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S27 is Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.  Not really a children's book, though I read it as a child.  I believe it's currently in print as a mass market paperback.
This is EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart.  It is one of the most famous post-apocalypse science fiction novels, and you should have no trouble finding it:  it's still in print as a mass-market paperback from Fawcett.
The ISBN is 0-44-921301-3.
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Sci-Fi - man survives world-wide virus because he was recovering from a snake bite at the time. Uses telephone book to locate other survivors and organizes a group to start civilization again. First women he finds becomes his wife & eventually dies of cancer.  70's?

#C163--civilization organizes again after virus:  This is Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart, one of the first post-apocalyptic novels of the atomic age and a classic.
George R. Stewart, Earth Abides,  1959.  This is "Earth Abides" by George Stewart.  "A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for."  Oh yeah, and he survives because of snakebite and marries the first woman he meets... :)

I recognise the description but can't recall the title. I think there were three species, those who could fly, tose who lived in tunnels and those who lived on the surface. They all belived the others to be 'animals' rather than sentients. I think they were all originally the same species and the licking/modelling was a part of the reproctive cycle.  I think the story is by either Ursula Le Guin or Orsan Scott Card, if that helps.
Snyder, Zilpah keatley, Below the root.  this is a long shot - but it is about two races one who live in the branches of the trees - and who glide- and the others who live in the roots on the ground.  Is the first in a trilogy
Orson Scott Card, Earthborn.  I agree with the previous answer: probably Earthborn, one of The Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card.
ORSON SCOTT CARD, EARTHFALL. 1990s.  Since posting my previosu solution I've been trying to track down the correct book - I'm pretty sure it's Earthfall (part 4 of the Homecoming series)
Orson Scott Card, Homecoming series,1992-1995.This is definitely from the "Homecoming" series. The creatures are mentioned in dreams in the first book as angels as demons, later come to be known as angels/skymeat (flying batlike creatures) and diggers/devils (underground large rat creatures). The angels sculpt clay on the riverbank and the diggers steal the sculptures, licking them as a form of worship. The humans from planet Harmony return to Earth to discover this new culture and try to figure out why the angels and diggers are so linked. Great series. Starts with The Memory of Earth, then The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, and finally Earthborn. Diggers and angels are mainly in "Earthfall", and their descendents in "Earthborn". Series is mostly about Nafai (youngest son of Volemak the Wetchik) and the Oversoul of Harmony (a computer trying to keep mankind from destroying itself)

This sounds like a Robert Heinlein teen SF novel from the 1950s/1960s.
I don't think it's a Heinlein novel, I checked the summaries of all his books. One of them is similar, but not the one I was looking for.
Pamela Sargent, Earthseed, 1987.
mystery solved, thanks so much :)

Have you looked on the Anthology Finder to see if any look familiar?  Of course, you might not recognize your father's memory...
I found a few collections that have the story "How The Sea Became Salt".  Once Upon A Time Tales by Wallace Wadsworth, illus. by Margaret Evans Price, c. 1944, was reissued in 1995 by Barnes & Noble.  Contents: The cock, the mouse and the little red hen -- The seven wonderful cats -- Puss in Boots -- Bob-White and the farmer man -- Bluebeard -- Tom Thumb -- The three little pigs -- The goose girl -- Henny Penny -- The three bears -- Jack and the beanstalk -- How the Sea became salt -- Peter Rabbit -- The gingerbread man -- The little red hen -- The Pied Piper -- Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar.
The Real Story Book (c1927, 1939, 1947) is also by Wadsworth and contains these same stories, so it may have been the original book.  Do any of the other stories sound familiar to your dad?
Olive Beaupre Miller, editor, My Book House, volume 5 - Over the Hills,  1920-1971.  These books have been in print long enough to be included among your father's childhood favorites.  Volume 5 features a story entitled "Why the Sea is Salt."
Why the Sea is Salt is an old story that has been included in many fairy tale books. The "coffee grinder" in the story is often called a quern.
Why the sea is salty is the subject of many cultures' folk tales and mythologies. The one your father is remembering has a Scandinavian basis of which many versions have been told. A poor man receives the boon of a mill that grinds requested food with magical directions. Another man, usually rich and greedy, steals the mill, but only learns how to start it. When at sea he decides to have the mill make salt to sell to the fishermen, he cannot stop it. Hence, boats sinks and the mill is still under the sea "grinding away still." Published in a number of older anthologies for children.
P214 I wonder if it really was in a poetry collection. I put "Why sea salt" into Google and found this from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
THANKS to all who helped me solve this mystery!  "Why The Sea is Salt" is DEFINITELY the poem my father remembered!  I am going to try to find a couple different collections that have it and surprise him with one and keep one for myself - such nostalgia! Have a wonderful day and happy searching!
You just put up my stumper today and someone wrote to see if I checked the anthologies - maybe it was you - anyway, check this out!  Look at the last listing!!  Do you have this book????  Could it be the poem?????   East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon by Peter Christen Asbjornsen translated by Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen Gudrun  NY, Harper & Row, 1946
I think things are getting confused here because of the original comment that the story may have appeared in a "poetry collection." "Why the Sea is Salt" is (in any version I've heard it) a story, not a poem. East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which has been translated by different people, is a book of Norwegian folk tales, and it does include that story.  But not in poem form.
Under the heading east of the sun, west of the moon, there is a question about "Why the Sea is Salt."  This is an old Norwegian folk tale, originally published in 1844 by the greats Asbjørnsen & Moe.  It was translated under that English title by George Webbe Dasent, and can be currently found in the Dover publication Popular Tales from Norse Mythology.

Adrienne Adams, The Easter Egg Artists, 1976.  I've solved my own stumper before it was even posted!
Since you cleverly solved this yourself, I'll add a bit more to it. There are two more wonderful books by Adrienne Adams about the Easter Egg Artists family. One is The Great Valentine's Day Balloon Race and The Christmas Party.

Dover books might have it or something similar.
Ed Emberley, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals.  This sounds like Ed Emberley. He has a number of great how-to drawing books. Most are in that long horizontal format.
Emberley, Ed, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals, 1970.  It starts out with ant, ants, worm, snake,.....mouse, bird, pelican.... fox, wolf... horse, shark, whale... and ends with giraffe, alligator, and dragon.   He also adds variations for some of the animals such as turtel sleeping, turtle dancing, and turtle skating in the rain.
Ed Emberley, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals, 1970.  I'm sitting here looking at my copy that I ordered from a Scholastic book order in school in the 70s, which my son now uses and loves.
Ed Emberley had a series of these oblong drawing books. This one sounds like ED EMBERLEY'S DRAWING BOOK OF ANIMALS, 1970 and republished since~from a librarian
Ed Emberley's big orange drawing book, 1980.  Ed Emberley's drawing book of animals, 1970. Ed Emberley's picture pie; a circle drawing book, 1984.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Emberley, Ed, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals, Little Brown, 1970, 4th printing.  Ex-library with some marks, but overall VG/VG.  $8

I collect the Eddie books by Carolyn Haywood.  They are   Little Eddie '47,  Eddie and the Fire Engine '49, Eddie and Gardenia '51,  Eddie's Paydirt '53,  Eddie and His Big Deals '55,  Eddie Makes Music '57,  Eddie and Louella '59,  Annie Pat and Eddie '60,  Eddie's Green Thumb '64,  Eddie the Dog Holder '66,  Ever-Ready Eddie '68, Eddie's Happenings '71,  Eddie's Valuable Property '75,  Eddie's Menagerie '78, Merry X-mas From Eddie '86.  They are still fairly available, with varying prices, not too steep compared to some other series books.
Eddie and Gardenia / written and illustrated by Carolyn Haywood. New York: Morrow, c1951. Also Eddie and His Big Deals, 1955, Eddie and Louella 1959, Eddie and the Fire Engine, 1949, Eddie Makes Music, 1957, Eddie's Friend Boodles, Eddie's Green Thumb, Eddie's Happenings, Eddie's Menagerie, Eddie's Pay Dirt, Eddie's Valuable Property, Ever-Ready Eddie.... don't know how many, but they go on for years, so how many this person remembers may depend on how many had been written at that point!
Yes, this is the series.
I too was looking for the Eddie collection by Carolyn Haywood for my son.  I was able to find the entire collection of books on E-Bay.  My 9 year old has read all of them and enjoyed them as much as I did.

