# What were your favorite OBSCURE(?) children's books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684 "2008-01-16T00:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/101 "2008-01-20T01:28:42Z")
“Half Magic” by Edward Eager. The _Danny Dunn_ and _Tom Swift Jr_ series. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/102 "2008-01-20T02:50:01Z")
[The Silly Book](http://www.amazon.com/Silly-Book-Stoo-Hample/dp/B000V4SWLE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200797038&sr=1-1) by Stoo Hample. This book was a huge influence on my sibs and me when we were young. It’s a book to read _TO_ your young kids. Decidedly off the wall: > [@The Silly Book](#): > > “I am silly,/You are silly, All of us are silly,/ Willy./ All of us but cousin/ Millie./ She’s upside down.” This thing was out of print for decades - when it came back out a few years ago, I bought copies for all three of us “kids” (we’re all in our 40’s now…) ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/103 "2008-01-20T10:32:11Z")
> [@](#): > > “The Secret Tree-House” by Ruth Chew Oh my! I haven’t thought about Ruth Chew in YEARS, but as soon as I read that, it all came flooding back. Even when I was young, I realized her stuff was not perhaps the absolute highest literary quality ever–but I sought out pretty much every single one of her books, nonetheless. And there were a lot of them! Someone already mentioned “The 21 Balloons,” but I loved that book so much. There is something bizarrely appealing about the whole idea. It didn’t really have much of a plot, from what I can remember, but the pure invention of the whole things was awesome. I loved the neatness of the whole scheme, with the different restaurants and themed houses. It was also a Newberry winner so probably not all that obscure–but it was published in 1948. Looking at the Newberry winner list, I was surprised by how many of the books I had read. On my own too–not for school or anything. Like a lot of Dopers, I was a voracious reader. One I have particularly strong memories of was “Hitty, Her First Hundred Years,” about a doll’s life. Won the Newberry in 1930! I’m only 22. How about Sid Fleischmenn? He wrote “The Whipping Boy,” which was pretty famous (again, won the Newberry and I think they made a movie out of it) but I liked him best for his other books–which I think count as obscure. All were very whimsical and often set in the “old west.” I really loved Jingo Django, By the Great Horn Spoon! and Mr. Mysterious and Company. Margaret Mahy is a pretty well known children’s author, but I really loved some of her more obscure stuff–rather than Changeover, etc. which are well known. For example, “The Greatest Show Off Earth” and “The Blood-and-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak.” Also all very whimsical–an annoying adjective, but the best I can come up with. Weird? Quirky? Something like that. Another random book I just spent a good half hour tracking down… [“The Worldwide Dessert Contest,”](http://www.danelish.com/child_fiction.htm) by Dan Elish. Man, I loved that crazy book! I can still remember the apple pancake that doubled as a trampoline. Oh, and how about the Bagthorpes? Not sure how obscure that series was, but it was a bunch of stories about an eccentric British family, written by Helen Cresswell. I remember them as being absolutely hilarious. I’ve wanted to seek them out for a while, and see if they were as awesome as I remember. I can still remember so many details about them–cousin Daisy, Jack and his dog, the “strings to their bow” (a phrase I found absolutely incomprehensible at the time.) Ok, I will stop now–but I could seriously go on forever! I used to read dozens of books per week–so many less now! ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/104 "2008-01-20T14:12:39Z")
[QUOTE=winterhawk11] “Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians” by Mary Nash [/QUOTE] That’s _it_! I read the “Mrs. Coverlet” books and I’ve been trying to remember the name of them for several months and it was driving me _batshit crazy_! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Threadkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/105 "2008-01-20T15:00:00Z")
Mine will have to be [_The Mad Scientists’ Club_](http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Scientists-Club-Scientist/dp/1930900104/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200840583&sr=1-1) books by Bertrand Brinley I found the original as a dog-eared paperback in our 5th grade classroom library. There were a number of pages missing but I absolutely **devoured** the book. For the rest of the year the odds were good that I had the book checked out. Late in the year I found the [_The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club_](http://www.amazon.com/New-Adventures-Scientists-Club-Scientist/dp/1930900112/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200840583&sr=1-2) for sale in one of those Scholastic Club sale things they gave to the students. As I remember, our room didn’t meet the minimum order until I begged my mom into getting a few more books. The four-to-six weeks wait until delivery gave me an early glimpse of the meaning of eternity. After the book arrived I was back in heaven. I moved on and the (original) book stayed in the 5th grade classroom. I searched the town (and a few other) library for anything written by Brinley, to no avail. A few years later I saw a copy of _The Mad Scientists’ Club_ in a secondhand store(in great condition no less). Being too old for that sort of thing I didn’t buy it. [Aside Note to Self: If anything has ever meant that much to you, cough up the dime and buy the thing, work overtime if you have to]. There I thought the story ended: one very dog eared book from an author I knew I loved but couldn’t find anything more about. But what should ride in on its white horse but the internet [I’m taking this a bit far but I \*really\* like the book]. An early search revealed nothing (the hoards of people busily populating the web with data hadn’t yet found my beloved author). Then, a couple of years ago on a whim I tried Wikipedia. [Success!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_R._Brinley) Not only had he been entered, there was a link to his books and a couple of [new](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Chunk-Ice-Adventure-Scientists/dp/1930900295/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b) [books](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Kerplop-Adventure-Scientists-Scientist/dp/1930900228/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200840583&sr=1-3) that I had never knew existed (except deep in my heart of hearts). I now own the complete set (in hardcover) and my wife is contemplating intervention. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/106 "2008-01-20T15:10:33Z")
