I was only able to read the first chapter in my school library sometime before graduating that year. And while I say 2016, the newest books my library had were “The Lost and the Found”, “Bone Gap”, and “This One Summer” so it was probably not published in 2016. The book couldn't have been published any earlier than 2000. I think it might’ve not been very popular since I can’t seem to find it in my old school’s library catalog. Or at least I’m not recognizing the cover.

I don’t remember much of the title, but I am sure the authors last name was somewhere between K and Q, since I vaguely remember that being the section the book was in.

I still somewhat remember the first chapter. The main character is a girl, a student possibly in high school, but not old enough to drive herself as she’s waiting for her mom to pick her up from school. It was either just the end of school or end of her club activities. She waits and watches the others get picked up and thinks about walking home, but, as its raining outside, she hesitates leaving. She tells herself she’ll wait in the hopes that the rain will let up, but after a couple of minutes it actually gets worse. After waiting a while longer, she braves the storm and runs through the streets. Somewhere along the way, she notices a figure and follows it to the dead body of a girl. Thats where the first chapter ends. Now, it’s still pretty vague in my memory, so I might be remembering the last bit wrong. But after thinking it over again and again, that’s the best I can remember.

This is a chapter book I read for class in high school (~2010-2015, in Canada), so presumably written for teenagers, and it was fiction. I do not remember the title, the author, character’s names, or cover. I’m fairly certain the book is not Falling by Doug Wilhelm. Pretty sure it was a paperback, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an older book (at least, not newly published at the time).

The main character is a teenaged boy who has an older brother. The book jumps between the past and present, and in the present, the older brother is already dead. Over the course of the book, we learn how close they used to be, until the brother becomes addicted to heroin, contracting HIV from sharing needles.

I think the main character is in juvenile detention (or at least being investigated by police), and we eventually learn the reasons why: as he starts dying slowly of AIDS, the older brother begs the main character to help him, and so he prepares and injects his brother with a fatal dose of heroin to euthanize him. Then, he finds the man who introduced and sold heroin to his brother, and maybe kills him? Stabs him with a dirty needle? I don’t quite remember that part. The man was in the music industry.

I’ve tried searching everything I could think of to find it online, but no dice. I’m worried at this point that it’s a very niche Canadian book that is lost to time. I think the book was meant to scare us into not doing drugs, but what I remembered most was the trauma that the main character experienced, and how harrowing the descriptions of him caring for and euthanizing his brother were. It’s driving me nuts that I can’t find it.

There might have been something about the brothers hanging out and biking together and crossing a bridge over a creek/river in the first chapter, but not entirely sure.

TYIA

i remember as a child reading a book about people who were desserts/food and at some point in the plot there’s a fire and the babysitter who’s a banana split or something has to rescue the baby she’s watching. am i going crazy or is this a book?! it was a children’s illustration book.

I am looking for a book I read in 2004. I would have been in 4th grade.
It wasn’t a series of books. It was a stand alone.

There was a boy with dark hair on the cover and maybe standing in a field, but it was only the upper half of his body. The horse was either over his shoulder or like an illustration in the clouds behind him - I could be wrong about the horse being on the cover but I KNOW the boy was.

The cover was not a photograph but seemed like a really good illustration. The book seemed a little dated for the time I read it, but nothing too old or out of the ordinary.

I can’t really remember the story at all, but if I saw the cover I would know.

The word shadow stands out in my mind??

Please help

I read this in primary school, in the late 80's early 90's but the book itself would be around the 1970's I think.

The hero of the story is a sent on a mission back in time (unfortunately don't remember why). The action takes place in and around a mid-size town which has nearby woods with a reputation for being haunted, with ghostly figures sometimes being seen. In the course of events, the protagonist forms a friendship with a brother and sister (I think), who are sympathetic to his odd patterns of speech and behaviour. I seem to recall that one of the pieces of equipment he carried included a digitisation of his sister - in the course of the story, in explaining it to the other characters, he says "it's my trans-sister", punning on transistors as electrical components.

I don't remember much about the plot or the antagonists but the story climaxes in the 'haunted' woods, where it turns out that the ghosts are actually the three heroes who are in a time loop (or shifted forward in time)?

