What kids' book has someone collecting spit in a bottle?

October 1, 2006 8:47 PM

What children's book had one of the main characters, a boy, collect his spit in a bottle? It seems to me that at some point he tripped on the stairs and broke the bottle. I remember being utterly grossed out by this. I seem to recall it being a sort of a dramatic book, rather than light. As a side note, there may have been a bully in the book who was obsessed with airplanes, and possibly a brother and a sister who were obsessed with kingfishers, although it's entirely possible I'm describing three separate books.
posted by Addlepated to media & arts (4 comments total)

National Velvet?
posted by iconomy at 10:18 PM on October 1, 2006

Hmmm, that might be it! It would definitely fit my reading list as a kid. I wonder if it's the one with the airplanes, too. Thanks, Iconomy.
posted by Addlepated at 11:55 PM on October 1, 2006

No real airplane action in NV, except for a bit where one of the Brown sisters sees an airplane towing a banner that's advertising a kind of candy, and subsequently buys the candy. No bullies at all in this book. One sister is obsessed with horses and another sister is obsessed with canaries.

Tangent: Did anyone else think that Velvet's bedtime ritual of "driving" her feet like horses was creepily sexual in an otherwise fairly innocent book?
posted by scratch at 7:00 AM on October 2, 2006

Whatever the airplane obsessor book was, I think it was probably written around the same time, when planes were relatively rare and new. It seems to me that it was a rural setting, and the bully was poor, so I'm wondering if it's part of Where the Red Fern Grows, maybe.

As for the kingfisher book (and I'm not even sure that's the right kind of bird, much less anything else), I had thought maybe it was a brother and a sister who had always wanted to see that kind of bird and finally did. Wish I could remember more about that. It's funny how scenes from kid books stick with you, isn't it?
posted by Addlepated at 9:37 AM on October 2, 2006