Hurrah! I have the answer to one of your stumpers.  S2: The title is AN EDGE OF THE FOREST by Agnes Smith illustrated by Roberta Moynihan Published 1959. The description of the story is the same. Lamb, leopardess, shepherd. Lovely.

B41 is definitely THE EDGE OF TIME  by Loula Grace Erdman, Dodd, Mead and Co. 1950  I have the book in front of me.
B41 Bethany and Wade from a contemporary review: Erdman, Loula Grace The Edge of Time Dodd, 1950, 275 pages "A novel of the Texas Panhandle in 1885 and of a brave young couple who started their married life as homesteaders in that lonely country" "Bethany and Wade are such nice people - you'll like them."
B41 bethany and wade: the suggested title Edge of Time seems likely, with the characters' names Bethany and Wade and the homesteading setting. The original dustjacket shows young homesteaders in a covered wagon.

There is a book my sister has written in the 60's or 70's called TERRIBLE,  HORRIBLE EDIE.  The author is E.C. Spykman.  She has other siblings and is always getting into trouble.  Hope this is the one.
No, this doesn't sound like the one because the girl I'm thinking about was an only child, and I don't remember anything about her getting into trouble.  Thanks for the help!
Hello!  I had this book as a child, and still do!  It's called Edie changes her mind by Johanna Johnston, Illustrated by Paul Galdone.  G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1964.  No ISBN, but Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64-10419.
More on the suggested book - apparently it's hard to find: Johnston, Johanna Edie Changes her Mind NY Putnam 1964 blue and orange pictorial hardcover, 8x10 "Lively, whimsical illustrations by Paul Galdone.
Every time Edie has to go to bed, she lets out a terrible yell!. Find out why Edie decides she wants her bed back after all!"
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book about a little girl named Edie who hates going to bed. Her parents decide she never has to go to bed again  and they take her bed apart and remove it from her room. After staying up half the night and finding it is not fun Edie wants her bed back and gladly goes to sleep.

Johanna Johnston, Edie Changes Her Mind, 1964.  See the Solved Mysteries page.
Probably (from the Solved List) Edie Changes Her Mind, by Johanna Johnston, illustrated by Paul Galdone, published New York, Putnam 1964. "A charming story about a little girl who every night refuses to go to bed...until her parents come up with the perfect plan. Every time Edie has to go to bed, she lets out a terrible yell!. Find out why Edie decides she wants her bed back after all!"

Dare Wright. Not sure which title, but this sounds like one of the bear books by Dare Wright -- maybe Edith and Big Bad Bill or The Little One.
Dare Wright, Edith and Big Bad Bill, 1968. Thanks so much!  This is absolutely the one I remember!

Must be The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter.  It's the kind of book that would have been read in English classes in the 80's, before the scandal of disovering that Carter was not Native American...

This is a very long shot, but these MIGHT be the Educator Classic Library, a series of children's classic literature published mostly in the late '60's.   The titles included 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea, Swiss Family
Robinson, Treasure Island etc. They are large-format books (about the size of a legal pad...9" x 12"?), and they are *annotated*, with definitions of unusual words, small b & w  drawing of various items, etc, in the (wide)
margins of almost every page.
I have to say, the Educator Classic Library sounds like a very close match in content, format and date - not a long shot at all!

Could you have been reading a biography of The Duke of Windsor?  When he was Prince of Wales and King Edward VIII he gave those exact orders to his staff at Fort Belvedere, his hideaway near Windsor Castle.
Frances Donaldson, Edward VIII, 1978. Thank you for solving this. I misremembered a few details, but your answer led me back to the book (and "soap" was in the index, so I didn't have to reread the book to find this story).

#A41:   Louisa May Alcott's house is a museum.  Not a National Park Service Site, but it's in Concord, Massachusetts, its name is Orchard House, and you should be able to find out at least a snail mail and maybe an e-mail address from an online search.  Someone there knows all about Louisa May Alcott or they'll know who will.  (Don't forget an SASE!  As they're not NHS they won't have free government postage!)
This one sounds like a book published under two names depending on the edition.  Aunt Hill or Eight Cousins
is about a girl named Rose who is orphaned and sent to live with her Uncle.
I'm pretty sure this Alcott book is An Old Fashioned Girl.  The heroine is a country girl sent to live with her rich cousins in the city.  She has a snobbish girl cousin and a nicer boy cousin and many trials learning to live in their more sophisticated home.
I looked for this trans. in some library databases, but no luck. French translations of Alcott's work seem to work in Docteur March to the title whenever possible (or not) and this does not seem to match any of the actual March family stories. Old Fashioned Girl sounds closer than Eight Cousins. Old Fashioned Girl is about Polly, who visits her friend Fanny Shaw for several months. Polly Milton is from a poor and simple family (like the Marches) and the Shaws are well-off and fashionable. The children are Fanny, her brother Tom, and spoiled little sister Maude. There is conflict between virtue and homely values as represented by Polly and old grandmother Shaw, and vanity and worldliness as represented by the selfish invalid Mrs. Shaw and Fanny's snobbish friend Trix. Eight Cousins is about orphan Rose, who comes to live with her uncle, six aunts and seven boy cousins. The focus of the book is on her education, which is debated by the aunts and settled by the uncle, whose scheme is very close to Bronson Alcott's ideas. Later - there's a French trans of Aunt Hill, and it's called Rose et ses sept cousins.
The main characters in An old Fashioned Girl are Polly, Tom and Fanny. It wasn't Lizabeth.
I checked a book report on it that I did which had a few more clues: The main girl`s name is Lizbeth, she visits a family in the city where the sister and brother are called Fanny and Tom, respectively.  Eventually, this rich family goes bankrupt.
I just checked the solutions to the stumpers that I had submitted.  They sound like the correct solutions to me! Thank you so much for helping me solve these mysteries that have been with me since I was a child.
The answer to Alcott story about a goddaughter says OLD FASHIONED GIRL, but actually it's EIGHT COUSINS. Rose is orphaned and her godfather is her uncle. The sequel to the book is ROSE IN BLOOM. OLD FASHIONED GIRL is about country girl Polly, who frequently visits her city friend Fanny, until she grows up and moves to the same city.
Alcott, An Old Fashioned Girl.If this is about a goddaughter, are you sure the book is not Eight Cousins?

