What old children's/young adult book am I remembering?

Cafe Society
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Isn’t it funny how when you’re a kid you read all these books that are old or British or something and describe ways of life foreign to you in an everyday manner and it seems totally normal to you? You don’t even think of it being “in the past” or anything, it’s just kind of “how things are in this book”? My mom is much older than most mothers her age, so the books she handed to me were probably the books she loved as a child and I think I got more than most kids my age with phone numbers that were words and milkmen and carrying your books in a strap and such.

I was telling my boyfriend about this particular bit in a book just a few days ago, and I was thinking it was in one of the Betsy books (Betsy-Tacy all the way through Betsy’s Wedding), which happily led me to pick those up again, but there’s no way - Betsy’s a child in the early 1900’s, she’s not going to be the right age for this, surely. So what was it?

My mom was born in 1941 and she’s probably the one who suggested I read it, unless I got it through browsing at the library. I would have read it in the late 80’s. It was one of those “everyday teenager’s slice of life” sort of books, and I’m not sure when it was set but I think the setting was probably contemporaneous with the book. The episode I remember has the protagonist, a teenager, going to the movies with her friends (one or two friends.) There is a list on the refrigerator door of the current movies playing with their ratings (letter grades) by some sort of board (Catholic?), and she was only allowed to see I think the A movies, or possibly the As and Bs. Her friend dared them into seeing a “forbidden” movie, and they went and watched it, but a lady in the movie took her scarf(?) off and they were sure she was going to get naked, so the protagonist left but at least one of the girls stayed and later reported that she didn’t even take anything else off.

I thought that was the same book as a bit about giving up things for Lent, and the girl loved fudge and gave it up, and of course there was fudge everywhere that Lent and she put it under her bed to eat after Easter but it got all moldy. I think that might actually be Betsy, though, so it seems I don’t remember anything else about the book I’m trying to think of.
ETA - Speaking of phone numbers that are words, did you know that Pennsylvania 6-5000 will still get you the Pennsylvania Hotel? I imagine you also need the area code, though.

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Missed the edit window - a little research suggests the ratings may have been the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting ratings. I think I recall that some were A+, some A-, etc. They have been rating since 1933 and used B and C ratings until 1982, so this could have been any time up to them but I’d guess was probably somewhere between the 40’s and the 60’s.

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I don’t think I know the book you’re asking about, but I recognize the fudge incident as being from one of the later Betsy books. So I think you’re right that this probably did not happen in the mystery book as well.

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Oh, damn, I know the book you’re talking about, but I can’t remember the title.

The movie ratings are definitely Catholic – it is a Catholic school story, set around the 1940s or 1950s. One of the protagonist’s best friends (the wild one who talks her into going to the movie) is named Aileen; I think the other one (the “good girl” of the group) is named Margaret Mary, or something similar?

I have an even vaguer idea that the protagonist’s name is Katie, but I could very well be wrong about that.

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While this thread is here, lemme ask one. I remember the plot and everything really well, just not the title.

Okay, so there’s this kingdom. And it’s really famous for its cheese. People all across the land come for its cheese, because it’s delicious.

And because of that, there are these mice that hang around the palace, eating cheese and generally making a nusaince of themselves.

And the king is really annoyed by this, because they’re vermin. So he asks his 3 wise men to help and they say, “Don’t worry, we’ve got just the thing.” So they bring a bunch of cats out to catch the mice. And it works. The mice are gone. But now the cats are being annoying, shedding everywhere, jumping on people’s laps…the works. The king quickly finds this intolerable, so he goes to his wise men again and asks them to fix it. They get a bunch of dogs out to chase out the cats.

You can probably see the pattern. They go through a whole bunch of animals that are increasingly wild and disasterous. By the end of it, they’ve brought in elephants to chase out…I dunno…hippos, or something. That went bad quickly. The king is, at this point, much more ragged. When he asks, they bring in…wait for it…

The mice again. Because elephants are scared of mice, see?

