Tag Archives: travel

373D: English girl travels to Europe for summer as au pair to her rich, spoiled fraternal-twin cousins

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This book came into my hands in 1972, so it’s probably from 1960s (or possibly late 1950’s). The heroine is smart and has been accepted to university, but needs to make money over the summer. She agrees to take care of her fraternal-twin cousins (one of whom is named “Gaylord” and hates the name) as the family travels to the Continent. Definitely some beautiful descriptions of Lake Como. The beautiful elder sister of the cousins is meant to be getting engaged to some solid English prospect but has actually fallen in love with an “unsuitable” yet charming Italian. Our heroine ends up meeting the suitable prospect and sparks fly. His name is Timothy and/or he’s the heir to a tin mine (might have made up one of those because it sounds like the other). The ending is that they’re both going to the same university in the fall and presumably their romance will be continued/completed then. Oh and the twins come around in the end, too. I was most fascinated by the beginning, though, which is an account of her figuring out with her mum how to sew a respectable wardrobe for the summer with very little money.

370Q: Traveling Aunt Seek and Find Book

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I have a query for you: I was delighted in a seek-and-find book as a child in the mid-1990s which, if my memory serves me correctly, followed a globe-trotting aunt. The reader was always one stop behind her, and to try to catch her was required to find objects and people in each image spread.
The book was large, slim, hard-backed, and had relatively little text. As usual for this genre, the images were visually busy illustrations in a reasonably realistic style.  I have no memory of the title nor the author, but I do remember that some of the locations included an Australian beach (with people wearing white sunblock on their noses), a wet market in Asia (lots of produce and people wearing straw hats) and an airport scene with a man tearing up his tickets. I am fairly certain there was also a scene of people at a ski lodge with lots of snow and chair lifts, but that image is less clear than the others. Each of these scenes took up a full two-page spread.
I read it between 1994 and 2000, although I do not know if it was published before that.  

367I: A Magical Trip

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As a fourth grader in 1980, I had a teacher who kept a personal library of paperback books for us children to read when we were finished with all our other work. I read dozens of books in Mrs. Cohn’s classroom.
So assume this book to be anywhere from 1950s-1970s publication, a novel but fairly short. Things I recall:
There were at least two boys on the trip to another world/realm/dimension which they may have accessed via a cave.
Somehow they were equipped with a small wooden box of sausage and cheese. Intending to conserve their rations, they only ate half of each and discovered upon reopening the box that the food had regenerated to the full, original proportion.
They also had a blanket that would cover them both but fold down to pocket handkerchief sized and a “magic” match that could be struck and used again and again and even be stuck in a crevice and (perhaps rotated?) to become bright as a torch.
In one scene they passed a gangrel/beggar/wastrel on the road and as he came toward them he morphed into a well-clad, upright gentleman with a sandwich board or a handbell and advertised some type of ware or service and upon passing, returned to his former low state.

355L: YA nautical adventure

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My uncle remembers reading a novel in about 1950-1960 (not sure when it was written) about a sailor who traveled all over the world on a large ship, having adventures. He was not the captain and was not married. He would periodically return home with a sack of exotic gifts for his nieces and nephews. My uncle does not remember much else, but the novel influenced him greatly and he always brought me gifts from his travels. I would love to find this book for his 80th birthday. Thank you for your help

244E: A family journeys home (Solved)

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I’m looking for a children’s book that was primarily illustrations, but had some text as well. I remember the title as “The Drive Home” or “The Journey Home” or something of the sort, but Google isn’t particularly helpful for those queries. The story was about a family traveling home after going some place – I don’t recall if they were visiting family or what, but they began in the countryside and gradually passed through the city as they got closer to their home.

I remember one of the scenes being them going past a wedding, and another where they passed a strawberry field. (One of the kids asks if they can pick strawberries and the parent says “Maybe another time.”) I believe they also passed a party or festival in the city at one point, and the story concludes with one of the parents saying something along the lines of “It’s been a good drive home.”

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.