I read a science fiction book in high school (1969-1973) about some kind of catastrophe that resulted in the sexes living in separate worlds. In the “Women’s World,” planes fell out of the sky. Maybe the women didn’t know how to operate heavy machinery? In the “Men’s World,” other things happened because they were lonely…?
I found it totally mesmerizing at the time. I thought it had a title like “Island of Vipers,” but I have never found that title. All help appreciated!
Captain Patchy Rat, as I recall from my very early youth, is the story of the rat who organized a swashbuckling rebellion against the tyranny of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustrated. I recall an eye patch, of course, a pirates sash with rapier brandished. The book dates to 1950 era.
Have not been able to locate with desultory inquiries.
Would like to locate before all my grandchildren are too old for it.
P. G. Wodehouse story: Bertie Wooster’s friend, Bingo Little, has a get-rich-quick scheme to start a mink farm where the mink are fed white mice that procreate without cost. It is a disaster and Jeeves must bail him out.
This was a large (maybe a foot tall) book of drawings from the WWII era that belonged to my father, a WWII veteran. I think some of it was actual cartoons with dialog but what I remember most was wordless cartoon-like sketches/line drawings. There was (I think a full page) drawing of a bunch of soldiers in a huge room full of cots, with high ceilings and tall windows The soldiers were mostly half dressed, some playing cards, some sleeping, some (I think) cooking over little stoves. The general feeling was of a room in a huge mansion in Europe taken over to house soldiers. It was an amusing image but had no words. Another wordless picture was a line of army vehicles driving along a road with lots of people on the roadside including at least one man wearing a turban and a loin cloth and (I think) nothing else squatting at the side of the road. It felt like India. I looked at this book dozens of times over 50 years ago (it was old then and falling apart), but those are the only two drawings that really remain in my memory. I think, but I’m not at all certain, that the whole book was the work of one artist. I think, but again am not at all sure, that it was a paperback.
I would so love to see this book again, to have it. It fascinated me then and has haunted me for years. I’ve tried other on-line forums with no luck.
I am trying to locate a book that was in my elementary school library in the late 1960s (1966-69). It was a book about nursing school programs with black and white photographs showing the different type of nursing school caps and pins. The book looked like it was from the 1950s.
I lived in Quito, Ecuador from 1950 through 1952, and remember reading a book about an orphan boy, possibly on crutches, who lived in colonial Quito. The illustrations were in black, white and yellow (I think!)
A children’s book I read in the early 1970’s. a boy goes inside a tree and there is a long, long dark staircase inside it. He climbs it and I don’t remember what happened next. I think the illustrations were black ink sketches. Thanks!
Wow! I just read in the NYT that there is a possibility of finding this book that I remember ! I believe I read it in the 1970’s or 80’s. As I remember it, it is a Native American story. A father does many things for his child. The child says to the father, “when I grow up I will do things for you” The father replies,” when you grow up the important thing is not that you care and do things for me, but that you care and do things for your own children .” Or something to that effect. The moral of the story being that a parents actions are to teach a child how to be a good and loving person, a parent does not teach a child how to be good using the idea of reciprocity.
“Board book” from late 60s or early 70s about teddy bear family – photographs of teddy bears doing things like eating at a table, other everyday activities. The pages had a green background and were on glossy heavy cardboard with rounded edges.
I read this book in London in 1992. It was a used paperback. The writer was a woman.
The heroine is a (rather dislikable) single, English woman of a certain age; she considers herself “on the shelf” and not a success in life. She has a small world.
Then she decides to reinvent herself and starts a diary. She writes her diary entry for the day at the start of the day and then forces whatever she wrote to happen. She writes that she meets a man and that day she forces a quiet dude into becoming her suitor, etc.
It was a recent novel: probably the 80s.