Two people ride a train into a place where there is some disease that makes everyone fall asleep. They tell each other jokes to stay awake. It was a story in a science fiction anthology for young adults. I read it in the mid 1980s in a school library, but it was an old book even then.
My now 21-year old daughter speaks fondly of a picture book that featured a boy getting rescued from a tree by a swan. She says the cover had a boy in a tall woods. There was a monster, a ‘lot about woods,’ and a ‘terrible red mist.’ Possibly Caldecott?
I am searching for a book I read as a young elementary school student in the late 60s but the target audience was a little older, perhaps middle school girls. I think the book would have been published somewhere between the mid 50s and early 60s. Even in 1969/1970 it felt slightly dated.
Here are some facts I remember:
1) The protagonist was a young (13-15) teen girl and the book may have been part of a series (of either books or movies-not Giget.) Or maybe not.
2) The setting was very much all-American, white picket fences.
3) Our heroine was very excited to be invited to the out of town wedding of her older male cousin.
4) Although I can’t remember the name of the protagonist or her family, the bride’s name was Joan. At one point she shows her mother a picture of a bride in a magazine and asks “Do you think Joan will wear a dress like that?” To which Mom replies non-committally “Perhaps.”
5) Much of the book is about the struggle to find an appropriate dress for our heroine to wear to the wedding.
6) The perfect dress is actually found at a thrift store or among clothes that the mother is collecting for a charity drive, a seamstress makes some adjustments, and she loves it.
7) At the pre-wedding festivities the protagonist becomes friends with a similarly aged girl who I think is the bride’s sister/cousin and who is a junior bridesmaid in the wedding.
8) Unfortunately, they forget to pack the perfect dress. Much sadness ensues.
9) The junior bridesmaid becomes sick and our heroine is called upon to fill in.
10) The bridesmaid’s dress is green velvet with a little velvet toque.
And that’s it, that’s all I’ve got. I borrowed the book over and over from the library, but the dust cover was missing so I don’t even know what it looked like. Even though it doesn’t sound like much, I loved it and would like to read it again. Thanks for any help you can provide!
I am trying to remember the title of a novel that was most likely written in the 1980s. I read it in in 7th grade (1992-93). It was about three girls who all became friends at a boarding school and follows them into adulthood. The main character was from a poor family and she received a scholarship to go to the boarding school. Her younger sister married a rock musician while still a teenager and went on to have a hard life. After boarding school the main character moved to New York and became a personal assistant and got married then divorced. One of the girls was named Allie and she was from a very rich family and never had to work. She slept with one of the other girl’s father and the husband of the main character. I don’t really remember much about the third girl. I can’t remember of the other characters names or any hint of the title. This has been driving me crazy!!
I am hoping to find more information about an Easy Reader type book my teacher used when I was in the first grade, circa 1990.
The book was a series of red books, and the words were phonetic. I believe each book had multiple short stories. I remember one was about an African American boy who finds a Genie. The book definitely had a black boy and a genie, I may be conflating the two.
This cover looked familiar to me. The reader I am thinking of, may or may not be this one or have an image on the cover. I distinctly remember it was red.
I also remember the clothing of the illustrations within the book looked dated to me as a child, which I think means the book may have been published in the 70s or 80s originally.
I’m searching for a children’s book I read as a little girl probably in the early 1960s (do not recall title or author) about a poor village baker who has nearly run out of all ingredients to make his delicious baked goods. He is on the verge of closing down his shop for lack of money and ingredients when a poor beggar appears at his door asking for a meager meal. The baker ponders the request. If I recall correctly, he discusses this with his wife who tries to persuade him not to feed the man, but the baker wastes no time using his remaining ingredients to serve up a meal for the beggar. He also offers him a place to sleep in his bakery. When the morning comes, the beggar is gone, but the baker, to his surprise and thankfulness finds his larder overflowing with all of the ingredients he needs to keep his little bakery open.
Children’s book with a mustard-olive color cover (as I recall):
Artwork throughout shows a busy woman in a long coat hurrying everywhere. Everywhere she goes people say “don’t be in such a hurry or something worse may happen” and it does – all kinds of unfortunate accidents due to her hurrying. Finally one day she steps in glue and is forced to slow down…and she realizes that there is more to life than getting there. At the end of the day she decides not to remove all the glue from her shoes, because she likes going slower.
I would SO love to find this book!
It’s a novel I read in the mid 80’s, although I suspect it was written before that. The protagonist is older than average. Curmudgeonly, ego-centric and eccentric. The only scene I remember with clarity is one in which the protagonist is being chased through the precincts of a city or maybe an enemy’s citadel. He comes across a courtyard or walled garden in which there is a bush or shrub decorated with white flowers. Our hero is wearing a purple and green robe, cloak or other outfit and gambles that his clothes – being made up of two complementary colours – will register as white to pursuers in a hurry. Taking a chance on this he hides himself in front of the bush or shrubbery and, sure enough, his pursuers hurtle on past him and through the garden, allowing our hero to escape at his leisure. Identifying this book has been bugging me for over a decade now, so any hints, clues, leads or even an answer will be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance. . .
I must have read this some time in the 70s. Not a picture book, I would say this book was middle grade fiction (aimed at 8-12 year-olds). I’m guessing I read it between the ages of 9 and 11. It took place in Bern, Switzerland, and although I think the protagonist may have been a young girl, there was definitely a clockmaker in it, and his shop. I don’t think it had any elements of fantasy in it, but I remember finding it a magical story. I wish I remembered more about it, but that’s about all I’ve got!
In the early 1950s, I had a children’s picture book about eight by ten inches concerning a clown who was forced to leave the circus. I can’t recall why he had to leave, but he had done something wrong. What lingers in my memory is a closing illustration of the clown, dressed in a blue clown suit, oversized shoes, red wig and nose, walking down a road with a pick and shovel over his right shoulder, perhaps into the setting sun, though I’m not sure of that detail. He had to leave the circus and become a ditch-digger. I thought it was the saddest image I had ever seen and the saddest fate I could imagine. I still think so.