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Underground City in the Future
"I'm looking for the title of a Sci-Fi book I read in the late '70's to early '80's. I had picked it up from the children's cection of the local library and the only thing I know is some of the plot.
"It concerns two children or young adults in the future living underground in a mechanized society. They have studies, exercise in a spiral track, and their meals consist of taking a pill. There are rumors or teachings that the 'Outside' is a very hostile place. They either hear of how to get out or find it on their own. When they do get outside it is Eden-like, but I think the other human race is more Neanderthal-ish, but I can't remember. I don't remember how it ends, but their livelihood underground, their searching for a way out, and their fears of the outside take up the majority of the story. I recall this story once every couple of years and would love to be able to find it again."
Solution: The City Under Ground, by Suzanne Martel. Originally written in French and called Surreal 3000.
Viking, 1964.
Mrs. Santa Delivers Cookies
"Can you help me find a book from my childhood? It is a Christmas book, written to the 'Twas the night before Christmas' poem lines, but changed. It's about Mrs. Claus and I think a sugar plum sleigh and delivering cookies to orphans. The front illustration is very vivid to me. It was purple, and showed Mrs. Claus in the sleigh up in the air with a cookie jar tipping and spilling cookies over the side. I thought it was called something like "Mrs. Claus and the Sugar Plum Sleigh," but that might be wrong. The book was made of
thin paper, cover and pages all the same, more like a paper booklet. It had illustrations on every page. "
Solution: Mrs. Santa's Adventure in the Sugar Plum Sleigh. Published in 1962 by Phillips and Van Orden Co. as a Christmas present from Montgomery Ward. More information about the book can be found at Loganberry Books' Stump the Bookseller site: http://loganberrybooks.com/solved-m.html
Space Battle After Camping on Salisbury Plain
"I read this at about age 8, so it was about 1979. I think it was a paperback. It was about 3 children who go camping on Salisbury Plain. For some reason they go to Stonehenge. Then aliens come down, and the children are taken up to space and join in a battle ."
Solution: Star Quest: Spacejack, by Terrance Dicks. Target, 1978. A picture of the book can be found here: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/terrance-dicks/spacejack.htm
Dog's Homeless Owner Falls Ill, Dog Finds a Family
"When I was 13 (I am now 24) I read a book that I borrowed at the school library, and I loved it very much. Unfortunately, a few weeks after I returned the book, our school actually burned down so I lost any way of finding the book again. I remember I was so sad that I hadn't simply kept it past the return date and then it would have been in my possession permanently, hehe. I will try to remember as much as I can about the book's plot.
"There is a homeless man and his dog, I believe the dog was a Dachs but I cannot say for sure. These two have a special bond, but one day the man falls ill and has to go to the emergency room, leaving his little dog in the care of a very mean man, also homeless. I can't remember why, if it was to sell him or to make food of him, but the man tries to harm the little dog but he manages to escape. He travels for a while and experiences a lot of things and eventually he ends up with a family in a small town who take him in. He is very happy there, but his thoughts always return to his old master and he misses him. I can't remember how it comes about but the homeless man somehow finds his way to the town and they reunite. I believe the dog stays with the family, but I can't remember if the homeless man also stays or if he moves on."
Solution: Four Paws Into Adventure, by Claude Cenac. Illustrated by Brinton Turkle. Translated from the French by Sarah Chokla Gross. Franklin Watts, 1961.