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113B: Brother and sister find magic item – 2 books

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I remember reading two books by the same author one summer when I was about 10 to 12 (I was born in 68.)  I think there was a brother and a sister who may have been staying at an old house with a grandfather or uncle and they find some sort of magic item.  There may have been a magic genie involved.  Not sure.    I do distinctly remember one scene from one of the books and the brother, I believe, is caught in a large bubble and travels either to another place (the desert maybe) or travels to another time.  The other book by same author was similar but not sure if it contained the same characters.  Seems like covers were similar but with slight variations.  May have had a house on the front. 

113A: American woman seeking actor father in England—Christian book?

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 I think this book is from a Christian publisher, and the main characters do share struggles in Christian belief.

The lead female character is an American, in her mid-20s I think. She has come to England to find her father

The lead female character is an American, in her mid-20s I think. She has come to England to find her father. Her mother was a travelling American actress, who had an affair with an English actor, and is now dead. She has some infomation but (IIRC) not a name.

She winds up in this town on the night of a local Christmas play, and winds up meeting several of the performers/stagehands. One is the son of a famous actor, his wife, etc. The actor had died a year or two earlier, but was highly respected throughout the country, and known internationally. She winds up staying with this family during a snowstorm, and discovers ties to her own past. The main character also meets a friend of this family and a relationship begins to develop. There is a second book where the relationship with both the family and the friend of the family develops, and the actor’s wife has to come to terms with her anger of his new child showing up.

I’m interested in finding both books.

112J: Bees thwart Bad Man

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An older woman and her three daughters live on a rural, isolated  farm. Maybe Italy? One day a bad man dressed in black arrives and hides in the basement. I think he is stealing their honey. One by one the daughters go down and try to get rid of him, but he captures them all. Finally, the older woman sends the bees down to sting him and he runs away. 1982-1990 approximately

112H: a boy and girl held captive in a dark forest/cave

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In our small-town library, sometime between 1956 and 1959, I becamse fascinated by a large-format story book with darkly forbidding (Gothic!!) illustrations (maybe engravings, or duo-tone illustrations). I believe the story was about a girl and boy (sister and brother?) who were either lost or held captive by ___?? in a forest or a cave or some outlandish place. They were obliged (I think) to do manual labor of some kind — carrying something (ore?) or digging for something. I recall that it was a book my grandmother would not let me take out of the library on her card! I was only a beginning (but precocious) reader at the time (age 7, approximately), so cannot recall the title or the names of the characters, etc. But the words “forbidden” “hidden” “forest” “treasure” “lost” all seem likely terms to be associated with this book. I would LOVE to find it, read it, and solve this mystery before I die!!!

112F: Children’s Outdoor How-To Book

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Children’s Outdoor How-To Book

I remember a book about a boy (possibly with his brother) and a group of friends who built all sorts of outdoor things to defend their farm & woods against a rival group of neighborhood kids.  The book alternated between the story and very detailed instructions & plans how to build the items.  

The few items I remember they built were a tree platform, a sailboat & slingshots (I think). 

The ending culminated with an apple-throwing battle and boy and his friends being victorious from all the items they had built.  

Book was paperback with black and white illustrations.  It was a rather large book and I the copy I had (lost to time) was in the mid-to-late 70’s

112C: Time Traveling Door

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The protagonist is a girl who finds a key. The key unlocks some sort of door that allows her to time travel. She uses this door to meet important historical figures, one of which being Henry the 8th.

I know it isn’t much to go by, but I have a possible lead on a book titled “Henry the Eighth’s Hat”.