Know comment
Posted by Lizzie on 02/02/08
One of my favorite parts of doing Fine Lines on Jezebel is a new trend with commenters: ISO’s for long-lost plotlines of out-of-print books. (I was ESPECIALLY happy that Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp came up; I had totally forgotten about that one.) Here are some of the best queries below:
I don’t know that book, but it reminds me of this other book my sister owned, that I can’t remember the title of. It was about two friends (girls) and I think babysitting was involved. One of them had lost a baby brother, I think, possibly because he drowned. The other also had a baby brother, but he suddenly died. While the friend was babysitting him. I think. Anyway, in the end the baby brother turned out not to be dead. Some lady had poisoned him with poison from the fugu fish, and he’d been declared dead and been buried, and then the woman (or a man) had dug him up and sold him to a rich couple. And the friends figured this out and were poisoned in their turn (I think) but they survived and all ended well. Oh, and one of the friends was blonde and the other Asian. (Again, I *think*)
To make a long story short, does anyone know which book I’m talking about?
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I love this feature. Since I need some help identifying three books I read as a kid, I hoping some you well-read jezzies can help: all were late 80′s, two were mysteries, there was one where the little girl is talking to the ghost of girl and is trying to ruin her life, I remember there being a lake involved… The second one was part of a series and in it the young girl is going to attend a wedding but the bride kept getting woks as gifts, and she starts a correspondence relationship with some old guy…. The last one is a mystery about a girl and she ends up working with her crippled double first cousin who goes to live with her and her brother(?) and they hook up, which I recall creeped me out cause it was like her kissing her brother (gross!). Anyway, if anyone remembers these books, thanks for the help!
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Does anyone remember a book about a girl who lives in a trailer park but tries to hide the fact that she’s poor from her rich, popular friends? she’s also abused by the father of one of her friends, i think. the only other detail i remember is that she buys a pair of guess jeans at a thrift store and she wears them all the time since they’re the only “nice” clothes she has. i read it in the early 90s.
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Does anyone remember the name of the book that is about the little girl who is at school while her father is away at war. When her father is “killed” she has to move into the attic with the other maid girl. But the rich, exotic man (with a monkey) across the alley fills her room up with food and treats? And in the end her father isn’t actually dead? I can’t remember the title of this book (which is kind of a classic), and it is killing me.
The last one, as a commenter pointed out, is, of course, A Little Princess. The monkey could throw anyone off. You can read all the posts here or the latest, Are You In The House Alone? here.
Filed under: fine lines | Tags: jezebel |
JANE-EMILY is the bomb, but even better is the Salem witch trial novella it’s bundled with in the reissue.
Comment by Sarah — 2/3/2008 @ 12:30 am
Librarians — particularly Young Adult and Children’s Librarians — get questions like this all the time!
Adult Librarians get the “I saw this book last week, over there on the shelf, I think it had a red cover…..”
Comment by ReggieH — 2/3/2008 @ 12:43 pm
Monkeys always throw me off.
Comment by Mike — 2/4/2008 @ 11:10 am
Yes, it’s A Little Princess, but her father IS dead (of brain-fever! awesome), it’s just a sad friend of her father who turns up alive and adopts at the end.
Comment by Saturnalia — 2/13/2008 @ 1:00 pm
I tried to find the commenter asking about “there was one where the little girl is talking to the ghost of girl and is trying to ruin her life, I remember there being a lake involved…” but I couldn’t find who was asking for that – anyway, I am pretty sure she is talking about WAIT TIL HELEN COMES. A very very scary book when I first read it.
Comment by Kristen — 2/26/2008 @ 7:23 pm
Yes!
The book about the trailer park girl is called Silver, by Norma Fox Mazer. I read it about ten thousand million times when I was a preteen.
Comment by Jesse — 3/16/2008 @ 8:04 pm
Fine Lines is my favourite part of Jezebel! Fantastic idea, and you do it with a very fine balance of nostalgia and wit.
That first book is on the tip of my mind — I remember the book itself with vivid clarity, probably because the author came and talked at my school — but damned if I can remember the name or title. I read everything she wrote, too.
I’m pretty sure the second series in the second comment is referring to Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik books, which I recommend you consider as possibilities for the feature if you by chance also read them. They were absolute favourites of mine when I was about ten, naturally, since they are all about the quirky and improbable adventures of a sort of geeky teenage girl.
Comment by clara — 3/28/2008 @ 6:14 pm
That’s right. The book with all the woks and the correspondence is definitely an Anastasia book, I just can’t remember which one. I ate those up when I was a kid.
Comment by Ri L. — 4/18/2008 @ 5:06 pm