> I hate to sort of hijack a very interesting thread, but Sam, could you please give some more info about these books?

Ok...

> Some specifics I do remember:

What you are describing isn't the same as what I'm talking about. I'm not sure what you read, but he didn't have an older brother, and there wasn't anything so weird as what you describe about getting sick.

These books are by Henry Shute, and the first is called "The Real Diary of a Real Boy." The next one is "Sequil" [sic] and subtitled "Things Whitch Aint Finished In The Real Diary of a Real Boy." After that, there were quite a number of other volumes (although I suspect he started making up diary material after that) and also some straight novels, which aren't as fun because the spelling is right.

Here's an excerpt from "Sequil" that is quite typical:

July 2. brite and fair. i bougt 5 bunches of snapcrackers and 2 bunches of canon crackers and sum slow mach and put them in a box in my room. tomorow is the nite before fourth. Pewt is going to have a pistol and Beany a canon. father he says if he hears of me fooling with a gun he will lick me and send me to bed for a week. ennyway he dident say ennything about a pistol or a canon.

July 3. gosh i was scart today. this morning i went up to my room to look at my snap crackers. i got the box on the floor and was counting them when i looked out of the window. i saw old Miss Hartnett hanging out sum close on the line, i thougt i cood make her gump and i wanted to try jest one canon cracker to see if they was good ones. well i lit one and pluged it down behind her, and jest as she was reeching up with her mouth full of close pins it went of bang, and she hollered love of God and went rite over backwards. i thougt i shood die and jest then one went of bang rite in the room and then they all begun to go of bang bang bang and i grabed the box up and pluged it out of the window and mother came up jest hipering and the room was full of smoke and i was stamping out the burning paper. well when i got it out she was prety mad with me and made me clean the room and wash the floor and windows. ferst i went out and picked up my snapcrackers. they were all rite but all the canon crackers but 2 had went of. Mother she asked me how they got afire and i said i was fooling with them and they got on fire and i had to plug them out of the window. then she said that was what fritened Miss Hartnett so and i said was she fritened and she said she was so fritened that she fell over backwards and i said is that so. mother dont know i did it on purpose whitch is prety good luck for me, so she only made me keep my snapcrackers in the yard. so i put them in a hole in the apple tree. gosh, you aught to hear Miss Hartnett tell about it.

July 7. brite and fair. i have been in bed 3 days. on the fourth i got bloan up with Pewts canon. i had fired all my snapcrackers but 2 bunches whitch i had saved for nite, so me and Pewt we was fixing the canon, ferst we wood put in sum powder and then we wood put in sum wet paper for a wod and then we wood put in sum grass and then put in the ramrod and pound it down with a rock. then we wood put a fuze of a snap cracker in the tuch hole and lite it and put for the other side of the street and it wood make an auful bang and tern 2 or 3 sumersets. Well we had lots of fun and bimeby i was poaring out sum powder out of the powder horn and all of a suddin they was a flash of litening and the next i knew i was in bed and father and mother and Cele and Keene and docter Perry and aunt Sarah and aunt Clark and Georgie was in the room, and i said what is the matter and mother began to laff and then to cry and Docter Perry he said you had better take her out and let her lie down, but mother she said she wood be all rite and docter he said you needent worry Missis Shute, you coodent kill this boy with brik. well my eyes smarted and i felt like the room was spinning round but it dident hurt enny. well that nite i coodent go to the band concert but they pushed my bed up to the window and i cood hear it prety good. the next day i had sum buly gelly and oranges and Cele and Keene read to me and in the afternoon Beany came in to see me. Beany he burnt his hand on the fourth and Pewt he burnt of one eyebrow and so we all had a prety good fourth. Yesterday Boog and Puzzy came down and fit for me until mother came up. i am all rite now and tomorow i can go in swiming. it was the babys berthday today. he was just 1 year old. he is a auful fat little baby, when i was sick mother wood let him sit on the bed.