Perhaps Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt, by Barbara Smucker?
I'm watching your website once a week, hoping someone recognizes the book about quilts.  It was probably a paperback, published around 1992.  My intuition is telling me maybe the title included "four Hands" somewhere.  I associate counting and hands with the title.  Hopefully these adidtional hints will trigger somebody's memory.  Thanks so much for this wonderful effort at answering our need to identify books from memory so that we can enjoy those books in hand, not just mind, again.
Ann W. Paul, Eight Hands Round:  A Patchwork Alphabet.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Paul, Ann Whitford.   Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork Alphabet. Illustrated by Jeanette Winter.  HarperCollins, 1991, 4th printing.  F/F  $18

E20 Not sure this is the right book, but there is a book entitled EIGHTEEN COUSINS by Carol G. Hogan, illustrated by Beverly Komode. It's 36 pages long, and was published in 1968 by Parents Magazine Press
E20 eighteen cousins: more on the suggested Eighteen Cousins, by Carol G. Hogan, illustrated by Beverly Komoda, published Parents' Magazine 1968. "A story in verse form about a city child who visits the country for the first time. Ages 4-8, grades K-3." (HB Jun/68 p.361 pub ad) So it looks like a good match.
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C8: This web site is just what I have been looking for. The book I am searching for is about a brother and sister who go to visit a relative in the country. They play in a stream, see a frog and a bird house. It is a color picture book for the 4-8 year old range. I was born in 1975, so I'm assuming it was published sometime between 1970 and 1985. That's just a guess. Unfortunately, that's all I remember. Any help would be appreciated.

a couple of possibles, the first sounds good but likely too long: Hope, Laura Lee,  Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm NY Grosset & Dunlap, 1916, 246 pages, octavo. Illustrated with drawings by Florence England Nosworthy. Light green cloth with pictorial cover label, without dust jacket. Blegvad, Lenore..  Moon-watch Summer Illustrated by Erik Blegvad. NY Harcourt 1972, 63 pgs, cloth. "Line drawings of children & cats complement this brief story of a brother's & sister's summer visit to their grandmother living in the country."
C8 country visit: it's two boys, not girl and boy, but perhaps Summer is Fun, by Lavinia R. Davis, illustrated by Hildegarde Woodward, published Doubleday 1952, 48 pages. "This is a beautiful book to look at, with a
story in which the twins, Gil and Tippy, really come to life as sturdy, highly individual small boys, spending a summer on Grandpa's farm. A lost Indian trace, a housewarming party and a present for their lame friend Kenny, provide lively interest both in the text and in the fine three-color pictures." (HB Feb/52 p.26)
Carol G. Hogan, Eighteen Cousins, 1968.  Your description reminds me of a book my family loved, called Eighteen Cousins. It only involves one boy who visits his cousins in the country. It is done in rhyme, and mentions seeing a brook and a frog. Sample verse: "I nibbled a carrot, I nibbled a pea, I nibbled a green leaf...but what did I see?  EIGHTEEN COUSINS a-nibbling like me!"  Illustrated by Beverly Komoda
Eighteen Cousins is a baby boomer favorite published by Parents Magazine Press in 1968.  The dates certainly match.

Elfrida Vipont, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, 1969.  "One day, an elephant offers a bad baby a ride through the town, and so begins an adventure and a chase. But when the elephant realizes that the bad baby has forgotten his manners, the chase ends with a bump and tea for everyone."  I had forgotten all about this book till you described it and am going to look for a copy for myself now!
Elfrida Vipont, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, circa 1965.  I'm making a guess at the book's publication year, but I'm 100% sure this is the solution.
Vipont, Elfrida, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, 1969.  Just used this classic in a storytime last month!  "...and they went rumpeta, rumpeta, rumpeta all down the road."
Elfrida Vipont, The Elephant and the Bad Baby
Elfrida Vipont.  illustrated by Raymond Briggs, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, 1969.  This is definitely the book.  The elephant offers the ride to the baby and after the baby takes everything from the various merchants without saying please, they are chased "rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta" all through the town.  This was one of the favourite "on the mat" stories from my early school days. There are various covers around as it has been reprinted many times.
Elfrida Vipont, The Elephans and the Bad Baby, 1986, approximate
Elfrida Vipont & Raymond Briggs, Elephant and the Bad Baby, c.1969.  It had a glowing mention in a _Horn Book_ article on books for the under-3 crowd, which also quoted part of the refrain ("And they went rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta, all down the road, with the ______ running after")
Elfrida Vipont, illustrated by Raymond Briggs, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, 1971.
The Elephant and the Bad Baby by Elfrida Vipont, illustrated by Raymond Briggs, 1969. I loved it as a kid - though one amateur reviewer pointed out recently that it's silly - if not downright annoying - that the baby gets labelled bad just for not saying please, while the elephant shoplifts but doesn't get called bad for that. Or maybe the idea is that even human children know stealing is wrong and animals don't.
Vipont, Elfrida, illustrated by Raymond Briggs, The Elephant and the Bad Baby. London, Hamilton 1969.  This one is in print again. "One day an elephant met a bad baby and asked him if he would like a ride on his back. They went on a wild and glorious chase through the town until the elephant decided that the bad baby had forgotten his manners."
Elfrida Vipont, illustrated by Raymond Briggs, The Elephant and the Bad Baby.  My children (8 and 6) still enjoy this story, which was a favourite at their pre-school.  Still in print in the UK at least, published by Puffin
Well, I love learning something new from this site; I didn't know this book before! Reprinted in paperback in 1971 and 1981 in the UK, but not here.  Not hard to find, but not cheap, either.
B313 and B314.  Both the gizmo and elephant books (rumpeta rumpeta!) are spot on. Thanks Harriet, and everyone!
Really neat book!  One of Cattermole's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century!

It is so nice to see that someone else remembers and loves this book also!! I have two children who also love the book, Plus I have 19 nieces and Nephews and one great niece. I have found this book used many times for most of the younger ones and they all love it too!! I think they can all relate to the story.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Vipont, Elfrida.  The Elephant and the Bad Baby.  Illustrated by Raymond Briggs.  London: Penguin Books, 1969, 1971 paperback.  F.  $20

this sounds rather like one that came up on the Alibris list, so let's try - Elephant for Rent, by Lucille Chaplan,
illustrated by Don Sibley, published Little, Brown, 1959, 164 pages, ages 8-12 'Rex, a baby elephant, was Jimmy McLean's birthday present, sent to him from Africa by his father. Jimmy discovers that the Mudges, in whose care his father left him, plan to aid a cruel animal trainer to steal Rex. He and the elephant run away.' (BRD 1959)

Jean Stafford, Elephi, the Cat with the High IQ.  I think this is the book you're looking for.  The volkswagen beettle is left outside in a snowstorm.  The cat manages to get it brought inside his New York apartment building via the freight elevator.
Jean Stafford, Elephi the Cat with the High IQ, 1962.  So bizarre! I just read this book! I have a trade Dell yearling copy, don't know if there is a hardback edition. Yes, the cat does save a car, it's a little Fiat named Whitey.
C303 Stafford, Jean.   Elephi, the cat with the high IQ.   illus by Eric Blegvad.  Dell Yearling c 1962.   cat saves Whitey, a Fiat car, from snow

Base, Graeme, The Eleventh Hour:  A curious mystery,1988. Most definitely the book -Someone has eaten the feast that was prepared for elephant's 11th birthday.  One of the guests is the culprit and the reader must solve the clues hidden in the pictures to find out who.
Graeme Base, The Eleventh Hour. Sounds like it could be The Eleventh Hour. Horace the Elephant has a party for his eleventh birthday, but which of his guests ate the feast? The clues are hidden in the pictures and the borders to the pictures.
Kit Williams, Masquerade,1979. It seems from the description that this could be Masquerade by Kit Wiliams.  It was quite a bif phenomenon in England in the late 70s/early 80s! It was a picture book puzzle to find a golden hare that was buried somewhere in the English countryside. Each page was a full colour pucture with letters around the edge, finding the correct letters would give you clues to where the treasure was.This wiki page will tell you more here:
Graeme Base, The Eleventh Hour. This is absolutely the book you are looking for: good news, it' easy to find cheap used copies online!
Base, Graeme, The Eleventh Hour, A Curious Mystery, 1988. Summary from the Lib of Congress Cataloging Data: An elephant's eleventh birthday party is marked by eleven games preceding the banquet to be eaten at the eleventh hour, but when the time to eat arrives, the birthday feast has disappeared.  The reader is invited to guess the thief.
Paul Adshead, Puzzle Island. The book you describe does definitely sound like The Eleventh Hour, but I thought I'd throw this one out there as well--Puzzle Island has full page illustrations and a mystery to be solved with an alphabet with letters missing around each illustration, which describe animals hidden in the picture--the names of all those animals are your key to unlocking the cipher at the end to solve the mystery.

