Category: SOLVED

“The first book wasn’t so much a continuous story as each chapter was its own little tale but with the same characters (though I think it was still a linear story). I think it took place back in early-to-mid 1900s and it was about a girl who lived in this big old house on a farm with her aunt (or great aunt – maybe grandmother?). I think there was a chapter about a big thunderstorm and ghosts; another was about a pie baking competition. The girl might have been named Emily (or not). Pretty sure this was written in the 80s.” We seemed to have reached consensus that this is Beverly Cleary’s Emily’s Runaway Imagination! 

“This YA novel is about a teenage boy (an only child) who goes to summer camp, and finds out once at camp that his parents, in exchange for external youth, have signed an agreement to sacrifice every child they have together at age 18 at this same camp. The boy had an inkling as to what was going on prior to this, as he found a photo album in his parents’ attic of their past children (although he didn’t know that they were his dead siblings at the time.) The failed sacrifice (he escaped) occurs in some sort of cave, and his parents were there, and they spoke a lot about the last child they sacrificed, a daughter named Meg, with long, curly eyelashes, who didn’t have a clue what was going on until the very end. They also had a cat clock at their house, the ones where the tail swings back and forth.” Only Child By Jesse Osburn, thanks to Lost Classics reader Majenta!