ears.  Uncle Wiggily retreats to a tree but the 'gator starts sawing it down with his "nutmeg-grater tail".  Just as the tree is beginning to topple, Unlse Wiggily's friends save the day by dousing the 'gator with paint, and he beats a hasty retreat.  The last picture is of Uncle Wiggily capering among some falling fall leaves.  The illustrations are by Mel Crawford and are wonderful.  (I think he also worked in animation, maybe for Disney.)  The only other possibility is that the person who submitted this contribution read a story called Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator, on which, according to the publishing info at the beginning of the book, this Little Golden Book story was based. 

U8 under one roof: could be Head of the House, by Grace Livingston Hill "A tragic airplane accident, causing the death of both parents, left the seven young Graemes to be quarrelled over by their stodgy relatives. "Aunt Petunia" and some of the others not only wanted to separate the young people but looked forward to managing the ample fortune left by John Graeme. Jennifer, on the wrong side of her twenty-first birthday to be legally the head of the house, took matters in her own capable hands and left in a hurry with her younger brothers and sisters in order to be out of reach of the relatives. Many ups and downs welded the young Graemes even more closely together and brought them closer to the highest source of all-pervading good. Mrs. Hill has created a beguiling heroine in  Jennifer Graeme. The adventures of the seven young people are described with the sympathetic understanding that Grace Livingston Hill brings to all her novels." The title isn't too far off, but it's not a buggy accident - though the book is probably old-fashioned enough for that otherwise and it does sound like GLH's uplifting works.
Catherine Marshall, Christy.  Could it be this classic semi-religious inspirational tale?
Wilson, Emma, Under one roof, 1955.  New York,  Alfred Funk publishers. Could this be the solution?  An autobiographical tale of a Kentucky family in the early years of the 20th century.  Town the lived in is called Hopkinsville.
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Hi, I just stumbled upon your website and I hope you can help me with this question about an old children's book.  I used to read and re-read a book in the late '60's and in the '70's from our public library. It was a "young adult" book called something like "Under One Roof" about a teenage girl near the early part of the 20th century... her parents died in a buggy accident, leaving her and her younger siblings orphaned.  She begged her (mean) relatives to let her raise her siblings alone, and a young minister in the town took her side. She went through tremenous hardships but was able to keep her siblings with her.   The searches I've done for this book (long out of print, I'm sure) don't seem to yield anything under that particular title!

U8 under one roof: could be Head of the House, by Grace Livingston Hill "A tragic airplane accident, causing the death of both parents, left the seven young Graemes to be quarrelled over by their stodgy relatives. "Aunt Petunia" and some of the others not only wanted to separate the young people but looked forward to managing the ample fortune left by John Graeme. Jennifer, on the wrong side of her twenty-first birthday to be legally the head of the house, took matters in her own capable hands and left in a hurry with her younger brothers and sisters in order to be out of reach of the relatives. Many ups and downs welded the young Graemes even more closely together and brought them closer to the highest source of all-pervading good. Mrs. Hill has created a beguiling heroine in  Jennifer Graeme. The adventures of the seven young people are described with the sympathetic understanding that Grace Livingston Hill brings to all her novels." The title isn't too far off, but it's not a buggy accident - though the book is probably old-fashioned enough for that otherwise and it does sound like GLH's uplifting works.
Catherine Marshall, Christy.  Could it be this classic semi-religious inspirational tale?
Wilson, Emma, Under one roof, 1955.  New York,  Alfred Funk publishers. Could this be the solution?  An autobiographical tale of a Kentucky family in the early years of the 20th century.  Town the lived in is called Hopkinsville.
This item is in your "solved" section.  However, it is clear to me that the actual solution was never reached.  The book she sought is "Under This Roof" by Borghild Dahl.
Borghild Dahl, Beneath This Roof.  This is definitely the requested book -- not Grace Livingston Hill.  I loved this book and searched long and hard for a copy.  Read it and still love it

Hugh Walters (Walter Hughes is his real name) wrote a series of books with red-haired female twins who had ESP and space adventures.
Gee, Maurice, Under the Mountain,1979.  I'm pretty sure that this is the book as a lot of details match.  Rachel and Theo
are red headed twins who can read each other's minds. One summer holiday, "Jones" the alien wants to use their psychic forces to get rid of the wilberforces, another alien race.  The Wilberforces are really scary - they're slimy and green and can shape-shift.  They want to destroy other planets but are trapped on earth (under the mountain) in a semi-sleep.  They too know of the twins special powers and are beginning to wake from their sleep...and so the book unfolds.  It was also a tv series in the early 80s and I remember hiding behind the couch in the scary bits!  the story is set in the city of Auckland, New Zealand which is on a harbour, which may have made the person think of San Francisco
R98 Walters, Hugh [pseudonym of Walter Hughes].  Spaceship to Saturn.  Criterion, 1967. Chris Godfrey heads for Saturn; juvenile science fiction

Jean Little, Mine for Keeps. This has a similar plot line and a Scottie dog.  Sally has cerebral palsy and moves back home from an institution. Her parents buy her a dog to help her adjust to going to a regular school and make friends.
This is definitely NOT Mine for Keeps.  That dog is a Westie (West Highland Terrier) and the mother is alive and well.
no luck so far, but Lynn Hall wrote some books with similar themes.
Marilyn Sachs, Underdog. This is the story of a 12 year-old orphan girl who searches for her long-lost dog. There is a Scottie on the cover.

