Children’s book about a little airplane called “Props”. Early 1940s. “Props” in the title, I think. Story line similar to “Scuffy the Tugboat” in Little Golden series.
212C: little airplane called “Props”
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Monthly Archives: March 2015
212B: Boxed set of 4 nursery rhyme books
When I was growing up ( I was born in 1968) my mother had a set of World Book Encyclopedias and on the same set of shelves she had this boxed set of four : grey with red/maroon lettering . I could be wrong but I recall all four of the books having nursery rhymes/poems e.g. Jack Spratt, Old Mother Hubbard, Itsy bitsy spider, there was one about black birds baked in a pie. There was even one about a purple cow and the last line of it was I’d rather see than be one – and on the top of the page was what you could tell was a color picture of a Holstein cow but they had mad it look purple. The quality of the books were the same as the encyclopedias- hard shell, thick feel of the paper. I loved those books. I have a co-worker who also remembers the same set of books but her mother also did not keep them to her dismay and she and I both have been trying to figure out who published them and could you still find a set. There were tons of poems/ rhymes and I loved them all but the purple cow was my all time favorite. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated .
212A: Angsty Teen Boy runs away to wilderness instead of living with rich parents
Hopefully you can help me find this book. I’ve been searching for it for the better part of 10 years. The book would have had to be written no later than 1999.
I only have vague memories of the book. What I do remember of the plot is this:
Angsty teenaged boy is really smart. His parents are rich alcoholics that don’t really care about him. One day he decides to pack up, leave home, and live in the wilderness. He survives living in the woods for a little while, but does eventually start to have some trouble. He later meets a woman that also lives in the forest and has been for years(?). They quickly become friends, and the boy starts to become attracted to the women. They live together happily for a few weeks/months until winter starts to set in. One day they’re out hunting/foraging when she.. dies.. somehow. I think she slips and falls down a waterfall or creek and breaks her neck/back. The boy, distraught and panicked, buries or cremates her.
Now depressed the boy sets out further into the wilderness in full-on winter. He gets frostbite and I believe he finds shelter at some point. He sets out once again and at some point he passes out in the snow and later wakes up in a hospital with several of his fingers having been amputated.
The story may have been told in the past tense, while the boy spoke to a counsellor in the hospital.
211D: GIRL FINDS A FAIRY
I’m looking for a children’s book from ca.1945-1952. It’s about a little girl who finds a tiny girl fairy child and then keeps her. It has lovely color illustrations. One illustration shows the little girl giving the fairy a bath, using a soap dish for a bathtub. Can anyone identify this book?
211C: YA mystery series (Solved)
I’m attempting to find two YA novels (may be part of a longer series) featuring best friends Kim (tall, thin, blonde) & Alexa (name may not be exact; small, brunette), 13-15yo, amateur detectives. One book features them at riding camp, investigating twin sisters who may be planning to kill male counselor who impregnated one sister. In one scene, they hike through a cave with stalactites and stalagmites. The other book features a mysterious death at a neighbor’s house where college/20-smtg friends of neighbor’s child(ren) are staying; they are involved in drugs and may have faked friend’s death by drowning him/her in swimming pool. I seem to recall the author had a woman’s name. The last I saw these books was in my secondary school library in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I would guess they were published in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Any help appreciated!
211B: Traveling merchant visits small rural town on top of a hill.
I’m looking for a dark young adult novel, about middle school reading level, published from 2000-2009. All black with fancy white/silver steampunk-style text on the cover. It was about various figures in a small town on top of a hill, specifically a traveler that comes to the small town to show off some sort of technology/machiene. The townspeople live extremely rural lives in some sort of vague time period before machines were commonplace, but the setting is very disconnected from our world.
At some point in the story, a cat is implied to be eaten? I believe some sort of book is integral to the story… the cover of the novel is made to look like the book.
There is some sort of fortune-telling? I think the book vaguely predicts the future of people in the town. Sorry this is incredibly vague, I’m having trouble remembering almost anything about this book.
211A: Collection of Stories for Girls
Collection of Stories for Girls, maybe American Girl? Stories of inspiration in tough times. When parents die, being overweight, not being pretty, hardcover, book (not the dust jacket) may have been green, story about a girl making window decorations for her father’s hardware store, story about a girl eating celery and skim milk to lose weight, story about a girl’s dress that was sky blue tulle with butterfly’s on it.
Stump the Bookseller makes The New York Times!
Sarah Manguso with her new copy of Toodle and Noodle
Huzzah! Stump the Bookseller made The New York Times! We’ve gotten a mention once before, but not in the Sunday Book Review!
Thanks to Sarah Manguso and her wonderful trip down memory lane, which took a little jaunt past Stump the Bookseller, and became a recollection in the Author’s Note section of the NYT. Sarah has several published books of her own, including the recently published Ongoingness: The End of a Diary. But a vague childhood memory nagged at her, and was not solved by a simple Google search.
And that is how she came to this blog. Her original query is posted as 169G, and was quickly solved. Sarah wasn’t sure how to get her hands on a book published in 1919, or if the joy of the quest wasn’t more powerful than the reunion might be. But, hey, we happen to have the book just sitting on our shelves. So we’re going to send it to her. Thanks for the publicity, Sarah!
210G: Boy uses coal chute to recreate clown car (Solved)
Full-color picture book published between 1940 and 1980. At the beginning, a coal delivery to the boy’s basement through a chute. Then the boy’s father takes him to the circus, and he sees a clown car but can’t figure out how they do it. Somehow, he thinks of the coal chute and figures out that there must be a trapdoor under the car for the clowns to go. Then he makes his own clown car.
210F: written phonetically (Solved)
I am searching for a book that I read between 1969 and 1975. By the time my mom bought it for me, I was already reading fairly well (I was born in 1968). It was a challenging book for me as it forced me to think about pronunciation, and below my level plotwise. The really remarkable thing about the text, though, was it was written phonetically. For instance, there was a plot line about seeing a bee, but the text was, “C D B?”
There were pictures on the same pages as the text. The pictures could have been a watercolor-style with soft edges, a bit like the PBS TV show Caillou. However, I don’t recall perfectly the illustrations/pictures.
The cover was yellow, it was a fairly thin volume, it might be considered a trade paperback measuring maybe 7″ x 7″ or 8″ x 8″. I don’t remember the title or the author.
I’m interested in finding this book because it helps demonstrate that abbreviation, like that used when texting, is not new.