The book I vaguely remember had something to do with a child or maybe siblings going to spend the summer with an elderly aunt (I think) who was living on a lake where most of the houses were abandoned. It had once been a vibrant summer community ca. 1900 (I think), but was now mostly deserted sans aunt’s household. There may or may not have been a mystery component to it. I think I read it around 4th grade maybe ca. 1977?
I read this book as part of a children’s summer reading program at a small branch library next to my Dad’s hardware store in Clarksville, Indiana. The timing was some time between 1965-1968. Every book you read would earn a balloon stamp on a clown bookmark. You only received the stamp after giving a verbal recap of each book to the librarian.
I do not recall the title but I believe there were limited graphics inside the pages. A young boy finds a red ball in a field near his home. He quickly realizes that the ball can respond to his wishes. It can change color and size. Become heavy or light. It can even fly around the room and come to home when he calls.
Late in the book the ball starts to exhibit strange behavior as if it wants to escape. The boy follow the ball into the field where he meets the ball’s true owner: an alien child from a nearby space ship that has landed. The boy gives the ball back to the alien child and is thanked by the alien parent.
This book started my love of science fiction writing and led me to the likes of Wells, Verne, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke and many others.
The book is relatively old (I read part of it around 2003 but it was published way before). The book was a young adult book that involved crime and a runaway that lived with two adults in what is either an abandoned factory or airplane hangar. The cover of the book I believe featured someone playing pool on it. The title might have been Me & (I can’t remember the rest). It was recommended to people that liked the Rag and Bone Shop and it was similar to the Westing Game. One thing I do remember clearly is that in the introduction the main character talks about how his dad can tell who has committed a crime or who has been to jail by just looking at them.
This is for a fantasy novel. I had it in 96 for sure, but it was older than that. The only thing I remember is the cover art. A group of people around a campfire, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone in a dark cloak, I think holding a staff. He may have been standing in the fire.
The only thing I remember from the beginning of the book is that one of the people in the adventuring party was complaining that women would not sleep with outsiders, unless they had a magic amulet or bracer that worked like birth control. These came in varying qualities. The narrating character could only afford a cheap one that expired, but a fellow party member had an expensive one that didn’t expire.
The book I am trying to recall is a novel, historic fiction, about a special stone that appears to many different characters in many different centuries. Each character being from a different era such as ancient Egypt (or was it Rome), southern plantation US … Mostly strong female protagonists who overcome some hurdle or calamity with possession or help of the stone. Not really a magic stone that I recall; no fantasy element to the story -that I recall. But I could be wrong on that point.
I’m looking for an old children’s book that my mom used to read to me but I can’t remember the title. It was about a mother and a young daughter who spent the day together getting ice cream and going to the beach. The beach was a New England looking type of beach, the illustrations were pastel in nature, maybe watercolors. I feel like it was called something like The Perfect Day or A Day at the Shore but those titles aren’t turning up results. I would have read it in the 80s and early 90s and it was not brand new then. It is not Beach Day, Day at the Seashore or The Seashore Book