The Vine: Find That Book Fest I
There was a children’s book I loved as a kid. It was the story of a brother and sister who were transported to an alternate reality to rescue their grandparents. Their grandparents had fallen through the reflection of the moon on water while sailing their catamaran on the ocean. There was a talking ladybug who went on obsessively about aphids and an evil queen who made the girl wash dirty dishes with her bare hands.
I grew up in the eighties and I can’t for the life of me remember this book’s name. Could you ask your readers if anyone recalls the name or if it’s still in print?
If only I could get my hands on some VHS of Misfits of Science and this book, my ’80s nostalgia would be complete
Dear Don’t Forget Your Debbie Gibson Cassette,
It doesn’t sound familiar to me but let’s see what the readers have to say.
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
It’s The Owlstone Crown — I remembered the evil-queen-dishwashing scene, and looked the rest up.
Emma B. is right. That was one of my favorite books for a while, and I recently remembered it and tracked down a copy.
Definately The Owlstone Crown. I did a book report on it in third grade, and have never forgotten the spiffy, trippy plot. It inspired me to go out and try eating parsnips – a huge feat for a picky child!
By the way this is a great site for finding the names of children’s books you can’t remember.
Thank you so much!!!
This was my vine question. I really loved this book and now I can reread it. This means a lot to me.
Parsnips! I totally forgot the parsnips.
Wasn’t there a gigantic flower (a moonflower) that communicated somehow? And didn’t it yearn for “room to bloom”? I still use that phrase…
Yes, there was a moon flower. Wasn ´t that how Raoul got all the power? Or something?
This … was a weird book. But I remember reading it over and over again, thinking that it made perfect sense. I gotta go find it now.
I just looked up Owlstone Crown and whoa: author X. J. Kennedy (flashback to university lit textbooks).