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George Tarry, Animal Stories: Oliver the Owl.  Other possibilities could be:  Alice Crew Gall: Mother McGrew and Oliver Owl  or Edward Holmes: Oliver Owl and the Old Boots
Eliminate Oliver Owl and the Old Boots- those lines do not appear here!
Gall, Alice Crew, Mother McGrew and Oliver Owl.  NY Cupples & Leon 1917.  I don't have a plot description, but I'm going to suggest this one because the stories (there are several in the Mother McGrew and her animal friends series) are told in rhyme, and the excerpts remembered are also in rhyme. "Mother McGrew gave many sharp lessons to our animal friends, and these pictures and stories tell how it happened and why."   One of the Mother McGrew titles (and Tommy Turkey) is online, so here's some quotes from it for a style comparison: "One of the children of Mother McGrew / was young Tommy Turkey of whom I'll tell you / In most ways young Tom was passably good / But he had one fault, he would gobble his food." "You surely will have indigestion one day / Unless you eat slowly now mark what I say."
Gerry Taines, The crow and the snow, 1963, copyright.  what a truly wonderful book!
Gerald Taines, The Crow In The Snow (with Oliver Owl), 1963, copyright.  I am Lauren Taines, the daughter of Gerald Taines.  I happened to find your site mentioning Oliver Owl who was a character in  one of the books my dad originally wrote for me when I was little.  The book was reissued for charity purposes in Tennesse I think a year or two ago, per the request of a family friend.  If someone is interested in obtaining the book, let me know and I'll get the contact information in Tennessee where they can purchase it.  Best Regards, Lauren Taines.  my email is Bandinusa@aol.com

