Sunday, October 15, 2006

Name That Book

I love book stumpers. It's fun in the library, and it's fun in the web, whether it's a stumper on a listserv such as child-lit or yalsa-bk or What Was That Book on Live Journal or checking out the Loganberry site.

Usually, the book is a children's book or a teen book. I'm also amazed at how many times the description is for The Girl Who Owned A City, The City Underground, or From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler.

I've had some stumpers that I've solved from work; reading old reviews and "best of" lists from the 1980s and 1970s. There is a joy in finding that old love.

Here's my current Unsolved Book Mystery; does it sound familiar to anyone? I cannot remember when I read it; so assume it was published no later than 1988. Also assume, as is the nature of memory, that I've remembered some details very, very wrong.

Some type of summer camp in the mountains, and I think the camp was located somewhere in or near India. One of the campers was very peace, love, & brotherhood ish and while he wasn't some active preacher-type, the other campers started to follow him (very Jesus like). The parents were worried about their children so forcibly invaded the camp; the narrator, who was Judas-like (main character's best friend and possibly person who told the parents the location of all the kids), ends the story of wanting to get back with the group and sometimes walks along the street, looks at someone, and knows from the look in their eye they are part of this movement.

Anyone?

If you have an unsolved book mystery, let us know & we'll see if we can figure it out.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. That description rings no bells for me.

Here's one: I doubt it was published later than '85, though my suspicion is that it is from the 60's or 70's. Setting: an old farm(?). I know there was a fantasy element that involved a snowglobe and maybe timetravel.

That's it. Pathetically, that's all I remember -- I loaned it to someone when I was in elemntary school and never got it back. That rat.

Anonymous said...

Goodbye Pink Pig has something like that, doesn't it, Leila? The little girl has all sorts of crystal animals, and she falls into their world or something. I don't know if there was a snowglobe, but there were other "collectibles" with a kind of magic.

The summer camp book sounds like aWillo Davis Roberts or Lois Duncan title... Maybe "the girl with silver eyes?" It's not a camp, but a school for children with special talents.

Anonymous said...

I've got one: My three daughters loved this picture/toddler book..about a little girl trying on every one elses shoes and asking at each try-on "Are these my shoes?"
I think we wore it out.... Now my 3year old granddaughter is at the right age and temperment to 'read' this for herself. But of course I can't find it.
We were reading this in the early to mid 80's.

alvinaling said...

The summer camp book isn't THE GIRL WITH THE SILVER EYES. As for what it IS, I have no idea.

But here's one: When I was maybe 10 or so (so published in the early 80s, probably), I read this middle grade novel (I think) about a girl who's father was a veterinarian. She had wanted to be a veterinarian as well when she was little until one day her own dog got sick, and her father asked her to help him treat her, and the girl realizes that she wasn't able to give her dog a shot, and therefore realizes that she can't be a veterinarian.

I had wanted to be a veterinarian myself, and this book made me realize that I couldn't be one. It changed my life!

Anonymous said...

Here's my stumper, which I posted at Loganberry a while back, to no avail. (I'm not complaining, since they've found several books for me!)

I only remember a few things from this book, which I read in the late '70s or early '80s. There is a girl named Caro and her younger brother. I think the brother is named Theo and is in a wheelchair, but I'm not positive. At one point, there's a young man who's interested in Caro, and I think he and Caro and the brother are in a rose garden together. The young man mentions that he's 28, and the brother says, "Caro's twenty-eight." And Caro may have said something about how it wasn't polite to tell a lady's age. For some reason, this little snippet of the story has stuck with me. Any help would be appreciated!