To ask if you remember this VERY strange book from my childhood ...

[eatsleepread]

I'm mid-forties, and I've sometimes wondered about a book I read while at primary school. It really was weird. It's about a dark-haired young girl who lives in a tent with her family. Looking back, I think they were made out to be gypsies.
The girl discovered a tasty herb growing locally, or possibly some sort of salad leaf. She used to pick it and hide it under her duvet. When her father found out, he beat her.
I read it at lower primary, and it was a story/picture book, as opposed to a chapter book.
Reading my post, it makes me wonder how a book like this could ever have existed. But I'm not making it up!

Mothership - yes that's the one, thank you !

@LollyPop that sounds like a book called Charlotte Sometimes. It was a girl who when she slept in her school dormitory bed swapped over with a girl from the war. They woke up in each other's worlds. I've wondered if it's the book The Cure based their song with the same name on.

OK I'm going to jump in with my 2 book asks in case anyone remembers these!

#1: British children's / young adult book about a boy with autism, he learns how to talk to animals and they help him understand the world. I feel like there might have been some kind of aliens at the end! I remember him being sent to mainstream school and he was in the bottom stream for every subject except biology and the classes were named after colours of the rainbow.

#2 young adult book, American and set in New York 80s/90s, 4 teenagers love doing graffiti, 3 boys and a girl, girl is Latina and has an older brother who also does graffiti, one of the boys has rich parents who let him have a practice wall at home, they decide to tag a plane at jfk airport with "peace" in 4 languages, 1 word each, they are inspired/helped by a mysterious figure called the Griffin man who may or may not also be the airport janitor who helps them tag the plane?! Definitely published in UK as I got it from the library in the late 90s

They went to sea in a sieve (Jumbly poem)

mine is a book about an abandoned rag doll trying to make her way home, I remember the cover, walking down a path in the moonlight hand in hand with someone else but no idea what! I remember them sleeping in s tent in the story and the doll grazes her knee, I’ve hunted but just can’t remember the title!

Pugmum was it the ivy cottage books? www.goodreads.com/book/show/1750844.Ivy_Cottage

I've wondered if it's the book The Cure based their song with the same name on.

Yes it is. The music video is just scenes from the book.

The main character, who I think is a boy, says to himself that if he walks all the way from x to x with his eyes closed his dad will come back from the war.

Does that ring any bells at all to anyone?!

At the beginning of Carrie's War, Carrie is a grown up (and a recent widow) taking her children back to the village she was evacuated to. Her eldest son plays a game on the walk back to the hotel that if he can get all the way back to there with his eyes closed then his dad will be alive and waiting for them in the bar.

They went to sea in a sieve (Jumbly poem)

@Purplealienpuke

I don't recall any of these books! I'm a child of the 70s. Does anyone remember a tv series called 'Maggie ' ? About a Scottish teenager? I can remember the theme tune but can't find anyone else who remembers watching it.....

I watched it, mostly I remember the theme tune though!

Posted the wrong one lol

@Babyroobs

Finally got all the poem posted. Forgot how long it is! MN didn't like accepting them all so it took a few attempts

@JustanotherTuesday

I read a book as a child, it was about a girl who went to stay with some relatives and made friends with some children. I think it was called Rainbows End or something similar. They were searching for something. I have tried googling it but nothing comes up. It was probably from the 60's or 70's.. I really liked it.

Could it be The Rainbow Garden by Patricia St John?

I have an impossible one that I’ve been searching for for years. I don’t know how old it is or the title but I have half of it. No covers. It’s a large childrens’ book, A4 but more square and it has a story for every day of the year. My mum read it to me as a child so it may even have been from when she was younger. My mum’s currently covid-19 positive in a care home and I long to get a copy of this book more than ever now.

Does it ring any bells at all?

I remember Maggie
"Maggie. .won't be a teenage bride...."

And I loved Charlotte sometimes

@ArgumentativeAardvaark
We went to the Shock Headed Peter show (and bought the CD). Stll think the music is excellent.

Might it be 365 Animal Stories? @TheLittleDogLaughed. Sorry to hear about your mum being unwell.

I love these threads reuniting people with old loved books. There was a thread a couple of months ago about scary books or something. Someone described the childhood book I had been looking for for years. Someone else named it. Straight away I ordered a copy. I just loved rereading it. For years I have been singing a song that noone else had ever heard of. Turns out it was a poem in the book.

The carries war reference jogged my memory of another book I want to find. But it is all very hazy. A girl who may gave been at boarding school twists the bedknob on her bed and goes back in time to ww2. There are other children there I think so they may have been evacuated possibly sisters. I think one of the sisters grows up to be someone in the present connected to the girl.

Never mind. Just spotted it's a post above. I think it's charlotte sometimes.

@thelittldoglaughed I had a 365 day story book. Do you remember any of the stories?

Yellowwibble - was it Charlotte Sometimes? I used to love that book when I was younger!

Sorry, just read the rest of your post (and thread). Was just so excited at someone else having read the book!

Thanks @Breakingthewaves and @Butterer - that has been bugging me since secondary school!

Halfdeer - I think it is. I have just ordered a copy.

nearlynermal There was a story called, I think, The Sad Rice Pudding. That was my favourite one.

Graciebobcat it definitely wasn’t animal stories. And thank you 💖

Does anybody remember a story about why cats and dogs and cats and mice don't get on?
I think there was something important. I think it was a book or papers the dogs asked the cats too look after. But the cats passed it on to the mice to look after. The mice then ate the paper or book or made a nest from it. So the cats fell out with the mice. The cats blamed the mice for destroying it. But the dogs blamed the cats for not looking after the thing in the first place.