How to find a book I have no information about....

[politicat]

Literally.

I remember reading it when I was in 5th grade, and it was new at the time, so it must have been published in late 85, 86 or early 87. It was a very creepy story based around B&W photos of an overgrown, abandoned-looking house and gardens, with a very Gothic-Victorian look and feel to it. Toys played a huge role in the development of the story, as the little girl who lived in the house slowly put together (or didn't - I'm still not sure on that one) the fact that something very bad was going on around her.

The book's production values were excellent, with gorgeous, lush photography and a story that has stuck in my mind for twenty years. It was a huge seller - all of the girls in 5th grade had their own copies (except me; that was a bad financial year for us) and there was a huge amount of discussion on the meaning of the pictures and the text.

But I have no idea of the author or the photographer or the title, and googling the various variations on the themes doesn't help. For some reason, I think that the text was written by one of the bigger names in horror/suspense from the late 80s, and it was a very female oriented book; for years, I believed the text was a VC Andrews product, but I don't think that's the case now (if for no other reason than the text was good....) However, I seem to recall that it lived in the A section of the library.

I know I'm slightly mad, but does anyone else remember this book, or have any clue as to how I can go about looking for it? I'm almost desperate enough to go find my elementary school library and see if they still have it on the shelf.

[babylonsister]

1. Try anything by Daphne DeMaurier, specifically 'Rebecca'.

I was 14 or so and cried the first couple of times I read that one.

Nah, that won't work.

Toys in the Attic? There were a series of books that someone will tell you about.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Last night I dreamt I went to Mandalay............

Don't think it's Rebecca.

[ET Awful]

8. Actually, that's

Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderlay again.

[dipsydoodle]

9. I stand corrected.

thank you. Since you have knowledge of such matters do you by nay chance know the name of the annual competition for the worst opening liness. It's associated with the the author of whichever book it was that commenced - It was a dark and stormy night.....

[ET Awful]

10. I know the awards you're referring to, and I can't remember what

they're called.

Sorry :)

[dipsydoodle]

11. Found it !

http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2005.htm

ps like your cats.

[China_cat]

20. Bulwar-Lytton award

[politicat]

12. I have tons of books...

I just wanted to find this one.

I've got Du Maurier in hardback, but I prefer Jamaica Inn to Rebecca.

[Demit]

2. Was it called "Annabelle"?

I don't know, I just was interested in your mystery and googled some. There's a review of it over on Amazon. Abandoned Victorian house, dolls, little girl, published in 1987. Could that be it?

[politicat]

15. Similar... but Annabelle is a text, and this was definitely pictoral.

Sounds like the book was based on a similar concept, though.

Weird. Lots of Evil Toys in the pop culture in that time frame. I wonder what was in the collective unconscious... Was that about the time that people started getting really paranoid about literal killer toys, that babies choked on and that toddlers hung themselves with? (Oo. No more grammar for me tonight.)

[Maddy McCall]

3. Ghost Doll by Bruce McMillan?

http://brucemcmillan.com/FRB_Book007_GhostDoll.html

Only a very brave little girl could do what Chrissy does. Unafraid, she enters the house on the hill when she hears a faint call from within. It's the voice of a lonely, abandoned doll - a ghost doll. An eerie adventure awaits her in this haunted house. And though she thinks of running out more than once, she doesn't. Instead, courageous Chrissy reaches out to the lonely ghost doll. And at the end of the story she finds a happy surprise - as will every young reader.

a revival of the photographic fictions of fifty and more years ago - with photo-trickery conjuring up a “ghost doll” for plucky little Chrissy to find in the “haunted” house on the hill. The floating doll beckons her through imposing, near empty rooms and up the (dramatic, darkening) circular staircase to the top of the house, meanwhile telling its doleful, antique tale of abandonment and loneliness. “I could be a doll again - your doll, if you really want me.” But Chrissy must demonstrate her bravery by reaching out and touching the doll. Then the doll floats into a box and fades, the lid flies on, the box wafts itself out onto the grass, and Chrissy opens it to find - a real doll, “a doll that would never be left alone again…”
4-6

Ghost Doll is a photo essay in black and white. The difference lies in the sweetness level. This is about Chrissy, who is lured into the upper reaches of a desolate mansion by an eerie floating plastic doll which becomes hers once she demonstrates bravery.

[politicat]

14. I've ordered it. We'll know in a few days.

That looks close. Thank you.

(Even if it's not the right book, I'm still intrigued by it.)

