What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Staying Nine
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children's fiction. Plot details unknown. One scene: little girl climbs up the doorway every day so she can always do it even when she's an adult. Read 1985-1990. [s]
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Ooh! It doesn't look familiar, but the cover is obviously on point and the title makes sense. And it's the kind of thing I would've read. I'll grab a copy and let you know. Thank you!!!
You're welcome! I just looked it up again and that scene is in there."Oh, no," Heather said calmly now from her high perch. "I'm going to do it every day, every single day, and I'll be able to do it every day because I did it the day before, and nobody grows too much in one day. And then even when I'm finally full size, it'll happen real slow, and I'll always be able to do it. Right, Mom?"
Well, my library doesn't have it, and my Paperbackswap copy isn't happening because the sender never responded to my request, so I've ordered through Amazon. I'll keep you posted! If anyone has other ideas I can explore in the meantime, fabulous.
A slightly different cover is here (pretty close to the default one, though):https://www.amazon.com/Staying-Celebr... (similar to GR default)
and these are the ones on GR already:
Rainbowheart wrote: "It's also available on Archive.org!https://archive.org/details/stayingni..."
And OpenLibrary! :) Ha ha - great minds...
Yearling had an edition as well:Staying nine
Author:Pam Conrad
Summary:Nine-year-old Heather doesn't want to turn ten until wacky Rosa Rita shows her that growing up isn't so bad
Print Book, English, [1991]
Publisher:Yearling Books, [London], [1991]
91 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
ISBN: 9780440862734, 0440862736
OCLC Number / Unique Identifier: 26261241
EDIT: actually, there are 16 editions, and most major publishers at the time seemed to have it (incl. Scholastic):
https://www.worldcat.org/formats-edit...
I just read Staying Nine and I'm 90 percent that's it. Not a single thing in the book sounded familiar at all, but the door-climbing scenes are so on point that I have to believe this is the book. Marking Solved and thank you!
Well and the other thing is that this book came out in 1988, when I was twelve, and I wouldn't have been very likely to pick up such a thin little book about a nine-year-old at that age or older. I'm wondering whether this was also a scene in another book. BUT I did tend to read any book around, including my younger siblings' books, and I also could've picked it up in a doctor's office or something like that. So I'm leaving it as Solved, but will be extremely interested in any other suggestions!
I will keep such a detail on my radar for you, Daisy. ;)
Glad to help out!If I come across any other door climbing scenes, I will let you know. :)
What's the Name of That Book???
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Staying Nine (other topics)
Staying Nine (other topics)
What I do remember: the protagonist, a young girl, daily does that thing where a kid climbs up to the top of a doorway by bracing their arms and legs against the doorframe and kinda scrambles up. She did this every day with the hope that she would still be able to do it as an adult, since her growth each day would be so minimal that she wouldn't lose the knack.
It sounds like something Anastasia Krupnik or Ramona Quimby would do, but I don't think it was either of those. I can't rule either out completely, but I don't think it was them.
I'm pretty sure it was a children's chapter book or middle-grade novel, probably written in the 70s or 80s.
Thanks in advance for your help!