# Can you identify this children's story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2002, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802 "2002-06-19T04:08:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sputnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sputnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/1 "2002-06-19T04:08:31Z")
I read this book around thirty years ago when I was a pre-teen. What I remember is a brother and sister who moved into an old house. They were unhappy about moving. There was some kind of old shed out back in an overgrown garden, and an oven in the shed. They baked cookies in the oven and sprinkled various colors of sugar on top. The cookies were magical in different ways depending upon the color of the sugar. The last part I remember is that a neighborhood bully grabbed a cookie and started eating it even though they warned him not to, and he turned into a donkey. Since I still remember it after all this time, I’d like to read it again, maybe to my kids. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/2 "2002-06-19T05:07:02Z")
This sounds like something I read when I was a kid too, but much of the plot (as well as the title) eludes me. Was there an old neighbor lady who collected buttons, and her magic cookies would turn people into buttons (miniature people-shaped buttons, that is) if they ate them? ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/3 "2002-06-19T05:14:21Z")
Sounds like a good book to read while listening to _Puff the Magic Dragon._ ---
**Author:** ![Sputnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sputnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/4 "2002-06-19T10:58:43Z")
Yes, Scarlett, I do remember that there was an older, unrelated woman in the story but I left that part out of my description because my memory of her role in the story was even more vague than the rest of my recollection. I also remember that the kids seemed to be somewhat neglected by their parents so they began hanging out in this out-building as a place to sulk. I don’t particularly remember the part about the buttons. One last memory I have is that the author was very descriptive of what the cookies were like fresh out of the oven - hot and golden and fragrant - and that the kids would try to eat them when they were still too hot. I couldn’t find anything on the internet - funny how relatively recent published stories like this can just fade away. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/5 "2002-06-19T12:07:34Z")
The story sounds like a kid’s author named Ruth Chew. The brother/sister team, the one-gimmick magic (magic cookies, magic buttons, magic vacuum cleaner, etc), the alienated from their parents who are nice, but busy / vivid descriptions are all typical Ruth Chew formulae. I know for a fact that the book **Scarlett** is talking about IS a Ruth Chew book: “The Witch’s Buttons”. It is NOT the same book that **Sputnik** is talking about as there’s no magic sprinkles and no bully -\> donkey transformation. That said, it **Sputnik’s** description sure SOUNDS like a Ruth Chew book. I’ve read many of her books and that one doesn’t ring a bell. But it might be worth finding a list of her books and seeing if one of her titles ring a bell. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/6 "2002-06-19T16:51:27Z")
Just by coincidence, I have a list of Ruth Chew’s titles handy–Enjoy!: Baked Beans for Breakfast/The Secret Summer (same book, pub. under both titles) Do-It-Yourself Magic Earthstar Magic The Enchanted Book The Hidden Cave Last Chance for Magic The Magic Coin Magic in the Park Magic of the Black Mirror Mostly Magic No Such Thing as a Witch Royal Magic Second-Hand Magic The Secret Treehouse Shark Lady Summer Magic Trapped in Time The Trouble with Magic The Wednesday Witch The Wishing Tree The Witch and the Ring The Witch at the Window Witch in the House The Witch’s Broom The Witch’s Buttons Witch’s Cat The Witch’s Garden The Would-Be Witch ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/7 "2002-06-19T21:52:17Z")
I remember No Such Thing As a Witch. That one was good, about a neighborhood lady who these kids thought was a witch, and who baked brownies that could after several pieces eventually make you turn into one. Ah, how trippy it all sounds now. ---
**Author:** ![Sputnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sputnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/8 "2002-06-19T21:58:56Z")
I visited the library over lunchtime today and checked out one Ruth Chew book (I already forgot the title - it’s in the car). It looks like the same style that I remember though it isn’t THE book. But I did see The Witch’s Garden in the catalog at a different library - THAT could be a possibility, though it was written in 1978 which is probably after the time I would have read it. Thanks for the leads. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/9 "2002-06-19T22:45:43Z")
You realize that by reading these books, you’ve doomed yourself to Jack Chick’s hell, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/10 "2002-06-19T23:13:14Z")
Thanks, **Fenris** – that was going to bug me! I think I also read _No Such Thing as a Witch_\* – sounds familiar. Must go to the library! ---
**Author:** ![Sputnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sputnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnik)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/11 "2002-06-20T02:31:26Z")
Doomed? I will frolic in the flames of Jack Chick’s hell. And I guess my daughter will join me - she’s already begun reading Chew’s What the Witch Left (add it to your list, **booklover** ) in the car this afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-identify-this-childrens-story/114802/12 "2002-06-20T08:08:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sputnik \* > **I will frolic in the flames of Jack Chick’s hell.** Just to be pedantic: that should read, “I will frolic in the flames of Jack Chick’s hell. _ **HAW HAW!** _”