I’m trying to identify a short mystery book I read from my high school library in the late 1990s. I graduated in 2000, but the book could have been much older, possibly from the 1950s through the 1990s.

This book matters to me more than just solving a title mystery. I’ve had ADHD and learning disabilities my whole life, and reading was always difficult for me. This was the first book I ever chose to read on my own, actually finished, and genuinely loved. I never forgot it. I’m 44 now, and over the years I’ve contacted schools and libraries, posted online, and done multiple searches trying to identify it. My last serious search was about two years ago, and I’m trying again because I’d really love to finally find the book that made me realize I could enjoy reading.

What I remember:

• The main character was a boy or teenage boy.
• I believe he was staying at, visiting, or connected to a hotel, motel, inn, lodge, resort, or similar place.
• I specifically remember the boy being outside alone somewhere and encountering, passing, or noticing a mysterious adult man.
• The man seemed tall, dark, mysterious, secretive, elegant, sinister, or unusual.
• The boy starts to think there may be something supernatural about the man.
• I used to remember the man as seeming vampire-like, but I do NOT think he was actually a vampire and I do NOT think this was really a horror book.
• The mystery eventually has a normal criminal explanation.
• I remember the man turning out to be some kind of thief or criminal.
• The crime may have involved jewels, jewelry, diamonds, pearls, gems, a necklace, antiques, art, smuggling, burglary, or stolen valuables. I’m not certain it was specifically diamonds.

Physical book details:

• Small, short school-library book.
• Probably under 200 pages, maybe much shorter.
• Could have been aimed at middle-grade or teen readers.
• It may have been a high-interest/low-reading-level or reluctant-reader book.
• I remember black-and-white illustrations or line drawings inside.
• The artwork in my memory was not strongly horror-looking. I remember the mysterious man looking more like an ordinary tall/dark stranger than an obvious monster.
• I vaguely remember black, white, and possibly red in the book’s design, but that detail is less certain.

One strong scene memory:

The boy is walking or standing somewhere outside, possibly near the hotel, on hotel grounds, near a road, path, town, trees, or possibly a cemetery, and he encounters or sees the mysterious man. That visual scene has stayed with me for more than 25 years.

Please do not focus only on vampire books. The supernatural angle may have just been the boy’s mistaken interpretation of an ordinary criminal.

I’d especially love suggestions for obscure school-library mysteries, older educational paperbacks, hi-lo books, Scholastic-type paperbacks, Franklin Watts, Fearon/Janus, Steck-Vaughn, Jamestown, Dell juvenile books, or similar older series.

Already ruled out:

• The Big Bazoohley
• Dunston Checks In
• Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
• The Case of the Hotel Who-Done-It
• Look for Me by Moonlight
• Murder at the Hotel Hopeless
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

If you know a title that sounds even remotely close, please suggest it. Cover or interior-image links would be especially helpful because I think I may recognize the book visually.

Hello there !

Ich bin verzweifelt auf der Suche nach einem Buch, welches ich in meiner Jugendzeit (Anfangs 2000er) gelesen habe.

Auf dem Cover war das Gesicht eines Mädchens mit kurzen, schwarzen Haaren, im Hintergrund war ein Wesen zu sehen, welches in den meisten Zügen wie ein Hai aussieht, aber vereinzelt spezielle Merkmale aufweist. (mehr Augen als normal, oder mehrere Flossen als normal)

In der Geschichte ging es (glaube ich) irgendwie darum, dass das Mädchen einen Unfall hat und dann zweigeteilt wird.
Aber ihrer unteren Hälfte wächst ein neuer oberer Teil und umgekehrt. Es wird immer wieder über Plattwürmer gesprochen, welche diese Fähigkeit auch haben sollen.

Auch entwickelt sie langsam Fähigkeiten, wie zum Beispiel unter Wasser extrem lange die Luft anhalten zu können.

Weiss jemand, was dies für ein Buch ist?

