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248F: A magic mansion and a tongue thief (Solved)

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This is a book I read in 2006 or 2007, there are two little boys that at some point walk through a bunch of fog and end up at some kind of magic mansion where there’s a bunch of other kids. The mansion is maintained by a number of caretakers who can give the kids whatever they want and let them do whatever they want. There is also an old woman who tells the boys she’s lived there for ages and when she was a young girl the caretakers gave her as many cats as she wanted. At one point in the story it mentions one of her cats that has a tail curved like a question mark and it some how gets boiling water splashed on it and it runs in circles then drops dead. She also tells the boys about one of the caretakers who sits on the roof of the mansion and watches all of the kids to make sure they don’t try to leave. He kills any that do. He has big bat wings, his neck is made out of the tongues of the kids he killed, and his mouth is filled with their teeth. I vaguely recall him being referred to as some kind of brother and possibly being nicknamed the tongue thief. Eventually the boys want to go home, so the women tells them how to get past the beast on the roof and how to get through the fog. The boys make it out into the real world after being at the mansion maybe a week but realize that decades have past in the real world and their families are all old. The boys go back to the mansion to try and find a way back into their own timeline. That’s all I remember. I’m sorry about how scatter brained this sounds, but I wanted to get out as many details as possible because I really want to find this book.

248E: A mage with white eyebrows

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There’s a girl staying in a castle (I think), and she falls in love with this man who is actually a Mage. All I can remember is that he has white eyebrows and his feet don’t touch the ground. She doesn’t find that out until later in the book.

248F: Door in a tree with stairs leading down underground

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This is just a fragment! But if you could help me I would so appreciate it.
I grew up in Australia in the 1960s-1970s, and was obsessed with a picture book that featured the main character finding a tree with a small door at its base. The tree had gnarled/ exaggerated roots. The character went through the door and down a flight of stone stairs into what I remember to be a kitchen/witch’s den, lit up with yellows and oranges from an open fire. I cannot remember what happened next – but obviously it is terribly important if I keep searching for this book! 🙂
It is not the Berenstain’s Scary Tree story although slightly familiar in concept.

Thanks so much
Julia

248D: A God Named One

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I read a book many years ago, I’m assuming it’s a piece of fine grocery store literature. My memory follows:

A book set in the future, where there are many religions and people proselytizing in the streets. The main “bad guy” is the leader of a church that was created by a corporation. The part that sticks with me is they used a computer to write the bible, filled with contradictions and vagaries because that way people can interpret as they wish. The bible pages were coated in a mild hallucinogenic and another chemical (I don’t remember). As the book progresses the main character ends up being turned into the Satan to the god named one, while the leader of the corporation becomes the “Jesus” character.

One line I remember is “The computer found a 3 character name to be the most powerful, and the computer recommended either One or Bob” The main character then says “So your god could have been named Bob?”.

248B: He dreamed of pheasant hunting

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I am looking for book I read back around 1970 at our local library-already checked with them.

It is a short hardcover bound youth book written probably for ages 8-12. I suspect it was probably written no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1970, by I suspect a minor author.

The short story, as I recall, is about a young boy who obsessively thinks and dreams about going pheasant hunting, he eventually does go pheasant hunting, gets all scratched up in the thickets chasing the elusive ring necked pheasant and after a long unsuccessful day of hunting I believe his father ends up buying some pheasants to take home so his son does not feel unsuccessful.

As I recall the book had a blue cloth cover with black impressed line drawing of a pheasant or two and perhaps a shotgun.

I would like to buy this book, not really concerned about the price-want to give it to my son.

It is for sure not “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Thanks

248A: Woodland Creatures’ Christmas

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I am looking for a book that was given to my brother in the late 70’s possibly very early 80’s. It was a beautifully illustrated children’s book, similar to Jan Brett. Woodland creatures in a snowy forest, including a hedgehog or porcupine, celebrating Christmas. The end of the book has them finding a candle lit carousel in the woods. Those are the only details that I remember! Have been looking for this book for a long time!
Thank you!

247F: Peccaries in the Rain Forest

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This was a book for littler kids, ages 8 and under, more or less.  This book was read between 1972-1980.  I vaguely remember it being a thin but large paperback.

The main characters were rain-forest animals and the book took place in a rain forest and at least part of it was set at night.  There were peccaries as characters.  Something was happening in the jungle, at night, that the animals were preparing for. The peccaries were really funny characters.

 

247D: Beautifully illustrated, cobwebby witches: Agatha and Hecate (Solved)

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This was a paperback, and I was born in 1974 so I would have read this sometime between, day, 1980 and 1988.  Probably suited for ages 6-12.

There were beautiful spidery-looking line drawing illustrations –  almost like Edward Gorey’s but a bit more complex and not so cartoony.

 

There were witch sisters, Agatha and Hecate.  They were not good witches.  There was a misguided/bad man who worked for the witches named Oswald.  The main characters were (maybe) siblings and the other main character was a girl they met who knew her way around the magical world where the witches were, and the lot of them got out of troublesome situations by stomping three times on a manhole cover.  when they did that, they would instantly be whisked out of the place and land somewhere else.  They used this at least once to escape the witches and Oswald.