Author Archives: admin

309K: Turn back to the front and read it again!

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I grew up in the mountains of Virginia.  In my three room country school, there were very few books, but there is one I remember very fondly and would love to have a copy of it.   I don’t remember the title or author, but I would have read this around 1946 or 1947.   Here is a gist of the story.  A family lives very happily in a tiny, tidy one room house.  One day they decide that their house is too small so they begin adding rooms onto the one room.  They continue to add so many rooms (one behind the other) that they seldom see their family members.  I believe that the house became such a curiosity that train tracks were built along side the house so tourists could see it.   The family members navigated this long house on roller skates.  One day the family happened to meet together in one of the many rooms and decided that they were much happier in their one room.  So they proceeded to tear down all of the added rooms until their house was back to the one room.  Here is the part that intrigued me and the reason I believe I still remember it.  On the final page, it said.  “If you want to see what this family did next, turn back to the front of the book and read it again!”

309J: A picture of mother (Solved)

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There is a book from my childhood that I think about often. I would be forever grateful if you could help unite me with it. I don’t have a title for you, but here is what I know:
1) It is a picture book for children.
2) I read the book as a child in the early 80s.
3) Plot: It is a book about a child (might be an animal child, not sure) that wants to make a picture of his mother. He starts out making the picture on his own and feels he needs advice, so he  takes it to different animal characters to see what they think. Each animal looks at the picture and makes a suggestion to change it somehow to reflect a feature of that animal (for example: the elephant suggests that the nose be lengthened). By the end of the book the picture has a variety of different features that look nothing like the mom.
Sadly, I cannot remember much else. I have tried to imagine the title and the best I could guess at is “A Picture of Mother” or something of the sort. But I could be way off.
This books stands out to me now as a message about trusting your own judgement in creating art (or writing) and not allowing yourself to be so easily influenced by the opinions of others. Let your work be your own. I’m not sure if that was the message it had intended to give, but it comes to mind now as I pursue my own writing career. I’d love to have this message bearer as a tangible reminder of this lesson.
Please help me, for you may be my only hope. Thank you for your time and effort.

309H: She’s obsessed with fashion (Solved)

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The description of the book I am looking for is a young adult book, which I read in the 70’s (I was born in 1967).
The plot is a young girl living with her family in New York City who is obsessed with fashion. When her parents leave her in New York City alone when they go on vacation (which she is thrilled about) she stumbles into a Woody Allen set and believes she is going to be in the movie.

309G: A girl named Meg

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This book was about a girl named Meg whose family moved to the old west and settled in a small community. There were some problems with Indians, a barn-raising, a pregnant girl and a blue (or red) dress for the dance. Her friend got the other color. A housecoat was referred to as a “wrapper”. Was originally published under another title, then abridged. I read this when I was 11 or 12 (1967-68) and have been trying for years to find this. Thanks!! (I want the Unabridged version, please!) Thanks!

309F: Mouse’s House

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This was a book out in the early 1950’s. It might have been a golden book, but I could not find it in their listing. The first line was “This is the house of Mrs. Mouse and these are her children three.” It was book for young children; it had illustrations. I don’t remember anything else, but that first line has stayed in mind all these years.

309D: Each hut being a different emotion

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Blue greenish background, with ground at the bottom, plants growing up. A figure/person  just right of the center, facing right. Title at the top, red lettering(maybe with some vine like font) 

Two lead characters, both boys, roughly the same age go from their world to a fantasy realm through some sort of door where they have the option of becoming a warrior type, magician/wizard type, and third on I can’t remember. One boy chooses a Warrior class the other is Wizard/Magician, can’t remember the specific name. The end goal is to get to a crystal city of sorts. There they fight a shadow version of themselves. Warrior boy is Asian(has Asian sounding name just can’t remember it), lives in the slums. Other kid is white, rough home life, if I’m remembering correctly. I remember at the beginning, one if the first person the Warrior boy(Asian name) comes across is an old man who lives in 12 different huts. Each hut being a different emotion. When he goes to another hut, he is the most extreme version of that emotion. I think it only talked about happiness, anger, and sadness.

 

309C: 60s or 70s urban YA

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This will probably be too little to go on, but I’ve been racking my brain for a year trying to remember a book I read when I was in middle school. It was YA and from the late 60s or 70s. It may have been a bit more of a pulp paperback than YA, but it was definitely geared towards young readers. It had an urban setting and there was a racial understanding component to the plot. I think the protagonist was white and he ended up befriending an African-American classmate. Almost anything else I try to remember about the plot (was there gang tensions? were they accused of a crime and had to hide out?) then convince me I’m remembering a different YA novel I read around the same time. The one thing I do seem to remember is totally pointless and trivial, but the main character sees the girl he likes in a corner store and causes her to lose her balance by knocking her in the back of the knees. I know it’s not much to go on, but I’m open to suggestions and guesses. Thanks!