William Mayne, Underground Alley, 1960s.  While painting scenery for a town pageant, Patty knocks a hole in the wall of her cellar and finds an entrance to a cave. In the cave is a row of houses, just like the ones in the street above, but derelict.  This discovery solves the mystery of how an alchemist several hundred years before managed to steal wagonloads of gold tribute from the Welsh that should have gone to the English crown
William Mayne, Underground Alley.You are amazing - I took one look at the book and the cover was soooo familiar!'

Maybe - Doane, Pelagie Understanding Kim Philadelphia, Lippincott 1962. "Having a Korean orphan as a sister poses a problem for Penny." Less likely - Warren, Mary Pharner Walk in My Moccasins illustrated by Mays, Victor. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1966, which seems to be about adoption of an Indian child.
More on one suggested title - Understanding Kim, written and illustrated by Pelagie Doane, published Lippincott 1962. "Penny learns to accept her newly-adopted sister Kim, a Korean war orphan. Ages 9-11." (Horn Book Oct/62 p.422 pub.ad)

Stars for Cristy.  Cristy was a city child who went to stay with people named Todd through a fresh-air program not her grandparents though.  The reason I suggest this is that it did have a red cover and I took it out of the library quite a few times as well.
The answer posted to G211 is not correct since the book I am searching for was published earlier than 1940.  Nor is the story quite right.  But thanks anyway.
Dorothy Canfield, Understood Betsy, 1917.  This sounds like Understood Betsy, which has been around in many editions and has recently been reissued. The relatives she stays with are a great-aunt and uncle (older, so they could be remembered as grandparents) who take her in after the overprotective aunt she lives with in the city get sick.
This might be Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield, maybe? She goes to visit relatives but they are not grandparents.

Ida Mae McIntyre, Unicorn Magic, 1972.  I too was looking for this book for a long time.  The only details I could remember were the unicorn and the straw person.  I just figured it out this past fall as I searched through WorldCat.  Here's the synopsis from WorldCat: "A unicorn uses his magic to foil the plot of an evil magician who tries to get the prince to marry a woman made of straw."

Oh what a wonderful site! Just discovered it today and will be back frequently. O11 is unquestionably The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse. It was published in book form in 1965, but parts of it had been published as short stories in the 50's. I have a copy and re-read it frequently.
That's it!! They are both correct. Your site is fantastic. I didn't think I would ever know the names of these books so that I could pass them along to my kids, who also love to read. Thank you ever so much.
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I am looking for a science fiction book I read in the early 1960s about a girl who can go through "thresholds" to other places.  She can slip into another dimension to move about to another locations.  I have no idea who the author is and would appreciate any assistance in locating this book.

Madeline L'Engle, Wrinkle In Time.  This may be too obvious, but isn't there language in Wrinkle in Time about the tesseract being a threshold between dimensions?
Madeleine l'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time,1963.  Could this possibly be it?  The timeframe certainly fits, as does the general description.  Meg travels through space and time, along with her friend Calvin and brother Charles, by means of a tesseract.
Could this be Alan Nourse's The Universe Between?  The act of moving between dimensions is referred to there as "turning the corner", but I think there were characters called "Thresholders".
Nourse, Alan E., The Universe Between, 1965.

Max Shulman, My Next Girl, 1946.  This is the story.  Its in The Bedside Book of Humor edited by Mathilda Schirmer, 1948
Yes, I remember this story!  It is The Unlucky Winner, the first story in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Eleven Campus Stories by Max Shulman (1951).  The other stories in the book are She Shall Have Music; Love is a Fallacy; The Sugar Bowl; Everybody Loves My Baby; Love of Two Chemists; The Face is Familiar But---; The Mock Governor; Boy Bites Man; The King's English; and You Think You Got Trouble?
The Unlucky Winner is definitely the story sought---I have the book right in front of me!---but I wonder if it was published earlier with the other title suggested, My Next Girl.  Why?  The first paragraph of The Unlucky Winner is, "My next girl is going to be honest.  I don't care if she looks like a doorknob.  Just so she's honest."  Dobie Gillis is the plagiarist; Clothilde (his girlfriend) encourages his academic dishonesty; and Thoughts of My Tranquil Hours by Elmo Goodhue Pipgrass is the book he copies from.
I'm the one who suggested My Next Girl, and its definitely the same story as The Unlucky Winner. Interesting that the two anthologies we read it in were published only a few years apart, and the story's name was changed so quickly.