This may be one of the 2 wrong answers, but Horn Book Sep-Oct '38 has an ad on the back for Junior Press books which includes a line drawing cover of a book by Portia Howe Sperry and Lois Donaldson, illustrated by Zabeth Selover. The book is called Abigail and the cover shows a little girl wit blond braids, holding a doll dressed like herself in one hand and pulling her skirts up with the other. Behind her is a covered wagon.
#O9:  Yes, Abigail was one of the wrong guesses.  In that story, Abigail was the doll's name, not the girl's, and they weren't going to Oregon, but traveling an entirely different trail several years before the Oregon Trail started.  Anyway, I'm sure this book was MUCH more recent than the 1930s!
There have been several books written by and about Abigail Jane Scott (married name Duniway), who traveled the oregon trail around 1852.  She's better known as the first woman to vote in Oregon.  Books about her include "Ladies Were Not Expected" (published 1977) and "Rebel for Rights" (1983).  I don't think either of those is a children's book, unfortunately.
Regarding O9 - Oregon Trail.  Funny thing, one of the books I came here to find was about a girl who traveled with her family on the Oregon Trail.  They traveled in covered wagons, and one of the wagons was full of the saplings that her father was going to plant when they reached Oregon.  There are great descriptions about landmarks on the trail, and also about how to graft an apple tree.  I would love to know what this book was....
#O9--Oregon Trail Story:  Yes, I can identify the query in green, and just about any other Oregon Trail novel EXCEPT this one, which I am STILL looking for!  The green one is Tree Wagon, by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, which I've read twice.  Word of warning:  Lampman was a terrific entertaining writer,
but didn't care much for historical accuracy.  Don't take the book seriously when it says that Indians "killed Dr. Whitman and all the children at his mission."  They did no such thing and not even close.  The only juveniles killed were a boy of 16 (an adult for that day and place) and 14 (practically adult by the standards of that tribe.)  About 60 other kids present were all let go.  I'd venture to say the only people who know more on this subject than me were those present--the last of whom died in 1933--and it's a shame that some people write such things and other people print them.  Another book by the same author, Cayuse Courage, is a great idea but unforgivably inaccurate in places when so much written material is available on this subject.
Lampman, Evelyn Sibley, Tree Wagon. The story of a orchid man and his family bringing their nursery stock by wagon to Oregon.  The little girl is given her own gooseberry bush to care for and has lots of adventures along the way.
Tree Wagon = Lampman.  Thank you - that's it - the gooseberry bush was the clincher.  I'm glad to know more about the history behind it, too, thanks for the update.
I'm afraid this is another wrong answer, but just for the record:  Ketchum, Liza, 1946-, West against the wind.  New York: Holiday House, c1987.  "Fourteen-year-old Abby seeks  both her father and the secret of a handsome but mysterious boy during an  arduous journey by wagon train from the middle of the country to the  Pacific coast in 1850."  I know, wrong age, wrong year.
Bargain bride by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, 1977.  "Because married settlers could claim twice the land of a bachelor, orphaned  Ginny was married when she was ten-years-old.  Now fifteen, her husband  comes to claim her."
Trouble for Lucy by Carla Stevens, 1979.  "As she and her family travel the Oregon Trail in 1843, Lucy's puppies persist in creating trouble."
Brave buffalo fighter by John Dennis Fitzgerald, 1973.  "Ten-year-old Susan relates the adventures and frustrations of her family's wagon train west, culminating when her twelve-year-old brother is asked to turn himself over to the Indians in order to save the lives of the rest of the party."
Abigail goes west by Gladys L. Switzer, 1963.  A kind bookseller has listed the following info about this book:  "The
unexpected news that her own sister Nellie was going way out to California, to  join her husband, was enough of a surprise to Abigail Wheeler.  But then Mother said firmly," Our Nellie's not going to set out for California by herself.  Someone has to go with her, and it had best be Abigail!"  So I guess this cannot be it.
On to Oregon! by Honoré Morrow, 1954 & 1969.  "When their parents die on the way to Oregon in 1843, seven children decide to complete the 2000-mile trek through the wilderness on their own; based on a true story."
Okay, I definitely checked Addie Across the Prairie, Trouble for Lucy, On to Oregon!,  Abigail, and Tree Wagon, which I'd read, but I need to check my Oregon/California Trails titles list again.  It numbers about 150 titles each for Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, but you STILL seem to have come up with several I never heard of!  Including one by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, who wrote Tree Wagon.
OK, this came out much later, and I can't find the date it takes place, but how about this one: MISSISSIPPI MUD:  THREE PRAIRIE JOURNALS by Ann Warren Turner, 1997.  "As their family travels on a wagon train from Kentucky to Oregon, Amanda and her two brothers keep separate journals, and the journal entries show how they each see the same trip in a different way."  It appears that it was written as poetry??
Thanks, that makes another title I didn't know of, and will be an interesting addition to the list.  If the article I read was written when the book was in pre-publication, there is the possibility that not only might the publisher not have printed it, but that the author decided to rewrite it!  It would mean extensive rewriting.  Some details, such as the death and plant cutting, could apply to almost any trail, but others, such as the treacherous cliffs above the Snake River, are very specific to the Oregon Trail.  If it was rewritten to happen in some other time and place--yikes! But that's not likely, and look at all we're discovering searching for a "non-existent"(?) book.
How about Abigail Goes West by Gladys Switzer. Morrow. 1963??
Mary Jane Carr, The Children of the Covered Wagon, 1934.  Maybe- unfortunately so out of print that I can't find any kind of quote, review, or description. I read this as a child, and actually saw (but did not buy it) at a library book sale a few years ago. Very realistic. Main charater is a young girl although there is an older boy who becomes a friend through the trip. Very fat hard cover book. The typeface was oldfashioned and seemed hard to read when I was a kid.

