One fantasy, one real-life
Oct. 15th, 2006 03:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaI'm just posting this here for now so I don't forget it - it's actually meant for the "whatwasthatbook" community but their queue is currently full (from having been featured on the front page).
Waving hi to the community! I've been reading all the old posts and it's fascinating to see what books we're all looking for, and what tidbits stand out in our memories even after most of the book has been forgotten! It's also interesting that we all seem to be looking for books we read at about the same time of life.
That being said, I'd love to find two books:
(1) I checked this book out of a library around middle-school or junior high; that would have been sometime between 1971 and 1975. I got the impression that the book was old even then. It was about a boy from our world who had an adventure in another world - maybe he got there by dreaming? I remember one scene rather vaguely, in which a princess he was trying to protect seemed to have died because everyone saw a white rug stained completely red with her blood, through the transparent walls (or even floor?) of a room she was in. But this was a trick to deceive an evil man - she wasn't really dead. I think protecting her from this evil guy, who might have been regent and wanted to dispose of her or something, was the boy's main task. The other scene I remember was from the end. He was dreaming - except it was really a way to communicate with this other world - and he saw the princess again, but when they tried to walk toward each other they couldn't. She said, "Maybe this means we're not supposed to meet again." And from then on the boy just went back to his mundane life.
(2) When I was in 5th and 6th grade (71-72), our teachers read to us every day after lunch. They read us a wide range of books including The Hobbit and I am Third (Gale Sayers' autobiography, on which the movie Brian's Song was based). They read us a book set shortly after WWII (I think) about a refugee boy who had lost his family and kind of wandered around Europe having adventures. I remember he spoke several different languages, but none of them was the one his thoughts were in - he never met anyone who spoke that language. Except maybe near the end of the book he did? It might or might not have been meant as a children's book. I remember liking it a lot.
Waving hi to the community! I've been reading all the old posts and it's fascinating to see what books we're all looking for, and what tidbits stand out in our memories even after most of the book has been forgotten! It's also interesting that we all seem to be looking for books we read at about the same time of life.
That being said, I'd love to find two books:
(1) I checked this book out of a library around middle-school or junior high; that would have been sometime between 1971 and 1975. I got the impression that the book was old even then. It was about a boy from our world who had an adventure in another world - maybe he got there by dreaming? I remember one scene rather vaguely, in which a princess he was trying to protect seemed to have died because everyone saw a white rug stained completely red with her blood, through the transparent walls (or even floor?) of a room she was in. But this was a trick to deceive an evil man - she wasn't really dead. I think protecting her from this evil guy, who might have been regent and wanted to dispose of her or something, was the boy's main task. The other scene I remember was from the end. He was dreaming - except it was really a way to communicate with this other world - and he saw the princess again, but when they tried to walk toward each other they couldn't. She said, "Maybe this means we're not supposed to meet again." And from then on the boy just went back to his mundane life.
(2) When I was in 5th and 6th grade (71-72), our teachers read to us every day after lunch. They read us a wide range of books including The Hobbit and I am Third (Gale Sayers' autobiography, on which the movie Brian's Song was based). They read us a book set shortly after WWII (I think) about a refugee boy who had lost his family and kind of wandered around Europe having adventures. I remember he spoke several different languages, but none of them was the one his thoughts were in - he never met anyone who spoke that language. Except maybe near the end of the book he did? It might or might not have been meant as a children's book. I remember liking it a lot.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-15 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:48 am (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/whatwasthatbook/105722.html
no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 12:54 am (UTC)http://www.fidrabooks.com/WinterEnchantment.html
(ordering info: http://www.fidrabooks.com/shop.html )
FidraBooks home page (they've got several I want!): http://www.fidrabooks.com
(and you can see my LJ for the syndication info for their blog, if you wanted to keep an eye on it...)
Thanks for info on I am David!
Second book
Date: 2006-10-21 01:57 am (UTC)At first, I was wondering if the second book you mentioned was Alexander Key's "The Forgotten Door." I loved that book in sixth grade. I now own three copies, because it's out of print! (I have a few books I have multiple copies of - I just can't bear the idea of not having a copy of these books!)
Re: Second book
Date: 2006-10-21 02:38 am (UTC)Oh! I remember that book - I loved it!