Is this possibly Elizabeth by Liesel Moak Skorpen?
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This is the story of a little girl who gets a doll for Christmas, names her Elizabeth, has a rotten cousin who gets a fancier doll but doesn't really love it....Elizabeth is "lost" and eventually found. The book was small, and we got it from the library several times but never found it in a bookstore.  It would make a lovely graduation gift for my Elizabeth, who loved it!

The answer to the ELIZABETH stumper might be Elizabeth by Liesel Skorpen, ill. by Martha Alexander, 1970. It is 32 pages long, and 18 cm.
E5 elizabeth doll: more on the suggested title Elizabeth, by Liesel Moak Skorpen, illustrated by Martha Alexander, published Harper 1970, 32 pages, 5x7" approx. "Kate wanted a doll for Christmas - a golden-haired walking, talking doll. But under the tree she found instead a 'soft cloth doll with warm brown eyes and thick brown braids' like hers. 'What does it do?' asked Kate. 'Everything a doll's supposed to do.' her mother said. Kate was bitterly disappointed, especially when her priggish cousin Agnes came with her stiffly curled, dressy new doll. After the holiday, Kate gave her nameless doll to James the collie to chew; then smitten with remorse she quickly retrieved her and in a flash of sudden love named her Elizabeth. Now the doll became her silent, perfect companion - understanding, patient, faithful. 'Elizabeth could do everything.'" (HB Dec/70 p.605)
Thanks for the comments, folks. I have been trying to remember about this book for decades, having read it in a library as a child and having never seen it since. Seems to be the collector's item now.

Reminds me of the plot of ELIZABETH, ELIZABETH by Eileen Dunlop, 1975, 1977. The aunt is doing research at an old Scottish castle, and the niece time travels to become another person. And in case the title doesn't ring a bell, it was originally published as ROBINSHEUGH in England.~from a librarian
Robinsheugh, or Elizabeth, Elizabeth, is the book I have been looking for. I have been finding books I loved as a kid for my children to read so now I can share this one. Many thanks!

Jenkins, Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Great.  1964, Time Inc.  book xv in the Time Reading Program  Special Edition series.   Introduction by A.L. Rowse.

P28 - could be Elizabite - a picture book about a man who grows a carnivorous plant - can't remember the author - 1960s or 70s I think
H.A. Rey.  Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant.  Harper & Row, 1942.  A wonderful story introducing young children to carnivorous plants. The text is amusing and young children will giggle in delight ..."She's caught me-Ouch!" cries Doctor White, "I did not know this plant could bite!"

Carmela and Steven D'Amico, Ella the Elegant Elephant (series).

Frieda Friedman, Ellen and the Gang, 1963. Twelve-year old Ellen is disappointed about not going away to camp and having to stay in the city for the summer.  While her friends are away, she falls in with two teenage boys and a girl who use her as a decoy when they shoplift from the neighborhood stores.  I think this was the last of the author's wonderfully evocative books written in the Forties through Sixties about New York City kids.
The solution posted is indeed the right book! Thanks so much for whoever solved this for me--I've been trying to remember this title and author forever!

Ellen Tebbits
I'm looking for a children's book about a young girl whose grandmother knit her a sweater out of itchy wool.  She hated it and even cut a hole out of the center of it so she wouldn't have to wear it.  But that's all I remember.  I read it in the 1960s.  I know that's not much to go on, but I appreciate anything you can do.  Thank you.

S48 sounds like one of the Beverly Cleary books like Ramona, Otis Spofford, or Ellen Tebbetts.  I remember reading a book when I was young about an itchy sweater, and I think it was in one of the Beverly Cleary books.
#S48--Sweater made of itchy wool:  I know of two "itchy wool" episodes.  In Ellen Tebbits, by Beverly Cleary, her mother makes her wear a union suit.  She is furious when found out by another girl (Audrey?) but then finds Audrey was hiding in the same bathroom/cloakroom/broom closet because her mother made her wear a union suit, so they become best friends.  In Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer, Lucinda promises to wear a similar undergarment all winter, but simply can't coordinate it with her stockings, etc.  Reasoning that she didn't promise in what condition she'd wear it, she decided to follow the little woman in the song and "cut it round about." She cut the legs off and just wore the shorts part of it.  The sequel to Roller Skates is Year of Jubilo.  It took me fifteen years to find a paperback of Year of Jubilo and I never have seen it in hardcover.
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Someone will surely recognize this since I think it was some kind of series. The main girl is American (cant remember her name though) and she goes to this ballet class with a new girl from France who is very snobby. All the French girl can talk about is "gay, gay Paree" and how awful America is after Paris. Of course she is simply homesick and the American girl finally realizes this and makes friends with her. Our American girl is a klutz and has to keep clutching her long underwear under her ballet costume. Her mother made her wear it and she is mortified. Jump and clutch, jump and clutch...is all she can do till the teacher scolds her for being so jerky. I wish I could remember more but that's it.  Anyone know this?

Perhaps this person is mis-remembering the detail about France. In the book ELLEN TEBBITS by Beverly Cleary, 1951, Austine Allen has just moved from California and talks about it constantly. She is in ballet class with Ellen Tebbits and Ellen's woolen underwear keeps slipping, making her "leap clutch". Ellen and Austine become friends by pairing up against Otis Spofford, and Ellen discovers that Austine's mom makes her wear woolen underwear too. ~from a librarian
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  Pretty sure about this one---not really a series, but of course Cleary wrote many books in the same vein including the Ramona series.
The long underwear, jump and clutch scene is definitely from Ellen Tebbits, but the homesick French girl part is from one of Lee Wyndham's Susie books.  I think it may be from On Your Toes, Susie.
Yes, I figured that I might have mixed up two stories as one in my head. I think I'd better go back and read all the Beverly Cleary books again! I'll check out the Lynn Wyndham books, too, because I distinctly remember the "gay Paree" part.  Thanks to everyone, and sorry that it was a relatively simple stumper!
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I am looking for the name of a book which had a chapter entitled "The Perennial Beet" (I distinctly remember asking my mother to define 'perennial'). I checked this book out of the school library when I was in the third grade, so 1963-64. The story centered on the friendship of two little girls (perhaps one new to the neighborhood and of lesser means?). The mother of one of the girls sewed them matching outfits from fabric (yellow?) printed with monkeys. There were simple illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. I realize this is precious little information to go by, but maybe there is someone my age who remembers this book. Thank you for any ideas.

