A boy opens his eyes and begins to see Not a book, but a short story I read in 1959 in sophomore English, a slight “a-boy-goes-on-a -journey” kind of story and the first piece of literature in which I recognized myself and one that I still recall with goosebumps. I think it was named “Dell,” the name of an adolescent boy living on a Midwestern farm. He is awakened one summer night by distant honky-tonk music coming through his bedroom window, a foreign intrusion into his otherwise quiet life. Arising, he goes outside looking for its source. Following the sound, he crosses several dark fields, climbs a small hill and looks out in the distance to see, far away but close enough to clearly discern a highway truck stop, ablaze with tall lights and neon signs, like a light-bomb on the black prairie floor. Some rigs are parked, their radios blaring; others are pulling out into the night with the shafts of their headlights illuminating their journey into the darkness, going—where? That’s what Dell wants to know, with an immediacy, an insistence previously unknown to him. From that story to a degree in English several years later. It was my “first step” in the journey and I would love to recover it if possible. Any help would be sincerely appreciated.
Category Archives: Status
293F: A boys wakes up to find a box
Here is what I’m trying to find: A children’s picture book, I believe mostly black and white line drawings, of a boy who wakes up to find a box in his backyard, which he climbs into using a ladder. Inside the box is another box that he also climbs into, and so on and so forth.
293E: Meals with all four food groups
Trying to remember a wonderful novel set in the 1950’s or 1960’s. I believe the main characters’ names were Anne and Neil. She was from a poor family, but would make fashionable outfits for herself to catch Neil’s eye. After they married, he went into politics. She tried hard to make Neil eat meals with all four food groups. They had a couple children. In the end of the book, it’s terribly hot in the city and Anne is lying down trying to nap, and Neil comes home and tells her he has been nominated to run for President.
293D: Friendship in a treehouse
I would be so grateful if you could find my favorite chapter book as a child! It’s about a friendship between two girls, perhaps a summertime friendship. They spend time in a tree house together. The paperback cover painting was in browns and greens of the girls in the tree house. Likely, I bought it through Scholastic Books when they had those mini-catalogs sent to schools. It came out in paper sometime in the mid 1960s.
293C: All the superhumans die
I’m looking for a book that I have only heard a colleague speak very briefly about. He is a teacher and remembers reading a short story within a book of a collection of short stories, when he was studying at Uni, which would have been approx. 1998-2002. But it could have been published much before that. He said the story was about a boy who caught the measles/mumps/chickenpox. He found this other planet/dimension/bubble??? (sorry) where everyone that lived there were basically superhumans. They hadn’t been ill at all. Then this boy entered their “world” and all of these superhumans died because they had been so protected from diseases that they had no immune system, so contact with the measles/mumps/chickenpox killed them. That is all I know. I’m guessing the moral of the story was to do with the benefits/detriments of vaccinations. I have tried searching everywhere with no luck. I searched this site and found one called “Brave New World” but that doesn’t sound like it. I would love to find this book – my colleague said he is so fond of it but doesn’t remember the title or book it was in.
Thank you for your help.
293B: Young English Sisters Learn Art and Sharing
This book is about two young sisters in England during WW2. They have a father, who lets them ride a giant rocking horse out in a shed at one point (there’s an illustration of it), but not necessarily a mother. They are forced to share their Xmas gifts with an orphaned boy their age; they choose plasticine and the boy turns out to be talented. One of the sisters learns to paint a doorknob to look gold, like the old lady artist they befriend. The book is meant for children probably between 8 and 12.
Thanks in advance for your help.
293A: HANUKKAH* MURRAY
More or less a Santa Claus story for Jewish children celebrating Hanukkah
A Jewish children’s book in which a man (the Hanukkah Murray) flew from one child’s fire escape to the next child’s fire escape in the Bronx, NY (possibly Brooklyn too) on a flying dreidel (bringing gifts?).
*NOTE correct spelling Hanukkah is not known–I guessed at this version for no particular reason
292Z: SOLOMON SHAG (Solved)
A children’s story book in rhyme about a yellow dog named Solomon Shag. I seem to remember cobblestone streets and cars in some illustrations which makes me think it may have been a European city like London.
292Y: And The Sun Came Up
My grandfather read this book to me over and over, probably around the early 1950s, so it may have been published as early as the 1930s. It was a children’s picture book, and all I can remember is the last page read, “And The Sun Came Up.” That phrase was most probably used throughout the book. I loved it and have looked for it all these years, at antiques stores, rummage sales, etc. I would love to know the title and see if it is still around somewhere, so I can read it to my own grandchildren.
292X: Animals he could make small and take home
I have no idea about the title of this book. It is one I read (and owned) in my childhood. I think it was sent as part of my subscription to a children’s book club–perhaps Children’s Literary Guild. Probably I encountered it between 1940 and 1946. Plot was about a child–I think a boy–living rural, who went to a visiting circus. There he encountered animals who he could somehow make small and take home with him.
