Found: Children's/young adult mystery with two sisters, woman, and cat

I remember the cover of a children's book where there were two girls. One was skipping about, the other was looking up They were investigating a mystery with a woman who they found collapsed in her home. One of the black and white pencil illustrations was of them finding her on the floor. Another illustration was of them finding a cat on a shelf and reaching up to get it as the woman watches them.

Perhaps the girl only had her leg up on her knee, not skipping around.

Do you recall what year or decade half you read it? I'm thinking maybe something by Eleanor Clymer specifically We Lived in the Almont.
Covers https://www.librarything.com/work/8194824/covers/58102194

Or ...

Renner, The Hideaway Summer, though not looking up.

Or ...

Sachs, Amy and Laura, but again not an exact match and she's on a bench.

>3 bookel: I read it in the 1990s, and am pretty sure that it was written in the 1960s (thereabout). Thank you for all of your help.

Both girls had black hair (I believe) and I read it in the 1990s.

Definitely a long shot, but I want to throw Claudia and the New Girl out there.

I have read that too, but no, this cover was much darker in appearance.

I don't recall the back cover but don't think anyone is on it.
The Secret Summer of L.E.B.
by Barbara B. Wallace
Oh that was published 1974 so not early enough.

Was it an American author? I'll list some authors for you to go through.
Carol Ryrie Brink
Eve Bunting
Betsy Byars
Beverly Cleary
Vera Cleaver
Eth Clifford
Eleanor Clymer
Barbara Cohen
Molly Cone
Ellen Conford
Barbara Corcoran
Lynn Hall
Norma Klein
E. L. Konigsburg
Stella Pevsner
Willo Davis Roberts
Ruth Chew
Marilyn Sachs
Mary Francis Shura
Donald J. Sobol
Carol Beach York

I will look through all of all; thank you! I will keep you updated.

Brink, Two Are Better Than One
by Carol Ryrie Brink
Is from the late 1960s, the hardcover edition.

Try Talpa https://ite-sg.libguides.com/TalpaSearch . It has worked for me, when all I remembered was the subject and 'red cover'.
I heard about it on LibraryThing, but don't see a link here.

I tried, and that did not help. It seemed like the two sisters were having adventures together, sort of like Frankenweiler.

I think both girls had dark brown hair and the one sitting down had her hand on her chin.

Stoltz, The Noonday Friends came to mind but does not have the exact cover.

No, the book is definitely older, from the 1960s or 1970s.

The Noonday Friends was written in 1965 but has been reprinted several times and has had quite a few different covers; you may wish to look at them.

That is not it, but I do think the book took place in NYC, if I remember correctly.

Under the category Books For Children on this page are some books set in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_set_in_New_York_City

Johanna Hurwitz
The law of gravity (Republished as: What goes up must come down
Covers https://www.librarything.com/work/1847025/covers/62185276

Both girls were wearing black, jackets I believe.

So to reiterate, the cover has two girls. Both are dressed in black with dark hair. One is sitting down looking up at the other one (who is younger) with her chin in her hand. The girl is either on steps or on a bench. The younger girl standing up has her leg up.

Great to have a description. I'll keep looking when I get spare moments. Another thing you can try is check the post in the group on searching tips. You can also google children's books from certain decades. Do any authors pop up that you recognise? Any publishers?

I am starting to remember a plot. I believe it was a mystery. I remember an illustration within the book where the two sisters were in a house and were looking down at this old woman, who had collapsed on the floor. They had shocked expressions on their faces, as they thought she was dead or in a coma. The picture was in black and white and I believe was a pencil drawing.

Any book by Mary C. Jane?

I do not think so.

I want to say one of the girls was named Jo.

A Dana series mystery by Carolyn Keene? I haven't read them.

I remember another illustration from the book. The thin old lady and the two girls saw a cat on a shelf and they were reaching up to get the cat. I am sure you have noticed a theme to the books I tend to remember. The illustrations were black and white and detailed.

Those are great visuals. Hoping someone will recognise it but will keep looking. Don't think I have read it ... at least nothing is popping up memory wise.

Detailed like Ruth Sanderson, Joseph Cellini, Ted Lewin or Ruth Chew? There are more illustrators.

Yes, like The Search for Grissi with Levin. You are a wonderful resoource!

