After Nic singing my praises in the last post, several people have come into the shop this week, rolling their sleeves up and ready to challenge my excellent searching techniques. And of course, muggins here has had some notable failures.
One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing, etc.
(Incidentally, this has shown just how many of our customers are now reading the blog - this has presented a dilemma. Do we carry on revealing our sometimes embarrassing experiences and failures in running Mostly Books, or do we now present ourselves - swan like - as effortlessly professional booksellers. Mmm. Tricky one.)
Anyway - admitting defeat, here are a couple of the harder requests this week:
- A book on the rules of cricket - written for children (10-13 years). I have cheekily posted this query over on Charkblog as well, as cricket is a topic that comes up frequently.
- Children's book involving a "boy who dreams of a rocket"
Any help gratefully received as always...
I think my brother had a book simply called "Cricket"...which had the rules in. I searched on Amazon and I think it might have been this one by Andy Sellin: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cricket-Go-Sport-S-/dp/075021032X/sr=1-12/qid=1157203129/ref=sr_1_12/026-4237270-8969215?ie=UTF8&s=books
ReplyDeleteIts a bit old though, sorry. A little bird tells me that the Dangerous Book for Boys thing might have cricket rules in too.
Yes, I agree re Dangerous Book for Boys, but also, you could try A&C Black publishers; they are republishing Know the Game: Cricket in October at £4.99 and it's a great series.
ReplyDeleteAnna.
I think people are testing you there. These requests are too vague to be real!
ReplyDeletePerhaps - the 'boy dreaming of a rocket' does sound a bit too vague, but I think the cricket one was a genuine query. She'd already been to the library, and nothing doing. Plus she'd never read this blog!
ReplyDeleteHaving given this some thought over the weekend, and remembering that the customer said he thought it had a blue cover, I'm wondering if it might be "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers. There is a rocket on the front...
ReplyDeleteIt's not "Whatever Next!" by Jill Murphy (ISBN: 033363621X) is it?
ReplyDeleteThat's about a baby bear who travels to the moon in a rocket made from a cardboard box.
It's one of Ben's favourites!
All the best,
Andrew
Customer challenge update:
ReplyDeleteWe finally settled on "Rooftop Rocket Party" by Roland Chambers and "Q Pootle 5 in Space" by Nick Butterworth (the mystery book was never identified, but we now have a much better range of space books in the children's room!)
With A&C Black going through reprint, I've identified "The Ultimate Guide to Cricket" by Gavin Mortimer. Whilst not a strict rulebook, it intersperes specific focuses on areas of the game with facts and figures, which should be great for the age range of the two boys. Fingers crossed.
Thanks everyone for the tips...
Ok after dissing the rocket book, I set my friend the Librarian onto this task and she came up with a biography of a Nasa astronaut who dreamt of rockets as a boy. And what's completely fantastic about her find is that she never told me the title of the book, so my description is almost as vague as the one you were given!
ReplyDeleteNot "Rocket Boys" by the unlikely sounding Homer H Hickam? I've read it, and it's brilliant, but sadly not a kids book (maybe a big kids book...)
ReplyDelete