The Vine: February 5, 2010
Dear Sars,
Yes, I know, it’s another “can you and/or your wonderful readers find this book” question.But, you know, there’s a little weight to it here, I think, at least for us.
You see, my husband and I named our eldest daughter Fiona. We’re indecisive, she came two weeks early, we brought to the hospital our list of names, she was born with inch-long red hair…we had to go Irish-y. So, you know, Fiona. And we love it and it suits her and I’m glad we chose it.
(Even though we almost didn’t thanks to Shrek. But, whatever.)
Here’s where it gets to the “pretty please, can you help me, Sars and Tomato Nation readers?!” I first ever came across the name Fiona in a kids’/young adults’ book when I was young, LOVED it, and now I cannot for the life of me track that book down.
Here’s the pertinent details as I can remember them…there were a brother and sister, her name was Fiona, they time-travelled, a dragon was slain, she was grossed out and kept her eyes closed a lot so she wouldn’t have to see the dragon’s beheaded head and that led to her being called “Blind Fiona” or “Fiona the blind seeress” or something like that. I think some genealogy-happy relative had read about their historical adventure but thought it couldn’t’ve been them since the girl wasn’t actually blind, but once they returned to the present all was made clear, yadda yadda yadda.
I’d love to be able to reread this book myself and to share it with my own Fiona someday, when she’s a little older, if I could just track it down. But online searching results in music sites or authors by the name of Fiona or just nothing that’s right.
Please, Sars, can you and the extremely well-read Tomato Nationeers help me out?!
Fiona’s Mum
*****
Dear Sars,
I’m looking for a book I read when I was about ten (so it probably came out around fourteen years ago, give or take). I can remember so much about it, including what the front cover looked like — a snowy landscape with a shadow that looks like a claw extending towards two small figures — but all my Google searches proved fruitless, and no one else I asked seems to have read anything close.
It was about a boy who journeys to the North Pole, or some other frigid, isolated landscape, with a girl called Henrietta who works as a “gorillagram” (she cycles around delivering messages to people while dressed as a gorilla). They are there to rescue a benevolent ice cream inventor/salesman called Mr. Kone, who is being held prisoner in a castle made of ice cream.
There are prison cells made of slug and moss-flavoured ice cream that the inmates are forced to lick for sustenance, and the villain (a rival ice cream inventor/salesman) puts people to death by imprisoning them without food or water in cells where the walls are made of arsenic-flavoured ice cream, so that when they go mad with thirst and lick the walls they are poisoned. At one point the villain forces the boy to taste a kind of Russian roulette ice cream — a Neapolitan-style blend of three identical-looking ice creams with two revolting, but safe, flavours, and one deadly one.
I would really appreciate it if you or your readers could help me find this book.
Katherine
*****
Hi Sars,
Been reading you for years, commented a few times, hoping you can help with a forgotten title.
I’m looking for the title of a book I picked up on a remainder table over 20 years ago. A woman leaves home (can’t remember if she was married or not) and winds up living in an all-white room (walls, bed frame, linens, curtains, what little furniture there was), which may have been over a bookstore. Or maybe she worked in a bookstore.
The only other thing I remember is that she had that disorder where you obsessively pluck the hairs from your body (head, pubic, arm, etc.). I remember really enjoying this book and would like to read it again (though as it was remaindered over 20 years ago it is probably out of print by now). Can you or the readers help?
Search engines have gotten me nowhere
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult Shrek
#2 is The Ice Cream Heroes by Judy Corbalis.
First of all, congratualations on a wonderful name.
I don’t recall the name of the first book, but there is a sequel. They’re written about a brother and sister named Bran and Fiona. I’ll try to find the titles and post them–they were given to me for my birthday as a little girl.
#1 might be The Wizard Children of Finn by Mary Tannen (or possibly its sequel, The Lost Legend of Finn)
Now I’ve got Lyle Lovett’s “Fiona” in a brainloop.
#1 is setting off all kinds of bells for me, but I can’t remember the title! I think the brother and sister traveled with a third person, a boy who went down in history as a legendary hero. And either the brother or the sister is a poet who writes an epic ballad about the journey. (Fiona’s Mum, tell me if any of that seems off.)
#1 is absolutely The Wizard Children of Finn by Mary Tannen. I LOVE that book!
Here’s the amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/y9mvuzq
I never knew there was a sequel!
