I am trying to identify and purchase a copy of a children’s lit anthology I had as a child. The copy I had was hardcover, gray binding with a bright green repeating motif on the cover. Among the stories included was HC Andersen’s “The Wild Swans.” There was another story about a princess sent to live with a family that had five girls whose last names ended in “-belle,” and a youngest sister Echo.
The short story was in an 8th grade English reader (adopted by Uintah school district in the 1980s). It was light blue and white.
The short story came from the section in the reader that was something like strangers in a strange land.
It was an excerpt from a science fiction writer (famous, I believe) so the short story might have come from a novel. I have spent hours sifting through science fiction novels trying to come up with this story. I found The Thing…but, I believe I’m going to have to find the reader itself. Hence, I’m asking you.
The story line is: An alien crash lands on earth. Earthlings find him. He is walking on two feet, but he looks different than them. They struggle accepting him because of his looks. *there is a painting picture in the book itself of an alien trying to talk with people and the people look mob-like angry*
The alien explains to them that his people have advanced technology and that he would share it with them. At one point, he even tried to tell them that he had the answers to the universe and God. The Earthlings laugh at him, shun him, and tell him he is an animal.
Eventually, the Earthlings put him in a cage. They continually call him an animal. He tries talking to them until he finally gives up and becomes quiet. He sees the other animals in cages and watches the interaction between animals and humans. Somewhere I remember them using the word creature.
In the end, the cage door is left open and the alien (like an animal) runs away into the forest …”running on all fours.” I’m pretty sure I’m quoting this correctly as I remember it being a powerful key statement.
I remember this science fiction story being in a section with pioneer and moving west stories. It seemed oddly placed until you read and realized it was placed there to take a next step in cognitive thinking and applying it to the future.
Thank you for helping me with this. I want to use it to teach through the story the idea of intolerance vs. tolerance and what can happen if we don’t treat someone with respect. It definitely a story that made one think.
Children’s picture(?) book with fantasy stories involving nontraditional families. There is one story where an evil monarch makes it illegal to have anything other than a mother and a father raising children.
The book that I have been unsuccessfully searching for is a book of short stories for girls that was published in the mid 1960’s. I recall purchasing it at a school book fair, most likely in junior high. The stories were mostly coming of age stories for teenage girls. One story told of a girl who did not fit in in high school, and she wanted new clothes that she believed would help. I remember she wanted to buy “shoes that look like ballet slippers and a string of pearls. I seem to recall that she also played the piano. Another story was about a girl who felt very unattractive and her dad said something to the effect of she was not a pretty girl but she was going to be a beautiful woman. I have searched for this collection of short stories for many years and have found many collections, but not this particular one. I would be very grateful if you might have any information about this elusive book. Thank you for any suggestions you may have.
I have been searching and searching for a set of books I loved as a child. I grew up in Ireland so they are probably UK based. I would rent them from the library when I was about 7 or 8 I think, so around 1992 but I suspect they were older than that.
From the little I can remember these were hardback books in primary colours (I seem to remember orange) where a kid and an animal (I am 99% sure a tiger) would have adventures. There may have been a third character also. There was a lot of text with some informal / childlike pen and ink drawings that would sometimes interact with the text.
Any help or further info would be so appreciated. I’m expecting my first child and would love to be able to share these books some day.
This is for my husband. He said he had a reader he loved as a kid. It was published by Scholastic. He said it is about a family who loses everything. The father, mother and at least two kids get in their car and head out. They end up buying a farm which is not fertile because they were taken advantage off. However, the farm is kind of magical and becomes fertile. The farmer who sold it to them comes back at toward the end of the book and wants it back. He says that the father of the family had said he would buy the farm with everything in his wallet and that he did not hold his end of the bargain because there were three moths in his wallet he did not give away. The farmer proceeds to plant trees which grow immediately and turn the day to night because of the shade of their canopies. The family goes hunting for moths with a flashlight and find three moths to pay the bad man with.
I’m looking for this book of illustrated stories I read during my school days (would have been ~15-20 years ago). It had a light blue hard cover and the title I believe was something along the lines of “365 Illustrated Bedtime Stories” or the like (I have tried searching various book websites with various combinations of this name but no luck).
It was a collection of 365 illustrated stories, each a few pages long. I remember details from a few –
1) There were a few stories about a young boy wizard who is getting trained. In one of the stories he had a long day and fell asleep (there was a specific illustration about this)
2) There were a few stories about a family on an alien planet in space (terraforming it?), assisted by a bunch of sentient construction robots. The family consisted of a mum, dad, son, daughter and pet dog. In one story, there is an infestation of mechanical crab like creatures – one of the children get carried off and is later rescued by the robots. In another, they accidentally puncture the crust of the planet which starts flooding the surface with the underground ocean that they were unaware existed. They are unwilling to leave the robots but have to evacuate the planet. Thankfully, the robots modify themselves into a spacecraft and manage to evacuate as well (I remember a few lines that were along the lines of – suddenly there was a bright flash of retro boosters from the surface… the robots has transformed [one of them] into a spacecraft etc etc)
I believe there was a companion book of “365 Illustrated Daytime Stories” with a light peach cover, and I believe a basket of curled up puppies / kittens or a large curled up squirrel with a bushy tail on its cover.
Sorry I know this might not be much to go on, but I really loved these books as a child and am very keen to get my hands on them if possible.
Any help would be very much appreciated!! Thanks in advance
Child’s book from the 1950s. A 9×12 book with a cover in seafoam green. Realistic illustrations of children in soft pastel-like style. Stories about a family, perhaps called The Bumpsies. We think in one story, they have a picnic in the attic.
I’m looking for a children’s book that was a collection of fairy tales or stories. My father brought it home to me around the mid 1980’s from one of his trips abroad. The book was written in English, largish font, and beautifully illustrated. The pictures stand out the most in my memory, reminding me of brightly colored Hummel characters. I believe the front cover had a boy and girl on a wagon. The stories were unique, I’ve never read them anywhere else. The only bits I can recall is that one story was about a princess or young girl who was picking peaches and either in the same story or a completely different one there were elves or fairies picking leaves of gold and they had to wear special sunglasses to do so. It was either leaves or apples of gold.
I hope what little information I was able to provide will help you in figuring out what book this was!
Cinderella story, one in an anthology of fairy tales. This version has Cinderella going to three balls. The book is beautifully illustrated but also very descriptive of the gowns-of the fabrics and decorations-e.g.”yellow silk” or “yellow taffeta.” Published prior to 1960.