What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

The Beastly Arms
This topic is about The Beastly Arms
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SOLVED: Children's/YA > SOLVED. Boy photographer in New York that moves into hotel with rescued animals. [s]

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message 1: by Eleanor (last edited Feb 10, 2020 09:56AM) (new)

Eleanor (elmartin235) | 5 comments This book is about a young boy living in New York with his single mother. His mother worked in the photography department at a university, so he is able to take film pictures of clouds and develop them. They are poor and end up moving into this old hotel/apartment building run by an old man. They never meet any of the other tenants, but eventually the boy discovers that all the other rooms are occupied by animals. I believe he has a small hamster or mouse that he carries around, which demonstrates his love for animals. He talks to the old man and finds out that he was a construction worker and was responsible for killing many animals. Since then he has vowed to help the animals who have lost their habitats due to industrialization. The cover of the book is a black and white pencil drawing of the boy laying in grass upside down with his camera above his face. I believe that the lens of the camera is blue possible with clouds to represent his passion for taking pictures of clouds. I read this book about ten years ago when I was in elementary school, but I don't think it was super new then. Please help me I have been looking for this for almost a year.


message 2: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart | 28710 comments How old was the boy?

Was it just a plain realistic story?


message 3: by Eleanor (new)

Eleanor (elmartin235) | 5 comments Rainbowheart wrote: "How old was the boy?

Was it just a plain realistic story?"


Yes, there was no magic or anything. It's a little unrealistic that the old man would have been able to keep all of the animals, but they were all animals that would naturally live in New York. Most of them were raccoons or opossums. The boy was in elementary/middle school. I would guess 11 or 12.


message 5: by Eleanor (new)

Eleanor (elmartin235) | 5 comments Eleanor wrote: "Rainbowheart wrote: "How old was the boy?

Was it just a plain realistic story?"

Yes, there was no magic or anything. It's a little unrealistic that the old man would have been able to keep all of..."


THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU!!!


message 6: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart | 28710 comments You're super welcome! Glad I could help out. :)


message 7: by Rosa (new) - added it

Rosa (rosaiglarsh) | 5384 comments How did you find it, Rainbowheart?


message 8: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart | 28710 comments Through Worldcat. I put "moves" and "apartment" into the keyword field and looked for juvenile fiction pubbed between 1970 and 2012. It was on the second page of results.


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