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D60 It sounds like SAD DAY, GLAD DAYby Vivian Lauybach Thompson, 1962. ~from a librarian
More on the suggested title - Sad Day, Glad Day, by Vivian L. Thompson, illustrated by Lilian Obligado, published by Holiday 1962, 38 pages. "Warmly appealing story for little girls of first and second grades. They can sympathize with small Kathy when on moving day she has to leave a familiar home and forgets her doll; and they can rejoice with her in the new apartment house when she finds a bequest from a young former resident who has left a note with a doll, because she could not take all her dolls to her new home. Soft pencil drawings reflect the highly emotional moments of Kathy's big day." (Horn Book Oct/62 p.479)

Possibly one of the books about Sadie & Kevin by Joan Lingard? They were written from 1970 to 1977.
SOLVED!! Yes, indeed, this is the series I was remembering.  I thought the names might be Bridget and Michael, so that just goes to show that memory can be tricky when we are searching for these books. There are five books in this series now, apparently is is pretty well-respected. Thanks to whoever solved it. I KNEW someone would.  So far, all of my stumpers have been solved but one!

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I do seem to remember some other details about this book... the heroine gets poison ivy and ends up with calamine lotion all over her hands. The mystery of the jewels centers around a long-dead native of the town named Euphemia/ Euphelia Price (maybe?), or "Eppie" for short.
Clare and Effie. Maybe this one? Quote found online:  "It was a very small picture, framed and glazed, and beneath it was written: Euphemia Price. A corner of the artists room in Paris.Clare took it to the window. It wasn't dark yet, and pearly light revealed the painting clearly...It's a bit colourless," Jamie said, coming up behind her."No," Clare said, still staring, "it isn't." She was thinking it was the most lovely picture she had ever seen."
Merryn Williams, Clare and Effie,1996. 'Not sure this is your book, but it does seem to be the one about Euphemia Price   "In a book for nine to twelve year olds, influenced by the historical characters Gwen and Augustus John, Clare finds that it is no fun being the younger sister of a clever older brother, her artistic talent dismissed, falling behind at school, and upset by her parents' marital problems.When her Welsh grandmother dies, leaving them the family home in Swansea, the summer holiday provides a welcome refuge and opportunity to discover more about the work of her woman artist relative, Euphemia Price - Effie of the title. Her knowledge and admiration grow in an atmosphere of tension which somehow echoes the earlier generation's troubles. Who is more loved - brother or sister? Can a female be a proper artist? Whose fault is it that mum and dad are living apart?"
Aha! I think it might be Caroline Cooney's Safe as the Grave.
Caroline Cooney, Safe as the Grave. Yes! That's it! Thank you!!

I enjoy your site very much.  The book described by "O4" Ocean Adventure sounds a lot like The Lion's Paw.  It was about 2 orphans (a boy and a girl) who run away from the orphanage and take a boat through channels in Florida to Captiva Island in the Gulf of Mexico.  They called themselves "eganaps" because the orphanage sign was backwards to them looking out. They meet up with an older boy or man.  I vaguely remember that the girl soaked her hands in the salt water to get rid of the blisters caused by pulling the ropes on the boat.  I can't remember who wrote the book.  My aunt had given it to us because we had lived on Captiva Island with her.  Alas the book was lost during one move or another.
I don't have a specific title, but it sounds like it could be one of Elizabeth Ladd's books.
The book mentioned in the first response to query O4, The Lion's Paw, is by Robb White and was published by Doubleday in 1946.  It could be the book described in the original question -- at one point the girl, Penny,
soaks her feet in brine when they are sore from going barefoot, and at another point she has blisters on her hands from rowing and the boy who owns the boat puts pine oil on them. (I think my husband must have read all of Robb White's books when he was a kid and then bought copies when he was in his 20's.  Good, solid kid's books of the don't-write-them-like-that-anymore variety.)
i thought it might have been the Lion's Paw. I did a little research and it sounds like another book by the same author - Robb White.  The book might be Our Virgin Island.  I haven't read it but the descriptions sound more like the book being sought.  There is a Robb White III homepage that shows a cover of the book - that might help.  LCCN 53006887, CALL#F2129.W56.  There is a library search "NOBLE" that found the book in the Beverly library in Massachusetts.
Thanks so much for this lead - I am so excited that I may find the book again. I have ordered four possibilities (all Robb White books from the early 40's) through my local public library ILL to try to pin down the right book. Can't wait to find it!!

Thanks to all who helped, I finally got to reread my childhood mystery book. It was Robb White's Sailor in the Sun!  (pub. 1941) Needless to say, my memory of details was not very accurate! The girl's "companion" was not a boy her age, but an elderly boatbuilder! Cherry was sent from New York City to live with poor relatives on the Gulf coast of Florida because her father had died, and her mother was in a sanitorium. The uncle in Florida disliked girls, so the aunt cut her hair short and made her dress as a boy. The boatbuilder who befriended her taught her how to build boats and to sail them. A great "girl heroine" story!

Sounds like the Sailor Jack books by Selma & Jack Wasserman (Chicago: Benefic Press, 1960s). The parrot's name is Bluebell. (Sailor Jack & Bluebell's Dive takes place on a submarine)

Cicely Louise Evans, The Saint Game,1977. This description really tortured me - I was certain I remembered this same story.  The younger girl thought that by burying the mandrake in a certain way, she would force the uncle to reveal his crime.  The mandrake grew a rootlet from its crotch, giving it the appearance of an aroused man - the uncle discovered it and was freaked out and confessed.  I remember the young girl was unfamiliar with the word "rape" and was wondering if it was related to "rapier." I cannot find a plot summary of the book online anywhere.  However, there was a listing for a review of it on Canadian Children's Literature here that is titled "Tragic Innocence" and lists the subjects as "Historical fiction / Religion / Sex," so it may be the same book.
Cicely Louise Evans, The Saint Game. Yes, thank you, I recognized the name of the book.  It is The Saint Game.  I am so pleased someone else remembered it.  I don't remember the saint part of it, though you would think I would, but I definitely remembered the anatomically-correct mandrake root that triggers the uncle's confession.  Another stumper solved for me - many thanks again!

G36 Girl Scout Camp:  Good thing that person remembered the girl's name was Sally - it triggered my own memories of the book. It's SAL FISHER AT GIRL SCOUT CAMP by Lillian S. Gardner, 1959, 1966 (1966 is the Scholastic date)
DEFINITELY "Sal Fisher at Girl Scout Camp." Thank you so much! As soon as I read the title I remembered it.
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A children's book about a seven year old girl and her bothersome little sister.  One chapter was about her cutting her brownie uniform and when mended it looked like an L which she felt showed she was left handed. At the end of the chapter someone showed her that it was not an L but rather a 7 which stood for how old she was.  Also the little sister throughout the book kept yelling that "SHE WAS TOO A SUSIE/MARY SUNSHINE".  I always thought it was a Bezzis and Ramona book, but I think I have read all of them over the last few years and none of them had the two parts I remember so it must have been some other book.  I would have read it in the 1960s so it would be written then or before.

I think the requester might have two books mixed up here, because the child insisting "I am too a Mary Sunshine"  is a Ramona and Beezus book, (I can't remember which one), but the Brownie uniform  episode is  not.
It's "Merry Sunshine" and that scene is from Beezus and Ramona.
I posted this stumper, and you are right the Merry Sunshine part came from Bezzus and Ramona.  Although my memory had it more important in the whole story.  The L 7 must be from another book which I am still trying to find out it's name -- must have been reading them at around the same time -- what happens when you read alot even as a child.
Gardner, Lillian, Sal Fisher, Brownie Scout, 1953.  If the little sister / Mary Sunshine references are Beezus and Ramona, then it's *possible* that the Brownie references are to one of Lillian Gardner's Sal Fisher books. Either Sal Fisher, Brownie Scout (1953) or Sal Fisher's Fly-Up Year (1957).  I haven't read either, but I read Sal Fisher at Girl Scout Camp many, many times, and there's definitely a reference in there to Sal having slipped with scissors and cut her Brownie uniform in an earlier episode (it's how she became friends with another Brownie).
I got a hold of the flying up and at camp and it does seem like the book I was thinking of was Sal Fisher, Brownie -- now just to find a copy of it.  Thanks for your help this is a great service.
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This might be a longshot. I can't remember Title OR Author! All I can remember is the front cover (soft cover) had a (i THINK) pencil type sketch of a girl , laying on a cot , inside a tent (flap was open I think) writing a letter... I want to say she was chewing on the pencil eraser but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was about a girl who went to camp .. I don't remember anything else really... at the beginning of the book I think she's in her room , all packed and ready to go and thinking she's going to have a horrible summer. I used to love this book and can't believe I can't remember more about it! I hope you can help!

Never mind! Not 2 minutes after submitting payment to you , I found the answer in your archives. Sal Fisher at Girl Scout Camp!  So , I don't need to know where my stumper is going to show up , as I already have the answer. Thanks anyway!

Louise Dickinson Rich, Sally (originally Three of a Kind),1970. My copy is titled Sally but the original title is Three of a Kind.  It's about Sally who goes to live with an older couple on an island off of the Maine coast.  Soon, their autistic grandson comes to stay with them.  The grandson's name is Benjie, the older couple's names are Rhoda and Ben.
Louise Dickinson Rich, Sally (aka. Three of a Kind), 1970.This is absolutely The book, the foster family is named Cooper and the little boy is Benjie, I specifically remember the incident of him seeing the birds. The story actually takes place on an island called Star Island, 7 miles off the Maine Coast.

Her name is Sally. Here's the book you're looking for:
Eppenstein, Louise. Sally Goes Shopping Alone. Platt & Munk, 1940. Illustrated by Esther Friend. 7.5x9.25", 44pp, blue cloth. Cover soiled, interior bright. Good. <SOLD>
I also have: Sally Goes to the Circus Alone. Platt & Munk, 1953. Illustrated by Jean Staples. 7.5x9.25"; 44pp, red cloth. Very Good. $18 postagepaid.

Thank you so much for responding to my search. I would very much like to have the book. It is rather ironic that I remember the story in great detail (as my mother read it to me many, many times)--however I did not remember the little girls name and it is the same as mine!

I shrieked at the memory of SALLY GOES SHOPPING ALONE. I loved that book, and still love to go shopping alone!
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In the late 50s I had a book about a little girl who goes shopping with a velevt purse. Can anyone recall a story like this?

Sounds like Sally to me.  Louise Eppenstein, Sally Goes Shopping Alone, 1940.
The book I'm looking for may be Sally Goes Shopping Alone, I'm not sure  though. Would you have another copy available? Does she have a velvet purse?
I don't have a copy of Sally Goes Shopping Alone right now, but I have a sequel called Sally Goes Travelling Alone, in which she refers constantly to her "little red purse."  She doesn't actually call it velvet, but it looks like a small hand-held purse with a string handle.  Maybe?
Hey! That could be her. It's amazing the impact books have on us as children that stay with us and hold such tenderness in our hearts. TY so much. I'd like to get it.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Eppenstein, Louise. Sally Goes Traveling Alone.  Illustrated by Jean Staples.  Platt & Munk, 1942.  A beautiful copy in dust jacket, dj has a few small holes on front fold-over.  F/G+.  <SOLD> Eppenstein, Louise. Sally Goes To  The Circus Alone.  Illustrated by Jean Staples.  Platt & Munk, 1952.  Front paste-down endpaper torn, otherwise VG.  $25

Lyn Cook, Samantha's Secret Room, 1963.  Samantha's cousin Josh is the owner of the caravan named Nefertiti.
Lyn Cook, Samantha's Secret Room, 1963.  Scholastic Canada.  Samantha (Sam) lives on a rural property in Canada and gains a penfriend by tying a letter to a christmas tree.  The caravan belongs to a cousin who comes to visit for a family reunion.  The secret room is in a root cellar.
Hi again, Harriett. I just wanted to thank you for providing your Stump the Bookseller service. My mystery is solved! You're a wonderful resource, and I'll be back!

Samantha's Surprise. by Bethany Tudor.  J. B. Lippincott Co. (1964)
Bethany Tudor, Gooseberry Lane

This may be Shirley Belden, Sand in My Castle (NY:V Longmans, Green, '58).
Sand in My Castle, by Shirley Belden, illustrated by Genia, published Longman, 1958, 182 pages. "Judith Burritt has one special love - her photography - and all other interests fade in comparison. As she pursues this hobby she begins to realise that she is relying to much on her mother to manage her life and it is time to try her wings away from the family hearth. Encouraged by her father and with her camera as constant companion, she spends a fruitful and energetic summer on Cape Cod, helping an older girl to develop a 'different' tea room. Photography plays an important role as Judith finds new friends, a new love, widened interests, and especially, a more healthy relationship with her family." (BRD 1959) This sounds actually a more complex book than the one remembered, for a higher reading level. A book with a similar title that might possibly be the one wanted is Castle in the Sand, written and illustrated by Bettina, published Harper 1951 "With her usual wisdom and awareness, the author of the beloved Cocolo books tells the amusing and beautiful story of two children who make friends on a beach in Italy. 20 black and white wash drawings. Ages 7-10." (Horn Book Sep/51 p.288 pub ad) The illustration shows a boy with curly black hair and an aquiline nose and an impish looking girl with blonde shoulder-length straight hair.

i think that the book you want is sandeagozu by janann tenner.  harpercollins.  1986.
I read the book you are looking for! Unfortunately I can't remember the title or author either - but here are a few more details. The title was the animals' phonetic interpretation of the words "San Diego Zoo" ie, something along the lines of "Sandy Eggo Zu" etc. It was a novel for adults, and there were definitely some human villans that the animals had to avoid, including one who came to a very bad end by eating dried corn in an abandoned Native American village and then drinking too much water (stomach exploded: ugh!) The cover of the hardback had an illustration of the animals including a large snake. Hope this helps!
Jenner, Janann V., Sandeagozu: a novel, 1986.  Not from the 1970s, but definitely your book.  A Burmese python, coatimundi, macaw and rattlesnake escape from Leftrack's Pet Emporium in NYC in search of the mythical Sandeagozu, a warm land where animals can live without cages.

I managed to ask my friend's mother about this book, and although she remembers it, she remembers it differently than he does.  She also says the book was sandwich shaped, but that it was very short, and contained pages for jam and peanut butter. She purchased it at the drug store.  My friend is in his mid thirties, so this was probably in the early 70's.
David Pelham, Sam's Sandwich.  Looks like the right book.
Sorry, but Sam's Sandwich is far too new to be the book I'm looking for. Amazon claims that the first US edition was printed in 1991.  The book I'm looking for would've been published in the mid-70s at the latest.
Dorothy C. Seymour, The Sandwich.  This was published in the 60s and had the repeating lines "a little of this...some of that...and some bread."  It was a picture book, sandwich shaped, illustrated by Richard C. Lewis.  It may be the book
you are looking for.
Find out more about Dorothy Seymour on the Most Requested pages.

Anonymous, Santa Claus and Lili Monk,1955.  The reason I think this might be the one besides the date is that apparently the pages are textured.  "A fuzzy wuzzy book Folio. [16] pp. (unpaginated).  This is the story of a little monkey who hitched a ride to the North Pole in Santa's bag when he was visiting the jungle looking for drums. Does Lili stay in the North Pole?"
G.P. Hall, Monty the Monkey, 1943.  Another angle on which to look -- this does''t seem to be the book, but it might be
another book by the same author.  "Thacker's Dumpy Books No. 6. A Little Black Sambo imitation, each page of text in large type faces a full page illus. in line by G.P. Hall. A curious book."
I checked the one for Santa Claus and Lili Monk.  There is no Monty Monk character in that story, so that is not the one I am searching for.  But thanks for trying!
M163 Could this be a comic book series? Monty Monk.  Entry (p. 146) in Encyclopedia of Comic Characters, by
Denis Gifford (Harlow : Longman, 1987). -- See this site.
Still no luck.  I checked out the "Monty the Monkey" book  from 1943, and there definitely were no references to Little Black Sambo in the book that I am searching for, so it cannot be this book.  Also, the next person listed a comic book reference.  The book I am looking for was nothing like a comic book, so this leads me to another dead end. After talking with my mother and brother, they both agreed that the center of the story was...Monty Monk was such a good little monkey that Santa allowed him to ride in his sleigh as he delivered toys to all the girls and boys. Hope someone can help me find this book.  Thanks.
I am so excited!!!!!! My mystery is solved and I have found my book! Actually, I must admit that I made an error.  For several years, I thought the book I was looking for was about Monty Monk. I'm not sure where I got that idea.  There is not character "Monty Monk" in the book I was looking for.  Instead the character is "Lili Monk"!  I took a chance, and ordered the book Santa Claus and Lili Monk from one of the used book sources that you recommend.  And lo, and behold, it was the book of my childhood!  Well, not the actual book, but one just like it!  I am just so  happy. I received it yesterday, sat down and reread it after nearly 40 years!  I still love it, and the illustrations are just as wonderful as I remembered them!  But alas, no one is given credit in the book for the illustrations nor the words!   Anyway, thanks so much for offering this service! My mystery is solved!

The Santa Claus Book.  This is a Big Golden Book.  Mine is so worn that I have no title page, so I can't give you any other information.
I thought there was one by Kathryn Jackson, but when I first looked all I could find was a Golden Super Shape Book by Eileen Daly, Illustrated by Florence Sarah Winship, 1972.  But, I was right the first time.  It is The Santa Claus book; 43 Christmas stories and poems, written and compiled by Kathryn Jackson. Pictures by Retta Worcester. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952.  It's just hard to come by these nostalgic days.
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C138: I am looking for a book that belonged to my mother who was born in 1945. It is about 8 1/2 by 11 size and is an COLLECTION  of Christmas stories. I have pages 57-100 which have the stories, The Exactly Right Present, The Christmas Eve Whispers, The poem Merry Christmas, The Speedy Little Train, the song Good Nicolas Nicol, A Shoe for Blitzen, Noel's New Birthday, the poem "Song" and "I Saw Three Ships", and THe Puppy Who Wanted a Boy adn The Elves and the Shoemaker. I am desperate to find this book adn would appreciate any help!!!!

Sounds like it could be THE TALL BOOK OF CHRISTMAS selected by Dorothy Hall Smith, illustrated by Gertrude Elliott Espenscheid, 1954. It is about 12 inches tall and 5 inches wide. It contains "The Christmas Story", "I Saw Three Ships" "Christmas Through a Knothole", "Christmas", "Everywhere Christmas", "The Birds", "Babouscka", "The Story of the First Christmas Tree", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Giant Grummer's  Christmas", "The Friendly Beasts", "The Christmas Rose", "For Christmas", Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Kittens", "A Christmas for Bears", "Song", "Long, Long Ago", "Away In A Manger", "Santa Claus", "The Christmas Cake", "The Puppy Who Wanted A Boy", "Words From An Old Spanish Carol", "Patapan", "The Holly and the Ivy", "A Little Christmas Wish", "What Can I Give Him?", "In the Great Walled Country", "Here We Come A-Caroling", "The Night Before Christmas".  There were other TALL BOOK OF... including THE TALL BOOK OF FAIRY TALES which includes "The Shoemaker and the Elves". There was also THE TALL BOOK OF MAKE-BELIEVE, but I didn't find a list of its contents. Perhaps all the stories weren't in one book - perhaps the mother owned more than one of THE TALL BOOK series?  ~from a librarian
The Santa Claus Book. This is a Big Golden Book.  My copy is just about worn out and I have no title page.  I think this is the same book described in C124.  It is certainly a wonderful Christmas book.
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C47: I do not have author or title for the book I am looking for It was a Christmas book with several different stories in it. One story was about a poor family who went out to buy a star for the top of their Christmas tree and lost the money, when they got home the tree that was is front of a window was topped by a star  outside.  Another was about a girl who got so upset when they had to take the tree down that they planted one outside. I would be very surprised it you can help, but thought I would try.  I had the book in the 1950's.

I get many requests for a book called a The Shinest Star by Beth Vardon, but I haven't read the book myself.  Might this be it?
I'm quite familiar with the story The Shiniest Star by Beth Vardon, and I'm sorry to say that this great story is not the one described. The Shiniest Star is about three little angels who polish their stars in heaven. The hard working, humble Touselhead's star becomes the Christmas star.
The Santa Claus Book.  This is a Big Golden Book.  It contains several Christmas stories.  One is "Susie's Christmas Star" in which Susie goes to the store and buys a star and candy canes for her family's tree, but loses them on the way home. She follows footprints and finds that a very poor family has found the candy canes and used them to decorate their tree. Seeing this, she generously pushes her star through their window too.  When she goes home a real star is shining through the window over her family's tree.  Other stories in this book include: The Penny Walk, Christmas through a knothole, Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens, The Thirty-nine Letters, etc.
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I am searching for a book my father frequently read me when I was young. I don't recall the title or author and neither does my father but I can still picture the book illustrations and story in my mind. I was a child in the 1960's so the book had to be written before 1965 probably. I have not had any success using the search features as I seem to only get later published books. How do I go about finding this book which may be out of print?  The gist of the book is about a young girl who has a few cents. She goes to the corner candy store and purchases 10 candy canes which the shopkeeper puts in a paper bag. She leaves the store and begins home trudging through the snow covered streets, her boots leaving footprints. When she gets home, she discovers her bag had a hole in it and all her candy canes are gone.
She retraces her steps and follows the path of her lost candy canes which had fallen one-by-one leaving imprints in the snow. She discovers that each one has been picked up so she follows the trail of the "thief" only to discover that it leads to an orphange. Standing in the street outside the orphanage, she looks inside the window and sees all the children happily looking at the Christmas tree. On the Christmas tree are her candy canes! I'm not sure how it ends, but I believe she is happy about where her candy canes have ended up.  This book has such good memories for me that I would like to find it again. Please give me some suggestions about how I can go about finding this book.  Thank you.

I have been unable to find this story published alone, but here's an anthology in which it appears.  (Thanks for the tip, Barb!)
The Santa Claus Book: 43 Christmas stories and poems, written and compiled by Kathryn Jackson. Illustrated by Retta Worcester.  Simon and Schuster, 1952.  A Big Golden Book.  One of the stories is "Susie's Christmas Star" in which Susie goes to the store and buys a star and candy canes for her family's tree, but loses them on the way home. She follows footprints and finds that a very poor family has found the candy canes and used them to decorate their tree. Seeing this, she generously pushes her star through their window too.  When she goes home a real star is shining through the window over her family's tree.  Other stories in this book include: The Penny Walk, Christmas through a knothole, Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens, The Thirty-nine Letters, etc.
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I am looking for a book of Christmas stories published in the 1950s. The last story in the book was about a little girl named Mary Berry who hated to see the Christmas tree taken down. There was also a story about a penny walk and one about a woman who made edible mittens of yarn colored with candy.  Thanks!

Smith, Dorothy Hall, Tall Book of Christmas. (1954)  From the Solved page - includes Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens, Christmas Through a Knothole, The Penny Walk (flipping a penny to decide which way to walk), & The Perfect Tree (with Mary Berry---).
Dorothy Hall Smith, The Tall Book of Christmas. (1954)  This is definitely the book.  It's in Solved Mysteries.
Dorothy Hall Smith, Tall Book of Christmas. (1954)  I found a copy of the Tall Book of Christmas in the New York Public Library, and it is not the book I am looking for. Although it does contain Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens, it does not contain the Penny Walk nor The Perfect Tree. Thanks though.
Possibly this one?  The Golden Christmas Book (1947) by Gertrude Crampton (author), Corinne Malvern (illustrator).  It definitely contains "Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens" but I don't own a copy, so I can't tell you what else is in the book, except that according to various online sellers, it contains songs, poems (including "A Visit From St. Nicholas"), puzzles (including a maze and crossword puzzle), a pop-up Christmas tree, stories, jokes and things to do for Christmas. Lots of pictures in full color and in black and white. The last page contains answers to the puzzles and riddles.  Clean, intact copies are expensive, but books with a missing Christmas tree and writing on the pages can be quite cheap.
Kathryn Jackson, The Santa Claus Book. (1952)  Thanks to the clues given here (particularly Granny Glittens), I have found the book! It is the Santa Claus Book published by Simon and Schuster in 1952. It contains Granny Glittens, The Penny Walk, Christmas Through a Knothole, Susie's Christmas Star, and The Twelfth Night Trouble (Mary Berry and the Christmas tree). Thank you all so much--I would never have found it without your help.
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C548: For years I have been searching for a Christmas book that was gifted to me when I was very young (in the early -'50s).  I love this book but it was given away by mistake....  Over the years friends and family have sent me numerous books, hoping it would be the one I was missing.  The Tall Book of Christmas has several of the stories but it's definitely NOT the correct book.  The stories I recall are "Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens," "The Penney Walk," "A Shoe for Blitzen," "Christmas Through a Knothole," and a story about a young "jester-type of guy who was able to accompany Santa in his sleigh on Christmas Eve - I only remember that he had on leggings and one side was red and the other green (or some variety of mixed colors).  I was only about 6 when the book was given to me but I can remember the cover had Santa with a huge bag on his back and the toys were falling out of it.  If I recall correctly, the picture carried over onto the back cover.  I also think of it as more of an 8" x 10" or more of a larger but not thick book.  Oh, and the background of the cover seemed to be a pretty light blue. The stories were charming and I remember that the cover had like a "film" that covered it -- I had handled the book so much that a piece of the opaque cover was tearing away.  The pages were very smooth, I can still feel my hands sweeping over the pages.   I lived in Ohio at the time and the person who gave it to me lived there as well, so it wasn't like some item that was only available on the coast.  Anyway, I miss it terribly and have long lamented that it got away from me.

Kathryn Jackson, The Santa Claus Book, 1952.  This is in the Solved Stumpers section.  According to their information it contains many stories, among them: Granny Glittens and the Amazing Mittens, Christmas Through a Knothole, The Penny Walk, Susie's Christmas Star, Twelfth Night Trouble (a story about Mary Berry and a Christmas Tree), and Thirty Nine Letters.
Kathryn Jackson, The Santa Claus Book (A Big Golden Book), 1952, copyright.  Front cover is light blue, showing Santa putting toys into an overflowing sack. Toys and elves are on the snow around the sack, and continue onto the back cover.  Forty-Three stories and poems, include Mr. Pig's Surprise, Christmas Through a Knothole, Susie's Christmas Star, The Perfect Tree, Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens, The Exactly Right Present, The Christmas Eve Whispers, The Speedy Little Train, A Shoe for Blitzen, Noel's New Birthday, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, The Christmas Angel, and The Penny Walk.
Your mention of Granny Glittens rang a bell! Under Solved there was a solution- Santa Claus Book- Kathryn Jackson- 1952. Hope this is your answer.
Gertrude Crampton, The Golden Christmas Book, A Big Golden Book, 1955 or 1967, reprint.  The later editions of this book have a cover depicting Santa with an overflowing gift sack as he rides on a sled with some children.  The original 1947 edition has a cover with Santa and two angels on his lap.  This book is about 8 x 10 size and has the story "Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens" but I don't see in my copy of the book the other stories the seeker mentions.
Kathryn Jackson, The Santa Claus Book: A Big Golden Book, 1952, copyright.  Found this description on the 'net:  "Kathryn Jackson, The Santa Claus Book: 43 Christmas stories and poems, written and compiled by Kathryn Jackson. Pictures by Retta Worcester. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952. Stories in this book include "Mr. Pig's Surprise", "Christmas Through a Knothole", "Susie's Christmas Star", "The Perfect Tree," "Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens", "The Exactly Right Present", "The Christmas Eve Whispers", "The Speedy Little Train", "A Shoe for Blitzen", "Noel's New Birthday", and "The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy." Poems included are "Winter Morning", "If I Were Santa's Little Boy," "Christmas," "Sortie", "Song", "What Can I Give Him?", "Santa's Workshop", "Christmas Magic", "Secret Lake", and "Good Nicholas Nichol"."  There are lots of pictures of the book -- which, as you described, features Santa, his sack overflowing with toys, continuing onto the back cover, against a light-blue background that does look like it has a "film" on it.