In junior high, I read a book about a girl who wakes up one day to find her family is gone and when she sets off to find them she finds a boarding school for indoctinating kids into terrorism. It was like nothing I’d read before or have read since. I long considered starting a thread to find out if anyone had ever read it but I couldn’t remember the name. A month ago, I remembered the girl had a silver crown given to her, and the title was indeed _The Silver Crown_. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/107 "2008-01-20T19:06:05Z")
[Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm](http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Friends-Maple-Hill-Farm/dp/0689844999/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200855703&sr=8-1) It was one we loved as kids, but I’ve never run across anyone else who knows it. ---
**Author:** ![SticksAndString](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@SticksAndString](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SticksAndString)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/108 "2012-05-28T15:22:16Z")
> [@3acresandatruck](#): > > The Golden Book Encyclopedias, as seen in [this eBay auction](http://cgi.ebay.com/Golden-Book-Encyclopedia-16-Volume-Set-1959-Mint-bonus_W0QQitemZ160198682046QQihZ006QQcategoryZ29223QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). If I did eBay, I’d buy this set - ours were severely worn. My Mom bought them, one each week, at our local Kroger grocery store when I was about 5. It was the first thing to make my parents think I was ‘a scary-wierd kid’, when they realized I was reading the volumes cover-to-cover, in sequence. They never tried to discourage me, though…when I finished the set, they bought the Golden Home and High School Encyclopedias; by the time I was in 8th grade, they bought the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia. I know they considered buying Encyclopedia Britannica (I remember lusting over the sample volume when the salesman was at our house), but it was just too expensive for them. > > I was also quite fond of spending hours sprawled on the living room floor, reading our Random House Unabridged Dictionary. You couldn’t hold it in your lap; it was so huge that it would cut off the circulation in your legs and you’d fall over when you tried to stand up. I remember my mom doing a similar thing with some Sesame Street books when I was a kid..I wish I knew what happened to those. The stories weren’t terribly great but since I was a huge Sesame Street fan at the time, I loved them to death. Also…I don’t know if they’re obscure (I haven’t read the entire thread, either) but I seem to remember a series of books my mom bought from a garage sale called “Pickles” something..Dill Pickles? Something with pickles in the name and every book was about an animal getting into some sort of trouble and his friends helping to save him/her. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/109 "2012-05-28T15:27:35Z")
[The Wonderful Flight To The Mushroom Planet.](http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonderful-Flight-Mushroom-Planet/dp/0316125407/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338218759&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/110 "2012-05-28T15:52:28Z")
Help! It was a series of books about a kid who get hold of a old chemistry set, but I can’t remember the name. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/111 "2012-05-28T16:16:26Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > For me, I loved [**Shadow Castle**](http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Castle-Expanded-Marian-Cockrell/dp/0595092969/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200502631&sr=8-1)]. > > After a long search, I was able to get both books for my children to read. It’s like finding a long-lost friend again! I gave my old copy to my now 16 year old niece and she loved it. > [@SmartAleq](#): > > **The Time Garden** by Edward Eager was fun–I read other works by him and liked them as well, such as \*\* Seven Day Magic \*\* and \*\* Half Magic\*\*. > [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > “Half Magic” by Edward Eager. > . As others may have figured out, Edward Eager wrote an entire series of magical kid books. He was inspired by the superb series that [E. Nesbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nesbit) wrote at the turn of the century. > [@Lsura](#): > > [Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm](http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Friends-Maple-Hill-Farm/dp/0689844999/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200855703&sr=8-1) > > It was one we loved as kids, but I’ve never run across anyone else who knows it. A very good friend of mine gave it to my now 29 year old son when he was little. I love the colorful and comical illustrations, and the down-to-earth attitude. I’m a preschool teacher so the book gets steady usage year in/year out. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Help! It was a series of books about a kid who get hold of a old chemistry set, but I can’t remember the name. This sounds very very familiar to me. Edited to add: Was it [The Lemonade Trick?](http://www.amazon.com/The-Lemonade-Trick-Apple-Paperbacks/dp/0590321978) I loved that book and used to own it. One place where I have found old favorites of mine (such as The Marvelous Adventures of Tal and the Mad Scientists’ Club) is the [Purple House Press.](http://www.purplehousepress.com/) They were very responsive to my inquiries. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/112 "2012-05-28T16:22:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Help! It was a series of books about a kid who get hold of a old chemistry set, but I can’t remember the name. > [@Caprese](#): > > This sounds very very familiar to me. Edited to add: Was it [The Lemonade Trick?](http://www.amazon.com/The-Lemonade-Trick-Apple-Paperbacks/dp/0590321978) Yeah, I remember reading the “\_\_\_\_ Trick” series by Scott Corbett when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/113 "2012-05-28T16:48:50Z")
