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Original poster

Is there a magical website that helps you find books from your childhood?

249 replies

NigelWithTheBrie79 · 03/12/2021 02:30

I've tried googling details I remember for different books but no luck as of yet.

OP posts:
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Swashbuckled · 04/12/2021 10:26

I’ve been looking for a childhood book for years. It was a book for young children (big pictures) and was first read to me in the early 1970s.

I think it was called The Little Blue Elephant. There seem to be lots of books now with this name when searching, but none of them are the one I’m looking for.

SYNOPSIS:
A little blue elephant lives in the jungle and he is lonely. He wants to play with the other little elephants, but all the others are pink, and they say he can’t play with them because he is blue. He is very sad and spends every day alone, crying. He watches the pink elephants playing, hiding behind a bush and wishing he could join in. One day the pink elephants are playing in a big mud pool. The little blue elephant thinks it looks fun and he rolls around in mud too, by himself. He wanders near the pink elephants and because he is now a brown elephant, and the pink elephants are also brown from the mud, they all play together and have a lovely time all day long. Then it rains heavily and all their mud is washed off. The little blue elephant is afraid that, when they see he is blue, he will be sent away again. The pink elephants see he is blue, and they welcome him, because they have now realised that it doesn’t matter if you are pink or blue, they are all elephants together. The little blue elephant played with them everyday and they all lived happily ever after.

If anyone can help with this, I would be so grateful. I want to find a copy and buy it, but I can’t find any references to this book on the internet…..

Thanks

EdithGrantham · 04/12/2021 10:30

@Swashbuckled

I’ve been looking for a childhood book for years. It was a book for young children (big pictures) and was first read to me in the early 1970s.

I think it was called The Little Blue Elephant. There seem to be lots of books now with this name when searching, but none of them are the one I’m looking for.

SYNOPSIS:
A little blue elephant lives in the jungle and he is lonely. He wants to play with the other little elephants, but all the others are pink, and they say he can’t play with them because he is blue. He is very sad and spends every day alone, crying. He watches the pink elephants playing, hiding behind a bush and wishing he could join in. One day the pink elephants are playing in a big mud pool. The little blue elephant thinks it looks fun and he rolls around in mud too, by himself. He wanders near the pink elephants and because he is now a brown elephant, and the pink elephants are also brown from the mud, they all play together and have a lovely time all day long. Then it rains heavily and all their mud is washed off. The little blue elephant is afraid that, when they see he is blue, he will be sent away again. The pink elephants see he is blue, and they welcome him, because they have now realised that it doesn’t matter if you are pink or blue, they are all elephants together. The little blue elephant played with them everyday and they all lived happily ever after.

If anyone can help with this, I would be so grateful. I want to find a copy and buy it, but I can’t find any references to this book on the internet…..

Thanks

That sounds very similar to the plot of Elmer but he is patchwork rather than blue (and the other elephants are just normal elephant colour)
Swashbuckled · 04/12/2021 10:32

I know, but Elmer came much later.

I'm 100% certain about the details of the story; I can see the pictures. I loved the book and it made such an impression on me. I've been searching for it for years.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Books
BertieBotts · 04/12/2021 10:39

I wonder if Lucy who wanted a dog was the first book in the Animal Ark series? Her parents are vets and they live in the vets practice but she desperately wants a pet of her own. I think the first one is Puppies in the Pantry. Through various escapades she gets to care for various animals, I can't remember if she ever gets to keep one.

wolfstarling · 04/12/2021 11:02

@Lio Yes I was obsessed too! I only found them by googling a PP poster's suggestion and they came up in images.

I have ordered one from ebay.

This thread is great! Thank you. Smile

Doubleraspberry · 04/12/2021 11:30

I have another elephant picture book one! It’s a grey elephant who turns pink when he gets sunburnt. I’ve never been able to find it again.

pollyhemlock · 04/12/2021 11:49

@MargaretThursday is your kidnapping one either No Way of Telling by Emma Smith ( 1972) or The Kidnapping of Suzie Q by Catherine Sefton (1994) ?

JeanBodel · 04/12/2021 11:56

Ok, this is very vague. The book had a pale green picture on the cover; probably trees, and one or two girl figures?

The story was about a girl aged eleven sent off to stay somewhere. She meets another girl of eleven, possibly called Jessica. The end of the book is that Jessica was sent to help our heroine understand how to grow up from eleven to twelve (as twelve is the age girls get their periods). The twist is that Jessica is a ghost.

