Tag Archives: orphan

364P: Orphaned Girl Sent West to Live with Twin Cousins

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The book I am looking for is about an orphaned girl who is sent out West to live with her cousins and their family. I can’t remember the girl’s name, but the twins were identical twins, and I think their names were Albert and Herbert. I think the book had a red cover, and it was definitely vintage. I read it in the 80’s I think, but my mom loved antique books, so I know it wasn’t a contemporary book. It seemed like it might have been set in the 50’s or earlier. I can’t be sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

364D: Children’s or YA Science Fiction—Girl goes to Mars, is orphaned during trip (Solved!)

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Read this hardcover from the library in the late 70s. Teenage girl with dead mother, lives with her aunt or grandmother but spends summers with her dad. When girl is near the end of high school her dad announces he has a wonderful opportunity–he has to make a trip to Mars, and he can bring along one person, which will be her. She doesn’t want to go because she had her next few years all planned out and it will be a year or more before they get back. She sulks and yells, but is told she IS going. On board, her poor attitude does not win her any friends or allies among the people she meets. There is a small group of other children and young people on the ship, but she alienates them with her constant complaining and her attitude that people who live on Mars are backward and ignorant. One young man who is returning home to Mars takes on trying to improve her attitude as a personal challenge. When her father dies during the trip, leaving her with no return ticket, the young man’s family unofficially adopts her and helps her adapt to Mars. She enrolls in college there, and generally drops her snobbish, “Everything Earth is superior” viewpoint. I think at the end of the book she is faced with the one-time chance to return to Earth, or to stay with the people she has come to think of as her new family. There was probably a romance between the girl and the boy who “adopts” her. 

I think it was shelved near the Beverly Cleary books, so author’s last name probably began with either C or  a letter close to it.

359R: Evil Ghost Tries to Bring Orphan Girl into her World (Solved!)

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Looking for a book where an orphaned young girl goes to live with her cousins – I think there were four cousins – two boys and two girls. I think the story was set in England because I remember a scene where the group goes out for fish and chips. The orphan is having a hard time adjusting and becomes friendly with a ghost who is haunting the house. The ghost – also a young girl – is trying to get the orphan to come into her world by dying. The orphan is eventually rescued from the evil ghost by her cousins

355A: Orphan Girl Has Pick of Families (Solved!)

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An older orphan girl gets lucky and gets to stay with a few families over summer break. On her first train ride a nice gentlemen buys her an orange. He never eats his and  gives it to her before he gets off.
She stays with an older woman and has a lovely time. At the end of summer all of the families she stays with want to adopt her she chooses the older woman.  She thinks herself simple and not that pretty.

349A: Orphan finds a home

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Hello.  Looking for a book that my daughter and I read about 4-5 years ago when she was 10 or 11.  The story involves a feisty girl who is about that age and is orphaned.  She tries to stay at home with her brother but a policeman and a Catholic nun come to take her away.  She hits the nun or a priest.  She is taken to an orphanage and always believes her brother will come for her.  She does see him again but he unable to provide for her.  At some functions for the orphanage, she meets a beautiful young woman who is engaged to a handsome, rich man.  The orphan’s spirit and determination catch the eye of this woman and somehow they become friends.  In the end, the lady inherits a farm out west and breaks her engagement.   She takes the orphan with her and they travel west.

This story is set in early to mid 20th century.  I can’t  remember the exact time frame.  I want to say it’s  between 1920-1940.
Hopefully, you are able to help me with this title as we both loved the book but neither of us can remember the title!

348D: Orphan Girl Finds Factory Job and Friends

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I was born in 1946, probably read and reread this book several times during the fifties and it burned its way into my psyche.  The story line is a little girl who is orphaned? Abandoned?  At any rate, she is alone and knows she has to take care of herself.  She wanders in the woods and comes across an abandoned hut.  She moves in and goes about making a home and a life for herself.  She is able to find a job in a factory nearby and finds some friends….and there my memories run out….
I have no inkling of the title nor what it looked like. It was not a picture book but I think it did have some illustrations.
Not much to go on,I know.  I don’t even remember her name.  I don’t expect anything, really…just worth the “investment” to have someone on my team.  I’ve been haunting old book sales for years without success.

 

297B: The heavens rain down every imaginable desire (Solved)

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I’m looking for a children’s book about an orphan girl who sleeps in the alleys, gets chased from the Bakers shop while peering through the window hungry. There is a terrible storm one night and the heavens rain down every imaginable desire of hers. Toys, food, bed, clothing- the next day the stash of goods makes a front-line story and the little girl is adopted. The book ends with the girl running out into a thunderstorm thanking the heavens. Hoping this description rings a bell.

251A: A man takes in an orphan and gains a family

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Hi, I am looking for a young adult novel, published sometime in the late 60s to mid-70s.

Plot details:
An older man, somewhat down on his luck, lives alone in an apartment in a big/bigger city. He sees young boy (orphaned? abandoned?) wandering the streets. He takes him in, even though the man doesn’t have much money himself. He buys the young boy new clothes (which he almost can’t afford). At Christmas they decorate a small tree with the silver foil from inside boxes of cigarettes. They become a family. Possible names: Teague and Me? Me and XXXXX?

233G: Prudence and Plum

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Children’s book, I read this in the 60’s probably. The main characters were two young orphaned sisters called Prudence and Plum. It was a thick book. Don’t remember much about it except it was recommended to me as a child by a kind librarian who let me borrow it from a back room stack of books about to be discarded.