Charles Geer is also a detailed illustrator, though not as precise with lines.
https://www.librarything.com/author/geercharles

I haven't read all yet and illustrations are detailed. There is a cat and they are mysteries. You may find them on openlibrary. There are hardcover and paperback cover editions.

Meg series
by Holly Beth Walker
https://www.librarything.com/nseries/29905/Meg-Duncan

So now there's only this book to find?

>35 bookel: Yes.

Do you recall where you read it from?
Public library, school library, Scholastic Book Club, or did you own it?
Paperback or hardcover?

I may have gotten in from the school library. I believe that it was paperback.

It was a real cat on the shelf or a china cat?

This is ruled out?
Mystery of the green cat
Authors:Phyllis A. Whitney, Leslie Goldstein (Illustrator)
Summary:Two twin brothers and their two stepsisters, new to Russian Hill in San Francisco, solve mystery of long standing surrounding the elderly sisters in the old mansion next door

Was it a large paperback like Scholastic Book Services or a small mass market paperback like Archway Paperbacks?

Large includes
Bantam-Skylark https://www.librarything.com/nseries/263853/Bantam-Skylark-Books
Dell Yearling https://www.librarything.com/nseries/258542/A-Dell-Yearling-Book
Avon Camelot https://www.librarything.com/nseries/260257/Avon-Camelot
Vintage Scholastic https://www.librarything.com/nseries/256178/Vintage-Scholastic
Weekly Reader Books https://www.librarything.com/nseries/258701/Weekly-Reader-Books

>41 bookel: The cat was real and it was a large type book.

Agle, Susan's magic
Illustrations by Charles Robinson.
Ruled out I think.

Charles C. Gehm, another good detailed illustrator. Putting the illustrator in quotes in abebooks it seems to be mostly the books by Gail Rock.

Those do not seem right; I remember the cat was coming out of a hole in the wall when the two sisters and the woman rescued it.

cat rescued "juvenile fiction"
Virginia Kirkus' Service - Volume 34 - Page 252 Kirkus Service · 1966

cat who lived with Miss Pilgrim , an elderly lady with a subtle talent for making things turn out right . Ginger was just a ...

"cat who lived with Miss Pilgrim"
TEA WITH MR. TIMOTHY
BY GEOFFREY MORGAN ‧ RELEASE DATE: APRIL 7, 1966
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/geoffrey-morgan/tea-with-mr-timothy...

Another dead end.

You did make me think about the possibility that the woman with whom the sisters were solving the mystery may have owned an antique shop, which is where she collapsed.

That's what is useful about searching. New clues may come from memory being triggered. Very useful for search terms.

Google Books search
mystery sisters "antique shop" cat
1950-1985

› books
Carolyn Sherwood Flemming, ‎Donna Schatt · 1983 · ‎Snippet view
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 546
... Sisters - Fiction , Magic - Fiction , Fantasy , Dragons - Fiction ... cat they saw in Zelda's Antique Shop . The cat apparently liked them , too ...

"cat they saw in zelda's antique shop"

Click on Choices
Look at excerpt.

The would-be witch by Ruth Chew.

Well, not what you were after but will keep looking.

Worldcat.org search mystery antique shop su:"juvenile fiction" with a year range.

The Puss-in-the-Corner Mystery
by Jeanette Brown MacKenzie
Bonnie Maclean, whose mother keeps an antique shop in a Cape Cod village, enlists three friends to hunt for a new kind of treasure: an ancient set of stencil patterns, valuable enough to restore family fortunes.

There is an antique shop in Susan's Magic (Alternate title: Susan and Sereena and the cat's place).
It is on openlibrary.org.
SUMMARY : Aided by a cat, Susan uses her intuition to help an old lady save her faltering antique shop.

The toy shop mystery , by Flora Gill Jacobs ; illus . by Sofia . Coward . $ 2.75 . Two children and a Siamese cat help solve a mystery .
Jacobs. The toy shop mystery

Actually. now I think the woman may have been a librarian.

Finally, I found it. Help, I'm a Prisoner in the Library by Edith Clifford.

Touchstone: Help, I'm a Prisoner in the Library

Great! I've read that, love it. Did not connect it to the earlier clues though!

Sorry it was so difficult! Your post about Susan's Magic got me thinking first about antique shops, then libraries. Cats seem to be associated with books and bibliophiles. In many of the independent bookstores I have visited, the owners have cats.

>57 EKLC: OK interesting. Never seen cats in bookshops or libraries here ...