What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
► UNSOLVED: One specific book
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Children's/ Teens Survival. Group of children are stuck alone in a remote home during a snow storm/ blizzard, parents left on a trip. Tennis rackets for snow shoes, melt snow for water, eat dry animal food. Read around 1980's/1990's.
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Cold River ?Time period/location story takes place?
How many children were there? Their ages?
Remember any other characters like pets, neighbors, friends, etc?
Modern time period since family had their own car. Location was remote. Maybe a village somewhere and the house far away from that. More than three children. Four or five.
It's definitely not Snowbound Mystery or Chalet at Saint-Marc.It might be Snowbound but there's too little information to confirm.
Thanks for your efforts.
Simi wrote: "It's definitely not Snowbound Mystery or Chalet at Saint-Marc.It might be Snowbound but there's too little information to confirm.
Thanks for your efforts."
Did you ever find this? My teacher read me a story in the late 70s/early 80s about some children stranded in a house without adults either because of a flood or snow. They found tinned food in the cupboard to help them survive. Does this sound like the same book? Trying to find it is driving me mad!! :D
The copy I was read I remember as being royal blue with pictures of the children and the house where they were stranded on the front.
Lois. Still haven't found it. I don't remember tinned food. I definitely remember them melting snow to drink it, eating some dried animal food and making snow shoes out of tennis rackets.
None of those thank you. There was definitely no adult snowed in with them.
Did you definitely rule out Snowbound?I can't find the book to preview anywhere online, and I was only able to find one review, but it sounds promising?
"3.5 stars. Three children live with their parents in a forester's cabin in the French mountains. Their parents are called away so they arrange for someone from the village to come and stay to look after their children. When this person falls ill, they prepare to spend the day by themselves, despite having to go without fresh bread which their carer was bringing. What would happen now we wondered? Would the weather be unseasonably warm for February and they go on a bread free picnic? No, as the title suggests the weather turns nasty and the snowed up action begins.
One of the things we enjoy about this sort of story is the resourceful ideas of how to make a meal out of not much or the excitement finding an old tin of something at the back of a cupboard can bring when you've lived on swede soup for days. But an average meal here consisted of soup followed by a meat and vegetables course, then pancakes with butter and jam, peaches, some wine with water and sugar followed by coffee (luckily someone found a tube of condensed milk-phew!) But there was a lot of worrying about the lack of bread.
As you might expect from the era, there was a lot of sexist comments from the boys. Claire was expected to do all the cooking and housework whilst the boys duties involved putting a log on the fire occasionally.
There were some nice additions to the plot, we enjoyed the characters, both animal and humans, and this story had plenty of nice illustrations. A good wintry read."
I didn't rule it out and it does sound promising. I actually ordered the book a couple of months ago but the wrong book turned up! I've also tried to research it, that it's originally in French, translated into English but can't find much information there either.
I'm new to this thread, so forgive me for naive questions.Do you remember if it was a mountainous location or a flat, prairie type of one? (Were there trees?)
Do you remember what they used for heating/fuel? Wood fire, coal, electricity?
The entire book from what I remember was located solely within them being snowed inside their house plus maybe some outhouses. They do venture outside with some types of rackets (tennis rackets?) strapped to their shoes. I found a book that was almost it but it seemed a very shortened version. It included them melting the water to drink it but not the other details I remembered.https://archive.org/details/kirstensn...
At the end of that book it references the Great Blizzard of 1888 with newspaper clippings which obviously influenced that story and by association possibly influenced the book I'm looking for too since it was so similar.
I was JUST looking at a list about that blizzard, but thought the family car would have excluded it (grim reading, those synopses!):https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
The lady who made that list is a GR Librarian - you might ask her directly? Maybe it's her special subject
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2...
Frozen Dinners by Johnny Barnes?https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...
https://www.worldcat.org/title/frozen...
Someone at the door by Cusick.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/someon...
I'm still searching for this. It isn't any of the ones bookel suggested. I wish I hadn't been sent the wrong book when I ordered Snowbound so I could rule it out 100% or confirm if it's the right one.
I'm hoping someone uploads Snowbound! to Archive.org at some point. That way we could rule it in or out.https://archive.org/search.php?query=...
You might want to bookmark the above link and check it periodically.
Thanks. I use archive.org all the time myself and never thought of doing that.
The Children Who Stayed Alone?EDIT: ah, nevermind - I didn't see it on the "books mentioned in this topic" list, but I see you ruled it out already. Sorry, Simi!
