Book about a misbehaving girl at home, but not in public. Helping my friend, she read it when she was younger

[Alice]

1970-1980 Children’s book about a young girl's struggles with behavior.

- It's about a little girl who behaved like an angel at school & in public, but misbehaved, was desobidient at home. Her parents said it
was like there were two (her name)s & would ask her why there seemed to be two different little girls. She wasn't really bad she just had issues
at home. She doesn't remember if it actually said why. It really had an impact on her as a young child because she was being abused & when she had meltdowns at home, because she couldn't tell anyone, her parents would bring up the book & ask which of the two (my name)s she was. She keeps thinking the title was "The Two (Her Name)s" but she hasn't had any luck finding it. She thought maybe her name was Sara as in "The Two Saras", but again, no luck (but says she could be mistaken on her name).
- Thin paperback, easy to read, elementary reading level/children's book
- It was about 8"x4", had a colorful cover with a picture of the girl
- Might have had some black & white drawings inside.
- She thinks it had a yellow (or maybe it was pink) border & it had a realistic drawing of a little girl doing something on the cover.
- She thinks this book was like those books that are sold through schools, advertised in weekly/monthly flyers or at annual book fairs.
- Like Scholastic or Weekly Reader books. But maybe it might not have been a very popular book because she has seen hundreds of these books
in lists or for sale online but still hasn't found this one.

Thank you for any help!

[Maddog]

I’m sorry your friend had this experience.

Is it a Little Golden Book? With a little blonde girl on the cover? I’m pretty sure my grandma had this exact book once upon a time.

Is it Good Little Girl, Bad Little Girl, by Esther Wilkin?

[Maddog]

Here’s an Amazon link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Little-Gi...

[SamSpayedPI]

Good Little, Bad Little Girl by Esther Burns Wilkin for Maddog's trackable link.

[Alice]

Thank you for your kind message! I checked with her these books and she says it's not these, she had those ones too as a kid. The girl in the book she's looking for is a little older than that, like closer to teenage years or in her teens.

[Ayshe]

How about Nobody?

[Maddog]

Here’s something weird:

There actually is a book called The Two Lives of Sara, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your friend’s book

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Lives-Sara...

Gosh, and I’d been thinking that Good Little Girl, Bad Little Girl was a rough thing to constantly present a kid with. Having a hard time wrapping my head around carrying that simplistic psychology into a book for teens …

[Alice]

Ayshe wrote: "How about Nobody?"

I accidently deleted my reply, so here it is again:

I asked her and she says she had that book too when she was a kid, and it is unfortunately not that one (Nobody). But thank you!

[Alice]

Maddog wrote: "Here’s something weird:

There actually is a book called The Two Lives of Sara, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your friend’s book

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Lives-Sara......"

Thanks, I told her about The Two Lives of Sarah also, even though it's a 2022 book, I figured it could help her conjure up book titles from her memory, and also help her think outside the box!

[Alice]

SamSpayedPI wrote: "Good Little, Bad Little Girl by Esther Burns Wilkin for Maddog's trackable link."

Thanks for the link! I had also done a search online and had found it 🙂

[Rainbowheart]

The Mystery of Sara Beth?

[Danielle]

If it is religious in nature, there is a short story called "The Two Carolines" with the exact situation you described. It's part of a collection of stories for children called Uncle Arthurs Bedtime Stories by Arthur Maxwell. There are several volumes, so I have no idea if it's in the one linked above. Here is a link to the correct one via Google: https://books.google.com/books/about/...