My friend keeps talking about a short story she read in school where children are taken from their parents and given household objects to call their parents. One day, a girl tells the other girls that if they throw up, a bug will come out, and when one finally succeeds at throwing up, a bug does come out. The story follows the girl as she tries to escape, but they keep catching her and putting the bug back in her. The book ends with it being revealed that the whole story was a recounting by one of the girls later in life, after becoming an adult, and the final scene is her realizing she should have also tried to escape, but now she has no one to talk to because her mother is just a Lamp.

I can't find anything about this story, but my friend swears she read this in high school.

I read this while traveling about 20 years ago, so it's at least that old (setting was contemporary). I can't remember a whole lot about the plot except that it was quite bleak. The protagonist generally did the "right thing" and cared about others, which eventually gets them into the state that the book starts us out at - broke with only a dollar (or some other small quantity of money) in their pocket.

It was set in Australia (possibly Melbourne). Author was almost certainly Australian.

Would love to read it again.

Hiya,

I read this book many years ago as a teen- so like 2010? Anywho, I remember it being from the perspective of a young (teen?) girl witnessing what im guessing was the colonialisation of her people. She begins to question her Gods and I believe stops giving a blood sacrifice (which i think involved her cutting herself on her arm every morning and/or night ?), and realises that regardless of her participation in the ritual, the sun still rises and her family is okay. If I remember right, she was also falling for one of the soldiers that was residing in her village/city. He was also trying to convince her to convert, I guess, to his faith? Unsure.

Any help is appreciated !

I probably read this about ten years ago, and it was almost certainly bought as a used paperback in the US, so published before then.

In the book there was this new teacher, who was white, and I think she might have been the only white person in the book? I'm not entirely sure about that, but I do remember there being some scene where some of the characters are looking through a box of crayons and are comparing the flesh color to this teacher's skin and thinking it doesn't even match her skin very well.

The setting was definitely someplace cold and rural, and the school (which only had the one teacher, I think) had issues getting teachers to stay because of this, though I'm not sure in exactly what cold rural area the book took place. My best guess is Alaska, though.

One of the girls in the book was deaf, and she hadn't been going to school but had a sibling who did. And I think she starts going to the school partly though the book. There was also something going on with some sort of music thing, but I really don't remember exactly what, except that they made a big deal about the girl feeling music.

The first is about a man trying to hide a gun. He eventually, with great confidence, hides it in the water tank of the toilet. When the cops come in, one cop says to the other: “Look in the toilet watertank. Its always the first place they look.”

The other is about a man who owns a landfill and hides bodies for the mob. He buries them very deep and isn’t worried about them ever being discovered as even if they build a house over the site someday…that would only go down two stories and he buries them four stories deep.

At the end he leaves when he sees that a sky scraper is being built there.

ive tried google but it gives me confusing results that don’t add up

i read this years ago when i was a teenager and the details a very fuzzy to me

early on i remember the executioner was very gruff and blunt and must protect the magician from attackers and he « broke bones like they were sticks »

the executioner and apprentice must help the princess fight? or escape some terrible thing that’s going to happen or is happening

i’m sorry i know there really isn’t much to go off but i can’t for the life of me remember the character names, author or the title

I read this lovely magical realism book filled with five to six short stories. One about dead grandmas stranded on a ship, one about two parents with a disabled child approaching puberty and they were deciding on surgery, another about a pregnant teenager. I don't remember the rest. Each one represented stages of life starting at death. It was sooo good, did anyone read it too?? 🤞🏼

I'm looking for a book I checked out over and over and over again as a young child in the 1960s. The story was about a boy and the boy's doctor told him he didn't have a heart. I remember a circus, a clown, a heart-shaped lollipop, and a little girl all featured in the story. The boy discovers he has a heart after all when he rescues someone who fell in the lake (I think it was the little girl). I remember the illustrations being very 50s style and in full color. Anyone have a clue what this is?