Sounds similar to Where the Lilies Bloom, by Vera Cleaver. Published in 1969.
O11 - Sounds very much like Where The Lilies Bloom by Vera and Bill Cleaver.  At first I thought this books wouldn't be old enough but then I realized that 30 years would only put it back in the early 70's so this one might be possible.
I submitted O11. Orphan story. It is definitely not Where the Lilies Bloom.  (a book I personally dislike very much). It is more of a Little House in the big woods without the parents type of book. Chinking the cabin walls with mud played a part. Frontier/west setting. It was a frontier story. The kids were survivalists in a pioneer setting.
Not frontier, but some other resemblances: Ann Lawrence of Old New York by Gladys Malvern, illustrated by Christine Price, published Messner 1947, 203 pages "Ann Lawrence is the heroine of this story which takes place in the New York City of 1811. Her struggles with the farm and bringing up her orphaned brothers and sisters are the ingredients of the plot."
Another possible - Hannah's Brave Year, by Rhoda Wooldridge, published New York, Bobbs-Merrill 1965, 151 pages. "After a cholera epidemic has orphaned a family of six children, Joel, eighteen, goes off on a winter trapping trip to earn the money needed to prevent foreclosure on their rich Missouri farmland and sturdy cabin, while Hannah, twelve, and Nat, fourteen, work to keep the family together despite avaricious neighbors. Full domestic detail lends compelling vitality to a book that might have been just one more pioneer story." The children are all too young for courtship, though.
Yet another possiblity - The Jumping-off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely, illustrated by William Siegel, published New York, Longmans 1929, grades 6-8 "A genuine home story of the Dakota prairies. A family of children headed by a 17 year old girl and a boy of 15 settle on a homestead to which their uncle has staked a claim." "The four young orphaned Linvilles, ranging in age from 8 to 17, went to Dakota at their uncle's death to take up his claim on the Jumping-off Place. They endured heat, drought, snakes, lizards and vindictive neighbors like the good sports they were, and at the end of 14 months the claim was theirs, as well as the respect and liking of all their neighbors."
O11 orphans on frontier: Yet another possibility: The House in No-End Hollow, by May Justus, illlustrated by Erick Berry, published Doubleday, Doran 1938 "Three orphans living on the homestead in the Applachian mountains attempt to preserve their independence."
another possibility is The Long Valley, by Helen Markley Miller, published New York, Doubleday 1962. "Taking her mother's place and trying to make a home for her family on the Idaho frontier was Marny's first responsibility. She didn't realize that over-shielding her little sisters was not the way of a wise mother but of a
young girl fearful of growing up. Much that is interesting here is typical of many pioneer stories for girls: the hardships of a severe winter, the birth of a baby during a blizzard, the community house-raisings, and pioneer festivities. Marny's persistence in misunderstanding the intentions of John, whom she loves, ..." (HB Feb/62 p.57)
O11 orphans on frontier: they're not orphans and the time-span is shorter, but there's a blizzard - The Children Who Stayed Alone, by Bonnie Bess Worline, illustrated by Walter Barrows, published Scholastic, 1971.
Originally entitled Sod House Winter."Hartley and Phoebe are left to watch their young brothers and sisters while mom visits a sick neighbor and dad goes into town for supplies. They are all alone when an unexpected blizzard strikes leaving the snowbound with the stock animals and their siblings to watch. Will they be able to take care of everything until the storm lets up and their parents can come home?"
O11 orphans on frontier: yet another, Oh Susanna!, by J.R. Williams, illustrated by Albert Orbaan, published Putnam 1964, 223 pages. "17-year-old Susanna, assuming responsibilities beyond her years, trying to take a mother's place with her young brother and sister, enduring with seeming patience life in the inevitable dugout or soddie, cannot help rebelling in her heart. She is fearful that if she marries the young man she loves, life will hold little but more drudgery." (HB Feb/64 p.69)
Catherine Marshall , Christy.  -- I think this one is set in Appalachia rather than on the frontier, but this could be another possibility. I remember Christy had a strong determination to keep her siblings together, even at the expense of her own best interests.
O11 orphans: They're not orphans, but could it be this? Winterbound by Margery Bianco, Viking Press 1962 8vo hardback 234 pages. "Gorgeous decorated endpapers of winter scene by Kate Seredy. Four children have to fend for themselves in a Connecticut farmhouse when their parents are called away. How they survived a tough winter is the basis of this wonderful story."
I wrote yesterday that I thought the book was Seven Alone. I found a copy of that one today and its about  kids on a wagon train who become orphans. The book I meant to refer to was mentioned by a previous poster as the Children who Stayed Alone.
Maybe Stout-Hearted Seven by Neta Lohnes Frazier. I haven't read it but the time frame is right. HBJ (1973)