I do not remember the majority of this book, the only thing I remember is at some point they are forced into a mountain shootout type situation and ultimately come out victorious (?) at the very end. I believe the story follows someone who is cast out of a western town and then taken in by this group of ‘outlaws’. All of the characters are enby or very clearly not straight. The cover is pink with some graphic that I also do not remember. Any help would be appreciated!

There were at least three of these. I think I read three but there were more. They are definitely pre-2000 and probably substantially older than that.

What I remember - Space ships - Aliens who are turtle-like - A "pet library" on one of the space ships where you could check out pets - One of the main characters was a male (ex?) secret agent who had some sort of threat analysis tool in his brain called "The Loop" - There was also a female POV character who I don't remember as well

This is a short story but I still want to find it again.

The MC starts off by making toast before hearing noises outside

She goes out to see a cat trying to eat one of the chicken

She tells her mom, her mom brings out a gun and kills the cat

That's essentially the plot. Strawberry jam was also a big thing in this story.

Hey reddit, hoping someone else remembers this. It was a children's fiction book that involved a bear, I think she may have been a babysitter? Anyway, she falls down the stairs and breaks her arm. I think her name may have been Mrs. Block, because I named a teddy bear after her and used to wrap its arm in ace bandages. It was in English, I probably read it in the late 2000's when I was a kid. Likely bought to teach me about other people (or bears) that had to heal from a broken arm.

i read this book at my methodist sleepaway camp in upstate new york when i was a kid, and have been searching for it to no avail for about five years now. i would have read it between 2010 and 2014. there aren't any features i can recall that would place the publication date.

i don't remember anything about the title or book cover. it is a kids chapter book, fictional, about a young girl who goes up to stay with her grandparents in maine for the summer. i remember that she likes baseball, and her grandpa plays catch with her. he teaches her about how they had to engineer a way to grow apple trees in maine, because of the soil content being largely sand.

her grandpa has dementia, or some other form of degenerative illness, and he falls ill while she's there. that's a fairly big plot point. she also makes a friend in the town, a boy who she rides bikes with? there is a scene i recall where she's on the beach in the evening in a storm despairing while her grandpa is in the hospital.

thanks for the help!!

I read this a very long time ago and have since always thought that it was from an Alfred Hitchcock handpicked horror anthology (which I can picture the cover of) but anytime I google those, the table of contents doesn't ever seem to have a story like this in it! It definitely was set in perhaps a similar era, like the 1940s maybe and the horror aspect of it was that a man was dealing with some all consuming fungus that was growing everywhere out of control.

I seem to remember that he also checked his mailbox at some point? And that he had to investigate this bizarre fungus outbreak. But what I remember the MOST was that he thought he had it all under control and returns home to his wife like normal, only to find that when he kisses her beneath her clothes he discovers the fungus is like wrapped around her like a brassiere and that's how it ends.

Would be cool if anyone knew what short story this is or what anthology it was from! I for sure got it from the library in the early 2000s but it could be very much older than that.

If it is from the Alfed Hitchcock presents horror anthology that I'm picturing, I think the cover was black, with red text and a white single line drawing of Alfred Hitchcock's profile

I remember that the book itself was a small paperback. The top half-ish of the cover was either purple or a purple wolf's face. The wolf's eyes were the same yellow as the bottom half and the top corners/sides of the cover. The title was short, maybe 3-5 words, something like "the two of us" or "_ twins _", and it was really small and sandwiched right between the wolf's eyes. I want to say that the bottom half was a city street, or maybe it was a girl and a boy facing each other right in the middle, under the title and the wolf's face. The author was at the very bottom of the cover.

I vaguely remember the girl thinking her brother was dead or something before she goes searching the city for either him or another supernatural item/person/creature. She ends up finding him, and they end up either making out or going further by the end of the book. I think there was something about them being twins? In the end, she turns out to be either a normal human or a different supernatural being, but definitely not a werewolf. This may have been part of a series. I think it was maybe part two.

For background; when I was younger my sister absolutely despised this YA girly drama book for literally no reason at all. Being annoying I would read it out loud to her every night until one night she took it from under my pillow and destoryed the book by flushing it down the toilet with a going away "gift" for good measures. It's become a funny story between us as we've grown older, but both of us can't remember what exact book caused her temporary anguish for a month — just that she hated it! I'd love to find it again to "haunt" her as a joke gift one more time.

