The Swing in the Summerhouse
10 best books like The Swing in the Summerhouse (Jane Langton): Black and Blue Magic, A Room Made of Windows, The Return of the Twelves, The Golden Name Day, Twin Spell, Time at the Top, The House of Arden, Octagon Magic, Nightbirds on Nantucket, Return to Gone-Away
| Author | Zilpha Keatley Snyder |
| ISBN | 0595321828 |
You'd think that someone with a name like Harry Houdini Marco would be deft and skillful, but Harry could only occasionally catch even an easy fly ball without making some dumb error. On top of that, most of his friends' families were moving to the suburbs. It would have been a long, dreary summer, but then...
| Author | Eleanor Cameron |
| ISBN | 0316125237 |
It's a remarkable sensation to go back to a book that meant a lot to you as a child and wonder if the story and characters helped shape you in some way, or if you were already that way and it simply resonated with who you were then. I'm not sure which it was, but I know I read this several times, and as many of the...
| Author | Pauline Clarke |
| ISBN | 0698201175 |
Beneath a floorboard in the old farmhouse into which his family has just moved, eight-year-old Max Morley discovers twelve time-worn wooden soldiers. Under his careful watch, the "Twelves" come to life, each possessing a name and a distinct personality. As Max soon learns, they share a history filled...
| Author | Jennie D. Lindquist |
| ISBN | 0064400247 |
I loved this book! It was such a delight to read; happiness exudes from each chapter! I never read this as a child, but I know I would have enjoyed it then too. This is definitely one that appeals to girls and the feminine side with its flowers, dolls, parties, animals, and of course, the name days.
There’s...
| Author | Janet Lunn |
| ISBN | 0440491770 |
Twin girls are drawn to an antique doll, and find themselves sucked into a mystery from the past. It's spooky, but not terrifying; just the right chill-factor for the intended age group. The book is a little slow-moving by today's standards. Still, the story is interesting, and the characters well drawn....
| Author | Edward Ormondroyd |
| ISBN | 1930900198 |
It's strange enough when Susan Shaw disappears without a trace on a wintry March afternoon. It's stranger still when her uninformative note is found in the hallway of her apartment building, along with a black cat that no one has seen before. And it's strangest of all when she suddenly appears again,...
| Author | E. Nesbit |
| ISBN | 1590172027 |
The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns that...
| Author | Andre Norton |
| ISBN | 0765352982 |
The secret of Octagon House When her grandmother gets sick, eleven-year-old Lorrie Mallard is sent to live with her aunt in the U.S. Things were different back home in Canada, and Lorrie is homesick—especially when boys like Jimmy Purvis and Stan Wormiski tease her. One day, Lorrie finds herself...
| Author | Joan Aiken |
| ISBN | 0395971853 |
Having had enough of life on board the ship that saved her from a watery grave, Dido Twite wants nothing more than to sail home to England. Instead, Captain Casket's ship lands in Nantucket, where Dido and the captain's daughter, Dutiful Penitence, are left in the care of Dutiful's sinister Aunt Tribulation....
| Author | Elizabeth Enright |
| ISBN | 0152022635 |
A wish come true. That's what Portia thinks when her parents buy Villa Caprice, a tumbledown Victorian house along the swampy edge of Gone-Away Lake. A new house is always full of surprises, but Porcia is completely unprepared for the extraordinary things that happen when her family moves into a new...
| Author | Edward Eager |
| ISBN | 0152949941 |
Just when the children thought the magic in the old well was all played out (that is, if it was magic!) and had sworn an oath in blood not to make any more wishes until the well gave them a sign, Gordy—in a reckless moment—told it to get going with its magic, or else! Something certainly did begin to happen...
| Author | Rumer Godden |
| ISBN | 0330442554 |
Tottie is a loving little wooden doll who lives with her family in a shoebox. The doll family are owned by two sisters, Emily and Charlotte, and are very happy, except for one thing: they long for a proper home. To their delight, their wish comes true when Emily and Charlotte fix up a Victorian dolls' house...
| Author | Ruth Chew |
| ISBN | 0590455311 |
This was a favorite of mine as a child and I'm enjoying rereading it for the umpteenth time. There is something extraordinarily charming about believing in magic as a child. It's like believing in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and that your parents are the bravest, strongest, most perfect people on...
| Author | T.H. White |
| ISBN | 1590171039 |
"She saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest step...finally she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest door...she went to look at the shell—but looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it."
So ten-year-old Maria,...
| Author | Yvonne MacGrory |
| ISBN | 0915943921 |
Lucy, a rather spoiled almost-eleven-year-old, gets a very special birthday present from her grandmother. This gift, a star ruby ring, has been passed down for generations through Lucy's family. The evening before her birthday, Lucy accidently discovers the magical secret of the ring:The secret...
| Author | Melanie Gideon |
| ISBN | 1595140557 |
Thomas Quicksilver, known to his classmates as "Pucker," has always been an outsider. His crazy mother, the secret of his family's strange origins, and above all, the terrible scars on his face from a childhood fire these things have kept Thomas isolated and lonely. But now, at seventeen, Thomas is...
Macabre Rising: Tales of Man, Myth and Monster
| Author | James Ninness |
| ISBN | 1480256161 |
In this collection of short stories, James Ninness delves into the world of ancient mythology to create tales of modern horror. "Cosplay" re-envisions the slasher genre with a gruesome nod to one (or more) of the world's most infamous killers. "Know Jack" reinvigorates an mythical Japanese monster,...
| Author | Jeff Somers |
| ISBN | 1451696779 |
Praised by the Guardian for stories that are “exhilarating . . . powerful and entertaining,” Jeff Somers returns with a darkly original urban fantasy series featuring a cadre of mages operating just under the radar of human society.
Magic uses blood—a lot of it. The more that’s used,...
| Author | Angela Wilkes |
| ISBN | 0746054122 |
Long book but interesting. I listened to it on CD and liked the reader. For my own memory, here's a summary of the book:
Basically, Robinson gets ship wrecked and is stranded on an island. He is fortunate enough to be able to get things off of the ship (it wrecked on land) that would be useful to him before...
