Former Clevelander here. I’ve been wracking my brain about this book for months – it’s a children’s book about a humongous block of cheese being delivered on a flatbed truck, and then people carved a house out of it.
ChatGPT says it’s “The Big Block of Cheese” by Jack Prelutsky and their description sounds right, but I cannot find record of this being an actual book anywhere??
I’m looking for a children’s picture book. NO ONE remembers this book, and I really want to buy it for my kids. A boy (I believe barefoot and in overalls?) builds himself a house with sticks and mud. He may also have a saw/hammer. It’s in a meadow or something. I feel like his parents were ignoring him or making a house professionally?
A picture book that goes through the rooms of a house at night showing objects that are places in a way to make it look like faces/people etc. I have a particular memory of a garden/shed page and a bathroom page for sure! If there is a story component to the book I don’t remember it unfortunately. Read sometime between 2000-2008 I think.
I am looking for a older Children’s book. It is about animals who live in colorful houses, one animal lives in a brown house and is sad about it and all the other animals make him a blanket.
So about 10 to 12 years ago there was a book that was very popular in charity shops in the UK that I want to reread again. A summary of what I remember:
– This guy found(?) a load of art that was quite cryptic and had lots of pieces all with a number on (maybe in an old house/ attic)
– All the artwork fit together into one massive piece and this was a key discovery in the book (I think there were thousands of pieces and they all were numbered)
– It involved a children’s home/ orphanage; I think the painter was found to be painting out his childhood trauma
– Some of it was painted in blood (you found this out later)
– A policewoman was involved as the love interest and they slept together after her mum/ dad’s funeral
– I think it jumped between the present day and the past quite a lot with it all tying together in the end; i think the main character was the painter/ murderer’s sibling(?)
– The cover design was a lot like ‘the interpretation of murder’ (not sure if I can link here but the yellow-ish cover on google images)
– It may be quite a shit book as that is what I enjoyed reading at the time
The book I am looking for is a young adult novel published sometime before 1975- most likely late 50s or 60s.
In the book, a war widow with a boy and a girl takes a job as caregiver to an old country house. The children find a book in the library to “”change the wheel of time.” They some how see three children of a century before and become involved with them. At the end of the book, they children are discovered to be the heirs of the house.
Thanks in advance-I appreciate the information!
My daughter is looking for a book that she checked out of the library in the early ’90s. This was probably a middle schoolers book. Two Sisters move with their parents a long drive away from where they previously lived. The first night they have to sleep on the floor in sleeping bags. They both want the bedroom that has some sort of alcove or passageway that ( might) lead to the outside. They fight, and one sister climbs out the window (?) and falls and possibly breaks her arm (?) . The story is told from the POV of the younger sister. They possibly have moved to a small town and the house might be a Farmhouse type house or older home.
What I don’t know:
Title, author or any character names Possibly published 2013-2016
What I remember. It is a lot!!
Protagonist drives into a small town where she either grew up or visited her aunt in the summer. She pauses and looks at a house she was always fascinated by and notices that it looks vacant. She learns that the old man who owned it (I think he was either a shut in or a hermit) died and that the house is indeed vacant. She wants to buy it and transform it into a B&B. She learns that the town owns it now as it was taken for unpaid taxes. She tries to buy it and is told by someone at Town Hall that the house isn’t clear for them to sell, but they won’t tell her why,
The editor of the local newspaper has retired. She used to work for him at the paper. He lives at the top of a hill and now runs a wastewater recycling facility. She thinks it’s an odd occupation for him, but he likes it. She tells him about the house and that she snuck a peek at the record the town has about the house and that she learned it has something to do with the man’s will. The retired editor tells her to find the man’s lawyer. She asks how to do that, and he gives her a name and tells her that he is the only lawyer in town. She learns from the lawyer that the man’s will states that he has left behind something valuable that would pay the property taxes and leave an inheritance for only his favorite child. The will says that only his favorite child will know where to find it.
The MC (main character) uses her news reporter skills to track down the siblings. I think there were 4 or 5. As adults, the do not get along at all, but they do all come to the house to search. Each believes that they are the favorite child and will find valuable item. They search their own childhood rooms; they search each other’s rooms. They move paintings on the walls and portraits on the wall going up the stairs in search of a hidden safe. Eventually they search outside the house, maybe in a garage or a barn. They argue constantly. One of the men is a heavy drinker. He is also very mean.
