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The Vine: July 1, 2011

Submitted by on July 1, 2011 – 10:09 AM23 Comments

I found this book at my school’s book fair sometime in the mid-nineties, and I don’t think it was too old. It was probably for the preteen/teen set. I feel like the word “house” is somewhere in the title. The cover was dark and had a creepy house on the front. It was in the horror/mystery/creepy type genre (which, as an obsessed R.L. Stine Fear Street lover, I ate up). I don’t think it was part of a series, but I could be mistaken.

The basic plot is a group of teenagers go into this old, deserted house in their town (I feel like it was on a dare) and get stuck inside. The house is actually sentient, and they eventually find out that the house just wants someone to stay and live in it (because it misses its old owners?). The teens, obviously, do not want this to happen.

The interesting thing about the book is that when the teens try to escape, via the windows or back door, etc., they are actually going to different time periods. Each window shows somewhere different, and there’s usually something dangerous going on (because the house is trying to discourage them from leaving). One of the characters runs out the back door and gets caught up in a battle during the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, another goes out a window and comes face-to-face with a saber-tooth tiger.

I remember the main female character tried reasoning with the house and in one scene tried on some old dresses belonging to one of the previous tenants. The house tried to be all warm and pleasing inside, giving them food and starting fires in the fireplaces, just so they would stay.

I hope that was enough to jog someone’s memory who actually can recall the title/author.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Google Failed Me

*****

When I was in 5th grade (which would have been around 1987), I owned a book that was called something like “The Kid’s Guide to Life” or “The Kid’s Book of Answers” or something like that. It was a very large, thick paperback book that covered a huge array of seemingly random topics, including advice to kids about their personal lives (shyness, puberty, family problems), to historical events, to the Guinness Book of World Records, among other things.

I found this book fascinating, and I could read it for hours. Once, when I left class to use the restroom, I came back to find that my teacher had taken it out of my desk and started reading out of it to the class. Some very specific things I remember from that book:

In the part of the book that talked about puberty, there were two illustrations of the same girl, one pre-pubescent and one post-pubescent. The younger version had long, straight hair, and the older version had longer, slightly wavier hair, wearing a dress that was VERY late ’70s/early ’80s. It made me wonder — does puberty make your hair curlier?

In another section, there was a discussion about Sonja Henie, and an accompanying photo that was so dark that I assumed at the time that she was African-American.

I wish I could remember more details…but if anyone has owned this book, I’m certain they would remember it from these details. I have unsuccessfully scoured the web looking for any reference to it, which makes me wonder if I’ve got the title all wrong.. But if anyone out there recognizes this book and can tell me what the actual name/ISBN is, I would be so grateful. This has been driving me crazy for years.

Gretchen

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23 Comments »

  • Carolyn says:

    Sorry I can’t help with the books, but I have an answer for the question “does puperty make your curlier?” YES, yes it does. If you put two pictures side-by-side from when I was 10 and another when I was 13, you’ll find that my hair tripled in volume. Sadly, it took me 8 more years to learn how to tame that beast.

  • Beadgirl says:

    I see Carolyn beat me to the punch. I feel your pain, Carolyn. I went through the same thing.

    I can’t help with the books, but that first one sounds really interesting; I hope someone else recognizes it.

  • lizgwiz says:

    Can’t help with the books (though the first one sounds wonderful), but yes…curlier and darker. And then perimenopause makes it even crazier. Sigh.

  • Jen S 1.0 says:

    I only wish re: hair. Mine remained, as it does to this day, devoted to its impression of seaweed-limp and lifeless.

    Could Gretchen’s book be An Underground Education by Richard Zack? It’s not a young person’s book by a mile but it sounds like her description.

    I owned a book in a similar vein as a kid but it was full of more practical advice–everything from simple cooking to not answering the door when you’re home alone to paying attention on public transit so you don’t miss your stop. One sentence stands out, about wearing practical clothing around the stove: “You probably don’t wear robes with long, flowing sleeves anyway. But in case you get the urge to, and also get the urge to do some serious cooking, choose one or the other, not both.” It was a very funny book and I read the shit out of it.

  • Stephanie says:

    Carolyn – your experience is EXACTLY like mine. My teens is a wasteland of flattening irons, gel, mousse and tears. Now I don’t bother fighting it.

    Same thing happened to my mother, straight hair until puberty when it went curly. Now that she’s in her 60s it seems to be relaxing a bit. I’m guessing it’s the same thing as puberty but in reverse obviously.

  • Hoolia says:

    I’m really curious to know what the first book is. I’d love to read it.

    Joining the chorus…yes, my childhood stick-straight hair turned wavy in my teens. I had no idea that was so common it would be illustrated in a description of puberty.

  • Fellmama says:

    My hair got a little wavier with puberty, but it didn’t become actively curly until I moved to the East Coast.

    Yay?

  • anotherkate says:

    For the first book, could it be one by Nina Kiriki Hoffman? She has 2 connected books that feature a sentient house, although neither has the word house in the title.

  • Gretchen says:

    Dear Jen S 1.0:

    This is Gretchen–thanks for your reply. “An Underground Education” is not the book I’m thinking of, but the second one might be! Do you remember the name of it? My book also gave random advice like that. And the book was huge.

    Also, I didn’t realize one’s hair could curl after puberty. Interesting! Mine was always curly, before and after.

