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Help me find one of my favorite childhood books

GrooveStix — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:59:17 -0800

What-Was-That-Book filter: I've decided to reread some of my childhood books, so help me find one that I can't remember its title. I remember the beginning of the book because it was an some sort of an annoying introduction by the author where he rambled about how he wanted to write a "winter story" for some time, but just as he decided to do so it was summertime. So he decided to travel to some town surrounded by snowy mountains peaks, so he can look at the snow and think about snowfights. :)

The story itself was sort of a, coming-of-age type of a story where the lead character traveled and lived in another city to go to (I think) high school. Of course the story takes place during a winter semester, and here are some of the bits and pieces that I can remember..

- There was this old man who lived near the school in a train wagon, who was a loner but very knowledgeable.
- There was this huge snow fight by 2 different schools (or something) that ended up with a "kidnapping" of one of the kids. The lead character, and others then had to rescue this kid from some basement or something.
- Something happened to the lead character's parents, and they wrote him to not cry, under any circumstances. This led him to have nightmares, and just behave weirdly around everyone.
- I believe actually that they weren't able to send him money, because they both lost their jobs. So the lead character wasn't able to visit them during the Christmas vacation, but I could be wrong. Finally one of his teachers (or principal) discovered the problem helped him out by giving him some money as a Christmas present.

I have a suspicion that the author of this book is Dutch or possibly from that part of the world, but I can't tell for sure. Does anyone knows this book?

Papercraft is too popular a title word nowdays

razdrez — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:56:55 -0800

Can someone help me remember this book? It was a book about making all sorts of things from paper, mainly models, and I remember the start of the book talking about how to make forest fairies and flora (actually fungi). I borrowed this book constantly as a kid from my elementary school library (yes, "Make and Do" was my favorite childcraft volume too), but right now, that library is a quarter of the earth away.

I remember it being about letter-paper sized, and fairly thick, maybe about an inch thick. It was paperback, and the color of the cover was a tan or peach color?

Something that sticks in my head is they told you how to make glue pots out of paper...and I think they were supposed to be like tree stumps too, sticking with the forest fairy theme in the beginning of the book.

Last thing--this book is most likely over 25 years old.

Dunno if that's enough to find it...but that's all I got. Thanks in advance!

"That was a gen-u-ine dirt machine, not an airplane!"

kuperman — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:26:07 -0800

What was it ...? Forgotten movie from the 80's - a young teenager is separated from his father on a camping trip in the Pacific Northwest. If memory serves correct, he was kidnapped and held captive by some pretty backwoods kind of guys. He then learns survival and more.... inside .... I remember vague details such as a bit of dialogue from when the boy tried to escape and subsequently ejects a dirt bike off a cliff ("You wrecked my cycle! That was a gen-u-ine dirt machine, not an aeroplane!!"). If memory serves correctly, the boy manages to escape, has to fend for himself in the woods, runs across some random guy who does something with microfilm ... and it goes hazy from there.

I know this movie used to play pretty regularly in the 80s on HBO, but I sure as hell can't remember the name. Got any ideas?

Bats ... they were like bats

5MeoCMP — Sun, 15 May 2005 23:22:59 -0800

Trying to remember the name(s) of a series of books I read, ooh, 10-15 years ago (ouch). Scifi/fantasy genre, female author. Susan something? Anyhoo, there were these big fortresses, and it was completely dark inside and all the people hid inside them while the big flappy things ruled the land outside. Your typical three-volume fallen from grace to rise again with the strength of our courage and sweat of our brows kind of thing, but (with a precious few moments) set entirely in these dark fortresses. Honestly, I've Googled, I've asked my brother and sister (they read these books too), I even asked my Mum, and she should remember since it was one of those books that got blue shampoo spilled on it when we went on one of those interminable family holidays during which I learned to play ping-pong really well.

Ahem. I seem to be a little off track here.

However, if anyone can tickle my memory, I'd be most grateful. It's been driving me crazy that I can remember almost all the books I read except for these (and maybe there's a good reason for that, but I'd like to know).

Question number 7147

cedar — Mon, 10 May 2004 23:10:09 -0800

It seems my memory isn't what it used to be. I need help remembering a short story title and a movie... [more inside, of course]