To ask you help me find this 80’s kids’s book

[Eeksteek]

I have very poor recollection of it, but it bugs the hell out of me!

Boy and a girl. Herefordshire or Welsh borders. Go out looking for mushrooms in the early morning and find patterns on the frost leading to….. something supernatural. In order to prevent discovery by persons un-remembered (presumably evil) they go out with hot towels and melt the frost to hide the pattern. The girl may have been called Jane, and there may have been dragons, but honestly any of it could be suspect after all this time, so hit me with anything close. I probably read it late eighties, so it’s likely a late seventies/early eighties release, as I only read library books.

Why it made such an impression when I remember so little if it, I don’t know. It pops into my head every couple of months, despite the fact that I can’t remember where I put my bank card on the regular! (It’s driving me crackers in a repetitive, low key sort of way, and I’m overwhelmed and having a shit time in real life, so escaping onto kids books is about as good as it gets just now!).

Invisible Robert Swindles? (Although I suspect it was 90a rather than 80s)

This? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_Sequence

I googled the key words and it came up with The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet but I think it's only because of the word mushroom 😀

Don’t think so. It looks good though. I’ll see if the library has it.

Better bloody not be, I’ve still got that one! If I’ve been puzzling over something that’s been sat innocently on a bookshelf in various dining rooms for thirty years, I’ll look REALLY stupid!

I don’t think it is, but it’s the right genre/era.

I Google every so often and come up blank it’s not a lot to go on, though. Especially as it was probably a fairly rubbish book written in 1983 or something!

You’d think I’d remember some key plot points, wouldn’t you!?

Nope it’s not the grey king, which I think was the nod to Susan Cooper upthread! Hmm will have a think!

Sorry op have no idea

does anyone remember this one (hope you don’t you op if we make it a thread others are asking)

A character who can morph into any shape he hides as a clock and some bars at a zoo (he isn’t the famous Morph though just looks like him) really. It’s me I can’t remember it

Any chance it could be by Mary Stewart or Alan Garner?

Try looking here
www.hilobrow.com/sixties-ya-yya/

If I can add one - a ghost story set in the Black Country. Involved a ring found in a canal. That's all I can remember!

could it have been moondial?

What was the age range? 4-6yr old. 8-10yrs?
Did it have pictures or was it more of a novel?
Can you remember the front cover at all?

If none of you have any luck here try Reddit tip of my tongue!

Could it be The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo?

There’s a book I used to read in primary school like this.
It can’t have been long, must have been like an early readers book, but all I remember was these pictures of spiders drawn in a really unusual way. Like the had faces.
I get the picture in my head, but then it goes, so I can’t draw it (Also my complete lack of artistic ability!)
But the picture/thought frequently pops in my head

I'm sure it isn't right but the description is vaguely reminiscent of Borrobil. The female lead is called Jean and there is a dragon.

A character who can morph into any shape he hides as a clock and some bars at a zoo (he isn’t the famous Morph though just looks like him) really. It’s me I can’t remember it

I had that. Want to say it had an Orange monster type creature on the front. Small book, square.

John Bellairs

The Dark Secret of Weatherend

Baba Papa?

I've got memories of book where a woman is walking to her house in the evening rain. There are descriptions of steet lights and car lights in the rain. She gets inside and she has orange curtains. And there's an archeological dig involved in the story. I think she's an archaeologist or studying. Maybe some romance. I read it around 1982 and I remember it fondly even though that's all I remember 😊

I wondered if it was Jennie Nimmo’s The Snow Spider too. Published a bit later than you thought, though, OP.

Maybe The Spring on the Mountain by Judy Allen? Right era but not sure it fits your specific patterns in frost thing: www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/2022/08/06/the-spring-on-the-mountain-by-judy-allen/

@moggerhanger - your book is Ghost in the Water. It was also a tv series.

OP, could you be looking for The Owl Service, Alan Garner?

Nah that's about time travel and set in a stately home...

Yes!! Thank you. I've just found a hardback copy online - will enjoy re-reading that.