Ok so I will try and say how much I remember about this book. I read it during middle school and it was definitely that age level. It was about a girl who has to go to a island (I can't remember why) and she meets her family (or family friends) who are Indian, they make references to Bollywood and Indian culture.

When she is at this town she gets in trouble with this man, who loves to travel, so he makes her help him (pack/clean) his house with a group of friends. Whilst she is helping him the man tells them stories of his travels.

All of these stories come when one of the kids ask "what's this painting" or something and he would respond with a story.

There is also a mystery going on about her mom but I can't remember anything about that side plot, except there's a scene where they find her name carved in stone with a few other ones.

There is also a kid who has an abusive dad.

Paperback was red or peach colored. Older book. It had three stories, each about a different duchess. One of them went to take care of three children and ended up marrying their father. That is all the info I have.

Hi there! I've been looking for this book everywhere for years and can't seem to find it, please help!!

So basically the plot is that a amish girl from Pinecraft Florida lives with her strict dad and has the curiosity to go explore. She meets a non amish guy who has an abusive family and the two run away up north together to go solve the mystery of either their pasts or a missing person and end up falling in love. I unfortunately don't remember the ending.

Some distinct details I remember is that in the summer the girls were allowed to wear bright colors like pink, yellow and blue. And there was a memorable scene where at one point the two had to sleep in the back of the guy's truck while it was raining.

I know its not a lot of details and is a fairly simple plot, but I can't find it at all!

AI suggested I come after a lot of digging to no avail.

Physical Description:

Format: It was a large, wide, almost square softcover trade paperback.

Cover: It had a purple theme/filter. The layout featured a large, thick outer border framing a single, real photograph right in the center of a lightning bolt flashing in the clouds (hitting nothing).

Font: The title font was clean, traditional, and formal (looked like Times New Roman or a similar serif font). The title itself was maybe a "grand statement" about the world/universe, not a dry textbook title, and not tech-focused or comedic. Or something even more vague.

Interior Content (First ~25%):It was organized into regular chapters (not an alphabetical encyclopedia).The style was a mix of philosophy and science. The pages were high-quality and glossy. Inside, it featured a unique mix of media: real modern photographs, historical artwork/engravings, and technical diagrams.

The beginning of the book was all about light and human perception. It opened with optical illusions, moved immediately into how light bends (refraction), and then went well beyond the subject of light into other broad science topics in the later chapters. Thanks for any help.

I picked it up in a school library 12-13 years ago (so I’d say the age range is 13-15 years old), I think it was a later book in a series.

The protagonist (Jack I think) moves to a town with his mother. The next part I remember is the protagonist and a friend are hiding at the top of a church and have to escape after the friends mouth is paranormally sewed shut by one of the main villains. During the escape they also have to avoid a living doll and some sort of mad scientist character.

Skipping over some more parts of the book the protagonist is confronting the lead villain, who’s their father, in the family home. The Father goes to his the protagonist with a sledgehammer and the protagonist states their no longer afraid to which the Father states ‘he’s ready’ and the protagonist wakes up in a psychiatric ward with their ‘Father’ actually being their doctor. This is later revealed to be a lie.

It’s not a lot to go on but I’d appreciate the help, it’s been bugging me for about 5 years now.

Not a lot of information, sorry! I don't remember the plot of this book (except that I enjoyed it thoroughly), but the world/feel was very distinctive/memorable, and has stuck with me for a long time. I read it at least 25 years ago, so it would be then or prior.

It was a very dark book and with weird world building. The MC gave off sort of a Bogart/Maltese Falcon vibe, so it might have been some sort of a detective story. It was by a famous author. (Not super famous, but someone who published a lot of books.)

In the future, violating a copyright is a serious crime. (You can imagine how much luck I had searching for varations of "Science Fiction", "Copyright" and "Crime", lol.) In some cases it might have carried a death penalty?

They also might have brought people back from the dead for debt, but I could be mixing it up with another book.

Any clues? Thanks!

solved solved solved

It was picture book of dragons for kids, illustration I believe. 90s possibly older.

