Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with childrensbook

Looking for childhood book

starfyr — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:24:47 -0800

Help my find a book about a "haunted" dollhouse from my childhood! When I was in grade school (late 80's/early90's) I read a book about a girl who moves into an old Civil War era house, and finds a dollhouse replica of her new home in the attic. She notices that she can watch scenes from the past through the dollhouse, which was built as a gift by a slave hidden in the house as part of the underground railroad. She eventually sees the death of a girl and she tries to save her. She lives there alone with her mother, who starts to have a bit of a personality change from living in the house. I don't know how I can remember so much about the story and forget the title! I've searched everywhere, and asked my Aunt who is a K-6 librarian and she had never come across it!

PS: It is definitely NOT "The Haunted Dollhouse" by Susan Black, or "Sweet Miss Honeywells Revenge: A Ghost Story" ...

PPS: This is unrelated to the similar post from February.

A children's book about the Cloisters?

umbú — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:40:19 -0800

[children's book filter]: Help me (Ms. Umbú) remember the title of a children's book that features the cloisters in NYC! I have a strong but vague recollection of reading a book when I was a kid in which the characters go to the Cloisters museum in NYC. It sounded so cool, that, years later, when I finally when to New York for the first time, I made it a priority to go to the Cloisters. But, of course, I no longer have any idea what the book was! At first I thought it was "From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" or "Remember me to Harold Square," so I just re-read those, and it's not them! I'm not having any luck googling or searching Amazon. So, does anyone out there know of a children's book (not a picture-book, but more like juvenile or YA fiction) where the characters go to the cloisters and there's a nice vivid description of them that would inspire you to want to visit yourself???

They kept it in the bath, but didn't make a movie about it

subbes — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:59:18 -0800

Help me identify this UK children's book about a sea monster kept in a house! It's not The Water Horse! Vague nostalgia-filter:

An ad for The Water Horse (the movie) reminded me of a similar book. I cannot remember the title, but I owned this book and never owned The Water Horse.

Brief plot line:
- Children buy an ornament/memento from Angelsey (while on a school trip?) with a stone as a base. Maybe some other seaside resort? I have it in my head as Anglesey.
- The stone turns out to be an egg, which hatches into a sea monster.
- Part of the plot includes the monster moving to the local canal because it was too big for the house.

Salient points:
- The book would have been bought in the 1990s, in the UK (probably through one of those pamphlets that school kids were given with an order form for books that would then be delivered to them c/o the school).
- The title may have been "A gift from Angelsey" (A Google and an Amazon.co.uk search revealed nothing with any similar title).

My partner suggested I imagined the whole thing. Help me prove him wrong!
Once again: I am very sure that this is not "The Water Horse" by Dick-King Smith.

Cat in a manger? Stable?

summit — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 07:53:37 -0800

Help me find this Christmas book from my mother's youth-- the Christmas story from a cat's perspective. What she remembers about the book:

It was probably published in the early sixties, maybe 1963. The name of the book is a woman's name, something like Abigail and most likely a name beginning with A. There is a subtitle that reads something like "A Cat in a Manger," or "The Cat in the Stable." The author is a man-- someone who was well known in New York at the time (composer? director? designer?) and the illustrations are quite beautiful. The original cover was whitish with a cat on it.

The story goes that the cat lives in a stable. Kittens may or may not be involved. The cat breaks her foot. Joseph and Mary arrive at the stable and baby Jesus is born. During the night, the baby is cold. The cat struggles over despite its broken foot and stretches out over the baby to keep him warm. In the morning, the cat's paw is heeled.

We found "Cat in the Manger" by Michael Foreman on Amazon, but that doesn't seem to be it. Then again we couldn't find a very descriptive synopsis.

And a sesame seed bun?

green herring — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:28:50 -0800

Lost childhood book filter: My brother remembers a book we had with a bunny or rabbit that wouldn't eat his veggies with his family. He only wanted a hamburger on a sesame seed bun. Google and Mother have failed our quest for answers. Please help!

Help me find a childrens book

Glow Bucket — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:56:53 -0800

Please help me find the title of a hazy remembered childrens book with animals and a helicopter. I remember finding this in our local public library in the early eighties and I am pretty sure it was originally an English book. It was about (anthropomorphized) animals. This might have been a series of two books.

The paintings were very detailed and sometimes spread across two pages beneath the text.

The thing I remember most vividly about this book was one picture with a cut-up view of a helicopter (something like a Sikorsky S-55 or a Sikorsky S-58t)

The format of the book was landscape, i.e. the pages were wider than high.

Trying to find the name of an Easter Bunny themed kid's book.

tomble — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 06:07:29 -0800

I'm hunting down an Easter themed children's book for a friend... My friend was telling me tonight of her search for a book she loved as a child. The theme was a family of rabbits, where the multitudes of young rabbits were all twins, and would be assigned various household tasks by their mother. They would all happily work together to achieve their goals, but one rabbit was not a twin, and had no brother or sister to work with.