This doesn't exactly match, but I keep thinking of David Almond's Skellig.  The boy brings food to a man he finds living in his garage.  The boy is dealing with a recent move, a very ill younger sister, and a new friendship with an independent-spirited, home-schooled little girl who lives nearby.  The man in the garage is very skeletal and odd (I won't give away the plot) and the boy brings him Chinese takeout food.  I don't remember fish and chips, but it is a haunting story... the format looks like it's for young readers, but the content really makes it more appropriate for young adults.
One possibility - Dark Dreams, by C.L. Rinaldo, published Gollancz 1975, 154 pages. "Carlo, aged about 11, physically not strong, lives with his Italian grandmother in a city alley. Father goes to the war (1943). Mother is dead. Carlo, persecuted by the alley gang, befriends Joey J, a mentally retarded adult. Joey J is sent to a home, let out on condition that he will not act with violence, but does so defending Carlo. He returns to the home and dies." (Junior Bookshelf Jun/75 p.203) Later - saw a copy and checked the ending, the fish & chip scene doesn't occur, so this probably isn't it.
O16 odd friendship: perhaps worth looking at The Nothing Place, by Eleanor Spence, illustrated by Geraldine Spence, published Oxford 1972, 144 pages. Title describes "the Sydney suburb where all the events of the story take place ... There is Reggie, an old meths drinker who befriends the children about whom the story revolves, 'he was old, with sparse grey hair and whiskers, and his face had the roughened texture of bark that had been long shed.' The friendship between him and Glen, the partially deaf 'hero' of the story, is movingly but never sentimentally described." (CRB Jun/72 p.89) Other children are Lyndall, clever, plain and confident, spiky-haired Shane who loves cricket, and his pretty, selfish sister Shelley. Another possibility is The Rare One, by Pamela Rogers, published Hamilton 1973, 96 pages, no illustrations mentioned though. "Unhappy at home with a new stepmother and stepsister, 13-year-old Toby writes an essay for a World Wildlife competition, and takes as his subject an old man, Josh, whom he finds living wild in the woods. He wins the competition but ... reporters harrass the old man, and finally he is put into a Home for Elderly Citizens. Toby visits him, and finds he has died, and realises what his own actions have led to. 'He cried for Josh, who had been big and brave under his many coats. Who had known how to live.'" (CRB Sep/73 p.114)

Cinderella Fairy Book, 1890-1899, approximate.  This may be a long shot, and unfortunately this book is so old there's practically no information available about it. I found it listed on Worldcat, but there isn't any author information. The stories in the book include: The glass slipper -- The three dwarfs -- Dapplegrin -- The twelve brothers -- Two little wooden feet -- Little Thumbkin -- Farmer Weatherbeard -- Aladdin and the wonderful lamp.

Jaap ter Haar, Boris, 1969.  Seems like a possibility.
I'd read The Wild Children by Felice Holman, 1983, so I looked that up and another name with the same general theme also popped up - Wild Children of the Urals by Floyd Miller, 1965. "The story of 800 children, sent to Siberia from Petrograd during the Russian Revolution because of food shortages, then cut off by the war. They were rescued by the American Red
Cross from Vladivostok and returned to their families two years after their original departure."
Floyd Miller, Wild Children of the Urals , 1965.  Could this be the same book as M197.  It sounds very similar.