This sounds like it could be one of the Santa Mouse books by Michael Brown.
M 27 and N 9 sound like the same book.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you-----I would like to know if you have this book to sell me or a way for me to find it.
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i dont have much info.--- the story is about santa and a mouse. santa fills the stocking so full that " Not One Thing More" can be put in ( could be the title) then the mouse says he can put in"One Thing More" and gnaws a hole in the stuffed stocking. This book was read to me by my Father when I was a child in the 50's (55)??  I'm wondering if you can help me find it so I can read it to my grandchildren--- It had lovely  colorful pictures in it. It was probably bought in a 5&10 cent store. Thanking You in Advavce

M 27 and N 9 sound like the same book.
N9--  Thanks for reminding me of this.  It was a poem my grandmother used to recite.  Unfortunately, my mother doesn't know the title or the author, but the fact that Grandma recited it to her children, then her grandchildren, puts it back to the 1930s--probably earlier.  Some of Grandma's stories predated Grandma.  I'm having the devil's own time finding a story she used to recite--we've figured it originated in a magazine printed before she was born; more on that later.  Keyword searches on this (not one thing more, stocking, mouse, Santa Claus, etc.) in the Library of Congress were not much help.  Maybe someone can do better with them than I.  If this was printed, either by itself or as part of a larger book, I would very much like to know where, and how to get a copy!
Regarding N9, the original poem, "Santa Claus and the Mouse", was written by Emilie Poulsson.  If this was made into a children's book, perhaps having the original author will help.
The book which is identified as from the "Santa Mouse" series is actually the same poem I sent to solve stumper #N9.  They should both be listed under that title.
Well, it sure helps to have the correct spelling of the author's name!  When I searched under "Emilie Pouisson" in the Library of Congress I didn't find a thing, but under "Emilie Poulsson" all sorts of stuff came up!  I still didn't find anything to indicate that Santa Claus and the Mouse was a picture book by itself (and want to know if it was) but there were all sorts of collections of poems, including holiday poems, and of course it could have appeared in someone else's collection of poems.  I also did a search on Google with "Emilie Poulsson" and "Santa Claus" and still couldn't find anything like Santa Claus and the Mouse as a picture book, but did find a story called How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas, by Phyllis McGinley.  Does anyone know if this story featured a sugar plum sleigh?  It might be the one I'm looking for.
a copy of this poem can be viewed at http://www.geocities.com/grandma_lyn/SantaMouse.html.
I think "How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas" is the same as "The Year Without a Santa Claus", which was made into a popular Christmas TV special with Mickey Rooney. (It was first published in a womens' magazine, 1956.)  Don't remember any particular mention in it of a sugar plum sleigh.
Many thanks to the person who identified Emilie Poulsson as the author of Santa Claus and the Mouse.  Recently I was going through a box of books and found a very old one by this author which must have belonged to my grandmother.  Sure enough, the poem was in it!  I'd never have known to look for it there had I not been informed of the author's name.

Barbara Chapman, The Wonderful Mistake,1948.  When I read this "memory", I thought I'd read it before. When I looked it up, however, my anthology entitled Santa's Footprints put together by Aladdin Books, had a story called The Wonderful Mistake in it. There is a princess who is thrilled to get a regular boy doll who is "not to go in a glass case  he is just to play with!" by mistake and a family of 4 war orphans who end up with a fancy doll that was intended for the princess. The orphans decide to make a nativity scene and the fancy doll becomes the beautiful Virgin Mary. It ends with having the mistake be one that "made this Christmas the best for everyone." This story is the next to the last one in the book.
I am the original poster, and Santa's Footprints is the correct book.  You can put this one down as solved!

Augusta Huiell Seaman, Sapphire Signet, 1916.  You may want to check out this book.  The author was an extremely popular writer of children's mysteries nearly 100 years ago.  I have never read this particular one, because it's very rare, but the plot you described sounds about like something she would have written.  Also, one of the very few references I found to this book by googling revealed some of the plot: "Set in a very modern New York City (that is, in the early 1900’s), where change is constant and construction of the new subway system brings noise and turmoil to what had been a quiet neighborhood, the plot involves three sisters, a younger cousin, and a new friend who together work to solve a mystery rooted in the Revolutionary War."  "...One of the young girls in the story, Corinne Cameron...“offish and queer and quiet. . . and when she isn’t studying she is always reading something”(p. 8). More significantly, when the twins, Jess and Bess, visit Corinne for the first time, she talks about her father with whom she lives (her mother is dead) and she picks up on old book with the title Valentine’s Manual, Volume II, an old history of New York, and said that her father had picked it up an auction sale and given it to her for her birthday. When the twins are nonplussed at the pleasure she is showing in this “old, dilapidated, uninteresting book” she says that she is a born “antiquarian” just like her father (p. 11)."  Lest you should think this book is too old, it was republished in 1936 & 1941 -- just in time for a new generation of girl readers.
Seaman, Augusta Huiell, The Sapphire Signet.  This might be the book you're looking for. I'm not sure of the exact plot, but this sounds like something she might have written.
Augusta Huiell Seaman, The Sapphire Signet, 1916.  I believe this may be it.  The diary is found in a secret compartment and is deciphered by an invalid girl.  The diary is destroyed by a housekeeper (who is in the place of a mother--thankfully after the whole diary has been deciphered).  The signet is eventually found and delivered to the proper owner by the invalid girl who has regained her health.

Roberta Leigh, Sara and Hoppity, 1960.  The book is Sara and Hoppity, about a "goblin toy" that is brought to Sara's parents' toy shop. Her parents and helper, Miss Julie (that's probably who the requestor remembers" repairs for her. It's the mother who paints the plate with Hoppity's picture on it, so Sara will eat her spinach with egg. What happens is that Sara hates the taste so much that when Hoppity "tells" her to slide the food into the pocket of her apron and tell her parents she ate it (Hoppity is a very naughty toy)! Sara is found out and punished by being sent to her room, and you never find out whether the leg on the plate is shorter than the other. In the end she sees Hoppity, at whom she has been very angry, standing in the corner, so she knows he feels remorseful and realizes how much she loves him. This story and its sequel, Sara and Hoppity Make New Friends, were my favorite childhood books, and I've never known anyone else who recalled them.
Sara & Hoppity.  Apparantly there were 6 books and it may interest your requestor to know that there was also a television series that aired in the 60s.  My mother and sister remember it fondly.  There's more information about both books and tv show at this site.
Though not my "Stumper" this has helped me with a childhood memory.I grew up in southern England in the '60s, and have a distinct memory of Sarah and Hoppity being a puppet show on local TV. I actually recall being a bit upset that Sarah was always getting into trouble for things Hoppity had instigated. Anyway, now I live in Scotland, no one else remembers the show, and I had started to think I had dreamt it, so thank you for confirming that the memory may be correct.
Thank you for solving this one for me!  It has intruded on my thoughts for 10-15 years and I couldn't figure out how to find the title.  I LOVE this website -- many thanks to Harriett Logan for this wonderful service.  I was able to find 2 other elusive books from my childhood (Magic Elizabeth and Candle in her Room) simply by searching the solved stumpers.  But all I knew for sure with this one was the short leg and painted plate -- not a lot to go on.  The story seems to be a lot different than what I thought I recalled.  I'm sure that over the years I have mixed up a number of favorite books, making it even harder to track them down.  (As a child, I may even have dreamt about the stories, thereby distorting my recollection even more.) Thanks to the posted solution I found a website that summarizes all of the books.

This sounds like Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler.
i would like to thank the person that figured out my book.   as a matter of fact, i feel like i should give them my firstborn child i am so grateful.  i just knew i would never find this book again.  thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a definite answer for one of the stumpers!!  N7 is a book called Sarah's Room by Doris Orgel, illustrated by Maurice Sendak.  I still have the copy that my Mom gave me as a little girl.  (Although it didn't help me keep my room clean!)  She gave it to me because she liked finding books with a Sarah as the main character.

Otfried Preussler, Satanic Mill. This very special book is by the popular German author Otfried Preussler,
beautifully translated by Anthea Bell.
Otto Preussler, Satanic Mill, 1970?.  Poster remembered title OK. Fairly sure I have the author's name spelt
correctly - no longer have a copy to check! Story (as I remember it) spot on, though.
Would suggest The Satanic Mill, by Otfried Preussler, translated by Anthea Bell, published Macmillan 1971, 185 pages "In seventeenth century Germany, a boy named Krabat desperately wants to escape from a school for Black Magic where he is held captive by demonic forces. Krabat must learn enough magic to escape." "Krabat, the protagonist, is a young orphan who starts working as an apprentice at a mill where black magic and witchcraft are at work. The miller has made a deal with the devil, and each year one of the apprentices has to be sacrificed by the miller to keep his side of the deal. Some of Krabat's friends end up dead. Krabat, however, finds
salvation through his love, a singer from the nearby village. She is able to rescue him from certain death and put an end to Satan's reign, even when the miller casts an evil spell, because her love for Krabat is stronger than witchcraft." (from the Amazon review)
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There are several books with the title "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (which I thought was the correct title) but none match my memory of the book...  a young boy is apprenticed to an evil magician.  He is expected to perform several difficult tasks (i.e., emptying a well of water, but his bucket has a hole in it sweeping the feathers from a room, but the wind keeps blowing them back).  Finally he defeats the evil sorcerer when the sorcerer becomes a raven.  Thanks for your help!

Padraic Colum wrote a book entitled THE BOY APPRENTICED TO AN ENCHANTER, 1966 (although there was an earlier printing in the 1920s?). I haven't read it and I couldn't find much info. on it except that Eean the fisherman's son is apprenticed to the evil Zabulun. Might be worth a look. ~from a librarian
Thank you for the tip, but it was not A Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter. I have since remembered that the book had a windmill in it... does that help anyone?
S134 sorceror's apprentice: the impossible tasks are a very common folktale motif. Usually the boy or girl (most commonly a girl) is helped by animals that he or she helped earlier in the story. I'd guess that the boy was acting as a servant rather than an apprentice - that's the usual arrangement.
Otfried Preussler, The Satanic Mill. Suddenly, after all these years, the title came to me! It is The Satanic Mill.  I checked it out at the library and it was the right book.  I enjoyed it again!
S134 sorceror's apprentice: if the book had a windmill in it, could it possibly be The Satanic Mill, from the Solved List? Later - I had a look at our library's copy, and it doesn't seem to have the impossible tasks in it, just a lot of shape-changing and the trial is recognising the transformed loved one.
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S234:  The miller or the Mill at..., mid 1970s.  Book has been driving me crazy, read it once when I was a freshman in high school - so that would be in the early 1980s.  Book was about a sorcerer who had a mill at the edge of a village.  He would take in orphan boys as apprentice.  At the end of each year, one of his apprentice must die before a new one could take his place.  Book is about an orphan boy who becomes an apprentice.  At some time in the book he tries to escape, turning himself into various animals, each time the miller who was following him, turned himself into something stronger.

#S234--sorceror or miller:  The Satanic Mill.  Otfried Preussler.  Abelard-Schuman, London 1972-1st ed. (U.K).  New York:  Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1972-1st ed. (U.S).  Set against the colorful background of 17th-Century Germany, the story of Krabat's captive apprenticeship and ultimate victory over the master is an unusual, tension-packed thriller that readers of all ages will find difficult to put down.  Author's sixth release, this title received the German State Children's prize for 1972.  Quite a "dark" book and themes, for a children's story.  Set in Southern Germany during the thirty years war.  8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall.  185pp.  Murray Tinkelman, jacket illustrator.  Translated by Anthea Bell.
Otfried Preussler, The Satanic Mill, 1971.  See Solved Mysteries Page.
Otfried Preussler, The Curse of the Darkling Mill, also known as The Satanic Mill.  "Secret Arts. Unexplained deaths. What is happening at the mill in the fens? Drawn by powers beyond his control, fourteen-year-old Krabat finds himself apprenticed to the dark mill and begins work with the Miller's eleven other journeymen. But strange things continue to happen at the mill. Time passes at an unnatural pace, and the journeymen have superhuman powers, and can turn themselves into ravens and other creatures. Trapped by an evil power which makes escape impossible, Krabat is forced to submit to the Master of the Mill as he tries to unravel the mill's secrets. The Curse of the Darkling Mill is an eerie tale of sorcery and nightmares, which will keep you guessing right to the end."
Otfried Preussler, The Satanic Mill.One of my favorites!
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60's or 70's, juvenile.  I read this book the late 70's or early 80's.  It's about a boy (maybe an orphan?) who is turned into a crow by a wizard or warlock and joins a group of other boys/crows that are kept by the wizard.  In exchange for learning magic they're under the control of the wizard.  I think they're crows at night and boys during the day.  At the end, inspired by a girl he falls in love with, the boy manages to escape the wizard (and I think loses his ability to use magic when he escapes).  I've searched everywhere online and in libraries, and can't find it.  Thanks!!

This sounds like the often-searched-for "The Satanic Mill" by Otfried Preussler.
The Satanic Mill.  I did some research on The Satanic Mill and I'm positive this is the book -- thank you!

This is Saturday, the Twelfth of October by Norma Fox Mazer.
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This YA book was a time travel novel about a girl (about 12 or 13) who lived (I believe) in New York in the 1970s.  Somehow, while at Central Park, she ends up traveling back in time to an ancient, tribal civilization.  She spents almost a year there trying to find a way home.  She brought with her a key, a safety pin, and a knife and these items end up playing a key role in ruining the civilization.  It was an incredible book that I used to read in the 1980s.  It had a lot of feminist and naturalist elements to it.  I would really like to find it again!  I'm almost positve that the title was a date, starting with the name of a month (September?  October?)

Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October.
Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October.
Mazer, Norma Fox, Saturday, the twelfth of October, 1975, copyright.  After spending almost a year with cave people from an earlier time, a young girl is transported back to the present greatly changed, both by her experience and by the fact that no one believes her.
Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October, 1975, copyright.
Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October.  This was the only book my mother ever censored when I was a kid! Now I want to find it and read it again.
Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October.  This is defintely it. Great book.
Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October, 1975, copyright.  Thanks!  This is definitely it.

The latter part of S45 sounds a lot like The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.  Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver
are four siblings living in NYC in the 30s. They pool their allowances so that they can each have an adventure on a Saturday. They called their club ISAAC and named their dog Isaac, too.
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Family detective series--This is a wonderful series of books for upper elementary/jr hi about a family--no mom, a housekeeper named, I think, Curly, several kids, and a dad.  The kids solve a mystery in each book but that's not the main point.  The oldest boy plays the piano.  The oldest girl goes around reciting recipes in one book; she also gets a perm that's too tight,  earning her the name "Brillo Queen."  I think one book is titled "The Tangled Web," but I had no luck in searching the Lib. of Congress for it.  The girl also takes off her nail polish with her treasured bottle of perfume in one book.

I found lots of titles called A Tangled Web, including one by L.M. Montgomery (1931).  Maybe?
#F113--family detective series:  Tangled Web could be Mangled Memory of Melendy Family stories by Elizabeth Enright.  Some details, such as Mona getting a permanent and Rush playing the piano, are right, and the maid's name was Cuffy, which is pretty close.  The mystery title in the series was Spiderweb for Two:  A Melendy Maze.
Could be the Melendy books by Elizabeth Enright. Four books: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five and Spiderweb For two: A Melendy Maze.
F113 is definitely not L.M. Montgomery's a Tangled Web.
Elizabeth Enright, Melendy family series.  Took me a few minutes to put your clues together, but this is definitely it.  The books are The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two.  The children are Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver.  They are not mystery books but Spiderweb for Two is about a year-long treasure hunt that the rest of the family puts on for Randy and Oliver.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays. The housekeeper is Cuffy, the eldest son, Rush, plays the piano, Mona gets her hair permed and nails painted and removes the polish with perfume. A Tangled Web by Montgomery is about a will and all the members of the family who wish to inherit a certain vase.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays and Spiderweb for Two.  This sounds like the Melendy family.  In The Saturdays, Mona uses her Saturday to get a perm and manicure.  In Spiderweb for Two Randy and Oliver get clues to a year long treasure hunt when the older kids are away at school.  Rush plays the piano.  Their housekeeper's name is Cuffy.
Don't think that this is an L.M. Montgomery.  Not the right type, and her list of works doesn't seem to have a series of this type.  Title should be The Tangled Web, not A Tangled Web.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  Sequels: The Four-Storey Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spiderweb for Two. Mona is the one who gets nail polish off with perfume! Cuffy is the housekeeper.
Enright, Elizabeth, Spiderweb for Two: a Melendy Maze, 1951.  Might these be Enright's books about the Melendy family?  The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two.  Although the children are not detectives, per se, Spiderweb for Two does feature a mystery with the two youngest children, Randy and Oliver. Other details: no mother, the housekeeper's name is Cuffy (not Curly), there are 4 (then 5!) kids, and a dad.  Rush (the oldest boy) plays the piano.  Mona is an actress who gives frequent dreamy recitations  I believe recipes are included.  In the first book, The Saturdays, Mona indulges in a scandalous beauty treatment including haircut (although I don't think "Brillo Queen" featured) and manicure, and she ends up removing her nail polish with strong perfume. I hope these turn out to be the right books -- they should be great treat to re-discover!   I never "lost" Enright's children's books (among my favorites), but I've just discovered her adult fiction (short stories) with very great pleasure, and would highly recommend them, especially to fans of her writing for children.
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A woman wrote this book,  1950s.  Four children live in a Victorian house - it has a cupola - I believe there was an illustration of it, might have been on the cover.  I think the children live there on their own. Each weekend, one of them is "allowed" to leave the house and have an adventure.  They weren't in prison!  I think they might have been so poor, there was some "sensible" reason for this situation.  It was charmingly told each adventure was engaging.

I believe this is Elizabeth  Enright's The Saturdays. The Melendy children pool their allowance so each one of them, on their Saturday, can plan some special all day outing. The children are not poor but I believe the war is on and they are still rationing.  Their home, with cupola, is described at great length in The Four Story Mistake.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays/The Four Story Mistake. You're combining two of the Melendy family books.  In The Saturdays, the family is living in New York City and the children pool their allowances so that they can take turns going
to the art gallery, the opera and so on.  In The Four Story Mistake, they move to a house in the country that has a cupola.
Enright, Elizabeth, The Saturdays/Four Story Mistake.  This sounds like a combination of both these stories - in The Saturdays, the kids take turns having adventures, and in The Four Story Mistake, they've moved out to the country and
the house has a cupola.
Elizabeth Enright??, The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake ??  Is it possible you're remembering parts of two of the books about the Melendy family?  In The Saturdays, the four children (Mona, Rush, Randy & Oliver) pool their allowances so they can (individually) afford an adventure each Saturday  this is in New York City.  In the second book, they move to the country and live in a Victorian house with a four-windowed cupola on the roof.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays. This sounds like an amalgamation of The Saturdays and its first sequel The Four
Storey Mistake. In the first book, the children live in New York, and pool their money so that each child can have an adventure on successive Saturdays eventually they start having their 'adventures' as a group. In the second book, they move
to a house with a cupola.
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HI!  I'm looking for a book I read as a child about a family - there's at least a couple of daughters, a father and I don't know if I remember a mom or a grandmother.  Each chapter of the book is a different "episode" in the life of the family...all I really remember is that in one chapter, the eldest daughter goes to the city for the day, and, feeling more grown up than she is, gets her fingernails painted (a no-no in the house).  She tries to hide her hands during the next meal with the family, but gets caught and becomes more upset when she thinks the polish won't come off.  That's all I remember, I apologize, but I'd really like to find this book.  I would have been reading it around 1978 or so, but I'm not sure how old the book was at the time (it seemed a bit antiquated in its reflection of family values, I recall!) Thanks so much!

Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  This is the first of the Melendy stories. When they can't afford a vacation outside NYC, the four kids pool their allowances and each does something exciting with all the week's money. Mona gets her hair bobbed and (accidentally) a red manicure, and the hairdresser tells her a story about running away to the city. The other kids go to an opera, an art gallery, and the circus.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1942.  This is definitely the book. The girl with the nail polish is Mona, and she also has her hair cut that day. Its the first of the Melendy Quartet.
not sure of author, but this is definately The Saturdays! The girls name was mona and it was her turn to used the combined weekly allowence of all the kids to do exactly what she wanted - she got a perm and a manicure - and got in big trouble!!
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays. Definitely the one.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  See solved stumpers.  In one chapter Mona, the eldest daughter, spends her Saturday money having her hair cut in a grown up style and inadvertently gets a manicure at the same time which causes almost more trouble than having her braids cut off
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941.  In this book, four siblings decide to pool their weekly allowances and take turns spending the money on a special Saturday outing. On her Saturday, teen Mona Melendy takes a trip to a beauty salon where she gets a short and stylish haircut and a manicure with bright nail polish.  Her father (a widower) disapproves and she later removes the nail polish with cologne or perfume.  Followed by three sequels.  Please see the "S" solved pages for more information.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  This is the one about the siblings who pool their allowances so each child can have a Saturday outing on their own.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  Almost definitely The Satrudays.  See solved stumpers.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941.  I believe this is the book you're looking for.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  This sounds like The Saturdays, the first book in the series about the Melendy family. In it, Mona, the oldest girl, gets her hair cut and her fingernails polished on one of her outings and gets in trouble for it. The setting is in NYC during WWII.
Enright, Elizabeth, The Saturdays. Solution for nail polish no-nos- Mona, the eldest daughter in the Melendy family, uses her Saturday to get her hair and nails done.
Elizabeth Enright, the saturdays, 1941.  Sure sounds like the Saturdays and the Melendy family, with Mona being the eldest daughter  they live with their dad and their housekeeper and each saturday one of the kids goes on an adventure.  The other three kids are Randy, Rush, and Oliver.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  Sounds like it might be this classic. Mona is the girl's name.
N60 is The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.  Each of the Melendy children pool their allowance and take turns having a Saturday out alone.  Mona goes to the beauty shop, gets her hair cut, and a manicure.  Cuffy, the housekeeper, removes the nail polish with perfume.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941.  This episode is from the first book about the Melendy Family. The four children pool their allowances so that they each have an adventure in NYC. Mona, the oldest, uses the money to go to a beauty salon  she gets her hair cut and has her nails done, much to her family's dismay.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1950s.  This sounds like one of the chapters from The Saturdays, where Mona Melendy spends the siblings (Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver) pooled allowance to go to the city for a makeover.  Each chapter is one of the kids using the allowance money for something they really want.  The Melendys series consists of The Four Story Mistake, The Saturdays, And Then There were Five, and Spiderweb for Two.
Enright, Elizabeth, The Saturdays.  The kids form a group called Isaac to pool their money together so each kid can have his/her own "day".
This sounds like The Saturdays to me...when Mona gets her turn to have an adventure on a Saturday.  I think she gets her hair cut too.  The other kids are Rush, Randy and Oliver.  There's a dad, but the mom died, and Cuffy is the housekeeper -- definitely a grandmotherly type.
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1970's, childrens.  Kids live in a big house in the city and the whole top floor is a play room. They keep clay in the bathroom sink.

Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  The first of the Melendy family books.  The top floor is The Office, which is the children's playroom, and they have clay in a sink, that needs to be moistened regularly.  That's one of Oliver's jobs (I think it's Oliver's).
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 60s, approximate.  This really sounds like The Saturdays, one of the Melendy family books. In this book they all lived in the city, had a huge playroom, and kept clay in the sink, or maybe turtles. There are other Melendy books for after they move out to the country into a huge house, have a huge playroom, etc.
Elizabeth Enright, The Four Story Mistake.  I think this might be The Four Story Mistake (or possibly one of the other Melendy books.)
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941, copyright.  Definitely this first in the 4-book Melendy family series which are still in print.  Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver live with their widowed dad and beloved housekeeper Cuffy in Manhattan.  Their upstairs playroom has clay in the sink, a piano, masks and other wonderful stuff.  Every Saturday, each child takes a turn going somewhere different in the city with their pooled allowance money.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  The first of the Melendy books-definitely the one.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  This is the first of the books about the Melendy Family.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941, copyright.  This can be none other than this well-loved classic. The details match! You will find lots of other details on the solved pages.
Enright, Elizabeth, The Melendy Family.  Sounds like a detail from the Melendy Family series. There were four children children, Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver, who lived in Manhattan with their widowed father. They did have a large playroom on the top floor of a tall, thin brownstone, one which did include the bathtub full of clay, and also a large upright piano, a trapeze, and several pictures on the ceiling formed by leaks. The children themselves had several adventures exploring the city. Later books dealt with their lives after they moved to the country. Hope this helps.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays, 1941, copyright.  Could this be The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright? Printed originally in 1941, it's a timeless story, and has been reprinted many times (including an edition that came out in the 70s)...it's still in print today.  If it's the one, in addition to the full-floor play room, you might remember that the four siblings (2 boys, 2 girls) each took turns having a "Saturday" adventure with their combined allowance...hence the title "The Saturdays". Eldest girl went to the theatre, youngest boy to the circus, etc.
Enright, Elizabeth, The Saturdays.  Part of the Melendy family books, before they move to the country. The Office is what they call their playroom.
Elizabeth Enright, The Saturdays.  Thank you all so much for solving the mystery.  The book that I was searching for is indeed "The Saturdays" by Elizabeth Enright.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Enright, Elizabeth.  The Saturdays.  Henry Holt, 1941, 1969, 2002.  New hardback with new cover illustration by Tricia Tusa.  $16.95 Enright, Elizabeth.  The Saturdays.  Henry Holt, 1941, 1969, 20th hardback printing.  Ex-library edition with only stamp being on top edges, very small water damage to top corner of pages.  G/VG. $20

On #P16, "Pot Named Pete," there's also a book titled Teena and the Magic Pot, illustrated by Jack and Louise Myers, a 1961 Tell-A-Tale which appears on page 469 of Santi's "Collecting Little Golden Books" guide, 4th Edition.
#P16--A Pot Named Pete.  There's a Rand McNally Junior Elf Book called The Magic Pot.  It's the only kids' book I've seen about a pot (not counting The Black Cauldron) except for Caroline and her Kettle Named Maud.
Thanks for the info. I'll have to ask my friend if these sound familiar to her.
Hi again.  I have spoken to my friend about this book and she has provided further information.  The pot is definitely called Peep, not Pete.  It wasn't a magic pot, it was simply one that was divided into three sections where you could cook three different things (unheard of at the time).  The father of the family was a travelling salesman who sold the pots and the family all had Norwegian sounding names.  The book had a cloth cover. That's about it!  Thanks a lot.
P16 Pot named Pete --  Not magic but possible, but Edith Unnerstad's Saucepan Journey, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, Macmillan 1951, "amusing story of the Larsson family, father mother, and seven children, who spend part of a summer traveling in horse-drawn wagons from Stockholm to Norrkoping. Father is an inventor and his whistling saucepan, Peep, makes the trip lucrative, exciting and funny. The story is told by eleven year old Lars."
That's it!!  Thank you thank you!  And I actually managed to find a copy in Australia (which is where I am) so I am now VERY happy.  I just looooove this website........

Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Sawdust in His Shoes (NY:Coward-McCann, 1950)
Sounds right.  Where I remember the book being shelved in the school library could well have been the M's, and the publication date is feasible.  I'd like to have a copy of this one as well.  Thanks.
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The book i am looking for was probably considered YA (i read it in the early 1970's) basic synopsis teen boy in the circus has to leave it for some reason (dont remember) and runs away from where he is put- he ends up living on the farm of a family that takes him in.

Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Sawdust In His Shoes. Sounds like Sawdust In His Shoes, the story of a teenage circus equestrian who is placed in an orphanage, but runs away and is taken in by a farm family.  He trains one of the plow horses, develops an new act, and eventually rejoins the circus.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis, Sawdust in His Shoes. The boy's father, a lion tamer, gets killed, and he has to go to an orphanage, from which he runs away. The boy is a solo equestrien and finds the perfect horse for him on the farm.  He ends up back in the circus as a headliner.'
Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Sawdust in His Shoes. 1950.
I vaguely remember reading something similar back in the early 80s. I think the title was "Sawdust in his Shoes", and I thought the author was Edward Fenton, but I couldn't locate it online, so probably not.  Maybe this will help jar someone else's memory though..

Well, it's not common, but I did find one:
L. T. Meade,  The Scamp Family.  London, W. & R. Chambers, n.d.  Illustrated by A. Talbot Smith. Decorative board with picture of four children sitting on a wall. Foxed. Spine a little bit cracked. Good.  $35
I think the poster may be conflating two books: Meade's The Scanp Family, which fits most of the description  and
Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes, which includes the travelling Great Uncle Matthew, called Gum for short.

James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis.  I was absolutely haunted by this story...it made a lasting impression.  It apparently made an impression on my uncle as well (so the story must be at least from the 60s), who ended up naming his company after it.
James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis.  This is the story. Its been a staple of high school literature books since at least the 1960s.
James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis.  The brother's name is Doodle.
James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis.  The short story, one of my persnonal favorites, was in the 9th grade literature book used at Beaumont Junior High, Lexington, KY.  The date - 1967-168 school year.
James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis.  Been a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure this is it.
This is definitely The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst.  The young brother's name is Doodle.
James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis, 1960.  Oh, thank you everyone for finding the title of this short story. I read it when I was in 8th or 9th grade and I remember reading it over and over because I was so moved and saddened by the story. This is now one of my favorite websites. Keep up the great work!

Dang, I just solved it myself! ...the title is indeed Scarred, and it's by Bruce Lowery, from 1961.  Think I'll try to get it on interlibrary loan, just to see if it's as powerful as I remember.  I remember that my sixth grade self was really shaken by the raw portrayal of the guilt felt over the death (as I remember it---perhaps it was just a severe injury) of a younger sibling.

When a hearse goes by is a line from an Emily Dickinson poem.  I think the poem you're looking for goes something like, The worms go in,/ The worms go out./ They eat your guts,/ And they spit them out.  Lovely imagery!
#W57:  Along with a lot of other people, I can definitely help you with this.  Alvin H. Schwartz did a series of Scary Stories books.  I believe it is the first one which contains the "worms" song, all the words, as well
as notes on its origins.  Highly enjoyable and entertaining books with GREAT illustrations!
W57 The person is right about the Schwartz book as a source for the song. Specifically, it's in the first one called SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK and it's called "The Hearse Song" in the book. Schwartz also includes a good bibliography at the back, so the person can take a look at that too.

I've had this book before.  I believe it's called exactly that: Scat! Scat! by Sally Frances, Platt & Munk, 1929, 1940. 

Ruth & Latrobe Carroll, School in the Sky, 1945.  No mistaking this one -- it's School in the Sky.  It's been quite a while but I recall one of the students was a girl named Annie, and they had a cow in the plane with them!  I remember being fascinated with the description of strapping in the cow for takeoff!
Dear Harriett, I am very happy I found your website!  My search for a book was solved with the title "School in the Sky".  I can't figure out how to respond within the post so I am writing to you to say "thanks" to whoever solved it.  I am very grateful. I made this request on behalf of someone I met at a dinner.  We started talking about children's books and she mentioned one about children traveling the world in a glass-bottomed airplane.  She said she didn't know the title or author, but had searched everywhere for the book with the little information she had.  I found your website later that night and now we have the answer.  She will be thrilled. Thanks for helping people rediscover the books that shaped their worlds when they were young.  Finding a book you once loved is like opening a door and stepping into the past for a while.  I have two young daughters and can't part with a single book of theirs, because I want that door to their early years to always be close by. 

Alberta Armer, Screwball (NY, 1963) has 2 brothers & a soap box derby; one brother has been lamed by polio. Don't know whether this is the book you're looking for, but the author's name seemed close enough to Armstrong to be worth a shot.
That's it!  I remember the title now that I see it!  Is this out of print, and if so can you find an inexpensive copy for me?

This might be one of Elisabeth Ogilvie's books...she was very prolific writing for both young readers and adults, and most of her stories are set in Maine and deal with fishermen.  She's still writing, but most of her young readers stuff would be vintage 40's or so.  Maybe this will help!
How 'bout:  Ogilvie, Elisabeth. Masquerade At Sea House. McGraw Hill, 1965.
Thanks for keeping this request in mind.  Yes, you had sent the Ogilvie suggestion before and my mother says she has looked at Ogilvie's books and none of them is it. Someday, we'll find it!
I wonder if this could be the book by Eleanor Mercein Kelly.  I don't know anything about her except that she won the O Henry award a couple of times for her short stories, and she was from Kentucky.  She wrote from the 1910's through 1940's or so, and her stories were set all other the place.  She did publish a book called Sea Change, in the early 30's, I think, but I've never read it.
Thanks for the tip.  My mom swears it's not this one, but I've put in an interlibrary loan request for a copy, just in case.  I can't find a used one anywhere.
I tracked down Eleanor Mercein Kelly's Sea  Change.  Definitely not it.
Results from a search on AG-Canada's database (sorry, no plot descriptions):  Kelly, Eleanor (Mercein), Mrs., 1880- Sea change, New York and London, Harper & brothers, 1931. 3 p.l., 358 p. front., illus. 20 cm.
Vincent, Kitty, Sea-Change, London c 1933 Watters, Barbara H., 1907- Sea change, New York; Toronto, Rinehart & company, inc. [1946] 5 p.l., 3-270 p. 20 cm.
Worth, Kathryn, 1898- Sea change. [1st ed.] Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1948. 240 p. 21 cm.
Clements, Eileen Helen, Sea-change, London, Dutton?, 1951
Hargreaves, Elisabeth, Sea Change, London, Hutchinson?, 1953
Howard, Elizabeth Jane, The sea change, London : J. Cape, 1959. 412 p.
I researched this one thoroughly and the only book with that name that hasn't been eliminated previously is this one.  The author:  Flora Louisa Shaw (also know as: Flora L. Shaw, Flora Lousa Shaw Lugard, Lady Flora Shaw)  Title:  A Sea Change  Published:  1884 in Boston by Roberts Brothers  Binding:  Red, embossed with floral border  Size:  about 4" x 6", 382 pages  Plot:  This was a non-circulating book that I found in the library, so I had to skim the plot.  A young woman (girl?) is found washed ashore, and brought to the home of Sir George and Lady Trevelyan.  She has no memory of her name, and so they call her Marina.  The Trevelyans have a son named Norman that she ends up falling in love with.  In the denouement, she is discovered to be the granddaughter of old friends of the family, with an old locket that she wore when found being the proof.  Her father was the black sheep of the family and was in Australia, sending his daughter back to his parents by ship.  I realize that not all of the details are not an exact fit, but it does have the name, the red cover, a publication date early enough to be possible, and an unconventional (for the times) romance.
I check back from time to time, to see if anyone has found my mother's Sea Change.  Here is a more complete list of books that I have tried.  It is not any of these:  James Abbeglenn (about Pacific Asia), Richard Armstrong (1969),       Peter Burchard (too new),  Celeste de Blassis (Bantam Romance), Caroline Brooks (Signet Regency romance),  R Byron (Shetland Society),  Cousins, James (poetry), Denis, Nigel (1949), Sylvia Earle (1955 ecology?), Robert Goddard (2000),  Rumer Godden (1991), Lois Gould (too late),  Elisabeth Hargreaves (1953--West Indies family), Hedderwick, Mairi (1999), Elizabeth Jane Howard (about playwright), Christopher Howell (1985), Stuart Hughes (1975 Sociology), Barbara Hunt (witches), Eleanor Mercein Kelly (set in Mallorca), Ann Knowles (1979, Wales), Muna Lee (poetry), Charles Lloyd-Jones (man's POV), Philip Loraine (1982), Allison McLeay (too late: 1992),  Peter Nichols (too late, and about sailing), Dorothy Pitkin (1964) about biological station, James Powlik (biotechnothriller), J.R. Salamanca (1969), Cynthia Seton (too new), Flora Louise Shaw (1886--about London and Sussex), Barbara Shor (1975, ltd. edition, Paris), Keith Speed (1982),  Trudy Stack (1998 photography), Lynda Ward (1983-romance), Ralph E. West, Jr. (1980, anthology short fict)
Kathryn Worth, Sea Change, 1948.  After checking dozens of books with this title, this turned out to be the one!  I have it on interlibrary loan and would really like to get a copy for my mother. The two I've found online are $325.00 and up.  If anyone can find a less expensive copy, I'd be very grateful.

Frans Van Anrooy, The Sea Horse, 1967.  Library of Congress description: "John dreams he visits the kingdom of the sea horses where he rescues the king's favorite sea horse from the lair of an ancient spider".
My mystery was indeed solved!  I searched under The Seahorse but  because this was a rare book I didn't find it through normal channels.  I loved this story and can now get it for my two year old son.  Thanks so much. 

Edmund Cooper, Seahorse in the Sky, 1969, copyright. Could this be it? a small group of people who were travelling on a plane wake up to find themselves on an alien planet and gradually learn to survive there.They find that they can all understand one another despite speakign different languages, and later learn that 2 other groups of people, one from a mediaeval-level civilisation and another from a stone-age civilisation are also there.I dont recal it being a YA novel - I seem to recall that there is a certain amoubt of sex and violence.
Varley, John, Millennium, 1983, copyright. Could this be it?  Aliens (actually humans from Earths future) kidnap airplane passengers and transport them to the future, where warfare and pollution have reduced the population to a mere handful.  These airline passengers are needed to re-populate the Earth.  The twist is that all these passengers were about to die in a dreadful plane crash.  The "snatch teams" from the future can look back in time, see these crashes, or sinking ships, or whatever, arrange for clones to be prepared to substitute for the living people, and then snatch away the otherwise-doomed passengers.

Airplane abducted by aliens. Cooper's Seahorse in the Sky is indeed the one I was thinking of.

Holling C. Holling, Seabird, 1948.
Holling Clancy Holling, Seabird.  It sounds a lot like Seabird, which has both colour and b/w line drawings, a slightly
oversize book. The bird is carved by a young man on a whaling ship, and is passed down through a few generations of his family, following the changes in ships.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Holling, Holling C. Seabird. Houghton Mifflin, 1948, sixth printing.  Nice hardback edition in edgeworn and spine frayed dust jacket.  VG/G.  $10

Ralph Moody wrote a book called Sea Biscuit, the Racehorse, or A Racehorse called Sea Biscuit, which might be the one.
Moody, Ralph.  Come On Seabiscuit.  Illustrated by Robert Riger.  Houghton Mifflin, 1963. Young American Book Club.

G106  I am looking for this book too!  I had it in the seventies, and I have never seen it since...  The only help that I can offer is another line from the book:  "Shades of purple pickle pie" - Good luck!
Dean Walley, Seals on Wheels, 1970.  This book was published by the Hallmark card company.  Great book for reading aloud! It contains the "green meanies" and everything the person mentioned.
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Seals on Wheels might be the title -- children's book. Something about fellows eating lemon jello -- they are yellow fellows. I read it in the mid-70s.

You've got the title right.  It's Seals on Wheels by Dean Walley, Hallmark 1970.   See G106 and Solved Mysteries.
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late 70s or early 80s. All I remember is the last words of the book on last page are Night is falling, bang. Page is black. It may have been a first color's book for ages 4-8. I think it may be a small black covered book with a small peacock on it. Our family to this day all say "Night is falling! and another will answer Bang. Have saved all books from that time but can't find this one amoung them! Very frustrating. I won't give up!

Dean Walley, Seals on Wheels, 1970. I have solved my own mystery. I searched high and low in my attic for this book as I had saved all books from when my children were young but was having trouble locating this one! It finally turned up!! I noticed one other person on stumpers was looking for this book, think it was listed under Peacock, but can't remember their stumper number.
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It would have been published in the sixties or seventies, before 1977. I think it had a white alligator on a page, and there was a peacock on every page. I know the last page says...The night is falling.... BANG!  I thought the book was called the night is falling but I guess I'm wrong. It was a child's book to learn colors.

Allamand, Pascale, translated by Elizabeth Watson Tayler, The Animals Who Changed Their Colors (Weekly Reader). NY Lothrop 1979.  The publication date may be too late, but there are resemblances. "The polar bear, whale, tortoise, and two crocodiles try to imitate the parrot's beautiful colors, only to discover how impractical they are." If we swap parrot for peacock and crocodile for alligator, it's close.
I ordered The Animals Who Changed Their Colors and rec'd it and it is not even close!!!! The search continue's. Just thought you should know.
Dean Walley, Seals on Wheels, 1970. According to stumper N93 this is the book that ends with "Bang! Night is falling"
Dean Walley, Seals on Wheels, 1970. This was a Hallmark Series book from 1970.

Somehow, I found it on the LOC site using various keywords - one of which was "seamstress."  It is the Seamstress of Salzburg by Anita Lobel.  Yippee!  Thanks anyway!!

#P60:  The Search for Planet X is definitely a 1960s or 1970s Scholastic paperback, small and black.  I come across it all the time in a thrift store and can pick it up if it's still there next time
Simon, Tony.  The Search for Planet X.  New York: Basic Books, 1962.  Scholastic, 1965.

Margaret Jean Anderson, Searching for Shona, 1978.  "During the evacuation of children from Edinburgh in the early days of World War II, shy, wealthy Margaret on her way to relatives in Canada trades places and identities with the orphaned Shona bound for the Scottish countryside."
I KNOW I used to own this, but can't find it anywhere.  Did the cover show one girl looking down from a train window at the other?  I seem to remember the cover was mostly green and I'm pretty sure I got it from one of those Scholastic order forms.
T130 Searching for Shona by Margaret Jean Anderson, 1978 ~from a librarian
Ha!  Now that someone's posted the title, I can tell you that Searching for Shona is definitely the book I was thinking of when I posted my clue.  I was thinking that one of the girls was named Sasha.  Hope this is it!
It's definitely Searching for Shona.  It ends, after a conversation in which Shona denies switching places with Marjorie, "Yes, Shona could keep her money, her relatives, and even her name!  Marjorie walked down Willowbrae Road feeling bold, confident, and daring.  She had found herself at last.  And she liked what she had
found."

Anderson, Margaret J, Searching for Shona, 1978.  During the evacuation of children from Edinburgh in the early days of World War II, shy, wealthy Margaret on her way to relatives in Canada trades places and identities with the orphaned Shona bound for the Scottish countryside
Margaret Jean Anderson, Searching for Shona.  This sounds like "Searching for Shona".  You can read more about it in the "Solved" section.
Margaret Anderson, Searching for Shona 1978, approximate Sounds like Searching for Shona.  "During the evacuation of children from Edinburgh in the early days of World War II, shy, wealthy Margaret on her way to relatives in Canada trades places and identities with the orphaned Shona bound for the Scottish countryside."  If I remember correctly, they're both happier where they are, so they never switch back.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, A Season of Ponies
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley, Season of Ponies, illustrated by Alton Raible. NY Atheneum 1964.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who's going to suggest this one. Here's a plot description: "Pamela found living with two old aunts dreadful until the moment a boy moved out of the mist with a flute and a herd of weirdly beautiful ponies.  Pamela never knew where they came from exactly  it was possible that the strange amulet her father gave her just before he went on another of his long trips had something to do with it.  But wherever they came from, Ponyboy and his ponies brought a summer of magic, high adventure and a new beginning to a girl who had lost all hope...."  If I remember correctly from reading it years ago, the ponies are pastel-coloured, and resemble Pamela's collection of glass horses. The old aunts won't hear of her having anything to do with horses, so she has to keep it a secret.

The Sea Sprite by Jane S. McIlvaine, published in 1952, is about a girl named Callie Pritchard who learns to sail.  She is from a wealthy family, her father is an ambassador, so she has traveled around a lot and not had a chance to make friends.  She feels very out of  place when her parents bring her to Sea Haven (I'm not sure if it's in New England or not), but learning to sail makes her feel part of the group and helps her to fit in.
Jane McIlvaine, Sea Sprite, 1952.  This sounds like Sea Sprite by Jane McIlvaine, who was perhaps better known for her horse books. The girl in the book is Callie, not Candy. She receives the Sea Sprite as a birthday gift, and hopes it will help her fit in with the other teens, but its not that easy. She takes sailing lessons, and is frequently alone...only at the end of the book does she finally make friends with the the gang at the seashore community. Hope this helps!
Thanks so much for trying to solve this. Somehow, The Sea Sprite about a wealthy girl doesn't sound right, but I'll take a look at it (when I find it.)
Janet Lambert, Candy Kane. Could you be confusing two stories here?  The Sea Sprite is about a lonely girl who learns to sail, and a similar themed book, although not with any sailing involved...is Candy Kane by Janet Lambert. A lonely "military brat" girl grows up and becomes more independent
No, I do remember that sailing was a primary theme in the book. Thanks for trying though!
You have this listed under solved, with the title Sea Sprite by Jane McIlvaine, but the original poster had said that this didn't sound like the right book (I was one of the people who suggested it). I think I have found the correct book, which is Skipper Sandra by Dorothy Horton McGee. "Sandra Turner, her parents and older brother, Clyde, went off cruising every weekend and during Mr. Turner's vacations. But Sandra wantee to learn everything about managing a boat herself. Shy and unable to make friends easily, she longed to join the Junior Yacht Club and take part in the sailing courses and all the activities" . Hope you can reactivate the old stumper, and that this is at last the book in question!

I don't remember the tiles but both D19 and M20 sound familiar to me.  I wonder if these could be either Helen Fuller Orton or Mary C. Jane mysteries. I read as many of these as I could find in the 60's and most of them had plots along these lines.
This is very scanty, but The Fortune of the Indies by Edith Ballinger Price, published by Century, 1920s "A mystery-adventures story connected with the model of a clipper ship."
Not much data here, but The Secret of Peach Orchard Plantation by Ruby L.Radford, published by Abelard-Schuman, 1963 "A charming story of a hunt for Great-Grandmother's emerald necklace, on an old plantation in Georgia."
Seaview Secret, 1962.  Kids went to live in a new subdivision near the water. Their dad was at sea most of the time. The old house around which the subdivision had been built had a cupola where you could watch ships returning from voyages. Either the subdivision or the old house was called Sea View. And, yes, the monkey done it. The kids found the jewels.

Seaward by Susan Cooper.  "His name is West. Her name is Cally. They speak different languages and come from different countries thousands of miles apart, but they do not know that. What they do know are the tragedies that took their parents, then wrenched the two of them out of reality, into a strange and perilous world through which they must travel together, knowing only that they must reach the sea. Together West and Cally embark upon a strange and sometimes terrifying quest, learning to survive and to love and, at last, the real secret of their journey."  Yes, Cally has selkie blood, and West is short for Westerly.
Susan Cooper, Seaward.  This is definitely it.  The boy, Westerly, and girl, Cally (Calliope), meet in another world following the deaths of their parents and must survive a number of adventures, including outwitting the Lady Taranis.
Susan Cooper, Seaward. (1983)  Definitely. "Westerly and Cally (Calliope), who speak different languages and come from different countries thousands of miles apart, are wrenched by catastrophe out of reality into a perilous world through which they must travel toward the sea."
Susan Cooper, Seaward. A novel about Cally and Westerly, Cally does turn out to be a Selkie in the end. An excellent book!
Susan Cooper, Seaward. (1983)  This soinds like the story of West and Cally who come together and travel seaward, Cally discovers she is a selkie. They travel together with the help of Lugan.
Susan Cooper, SEAWARD.  the boy is Westerly, the girl who is part selkie is Cally, teh god of life (more or less) is Lugan, and his sister Death is Taranis.
Susan Cooper, Seaward. (1987)  This is definitely Seaward, by Susan Cooper. I read this as a kid and it is still one of my favorite books.
Susan Cooper, Seaward. (1983) "So Cally and Westerly follow the sun westward to the sea, through a strange and perilous land, a waking dream where the power of goodness must confront dark forces of evil at every turn."  Don't forget to also read her "The Dark is Rising" series.
Susan Cooper, Seaward. (1987)  This is Seaward, by Susan Cooper.

Second Best.  This was a teen romance paperback written in the 1980's for the Wildfire series. Can't remember the author. Check out the "mixed lots" of teen fiction on eBay as I saw one there recently and I'm betting you'll find a copy. Make sure you search descriptions as it wouldn't be listed in the auction title. Good luck!
Is this it?  Pascal, Francine.  Second Best (Sweet Valley Twins #16).  "Things are happening fast forthe Wakefield twins. The biggest party of the year is coming up. If Jessica can get "un-grounded" in time, she'll be able to go. Elizabeth is entering a statewide essay contest, hoping to win the $100 prize. And both twins are putting in extra time on their special school projects.\n\n\n\nCute, smart, and popular Tom McKay is in Jessica's work group. His antisocial brother, Dylan, is in Elizabeth's. Dylan feels that he will never be as good as his brother. So why should he even bother to try? Elizabeth really wants to prove to Dylan that he can be the best at something, too. But can she help him without coming between two brothers?"
Second Best, Helen Cavanagh. I was the one who originally posted the solution Second Best. It's not a Sweet Valley book, it was published under the Wildfire series. The description on the back is exactly what she just described. And the author is Helen Cavanagh. I came across it today, strangely enough, in a thrift store.

David Williams, Second Sight 1977 The heroine of this one had a troubled marriage.  I think a miscarriage was involved, plus the husband had an affair.  They were trying to reconcile but she not only liked it better in the past, but she also came to prefer the man she met there, an artist, so she left the present to live in the past.  Her husband later finds a old painting which the artist did of her.
Williams, David.  I'm going to try to find it at the library and see if it's the same one.  It sounds familiar but I'll know when I see it.  I'll let you know then.  Thanks!

The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes?
This is definitely not THE WITCH FAMILY by Eleanor Estes. It sounds like it could be THE SECOND WITCH by Jack Sendak and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz, 1965. From various descriptions of the book it seems that the village is called Platzenhausen, the villagers are unpleasant, the young witch, Vivian, befriends a young boy
named Andrew, and the villagers try to get rid of the witch because she plays tricks on them. I haven't read the book, so I can't guarantee this is the right one, but it certainly sounds like it. ~from a librarian
Jack Sendak, Second Witch, 1965.  From all the descriptions I could find of this book, the young witch is named Vivian, the boy she befriends is Andrew, the village is Platzenhausen, the villagers are known to be unpleasant and supposedly the young witch plays tricks on the villagers and does something to shock them into getting rid of the witch. None of the descriptions said anything about a talking bear, but it might be worth investigating. (It's also 94 pages long, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz, if that helps) ~from a librarian.
Y6 is Ready Or Not by Norma Johnston, but the female character's name is Carlie--not Carrie.
Jack Sendak (author), Uri Shulevitz (illustrator), The Second Witch, 1965.  This is definitely The Second Witch by Jack Sendak, whose brother is Maurice Sendak. The young boy is Andrew Papenhausen, the talking bear is Stanwix, and the young witch is Vivian. Vivian's nose is so cold that when she picks flowers and sniffs them, they instantly wither and die.  But she is NOT gentle and good---she plays irksome, frightening pranks.  Despite her proclivity for cruel tricks, Andy befriends Vivian.  The villagers of Platzenhausen are a heartless and hateful lot who had helped each other only once long ago, when they united to combat a witch that had plagued them.  That witch was banished when she accidentally caused the death of a child.  The current mayor, though only a boy then, had been her friend, and she had asked him to make sure the villagers didn't forget her: first, because she could only live as long as someone remembered her  and second, because the villagers would return to their selfish and spiteful ways unless they remembered how they had defeated the witch together.  The mayor forgot his promise, and now the second witch has come because the villagers are unneighborly and the first witch's life is hanging by a thread.  Once again, the villagers band together, but they kill the naive and loveable Stanwix, who is gently trying to reason with them.  Since Vivian has caused the death of an innocent soul, she loses her power and must leave.  She asks Andy to remember her always, and to remind the villagers as well.  Andy grows up, becomes the mayor, and keeps his promise, and the villagers remain kind and cooperative.  He watches constantly for the smoke to return to the chimney of the witch's house, but it never does.  Out of print, not hard to find, not terribly expensive.
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A small witch is befriended by a local boy, and strange things start to happen in the town.  The book I originally read was orange and hardback, with line drawings in orange, yellow, black and white.

Florence Laughlin, The Little Leftover Witch.  I believe this is the book you are looking for, except it is young Lucinda who finds Felina on her window sill Halloween night - not a boy.  Felina is forced to live the next year with Lucinda's family and then has to decide if she wants to remain a witch or become a real girl.
Marian Place, Marilyn Miller (illus), The Witch Who Saved Halloween, 1971, copyright.  Any chance the witch was also a boy? "The situation is serious. Pollution is making it hard to breathe, buckles tarnish, and all sorts of unpleasant things are happening. And the witches are thinking of leaving the Earth to live on a cleaner planet! Witchard (a young witchling) must find a satisfactory solution to the pollution problem. Along the way, he meets some Earthling boys who become his friends and teach him to play touch football."
Sorry, neither of those books are the one I'm looking for.  It was a large hardback book, but not precisely a picture book OR a chapter book - it took me awhile to read.  The drawings were black and white line drawings, but with yellow and orange accent colors here and there.  The witch was definitely a girl, but there was a boy who befriended her.  She came from nowhere, and disappears, too, if I remember correctly.  It had a very melancholy feel to it - at least, when I was a kid I thought so!
Jack Sendak, The Second Witch.  I think this might be the one you're looking for.  The book is orange- not a long chapter book but not a picture book either.  There are more descriptions of it on the solved pages.
Jack Sendak, The Second Witch.  They solved another one for me!  Thanks so much!

Donald Sobol, Secret Agents Four,1967.Sounds a little like Secret Agents Four...there are four boys though, but they are trying to prevent spies (including a mole, who works for the father of one of the boys) from poisoning the water supply though the local reservoir.
If it's not that, it might be one of the sequels to Guns in the Heather by Lockhart Amerman.  I don't remember the titles, but I think one of them had something about poisoning the water suppply.
Donald J. Sobol, Secret Agents Four, 1967. I checked out Secret Agents Four, suggested as an answer to my stumper.  At first, it really didn't ring any bells--the beginning of the book, introducing the four boys on their summer vacation, just made me think of the Mad Scientists' Club.  When I got to the action sequence at the climax of the book, though, it seemed to come back to me.  Ken's explanation to the other guys of what a sleeper--sleeper, not mole, as I remembered, although sleeper makes better sense--agent is was right on target.  At the end of this book, only two of the four boys are good in enough shape to race to stop the sleeper from poisoning te reservoir I think that must be the reason I remember there being two boys instead of four.  I think it is conclusive that this is another mystery solved!  Thanks for your great service!

