I'm trying to think of this children's book I read in middle school, so sometime between 1990-1993. Probably a classic bildungsroman with a twist of a mystery. This would've been a "chapter book" more along the lines of Up a Road Slowly, and possibly set in the Midwest. I have always felt it was a Midwest/Plains state, and my feeling is that it was set sometime prior to WWII—maybe the '30s? Though I could see it being more of a setting in the Northeast, too. Almost definitely the United States, though I could see it be a surprise Canada.

I feel that it was a standalone book. I’m truly unsure about the cover. I want to say maybe there was a house on the cover in the distance, or something, but I honestly am not certain. There are no illustrations in this book that I can recall. This is for a *slightly* older audience.

The gist of the plot, or some portion of it as I remember it, is about the main character, a young girl between the ages of 11 or 12… broader, at most, would be 10-13. She’s not an orphan as far as I know. I don’t recall her having siblings, but I’m not sure enough about that one. I don’t recall her parents either, but I don’t feel that she was totally without one or both.

This girl visits a man who lives in a cabin at various times throughout the story. He lives nearbyish and as she is exploring the area over this time period, she heads to his cabin. He definitely lives alone, and the place is sparsely decorated. This is not their first meeting, either. They know each other—either through being related or nearly so. She doesn’t stay with the person she visits—she has her own home.

While in the cabin, during an early visit, she finds or is given a jewelry-box type container and inside is a daguerreotype. The box containing the daguerreotype is on a bookshelf, perhaps built-in, and is of someone she knows or to whom she is related—like a grandmother. I don’t think she quite had permission to take it down and look in the box, but the man was only a little agitated when he catches her with it. I seem to remember the person in the daguerreotype was a woman (possibly related to the MC, but I’m pretty sure related to the man in the cabin), and for some reason (I hesitate even to say this) I think she was a horsewoman in a circus-type show. I feel like he loved this woman, and not necessarily that they were married.

My memory is ludicrously sketchy on this, but I think there’s a boy featured as her friend. The boy would’ve been the same age. I feel like there is a scene (possibly the ending) where the MC is waiting in a tree or by a tree on the road to school, and this male friend of hers walks by and she feels better about this whole “growing up” thing…

Pretty sure it takes place right when school starts back, and maybe she writes a paper about the information or person related to the daguerreotype. I’m not sure of that either, but I am sure that she and her male friend investigate more about the guy in the cabin or the person in the picture. She does some research of some kind and learns more about them and, presumably, discovers the identity of the featured person in the tintype.

If I remember correctly, the book might’ve been an older one, and the spelling of ‘daguerreotype’ was a little off from what I had in my dictionary/encyclopedia. Maybe ‘daguerretype’—being more on par with simply Louis Daguerre’s last name. I remember in my AG Reading class we had to choose a previously unknown vocabulary word from our weekly reading and bring it in and define it for the class. I distinctly remember being excited about this word (which is why I feel the alternate amalgamation of Daguerre’s name with the -type suffix was used in this book (or in my dictionary)), and bringing it in.  I cannot be sure, since I can’t actually remember this book, but I feel that those terms, Daguerreotype and tintype, were used interchangeably (however incorrect that makes it). I assume it was less about describing or defining the process, and just using handy, broad terms.

I am certain of the daguerreotype being featured prominently in the story, because that’s the first I’d heard of them and I remember reading more about them myself in my World Book Encyclopedia (ah, remember those days). In looking for this book, I cannot seem to get away from books that are either nonfiction books specifically about daguerreotypes or the history of photography, or fictional books that are looking to teach through a story about this early form of photography. Which is further underscored by the fact that that is the exact word that sticks in my head about the book, and the point of the plot of which I am certain. The daguerreotype itself isn’t the main focus of the story, only the catalyst that sets this into motion.

(I think the recollection of that word might be my downfall.)

I think there’s something to do with Native Americans – and a tree that signifies something of importance. I hesitate so much to say this, because like the keyword “daguerreotype,” this one sets you on a specific and limiting search course, but … I feel as if the title was structured like an indication of a passing of time by the way some Native Americans marked time/distance to travel—as in “moons” or the like. But I have never been sure if that memory was associated with *this* book or another I read around the same time.

In that vein, I have tried both Two Moons in August and Walk Two Moons with no success—though the setting/time period for both was way off of what I remembered.

This book is not:
Up a Road Slowly
The Silver Coach
The Keepsake Chest
Return to Gone-Away
Two Moons in August
Walk Two Moons
Peachtree Island
The Long White Month
Kate and the Family Tree
West Against The Wind
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Edward’s Portrait

Thanks very much for any and all help.