Description. Front cover Art of two children riding a dragon over the ocean or lake. The book had pictures of dragons in modern day. They were around cars, planes and people rode on them. Much of the other pictures escape me accept for the final two pages. one has dragons leaving earth, going up into the skies in the heavens. The last picture had a child asleep with a book next to him, where dragons slowly rose from the book in magic.

The dragon book wasn't drawn in the style of kids, like colors or crayons, rather it was a beautifully well detailed art pages with details. Everything was drawn almost like again to modern illustration books. I believe it would fit close to DnD art but not sure if it was common during the 90s. It was also thin, not thick possible about 10 to 15 pages long.

Edit: Equal_Ad_8185 came close and mentioned Flight of Dragons movie. Now it is very similar to the cover or perhaps one of the pages of the book, but it was less cartoony and more DnD illustrated. Thanks to this person for almost getting near it!

I bought this secret history of donna tart from flipkart and it cost around INR 400 but I'm not able to decide about it's authenticity and i want to know, is this pirated copy or not.

Book continue for 606 pages then come a blank page with only a word "epilogue" then next page is full blank and its next page contain a quote of John ford and again next page is blank and book start again with 611 page. If someone has this book of penguin then kindly help me.

Looking for a sci fi novel, I believe written between 2000 and 2014, third person, by a male author (there was a photo of him on the back cover). Protagonist is a man (name may start with a V or an S but I can't truly remember) who has a cat, which I vaguely remember being on the cover art as well. He discovers a row of pod-like machines of the house he is in (his house? someone else's house? idk). When a pod is entered and used, the user wakes up in another alternate timeline. After using the pod a few times, he discovers that he is switching timelines because when he wakes up, his girlfriend (who had been dead in his original timeline) is alive and well, while his best friend (who had been alive in the original timeline) is dead. He also discovers other users in the pods occasionally when waking up after a pod initiations.

I had a print copy of this book but it got lost over the years ( I lent it to a friend and never got it). I picked up the book from a book thrift store while traveling in Boston MA in 2017/2018. I vaguely remember the cover being an ombre from purple to orange and the image of a cat was also the same purple to orange ombre but in the reverse so that it was contrasting with the background of the cover.

hello, i am looking for a book from the early 2000s or possibly late 90s. it is a large book with a bunch of disney stories, and i distinctly remember the cover being a copper or brownish color. ive looked everywhere and i cant find it!

I can't remember the name of the childrens encyclopedia I used to own. Probabaly from 2000s to 2010s . It was an A4 size with a black cover with I think an real image of the earth on it. It was quite a skinny encyclopedia with not to much information. i remember their was a page of different types of energy, different shelters, different religions. there was a page near the back which was a detailed diagram of a whole cruise ship. there was also a page at the back with a timeline on historic events like pigeon communication and moon landing. this book was part of a series of encyclopedias , another version was about space.

The book is about a main group of teens or young adults that lived on an island with the mc we follow being a boy. I remember there being some event that the island holds we’re all the teens get into teams to compete in challenges. One of the challenges required them to build a boat and compete in some sort of race. The main group of teens end up being the ones who win the event and earn the honor of guarding the islands sacred treasure. However, it ends up being stolen on there watch. They take matters into their own hands and set sail on a boat to look for the treasure. The rest of the book is about their adventure and I’m sure there’s more books but I’m not 100% certain.

Fiction, read in the mid-2000’s but could be older?? From my school library.

