My teacher, in either elementary or middle school, read a book to our class about siblings who went to their grandmothers (or aunt’s) house to live for the summer. If I recall, one of the siblings, maybe the girl didn’t want to go. They play outside in the gardens and orchard and end up trying to solve a mystery which ends up having to do with a dollhouse.
Is it The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright?
Probably not it, but you might look at Mary Downing Hahn’s The Doll in the Garden.
Is this the book where there are also clues in the wallpaper in the house and the cover maybe had the young girl rinning through the gardens or maybe an orchard in the rain in a yellow rain slicker? And rubies ended up being hid in the dollhouse? Our teacher read us that in school but I cant remember the name!
I think you and I are thinking of the same book although I thought it was diamonds that were in the apples in the doll house!
I read this too, but all I remember is the cover of the book. It had a girl crouched in front of what seems to be a dollhouse, but the back half of the house is obviously real and outside. The “real” side of the cover has lots of green, and a big tree that figures in the story. The “dollhouse side and the girl have a very 80s look, and the colors are muted. The house is grey stone. There is someone who’s either fading into a ghost, or moving through time.
If it’s the same book, there’s an element of time travel.
The book was in the last row of fiction in my library. I want to say the author’s last name was Williams, or Wilson, or something like that. Then again, I seem to think it sat on the “Th..” shelf, so it may have been a “T” author instead.
So…not much help, but maybe someone else will recognize the description of the cover?
I was determined to find this book! And I did, but now I’m not sure it’s the one you’re looking for. The one I was thinking of was The Silver Tree, by Ruth Williams.
The summary doesn’t mention siblings, but it does have orchards, a mystery and a dollhouse. So…worth checking out, I guess!
You might be looking for Time Windows!
I’m almost entirely certain these aren’t the books you’re thinking of, but could it have been any of the books from The Green Knowe series?
This might be “Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze” by Elizabeth Enright.
The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden?
Hi there – I’ve been trying to find this book as well, and I think it’s Mystery at Cranberry Farm by Lynn Manuel!
I’m looking for this book too! Did you ever find it?
I think that it is Mystery at Cranberry Farm by Lynn Manuel!! I can’t seem to find the book however.