Found: 3 Children stay with (Aunt?) Homemade magic fortune cookies 1983 chapter book
Original topic subject: YA read 1983-4 magic fortune cookies
TalkName that Book
Join LibraryThing to post.
1ImShaunie
The book I am hoping to find was a chapter book I didn’t finish from my middle school library suggested reading shelves. This would be between 1982-1984. I had to return the book for some reason after only reading a few chapters. I didn’t find it again but have always wanted to read the entire book.
The book starts with three siblings, (pretty sure siblings not cousins), who are traveling to an Aunt’s (or godmother’s?) house for an extended stay. There were two boys and a girl. The youngest was one of the boys.
I believe it was Summertime. They had been picked up at a train station (pretty sure) by a driver of some sort (taxi?) who was bringing the children to the house of the woman they were to stay with. The woman whose house they were to stay with was someone well known by the parents and who the parents were close to.
They were dropped off at the house by the driver (who I think knew the woman whose house it was). I think the driver may have suggested that if the woman wasn’t home she would be soon and they should go in and make themselves at home.
The description of the outside of the house was that it was at the top of a hill that was overgrown (in a wild way I think not neglected). There were stone steps leading up the overgrown and steep yard/hill to the house. I think the steps were described as stone steps like large flagstone type.
The children went in and no one was home yet but in the kitchen on a large wooden table (I’m pretty sure) there was a note from the woman/Aunt/godmother that she would return soon and to help themselves to cookies that were on a plate on the table (possibly there was a pitcher of something to drink as well).
So the 3 children, a boy and girl slightly older than the youngest boy, each chose a cookie from the plate. The cookies just so happened to have fortunes in them that just so happened to exactly match personally for each child…
This is pretty much where I left off and needed to return the book for some reason and never found it again and couldn’t remember the name or author.
I have searched online for many years. Search engines are not helpful as “magic cookies” or “stone steps” or “three children” just aren’t finding it.
I think it would take another reader who might recognize the book from the first 2-3 chapters. I’m not sure if it was UK written or US. It was paperback. Maybe 150-225 pages long or so. I can’t remember the cover. It was read in Massachusetts. The book was written 1984 at absolute latest as I was out of that school by June ‘84.
I hope someone might recognize this book by the first couple chapters!
The book starts with three siblings, (pretty sure siblings not cousins), who are traveling to an Aunt’s (or godmother’s?) house for an extended stay. There were two boys and a girl. The youngest was one of the boys.
I believe it was Summertime. They had been picked up at a train station (pretty sure) by a driver of some sort (taxi?) who was bringing the children to the house of the woman they were to stay with. The woman whose house they were to stay with was someone well known by the parents and who the parents were close to.
They were dropped off at the house by the driver (who I think knew the woman whose house it was). I think the driver may have suggested that if the woman wasn’t home she would be soon and they should go in and make themselves at home.
The description of the outside of the house was that it was at the top of a hill that was overgrown (in a wild way I think not neglected). There were stone steps leading up the overgrown and steep yard/hill to the house. I think the steps were described as stone steps like large flagstone type.
The children went in and no one was home yet but in the kitchen on a large wooden table (I’m pretty sure) there was a note from the woman/Aunt/godmother that she would return soon and to help themselves to cookies that were on a plate on the table (possibly there was a pitcher of something to drink as well).
So the 3 children, a boy and girl slightly older than the youngest boy, each chose a cookie from the plate. The cookies just so happened to have fortunes in them that just so happened to exactly match personally for each child…
This is pretty much where I left off and needed to return the book for some reason and never found it again and couldn’t remember the name or author.
I have searched online for many years. Search engines are not helpful as “magic cookies” or “stone steps” or “three children” just aren’t finding it.
I think it would take another reader who might recognize the book from the first 2-3 chapters. I’m not sure if it was UK written or US. It was paperback. Maybe 150-225 pages long or so. I can’t remember the cover. It was read in Massachusetts. The book was written 1984 at absolute latest as I was out of that school by June ‘84.
I hope someone might recognize this book by the first couple chapters!
3humouress
I’m sorry, I don’t recognise it. But ‘fortune cookies’ suggest that it’s not an UK book (though I could be wrong).
4bookel
For a start I don't recall this book's plot matching. Great story though. Pevsner: Would my fortune cookie lie?
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35328220W/Would_My_Fortune_Cookie_Lie?edition=ke...
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35328220W/Would_My_Fortune_Cookie_Lie?edition=ke...
5ImShaunie
I don’t recall the cookies necessarily being specifically called fortune cookies but a batch of them (these magic cookies) had been made and left on the big, possibly rustic table, for the three children. They had strips of paper baked inside them with words that fitted each child exactly, magically..
I began to read this book in middle school. I think I *had* to return it before I could read the whole book possibly because the end of the school year had come. It might have been 1983 when I started the book.
I wanted to read the entire story and tried to find it again. I remember asking the school librarian but couldn’t remember the name, author, or cover.
Thank you bookel and humouress, for spending some time on this mystery of mine. You have each jogged my memory a little bit more.
I still have hope that someday I will find this book again, somehow!
I began to read this book in middle school. I think I *had* to return it before I could read the whole book possibly because the end of the school year had come. It might have been 1983 when I started the book.
I wanted to read the entire story and tried to find it again. I remember asking the school librarian but couldn’t remember the name, author, or cover.
Thank you bookel and humouress, for spending some time on this mystery of mine. You have each jogged my memory a little bit more.
I still have hope that someday I will find this book again, somehow!
6MissSquish
I'm certain that this is Sneaker Hill by Jane Little. I just checked it out on https://openlibrary.org/
Train journey, the house is on an overgrown hill, and the three fortune cookies are fortune cakes. No siblings, however. Just the girl, her cousin Mathew, and her Aunt Miranda- whose magic is a bit wonky. She was trying for fortune cookies :-)
Train journey, the house is on an overgrown hill, and the three fortune cookies are fortune cakes. No siblings, however. Just the girl, her cousin Mathew, and her Aunt Miranda- whose magic is a bit wonky. She was trying for fortune cookies :-)
7bookel
Aladdin paperback edition cover of Sneaker Hill.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4456280W/Sneaker_hill?edition=key%3A/books/OL186...
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4456280W/Sneaker_hill?edition=key%3A/books/OL186...
8ImShaunie
Yes MissSquish, I believe you have found it! I’ve just read the beginning of Sneaker Hill (originally published in 1968 I think). It seems to be the one. It is so so close to what I thought I remembered! I wonder if I may have mixed in the kids from Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright, definitely read around the same time.
Thank you so much! I have literally wanted to finish this book for about 40 years!
And humouress, you somehow jogged my memory enough that I rethought the magic treat as possibly not being called a fortune cookie. An essential post to solve the mystery!
Thank you bookel for your time spent as well!
I feel confident that the long lost book I sought is:
Sneaker Hill by Jane Little
Thank you all so very much, you’ve done it again!! I thought this find was impossible!!
Thank you so much! I have literally wanted to finish this book for about 40 years!
And humouress, you somehow jogged my memory enough that I rethought the magic treat as possibly not being called a fortune cookie. An essential post to solve the mystery!
Thank you bookel for your time spent as well!
I feel confident that the long lost book I sought is:
Sneaker Hill by Jane Little
Thank you all so very much, you’ve done it again!! I thought this find was impossible!!