(and also not Snowed Up, for the trackable, as you said)
Just in case it triggers new memories of more details, can you recall why they had to melt snow for water? Ie why wasn't their normal water source available? Frozen pipes? Outdoor well they couldn't access due to deep snow? etc
Also do you think the book was set in the US? Western, eastern? Canada? Europe? Somewhere that didn't usually get much snow?
At a guess maybe the water pipes were frozen. I can't remember if it was Europe or the US. And probably somewhere that typically didn't have a lot of snow because they had to fashion snowshoes out of tennis rackets.
The Longest Day of the Year, by Helen Marquis?
This is pretty close in theme. Young children trapped alone at home without parents. I read a couple of pages but this isn't it. Thanks.
Aurembou , Renee . Snowbound . New York : Abelard - Schuman , 1965 . Four children are alone in their house when a severe blizzard isolates them from outside help .Someone gives details in a review of Snowbound!
that might help jog your memory if you read it.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...
This review says it appeals to girls more than boys. https://www.google.com.au/books/editi...
oogle.com.au › books
Kirkus Service · 1966 · Snippet view
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 107
LC : 66-12549 ) Watts $ 2.50 EIGHT TO ELEVEN- FICTION Aurembou , Renee Abelard - Schuman SNOWBOUND ! $ 3.00 their house high in the mountains and were trapped there Clare , Marc and Patapouf , the children of a forester , were left ...
Ah so I guess Goodreads isn't sending me notifications about this thread anymore.It's not Mile High Cabin or Operation Arctic. In the book the children are really caught unawares, parents cannot return and they have to fend for themselves.
bookel, yes I'm holding out hope that it IS Snowbound! but as yet I haven't tracked down an affordable copy, and I'm still put out that I was sent the incorrect book once.
WhipkittyI'm nowhere near an English speaking library.
Capn this isn't it. There was definitely a girl and it wasn't a detective / mystery type story. More a children fending for themselves, being resourceful story. Still searching.
Simi wrote: "as yet I haven't tracked down an affordable copy, "Are you in the U.S.? Worldcat show several copies at local libraries (https://worldcat.org/title/1866028); perhaps you can get on through an InterLibrary Loan?
Too bad you didn't ask this three years earlier; I lived near Patchogue, NY in 2017 and I could have scoped out their copy for you.
The Chalet at Saint-Marc
Hank Sayers, Hank's younger brother and sister, and their friend Pierre had come through a roaring snowstorm to meet their parents for a vacation at Saint-Marc in the Swiss Alps. But before the Sayers parents could reach the village, avalanches cut it off from the rest of the world. Suddenly Hank found himself completely responsible for the other children. At first, it was a great adventure to be marooned in a snug chalet, completely on their own. They were all resourceful and able to make the most of what was on hand. Then a neighbor fell desperately ill and there was no doctor in Saint-Marc. The nearest help was over the mountains, at the other end of a road blocked by tons of snow. This is a tale of the courage and self-reliance of four young people fighting a bitter Alpine storm. It will captivate young readers who like to imagine how it would be like to fend for themselves in a time of emergency.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL72670...
Sam I'm not in the US. I think I'll only be able to confirm if its the book is if I maybe try to buy it again or it gets scanned on OL.Capn that isn't it but thank you.
I believe the name of the book that you're looking for is "Life as We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I remember reading it in Middle school and it took me lots of digging to find it again as well. Hope this helps!
Thank you, but no, this isn't the book. The children are stuck without their parents and as Rainbowheart correctly pointed out, it's much too recent.
Simi wrote: "WhipkittyI'm nowhere near an English speaking library.
Capn this isn't it. There was definitely a girl and it wasn't a detective / mystery type story. More a children fending for themselves, bei..."
Sorry, I stopped getting notifications for this thread. :(
Anyway, at least twice I have called libraries where I knew a "maybe it's this book" was shelved and asked the information desk to grab it and tell me character names and answer questions.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Wilderness Winter (other topics)Life As We Knew It (other topics)
The Chalet at Saint-Marc (other topics)
The Grange at High Force (other topics)
Operation Arctic (other topics)
More...
Book was from maybe 80's or 90's. My edition was a hardcover and the cover was yellow (underneath a non existent dust cover).
The story was about a family whose parents go on a trip leaving the children at home in some remote house. The children are then snowed in and left to fend for themselves. They do things like fashioning snow shoes out of tennis rackets, melting snow for water and eating dry animal food. They have to dig a tunnel from their front door through snow.
It isn't The Children Who Stayed Alone.
It isn't Snowed Up by Rosalie K. Fry