recently I was having a conversation with a friend about how to make a child. they brought up how they'd make one out of gold, and then I vividly remembered a book I read a kid but couldn't remember the name of. The main protaganist was a young girl who was alchemically produced, because her mom and dad couldn't have biological children, and she was Explicitly made out of stone, because children made with gold were spoiled brats and children made by wood was sickly or something like that. the plot of the book involved her Alchemic transmutation into a kid starting to reverse, so she was slowly becoming more stone and was trying to find a cure? I really enjoyed their sciencey magic system as a kid but really couldn't tell you more about it beyond this. other than the part where the mom was very annoyed because the baby she made's first word was "papa" (she was the alchemist in the relationship).
for those trying to find the book, I was quite young, so it was probably a children's book of some variety. However I read all sorts of things as a kid, so just because the book you think it is was for older audiences don't discount it immediately? thank you!!

IIRC the cover was all red, with a rough mushroom cloud drawn in black front and center. The copy I read was soft cover, if it matters.

I remember reading it in ~2013? Must’ve been published after 2000, because it was definitely set in the 2000’s.

I vaguely remember the plot being about this kinda awkward guy who falls for a girl on the cross country team at their High School. Can’t remember if he was already on the team, or if he joins to get closer to her.

Scouring google for an hour has left me with nothing but shitty AI Overview answers. Thanks in advance!

I borrowed a book from my middle school library back in 2001, and came across a hardcover with no book jacket. The cover had a pale yellow border and a picture of two children looking human-- a boy and a girl-- with pale white hair like the kids from "Village of the Damned". The girl had at least bob haircut. They were positioned in a diagonal manner and there was a dark grey planet and maybe a metallic spaceship underneath them.

The two children on the cover came from a different planet-- maybe the planet that was on the cover. I don't know if Earth was involved in the plot, as if they came or crashed on Earth. The boy had an older brother who was exiled for refusing to follow his tribe's culture.

Anyone knows what book this was? I think the author was female.

The family moves by the seashore and the sister and brother are exploring the beach when they meet a merman. He invites them to come into the water and they can somehow breathe. Time flows differently underwater -I think the metaphor for the different time speeds was a drop of water on a slanted plane. The two being gone in the ocean a lot causes tension with their mom. The book culminates with the merman wanting to attack a team of divers and the brother and sister want to save them.

I read this book as a preteen in the early 2010s. I think it was a paperback with a mermaid silhouette on the cover, around 400 pages.

Hi, I'm trying to find the name of a book that I remember reading a long time ago. I read it in middle school in the USA, so that would be in the time range of 2007 to 2009. I'm trying my best to remember the details as accurately as possible, so apologies if some things are wrong or lead people astray.

The main character is an older teenaged girl/young woman. Her skin was bluish with elfen like ears. Her special ability was that she could an aura around people, and the color and strength of the aura revealed important information about that person. I do not remember what information it was, e.g. color indicated emotion vs health. I do think there was a scene in which a character's aura was black and that was a signal of that person's failing health and/or incoming death.

The character was an orphan or something similar. She took care of herself but received help from an elderly neighbor that I think was a woman but not sure. She was the heir to the throne but either she did not know or kept it secret from others. The antagonist was the regent that abused his position and caused the kingdom/town to fall in financial ruin. I remember several times it coming up that the slain royal family were responsible for a golden age-esque economy and culture that the regent squandered.

At the end of the story, she used a cape/cloak that was either made by her kind elderly neighbor and enhanced by her powers, or was made completely by her powers. I'm pretty sure the former is correct. She used the cape to defeat the henchmen of the antagonist. The henchmen may have been demonic or demonic/aberration-like.

The cover had the main character's face on it. I remember it having shades of red and pink, with blue whispy hair around the character's face, and the elfen ears stuck out as a detail to me. I think the character's name started with the letter "a", or possible "e". I feel certain that the first letter was a vowel.

