I remember the cover was white with a monochromatic pencil-style drawing of a rundown old house with a bit of grass/ground in the foreground.
A lonely, rejected boy named Toby is forced into this spooky house by bullies, I believe near Halloween. The boy is 12? Possibly younger? I’m sure his name is Toby, and that is likely the name of the book, but I can’t find it by that title anywhere.
He has to spend the night in this old house because the bullies block/locked the doors. I believe he was locked in the attic? Or stayed there overnight. He learned that his fears are in his head and he needn’t fear his imagination.
I read it before 1980, so it would be at least that old, but not much older.
It isn’t long, or large. It might even be a short story, but I’ve not been able to find one by that title that fits the story either.
The cover reminded me of Where the Sidewalk Ends in style of drawing.
FOUND! Yes, found! Already! Thanks to Mellissa at Old Children’s Books https://www.oldchildrensbooks.com/looking-for-a-book#comment-5130079892
Toby
Wallace, Art
Published by BOUBLEDAY, NY, 1971
Illustrator: JANE ARMSTRONG WALWORTH
Hardcover : 117 pages
ISBN-10 : 0385005911
ISBN-13 : 978-0385005913
IMAGE
https://pictures.abebooks.com/PRINCETN/30158335631.jpg
From the Kirkus review “Toby’s problem — convincing his new classmates that he is not a “”creep,”” merely a genius — involves him in a series of dangerous escapades from near manslaughter to rappelling down a bicycle chain out of an attic window.”
It’s been out of print for ages, and was reprinted as “Toby and the Phantoms of Fourth Grade”
THANK YOU HERE AT LOGANBERRY BOOKS as well as Mellissa