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openNo Title Literature
Back in 1st or 2nd Grade ('84-'85), I recall checking out a book that dealt with ghosts and other scary things. This book was fully illustrated (it's not 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'), and if my memory is correct, it was a about a man who recalled his frightening journey through a forest (on a dark and stormy night). On this journey, he encounters many frightening monsters (including some sort of ghost or ghoul with a pet wolf who actually devours him). The book even talks about how he managed to escape from the wolf's stomach...somehow. Also, this journey is what the man encountered as a child, and he is relaying it to another child.
The book was hardcover with a fully illustrated dust jacked, and every page was fully illustrated to show exactly what was going on at each moment of his journey. I know it was a child's book, but I can not recall what the name of it is.
What I'd like to know is what this book's title is. Does anyone out there know of or otherwise remember a kid's book like this?
Any help would be appreciated.
openNo Title Literature
It was a book, released by 1990 because I remember reading it as a kid. The main character was a boy who visited a house peopled by a witch or witches (I want to say that it was three witches). One of the things pointed out in the book was that witches could be told by their double chins, which they'd encourage by placing their chin on their chest (I seem to remember there was a picture of it in the book with one of the witches with her chin on her chest and looking up at the reader. As a child, it inspired me to practice until I could get my chin to do the same). At some point, the kid's walking through a field of grass towards their house (for some reason, the grass sticks out in my head) and the witches give him fantastic things (I want to say, again, three) of which at least one of them was a flying automobile in return for... something. I want to say his soul or for him staying with them forever. Except that a man (I want to say he had a beard and twinkling eyes that were pointed out in book) instead showed up and took his place.
Very odd little book from what I remember of it now. Oddly enough, I largely remember it because of the chin-to-chest thing, and in part because looking back on it, I get this strong feeling of the man who sacrificed himself being an analogue to Jesus, sacrificing himself to save this child who got into the situation due to his own greed.
^_^ Any ideas?
openNo Title Literature
This is actually a poem - I'm fairly sure it's from the book of a particular poet, not just a themed collection or "100 favourite poems"-type book. I think this was specifically a collection the poet wrote for children. It's quite short, and written in four line stanzas, with an ABAB (or ABCB) rhyming scheme. I seem to remember the poet being English...
In the poem, the narrator is talking to/about an unnamed (possibly Cloud Cuckoolander) other who is (apparently) able to understand the rain, and the other elements of nature. Most of the poem reports what this person claims that the rain has said (one particular line is "which cloud's left his wife"). The poem finishes with a verse that is at least similiar to: "I try to listen like you do / But my efforts are in vain / For who but you could understand / The language of the rain?"
I've made it sound really dull and dry (no pun intended), but it's a cute, oddly sad poem. Google has been of no help. This has been bugging me all day...Can anyone out there help?
openNo Title Literature
I'm looking for a horror novel for teenagers, I think, that I read around 5 years ago (I'm English, by the way, but I don't know if the book is). It was a book of short stories, linked by one event (possibly a vehicle crash?); I only really remember 2 of these stories however. One was about a boy who goes to a party where a girl in a mask, called M, asks him to guess her real name. At the end, she calls herself Medusa and turns him into stone. The second was about an old woman who reunited with her daughter and 2 grandchildren. These grandchildren turn out to be psychopaths who kill their pets and eventually their mother, forcing the old woman to poison them. I also remember that the edition I read had a red and black cover, and I think it was authored by a woman.
I'd really like to give this another read, so any help would be appreciated...
