SOLVED. Juvenile Fantasy. Girl and brother find a wizard inside an old tree. Then their swimming pool becomes a portal to other places like a pirate ship. [s]

[Drake]

I can't remember the title of a juvenile fiction from the early 1970s (maybe earlier) where a girl and her younger brother are at a park near their home and find an old man asleep in a tree whose trunk that has split open from a storm. They believe he is a wizard. They make him a robe with stuck-on stars. And later their swimming pool suddenly becomes a portal to other places like a pirate ship.

[Rainbowheart]

The Hidden Cave

[Jade]

I KNOW THIS BOOK! they give him wheaties and he thinks it's weird to eat 'dried leaves'. The Wizard's name is Merlin I think. Yes it's The Hidden Cave. Here's a sample from amazon:

Tom & Alice are exploring a drainage pipe in Prospect Park when it starts to rain. Lightning splits open a tree to reveal an old man with really long hair who says his name is Merlin. Tom & Alice suggest he take shelter in the pipe & return home to find him some scissors to cut his hair & something blue & gold to wear. Alice accidentally dyes her white bedspread blue, then decides to add gold stars and curtain ties & give it to Merlin to wear. They take him some food & the robe & help him cut his hair. They have to show him how to eat a banana. The next day, they find him on a swing he made with his hair, and convince him to eat corn flakes. The 3 of them follow the tunnel, which magically leads to the library, where Merlin reads some books to try to remember how to do magic. Then Merlin pets a lion in the zoo. He disarms some boys who threaten them w/knives by using magic to make the knives too hot to hold. Then he says he needs herbs to do proper magic & the 3 take the tunnel again, magically arriving at the botanic garden. Merlin collects some leaves & twigs, but gives them to Alice because he doesn't have a pocket. Back home, Tom throws some of the herbs into the wading pool he's trying to set up, and the pool sets itself up. When Alice & tom get in, it becomes an ocean w/an island. Merlin uses the rest of the herbs to set up a cave house in the pipe in the park, but still appreciates it when Alice brings him Fig Newton cookies to eat. Meanwhile, Tom has gotten himself kidnapepd by pirates in the magic wading pool. They escape & rescue a nice pirate, who gives them each a gold coin. Merlin uses more herbs to fix the pool so that Alice & Tom can swim in it safely. However, the bad magic of the pool makes their father want to dig up the yard looking for more gold coins. Merlin finds the Eye of Horus in the Brooklyn Museum & uses it to give Tom & Alice the ability to stop their father & to go back to King Arthur's time.

[Drake]

Rainbowheart wrote: "The Hidden Cave"

Yup, that's it. Thanks.

[Drake]

Jade wrote: "I KNOW THIS BOOK! they give him wheaties and he thinks it's weird to eat 'dried leaves'. The Wizard's name is Merlin I think. Yes it's The Hidden Cave. Here's a sample from amazon:

Tom & Alice are..."

That's it. Thanks. I am constantly surprised by how quickly people can find these books.

[Rainbowheart]

You're welcome, glad to help out!