"—And He Built a Crooked House", Robert A. Heinlein, 1941.  This short story by Heinlein was first published in Astounding magazine in February 1941. It was reprinted in his book The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag in 1959. It has also appeared in numerous anthologies. You can see a list of them here:  (Just use the "Find in Page" function to search for "Crooked House".)
Robert Heinlein, And he Built a Crooked House, 1941. This is the name of the story - I think it is also the name of the anthology.
I29 impossible 4d shape: This should be the story "And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert Heinlein, from the anthology Fantasia Mathematica: being a set of stories, together with a group of oddments and diversions, all drawn from the universe of mathematics, edited by Clifton Fadiman, published New York, Simon & Schuster 1958, 298 pages. Quintus Teal builds a tessaract house for his friend Homer Bailey, but an earth tremor collapses it into a cube. Teal and the Baileys go in, but can't find a way out again, except for going through one of the windows, which leads off the roof. One door opens to another planet. At one point the three people see themselves from the back in another room.
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This was a sci-fi book I read in the early 60's but could have been written possibly earlier...not a children's book...it is about a man who lives in a world that changes when a fog surrounds wherever he happens to be (in the car driving or in a house, etc).  It also seems that there are mirrors involved in some way, possibly a portal to another world.  There is also a woman who seems to know what is going on...she seems to appear at random times.

gordon r dickson, time storm, 1977. Possibly TIME STORM by Gordon R. Dickson.  I don't remember the mirrors, but I don't believe I ever read the whole book, just the magazine version of the first part of it.
Heinlein, Robert A., The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1942. The reader's description of the man, the mirrors, the world changing outside the fog, and the woman, make me think of this novella by one of the masters of SF, RA Heinlein.  Something in a mirror is responsible for the strange coma that has afflicted a young married woman.  Her husband seeks help from Jonathan Hoag.  Towards the end, the couple is driving away from their city, apparently on a sunny day.  But if they roll down the car windows and look out, they are driving through a fog, and terrible things are happening in that fog.  This story is anthologized in a collection of Heinlein stories titled 6 X H and also in a collection called The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.
Robert Heinlein, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1942.This is a short story and also the name of a collection of shorts.  The tag line is "What if the Sons of the Bird lurked behind all your mirrors?"  I don't remember it completely, but perhaps...

Jance, J A, Until Proven Guilty.  From AudioFile:  A little girl is murdered, and a mysterious woman in red comes to the funeral. Both events unalterably change the life of Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont.

Not quite, but this made me think of Kit Williams.  Is Masquerade the only book by this author?
Kit Williams did have another book -- usually appears as "Untitled" or "Kit Williams".  I think the price was a golden and jewel bee.  The cover illustration was of bees, and the story was about Ambrose the bee keeper.  It's Knopf 1984
B76 - This is almost certainly Kit Williams. He did a book after Masquerade which when published had no title,
the competition was to guess what the title should be. The cover was a marquetry honeycomb with a jewelled golden bee (the prize) on it. The title was eventually revealed as The Bee on the Comb
This has got to be the second find-the-treasure book by Kit Williams (the first being the find-the-golden-hare book). It has no title, (that's part of the puzzle) but has been called The Bee on the Comb, Bee on Honeycomb
and The Bee Box Book among other titles. It was published by Jonathan Cape in England and Alfred Knopf in the USA, in 1984. The American isbn is 0-394-53817-X
I had a book written by Kit Williams about bees, but there was no title to the book.  That was what the mystery was . . . you were supposed to solve some sort of mystery in the book that would reveal what the title was.  If
you did it, you would get a prize.

Lee, Joanna, I want to keep my baby!, 1977.  i think stumper T268 could be I want to keep my baby! which was also made into a tv movie with Mariel Hemingway.
I have a copy of I want to keep my baby and although this book is very similar, it's not the same one.  I am sure the baby was a boy the book that is stumping me. In I want to keep my baby it's a girl.
This sounds like the book UNWED MOTHER by Gloria Miklowitz.  I can't put my hands on the book right this second, but I believe I am correct.
Gloria D. Miklowitz, Unwed Mother.  Thank you! Unwed Mother is the book I was looking for. What a great website.  Thanks again.

V6 has to be Unwilling Vestal: A Tale of Rome under the Caesars by Edward Lucas White.  It was published by Dutton in 1937.
THE UNWILLING VESTAL: A TALE OF ROME UNDER THE CAESARS by Edward Lucas White, 1918.
Thanks!  Sorry for the delay in responding.  This has to be it!

