What Is This Book?

[chiqui]

Bumping....

I am trying to remember the title and name of a short story I read in a high school advanced English class. I know the writer was American, and the story set before the 1930s. I think the writer was southern. The main character of the story was a young country woman who takes a long walk into town to see someone or buy something, and she is so poor she goes barefoot while carrying the only pair of good shoes she has so she can wear them in town and not ruin them on the dirt road. In the story the bad guys try to trick her, but she turns the tables and emerges victorious. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

[Deleted]

I am probably totally off-base here, but it sounds vaguely like it could be one of the stories from the book "The Nine Brides and Granny Hite." I haven't read it in some time, but I know one of the stories was about a girl walking into town to post a mail catalog order and what you describe sounds like it might possibly fit.

[widdlesarah]

Does anyone remember a kids' book about a caterpillar named William (I think) who is afraid of the dark, so he catches a lightning bug and traps him in a cage so his bedroom won't be dark at night anymore? William is happy at first, but then he wakes up and sees the lightning bug in the cage crying and saying he wants to go home. William feels guilty and unlocks the cage, but then starts crying himself and says "Now I'll be afraid of the dark again." So the Lightning bug tells him to think good thoughts about things like puppies and lollipops and he won't be scared anymore. So William does, and it works, and he's never scared of the dark again.

You'd think that would be specific enough that I could find this book, but I've searched the whole damn Internet and can't come up with anything. Possibly I have some details wrong, like maybe the caterpillar wasn't actually named William. If anyone knows this book, they get my eternal gratitude! (And BTW no, I don't know why William didn't just go out and buy a nightlight in the first place )

[chonies]

It sounds vaguely like Sam and the Firefly by PD Eastman but the details don't match.

[widdlesarah]

That's not it, I actually have that book too. Thanks, though! I would swear I just imagined this whole damn book but I can clearly see the cover in my mind and everything, I just have no idea of the author or title! I'm from Canada so it may be a Canadian book but Googling for that hasn't helped either.

[sumire]

Dec 29, 2015 4:33:06 GMT -4 widdlesarah said:

That's not it, I actually have that book too. Thanks, though! I would swear I just imagined this whole damn book but I can clearly see the cover in my mind and everything, I just have no idea of the author or title! I'm from Canada so it may be a Canadian book but Googling for that hasn't helped either.

What year did you read it? What did the book look like? Did it seem like it might have been part of a series? (I'm thinking more like a series of similarly-leveled easy reader books, or a series of similar "helping kids cope with problems" books, not so much a series all about that caterpillar.)

Did the caterpillar live alone? Were his parents butterflies? Any chance he might have been a centipede or some sort of worm instead? It seems odd to write a children's book about a caterpillar than has absolutely nothing to do with him turning into a butterfly.

ETA: I'm starting to waaay over-think this, but if the caterpillar and the lightning bug are both sentient beings that speak the same language, what kind of sociopath is the caterpillar to be capturing and imprisoning the lightning bug in the first place? Maybe the book has two lessons: 1) Don't be afraid of the dark, because puppies and lollipops. 2) Don't go home with a stranger because s/he might lock you in a cage.

[chonies]

I would also like to know more about The Sentient Caterpillar.

I am trying to remember a book/essay/article I read where a writer says something like, "a lot of people think writers neatly type their work, get to the last page of the final chapter, and click save and say, 'there' with a small sigh of satisfaction," obviously implying that writing can be weird, difficult and soul-trying work. I have the idea that the writer might be a popular columnist like Carolyn Hax, or perhaps someone like Jennifer Weiner, but it really could be anyone who is a writer and who has used a computer.

[Nysha]

I'm trying to remember a series of Sci-Fi books I read in the late 80s. A group of renegades was traveling the universe trying to collect rings that were worn by the leaders of different worlds in order to overthrow their evil overlords. I believe one of the main characters was a Native American, another was a woman who had to be continuously pregnant, there was a shapeshifter, and homosexual characters.

[smockery]

Apr 5, 2017 1:11:50 GMT -4 Nysha said:

I'm trying to remember a series of Sci-Fi books I read in the late 80s. A group of renegades was traveling the universe trying to collect rings that were worn by the leaders of different worlds in order to overthrow their evil overlords. I believe one of the main characters was a Native American, another was a woman who had to be continuously pregnant, there was a shapeshifter, and homosexual characters.

Wasn't that the Rings of the Master series by Jack L. Chalker?

[Nysha]

Aug 23, 2006 17:01:45 GMT -4 smockery said:

Wasn't that the Rings of the Master series by Jack L. Chalker?

Yes! Thank you! I want to see if it's available on Kindle.