OH!!!! OH OH OH!!!!
Dec. 11th, 2007 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I remember this book I'd forgotten all about, and I lost my copy irrecoverably.
It's a kid's book. Our main character, her next door neighbor (another girl in her grade, maybe her class) is predictably unpopular and weird. She steals things, and as the story goes on it becomes clear that she's not being taken care of, and she eventually is removed from her mother's care at the end.
But in the style of these books, Our Main Character becomes friends with the girl next door (accidentally), and finds out (predictably) that she's really an interesting person. The Girl Next Door has this whole fantasy (more or less) world in her yard with fairies or elves and whatnot, and makes things for them, like a ferris wheel out of a bike wheel. She's really too old for this in a conventional sense, but that's what makes it so cool. And of course, in the not-so-subtle writing of this sort of book, it's very clear that the traits she ascribes to her elf or fairy or whatever friends are those she's had to figure out to live her life - being able to keep warm wherever, walk quietly and not be spotted, survive by eating out of other people's overgrown gardens, and so on.
I disparage it, I know, but I loved it as a kid. Maybe it stands up to my memories after all :)
And I want to know the title, and I don't have it.
Helpies? If I don't get helped, I'll crosspost to a book related community tomorrow/today.
Edit: Thank you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sayga! Afternoon of the Elves.
Edit again: Another book request? I hate to leave my helper unhelped.
It's a kid's book. Our main character, her next door neighbor (another girl in her grade, maybe her class) is predictably unpopular and weird. She steals things, and as the story goes on it becomes clear that she's not being taken care of, and she eventually is removed from her mother's care at the end.
But in the style of these books, Our Main Character becomes friends with the girl next door (accidentally), and finds out (predictably) that she's really an interesting person. The Girl Next Door has this whole fantasy (more or less) world in her yard with fairies or elves and whatnot, and makes things for them, like a ferris wheel out of a bike wheel. She's really too old for this in a conventional sense, but that's what makes it so cool. And of course, in the not-so-subtle writing of this sort of book, it's very clear that the traits she ascribes to her elf or fairy or whatever friends are those she's had to figure out to live her life - being able to keep warm wherever, walk quietly and not be spotted, survive by eating out of other people's overgrown gardens, and so on.
I disparage it, I know, but I loved it as a kid. Maybe it stands up to my memories after all :)
And I want to know the title, and I don't have it.
Helpies? If I don't get helped, I'll crosspost to a book related community tomorrow/today.
Edit: Thank you,
sayga! Afternoon of the Elves.Edit again: Another book request? I hate to leave my helper unhelped.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:23 am (UTC)although that is NOT the cover my book has. my mom bought me the book when i was a kid because my name is Sarah Kate.
It's funny because I knew what book you were talking about after your second paragraph, before you even went into detail. I found my copy fairly recently (within the past few years) and read it as an adult rather than as an 11 year old.
I'm glad I could help you! I wish someone could help me remember the title of a book I read as a kid. It was about 2 boys living on an island. One of their dads owned a restaurant and they let cats go on the thatched roof to catch the rats. One of the boys had a fruit bat. The kids were named Jacques and Philipe...
no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 06:23 am (UTC)although that is NOT the cover my book has. my mom bought me the book when i was a kid because my name is Sarah Kate.
It's funny because I knew what book you were talking about after your second paragraph, before you even went into detail. I found my copy fairly recently (within the past few years) and read it as an adult rather than as an 11 year old.
I'm glad I could help you! I wish someone could help me remember the title of a book I read as a kid. It was about 2 boys living on an island. One of their dads owned a restaurant and they let cats go on the thatched roof to catch the rats. One of the boys had a fruit bat. The kids were named Jacques and Philipe...