Ellen Tebbits, Beverly Cleary.  1955, approximate. It was a biennial beet, but everything else in this story matches
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. 1951. This is definitely Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary.  Both the enormous beet and the monkey-fabric dresses are there.
Cleary, Beverly, Ellen Tebbitts. 1951. The making of the monkey print dresses is a major part of the story line of Ellen Tebbitts.  It practically ruins the two girls' friendship.  Also, if I remember correctly, it was a turnip plant that had a flower on it, not a beet, that Ellen pulls out of the ground.
This is the one you're looking for, Ellen's class is talking about perennials and she remembers that there's a huge beet growing nearby her school so she goes out to pull it and bring it in to show her class. And she and her best friend have identical dresses made with monkey fabric.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951. More than enough info to identify this classic.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. Definitely the one--both the beet and the dresses.
This book is Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary.
Beverly Clearly, Ellen Tebbits. How many millions of people will send in solutions to this one!?'
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. 1951. 'I love it when I know these without a doubt! I''m sure I'm not the only to come up with solution for this clue--classic Beverly Cleary.'
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits'. 1951. Chapter Two of this lesser known Beverly Cleary book is entitled "The Biennial Beet."  Ellen'\''s third grade class is dicussing different types of plants, including perennials and biennials, and her teacher mentions that it is rare to see a biennial plant in flower because they are usually harvested too soon.  Ellen finds a large (biennial) beet plant in a vacant lot and wants to take it to her teacher.  She is late to school and gets very muddy because she has such trouble pulling it up. Austine Allen is her kind new friend who helps her.  Chapter Five is called, "The Twins" and describes the matching dresses Ellen and Austine have made out of red and white fabric with monkeys and palm trees.  Ellen'\''s dress turns out much better than Austine'\''s because Ellen'\''s mother is an expert seamstress and Austine'\''s is not.  I am sure this is your book.  I hope you get to read it again.  It is such a great picture of all the social struggles of grade school!'
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951.Definitely the one you're looking for, only the chapter is titled "The Biennial Beet." Ellen's class is learning about annual, perennial, and biennial plants. In an effort to impress her teacher, Ellen pulls a huge beet plant that has gone to seed in a vacant lot, getting herself thoroughly rain-soaked, muddy, stained with beet juice, and tearing her dress in the process.  The matching dresses in the monkey-print fabric are in the chapter called "The Twins." The girls (Ellen and Austine) want matching dresses, and pick out the pattern and fabric together, but Ellen's mother is an excellent seamstress, while Austine's mother is not. The dresses don'\''t quite match (Austine'\''s looks sloppy and has no sash, while Ellen's is very attractive), which precipitates a fight between the two girls.
Cleary, Beveryly, Ellen Tebbits. Pretty sure this is an Ellen Tebbits chapter title.  As I recall, Ellen's class is learning about plants and plant life-cycles in class.  Ellen sees a huge beet in an empty lot on her way to school, and decides to bring it in as an example for the teacher, whom she is very fond of, and wants to impress.  She pulls the beet out, falling over and muddying herself in the process.  Only now that I think about it, I'm almost positive she wanted to bring he beet in as an example of a BIENNIAL plant, since those are more unusual than annuals and perennials.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951. I believe the book you remember is "Ellen Tebbits", which is still in print.  Ellen makes a friend in a new girl named Maxine at the start of the book, because they are both wearing wool underwear at ballet class.  I remember a search for a beet at some point.  Also, she and Maxine pick out fabric with monkeys for matching dresses.  The only thing is that instead of one mother making both dresses, each girl's mother makes a dress.  Ellen's mother is a good sewer but Maxine's isnt, so the dresses are not at all alike and the girls end up quarreling.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951. This is definitely Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary.  It's the story of third-grade best friends Ellen and Austine, who is new to the neighborhood at the beginning of the book.  Chapter 2 is called "The Biennial Beet," not "The Perennial Beet." There is a scene where the girls go fabric shopping for matching new dresses, and they choose a material with "red palm trees...printed on a white background. From each tree a small red monkey hung by its tail."'
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. 'I read this when I was a kid, and remember Ellen and her friend wearing dresses made out of material with monkeys on it.  Unfortunately, the friend's mother couldn't sew very well and the dress didn't look nearly as nice as Ellen's.
Cleary, Beverly, Ellen Tebbits, 1951. This is definitely Ellen Tebbits, one of my favorite books while growing up!  Ellen lives in Oregon and befriends Austine Allen, who has just moved there from California.  The two become best friends, and at one point, they ask their mothers to sew them identical dresses from material printed with monkeys.  Austine''s mother isn't much of a seamstress, and the unfortunate results lead the friends to quarrel...Ellen also pulls a flowering beet from a vacant lot to bring to school for show and tell---her class is studying annuals and perennials.  (Thanks to Austine, Ellen also learns that geraniums, which are annuals in Oregon, are perennials in California.)  A great book!  Followed by a sequel, Otis Spofford (1953), also highly recommended, as it is very funny and Ellen and Austine play a prominent role.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. I'm sure you'll get this answer over and over again, but this one is definitely Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary, one of my favorite books as a child.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits. The chapter you are thinking of is called "The Biennial Beet," and in a later chapter Ellen's mother and her best friend's mother make them matching dresses out of yellow fabric with monkeys on them, only the dresses don't quite match...An all-time classic!'
That was fast! I guess I'm the only person in the world who didn't know the title/author of this book. haha! Thanks everyone!
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I think this is a book from the 40's or 50's, about two little girls who are good friends with each other.  At some point they decide to dress like twins so each asks her mother to make her a dress out of the same material - a print of monkeys swinging from palm trees - but while one mother is a good seamstress, the other one isn't and her dress looks terrible.  The girls get into a fight and the one with the terrible dress rips the pocket of the one with the good dress.  They make up later.

Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  details match exactly.
Cleary, Beverly, Ellen Tebbits, 1955, approximate.  This is it without a doubt.  I'm sure you'll get a lot of comments on this one.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, Morrow, 1951, copyright.  This is definitely the book you're looking for. Ellen lives in Portland, Oregon, the only child of a single mom who is a Donna Reed, 50s tv-mom type, everything perfect. She has no close friends until Austine Allen moves to Portland from California. The girls become very close and want to do everything together, including start the fourth grade looking like (fraternal) twins, and that's what leads to the episode you remember. Austine's mother can't sew and Ellen's mom of course makes a picture-perfect dress so Austine gets jealous. There is another book solely about Otis, the Dennis-the-Menace / Penrod-like boy who teases the girls.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951, copyright.  Lots of details about this book can be found in the "solved pages", including this part about the matching dresses of Ellen and her best friend Austine. This book is a classic and you will have lots of responses, I'm sure.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951, copyright.  Definitely the book.  The monkey-patterned dresses seems to be a very strong memory for readers of this book.  Look in Solved Stumpers.
Cleary, Beverly, Ellen Tebbits, 1951, copyright.  This is from Ellen Tebbits - Ellen and Austine want to wear the same dress for the first day of school, but Austine's mum can't sew as well as Ellen's.  Austine and Ellen fall out because Austine keeps tugging at the sash on Ellen's dress.  The ripping incident doesn't happen until a later moment in the book -when Ellen rips Austine's sash when they are dusting erasers together.  The incident leads to them restoring their friendship.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  You'll get a lot of responses to this one - everyone remembers those monkey dresses! See solved mysteries for more descriptions.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  This is definitely the book.  It's in Solved Mysteries, too.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  I remember this scene so well because I longed to have a mom who sewed, but sympathized more with the girl whose mother couldn't sew her dress properly! The book includes illustrations of the print the girls used for their dresses, complete with monkeys swinging from palm trees.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951, copyright.  Definitely this one! Look under Solved Mysteries for additional details.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits, 1951, approximate.  I'm sure this one is Ellen Tebbits--my favorite Cleary book. The friend is Austine Allen and they meet over the shared dilemma of long underwear at dance class. I still own my paperback copy from 35 years ago. Thank goodness for the Scholastic Book Club!
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Author guess: Neta Frazier? 1940-1960, juvenile.  Story of the new girl in school. She makes friends with another girl, one of their mothers makes them matching dresses. The new girl is teased (because she is from Canada?), the other kids call her Pea soup & johnny cake , and Canuk(sp). There is a falling out with her friend, but they make up in the end.

