Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

201A: Desert fable with two brothers

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I read a fascinating fable as a kid. This was probably 1974-1979. I do not remember the title or author (sorry).
I remember all the details of the plot as I was blown away (remember, I was an impressionable boy!) by the shocking conclusion. Here goes: Two brothers go into the desert to seek their fortune. They come upon a kingdom where everyone wails in grief. They discover the favorite princess is locked in a tall tower and everyone fears she will die there. The brothers are presented before the king and one brother asks, “Do you have a key to this tower.” The king says, “Yes, but I don’t see what good that will do.” The brother requests this key. The two brothers go to the tower, use the key, unlock the door, and the princess is freed! The kingdom rejoices! The king presents each brother with a chest of gold, which they carry into the desert, onward to seek their fortunes.

They arrive at the second kingdom. Terrible dehydration is killing everyone there. One of the brothers asks the king, “Do you have a well? A bucket? A rope?” The king answers, Yes, to all those questions but adds, “I don’t see what good that will do.” The brothers are tight-lipped as to their plan. As one might guess, they tie the rope to the bucket, lower it into the well, and bring up water for all in the kingdom. The kingdom is saved! The king gives each brother a chest of gold.

The story continues this way, the brothers solving what seem to be easily-solvable problems for each kingdom, each time acquiring another chest of gold. After they have each acquired seven or eight chest of gold, they stagger into the desert one more time. Soon, one of the brothers drops dead under the weight of his treasures. His brother is sad but collects all the treasure chests in addition to his own treasure chests and tries to stagger forward. He only gets a few paces before he too succumbs to the weight, has a heart attack, and dies.

A man with a camel finds them, dead in the desert and says something to the effect of, “These two are idiots. If they had only spent a piece or two of gold, they could have bought donkeys to carry all this gold. They wouldn’t have died.”

As a boy, I was stunned that the two main characters died. I was also stunned by the simplicity of the solution to their problem and how I hadn’t thought of it, while I was busy looking down on the idiots in each kingdom, unable to solve their own problems.

I’d really like to see this story again. Made a big impact on me.

200E: Lazy man with monkey who does what he asks

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I’m looking fora book that was written before 1989. This is the year I found it but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a new story.
The basic message is, don’t be so lazy to wish all your tasks off on someone/something else. It is very much a cautionary tail.
It’s told through a tale about a guy that comes across a magical creature (monkey-like I think). The creature is at the mans beck-and-call to do any task he asks of it. He ask more and more, gets lazier and lazier until one day the man asks the creature to breath for him. Essentially the man ceases to exist.
I believe the story takes place on an island. I know most of the illustrations of the man picture him in a hammock. I also think it won a literary medal. As far as the shape of the book it was longer than it was tall.

The school librarian read it to the class when I was in 2nd/3rd grade.The story was was impactful for me as a child but I cant remember the title. I’ve been looking for it for years. Please help me find it.

200D: Orphaned Girl Lives with Grumpy Grandpa

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This was a group of shorter chapter books about a young girl (maybe 12 or 13?) who goes to live with her Grandpa. He’s the classic crotchety but with a heart of gold character. She’s a typical growing-up girl, trying new things, dealing with friendships, etc.

The characters live in a small, quintessential American town. If I were guessing, I’d say they’re set in the 50s. I read them in the late 70s and they seemed “old-fashioned” to me then — but there was electricity, cars, etc.

I recall maybe 3 or 4 books in the series. I’m sure one was set at Christmas. Another was about her entering a Bake-Off.

I think she had a very ordinary name, and this may have been in the title — Margaret, or Elizabeth?

I also sort of think they were published by Scholastic, and I also think that the Christmas book was made into a made-for-TV movie, that perhaps aired in the early 80s?

199H: Girl enters magical kingdom, fights off goblins, rides dragon (Solved!)

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I read this book somewhere between 1963 and 1966 when it was new. It was sold through an elementary school book fair. A girl wanders off and finds herself in a magical kingdom. There she is a princess. There’s a fight in a castle. Goblins enter the castle by turning themselves into doorknobs. At some point in the magical kingdom, she wanders up a hill and finds a dragon cave. The dragon turns out to be peaceful, although misunderstood, and she has tea with him and they become friends. He flies her around the kingdom and alights on the roof of the castle with her.

The book was paperback with a light blue cover.

199E: 3 Siblings worship magic dough/bread man (Solved)

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I read this book in middle school, 1995. so book is late 80s-90s. Three siblings, 2 girls and a boy, with the boy as the middle child. the youngest sister is ill/sick/crippled in some way. home life is not awesome, and they may or may not have moved to a new house- a huge tree in the backyard, they each find different items in the “new” backyard and decide to bake all of them into bread that mom or grandma was making. i think one of the items was a wire in shape of a crown, and another thing for the heart and something in the dough mans hand. this became some kind of magical talisman that made the little sister stronger and or able to perform magic. i also distinctly remember (i may be wrong) them having an entity i thought was rowan or something with an “R” that they worshipped for giving them this magic, and it became mad for some reason, resulting in the little sister climbing the tree to give back the dough man, and her falling…

199C: The Children and the Beached Galleon

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I can’t remember the name of the book or the author. A children’s book with plenty of line drawing illustrations, and featured some children who lived near the sea. One morning they go down to the beach to find that an ancient wrecked galleon has been washed up on shore, which I think they explore ( okay, this was before health and safety concerns! 🙁 Then when they go down to play the next day, there has been another storm and the ship has been washed away again.

199B: Easter Island Childhood (photobook) (Solved)

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I can’t remember the name of the book or the author. Photo book about a indigenous boy who lives on Easter Island, and the book follows his day exploring the island, probably suggested as a `biography’. Emphasis is on big B&W photos. It was a hardback book and I think probably from British/UK publishers. I’d say it was about 12 inches by 10 inches – bigger than normal size. This would have been published in the mid to late 60s or very early 1970s. I remember this from South Africa where I spent part of my childhood.

198G: Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. (Solved!)

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Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. I read it 20+ years ago, I’m assuming it’s 100-200 pages long. There was a young girl who buried a bird, and maybe tied notes to trees. Found a passageway to a hazy, smoke-filled room covered in old throw pillows. An old lady was there dressed in ratty fancy clothes and gaudy jewelry with a long smoking stick. There was a dalmatian somewhere in there too. I think she communicated with the old lady by burying letters in the ground. Maybe she found the dalmatian dead at the end? I read it at the same time as “The BFG.” I was young so some of the details my be completely fabricated!! Hope you can help!