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resolved library book, name forgotten Literature
I can't remember the name of this book, but the main character was a young man who grew up in a family that raised (?) horses. He took a liking to a blind horse with a name starting from 'B' and promised to buy her or something of the like. But he was too late, and the horse was either sold or given away. He and his mother later heard about a horse that was famous (or something) around the same time horse B was given away. So the young man moves away from his house to work with horses in the city, and is made fun of for his small hands (they're like a woman's hands, I think was the insult), and that he'll never be able to train race horses. But he still manages to anyways? A line I remember from this book is the crowd shooting "Show us the way" during one of his races. He eventually finds the horse he and his mother had talked about early in the book and had the opportunity to race with her. The book ends on a happy note, I think. Can anyone help?
resolved Autobiography of woman who became quadriplegic diving into a lake Literature
It was in my fifth grade classroom, and I remember almost everything except the woman's name. She breaks her neck diving into a lake, and notes that the cold water closing around her body is the last thing she will ever feel below the neck. Before she realizes how serious her injury is, she is dismayed when the doctors cut off her new bathing suit, and later shave her head. After she realizes she's a quadriplegic, she asks her friend to Mercy Kill her and Make It Look Like an Accident; the friend refuses. She is sent to a rehab center, where she meets someone who points to things by flopping his arms around. There she regains some arm movement. At one point she learns a method of writing, possibly by typing with a pencil in her mouth. (Pretty sure this was before most people had computers.) Much later, she acts in a movie about herself. She has three boyfriends throughout the book: the first is Dick, whom she dumps; the second is Donald, who dumps her despite her belief that it's true love; the third is Ken, who's missing his hands and ends up marrying her. Anyone else read this?
resolved An Alternate World War II Book Series? Literature
I read a few books some time ago where World War II takes a different turn after Adolf Hitler is killed early on when the British bomb Berlin. The new German leaders manage to negotiate a cease fire with Briton (against Churchill's protests), and convince the Japanese to 'postpone any offensive against the Americans'. This lasts a year. After that, Germany and Japan launch a 'simultaneous' offensive, wherein Germany gases London to death, since London wasn't expecting such a sudden attack, leading Briton to surrender and the Royal Family to evacuate with as much of the Royal Navy as they can bring with them, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sees all the battleships getting out to sea... where they're all promptly sunk by torpedoes in the open water, and are now no longer recoverable. This puts America in a poor position indeed. If anybody can help me find the title of this book series, I would be greatly appreciative.
resolved (Solved) Children's Book: A Mother Must Weave Her Hair into a Jacket for a Whale Literature
I'm looking for the name of a fantasy/ fairy tale picture book where a mother has to rescue her son from the ocean. She strikes a bargain with a whale, who asks her to cut off her long, dark hair and weave it into a jacket for the whale to wear in the cold ocean. In exchange, the whale will help her rescue her son. The whale also promises to give her a magic remedy that will regrow her hair after she has cut it off. The mother begins work on the jacket, but finds she doesn't have enough material. She asks the whale for the hair re-growth remedy, and she cuts her hair off again (leaving her bald or with very short, scraggly hair she covers with a scarf). The mother finishes the whale's jacket, and is able to bring her son back home safely.
I do not know when this book was published. The illustrations were mostly done in dark colors, possibly in pastel or chalk (there was a soft, blurry feel to them). I believe there was a mention at the beginning of the book that it was based on an Asiatic fairy tale, but I haven't been able to find any fairy tales that match the story I remember.
Edited by Leporidaeresolved Picture book about ghosts (Found) Literature
A long time ago, I got a picture book about ghosts that has since been lost. It had 3 short stories in it:
- 1st one was about a small ghost hotel and how its staff must try to stop a greedy businessman from taking over and turning it into his own giant luxurious hotel (with the ghosts as special attractions).
- 2nd one was about a ghost girl attending a ghost school and her efforts to become a proper scary ghost.
- 3rd one was about a ghost man who haunts a small old TV (bought for a boy after his previous one breaks) as he desires to become an entertainer. Problem is, he fails at everything he does.
resolved children's book about an alien [SOLVED] Literature
Book about an alien on Earth. She took the form of Earth animals. And once or twice something happens to her, and she has to take another form. She meets these human children - a boy and a girl, I think. Through her interactions with them, they learn that she's a child like them, and her stay on Earth is akin to a field trip, part of her school studies. Once something happens to her, and she comes back to them in another form. I think she spent some time as a dog and chased a squirrel. Or maybe she was a squirrel. Maybe she was also a horse at some point. I remember she had a very alien point-of-view, and there were some sad or bittersweet moments.