The part about the new girl and matching dresses sounds like Beverly Cleary's Ellen Tebbits; but the new girl in that story is from California, not Canada.
Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits.  Thanks so much! I bought this book to see if you were right & IT IS the one I was thinking of. I loved it so much as a girl...and loved reading it again. Now I have to figure out what book has "pea soup & johnny cake" in it! Book stumper is a GREAT idea...keep up the good work.
Unless that's you, stumper G489 is looking for the same book. "Kid Sister" is in solved-K if you want to check & see if it sounds right -- she had a rat named Rosemary.

Interpreting Condition  Grades

Cleary, Beverly.  Ellen Tebbits.  Illustrated by Louis Darling.  Dell Yearling, 1951, 1979.  Used paperback.  G.  $4.

Eleanor Farjeon, Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field.  This book contains the story , "Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep", which may be the story you're looking for.
Eleanor Farjeon, Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep.  This is only one story by Eleanor Farjeon.  One of the books it was printed in was Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field  we have it in Eleanor Farjeon's Book:  Stories, Verses, Plays.
Eleanor Farjeon, Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep, c.1937.  This sounds very like the Elsie Piddock story - which first appeared as one of the 'Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field' stories in 1937 but was also/later published separately. Elsie Piddock is a little girl in Sussex, England, who has skipping lessons in her sleep/dreams from the fairies' own skipping master Andy-Spandy (Farjeon took his name from a skipping rhyme 'Andy Spandy Sugardy Candy, French Almond Rock! Breadandbutterforyoursupper'sallyoumother'sGOT!') and got a special skipping rope from the fairies with candy handles. (Which she let her friends suck). At the end of the story she is a little old lady who has shrunk to the size she can use the fairy skipping ropes again and saves an area of open land from development.
Eleanor Farjeon, Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep, 1937.  I was the one who originally asked about this, so you can now know the stumper has been solved!  I found Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field at the local library, and it is not the book I read.  It still might be the story collection mentioned here, but the library didn't have that one.  Since I only wanted the one story I remembered, I am totally satisfied.
Your reader found the story but not the collection. Might it have been The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon? I think it had some black- and-white illustrations. Another of the stories was called West-something, about a prince who seeks his bride in lands named for the four directions. The northerners were too cold, the southerners too slothful, the easterns too brisk. He had been forbidden to go into WestWOOD (aha!) but he did anyway, and there he found his true love, who had been his maid all along. There might have been another tale, too, about a princess who is bored with the color of her room. She commands her fairy godmother to give her a pink room and is instructed to lie on her bed and kick her toes at the ceiling--voila! pink walls, pink bed, pink floor. Soon she's bored again and commands another color change. This happens several more times until finally, she wants a black room. After lying on her bed and kicking her toes at the ceiling, the walls fall away, the roof comes off, and she gets her wish for a black room. I don't remember the dust jacket, but the book was smallish and had a light russet woven cloth cover I vaguely remember. 

Sometimes other book requests help solve the stumpers I already have.  Here’s one:
 author=
 title=Elson Grammer School Reader
 publisher=
 date=1930
 comments=Has Baby Ray as the main character.

The only thing I remember about this book from my childhood in the '50s is a little rooster who cried, "Cockadoodle-doo, I want my mommy!" My dad thinks it may have been in a reading primer with stories about Little Ray??? Little Ray had one puppy, two kittens, three ducks and four chickens??? My memory is old and his is older so this is the best we can come up with.
could the reference to "Little Ray" match B6 - the Elson Grammar School Reader featuring Baby Ray?
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this story is about the big dipper or the little dipper it seems to me more about the big dipper. it is about a sick mother who sent her daughter out one night to get some water.she had a cup for the water. she got the water and on her way back home she encountered  some people wo wanted some water.she gave each on e a drink. she encountered a dog and also gave it a drink. he barked twice for thank you. when she got home with the water the cup went out of her hands to the sky and it made the big dipper or the little dipper. i was read this story by my mother when i was a child. it was either in a book with other stories or it was by it self.this was either late 1940's or early 1950's. now i am 59yrs old and my mother has long since passed away.  thanks ,i hope this will help find the book.

This story is in one of the old childrens' readers I collect. I found it in The Elson Reader Book Two, copyright 1920, 1927, published by Scott, Foreman and Company. Inside the front cover is stamped "Tulsa City Schools." The story is tittled "The Star Dipper" and the origin is listed as "old tale." The girl and her mother live near a big woods. One night her mother was sick and very thirsty. The daughter took an old tin dipper and went to the well but discovered it was dry. Since she didn't want to return without water for mother she summoned her courage to go into the dark woods and find a spring. After filling the dipper with water, she first encountered the thirsty dog, and then a thirsty old man. After giving both water the dipper turned to gold like the shining sun. At last she reached home with plenty of water to spare for her mother, who called her "my good little girl," and told her she felt better. Then the golden dipper turned to sparkling diamonds and went up into the sky, becoming seven bright stars. The story ends with "That was a long, long time ago, but the star dipper is still in the sky. It shows how brave a kind-hearted little girl can be."

Ah... the infamous Golden Books Treasury of Elves and Fairies  by Jane Werner and illustrated by Garth Williams.  See more on the Most Requested Page.
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I am wanting to find a book that my step-mother gave to me when I was little (1970ish).  It was not new then, but I don't know how old it was. It was oversized (18"?) and beutiful!  It was a collection of stories and poems about fairies and wee folk.  There was a story about a fisherman finding a mermaid baby and taking it home to his wife while the mermaids try to find their baby, a story about a boy who finds fairies while picking berries with his grandmother, a poem called "When There's a Ring around the Moon", a story about a boy who kidnaps a fairy-type creature (it has a picture of him on a horse with the creature wrapped up in a blanket), a story about a fairy bear who gets a job in a fish cannery, a story about a brother & sister (?) who find a fairy town under a tree, and a long poem illustrated with wee folk climbing rocks and eating by a stream with a woman sleeping/dead underwater.  I loved this book!  My step-mother finally made me get rid of it when I went into high school.  I would love to get a copy of it, but I don't even know the name!

jane werner garth williams illust., elves and fairies
well, in that case, check out the Most Requested Books page!
This may not help much, but I remember the fairy bear in the cannery story from an anthology series, The Children's Hour.  I don't have any volumes available but, all the books were in red covers with full-color endpapers illustrated with story charactes. Each volume was dedicated to a different theme, eg Sports  SO, MAYBE, the volume with that story was dedicated to fairy stories? Good luck.
I just checked my copy of Elves and Fairies.  Absolutely.

This is David Palmer's Emergence.  A detail that might ring a bell -- the protagonist, Candy, keeps referring to her parrot as "retarded baby brother", and it takes a while to realize that it's a parrot. Definitely worth finding and re-reading!  It's SF, which might be why it's been hard to find.  There's a review here.