This rabbit finally becomes the Easter bunny (hooray).

Anyway, my friend was not so much taken by the story as much as in love with the illustrations. If anyone can name this book and possibly even point to somewhere I can find a copy, I would be very grateful!

Recalling the horrors of my youth.

dorothy humbird — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:19:45 -0800

Help Me Remember This Book! version 100457: I have a visual memory of a picture book that I came across in elementary school (mid 90s) which featured a distinct sketchy, inked, scribbly style of illustration to accompany some really gruesome, horrifying stories. The most I can remember is that one of the illustrations depicted a person's skin (as in, removed from their body and walking around independently) on a rooftop, and I think there was a giant tornado involved as well. The illustrations often had huge clouds of scribbly style ink, and I remember being singularly creeped the hell out.

I think the book was part of a series of ghost stories, or books intended to be hair-raisingly scary, and I'm pretty sure I'd still be unsettled if I came across them today.

Anyone?

What is the name of this children's book?

mrnutty — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:59:29 -0800

I'm trying to remember the name of a children's book I read when I was younger. I think it was about a guy who had his own names for everything (including fire), then one day his house caught fire and his daughter (or servant?) couldn't tell him, because she couldn't remember the word. I think his word for fire was "hot cockeloren" or similar. I also suspect it was an English book (ie- from the UK).

I can't remember if, in the end, the man learned a valuable lesson about not picking his own names for things, or if he simply burned to death.

What book is this? English kids discover fairies in the wood...

ScarletPumpernickel — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:44:36 -0800

Childhood Book: Please help me figure out what book this is from decades ago. An English boy (and maybe a girl) discover a hidden fairy society living in woods near relative's house on holiday. They befriend a fairy and get involved in the internal fairy struggles. Long train ride featured. Book may be older, from 1950s? It's possible that the train ride is the Evacuation of London, but this is not a Narnia book. The fairy society is not a magical land like Oz, but rather a colony on or near the relative's property. The fairies are wee folk, and become close to the kids. The book portrays the world as contemporary, but it takes place sometime around the 1930s-1950s, maybe WWII. So period costume, tech, language, trains, etc.

The book is a novel, not a picture book.

(This one has been driving me buggy for years, so thanks in advance for your help!)

What is the name of this book?

lilybeane — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:19:09 -0800

Help me figure out the name of this book! When I was in fifth grade, our teacher read us a book -- or a trilogy, perhaps -- that was sort of sci-fi. My memories of it are fragmented (and maybe incorrect), but I think it had some human characters, maybe a couple of kids, who were in a world with nonhuman characters. I remember something about tripods and something like a chip being implanted in people’s necks. There were maybe some strange creatures that were big, round blobs and had weird facial features, like a mouth in an unusual place or maybe no mouth at all. There were also pools of some kind of liquid, and I think the liquid was harmful. The main characters were on some kind of mission, but I couldn't tell you what.

If anybody recognizes the story from this horrible, spotty description, I will be very impressed (and grateful).

An Apple a day

kidsleepy — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:55:56 -0800

Children's Story Filter: Help me find a story about the Apple family. The story is about a family with the last name Apple. The father names all the children after types of apples, so there is son Macintosh Apple, daughter Snow Apple, son Braeburn Apple, etc. The mother has a new baby, a girl, and wants to name her a conventional name. The parents compromise and name her Ann (An Apple). This may have been in a Golden Books short story anthology from around 1990.

Does anyone know the story and the author?

Can you name these Christmas books?

srah — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:05:16 -0800

I'm trying to find the titles of a couple of books I read as a child, and both happen to be set around Christmas. Book #1: There are a brother and sister (possibly twins?) who are Jewish, and there's some controversy because one of them wants to sing Christmas carols in the school choir. I don't think that's the main plot of the book, but that's the part I remember.

Book #2: There's a mute boy (named Jamie?) whose family is pretty poor. One Christmas, a couple comes to their house and they have no room in the house so the couple stays in the stable or something. The part I remember is that the kid got an orange for Christmas and was very excited about it, but he ended up giving it to the couple.

Hopefully these will ring some bells!

The Long Lost Anasazi Book

sellout — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:59:23 -0800

Looking for a children's book. I'm trying to find a children's book my family used to own about fifteen years ago, which has now become lost after several moves.

I don't remember much about it, except:

- the main character was an Anasazi child living in a pueblo
- it was vividly and uniquely illustrated, extremely colorful, and I think the page backgrounds were often red

I don't even remember the plot. I think he had to perform some difficult tasks to save his people or become an adult, or something along those lines.

All I really remember is that I thought it was a great book.

Anyone know the name of this one?

Question number 13860

subgenius — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 21:59:38 -0800

Do you remember a children's book that involved a couple of kids who wrote and produced a play (that eventually included Neil Diamond and the Vice-President of the USA) to surreptitiously raise the money they needed to build a hang-glider? What was it?! [+]