I came across this website while trying to search for this book from my childhood. I do not know the title of this book. All I can remember is that it is a 12 days of Christmas parody. That there were monsters in this book. It had to been published before 1996. It was a colored illustration book.
The world works in mysterious ways. A line from the book came to me today and when I searched it, an article from The New York Times archive popped up. Published in 1977, Joel Schicks The Present was there. This was the book I’ve been searching 10 years for.
So I read this book in 2020 or 2021 and I believe it was written roughly around that time. The author is a woman with a unique name (which for the love of cheese, I cannot recall) and her bio said she lives on an island off the coast of England (could be Channel Islands) or possibly coast of Australia! Oh man, I’ve really forgotten!
The story is written first person from the perspective of a girl as she grows up, and then also as she is an adult. I forget how her father died, but I think he was on a boat at sea and never returned. The girl is sent to live in a house on the coast with a woman guardian, who is not her mom or stepmom, and their relationship is curt. There is a creepy male family friend who drives up every other week or so to check in on them and I think gives them money. At some point, a German pilot crashes his plane into the ocean, swims to shore, and comes to their house. They help him and hide him in their attic. As I recall, he speaks little English. The little girl develops a loving sweet relationship with him, and he teaches her to draw. The girl’s guardian woman falls for him, and the little girl feels jealous of their relationship. At some point later in the book, the creepy man is coming over and the girl is upset with her guardian, and intentionally leaves the door to the attic open where the creepy man will hear them talking. The creepy man discovers them and basically tells the man to walk into the ocean, knowing he will not survive the freezing water. In the meantime, in the present, the now adult little girl is planning the day she will die and leaving a note for her neighbor letting him know. She is visited by a teen girl who is sitting on her fence (and I think she is the daughter of the creepy man and her guardian). I know it’s complicated! The grown little girl does end her life as she planned, but it’s not graphic or violent. I cannot remember any names, but I think the time is WW2 because of the German pilot. Thank you so much for any ideas! I’ve searched so many searches and authors and come up empty.
I’m hoping you can find my book….I really don’t want you to be stumped 🙂 (I think) the title is ‘In search of the amulet’ (I think) the author’s first name is Susan, and that she is English. The book is likely to have been written in the ’70s or’80s, but I’m not certain. Its a non-fiction story of her solo travels across Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (and other places) in an attempt to find the origins and meaning of the common fringed triangle symbol (amulet).
Looking for 1950’s or 60’s fantasy young adult books about a magical silver smith in Massachusetts who can time travel and shape shift and enables a young boy to share his adventures. Author might be Lawson or Dawson. I have tried the Library of Congress listings of books without success. The books were available in the San Marino, CA public library into the 1970s or 1980s.
Additional story elements:
The silversmith was an adult during the American revolution. Story elements involve turning into various animals and birds, pirates and participation in the revolution
The book revolved around three high school kids in a small town, two boys and a girl. I think the girl had recently moved to town, possibly from down south somewhere, and had befriended the two boys. One of the boys I remember being more awkward and emotional than the other. They have a spot in the woods that they meet up. Both boys fall for the girl, and eventually the girl falls for the not-awkward boy. Awkward boy catches other boy and girl either dancing or kissing in the school gym, and reacts badly. Girl goes to the special spot in the woods and finds that awkward-boy has hung himself. Possibly an 80’s Avon Camelot book.
Have little to go on. Believe purchased via Scholastic Book Club or at Scholastic Book Fair between 1977 and 1981; a short-read, 1–2” children’s novel; think it’s published by Scholastic; it might be a supernatural or science fiction thriller; white paperback with cover art, possibly with kids and a Ferris wheel; main characters are kids, with the climactic eventat a carnival with a Ferris wheel with swinging lights?
Mother is busy, She’s making a pie. But we do the farm work, My dad and I. Together, together, We scatter the seeds, We shear the sheep, We pull the weeds. We milk the cows, We pet the goats, We fix the fence, We cut the oats . . . Hand in hand along with Dad, Around the farm with my dog Lad.
Winter, springtime, summer, fall, Ours is the nicest farm of all. But sometimes I wonder what I will be When I am as old as – twenty-three! I think of this, I think of that, Till there I am in a trim gray hat . . .
I’m a mailman! Tramp tramp tramp I walk for blocks, And I put Something Special in everyone’s box! Woof, woof, say the dogs As I walk through their yards, But on I go, carrying Letters and cards. Then after I’ve brought Everybody some mail, I pick up a hammer And drive in a nail – Wham! And there I am . . .
I’m a carpenter! Bang goes my hammer, I’m nailing down floors And putting in windows And hanging up doors. Zing goes my saw And I never stop Till I’ve built a fine house With a red roof on top. Then I pack up my hammer, I say, “Toodle-oo!” And quick as a wink, There I am . . . at the zoo!
I’m a zoo-keeper, see, With a broom, and a key. I’m walking the camels And feeding the bears, I’m stoking the lions And sweeping their lairs. I’m teaching the monkeys And training the seals. I’m giving the hippos E-NOR-MOUS big meals! Now evening is coming, the zoo has to close . . .