Yes!
Smith, Emma. Emily. Illus. Katherine Wigglesworth. McDowell, Obolensky, c. 1959. Ex-library copy, removed pocket, some smudging, one of the eight color plates missing. Overall, G/G with dust jacket. <SOLD>

A great big YEA! I'll put a check in the mail. My sister came up for a visit last month - though we talk all the time we hadn't seen one another in a year - to find Emily's Voyage [the first book I found for this customer] propped on her guestroom pillow. She was dumbstruck and then teary-eyed, saying the book brings back cozy memories of the days of Grandma and molasses cookies. I can't believe you actually found the original. We used to joke that if one of us ever located a copy the world as we know it would probably come to an end. Guess it's time to stock up on batteries and potable water. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!
Greetings. My gal is looking for a book. The title as she remembers it is Emily's Journey. Much searching of the Internet has failed to turn up any book by this title published ever. However, it is looking like Emily or Emily the travelling Guinea Pig by Emma Smith may be the book she's thinking of. The book she remembers is about a small furry animal, she thought it was a hedgehog, named Emily, who must travel through parts of England on some kind of journey. Can you help?

Interpreting Condition Grades

Smith, Emma.   Emily, the Traveling Guinea Pig.  Illustrated by Katherine Wigglesworth. NY: McDowell, An Astor Book, 1959.  8 color plates and lots of black and white illustrations.  Red cloth, edgeworn, small tear to cloth at bottom of spine.  Pages clean and bright, charming.  G.  $24

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily of New Moon,1923. It's actually the mother of one of Emily's friends who was assumed to have run off and is found at the bottom of the well (Emily's mother died when she was born, and Emily was sent to live with her aunts after her father's death), but the other details are correct.
L. M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. This sounds like the lesser known Emily series by the author of Anne of Green Gables.
L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. It is Emily's friend Ilse's mother who had disappeared. Emily dreams of the mother falling down an old well and that's where her body is found.
Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. the story sounds like a mixed-up version of Emily of New Moon.  Emily lives with her two aunts - one strict one kindly.  The mother in the well story is actually about her best friend Ilsa.  But Emily dreams the solution while she has a fever.  She tells the family to search the well, but she is only comforted when Aunt Elizabeth (the strict one) agrees to search the well - because she knows the Aunt Elizabeth will keep her word.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily of New Moon, 1923. Emily Starr is the girl who is raised by two aunts (Aunt Elizabeth-strict and Aunt Laura-sweet), falls into a fever and dreams of her best friend Ilse's mother, who has long been assumed to have deserted Ilse as a baby. Emily dreams that the mother fell into a well and died. This is discovered to be the case, and Ilse's father, formerly a gruff, bitter man, falls to his knees beside the (now recovered) Emily's bed in gratitude. Brilliant series that includes Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest.
L. M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon,1923. Remember lonely little Emily keeping a daily journel in her jimmy-book?  It's a little blank notebook given to her by her child-like Uncle Jimmy and she keeps it hidden from her mean Aunt Elizabeth and sweet Aunt Laura.  But both aunts are good, really.  It is the mother of Emily's best friend Ilse who has disappeared.  Emily is sick and has a feverish dream that, her friend's long-lost mother is in an old well - and she is.  I loved this book - there are 2 more in the series - Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest.  L.M. Montgomery also wrote the Anne of Green Gables books.
L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. I think this sounds like the Emily of New Moon trilogy.  Emily is sent to live with her two aunts and cousin Jimmy, I believe.  One is stricter than the other.  I know there is a mother who was believed to have run off, but had actually fallen in the well - but I can't remember if it was Emily's mother or a friend's mother.  Emily wants to be a writer, and her cousin Jimmy encourages her and gives her notebooks that she calls Jimmy Books.  The books are Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest.
LM Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. 'It is Emily's friend, Ilse, whose mother is believed to have run away and whose father, the doctor, turns bitter and neglectful of his daughter.  Emily gets a virulent case of the measles and the doctor tells Emily's aunts to humor her whims since she seems to be in great distress.  Emily has a vision of Ilse's mother falling in the well and her aunt promises to have the well checked.  Emily is relieved since she knows her Aunt Elizabeth is hard but never lies.  Ilse's mother is found and the doctor's faith is restored.
You've probably already received a ton of answers for this one -- sounds like Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery. Emily is orphaned and goes to live with her Aunt Laura and Aunt Elizabeth at New Moon. The dream about the woman in the well relates to her best friend's mother, who had disappeared some years before in mysterious circumstances.
L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. This is almost certainly the Emily series. The girl whose mother fell down the well is Emily's best friend, Ilse, but Emily is an orphan who must live with her strict aunts after the death of her father, and she does have a dream that locates Ilse's mother while she is feverish.
LM Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. This is definitely the book - thanks to all who wrote in!

Beverly Cleary, A girl from Yamhill. I'm almost certain that this is Beverly Cleary's autobiography.
Beverly Cleary, The Girl from Yamhill.  Just a wild guess. I've never read this book but I know it is an autobiographical look at her girlhood by Beverly Cleary.  From all accounts she had a somewhat lonely childhood.  Suggested it only because of "Yamhill" but it might be worth a look.
Cleary, Beverly, A girl from Yamhill: a memoir. (1988) This is definitely the book.  It is the story of Cleary's early years (a second book, 'My Own Two Feet' continues the story through her early work as a librarian and the publishing of her first book).  You remember the detail about the bathtub correctly - "the first fine house in Yamhill, with the second bathtub in Yamhill County"
Beverly Cleary, Emily's Runaway Imagination. (1960)  'I believe this is the book you are looking for.
Beverly Cleary, A Girl From Yamhill County. (1988)  Definitely this autobiography from the beloved children's book writer.
Beverly Cleary, Emily's Runaway Imagination.  This book definitely has several of the episodes you've remembered and several other humorous scrapes Emily gets into because of her wandering mind, including: forgetting to lock the pigpen so the pigs get into the rotten apples and get drunk, the not-so-dressed up party, baking a pie with the crust upside down, bleaching a horse white to impress her city cousin, and scaring herself at a sleepover party. (Beverly Cleary was a native of Yamhill County - she also wrote a memoire that might have some similar stories...The Girl From Yamhill County)
According to Google, this is Beverly ClearyEmily's runaway  imagination
Beverly Cleary, Emily's Runaway Imagination. (1961)  Absolutely the book you're looking for.
Although the bathtub detail may be the same, this is not "A Girl From Yamhill", but rather "Emily's Runaway Imagination", which contains every one of the details listed, as well as the bathtub one.  It seems that Beverly Cleary used a lot of details in this book that were from her own life.
Beverly Cleary, Emily's Runaway Imagination.  This is it.  I actually had thought it might be a Cleary book that I was looking for, but when I went to a Cleary website, I saw "Girl From Yamhill" and read a description, and knew that was NOT it, so I assumed the "Yamhill" think was just a confusing coincidence.  I think I also mixed up "Emily's Runaway Imagination" with the "Ellen Tebbits" series - when I saw the "Emily" book listed under Cleary, I thought it was the stories I remembered from Ellen Tebbits, and I never bothered to investigate the "Emily" book further.  I finally realize that if I had just read the summary of the "Emily" book, I would have recognized it as the one I was thinking of!

