When you find yourself trying to remember a show (or any works) that's on the tip of your tongue but just out of reach, come here - the collective brain of the TVTropes community can probably help. Post all the details you can remember (examples help). If you're looking for a trope, head over to Trope Finder. Have general questions about tropes? Visit Ask The Tropers!
Find a Show:
openall-girls boarding school consisting of cyborgs Literature
looking for a book where a girl gets sent to an all-girls boarding school by his dad. the principal is a friend of said dad. mom is dead. every girl in said school turns out to be cyborgs made by the principal. girl shuts down the power grid of cyborgs and runs away. it was a very short and illustrated book, so it's probably a children's book. it's similar to girls with sharp sticks, but it's not. any ideas?
openBook about thinly veiled Dungeons and Dragons and how it's bad. Literature
Short novel. Looked like it was part of a series. Not sure if it was variations on a theme or the same cast. The only scene I can swear to is, a player declares himself to be his character, maybe he puts on a wizard hat? Climbs on a stump and declaims from there while the narration shifts to, character name in quote marks.
Edited by CaswinopenLilliputian-sized people fight horde of goblin-type creatures Literature
Children's chapter book that was read in 90s but possibly older
- The main characters are lilliputian-sized people who live in fortress/castles in (I think) rubbish tip
- They live in a fortress because they come under regular attack from hordes of goblin creatures with green skin and red or orange hair
- There are multiple fortresses and they have an alliance to send aid to each other during the attacks by the goblin creatures
- At the start of the book, the horde attacking is bigger then usual and a group of the main characters are sent to the allied fortress to get help
- The group gets to the allied fortress but finds that the fortress has already been destroyed by the horde
- The group encounter two surviving knights of the fortress. The two knights ride cats - as in domestic cats. The others are shocked at this cause cats are generally seen as a danger to them but the knights raised them from kittens.
- The knights offer to come with the group back to their fortress, saying the cats are worth an army by themselves and the only reason they couldn't save their own fortress was because they were out on patrol at the time.
- They return to the fortress and defeat the horde.
openA girl, a boy, a land that is a chessboard Literature
This is the longest of long shots because I can hardly remember any details about the book, but I'm hoping someone can jog my memory.
It's a young adult or middle grade fantasy novel that I'm guessing was published in the 20th century - I want to say it had a 70s, 80s or early 90s vibe for some reason.
The two main characters are a boy and a girl, both teenage or around that age. These two characters do not know each other and are physically separate at the beginning of the book but end up meeting each other during it.
The setting is vaguely fantastic but I can't remember any particular features except that the land they're in has square areas of alternating color, texture, landscape, or what have you. It turns out that if seen from a great height the land resembles (or is) a giant chessboard.
I believe there may have been other chess motifs such as knights in black (or red?) or white armor.
The overall vibe/atmosphere of the book is what I remember most because unlike a lot of children's fantasy it was not extremely plot heavy (that I recall) - instead it had a dreamy, almost somber, mysterious air. For example, I believe it starts in medias res. The characters are approaching each other from opposite directions for different reasons. They may not know how they got to this land. etc. It was such a unique story and written unlike anything I had read previously. This is why I want to say it seems like a 70s novel, because although it was clearly written for young readers and about young people the plot seemed very grown-up. (I sort of want to compare it to Lloyd Alexander except I'm pretty sure it isn't him - the story had far less fantasy trappings than average, it could almost have been scifi-fantasy.)
It's been such a long time since I read this book and I'm sure I've gotten much of it mixed up or forgotten. But I do remember a boy, a girl, and a land that is a chessboard. Thanks for reading and for any help/leads.
Edited by pellycanopenChildren's book where a minor becomes a therapist Literature
In this book there's a youngster, I think a teen, and she essentially opens up a therapist office. And one of her clients ends up being some criminal. And there's something I think I recall about the criminal really liking to eat cannoli. It looked like it was meant to be the first in a series about teens in unlikely professions, but I'm unsure if they ever actually had other entries made.
openYA post-apocalyptic book series with high-tech Literature
I remember reading a YA post-apocalyptic series where everyone lived in these bubble(?) communities, had eye patch things kinda like Google Glass, and lived insanely long lives (the main character had a parent like 200 years old but looked middle age). The bubble was because the outside world was toxic, but the main character did something and was forced outside only to find she was able to survive (I think there was something about experimenting on the outsiders). She falls in love with an outsider and realizes how messed up the society she grew up in was.
I think in a later book people from the outside AND inside cross a toxic ocean to find an island unaffected by the toxicity (like the eye of a storm)
openBook i read about AI Literature
I read a book in middle school about some kind of vaguely cyberpunk future. story focuses on a music dj who puts together an AI core to run their sets by combining two outdated AI cores and the AI ends up being sentient and makes her own music. Has anyone else read this????
openChildren’s book about a morning star (medieval weapon) Literature
I remember this one book I skimmed through that was part of a series.
At the beginning, this class of kids is taking care of some butterfly garden, when one of the kids get sent to another room (possibly Detention).
One of the main characters sees a bag with some spikes making an imprint from inside. They think it’s a morning star and the kid that left is going to be tortured with it (yeah...).
At the end it’s revealed to be a pineapple. XD
openHow To Have a Birthday Party Book Literature
It's a nonfiction picture book on how to have a birthday party. It follows a girl named Caroline. It mentions the term novelties and shows what they are.
openUnknown Antimatter work Literature
Antimatter mentions this unknown work:
openAustralia Book Series Literature
My favorite book series growing up was written by an Australian guy but I had no idea, so a lot of it confused me. Like when there's a kangaroo passing by the road and everyone treats it as a normal thing that happens all the time. Also when some guy said "arse" a lot, I thought it was like, a calmer version of ass. Like how frick is to the f-bomb.