(Zombie warning.) > [@Caprese](#): > > A very good friend of mine gave it to my now 29 year old son when he was little. I love the colorful and comical illustrations, and the down-to-earth attitude. I’m a preschool teacher so the book gets steady usage year in/year out. We had this one as a kid, too. [I even started a thread here to help me identify it!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=603041) My favourite obscure (? or not) children’s book is “The Portmanteau Book” by Thomas Rockwell (more famous for “How to Eat Fried Worms”). The self-referential index really tickled me as a kid! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/114 "2012-05-28T16:58:25Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > (Zombie warning.) > We had this one as a kid, too. [I even started a thread here to help me identify it!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=603041) > > My favourite obscure (? or not) children’s book is “The Portmanteau Book” by Thomas Rockwell (more famous for “How to Eat Fried Worms”). The self-referential index really tickled me as a kid! I was glad to see **The Pushcart War** mentioned in the very first post; it’s one of my favorite books. I read thru the whole thread, all set to be the first to mention **The Portmanteau Book** , only to find that **hogarth** beat me to it by a few minutes (in a 4 year old thread, no less!). I love this book and own 2 copies. But I can still be the first to mention [House of Stairs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stairs_(William_Sleator_novel)) by William Sleator. I was 9 or 10 years old when I first read this, and _hoooboy!_ did it ever make a lasting impression on me. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/115 "2012-05-28T17:09:49Z")
[Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Two-Two) is my absolute favorite short and shivery kid story. It’s just great, and I just found out that the family let another author finish out the set (4 books now) and they re-released them! Very good book, and very few people have heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/116 "2012-05-28T17:10:55Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > [Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Two-Two) is my absolute favorite short and shivery kid story. It’s just great, and I just found out that the family let another author finish out the set (4 books now) and they re-released them! > > Very good book, and very few people have heard of it. In Canada, that’s a very popular book! (At least it was when I was a kid.) The sequels, probably less so. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/117 "2012-05-29T15:38:08Z")
> [@SticksAndString](#): > > Also…I don’t know if they’re obscure (I haven’t read the entire thread, either) but I seem to remember a series of books my mom bought from a garage sale called “Pickles” something..Dill Pickles? Something with pickles in the name and every book was about an animal getting into some sort of trouble and his friends helping to save him/her. The series was called “Sweet Pickles.” My sisters had one of the books, “Me Too Iguana.” They wrote funny comments all over it. I think my mom threw it away after a few years because it was too damaged. I found a gently used copy of it years later at a used book sale, and we may still have it around somewhere. I remember loving a book called “The Noonday Friends,” about an Irish-American girl named Franny, who was very poor because her father was an artist who couldn’t hold a job, and her Puerto Rican friend Simone, who had a big family. I read it several times and wonder what became of my copy. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/118 "2012-05-29T15:46:16Z")
I’ve seen _Understood Betsy_ mentioned here a few times (loved that book when I was a kid!!) and thought I would point out that it is out of copyright and [available for free](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5347) at Project Gutenberg. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/119 "2012-05-29T15:54:22Z")
Louie’s Lot - “There’s keen competition among the town’s youngsters to be Louie’s assistant when Louie, the milkman, runs a battery of tests to see who’s qualified.” The Bandit of Mok Hill - “A twelve-year-old orphan in San Francisco joins a traveling show as a vocalist only to get to the California gold fields where he plans to meet his famous bandit friend. Then, when his voice begins to change and he discovers bandits also kill, he learns the value of honest friendship.” 21 Ballons, already mentioned, was a favorite of both myself and my children. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/120 "2012-05-29T15:55:56Z")
“Who Built the Highway” and “Who Built the Bridge”. I couldn’t even find them in a quick Google search, so I guess that makes them obscure. They’re (just guessing) 1940’s -50’s era (maybe earlier?) IIRC there are steam machines in them. I loved reading them, the illustrations were kind of abstract and stark, which I thought was really cool. They re-surfaced at my parents’, and now my 2.5 y/o loves them as well 😃 Ah…found a few copies on Amazon [Highway](http://www.amazon.com/Who-Built-The-Highway-picture/dp/B0006ATKLY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338306835&sr=1-1) and [Bridge](http://www.amazon.com/Who-built-bridge-picture-story/dp/B0007I9LIM/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338306915&sr=1-2). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684.md?page=7)