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open“Scary” Book Featured on “The Bittles” Literature
This question is for anyone who remembers the Canadian puppet series The Bittles, in which the title characters worked in a book factory. What is the name of the book that was described as “scary” in the episode that featured it?
Edited by MisterToodleooopenWeird book that was in my Junior High library. Literature
i'm looking for a strange book that made a big impression on me in my early teenhood. I might be misremembering the specifics of the plot in spots, but this *feels* crystal clear in my head.
it's about a kid in a home with his single mother who has just escaped an abusive situation with his dad. they have to move in with his grandpa because he's getting old and is creepy as fuck and hates the kid for reasons that are unclear. grandpa dies, mom struggles to maintain the house (which clearly has something spooky going on in it), life is rough until the kid's dad shows up and maybe murders mom. while escaping the violence the kid ends up hitting a time anomaly and getting sent back to the 30s or 50s — I forget which, but I'm pretty sure it was one of 'em.
he ends up in some sort of weird love triangle with his grandparents as they grow up together. his grandpa ends up ending their friendship and pledging to track down and murder him when they get sent off to war (either Vietnam or WW 2, see the above timeframe confusion) for reasons that escape me but which may be related to the love triangle. I don't remember how it resolves, but it was *real* weird.
I think it was titled Mr. X or Mr. Nobody or something like that, but I've never been able to find a book by that name. This has been on my mind for *years*, so if anyone's able to find it that'd be pretty great.
Edited by MisterBoogalooopenBook from elementary school (please try to answer) Literature
I remember my librarian reading a book to us in elementary school. It was about a girl who bullied kids into doing her homework for her. However, it turned out she was doing this because her brother made her do his homework for him. Does anyone know the book?
Edited by Gamergirl101openFuturistic Sci-fi book [SOLVED] Literature
Multi-main character plotline. Future world where mega-corps have highly advanced AI and private security teams. People don't understand the AI's and seek consultations from an 'ai whisperer'
One character is a fighter/hacker who lives in the slums and finds a cell phone with a mysterious voice who gives him all these instructions and gets him involved in a big scheme he doesn't understand
Another character is a woman who's job I don't remember, she's fighting one of the mega-corps and is protected by another one, private high-tech security follows her around.
Various themes of there being duplicates of people and the characters not understanding why.
The culmination of the story reveals that the phone lady is an AI of the woman character who's allied with one of the uber rich people. And there are other AI duplicates of people.
The fighter guy confronts the uber rich guy at the end and they talk about cloud computing and AI or something.
It was a really good book, and I can't remember any more details :'(
Edited by megmegme223openCriminals in history cloned and raised to be good Literature
Trying to find this work for a friend, a book he read growing up that I personally haven't heard of it. Specifically mentioned Al Capone being one of the criminals cloned. Scientists cloned and raised the worst criminals in history and intended to raise them for good. Apparently about them trying to escape, one finds a newspaper from the outside world and until then they weren't aware of the existence of crime. Apologies for vagueness.
openOld kids' novel about a boy named Sam who fears he's overweight Literature
There's this boy named Sam, who's staying with his grandfather. Sam nervously asks if he's fat to which the grandfather replies, "You're solid, Sam!" and the narration notes that he didn't really think that response through.
Also, at one point, the grandfather says, "Oh hell, I don't want to lecture you", which shocked eight-year-old me, since for a kids' book, that's a Precision F-Strike.
The visit ends with the grandfather offering a peppermint to Sam and the narration notes that "Sam took three, thought about fatness, and put one back".
openchild protagonist tries to get parents to take in an injured deer (solved). Literature
This could have been a short story or part of a novel, but I also feel like it could have just been something I had to read for a reading comprehension test as a kid (which doesn't preclude it from being an excerpt from a larger work I guess): Like I said in the title, the main character is a kid, he finds an injured deer in the yard, and tries to convince his dad to take it in and take care of it. The father says they can't just bring in a wild animal, and when the child protagonist points out that the deer is limping, the father makes a very dad-joke-like quip along the lines of "it's a lame deer, but it's not a tame deer". I think I remember this so well because I had to ask an adult what that meant, as I didn't know "lame" meant something other than "not cool". Anyway there may have even been a couple variations on this same joke throughout the conversation, like the kid claims he saw the deer before and the dad just says "it's the same deer, but it's not a tame deer", though that could just be my mind embellishing things.
Edited by MikeKopenShort Story About a Religious Family that Takes in Foster Children Literature
I'm looking for the title of an English language short story that was in print before 2011. I know it was part of a published anthology of short stories (but only ever saw a photocopy of the pages, so no leads on the cover art or collection name). These are the details I remember:
- The protagonist is a girl of about eleven or twelve. She has several brothers and sisters.
- The children all have to share their rooms, but the family house has a guest bedroom. Every week a different kid gets to sleep in the guest room for a bit of privacy.