Kitt, Tamara, The Secret Cat, illustrated by William Russell.  NY: Wonder, Scholastic & Troll 1961.  The Wonder Books Easy Reader edition of this is dark blue, with a picture of the orange-striped cat juggling, with a castle in the background. "A prince and princess have no present for their mother, the queen's birthday. They have a cat which is their own little secret. They decide to try and sell it to buy a present for their mom, but decide the cat is worth so much, maybe it could be a present."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Kitt, Tamara.  The Secret Cat. Illustrated by William Russell. Grosset & Dunlap, 1961.  Grosset & Dunlap Easy Reader #3455, Library binding, corners worn; pages have some light stains .  G  <SOLD>

Marilyn Sachs, A Secret Friend, 1978.
Marilyn Sachs, A Secret Friend, 1978. Yes, this is exactly the book!!! Thank you to whoever solved this for me!!!!!!!
Sachs, Marilyn, A Secret Friend, 1987. This is definitely the book that they're looking for as Jessica, the main character, loses her friend Wendy and they have "poison" lockets that have red jello in them.
Marilyn Sachs, A Secret Friend, 1978. Definitely A Secret Friend (I remember Wendy and the "poison lockets" filled with Jell-O powder!)

This is definitely THE SECRET HIDE-OUT by John Peterson, 1965, 1998. The author's estate has put the whole book, including illustrations, online here.  Don't let the cover and the illustrations throw you though - they are from the 1998 reprint. The Scholastic copy was more orange or yellow,  and I remember different illustrations (I'll have to check my childhood copy). Also, you might be interested to know that there was a sequel, ENEMIES OF THE SECRET HIDE-OUT. ~from a librarian
BTW, the full name is John Lawrence Peterson and he is also the author of the well-known Littles series!
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Scholastic or Arrow book club book about kids who find a dusty notebook in grandparent's basement - it's instructions on how to join a Viking Club - have to sleep outside and show bravery - after following instruction, their dad meets them and initiates them - it was his creation as a kid

ooooh - I remember this one -- can't remember the name!  But have more details: the boys had to make masks out of paper bags and use a whistle signal and code names to call each other ... I borrowed it multiple times from my 4th grade classroom library (mid 80s), and believe it was a scholastic book club book.  determined to find the title ...
Got it!  The Secret Hide Out, by John Peterson.  Found a description on Alibris: "Matt and Sam discover the secret book of a mysterious Viking Club in their grandmother's cellar. Following the instructions in the book, the boys find their way to a secret hide-out where they encounter the biggest surprise--and secret--of all."
Peterson, John Lawrence, Secret Hide Out, 1965. "Matt Burns and his brother Sam find the secret book of the Viking Club. How will the boys find the secret hide-out? And when they do, what will they find there?" There's also Enemies of the Secret Hide Out (1966)."The members of the Viking Club outwit the enemy to protect their secret hideout."
This is definitely THE SECRET HIDE-OUT by John Peterson, originally published 1965, republished 1988. While in their grandmother's basement, Sam and Matt Burns find the secret notebook of the Viking Club, and follow clues to find the secret club hide-out. It contained diagrams/instructions for making or doing some of the activities. I seem to recall that the cover of the reprint doesn't match the original, so don't let that throw you. You also might be interested to know that there was a sequel, ENEMIES OF THE SECRET HIDE-OUT, 1966.~from a librarian
John Peterson, The Secret Hide-out.  This has been reprinted!  The sequel is Enemies of the Secret Hide-out.
John Lawrence Peterson, The Secret Hideout.  Definitely The Secret Hideout.  The kids find a notebook that tells them all this elaborate stuff they have to make.. a shield, a mask, a spear, and a whistle.  Eventually they find the hideout and their dad is dressed in his gear ready to greet them.  There's a sequel called Enemies of the Secret Hideout as well.
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This book was out in the mid-late 70's (as that is when I remember reading it).  It involves a couple of brothers that go to their grandmothers house for the summer.  After meeting up with one other boy, they discover a secret message.  Following the instructions in the message they find instructions for making paper signal whistles, a shield (of some sort) as well as paper bag masks (I think one decided to do a lion, and a tiger, etc memory is a little fuzzy here).  Eventually they discover directions to a secret "hide out".  When they arrive, there is a man there, wearing a similar mask.  This man inducts them into a secret club, and at the end reveals himself to be the father of the two boys.  The book included instructions on how to make this mask, whistle, etc.  I don't know the author or the title.

Actually, I found the book.  It is The Secret Hide-Out.  By John Peterson.
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Treasure hunt Boys book I read in the 1960's at school about finding a old book  about a secret Indian? club in the attic with a map to a meeting place and codes etc.  when they find the place one of the kid's father is there in indian/club gear to tell the boys he was in the club when he was young

John Peterson, Secret Hide-Out.  See the solved page for more detail but this sure sounds like you're describing The Secret Hide-Out by John Peterson.
Peterson, John, The Secret Hide-Out, 1965.  It's a Viking Club!  Followed by a sequel, Enemies of the Secret-Hide-Out (1966).  Please see the Solved Mysteries "S" page for more information.
Thanks for the answer! That book stuck in my mind for all these years
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1965-1975.  I have fond memories of this book. I bought it through a school book club like Scholastic back in elementary  it may have been scholastic then - I don't know. Anyway, the story is about a young boy who, I think goes to his grandfather's farm or cottage and there in the woods (or the barn) finds a secret hiding place for a mysterious club. There are other boys involved, but I don't remember if they are all friends or if they meet each other during the story. The book offers a kind of guide to creating the club, a clubhouse, and masks, shields, and staffs in a kind of Knightly fashion with how-to's in the storyline. I hope someone else remembers or has a copy. Thanks!!!

John Peterson, The Secret Hide-Out.  Check the description of this book in "Solved Mysteries."  It sounds like what you're looking for.
John Peterson, The Secret Hideout.  Sounds a lot like The Secret Hideout, though they are called The Viking Club, rather than knights.
There's also a sequel:  Enemies of the secret hide-out,  1966
Thanks to who ever it was who solved the mystery. The book I remember is definitely The Secret Hide-Out by John Peterson. I did a quick search on the net and found the cover art and thats it! Now all I need to do is find a copy. Thanks again to all!!!

Sheila Greenwald, The Secret in Miranda's Closest.  A great book.  I believe she has to scrounge for materials and hide the doll from her mother, who is sort of an uber-feminist and believes that dolls are bad for girls.
Greenwald, Sheila, The Secret in Miranda's Closet, 1977.  This may be the book you are talking about. Miranda is a young girl's whose Mother, Olivia, is an ardent feminist and has kept Miranda from playing with dolls all of her life. Miranda somehow gets a doll and secretly creates a fabulous doll world in the back of her closet to keep her Mother from being disappointed in her.
Greenwald, Sheila, The Secret in Miranda's Closet, 1977.  This sounds like The Secret in Miranda's Closet. As I recall, Miranda's Mom, Olivia, was an ardent feminist who never let "Randy" (as she called her) play with dolls. To avoid
disappointing her Mom, Miranda created a fabulous doll house in the back of her closet and kept it a secret from her. Olivia didn't get her registered for summer camp in time, so Miranda spent her days working on her doll house. She became acquainted with some supportive adults as she shopped for wood, fabrics, and other materials to create an elaborate house for her doll, and became more confident in the process. Hope this helps.
sheila greenwald, The Secret In Miranda's Closet, 1977.  I think this is the one you're looking for-I bought a copy from The Scholastic Book Club when I was in second or third grade-- I really identified with the lead character because I used my bedroom closet as a "secret world" too!
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Book from 1970s or very early 1980s--a girl whose single mom is a feminist who doesn't want her daughter playing with dolls (too gender stereotyped) gets an old china doll and trunk full of clothes from a neighbor.  She hides the doll from her mother, but researches the history of porcelain dolls, meets other collectors, and makes a small dollhouse that she hides in her closet.  The story was set in New York City.  The girl's mother was named Olivia, and she supported a feminist book collective or bookstore.  She had changed her name from Mary Lou.  I don't remember the names of the girl or the doll.

Sheila Greenwald, The Secret in Miranda's Closest, 1977.  See more on the Solved Mysteries pages.

This book is The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom.  It was published by Harper in 1960.  I loved this
book and read it over and over when I was a girl. It's the story of two girls, Martha and Victoria, who make up a secret language to help themselves deal with their insecurities and fears in boarding school.
H9  is The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom, Harper 1960 The two girls are unhappy at being at boarding school and start their own secret club with a secret language and fix up a clubhouse in the woods.
I think H9 is The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom.  It's about two young girls (around age 9) at a boarding school.  They dress as ice-cream cones for the Halloween party (the illustration of them in their costumes is very funny), and later in the book they build themselves a playhouse in the woods on the school grounds.
This is definitely Ursula Nordstrom's Secret Language -- I just pulled my copy and found the scene where the girls wear ice cream cone costumes.
Wow... all of these answers came within one week of posting this stumper!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! I can't wait to get the book and read it again! This is such a wonderful service you do!!
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The book I read often as an elementary school child involved a girl who I think went to a boarding school and found solace in going to the woods.  My most vivid memory is of her creating a moss lined pond that was her secret place.  I don't know what keyword to submit.  Can you help me with that? Thanks and I'll be checking for the solution. P.S.  I heard of your web site on NPR this morning.

I haven't read it in a long time, but this sounds like The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom.
Zibby O'Neal, Language of the Goldfish, 1980.  This may not be it, but it does involve a girl and a pond that is her special place.
Nordstrom, Ursula, The Secret Language.  Victoria also builds a hut in the woods, invents a secret language and dresses as an ice cream cone for party.
Sounds like THE SECRET LANGUAGE by Ursula Nordstrom, 1960. ~from a librarian
Re B168: I remember this book well, but not the title or author. The girl was very lonely because everyone else went home on holidays and weekends. She was forever getting demerits for sitting on the bed in her room and otherwise getting in trouble with the strict headmistress. She and her friend (roommate?) dressed as ice-cream cones for Halloween--not a good idea.  I think that the headmistress eventually discovers the hiding place in the woods, but turns out to be understanding about it. I believe mine was a Scholastic edition.
What a treat to have my bookstumper solved on day one!  I have three daughters and look forward to sharing this book with them.  Is it available at your store?  Please let me know the details if it is.  Thanks.
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This book was a 1970s book about a home (orphanage maybe?) for young girls in Europe (England, France?) and run by a religious order (possibly) and focuses on the friendship of two girls (maybe ages 8-10?).  All I remember is that the two girls' chores consisted of washing, drying and putting away the dishes and silverware after meals.  One girl lovingly dries each piece of silverware and pretends they are soldiers she is taking care of before carefully putting each piece "to bed" in the drawer.  Maybe the book takes place during wartime.  I would love to find out the title/author of this childhood book and have searched endlessly on the Internet for any clues.  Please help!

S463: Most likely The Secret Language (1960), which is, I believe, Ursula Nordstrom's only children's novel. See Solved Mysteries. (It was also she who dragged Shel Silverstein into children's publishing, I heard!) Fatherless Victoria North is only eight when she's sent off to boarding school (in the U.S.) and is very homesick until she meets Martha, the only sympathetic person there. Victoria says at one point that her mother had to send her there because she has a job that involves traveling a lot - and that before then, they usually lived in hotels. (To this day, I'm confused as to just what this says about their financial situation - somehow, you'd think hiring a nanny would be cheaper than boarding school! Or maybe it's not supposed to be realistic, even for 1960.) The book has its charms, but the icy Miss Mossman and "Mother Carrie" are clearly opposite extremes that are equally outdated. I wonder if Nordstrom was thinking of "The Water-Babies" or the Virgin Mary when she created the latter?
Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language.  Victoria and Martha were roommates at an American boarding school, and this was just Victoria's game that she described to Martha (she pretended they were wounded soldiers as she polished the silverware), but I bet you anything this is the book you're looking for.  Do you remember when they dressed up as ice cream cones for the Halloween party?
Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language.  I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that you and your kind friends have solved this book stumper for me!  I immediately went to [big megacorporate website] and ordered a used cpoy of this book and can't wait to read it again (and, now to my children).  Just reading the comments which provided more details about the book's characters and activities (that I'd forgotten about but came back to me immediately!) made me so excited.  Thank you for providing such a wonderful service!  I am telling all my friends and family about this website.
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It is a chapter book, I read in grade school in the 1960's, fourth, fifth grade?, which takes place in a girls boarding school. It involves two girls, one very shy who has just arrived at the school and another who might be considered the school bully. They become unlikely friends. The "bully" has some made up words she uses and one of them is "ickenspick" or something similar. There is a mean head teacher of the boarding school who is later replaced by a very nice one. For some reason I remember one chapter titled, "Come In and Put Your Sweaters on.

Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language.  This is the one you want. The inside jacket reads: "Victoria felt lost and alone her first day at boarding school. Then Martha offered to teach her the secret language, and suddenly Victoria had no time to be homesick."  A wonderful story--one of my favorites from childhood. And it is so leebossa that I could help you name the book! (leebossa = when something is lovely or works out just right).  I don't know if there was more than one printing, but make sure you get an edition illustrated by Mary Chalmers--charming.
The Secret Language.  Definitely the ickenspick (yuck) book...or maybe that should be leebossa (cool), since so many people remember it fondly.
Thank you for solving the mystery. Actually my older sister who also read the book as a youngster remembered the title about when I sent you my request money. I am a third grade teacher at a small elementary school in central Kansas and as soon as I found out the title I went to our library to see if possibly.....? Sure enough, they had an old copy and I read it that evening. So many memories but so different than the books kids that age read today. Simpler, I guess. It is fun to look through your "mysteries" to see if any are things I read as a young girl. Thank you again
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60s-70s. This is a short kids/young adult novel about two little girls who are friends and who meet up to have adventures in a garden. I think there is some sort of hideaway, secret castle, or something like that. (No, this book is not The Secret Garden!) The cover on the edition I had was an illustration of the two girls, one of them blond, bending over to look at something or kneeling on the grass in this special garden area. I know this is really vague--hopefully it jogs a memory for someone.

Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language.The cover of the edition I had showed the two girls standing under some trees, bending over a small pool they had created near the hut they had built in the woods.
Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language. My copy of the Secret Language has a cover that matches this description.
Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language. Thanks so much! This was the right book!

The Secret Life of Dilly McBean.  I had this as a kid, and loved it. All the details mentioned are there: the parents die when a hay truck falls on them, kid grows up in a series of camps and boarding schools until being sent to a house in the country with a butler hired through is inheritance, his possessions from his (earlier) childhood are there, including the constellation lamp. And, as a bonus, he as magnetism. As in, he can attract iron and steel to him or erase computer disks. Pretty memorable book, I must have read it several hundred times growing up.
Dorothy Haas, The secret life of Dilly McBean.  I just want to say thank you to whoever posted the solution to my stumper. The second I read the title I knew this was it. I checked my library's online catalog and they have it. I can't wait to reread it. Thank you again! This is a wonderful resource for those of us with less than perfect memories.

Greenwald, Sheila, The Secret Museum, 1974.  "Throught their restoration of an abandoned playhouse full of antique dolls, two young girls show several other members of the community how to gain a new lease on life."  Just a guess, but the description sounds promising and it's from the right time period.
Sheila Greenwald, The Secret Museum. The main character's parents have moved into the country, which the girl doesn't like too well.  She goes out exploring, finds the dolls, and she and another girl fix them up and charge admission.  The actual owner of the dolls finds out they're doing this and gets mad, but all turns out well in the end.

Hugh Walters, Dark Triangle, 1979, copyright.  This was the twentieth (and last) book published in Hugh Walters' "Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A." (United States Exploration Agency) series.  When a plane carrying both the UK Prime Minister and the US President disappears over the Bermuda Triangle, Chris and his colleagues venture into the Triangle to look for them.  There, they encounter a telepathic dolphin-like species called the Sembrians.
I had a feeling someone would suggest Dark Triangle, and thank you, but I am quite certain this is not it. Looks like a fascinating book though. The cover of the one I'm looking for, by the way, had an color illustration (paint?) showing a boy and girl holding onto the dorsal fins of these dolphins, in the middle of a lagoon surrounded by beautiful jungle. Thank you for the suggestion...any more ideas?
Betty Ballantine, The Secret Oceans.  I found it!!! I found an obscure list of dolphin fiction books online. Thanks for your help, guys... this site is amazing.

Walter D. Edmonds, Beaver Valley, 1971.  This is a children's allegory about conservation and ecology.  The story concerns a colony of beavers who move into a peaceful valley and build dams which disrupt the environment and threaten the lives of many of the animal residents.  The descriptions I found of it were not very detailed, however, so I don't know if one of the beavers has unusually large teeth, as you recall.
Guy Buffet, Robert B. Goodman & Robert A. Spicer, Secret of Beaver Valley, 1973.  I am the one who suggested Edmond's Beaver Valley as a possible solution, but I have looked a bit more and realized that is incorrect.  The right book is the very similarly-titled Secret of Beaver Valley, which, like Beaver Valley  is also an allegory for children about the environment and conservation (what are the odds?). In this one, Ernest Beaver is born with unusually big teeth, and as he is able to do more work for the other beavers, they find themselves obliged to do more and more work for him.  Ernest's thirst for power and his enormous needs transform the once-peaceful valley into an unpleasant industrialized society.

The Secret of Crossbone Hill by Wilson Gage.
Secret of Crossbone Hill, by Wilson Gage, illustrated by Mary Stevens, published by World 1959, 184 pages. "A lively and well-written tale of summer play adventures with eleven-year-old David and his younger sister kathy, whose family are vacationing on the South Carolina coast. A swamp with a mystery which turns out NOT to be pirates and treasure furnishes some heady agitation in strange sights and other enigmas. The family group is particularly likable, given to amusing banter (father, especially, has a gift for inventing long ridiculous retorts, full of made-up words). There is some naturally introduced description of birds which fascinate David's bird-watching mother and become a hobby for him, too, as egrets, terns, anhingas, and ibises are to be seen." (Horn Book Jun/59 p.205)

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Gage, Wilson. The Secret of Crossbone Hill.  Illustrated by Mary Stevens.  Weekly Reader, 1960.  Dustjacket flaps have been clipped and a piece of tape with an inscription has been affixed to inside front cover.  VG/VG.  $32

Lomask Milton, The secret of Grandfather's diary, 1968, reprint.  An Archway Paperbak, Washington Square Press.  Story of Denny and a strange and eventful summer.  I don't have this book on me at the moment but can get back to you with more details.
This is the book I was looking for!  Thanks for the speedy solution.

U5 Upside down television set -- I FOUND IT!!! The Secret of Sleeping River, a story of television magic by Archie Binns, published Winston, 1952, 213 pages, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni. "Rarely seen, delightful book about what happens when a family comes to possess a magic television as a result of a gypsy's tinkering." I'm happy. No kidding, "rarely seen". Woohoo!
the answer to U5 is: The Secret of Sleeping River, a story of television magic by Archie Binns, published Winston, 1952, 213 pages, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni.
Believe it or not, it looks as if this is also my found stumper (Upside down tv) Secret of the Sleeping River: a story of television magic, by Archie Binns, illustrated by Rafello Busoni, published by Winston, 1952. I had forgotten that the mysterious tv programs were sponsored by Pomeroy's Wild Goat's Milk Cheese, and announced by the Absent-Minded Announcer, who is connected with the farmhouse that the family has moved to. They find a photograph of him as a boy between some boards in the window-seat. It's a terrific book, and I'm excited to find that someone else read it and remembered it - it's as if we'd each remembered half the plot and needed to be put together!

Eleanor Cameron, A Spell is Cast.  The stumper almost sounds like A Spell is Cast.  It takes place on the coast near Monterey or Carmel, and I know they explore some caves.  I don't remember about the pancakes, though it's been a long time since I read this.
Margaret Leighton, The Secret of Smuggler's Cove, 1959.  I believe it's The Secret of Smuggler's Cove.  I read it recently and the details match--the aunt who doesn't eat much and doesn't realize a growing girl needs more to eat, the diner owned by the hispanic couple where she fills up after her aunt's scanty meals and the valuable book that the couple owns that they're afraid someone will steal.
Thanks so much for your replies! The Secret of Smuggler's Cove has to be it. The title rings a bell now, and so does the valuable book that the couple owns.

Secret of Smugglers' Wood,  R.J. (Reginald James) McGregor, Penguin, 1957, Puffin Story Books #105.  Some other books by McGregor are: The Young Detectives (c.1934, 1967), Warrior's Treasure (1962), Indian Delight (1958), Laughing Raider (1951), Jungle Holiday (1950), Chi-Lo the General (1947), Monkey-God's Secret  a story of adventure (1924), Secret Jungle (?), Jungle Mystery  a story of adventure (1910-1919?), as well as numerous plays.
Further detail to an item in solved mystery catlaogue:  R J McGregor, Secret of Smugglers' Wood.  RJ McGregor was the Headmaster of Bristol Grammer Preparatory School, hence his affinity to childern's stories. He had four children, whose first names are the same as the heroes in the Young Detectives etc. 

C74 circus looks like the same book as T74 Tiny the circus elephant. Probably not the right book, but on a similar theme is Lions in the Barn, by Virginia Frances Voight, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published Holiday
1955, 96 pages "Most circuses in the old days had no permanent winter headquarters. This gave many a farmer in New York State and Western Connecticut a chance to make a little extra cash by winter-boarding animals. It must also have given many farm boys as much pleasure as it did Clay Baldwin. Miss Voight tells how he helped his father get their barn ready; how the trainer and his six big cats arrived; how Clay learned to help him care for the animals and train a lion cub." Less information but possible - The Hired Man's Elephant, by Phil Stong, published Dodd, Mead 1939, 149 pp. Illustrated by Doris Lee. "story of an elephant that finds a home on an Iowa farm."
C74 circus and T74 tiny the elephant: The Secret of Stone House Farm, by Miriam Young, illustrated by William M. Hutchinson, published Harcourt 1963, 192 pages, is about Marcy, Wayne and Lee, who discover that a long-deserted farm near their home has been occupied by "Bert Cole, a retired circus performer, his immensely fat wife Juanita (an ex-ballerina) and their collection of strange pets. But it is the "secret" hidden in the barn and carefully guarded, that finally brings the story to a spirited climax." (HB Oct/63 p.505) Nothing solid on whether an elephant is involved, though.
Another possible is Elephants in the Garden, written and illustrated by Ida Scheib, published David McKay 1958. "Joey becomes a neighborhood sensation after he makes his unscheduled debut - by elephant back - under the Big Top, in Madison Square Garden. Offstage glimpses of the circus, Joey, and his elephant friends will captivate the younger set. Ages 7-10." (HB Apr/58 p.85 pub ad). It sounds more as if Joey is already part of the circus, though, and doesn's seem to be set in the countryside.
C74 circus: just perhaps, Black Elephant, by Virginia F. Voight, published Prentice-Hall 1960. "this well written story lends an interesting perspective to the circus life of the last century, to life in rural New England. Ages 8-12." (HB Dec/60 p.549 pub ad) "Young Dilly joins the Hathaway Rolling Show circus and becomes involved with the care of elephants. When an abused young black elephant named Ebony escapes into the Maine woods, Dilly must find the elephant and regain its trust." No mention of Tiny, though.
Miriam Young, if you say so, The Secret of Stone House Farm.  C47 is definitely Secret of Stone House Farm!  The elephant is being hidden in the barn because he hurt someone he thought was attacking his keeper, Bert, and Bert and Juanita are afraid - with good reason - that he will be destroyed.  Hiding an elephant is no small job, though, and once the kids find out, they are happy to enlist their help.  Gradually, more and more people find out about Tiny.  I don't remember how the problem of his being destroyed is solved, but I distinctly remember Tiny's taking part in a parade. The bank pays to have him advertise for them, and the heroine,  who wants to be a drum majorette in the parade, has to be the clown riding Tiny instead.  This precipitates the climax, in which Tiny is discovered by the authorities and the question of his being dangerous is settled satisfactorily.
Young, Miriam, Secret of Stone House Farm.  This was given as a solution for C47 christmas star, and I believe that was a typo for C74, since the plot of the Miriam Young book is about an elephant in a barn (as in C74) not a star on a tree (as in C47). If the stumper was originally posted by the same person who posted the first Mop Top solution, it is confirmed there.
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Hi-I am looking for the title of a paperback chapter book I read as a child. It was set ina small town durin summer vacation, and a boy finds out that a group of circus performers has just moved in nearby. they have a elephant named Tiny, and there is a parade in it. This is just about all I can remember. Any ideas?  This is a great site- WOW.

T74: Well, elephants named "Tiny" are something of a running gag in fiction, but I remember one story fondly (not the title though - sorry) - it was part of the same collection, I think, that had the Native American story I mentioned in "Pie for a beggar". In it, a boy and his father work in a circus - the father does a sad clown act in which he's called "The Great Gaston"(?) and the boy tends a young elephant. The father has an injury and the boy begs the ringmaster to be allowed to fill in for him. He makes up an act in which he's searching everywhere for Tiny, who's right behind him, and whenever he turns, she turns. Finally, he sees her and asks, "Have you seen an
elephant anywhere? She's just your size." She shakes her head. The act is a hit. The other stories include one about a man who can never make up his mind about anything and one about a fool who has to be told to build a house, then to put in a door, windows, and a chimney. Probably written before 1970.
C74 circus looks like the same book as T74 Tiny the circus elephant. Probably not the right book, but on a similar theme is Lions in the Barn, by Virginia Frances Voight, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, published Holiday
1955, 96 pages "Most circuses in the old days had no permanent winter headquarters. This gave many a farmer in New York State and Western Connecticut a chance to make a little extra cash by winter-boarding animals. It must also have given many farm boys as much pleasure as it did Clay Baldwin. Miss Voight tells how he helped his father get their barn ready; how the trainer and his six big cats arrived; how Clay learned to help him care for the animals and train a lion cub." Less information but possible - The Hired Man's Elephant, by Phil Stong, published Dodd, Mead 1939, 149 pp. Illustrated by Doris Lee. "story of an elephant that finds a home on an Iowa farm."
C74 circus and T74 tiny the elephant: The Secret of Stone House Farm, by Miriam Young, illustrated by William M. Hutchinson, published Harcourt 1963, 192 pages, is about Marcy, Wayne and Lee, who discover that a long-deserted farm near their home has been occupied by "Bert Cole, a retired circus performer, his immensely fat wife Juanita (an ex-ballerina) and their collection of strange pets. But it is the "secret" hidden in the barn and carefully guarded, that finally brings the story to a spirited climax." (HB Oct/63 p.505) Nothing solid on whether an elephant is involved, though.
Another possible is Elephants in the Garden, written and illustrated by Ida Scheib, published David McKay 1958. "Joey becomes a neighborhood sensation after he makes his unscheduled debut - by elephant back - under the Big Top, in Madison Square Garden. Offstage glimpses of the circus, Joey, and his elephant friends will captivate the younger set. Ages 7-10." (HB Apr/58 p.85 pub ad). It sounds more as if Joey is already part of the circus, though, and doesn's seem to be set in the countryside.
Miriam Young, The Secret of Stone House Farm, 1963.  I am currently reading this book from our area library.  It is about a girl (Marcy), her younger brother (Wayne) and a neighbor boy Lee.  During summer break, they become friends with Mr. and Mrs. Cole, retired circus performers who moved in to the house next door.  They have an elephant Tiny.  In order to get the towns people to accept Tiny, they offer kids rides on him.  (I am not completely through with the book yet, but I have skimmed it and there is a part where the kids put on a parade.)  Hope this helps!

