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Bird Feathers Literature

An old book I read when I was younger- a kid's book, though it dealt with some heavy stuff.

I remember the MC had split parents, or at least that the mum was the main parental figure. MC seemed very anxious and definitely neurodivergent in a lot of ways, and would come home and announce to the empty house that "I can see you" in case anyone was hiding in wait. He's obviously a bully's target. At one point, their class goes to an old people's home and they get paired up with old people.

I have more details but this might get long so if people need more I can reply with some other stuff I remember.

The gist is: creepy house, sewing feathers onto a shirt (to make a bird coat), bully goes too far, MC snaps & seriously hurts him and is suspended, also the old woman's kid died of an asthma attack when he was young (in the creepy house), and the old woman dies at the end.

Yeah, I don't remember it being a super happy book, but I'd like to find it again.

Wanting Heirs create wolf problems Literature

There was a book that I read 6-8 years ago that had a mostly black cover with a red outline of a woman's pregnant belly. It was about a wealthy couple who lived in NYC who really wanted biological children, and so went to this creepy place to become fertile, and I think that a dog or a wolf was somehow involved in making them pregnant. They have triplets, but one of them is very weak and unhealthy, so somehow that one ends up adopted by someone else. The other triplets who think that they're twins are a boy and a girl. The parents now act a bit wolfy, and for some reason or revelation the two children run away, with the boy going to his favorite teacher's apartment, and the teacher being scared that since the teacher's gay and living with his partner, the school will get scared and fire him for having a student there because the school thinks that All Gays Are Pedophiles. Anyway, the parents find the kids, and I think that the teacher dies while his lover ends up in a hospital. In the end, there's a taxicab driver who was reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven who takes them to an airport, and the mom dies. I remember that it was one of those books that were advertised, and it was new when I read it.

Book About A Strange Mask Literature

I remember reading a chapter book a while back, but can't recall the name. From what I can gather, the main character found some sort of mask in a bog, and I remember the climax had the mother wearing a mask on her face as well. The main character was a girl, and I'm pretty sure she had a friend who was a guy. I also think it might of been a Canadian book but I'm not sure.

Harry Potter Fanfiction, but can't remember the trope to link it to my memory Literature

I remember reading the Tropes Page, but since it wasn't in a normal window, it's not in my history, but I remember seeing something rather unexpected, that Sirius saw the post-betrayal Pettigrew to simply be someone who'd been put in a bad situation, and maybe not the best of friends, but certainly not someone who would just follow the biggest bully on campus, and that's how he chooses to remember their time as friends before the betrayal. (I only remember this because it reminded me of Gryffindor Blood, a story which serves as part of a series where Harry's parents didn't die in 1981, and Pettigrew was at their house when Flight from Death arrived, and chose to save them, and stand up for his friends at the last moment, and paid the ultimate price for his actions.)

What is the name of this Harry Potter fanfiction? Literature

I remember one scene in particular, it involved Rolanda Hooch getting fired for incompetence, for...well the canon incident of Neville getting hurt in book 1 that involves him flying around on an out of control broom, except it gets treated seriously.

Maybe a YA book? Literature

There was a book where the protagonist's name is Em (I think). In the book, it talks about how Em grew up struggling in life but loves to write. I think in that book, her mother was mentioned to be fat and very abusive to Em and her sister. Also, there was one scene in the book where Em's mother finds Em's writing book, rips out some of the book's pages, and dumps it in the toilet all while laughing and mocking her. The mother may have died also in the book, I don't know.

Children's High Fantasy Starring Dinosaurs Literature

I'm trying to remember a series of children's books (maybe aimed at 10-13 year olds). I'm pretty sure it was a trilogy, published in the early to mid-2000's. The books were a high fantasy set in a world inhabited by talking anthropomorphic dinosaurs. From what I can remember, the plot focused on a power trio of plucky young heroes trying to find some legendary lost valley (and maybe the lost civilisation of of flying dinos as well). The MC was a raptor or something, the girl one was a crested dinosaur, and the best friend was a triceratops. The bad guy killed the MC's dad. I clearly remember that the cover for the first book showed a picture of a green dinosaur wearing plate armour. If it helps, I first heard about the series via the children's magazine DMAG.

Book set in a Genius Loci / Eldritch Location Literature

All I know about the book(s?) is that it's set in a Genius Loci / Eldritch Location that is both sentient / sapient and can change it#s geometries at will. The local mayor / ruler has banned a number of goods and substances.

Horror anthology Literature

OK, this has haunted me for more than a decade. I read a horror anthology when I was around 13 or so, too young, and I'd like to find it and reread it so I can find out if it was really THAT scary.

