What Is This Book?

[smitten]

So this is crazy. I've been looking for the name of a book I read as a child about a little girl and frost on the trees and a dream and winter, etc.

I had never been able to find it or figure out a name for it. I've posted about it on here I believe, and searched on Abe's books.

At the end of July, my sister, niece, and dad were visiting and we were looking at old family pictures. There was a picture of me on Christmas when I was about 3. And half of a book was visible, Deb Dre... So I added that to my search and found the freaking book: Debbie's Dream. It was an Americanization of a French series. It is so weird to see pictures from this book I've been thinking about for decades!!!

Never give up trying to find your books!

[Gigiree]

I've been thinking about a few novels I read decades ago. Does anyone know of a search engine I can use if I don't know the titles or authors but do remember tons of details from the stories themselves?

[chonies]

Sept 27, 2017 19:45:28 GMT -4 Gigiree said:

I've been thinking about a few novels I read decades ago. Does anyone know of a search engine I can use if I don't know the titles or authors but do remember tons of details from the stories themselves?

Yes. It's called CLC, or Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. From the publisher

: (CLCD) is the premier academic research and teaching tool for courses needing quality information for locating Children's and Young Adult books and other media

It's a subscription database, so if it's not available through your school's library, check with your public library or maybe a local university library. It's how I found Manwolf, my white whale. (I don't know what took me so long--the damn database was right there). You could also use worldcat, but that's clunky and not always responsive.

[Ninja Bunny]

So I'm trying to remember a children's or young adult book that was written probably in the late 70's or early 80's. It's set in a post-apocalyptic (nuclear?) world involving a group of children. The one scene I remember is the group of kids walking down a long road and one of them wondering how one giant rock/piece of stone was found to make the road (obviously this child had no idea how pavement is made and had no way to know how to find out). Unless I'm mixing my books up, I think they find an abandoned city and they find one male adult living there, IIRC, he's content living in his urban home surrounded by books he enjoys reading.

[chonies]

NinjaBunny, was there any chance the book jacket was a lavender or purple? It sounds vaguely familiar.

[chiqui]

Need some help here with a story from the Bible, Old Testament. A man tells God he wants to look upon his face. But God says no, that will surely kill him. So there is a compromise. An angel (?) carries the guy up to the top of a mountain, where the back side of God passes before him (as a child, I was sure this meant the butt of God!) and the man falls down, dumbstruck by what he's seen. I think it's Jacob, but I am not sure.

[Deleted]

Is it possible that this is some sort of legend you recall, rather than a story from the Bible? In any case, it wouldn't be Jacob (that would be the story of him dreaming of a heavenly ladder with angels climbing, but he was just a spectator).

[riosamba]

Oct 31, 2017 20:11:27 GMT -4 chiqui said:

Need some help here with a story from the Bible, Old Testament. A man tells God he wants to look upon his face. But God says no, that will surely kill him. So there is a compromise. An angel (?) carries the guy up to the top of a mountain, where the back side of God passes before him (as a child, I was sure this meant the butt of God!) and the man falls down, dumbstruck by what he's seen. I think it's Jacob, but I am not sure.

I believe that you are thinking of Exodus 33 & 34. Moses asks God to know His ways, and to find favor in His sight. Moses also asks for Israel to find favor with God, and that Israel may not be sent to Canaan without God's presence. Moses asks to see the glory of God.

God assures Moses on the latter counts, and they are said in some translations to communicate "face to face." This doesn't mean a literal seeing of God's face, but an intimate form of communication.

Eventually, God does allow Moses to see His glory in part (to know His ways). There is no literal face or backside, it is an anthropomorphic description of God allowing Moses to see that aspect of God which Moses can withstand. Many would say that God shows Moses His all encompassing love and power while shrouding His severity. It isn't a literal glimpse of a physical backside, it is a Spiritual glimpse of a less revealing part of God. When you look into someone's face and eyes, you receive much more of an impression of who the totality of who they are.

Some would say that no one could look upon the face of God (to see Him fully) without being destroyed. Others would say that to look upon the face of God would so radically change Moses that he would no longer serve the purpose God planned for him to lead the Israelites.

I'm leaving out much more than I'm explaining, and there are differing interpretations and viewpoints, but the essence is that the totality of God is more than a human can take in.

[chonies]

Exodus 33 is what I came up with, too. The KJV made me giggle blasphemously because it does indeed sound like a Monty Python cartoon: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

FWIW, Bible Gateway is a great site for searching the Bible and comparing translations.

[ladyboy]

I was racking my brain for the bit in the Bible where God moons somebody.