Sounds like The Secret of Terror Castle by Robert Arthur, the first book in Alfred Hitchcock & The Three Investigators series! Bob was the one who kept records and did research because he was somewhat lame from his accident when he tried to climb a small mountain and fell and broke his leg "in umpteen places." M.V. Carey also wrote books in the series, which were all (?)rewritten after Alfred Hitchcock's death to leave him out as an anachronistic character. Lots of fun, all of them, although my mother used to complain about the portrayal of the female characters - and I don't just mean Allie Jamison. I can see her point.
ALfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators, late 1950s, early 1960s.  I remember the boy with the broken leg, he is the narrator of a series of mysteries set in Southern California that all involved Alfred Hitchcock.  The narrator worked with two other teenage boys out of a trailor in a junkyard.  One of the boys was very bright and had the temporary use of a Rolls and chauffeur which enabled them to travel around to investigate mysteries.  Hitchcock was a character who gave them advice from time to time. The boy with the broken leg had to stay with the car because he limped and couldn't walk or climb for long periods. I remember the titles of two of the books: The Secret of Terror Castle and The Mystery of the Green Ghost.  They were Scholastic paperbacks and were also in hardcover in my school library.
Robert Arthur, Alfred Hitchcock andThe Three Investigators, 1964.  I just sent in this solution, then I discovered the series is still in print and available.
Yes, this is it!  It all started coming back to me as I read the titles and the bit about the junk yard.  I looked up the books on the web to confirm my suspicions, and after reading the excerpts and reviews, I am convinced this is the series.  Thank you all.
The original series of Three Investigators novels began in 1964 with The Secret Of Terror Castle (#1) and concluded with The Mystery Of The Cranky Collector (#43) in 1987.  The early books were written by Robert Arthur.  Later installments were written by other authors, such as M. V. Carey, using the characters (Jupiter, Pete and Bob) created by Arthur.

Not 100% sure, but person could try The Secret of the Crazy Quilt by Florence Hightower, 1972.
S69 sounds a bit like T39
Going only by the title, maybe Treasure of Crazy Quilt Farm by Marcella Thum, illustrated by Elinor Jaeger, published by Franklin Watts 1965.  Not too likely, but also The Mystery of the Gold Candlesticks by
Winifred Scott, published London, Mowbrays 1958 "This fast-paced adventure story for boys and girls is concerned with the unexpected detective activities of an orphaned brother and sister on holiday in a strange country house." (Junior Bookshelf Oct/58 p.172 publ. ad) And still grasping at straws Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Paul Frame, published NY Macmillan 1966, 154 pages "Liza, Bill, and Jed, spending the summer at their grandparent's farm, are determined to solve the puzzle of an often-told family legend of authentic Indian relics, which a hundred years before vanished without trace. Young readers will be immediately involved when the children accidentally stumble upon the first of the coded clues, and can share the fun and excitement of unscrambling the codes and deciphering the cryptic instructions."
More on The Sectret of the Crazy Quilt:  "During a prolonged visit at their Massachusetts family home during the winter of 1944-45, Jerry and her aunt try to unravel the mysterious events of another vacation
visit twenty years before."
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It is a book for young adolescents, set in the Prohibition era, with a young heroine and a patchwork quilt, involving boats, rumrunners and I think an wireless radio.  It was an exciting adventure mystery.  I particularly remember the quilt - I think the solution to the mystery was sewn into the crazy patchwork quilt.

Shot in the dark, but it could be SECRET OF THE CRAZY QUILT by Florence Hightower, 1972. While vacationing in the family home in Massachusetts in 1944, a girl and her aunt try to solve a mystery from 20 years before (which would put it in the time of Prohibition)~from a librarian
Margaret Sutton, The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt, 1941.Not sure what the plot is, but this is part of a girl sleuth series, like Nancy Drew, so it might be what you are looking for.
Thank you for your suggestions.  I am going to try the Florence Hightower book, which seems correct.  The author's name is familiar, and it seems the correct year.  I think I read the Margaret Sutton book also - is that a Judy Bolton?

This book is indeed by Phyliss Whitney. It's called The Secret of the Emerald Star and the children's names were Robin, Stella (the blind girl) and Julian. I loved this mystery as a child, particularly because I loved the name of Julian. I picked up a copy of this book for 50 cents when my local library discarded it. I can't wait to introduce it to my three-year-old when she gets older.
W10--Secret of The Emerald Star

I am looking for a couple of mystery books I read as a child in the early eighties.  The titles (as best as I can remember) are The Mystery of the Red Carnations (I think it was an Edgar Allan Poe grave-type of mystery-- someone's leaving carnations on someone's grave) and The Mystery of the Missing Emeralds (has a blind girl named Stella, the stone ends up having been hidden in a statue which she had sculpted).  Please help!  I've been looking for title/author/book for many years.

Secret of the Emerald Star, by Phyliss Whitney!!!  I remember loving this book as a youngster, too!
Two books are mentioned in M12.  I don't know the first one, but the second one mentioned is definately Secret of the Emerald  Star by Phyllis A. Whitney.
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This was a young adult mystery that I read sometime between 1980-1983.  I can remember a girl who visits someone (cousin?) and a big old house nearby -- and someone (uncle? gardner?) who is involved in jewel theft.  I know this isn't much!  I remember that it was pretty scary and there was a chase in the woods at night...  Also, the cover had a girl looking up at an old victorian style house at night.  This was not a "series" book.  Please help!

Whitney, Mystery of the Green Cat, 1955.  It's possible that this is the book.  Here is part of the synopsis from the Phyllis Whitney website: A diversion brings a new development in the family's problems. There are some exciting rumors about the people who live in the old Victorian house next door. Roger Dallas even suggests that there might be a mystery locked behind its forbidding walls. When a rock shatters a window in the girls' room and a strange note about a green cat is found, Jill and Andy decide to investigate. Jill meets Hana Tamura, a Japanese girl whose parents work for the people in the mysterious mansion. Hana has been forbidden to be friendly with anyone in the neighborhood, and when Jill asks about the green cat, the effect on Hana is electric. One thrilling adventure follows upon another and Andy and Jill make some startling discoveries.
MARY STEWART, Moon-Spinners, 1962.  I'm not sure about the old house part in this one, but this does involve jewelry smuggling.  Here's the description:  When beautiful Nicola Ferris chose the remote island of Crete for her vacation, all she desired was to experience the ancient and brooding land on her own.But one day her impulse led her on a little-used path into the foreboding White Mountains. And there she found a man in hiding -- for reasons he could not explain. Warned to stay away, Nicola was unable to obey. And before she realized what she had uncovered, she found herself thrust into the midst of an alarming plot in which she would become the prey.  It was also made into a Disney movie with Hayley Mills.  Here's a description of the movie:  When Nikki Ferris and her aunt took a trip to a small Greek island, they never expected to get involved in jewel theft and murder. A strangely reluctant innkeeper, a handsome Englishmen, a missing boy and a mysterious yacht all play a part in this Mystery/Romance based on a Mary Stewart novel.
The suggestion about the Whitney book jogged my memory--it was the same author, Phyllis A. Whitney that wrote the book I was searching for: The Secret of the Emerald Star!  Thanks so much!!

Molloy,  Anne Stearns Baker, The secret of the old Salem desk, 1955.  Ariel Books, New York. I found this description online.  The desk is red lacquer so it could be the right book.  All that was left in the little Maine house out on an island was a handsome old secretary, made in China especially for Stephen's great grandfather who was a wealthy merchant from Salem, Massachusetts. ... And the old desk, so stately and glorious in its red lacquer, stoof for everything he couldn't have or be. So you can imagine how he felt when it disappeared.
Molloy, Anne, Secret of the Old Salem Desk.  NY Ariel 1955.  "Stephen loves the old Salem desk which disappears, so he sets out to find it." The title, date, and rough plot seem to be a reasonable match. 

S47  is probably SECRET OF THE SPOTTED SHELL, by Phyllis Whitney, Westminster press, 1967.
S-47 may be one of Phyllis Whitney's young adult mysteries.  I think the title might be Secret of the Spotted Shell.
This may be The Mysterious Christmas Shell, by Eleanor Cameron. (1961)  The girl, visting her old aunties
and grandmother, finds a shell that contains important papers (regarding lost wealth?) inside.....the item had been
slipped inside long ago, when one of the older relatives was a girl.  One of my favorites!
S47- if this book isn't by Whitney (and it probably is), I thought it could also be the Mysterious Christmas Shell by Eleanor Cameron. 

Carlson, Dale Bick, Secret of the Third Eye,1983. This is the 3rd book in a 4-book series.  Other titles are -- Mystery of the Shining Children, Mystery of the Hidden Trap, and Secret of the Invisible City.   Found this through Google: "What do you get when you mix Nancy Drew with Tom Swift, and throw in a bit of X-Files just for the fun of it? Well, you get Jenny Dean, that’s what! The Jenny Dean Science Fiction Mysteries were written by Dale Bick Carlson....The Jenny Dean books are a series of four “science fiction mysteries” published in hardback, picture-cover format by Grosset & Dunlap in the early 1980s......Having cracked her second case, Jenny is due some rest and relaxation. But even as her friends invite her to go camping near the old Aba Dablam estate, she is led directly into her third adventure, The Secret of the Third Eye. When Jenny and Mike go camping, Jenny finds herself mysteriously drawn to the old Aba Dablam estate, where she discovers that the owner’s grandson, now calling himself Padme Lampo, as he is a Grand Lama possessing amazing mental powers – which are controlled by his third eye in his forehead (which Jenny discovers is actually a ruby surgically placed there). His mental powers, however, are very real, as he quickly proves to Jenny through telepathic communication and levitation! But someone in Winter Falls is determined to exploit this young Lama and it’s up to Jenny and her friends to stop them! Not one, but two kidnappings ultimately lead Jenny to the truth and help her to expose the villain for the greedy exploiter that he is! "

Duka, Ivo and Helen Kolda, Secret of the Two Feathers.  1954.  Sounds like this one - Martin finds a magic feather that can do things like make him grow and shrink, all done with trick photography. There's a sequel, Martin and his Friend from Outer Space, published the next year. Hard to find, though.
The Secret of the Two Feathers.  I think this is the title, but I'm not sure and haven't seen it since the fifties.  It was illustrated with black and white photos that used trick photography to show the boy (Martin, I think) becoming little or invisible or whatever.  He does mention Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park, NYC.  There was a sequel called something like Martin and His Friend From Outer Space.  Oops, just realized this is answered in G53.

LC has the title Secret of Turkeyfoot Mountain by Eda and Richard Crist Abelard-Schuman, NY  1957
The Secret of Turkeyfoot Mountain was on my unknowns list for a long time.  As a result, I grab every copy I see, and now have an extra, if the person who asked about it still wants/needs it.  I could send it and others to you in exchange for titles I want.
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I have mostly a feeling of the book (when I was about 14-16 years old). It had such an air of myster about some woods, I believe it was in connecticut. Some kids (boys only, I believe) are trying to sove some mystery involving some history of the woods about a man who died in a blizzard but managed to walk out or almost walk out by shere force of the human will. That point was particular accentuated as if it meant something to the author. I believe they made several attempts at going into the woods, but something scares them away. But something scares them away when they hear a noise once,  a loud knocking and run away. It made it such a spooky story. A spooky Woods maybe that's a key to the title Haunted Woods? I have to say what it was because I have suche a minimum of facts. It was a woodpecker (perhaps bigger than usual). I think they eventually find an old lost cabin with some writing on it of some kind belonging to the man of a local historical legend. Maybe it's not much of a story but it's in my memories and I don't think I finished it. Feist, Raymond, Faerie Tale.  Some elements of the Stumper reminded me of this.  Book features twin brothers living
in an old house near a spooky woods.  One brother is captured by evil fairies and the other must struggle through the woods and other places to find him.  In one part, he must pass through a house with different rooms, each representing one of the four seasons, and is tempted to join the people he sees in the rooms.  Only sheer will can get him past the rooms.
Two possibilities: Peggy Parish's  Clues in the Woods, which is a little off on the targeted age range but is definitely about a mysterious man in the woods;  or one of the Alfred Hitchcock Three Investigators series (maybe Mystery of the Wandering Cave Man?).  You can see the complete title list plus cover pictures on this website.
Phantom of Walkaway Hill by Edward Fenton -  maybe a remote possibility. An excellent mystery with lots of atmosphere!
M-173 - (Added Note:) Alfred Hitchcock Three Investigators series are some pretty cool books for a young person, even when not exactly that young, which is also why it is a good suggestion: If you are in a class which schedules periodic school library visits and requries you to check out a book, (and you don't read much) you would pick the ones with the cool pictures on the cover even if you are a little too old to be reading that book.
I'm the original stumper.  I left out the date range of the early 1960's. The kids are probably just three in number, about 10 - 14 years, two boys and one of their sisters.  They are just ordinary; nothing supernatural;  not child detectives.  The mysteries are of the imagination; real in excitement  but eventually explained. There was another book (that I know of)  with the same three kids in it.  I didn't get around to reading it. I didn't realize there were so many books and so many of similar story line and titles; so, only really unique points will identify it.  Strange noises in the woods, one of them being a woodpecker?  surprisingly, not that unusual.  I don't really know why they were just getting around to exploring the woods (near their homes), but coincidentally, they uncover facts clearing an infamous person in the town's  history. The man tryed to make it out of the woods, even in a blizzard! A little more unusual.
Suggested solely by picture cover seen on line- Ghosts of Rathburn Park by Zilpher Keatley Snyder.
See T384 -- sounds like you're looking for the same book.
Crist, Secret of Turkeyfoot Mountain. Secret of Turkeyfoot Mountain has got to be the answer.  If ginseng rings a bell, this is it.  The woods have a swamp and hemlocks.  The boys are looking for a place to find ginseng to sell so they can buy some sheep.  They find an old "Sang Man's" cottage and his ancient cache of valuable ginseng.  The Sang Man was the person who left the swamp in a storm and subsequently died.  The boys thought he was haunting the cottage, but it was only a woodpecker perched on the old rocking chair.  Hard to find is right.

U31 I read an online description of SECRET OF THE UNICORN by Robin Gottlieb that seemed to match.~from a librarian
Robin Gottlieb, Secret of the Unicorn, 1965.  Hi, I hope I'm doing this right.  Thank you to "A Librarian".  You have solved my mystery and in surprisingly short order.  I have been looking for this one for years.  Thanks again.  Well done!
Your site is extraordinary.  I have also searched for this book for years thinking, in error, that it was by Phyllis Whitney. Isn't the internet grand - we can recapture our childhood favorites with help of experts like you and find them at booksellers worldwide. You do a wonderful service here!

Joseph Sherman and Gwen Hansen, The Secret of the Unicorn Queen.  Sheila is accidentally transported to Arren in the machine her scientist friend built, where she makes friends with the unicorns and helps work to right wrongs, etc. It was a whole series of books.
Piers Anthony, Apprentice Adept seires, 80s-90s.  The world of musical unicorns and the rest of the details sound very much like this series, I think the (7th) last one,  Phaze Doubt. This is a series that really needs to be read in order, so I recommend you start with the first, Split Infinity.
Josepha Sherman, The Secret of the Unicorn Queen: Swept Away, 1988.  The Secret of the Unicorn Queen is indeed correct. I must admit, it is odd how quickly you were able to figure this book out when I have been asking around librarians, friends, message boards, and the like since late elementary school. I am very pleased though. This is one less thing to drive me crazy. Thank you.

Don't know if this is worth posting, but the second-to-last on the new page--under "T" for treasure, I think-- sounds vaguely like Tinker's Castle  by Winifred Langford Mantle.  Perhaps someone could find a description of it  and post it so the person inquiring can see if it's different enough to NOT  be the book.  I will say "Tinker's Castle" involves English children visiting France, the goblet is glass, and their friend is heir to a disputed family fortune.
T99 This is a very long shot, but I thought I'd mention this book just in case. The treasure and cemetery elments appear in SAFE AS THE GRAVE by Caroline B. Cooney, 1979. Lynn is always getting into trouble, while her sister Victoria is perfect. While the family is weeding the family graveyard, Lynn notices a stone for Cordelia, no last name, only a date. No one except her long-dead relative knew who Cordelia was, so Lynn decides to investigate. She gets a clue from an old book of her relative's; the relative wrote, "A joke all for myself" on a
morality story about Cordelia, the Good Mother. It turns out that the relative had been responsible for saving the church's valuable gold cross during the Revolutionary war, and there was no Cordelia. The cross was hidden in the grave. A very long shot - but you never know! ~from a librarian
T99 treasure mystery: possibly The Sparrow Child, by Meriol Trevor, illustrated by Martin Thomas, published Collins 1958, 254 pages. "Philip Sparrow comes to stay at Corben Place, the old family house, and there he meets an assortment of conflicting characters, the story of a lost chalice, and an appealing sea and countryside. Eventually the conflicts are unravelled, the chalice is found, and the countryside is saved from being the site of an atomic research establishment. ... Some of the characters have dreams full of symbolism..." (JB Nov/58 p.283)
Holly Beth Walker, Secret of the Witch's Stairway.  2nd in the Meg Mysteries series.  Meg and Kerry visit 2 little old ladies who are twins and run a chicken farm.  An ancestor of theirs, Melinda, during the Civil War hid the family silver and no one's been able to find it.  A young orphan boy, Glenn, has been helping out around the farm.  Meg and Kerry find out he has Melinda's diary because he is also related to Melinda.  They think the clues point to a fireplace in the old house that burned down.  They tear it apart but they are mistaken.  Eventually they find the silver in a room behind the witch's stairway.

And I actually own (I believe) the book mentioned in E17.  I have an old Puffin book that answers this description.  I can see the cover clear as day in my mind's eye but not the title or author.  I will check this evening when I get home and write again.
I wrote earlier today to say, among other things, that I thought I had the answer to E-17.  Well, wonder of wonders, I found the book I think it might be on my shelves.  It's an old Puffin (orig. pub date 1934, Puffin pub. date 1948) called The Young Detectives by R. J. McGregor.  Here's what the inside teaser says about the story:  "Here is a first-rate family story with more than a little spice of adventure in it.  The five Mackie children had the rare good luck to find, in a house taken for the holidays in Deonshire, a secret passage leading to a smugglers' cave.  There was a mysterious intruder who slipped round doors too quickly for recognition, footprints where no footprints should have been, and a wreck off shore with something curious about it, too."  Hope this is the one the inquirer is remembering.
Hi. Actually it turns out that my cousin has the book and it's called The Secret Passage by Dorothy Russell. It's funny, though, the Young Detectives book sounds suspiciously similar!

Well, this is a bit sideways, but Patricia Ward's Silver Pencil (US title: Secret Pencil) (UK '59; US Random, '60) is about a girl who spends the summer with her uncle on the coast of Wales, where she finds a magic silver
pencil. I've heard wonderful things about this book but haven't seen a copy.
Sounds close enough to investigate.  Even if it isn't the same one I remember, sounds good.  Thanks!
Patricia Ward, Silver Pencil.  Indeed The Silver Pencil was about a silver pencil that was found by a boy in a cave on the sea shore. I knew Lady Patricia Ward when I was a boy, in fact we shared the same birthday, 24th August, and we spent many happy times together at her homes in Chevington and Bampton.  I was given a signed copy of the book  when it first went into print, but it was sadly lost many years ago. I don't remember the
story well, it was about 40 years ago, but it was a wonderful story. I remember that the pencil was embellished with a Turquoise, it was able to write on its own and always signed off with a seahorse as its signature. Happy memories.
Secret Pencil, by Patricia Ward. Just to clarify, the main character is a little girl, Anna. With her elder brothers, David and John, and the twins, Richard and Rose, she is staying at Glanruthven, Uncle Robert's house on
the coast of North Wales, for the first 3 weeks of August. Although she loves her uncle and the place, she is unhappy because her brothers go fishing with Jim instead of going with her to visit their favourite places on the first day. In the cave called the Wigwam she finds a blackened silver case about 5" long, set with a blue stone and with a ring at one end, holding a short flat pencil. When she tries to write with it, it writes by itself, signing with an S that looks like a seahorse. When Uncle Robert takes the children out on the Mary-Anna (sailboat) the pencil writes
a message to go to Fisherman's Cove - quick! where they rescue ten-year-old Philippe and his puppy George from the rising tide. Philippe and Anna become friends and share the secret of the pencil, which turns out to have
belonged to Anna's great-grandfather, Admiral Samuel Evans. The pencil's messages sound very much as if they came from Admiral Evans, who had a sea-horse tattoo. On the last night of the visit, after many adventures,
Anna dreams that she sails with her great-grandfather and gives the pencil to him. In the morning it is gone.

Yes, it is ‘Secret Sea’ – thanks for the help.

Barklem, Jill, The Secret Staircase, 1983, approximate.  Whilst your details don't quite match, I believe this could possibly be your book.  The Secret Staircase is book 6 in the Brambley Hedge series. Everybody is getting ready for the Midwinter celebration in the Old Oak Palace.  In the hustle and bustle, Primrose's mother tells Primrose and Wilfred to go up to the attics to find a quiet place to practise their party piece.  They find a hidden door in the attic and follow the long winding staircase to some rooms that everyone appears to have forgotten about.  There are lots of treasures to be found and Primrose and Wilfred have found their very own place to explore.
Jill Barklem, The Secret Staircase.  This wonderful book is part of the Brambly Hedge series about a group of mice and their adventures. There are several books in the series, revolving around the seasons, but this one, where two mice trying to find a quiet place to rehearse for the midwinter ball find a secret set of rooms in the old oak tree, is definitely my favorite. Excellent illustrations!
Jill Barklem, The Secret Staircase (Brambly Hedge), 1999, approximate.  This book was one of my favorites as a child.  Jill Barklem's illustrations are so beautifully done throughout her entire Brambly Hedge series. "Quite by accident, the young mice, Primrose and Wilfred, find a secret staircse in the Old Oak Palace which leads them to a magnificent surprise."
Barklem, Jill, The Secret Staircase, 1983, copyright.  Part of the Brambly Hedge series (book 6) this one focuses on Primrose and her friend Wilfred.  Everyone is busy preparing for the midwinter celebrations.  Primrose and Wilfred are looking for somewhere quiet to practice their party piece - Primrose's mother suggests the attic. When they start exploring the attic, they find a hidden door leading to a long winding staircase.  Up the staircase is a hidden room packed with all sorts of treasures and clothes to try on.  Wilfred and Primrose are delighted to have their very own secret place.
Barklem, Jill, The Secret Staircase.  Solved:  thanks ever so much!  (What a great thing you've got going on here :)
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book about families of mice living in a tree trunk. The trunk of the tree is an elaborate maze of beautiful rooms. it looks like a mansion inside. the young sister and brother mouse get scolded by their mother to get out of the kitchen (she is preparing for the winter performance/festival that will take place that night). They begin to explore all the rooms of the house, and find costumes for the performance. The pictures are very detailed and elaborate.

Barkelm, Jill, The Secret Staircase,  (1983).   Absolutely, definitely the book you are after. Everyone is preparing for a big midwinter party and Primrose and Wilfred want to rehearse their party piece but they keep getting in the way. Mother sends them up to the attic and they discover the hidden staircase that leads to all sorts of treasures.

G95 Could it have been abt Australia and a sailboat? I just went to storage to check but didn't find it. Phipson, Joan Cross currents    illus by Janet Duchesne    Harcourt c1966 1st American edition 1967
Not 100% sure, but it might be worth looking into - Ruth Chew wrote a book BAKED BEANS FOR BREAKFAST, 1970 and Scholastic later republished it as THE SECRET SUMMER, 1974. Ruth Chew was known for her fantasy book (like WHAT THE WITCH LEFT, a popular stumper here), but this book was
realistic fiction. There was definitely a brother and his older sister, and they run away for the summer. However, I haven't read it since I was a child, and I can't find any summaries of the book. But maybe the title will ring a bell? ~from a librarian
Ruth Chew, The Secret Summer, 1970.  A long shot, but worth a try. The original title was Baked Beans For Breakfast. Kathleen and Joe run away from their awful babysitter and head for a favorite vacation spot on a lake. They buy an old boat (not inflatable) and sail it to a small island. They do go to town a few times for supplies and befriend an older woman who hires them to do chores. Then the dam breaks and the island is submerged...the children are rescued and spend the rest of the summer with the older lady.
Chew, Ruth, Secret Summer (orig. title Baked Beans for Breakfast), Scholastic 1970, 128 p., reprint.  I haven't read this myself, but the story has been described elsewhere as about a sister and brother who decide not to go to summer camp, but to take their luggage and spending money and hide out on an island. They buy food  occasionally and have to avoid suspicion from adults. Probably other people will suggest this - hopefully one of them will have read it and can supply details!
Mazer, Harry, Island Keeper, 1981.  Any chance this is the one?  Date is a bit later than quoted, and I'm not certain all the details mesh, but stylistically it does remind me of the two other titles mentioned.
Ruth Chew, Baked Beans for Breakfast,1970.  This book is about Joe and Kathleen who run away from their babysitter while their parents are in Europe for the summer.  They head for the lake that their family usually vactions at every summer.  They go to the country store where the shopkeepers know them from other summers spent there and they buy a sterno stove, a saucepan, a frying pan, plastic utensils, and groceries.  They go back a few more times for more groceries.  The summer before they had built a pine needle cabin and they planned to sleep there, but it was no longer standing.  They decide to go to Epply island, a small island on the lake, and they buy an inexpensive plastic boat to get them there.
Hi, Harriet!  I submitted G95 on the new stumpers page, Girl buys raft and runs away to island.  The helpful internet folks got it right away -- The Secret Summer, apparently originally Baked Beans for Breakfast... so it can go to "Solved."  THANKS!  I feel so much better now that I know. <g>
G95 might be The Hideaway Summer by Beverly Hollett Renner. It was first published in 1978. Plot summary: A sister and brother miss the bus to camp and instead secretly spend an adventurous summer at a cabin in the woods.
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Thanks for your site! I've had quite a few answers to long-lost book questions! These books are like long-lost friends! Here's another: A story about a girl camping under undesirable circumstances (with a boy--a brother?).  She can't go home or can't find her way...they don't have much money...it rains a lot...they buy chocolate squares...I think she may be hiding.  I don't think it's High Trail. Thanks so much!!