One of the stories is about a character who never learned to swim, then found swimming lessons for adults being advertised, went there, and turns out that the catch is that they're turned into literal fishes.

One of the stories was about a character who played a computer game, died in it, only to realize that it was actually real and that it was his turn to be "in the game" when he sees his own room show up on the screen with another player (?) controlling it.

One of the stories was about moths.

One of the stories was about a children's room in a future where they had like "backdrops" of a place instead of walls and the backdrop of the children's room was a savannah. Supposedly it wasn't real but I think the kid was eaten by a lion or something.

There was also something about teleporting?

BackFromTheDead goose / witch / solve own murder Literature

So I read this book when I was a whippersnapper. I don't recall its name, but it's been bugging me for a while now.

This guy gets killed by a mystery person (possibly around the time of his wedding?) and a local witch brings him back to life as a goose and promises to make him human again in exchange for some years (possibly seven?) of service to her and he tries to solve his own murder while in this form.

In the end his best friend trades his own life to the witch in order to bring him back for keeps.

Something I read once Literature

This book was about a girl who lived with her grandma or Grandpa because her parents were dead. She can't sleep in the night so she sleeps in the day. She meets an animal(it was like a rat or something) who can play the flute or something like that. She also meets a boy named Reed or green they become friends. In the end they find out that the girl is actually master of the moon or something and that the boy is the master of something else. Master I just one option for the words there is also Lord King and queen as options. The grandparent also knows a lot about this magical stuff. The girl also get bullied at school.

superhero web novels Literature

A superhero web novel series where one of the villains is a sweet little girl who turns evil, and i think her personality might completely change; I don't remember. Also there's this big guy whose name, if i remember correctly, is Bonesaw, or something like that. I haven't read any of it, and the only reason I know any of this is from reading a wiki about it.

Short horror story Literature

This was one particular story from an anthology book of short horror stories - the stories were all by different authors and might have been some yearly "best of" for a horror magazine. Anyway, this particular story had a male protagonist alone in a mall/shopping center, being followed by an unaccompanied child who keeps calling him "daddy". He keeps going through a notebook of the names of women he's been with, trying to figure out if he might have gotten anyone pregnant. The child eventually provokes him enough that he causes a scene and police are called in - the child completely disappears, the notebook turns out to be full of the names of murder victims, and the story ends with the main character being arrested. There was no further explanation and the reader was left wondering if the main character was tormented and framed by some sort of mischievous spirit or he was insane and killed these women in some sort of dissociative state.

Book about a boy and his dragon Literature

A friend of mine's looking for this kids' book: "I don't remember much, but I think it was set on another planet. A boy working in a mine got a dragon's egg, and the dragon had a name that was based on the boy's name. The shorter the name was, the stronger the bond between the dragon and the 'owner' was. At the end of it, the boy asks a girl who's a friend of his to ask the dragon for its name, and then it tells her a name that's even shorter and based on her name instead, and it shows that she was the one who was supposed to have the dragon. Her bond to it is even stronger."

No Idea Literature

Possibly Young Adult Fiction, Children experimented on by benevolent scientist resulting in them becoming Psychic, and foiling the plans of a dangerous criminal whilst working for government agency possibly, then their deaths are faked and they are declared legally dead and aren't able to contact anyone they care about otherwise they'll be put in danger, also one of the teens is a girl named Dylan, (I think) they are held hostage by criminals posing as agents working for the head of said government agency, and are forced to steal diamonds from some rich guy, can't remember the series name, and it's been bugging me recently.

Children's Book from the 2010s Literature

When I was little, I used to love reading this book (early-mid 2010s). There was a Canadian family and there was a jumble sale involved. One of them says "Bags eye the cap!" at one point. The book had pictures and the cover of the book was mostly white, I think. They might have had a long-haired dog and I think it was in a series of books.

I've been looking for this book for ages, and I know that it does exist. I would love to know the title.

No Title Literature

YA book/21st century a girl lives near detroit. she's a piano prodigy. she starts taking lessons in detroit and discovers jazz. she meets some friends who go to Wayne State.

Short story about a growing, plantlike ink creature Literature

There was this short story I read in some anthology book a few years ago. However, I'm pretty sure the story itself was written much earlier than that, possibly in the 60's or 70's.

The story starts out with a rich man who is annoyed to find a little spot of ink on his tablecloth. A tiny dot is actually shown below the paragraph. The man calls his butler to clean the tablecloth, but he can't get the stain out. And whenever they turn their backs on the dot, it seems to grow (the dot is frequently illustrated below each paragraph where it's said to be growing, and each time, it is drawn slightly bigger.)