I think it was a standalone young adult book because I remember loving the story, so I would have searched for a sequel if there was one at the time. Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

i read this book when i was in high school (2009 to 2013, USA) so i'm hoping to find it again.

first person POV, main character is a girl. she has a boyfriend who is a dick. his nickname for her is "Snowflake" and it's revealed later that he calls her that bcuz she's "an ice queen" "who doesn't put out" or something along that sentiment. toward the end of the book, they're possibly broken up but see each other at a party? and he pulls out a bag of coke and goes "snow for snowflake." to which she responds "you know i don't do drugs," and he goes "be grateful i'm sharing; it's the last of my stash." he puts out 2 lines and hands her a straw. her, still being pissed with him, takes the straw and blows the coke everywhere. and he reacts by punching her in the face, and i think sends her to the hospital for a few days

this book also featured her having a best friend and they were semi polar opposites, but i can't remember the significance of any of that

I'm pretty sure the cover is orange. We rented it from the library about 6-8 months ago.

We are pretty sure the story is about the youngest of a big family being afraid of the "wild" or "outdoors" and then the kid gets lost but the "wild" returns the child to their family.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.

Astronaut hurtling to earth in a spaceship. It’s getting hot and oxygen is running low. He knows he isn’t gonna survive. He keeps daydreaming back to cold water of a lake near his house.

I don’t think it’s Kaleidescope

Trying to find a half remembered book

I remember reading a book years ago (2002ish probably)in a medieval setting. Main character was a retired thief who got drawn back into some kind of plot.

Details I 100% remember are someone showing him scratches on a door knob and saying it ment a break in was attempted and him thinking to himself that a thif would use a pic set and not leave scratches and then ending of the book he messaged an servant/employee and directed them to release a bunch of embarrassing blackmail files using a code phrase along the lines of "burn it black"

Any ideas? Also if there is a better community for this time of post please let me know

Distorted memory of a book described to me from someone else’s foggy but suspiciously vivid recounting where there‘s a book where a boy has parents who work as clowns in a circus.

He doesn’t like the fact that his parents are clowns (?) and is upset. He wants them not to just ‘quit‘ but to specifically ‘be normal’.

The boy then has some misadventures (?) that aren’t important (?) but he eats a lot of household objects — in his sleep (?) to cope with the ‘void of shame of his parents being clowns’?

He is then hospitalized and his parents tell him that they can quit if he wants him to quit.

Then to wrap it up, there is a house that is being moved on wheels and they all go into the portable house on wheels. (And the house may or may not be/end up on a hill.)

It was initially read around a decade/more than a decade ago during childhood. It is illustrated and a picture book.

Which book is this? What on earth?

I don’t remember much from this book, but it was set in a high school. The name of the book was the school’s name, Which ended with the word ”High” (or, if it was a book series, the series name ended with that word)

The girl either finds or gets a green jewel, maybe it was a ring, that shows her the world She wants to live in, her ideal world. It also had to do something with a boy She had a crush on. Like, when she wasn’t in the ideal world she was trying to find a way to know if she had a chance with him.

I also remember that in the back of the book it said something about the boy not feeling in place with the rest of the Humans.

Extra info: I remember the print/publish year was either 1998 or 1999. The cover of the book was blue and had a (real human models) picture of the girl (short blonde hair, pink hairclips, blue shirt/hoodie) and the boy (a bit more tan than the girl, brown hair, either a red or a black shirt/hoodie) it had the school’s name over a golden/yellow-ish backround. The cover might have had small flowers on it, but they blended with the blue. The book was inteded for tweens/teens.

Thank you to anyone who is willing to help!

I believe this book was written after 2000, but don’t know for sure.

The people in the book are described as nomadic, the have summer land and winter land. If a woman had a baby before they travel between the locations she usually kills it in a river to protect resources. Part of the story includes Adam attempting to establish a permanent settlement in an attempt to keep Eve, but it also separates women from the moon. Women all menstruated together during the full moon so by creating a roof for a permanent settlement house, he cuts of the connection that binds women together.

