“Closed are the story books on the shelf
Good night little ones, goodnight”
“Closed are the story books on the shelf
Good night little ones, goodnight”
I don’t know the title of the book.
I believe it was published in the 1940s or 1950s, but I’m not certain of this.
The overall plot is a sailing voyage from the East Coast (Boston, I think) around the tip of South America to San Francisco.
It is definitely NOT the Richard Henry Dana book Two Years Before the Mast.
The main character is a young boy in his teens going to sea (as an apprentice deckhand or cabin boy or some such) for the first time on one of the new, fast clipper ships and he’s got to learn all about shipboard life and work, furling and unfurling sails, coiling ropes, tying knots, etc. He somehow makes an enemy of an older seaman who confronts him at the climax of the story, while a shipboard fire is raging, with the intent to kill him. The boy somehow escapes, but his injuries are extensive enough that he is unable to complete the voyage.
That’s about all I can tell you. I remember it being a ripping good yarn. I hope this description is enough.
Sometime in 1960-62 I took an English History course in college. We were assigned reading for extra credit. I read a book about the Battle of Trafalgar, which I remember as riveting. I specifically remember a fulsome description of life aboard the battleship, including descriptions of how food was prepared, how surgery was performed during the battle, and other daily concerns of the sailors. I do not think this was a biography of Lord Nelson, rather a blow by blow of the lead-up to the Battle and the Battle itself. Clearly it had to have been written prior to 1960. I would really like to find this book.
Looking for a beautiful line-drawn picture book from earlier than 1975, about a witch and her daughter who live beyond the seven valleys and the seven seas. The daughter witch is selfish, and does not come home to her mother on time. Her mother sends her away until she can do a selfless favor for someone, while disguised as a regular girl. She is dropped off outside a village. Eventually, she finds a little boy who is also being punished, and helps him peel mounds and mounds of potatoes. She falls asleep doing this, and her mother comes to collect her. Ends with a line something like, "but she could never stand the sight of another potato."
I am searching for a children’s book probably published in the late 30’s or early 40’s.
Read this book when I was around 8, which puts it at 1960. I am sure it was not new at that time.
Written by someone like Thurber or Ogden Nash, it was a collection of children’s short stories. The only one that I can remember clearly was about a little girl who couldn’t read. At the end, when she is being chased by a bull, she comes to the conclusion that reading (words?) are dangerous. The sign she couldn’t read said something like, ‘beware of bull.’
Hoping you can help me.
Searching for a Children’s book from about late 40s early 50s. A pen and ink drawing shows a child (girl I think) sitting in front of a cabin in the mountains (Alps?) holding a black cat. I believe the dust cover was white with black lettering.
Thank you.