[PW] Looking for a book title

[Ellen Cousins]

Hello Carole,

The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis

from Loganberry:

More on the title - The Ship that Flew, by Hilda Lewis, illustrated by 
Nora Lavrin, published Oxford University Press 1939, 320 pages 
(frequently reprinted). Peter, Sheila, Humphrey and Sandy Grant live in 
a seaside village in England. Their mother is ill and in a nursing home, 
their father is a doctor. Peter sees a beautiful little model ship in a 
dark little shop and buys it from an old man with an eye-patch for "all 
the money you have in the world - and a bit over." He soon discovers 
that if he wishes, the ship grows to whatever size is necessary and 
flies through space and time. The children use it to visit their mother, 
to travel to a bazaar in Egypt (where they almost lose the ship to the 
governor of the town), to a Norman castle (and later they bring the 
Norman daughter to their own time), to ancient Egypt, to medieval 
England where they help Robin Hood save one of his men, and to Asgard, 
where they discover that their ship is the one made for the god Frey. At 
the end of the book they give the ship back in return for their heart's 
desire...

http://loganberrybooks.com/solved-s.html

Ellen C.

Carole Kass wrote:
> Greetings, all!
> 
> This is my first post to Project Wombat.  I hope someone will be able to
> help me find the title of a book I read many (many) years ago.  Any clues
> would be most appreciated.
> 
> This was a multi-chapter book that would have been considered a fantasy
> story for young adults, having to do with a carved wooden toy ship that
> could transport its owner to any destination and (as the children in the
> story discover) to different points in time.
> 
> 
> The story takes place in one of those isolated quaint villages somewhere on
> the coast of the British Isles.  The protagonist is a young boy who falls in
> love with a toy ship that sits on the shelf in a store owned by a kindly
> older gentleman who definitely has an air of mystery about him.  When the
> boy asks the price of the toy ship, the gentleman answers (with the
> obligatory twinkle in his eye), "All that you have, plus a little bit more."
> (And something makes me think that the store is hidden from view until the
> boy comes along.)
> 
> The boy does eventually come to possess the toy ship and it takes him and
> his sister on many wonderful adventures.  Years pass and the boy realizes
> one day that the time has come for someone else to own the toy ship.  He
> returns to the shop where he originally found it and meets the same
> gentleman (who hasn't aged a day) who sold it to him. He hands over the toy
> ship and, in return, receives the exact amount that he paid so long ago.
> 
> Any ideas, anyone?  I probably read this in the early 1960s; I have no clue
> as to when it might have been published.
> 
> It's been a lot of fun just writing this summary.  Thanks for the
> opportunity.
> 
> Regards,
> Carole