findthatbook | Entries tagged with 1960s

A Zoomer friend of mine was wondering how old this trope was, and I found myself recalling the following comics story, probably from a 1960’s issue of Creepy or Eerie; the writer was almost certainly Archie Goodwin, and the artist may have been Steve Ditko.

As I remember it, a foolhardy wizard manages to broach all the security measures surrounding the ultra-classified This-Is-Not-A-Place-Of-Honor containment chamber for a forbidden spell that he believes will neutralize his rivals’ powers. Turns out that he’s right—because the spell causes magic, period, to self-destruct. Fleeing the Wizards’ Council HQ, he consoles himself with the thought that his rivals are at least powerless against him—except that the populace have gotten wind of the fact that the healing, blessing, and fertility magic is gone (and who’s to blame), and torches and pitchforks still work just fine.

pronker

The book I read app. 1965 featured a cast of maybe ten year-olds and a few teens as protagonists, with naturally supportive adults. The time was about 1850 and the wagon train set out from AFAIK St. Joseph, MO to head west. It sort of seems the group were Mormon, but I am unsure. What I'm sure of is that one little boy grew impatient to see a real prairie dog town and was deeply disappointed to find out the 'dogs' were rodents. He looked forward to teaching one to speak and sit up for treats!

Current Mood: okay
Current Location: downstairs office
Current Music: quiet

jiltanith

I remember reading this probably in the late '60s or early-to-mid '70s in the US, though it might have been published in the '50s. A man I'm fairly sure is referred to as "the professor" is fixing up a school bus to go out for a summer-long research trip. The mothers in the neighborhood all decide that this would be a great thing for their children to participate in, and the professor agrees to take the kids and fixes the school bus to accommodate the kids also. I think one of the boys may have been named Oliver -- called Ollie? -- and there was definitely a chapter where the Professor is surprised to come across one of the boys practicing a musical instrument (some kind of wind instrument, I think) because there has been no sign of this previously in the summer; the boy doesn't like practicing because he isn't very good at it; he knows what the instrument should sound like when played well and he can't seem to do it. And the book ends at the end of the summer with the bus going home and the families welcoming the kids back.

It is not part of the Magic School Bus series in fact I don't think it's in a series at all, but I associate it in my mind with Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Can anyone please help?

full_metal_ox

(Crossposted to

whatwasthatbook.)

I recall having read this one in the Seventies, most likely as part of an Alfred Hitchcock anthology. The setting is somewhere in the Amazon region; a native girl performs a dance that her culture uses as a passionate declaration of true love and eternal fidelity, and some boorish Yankee tourist (I don't remember whether he was the intended recipient) insults her by flinging silver dollars at her feet--as if she were doing no more than busking.

We later learn that a visiting American has been staked out and devoured alive by army ants; turns out that he wasn't the offender, but he happened to pay his bar tab in American silver dollars...

(This story made such an impression that--something like four decades later--I always ask street performers, "Are you accepting donations?" if there isn't a hat or similar receptacle in evidence.)

ETA:

mildred_of_midgard has ID'd the story as "Pieces of Silver" by Brett Halliday, from Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night(1961), ed. Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Arthur (reprinted by permission of the author; copyright, 1938, by David Dresser.)

sholio

I was talking to a friend about this book today and realized that I am now dying to know the title/author, but I can't remember that part at all, even though I remember the book very well.

I read this book as a kid in the 80s, but I think it used to be my mother's book when she was a kid, so it was probably published somewhere in the 1950s or 60s, no later than the early 70s. It's middle-grade reading level.

The plot (which I remember in surprising detail; I really liked this book and read it a lot) was about a suburban housewife, stressed and overwhelmed with kids/husband/generally being a 1950s housewife, who snaps one day and just stops giving a damn. Her new lightness of mood makes her start floating. Her family freaks out, but she's actually pretty happy about it (mostly because she just doesn't care anymore, about them or anything else). A screwball comedy ensues in which her frantic family tries to keep her from floating away, the media shows up, etc. Eventually they do actually lose their grip on her outside, and she floats away like a runaway balloon, at which point an all-out rescue effort ensues, because she's going to eventually float high enough that she'll either asphyxiate or freeze to death. However, the book's style is still a light comedy style even when they're scrambling to try to save her life.

This is an incredibly weird book because of the style/content mismatch; I mean it's basically a funny book aimed at kids that's about a family trying to save their suicidally depressed mom. Which is one reason why I want to find it again and find out if it's actually as bizarre as I remember.

Other things I remember about the book:

- There were cute little illustrations in a cartoony lineart style. I think the cover might've been a cartoony drawing of the mom falling or floating while everyone tries to catch her.

- The book was surprisingly educational about different kinds of clouds, layers of atmosphere, and so forth. The mom was either some kind of scientist before she quit to have kids, or she was just really into it as a hobby, but she named all her kids after different kinds of clouds, and a lot of her narration as she's floating has to do with the layers of atmosphere that she's passing through and that kind of thing. This was the book that first introduced me to the jetstream (because she gets caught up in it).

- I vaguely recall that the title is one of those "does what it says on the tin" titles like you typically got with kids' books in that era, but (in keeping with the rest of the book) there may have been some sort of weird twist to it. I think it may have included "Mother" or "Mom" in the title (something like "Runaway Mom" or "The Flying Mother" except not actually either of those), but I'm not completely sure about that.

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Entries tagged with 1960s

60’s black-and-white Warren comic story where someone destroys all magic?

Heading West On The Oregon or Mormon Trail YA Book

Summer on a school bus

Horror short story involving army ants and silver dollars?

Looking for a kids' book from the 1950s/60s

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