Presto and Change-o! I wear a red nose . . . Now I’m a clown With a painted-up face. I’m tumbling and jumping All over the place. My clown suit is baggy (It’s puffed up with air!). I wave to the children I see everywhere. See my duck in his bib? See my dog in his bow? See my string of balloons, And my nose all aglow? But all of a sudden I catch on a hook, And everyone shouts to me, “Look, mister, look!” Bang goes my clown suit- A Shoosh! Then a pop! . . .
Then I hold up my hand And the traffic must stop! For I’m a policeman At Walnut and Main. Are you looking for Somewhere? I’ll stop to explain. Now, go, Jim and Johnny. Go, Kathy and Joan. Stop, Little Puppy, Out walking alone! Then all of a sudden My day’s work is done, So I find me a horse (With a saddle, of course!) And I strap on my gun. . . .
Now I’m a cowboy, a-riding along, A-jingling my spurs and a-singing my song. Across the Great Prairie I ride far and near To round up the cattle and rope a wild steer. Then I tie up my horse (and I feed him, of course!).
Yippi-yi! Now I’m going. . . . I jump in a boat, And away I go rowing. Now I’m a fisherman Out on the sea, Where there’s nothing but water And fishes – and me! Riding a wave I see something afloat. It’s a whale come to visit- He’s rocking my boat! Then whoosh! comes a wave, And it gives me a smack . . .
And I call to my daddy, “Hello there, Im back!” “Just in time for a snack,” Says my daddy. And then . . . Off we go again! Together, together,
(scan cuts off here)
I have a PDF with some scans of an illustrated children’s poem from my mother’s childhood [see below]. Sadly, the cover and title pages were lost long ago. The scan does not contain all of the pages. I am attaching the scans as well as a transcript of the text. It is an illustrated poem about a boy on a farm who likes to daydream about different jobs, such as a zookeeper, clown, policeman, etc. My mom read this book as a child around the mid-late 1960s / early 1970s. I suspect (but cannot prove) this story may have some link to Western Publishing. (Western publishing was based out of Racine, Wisconsin and my family is from southeast Wisconsin.) We would love to figure out the title, author, and/or illustrator of this book! I have reached out to various forums and the Library of Congress but no luck so far. I really appreciate the opportunity to ask the Stump the Bookseller community! If there is anything I need to do to correct of enhance my submission, please do not hesitate to let me know!
I had the book as a child in the early ‘90’s. The book was brown and had pictures in the centre of the front and back, embossed. Collection of stories, one about a fire sprite and water nymph trying to be together. Illustration of them with a glass window between them. One of the last stories in the book had to do with a stone walled off orchard and a giant keeping the children out. Something about the stigmata.
I am looking for what I think is an anthology of poetry, illustrated, that contains an extremely cleverly illustrated version of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Black and white line drawings I believe. I remember seeing it in a bookstore in Ithaca circa 2012 it might have been newly published then. There were other poems in the book, possibly also short stories? And authors besides Kipling?
It was a children’s fiction novel I read in the early to mid 1990s. The story was about a horse that had escaped from its owners, who I think were neglecting it. The escaped horse was found by two young girls who were friends, both of whom want to help the horse when they realise he’s hungry and in poor condition. Knowing that if they return the horse to the rightful owners that he’ll probably just continue to be neglected, the girls decide to care for him in secret rather than return him to the abusive owners. There’s an abandoned, overgrown stable at the back of a nearby property that is owned by a mysterious recluse who lives in the property’s main house, so the girls have to be very careful to not get caught trespassing by the landowner. The girls have to clear a tall enough path through the undergrowth and remove the poison ivy so they can move the horse into the old stable, which they do their best to clean and repair. They share the responsibility of caring for the horse, taking odd jobs around their neighbourhood to earn extra cash and they pool their pocket money to purchase the feed and supplies they need from the hardware store. Much of the story revolves around the girls working to feed the horse up to improve his physical condition and health, but it is also stressful and difficult for the young girls to constantly manage the demanding routine by themselves and still keep it secret from everyone, which creates some tension in their friendship. Eventually they get found out by the landowner, and the girls are terrified he will call the police and that they’ll be in big trouble for stabling the horse on his property without his permission. But when they finally speak to the man who owns the old stable they are surprised to find that he is actually a kind man and not scary like the schoolyard rumours said. He explains to them that he let the stable go to seed after his horse-loving daughter died, as it was just too painful for him to look at it and constantly be reminded of her. The young girls explain their side of the story to him and the man is touched by their passion and empathy for the neglected horse. To his surprise they remind him of his daughter, but not in the painful way he used to experience in years gone past. Instead he feels quite touched by their efforts to care for the horse and he realises that he also wants to see the horse properly looked after because his daughter would have wanted the same thing. He gives the girls permission to keep stabling the horse on his property, and I think he even promises to help repair stable and maybe even assist with some of expenses associated with keeping the horse. But the condition he gives them is that they have to come clean to their parents about what they’ve been doing. By the end of the book the girls are very happy to be caring for the horse openly with the permission of the owner and their parents, but they kind of miss the excitement of keeping such a huge and exciting secret from everyone.
