The story is about a boy whose father (parents?) left for a trip, leaving him with the cook/housekeeper. Before the present time, she had won a baking contest when the boy knocked some chocolate chips into her mix and she decided to leave them. After they were alone, he ordered a (real) magic kit from the back of a comic book and when he got it and used the wax to form a figure of the housekeeper and maybe cast some spell to make her very sleepy and she stayed in bed for the rest of the story until the end. He then set about on some adventures including one where he made a willow wand to help him find the perfect Christmas tree, which I believe he cut down and brought into the house. I don’t remember the other adventures but at the end of the book he warmed up the wax to break the spell and some of it melted into the fire and filled the house with smoke, just at the time the father/parents came back from their trip.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians by Mary Nash. It was bread pudding that had the chocolate chips! I love that book! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Coverlet_series
‘Mrs Coverlet’s Magicians’ by Mary Nash
Thank! I never read the 1st or 3rd books. Too bad I can’t find the 3rd as a used or eBook. I don’t want to spend $125 or more just to read it.
Mrs Coverlet’s Magicians by Mary Nash? Amazon description: It’s up to Molly and Malcolm to see that their brother “the Toad” has a proper Christmas when nosy Miss Penalty, who is babysitting while the housekeeper is away at a bake-off, comes down with a mysterious malady that “the Toad” may have caused.