I'm looking for a chapter book that I read when I was ~9 in the early 80s. It's about two kids (boy and girl) who find a magic pencil that changes things to whatever they write. I think they get it from a handyman that uses it to change the length of his ladder, the type of cookies in a box etc. They change their size to 4" and have adventures. I remember a chase with a cat and them visiting a cave of some sort.
I’m racking my brain to remember a favorite childhood book. The premise of the story is a whale who is traveling down a river in the jungle (I think it’s a jungle?) who meets other animals along the way and he is sad that he is not colorful like they are. The other animals help him become colorful by rubbing different colored plants on him. I vaguely recall the cover of the book, but I do remember that it was rectangular in shape. I was born in 1979 and I don’t think this book was published much before or after that. Maybe 1987 at the latest? Does anyone recall coming across this book?
I'm looking for an elementary textbook from 80s or 90s that had a story about Jokey the Dog, another about a cat that goes to a spa, and small things falling from high places.
I am looking for a juvenile fiction book, written sometime in the 1980s. The premise is that people of privilege live indoors and never see the sun; the main character is a very haughty, arrogant teenager who lives indoors. A big deal is made about how pale and fat these people are. Somehow he accidentally ends up outside — I feel like he falls down a garbage chute — and ends up finding a village of families who live outside. After a while, he loses his arrogance and begins to enjoy his life outdoors. Eventually he makes his way back to his home, and I distinctly remember people shunning him because he has gotten muscles and a tan. I read it in the fifth or sixth grade, so it would have been aimed at children ages 10-12 or so.
The cover of the book shows the back of a pale bald boy, dressed in robes (they may be purple or blue?), running down a hallway. Thanks for the help!
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.
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!!
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.