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.
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.
My sister remembers this from our school library when she was little. She would have seen this between ~1976-1986. It was illustrated, a book intended for 10-and-under children.
She remembers there was a character who was very small, a dwarf of gnome-like creature who wore a gold ring intended for a human, as a a belt. I’d love to find it for her and her kids!
In this short story/book a girl finds herself in a night carnival. The climax in this story is very similar to the, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes.
This short story, however, I found it at a library a library and was never ever to re-find the story on the shelves or in its database. I believe the story was in an anthology of short stories.
The story is centered in an almost 1950s style where a little girl interacts with another girl in a mirror. The girl (main character) mysteriously falls into her mirror and finds herself in a dark somewhat spooky place.
As I recall, she sees a carnival in the distance. I believe the carnival is a type of ethereal place and is ghoul like. My favorite excerpt, “she found herself on a path dimly lit by the dancing of fireflies.”
I recall she sits down and cries. She tries to get back into the mirror that she fell out of and it appears she cannot escape the dark, Gothic world in which she landed. Her sobbing countenance becomes the reflection that a new girl sees in her mirror. This temporal/spatial rift that the girl finds herself in is somehow a trap that is now the main character’s punishment for her self-obsession.
What was most intriguing about this story was that it was dark, twisted and yet eerily beautiful. Strong visuals paint the story and it was from the late 1960s to early 1980s. That is, within the time frame of the Reader’s Digest short story anthologies.
I read this book in the 1980s and it was almost certainly a children’s book, but a real novel. It was set in Europe I believe.
Long ago a boy lost his parent in a nearby forest. The forest is malicious and very difficult to walk deep into. As you walk into the forest, the placement on trees you had to walk around would gradually turn you back so you exited. Several years after the lost parent the boy has grown up and is determined to enter deep into the forest. He hires an airplane to take overhead photos but winds blow it away. Eventually he does make it to the center and there’s some kind of mystery. I felt it was very well written, a thriller, and scary, too. It seemed to have been set in the 1950s. I hope that’s enough. I’d love to rediscover this book and was glad to pay the fee! Thank you! 🙂
Searching for a children’s book printed no later than the 1990s. The cover featured an illustration of a Hawaiian girl in the foreground, with a volcano in the background. I think the book title may have included a Hawaiian girl’s name, but I’m not sure about that. I believe it had received an award; I think there was a gold seal featured on the cover as well. Hope you can help identify the book title and author!!!
I read this book in the 70s or 80s. It was titled something like “The girl, the witch, and the cat” or something. I really only remember that the title had a list of 2 or 3 things and said witch. It is not the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I believe there were 3 books in the series. It was about a girl around 12? who befriends a kooky old lady who turns out to be a good witch. The 2 become very close, like family. I believe the girl is an only child. There may also be an old warlock who is friends with the old lady. One part i remember is there is an old friend of the lady who tries to kill or put a spell on her. This results in the girl having to drive the old lady’s car to help save her. When she looks in the rear-view mirror she sees glowing eyes in the backseat; knows this is the bad lady. Somehow it all turns out good. It seems there may also be magical items such as a bowl, a phoenix, the cat, etc. Though I may be mixing those up with another beloved lost story.
The novel was either YA or teen, something I read in the 1980s. It was mass market at the time. It focused on a family, more specifically a teenage girl. One of the first scenes involved her riding on the subway with her older sister. The two see a group of young men attempting to rob an elderly woman. The older sister steps in and is eventually kicked in the stomach by one of the men. This incident reveals that the older sister is pregnant, something that causes some conflict for the family. It is around Christmas. The younger sister spends time with a teacher, in one scene driving around at night looking at the Christmas lights. She also spends a night with a girlfriend of hers, someone who is depicted as a free spirit. I seem to recall that the younger sister was torn by her feelings for her sister – resentment at the attention she was receiving, but also love.
Thank you for your time.
“I’m looking for a series of picture books, at least I think it was a series, I know there were at least two. I read them both in the mid-late 90s. The first one was about a haunted house or hotel and each double page spread showed a cross-section of the building with the inhabitants of each room visible. As you moved through the book the story within each room progressed and the characters moved from room to room and the stories spilled into each other. By the very last double page spread I remember all hell had broken loose and the building was (I think) starting to collapse.
The second book was a similar concept except it was set on a steamboat carrying passengers on the sea. Again, you could see all the ship’s passengers. I remember that at some point a magic potion was accidentally spilled into the ship’s boiler and the ship grew legs and started to walk on land.
I think the books were wordless.
Any help is much appreciated.
I’m looking for a children’s picture book that we read around the late 80s or early 90s, although it may have been published earlier. A child looks for his/her lost sibling (Wayne or Wanie, or Waney?) on a farm and maybe in other locations. I specifically remember one part where he goes into a chicken house asking if they’ve seen Wayne, and the chickens ask “What’s a waney??” I’ve googled every variation on those words/spellings but can’t find anything! I think I remember full color illustrations, but my mom thinks they may have been line drawings.