Could this be Kym by Joyce Stranger, c1976? Its about the life of her male siamese cat.  Most of the book is very humorous, relating various situations the cat got into, but the ending (horribly sad) is about his death. I can't remember if he died in a car though.
Charlotte Graeber, Mustard, 1982.  Could this be it?  Here is a description:  "Mustard is a playful cat that has been with
Alex's family for 14 years. They are all very attached to him. When they visit the vet, Dr. Griffith, for Mustard's yearly check-up, they are told to keep Mustard from having any stress. The problem is Barney, the newspaper boy's mean dog...and that's when the trouble starts."
Charlotte Towner Graeber, Mustard, 1982.  Could this be it? Eight-year-old Alex and his family try to come to terms with the old age and death of their beloved cat.
O28: It's shown solved as "Mustard," but that's not it at all.  There is no newspaper boy's dog in the story.  No, one day the kids can't find the cat, and they search all over.  I can't remember how they happen to find him curled up peacefully in the old abandandoned car in the woods, dead, but that' where he's found.  It's very sad and sweet, too.
Ben Shecter, Across the Meadow, 1973.  I'm not sure about this, but this picture book does have a tired, old cat named Alfred who goes "on vacation," and passes all his old friends on the way there...to an old abandoned car in the woods where he curls up and falls asleep.  They never say that he dies, but that is the intimation.  The book is in a smaller format, like a
children's novel, but much thinner.  The illos are done in pen & ink with muted watercolors - very light green, yellow, brown.  The book begins with a picture of an old cat sitting under a screaming infant in a high chair: "Alfred was tired of all the noise the children made.  The liver patties seemed hard to chew.  His old injury was acting up. 'Time for a vacation,' Alfred said."  The end of it does not show the children searching for and finding the cat, however, so this may not be your book after all.

Patricia Polacco, Thundercake.  Probably not, as it isn't an "easy reader"

Alexandrina Woods, Little Gray (Grey) Doors, 1926.  This may be older than the book you're looking for, but it does contain a story about a mirror and also a magic needle--maybe how she created her dress?   "Collection of several different stories: Little Gray Doors, The Mirror, The Magic Needle, Paternoster, and The Fairy Glen."
many thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that this is it.  The book very definitely began with a story about a labyrinth and ended with one about a mirror, and I would have remembered if it had had a fairy glen in it.  As far as language goes, the closest I've found so far were some stories by a Canadian writer named Anne Montrose, if that helps at all.  Please continue to help -- I'd love to track down this book.

Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit, Will Travel.  Just a guess...one of the characters is a girl, and some details match  interplanetary travel, telepathy, the trial at the end.
Karl, Jean, Turning Place, 1976.  A long shot -- it's a collection of linked short stories that begin with an alien attack on earth and move forward through millenia, tracking changes in humans and galactic relations.  Some stories involve
interplanetary organizations one story deals with being able to project one's mind to different places girls are main characters in some of the tales. (And it's about the same period as Engdahl.)
Pamela Reynolds, Earth Times Two, 1970.  The other planet, in a double sun system, is much like earth, but without television, which the evil scientist hopes to use to control people. Two girls (one is the E. scientist's daughter) who look alike switch places back and forth between the planets.
Earth Times Two, maybe?
Isaac Asimov, Foundation Trilogy.  Several things about this description remind me of the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, though I haven't read it for years, and I don't remember whether there are any children who play significant roles.
Robert A. Heinlein, Have Space Suit - Will Travel. (1958)   There are other similarities. Near the end of the book Peewee (a young girl) and Kip (teenage boy) are standing on the planet Lanador in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. They look up and see, not two planets or two stars, but two galaxies - the Greater Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way. Also, the book had a Federation-style interplanetary organization called "The Three Galaxies".  If you go here you can read the original story and see if it's the one you remember.
Alexi Panshi, Rite of Passage, 60s?? The heroine of this book must survive a rite of passage. Her society lives on a massive space ship.  After training, all children are dropped on a planet, where they must survive until picked up.  This time, something goes wrong - The humans on the planet have enslaved a native race, and they capture/kill many of the children.  At the end of the book, when the girl is back on her asteroid home, her society votes to destroy the planet & its inhabitants. This could be the book that you remember.
Hoover, Children of Morrow,1972.I read a book when I was a kid about a pair of children (Tia, Rabbit) who escape from their "colony" for lack of a better word- and travel to the sea where they are met with other telepathics like themselves. This book is set in the future. Tia (the girl) can physically hurt people with her thoughts. It turns out that they belonged to a more civilized race of people, not just the ones who "worshipped the missile.
Key, Alexander, The Forgotten Door. Sounds like it could be this.  An injured telepathic boy with amnesia meets with a farm family who take care of him.  He can communicate with animals and 'make himself light'\'' so he can run.  Bigoted neighbors find out and go after him.  He finally remembers that he's from another planet, and he and the family go to his home through the forgotten door.  His home has two moons which are in the nighttime sky when they get there.
Barbara Bartholomew, The Timekeeper.
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time, 1962, approximate.

