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openKids book about an elderly woman and her hat. Literature
I remember reading, 10 or 11 years ago, a children's book about an elderly woman who wore a fancy hat that, over the course of a week, had its fancy decorations replaced with waste.
What I remember from the story:
Her, I think, grandson took the feathers and replaced it with his bubblegum. Birds took the berries while a bird made a nest in the hat and laid her eggs. A, I think, hermit crab took the shell, and replaced it with seaweed. A cow took the flowers, and replaced it with its bell. A spider took the lace and replaced it with its cobweb. A cat took the ribbon and replaced it with the skeleton of a fish.
Edited by callmeamuffinopen(SOLVED) Childrens Christmas Chapter Book About Mice & A Mall Santa Literature
So, my teacher read this one book to my class in 3rd grade, about 2016-17.
It was about a group of mice (I'm thinking either a trio or a Five-Man Band) who lived in a department store -I'm pretty sure that it was explicitly "Macys"- and one winter's day the store's regular Mall Santa disappears, and the store hires a new one who's a total jerk and pretty shady- I'm not sure about this, but he might have been stealing from the store and he might have kidnapped the old Mall Santa. The mice end up going out on an adventure to find the missing guy, and I think he might've been, like, tied up in a dingy apartment?
Other information: I have a feeling that this book was pretty old- there weren't very many female characters (if there were any at all) and the technology the humans used wasn't up-to-date. Also, I'm not sure about this, but it might've been part of a series, and like the book equivalent of a Christmas Episode?
Edited by sRAMrelevratopenWar of the Worlds Sequel Series (Solved!) Literature
I'm looking for a sci fi series I saw around 2010-ish. There were about 6 - 8 books in the series, (so probably started in early 2000's) and I read the back of a couple of them. The covers were a single, solid bright colour with an elaborate black-and-white drawing on the front.
The series followed on a few decades after the events of War of the Worlds and featured a new British empire spread across the solar system, using reverse-engineered Martian technology. I'm sure I remember a mention of Martians being subjugated by humanity for obvious reasons. I think it had a bit of a steampunk feel, with Victorian society becoming spacefaring. It seemed intriguing, but I didn't read it at the time and now I can't for the life of me remember what it was called of who wrote it.
Edited by 2x2HandsofBlueopenBook by possibly Dutch author Literature
At some point in the 90's I read a children's horrorstory about (genetically engineered?) rats that had some sort of a hive mind. From what I remember it was specifically stated that the colony was smarter than the rats that made it up and I remember there being a scene that said the rats worked together to open a barn door. While I'm not sure I get the feeling that even when I read it was more than 10 years old. As the title of the question suggests I think it was done by a Dutch author but I'm not sure on that either.
I can tell you it wasn't trapped by Dean Koontz as not only did I read it when I was a child the focus character was a young boy.
openPicture book Literature
I’m trying to find a picture book I had when I was a kid (would have been 1998 or earlier- let’s say the publishing timeframe between 1985-1995, but I could be wrong). I’m kinda vague on the plot, but I believe it involved children flying to a magical land at night. I think they were at their grandmother’s house, and I seem to remember a blue frog being involved.
openLate nineties fantasy anthology book for older children Literature
I remember reading a fantasy anthology book in my middle school library in either 1999 or 2000. The book was brand new so I assume it was published around that time. The cover had a heavily stylized dragon or sea serpent framed by a white border. I remember the first story being about a knight approaching a witch that turns out to be his childhood friend to request a weapon to destroy the armies of an enemy kingdom and is granted an evil black sword that causes the Earth to swallow people alive. I can't remember the other stories now.
openBook protagonist with Synesthesia Literature
I think its a YA book, possibly younger. Sound has color for them. I think letters do too. At one point they get high and can see smells, including human pheromones.
Edited by pikachu17openYoung adult novel. Literature
I’m trying to recall the name of a book I read in junior high (early ‘90s). The book was a coming of age story with the central cast being a Two Guys and a Girl group of friends. One bit that stands out to me is where all the boys in the narrator’s class are called out to watch a health film (I think about syphilis or some other STD). The film is cheesy but provides the narrator and his male friend with some good laughs as well as some new in-jokes to annoy their female friend.
Edited by MenaceofMysterioopenNovel series about the Red Baron Literature
I am trying to remember the author and titles of a novel series (at least two books) about the Red Baron tat came out in the 1980s. The premise of the books was that the Red Baron survived being shot down, but was believed dead. He was recruited by British Intelligence and got involved with various historical events: the first one set in the Mexican Revolution, and the second one in the Spanish Civil River.
I thought the second novel was titled The Red, Red Baron, but searching on that has yielded no results.
openbook set during 1920's flu Literature
i apologise for the long and unorganised paragraph, i dont really remember specifics
girl and her friends bully another girl, the girl that got bullied dies of the flu, comes back as a ghost to haunt girl #1, ghost does stuff and girl #1 blames the ghost enough times she eventually gets sent to a mental hospital
i think the book is still relatively recent? i think it came out early/mid 2010s?
openNovel about son of serial killer [solved] Literature
Told from the perspective of a high school student. A new kid comes to the school and is immediately ostracized because his father is a serial killer, and he's also disabled (a lazy eye and possibly other disabilities). I think he drowns in a mine pond at the end of the story.
