Young person’s book. Late 70s? Boy has a dog, takes it to a dog show, and his dog gets killed by another dog. He gets a sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog) and trains it?
364M: Sheltie
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Category Archives: 1970s
364J: Russian (?) siblings go live on a farm when orphaned (Solved!)
This is actually two books that I remember reading many times in the 70’s. These were two novels. The plot was that two siblings were orphaned and went to live on a farm. Maybe they were Russian or Ukrainian? I remember the description of the girl being given a special costume to wear that had many many skirts. I also remember a description of the Wax, Dyed Eggs at Easter. I think they went to the special fair and got a very decorated cookie. The Farm was stocked with lots of food, including sausages hung in the pantry. The second novel was a little darker, because I believe there was a war.
Thank you for any help you can give with these two books.
364F: Greek/Roman epic – a tough one!
Hi there! Been looking for this for YEARS. Please bear with me as I read it in the 90’s and you know how memory goes.
Read it as a paperback. NOT a bodice ripper like romance. Was a Greek/Roman epic. NOT the book Empress of Rome. From the perspective of a prostitute from when she was a girl through adulthood and old age. Not necessarily first person but maybe. She went to a courtesan-like school to learn the arts- painting, singing etc. I only remember like two very specific parts of the story.
**TRIGGER WARNING- Weird old school brothel tricks and sex talk**
She “ruins” herself or some such thing with a man and she needs to be presented as a virgin to some old guy or important man whatever. There’s a part where an older woman has her put a chicken egg filled with blood or something up there so that when the chicken egg breaks during sex it’ll appear as though it’s hymen blood. Don’t ask why that stuck with me, it just did.
There’s a bunch of intrigue and scandal. A bad guy is in it for sure. There’s a bunch of parties and a nice old guy painter I think. And the prostitute/courtesan is very well renowned. She falls in love with a younger soldier and eventually is together with him for years. At the end of the book she’s dying in bed and he’s holding her hand and she dies with a smile or some such thing because he had no idea how old she was because she took such good care care of herself.
Pretty thick book. Cover had a Greek/Roman depiction (maybe a man and woman? maybe a Greek building in back?) and was creme colored for the most part, I think. Had maybe a bit of red and black lettering. Books was very much late 1960’s-1980’s
I really hope you can help!! Thanks so much
363V: Historic Fiction Starts with Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Here’s the thing: this novel is not listed on ANY LIST of books about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
The book would have been published in the seventies or eighties. I read it in the nineties, and it was old then. The paperback cover was one of those 70s/80s style hand-drawn character montage covers with the main character in the middle. It was my mother’s book. She bought lots of family sagas and Doubleday Book of the Month selections.
The main character’s name was either Jake or Jacob. He’s a poor immigrant. I’m 99% certain he’s Jewish. His wife works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and is killed when the fire breaks out. They have a young son. After her death, he gets involved in the burgeoning labor movement. I remember clearly this book is when I learned about strike busting, and what can happen to scabs.
There’s also a young, wealthy woman whose family (either her father or husband, I can’t remember) owns one of the factories where strikes are occurring. She starts sneaking food to the strikers because she learns the conditions they work and live in are atrocious (I forget how). She ends up involved with Jake.
I seem to remember we even see the next generation grow up, and Jake gets involved with the Jewish mob. These things I’m less clear about, though. Everything I listed above I’m really, really certain about.
The author was similar to Howard Fast. It’s not The Immigrants, which I ALSO stole from my mother’s shelf and read. That book is set in California.
It’s also not East River.
I’ve searched and searched for this book forever. Because of this novel, I became deeply interested in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, labor issues, and early 20th-century history. Most of my reading life has been so strongly influenced by it, and I can’t believe I can neither remember the name nor find it via google or booklists about the fire, labor movements, or the Jewish Mafia.
363R: Kids Fly A Psychedelic Magic Carpet
I remember this book from my childhood in the 70s. I believe the cover had psychedelic kids art — a magic carpet, with maybe two kids on it, very colorful. It was about two kids (I think) who (ride? are captured? somehow are on a) magic carpet that takes them to (other worlds? Other dimensions?). It was a very weird book and I completely loved it, but have no idea about the title. It definitely had some kind of interdimensional aspect (although I could be confusing this with A Wrinkle In Time, but I think not). Probably published early 70s.
363N: Girl Witch and the Ferris Wheel (Solved!)
The book I am looking for must have been published before 1994 at the very latest, and I would think after 1975 although it could be earlier. It’s a children’s chapter book. The main character is a girl child with magic who is learning to be a witch: she lives in a cave with I think her grandmother/s and/or aunts who are old witches, and who are pretty grumpy and uncomfortable. She sneaks out one night and discovers a fairground nearby, and rides on the ferris wheel. (She might make a human friend, which isn’t allowed, and there might be a cat, but I’m not sure about those.) She decides to show her older female relatives that humans can have nice things, and I think she steals some of the ferris wheel cars and puts cushions and warming spells in them so her older female relatives will have nice warm places to sit? I think the cover was illustrated, but not super cartoon-y. I have googled and googled and found nothing.
363M: Quaker seamstress in Philadelphia during American revolutionary war (Solved!)
Cheryl Hill, chill4hhorse@comcast.net[/private[
I am looking for a book I read as a teen and young adult in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I recall finding it at my local library and I believe the author’s last name began with the letter A. The story was historical fiction and the main character was a seamstress in Philadelphia during the revolutionary war. She was a member of the Quaker religion and her fiancé fought with George Washington. She worked in the home of Peggy Shippen’s family and was able to overhear some of the plans made by Benedict Arnold and his wife.
363D: Medieval Kitchen
I am hoping you can help me find a book I read probably between ’78-82. I am not sure how reliable my memory is, but what I remember is this: it was a paperback with stories about a kingdom, or maybe a medieval fiefdom. At least one of the stories, or maybe all of them centered on the kitchen having to make a certain dish. There was a big penalty (death? that seems like a lot for what I think I read as an 8 year old) if they didn’t get the recipe right. I think the story was told through a boy getting introduced to the kitchen There was definitely a recipe for a pound cake, possibly a bundt cake. I know that because I made it many many times as a kid. I hope you can help me find it!
363B: Bronze Age slave girl saves metal items to purchase her freedom
I checked out this book from my school library when I was in upper elementary, 1971-1973, so the publishing date could be ’50s, ’60s, or early ’70s. I seem to remember a cream colored dust jacket, with black and white illustrations inside that resembled cave drawings. The girl kept her bits of metal under her pillow to keep them safe. I seem to remember a leader wearing a cloak pinned with metal and also wearing a torc around his neck. I don’t remember any psychic abilities or romance in the plot. It’s not “The Cave Twins” or “The Distant Lurs.” (I’ve gone through *most* of the queries until my eyes crossed. 😜) It might have been set in Britain, maybe another European country. She may have saved her owner’s clan by warning them of an imminent attack. And I think she was indeed able to purchase her freedom at the end of the story. Sorry, the details are very fuzzy but I checked the book out several times and loved it. (Probably one of the books that started my love for strong female characters.) Thanks in advance for your help!
362I: Kids Solve Location of Missing Treasure
I am trying to locate a book that I read many times in the late 1970s. (I was in late elementary school.) I probably ordered the book through school and the Scholastic Reader book order program.
The book was a mystery that took place in the west (maybe Arizona?) and the kids solved it when at a certain time of day or year shadows appeared and marked an “x” where the treasure or the entrance to the treasure was located. I seem to recall the words “canyon” “shadow” or “gold” were in the title. It was a paperback with a blue cover and gold writing. It wasn’t a series or Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys.