Can we have a 'Does Anyone Recognise this Book' thread?

[deleted203]

I know lots of us have vague memories (particularly me, as I get older) of much loved children's books we can't remember the title of. Thought we could post and see if anyone else can help.

I am desperate to know the name of a book I read in probably late 70s aged about 11-ish, that I only remember faintly.

There was a girl who went to stay with her aunt/godmother who was a witch and so were the rest of the village women, I think. I can't remember much about it except that her aunt upset the others (who I think were bad witches) and they were more or less trapped in their house being beseiged by the bad witches. There might have been ravens/crows involved. It would have been set in England.

Ring any bells anyone?

[TerrorNotSoFrightened]

The book I'm trying to remember, I read when I was around 10.
It was set in Liverpool during WW2, there was a family called Costigan and there was a bad priest in it.

I can't remember if I finished the book or not as I can't remember much more than that.

[CaseyShraeger]

The Tree That Sat Down, The Stream That Stood Still, and The Mountain Of Magic, by Beverley Nichols. Sadly out of print (and beware, the most readily-available second-hand editions (Lions) are abridged versions rather than the full-length originals).

[TheOneWithTheHair]

I'm place marking because this thread is really interesting and I'm waiting for the book I can help someone with.

[PrincessSymbian]

Yay, fab. Though slightly embaressing about the title on the dolls one.
Ok your next challenge are two books, not related but both involve telekinetic powers.
One was about a brother and sister who develop telekinetic powers and it had an ant farm in, that's pretty much all I remember.
The other was about a girl who gets bitten by a rabbit which I'd infected with an organism from out of space which is all that remains if a species that became so technology dependent that they wiped out their physical forms and capabilities.

[Isthisme]

Oh, I would LOVE to read Rebecca's World again,my DD would love it too I'm sure.
I remember it being a bit like a sci-fi Alice in Wonderland?
I see they are priced around £30!! on ebay, I will have to have a look in some of the second hand bookshops.

[PrincessSymbian]

I found my copy of Rebecca's world in a second hand bookshop. I had never read it before but it was a great read even as a first time thing as an adult. Recently read it to my six year old dd who also enjoyed it.

[shriekingnora]

PrincessSymbian - your second one could be The Power of Stars by Louise Lawrence

[PrincessSymbian]

Nora, that is the one and looking on her website, she has lots of great books that I will now have to read!

[shriekingnora]

Hooray, I got one right!

[deleted203]

TerrorNotSo Is your book 'The Bells of Scotland Road' by Ruth Hamilton? It's a bit Catherine Cookson-y but it is set in Liverpool in the 30s/WW2 and features a family called Costigan if that's any help?

[DeWe]

I've got "Una and the Heaven baby" now. I think it's the US version of "Una and Grubstreet".

It's funny, it's definitely the book I was thinking of, because I recognised the cover. And a lot of it I was thinking "oh yes"-I could even hear it being read in my teacher's voice at times.

BUT there's a couple of things that are totally wrong. One is that I remember them surviving for ages. One of the children staying with the baby and the other going home for supplies-in Una it only lasts just over 24 hours.

Also I remember clearly a particular scene. The baby and the girl who stayed were both ill. I think very ill-pneumonia or similar. They's both recovering and the baby is recovering first (having been ill first and nursed through most of the illness by the resident girl), and the girl is weak but basically okay. The text said the other child "received the first smile since the illness which really deserved."

I'm wondering if I read a similar book at about the same time and they got mixed up in my mind together. The scene in the one scene that was most clear in my mind, so I don't think it's made up entirely.

So I've ordered the "Three girls and a secret" to see if that scene's in there. Any wonder why we've too many books?

[TerrorNotSoFrightened]

OP yes, that's the one :)
I might order it for the nostalgia factor.
Thanks.

[DeWe]

That scene was in the other book. How strange. Maybe the teacher read us both books. I didn't remember much about the rest of the story. Anyway I'm very satisfied to find them (both).

Thanks to all who suggested them.

[StrawWars]

Anyone know of a picture book about ghosts featuring a recurring line "In a minute! said little spook to tiny spook", or something similar.

It was a bit of a catchphrase growing up and I'd love to find it for the DC but I can't find it anywhere.

[gemma4d]

Mine is fairly tenuous.... a book I read when I was in my teens and didn't really understand at the time, but I've never forgotten about it ....

I think it was called something like "the summer before", or the summer after, and it was about a girl who had been through an event (a death?) and ended up in a pysch ward, I think, and the book was following her putting her life together but without really telling you what had happened to get her in the state she was in. One of those drip-feed books.

I spent half an hour amazon-ing but came up with nothing.

[IceBergJam]

This is a really old book I read at least 25 years ago at my Nanas house.

The main character was called Feather and I think she was a feather or as light as a feather. Thats it. I think it was sad and I think it ended with her blowing away in the wind.

[Clawdy]

Children's picture book about a little boy on a farm who loves the old carthorse and likes to think the horse is magic and can fly. At the very end the horse dies and the boy sees him at last flying,up and away into the sky. It's not Ludo and the Star Horse. And it was around our school library about 1970! Nobody remembers it

[steppemum]

strawwars - it sounds a bit like funny bones? one big sleleton, one little skeleton and a dog skeleton - it begins 'in a dark dark town there was a dark dark street, in the dark dark street there was a dark dark house etc'

[DeWe]

IceBergJam could it be "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald(?). The princess is "blessed" in true Sleeping Beauty style at her baptism with being "Light in all things".
Can't remember much about the story though, except her holding a stone to stop being blown away, but I don't think it had a sad ending.

[shriekingnora]

Strawwars - yours is one of the Little Spook books by Inger Sandberg

[cleanandclothed]

Anyone know one about a dustcart that was used to pull a very important person? Can't remember much more than that.

[cleanandclothed]

Ooh and a time slip one about a girl at school who ends up watching Elizabeth being taken to the tower?

[UnrequitedSkink]

KittyBump I think the book you're thinking of is 'Where it stops nobody knows' by Amy Ehrlich?

[StrawWars]

Thank you! Yes, it is one of the Inger Sandberg series.

[WednesdayNext]

I don't know any of the books on here :( but I am looking for a childhood favourite of mine. It was a picture book about a ragdoll who gets left behind on a trip to the beach and tries to find her way home, but gets into all kinds of scrapes before someone picks her up, takes her home and makes her better again. I think she gets reunited with her owner at the end. Would love to find it to read to my little one!