Diana's comments (member since Jun 10, 2008)

Diana's comments from the What's The Name of That Book??? group.

SOLVED: Sorry, I don't know how to move this to the solved folder. I received this via email and am widely read in the area of books and stories for younger children. I'm sure one of you will know this one. Thanks.
ONE OF MY TEACHERS IS LOOKING FOR THE STORY OF A CHINESE EMPEROR THAT GIVES A PEASANT WHAT HE REQUESTS FOR A FAVOR DONE. THE PHEASANT REQUESTS A GRAIN OF ONE GRAIN OF RICE THE 1ST DAY, TWO THE NEXT ETC..ETC… AND ENDS UP TAKING OVER THE KINGDOM. DO YOU KNOW OF THIS STORY? OR THE TITLE OF THE BOOK?

Aargh the e in like did not type.

Sounds lik In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason.

You may want to check Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. It is older than what you remember and Mars rather than the Moon but as I remember (and 30 years after reading it I don't guarantee my memories) it had ghosts and an Americana type setting which would go with the small town American names.

It's a long shot because it isn't YA but I know in the 80's many teens did read Emmeline by Judith Rossner which featured a 13 year old girl sent to work in the mills in Lowell.

Is it The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson?

I would appreciate ANY HELP I can get from you. ############### is looking for a book. She is trying to find a book she read some years ago but can't remember the name. It's probably young adult science fiction. Apparently, a girl is one of the few military brats left because the military, for the most part, has been disbanded. Her father's job is to check abandoned bases. One day, she goes with him, and he goes upstairs but doesn't come back. Later, when the girl goes outside, she finds that all carbon-based life forms have been destroyed. She finds a shortwave/ham radio and somehow uses that.

How about The Boys from St. Petri by Bjarne Reuter? The description sounded more like Number the Stars to me but since it isn't that perhaps Boys from St. Petri may be it.

It isn't the book you are looking for (too new for that) but Pam Munoz Ryan's Becoming Naomi Leon is a wonderful book about a girl who goes to Oaxaca with her grandmother and talented brother who is a funny looking kid. Her mother has wanted to take them back for the welfare money but their dad lives in Oaxaca and they meet many relatives while searching for him. Lots of details about the colorful carvings Oaxaca is known for.

Could it be The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White?

I didn't read them but an other old family saga I can think about that you may want to look at is by Inglis Fletcher and starts out with the first British settlers in North Carolina. As I remember one of the titles has Roanoke in it and one has Albemarle in it. Good luck.

It could be the The Awakening Land Trilogy by Conrad Richter. The third book The Town won a Pulitzer in 1951 which would put it in the right time period for publication. In the 70s the trilogy was made into a mini-series featuring Elizabeth Montgomery. It starts off with a family moving to or living in the wilderness (The Trees) that finally becomes a farm (The Fields) and eventually a city. I loved it and I loved the Kent Family Chronicles (originally published as the American BiCentennial series.)

Sounds a little like John Marsden's Letters from the Inside. I read it back in '91 so I'm fuzzy on the details but as I remember it they both seemed to have wonderful lives but in reality [possible spoilers]

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one was incarcerated and the other living in an abusive home.

Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris

High school senior Theo, is very interested in an exciting looking girl he sees at a bus stop but when she signs to him he is dismayed because as the only hearing person in his family he is not interested in adding more deaf people to his life. Ivy, like Theo, is a hearing person who is also fluent in sign language runs her own catering business.

Wiess, Laura
Such a Pretty Girl

Fifteen-year-old Meredith’s world comes crashing down again when her father who had been sentenced to nine years in prison is released after only three. Her best friend and boy friend is Andy, a paraplegic who was also one of her father’s victims. Her obtuse mother is thrilled that Meredith’s father is back and wants them to be one happy family. Her neighbor Nigel, a retired cop who had been the one to arrest her father in the first place gives her a couple of nanny cams so that the next time he strikes they will have the evidence to put him away again. This is an amazing book. Meredith is so real, so brave, and so very vulnerable. The subject is bleak but Meredith’s triumph elevates it.