Finding That Book
It's that book you read as a kid and loved, but you're vague on the title and the author's name went right by you. You remember it had a red cover, and exactly where it was in the school library of an elementary school that has been closed for a couple of decades, and a good bit of the plot. And no, you're pretty sure it wasn't the well-known book that's suggested, because there are key differences in the plot, and you know when you read the well-known book.
All of us who've done a lot of reading from an early age have some books like that, that we'd love to re-read, but can't find because we can't remember the information that is critical for searching online catalogs and other resources. Even the average reference librarian is apt to be stumped after a few searches for the obvious possibilities.
However, there are some librarians at the New York Public Library who make it their job to track down those books so that readers can enjoy them once again. Sometimes it proves easy -- someone on staff happens to know the book well, and recognizes it from the odd clues the reader provides. Others are far more difficult, and sometimes key details of a reader's recollection prove downright wrong. But there's always delight when they've successfully tracked down a half-forgotten book.
In my case, I almost had the title right. I thought it was Young People on Mars, when it was in fact Young Visitor to Mars by Richard Elam. It had a very similar plot to Robert Silverberg's Lost Race of Mars, but while Silverberg's family was to stay only one year and the human settlement was one giant dome, Elam's family was coming for a permanent research assignment and housing was in individual dome houses, rather like a Martian version of a typical American suburb. Once I had the correct title, I was able to go to Project Gutenberg and read a digital facsimile copy, complete with the black-and-white illustrations I remembered from reading it again and again in third, fourth and fifth grade.
Some day I may try to acquire a hardcopy version of it, just for old time's sake. Right now I'm satisfied with looking at the digital version on Gutenberg, and knowing that it's out there whenever I want to read it and maybe rediscover details I'd forgotten over the years.
All of us who've done a lot of reading from an early age have some books like that, that we'd love to re-read, but can't find because we can't remember the information that is critical for searching online catalogs and other resources. Even the average reference librarian is apt to be stumped after a few searches for the obvious possibilities.
However, there are some librarians at the New York Public Library who make it their job to track down those books so that readers can enjoy them once again. Sometimes it proves easy -- someone on staff happens to know the book well, and recognizes it from the odd clues the reader provides. Others are far more difficult, and sometimes key details of a reader's recollection prove downright wrong. But there's always delight when they've successfully tracked down a half-forgotten book.
In my case, I almost had the title right. I thought it was Young People on Mars, when it was in fact Young Visitor to Mars by Richard Elam. It had a very similar plot to Robert Silverberg's Lost Race of Mars, but while Silverberg's family was to stay only one year and the human settlement was one giant dome, Elam's family was coming for a permanent research assignment and housing was in individual dome houses, rather like a Martian version of a typical American suburb. Once I had the correct title, I was able to go to Project Gutenberg and read a digital facsimile copy, complete with the black-and-white illustrations I remembered from reading it again and again in third, fourth and fifth grade.
Some day I may try to acquire a hardcopy version of it, just for old time's sake. Right now I'm satisfied with looking at the digital version on Gutenberg, and knowing that it's out there whenever I want to read it and maybe rediscover details I'd forgotten over the years.