The Vine: June 13, 2008 (Bookfest)
Bookfest!Party on!Excellent!
Hi Sars,
There’s a book I read as a kid that I can’t find anywhere, nor remember the title. I was hoping your readers could help. I read it when I was about 11 or 12, which would mean 1980 or 81.
The story, as I remember it: teen girl and her family live in New York. Family goes off to (the Hamptons? the Jersey Shore?) for the summer, and the girl convinces her parents to let her stay in the city.
One detail I remember is that every night, the girl sautés onions and garlic in a skillet to make it smell like the apartment is occupied (by more than just one young woman, I guess). The girl finds a fabulous dress in a boutique, and is wearing it one day when she
accidentally blunders into a Woody Allen film shoot, and ends up being an extra in the film.
That’s all I remember. It was definitely a young adult book, not something aimed at grownups. Anyone?
Thanks!
Miranda
Dear Miranda,
I don’t know the book, but it sounds pretty awesome.Readers?
Dear Sars,
Your readers are good at finding the titles of obscure books, so here goes. I was once browsing at a B&N store and about to pay, when I saw a book on one of the tables and picked it up. It had been written either by teachers or professors and it was about all the crazy/dumb things students wrote on their history essay tests. It wasn’t very big or anything, but it was pretty funny. I didn’t buy it then, but I wish I had!
Googling hasn’t helped me so far, neither has Amazon. Maybe I’ll have better luck here.
History is NOT all about Hitler, History Channel!
Dear History,
I feel like I read that book myself — in fact, I feel like I read part of it on a Xerox my own history teacher handed out (this would have been ’89 or ’90, in that case).I think it’s the history-teacher version of the Darwin Awards and it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned into an evergreen series; I just can’t think of the name.
Readers will know it (I hope, because my dad and I wet ourselves laughing at it, and if I can find it by Sunday, all my Father’s Day problems are solved).
Dear Sars,
Now that I’m a new mom (of a 10-month-old), I’m thinking back to books I loved when I was little, so I can buy them for my daughter.My parents still have a lot of my old books, but we can’t find, or remember the title of, a quite wonderful and bizarre book.
Here’s what I remember: it’s about a boy and his mother, who live together in a big house, and at the beginning of the book the mother puts a plum pit under the boy’s bed.It grows a plum tree, and as the tree grows, it bursts through the top of the house, lifting his bed.When he goes downstairs to see what’s going on, he finds the roots of the tree drinking tea and eating jam in the kitchen.At the end, it turns out it was a dream, but he wakes up with a plum pit under his tongue.The mother is kind of kooky, and I think she yells/declares something about waking up.
Any ideas?
Annie
Dear Annie,
Sounds familiar, in a “my parents read it to Mr. S when he was little, but not to me because it hadn’t come out yet” way.Let’s put the readers on it.
Tags: Ask The Readers kids popcult
History… that book sounded like something that I had also picked up and glanced at at the bookstore. A cursory search of Amazon brought up “Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students” but the cover didn’t look familiar to me. It sounded about right, though.
The second book is called “Non Campus Mentis,” by Anders Henriksson. My mom got it for me for Christmas one year. You can get it on Amazon.
Book #2 might be “Anguished English” by Richard Lederer – it has more than just History gaffes, but the chapter on history definitely made its way around the internet and on to more than a few photocopies.
A book about silly things that kids wrote on history tests (though I am sure not the only one) is Richard Armour’s It All Started With Columbus.
@History: Sounds as if you’re looking for a history version of Richard Lederer’s books (Anguished English, Adventures of a Verbivore, Get Thee to a Punnery). I can’t recall if he ever branched out from English to History.
I’ve read Miranda’s book – I remember it distinctly! Now the quest is on to see if I can help find out its title….
Hooray! I can help! Miranda’s book is The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko by Mary Anderson.
When I was a middle-schooler, I so wanted a vintage champagne-colored satin dress.
Miranda’s book is Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wack-O by Mary Anderson. I also read it in the early 80s. Found the answer here http://loganberrybooks.com/solved-qr.html – searched this site for it as I remembered loving the book and needed to find the title, as well, once reminded of it.
I am pretty sure the first book is The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko. I read it when I was 12 or so. I seem to remember there was a sequel, too, when she was older and working as a nanny? Maybe I am conflating two books though. Teen angst is a huge part of a young girl’s reading library, as you might imagine.
Anders Henriksson was my history professor! If it turns out you were looking for Non Campus Mentis I will crack up because I really thought only people that went to Shepherd University had heard of it! (and no, none of my answers ended up in the book thank you very much!)
Ok, I have no insight into any of these books, but I had to comment because GEEZ!! Tomato Nation readers know everything!! I was reading those questions over and thinking to myself, ‘whoa, those look like some stumpers’, but apparently not so much. Sorry, just had to say something. I also feel like I’m the dumb kid in class amongst all you people. Hee!
You guys are awesome! Thanks for helping me hunt down that book. Now I’m off to try to score a copy of it … or maybe two, one for me and one for my 11-year-old niece. :-) Thank you Sars and TN readers!!!!
I read a pretty old book called Anguished English, which included not only errors from students (including such phrases as the “archduck of France” and the like), but errors in advertisements and signs. I almost wet myself laughing at it.
The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Wacko is still on the nightstand of my bedroom at my parents house (and I’m in my 30s!) Everytime I go to their house it’s my pre-bed reading. The first time I went to NY I bought grapes to eat while strolling through Central Park just because of this book… Thanks for making me smile today!
Annie, the book about the boy who had a tree growing in his house is “Toby’s Tree”. and I believe it’s no longer in print. It was one of my favourite books growing up and my mother still has the well loved copy; I will steal it from her one day. I hope you can find a copy, as it’s a magical book.
so the plot doesn’t really match, but the 3rd one sounds like it could be “Guy and the Flowering Plum Tree.”
For once I thought I would get to answer one because I’m pretty sure the second one is Anguished English, but I should have known my fellow TN readers would know that one. :)
I want to read the first one now. Maybe I’ll look for it at the library.
I actually own a copy of Non Campus Mentis! I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re looking for, if not? Well, it’ll be a good substitute.
I also got the student history exam answers as a handout in high school, like a “what not to write.” My favorite was one that ended with the words, “Life reeked with joy.”
….and googling that phrase turns up this site:
http://www.theody.net/reeked.html
It seems that Non Campus Mentis has been has been updated and given a new titled called “Ignorance is Blitz.” I’m not sure what’s different about this edition besides the title, but I am so getting this for my dad. If anyone knows anything about the two editions please let me know!
I SWEAR the plum book is called Meal One, because I had it as a kid (and, like Morag’s copy) it is at my mother’s house (that is, mine is at my mother’s and hers is at hers). It’s too late at night there, or I’d call her to find it & the publisher, etc. But the weird thing is that I can’t find it listed on abebooks or anything.
Annie, is Meal One the title you remember?
People who like Non Campus Mentis would probably also like 1066 and All That. It’s “the bits of history you remember from school” and is generally awesome, although probably funnier for Brits than Americans.
If Annie decides that the book is Toby’s Tree, she can get it here: http://tinyurl.com/3p7kwt
Good luck Annie!
Thank you! Katie, it IS Meal One, and it turns out it’s by Ivor Cutler, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and while it’s out of print, I’ve been able to find a few copies online.
The Vine is truly awesome.
I can’t believe someone else remembers that book about the girl and her vintage dress and the Woody Allen shoot (“The man sitting next to me smelled like clam sauce. Or did he look like clam sauce?”)!!!!
I wondered for years who “Laura” was (now I’ve seen the movie about a dozen times. Thanks for a great memory!