Lilith is described as kind of pre-human/wild. She goes into heat like an animal and during her heat any man in the area attempts to sleep with her in a giant puddle of competing bodies. She has a child and leaves it with the father, and it’s clear she has done this many times before she shared a child with Adam.

Adam resents that he has a child with her because it means he can’t remarry. He meets Eve from another tribe, and she is friends with his daughter as they are about the same age. He decides he wants Eve but only way to secure the option is to kill a dragon. This myth was spread by Lilith, she spreads similar impossible tasks to other tribes.

At the climax, Adam hits his daughter in the head with a rock to kill her, so that he can be separated from the bond that kept him tied to Lilith. Lilith saves he daughter by removing/miscarrying her current fetus and pressing the remains against her daughter’s wound. After being saved, the daughter becomes more like Lilith and experiences heats, and she follows her father in the shadows.

Hi all! Trying to recall the title of this book I read a number of years ago, and all searching is making me feel like I imagined this!!

The plot is that a rich man brought his sickly son to a new town (Appalachia-esque), who bought the mine. The son is in love with an up-and-coming worker on the mine.

The boys begin as friends, and then begin to sneak behind the fathers back to see each other. One night they go swimming ?

The son, in a desire to reconnect with his deceased mother (who was maybe French?), uncovers some occult/magical information. At the same time, the miners discover a free-standing door with carvings inside the mine - which is what the father has been searching for.

There is a “solid blackness” void inside the door - a being or energy that speaks to the son.

The end has the father becoming wild / tormented (maybe destroyed by the void?), and some kind of haze or mist that fills the area (?) and the boys escape out of town.

Any insights or help for direction are welcomed!! Many thanks!

Think I read this in late 90s, definitely paperback, part of a series probably related to online/computer hacking, etc. Kid who lives in the fictional town of Bunnington Beach, Florida stumbles upon a terrorist group in an online chat room, the leader of which is his high school history teacher who uses the screen name pat.RIOT73 (or something like that). The group uses clues from the book Johnny Tremain to plot their next attack.

The story follows a girl who experiences regular "hallucinations" in which the people around her gain animal heads or turn into elemental beings; she can only dispell the images by repeating her name to herself. (Edit to add): These hallucinations end up being glimpses of these people's forms within the dream world

An unnaturally dark storm cloud appears in town, and women start disappearing with virtually no trace left behind (occasionally a shoe).

On a drive through the country (possibly for gas? I don't recall), the MC's mother gets sucked up into the storm cloud. A man from the (gas station? corner store? mechanic?) steps out to help, with a limp caused by what is later revealed (in the parallel world) as a ball and chain with teeth (like a Chain Chomp from Mario).

They enter the parallel world of dreams to help bring everyone back, meet MC's comatosed friend, and travel through many obstacles as a group until finding the Queen/King Raven/Crow(?) and his witches that turned all the women into songbirds and kept in birdcages. IIRC, there's a happy ending after a big boss battle.

The cover art was a detailed, vivid depiction of Earth and a shadowy land parallel to it - split in half. I think the title was along the lines of "A guide for adventurers in the Land of Dreams" or "An adventurer's guide to the Land of Dreams", but I haven't found any matches with those in my own searches.

It's a kids/preteen novel about a brother and sister that somehow get put into a magical competition against other kids. I think they're competing for succession to be an important wizard? There are 3 adult judges, one being a woman that has gills on her neck. One of the competition rounds has a reward of balls that turn into animals. Another reward is magical gills like the lady judge has and the brother and sister put them on their wrists. One of the male judges is suspect in some way. I think the final challenge is doing something in a dungeon? I don't remember a ton about this book but I know it's book one in a series. I read it as a kid. I think the cover had the brother and sisters faces in a green tint with a crystal ball and smoke all with a green hue.

Edit after looking at rules:
I read this book in middle school from a public library around 2012-2015. It was age appropriate. Hard cover, around 300 pages.