Could be Now It's Fall by Lois Lenski (1948), from a small format series on the seasons.  Some have been reprinted, including this one (Random House, 2000, $12).
RIDE AWAY,1953. Ride Away has exactly the picture you describe, with a boy and girl riding down a sidewalk in a red wagon with red and yellow leaves falling-but the picture is inside the book on the first page. page. The cover picture is similar-yellow, with a boy and girl riding a red bike and scooter and orange leaves falling around them.

Could this possibly be Roger Zelazny's Amber SF series? The first book is Nine Princes in Amber and the books do deal quite a bit with the conflict between order and chaos - and there is a very unusual mode of travel, too. Just a thought.
Cooper, Louise, TIME MASTER (trilogy), 1984.  Another very good possibility is Louise Cooper's TIME MASTER trilogy (THE INITIATE, followed by THE OUTCAST and THE MASTER), published in the US by Tor Books back in the 1980s.  The Order/Chaos conflict, very much as described by the poster, is the focal element of that trilogy.

The Lion King.  I know this is probably too obvious to be correct, but could it be the one that Walt Disney made famous?  I'm not sure if Disney is the one who wrote it or someone else, but it's about a lion cub who is the son of the King of the jungle, and he has to learn to be King.  But he keeps getting into trouble and doesn't really want to do it because he wants to play with his friends all day instead.  Then something happens, a fire I think, and he grows up fast and helps his friends to get away from the fire. 

Could it be one of Iona and Peter Opie's books? I remember a copy of the Opie's The Lore and Language of School Children had a group of children playing on the cover. I think that this book first came out in the 50's, so it might be too early, but perhaps they reissued it with a new cover later on.
I am pretty sure this is an Iona Opie title, The People in the Playground.  It is her journal of a year or so observing the games the children are playing at a particular school in England, and does feature a photo section in the middle showing the school and some of the children.  My paperback copy does have cover art with a few kids (girls?) playing a game (marbles or rope?) on it.  It's a marvelous book and generally available (used).
Hi thanks for comments but its not one of the Opie books. Can anyone else help? Thanks

Lampham, Evelyn , Tree Wagon.  See Solved mysteries
O75 typo   Lampman, not Lampham

Is this the same as Stumper #T198?

Sounds like THE WIZARD COMES TO TOWN by Mercer Mayer~from a librarian
Mercer Mayer, Mrs Beggs and the Wizard, 1973.  My sister discovered this book the day before I posted it.  The original book was entitled Mrs.Beggs and the Wizard (1973).  The 1980 reprint was called The Wizard comes to town