openNo Title Literature
I remember so much about this book-except, apparently, anything that would allow me to find it through Googling. This is a young adult book-I first read it around 2002 or 2003 and I'm pretty sure the copyright wasn't any earlier than 1990. The plot was thus: The main character, who I am almost positive was named Libby, and her younger brother, recently orphaned, are at some kind of an odd auction being sold to whoever puts in the lowest bid for their maintainence. A scruffy man bids a very low sum for both of them,and takes them home to help on his farm. His family is poor, but Libby is especially repulsed by the fact that he is friends with several Indians (I believe Iroqouis or Mohawk), because her uncle always told her stories of the atrocities he witnessed during an Indian raid on a fort during the French and Indian Wars. However, as she is forced to work with the Indians, she learns that they are human and comes to embrace their culture, even falling in love with one young Indian man. Because of their sympathies, at some point the family is attacked and the father's leg is cut with an axe, and they cauterize the wound. The rest of the family flees to be with the Indian tribe, but Libby is captured by some kind of bounty hunter and "brought back to civilization." Resentful of being taken away from her adoptive family, she lies and says she is pregnant in order to horrify the proper matron who sent the bounty hunter in search of her. Those are really all the specific plot points I remember, andI remeber the cover of the book really well; it had a white girl in a white dress holding one side of a spear, and a Native American man with a mohawk holding the other side, in a watercolor-painted style. If anyone recognizes this book, please tell me; it's been driving me nuts that I can remember so much about it but not the title or author.
openNo Title Literature
There was this multi-chapter childrens book that was about four princesses that came from kingdoms based on gemstones. I think the princesses were named after them. Diamond,Ruby,Sapphire and Emerald were the ones used. I think the diamond princess might has had long brown hair in a braided ponytail. They had to go somewhere and defeat someone evil and pictures were included at different points of the story. It might have been a part of a series. I only remember owning the first book. I remember buying it at a book fair at school when I was in first or second grade so it was most likey during the late 90s - early 2000s.
openNo Title Literature
I vaguely remember a book I read as a child. I believe it starred a little boy. But the biggest thing I remember from was a man, likely the villain. He was extremely hairy, with eyes that constantly looked in opposite directions, so he couldn't see you if you stood right in front of him. He had the magic power to turn someone into a big insect-like creature that lived on beaches. He also had a tin can that he could summon with a chant. One time in the book, he tried to summon it. But it failed, as the can was being carried in the mouth of a dog. That's all I can recall.
openNo Title Literature
It a picture book that I saw a long time ago. A boy don't like his classmates and have dreams like his classmates screaming while a volcano was erupting and I think there was dinosaurs. The artwork have a pattern like one particular student appearing over again on the same page.
openNo Title Literature
When I was a young kid I had a book of cat stories that may have been the first book that included The Cat From Hell by Stephen King.
In that same book was a story about a World Gone Mad in which a yappy little dog attempted to perform the Schrodingers Cat experiment, but the cat wandered off in mid-experiment. The moral was that we need better boxes.
What was the name of the book and the story?
Edited by GuesssWhoopenNo Title Literature
Okay, really need help. There was this book I read a while back, but can't for the life of me remember what it was called or who it was by. All I can remember is that there were these rooms and the main character (female) had to solve the puzzle in them if she wanted to go on. There was one room that had a curtain going through the middle of it. On the other side of the curtain, something was making noises that were scaring the girl. Eventually, she builds up enough courage to pull it back, and when she does, the thing behind it was herself. I might just be filling this in in my mind, but I think the curtain was red or purple or something. If it helps, I think two of the books had different colored covers, and I think one was a sunset-y orange color, and the other was a lilac-y color. Lilac or laurel, I don't know the difference. If anyone knows, please, please, PLEASE tell me! If this just rings a bell, PLEASE TELL ME! If you can tell me more to look for it by, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME! I think its reading level was somewhere around So You Want To Be A Wizard and the first Harry Potter book. Maybe lower. I read it back between 2000 and 2006. Any more recent than 2006 and it can't have been it. But please let me know if you know anything. A bell ringing, more info, or better yet, the book itself! Please!
openNo Title Literature
This was a book that I read several times as a child back in the mid 80s. The viewpoint character was a teenager who somehow wound up traveling with a very charismatic conman who turned out to be his father. One of the concepts was that the conman only really conned people who wanted to be fooled, and generally focused on the greedy. Said conman was extremely tall and had an unusual beard/moustache I believe.
Schemes I remember vividly in the book:
- They sold firewood to a steamboat by claiming that it had been grown on the site of a massive slaughter of hogs and therefore was infused with the grease and burned better.
