I have been trying to find this book since my first child was born 15 years ago. It was my favorite when I was about 8 or 9, I think, but I never owned it; I would just choose it over and over again from its spot on the shelf in our local library, never committing the title or author to memory.
The protagonist is a young girl who has a wacky family—perhaps they’d be described as “dysfunctional” nowadays but that was not a term at the time. The story is full of mishaps and made me laugh out loud each time I read it. There are line drawings in the book and one I can recall is of the girl (or maybe her father) heading out of the house for a beach trip loaded down with supplies. The dad is kind of grumpy, as I recall. I was reading it in the late 70s so I assume it was published earlier that decade. It was of that era and the copy I read was hardcover.
This is not a lot to go on, I realize. But perhaps someone out there will recognize my brief recollections. I hope!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Maybe Henry Reed’s Journey by Keith Robertson? I don’t remember the specific illustration but the illustrations were line drawings. It is about Henry going on a cross-country vacation with Midge and her parents and Midge’s father was certainly grumpy by the end of the journey. This book is laugh-out-loud funny-at one point they pretend they have lowered Midge over the side of the Grand Canyon to retrieve lost keys-and was in our school library in the 70s.
That’s not the book I’m remembering, but thank you for the thought.
Possibly one of Helen Cresswell’s series about the Bagthorpes?
Cheaper by the dozen?