Downright Dencey
10 best books like Downright Dencey (Caroline Dale Snedeker): The Blue Cat of Castle Town, All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud, The Secret River, The Jumping-Off Place, Journey Outside, The Loner, When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories, Frontier Living: An Illustrated Guide to Pioneer Life in America, Belling the Tiger, Hurry Home, Candy
| Author | Catherine Cate Coblentz |
| ISBN | 0914378058 |
You're probably wondering why this book was awarded the Newbery Honor. It's obviously not very popular at all - less than 100 people have rated it! That should tell you something, right?
Wrong. I thought so, too, until I actually tried it for myself.
This is the story of a blue cat who...
| Author | Armstrong Sperry |
| ISBN | 0879235233 |
I found this title in an used bookstore in the little town of Columbia Falls, Montana, and paid $10 for it thinking it was a non-fiction account of the legendary sailing ship Flying Cloud. My copy is a 1935 edition and includes a very large number of superb woodcut illustrations. Instead of the factual...
| Author | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |
| ISBN | 1416911790 |
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings + Leo and Diane Dillon = pure magic!
A depression era story that is just as timely as it is enchanting, this is a stunning picture book for the ages.
There's just not enough not enough money, not enough food, not enough fish for her daddy to sell at the market. Hard times...
| Author | Marian Hurd McNeely |
| ISBN | 0979894042 |
This book follows the story of Becky (17), Dick (15), Phil (10) and Joan (8) Linville as they leave behind their home in Platteville, Wisconsin to homestead out in South Dakota in 1910. Their beloved Uncle Jim squatted the claim last fall, before his untimely death, and the children are determined to...
| Author | Mary Q. Steele |
| ISBN | 0140305882 |
Grandfather said they were headed for the Better Place, but Dilar suspected they were headed nowhere, simply following the dark underground river blindly. And so one night he leaped onto a shelf of rock and watched the flotilla of the Raft People disappear. And from there he found his way Outside, into...
| Author | Ester Wier |
| ISBN | 0590443526 |
Excellent story that I am sad to have never encountered before. It moves quickly, but covers a lot. There are a couple of early episodes that gave me a false sense of what the book would be, but after those, it settles in to a pretty focused setting and group of characters. One of those early episodes is very...
| Author | Isaac Bashevis Singer |
| ISBN | 0374383162 |
"In our time, when literature is losing its address and the telling of stories is becoming a forgotten art, children are the best readers."
—When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw & Other Stories, from the Foreward
I have to admit, Isaac Bashevis Singer really has a way with folk tale humor....
I did not read every word. It is very readable, but there was too much history (compared to the Guide as promised in the title) in it for me. The illustrations were great, esp. of the actually tools and gear. Now, I wouldn't necessarily object to all that text of Westward Ho, but too much of it was written in...
| Author | Mary Stolz |
| ISBN | 0762418893 |
At last, Mary Stolz's 1962 Newbery Honor-winning book is back. And now, for the first time, the classic story is brought to life with colorful illustrations in a picture book format. Award-winning illustrator Pierre Pratt adds whimsical new art to this charming tale about two little mice assigned...
| Author | Meindert DeJong |
| ISBN | 0064400255 |
Enjoyed on openlibrary.org.
Didn't feel a lot of depth. Some insights are nice, though. such as the description of Candy learning to play for the first time as a grown dog, how he took it so seriously.
The pictures by Sendak didn't quite reveal his genius, imo, but they are enjoyable....
| Author | Claire Huchet Bishop |
| ISBN | 0590457071 |
Oloo!-Oo-oo-oop!-ooooo! All alone, high on the slope of the Little Giant in the French Alps of Saucie, ten-year-old Marcel yodeled to keep himself company. Like other boys in his village, Marcel would have to look over the family's cows during the summer; and the flexible, age-old rule was, "Don't...
| Author | Marguerite de Angeli |
| ISBN | 0856860824 |
Vikings & Scotland in the 10th century.
"Now we shall go a-Viking," Harald Redbeard announced, and so it was that Kan and Brus, Harald's twin sons, found themselves on the dragon-prowed Raven of the Wind, its striped sails set for England. But storms, ancient enemies of the sea-faring...
| Author | Erick Berry |
| ISBN | 1589881206 |
Inas leaps at adventure. She dives to the bottom of the Aegean Sea to harvest sponges and somersaults over charging bulls in front of thousands of people. Best of all, she soars from cliffs wearing the glider-wings her father builds in secret, safe from the prying eyes of their neighbors, who think flying...
| Author | Mari Sandoz |
| ISBN | 0803291604 |
Praised for swift action and beauty of language, The Horsecatcher is Mari Sandoz's first novel about the Indians she knew so well. Without ever leaving the world of a Cheyenne tribe in the 1830s, she creates a youthful protagonist many readers will recognize in themselves. Young Elk is expected to be...
| Author | Mavis Jukes |
| ISBN | 0440421225 |
This is a brief story about an episode in the life of Alex and his stepfather, Jake. The two are not close, and a wolf spider on the porch brings them both the opportunity to start building a relationship. Since the story is so short, there is much left out. And the episode with the spider can read like slapstick....
| Author | Cyrus Fisher |
| ISBN | 0802776930 |
As read from OpenLibrary, I found this surprisingly charming.
It's mostly about the boy, John (Jean when he's in France) as he faces the challenges of growing from a pampered boy to a stronger and wiser young man. He's sort of forced to 'man up' in just a few weeks, as he's left to live with his 'oncle'...
| Author | Mabel Louise Robinson |
| ISBN | 0394909860 |
Born and raised on Bright Island off the Maine coast, Thankful Curtis is more like her sea captain grandfather than any of her older brothers are. Nothing suits her better than sailing and helping her father with the farm. But when her dreaded sisters-in-law suggest that Thankful get some proper schooling...
| Author | Cornelia Meigs |
| ISBN | 9997488687 |
One of five Newbery Honor Books for 1922, the year the award was first established, The Windy Hill is the story of fifteen-year-old Oliver Peyton, who, together with his younger sister Janet, comes to stay with his Cousin Jasper at his home in Medford Valley. Resentful at Cousin Jasper's unprecedented...
Prolific children's author Kathryn Lasky tells the story of sugaring season - that "time between the seasons... when winter seems tired and spring is only a hoped for thing" - in this beautifully-written work of picture-book non-fiction. Her lyrical but informative text is paired with her husband...
I guess I'm not a Caudill fan across the board. It wasn't like this was terrible; it just wasn't terribly good either. The family relationships weren't sweet like I assumed they would be since several of her other books score nicely on that point. And it was just kind of boring ...
In 1780, Stephanie...
| Author | James Cloyd Bowman |
| ISBN | 1590172248 |
“Pecos Bill had the strangest and most exciting experience any boy ever had. He became a member of a pack of wild Coyotes, and until he was a grown man, believed that his name was Cropear, and that he was a full-blooded Coyote. Later he discovered that he was a human being and very shortly thereafter became...
| Author | William Bowen |
| ISBN | 9997488679 |
The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure is a children's fantasy novel by William Bowen that was named a Newbery Honor book.
Five-year-old Freddie meets the owner of a nearby tobacco shop, Mr. Toby Littleback; his old-maid aunt, Aunt Amanda; and...
| Author | Eleanore M. Jewett |
| ISBN | 1883937485 |
Amidst great mystery, Hugh is left in the care of Glastonbury Abbey by his father who must flee to England too swiftly to be burdened by a crippled son.
Dicckon struck flint and lit a candle, then led the way into the dark passage. "What is this place?" asked Hugh. A sudden turn and they were in a low...