Not much info to go on; but could be On the Far Side of the Mountain  by Jean Craighead George--the sequel to My Side of the Mountain.
It sounds a bit like Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming.  It's a story of four children abandoned by their mother who walk from New England to Va's Eastern Shore.  There's lots of unpleasant "camping" involved.  The oldest child is a girl.  They have to hide - they're afraid of getting caught and put into separate foster homes.  It's been a while since I read it but I believe there is a scene focusing on two of the children during a particularly stormy night.  Hope this helps!
C32 -- This one was a Scholastic book, I think.  The one I'm thinking of had a boy and a girl that had run away and were living in the woods.  The girl had a stuffed mouse toy that she carried everywhere.  I remember that the two of them had lunch fixed for them at one point (can't remember if they were at a cafe, or someone's home) and they were served stewed tomatoes, which they both hated.  Sorry, but I can't remember the name, though.
C32: Somehow, this makes me think of Ruth Chew's Secret Summer, a.k.a. Baked Beans for Breakfast, though I didn't actually read it. It does deal with runaways.
Not very sure about this - Junior Bookshelf review from 1978: Scrub Fire by A. De Roo, 106 pages, Heinemann. "set in the New Zealand bush. Fourteen year old Michelle's fears about the compulsory treat of a camping holiday given by a childless uncle and aunt to her and her two brothers are fully justified. A sudden fire raised by their uncle's ignorance of the bush separates them from the grownups, and Michelle's attempt as eldest to take charge sees them lost in the wilds, though the elder boy reveals unexpected knowledge of bush craft which at first helps them survive. They have also the problem of nursing the delicate youngest child who runs a high fever.
... several near-rescues and unexpected difficulties, and finally crises of despair which the rapidly weakening older pair have to overcome by mutual support and a fantasy story about their 'kingdom'."
More on the suggested title - Secret Summer / Baked Beans for Breakfast, by Ruth Chew, published Scholastic 1970 and 1974 two children are to be left in the care of a horrid housekeeper while their parents go to Europe. They decide to run away for the summer. They may have been returning from summer camp as they were discussing this on the bus, and so had suitcases already with them.
Baked Beans for Breakfast-AKA The secret summer. This one is definetely Baked Beans for Breakfast aka The secret summer Again, one of my favorite books. I remember them running away, camping out, the girl's stuffed animal, they get lunch at this house where this old lady lives. I think they then start working for the old lady and try to hide the fact that they are camping out. She eventually guesses and I think they go home to their parents. The boy keeps teasing the girl about bringing the stuffed animal. I think it is a bunny and at one point he has to "rescue" it. She is very greatful. Hope this helps!
I love this one, not just because it's apparently Ruth Chew's only non-fantasy story, but because it's a pleasant subtle bridging of the "generation gap." That is, on one side you have the mean babysitter who likes children only if they're little, and then you have the old lady who has every respect for the older kids' ages and intelligence.

SECRET UNDER THE SEAby Gordon R. Dickson. Scholastic Book Services, NY [1960]. Illustrated throughout in B&W by Jo Ann Stover, cover by Dom Lupo. "Children's Sci-fiction set in 2013, where a boy lives in an Underwater Research Station with his scientist parents." "Why is his dolphin acting so strangely?" "Then he finds the giant footprints" (under the water). "This is the author's first book for children, himself a noted science fiction writer." (NOT to be confused with Robb White's 1947 book Secret Sea about pirates, gold, and a giant octopus!)
Thanks! Secret Under the Sea is indeed the book. I found many copies of it for sale in a variety of sites, and just received my copy today. What a kick, thumbing through a book I last read maybe thirty years ago. Thanks!

Curry, Jane Louise, Beneath the Hill, 1968?  The details are sufficiently sketchy that they may apply to a great many books, but Curry's is the one that came immediately to my mind -- the first-written, though not first in internal chronology, of a series of novels about the underground kingdom of Abaloc.  For a wonder, it seems to be at least nominally back in print from iUniverse and available through the author's Web site (which I suspect of being quite new  I don't remember running across it the last time I Googled), www.janelouisecurry.com.
Berton, Pierre, The Secret World of Og.  McClelland & Stewart 1961.  It may be this story - a family of children, whose names all begin with P (the youngest is called Polliwog) find a hole in the floor of their clubhouse. Investigating, they find an
underground world, inhabited by pale hairless people who have based their culture on comics and books stolen from the children.
C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair.  This is a long shot, but perhaps worth suggesting: in the Silver Chair (from the Naria
series) the children go underground and cross in a boat to a city.  The witch who rules the city tries to convince them that the above-ground world is simply something of their imagining (the sun simply something that they've made up based on a lamp, etc).  If you read that section as a kid and then read Plato's "The Cave" as an adult, it was sort of a neat experience.
Pierre Berton, The Secret World of Og, 1961.  I am pretty sure this is the book. I picked it up at the library and my daughter and I are reading now. The other books suggested look great too. I will also try the suggested book, Beneath the Hill. We had already enjoyed the last suggestion, The Silver Chair.
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The book, probably from the 50’s, was about 5 children.  Their names all began with the letter “P”, so it Peter, Penelope, Patti, etc.  They lived in the country and had a little playhouse out in the backyard.  Things were always missing from the playhouse and from their play area in the yard, for which the children always got blamed.  One day Peter spied a small, troll-like creature come up from the ground and take one of his toys.  He went in the hole after him and entered the Land of OG (?), where all the creatures only spoke this one word, “OG.”   All the children go down to rescue Peter and have an adventure which ends when they go back to the surface in time for dinner, with none of the ‘adults’ being the wiser.  Kind of like “The Borrowers”, but that wasn’t this book.  Please help.   There were some illustrations in the book and I believe it was made into a cartoon move, but still can’t locate a copy of it in print.  Thank you.

This is definitely Berton's Secret World of Og.  The children's names in the story are the names of his real children.  This book has been reprinted several times - once with illustrations by his daughter
Pierre Berton, The Secret World of Og.  No doubt about it!
P249 THE SECRET WORLD OF OG by Pierre Berton. It was also made into an animated ABC Afterschool Special. I believe this is on your Solved Stumpers
page.~from a librarian
You solved the mystery with The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton.  Thank you, very much!  I’ve already recommended your site to several people with children of their own. 

Helen Cresswell, The Secret World of Polly Flint

#W68--Wormwood?:  When this question came up before, either here or on the Alibris message boards, I said it sounded like The Secrets of Hidden Creek, by Wylly Folk Saint John, but I couldn't be sure.  This time I dug
out my copy and I am QUITE sure this is the book you are after.  The place in the book is, indeed, called Wormwood.
W68 wormood??? sounds very close to C71 confederate treasure mystery
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I remember reading a mystery when I was a middle aged child...it was set in the south...there was a surly boy character, very poor who ate okra, I believe a girl character who came to the area for a visit. There was an old house with an old woman that everyone was afraid of...wormwood or something like that...There was confederate treasure hidden there... I am hoping to relocate the title at least and then the book if possible...thanks for any help!!!!!!!!!!!

#C71--Confederate Treasure Mystery:  I believe The Secrets of Hidden Creek, by Wylly Folk Saint John, appears on the "Solved Mysteries" page.  Can't be sure this is the same one, but it has a lot of similarities.
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Love your site. Fascinating reading how the stories of our childhoods stay with us so vividly. Keep up the good work. Here's my long-lost book:  It was called THE MYSTERY OF THE INDIAN ROCK or THE SECRET OF INDIAN ROCK or  somesuch. The story was about three siblings who went to stay with their  grandparents for summer vacation. They were looking for a buried treasure (I  think), and their only clue was its burial under an "Indian rock." They search and search as the summer spools out, looking for a rock shaped like an Indian or an Indian headdress, etc. The denoument sticks with me: As the weather heats up, the lake by grandpa's house evaporates. The rock they were seeking is under the water and reachable only in the dead of summer. And the "Indian" connection is not in the shape of the rock but its use; long-ago Indian tribes would grind the rock and use the powder mixed with water for face paint.  I used to read this book every year on the first day of summer vacation.  We're talking late-1960s to early-1970s. I sure would love to get a copy for my now six-year-old.

Yahoo!  We have the title for this book!  My 9 y.o. read it a few months ago and loved it.  We both recognized it from the above poster's description, but couldn't remember where we'd gotten the copy she read.  We couldn't remember the title, either, and we couldn't find it in our public or home library. We found it yesterday at a used bookstore and brought it home to live.  The title has nothing in it about the Indian Rock, but there is no doubt this is the book.  The title is The Secret of Hidden Creek, by Wylly Folk St. John.  The storyline is exactly as the poster described.  The treasure being sought is a confederate treasure hidden from the Yankees by a wounded Confederate soldier who "lay where he fell."  He left a clue in a diary, which nobody could've understood but his sister, who, unbeknownst to him was either already dead or would die before she ever saw the diary.  Nobody else saw the diary for years, until these three children stumble across it and spend the summer hunting for the Indian Rock mentioned.  They can't find it because the soldier talks about it being near a creek, and there is no creek, only a lake.  When the lake dries out or is emptied toward the end of the summer they see the path of the old creek and discover the Indian Rock, so called because of its use in war paint (they sit on it and later discover
their shorts are all red).  There is a fourth child who figures in the story as well.  His father is dead, and everybody thinks he is was a thief.  The children end up saving this boys' life from the real thief and proving his father's innocence to everybody.  Sorry so long, but it's such a relief to get the itch of this title out of our heads!
That is GREAT news. Thanks so much for helping me track this down.  You've brought an end to many a sleepless night!  Great!!
Secrets of Hidden Creek, by Wylly Folk St. John, illustrated by Paul Galdone, published Viking 1967, 160 pages. "Not one but two long-lost treasures are unearthed by the children in a mystery story set in the lake and mountain country of northern Georgia. Three lively young people are spending their vacation with their grandparents in a summer cabin. A romantic ruin with a history of violence and tragedy, inhabited by an aged recluse, proves irresistible to the children; thorough exploration reveals a secret passage leading to a vital clue to a long-sought cache of Confederate gold. Meanwhile the three meet a local boy whose dead father some years before had been implicated in a robbery of a collection of rare old coins; in a sufficiently exciting ending, both mysteries are happily solved." (HB Feb/67 p.67)
I just have to say that I don't believe I have ever seen such an amazing site as yours. For the last 2 days, I have searched high and low for a book and after hitting what I thought was a wall, I stumbled upon your website. Once there, it took me all of
3 minutes to find the book, The secrets of hidden creek.  I am so impressed. Please thank everyone on your staff for their hard work. I will most certainly send out a link to your site to all my friends and family.
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This is very vague, but the protagonist is a girl (I think, probably age 10 to 13-ish, that solves a mystery or puzzle (or finds what she has been searching for) when the lake drains (which I think happens periodically). Something is buried or found that was put there once when the lake drained in the past and that is the fact that hampers her from solving this sooner. I think that this is maybe set at her grandparents during summer vacation, and they live on the lake. None of that is certain, but the lake draining is definitely what allows her to solve the mystery. This has driven me crazy for many years... please help!

Rodie Sudbery, A Sound of Crying, 1970. Original British title:  The House in the Wood.  Perhaps this is the book?  Polly, visiting her aunt and uncle and cousin Frederick, has dreams in which she is Sarah, a girl from the 19th century.  A pool in the woods, behind a small stone dam that causes a waterfall, frightens her, for no obvious reason.   She and her cousin and her siblings take down the dam to destroy the pool, and it turns out that there is a chest under the water the pool had been created to hide it by Sarah's cruel uncle.
Elizabeth  Enright, Gone-Away Lake or Return to Gone-Away. Could it be either one of these classic Enright books with cousins Julian and Portia as the main characters?
Wylly Folk St. John, The Secrets of Hidden Creek, 1966. Becky, Jenny, and Chuck visit their grandparents in the mountains of north Georgia, see a will-o-the-wisp across the lake, befriend an elderly lady who lives in a nearby house that is reputed to be haunted, solve a robbery-murder that involved the father of a neighbor boy Arie, and eventually find some Confederate treasure hidden by one of the elderly lady’s ancestors. The Confederate treasure is buried under an Indian stone next to a creek.  The creek isn't visible until the lake drains away.
The book I am looking for is neither Sound of Crying/House in the Wood nor the Gone-Away Lake books. The book I am looking for doesn't have the dreaming of a 19th century girl plot as in the former suggestions, nor deserted summer homes as in the latter. I just remember how the fact that the lake existed stumped her from finding/solving the mystery. When it drains, she understands, and finds it in the lake bed.
Mabel Esther Allan, Pendron under the water. Long shot - is it a reservoir that almost dries up during a hot summer revealing a drowned village? If is it might be Mabel Esther Allan - Pendron under the water. The "treasure" is the date-stone of the old farmhouse, which the grandfather had refused to take when the reservoir was created.
SOLVED: Wylly F. St. John, The Secrets of Hidden Creek. Hooray! This is the book: The Secrets of Hidden Creek by Wylly F. St. John! Thank you so much. This book may not be a literary masterpiece, but it was a piece of my childhood. It feels wonderful to recapture that!

There are mannequins in Carol Ryrie Brink's The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, but I think this is a different story.
M121 *and* R48:  Richard Peck, Secrets of the Shopping Mall, 1979.  I believe the solution to both M121 and R48 is Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck (who also wrote the strikingly imaginative Ghosts I Have Been). In Shopping Mall, two eighth graders, Barnie and Teresa, hide from the King Kobra gang at Paradise Park and get locked in. Their adventures in the bedding, electronics and Junior Miss departments are thwarted when they are apprehended by what seems to be a cadre of glossy, fashion-conscious mannequins that come alive after closing time, led by the dictatorial Barbie (aka Madame Chairperson) and Ken (Blazer Boy). Memorable line: "I am an inmate of the Ratso Luv Charleen Junior High School."
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A group of kids run away and hide/live in a shopping mall.  I read this in the early 80's but could be older.

#R48--Runaways:  Eyes in the Fishbowl, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, involves a boy running away to live in a department store, which I believe proves to be haunted.  I think he's alone but other kids do figure in the story.  Strange to say, a much more recent book by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is titled The Runaways.
I think this is Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck.  Two kids named Bernie and Theresa run away from bullies in their inner city neighborhood by taking a bus out to the suburbs and end up at Paradise Park Mall.  They live in a department store and borrow clothing and eat food out of the deli counter and employee cafeteria.  While sneaking around the department store, they meet a bunch of kids also living there who pretend to be store dummies and live a whole other underground life.  They get caught in a battle between the store kids and a gang of kids from the outside.
M121 *and* R48:  Richard Peck, Secrets of the Shopping Mall, 1979.  I believe the solution to both M121 and R48 is Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck (who also wrote the strikingly imaginative Ghosts I Have Been). In Shopping Mall, two eighth graders, Barnie and Teresa, hide from the King Kobra gang at Paradise Park and get locked in. Their adventures in the bedding, electronics and Junior Miss departments are thwarted when they are apprehended by what seems to be a cadre of glossy, fashion-conscious mannequins that come alive after closing time, led by the dictatorial Barbie (aka Madame Chairperson) and Ken (Blazer Boy). Memorable line: "I am an inmate of the Ratso Luv Charleen Junior High School."
M121 AND R48 SECRETS OF THE SHOPPING MALL by Ricahrd Peck, 1979 ~from a librarian
M121 & R48 both sound like Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck.  A boy and a girl run away from a terrible school & hide out in a department store. While there, they discover a group of runaway/abandoned kids who masquerade as maniquins during the day & hide out at night.  They fight off a rival group of kids who live in the parking lot.  Eventually, the original group decides that they would rather live in the world, and the hero & heroine get jobs at the department store and continue living there.
M121 mannequins abandoned children: This sounds like The Eyes in the Fishbowl by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, illustrated by Alton Raible, published New York, Atheneum 1968, 168 pages. The main character is a young boy fascinated by the very upscale dept store where his mother works. An older woman who lost her family in war (WWII?) in Europe is a friend of his, and has somehow opened the store at night to the ghosts? of children who died as war orphans or refugees. The title comes from an advertisement for a mink-lined fishbowl (luxury goods from the store) with the eyes of a refugee child showing through from a charitable appeal on the other side of the page.
Secrets of the Shopping Mall  by Richard Peck. Audrey says this is the coolest.  One of the best.  Have read it like four times or so and am overdue for another read.

Secret of the Unicorn Queen (series).  This sounds like the series "The Secret of the Unicorn Queen" with Sheila, Morning Star, Cookie, Darian, Illyria and others.   The titles are:  Swept Away, Sun Blind, The Final Test, Into the Dream, The Dark Gods, Moonspell.  Different authors.  Take a look at this website.

U31 I read an online description of SECRET OF THE UNICORN by Robin Gottlieb that seemed to match.~from a librarian
Robin Gottlieb, Secret of the Unicorn, 1965.  Hi, I hope I'm doing this right.  Thank you to "A Librarian".  You have solved my mystery and in surprisingly short order.  I have been looking for this one for years.  Thanks again.  Well done!

Arthur C Clarke, Security Check. (1957)  Could this be a short story by Arthur C Clarke - It's about a man named Hans Muller who designs sets etc for a 'Star Trek' style TV show.(not an author). Two men turn up from "security", saying there has been a leak.  He protests he has not done anything to annoy the FBI. The story ends with one of the men asking " 'What is the FBI' but Hans didn't hear him. He had just seen the space ship". If this is the story it appears in an anthology named "The other side of the sky".
Absolutely! This is exactly what I was trying to find -- thanks a lot.

B201  Millicent E. Selsam, Seeds and More Seeds.  Check the library, this is still fairly easy to find.
The Carrot Seed.  I remember the book  used to have a copy, but I don't believe I do any more.  Can't remember the author, but I'd recognize it if I heard it.  Many elemenatry school libraries still have this title.
Millicent Selsam, Seeds and More Seeds
Millicent E. Selsam, Seeds and More Seeds, 1959.  Benny is the main character.
Yes, it all comes back to me now!!   I'm sure this is it, but will check libraries and used bookstores to see  for sure. Please let me know if you have a copy.  Thanks very much!
Definitely solved! Thank you!

Y26 Could it be this? Whitney, Phyllis A. Secret of the emerald star. illus by Stein, Alex.  Westminster, 1964.   blindness - juvenile fiction; Staten Island.
I see that you suggested the Whitney book, Secret of the Emerald Star...I did look up a synopsis of the book, and saw a pic of the dustjacket...I don't believe that's it....I think it was a simpler story, more along the lines of the Catherine Woolley Ginnie and Geneva books....or at least that age-group....  I''ll keep checking your site - I love it!
Are you familiar with The Green Gate by Mary Canty, or The Secret of the Closed Gate, by Margaret Leighton?  I found these titles by doing a keyword search on the net.  I am not familiar with them, and can't find synopsis for either one.
Jeanette Eyerly, The Seeing Summer, 1981.  This is a story about Carey who meets Jenny, the blind girl who moves in next door.  There is a picture on the cover of the book of Carey and Jenny sitting on a porch with a white picket fence in front!
Jeanette Eyerly, The Seeing Summer.  I think this is the book you are looking for - the cover matches, the tone of the book matches, and the bedroom scene is there.

Alibris.com currently lists several copies of Donald and the Big Cheese: an Adventure in the Netherlands, published by Grolier, no author, no date, no other details.
the suggested title Donald and the Big Cheese, is a Disney Small World Library book about Donald Duck travelling to Holland, "Book tells of the sights of the Netherlands with the three ducks, Donald, Daisy and Hans.
The sights are: Tulips, Windmills, Cheese, Wooden Shoes, Pottery, Museum, Van Gogh, etc." (Gee, wouldn't want to miss any stereotypes ...) Anyway, doesn't sound likely, unfortunately. BTW, it probably isn't exactly
"Gombeem men" but something that sounds similar, since "gombeen" is an Irish dialect word meaning moneylending.
B85 big cheese: could be Seldom and the Golden Cheese, by Joseph Schrank, illustrated by Gustav Tenggren, published Dodd Mead 1933, 160 pages. Plot description very scanty, apparently an episodic, satirical fantasy about a bit of gold? or a miraculous cheese? that grows. However the title is close and the date is right, and Tenggren's illustrations (in his pre-Pokey Puppy days) sound appropriate.
B85 big cheese: more on the suggested title Seldom and the Golden Cheese "It's a fairy tale of sorts with giants, ogres, little "Greenjackets," wizards and the obligatory questing young hero." "Rare and wonderful fantasy set in Cheesemellow Town in the Kingdom of Rumpumpernick. Illustrated by Tenggren with pictorial endpapers, color frontis, beautiful full page black and whites plus many smaller black and whites in-text as well as a fabulous pictorial wrapper, all in his early style (reminiscent of the style of Arthur Rackham)"

This might be The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. When I first read it 25 years ago in the My Book House
series (ed. 1920), the bittersweet ending was removed and all you know is that the giant has taken the wall
down. Not a bad idea for smaller children, I suppose.
G28 could be Oscar Wilde The Selfish Giant - giant tries to keep children out of his garden but a boy climbs over and befriends him
G28 is The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. There are more that one version of this tale so I don't know which
one you had as a child.
THE SELFISH GIANT by Oscar Wilde
#G28--Giant and boy, friends, has just about got to be The Selfish Giant, a Christian parable by Oscar Wilde.  The giant was selfish and mean and kids were afraid of him.  Maybe they did go into his garden, but only to raid  apple trees or something.  The new, strange little boy resisted the giant's attempts to frighten him.  Once they became fast friends, the other children played nice in the giant's garden.  When the little boy disappeared, the
giant was very upset.  One day the little boy reappeared, with bleeding wounds on his hands and feet.  The giant demanded to know "who hurt you" and "I'll fix them," and the child said, "Nay, these are the wounds of love."
All I can remember without the story in front of me, but I will say it was a GREAT cartoon 30 or more years ago, with wonderful animation and music, and for reasons I don't understand, never shown again!  I would like to find out about it and see if I like it as much as I did as a child.
G28 is certainly Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant story.  It's one of his most famous and included in all collections of his fairy-tales.  Dover issues it in its thrift edition of the fairy tales, which sell for a dollar.  There's even a cd-rom version that you can sometimes find on Ebay :)  Simon and Schuster put out a copy in 1984 illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger.  It's quite pretty and oversized, only containing that story.
G28 - Is the story called The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde...I think Elizabeth Zwerger illustrated a version...fairly recently - that is, within living memory.
maybe that cartoon mentioned is from the Reader's Digest series - at any rate, it's on video.
On The Selfish Giant, I guess I was right about the cartoon being good; it was nominated for an Oscar.  Why it is never aired is beyond me.  They have such a slew of junk at Christmas and hardly any good Easter-themed
kids' shows.  Someone selling the Reader's Digest video on eBay currently says it is rare, hard-to-find, almost impossible to come by.  Since I can't find it listed on "Movies Unlimited," it's just possible they may be right.
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This is a book that was read to us a lot in nursery school, and I haven't encountered it since, so it was published no later than 1974. A giant who likes children spends some time befriending and playing with a group of them. When the kids go home at the end of the day, their parents are upset and tell them that the giant is dangerous and that they must stay far away from him. The children promise to do so. On a subsequent day, the giant goes up to the kids and they play again. (I remember asking a teacher how that was possible if the children were staying far from the giant and his home. She told me that because he was a giant, distances that would seem far to small children, would still be very close for a giant.) In the end I believe that the giant somehow proved to the parents that he was non-malevolent and was allowed to continue playing with their children. I also remember that the giant had a lot of giant-sized cool stuff that the kids had access to, and the sizes were compared to everyday objects, like cookies (or perhaps crackers) as big as wagon wheels and ice cream cones as big as something else.

Oscar Wilde, Selfish Giant.  This has a lot of similarities, but may be too old - though it has been reprinted many times. Giant posts keep out notice on garden after children have been playing in it - then one child gets round him somehow and he lets them back in again. Not exactly the same as your poster is remembering, but I'm doing it from memory too, and it may be worth his/her while checking this out in case there's more in common than I remember!

Eileen Goudge, Seniors series.  I'm not sure about the diving, but Stephanie and Lori are two of the names in the
"Seniors" series by Eileen Goudge.  Ginger is another, but I can't remember the fourth  it might be Kim.  I hope this is the right one.
You solved it for me!  Thanks.

Doris Gates, Sensible Kate.  This is actually the name of a chapter in the book.  Kate is placed in foster care with an older couple.  One of the children in the class is a boy whose older brother who is a fisherman.  This older brother goes out to fish albacore in bad weather and does not come back alive.  There is also a seriously nasty rich girl in the class whose father's car has white wall tires.  I still reread this book now and then.
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I read this book in the early 1970's from my school library.  It was about a young orphan girl, who goes to live with an older couple.  I think she has red braids, and their are boats, an artist,and a McCall's contest in the book, which might be set in the 1920's or 1930's??  The girls comes to appreciate her older adopted parents in the end.  A young artist paints her for a [Redbook]  magazine cover contest, which I believe is the winning entry. I believe the book features a cover contest for REDBOOK magazine, not McCalls, because I believe the story features a young girl with RED braids. I think she has to choose between the artist and his young wife, and the older couple she is living with, for her adoption.  I believe there are some blue-checked curtains as a pertinent detail, and the book is set in a beach or fishing town, I think in New England.  I would have read it in the early 1970's.I would love to read this again. Thank you.

Doris Gates, Sensible Kate, 1943. I'm pretty sure this is the one.  I don't have it front of me but re-read it last year.
Gates, Doris, Sensible Kate. Kate actually goes to stay with an older couple, but befriends a young couple, the husband is an artist and paints her portrait.
I am 98% certain that the book being described is Sensible Kate, a favorite book of my childhood.
Thank you so much! I'd actually done some more Googling and come up with this title and author, but I couldn't find a plot description online, so I wasn't sure.  I had a feeling it might be SENSIBLE KATE.  It's funny, isn't how, what the subconscious remembers.  I've remembered this book for more than thirty years, and look forward to reading it again.

Eric Frank Russell, Sentinels from Space.  Absolutely certain of this one! Reprinted by Methuen in 1987.
Bookstumper turns up trumps again! This is the book. Thank you so much.

Isn't this A Separate Peace by Knowles?
Harriett, my customer is going to go check it out at the library to see if this is what he was thinking, but saying it REALLY sounds close. Many many thanks!

Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories' before 1980, approximate. I don't know if this is the book or not, but I remember reading that story too - but don't remember any other details! I don't remember reading it from a series of books, however. Does this sound familiar? "a cutout from a cereal box leads into a beautiful and tragic palace garden".
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories. Joan Aiken wrote many short stories about the Armitages, an ordinary family to whom extraordinary things happen. Originally some of these short stories were published in different collections, but they have been recently republished together. In the stories you are remembering, a boy discovers that the cardboard garden cutouts on the back of his cereal box take him into a real fantastic garden. Unfortunately, the cereal is so bad the company went out of business...
Joan Aiken, One of her short stories about  Mark and Harriet, 2 5 10. Possibly from her ?1950s? anthologies All You've Ever Wanted and More Than You Bargained For.
Joan Aiken, Armitage Stories. Sounds like the Armitage stories by Joan Aiken. I think most of them have been collected in Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home.
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden. I can't help you with the series of books, but I do know that particular story.  It's by Joan Aiken, and it's called "The Serial Garden".  It's one of her Armitage stories  she wrote a delightful series of short stories about the Armitage family, who tend to attract strange and magical happenings. Joy of joys, in looking up the name of the short story, I found out that all of the Armitage stories were collected in a single volume in 2008  its title is also "The Serial Garden".  Thank you, stranger, for causing me to make that particular discovery. :-)  I hope the story name helps you find the series you're looking for - and I enthusiastically recommend that new anthology!
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories.Verified - it must be The Serial Garden! Oddly enough, the story itself doesn't seem familiar, but the stumper did seem very familiar.
Aiken, Joan, Serial Garden.The story is called "The Serial Garden" and is one of the Armitage Family stories.
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden. The Serial Garden is a story from Joan Aiken's series of stories about the Armitage family, which were first published in different collections. The stories are collected in an omnibus edition titled "The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories."

