I've been looking for it for years but I can't offer much in the way of
details. I don't remember the title or the publisher. I realize that
really narrows down things a bit...
All I can provide is that it was a reading textbook used at Morningside
Middle School (a 6th-grade only school) in Fort Worth, Texas, during the
'79/'80 school year.
There's one story in particular that I remember, and perhaps that may
help.
Can't remember the title, but the plot was this: it told the story of a
young boy in a German prison camp during World War II. One of the German
guards befriended him, but the boy was never 100% sure if the guard really
wanted to help him escape or if he was really trying to get him killed.
The
guard gave him detailed escape instructions on what to take, where to go,
what to do, exactly when, etc. The boy had to remember all of this, not
daring to write any of it down. If the guard was telling the truth, the
boy
would have all night to run away from the camp; but if the guard was
lying,
the boy would be shot for sure.
After the guard told him the detailed list of instructions, the boy
suddenly asked him, for no reason at all, "I'd like a piece of soap."
The guard thought for a moment, then reached into his desk and drew
forth a small bar of soap -- apparently quite a prize for any of the
numerous prisoners to have, and quite valuable. The guard banged it on
his
desk, and said, "Now, go."
The boy took the bar of soap and never let go of it -- even as he
literally ran for his life. The boy successfully escaped from the prison
camp and made it to safety.
I can't recall the title of this story or the author, but I do remember in
this middle-school class the teacher instructing us how vital a point
getting that bar of soap was. After all, if the guard was lying, he would
have refused to give the soap to the boy. But giving him such a valuable,
little thing, proved to the boy that the guard really wanted him to
escape.
There were plenty of other good stories in this text, too, but I likely
won't recall them until I can actually flip through it again. I'd
appreciate any and all help in this.
The only other clue I can provide is that the Fort Worth Independent
School
District at this time often used reading textbooks by the Houghton-Mifflin
Publi****ng Company. (They published all the readers in my elementary
school
in the late '70s.) I don't know if the book I'm looking for was also
published by the same company; it's only a guess.
Many thanks!!!!
Matt J. McCullar
Arlington, TX
|