Firefretted · 04/12/2021 12:15

@NigelWithTheBrie79

The first one is about a girl called Janie or Jane. She has a best friend called Dottie. They live in lowestoft and run away to London together. They sleep on the circle line (though Dottie can't lie down like Janie.as she is too fat). They are young teens I think. I found this book on the bus and the cover was ripped. (Late 80s/early90s)

Second book. I think the main character is called Anastasia (not that one). It's American. I remember her parents have another baby which she initially resents. She smokes a cigar stub and gets caught. Ooh and she has a crush on a boy whose hair stands straight up. She uses a whole bottle of shampoo to recreat the look for herself. I remember thinking at the time that that wouldn't work.

Bonus book (OK third). An American family. No mother but there is a mother figure who is an employee but lives with them. The kids pool their spending money and go on adventures. There is a character they call the elephant. An old lady They dislike.
Thanks for the help.Smile

Ooh the third one's 'The Saturdays' and there's a whole series of them including 'The Four-Storey Mistake' and 'Spiderweb for Two.' I used to wish I could be part of the Melendy family.
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/12/2021 12:41

What a lovely thread. Nice to see The Greatest Gresham get a mention. I was sure from the initial description it would turn out to be a Gillian Avery book. I loved them when I was about 11/12 and was sad to see that by the time my children were little in the 1990s they were all out of print, in spite of the fact that she had won prestigious prizes from the late 1950s through to the early 1970s. Hurrah for the internet, as I was able to get hold of a secondhand copy of The Warden's Niece, the one I didn't have from my childhood! And in fact, looking at Wikipedia, I see I didn't read all of them then or later, so I might see if I can get the missing ones now.

BlueBloodedBlue · 04/12/2021 12:46

I've got one which I lost about every now and then.

It's an autobiographical story by a girl called Jane or Janey. It starts with her failing the 11+ because she doesn't turn the last page over and misses a question. There are chapters about the games they played eg knock down ginger and kick the can.

I read it in the late 1970's/ early '80s and the cover was white.

Anyone please?

QuestionableMouse · 04/12/2021 13:13

@SalaciousCrumble thank you! I knew the series but couldn't remember the name for the life of me!

Bananasaur · 04/12/2021 14:52

@Ascii - your second one, about children trapped during a snowstorm, could be 'Landslide!' by Veronique Day. Main character is called Laurent, and it's about five French children trapped in a hotel over Christmas after a landslide.

changeyourname11111 · 04/12/2021 14:59

I’ve got one as well.

Very vague details. Something about being lead somewhere by night - by moonlight? - and a thread had to be followed.

There might have been a ruby or a precious stone involved.

changeyourname11111 · 04/12/2021 14:59

I probably read that in the early 80s?

forrestgreen · 04/12/2021 15:14

I've got one that pops in my head every Christmas.
Definitely a children's or young adults book

There was a girl who was unhappy at home, set a Christmas. She went back in time somehow. I distinctly remember a scene about a silver Christmas tree, and that her family would think it was tacky? She lived with the new family for a while until she got back home.

Fireweeds · 04/12/2021 16:19

@changeyourname11111

I’ve got one as well.

Very vague details. Something about being lead somewhere by night - by moonlight? - and a thread had to be followed.

There might have been a ruby or a precious stone involved.

Could it be the Princess and the Goblin? Her grandmother has a thread which she follows.
Wizzwazzwas · 04/12/2021 16:41

I have one too... does anyone remember a children’s book that involved some sort of magic transformation of the main character on a double decker bus eating cold chips? Possibly into a bear...

I realise this sounds like I might have taken something hallucinogenic

StrychnineInTheSandwiches · 04/12/2021 16:57

Ah, some of my faves on this thread. Tom's Midnight Garden, Charlotte Sometimes, Molesworth, The Quantocks Quartet.

The Quantocks Quartet really should be more widely known.

Wizzwazzwas · 04/12/2021 17:04

Also there was one I read as a young teen in school about children in a church (possibly in a play) bring taken hostage by terrorists (potentially South American). I’m sure the title was about ravens. Cannot find any sign of it anywhere

pollyhemlock · 04/12/2021 17:09

@wizzwazzwas That’s The Seventh Raven by Peter Dickinson

SydneyCarton · 04/12/2021 17:16

@forrestgreen It’s not Come Back (or possibly Come Home) Lucy, is it? Lucy’s brought up in a very old fashioned way by her elderly aunt, and has to go and live with her loud but good natured cousins who she thinks are awful and vulgar. She meets a Victorian girl called Alice and time travels back to Alice’s day which suits her much better.

StrychnineInTheSandwiches · 04/12/2021 17:17

I loved Come Back, Lucy. Scared the bejeepers out of me.

SydneyCarton · 04/12/2021 17:18

Forgot to say I think it’s the cousins Christmas tree which she thinks is tacky and she imagines how her aunt would disapprove of it

Wizzwazzwas · 04/12/2021 17:20

Thank you Pollyhemlock!! I have looked for it for years. Copy now ordered :-)

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