Solved: The Serial Garden.
Mystery solved! Thank you sincerely to everyone who wrote in to identify the childhood story I was after as "The Serial Garden" by the talented Joan Aiken. I find it quite amazing that through the Stump the Bookseller service, the few scant memories I had could be used to identify the story! This one has been puzzling me for over twenty years, and I honestly wasn't sure it would ever be solved, so thank you so much for your generous assistance! :)
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This story was in a school English book from late 80s, early 90s . A boy cuts out paper models of a castle or village and is magically transported to the village randomly. There is a princess who needs help. At the end his mom throws the paper models in the fire so he can't visit anymore. Thanks!

Aiken, Joan, The Serial Garden. One of the Armitage family stories, it was originally published in a book of short stories.  You can now buy a collected volume of all the Armitage family stories - titled The Serial Garden.
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden, 1970, approximate. I believe you're looking for the short story "the Serial Garden" by Joan Aiken. It was originally published in Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home and was just reprinted within the last couple years in a compilation of all her Armitage Family stories, appropriately titled The Serial Garden. (It's the one everyone seems to remember.) 
Joan Aiken, Serial Garden (short story). This is one of Joan Aiken's Mark and Harriet Armitage stories, the one titled "The Serial Garden".  It's in  Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home  (where I first read it), and in the complete Armitage collection, that came out a year or two back... which,  is called  The Serial Garden  The Complete Armitage Family Stories.
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories. This is a short story that has been printed in several different collections of Joan Aiken's works. You can find more descriptions in solved mysteries!
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden. Joan Aiken's short story "The Serial Garden," most recently reprinted as title story of her complete "Armitage Family" series: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-caw-astral-weeks25-2009jan25,0,1579872.story It originally (?) appeared in Aiken's 1969 collection A Small Pinch of Weather
Aiken, Joan, The Serial Garden. Thanks! The suggestions are correct.

The Sesame Street Book of Letters, 1970.  A bookseller gives the following description of this book:  "What is different about this book is the alphabet isn't in order. Instead each page takes a letter like A is for apple and also for ant who tries to climb up it but finds that he can't.  At the bottom of the page throughout the book the alphabet is shown.  The next page is H for Hole.  A happy hole holds a heap of high humor, etc."

Exactly.  It's just hard to find....  George Medoza's Sesame Street Book of Opposites with Zero Mostel.  Photographs by Sheldon Secunda.  NY: Platt & Munk, 1974.
George Mendoza, et. al., Sesame Street Book of Opposites with Zero Mostel, 1974.  And Mostel does indeed wear long johns and a diaper as he pantomimes various opposites.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Medoza, George.  Sesame Street Book of Opposites with Zero Mostel.  Photographs by Sheldon Secunda.  NY: Platt & Munk, 1974.  Spotting on endpapers, pencil doodles on rear endpapers. Cover scuffed, corners bumped, missing paper on top half-inch of spine, although the binding is sound.  Overall, only G- condition, but quite scarce.  $80

T80 Sounds like SEVEN DAY MAGIC by Edward Eager. However, the book is magic (it's been stored with the fairy tale books, and their magic had dripped onto it) They have adventures, but can't read ahead - they can't
read about their own adventures until they've happened.  ~from a librarian
Sure sounds like Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager, one of the classics. The children take a library book out and it writes their magic adventures as they occur. However, I don't recall any magic item other than the book, so
this may not be it.
It almost sounds like this person has mixed up Seven Day Magic and Half Magic, both by Edward Eager. In "Half Magic," there is a talisman. It's a small coin that looks like a nickel but has strange symbols on it. In "Seven Day Magic," the book is the magical object that grants the children their wishes. The children also could not look ahead in the book because the pages would be blank.
School children are still reading this book as part of the Accelerated Reading Program.  I have seen this book and most of his other boks (there is a sequesl called Magic By the Lake) in bookstores.
It's definitely Seven Day magic by Edward Eager. Still in print, as far as I know. I have a paperback copy, purchased at some chain bookstore within the last year.
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This book was about a group of children who discovered a red-covered book in the library.  When the children first looked in the book, the pages were blank, but then, as the story progressed, the pages of the book began to be filled in with either adventures that the children had already been on or adventures that were about to happen to the children in the future (I forget which).  I read this book in the mid- to late-1970s, so it was written probably in the mid-70s or earlier.  It is either juveniled or young adult fiction.  I loved this book when I was a child and would love to find it again!

Edward Eager, Seven Day Magic
Edward Eager, Seven-Day Magic, 1962.  Edward Eager works a magic of his own: Once you've read one of his books, you have to read them all!
Edward Eager, Seven Day Magic, 1960s.  This is the book, still in print and widely available
Edward Eager, Seven Day Magic.  Children + blank red book filling up with their own adventures = Seven Day Magic! Seven days is the loan period for this library book.
This sounds like Seven-Day Magic, by Edward Eager.
Edward Eager, Seven Day Magic.  Five children discover a mysterious red book at the library and eventually they discover that it's writing the story of their own wishful adventures--a story they make up as they go, and then witness coming to life in the red book's pages. Along their way, the children meet a dragon, a wizard, and the baby and little girl from Half Magic, another Eager book. Another adventure starts when the children are transported back in time with grandmother and nearly perish in a blizzard. Disaster almost strikes again when the friends wish themselves at a television rehearsal and it nearly costs one of their fathers his job on a show. The children return the book to the library and wonder who will find it next.
Edward Eager, Seven Day Magic.  This sounds like Seven Day Magic.  The children check a book out of the library, find, when they start reading it, that it is about themselves, although most of the pages are stuck.  I think they make wishes to fill in the rest of their adventures.
Eager, Edward, Seven-Day Magic, 1962.  Parts of the description sound like Seven-Day Magic -- children find a red book in the library, and, walking home, start reading it only to discover they're reading their own story. In different chapters, they have book-related adventures, visiting Oz before it was Oz, the frontier (in a loose adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder), etc., and also try to help their father's singing career.  When they return the book to the library at the end of the week, they discover it now has a fresh title on its spine: Seven-Day Magic.
Edward Eager, Seven-Day Magic, 1962.
M239 It's SEVEN DAY MAGIC by Edward Eager. He wrote seven fantasy books for children, and this one is my favorite. And you might be interested to know that MAGIC BY THE LAKE has the same kids in it. ~from a librarian.
Thank you so much for helping me!  I have thought about this book for years, and can't wait to read it to my children.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Eager, Edward.  Seven-Day Magic.   Odyssey Classics reprint edition, 1962, 1999.   New paperback, $6

Philip Murdock, "27," or, The house of many doors, 1883.  This is just a lead, since I could find no summary of this book.  What I do know about it:  It is a 15 page book, it was from the "Five cent wide awake library" (sounds like a very early horror/thriller, maybe?), and it is 30 cm. tall. And, of course, it is very old.  Also, the only library that reports having it is the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
A.(Abraham) Merritt, Seven Footprints (Footsteps?) To Satan.  A long shot, but worth mentioning.
S173:  I do think this might well be Seven Steps to Satan, which is quite old (1928) and a mesmerizing tale. James Kirkham is kidnapped and taken to the mansion of somone who calls himself Satan. Satan challenges Kirkham to take his test, the Seven Steps. There is a flight of 21 semi-circular steps. Seven of them are marked with invisible golden footprints, supposed to be of the Buddha; four are fortunate and three are not. If someone steps on all four lucky ones while ascending, he gets unlimited power, wealth, etc.; if he steps on one unlucky footprint, he must do Satan one service; two unlucky steps, serve him for one year; three, he surrenders himself completely to Satan. Also in the plot are a beautiful girl named Eve and a robbery at the Metropolitan museum.

Mary Francis Shura, Seven Stone.  I found several copies of Seven Stone listed online, along with many other books by Mary Francis Shura, but I don't know which one of those you're looking for.
Craig, M. S., The Seven Stone, 1972.  There is a book called "The Seven Stone," where "Maggie learns many things when she befriends the strange new girl in her class."
Mary Francis Shura, Maggie in the Middle aka The Seven Stone, 1972. Found these synopses on the web:
"About a girl who went to a new school and had to learn the secret of 'fitting in.'"  "Maggie makes friends with the new girl, Tilly. Tilly is convinced she's the daughter of a witch and that she has magical powers. The Seven Stone, she believes, is her protective talisman. Maggie struggles to grasp who and what Tilly (and the stone) really are, as well as the value of friends."
The Seven Stone by M.S. Craig, Holiday House, c1972, ISBN 0823402142. "Maggie learns many things when she befriends the strange new girl in her class."  It was reprinted by Scholastic as Maggie In The Middle, with the author's name now given as Mary Francis Shura.
Shura, Mary Francis, Maggie in the Middle (Original Title: the Seven Stone)  1975, Scholastic reprint.
Mary Francis Shura, The Seven Stone.  I belive it is out of print.
Mary Francis Shura, The Seven Stone,  1972.  I don't know about the other title that the requestor was asking about but this book called "The Seven Stone" sounds like it might be the one.  A girl named Maggie befriends the new girl in class named Tilly. Tilly has a stone that she believes is her protective talisman. The book is illustrated by Dale Payson. Published in 1972 by Holiday House. If this was later printed under another name, you may wish to find out if it is illustrated by the same person, and which are the illustrations you remember.
A little further research reveals a second title: Maggie in the Middle published by Scholastic Book Services in 1975. The illustrator is the same: Dale Payson.
Mary Francis Shura, Maggie in the Middle, 1975.  With the original title, this was pretty easy---I just typed in Seven Stone on bookfinder and came up with this title.  Hope it's the one!
Shura, Mary Francis, The Seven Stone, illustrated by Dale Payson, NY Holiday House 1972.  This was republished by Scholastic 1975 under the title Maggie in the Middle. The only plot description I have is that it is about a girl who goes to a new school and has to learn the secret of fitting in.
Shura, Mary Francis, The Seven Stone,1972.  I found it!!!  The Seven Stone byMary Francis Shura, Illustrated by Dale Payson, Published in New York: Holiday House, 1972 ISBN:0823402142 JUVENILE BOOK FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN ABOUT A GIRL WHO WENT TO A NEW SCHOOL AND HAD TO LEARN THE SECRET OF 'FITTING IN'. BOOK TEACHES SOME LIFE-LESSONS.   Other edition: Maggie in the Middle  by Mary Francis Shura, Illustrated by Dale Payson, Published NY Scholastic 1975.
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Seven Stone / Maggie in the Middle
I think this book was published in the early to mid 70s.  The main character is in 5th or 6th grade.  her name is Maggie but her parents and older brothers call her "Magpie."  One day a new girl joins her class, and is immediately ostracized for her "hippie" style of dress - a long skirt and lace-up hiking boots.  Maggie befriends the new girl, who also turns out to be very smart - she immediately wins the class spelling bee, knocking the current champion (and class "queen bee") off the board.  The queen bee ends up seriously injuring the new girl by pushing or pulling her underneath the merry-go-round on the schoolyard.  Maggie eventually learns to stand up to the popular girls and defend her friend.  One other detail I remember - the new girl's family is into "throwing pots" which confuses Maggie until she learns that the term means "making pottery."

Shura, Mary Francis, The seven stone, 1972.  on the solved pages too.  Maggie makes friends with Tilly the new girl in her class
Mary Francis Shura, The Seven Stone/ Maggie in the Middle.  This was solved recently on another board.

I don't remember an alphabet scene but Ordinary Jack does have a family of kids who are all geniuses except Jack.  There were several others in the series as well.
I saw your answer to my ABC query. I don't know the book mentioned, so I don't think it can come from there. I just found a version in the adult book A Fool"s Alphabet by Sebastian Faulkes, which is similar, but not the same, and of course not as good! So if any more answers come up I would still be interested.
No, I don't have the answer (although Cresswell's Bagthorpesseemed as plausible as any), but there's a good version of the "Cockney Alphabet" that begins with A for 'orses in Eric Partridge's Comic Alphabets(London, 1961): A for ’orses,  B for mutton, C for sailors (for th’Highlanders),  D for rent,  E for brick,  F for vest,   G for police,  H for beauty,  I for hangover,  J for oranges,  K for a drink,  L for leather,  M for services,  N for eggs,  O for the rainbow,. P for a whistle,  Q for the flicks,  R for moment (for Askey),  S for you (for Rantzen),  T for two,  U for mystic (for cough, for nerve, for knee),  V for l’amour,  W for a quid,  X for breakfast, Y for ****’s sake (for mistress),  Z for breezes (for effect, for de dogtor — I hab a bad code iddy doze). Hope someone comes up with the book!
The book in question is Seven Sunflower Seeds by John Varley.  This is the fourth in a series of books about the somewhat eccentric  Callendar family (not quite as addled as the Bagthorpes). The other books are Friday's Tunnel,February's Road, ISMO.   The first two are much the best.  ISMO is the weakest, and the only one written from other than the first-person viewpoint of one of the Callendar children.  The books were written in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The author is John Verney (Varley is a sci fi writer).
Yes, thanks, I had seen the answer on your site.  I now have a copy- it quite lived up to my memory!
I ahve another query posted under FISH.  Hope that one gets an answer too!  Still really enjoying the site.  Many thanks.  N.B. Author's name is John VERNEY.

Jenny Davis, Sex Education, 1988. This one has some similarities to Sex Education. Two high school kids Livvie and David are trying to help a young pregnant neighbor as part of an assignment. Turns out her husband is abusive. He pushes David down the steps and he dies. Great book--very poignant story.
Jenny Davis, Sex Education, 1988. I think that may be the one!! Apprently it was re-printed in 1995 with a different cover, so the search is on. I could have sworn the characters were called David and Olivia, so to find they're called David and Livvie... thank you so much!

Boston, Green Knowe Series.  Sounds like it might be one of these. The first book of the series is about a little boy who goes to stay with his grandmother and makes friends with ghost children from a century or so ago. I think the remaining ones are more of the same idea.
S250 This is definitely THE SHADESby Betty Brock, 1971. Hollis stays at the old house of a relative, and after he washes his eyes in the dolphin fountain, he can see and interact with the shadows in the garden, the shadows left by all the people who were in the garden. ~from a librarian

It's not Shadow Castle by Marion Cockrell, is it?
sure does sound like it - Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell, illustrated by Olive Bailey, copyright 1945, Scholastic printing 1968. "In the middle of a deep, dark forest there is a castle. Only shadows live here - shadows of kings and queens who are waiting. They have been waiting for hundreds of years. They have been waiting for someone to break the enchanged spell that was cast upon them. Then one day, a girl named Lucy wanders into this shadow land...."
Definitely, definitely Shadow Castle.
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A book I found originally in about 1976.  There was no cover.  It began with a little girl who lived with her grandmother.  They lived near a forest and the little girl was friends with all the forest creatures.  One day she is following a little dog and goes deep into the forest.  She comes upon a tunnel covered with vines.  She follows the little dog in to the dark tunnel.  She thinks she sees a goblin and runs after the dog. The end up in a beautiful valley with a huge castle at one end.  There she meets a man who invites her inside.  He spends the whole day telling her stories of the family who lived there.   The father was a fairy prince who rescued his mortal wife from a terrible fate and brought her to live in the valley.  The man goes on to tell her about each of their children (a son and a daughter who were half fairy/half mortal) and their lives as they grew up.  The son marries a fairy princess named Bluebell after rescuing her from a goblin spell.  The daughter befrends a dragon who lives on top of a mountain and eventually marries they man who saves the dragon.  Anyway after the man spends the whole day with the little girl it turn out he is actually the original fairy prince father who is awaiting the end of a magic spell when he can be returned to his mortal wife.  The man hurries the little girl home, giving her the little dog to keep and she makes it back out of the valley just as the castle disapears.  She and the little dog make it back to Grandma's just as night falls.  It's a whole lot more drawn out than that but that's pretty much the jist.  It's all about fairies being good and goblins being evil, love, honor and family.  I loved it as a child and read it over and over.  Please help if you can!

Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle. Again!
This is just a guess, but it sounds a little like The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. There's a little girl, her grandmother, a castle and a band of evil goblins.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle. This book is 100% definately Shadow Castle - I know because I am looking at it right now on my shelf and you have remembered the details very well!
Regarding your solved mysteries, Shadow Castle, I was wondering if anyone knew if any of the printings on this
were ever published in a green cloth hardback, with the book dimensions being oversized and measuring
something like 9 and 1/2 " by 12 and 1/2 "  The beginning of the description people have given about the girl following an animal into the forest...only to discover a door seoms to fit exactly to the only thing I remember of the book I loved as a girl.  P.s. This web site is incredible beyond words!!  Now I only wish I had the money to purchase a new world of exciting books, which I have discovered through you!
I can't tell you how happy I am to have found your site!  I've been trying to remember the name of a book I had as a child - and it's been bugging me for a long time.  Finally I put all the words I could think of to describe the book into a Google search - your site is the first one that came up on the list - and there was the answer!  Shadow Castle!!!  I was trying to think of "Fairy Princess", "Fairy Queen", and stuff like that.  But this is definitely the book.  I just wanted to thank you!
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The book has a castle that reappears every 100? years (like Brigadoon). A girl walking through the woods goes through a viney/arbor-type "tunnel" and finds the castle and a boy who lives there. There are fairies, blue elves (bad guys) and other bad guys (goblins?) who are trapped in the door knobs and knockers of the castle. At one point the blue elves break through a protective spell and come through the windows to attack during a party. At the end she leaves just as the castle is going to disappear. His name may have been Michael or Christopher... The book was a paperback from Scholastic books. I read it in the late 60's maybe 70's. It was my introduction to fantasy/sci-fi and I've been hooked ever since!

Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle, 1986.  This sounds like one of Diana Wynne Jones' books and I believe this is the correct one:  "Sophie, the eldest of three daughters, lives in the smallish town of Market Chipping with her
step-mother and her two sisters.  After the girls' father dies, Fanny, the step-mother, is unable to raise three daughters on a hatmakers salary.  She finds good apprenticeships for Sophie's two younger sisters and keeps Sophie to help in the hat shop.  The sisters, Lettie and Martha, promptly switch places, since Lettie would rather be a witch, and Martha would rather be a
baker.  Discontented with her life, Sophie is nonetheless a marvellous hatmaker, whose hats seem to bestow upon their wearers exactly the things Sophie wishes when she's making them.   In the meantime, a castle has taken up residence on the outskirts of town. It moves willy-nilly from one place to another and is said to be inhabited by a wizard who "was known to amuse himself by collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them.  Or some people said he ate their hearts.".  Young girls are advised to never go out alone lest they be captured and treated to all manner of horrors.  Then, Sophie enrages the witch of the west with her incredible skill at making hats.  The witch descends upon Sophie and casts a curse which turns Sophie into an old woman.  Worse, Sophie is cursed to be physically unable to tell anybody she's under a curse.   The horror of the curse breaks Sophie from her appalling state of mousy discontent.  She can't bear to think of her family seeing her in this state, and so runs away.   Old and feeble, she struggles even in the simple act of walking away from town.  By the time
evening descends, she has only covered a short distance, and she knows she won't be able to travel as far away as another village. In this state, she comes upon the moving castle.  Age gives her the courage she lacked as a hatmakers' apprentice, and she not only forces her way into the castle, but also invites herself to stay for the night.  The wizard himself isn't home, but his apprentice, Michael, is quite unable to deal with this irascible old woman.  Sophie falls asleep in front of the fire, thinking how the flames quite resemble a face.   When she wakens, she tosses a log on the fire, and realises that the flames more than resemble a face, they ARE a face.  The fire in this castle is actually controlled by a fire demon named Calcifer.  Like Sophie, Calcifer is cursed, and they make a pact, each to discover the nature of the other's curse and break it.  This, of course, requires Sophie to find a pretext for staying at the castle.  She declares herself housekeeper and by the time the wizard Howl arrives, he finds her furiously cleaning cobwebs out of dusty corners and scrubbing the dust into oblivion.  He doesn't invite her to stay, but then, he doesn't exactly throw her out, either, leaving her free to find out exactly how Calcifer is bound to the castle."
Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Shadow Castle yet again!
Marian Cockrell (sp?), Shadow Castle.  I am 99.99% positive that this one is also Shadow Castle.  Goblins, tunnel, fairy prince Michael (Mika) all fit.
Woo Hoo - it's already solved !!!!  Shadow Castle, now to see if I can get a copy...
Thank you for helping me locate this most loved story.  I first stumbled upon it in the 1970's on my grandmother's basement bookshelf.  It must of originally belonged to one of my aunts.  I absolutely adored the fantasy and could not forgive myself for losing the book.  The part I remembered most vividly was when the visiting princess turns out to be an impostor.  Anyway, the book is currently available in a reprint edition!  I'm ordering two copies: one for me and one for my niece. :)
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Land of A Thousand (something) MAYBE...late 30's-1945.  I had this book read to me in 1945. It must have been a library book -- it had no cover, was dark green. It was about an enchanted princess, cursed by a spell from a witch to live a thousand years in a strange land, with purple skin! Her skin would not revert back to white until the thousand years was up. There were all kinds of fantasy characters there, too, but that is all I remember. The scary purple face. There were illustrations.

R.A. McClanahan and others, The Purple Princess.  I don't know if this is the right book or not - it is so obscure, the Library of Congress does not even list a date of publication (although it is from their old catalog, so must have been published before 1965) or a subject summary, and I could not locate a single used copy anywhere online.  But I thought I would suggest it anyway, just in case.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Something reminded me of Shadow Castle.  The poster may want to check it to see if it
matches completely.  I'm pretty sure it's in Solved Mysteries.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle, 1945.  Loooong time favorite of mine. Princess gets turned into a mute purple face goblin so that the goblin princess who takes her place can be courted by the prince. Series of short stories told by another prince as he waits for a thousand year spell to end and he can be with his mortal true love who can now be a fairy.
Marian Cockrell (author), Olive Bailey (illustrator), Shadow Castle, 1945.  I wonder whether the stumper requester is confusing two different princesses in the same story?  In Shadow Castle, Princess Gloria is sent to Fairyland for one thousand years and seven days, but Princess Bluebell is turned into an ugly, mute, illiterate purple maid.  Shadow Castle was published in 1945, and you can read more about it on the "S" Solved Mysteries page. I've never seen a first edition, but the book was reprinted in paperback by Scholastic, and I own a fourth printing from 1968.  It is printed and illustrated in dark green ink---perhaps the original was as well, and that's why the stumper requester remembers this as a "dark green" book even though that copy had no cover?  The book also contains an illustration of Princess Bluebell in her purple skin on page 58.   Reprinted in hardcover (and black ink) in 2000 by Buccaneer Books.  There's an expanded paperback edition (with additional stories not included in the original) but I haven't read it and cannot comment on its contents.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle, ca. 1946.  I want to suggest Shadow Castle, just in case. :)
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle, 1946.  My god, my god! Thank you so much! I am almost sure that would be it! The green color, the purple princess -- and most of all, the segmented, convoluted storyline. I remember being five or six years old and not being quite able to understand how it all came together, who was who and all that -- as I was only read a chapter a night, but I do remember several storylines. And of course I wouldn't remember whether it was the real princess that became purple or how the goblin became a beautiful princess.  I am going to try and find this book and am so delighted that you all have wonderful memories of it, too! Who would have thought that 60 years later -- I would solve the mystery of this indelible but vaguely-remembered book.  And as I implied before -- I had nightmares about that purple face for months, maybe years-- afraid it would happen to me! That doesn't mean I didn't love the book.  This has to be it.
For years, I’ve been trying to find a book I loved as a child in the 60’s.  Tonight I searched your website and there it was – E28, Shadow Castle.  All of the details your readers describe are just right – this is the book I’ve been searching for!  Thanks to you and all your readers for providing such a wonderful service!
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F187: Fairy Ball
I am looking for a Scholastic Children's paperback book that I purchased/read in 1970--might have been 1969-1971. It was about a girl who is magically transported to fairy land and goes to a fairy ball. I remember that the fairy queen had a dress of gold or silver, and the girl was changed to fairy size, she had an escort, might have been a fairy or prince. I mostly remember the fairy queen at the ball and the girl dancing at the ball. I don't really recall much else, but read it till it fell apart. I would like to find this for my 9 and 7 year old daughters!  Any ideas or guesses on title or author are greatly appreciated!  I think that midnight figures prominently in the story, and maybe moonlight. Also, as an aside, it was the first time I saw the word candelabra! The ball was definitely inside some castle and not out in the woods!  Thank you again, I'm keeping by fingers crossed!

Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle, 1968 reprint.  I found this book today in the archives. I searched the web and found an excerpt. It is the book I remember, and I'm thrilled to have found it. As an added bonus--it has been reprinted with additional chapters and stories!!! Thanks a lot!
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Read in the early-mid 70's.  Girl is reading a book alone.  Maybe wakes up and enters a woods/cave.  It is intrance into a kingdom.  Gargoyle door knockers or door knobs move/live.  There is an evil force and she must help save something.  The prince is ....oh I don't know.  At the end, she awakens and it could have been a dream?   This has been driving me insane for many many years.  Thanks for your help.

Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  More info is available on the solved stumpers page but this certainly sounds like Shadow Castle to me!
This sounds like the film "Labyrinth" with David Bowie, made by Jim Henson. I don't know if it was ever a book.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Maybe? There are woods, a prince, caves, evil forces, and goblins as door knockers. See the Solved Mysteries.
Lona: A Fairytale.  I believe that this could be the book you remember   i too had this book as a child i don't know who the author is although the pictures where photos of a doll more like barbie size than a baby doll  reminiscent of the author Dare Wright's photos.  Were the pictures black and white  i seem to remember that the photos in the Lona book were black and white and there was lots of fog everywhere.  i'll have to ask my mother if she remembers anything more but it sounds as if we are remembering the same book.  after i saw your posting i got on the internet to see if i could find anything on lona, all i found was someone else searching for the book.
Lona is indeed by Dare Wright.  It's a picture book though.  Is the requester looking for a picture book or a novel?
M.Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Check solved stumpers, this sounds like Shadow Castle again.
Hi, Not strictly about this Stumper, but an odd coincidence:-I put the comment in about "labyrinth", so was checking on this Stumper. I got a bit of a shock when I saw my name, which isn't one that I have seen very often. You've guessed it, it's Lona!
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A child finds a house in the woods inhabited by shadows of elves and learns their stories.At the end you find there will soon be an elf-mortal wedding that has been waited for for 600 years. One elf was named Bluebell, a goblin tried to impersonate her to wed an elf prince but was caught. Please help me find the title!  Thanks

Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  No doubt about it.  This is definitely the book you are looking for!
Cockrell, Marion, Shadow Castle.  I'm sure you'll get lots of responses to this one! It has to be Shadow Castle, look for more details on the solved mystery pages. I looked for this book for 22 years and am very glad to be able to help someone else find it now. An expanded edition was printed in 2000!
M.Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  See Solved Stumpers.
Sounds like Shadow Castle!  Check the solved mysteries.
Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  I believe this is the book.  It is listed under the solved mysteries if you want to see more information on it.
Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  This is definitely Shadow Castle - believe it's on the solved pages as well.
If you want to read the same version of Shadow Castle you remember from your childhood, be sure to purchase either a vintage copy or a reprint of the original from Buccaneer books.  The expanded edition currently on the market is repetitious and contains superfluous violence.