Edited by WalkinshadowsopenChildren's book about slime aliens Literature
The book was about an alien invasion from slime aliens. The aliens were amorphous slimes with a tooth inside (though the tooth was forgotten about later in the book). They communicated with scents. One of the protagonists could communicate with the aliens by farting, and one of the aliens transformed into a human by the end
openChoose Your Own Adventure Book series Literature
There was this choose your own adventure book series I used to read in elementary school, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was actually called.
I remember two books specifically: One was a story where the protagonist is accidentally sent back in time to the medieval era during a science fair and has to get back to the present. The other one is where the protagonist is a student on a field trip to Egypt, but ends up lost and encountering undead mummies.
Edited by BlueBlazesopenSci-Fi/Psychological Horror Short Story; Girl Sees Machines Come To Life Literature
So, I came across this horror anthology in elementary school and got really freaked out by it. I remember the edition I had said it was made in 2009, but it wasn't the first edition of the anthology.
Anyway, the story involved a girl who would see machines around her house come to life, this would only happen if she was alone. Little me kinda blocked out the anthology from my memory, so I can't recall if the twist was that the girl was hallucinating or if it was that she wasn't seeing things and something supernatural was going on.
I also recall a smattering of other details about the rest of the anthology: There was another story involving someone becoming convinced that their loved ones had been replaced with imposters; the cover was grayish-green and had a woman on it, and the author's name was female. I seem to recall that the author had another book about a woman who goes to a different universe.
openTime travel book, possibly a series Literature
Its a book set a couple hundred years in the future, the solar system has been colonized but its a Crapsack World run by corporations and the society relies on a group of time travelers who go back in time and grab lost stuff from the past, and the time travelers have borderline worship the inventor of time travel as "the Mother of time" and refuse to change the past under any circumstance, and the protagonist ends up bringing a scientist lady from the late 21st century back.
Read the book a couple of years ago and remember the ending seemed to lean towards sequels but I don't know if it ever got any
openBoy's Blood Looks Like Airplane Glue Literature
This was a paperback sci-fi novel. I think it was a lesser title by a famous author.
The part I remember was a boy at the doctor's office. He'd been injured, and his clotted blood was distinctly nonhuman due to some secret alien mumbo jumbo. The doctor wondered if this kid was dumb enough to seal his cut with modelling cement.
The language was old-fashioned, but I couldn't tell you what era it came from.
openA Scary Story Literature
Okay, this is an odd one. I remember reading a book as a kid that I'm 90% sure was called "The Scariest Story Ever Told." It was about a 12 y/o boy named Billy who befriended a girl his age, and her father ran a spooky bookstore with a bunch of fun gimmicks and cool animatronics meant to scare customers. They found a book called "The Scariest Story Ever Told" that had a nasty reputation of driving anyone who listened to it insane, and to gain publicity, they hosted a contest: 5 kids who won a lottery draw had to sit through a reading of the book, the winner being the one who stayed through the whole thing and wasn't visibly scared. It was sort of a semi-anthology series that slipped scary stories into the main plot. I especially remember the twist ending that Billy is the spirit of someone who'd been in a coma for 20 years, and once his body finally dies, he leaves a note for the girl and her father explaining what happened before moving on.
Now that I want to find the story again, it's completely impossible to google, because any time I look up anything remotely like the title, all I get is a bunch of lists for horror stories. Even putting in key words like "middle grade" or "novel" doesn't get me anywhere.
So while I know the title, what I REALLY need to figure out is the author's name.
openDuckling encouraged to jump down from high nest. Literature
It's a children's book about this duck, who is described as a "Russian duck", even though she's never been to Russia.
She builds a very high nest to avoid foxes since, in her words, "Russian ducks aren't silly", and lays eggs. When they hatch, she wants to teach the ducklings to swim, so they all jump down except one, who is afraid to.
All the other farm animals keep saying, "Come on, little duck! Jump!" and "Anyone can jump!". At one point, one animal tries citing himself as the only animal that can't jump and tries to prove it... only, he can, so he says, "Hmph! Anyone can jump!".
Googling "Russian duck jumping book" didn't get anything.
open[SOLVED] A children's book with evil cockatrices, forgetful wizard, and magic carrots Literature
I vaguely remember reading a fantasy book, where the villains were evil cockatrices or basilisks or something. They were definitely chicken-shaped in the illustrations, vaguely reptilian, and I think they could also breathe fire. I think the kid protagonist was isekai'd into this fantasy world, but I might be wrong here. One of the allies was a very forgetful wizard. I think at one point he couldn't find his glasses? There were also magic carrots involved, but I don't remember how exactly. (Were they food? Potion ingredients? Some other Macguffin? Idk)
Edited by Andariel

Which Sherlock Holmes story featured him borrowing a creosote-loving dog to sniff out a criminal who had stepped in creosote? The dog got to a crossroads in the scent trail and detoured to find a barrel of creosote, so Sherlock Holmes led the dog back to where he'd lost the criminal's trail to try again.