- Later on, they meet the viewpoint character's sister, who's being held for forced labor by her adoptive family and they liberate her while the adoptive family is trying to dig up the conman's "treasure" which is actually an empty chest covered in locks and with a bar of iron wrapped around it by the blacksmith.
openNo Title Literature
There is a short science fiction story in which people can send cargo with their minds, and machines would be on the receiveing end. I don't remember the title of it, any thoughts on what the title might be?
openNo Title Literature
I'm looking for a series of books that I read as a four volume omnibus, about some sort of small race of creatures that lived beneath the floorboards of a library at a college and were discovered by a male student, and later also interacted with his female friend.
I remember them being by a well known fantasy author like iva ibbotson, though not her speceifcaly.
Thanks.
openNo Title Literature
I don't think I actually read the book, but I have a very vivid memory of reading the back cover description of a children's horror novel. This was at least five or six years ago, so it was written in the early 2000's at most recent. The book was about a place where the roles of dogs and humans were reversed, dogs had pet people and wild people ran the streets. I think the book was supposed to be about some kid accidentally wandering into this "town" or whatever, but I'm not positive. The front cover was a picture of a humanoid dog-lady putting a can of "Human Food" into a shopping cart. I remember she had a really creepy grin on her face. I thought this was a Goosebumps book, but I haven't been able to find it on any list of them. When I read the book cover I was in a used store, and I don't think this would have stuck with me if it hadn't shown up in a dream I had a few nights later. I know this is kinda vague, but can anyone help me? EDIT: I'm 99% sure this was a children's book, but I suppose there's a slim chance it wasn't. Please, any ideas about this are much appreciated.
Edited by GEWopenNo Title Literature
Years ago, my parents told me about a book called I-Ching, which was apparently was full of Things Man Was Not Ready To Know, and even drove some people to suicide.
They apparently had this book themselves years ago, but by the time I was old enough to want to tempt fate and read it for myself, we moved houses and they had gotten rid of it and other books.
Now, my question: Does this book actually exist? The only book named I-Ching that I know of is the Book of Changes that has listed predictions that you choose by flipping coins.
Edited by MazzopenNo Title Literature
When I was in 5th grade back in '89, the teacher read us part of a story from a book whose name I can not recall for the life of me. From the little I remember, it involved some kids (I think they were brother and sister) exploring a large old house somewhere in the South. This particular house was part of the Underground Railroad. This old house (if I recall correctly) was portrayed as being sinister or "spooky". The teacher told us that at a later point in the story, the young kids would eventually happen upon the ghosts of slaves.
What I am very interested in knowing is what exactly the title of the book is.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
openNo Title Literature
There was this one book I remember when I was a kid, it had this girl and a witch. The girl agrees to help the witch with a spell that has something to do with he little brother (I forgot the what the spell was for it's been a long time.)and he gives him some of his Hot Wheels, and the little brother get very sick. I also remember a woman married a man the witch wanted to marry, so she put a curse on them, and they died eight years later. The little brother gets better in the end and she learn to love her little brother I also remember a vivid scene describing his Hot wheels melting. Any one remember it? Please?
openNo Title Literature
This is another nonfiction book. They never get identified here, but I'll try another one anyway.
It's a children's book about space that I read in (I think) the spring of 1990. Roughly 4th grade reading level. What made it memorable was the final page, which was a "what if?" illustration with aliens. These aliens were stocky creatures wearing unitard space suits with tinted visors stretching over their heads and torsos. I made a drawing based on my memory of the illustration, which can be seen in the link below.
Edited by FloydPinkerton

A book or short story involving a boy who had to do a book report for class, and it could be any book of his choosing. He tried to get out of doing any reading by just asking his mom in detail about the last book she read and writing a report based on that. He apparently didn't think to look around the house for the book to make sure he had the title right though, as he turned in a report on "Donkey Hotey", and obviously got caught. Googling "Donkey Hotey" or "Donkey Hote" didn't help any, as it's apparently a pretty commonly used joke (and sometimes even a genuine mistake).