The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
by Eleanor Cameron, originally published in 1954.

Summary
A mystery man inspires two boys to build a space ship which takes them to the planet of Basidium to help the Mushroom people.

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Keywords: Aliens, Space Flight

Character Names: David, Chuck, Tyco M. Bass

The Wonderful Fashion Doll

The Wonderful Fashion Doll
by Laura Bannon, originally published in 1953.

Summary
Debby finds an old letter in which her great-great-great grandmother describes a wonderful French fashion doll that she had in the 1800's. When Debby goes to her grandparents' farmhouse, she searches until she finds the doll, Gay Event, and her lovely wardrobe.

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Keywords: Dolls, Clothing, New Hampshire

Character Names: Debby, Gay Event (doll)

The Witch Family

The Witch Family
by Eleanor Estes, originally published in 1960.

Summary
Two little girls who love to draw witches build an elaborate world around the imaginary Old Witch and her family. Old Witch, Little Witch Girl, Weeny Witch, and two real girls in a fantasy that blends the worlds of reality and imagination. A Halloween classic about the power of make-believe.

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Keywords: Witches

Character Names: Amy, Clarissa, Hannah, Malachi the Bumblebee

The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House

Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House
by Mary Chase, originally published in 1968 under the title "Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden."

Summary
Maureen Swanson is the scourge of the neighborhood. At age nine, she already has a reputation as a hard slapper, a loud laugher, a liar, and a stay-after-schooler. The other kids call her Stinky. So sometimes when Maureen passes the crumbling (and haunted?) Messerman mansion, she imagines that she is Maureen Messerman -- rich, privileged, and powerful. Then she finds a way into the forbidden, boarded-up house. In the hall are portraits of seven young women wearing elaborate gowns and haughty expressions. Maureen has something scathing to say to each one, but then she notices that the figures seem to have shifted in their frames. So she reaches out her finger to touch the paint -- just to make sure -- and touches . . . silk! These seven daughters of privilege are colder and meaner than Maureen ever thought to be. They are wicked, wicked ladies, and Maureen has something they want. . . .

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Keywords: Time Travel, Ghosts, Leprechauns, Supernatural, Sisters, Mansions, Scholastic

Character Names: Maureen

The Velvet Room

The Velvet Room
by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, originally published in 1965.

Summary
Robin and her family have spent several years moving from place to place, trying to find work and a place to live. When Robin's father finds a job at an apricot farm, all are happy but Robin. She explores the countryside near her home and meets new friends. But why does everyone warn Robin to stay away from the lovely old house? "Something bad lives there," the women in the village tell her. "It's the Ghost of the Palms!" But Robin has found a beautiful and secret hiding place in the deserted mansion. And nothing - not even a wailing ghost - is going to frighten her away from the Velvet Room.

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Keywords: Velvet, Depression, Apricots, Tunnel, California, Scholastic

Character Names: Robin

Twig

Twig
by Elizabeth Orton Jones, originally published in 1942.

Summary
Twig was just a plain, ordinary little girl who lived on the fourth floor of a "high sort of house" in the city. The back yard behind that house was Twig's little world. It was a bare little world, with nothing but a dandelion and a stream of drainpipe water to make it beautiful; with nobody but Old Boy, the ice-wagon horse, Old Girl, the cat, and the Sparrows, to keep Twig company.

But one day, out in the alley, Twig found an empty tomato can with pictures of bright red tomatoes all round it. When it was upside down, it looked like a house just the right size for a fairy! Twig stood it upside down, next to the dandelion, not far from the stream. And this is the story of what happened in and around that little house one Saturday afternoon.

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Keywords: Fairies

Character Names: Twig

Tom's Midnight Garden

Tom's Midnight Garden
by Philippa Pearce, originally published in 1958.

Summary
Tom is furious. His brother, Peter, has measles, so now Tom is being shipped off to stay with Aunt Gwen and Uncle Alan in their boring old apartment. There'll be nothing to do there and no one to play with. Tom just counts the days till he can return home to Peter.

Then one night the landlady's antique grandfather clock strikes thirteen times leading Tom to a wonderful, magical discovery and marking the beginning of a secret that's almost too amazing to be true. But it is true, and in the new world that Tom discovers is a special friend named Hatty and more than a summer's worth of adventure for both of them. Now Tom wishes he could stay with his relatives -- and Hatty -- forever....

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Keywords: Clocks, Time Travel

Character Names: Tom, Hatty