I have searched for an odd book I remember from childhood, with no luck.
I read it 20 years ago, or so and I think it was new-ish then. It took place in NYC and a girl lost her parents. Maybe she was living somewhere else and lost them and then had to move to the city to live with another relative? There was this odd group that was like a gang that lived on the streets and I forgot what they were called, but they were like the worst of the worst. They were nocturnal and seemed to not care about anybody or anything. She was warned to stay as far away from them as possible. Anyhow, through a series of events that I can’t remember, the girl, at the end of the book, ends up one of these gang members who live on the streets. The copy I had was hardcover and light blue with no paper jacket. I think that the title was a quote of some sort? At the time I was into gritty urban books and this one was given to me. Thanks for any help!
This book is from the 1970's I believe. A priest lets an ill prostitute move in with him so he can care for her. Her name is Ursula Vaclav. One day the priest returns home soaking wet during a thunderstorm, and the prostitute runs and clings to him because she is terrified of thunderstorms. She then goes about making dinner while he goes to change into dry clothes, selecting a work shirt and pants rather than his priest outfit. He can't stop thinking about her as they drink wine with dinner, and he helps her with washing the dishes. As she puts the last dish away in the cupboard she turns toward him and he takes her in his arms and kisses her. He had never kissed a woman before, and then carries her up the stairs for more. I recall the title of the book as something like "the time and the hour", and I think the author was a man.
There is a series of mystery books that have a Dutch inspector solving them. He is married to a former Czech gymnast who has a bum leg. They have a daughter together. He smokes a lot, as does she and their marriage is not very good. He is an excellent inspector, however, who sometimes gets emotionally involved with his cases. In the final book, he is killed, unfortunately.
I would like to know the name of the author or at least the name of one of the books. I read these about ten years ago.
Mom sends young boy to buy cereal. Instead of the supermarket, he goes to run-down neighborhood store. The cereal is not good, but the back of the cereal box is part of a set that combines to build a model of a Victorian mansion. Boy returns to store to buy more of the cereal, builds mansion. Ghost of sad young woman appears. She was the daughter of the cereal manufacturer. The mansion had been torn down, the rest of the cereal boxes had been discarded, and this is the last model of the house existing. She had been in love, forbidden to marry, and died in grief. Meanwhile, the boy befriends a sad old man. Eventually, he realizes that the man and ghost had been in love, many years earlier. He races home to get the house, and finds that his mother has cleaned his room, and burned the house in the incinerator. Pre-1970s.
Children stranded on island, cared for by older sister, and rescued by a ship at end. The sister only regrets that one child’s broken leg had been set incorrectly. I read this in the fifties, probably published before WW II.
I am looking for a children’s book I had as a child. It had short stories (1-2 pages) per story and they were different stories from around the world. There were a lot of different stories – at least 25 plus.
I recall three – one was the leprachaun, another about a boy who had egg nest soup and I think there was one about ananzi
I got the book as a gift – it would have been late 1980’s or early 1990’s. I think it would have been published in South Africa.
I am looking for an anthology of children’s literature that I received as a new book in the late 60’s or very early 70’s. It was a single volume and quite thick. It was divided by genre similar to, but not exactly like, THE CHILDREN’S HOUR 16 volume collection. It was also on a similar reading level. There were poems, myths, legends, fables, bios and much more. I remember those categories because they were my favorites. I specifically remember Pandora’s Box, Arachne, The Oak and the Linden. Any tips or information would be greatly appreciated.
The book I am looking for is/was a children’s book that I loved as a child. I was born in 1955 so I am guessing the book was published in the 1940s or 1950s. I checked it out, with the help of my mother, from the Pittsburg, California Public Library. I think I remember that the cover of the book was red and the illustrations were in black and white.
It was about a little Hispanic boy, Mexican, I think, who hated to take a bath. His family and village all must convince him to take a bath for some special celebration. I think the name of the book was the boy’s name, maybe Miguel, The Dirty One.
A homeless man kidnaps a baby for ransom. She’s sick. He breaks back into house to steal her medicine. Her parents die before paying ransom. He raises the baby as his own. He becomes wealthy. She grows up thinking she is his daughter then falls in love with her bio brother. The kidnapper takes his own life confessing all in his suicide note. More details below.
The kidnapper was homeless and sleeping on a bench. He had covered himself in newspapers to keep warm. One of the newspapers he was using to cover himself had a story about a kidnapping for ransom. He got the idea to do the same (kidnap a baby for ransom). So he takes a baby and then hears on the news that she is sick and will die without her medicine. Despite the risk, he breaks back into the house and steals her medicine.
Meanwhile the police find a baby and call the parents to come to the police station to find out if it is their baby. On the way to the police station the parents are in a car accident and die.
The man doesn’t return the baby to her relatives but instead moves to another country and raises her as his daughter. She believes she is his daughter. The man works very hard and becomes fabulously wealthy. The girl grows up and falls in love with a boy. The man is very protective and does a background check on the boy and discovers that he is the girl’s biological brother.
The man cannot bring himself to face the girl, so he kills himself, leaving behind a letter where he tells her the truth.
The book was read pre-1973ish. And to up the difficulty a notch: she would have read it in Spanish, so maybe it was a translation of something English, maybe not.