She might have lived with a human as a pet for a while before leaving, but I'm not sure.
I think there might have been a scene where the kids are at school when they find out that she's back/okay. Unless I'm mixing that up with Pippi Longstocking.
I read it in the 2000s.
Edited by Twiddlerresolved Fourth grade girl named Josie with Bully and Dead Brother Literature
This children's book that was published no later than 1996/1997's protagonist was a fourth grader named Josie who had a best friend and 2 other girls that were close friends. She also had major problems with bullying that year.
The bully's name was Bonnie. Her best friend was Kathleen and nicknamed Haystack Head by the bully. At one point after Bonnie's cat died, she had Josie backed up into a fence and was hitting the fence closer and closer to Josie with a large stick until Josie looked her in the eye and told her she was sorry Bonnie's cat had died. There was hints of Bonnie having abusive parents.
Josie's little brother died when he was hit by a car- I THINK while he and his twin were playing on the front lawn. His twin (I think her name was susie) saw him die and ended up manifesting selective mutism as a result of the trauma
An excerpt from the book from was in American Girl magazine in the mid-to-late 1990s; Josie was depicted as having curly reddish-brown hair
resolved Fantasy YA Book With Contagious Turned-to-Stone Paralysis Literature
I'm trying to find the title of a fantasy YA book I read about a decade ago. The basic premise is this: a young teenager somehow gains the ability to travel to a magical alternate world and bring people and items back and forth. I remember three scenes from the book:
- The teenager meets and befriends a girl from the magical world and brings her back to their home in the mundane world, where they show her all the cool modern conveniences that the magical world doesn't have. The girl amuses herself by typing up magical incantations (either on a computer or with a typewriter) and comments on how it's the neater than any calligraphy she's ever seen, but she leaves a sheet with the spells sitting out on a desk.
- At another point in the book, the mundane teenager's mother is cursed/ magically turned to stone while outside in the garden of their family house, and any creature that touches the mother also turns to stone [eventually she's surrounded by a little pile of birds and insects that have landed on her, thinking she's a statue]. Later, an "evil corporate scientist" passes their house and notices a bumblebee that has turned to stone. She wonders if it's been exposed to a new type of pesticide, and collects it for testing. After examining the bee, the scientist returns and snoops around inside the house, only to find the typed out spells. She reads out the incantations and accidentally performs magic.
- Near the end of the book, the scientist uses the typed out spells to blackmail the teenage protagonist.
I'm pretty sure I read the book between 2004 and 2011, and that it was written at some point after 1990. I have no clue if it's part of a series or a standalone novel. Any clue as to what this might be?
resolved 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...
resolved 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.
resolved Children's book about a sentient ocean wave Literature
I recently recalled a kid's book I once read as a kid but for the life of me can't remember its title. I wonder if any of you guys would remember it?
The basic premise is that this kid who loves being at the ocean manages to take a sentient ocean wave back home with him after a vacation. The book then details the kid and the wave's antics until the wave gets homesick for its ocean home and becomes depressed. I distinctly remember it raging in the kid's bedroom (while the kid watches in horror) and either it or the kid having a nightmare depicted in a full spread illustration of freaky sea monsters.
So...anybody else remember this book or its title? Repeated Google searches for kid's books about ocean waves didn't really turn up anything.
resolved Danny and the Dinosaur Literature
Oops, typed in wrong search box. Please delete.
Edited by dieseldragonsresolved Young Teens' Book About Race Around World Literature
An American (Californian?) middle school-age boy is drafted into a race around the world, alongside several other children, including a girl named Susie (or Sara or something) from the Seychelles. The racers are sponsored by wealthy royals from monarchies that no longer exist; the protagonist's sponsor was a sheikh/caliph/etc. from a country that was swallowed up by the desert. The losing sponsors had to relinquish their royal claims; the main villain, a poacher (from Europe?), would therefore lose his diplomatic immunity. The protagonist told his mother he was going to summer camp, first traveled on a bus across the US, crossed Russia by train, and, in accordance with game rules, was detained for a day in Japan after trying to enter a subway train without paying (alongside his white drifter companion). The race was titled something like "the Great Global Game", and the initialism was reused differently throughout the book. For example, the protagonist told his drifter friend that "It's the Great Goosey Game, and I've just been cooked." during said subway incident.
