Has this ever happened to you? You remember liking a story you read when you were young but you don’t remember the title, author, or very many details. Still, you’d love to find it again. It apparently has happened for many people because there are web forums where you can describe what you remember about a book you read when you were a kid and people will try to help you find it.
Here’s my story.
I was at the Dublin Irish Festival Authors’ Corner one year and during a lull I struck up a conversation with the Book Loft staff, Julie and Josh to be specific. They told me people come into the store with memories like I described above and they are pretty good at helping them find the book they were looking for. So I told them my memories. It stumped them (probably for good reason. I’ll explain later).
Then came the pandemic and we missed two years of Irish festivals. When we met again this past August, Julie told me they were still trying to find my book. She remembered that I told her it was the book that had sparked my interest in historical fiction (and as I hope you know, that’s what I write now.) I was surprised to find out they were still thinking about it so I went home and tried to figure it out. That’s how I came across those web forums I mentioned. But nothing seemed to fit. Somewhere I came across the advice to ask your friends who are your age. So I did. On Facebook:
Are you around my age and want to help solve a mystery? I remember reading a book, or maybe it was a story in a magazine, when I was a kid that involved a boy who was somewhere in New England and he found a message carved into a drawer. By some kind of magic he was able to converse with a boy from the past, maybe pilgrim times. I remember Myles Standish being mentioned. I have googled, and even the staff at the Book Loft have been trying to figure it out. I know it’s not much to go on. Anyone?
Well, the problem with this that I now realize, and that may have thrown Julie and Josh off, is that some of what I remembered wasn’t quite right. But there were reasons I was a little mixed up. I’ll explain as I go along.
I immediately got a reply! Yay!
Sinead Tyrone
I have that book at home!! Can’t remember the name of it now but I will be home in about an hour and can post it then!
I didn’t recognize the cover but as Sinead explained more, it sounded like the right one! She was almost sure so I ordered a copy. Here’s mine.
I just finished it. Yes, it was THE one, and I’m excited to have found it again.
An interesting tidbit: Sinead is an author who like me can be found in the Authors’ Corner at the Dublin Irish Festival. She was right there! If I had brought it up to her then this would have been solved long ago! Sinead told me she had also thought about this story for a long while and it was a friend who solved the mystery for her. Yay for reader friends!
So, more about those misremembered events. I said this on Facebook when I read the description.
I think this must be it. It was a bed not a dresser like I thought? Funny that I didn’t remember it was a ghost. You don’t have to reread. I’m going to order a copy. Thanks, Sinead Tyrone
It indeed was a bed where Miles had carved his name. (The ghost’s name was Miles. I had thought of Myles Standish but he had nothing to do with this story. Nor did the Pilgrims. It may not have been set in New England either. The story doesn’t say where. My brain was making associations.)
But, a dresser drawer did play an important part in the story. See if you can read the passage below.
It says “chest” but is referring to a dresser. There was a secret drawer that held a diary Miles had written. Thus the messages from the past that I remembered. They weren’t carved in like the name on the bed. I had gotten it mixed together.
Here’s a summary of the book from the back cover:
Out of the graveyard comes a ghost-the ghost of ten-year-old Miles Dibble. “I’ve been waiting a long time for you to come to Dibble Hollow, Cousin,” he tells Pug. “Now you must help me find that lost money.” From that moment on, the ghostly Miles leads Pug from one spooky adventure to another. Pug gets used to chairs that rock by themselves, shutters that bang mysteriously, and hair that stands on end. And all the while he follows the clues to the weirdest treasure hunt with the ghost of Dibble Hollow.
But what that doesn’t say is that Miles is Pug’s great uncle. He died in 1900. When he appears to Pug he is wearing odd clothes that are plainly described and probably made the young me think of Pilgrims! And why in the world did I not remember there was a ghost? Maybe because he was friendly, not at all scary.
The Ghost of Dibble Hollow by May Nickerson Wallace is a wonderful story of reconciliation and healing of a family feud that came about because of a misunderstanding and perpetual prejudice. The Smiths (or at least the old man in the story) thought all the Dibbles were the same, dishonest. The Dibbles felt sorry for old man Smith, and wanted to help him, but they saw him mostly as a meanie. And no one liked the Pratts either but they discovered that when someone expects bad behavior from someone that’s what they will likely get. Lots of good lessons. Even Pug learns to respect his little sister a bit more but seeing that she is actually smart and can be helpful not just a tagalong.
It was a Scholastic book, so I likely had gotten it at a school book fair. The copy I have says 45 cents on the cover. Inside someone wrote 15 cents in pencil. If only books could be that cheap for kids today.
If you have a child in your life, read to them. Get them books to read alone too. You never know what will resonate with him or her decades later.
Do you have a favorite book from childhood? Mine is Charlotte’s Web but this one is good too! Let me know in the comments. You might mention something someone else has been searching for.