Meanwhile, the MC is running the place like a B&B for the siblings with an older woman (I think her aunt) helping, but the aunt has a bad leg and often has to rest. There is a group of gypsies or nomads in town. They come each year. One of them, a young woman comes to the door looking for a cleaning job, but the aunt (?) tells the MC not to hire any of them because they are not trustworthy, and she can do all the work herself.
After the outdoor search the siblings (and some of them have brought spouses), agree that there is no hidden treasure. They have farewell drinks in the sitting room with the man who is the jerk pouring drinks. One woman passes out with her head hitting the table. The MC (who may have been hiding behind the sofa) thinks that the woman has been poisoned and calls an ambulance. Then she calls the police. The nasty man and the others all go in for questioning while the other woman is taken to the hospital. Eventually they learn that there was no poison, and that the woman had a medical condition. The family is free to leave, which they do.
The MC walks around the house looking for things that need to be cleaned or set right. The sitting room, where the drinks were served, looks tidy but something isn’t quite right. She finally spots it. The rug under the coffee table is askew. Suddenly everything fits into place. She races out of the house to where the gypsies or nomads are set up. Slightly apart from the group is an old van with a dutch door at the side. The door is open and the young woman who came to the house to offer to clean greets her. The MC had hired her to clean without telling her aunt. It comes out that the young woman knew where the valuable item was hidden and took it. She has given it to the gypsies/nomads (I don’t know why). The young woman is in fact the illegitimate daughter of the man who died, and her mother was the man’s doctor who made house calls. The MC runs to the gypsy/nomads’ tents to try to retrieve it as it is her only hope for being able to buy the house. However, the patriarch has died, and his body has already been removed to the crematorium. The remaining people don’t have the item.
The MC leaves a message for the detective who had investigated the possible poisoning and asks him to meet her at the crematorium ASAP as the ceremony is to start shortly. She changes her clothes and hopes that the clan won’t recognize dressed differently and perhaps with a hat on. The ceremony has just begun when she gets there and is happy to see the detective there. As the coffin starts down the conveyor belt it gets stuck. The coffin is oversized and wide as the deceased was obese. There are sparks and the drapery between the coffin and the ceremony area are lit on fire. The fire is quickly put out, but in the confusion the MC sees that one of the clan has recognized her and is trying to escape. The woman is caught and is found to have the treasure. It had been hidden in the coffin and this member of the family had been allowed to view the coffin alone and took it back.
In the end it comes to light (perhaps from a diary) that the man and his doctor had an affair, and the child was his favorite. Somehow all gets fixed, taxes are paid, and MC can buy the house.
I’m looking for a mystery/adventure book I read in the 1980’s in my elementary school library. I believe it came from the same section where the Nancy Drew, Three Investigators, etc. books were and so could have been published in the 70s, 60s, or before. I don’t remember if it was part of a series or a stand-alone book. I believe the main character was a female who was investigating a mystery that involved a mansion. In the mansion there was a library with lots of books that she would visit. I don’t remember any of the main plot but the end stuck with me. The man who owned the house was said to have hidden his riches somewhere. In a twist at the end of the story the main character realizes the books that are in the library are rare originals (e.g. first-edition Shakespeare, early edition Bible, etc.) The riches were hiding in plain sight all this time in the form of these rare books.
Can anyone help me locate the title or more information about this book?
I’m looking for a picture book that I cannot remember the name or author of. The story depicts a group of forest animals that spend time around a fairy (or heart of the forest). A depressed, skinny witch lives in the belly of a giant sharp tooth beast and has a black bird for a companion. For whatever reason she wants to have this fairy and keep her in a cage close to her heart, so she has the bird go fetch the fairy. The forest becomes dark and the animals of the forest seek out the help of another large animal to help them. This other large animal (an owl or wolf I think?) blows winter over the dark forest freezing the beast, the witch, and the fairy. Because the beast is unable to eat and the witch is unable to move the animals wander in to find them covered in frost and free the fairy to be with the forest again. I also think the beast was so big she had a house inside of it. Beyond that I forget what follows. Thank you for listening!