This sounds like Mrs. Toosie? Tootsie? and her family.  Oh, goodness, is this the same family who lived in an old trolley car in the country?  I definitely remember the hat episode and can picture the illustration, and I'm sure the name was something like Toosie because that struck me as amusing as a child.
Ha ha!  Got that one!  It's an old old school reader called Up and Away with a pic of a little blond boy waving to a man riding a circus elephant on the front.  Remember the stories "What about Willie" a calico cat that didn't have a home and was out in the rain, "P is for Paint", a girl wants to win paints at a birthday party, "Wait for William" - the little boy who was slow because he had to tie his shoe, and because of it got to ride the circus elephant in the parade and so on?!  Love it!  And I won't part with it (sorry).  It was Mrs. Toosey who had the violet hat on, and they went for a boat ride in a rowboat that sunk.  Beautiful pictures.  That particular story is adapted from The Tooseys by Mabel G. La Rue published by Thomas Nelson and Sons.  But you're probably looking for the reader Up and Away, Reading for Meaning - Thomas Nelson and Sons (we have the Canada edition printed in 1958, Toronto Canada) copyright 1957.
H4 hats of different colors: has the original poster ever confirmed this? The suggested solution looks pretty good.
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Willy, a white, black, and orange kitten is looking for a home. Tommy wants a kitten. I think at one point Willy goes into a house and sleeps on a bed, getting the covers dirty and gets chased out. Meanwhile, Tommy is fishing at a pond. He leaves his line and hook at the pond and goes home. A fish is pulling the line and Willy gets tangled up in it and there is a tug-of-war between the cat and fish. Willy is about to be pulled under the water when Tommy rescues the kitten, but then the kitten runs away. Tommy has fish for dinner but can only think about the kitten he lost. The next morning Tommy finds Willy in the mailbox. End of story.

Stolz, Mary, illus. Uri Shulevitz, The Mystery of the Woods.  NY Harper 1964.  If the names are reversed, it might possibly be this one. "Will and his elderly grandfather live amicably in a small house near a wood, although Will wonders about the necessity for the many rules of the house. One rule they break, however, is in opening the door to admit a mewing cat  and because of Tom Kitten (named for a "cat in a book") they break another, in entering the mysterious woods because Tom is missing. Thus, Tom helps them discover that not all rules have to be kept." (HB Aug/64 p.372) No confirmation of the fishing incident though, or the mailbox.
We had this book in the mid-to-late '40s. It couldn't be the one suggested here.
Up and Away, Reading for Meaning series., 1958.  I saw this school reader in a used-book shop recently. The first story in it was called What About Willie: a kitten wants a home and a boy wants a kitten. Willie is a yellow and black kitten, the boy is called Tommy, and the exact incident of the kitten being caught in the fishing line occurs. No authors were given for any of the stories.

Patricia Beatty, The Nickel-Plated Beauty.  reprinted 1993, but I remember it from the '60s.  Might the chickens have been a stove instead?  My copy is in storage so I can't check the details, but your description made me think of this story about the large Kimball family, in early-day Washington state, trying all sorts of things to earn the money to buy their mother a wonderful new stove (wood-burning, of course, in those days).  I can't recall the oldest girl's name (Clarrie?), but her closest brother is Cameron.  All the chidren have dark hair and are called "the glowering Kimballs" in the neighborhood.  Among other jobs, they pick cranberries to sell, and perhaps the chickens are a source of eggs?  An online review actually compares this book to the Little House ones, and it does have two sequels.
Rebecca Caudill, Up and Down the River, 1951.  The episode of selling the bluing is in Up and Down the River.  Little Bonnie and Debby send off for bluing and for colored pictures to sell to raise money, and the book is about the people they meet and the adventures they have selling the things.  Other books in the series are Happy Little Family, Schoolhouse in the Woods, and Schoolroom in the Parlor.  Althy is the eldest sister,  Chris is the brother, Emmy is the second eldest sister.
Thank you!  I think this must be the Rebecca Caudill book, because when you said Althy, I remembered that this was the big sister's name.  :)  I will have fun reading these all again - I used to check them out of the kid's section in the library all the time, until one day I went and found they (and a lot of other older books) had been discarded!  Thank you!!

Marguerite de Angeli, Up the Hill
Marguerite de Angeli, Up the Hill,1940s
de Angeli, Marguerite, Up the Hill.  Doubleday, 1942.  "A Polish American family lives in a Pennsylvania mining town and keeps the ways of the old country."

Helen Cresswell, Up the Pier, 1971. While visiting a seaside resort with her mother, a young English girl discovers a mysterious family living on the pier.
Helen Cresswell, Up the Pier, 1971. I solved my own stumper! I was reading the next stumper down the list from mine, and it has turned out to be a book by Helen Cresswell... and I thought, hey, that name sounds familiar... I think that's the author of my book, too! Sure enough, I did the research, and the book I'm remembering is called Up the Pier, by Helen Cresswell. About to go in search of it right away. Thank you, all!

