I can think of 3 or 4 children's books

that I would like to own again someday. (Since I didn't take care of them. Sigh.) One is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. To me, it was simultaneously frustrating, creepy and magical. One of my old roommates had the portfolio edition. I also really wish I had The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery (#75 Nancy Drew) Preferably from 1984, because I think the later editions have a different cover. I got it for Christmas when I was in 2nd grade and I remember thinking "You expect me to read that?" It was great. Let's see, first she talked to this sketchy Chinese guy and had tea and a meal with him in Chinatown somewhere (in San Francisco maybe?) and possibly saw some New Year Festivities. Then she ended up, somehow, waking up in a room in a mysterious hacienda, either in the Southwest or Mexico. There was an older, forbidding Senora and a cat and a tray with rolls. Oh, the many dark and mysterious rooms of the mansion and the cat! the cat! were so freaking cool. There was a girl named Elena and her boyfriend and they all three had to escape. I wonder who actually wrote it. Also, although I don't care as much about this book, it could be interesting to re-encounter the one that had something to do with her going to France. All I remember is some girl who was the daughter of a famous man told her: "Daddy hated omelettes," there was some kind of crystalline object breaking, and the words "in order to make an omelette you have to break an egg." (In French.) Ouef. And, because it gave me chills when I read it, I would like to find the paperback version of The Kachina Doll Mystery. (Later note: I found that book. It wasn't in French. It was Italian!)