What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Clancy's Cabin
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children's book about a scavenger hunt set in Australia(?). Two children go stay with grandfather who lives in the bush. They go camping. Read around 1993. Spoilers ahead. [s]
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Did you read it in Australia?Key to the Treasure and The Secret Hide-Out have similarities, but don't contain the quote you mentioned.
Yes, I did read it in Australia.I don't think it's either of those, this was a scavenger hunt set up by the grandfather, it wasn't external.
Mod
"Looking for a children's book set in Australia. I read about 1993. Two children go to stay with their grandfather who lives in the bush. The kids go camping, and the older child is running his fingers along one of the beams in the ceiling of the cabin,
when one of the knots in the wood comes apart to give a small piece of paper, on which is written a clue to a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt. The kids think their father has set this up for them, but the clues lead to a neighbour (Mrs Southerby or Sutherby or something like that) who tells them that their grandfather set this up for their father when he was a boy. The clue that leads them to the neighbour is "go South or be terribly lost). Mrs Southerby has a globe of the world that is hollow and pulls apart, the next clue is inside it"
Would you call this a Mystery book?
Mod
Kris wrote: "Could the location be the UK Britain or US - or definitely Australia?"I'm pretty sure it was set in Australia, but I suppose it may have been Britain. Thinking back, I would be surprised if it was the US, books set in the USA weren't very common in Australia when I was that age.
I used a service at the National Library of Australia, and they found it!! The title is Clancy's Cabin, by Margaret Mahy (Clancy's CabinI cannot recommend the NLA's service enough.
The irony is not lost on me that I've used GoodReads twice to find a book, and both were written by Margaret Mahy
If it makes you feel any better, last week I went through ALL of Mahy's books and made sure they were duly listed on Listopia. And this query still didn't ring any bells. XD
This is the service, right?: https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/i...
And the contact page?: https://www.nla.gov.au/using-library/...
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Clancy's Cabin (other topics)Key to the Treasure (other topics)
The Secret Hide-out (other topics)
I'm trying to find the name of a book that I read when I was a child. I read it in 1994 or thereabouts.
Two brothers go back to their grandfather's house to stay. They sleep in bunk beds in a cabin outside the house, and the older boy is running his hand over the ceiling beam above his head and one of the knots in the wood has a piece of paper hidden in it. It's a set of clues for a scavenger hunt type thing. The boys think their father had planned it, but it turns out to have been an activity that the boys grandfather set up for their father when he was a boy, who never found it.
The clue I remember was "Go south or be very very lost". The boys then encounter their elderly next door neighbour whose name is Mrs Southerby or Sotheby. She remembers the grandfather setting up this hunt 25-ish years ago, and the next clue is in her globe of the world, that opens up.
From memory, the house where the boys were staying was fairly rural. Could have been set in the UK, the USA or Australia. Published before 1995. It was a "chapter" book, not a picture book, although I think there was the odd illustration in black and white. The setting was fairly contemporary, I think TV and cars were mentioned so my best guess is that it was written no earlier than 1960, but most likely sometime after 1980.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.