{"id":9145,"date":"2009-03-10T06:27:37","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T10:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9145"},"modified":"2015-06-20T08:33:52","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T12:33:52","slug":"books-i-have-found-a-book-i-still-need-to-find","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9145","title":{"rendered":"Books I Have Found, A Book I Still Need to Find"},"content":{"rendered":"

The invention of the Internet (thanks, Al Gore!) has changed my book-buying life. Once I figured out (and since I’m a Luddite it was relatively recently – my dad was way ahead of the curve on this one, as a book collector) that you could scan Amazon and other book sellers for out-of-print and hard-to-find books, through all of the used bookstores that also sell on Amazon … well. My life has become a Trixie Belden novel, tracking down the books I once loved and ordering them. I’m a collector, too. I need to OWN these things. Which is why my bookshelf situation is so dire right now, but hey, some people collect cars, others collect shoes … I collect books.<\/p>\n

There are times when I’m bored and I’ll suddenly start to think: “Okay, okay … so what else … what ELSE haven’t I found …” and I’ll scan my memory as a child. Some pretty amazing books have emerged from my mind in this manner. Suddenly I’ll remember – “Holy shit – Sarah and Katie<\/i> – I LOVED that book!” With a couple of clicks through Amazon, and I find that SOMEONE is selling it. Amazing! Five days later, I have a battered paperback in my hand of a book I once adored, and barely remember.<\/p>\n

Some of the books I have found:<\/p>\n

Into the Dream<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – William Sleator (this is a good book – PERIOD)<\/p>\n

The summer sleigh ride,<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – what is beautiful is that the copy I got here is an ex-library copy – and it is the exact same version that I remember reading as a kid. Hard cover, blue … and the illustrations … God, it just took me back. (excerpt here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

When the Sky is Like Lace<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – I wrote about my years-long search to find this book here<\/a>. I was looking for the wrong title. But I was obsessed with finding it. Gorgeous illustrations. (excerpt here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The mystery of Lonesome Manor<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – Another piece of good fortune – the copy I have is exactly the copy I remember as a kid. Hard cover, battered … This book transported me, and I basically wanted to live in it, and have long blonde braids, and 11 brothers and sisters, and snowshoe home through the French Canadian night … Marvelous mystery, great book. (excerpt here<\/a><\/p>\n

Louly<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Carol Ryrie Brink. The only book of hers that you can still stroll into an actual store and find is Caddie Woodlawn<\/i>, her most famous and beloved book. It’s good, I loved Caddie Woodlawn<\/i>, but it’s nothing compared to Louly<\/i> – the story of a group of kids in 1908, and the leader of the group is a girl named Louly … who is on the cusp of being a teenager … but not quite there yet. She wants to be an actress. I re-read this book a couple of years ago (once I finally tracked it down) and found it just as marvelous as I did when I was 11. (excerpt here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Luvvy and the Girls.<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – by Natalie Savage Carlson. Who can say why some books seem to stand the test of time – like Caddie Woodlawn<\/i> or Anne of Green Gables<\/i>, and other books are forgotten. Luvvy and the Girls<\/i> is almost completely forgotten (although I do get emails about it from time to time since I wrote about it) – and to me it feels like a classic. She’s a marvelous writer – she really puts you there, she creates characters who live, breathe, behave in unexpected ways. The story of sisters at a boarding school … It was one of my favorite books growing up, and it was one of those books that popped into my head over the last five years and I became determined to track it down. It’s not in print now. It’s completely forgotten. This does not reflect upon its merits as a book. Any young girl would be transported by this book. (excerpt here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The aforementioned Sarah and Katie.<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – which I actually haven’t re-read since I tracked it down, but I will, eventually. The story of two best friends, who have written a school play together, and suddenly there is a new girl in school, with long red hair, who has an air of glamour about her, and she gets the lead in the play co-written by Sarah and Katie – and somehow she starts to make trouble between the two long-standing friends. Sarah and Katie emerge as real girls – one more grumpy and impatient, one quiet and sweet but with real backbone … and the prospect of this friendship breaking up is terrible. I don’t remember much more of it, but I do remember the details: Sarah walks home to lunch every day from school (this amazed me as a young girl … I didn’t live close enough to home to do that) – and I remember that Katie had a long blonde braid, and I remember the culminating scene – which is the play being performed … Anyway, I’ll have to re-read it eventually. I took it out from the school library so much as a kid that the librarian probably just wanted to say to me, “Why don’t you just take it for good?”<\/p>\n

NOW.<\/p>\n

There is one book I remember from my childhood, and I cannot remember the title, the author, or anything about it. I think there were illustrations, but I can’t be sure. I believe, too, that I read other books by this same author. I can even see where it was at my local library, what shelf it was on … but I can’t remember, alphabetically, what that shelf was. I think it might have been early on in the alphabet … like F or G … but again, I can’t be sure.<\/p>\n

Maybe this will sound familiar to someone out there.<\/p>\n

It tells the story of a wacky British family who all live in the same “townhouse” in London. There’s a mother, father, some kids, and crazy relatives – all there together. When the book opens it is raining. Not such a big deal in England, but this rain just won’t stop. It rains so much that the “townhouse” – with the entire wacky British family inside – lifts up from its foundation and floats off down the street. The “townhouse” ends up in the South Pacific … and they have many adventures along the way, and I believe cannibals are involved at one point, as well as a desert island, and other craziness. I remember the book being very funny, with great characters – and the father being all proper and flustered, as his damn house floated away.<\/p>\n

I have looked and looked for this book, but without a title or an author, I’m stuck. I have Googled crazy things like “children’s book, British house, floating away …” and come up with nada.<\/p>\n

That’s the main book I’d love to find right now.<\/p>\n

Until another one comes up from out of the memory bank, and I focus on THAT.<\/p>\n

I WILL find this book. I thought I would never find When the Sky is Like Lace<\/i>, and the journey of remembering that book and finally owning that book was a years-long affair. I have patience. All of this may seem rather pathetic, but gimme a break. I only have a duck and five books, what more do you want from me.<\/p>\n

But I do wonder if any of the voracious readers out there remember such a book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The invention of the Internet (thanks, Al Gore!) has changed my book-buying life. Once I figured out (and since I’m a Luddite it was relatively recently – my dad was way ahead of the curve on this one, as a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[661,1096,668,664],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9145"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104087,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions\/104087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}