Anyways, here is what I remember:

- it came free as a bonus with a british girl magazine from whsmith in the early 2010s, no later than 2013.

- the cover was a purple or pink skyline with a black silhouette of buildings.

- I think it was set in australia.

- it did feel very 00s with a lot of the texting/chatting drama being done on the computer.

- I don't remember much about the plot accurately other than it being stereotypical and the main girl character being stupid and obnoxiously annoying. I think there was a love triangle, some blonde guy that might have been a junior lifeguard (?), some guy who was apparently better because he had a convertible and she was horrible switching up on her best friend for like no reason most of the time and some exchange student girl from England she thought was going through it with. I think there was supposed a evil character called Charlotte (?) or Mckenzie (?) and the main character had some nickname (because of course she does). Then some ugh dad you're ruining my life for caring about me somewhere thrown in at the start.

- it wasn't that long, I'd say between 200 - 300 pages.

Thanks so much for the help in advance!

hi guys
i remember having a book as a kid that had really futuristic cartoon bedrooms for the characters but i dont remember what the book is called or what it is about.

it was a big book with writings about each characters personalities and how it reflects the bedrooms aesthetic but not a book about the bedrooms itself as it’s more about the characters.

i remember one of the beds were circular and the colour was a dull greenish blue. it is similar to the new winx club rooms but it’s not that.

please help me find the name of it!

I remember seeing this series in mid 2010’s so it must have been published before then. I don’t think it dates back much further than the mid-1990s, though.

What stands out most to me is the cover art, which I remember being particularly strange and distinctive. It reminds me a little of the artwork from *The Secrets of Droon*, and “Akiko”, although I could just be mixing it up in my memory!

The covers featured a young girl accompanied by several seemingly alien or robotic creatures, each with a very different and unusual shape. I specifically remember a desert and pyramid theme across the covers. On one, the group appeared to be walking or flying across a desert on camel-like creatures, with pyramids visible in the background. Another cover may have shown them travelling through a tunnel inside a pyramid.

I just specifically remember a pyramid book cover.

I’m honestly less interested in the plots of these books than I am in finding the covers themselves. As a kid in elementary school, I remember finding the artwork so weird and unlike anything else I’d seen that it stuck with me. At this point, I’d just love to confirm that these books actually existed and that I didn’t somehow invent the covers in my childhood imagination!

I dont remember much, the book may be from the UK as most of my childhood books were.

The story follows a bunch of baby animals, and one grown up owl(?) leading the pack. They all head out for an evening walk, stumble across a white moving object high up in the branches of a tree, they're all afraid its a ghost. Last few pages are them having a laugh that it was a plastic bag.

Pictures were hand drawn and incredibly autumny? please help me find it, i've been looking for it for AGESSS

there was a book i read in primary school but i cannot for the life of me remember what it was called. I know there was a second book to it and i think it was about a girl or maybe sisters who’s family got killed but they escaped and were trying to find out who killed their family?

I remember back in early 2010s I found a book in my local library on the shelves near the I Spy books, I looked though the whole thing and I never forgot it, only problem, I don't remember it's name. I remember it had a cartoon look to the illustrations, probably digital.

I think its title was the type of creatures that the book was about. Ten or more white (fluffy?) marshmallow cotton ball looking creatures that lived together somewhere (don't remember where) but they decided, or needed, to to go somewhere else. Thinking about it, there's a chance they were balls of rice, but I don't know for sure.

The format was the creatures leave their home and visit each page. You would look for all the creatures, but one of the creatures would match the environment of that page. Like there was a bamboo forest with pandas and one of the creatures gained panda markings. I don't remember the other environments (but I slightly recall a lemonade page, and also a robot one), but I think the creature that changed to match the environment stayed behind, either that they would be on the next page just with their new look.

I think it ended with just one creature left plain white, but all it's friends came and they reunited? I remember it had a happy ending.

If anyone remembers this as well or can help me recall the title or the creatures' name, I'd really appreciate it.