Hutter, Donald, Upright Hilda, illus. Barbara Byfield, NY Bobbs-Merrill 1968.  Plot description from eBay copy "A cute story about a little girl who things that anyone who stands on their head is a fool. When she dies her family buries her vertically on her head." LC record says "Hilda grew in somber fashion, knew no fun and little passion. Succumbing to a minor illness, no one now disturbs her stillness." Name matches, rhyme scheme matches, burial matches. No confirmation of thriftiness, except in emotions.

Andre Norton, Star Ka'at, 1976.  I'm guessing, but this sounds close.
C108 cats v dogs: Star Ka'at is about Jim Evans and Elly Mae Brown and their two cats who reveal themselves as being alien super-cats and ask for their help in a rescue mission. The star ka'at world is called Zimmorrah and they travel to it in the sequel where killer robots show up as villains. Couldn't find anything about a mailman or fungus. The plot device of a boy finding a spacesuit belonging to an alien race involved in a war was used in a juvenile sf film not long ago, but I don't know whether it was based on a book.
Robert Westall, Urn Burial, 1990.  I'm pretty confident about this.  It was a fairly short book (closer to novella than novel).  The cats and dogs were bipedal and human-sized.  I remember the fungus particularly vividly, as I found it very disturbing.  Definitely YA rather than children's.
C108 cats vs dogs: the movie mentioned doesn't seem to have been based on a book, otherwise it wouldn't seem a bad lead. Its production title was The Warrior of Waverly Street, but it was released as Star Kid in 1997. The opposing forces are the Trelkin (good) and the Broodwarriors (bad). A meteor lands in a junkyard where shy Spencer finds the "Trelkin Phase 1 Cyber Assault Suit in need of a bio-organism to interface with", which would be him. The Broodwarriors are also after the suit, for their invasion plans. But no mailman, no capture in ship, no fungus (though the Broodwarrior's weapons are creepily organic-looking).

Enid Blyton, The Valley of Adventure.  I think that this is right, it's one of Blyton's for certain. I remember the waterfall.
A246: Maybe Bertrand Brinley's The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club (1968)? It's not fantasy, mind you. It's a sequel to The Mad Scientists' Club. In one story, they have a hideout behind a waterfall, where they also keep a mini-sub, and in the last story, two of the club's members get kidnapped by the rival club and dumped on a lake island. See Solved Mysteries under M.
I'm thinking it may be the Enid Blyton (although they're British, not American).  I'm checking that out.  I read it before 1968, so it couldn't be the more recent one.
The Valley of Adventure, 1947.  Here is the blurb: ...Jack and Lucy-Ann, Philip, Dinah and Bill Smugs and Kiki the Parrot are accidentally flown into the unknown. It is a mysterious place- a long desolate valley- with lizards like baby dragons, half ruined houses- giant mountains-hidden caves and thundering waterfalls...
Yes.  Definitely The Valley of Adventure.  Not, I must say, a book that holds up well.  Not like Edith Nesbit or Arthur Ransome.  But easier for kids to read, probably.  Thanks.

Jeanne Williams, The Valiant Women (Arizona Saga book 1), 1980. This is the book you are looking for.  It is the first in a series of 3, called The Arizona Saga.  (Not California) "A wild and ambitious Irishman carves an empire out of the Arizona desert with the aid of three courageous, determined women - one Spanish, one an Indian, and one a girl burgeoning into womanhood."  The story continues in Harvest of Fury (Talitha manages the Socorro ranch in Arizona, while she waits for Patrick O'Shea to return from the Civil War.) and A Mating of Hawks (Shea and his half-brother, Judd, become bitter rivals for the love of Tracy Benoit when she comes to live at their Arizona ranch.)

I'm almost positive I know this one -- there was a series of books I had and my school library had (early-mid 80's) about responsibility, perserverance,etc., the titles were something like Let's read about or Let's Find Out About and then the lifeskill in big, colored letters.  The illustrations were cartoon-y.  Each book featured a famous figure that exemplified that quality - the dog bite one was my favorite - featuring Louis Pasteur, and had a boy bitten by a dog, with great detail about how the bite was affecting his body and how the rabies vaccine worked.  I don't remember which quality Pasteur exemplified, however.
I know the title and author of the book described by the person who gave the first suggestion in blue, but I'm not sure it is the correct book.  The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur, a ValueTale by Spencer Johnson M.D.  There was a series of these published in the late 70's-early 80's.  This one was the "free sample" they sent you in the mail to induce you to purchase the set. There isn't an actual physical description of the dog-bite reaction.  It is more of a fairy tale desciption where the "Magical Soldiers" (the vaccine) battle the "Terrible Germs". The illustrations are very cartoonish and the text gives very little scientific/medical description.
If the blue poster's suggestion is correct, this may be: Johnson, Spencer The Value of Believing in Yourself : The Story of Louis Pasteur.  Pileggi, Steven; illustrator, ValueTales Series, San Diego, Oak Tree Publications 1976 ISBN 0916392066 Couldn't find a plot description, though.

