What Was That Book? My Journey to Find 2 Childhood Books, Lost in My Memory
June 22, 2012
We all have them; books that spoke to us as children. Or at least, we have ones that we read over and over again. I had two books that I read so many times you would have thought I would have had them memorized. They were located in my elementary school library, run by my school librarian Ms. Baker. You would think after reading these books so many times, there would have been no possible way for me to forget their titles. Forget them I did, for more years than I should count.
In my spare time I would try different search terms, search engines, websites; always the search was fruitless…until the day. The Day, as I like to call it, was a day like any other, but this time my search yielded results! I found one of the books from my childhood, Grandpa’s Ghost Stories by James Flora. Once I saw the cover, I knew it was the right book. I can remember sitting at the wooden table, feeling like Grandpa was telling his stories to me. With one victory under my belt, I felt confident continuing my search for book number two.
The second book was harder to find. I could only remember something about peanut butter and jelly. It took longer, but I did not give up and I eventually found it, In the Peanut Butter Colony by Louis Ross. Again, it was seeing the cover that brought back so many fond memories. Yet, when I looked at what the story was about, I was quite surprised that I had found it so interesting. I guess some of our interests from childhood stay the same, and some change.
One of our branches still had a copy of Grandpa’s Ghost Stories, so I immediately put it on hold. In the Peanut Butter Colony was a bit more rare. A good, used version of the book goes for $89.99. If you want a very good copy, it will cost you more, $999.61. I decided to try and get it through Interlibrary Loan. Sadly, I was not able to get a copy of it.
The feelings I had after finding the titles and getting to see the cover of the books, or even reread them in the case of Grandpa’s Ghost Stories, was pretty close to priceless. My quest for these two titles did turn up some very useful sites to help me on my next walk down memory lane. Check out these sites for any books your memory might have misplaced.
-Brandi B.
Weston Branch
Comments
Not only books!
This brought to mind a mystery that had been driving me nuts a couple of years ago! I remembered a show I had seen on TV years ago when I was a teen. It was late at night and it was one of those scary shows about some catastrophe that caused humans to turn to dust. That was all I could remember. Since I work at the library I did all kinds of research trying to figure out the answer. I tend to not want to give up! Eventually the library led me to IMDB (Internet Movie Database) I had to subscribe to post a question but it was free and I was so glad I did. My question was answered in just few short days. The library is an awesome place with more resources than anyone really knows. OH, the name of it? Guess what! I can't remember! Sorry :-) but at least it is off my mind now... Happy hunting for that mystery title, no matter what media it is in!
Mary S
I do have childhood memories :)
Didn't even know I was looking but after reading this blog I set out to find two titles buried in my heart. Just the image of the book covers online brought back a sweet sigh. The Brave Little Indian and The Christmas Puppy. Found both online and they are on order to share with my kids, pack away and carry on.
What Was That Book
My "lost" childhood book was Bil Baird's Whistling Wizard which evidently was based on a tv show from the 50's. Thanks for the info. It was very helpful!
In the Peanut Colony
try ILL again. The book "In the Peanut Colony" is available at 82 libraries (of those 3 are in MO and 7 in KS). Maybe it was just checked out at the time you tried to get it, but you should not have any problems obtaining a copy. Good luck!
ILL Peanut
Yes, I was hoping if I gave it a few weeks, that maybe I could get my hands on a copy. It's funny because when I look at this book now, I have no idea why I read it so many times! It is kind of bizarre with the peanut butter people and those jelly things. Maybe once I read it again, why I love it will all come back to me. I mean I didn't even eat a lot of pb&j sandwiches as a kid. Weird.
-Brandi B.
Weston Branch
Paddington Bear
OH MY!!! As soon as I read this, I remembered a pop-up book I had about Paddington Bear by Michael Bond. I loved that book and the pop-up were pretty ornate. I read that book SO much that I had to fix the pop-ups with tape. LOL! I would love to find that book and share it with my children.
Thank you.
Brandi,
Thank you for this post! For years I remembered a book from my childhood about a vampire duck who kisses his victims and the intrepid detective duck who defeats him, but I could not find a title to save my life! After reading your post this afternoon, I posted in the What Was the Name of That Book? Goodreads group you mentioned, and within ten hours someone had found the book for me! It turns out it was Stairway to Doom: a Miss Mallard Mystery by Robert Quackenbush.
I have been looking for this title for YEARS. Literally, YEARS. If you do the right Google search, you'll find a Yahoo! Questions entry by yours truly from 2006 (I stumbled across it today while looking again). I would never have found it if you hadn't pointed me in the right direction!
Now off to the catalog...
-Peyton
Vampire Ducks?
Hi Peyton,
Glad you were able to find that book. A kissing vampire duck, yep, I would think that would have been a tricky book to find.
Of course now you have me interested in the mystery and who doesn't love ducks?!
-Brandi
Beware the kisspire!
Believe it or not, it was also a cartoon! I didn't find that out until I rediscovered the book. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9HQA5gT3oc
And I stand corrected: apparently the proper term for the kissing vampire duck is a "kisspire"! Aah!
-Peyton
Brandi's Blog
What a wonderful story! You've inspired me to look for some of my childhood books. I really appreciate the fact that you included some websites and the option of interlibrary loan. I always forget about the interlibrary loan. Your writing is very good. Have you thought about becoming a writer yourself? Thank you for sharing.
DJE
what was that book
one of mine was "Mildred the Rain Cloud." MCPL still had a copy 24 years ago. Yes, it was the same cover and edition I checked out from the bookmobile near Raytown 48 years ago. I still tell the story about Mildred to kids sometimes.
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