Maybe around 9-10 years ago, we bought a real thick (2+ in) hardcover book at our local Ollie’s which was a collection of several mini comics and comic strips of several different genres.

The comics ranged from things like comedy or sci-fi to graphic NSFW or other more adult themes. It kind of screwed me up a bit.

I only remember two specific comics:
• One was a simple humorous drawing guide for the reader, I think it was some sort of small green alien explaining to how effects worked- he demonstrated by drawing wavy lines over a pie to demonstrate heat, then adding flies to demonstrate a rotten/smelly pie

• The other kind of scarred me for a few years. It was a black and white comic of a little girl being abused 😬 by her father (who kind of resembled Jeffrey Dahmer) where he was shown fully nude threatening her with his member as some kind of punishment (but no assault itself was shown from what I remember) and she was pleading like “don’t do it I know you love me” We threw the book out or donated it or something after seeing that, I was like 10 and didn’t even understand that as a concept and I honestly lost sleep over that

The cover of the collection was this kind of late Golden Age-esque illustration of the side profiles of a black-haired (I think) blue-suited man and woman (who I don’t remember anything about) facing one another. The main appeared shocked/frightened and I think the woman had a smug/confident look to her. They were in some kind of building, and they were drawn from around the shoulders-up. I don’t remember a visible title being present and I don’t think there was one.

I don’t think any of the comics featured were made after the 90s.

That’s all I remember. I don’t know much about comics or their history. Hoping someone can come through, I just want to see the stupid cover of the damn thing one more time.

​Hi everyone,

​I'm trying to identify a vintage young adult novel from around the 1950s and the 1960s that I came across previously.

​Here are the details I remember:

​Main Character : A young girl and her Shetland dog called " King ".

​Plot / Backstory:She had an accident when she was walking with her dog.

​Visuals / Setting: I recall a scene or cover/illustration involving the girl and her Shetland dog sitting in a house or room.

​Author / maybe Betty or Betsy Cavanna (or Elizabeth Headley)?

If any vintage book collectors or readers recognize this story, character, or setting, I would be extremely grateful for your help!

​Thank you so much! Ayo

Reposting from TOMT, as I got no hits there. Perhaps a specialist audience can help?

• The main girl is born with a kind of evil spirit twin, who flies away / disappears after being born. The evil spirit is linked to her / possessing her. This sort of thing is a known phenomenon, and usually the children who this happens to are just killed (as they tend to bring disaster), but for some reason the MC is not
• Later on she has a marriage of convenience with a magician or scholar as a kind of cover story. She expresses surprise that scholar declines to use "husband's rights" on her. (IE he won't claim his right to sex with her as her husband.)
• At one point in the story she proves magical ability to a lord or king by counting all the rooms in a keep or castle without moving from the spot she is in. (She might use the spirit to do this? I have a vague recollection that the scholar/magician might have put some sort of control seal on the MC that lets them negotiate with the evil spirit.)
• I have a vague notion/recollection that the spirit is effectively a ticking time bomb, and at some point the situation with the possession will turn catastrophic. (MC might get permanently taken over?)
• At the end of the story they try to perform an exorcism on her and starve out the spirit through a barrier. They rip out the spirit and trap it outside a barrier which they are in. Eventually the spirit will starve/die if it can't repossess the MC. IIRC they were in some sort of building alone whilst doing this. The barrier eventually fails and the scholar rapes her to take her virginity and thus prevent the spirit from re-possessing her. The shock of this causes her memory loss, and she stays as the man's husband for real from that point on.
• The novel is at least 15 years old.
• The novel's author might be Australian, though I am not sure on this one.

I don’t remember much but I read this book when I was a teenager. I think it had a turquoise cover and it was basically about a girl wanting her friend?

Teenagers, MC lived with her dad I think she also had a brother.

I know it’s not much but Any help would be greatly appreciated

This book was about a dog who was very happy with his male owner. And the man met a lady, then came a cat, then eventually a baby. The cat may have come before the lady but the gist of the story is that the dog got used to each one.
The recurring sentence in the book was:
Or at least until that cat came along..
Or at least until that lady came along…
At least until that baby came along…

I want to find it for my grandkids but for the life of me I can’t remember the name!!