- The girl's parents write and perform Christian music. They use their children as dancers and actors in homemade music videos.
- The family takes in a rotating cast of foster children who are strongly encouraged to participate in the family's Christian music hobby.
- The plot kicks off when the white family fosters an African American child for the first time. He is about the same age as the protagonist.
- The foster boy films a music video with the family where all the kids paint their faces half white and half black, to represent "good and evil." The symbolism of this goes unnoticed by the family.
- When it is the protagonist's turn to have the guest room to herself, the foster boy wakes her up in the middle of the night and asks if she wants to see his "Jesus Dance." He then strips naked and dances at the foot of the bed while she watches in confusion.
- The story ends with the girl telling her parents about the "Jesus Dance." They send the foster boy away.
Edited by LeporidaeopenShort story book about cryptids Literature
I just remembered out of the blue my grandson reading in grade school this book of short stories about cryptids. So far at the monent, I can remember these were in it:
- Nessie, where a guy tries to photograoh it but misses.
- Almas, where a lonely girl befriens the titular wild man.
- Mokele-Mbembe, about a hunter who has encounter with it.
- Kongamato, where a hunter's arrogance gets him attacked by the titular monster.
Ring any bells?
openFiction Book about a Princess Character Literature
Been trying for years to find a fiction book I read as a kid about a princess who’s a character in a children's book. There’s this little girl who reads the book. Then the little girl’s brother burns the book, so the characters escape into the girl’s mind where she occasionally has dreams with the princess in them. As the girl becomes an old woman, she starts to forget the characters. Then one day her daughter/granddaughter republishes the book and the princess crosses over from the now old woman’s mind (maybe her name was Claire?) into the new book.
Edited by Spoonerismsopen[solved] unknown Literature
Edit: I used the "looking for a children's book" page on oldchildrensbooks.com as well, and they found the book for me. It was Mirrorstone, by Michael Palin. That the book was named after the macguffin I remember is hilarious and annoying, but I'm glad to have the name of the book that haunted my brainspace.
I'm looking for a picture book. Or at least it had plenty of illustrations in it, but wasn't a full novel. I can't remember the title and I never knew the year it came out. It has a lot of blue/green palettes in the main section of it.
It's about a boy who's a good swimmer, and he's pulled into another world (though a mirror or through a puddle on the ground, I can't exactly recall) by an old man. I think the old man was referred to as "Uncle", but I can't quite remember. The boy is confused, and this girl (with blonde hair?) gives him a dark moss green tunic to wear instead of his regular clothes. He calls it itchy, I think. The old man pulled him into this world to retrieve a small handheld sized mirror from the bottom of a lake/ocean, because he can swim really well. It's some kind of magical but I don't remember if they specified how. The boy goes diving for that mirror, though, and he finds it. But the old man wants the mirror and doesn't care about saving the boy, so the girl ends up saving him and helping him get back to his world. The last page I remember is the boy standing in his bathroom, the mirror over the sink shattered, still wearing that tunic and soaking wet. He's smiling a little to himself and he's holding the mirror cupped in both his hands.
That's the most of what I can remember about the book. I tried searching for it but couldn't find it at all. Any help would be appreciated.
Edited by TegaDrakeopenGritty fantasy, snowy city, black-furred humanoids Literature
I remember it was a gritty/low fantasy novel, verging on grimdark, that I read in I think the mid to late 2000s. It was set in a snowy city, might have been an ice age or just winter, I don't remember. The main character was human and I remember nothing about him, but I remember his friend and the friend's wife were a weird fantasy species who were basically humans covered in black fur and I think they had tails. I remember it was badly edited; there was a scene where some guy fights and kills the city guards, and before the fight he's noted to not be wearing a cloak and after the fight he suddenly is wearing one. There was also some gratuitous torture. I don't remember the title or any of the names at all.
openLooking for a specific book Literature
A fictional book I recall reading about in another book on the history of swords. In this book, the author mentioned a story in which the main character is a sword fighter who was absolutely focused on finding “the perfect cut” and found it towards the end of the story. Does anyone know what this may be referring to?
openModern Fantasy Novel Set in A China-inspired Setting Literature
Found a page for the book on here through something else I was looking up and became intrigued (months ago).
