I was born in 1953 and think maybe the book was for 8-10 year olds so, if it was newly-published, maybe it was from the early 1960s? I have only vague memories of it, of course. The story of a girl who has moved somewhere new–a place that, to a kid like me from Los Angeles, stuck with me as exotic, like maybe Florida? I think the plot is that the girl has this collection of weathervanes and, when family relocates to a housing development where all the homes are identical, she gets this great idea of giving each neighbor one of the different weathervanes to make life easier for everyone! (The movie “Inside Out” made me think of this book–what happens when a plucky little girl moves?)
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Please check out the book: The Pink Motel, by Carol Ryrie Brink. It has a copywrite of 1959. The young girl character, Bitsy, moves with her family to a motel on the coast of Florida. Each motel cabin has a weathervane except one, and all are different. I loved this book when I read it. I got it from the Weekly Reader Children’s book club when I was a young girl. It may not be the book you are searching for, but I think you will like it.
Oh my gosh, I think you’ve found it!! The Pink Motel sure sounds familiar and so does the name Bitsy!
I will head to the library tomorrow in hopes of finding a copy.
Great thanks to you, Ms Mary Kay Baldwin!
[Online booksellers have] a picture of the cover… just search for “pink motel” and it pops up first.
You probably found out by now that the pink motel by Carol ryrie Brink has been out of print for a long time. I have a copy and you can still buy copies on eBay but people sell them for about $100 for the hard bound. One of my favorite books also as a child and inspired me to sail to the Caribbean and stay there for many years. I need to write my own book LOL
I looked it up, and there’s a copy you can “borrow” and read in your browser from the online library at Internet Archive. It’s one of the ones that you can only borrow for an hour at a time, but it’s free. You need an account to borrow books, but the account is free, too. It’s an option if you just want to read the book again and can’t afford a collectors’ copy.
https://archive.org/details/pinkmotel00brin