Wow. That ice cream story is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard. Like happy ice cream… OF DEATH!! hee. Now I want to read it. That last one sounds super weird.
I don’t know any of them, but #2 sounds seriously twisted and awesome.
#1 is most certainly The Wizard Children of Finn. I LOVED that book when I was a kid – I didn’t know she wrote a sequel! Now I’m going to have to go look that up…
If it helps ring some bells, Fiona’s Mum – Bran carried a flashlight when they were back in time, which led to him being referred to in the histories as a wizard who bore a ball of light in his hand. There was a hooded spear, and Finn had to unhood it and keep his face near it on Samhain Eve, because the spear smelled so bad that it would keep him awake so he could kill the monster.
Strange, the things that stick in our brains, isn’t it?
I read The Lost Legend of Finn going on 25 years ago — I think it was the first book I ever bought with my own money. It was an awesome story (at the time, anyway), and I think of it whenever I come across references to Finn. I was always disappointed that I couldn’t read the prequel, as I lost it long before Amazon existed. Guess now I can :)
Fiona’s Mum: You should definitely get her both books :)
http://tinyurl.com/lostfinn
I can’t be sure — I don’t see anything about an all-white room — but could book #3 be “Symmetry” by Joyce Scarborough? Here’s a link: http://www.hairfinder.com/books/hairpulling.htm
I hope this helps, and I *love* how the Tomato Nationeers come together to help each other find lost books!!
hey, is #3 The White Hotel?
I know I read TWH ages ago — I think it’s still (somewhere) at home on the shelves — the cover stuck with me, it’s a woman sitting in a chair (rocker?) in an all white room and I recall the crazy behavior and a therapist and. . .
I’m not helping, am I?
Wow, I think I might have to get the Wizard Children of Finn for my stepson, but read them first myself. I love the Tomato Nation.
I named my son Stuart–never occurred to me that the pediatric nurse would call him “STUART LITTLE!” every time we went to the doctor’s office. No, our name isn’t “Little.” :-)
Boy… I always thought I was a well-read, bookish kid, but none of the books people are trying to find EVER sound familiar to me. Interesting, and sometimes crazy, but never familiar. Maybe I was reading from the wrong section!
@jrosehale – well I see your Stuart and raise with my Charlotte. Whatever – E.B. White is the best. I am rereading SL right now and it is so freaking awesome.
jrosehale: My friends named their daughter Sabrina. We’re now compromising by calling her Sabrina the Toddler Witch whenever she throws a wobbly. This will be adjusted with age.
@Fiona’s Mum: Whatever you do, do NOT watch “Eurotrip”.
Sorry. But someone needed to say it. Actually, nobody really needs to watch that.
Can’t help with the book, but if you’re looking for Fionas I highly recommend renting The Secret of Roan Inish. Beautiful movie!
Tulip, if “Happy ice cream… OF DEATH!! does not end up on a Tomato Nation t-shirt, can I please, please, PLEASE use it for the name of my next band??
I totally have to read that book now.
I think Georgia is right–I’ve not read it, but I just put it on hold at the library because it sounds way too messed up and awesome to not read. The library description reads: “Delivering an ice pick to his mountaineering mother in the Himalayas, Oskar and his friend Henrietta meet a tribe of abominable snowmen and find themselves captives in a palace made of ice cream.”
I will report back as soon as I have it!
@Cyntada Yours! Unless I want to form that band and then we should just team up! ;) Also? I would pay for that shirt! Glark are you listening? Cute little ice cream cone, sinister little fangs? I can see it clearly.
@tulip – me too! Want! :D
Oh, thank you all so very, very much! It MUST have been The Wizard Children of Finn! I followed Lianne’s link & the picture of the cover just leapt off the screen at me.
I’ve now ordered both The Wizard Children AND The Lost Legend (which I’ve never read! Exciting!) and look forward to their arrival with bated breath.
(Atkins – love & own The Secret of Roan Inish! And Jaybird, um, ok. Haven’t watched Eurotrip & won’t now! Thanks for the warning.)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tomato Nationeers and Sars!!!
Just chiming in for the Happy Ice Cream . . . of DEATH shirt love. Would buy several.
Also, read the Finn books as a kid and loved them. And now I am inspired to send them to my nephews, who are always looking for something new to read.
If y’all can’t manage to get a Happy Ice Cream of DEATH shirt, would a Bad Cupcake Shopping Bag do?
http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Bad-Cupcake-Shopping-Bag.html