A YA book like Beautiful Joe but is the story of an abused horse. The horse’s name may be Charlie. Looked up Five o’ clock Charlie but it doesn’t seem right, seems too happy (is there anything about him being abused by a first owner?). I can’t give any more detail as I never read it. I want to buy it as a present for a friend who read it as a child, he’s in his mid 40s.
So I read this book when I was still in elementary school, no older than 12 years old, meaning this book couldn’t have been published after 2003. Sadly, I cannot recall anything about the title or author, only that the cover, if I remember correctly, featured a boy with a lady ghost on his left side, with black and white colors.
So the story is about a school class that somehow ends up lost in a forest during a bad storm, I believe they were all in a school bus for a trip but it crashed. As far as I recall, no one died, but everyone ended up being separated. The story is linear but there are a some flashbacks we get to see while the characters are lost in the woods.
Speaking of characters, these are the people I recall:
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.
As a grade-schooler in the late 1960’s or early seventies, my teacher read the class a mystery book/novel about a little girl who’d gone to stay with relatives. Possibly for the summer. She was mystified by a haunting voice that would sing a song again and again. I remember something about a swing and hollyhock flowers. I’m not sure but I think by the end of the story it turns out to be the ghost of her deceased Aunt who died as a child.
The book is juvenile fiction about a young girl, age 9, who dances ballet. She wants to start using toe shoes but everyone tells her she is too young. She goes on a summer vacation to the beach and meets a famous ballerina and her choreographer husband who decide to stage a shortened version of The Nutcracker at the grand hotel where they are staying. The girl is invited to participate even though she is not staying there. The owner’s spoiled daughter makes a fuss and is cast as Clara. She had started dancing with toe shoes but it is causing to much stress on her developing feet and she can’t dance very well. I think her name is April.
I read this book about 30-35 years ago when I was 9-12, it was illustrated with cartoony yet cool pictures in color. I have no memory of the cover, I think it may have been paperback. It is the story of some animal friends, one of whom discovers a walled/gated garden that is completely overgrown. It has a fountain that doesn’t work, and while it once was beautiful, is basically unrecognizable because it was abandoned. I can’t remember what animal the main character was, but I think it was a kangaroo or a giraffe and for some reason I think the name was Geoffrey or Jeffrey. Not sure though.
He works in secret to completely restore the garden and fountain, while keeping the exterior appearing unchanged. His friend misses him and worries that they are growing distant since the main character is spending so much time working in the garden.
At the end, there is a birthday party and the protagonist rigs the hedges of the garden in sections and hands a string to their friend having the birthday to pull, which they do, revealing the transformed garden and splashing fountain to the astonishment and delight of all. I think there is then a celebration with a very special cake, perhaps orange chiffon, perhaps I am making that up.
I read this book over and over and now want to read it to my kids but can’t remember title or author and none of my searches are working. Hope you can help!
The book is a juvenile chapter book from the ’70s or ’80s. Called something like _Best Friends_. It’s about a girl who loses her best friend to another girl. I remember that she eats Chinese food with a new friend at the friend’s restaurant. She also participates in a puppet show from Alice in Wonderland and she is the Red Queen. The former best friend comes crawling back after a fight with the new girl but she realizes that she likes having lots of friends vs. exclusive to one best friend.
The book I am looking for is a series. I grew up in Australia and while I cannot be sure, I think the author was Australian (possibly even female). The story is about three children or young teenagers. They live in the future where the world is too hot by day for anyone to be active, so they now sleep by day and live by night. The children have to go beyond their village or camp for some reason and they end up crossing vast land in search of something. I believe there were three books in the series, although it may have been more. I remember thinking it was interesting that everyone lived by night, with the light of the fire. The elders were respected. It was almost as though humans had to resort to the way of life before modern civilization. I think they have found a lost city on their adventure.
I have been trying for a really long time to find this book series. Any help would be greatly appreciated.