[Hekate]

5. If this avenue fails, you might try a reference librarian at a university

Specifically, a university may have a collection of children's literature (not just for future teachers but for researchers), and the librarian for that collection may well be able to identify your book or at least give you some solid leads.

You're not mad at all -- I spent years trying to locate three books that were important to me as a child. I wanted to share them with my own kids as they were growing up. Just about the time my grandchild had his first birthday I was visiting my sis, helping her clean out her son's room to mitigate his allergies, and as we unloaded the bookcases -- voila! Turns out she had two of them in her house all along.

They're both long out of print, but with the info I now had I was able to locate them on line. One turned out to have a lot of copies available through the 'Net, so I bought one that way. The other was not just out of print but had become a collectible priced $110 and up -- that one I took to my local photocopy shop.

So I wish you luck. I'm sorry I never heard of your book myself, as it sounds wonderful.

Hekate

[bananas]

6. V.C. Andrews' "Flowers in the Attic"

Was this it?

http://wfmu.org/playlists/RW
Archives for Read 'Em and Weep with Bronwyn C.
<snip>
* January 29, 2003: V.C. Andrews' "Flowers in the Attic" WEEK TWO | Listen
* January 22, 2003: V.C. Andrews' "Flowers in the Attic" | Listen (Unavailable)
* January 1, 2003: Lane Smith, illustrator of "The Very Persistant Gappers of Frip" | Listen
<snip>

[dipsydoodle]

7. I asked my daughter

Amber who is 37 this year and has been into reading such stuff since she was a child but she blanked as well. We can't reconcile anything of that type with 5th grade reading matter assuming that is c. age 11 - we're english. I thought you read stuff like The Outsiders at school.

Closest Amber could get was that it may indeed be one of V.C.Andrews books but not necessarily Flowers in the Attic. This link will give you the whole lot of her books: http://www.completevca.com/library.shtml They run in series as you'll see

Good luck with your quest ! I fully understand just how aggravating it can be when you're trying to complete a memory. I frequently have the same problem with tunes, the title of which I can't recall, know that I've got it on CD somewhere or other and I land up playing endless Cd's trying to find it. That is also not helped when titles have been changed e.g. Charlie Poole changed Hesitation Blues to If The River Was Whiskey.

[politicat]

13. Literature was what we read "In school"

But what we read in our "off time" was an entirely different matter. Though 5th grade was To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chocolate War, The Pigman and a book about a girl named Blossom Culp set in the 1910s. I don't think I read The Outsiders until High school, and don't recall being impressed.

Outside of school, we read absolute trash, from torrid romance novels that we hid from our parents to childish books about babysitting and teenage dating books. It's amazing I have such catholic tastes now, considering the utter garbage I put in my head as a child.

I know it's not Andrews. I have a sister who is still addicted to romance novels and she's done the checking on that one. I can't read Andrews any more...

Thanks for the good wishes...

[Uncle Roy]

16. The BookSleuth Forum at Abebooks.com is a great resource

for exactly this kind of question. Here's their description:

Is there a special book that you read, or perhaps had read to you, at some point in your life but you can't remember the author and title? Perhaps you know the plot, or a character, or maybe even what the front cover looks like. BookSleuth® is here to help you find that book! Simply post a short description of what you can remember here on our board. Visitors from all over the world will read your post, and one of them is bound to know exactly what you're talking about and post a response. Not missing anything? Why not see if you can help anyone else find their long-lost books?

Here's the URL:

http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom

They also have a GiftSleuth Forum for queries like "My friend is into birdwatching.Can anyone recommend a nice book I could get him for his birthday? Maybe a field-guide?"

[Sequoia]

22. Thanks.

I've looking for a book I read back in the late 80s or early 90s about 30 years on the Plains (Lakota vs. Calvery) and it starts off outside of Fort Laramie (I think) and a cow gets shot and Sitting Bull is just a kid at this point who happens to be there at the time. I gave the book away and wished I hadn't now as it was one of the plains history books I've ever read.

[abluelady]

17. I Know Nothing About the Book

but I'm fascinated to learn if you actually find it. Please post when you do.

[Sugar Smack]

18. Was there a young girl with black eyes, and

was there a dollhouse in her room that she woke up in?

[politicat]

19. I think we are thinking about the same book.

NT

[LWolf]

21. Tell us more about the story.

The only book that comes to this ex-school librarian's mind is "The Dollhouse Murders" by Betty Ben Wright, but I don't remember any lush photography.

Give me the plot, and I might be able to dig it up.