Witch (archetypal crone) enslaves girl (orphan?) by embedding jewel(??) in her belly(?) which makes the girl weak & appear hideous.Girl makes friends with other slave creatures. Witch has broom & familiar (cat?). Girl frees self in end. Probably adult fantasy due to sexual content. Prob 80’s novel.
My mother often read me a book in the late 1960s to early 1970s about a family that was grumpy and unkind toward one another until a good feeling entered (or kind of floated) their home. They then began to feel better about themselves and treated each other with kindness.
Child’s chapter book, designed for ages 8-11. Published late 80’s or early 90’s. A young boy is brought to spend the summer with his great aunt and uncle. Feeling banished and angry, he refuses to stay in touch with his parents. Little by little, however, he opens up to adventures of life in the country, making friends with his relatives, with their pet hen (who they speak to only in French: “Va te coucher, Pauline”) and with a young girl on a nearby farm. Toward the end there is a wild search for the beloved hen.
This series of books was in my intermediate school library, which I attended in 1984-86. The main characters were sisters, maybe twins or just close in age. I believe there were only two or three books in the series and the girls kind of came of age during the series. One plot in the first book involved a mentally ill aunt. When the girls visit her, she tells one of them that her shoes are “shit brown,” and the librarian or administration at my school had very noticeably blacked out the word “shit”. I think in one of the books a death in the family is also dealt with. There were occasional black and white illustrations in the books. They were probably each less than 100 pages. I have a sense that they may have taken place in Germany or Austria. If not, then maybe the characters were immigrants to the USA from one of those countries. I’m picturing a purple or light blue cover/binding. Thanks for any leads!
I’m looking for a book I read at least 30 years ago, about a girl who goes to an island (I think Crete, Greece) with her family, but is mostly left to amuse herself. She meets up with an archaeological excavation and gets a job with them by drawing pictures of the artifacts they find.
I found it at a library sale in the early ’80s and it’s long since lost. Hardcover, no jacket, a drawing of two beaver kids against a dark green background (if memory serves). A chapter book, maybe 100 pages. Pulp paper. Pub date could have been 1900 to 1940; I would be shocked if it’s any more recent.
The two things I remember:
1. The little beaver sister, Crackie, earned her name because she constantly cracks or breaks things. In one chapter she drops an ice cream cone and the tip breaks off.
2. The last sentence of every chapter contains a non sequitur in this form: “And as long as I have time to bring Mrs. Gaffney the blueberry pies for her pet cat, I’ll tell you the next part of the story.” (There is no reference to Mrs. Gaffney, pies, or a cat anywhere else in the book.) I remember the ones in the book being truly amazing and weird.
Thanking you all in advance
No Author or Title Read around 1977 This boy is forced to move to the country close to a swamp and while exploring he comes across an Indian boy living on his own who teaches him how to survive in the swamp, how to live off the land, create shelter and navigate and they camp out in the swamp
I remember reading this YA book, which I believe had a sequel, in the mid 1970s. It took place in the early 20th century in the New York area, somewhere slightly north of New York City, possibly Westchester or Tarrytown.
The book(s) tell the story of the budding romance between the female protagonist and a boy who is a fellow student. At one point, the pair is cast to play Romeo & Juliet in a school production. Another slightly older female character (either a friend, or a sister), has a crisis (an unexpected pregnancy?) and she drinks a bottle of laudanum in response.
Picture book about a little girl who doesn’t want to go to bed. Her parents tuck her in and after they leave she gets up to go play with her toys, but they are all asleep so she goes to bed too. I think I remember blocks and dolls. Book was published in early 80s or earlier. Maybe Little Golden Book
I read these books as a kid – it had a purple monster with an inflatable trunk(like an elephant)?
The story was somehow a brother and sister have to go back in time to rescue their father who got sent back to the dinosaur age. When they get to the dinosaur age they find this creature that becomes a friend. It is a 4 legged big bushy purple monster with an elephant trunk. The monster can inflate his trunk to fly and help solve other problems as the 3 go looking for the kids father?