Loretta Mason Potts (New York Review Children's Collection) Hardcover – July 15, 2014

A lifelong mystery seems to have been solved: Over 50 years ago, when I was eight, I read a book in the library of the town where my family was vacationing (Hunter, New York, and the town library was housed at the time on the second floor of a school building). All I recalled of the book afterwards was that there was a magic entrance in the back of a closet that led to a bridge over a stream. If you went over the bridge, you became tiny -- the same size as the people on the other side of the bridge -- but if you happened to walk through the stream, you remained big. I remembered a few scattered images: a girl whose sweater had holes in it coming to live in a house; a ballroom with many windows, a rescue by someone who went through the stream and remained big. I never recalled the name of the book or the author, but if this was the book that is not surprising, as the cover bears two ladies' names but apparently no title! For decades, I have tried to find out what the book was, and people would say it must have been "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I knew that was not the case : this definitely involved a closet, not a wardrobe, and the bridge over the stream, critical to the plot, is nowhere to be found in Narnia.After all these years, practically nothing in this story was familiar to me, but I found it an excellent read, with insights into children's and adults' minds, and with some digs at wealthy suburban life in 1950s America. The 1950s environment (with its anxieties about slang and comic books) is quite realistic, but the magic is genuine, scary folk magic -- little people under the hill who entice children away from their homes -- that is not compromised or explained.

This is book is, by some, to be a classic. All I know it was read to me by my mother when I was young and I *never* forgot it. It left an impression. It is quite impossible to describe the book without giving too much away, but perhaps you can think of this as a journey into another dimension, like the Twilight Zone. It involves a family that undergoes a drastic change when a previously unknown relative appears, and draws the young children into another world, strange and different.

I absolutely loved this book in elementary school. I found it in my school library but could never find it anywhere else. It's got a "vintage" flavor to it and the illustrations are quite old-fashioned as well. PS In elementary school I would have rated it 10 stars.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child.. I read it at least five times between ages 10 and 14. I read it again when I was 20 after finding an out-of-print copy without a cover on Amazon for $30, and later gave it to my little sisters. After that, for 15+ years, every time I looked for a copy to give to a friend the out-of-print copies just like the one I bought were $800 and up! (My sisters had lost their copy of course. 😱) Anyway I'm so excited to see Loretta Mason Potts in print again. I bought the Kindle version to read to my own 11-year-old daughter this year. This story of a "naughty" attention-starved girl and "good" but curious boy who stumble upon and become enchanted by mysterious flamboyant and extravagant people in a castle on a dark hill in the woods is just fascinating and timeless! The mystery unfolds at a perfect pace to keep any reader's attention, wondering what's actually happening and what they'll say next. My daughter and I also enjoy some of the older phrases and ideas in this and many classic books. ❤️

My favorite book from childhood. I searched for 30 plus years to find it and figure out what the title was. I remember where it was on the library shelf but couldn't come up with the name. Finally found and bought a copy for my son and for every friend I have with children. It is a journey that takes you far away but you always come home. I am thrilled to find it now available for all. It was a sin that it was unavailable for so long. Please everyone buy this book for your children. You will enjoy reading this as much as they will enjoy hearing it. Love love this book. Probably my favorite book of all time. Introduced me to my love of reading where I learned you could go to far away places while you were sitting in your own home.

As a ten-year-old child, this book totally wrapped me in its magical web. I still remember it as my most favorite book, rivaled only by Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights once I was a young adult. I checked it out from the school library as a fourth grader in the morning, and only put it down when I had to do lessons, finishing it by the evening. Like the C.S. Lewis Narnia series, especially The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Colin is able to slip into an alternate reality, and the portal between the two worlds is very thin. Adults in both kingdoms could be unpredictable, flighty and cruel. Loretta is initially an enigma until her identity confusion is resolved. I really don't know how Mary Chase wove such a masterful world of magic and wonder. I'm definitely getting this for my own children.

I, too, had searched for the Loretta Mason Potts book, long before the internet was invented. Since elementary school (in the late '50s) I thought of it as my favorite book. When I became an adult (with kidlike tastes, still), I went back to my elementary school to look for the book (still before the internet). No luck. They didn't even have a record of it. I thought I'd made it up, and forgot all about it. Until last night, as I was falling to sleep I searched my brain for the name of this book. I remembered the name. I woke up thinking about it. I haven't bought it yet, but I read it when I was a little girl and thought I'd lost the opportunity to read it again. Thank you Amazon, for offering this treasure of a book.