Edited by NorthsouthmapopenShort story where middle schoolers give an alien a thermos Literature
There's a short story that features an alien who comes to Earth in search of a legendary device that can keep cold things cold and hot things hot. He is given a thermos by a group of middle school-aged children. While it is rather odd that a star-faring civilization could arise without this knowledge, if memory serves it was portrayed as a rite of passage of sorts for the alien's people. I have vague recollections of reading this back in middle / junior high school, so it had to be first published before 2003 at the latest.
openPicture book (*maybe* comic?) featuring man-eating tree and ants Literature
So every now and then I dimly remember some picture books - or maybe they were comics? - from my childhood in China. The stars were these two kid brothers who usually went around shirtless like Tarzan... I think they might have been lab subjects with Super-Strength or something? (I also think one was brunette and the other blonde, but don't quote me on that.)
Anyway, the art was typical 80s/90s picture-book, but the plots contained a lot of stuff straight from 1900s Lost World pulp fiction. The stuff I remember most distinctively:
- A man-eating tree rapidly digesting a snake
- A horde of man-eating ants that chase after our heroes by rolling into a giant ball
- A frilled lizard depicted as a giant monster with poison breath
It's possible this was a Chinese-original series, in which case the chances of anyone here identifying it fall to somewhere around 0.0001%, but it never hurts to ask...
openTwo Kingdoms of Day and Night? Literature
So, this was a story I read in elementary school in the early 2000s. I think it was a traditional African story or at least the illustrations in the story had that vibe.
It's a straightforward story: There are two kingdoms, one where it's daytime all of the time and the other where it's night. The princess of the Night kingdom married the king or prince of the Day kingdom, but she soon grew homesick and tired of the constant daylight and seeing workers work under the painfully hot sun. So, her husband traverses the Night kingdom to retrieve some Night in a box from the Night Queen, his wife's mother. Something happens and he accidentally dumps all of the Night out of the box, but it's okay because it covered up the Day kingdom and made his wife really happy. For the life of me, I can not remember the title of this story.
openChildren's puzzle/hidden object book Literature
This was a book that was in my middle school- it had a lot of beautiful illustrations that doubled as hidden object puzzles and logic puzzles, asking kids to do one thing in the first page and when you go to the answers there was another question that encouraged you to find more things in the picture.
Some pages I remember include: a Seven Dwarfs parody with candy-cane looking trees cut down to cure snake bites
A pirate ship that first had you find "pieces of eight" i.e. objects with the number 8 on them
A gear and pulley puzzle involving an island and a giant fish
An eccentric professor studying some poisonous plants that had you look out for crosses in the center
A painting contest
A sister getting berries to cure her sick brother, with a follow up puzzle concerning a snail
And a Genie that holds a pair of children at swordpoint to get him a lid to his box that needed to be painted with paint and brush that were also in the picture
Any and all help is appreciated
openChildren's fantasy book with drawing and dragons Literature
There was a children's book- probably from 2010 or earlier- about a girl in a village learning magic. In order to control the magic, she had to be very familiar with the thing she wanted to control, so her mentor set her to drawing blades of grass and leaves in painstaking detail. At the end of the book, a dragon comes to town and the girl uses magic to fight it. At one point she uses grass to bind the dragon's feet to the ground.
openBook about dragons set in Massachusetts Literature
I remember a book about a dragon from some long ago time who time travels to turn of the century (2000) Cambridge, Massachusetts. A wizard follows him and tells a wizard that the dragon is due to give birth. The dragon finds a tub of chocolate ice cream and eats that, and then gives birth.
The main protagonist is a teen whose dad is an archeologist. She really wants to get into a club that about a dragon-themed game, except she doesn't have the complete set of trading cards. She finds the last card she needs, but for some reason she has to photocopy it. She feels guilty and tells the club that she doesn't have the real card, and they're real jerks about it, and she flounces off, thinking that she'll show up with a real dragon one day and then they'll be sorry.
The teen finds the baby dragon and takes care of it. I think she has to leave it, because after the wizards find the mother dragon they find the baby dragon. They try to go back to the original time, but the baby dragon can't come because it won't drink a milk substitute without chocolate. The teen takes care of the dragon, and bonds with her dad.
openHigh school literature I read in grade school? Literature
I'm trying to remember the name of a book (or short story) about an older, hearing-impaired man at an all boy's boarding or military school. He was regularly bullied by most of the students for his condition iirc, save for one popular boy, even after saving the school's beloved dog mascot from drowning. After the boy defended him to his classmates, they began to shun him, and when they started bullying the teacher again and the kid refused to do anything about it, it broke the poor guy's heart, he left the school, and was never heard from again.
Edited by Erin582openScholastic book of weird and creepy fun facts Literature
So there was this one book that I remember reading in a scholastic book fair, which was likely around 8-12 years ago. The book was like a creepy and weird fun facts book, and I remember there was these two little cartoon characters, one guy with a tuxedo and sunglasses and one like an alien lady who would debate back and forth. There was a section about an interview with people who lived like real life vampires, one part mentioned parasites I think? And one part that mentioned real life magic schools. It was generally filled with obscure kinds of weird facts. I haven't been able to find it for a long while, and I'd love to be able to read it again since I remembered it was very entertaining.
I vaguely remember a book from my childhood that I'm pretty sure was part of a series. It was about a Bratty Half-Pint boy, narrated by his best friend. The one story I vaguely remember saw the bratty boy and another (female?) classmate sneak onto the school playground, which was closed off due to the installation of new equipment, and test a new slide before anyone else. And no, I'm pretty sure it's not Horrid Henry or any version of Dennis the Menace.