Ann Donegan Johnson, Valuetales series.  The book about Helen Keller is called The Value of Determination: The Story of Helen Keller.  The other titles are similar.
This sounds like the ValueTales series. Children's biographies with titles like The Value of Courage: The Story of Jackie Robinson and so on. The books were tall white hardcovers. They also featured an imaginary friend that helped make the exposition more "kid-friendly".
Various, Valuetales Series, 1976 - 1978.  This series of books teaching moral values through biographical examples includes Helen Keller (the value of determination, Louis Pasteur (the value of believing in yourself, Albert Schweitzer (the value of dedication), Christopher Columbus (the value of curiosity) and about 30 others. Published by Value Communications.
Spencer Johnson, M.D., The value of courage : the story of Jackie Robinson, 1977.  The Value of Courage is part of the ValueTale Series. The series was published by Value Communications, La Jolla, California.There are at least 27 titles in the series including Helen Keller (The Value of Detemination) and Marie Curie (The Value of Learning).

I think you're thinking about Vegetable Children by Elizabeth Gordon, published by Volland in the 1930's.  She also did books called Flower Children, Butterfly Babies, and Wild Flower Children, all depicting kids as those respective plants and animals, beautifully illustrated!

I am looking for 2 books that I remember reading when I was a child.  I don't have much information except the following: they were cloth covered - one in yellow and one in a brownish color (could've been red originally) I believe the illustrations in both were by Cicely Mary Barker.  One book was about Flower Fairies and in particular there was a page that featured "Hollyhock" with a corresponding pome The other book was pictures and poems of vegetable children...same premise as above.  I am guessing that the books were new around the 1930's or 40's.
I think the book listed in Solved Mysteries as "Vegetable Children" by Elizabeth Gordon, is actually "Mother Brown Earth's Children: Flower and Berry Babies, Vegetable and Fruit Children" by Edna Groff Deihl

Possibly The Vegetable Thieves by Inga Moore (Viking Press, 1983).  "Proud of their vegetable garden, two mice try to track down some thieves that are stealing their wares."

ZILPHA KEATLEY SNYDER, THE VELVET ROOM, 1965.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  This sounds an awful lot like the Velvet room. "Robin and her family have spent several years moving from place to place, trying to find work and a place to live. When Robin's father finds a job, all are happy but Robin. She explores the countryside near her home, meets new friends, and discovers a secret."
Snyder, Zilphia  Keatley, The Velvet room, 1966.
Elswyth Thane, Tryst, circa 1938.  The mysterious room was at the top of the house the family were renting  it belonged to the younger son of the family who owned it.  He had a large library and the room had, as I recall, velour cushions (possibly velour curtains as well).
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  Could this be the book?  Robin finds the Velvet Room, the library, in a deserted mansion.  Her family is a migrant family  the cover of the book has a fancy key.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  Robin's family travels from place to place as her father, a migrant worker, struggles to find employment.  She longs for security and privacy from her noisy siblings, and finds both after a tunnel leads her to a small, beautifully furnished room full of books in an abandoned mansion.  A lovely, suspenseful, mysterious tale.
Thank you for the cookbook!  Arrived Christmas Eve. I WILL enjoy it.  Oh, and S278 is most likely The Velvet Room by Snyder, but I'm sure everyone said that by now!
The Velvet Room.  I don't remember very many details about this, but my older sister owned it when I was child. I'm sure that this the book about which the questionnaire asks. I will ask Rebeccahif she still has the book, and if she has the author, date, and any other important things.
The Velvet Room, Snyder, Zipha Keatley
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Velvet Room, 1965.  You have all the details right, including the key.  The girl is Robin, the library is red velvet.  She and her family find work on an apricot farm but Robin longs for more.  A classic.
Zilpha Snyder, The Velvet Room.  I am the placer of this mystery.  Thnaks to all!  I think we have definately got it! Very exciting.  An older book stumper mystery mentions this book but plot they described did not match or the date.... Anyhow I did a search and have several copies available and they had plot summaries that also match.  I had half forgotten the secret tunnel!  First read this when I was  7 so it stands to reason I am a little foggy.
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I remember buying this book through a book club in middle school inthe early to mid 1970s - probably Scholastic.  It was a paperback and I think the cover might have had a lot of pink in it.  The premise is a lonely girl investigates an old, empty house nearby and finds an old diary she reads (over time) in a window seat in this old house.

