Category Archives: 1980s

341N: 80s/90s dance book: poor teenage girl (Sal?) at local dance school

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I am looking for a book I read years ago, probably in the mid-nineties. It was about a teenager who went to a dance school and I think her name was Sal. Her family was quite poor so they often worried about money. I think she stayed at home with her parents for a while but they lived quite a long way from the school so she had to move closer, and they had an argument about that. Her parents weren’t keen on her going to the school anyway: maybe they wanted her to get a 'sensible job'.
The dance style was contemporary or ballet. I don't know about the location except that it was the UK or USA.  It was set in the present day when it was written, but that would have been in the 80s or 90s.

I remember very little of the story. At one point she realised she wasn't as supple as some of the other students so she stayed behind to do extra training. At the very end there is a show by the students and she was doing a solo. She got on stage and decided to abandon the dance she'd planned and just improvise with how the music make her feel. At the end she felt it hadn't gone very well but then got loads of applause.

I think there was a romance element as well with another music student, although it wasn't just a romance tale. I've searched through heaps of lists of young adult dance books and on Google Books but I can't seem to find it.

‘Say Goodnight, Gracie’ by Julie Reece Deaver was suggested on another forum, but it’s not that. The dance aspect is central to the story I’m looking for, whereas it’s just a supporting story in ‘Say Goodnight, Gracie’.

Jean Ure as an author was suggested as well, but most of her books seem to be for slightly younger readers.

I don't think this was amazing literary writing or anything, but for some reason I remember this book and would love to find it again.

341M: Chapter Book – Childrens’ House Floats Down River

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I am looking for a children's chapter book. The plot involves children whose house is able to float and they float down a river on it. This was a chapter book from the 1970’s or 1980’s. I don’t think it was a houseboat but rather their actual house was put on a raft, but my memory could be wrong. Thank you!!

341K: 70s-80s Book About Colors

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I don’t remember if there were characters or much of a plot, but what I do remember is that it had lushly illustrated two-page spreads where each spread was devoted to a single color. I think yellow was a picnic in a wheat field with buttered bread…I also think there was a spread that depicted the beach (not sure what color it might have represented). Also, I think in each spread there was a teaser color spot or object that represented the next color’s scene. I think the book ended with a scene of all the colors. I would have read this in the late 80s, but it might have been 70s etc. It was certainly bigger than a Golden Book or board book.

 

341D: Early Reader Vocabulary Picture Book (Solved!)

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This English vocabulary learning book from the early 1990s (could be older though) featured the daily life of a family in beautiful large center pictures of various scenes, with the outer rims of the pages containing objects from that scene to be found and named.
My most poignant memories are of a night time scene of the children casting shadows with their hands onto the bedroom wall, and a scene with a cross section of a fantastically large tree house with multiple connected rooms.
Any help is appreciated!

341A: Boy Lost In Fog

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I can’t remember much about “BOY LOST IN FOG” (not the actual title), but what I can remember (or what I think/believe I remember) is:
  • it is a children’s picture book, written in English, with black and white illustrations
  • I read, or the book was read to me between 1980 and 1988, no clue as to the publishing date
  • there is something in there about a small boy leaving home, perhaps on his own
  • there might be something about him being on or following the sidewalk
  • there is something about fog, or getting lost in thick fog temporarily – this is the main thing I remember
  • there might be something in there about encountering a stranger in the fog, or someone who helps or scares him
  • there might be something about a lighthouse

340Z: A bully/mean girl and a cupcake/birthday cake

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This is a children’s picture book I read in the 1980’s. The protagonist “despises” (I think she uses that word) a mean girl/bully. In the end I think she discovers that the bully doesn’t have any friends and is sad, and would like to be the protagonist’s friend. There is also a cupcake (it might have a candle on it). I think the bully gives it to the protagonist to try and make friends but the protagonist is suspicious of it and wonders if it’s poisoned. The bully wears a frilly dress. I think at one point she has a lollipop.

340U: Talk Show Goes To The Dogs

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This book is fiction, and could be a novel, short story, or novella, but set in the current time and real world when the book was published (sometime between 1960-1985). A famous night-time talk show (along the lines of The Tonight Show during the Carson age) hosts a segment featuring a guest who is a man with a very smart dog; the guest claims the dog can understand spoken conversation, beyond just verbal commands. There are a number of conflicts that arise; the main conflict is the sponsor of the show (a dog food company, I think) wanting to use the dog in advertising, but the dog’s owner refusing. I think it is set in Manhattan, and the book culminates in a dog fight on the ice of a pond in Central Park (between the smart dog, I think a golden retriever, and a doberman pinscher).

340R: Daycare Abuse

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I believe this book was from the 80s after the real case of day care abuse and Satanic worship came out. This was a girl (early teens) who has a little sister or brother enrolled in the same day care that she attended. Things her younger sibling says to her begins to trigger memories of her own time there and the abuse (I believe sexual) that she suffered.  No one will believe her because the teachers are so well loved. She has to find proof of the abuse by speaking to the children who attend the school.

340P: Trying To Befriend A Rude Companion

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Looking for a children’s book from the late 70s/early 80s. I believe the main characters were Timothy, Clyde, and Violet. They were anthropomorphic - one was maybe a fox(?). One of the characters (Timothy or Clyde) was trying to make friends with the other - he’d say things like “hey, you’re wearing the same shirt as me!” and the other one would rudely respond, “no, YOU’RE wearing the same shirt as ME.” My late father used to read it to me and I’d love to find it.

340O: Incredible Sunday? (Solved!)

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This is a YA book from, I believe, the 80s. It’s about a preteen (named Sunday or Sundae) whose mother gets her an agent, so she can audition for TV commercials. I remember that her signature look is a French braid or two braids? She has some difficult auditions including one for peanut butter where she has to do a cartwheel,  and the directors loudly discuss how awkward she is in front of all the other girls. She eventually makes a friend who is a young actress who is obsessed with Virginia Woolf’s suicide,  and eventually she finds the friend by the ocean wearing a raincoat stuffed with rocks contemplating suicide. I think the book was called Incredible Sunday, but I haven’t been able to find it under that name.
Thanks so much!