  • Jen S 1.0 says:

    Arrgh, It’s killing me! It was something along the lines of The How To Do Everything Book For Kids, or something like that. It was a fat, oversized paperback with lots of late seventies/early eighties cartoonish drawings of kids doing whatever the entry was. It had a red border running across the top and bottom, and I recall there was a sequel with a green border. I only remember owning the first one, though.

    I remember an entry on acne that recommended a homemade yogurt mask, and remarked that one of those storebought green clay masks can be fun if you want to “run around with a green face, scaring the pants off your little brother.” There were also more serious entries on first aid after poisoning or accidents, and if the person threw up you should take a sample with you to the hospital.

    The writing was quite witty and funny, making it a fun read. I’m going to Google Fu this sucker and see what I can find!

  • Jo says:

    Gretchen, I had something like that that was called “The Kid’s Book of Questions (or Answers, maybe),” but I don’t remember the puberty illustration.

    No help on the other one but it sounds kind of awesome.

  • Anne says:

    Gretchen, is it possible that your book is Catherine O’Neill’s How and Why: A Kid’s Book about the Body? I had this in 1988 and recall an especially fascinating article about appendicitis. Here’s the only link I could find: http://tiny.cc/hbcp8

  • gabster says:

    Gretchen, I think you might be looking for “The Macmillan Illustrated Almanac for Kids.” Your description reminded me of an 80s-era book I pilfered from my brother’s room in the mid-90s. It looks like there were multiple editions, but this is the cover I remember: http://www.amazon.com/Macmillan-illustrated-almanac-kids-Elwood/dp/0025354205

  • Casey B says:

    I think the 2nd book is The Big Book of Tell Me Why: Answers to Hundreds of Questions Children Ask. My kids have this book and it looks like it is currently available on Amazon.

  • Gretchen says:

    gabster: I think that might be it! I will check with my local library and see if it’s the same thing. Thanks so much!

  • Stephanie says:

    This is Google Failed Me —

    Anotherkate, I checked out that author, and, sadly, she does not have anything similar to what this book was. Thanks for the suggestion though.

  • Jay says:

    My girls handbook had the pre and post puberty pics in and advice on everything. It would have been a 60s/70s edition (not sure if it was passed down from my sister or aunts).

    There could have been a gender neutral version later. New girls versions have come out recently.

  • jenn says:

    Now I really want to read the first book… hope the title is found!

  • Colleen2 says:

    I’ve pretty much exhausted my Google and WorldCat search powers looking for that first book. Can you remember any of the characters’ names? Setting?

    (Searching would have been so much easier without the existence of the Magic Tree House Series…)

  • Stephanie says:

    Colleen2, I wish I could remember more about it! That would’ve definitely helped in the search. I can so clearly remember the act of reading it, where I was, etc., but not much of the actual book beyond what I already said is coming to mind.

    I clearly remember (not that this is super helpful) that the cover was very dark, a nighttime shot of a two-story, Victorian (?) style house, and I feel like you could see something one or two of the windows.

    The main character was a girl, and I think she started to like one of the guys in the group she really didn’t know well before they were trapped (I’m thinking he was new to town). He turned out to be very resourceful. There were at least 5 people, most likely, 2 girls and 3 guys.

    During the climax, I feel like someone…got sucked into/through a door? Or they tried an elaborate plan to get the front door open? The sabre-tooth tiger also played a bigger role in the end…like once they made a coherent plan to leave, the house retaliated by opening all of the windows/doors to other worlds and let the cat inside the house to attack them.

    The house spoke to them (or just the girl) in their minds, and at one point they are walking through and see a huge feast on the dining room table and there’s a fire going in the library. I think they see a book open by a chair as if someone had just been there a second ago. It could’ve been that a previous person who was trapped there was let go because he/she lured the kids into coming in.

    I’m pretty sure the beginning started up with them standing outside the house waffling over whether or not to break in, and once they did the door opened easily, which surprised them.

    So apparently I remember a lot more than I thought, lol, but unfortunately without any clear cut details I don’t know how this will help anyone. :-/ Thanks for looking though! I appreciate all the help. I wish you guys could read it too!

    – Google Failed Me

  • Karen says:

    Google Failed Me: it’s not A Deadly Game of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon, is it?

    That book is about teens in a house, but I think it’s a guy in the house who is f-ing with them, not the house itself.

  • Jennifer says:

    Gretchen, I think I had the same book, some time between 1983 and 1989. It was a thick paperback, and my edition had (I think!) a pale blue cover with a lot of illustrations on it.
    The thing I remembered most about the book was an entry on why water boils faster at high altitude, and there was a cartoon that accompanied that entry, and the cartoon said something incongruent with what the text said (or so I believed when I was 8 or 9.) There was a man on top of a mountain cooking something, and another man at the bottom of the mountain cooking something, and the guy at the bottom was saying “Much faster down here” and it stood out to me because I thought it should be the opposite. Again, I’m relying on realllly old memory here, but as soon as I read your question about the puberty/curly hair thing, it made me think of this book and I’m 80% sure that was in this book. So if it helps with anyone’s google fu, that’s one more entry to search. I hope someone finds it. I LOVED that book and I know my kids would, too.

  • Stephanie says:

    Hi, Karen,

    I checked it out, and its not that book. Thanks for the suggestion though!

    – Google Failed Me

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