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Ghost girl and pond?

O

oregonjade

New Member
I read this book in the early to mid-80's... so it was published no later then 1988 or so. I'm absolutely certain that my edition was from Scholastic, though whether that was the only printing or an additional printing, I do not know.

I remember something about a girl who moved into a house... possibly a grandmother's or aunt's, and she ends up meeting a girl who, I think, drowned in the pond. It may have been an older sister who died before she was born? I believe the alive girl is the same age the dead girl was at when she died.

There may be a garden around the pond, and no one ever goes there anymore. I believe she was told to stay away from it.

I think the cover had a girl seated at the edge of the pond, and/or you could see a girl's face IN the pond. It had a spooky cover, that's for sure.

I'm thinking one of the girl's might have had the name Miranda, or Melina, or Melinda or something similar... that might even be the name of the book. And I think the M name was the dead girl's...

The name might also have been something like "the girl in the pond". (or lake). But I couldn't find anything by that name.

It's a book I reread often... any ideas?
 
No, it wasn't a picture book, though that one sure does look interesting. It was a chapter book, probably in the 150-200 page range.

The cover was similar to the Helen book... that "bordered" style... probably either Avon Camelot or Apple Books or something of the sort that one of the Scholastic companies sold through book orders.

The Helen book isn't the right one, and I looked through the rest of the author's titles, but no dice.

Anyone know if there is a good listing of Scholastic sold books anywhere online?
 
I know just the book you're talking about, because I read it several times over back in grade school. I'm thinking it was published in the early 80s. I think
Miranda sounds like a familiar name for the dead girl. I remember the old lady dyeing queen anne's lace, just like she used to do with her daughter. They made it blue, I think.

The agonizing part is that I'm not coming up with the title, either, and it is rather exasperating. I want to think the title had the word owl in it somewhere. But that could be way off. It's probably been almost 25 years since I read this book.
 
I think I found it (actually, I'm almost 100% certain)...

Wylly Folk St. John, The Ghost Next Door, 1971. Scratch that early 80's thought. It's as old as I am. :)
 
Oh, my. I think you did.

From Amazon's description, I was thinking not... but I went and read a link that a reviewer posted
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved-g.html
and now I'm 99% sure it is.

One thing is odd, though... I didn't remember the "love in the owl's eyes" part... though now it seems a bit familiar...

And the author's name rings a bit of a bell, too...

Hmm. Going to order it. I think you scored! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(Now if someone would just figure out my San Francisco Earthquake book...lol)

(A bit later...)

Now that the owl idea is muddle-ing around in my head, I'm thinking that the copy I had might have had the owl on the corner of the cover, too... it sounds similar to what one of the Amazon reviewers described.

Ah-ha! And it had a reprint in 1981...

Amusingly and appropriately enough, one of the author's (Wylly Folk St. John) other books is named "The Mystery Book Mystery". Lol.

Anyone know what her other books are like?
 
Finding the title took sheer luck at web searching. Everything I tried went nowhere and then suddenly bada bing. :) It's no wonder we never remembered the title, it's so bland.

You're very welcome. I wish I could really wow you and come up with the San Fran book, but I know nothing there.
 
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