I checked this book out multiple times from our public library. Author’s name must begin with Bu-Ea based on shelf location (preceded Eager; after Burnett), is not Ruth Chew after reviewing her catalog. Previous helpful respondents from other attempted search sites have suggested A Walk in Wolf Wood (Mary Stewart) or A Walk out of the World (Ruth Nichols), which are lovely and similar, but incorrect (my lovely childhood public librarians were not illiterate enough to repeatedly mis-shelve this book, and my memory is solid about where it was located on the shelves).
This is a beautifully illustrated, middle-reader American (I think) fantasy book about a brother/sister or possibly male/female friends who somehow stumbled from their somewhat urban home/apartment building into a medieval setting when coming home from school one day in the woods near their home.
Sister ends up spending time with women from the group (I remember some looming?) and brother with the men (possibly becoming a page/squire?) There is maybe a joust, some magic or Merlin-y magician, the illustrations were very lovely with lots of woods/trees. Cover art and some interior pen+ink drawings reminded me of the cover to the film adaptation of Camelot.
I was born in 1970 and was a very early and voracious reader, so this book cannot have been published much later than 1976; my guess (contextually) is that it’s most-likely a little earlier than that.
Many thanks!!
That is my era. I don’t recognize the book, but the best illustrator during that time was Trina Schart Hyman. You could look at the wikipedia listing for her and see if any of her books rings a bell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trina_Schart_Hyman
She is a very ethereal illustrator and I admire so much of her work in other beloved books (including, I think, another stumper this site helped me with a few years ago: “Who Says So?” by Paula Hendrich), but I don’t think she was illustrator for this one. The art I recall was slightly more psychedelic/swirly than Schart Hyman’s style.
Possibly A Walk Out of the World by Ruth Nichols.
As I said in my original post, definitely not that one, although it does sound like it based on the description. 😉
Pamela Dean, The Secret Country
That sounds charming, and I’ll have to look at it, but The Secret Country was first published in 1985 when I was 15. Definitely far too late for the title for which I’m searching.
This sounds like Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager.
It does, a bit, but I am a big Eager fan, and it’s quite different stylistically from those (more realistic rather than fantastical, as in, nobody magics a pudding onto anyone’s nose to win a duel). 😉