The Vine: September 7, 2012
Folks, believe it or nicht, I’ve begun to run low on Ask The Readers letters. The TN readership (Native American name “Red Cloudsource”) doesn’t just find books and movies, you know; we outfit hard-to-shop-for boyfriends for Hanukkah, track down shoe substitutes, give manicure-lifespan advice, even rec medical specialists.
So: Need to know if you could fix a Kork-Ease sandal yourself with Gorilla Glue? (I’m asking for a friend.) Looking for cheap Marvy Le Pens in bulk? (Same friend.) (Seriously: love.) Ask us! Letters go to bunting at tomatonation dot com.
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Please help. I read a LOT as a 9-12 year old, and although I remember really enjoying these two stories, I don’t know if they were novels, short stories, somehow connected to each other, etc., etc., etc.
The first involves a kid (approx. 10?) who finds a magical ring at a relative’s house (his/her aunt?). The ring allows him/her to breathe under water. There’s more to the story, but that’s the only snippet I can remember.
The second involves a kid who finds the original Merlin in the woods behind his house. The kid hides Merlin in his house, and Merlin likes to eat peanut-butter sandwiches.
Seriously, that’s all I can remember. You have a lot of smart readers, and I hope one of them can help me!
Thank you!
Eileen
Tags: Ask The Readers footwear rescue popcult
The description of the first book makes me think of C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew (basically the origin story for the Narnia books).
Re. the ring and breathing underwater: it’s certainly very reminiscient of The Magician’s Nephew, but the premise is a little garbled if that’s the one.
What I have is a very long shot, and not an answer, but I once posted a request here looking for a book with a slightly similar premise, involving a child of around 10 (a girl) becoming able to breathe underwater and having a series of Phantom-Tollbooth-esque adventures under the ocean. Nobody recognized it. I read this probably around 1980 and it wasn’t a new book.
I don’t remember what gave her the ability to breathe underwater, and that’s probably a pretty common general premise, so chances are we’re not looking for the same book (and even if we are I don’t know what it is). But just in case, here are a couple of details from mine to see if they jog your memory:
– a pirate of some sort named Captain Teach (which I think was Bluebeard’s real name in real life?)
– a trio of monkeys named Seeno, Hearno, and Speakno (the Evil brothers)
All I remember besides that are a couple of bits of wordplay (she sees a color she’s never seen before and calls it “twirl”). There is, of course, a quest.
Any chance at all we’re looking for the same thing?
Yup, The Magician’s Nephew was my first thought too.
Is it Diving for El Corazon? The description from Amazon seems to fit.
@Eileen, I agree with Georgia – check out a synopsis of The Magician’s Nephew. The “breathing under water” is how the child gets to a sort of portal planet/plane, from which one can get to other worlds. It’s not exactly a big part of the story (the breathing under water part) but from that little tidbit you remember it could definitely fit.
Sounds like Edward Eager’s Magic by the Lake to me. Four siblings spend the summer at the family lake house and are granted several wishes. One wish involves a mermaid taking them all under the lake, where they can see and breathe. Good stuff!
I’ve only read one of this author’s:
https://tomatonation.com/vine/the-vine-september-7-2012/
books myself, and it’s not the one, but he does write a lot about Merlin and some of his work is young adult. Perhaps something of his?
Woops, wrong link. Stupid copy feature.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=T.%20A.%20Barron&ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank
I have a couple books I’ve been looking for, so I’ll drop a line tonight! I’d do it here but that would kind of negate the whole deal.
I’m here for the Friend’s questions. I don’t know what you would call bulk, but Jetpens is great, and they do have both 10-packs and 4-packs of LePens:
http://www.jetpens.com/Marvy-4300-LePen-Porous-Point-Marker-Pens/ct/1218
As for the shoes: maybe try Shoe Goo? It’s glue specifically for shoes…
The second one sounds like a Ruth Chew book, but I can’t recall the title….
For some reason, the second book reminds me of The Hidden Cave(aka The Magic Cave), by Ruth Chew.
@katie: Ahhh they have the dark blue one yay!
Could the first book be “The Enchanted Castle” by E. Nesbit- it involves a magic ring (found in a castle/museum in which one of the characters lives with her aunt), which allows children to have various adventures, including swimming as a statue, although I can’t remember if it was underwater or not.
Yes! The second book sounds like Ruth Chew’s “The Hidden Cave” aka “The Magic Cave”.
http://www.ruthchew.com/about-the-books/The-Hidden-Cave.htm
I LOVED that book as a kid.