Desperately trying to find a forgotten book.

November 27, 2005 9:25 PM

I'm trying to find a book that I read when I was in grade school, sometime during the mid to late 80's. The basic plot involved a girl scaring her impressionable young step(?) brother by pretending to go into trances and make predictions. IIRC, she was somewhat of an outcast at school, but had recently been cast in the school play as a colonial witch (Tituba perhaps?). I think there may have also been some references in the book to the Sybills of ancient Greece (hence the trances). Is this ringing any bells?

I've tried Googling every combination of words that I can think of without success. I also tried calling ready reference in Milwaukee, as that was the library system from which I had gotten the book. I know it was a book aimed at maybe 3rd through 6th graders. It's kind of frustrating to me that the details that I can remember are so sketchy and vague. For example, I remember her step-mother lending her a shawl to wear in the play. I remember that when she first pretended to be in a trance, she was doing it as a joke on her step-brother who was bothering her, but that he took it very seriously and believed it. I remember that he was sort of delicate. However, things like the title and author or even what the cover looked like have escaped me. I'd really love to find it again if anyone else recognizes this.

posted by kayjay to writing & language (13 comments total)

Could it be The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder?
posted by getchoo at 10:04 PM on November 27, 2005

I once read a somewhat similar book called The Oracle Doll. The details don't quite match what you remembered, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
posted by gorillawarfare at 10:19 PM on November 27, 2005

Someone in a similar AskMe thread last June recommended the Fiction-L list for questions like this. A quick glance at the archive tells me they were right. If AskMe doesn't come through, you might want to try there. (You don't have to be a librarian to join.)
posted by mediareport at 11:33 PM on November 27, 2005

Kayjay, did the story somehow involve a poltergeist (or suspicion thereof)? And had the family just moved into a new house? That is what my free association came up with for your description, but I cannot place the title of the book I am thinking of.

Googling turned up... Snyder, Zilpha Keatley. The Headless Cupid (scroll down):

When Amanda comes to live with her new stepfamily she creates quite a stir with her interest in the occult, her weird hairdos and clothes and the triangle on her forehead. This book is the first of a series of adventures of the Stanley family.

posted by misterbrandt at 8:25 AM on November 28, 2005

???
posted by misterbrandt at 8:29 AM on November 28, 2005

getchoo, was your comment really there the whole time? Jeez I am blind. oh well. Nice work.
posted by misterbrandt at 10:32 AM on November 28, 2005

Good try, but it isn't the Headless Cupid. I remember that one. There is no realy supernatural activity, just the sister pretending to be in a trance.

She does turn out to be a very good actress, which is good for her in that she stops being such an outcast at school over the course of the play, and bad, since it makes the trances convincing enugh to freak out the brother.
posted by kayjay at 10:41 AM on November 28, 2005

Can you provide any more details at all? Any more seemingly-random tidbits like the shawl thing, how old the girl might have been, what her name might have been?
posted by Gator at 5:52 PM on November 28, 2005

Um... I know that there were only the two kids, the girl and her step-brother. I know that her father had only recently remarried, so they were going through an adjustment phase. I can't remember the character names, but I'm now pretty sure that she was playing Tituba in the school play (though it wasn't the Crucible). That's all I've got for now.
posted by kayjay at 8:24 PM on November 28, 2005

I totally remember this book! Well, maybe not totally: I have no idea who the author was, or the title. I do remember that there was nothing truly sinister or supernatural going on -- no ghosts or real witches of any kind, just a normal girl who told a lie and had to work harder and harder to cover it up. Oddly, this book and The Godfather were the most popular books in my fifth grade class -- i'm guessing the main character must have been in sixth grade or so. I'll keep googling, as not knowing is literally keeping me awake at night.
posted by mochapickle at 8:27 PM on November 28, 2005

I totally remember this book!

I find this strangely comforting. :)
posted by kayjay at 12:02 AM on November 30, 2005

Is it "Will the Real Gertrude Hollings Please Stand Up?" by
Sheila Greenwald?
posted by mediareport at 11:31 PM on December 2, 2005

Oh my god, that's it! Brilliant!

Kayjay, is this the one?
posted by mochapickle at 1:37 PM on January 3, 2006