For years, I’ve been trying to find a book I loved as a child in the 60’s.  Tonight I searched your website and there it was – E28, Shadow Castle.  All of the details your readers describe are just right – this is the book I’ve been searching for!  Thanks to you and all your readers for providing such a wonderful service!
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Shadow Castle
A small paperback book I read when I was anywhere from 6-9 years old, in the year 1979 to 1982.  I remember checking it out at my elementary school library in Jackson, Wyoming several different times and really enjoying it.  The only plot lines I can recall involve a girl that goes to or gets trapped in a castle...and there was a purple maid that really sticks in my mind.  Anyone remember anything with a purple maid????  I know, this is not much info....but I thought I'd give it a try.  Thanks!!!!

Marian Cockrell (author), Olive Bailey (illustrator), Shadow Castle. (1945)  This is definitely it!  Lucy finds a secret castle, where a mysterious young man named Michael tells her the story of Princess Bluebell, who is turned into a mute purple maid by a goblin that takes her place.  Please see the Solved Mysteries "S" page for more information!  Reprinted in hardcover in 2000 by Buccaneer books.  If you have fond childhood memories of this book, do NOT buy the expanded paperback edition from Amazon---it is much more violent (and repetitious!) than the originally published version.
M. Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  See solved stumpers :-) I'll bet the entire crew will chime in on this one!
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Buccaneer Books Reprint edition (June 1992)  I did a search for "purple maid" & it led me to this book.The rest of the description sounds similar. Hope this is it.
Google mentions Cockrell's Shadow castle in your S section -  purple maid
I think this is Shadow Castle by Marion Cockrell, (again!)  Everybody loved that book
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  The Blue Elves send an entourage to the castle in hopes of marrying their princess to Mika and Gloria's son, Robin.  There is a sad little purple maid who doesn't speak in the group.  After an attack on the castle, it is revealed that the real Princess Bluebell was enchanted into the purple maid and a swamp fairy was masquerading as the princess.
Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Shadow Castle had a plot with a princess who was turned into a purple maid.  Check out the solved mysteries for this book to see if anything else sounds familiar.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle. Wow,,,that took no time at all to solve...I believe you're right, the title rings a bell.  After reading all of the comments and plot descriptions I realized how much I had forgotten about the story.  This was a favorite...thank you so much..I appreciate the help!

Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle. A frequent stumper.  Loved by many.
Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle. This is most definitely the book being sought. I searched for 20 years for it and am happy to point someone else in the right direction! See the solved mystery pages for some good decriptions.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Definitely!  Again!
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle. (1945)  This is definitely the book!  The Scholastic version was printed in 1968.  The twins are Robin (boy) and Meira (girl)and you remember their stories pretty accurately!  Please see the Solved Mysteries "S" page for more information.  I forgot to mention that if you want to read the version of Shadow Castle you remember from your childhood, find a vintage copy or order a reprint from Buccaneer Books.  Do NOT order the expanded edition currently being sold on Amazon---the added material is repetitious and needlessly violent.
Marion Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  Brother marries fairy princess after goblin imposter is exposed.  Sister meets her intended when he trusts her opinion that the dragon is friendly.
Marian Cockrell, Shadow Castle.  I think this is Shadow Castle again  :-)  See Solved Stumpers.

Shadow Castle.  I don't know the dragon story, but the tunnel to the magic land with a sense of menace and urgency sounds like Shadow Castle, which is in the solved mysteries.
Definitely Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell (1945).  The dragon who drinks nectar is Branstookah.  Lucy passes through the tunnel and is frightened by an unseen malevolent being.  Mika is the fairy prince who has been parted from his beloved for one thousand years and seven days.  The book is a series of tales about different members of one family, which is why you remember it as a collection of short stories, instead of a book.  If you want to read the version you remember from your childhood, be sure to purchase either a vintage copy or a reprint of the original from Buccaneer books.  The expanded edition of Shadow Castle currently sold by Amazon contains violent scenes that were not in the original.
Cockrell, Marion, Shadow Castle.  This sounds like the book, look on the solved mystery pages for some good descriptions.
marion cockrell, Shadow Castle.  This is a chapter from Shadow Castle - more of this one on the Solved Mysteries page.

This sounds very much like Joan Aiken's The Shadow Guests. Cosmo is sent to live with his aunt after his mother and older brother vanish (I think from a desert in Australia?). He's lonely until he starts meeting the ghosts of ancient relatives. He has to help train them to help them break a curse on his family. The first one is a roman gladiator. The curse is somehow connected to his mother's and brother's disappearance.
Joan Aiken, The Shadow Guests.  Cosom is staying with his (great) aunt after the loss of his brother and mother - there are a number of time travellers including a roman slave and a crusader, also poltergeist activity. It reminds me of Diana Wynne Jones too!

F12 - The Shark in Charlie's Window?
Lazarus, Keo Felker.  The Shark In Charlie's Window. Illustrated by Laurel Schindleman.  Scholastic, 1972, paperback.
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Kid's book about a young boy who finds a shark on the beach.  He takes it home, feeds it hamburger and it learns to fly rather than swim.

Keo Felker Lazarus, The shark in the window, 1972.  Some details aren't quite right but could this be it? An eleven-year-old boy faces a unique problem when he discovers the shark hatched from the shark egg in his aquarium can fly.
Keo Felker Lazarus, The Shark in Charlie's Window, 1972.  Charlie finds a 'mermaid's purse' (egg case) on the beach, and puts it into his aquarium. When the shark hatches, Charlie names it 'Nipper'. And, yes, Nipper can fly!

"She Fell Among Thieves," short story by Robert Edmond Alter.  This is NOT the same story as the movie of that title starring Malcolm McDowell, which is based on a novel by Dornford Yates.  Maybe he stole the title, or maybe they both borrowed it from another source.  The short story appeared in "Argosy," 1964, I also know I saw it in "The Reader's Digest" a long time ago.  It can be found in Alfred Hitchcock Presents:  The Master's Choice, Edited by Alfred Hitchcock, Random House, 1979.

I read a book with some similarities recently, though I'm not positive it's the right one.  I can't come up with the title tonight, but maybe these details will help.  It takes place in India, and the sheep does designs in the lawn of the local park.  The children love the sheep, but the adults want to  modernize with a lawnmower, so the sheep is put out to pasture.  The sheep is bored and lonely, the people miss the designs, the children miss the sheep.  So they bring the sheep back and he plays with the children and makes designs only on special occasions.  Is this the right one?
Mark, David, Sheep of Lal Bagh, 1967.  Parents Magazine Press.  This is the book I couldn't remember, about Ramesh, the sheep in an Indian park.  Hopefully, it's a match to the stumper!
S140 Might be THE SHEEP OF LAL BAGH by David Mark, illustrated by Lionel Kalish, Parents Magazine Press, 1967. A sheep lives in a park in India and crowds come to see him nibble the grass in different designs. But the park keeper decides to replace him with a lawnmower...~from a librarian
David Mark, The Sheep of the Lal-Bagh, 1967.  I just started looking for this one too!  One of my childhood favorites.
David Mark, The Sheep of the Lal Bagh, 1967.  I also belonged to the Parents' Magazine Press Book Club.  This was one of my favorite books.  I hope you can find a copy for yourself.
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I'm looking for a book that I read in elementary school (early 70s).  If I remember correctly, there was a goat or sheep that mowed (ate) the grass around the king's castle in interesting patterns.  I remember the people looking middle eastern with turbans and the castle had tops that looked like the Taj Mahal.  I hope you can help.  Thanks!!!

M301 This is THE SHEEP OF LAL BAGH by David Mark, Parents Magazine Press~from a librarian
Mark, David, Sheep of the Lal Bagh, 1967, Parent's Magazine Press.  "A sheep lives in a special park in India and nibbles the grass in decorative designs until he is replaced by a lawnmower."

I know the answer to R1 of your stumpers - the one about the Revolutionary War ghosts at a place called Rest and Be Thankful. It's The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope.
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I am looking for a young-adult novel I read sometime between 1980-83 when I was in junior high school.  I read it in one day and returned it to the school library the next, without sufficiently digesting title and author and thus have no idea of either.  The framework of the story involved a young woman who goes to live and/or work at a house (possibly with connection to her family) and eventually falls in love.  However, the real meat of the story is told by the ghosts she meets in the house, who tell her, over the course of several nights, of their adventures during the Civil (?) War, when the house is overtaken by soldiers of the oppposing side.  The brother is imprisoned in the basement, but the sister allowed limited freedom of the house by the gentlemanly officers, and invited to dine with their commander.  Communicating with her brother in their old schoolroom foot-stomping code, she assures him that she can take care of things, while making it clear  to their captors that she is in possesion of a bottle of laudanum.  Thus, when she brings the drinks (in distinctive heirloom goblets, one of which has a dolphin base)  after dinner (during which she has been thoroughly charmed by the dashing officer), he knows that one is poisoned.  Guessing wrongly, he has just enough time to stand and propose to her before dropping insensible at her feet. Lapsing briefly into hysterics, she then recovers to save the day.  After the war, though, she waits  day after  day in the window watching for her lover to return.  The young lady who listens to the ghosts' stories uses incidents from them in her own life, for example, disguising her suitor's unwelcome presence at a party by having him impersonate a waiter, and eventually her own romance is resolved to the satisfaction of the couple.   I hope someone can identify this for me, as I have tried unsuccessfully for 20-some years to find it!

Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring, 1958.  "Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family’s ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries—and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the unfolding of a centuries-old romance against a backdrop of spies and intrigue and of battles plotted and foiled. History has never been so exciting—especially because the ghosts are leading Peggy to a romance of her own!"
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring.  Definitely!
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring,2001, reprint.  It was the Revolutionary War, but all the other details match. The present-day girl is Peggy Grahame, living with her Uncle Enos at the family home, Rest-and-be-thankful.  She meets Pat
Thorne the ghosts are Barbara and Richard Grahame (her relatives) and a British officer, Peaceable Sherwood.  I remember that "waiter" gig too!
Dear Wonderful BookFinder:  I'm so pleased to have "found" this book again--I'm looking forward to reading it with my daughter.  Thank you all so much!
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This is the story of a young woman who time travels to the days of the American Revolution. She (or a character she meets--I'm not sure whether she acts in the past or is just an observer) falls in love with a British raider/spy whose first name is Peaceable. At one point he locks her up in his house (I think to prevent her from turning him in). Her brother (or cousin?) comes to visit, and they communicate silently through a code that involves kicking and stepping on each other's feet. The modern-day heroine turns out to be a descendant of the Revolutionary-Era woman, and she falls in love with one of the raider's descendants (who's been named for him). I read this in the late 60s.

Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring.  This is definitely the book you are seeking. The author also wrote The Perilous Gard which is another great book you might enjoy.
Elizabeth Marie Pope,The Sherwood Ring.  This is The Sherwood Ring - the British officer's name is Peaceable Drummond Sherwood.
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring.  This is it! One of my favorites. It's in the Solved Mysteries.
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring, 1958.  One of the nicest time-travel books ever! :)
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring.  see solved stumpers!
This is definitely The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
T278 Great memory to remember the name Peaceable! The book is The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Pope.~from a librarian
Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring.  The British officer named Peaceable nails it - it's Pope's The Sherwood Ring. Memory is a bit garbled - the modern girl hears the stories of Revolution adventure from family ghosts.  She sees Barbara, the American girl who loved Peaceable most often.

Bernice Myers, Shhhhh, It's a Secret, 1973.  Look for Shhhhh spelled with 5 h's. Published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York. Level 9 of Holt Basic Reading System. Cover is soft & yellow, with a picture of a boy wearing a green sweater, holding his hands by his mouth. "William gets told a secret for the very first time and promises not to tell but it is driving him crazy with excitement."
Not a solution, but a sidelight: the plot sounds like it's been taken from one of the myths about King Midas.  (He "misjudged" -- in the opinion of loser Apollo -- a music contest, and was cursed with asses' ears.  He hid this shame from all but his barber, but the barber, unable to contain himself, had to relieve his feelings by digging a hole in the ground and shouting into it "King Midas has asses' ears!"  Unfortunately, the nearby plantlife heard this and spread the word, and Midas was humiliated.
Mollie Hunter, A Stranger Came Ashore, 1975.  Twelve-year-old Robbie is certain that the stranger washed ashore and taken in by his family is a Selkie, who will take Robbie's sister back to the sea with him. It takes place in the Shetland Islands.

T223 I think this is one of the books created by Izawa & Hijikata. They were published under different series titles, like Puppet Storybook, Puppet Treasure Books and more. Try doing a search on "Thumbelina, Izawa and Hijikata"~from a librarian
This isn't really a solution, but may help find the correct book.  My sister had a version of The Snow Queen that sounds exactly like this book.  It had a black shiny cover with a "holographic" type 3D picture inserted in the front.  The pages were board book in type and the illustrations were cloth dolls posed in various scenes.  Perhaps this particular publisher did a series of famous fairy tales in this format?  As I recall, the author was listed simply as Hans Christian Anderson and I don't remember a publisher's name anywhere on the book.
It may help to know that the black covered 3d books were produced by Shiba Productions and not Grosset and Dunlap (who produced the puppet storybooks).  They are readily found and aren't too expensive.
Hans Christian Andersen, Thumbelina, mid 1960s.  This is one of a series of books published by Golden Press, pictures of Shiba Productions. I have "The Little Mermaid" and it is just as you have described "Thumbelina": there is a 3-D, holographic picture embedded in the cover, and the pictures are photographs of cloth dolls or puppets. When you search for the book, it helps if you use keywords "golden press" and "shiba."
Hi, Do you know anything about these books? They are 3-D puppet books. Some are by H.C.Andersen. They are all fairy tales. (Little mermaid, snow queen, tin soldier, puss and boots, thumbelina.) Do you know the name of this series, how many books were in it and the titles? Any info you have is greatly appreciated. They were from 1966 - 1968, I think. 

Kaufman, Pamela, Shield of Three Lions.  NY Crown 1983.  Although this is not a fantasy novel, I'm pretty certain it's the one wanted. Here's the blurb: "Eleven-year-old Alix is the daughter of the baron of Wanthwaite, whose lands along the Scottish border are among the best in England. But when her family is killed and her lands seized, Alix is forced to flee from the only home she’s ever known. Her one hope of restoring her inheritance is to plead her case to King Richard the Lion Heart, who is far away in France, preparing to go on his Crusade. Alix resolves to follow him. She cuts her hair, dresses as a boy, and takes the road south to London.  Disguised as a beautiful young boy, Alix is more than befriended by the handsome and mysterious King Richard, even becoming his favorite page. Their relationship sets tongues wagging and places Alix in considerable danger as the battle for Jerusalem unfolds."  The similarities - Alix's castle is attacked in the opening scenes. Her mother is raped and murdered, and her 'milk-sister' Maisry is also raped and murdered when she tries to distract their pursuers as Alix escapes. Alix disguises herself as a boy and is companioned by a wild Scot, Enoch, who considers her as his young brother. The menstruation incident occurs exactly as described. Alix, being the heir to the castle and lands, is being pursued by agents of the usurper, and at one point one of them claims that he has an illness for which one of the medicines is the urine of a young boy, and Alix pretends to pee like a boy. I don't recall the vial of tears/blood. However, Alix does have a 'treasure' of coins in a purse or similar, which she conceals under her clothes to help her pass as a boy. Some other incidents that might trigger memory - Alix is dressed as Cupid and hidden in a pastry shell as part of a feast subtelty; she helps a woman deliver twins, one of whom is born with a caul;  she sees Richard order the massacre of Saracens; she returns to Wanthwaite and frames the usurper for rape; she is forced to marry Enoch in order to regain her lands.
Rhoda Lerman, The Book of the Night, 1984. Description of this one I found online: On the island of Iona, where the tenth century co-exists with the twentieth, where the old Celtic gods fight against the rising power of Rome, where science and religion are locked in combat, Celeste, girl-child disguised as a boy, reaches puberty.  The awakening of powerful sexual desire pushes her into the chaos that exists behind the apparent order of nature and the created order of human culture.
Pamela Kaufman, Shield of Three Lions, 1983.  As previously stated, this is the book being sought.  While on a pilgrimage with her milk sister, Maisry, the protagonist, Alix, purchases a religious relic, a metal vial that allegedly contains a drop of the Holy Virgin's own milk.  After Alix discovers that her mother has been slain, she opens the vial, discovers it is empty, and squeezes a few drops of her mother's blood into the vial.  She also takes a lock of her mother's hair.  When her wounded father dies soon afterwards, she adds his blood to the vial and takes a lock of his hair and his dagger.

The Shiniest Star (title).
Beth Varden (author), The Shiniest Star. I googled the character names and found The Shiniest Star by Beth Varden and some information about the original publication.  This is the way I have found other favourite childhood books whose titles and authors have eluded me.
Beth Varden (author), The Shiniest Star. Definitely the book.  It''s very hard to find, but you can read the whole text online:  http://www.denelder.com/poetry/shinystar.html .
Beth Varden (author), The Shiniest Star (1950). This book has the following lines: "When the Christmas Star is shining in the dark blue sky at night, /  Did you ever start to wonder how it got to be so bright?  /  Well, some special little angels(just the very smallest size)  /  Use to have the job of shining all the stars up in the skies./An alarm clock rang at sundown--(when most children go to bed!) / Waking Pigtails, walking Crewcut, waking little Touslehead."  Note: there is a current version available with illustrations by Charlot Byi, though not will all the original ''extras'' like the manger scene and the whistle.
Beth Vardon (author), The Shiniest Star, (1958). A charming Christmas pop-up book, featuring angels Pigtails, Crewcut, and Touslehead.  Each angel is responsible for polishing his/her star, and keeping it bright and shiny.  The three exchange stories about what their stars have done.  Crewcut angel says "Listen! My star saved two children, Lost and wandering side by side. It was midnight in the forest. They were scared as scared could be! But MY STAR shone through the darkness. I was helping them to see!"  Touslehead's star is the Christmas star.  The book ends, "When the Christmas Star is shining In the dark blue sky at night, Maybe Touslehead's STILL working -- Proud and glad to KEEP it bright!" The original book was spiral-bound. A reproduction was issued in 1999 by International Music Publications.'
Beth Vardon (author), The Shiniest Star. Found this description, hope it helps! "A Christmas book about an angel, Touslehead, who tries diligently to shine his star, but it just won't shine up as brightly as the other small angels' stars.
Beth Vardon (author), Charlot Byj (illustrator), The Shiniest Star. I just finished reading about this book!  Go to the Solved Mysteries page "W", and look up a book called, "The Wonderful Window."  It was also written by the same team.  This book has a link to a website that has the entire text of "The Shiniest Star" and a picture of the cover too. One little angel was Crewcut, one was Touslehead and I'm pretty sure a third little angel was Pigtails.  I didn't read it all, but it was a Christmas story about the star that the wise men followed.  Touslehead seemed to be the main character.  Hope this helps!
This sounds like The Shiniest Star by Beth Vardon (author) and Charlot Byi (illustrator).  Here's a description from elsewhere on the Loganberry Books site: "The Shiniest Star is about three little angels who polish their stars in heaven. The hard working, humble Touselhead's star becomes the Christmas star."  The book apparently has some pop-ups and accessories (star, gift card, gift box, wisemen, whistle?) and intact copies are difficult to find and expensive.
By Beth Vardon Illustratred by Charlotte Byi, The Shinest Star 1958 I am looking at this book right now!  it was a gift to me from my mother and was dated 1958. It has had a paper nativity scene which could be assembled (long gone) I still have the little fish whistle (the shark) that Pigtails told her story about! A couple of the pages are pop ups!  Stange there is no publisher listed. I do remember it came in a box with the same picture as the front cover of the book. Perhaps it contained the publisher. I seem to remember that my aunt sold Sunshine Cards at this time. I can't be sure, but, for some reason I thought my mother ordered the book from her. It is a wonderful book I have shared with my children and hopefully I will have grandchildren to read it to! I was six years old the Christmas my mother gave it to me.

The Ship that Flew by Hilda Winifred Lewis. Critierion Press, 1952.
The book I was looking for did turn out to be The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis...thanks so much for coming up with the title!  I got the book interlibrary-loaned through my local library and after reading the story, found it to be as satisfying as it was 40 years ago!  Thanks again!
More on the title - The Ship that Flew, by Hilda Lewis, illustrated by Nora Lavrin, published Oxford University Press 1939, 320 pages (frequently reprinted). Peter, Sheila, Humphrey and Sandy Grant live in a seaside village in England. Their mother is ill and in a nursing home, their father is a doctor. Peter sees a beautiful little model ship in a dark little shop and buys it from an old man with an eye-patch for "all the money you have in the world - and a bit over." He soon discovers that if he wishes, the ship grows to whatever size is necesssary and flies through space and time. The children use it to visit their mother, to travel to a bazaar in Egypt (where they almost lose the ship to the governor of the town), to a Norman castle (and later they bring the Norman daughter to their own time), to ancient Egypt, to medieval England where they help Robin Hood save one of his men, and to Asgard, where they discover that their ship is the one made for the god Frey. At the end of the book they give the ship back in return for their heart's desire.
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My sister remembers this book from our elementary school about 4 British children (2 boys and 2 girls) who travel around in a flying ship (possibly blue) that can fit into your pocket. She thinks they may have gone to other worlds or other times or something like that. She would have read it in the early 90s but we have no idea how old the story is. Any ideas?

Sounds like Lewis' The Ship that Flew.  The kids in question visit ancient Egypt and Norman England, among other places.
Lewis, Hilda, The ship that flew, 1939.  This is definitely your book.  A classic time travel book about Peter and his siblings.  Peter first sees the ship in a shop window.  They travel back in time on several adventures, including to meet Robin Hood, to Ancient Egypt and to meet the Norse god Odin. It has been reprinted many times and I think is still in print.
Yes, it was reprinted in 1998, but it is out of print again now.
Lewis, Hilda, The Ship That Flew, 1958.  This one sounds like The Ship That Flew.  Peter, the oldest brother in a family of four (two girls, two boys) buys a tiny Viking ship in a toy shop, only to discover that it can somehow grow big enough to take all the children for rides through time and space.  They visit the pyramids, Robin Hood, William the Conqueror and, in the end, Odin and the other Viking gods. 1958 is the US publication date, I think it was originally published much earlier in England.
Hilda Lewis, The Ship That Flew, 1939 etc. etc.  Could it be this one?  I found an online description: "Peter buys a model ship and discovers it to be magical, having the power to grow and shrink and to travel to distant places and times. He has several adventures on it with his brothers and sisters....The style of the book reflects 1930s childhood while being fairly timeless."  I believe the ship was a model Viking ship, large enough to sail on a pond in the park (when not being shrunk to hide it).  If I remember correctly, the adventures were historical, and Odin or Thor reappeared here and there to guide the children.
Lewis, Hilda, The ship that flew.  This sounds like The Ship that flew, a boy buys a model boat in a secondhand shop, and later it turns out to grow and carry both him and his brother and sisters. They travel through time, but eventually hand the ship back to its true owner. Quite old but recently reprinted.
I think this sounds like it's the one, so I'll send the title off to my sister. Thanks for the help, everyone!
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Anyway, the book I am trying to remember is about several siblings in England or British Isles who find a magic toy ship and it transports them back in time.  I remember that they went to Egypt, among other places.  I read this back in the 60s but not sure when it was written.  Can you help me? Thanks so much.  You have an awesome website and business!

Hilda Lewis, The Ship That Flew,1939. "When Peter sees the model ship in the shop window, he wants it more than anything else on Earth. But this is no ordinary model. The ship takes Peter and the other children on magical flights, wherever they ask to go. Time after time the magic ship takes them on different exciting adventures, to different countries, and to different times. And why should magic ever end?"
Hilda Lewis, The ship that flew, 1939. This sounds like the one.  There are several descriptions of it  under the solved pages.
Not sure, but could this be one of Edward Eager's books, possibly MAGIC BY THE LAKE? ~from a librarian
Lewis, Hilda, Ship That Flew. Peter buys the ship in a mysterious old shop, and he and his three siblings travel to Egypt, Norman France, and even Asgard.
Hilda Lewis, The Ship That Flew, 1938. If it was a Viking longboat, it was probably The Ship that Flew.  My copy is dated 1953, but it'\''s a reprint.
E. Nesbit, The Story of the Amulet. Could this be The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit? No toy ship, but it is about two brothers and two sisters in England who get an amulet that lets them travel through time, and they do go to Egypt as well as to Babylon and Atlantis and other places
Hilda Lewis, The Ship that Flew. This is the book that originally brought me to this website! An old favourite.
This is not Eager's Magic By The Lake - that's about a turtle that grants wishes.

Constance Buel Burnett, Shoemaker's Son: The Life of Hans Christian Andersen, 1943, approximate.  Sounds like this one, to me.
Constance Buel Burnett, The Shoemaker's Son - The Life of Hans Christian Andersen, 1941, copyright.  There are many versions of Andersen's biography, but this one looks like a good possiblility.  Includes an incident where an old brown suit of his father's is cut down to fit him for Easter Sunday, and he is given his first pair of leather shoes.  He loves his new finery, but is distressed that the long pants hide the tops of his new boots.  He wants to roll up the trousers to better show off his shoes, but his mother won't let him.  He later tucks the trousers into the tops of his shoes. The book includes photographs, illustrations by Fritz Kredel, and reproductions of Andersen's intricate paper cutouts.
Ruth Manning-Sanders, The Story of Hans Andersen, Swan of Denmark, 1949, copyright.  Based on the date, this might be worth checking out.  Includes illustrations by Astrid Walford.
The Shoemaker's Son.  Oh, this is it! I remember the incident about the cut down brown suit and the Fritz Kredel illustrations. I have literally been trying to find the title of this book for over 40 years! Ms. Logan, is it available from you by any chance? I believe I could find it now but would like you to have the business if possible.  Thanks EVERYONE for your help and incredible memories.

If it's a school without a 19th floor, then it's one of the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar.
Sachar, Louis, Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  Definitly the one. Get ready for seven thousand other people to chime in with the answer too, as this is a very popular book!
Sachar, Louis, Wayside School is Falling Down, 1989.  This is the book you want. The school has no 19th floor. Leslie is the girl with the pigtails.
Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  I know it's in one of these books-  there's a sequel Wayside School is Falling Down, etc. but I believe it's in the first one-  Sideways Stories from Wayside School.
Louis Sachar, Wayside Schoolseries, 1978.  The description sounds a lot like the Wayside School series.  These are the titles I am familiar with:  Sideway Stories from Wayside School,Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, and Wayside School is Falling Down.  The school is 30 stories high with only one room on each floor.  There is no 19th floor but in one chapter in one of the books, someone does go to that floor.  Very funny books.
S421 This is one of the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar - listed here in no particular order: WAYSIDE SCHOOL IS FALLING DOWN; WAYSIDE SCHOOL GETS A LITTLE STRANGER; SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM WAYSIDE SCHOOL; SIDEWAYS ARITHMETIC FROM WAYSIDE SCHOOL.~from a librarian
Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, 1980s.  Such a fun book!  There is at least one sequel.
Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, 1978.  This is definitey one of the Wayside story books. "Humorous episodes from the classroom on the thirtieth floor of Wayside School, which was accidentally built sideways with one classroom on each story."

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  Harper Collins, 1978, 1998.  New paperback, $5.99