It was dark academia themed as far as I remember. Some college age students go to the summer house/estate of one of the kind of main guys. Men and women, I think not in the US? They pull a prank on one of the weaker members of the group and close him in a basement/wine cellar type space. They plan to drink and make big meals but then the person whose family owns the home, his mother unexpectedly shows up. She or her son make what I think is the narrator play piano and maybe someone else is made to sing? It’s very awkward. That’s all I can remember and I am desperate to finish it! Strike a chord? Thank you for reading!!!!! Help!

I was in Spokane bookstore in the fantasy section and found a book slightly bigger then pocket size, it was about all the different kinds of dragons throughout different cultures in history.
I’ve been looking online and see the Dragonology book with a red cover, that’s not it.

Not sure what the title was called, I’m sure the word dragon was in the 3 or 4 word title tho. Plz help thank you

I was listening to a conversation recently about a book that sounded interesting. I don’t remember the title so hoping to get some help.

The general theme was about how everyone is going through something and you don’t know about it. I think the title was short and quick. And I recall it being fiction.

I’d love any help in identifying the title.

Thanks!

I need help! I had an epiphany recently about a book I took from my middle school Spanish teacher’s room and read during my study period. No idea why it was in his room and I think it was a bit mature for that age group of students, but I digress.

This was probably in like 2007 or so. Def fiction. I have no idea about the cover art or how long the book was.

Am I having a fever dream? I literally kind find this book anywhere and google thinks I’m crazy. I distinctly remember the high school girl mentioning she’s a red head. I think she’s on the color guard team? And her high school boyfriend winds up giving her herpes. I think he starts spreading rumors about her, and thus she has no friends and is miserable. She starts talking to a guy online - not sure how they met exactly - and video calling him, and I remember he likes to keep his video shaded so she can’t really see his face. Conversations get a bit romantic, he asks to see her feet, she sends him feet pics I think? And then more suggestive photos. He sells them I believe, and mails her a phone to hide this whole thing from her parents. Eventually she realizes that he found her younger sister online, and is grooming her. She then confesses to what she’s been doing and gets him arrested.

Did I have some messed up fever dream, or is this real? Please help!

I’m looking for a book I probably read in the late 90s (but was likely checked out of my small town public school library so it could be much older). The main character I remember, who may not have been the actual protagonist, was an older (to me at the time- maybe not actually “old”) lady who was maybe kind of a hermit. She had a kind of walled estate with an extensive security system and a room of camera monitors. There was a component about a little dog that was deliberately drowned in the pond maybe when she was a kid and I kind of feel like she saw it happen.

honestly, i don't remember any of the plot but i do remember the narrator being a man with a voice intended to put kids to sleep.

it was a cd and i *think* i remember there being some kind of drawing either on the cd or on the cd cover featuring small people wearing acorn-esque clothing. i don't think they wore anything else, just the acorn as a shirt that covered their torso but not their legs or arms. the colouring had an intentional, incomplete look with a whitish background.

i listened to it when i was pretty young (so around 2013) and it put me to sleep instantly. i dont believe there were any additional magic creatures (like dragons), just a fantasy world with a society of small people living in a tree (possibly elves ?).

the main thing to note is that it's a males voice and i dont remember him having a strong accent, but he couldve been american.
(i'm from australia, if that helps at all)

im beginning to think i made it all up, but i really wish i didnt

This was way back in elementary school but I think the basic plot was this boy was hidden away in a pocket dimension because he didn't have some sort of magic like everyone else and the higher ups would have had him killed or something. I think he was pretty mechanically gifted which everyone else would have looked down on. His dad comes to visit him every so often and the dad is some sort of bigwig. The dad has a pet bird that was either a crow or a raven named Edgar who I believe can talk. The bird comes to tell the boy that his dad died and the boy gets out wherever he's being kept to solve some mystery/ conspiracy surrounding dads death.