This should be fun. My memories of this are so vague I’m not sure if I’ll recognize the book even if I find it, but I figure no harm in asking.
This was one of three children’s books I read in approximately 1980. One I don’t recall. One had something about a hotel and a ravine. The third is the one I’m actually looking for. The books were all written by the same woman.
I recalled the name of the book as Bell, Book, and Candle, but that may not be accurate. The plot involved some kids who snuck out at night to hold an exorcism (or was it a séance?) in a domed building. This might have been a state capitol building or even the US Capitol Building.
Are you sure it was three books? The reason I’m asking is because I have a vague memory of a book with longish short stories, and one did have something about witches, and included the phrase about bell, book, and candle. I can even, for some reason, remember the poem supposedly recited by a witch as a curse.
*Holy water, book and bell
The black powers of blackest Hell.
Shall not defeat me, I’ll come back
To haunt you all
Until you give me Christian burial.
*
I don’t think that’s it, but I bet I would have liked it.
The three books weren’t related, except for being by the same author. I believe my grandmother gave them to me, saying the author was a friend of hers, and when I finished the books they went back to her. Of course, my grandma remembers nothing about this.