I don’t even remember how old I was when I read it. I’m thinking in the late 60’s or early 70’s. It was a paperback. A young boy nicknamed Metiek (I think) gets separated from his family during the Holocaust. I think, not completely sure, it was Warsaw Poland. He gets captured and thrown on a train to one of the concentration camps. He escapes the train and ends up back in Warsaw (?) on the streets and becomes very street wise. Later he is able to make it to New York City where some relatives are located, and ends up working in the garment district. He becomes successful, marries, she is an actress. They build a nice home, she goes on a vegetarian diet in order to get pregnant, is successful and they have several kids. They (wife and kids) die in a house fire. Metiek (don’t remember his real name) is alone. True Story, his biography. It had pictures in it.
Tag Archives: World War II
353X: Child gives last ration of chocolate away
353V: Orphan Cathy Runs Away to Scotland and Learns True Name (Solved!)
I’m looking for a British children’s book, likely from the late 1940s, about an orphan girl who lost her parents in the Blitz. She’s found wandering London with a torn tag that says only “Cat” so the orphanage calls her Cathy. Several years later she has a sudden recollection that makes her feel that her family is in Scotland and runs away to find them. Meets some siblings who help her and have a kind uncle named Alastair. Lo and behold, the kids end up being her cousins, her name isn’t Cathy, it’s Catriona(?) and she is reunited with the family who have been searching for her all these years. Might be the first in a series, a la the Boxcar Children. Thank you!
339Y: YA Girl falls in love with military guy
338G: WWII Bookmobile (Solved!)
This is a YA book. A recent library school graduate (or Lib. School student doing internship) wants to work in big public library but is assigned to rural bookmobile. Set during WWII. Published: 1950-1980s??
331L: War Kids Seek Treasure
The book I am trying to identify was written over 60 years ago, and it features a group of children ages five or so through 14, or thereabouts. They have been sent to the country because of the Second World War, and they become convinced there is lost treasure in the vicinity. The only scene I remember takes place in church. The younger kids are shocked and scandalized during the service as the collection basket enters their pew. The eldest, instead of putting a coin in, pulls one out! This is their first real clue. The coin turns out to be a genuine gold doubloon. The eldest boy may have been named Emil. Do you know which book this is?
325P: Cereus Cactus Blooms During Anschluss
I’m looking for a middle school book, what would be YA these days, but they didn’t have YA in the 60’s, when I most likely read this book. The protagonist is a girl, part of whose attention is focused on a night-blooming cereus cactus party that her family will hold on the night that the plant blooms. Surrounding this domestic detail are the events leading up to the Anschluss and the threat that the Anschluss presents.
319A: Aeronautical Adventures
1930s or 1940s adventure books (of short stories) for boys featuring airplanes. I remember a story that featured a crew of men attempting a record breaking non-stop (transcontinental? Transatlantic?) flight, in a 3 engine plane that could be refueled midair. I remember a scene where one engine was shut down for in flight maintenance.
One story featured two pilots flying an old biplane in a barnstorming content that was won because the co-pilot dumped itching powder down his partner's back. Another featured WWII aircrew captured by Germans and they manage to escape and steal a German plane equipped with skis for the snow. These books had belonged to my father, and were probably given to him by his uncle, who was a pilot.