Then they notice that the dot also seems to be sprouting some sort of tendrils, and another man enters (I think he's a policeman or something) who the rich man asks for help. The rich man and the new man go to another room, leaving the butler alone with the ink blot, and when they return, the butler is gone, and the ink blot has grown even more.

The rich man and the other man somehow find out that this is some sort of Botanical Abomination from another dimension, and it will keep growing and consuming everything. The story ends with one last picture of the creature, still a solid black ink blot, but with leaves and other growths, and so big that it takes up the whole page.

To make things worse, this story's "title" was something incomprehensible, I think it was just a few smears of ink. If I could just remember who wrote it...

Boy must stop his death Literature

A boy dies and is given a few chances to go back and prevent what happened, which involved him getting into an argument with his parents, running out of the house and getting hit by a car. The kid was an artist and had a bit of an ego as he was later called out by his friend. In art class he is given the choice between making a marionette or a flip book, and I remember that he cares a lot more about the marionette but on at least one occasion he chooses the flip book instead, to the art teacher's disappointment, and is miserable making a boring animation of a guy throwing a football.

I can't remember if this is a Choose Your Own Adventure type book or not.

1990s Educational Textbook About Writing Literature

Does anyone know this book? I knew someone who owned a copy circa 1998-2003.

From what I recall it was a hand-sized, thick (150+ page) black book used in American schools. I don't think it was an official textbook but it was something used to learn. It was probably from the 1990s and I remember it having a lot of colorful illustrations of people in it. It taught either high school/college-level grammar or high school/college level writing.

Book about stargazing camp? Literature

I remember reading this book in sixth grade. It was a book about a stargazing camp or something. There were multiple narrators, with one of them being a snobby popular girl, and another being a boy who believed that he could fly. They both went to the aforementioned camp. What is it?

Children's Halloween book Literature

I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read around 2006. It was a picture book taking place on Halloween. It had three kids going trick or treating. All of them were unhappy about something (the kid dressed as a pirate had to bring his younger sister, the kid dressed as a scientist had his lab coat turn pink in the wash, and the girl had to wear a fairy costume). They were also being followed by a mean girl who made fun of them. Each time, one of them would find a way to escape her by doing something themed to their costume (I remember the one dressed as a scientist created an invisibility potion). It ended with the girl dressed as a fairy turning the mean girl into a toad.

Obscure Shakespeare character Literature

There's this Shakespeare play I read a while back, where there's this guy who's sentenced to be executed but he won't come out and get it done; he'd rather sleep in. The prison warden tries to coax him, saying something like "Come now, you can get executed now and you can go back to sleep then, all right?" Neither he nor the warden are main characters.

Anyone remember which play this is?

YA fantasy book involving memories and/or transfer of consciousness? Literature

I remember reading this book in the mid-to-late 2000s, so that eliminates anything published since roughly 2010, 2011. The details are reeeeeeeally vague, so bear with me. The protagonist was a girl whose mother (and possibly father?) are from a fantasy realm but now live in the real world - I wanna say they were royalty or nobility.

For some reason there was some kind of arrangement where the mother transferred her memories and/or consciousness into her sister (except then I seem to remember a plot twist where the memories actually got transferred back?)

I know it's a sketchy description but it's literally all I can remember for right now. Please assist, I've been in a Google spiral for the past forty-five minutes or so and have come up with nothing so far.

Comic - Man joins brand design team Literature

I'm trying to help my brother find something. He thinks it may have been one story in a larger book, possibly one that mixed prose and comics, or not. Here's his description:

Man joins design team finding a brand for google-like corporation

I remember it was in an anthology of the best American works of fiction or something similar. It may have been the best american nonrequired reading anthology. I read it in the last two years and I believe it was published in the last five, but am not positive about the latter. The story is somewhat dystopian - the corporation has become a huge player in world affairs.

The main character is a young man who joins a design team creating a new brand and logo for a google-out-of-control like organization.

During the story the man is afflicted by a mysterious cold-like sickness supposedly cause by plants on the property. He gets medicine from a semi-sinister doctor at the company, which helps him. They tell him that the sickness is due to allergies, but we never get the full explanation.

The main character goes for a swim each day and sees a woman sitting by the pool that he lacks the courage to talk to. During his last swim, he looks up and she is no longer there. He wonders whether he imagined her entirely.

The design team is led by a man who is somewhat obsessed with primality. He leads the team to break in to the headquarters of their rivals in the final act of the comic.

The last scene is the main character looking at a bloody handprint after injuring himself during the break in. He decides that this will be the new logo of the corporation.