Found: Kids book with 'vanishing' castle
Original topic subject: Kids book with 'vanishing' castle
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1Bug_666
I read this at least 20 years ago, probably longer. A young boy (maybe in his early teens but probably around 12) and his grandfather go on a ferry with their dog (they move around a lot I think) As they are sailing the boy sees a castle through the mist that is quicky hidden by the clouds again. They all disembark and I think the boy and dog go off and the boy falls asleep. They are almost late getting back but then they aren't allowed to board the ferry; they're told that, because the dog went ashore, he needs to spend time in quarantine before they can travel back.
They decide to stay while the dog is being kept in quarantine and the boy gets a job as a dishwasher and decides to try to find the castle again (I think the grandfather might get a job as a handyman) The boy meets a girl his age (she had a less than common name) who was staying with her aunt who was always telling her not to do things leading to them refering to her as Aunty Don't.
The pair get a map of the area that shows local castles and rent a pair of bicycles to travel to each castle but none of them match the one the boy is looking for. I do remember one of them has no floor and the book mentions that one of the children nearly falls into the sea as they walk into the castle without realising it has no floor.
In the end, the boy somehow realises he saw a castle either on a small spit of land off shore or at the end of a long causeway and he goes out on a boat to find it. It's misty again and the mist parts and reveals the castle and the owner of the boat (an elder man) tells them about an old saying, something about sighting a lighthouse and the castle or some such, and it'll lead you to safe harbour and how he's never seen the castle from this angle and never knew what the saying meant. I think the grandfather and the boy decided to settle down wherever they are at the end too instead of moving all the time.
I've tried Google and AI and a few 'lost book' groups and, even though I have all this detail, I can't find the title.
They decide to stay while the dog is being kept in quarantine and the boy gets a job as a dishwasher and decides to try to find the castle again (I think the grandfather might get a job as a handyman) The boy meets a girl his age (she had a less than common name) who was staying with her aunt who was always telling her not to do things leading to them refering to her as Aunty Don't.
The pair get a map of the area that shows local castles and rent a pair of bicycles to travel to each castle but none of them match the one the boy is looking for. I do remember one of them has no floor and the book mentions that one of the children nearly falls into the sea as they walk into the castle without realising it has no floor.
In the end, the boy somehow realises he saw a castle either on a small spit of land off shore or at the end of a long causeway and he goes out on a boat to find it. It's misty again and the mist parts and reveals the castle and the owner of the boat (an elder man) tells them about an old saying, something about sighting a lighthouse and the castle or some such, and it'll lead you to safe harbour and how he's never seen the castle from this angle and never knew what the saying meant. I think the grandfather and the boy decided to settle down wherever they are at the end too instead of moving all the time.
I've tried Google and AI and a few 'lost book' groups and, even though I have all this detail, I can't find the title.
2keachachu
I think it's The Mysterious Island by Elizabeth Beresford. You can borrow it from openlibrary to check: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL10210826M/Mysterious_Island
