I was in one of those GATE classes in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, and our classroom had its own library in addition to the school’s normal one. I remember reading a story in one of these books, and I’d like to try to find it again.
All I remember is that the book was a paperback with a darkish blue cover, with a painting of a brightly lit Ferris wheel on it. The story was about a child and his/her father, from the POV of the father. The child wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, and for some reason the father put him/her on it alone even though he was reluctant to do so. He watched it go around nervously a few times, waving to the child, and eventually started to calm down…but then the next time it went around, the child wasn’t there. I don’t remember how the story ended, but I don’t think it was a happy ending (he didn’t find the child). It had kind of a creepy supernatural vibe to it, IIRC.
That’s all I remember. This would have been in the mid '70s, though I have no idea if the story was old by then.
There’s a story by Robert Cormier that’s similar to this, though it doesn’t have a creepy vibe or supernatural elements.
It’s called “Mine on Thursdays” and it’s in his collection 8 + 1. The father is an Absentee Dad[sup]TM[/sup] at a time when people were just learning to negotiate that. The ride is a lot more strenuous than a Ferris wheel, and dad doesn’t get on mainly because he’s too hungover for such antics. He watches, and is upset to see that she’s really scared, not fun-scared, and feels guilty for not riding with her, and for all the other times he’s failed to be there for her. It does have a sad ending, but a real-world one.
I just remembered it! The book was called “Night in Funland”, which was the name of the ferris wheel story.
I had this book, too. I got it from one of those Scholastic catalogs. It was a book of short stories, including “Flowers for Algernon” (the story the movie “Charlie” is based on). There was another story called “Jacob’s Ladder” about a boy climbing to the top of a vertical ladder to impress a girl.
The theme of the book is that the stories were non-violent creepy, and they sure worked on me! I don’t think any of them had happy endings. I remember going through the description of the ferris wheel to figure out how the pattern of the riders was changed to make the disappearance of the boy appear seamless.
Yes! Thanks, One Swell FlooP! That’s the one, all right. I found a picture of the cover here, and it’s definitely the one I remember. Now I need to get hold of a copy.
That link doesn’t work for me, NineToTheSky. The first one below does. The others are links to other mentions of the book. It appears that that anthology misspells the name of the author of the short story “Night in Funland,” since the author’s name is apparently William Peden:
Thanks, all. I found a copy for sale on Etsy (cheap, even!) and picked it up. I’m looking forward to seeing if the stories are as creepy as I remember them at age 10.
I think that book was my first introduction to “Flowers for Algernon,” too.
Ojai, CA. It was called the HAP (High Academic Potential) program where I was. We had two classes, each of which contained 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students, and interacted with each other extensively.