Check out New Stumper B441.  Does any of this sound familiar?
Schwartz, Evgeny, A Tale of Stolen. (1963) OK, I think I've got it! Title: A tale of stolen time, Author(s): Shvarts, Evgenii, 1896-1958.
 Hogrogian, Nonny,  (Illustrator - ill.) Publication: Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Year: 1966 Description: 1 v. (unpaged) col. illus. 16 x 21 cm.
Language: English Standard No: LCCN: 66-10817   SUBJECT(S)  Descriptor: Tales -- Soviet Union.  Note(s): Translation of Skazka o poteriannom vremeni. Class Descriptors: LC: PZ8.S3454 Dewey: 398 Responsibility: by Evgeny Schwartz. Translated from the Russian by Lila Pargment and Estelle Titiev. Illustrated and designed by Nonny Hogrogian. Note that the author listed above with the yellow highlighting is the standardized way libraries are supposed to use his name.  The title page of the book apparently spells it as seen under "Responsibility."  What this means is that you may find it attributed to Shvarts or Schwartz depending on who is listing it for sale.One bookseller provided this summary: "Evil sorcerers change children who waste time into old people--but the children are given the opportunity to change back into children. "  Here'\''s another description from the Children'\''s Picture Book Database at Miami University: "Peter is a lazy boy that never does his homework. He soon falls behind all the other students. Peter always thinks he will have time to catch up. Until one day, he becomes an old man."Makes sense that Prentice-Hall published it -- they are one of the big textbook publishers, and O79 remembered it from a textbook.'

O83 Ookpik is the Inuit word for snowy owl.  There are a  number of Ookpik titles by different authors.
Kent Salisbury, Ookpik Visits the U.S.A., 1968.  Found this description on an online auction:   "Ookpik Visits the U.S.A. by Kent Salisbury and illustrated by Beverly Edwards. This classic hardback book measures 9 ½ inches by 13 inches... Comes with a small magnetic owl (Ookpik) figure that you move through out the story as you read. OOKPIK is the Eskimo name for the Snowy Owl of the Arctic. In Eskimo stories, he is a friendly, furry creature who enjoys living among people."

Raskin, Ellen, Nothing ever happens on my block, 1966.  Could it be this one? Little boy who thinks nothing ever happens on his block, while in illustrations many fantastic things are occurring. 

L,M. Montgomery, Marcella's Reward, collected in Akin to Anne.  This is a long shot, but I thought I would suggest it-- Marcella and her sister are orphans, younger sister is sick, they end up going to stay in the country with their new friend. Although there are no voice lessons, a DIFFERENT short story in the collection does involve an orphan who takes voice lessons...just thought I would suggest it in case.
This could be Dicey's Song, by Cynthia Voight.
Sorry to disagree, but this is definitely not Dicey's Song: the plot elements don't match at all.  Dicey's Song features four siblings who are not orphans, and it is set in contemporary Maryland.  There are no voice lessons, pickled clams, sick sisters, or romantic elements.
Madye L. Chastain, Emmy Keeps a Promise, 1956. Just spending a few idle minutes browsing through the archives and I saw O88.  This sounds like it's probably Emmy Keeps a Promise. Everything matches right down to the pickled clams.  I don't know how long ago someone was looking for this but perhaps she is still interested.

Could this one be one of the Lois Lenski series?  Two titles come to mind:  Strawberry Girl and Cotton in my Sack.
Could this be Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink? Caddie and her siblings walk a long distance to school and then spend part of their summer breaks tending to crops.
Could this be the series by Rebecca Caudill?  I don't think it had a collective title, but some of the books were Schoolhouse in the Woods, The Happy Little Family, The Saturday Cousins, Schoolroom in the Parlor and Up and Down the River.  They're about Bonnie, her siblings and her cousins "in the days of copper toed shoes".  I believe they were originally published in the 1940s.

Beverley Cleary, Ramona the Pest, 1968.  Tracy Dockray (Illustrator)  All about Ramona Quimby, I learnt how to spell secretary throught this book, hope its this one or one of the others, Ramona the Brave, Ramona Forever
Suzy Kline, Horrible Harry and the Green Slime, 1989.  Is this the book you're looking for? It has some similarities to what you described, but I don't think the principal gets his hair cut. However, he does get his hair spiked and his office is slimed.

