Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished! discussion

i think it must have been a superb book because i remember loving it so much and have remembered her name for 50 years. Looks like all her other books are historical books, which don’t interest me much, but her name is seared on my memory.

no, but I found it on Open Library, and it sounds fun - I'm not surprised you'd remember it!

Magic to Burn's link on OL is here (thanks, Deena!):
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19314...

When Ann and Stephen Northrup went exploring down a misty country road in England, they met an most unusual new friend. His name was Blaze and he was a boggart - a small, mischievious creature with horns on his head and a mind of his own.
Ann and Stephen seemed just the answer to Blaze's problems. He was looking for a uncrowded land of quiet and serenity, and in a few days the Northrup family was returning to America from their vacation. Blaze decided that America would be just the place.
But when the family boarded ship and the found Blaze a 'stowaway' in their cabin, they felt a mixture of delight and dismay. They knew that America wouldn't be at all the way Blaze imagined . . . and it wasn't. Now the children had their own problem. How would they get Blaze safely back to England?
Jean Fritz has written a delightful fantasy for young readers. Humor, mischief and a hint of magic will make Blaze a special character not soon forgotten.

I think I'll take a look at it myself! Never heard of it before! :)

I went in search of a better cover image to upload (Amazon has one, but it's very poorly lit and shot), and not only could I not find one that Goodreads would be allowed to upload, I couldn't even find a copy listed anywhere via Bookfinder.com

So here is a very scarce book - my advice is to borrow it and read it from OpenLibrary/Internet Archive while you can (if they lose their appeal, it could disappear overnight..). :(

If anyone HAS a copy and would like to take a nice photo of the cover for uploading (and would like to know how to do that), give me a shout, or post in the Internal Librarian's Group here. :)

EDIT: There is a copy for sale listed on Abebooks: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear... which only goes to confirm my suspicions that Bookfinder takes awhile to scrape listings from the internet and/or misses some. :S

Capn wrote: "Magic to Burn's link on OL is here (thanks, Deena!):
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19314...
When Ann and Stephen Northrup went exploring down a misty country road in..."
I uploaded the IA cover. It looks pretty good.

Heh, there's also one on ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/magic-t...
(They're selling in the $65-80 range, excl. shipping. So if you see one at your local Thrift store...!)

Sem wrote: "Capn wrote: "Magic to Burn's link on OL is here (thanks, Deena!):
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19314...
When Ann and Stephen Northrup went exploring down a misty co..."

Thanks, Sem! It was the nicest of the lot! :)

Fwiw, I like her historical fiction. But I'll add this to my OL list, too, thanks!

wow! very rare book indeed-a pity.
it is like Edward Eager but more l contemporary and funny and American—i remember how freaked out Blaze wqs by the vacuum cleaner-i will keep my eyes out for a cheaper copy and plan tonread soon on Open Library.

I was just talking to an indie publisher who said that as long as there are no family members holding the rights, it’s fine to republish even recent out of print books—and free to do so. Wouldn’t it be great if someone in this group started a publishing company to bring back these gems?