Showing posts with label Elizabeth Enright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Enright. Show all posts

Thursday, October 19, 2017

From the archives: What books freaked you out?

First posted April 2013

Little kids read a monster book and then hide under the bed, right?

Well, sometimes the monsters follow you the rest of your life...or you acquire new ones as an adult. What irrational (or quite rational) worries have you acquired as a result of reading?  Have any of them ever kept you from making mistakes?

Tiny Little Medical Problems:  I've been paranoid of splinters ever since reading On Tide Mill Lane.  Wouldn't you be?  

Bad salmon:  Flight into Danger, required reading in grade five or six.
Bad whipped cream:  A Cap for Mary Ellis.

Leaving things too close to light bulbs:  The Saturdays.


Creepy old houses, not to mention reading under the covers:  The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring.  You wouldn't believe how badly that book scared me one night...it cured me of after-hours reading for some time. 

Running with scissors:  The title, I can't remember; but it was a Parents' Magazine Press book from about 1970, about safety rules.  A bit like Struwwelpeter although not so extreme.  One little raccoon "liked to cut paper dolls, she snipped away happily singing" until she heard a friend's bicycle bell ringing--and ran with scissors, to what end exactly we're not sure. [Oh, look at that: I just found the title.  Watch Out! How to Be Safe and Not Sorry, by Harold Longman.]

Teasing Weasels:  if the opportunity ever came up.
You?

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Want to read some Harper's Young People?

"Oliver sat down on one of the books, took another on his lap, reveling in the dust, and began to look at it.  It turned out to be the bound volume of a magazine called Harper's Young People, published in the year 1887.  The book was mildewed, some of its pages were glued together by years of damp, and its green cover had been gnawed by mice, but it exuded the indescribably delicious odor of all ancient books; better still, it was full of the pictures and adventures of the children of that other world...A world where girls wore sashes and long hair, and boys wore long stockings and button boots, and the horses which pulled the trolley cars wore straw hats."--Elizabeth Enright, The Four-Story Mistake

Want to read some Harper's Young People, sans mildew and mice?  Check it out on Google Books.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The Answers

Here are the answers to I Made You a Game. If you haven't played yet, avert your eyes. I've filled the names back into the quotes.

Here we go...

1. “Some Christmas,” remarked Rush in a satisfied tone at the end of the day. He was playing Randy’s Funeral March for her, very quietly in the dusk. “I bet we’re just about the only kids in the county, maybe even the whole state, that got such a big live alligator for a Christmas present.”

The Four-Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright

2. “Breakfast seems so commonplace at such an exciting moment. I’d rather feast my eyes on that dress….I feel that I ought to be a very good girl indeed. It’s at times like this I’m sorry I’m not a model little girl; and I always resolve that I will be in future. But somehow it’s hard to carry out your resolutions when irresistible temptations come. Still, I really will make an extra effort after this.”

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

3. “That was a wonderful day. It was a treasure, and no mistake! I never saw such heaps and heaps of presents, like things out of a fairy-tale—and even Eliza had a shawl. Perhaps she deserved it, for she did cook the rabbit and the pudding; and Oswald says it is not her fault if her nose turns up and she does not brush her hair. I do not think Eliza likes brushing things. It is the same with the carpets. But Oswald tries to make allowances even for people who do not wash their ears.”

The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by E. Nesbit (the first Bastable book)

4. “For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison—
Bliss tomorrow and more anon,
Joy for every morning!”

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

5. “And next day they rounded up the mice with the loudest voices. They spent the whole morning practicing their scales and the whole afternoon sorting out the pronunciation of Wenceslas, and by the time it was dark, they were ready.”

The Church Mice at Christmas, by Graham Oakley (one of the funniest Christmas picture books around)

6. (a Christmas list): “Tony—a jack-knife (his has only one blade.) Mr. Gilligan—a clay pipe and tobacco. Mrs. Gilligan—a tomato pin-cushion. Mr. Night-Owl—a cake of soap.”

Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer

7. “Don’t you have any tree?” Joey asked.
“Oh, it isn’t worth while just for me,” Mrs. Verduz said. “I don’t usually make any fuss over Christmas. But when I heard you singing I thought it was really awfully dull staying down there in my room all by myself. And you see, I’ve brought a few things with me.”

The Ark, by Margot Benary-Isbert

8. “'A hand-knit muffler! How warm it looks. I must try it on right now,' said Mr. Bear. He wrapped it around his neck…There was rather a lot left over.”

A Gift from the Lonely Doll, by Dare Wright

9. “There had never been such a Christmas as this. It was such a large, rich Christmas, the whole church full of Christmas. There were so many lamps, so many people, so much noise and laughter, and so many happinesses in it. Laura felt full and bursting, as if that whole big rich Christmas were inside her, and her mittens and her beautiful jewel-box with the wee gold cup-and-saucer and teapot, and her candy and her popcorn ball.”

On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

10. “She did not even hug to her heart that moment when, finally, she had become Mama’s ‘dearest, dearest child'. In her heart it was Christmas, and she was busy singing.”

From Anna, by Jean Little

Bonus Quote:
"All the ponies are at the war."

The Middle Moffat, by Eleanor Estes