resolved Swan Prince(?) Literature
I remember reading a novel when i was younger where the main character was the youngest of his siblings, and was cursed along with his 6(?) brothers, turning into swans. To change them back, their sister had to knit sweaters of thistle within the year. The sister didn't get the left sleeve on the last sweater, so the MC has a swan wing, and can talk to birds. He at some point ran away with his two best friends to try and find a place in the world. He runs from them too when he finds out they're a couple. That's all i can remember for sure, but i think the MC had a prosthetic to hide the wing?
resolved Horror Short story Literature
A short story about a young girl spending time at a relative's house (her aunt, I think), and how there's something horrible at the bottom of the pond. She's Dead All Along, and the thing at the bottom of the pond is her drowned corpse.
resolved Children's(?) Fantasy Creature Picture Book Literature
I'm looking for a book that sprung back into my mind a few days ago. I wouldn't be able to tell you when it was published, but I had it last around ten years ago, I think. It was a full-colour illustrated "bestiary" of fantasy creatures - it for certain had dragons and gryphons in it, but plenty others that I don't remember. It was written in first person, possibly from the point of view of an old lady. That last point is fuzzy, so don't rely on it. The only exact phrase I remember from it was on the section about gryphons, the narrator comments that they always "reminded [her] of flying kittens". The gryphons are drawn exactly like that; my memory of the image is of them on a tree - small, fuzzy, big paws and cute faces. Please help me find this! It's been mystifying me since I remembered it.
resolved Young Adult Book about 2 young brothers surviving the Holocaust in Poland Literature
I've been bugged by the inability to remember the title of a book that I read back in Middle school in 2005. Among the details I can remember about it are the following: Two Jewish children (who are brothers as mentioned earlier) who are living in Poland during World War II, of which the younger has blonde hair which makes the older one (who is the protagonist) envious because he "looks German" and thus isn't in as much fear of being spotted by the Nazis. The protagonist is living with a Polish family named the Rosens (or some variation of that name such as Rosenberg, Rosenthal, etc. again I can't remember all the details accurately) who are providing refuge for him from the Nazis. At the beginning, there is a celebration of Passover (in the present day) in which at one point it is mentioned something along the lines that "the Holocaust was more recent and just as true" in which the protagonist (who is a grown man at this point) then goes on to recount the main narrative in an extended flashback. Near the end of it, the uprising in Warsaw against German occupation happens. The protagonist and Rosens also meet a Russian soldier who reveals that he is also Jewish. The book also featured the Rosens in a photo dated 1992 after the conclusion of the novel.
resolved Time Travel and Utopia Literature
The book I'm thinking of is a scifi novel where the protagonist, who I believe was thought to have died in some kind of accident in his present day, was somehow actually transported forward in time. When he became aware of himself again he was in the middle of a snow storm, and was rescued by a woman who took him back to her house. At that point, he finds out that casual nudity is A Thing in the future. The woman, for reasons I can't remember, decides to give him a picture of herself, specifically, a headshot, which is described as being more personal/intimate, and kind of a weird choice for someone you only just met. She continues helping to introduce him to the future, and takes him out shopping. There's a description of moving sidewalks at different speeds, and at one point he takes notice of a muscular female massage therapist, who he describes as wearing nothing more than a bored expression.
Later in the book, he becomes jealous of the woman's current or ex-boyfriend, and is coerced into going to some kind of mental institution where he is "treated" by having all jealousy trained out of him because nobody is monogamous any longer so romantic jealousy is regarded as a type of mental illness. The entire society is basically treated as a utopia by the people in it, but not by the protagonist, or at least, not at first.
resolved A novel I read in school Literature
I remember a book I read for independent reading in school. It was about a girl whose legs didn't work, and so she was an outcast in her village. Seriously, her neighbors tried to sacrifice her as a baby because of her disability. It was a pretty depressing book, actually.

Another memory of mine resurfaced; I believe my mother introduced me to it or somehow knew it but what I remember of it is this:
This first memory's a bit fuzzy, but the first book I recalled having ever had a cartoony illustration of the main character, a seemingly scatter-brained smiling girl in maybe a blue dress? hanging upside down by her legs. It's the type of humor in those books that stuck out to me.
For instance: The teacher of a class she attended once asked her a question, like the general questions that teachers would ask students to see if they understood the lesson. But when the girl answered that she didn't know and the teacher told her the answer (this occurred on her first day of school), the girl was puzzled and asked the teacher why she would ask her if she already knew the answer.
Edited by BlackFaithStar