The Vine: April 8, 2011
I’m looking for the title of a young-adult book. It takes place in Copenhagen, either during or right after WWII. A girl and her mother have fallen on hard times, and need to rent out a room in their apartment, which the girl is not happy about. The father is out of the picture…I don’t remember why.
At one point, the girl steals a small elephant statue from a shop, and she and her mother also visit Tivoli Gardens, but can’t afford to go on the rides or buy anything there. They buy oranges for Christmas, which are sour, which the girl thinks is fitting for oranges bought with rent money. That’s all I remember.
Thanks in advance to you and the Nation!
Susan
*****
Dear Sars,
I am looking for my beloved childhood bedtime story book. I don’t remember the name, but I am afraid it’s something generic like “Children’s Bedtime Stories.” It was probably published between 1973-78. The unusual aspect of the book was the table on contents, which was a page of thumbnail pictures from each of the stories with the page number next to them, the idea being that even a child too young to read could use it to find their favorite stories.
I think the book had more than 20 stories but the only ones that I remember specifically are:
1. A panda is captured by hunters and escapes by chewing a hole in the net while pretending to be chewing on bamboo.
2. A girl passes by a department store window every day and admires a raincoat, hat and galoshes in the window. One day there is a fire in the store, she calls the fire department and as a reward for saving the store, is given the rain outfit from the window.
3. A story involving a giant spider being stopped by a woman throwing cans from her shopping bag at it.
4. A story about a family of tree sloths.
I’ve tried Googling various combinations of words with no luck. I really would like to track this book down, so if anyone has any guesses, I would appreciate it.
Thank you,
Andrea
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
I really hope someone can find Andrea’s book, because I remember that one too! All of the stories were about two pages long, with brightly colored illustrations. Some of the other stories were: an ugly girl frees a huge, beautiful bird, and then somehow accidentally gets turned into a bird herself; a beagle insisting on taking high tea at a snooty restaurant; an eccentric inventor makes an elaborate bicycle built for two for himself and his neighbor. Wonderful book, and you’re right, the title was something generic like “Stories For Children”.
This may or not be it, http://www.amazon.com/Number-Stars-Lois-Lowry/dp/0440227534/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302287906&sr=1-1 Number the Stars. An excellent book.
Number the Stars is probably everybody of a certain age’s first Danish book, but the plot doesn’t match Susan’s description (apart from the WW2 resistance story, the father plays a major role.)
Could the second one be “I Can Choose My Bedtime Story”? I found it at <a href="Loganberry, here.
Scroll down about 2/3 of the page. The titles of some of the stories seem to match up to the story descriptions here (e.g. “The Clever Panda”, “Scratchy Spider and the Eight Cream Buns”, “The Little Girl Who Loved New Clothes”, “Septimus Sebastian Fry’s Tricycle”, “The Tea-Spaniel”, “The Enchanted Bird of Beauty”).
Margie: That and the descriptions at the Amazon listing:
http://www.amazon.com/Can-Choose-My-Bedtime-Story/dp/0448028204
make it sound bang-on. Nice to see it for a reasonable price.
One of these days I will actually recognize one of these books. But instead of saying, “A-ha! I know what that is, I read it back in [insert year here]!” I am always left thinking, “Ooooh, I want to read that now, too!”
The first book is definitely NOT “Number the Stars.” I practically memorized that one as a kid. But if you haven’t read that one, you should. It’s fantastic. :)
@ Margie and c8h10n4o2: YAY! I don’t know if that’s Andrea’s book, but “I Can Choose My Bedtime Story” is the one *I* was thinking of.
Man, I hardly remember any of those titles. But “Vanessa the Vain Mermaid” certainly brings back memories.
Thank you so much everyone– it *is* “I Can Choose My Bedtime Story”– I can see the panda and raincoat girl on the cover! I’m going to buy it for my 2-year-old niece. I can’t wait to read it to her– thank you Tomato Nation-ers!
Thanks to everyone! I found the answer over at “Stump the Bookseller” at Loganberry books. It was “Lillan” by Gunilla Norris, written in 1968, published in the US by Scholastic in the 1970s, now out of print. I wasn’t the only person who remembered the elephant and the oranges, but apparently the book takes place in Stockholm, and I could have sworn they went to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.