Children's book about Quaker riddles?

May 18, 2012 4:17 AM

Children's book about Quaker riddles? I read it as a kid, I remember a hell of a lot about it -- except of course the title.

I feel like the title was something like "The Riddle of the Sieve" but google doesn't turn anything like that up. The plot twist/conclusion centered around the fact that 'riddle' was an American colonial synonym for sieve (apparently). The story featured a boy and his great-aunt (I think) who was a Quaker. There was a boy-ghost from the revolutionary war era who was helping the boy solve the riddle that drove the plot of the book. At the end of the book the boy sits in on a Quaker meeting (which before he'd thought was boring?) and ends up saying something profound -- I think? I have been trying to find this book for years but finally decided the Hive Mind might be the only place that can help me.

I read the book in the early 1990s, but it was likely published much earlier than that. I loved historical fiction as a kid and basically read anything on that shelf in the library.

posted by blue_bicycle to writing & language (5 answers total)

The Riddle of Penncroft Farm seems to be fairly similar? (although publication date is 2001).
posted by plep at 5:04 AM on May 18, 2012

I agree with plep, it certainly sounds like The Riddle of Penncroft Farm. Just to clarify, it looks like the original publication date was 1989.
posted by purephase at 5:09 AM on May 18, 2012

Aha! That does look like it, but yeah it had to have been published earlier than 2001 as I definitely did not read that book in High School :) Man thanks guys, AskMeFi to the Children's Book rescue yet again!
posted by blue_bicycle at 5:30 AM on May 18, 2012

Looks like first edition was 1989.
posted by girlbowler at 7:15 AM on May 18, 2012

D'oh. Apologies for not reading purephase's reply in full.
posted by girlbowler at 7:17 AM on May 18, 2012