Could be Norma Kassirer's  Magic Elizabeth. Scholastic, Inc., 1966.  Features young Sally staying in creepy old house with her Aunt Sarah, and an old doll named Elizabeth. B&W Illustrations by Joe Krush. See more on Solved Mysteries.
This book is probably THE VELVET ROOM by Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.  I have this book at home, bought it in the '70's from Scholastic, and it has a pink and white cover with a girl reading a book in a window seat.
Sounds like The Velvet Room.  See Solved Mysteries

Ventures.  I distinctly remember this textbook (containing what seemed like a full, chapter-by-chapter version of "The Cabin Faced West") because I "read ahead" when I wasn't supposed to and got in trouble. If it wasn't the complete book, it was some kind of Reader's Digest condensed version, but definitely not only one excerpt.  I remember Ann's tea party and the special blue shoes that no longer fit. It was the fourth-grade reading text in my Catholic school in 1972-3, and it was called "Ventures" (fifth grade had "Vistas").  It had a blue cover with some sort of abstract design, if I remember right, and I think it was a specifically Catholic series in which some of the stories were religious..."New Cathedral Basic Readers" comes to mind.
On my query "Cabin Faced West Textbook," the notes I made the day I went to look at old textbooks say I did see "Ventures" but did not find this story.  Possible explanations are that "Ventures" was the third grade book in the series while "The Cabin Faced West" was in the fourth grade book, which I have not found--in all my searches I've only turned up one of the New Cathedral Basic Readers--or that I was looking at an earlier edition of "Ventures" filed in the book room, while the more recent edition was still in classroom use, meaning it would have had to be new when I was in fourth grade, which I doubt, as we got another new textbook that year, a relatively rare event I remember well.  (In fact, the next year the school levy failed--but that's another story.)  I can hardly have looked at the book it was in and missed it, as this story took up a large section.
The original full-lenght version appears as The Cabin Faced West. by Jean Fritz,  Coward-Mccann, 1958. It was later reprinted in paperback by Scholastic.  And the various textbooks listed above contain the story as well....  I'm filing this under the original story name, since it's the full story that the requester was after....
#C55--Is not solved, doesn't belong under "Solved Mysteries," and should be moved back to the unsolved section.  I was not looking for the book The Cabin Faced West, by Jean Fritz, which I know about, and have, but for a specific fourth grade textbook containing this story.  The Cabin Faced West took up a good part of the textbook, but was not the whole book, and I don't remember what other stories were in it--it's one of those that "I'll know it when I see it."
The Scott Foresman reader-Ventures-(1965)-Book 4 in the New Basic readers series has The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz as the last story in the book. Page 396 has a letter from the author and then the story runs from p. 397-489, followed by a postscript from the author.The story has eight chapters and it is illustrated by
Feodor Rojankovsky. It is very lengthy! I do not have another book copy to do a comparison and see what may have been cut from the original. Note: I do from time to time see Ventures featured in auctions on-line, you could locate a copy. My 1965 edition definitely has the Jean Fritz story. Good Luck.
To add to my previous answer regarding Ventures Book 4 reader- the teacher's manual section of my book states in several places that this is THE COMPLETE TEXT! Viola! That should help!!!

I know this isn't it, but the basic plot is quite similar to Star Beast, by Robert Heinlein. The boy's family has what they think is an alien pet, called Lummox, brought back from space by an explorer in a previous generation. It turns out that Lummox is intelligent and a member of the alien royal family, and from her perspective she has been raising generations of the family as her pets. The aliens are very long-lived and take a long time to reach maturity - she was very small when the explorer picked her up but has grown to immense size and this causes problems with the family's neighbours etc.
J22 juvenile sf: somewhat closer is Venus Boy, by Lee Sutton, illustrated by Richard Floethe, published Lothrop 1955, 182 pages. SF story set in "the colony New Plymouth, established on Venus by pioneers from Earth ... relationship between the little boy Virgil Dare (named for Virginia Dare, but called Johnny) and Baba, his rare pet bouncing bear cub with the valuable blue claws and teeth. Their understanding of each other through a clicking kind of speech introduces Johnny to other Venusian species who, recognizing his friendliness, cooperate to save him from colony enemies. A bizarre world made strangely acceptable." (HB Aug/55 p.260)
Lee Sutton, Venus Boy, 1955.  As the original inquirer about this book, I wanted to say that  the second answer is definitely it!

Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz.  That IS the title of the book.  There's also Peter and Veronica and the characters also show up occasionally in Sach's Amy and Laura books.  There's a later sequel called The Truth About Mary Rose, which is about Veronica's daughter.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz. Just another note that the poster might want to look at Marilyn Sachs' website.
Sachs, Marilyn, Veronica Ganz, 1968.  This was the fourth book in a series Sachs wrote that started with Amy Moves In
(1964), and was followed by Laura's Luck (1965) and Amy and Laura (1966). In those books, Veronica Ganz was the local bully who terrorized sisters Amy and Laura, but later became almost a friend to Laura.  Veronica was, of course, the star of the fourth book, Veronica Ganz (which is the one with the "Veronica Ganz doesn't wear pants!" taunt) and also of the fifth one, Peter and Veronica (1969)- along with Peter, the very boy who created that hated taunt!  Yet another book, The Truth About Mary Rose (1973) continues the story after Veronica is a grown woman with children of her own, and centers around her daughter.
Marily Sachs, Veronica Ganz. This book is currently in print.
Marilyn Sachs is the author of Veronica Ganz, Peter and Veronica, etc.
Marilyn Sachs, Peter and Veronica.  If I'm not mistaken, Veronica Ganz first appears in Marilyn Sachs's Amy and
Laura.  She goes on to share top billing with her best friend in Peter and Veronica, and she's in a few others as well. (I'm sorry that I don't remember them all!)  There's even one about the grown-up Veronica's daughter--The Truth About Mary Rose.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz.  This is indeed the title. Sequels include Peter and Veronica and The Truth About
Mary Rose (the latter is about Veronica's daughter). Other books about schoolmates of Veronica and Peter include Marv and Amy and Laura.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz, 1968.  I vaguely remember this book from when I was a child. I know of one other book about Veronica, it had her friend Peter in it and I think there was something about anti-Semitism - Peter was Jewish, as I remember.  I think Marilyn Sachs wrote a number of other children's chapter/young adult books. The books seem to be more or less available, at least as far as a websearch turns up.
Marilyn Sachs, Veronica Ganz. Marilyn Sachs wrote several books about Laura and Amy Stern (Laura's Luck, Laura &
Amy, etc.). Veronica Ganz was featured in a couple.
I think maybe this was written by an auther named Marilyn Sachs who wrote quite a few childrens books taking place in the city.  I could be wrong, but it seems to ring a bell.
Veronica Ganz by Marilyn Sachs- also Peter and Veronica, The Truth About Mary Rose.
Wow, I've never even heard of this series!  It was originally published in 1968, reprinted by Scholastic in 1987, and again reprinted by Penguin/Putnam in 1995, and is currently out of print again.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Sachs, Marilyn.  Veronica Ganz. Illus. by Louis Glanzman.  Scholastic, 1987.  Trade paperback, minor wear, VG.  $9

Here's a possibility from WorldCat:  Best day for every little girl, by Kathryn Kohnfelder Murray, drawings by Allianora Rosse, published New York: Simon, 1960, unpaged (probably a picture book).  The subject heading is "Holidays -- Fiction."  Sorry, I couldn't come up with a plot summary.
Hello!!! Thank you to whomever responded with The Very Best Day For Every Little Girl by Kathryn Murray... that's it!!! I am so excited!!!  This is a wonderful Christmas gift to me!!! Now I have to see where I can get a copy!!! Thank you very much!! 

Doris Orgel and Maurice Sendak, Sarah's Room.  Could this be Sarah's Room? A little girl wants to go into her older sister's room. There is nothing about sitting under a dining room table, but there is a picture of a little girl reaching up for a doorknob and being to short to turn it.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I looked up this book and it's not the one. The illustrations in the book I remember are black/white, sort-of line drawings, but the girl looks more like an Alice in Wonderland type (long hair, kind-of wavey I think). And there is no plot other than her wishing she wasn't so tiny. I think she does grow tall enough by the end of the book to do all the things she couldn't do before (like reach the doorknob, etc...)" Somebody please solve this stumper - it's driving me batty!"
The Very Little Girl.  I don't remember the author, but I owned this book when I was little.  It is definitely The Very Little Girl--she couldn't reach the doorknob, see over the fence, pick up her mother's sewing basket, but in the end she was big enough to take care of her baby brother.  Definitely published sometime before 1965, when I got it.
This IS the book! The Very Little Girl by Phyllis Krasilovsky. THANK YOU!!!
Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Very Little Girl, 1953.  The Very Little Girl was written by Phyllis Krasilovsky. She also wrote The Very Tall Little Girl in 1969 (another possibility).
Krasilovksy, Phyllis, The Very Little Girl, 1953 , reprint.  "Dainty, utterly charming picture book tale of a little girl who grows big enough to be a big sister to her brand new baby brother." Illustrator is Ninon. Most of the 1953 copies I see online are over $100, due to be inscribed by the illustrator with a special one-time extra picture. There also seems to be a revised version from 1992.   There is also The Very Tall Little Girl and The Very Little Boy.
I don't know if this is the correct book, but The Very Little Girl (1953) was written by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Ninon, and published by Doubleday.  It was reprinted in 1992 with new illustrations by Karen Gundersheimer, so if the stumper requester has strong memories of the illustrations, s/he'll want to examine the original version.

Frayn, Michael, A Very Private Life.  NY Viking 1968.  It's been a long time since I read this, but the plot has some similarities. The girl, Uncumber, lives in a room where she can contact other people by video screen, but no one ever leaves. She decides to go out of the room and meet some of the people she has known on screen. I think she is in a sort of commune for a while (a man with several wives?) but decides to return to the life she knows. On the other hand, I read