Madye Lee Chastain, Emmy Keeps a Promise
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The books I am looking for are part of a series.  The first book was about a Girl and her Older Sister.  Their parents weren't living.  The sisters lived with their wealthy grandfather in New York around 1830-1850.  The grandfather owned a shipping line.  The Older Sister  was being courted by the young Captain of one of her grandfather's ships. In the second book the Ship Captain and the Older Sister married and took the Girl with them for an adventure on the seas in his ship.  The third book was a little different.  It was about a poor cartographer (map maker) and his sister, a poor seamstress.  Eventually the cartographer got a job with the wealthy grandfather and the seamstress sewed dresses for the girl and her older sister of the first books saving the brother and sister from destitute poverty.  An incident from the first book is when the seamstress came to sew new clothes for the girl.  The seamstress had a history of trying to give the girl the opposite of whatever she wanted.  If the girl wanted a certain style of dress, the seamstress would convince the adult present that another style was much more suitable.  The girl noticed the seamstress held pins in her mouth while she was pinning fabrics.  The girl thought the seamstress had probably swallowed too many pins and that was why the seamstress was so mean.  The girl tricked the seamstress into giving her a dress that buttoned up the front by telling the seamstress she wanted the buttons down the back.  The seamstress turned to the adult in charge and assured her that buttons in the back were totally out of style and the latest style was buttons in the front.  The girl held back a smile so the seamstress wouldn't know she was giving the girl the exact style of dress that she really wanted. The third book with the cartographer and his seamstress sister used some unusual expressions.  The sister would say something was "too dear" when she meant "too expensive".  I have often thought of this series....

Madye Lee Chastain, Emmy Keeps a Promise, 1956.  The first book this poster describes sounds like it may be Emmy Keeps a Promise by Madye Lee Chastain.  I don't remember it well enough to know if the details with the seamstress fit, but the historical setting and the older sister's romance sound right.  I'm not aware if this book had a sequel, so can't help with the second book mentioned, but the third one does sound like it might be Plippen's Palace, by the same author.
Chaplain, Madye Lee, Emmy Keeps a Promise, Plippen's Palace.  I have looked for these books for years without being able to recall the title or author. Thank you! It is so exciting to now know both!  You have ended a thirty year search!
Chastain, Madye Lee, Dark Treasure, 1954. Thanks to your help I was able to find the third book in this same series! Dark Treasure also by Madye Lee Chastain, had the incident with the seamstress. Thank you so much, I never thought I would have the pleasure of re-reading these books!

Not much information, but maybe - Windwagon Smith by Ennis Rees, illustrated by Peter P. Plasencia, published by Prentice-Hall 1966 "The lyrical legend of Windwagon Smith, who used a sail and rudder to steer his prairie schooner into the midst of rollicking adventure. Ages 6-10." (Horn Book Apr/66 p.146 pub ad)
Possibly - High Wind for Kansas, by Mary Calhoun, illustrated by W.T. Mars, published New York, Morrow 1965 "Based on an authentic frontier incident, this colorful story tells of a man who invented a windwagon and of its subsequent fate. Ages 4-8" "An actual pioneer incident inspired this lusty tale of how Windwagon Jones (the author calls it a fictional name) turned a prairie schooner into a land-sailing craft. The details here of the launching and trial voyage make a tale excellent for telling. The line-and-wash pictures have the proper gusto for the story's boisterous action." (Horn Book Jun/65 p.272, 121)
S25 sailboat on wheels: possibly How Space Rockets Began, written and illustrated by LeGrand (author of the Augustus books), published by Abingdon 1960. "Windwagon Smith was a sailor looking for a home. This is the story of what happened as he looked for a place to live in Europe, Australia and in the Great West. A rollicking tall tale. Ages 7-11." (HB Feb/60 p.92 pub ad) No apparent connection with the Windwagon Smith of the Rees book.
Robert Nathan, The Enchanted Voyage. I read this quite a while ago but it fits the description.
Nathan, Robert, The Enchanted Voyage.NY Knopf 1936.  More on this suggested solution, and it seems to be correct.
Mr. Hector Pecket is a carpenter who lives in the Bronx, and has built himself a sailboat, called the Sarah Pecket after his wife. It sits in his yard, and he putters with it. He is not very succesful as a carpenter, and his wife wants him to sell the boat to the butcher, Mr. Schultz, "for use as a hamburger, coffee, and frankfurter stand." But it is Mrs. Pecket who puts wagon wheels on the boat, so that it can be moved to the Schultz's. Mr. Pecket decides to sleep on the ship for its last night. While he is dreaming of the great ships of the past, a storm comes up and the Sarah starts to keel over, and then is pushed away by the wind. Mr. Pecket steers with the wagon-tongue (added when the wheels were put on) and heads off down the street, on the way to the Caribbean. Soon he meets Mary Kelly, a waitress, and she decides to go with him as far as Florida. They knock down a young man with a pushcart, who grinds knives and fills teeth, and because his pushcart wheel is broken, he joins them as well. It does not appear to be the beginning of a series, because at the end Pecket runs the Sarah into an actual river and it sinks. However it is quite episodic.

D'Aulaire's perhaps?
Margaret Evans Price, Enchantment Tales for Children, 1926.  I have a Rand McNally edition, a 1927 reprint, of a
collection of Greek myths "retold and pictured by" Margaret Evans Price. The binding is navy blue and there is a large color plate on the front cover of Phrixus and Helle riding on a flying ram.  The book contains 14 color plates in addition to other illustrations.  I never wondered about the children on the ram, but I was terrified by the picture of Medusa...and loved the picture of a beautiful Nausicaa standing her ground as her handmaidens fled in fear of Ulysses.

Could this be This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger?
Nope.  Actually, I just found out that the book I was thinking of is Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. I hadn't realized that it was a very popular award winner.  Thanks, though.
I see you have my book ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS listed on your "Solved Mysteries" page.  Since it has been out of print for a long time, you might like to add that a new hardcover edition is being published in April by Walker & Co.  Full information about it is at my website,  www.sylviaengdahl.com.  Sylvia Engdahl
I was reading through your site and noticed this entry.  I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I'm sure that the poster who said that this was the book she was thinking of was incorrect.  The reason is that I have read the book, and there is no scene where Elana (the heroine) is "in a space capsule type thing doing psychic training".  However, Ms. Engdahl wrote a sequel, "The Far Side of Evil", in which Elana does exactly this.  She was captured by bad guys and locked into a sensory deprivation tank as a form of torture to break her will and make her confess.  She used the sensory deprivation effect to concentrate on her psychic abilities and boost them enough to call for help.  One of the chapter heading pictures is of Elana, wearing a wetsuit and suspended in the tank, which may be why the poster remembers it so clearly.  It's possible that the poster read both books and condensed the memories together. You might email the poster and tell them about the sequel so they can check it out.

Leonard Wibberly, Encounter Near Venus, 1967.  A favorite of mine as well. Seems to be long out of print. The glowing balls of lights were called "lumens."

R17--This sounds sort of like Through the Hidden Door by Rosemary Wells (the door of the title is in the middle of a cave wall) but it's copyright date is in the early '80s.
Thank you to the person who responded to my request for the title of the book about the re-discovered
underground Roman city. Unfortunately, Through the Hidden Door by Rosemary Wells is not the one!
I have been looking for the same book -- I'm sure of it.  I can supply further plot details.  When the children entered the cave, they soon came upon a pile of old coins, which told them that they were at the bottom of the local wishing well.  They went further and found a subterranean river, which led them to an underground city that still maintained ancient Roman culture.  The city was celebrating Saturnalia at the time.  They had various adventures and eventually escaped from the city on a boat.  One of the boys set his luminous wristwatch to midnight, because they didn't know what time it was and wanted to determine how far it took to get from the city back to the mouth of the cave.  Can't remember how it all came out.  This has been driving me crazy for some time now.
In response to Question R17, I do know of a book called The Green Bronze Mirror  by Lynne Ellison which is set in Britain and was published in 1966.  Some children  find a green bronze mirror on the beach and are transported back to Roman times.  I've been looking out for this book for a long time but haven't actually read it myself so not at all sure if this could be the one but sending it anyway.
This one I am almost certain of, from Juni