The main plot points I remember from the blurb was that the main character, inhabiting the world at the same time as the coming of the chosen hero who would kill a 'monstrous' species. And the protagonist is somehow involved with this race of monsters, making the destiny of the hero more morally dubious as they become humanised to the reader (pardon the pun).
resolved Book where protagonist's teacher gets abducted by aliens. Literature
The protagonist's teacher gets abducted by aliens. And midway through, he finds his teacher being held in suspended animation somewhere else in the neighborhood, and manages to take pictures, but when the pictures are developed, they come out as "room with glowing light in the middle."
open(SOLVED: The Fabled Fourth Graders Of Aesop Elementary School) Book About a "Cool Teacher" Literature
So, I remember reading this book that was a collection of short stories about kids in this one teacher's class (no, it's NOT Wayside or The Classroom At The End Of The Hall), and I think each story was focusing on a different kid. I can only recall the contents of two stories: For the first one, it was about two boys who spend library time reading the school's collection of National Geographics (it's not explicitly stated, but it's fairly obvious they want to read them for all the tribes where women don't wear shirts). The teacher hides the Nat Geos in different places each day to force them to learn the Dewey Decimal System. The second one I remember is the last one in the book, where everyone's sad about the end of the year but it's revealed that the teacher will be teaching one grade higher the next year, so they still get to be in her class.
Edit: I've recalled another story that MIGHT be from this book, but I'm not 100% sure it is. So, a student is complaining about having to do "hard" math and wishes that they were still in kindergarten. Immediately after they wish it, someone calls over the PA system for them to go to some kindergarten room. There was an actual, non-wish related reason for it (don't remember what) but when they step into the room the kindergarten teacher somehow mistakes them for a new student and has them join in the class. They absolutely beast through the easy math problems, but then comes "circle time". The teacher has the kindergartners sing a stupid song ("Gray squirrel, gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail"), and then one of the kindergartners get mad when the protagonist doesn't "swish their bushy tail" (ie do the song's associated embarrassing "dance moves"). Protagonist wishes they were back in their normal class, as soon as they do so the PA system crackles to life again and they're called back to class. But when they get back they find, to their horror, that their teacher has taught the class that stupid "Gray squirrel" song!
Edited by sRAMrelevratopenShort story involving a cyborg brothel Literature
I thought this was something I found through this very wiki - I remember finding a link somewhere that was a pretty basic webpage with the text of the story on it, as apparently it was either public domain or the author themselves had put it up for free online.I went to the most likely trope it would have been listed under (sexbot) but it's not there. Anyway, the main character is a female receptionist at a brothel of sexbots, and to her dismay, she learns they've added a new model that's modeled after her. The owner explains that it's because a lot of clients have said that they'd rather sleep with the receptionist. I don't think I actually finished reading the story so I'm not sure where it goes from there
openUrban Fantasy book about finding a dragon (and BodyHorror when dragon merged with human?) Literature
It was a children's or YA Urban Fantasy book that I read ~2010, though the book didn't seem new when I read it- it could easily have been published in the 2000s or 90s.
It was set in a small seaside town. The main character was a girl who had either moved there recently or was visiting relatives. She and her friends investigated strange things about the town's history, eventually uncovering supernatural events.
I'm pretty sure there was a scene where they visited the town cemetery and did rubbings of the gravestones for some reason.
Near the end of the book they encountered a dragon(?), who was a human who had found a dragon egg and the two merged into one being when it hatched- this was portrayed as a frightening process. I don't believe the dragon was able to talk, and it might have had only animal intelligence.
At one point the main character goes into a dream state or supernatural realm that shows everyone around her in 3 forms- their past, their present, and their future. When she looks at the dragon, for a moment she sees a human holding a dragon egg smiling sadly at her.
openunknown Literature
It might be its own story or be one in a collection of stories. I read it as part of a class in school in the uk in the late 2000's so it may be a curriculum text. It's only a short story but I really liked it and want to re-find it. It took place in England in the past-1800's I think, or could be a lot earlier actually... It was about a recently appointed priest who wants to do good in the world in the name of God. One day he is painting and smells something cooking. It is an elderly woman-she agrees to let him stay for supper. He asks for cheese and bread but she is poor and only has cabbage stew. As they talk he finds out she hasn't been to church in over a year. Shocked he asks why and finds out she is deaf and cannot hear the sermons. Seeing his opportunity he resolves to help her hear the voice of God again. With his own money he purchases several implements in a couple of plans to help her hear, which don't work. The last one is a long brass pipe going from her to his box. This does work and she is delighted to listen to him. However she is poor and can only afford to eat cabbage soup, which causes her breath to smell foul. She is by the pipe going to his box and her breath travels down it, so he can barely concentrate on his sermon. He stops visiting her, or maybe breaks the pipe, not knowing what else to do. He has abandoned her, but then receives a letter saying she has died. She in the letter she thanks him profusely for allowing her to hear the voice of God in her final month on earth, leaving all her belongings to him. He is stricken by grief as he had abandoned her though she suspected nothing, merely thinking he was busy. He resolves to donate all her belongings to the poor and work harder to do his duty. The moral is something like "doing good/the right thing is not always an easy path".
Not much to go on I know but worth a try.
Edited by BluePrism

There was this poem or something I remember reading a while back. It ended on something like "This land is not your home", or "This place is not your home." I'm pretty sure it didn't rhyme.
Edited by MichaelKatsuro