Black, Irma Simonton, The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read. The plot as remembered is a bit different, but I'm just about sure this is your book.  He went shopping, but he couldn't read, so he bought things based on the shapes of the boxes, so he wound up with onion soup that he hated, waxed paper instead of spaghetti, salt instead of oatmeal, etc.
Jack Kent, Socks for Supper,1978.This title came to my mind when you mentioned the little bald man with the moustache.  The book is about a poor older couple who have no food and no money.  So the wife knits socks with thread from the husbands sweater for the husband to barter for cheese and milk from a younger, richer farmer and his wife.  This happens repeatedly, with the husband's sweater shrinking with each transaction.  As it turns out, the rich farmer's wife had been using the thread from the socks to make a sweater for the farmer, which turns out too big, and which they then give to the little bald man.  Very cute book.

Ginsburg, Mirra, What Kind Of Bird Is That? Crown, 1973.There are several books with this theme, but in this book it is a goose that envies everybody else and trades parts - swan's neck, pelican's beak, crane's legs, crow's little black wings, peacocks's tail, rooster's comb/wattle/crow.  But these other bird's parts don't work too well for him and a fox almost catches him because he can't fly with the little wings.  Some geese fly to save him and he realizes what he has to do - give back all the other bird's parts so he can be a goose like all the other geese, except now he's not envious anymore.
Mirra Ginsburg, What Kind of Bird is That?,1973. A silly goose trades body parts with many other animals, but in the end (after a narrow escape from a wolf) realizes that she prefers her original, wonderful self!
Arnold, Katya, Duck, Duck, Goose?, 1997. I didn't suggest this title before since it's a relatively recent copyright date, but since there's no confirmation on the other title, I figured I'd send this along.  The back of the book says that it's inspired by an animated film called Who Is This Bird?, which was directed by the great Russian director, Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev.  From the flyleaf: "Goose is miserable.  Being a goose is so ordinary, but our vain heroine craves glamour and style.  Tired of being just one of the gaggle, she wants to shine!  This headstrong goose is convinced that she can be just as lovely as the other birds she envies, if only she could have Swan's graceful neck, or Stork's long, shapely legs, or....  When this silly goose gets her wish, she discovers that looks aren't everything.  This hilarious tale reminds us all that beauty has its price."  After Goose gave back Swan's neck, Pelican's beak, Stork's long legs, Rooster's red comb and cock-a-doodle-doo, and Peacock's tail, it ends with, "Now she looked like every other goose.  Only she was smarter, kinder, and happier.  And still prettier than a duck!"

Nevil Shute, Pied Piper, 1941. Homeless, refugee children are traveling in a small band through Europe during World War II. As they travel, they keep picking up more children who are alone and also orphaned. Eventually a man attempts to lead them to safety. The book was originally published in 1941 but was reissued in paperback in 1963. Although it may not be the book being sought, the plot is similar, and it is a wonderful novel!
Not the Neville Shute book (great author, though).  It was definitely Czechoslovakia in the late 40's.  A boy teams up with the Engineer on the train to escape with his foster family to the West.  The story was supposedly inspired by an actual event in the early years of the Cold War.
Marie McSwigan, All Aboard for Freedom, 1954. A group of orphans escape via train from their country, and pick up a few other kids along the way.  I don''t remember if it was Czechoslovakia, but it was definitely in the wake of WWII.  I don't believe they steal the train, but they aren't on it with permission.  (I read this a long time ago!)

Bartha DeClements, Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade. This is definitely it. There's no boy but other than that every detail is identical.

Ann McGovern, Too Much Noise, 1967. Peter complains that his house is too noisy, until the wise man teaches him a lesson in perspective by advising him to obtain some rather unusual house guests.

Gault, Clare & Frank, A Super Fullback for the Superbowl, 1977, Scholastic.  illus. - Syd Hoff.  I don't have the book so I can't check the plot, but the subjects are 'gorillas' & 'football'.'

Probably Anne Bennet's "Little Witch".  See Solved Mysteries.

Edward Fenton, Fierce John, 1959?, approximate.  Possibly this one? See a picture on the Loganberry site under "Mother's Druthers."
Patricia Scarry, my teddy bear, 1953.  illus by Eloise Wilkins.