Ruth Christoffer Carlsen (1918–2006)

Minor collection of short stories and recollections intended for teen readers. There's a simple but effective piece by John D. MacDonald, and a more entertaining reminiscence by John Steinbeck about some of his old cars and the days when people fixed their own cars unlike 1956, when Steinbeck wrote the piece. The last story in the book is a true one of race car driver Jimmy Bryan's preparations in the day leading up to the 1958 Indianapolis 500. At the end of the story, we are told that he won - avoiding a 16 car pile-up that killed one driver. And on that note the book ends - but my own search of the Internet on this driver left me depressed, as I found out he himself died less than two years later at a race on the Langhorne track near Philadelphia. Given the publication date of this book (1966), it seems very strange that this story would have been included, or was it intended to have some special meaning for an audience where many of the readers knew Jimmy Bryan was already dead?

The other stories are pretty minor and not all well-written, but with a cover and a title like this, it was an impossible impulse to resist at $1.50 in the used book store.… (mehr)

This is one of the books I loved as a girl, then couldn't remember the name of for many years and wanted so much to read again! One lucky day, I found a beat up copy of it at Goodwill, and was so thrilled! It was as good as I remembered---an older man babysits some children. He is somewhat magical, and they have adventures like flying around in a bathtub and having all the faucets in the house give out different flavors of soda. I always loved the end of the book best, when Mr. Pudgins makes Christmas ornaments from bubbles, each of which have a little scene inside, and one of the scenes tells him that another girl he has cared for is very sick and he needs to go to her. I always wished there was a sequel!… (mehr)