Category Archives: Nonfiction

346J: A boy learns a lesson about forgiveness from his dog

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A boy learns a lesson about forgiveness from his dog, Ladybug. (I’m pretty sure the dog’s name is Ladybug.)  And… this may be a true story.
 
This is a children’s book.
The boy and his brother go to the store with some friends and his dog.  They leave the dog out in front of the store.  The boys start reading MAD magazines and the shopkeeper asks them to buy the magazines or leave.  They leave out the back door forgetting all about the dog.  Later that night they are eating dinner and the dad asks where the dog is.  All of a sudden the brothers look at each other and realize what they have done.  They hop in the car with dad and race to the store.  There is the dog still sitting in front of the store waiting on them.  She is so happy to see them.  The boy reflects on how forgiveness works.
I would love to have a copy of this book.  I had it in my original classroom and haven’t seen it for 13 years.  The pictures resemble David Catrow’s style.

344M: Historical Women Biographies For Kids

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During the 1968-69 school year, when I was in fourth grade, I read a series of biographies on famous historical women from my school library. The ones I remember are Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, and Clara Barton, but I think there were others as well. I believe they were hardcover in the style of Nancy Drew books, but possibly a different size. I’ve found many books about these women on Ebay from that time frame, but none that “match” as parts of a series. Does anyone recognize this book series? Thank you for any assistance.

331R: Sabre Jet Pilot

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This book is autobiographical. I read it somewhere between the fall of 1973 and summer of 1976, acquiring it from my junior high school library. As I recall, the book is about a young Canadian who becomes a Sabre jet pilot and becomes stationed in West Germany during the Cold War. It covers the missions he flew, but it is also about what led him to flying and his engineering education and career. At one point during college he builds a small hovercraft using a vacuum cleaner motor. Of course, that intrigued me, a teenage boy with an interest in science and engineering. I’ve Googled and googled, but while there are lots of books about men who flew the Sabre, I can’t find this one.

331P: The Book Of Secrets

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There are many, many books out there with this particular title but the I’m looking for is very hard to find. It was written by a collection of authors such as; princes, sheikhs, masons, rulers, kings etc. between 1820 and 1920.

The subject of the book is governments; Advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses of different forms of government. Example: Democracies, communism, monarchy, democratic parliaments. It talks about different rituals, different orders like Roscicrucians, Knight Templars, etc.
Around 1500 pages
Leather bound

330N: Krakatoa Survivors Stories

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I read a paperback in my parent’s basement about the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa. This would have been in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Although factual, it was an easy read as if historical fiction. It described how the politicians delayed evacuating the island because there was an election coming up. It also talked about a guy put in jail who was one of the few survivors. It described the pyroclastic cloud and flow. There were a couple of other people who survived that is focused on, one a baby, I think. All I can find is Winchester’s book, which I have read. It’s so long ago, I can’t recall the title or author. Do you think you can help?

324X: People Do Their Night Jobs

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Seeking a 1940s or 1950s children’s picture book.  I believe the illustrations were somewhat colored and others were only line drawings of color.
The story tells about all the different jobs that people do during the night while we sleep, such as the mail trucks, milk trucks, or trains that deliver things.  Bakeries, maybe?
It was a treasured book at my great-grandmother’s house for my father when he was little, and then I read it over and over when I was little.  Sadly, it was either sold or taken by his aunt when the estate was settled.

324W: Dinosaurs Galore

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I was looking for my favorite book as a child when I stumbled across this website.  It was a hardcover (thinner) book on Dinosaurs.  The covers were gray, I believe it had a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the front cover, possibly in red writing.
Regretfully I don’t remember the exact title, just Dinosaurs, it was purchased around 1992.
Each page showed large depictions of each dinosaur in its natural habitat and some pictures were quite scary (or maybe that’s because I was a kid).
On the back cover or towards the back of the picture book it had a depiction of a Saber Tooth Tiger attacking or eating another dinosaur.

324P: A History of Sturdivant Hall

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In the mid-1970s, I enjoyed a family vacation through the Southern States. We stopped in Selma, Alabama, and toured Sturdivant Hall.  During the tour, I remembered a book displayed on a table in the entrance that I wanted, but my parents thought otherwise.

The tour guide said that it was about the history of Sturdivant Hall (or family). I believe it had a photo of one or two girls whose portrait was hanging on the wall of the front parlor. It was a creepy painting because their eyes seem to follow you as you moved about the room.

I failed to note the name of the book. I remembered it being fairly thick.  I cannot find anything close on the internet (archive.org, amazon.com, google.com) to what I remember seeing.