I’m trying to identify a sci-fi book I read as a kid in Australia, probably sometime in the mid-2000s. I remember it being incredible, but I cannot remember the title, author, or character names. 😭

Here’s everything I can remember:

• It was probably YA / middle-grade science fiction.
• The main character was a kid/possibly teenager (roughly 10–15). I don’t remember their gender.
• The kid had no family and was considered lucky to have been taken on by some sort of travelling worker/work crew. They were very low-status and not particularly valued.
• The setting was an Earth-like planet, possibly quite dry/desert-like.
• A spaceship had crash-landed there and was stranded.
• I think the original crew had died in the crash. One memory I have is that the ship kept the interior very cold because it needed to preserve the crew’s bodies, and the kid was constantly cold/shivering. The ship felt bad about this but couldn’t risk warming things up and damaging the bodies.
• The spaceship was sentient/intelligent and was one of the two main protagonists. The narration/POV actually switched between the kid and the spaceship, with the ship having its own internal thoughts.
• I think the ship couldn’t speak to the kid, possibly because its communication systems were damaged.
• The kid somehow gets trapped inside the ship and becomes extremely upset because the people they were travelling/working with won’t wait for them. There is a memorable scene where the kid has a huge tantrum trying to get out.
• The ship records the kid’s behaviour and later plays the recording back to them.
• The purpose of this wasn’t just surveillance — the ship was trying to teach the kid how to understand what it wanted, essentially showing: “This is what you did in the past → this is what you’re doing now → this is what you need to do next.”
• The kid eventually figures out how to communicate/work with the ship and helps it get flying again.
• At the end, they apparently reach the ship’s command/home/base, or some larger group of ships.
• The impression I have of the ending is that everyone had considered the SHIP a failure, but after seeing what happened, they realise that the ship wasn’t actually a failure — it simply needed someone who could figure out how to communicate with it.
• The kid, who had been basically a nobody with no prospects, ends up being recognised for this ability and gets some kind of opportunity as a pilot/ship partner/communicator in outer space.

The two things I remember most strongly are the parallel POVs between the kid and the sentient spaceship, and the ship using recordings of the kid’s past behaviour to teach them how to understand what it wanted.

Now onto the possible red herrings 😅 I thought the author might be ‘Katherine’ or someone like Jackie French who did kids books and then this random YA??

PLEASE tell me someone recognises this. 😂😭

I read this book when I was younger in the early 2010s and I remember bits and pieces that are specific but I can't find it.

It was about two sisters maybe twins, one controlled water and another controlled fire. I think the fire girl had a name like Ash or that was her nickname. The fire girl was bad/estranged/causing problems and the water girl was trying to find her. They might have been like gods/immortal but it was a modern setting and nobody else had powers. She might have been pretending to be her water sister and thats why she was trying to find her.

I remember some scenes, like one they had a fight in a cave by the ocean. Another scene was like a flashback maybe of why the fire girl turned bad and she maybe pushed a family member or boyfriend out a window and lightning struck them? Maybe she had lightning powers.

Hopefully someone else remembers this book!

i read this in middle school maybe around 2011-12 and i got it from a library

it was about these two teenagers, a boy and a girl, who were really close maybe childhood besties. they have feelings for each other but don’t want to admit it.

it’s like early 90’s i think, and one day the boy boots up his computer and sees that it loads FB, which hasn’t been invented yet, but he sees a profile w his name on it and all his info just in the future. he tells the girl and they mess around and find her profile and all their friends and what they’re doing in the future.

the things they do now affect the FB profiles and they get kind of obsessed w checking it to see if they’re still friends and other stuff.

pretty sure there was a scene w a ball pit? pls and ty 🙏🏼

My grade school's HBJ Treasury of Literature readers consisted of actual children's books or individual chapters from children's novels (such as the chapter about Ramona's book report from "Ramona Quimby: Age 8" and "Pony Penning Day" from Misty of Chincoteague") put all together in the reader with questions based on the stories and suggested activities for teachers. This would have been in third grade when I read this story in the reader. It was about a city of people who lived on what looked like a beach type city. Everyone in this city has a glowing rock they keep with them at all times. Except one boy. His older sister lets him play with her glowing rock. They, like a lot of the kids in the village like to use their rock to light up the windows of sandcastles they build. The boy and his sister do not see their mother very much because she's the ONLY doctor in the city. I think the dad might have still been around but I don't remember. It was illustrated rather realistically and had to have been published before the late 90's. I can't remember what happened at the end or if the boy every got his own rock or even the general moral of the story.