In my head, the king sends the wise men out on their collective butts. But I’m pretty sure that’s not in the books. Anyway, the king, having exhausted his animal-related problems, decides to negotiate with the mice, who prove surprisingly negotiationable. He gives them some food, they promise…not to be annoying, I guess. And the moral is about the futility of violence and escelation.

Any ideas?

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I remember always wanting to go to a Condemned movie. The Catholic Times used to call them that–CONDEMNED!

The only Catholic school story that’s popping into my head is Virgins, but I’m guessing that’s not the one.

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The King, the Mice and the Cheese

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:smack:

That makes sense.

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I’m positive I read this as well, but I forget the name of it. This is the name book where the protagonist’s parents tell her she was born in another country, and she develops this elaborate fantasy about how she’s actually English and is a member of the British royal family, and then her parents tell her she was born in…Canada. Right? This is the same book, right? Or maybe it was a sequel. Hm.

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Two friends, one was “Margaret Mary,” the other was something else? They stole wedding cake and put it under their pillows?
Was it called “Kitty in the Middle”?

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The Catholic teenage girl sounds like the Beany Malone books, by Lenora Mattingly Weber. They’re set in the 40’s and are very Catholic.

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I’ve never read it, but there is a book called Kitty in the Middle by Judy Delton about a young Catholic girl named Kitty and her two friends Margaret Mary and Eileen. This was actually part of a series of four books about Kitty published between 1979 and 1987. The series was set in the 1940s, though. I’m sure this is what you and Fretful Porpentine are thinking of, although it may or may not be what Zsofia is looking for.

Delton is the author of a number of other books, including a series I do remember reading about a girl named Angel whose mother (either a widow or a divorcee) started dating, remarried, and had another baby.

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I may have asked this here at SD before, but I would love to get a copy of a book I believe was called Mickey O’Brian. It’s the harrowing tale (at least to a second-grade girl) of an awful, bad boy named Mickey who did dangerous and life-threatening things like luring his best friend to walk along the edge of the roof of the church. God, that book gave me nightmares. Mickey grew up and became a priest, of course.

Sister Mary Roberta read it to us aloud, a chapter at a time, and I thought I would throw up from the tension.

Googling gets me nothing. Anyone ever heard of it? I would have been a second grader around 1970.

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I can’t find much of a plot description, but the likeliest match in WorldCat is a children’s book called Mickey O’Brien by Gerald Kelly and Don Sharkey. It was published in 1954, and there’s a note in the record saying it was originally a serial in Young Catholic Messenger.

It looks like this book is long out of print, but you may be able to find it secondhand somewhere.

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Oh, I remember that now! That made my mother FURIOUS when I put a piece of wedding cake under my pillow - she said that in the future if I was going to do that then it had to go UNDER the bed.

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I used to work in a bookstore that had a used book section, and they would do out of print book searches. They had a lot of connections with dealers and such. I’m sure there’s someone who does that sort of thing in your area. Check your local used bookstore.

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I wanted to do that - but never had wedding cake handy.
I always wondered how that was supposed to work.

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So, is Kitty In The Middle the book the OP wanted?

I’ve got another mystery, and even the booksleuths over at abebooks couldn’t figure it out: A children’s book. A young girl (somewhere between 11-14) takes a ferry to go to her grandparents’ house, and thinks about how the island they live on resembles a mitten in shape. The island is probably in the northeast, and something bad has happened to one of the grandparents, like a stroke or death, which is why the girl is going to their house.

If anyone can figure this one out, there’s the one about the Canadian midwife and how goose-grease increased infant mortality in her villiage…

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I’m requesting our only copy from the library in East Bumfuck to find out.

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Is there a problem or mystery for the girl to solve or is it just a family story? The set-up sounds kind of like those old Phyllis A Whitney children’s books. Usually the girl is around 11-13.