I read this sometime before high school, before 1998.

All I remember is that there is a group of kids in town, including a first-person male narrator I think, and each of them has a special thing-- not superpowers, just a thing that sets them apart. Then this kid's family moves in. He introduces himself to the entire group. He wears a green sock on one foot because he's that-footed and that makes him run faster; he can run faster than the fastest kid in the group. He has more freckles than the kid with the most freckles, and there's a moment when everyone pauses and the narrator can tell they're doing math in their heads. He has more pets than the kid with most pets, including at least one goat. His family has more kids than the kid with the most siblings, including twin boys, Sam and Uel, who they didn't know were going to be twins so they just split the name. He might be able to blow a bigger bubble than someone; basically, he's better at everything they'd valued about themselves, and suddenly things suck.

There is more to the book, but I don't remember anything else.

I'm trying to remember a trilogy of books I read when I was 12-ish. I think they were written in the 1970s or '80s.

The main character was a thief who got caught breaking into a house. I want to say that the house belonged to a man who was a sage or a wizard or something. Instead of turning him in, the man makes the boy his apprentice.

I don't remember much else about the story other than that there was a girl who I think was part of a troupe of actors who died who joins them later, and they find a computer from our time, which is when you discover that the story's actually set in the future. The computer teaches them to speak our language by showing pictures of clouds and stuff and then playing audio of each word.

I'm a little shaky on the girl, though. I'm positive that a girl ends up becoming a major character in the story, but the acting troupe thing might be from another book and I'm just confusing them.

I have been thinking a lot about a book I read [maybe in elementary?] that I only remember very, very vaguely.

The main is a boy and the book is narrated by him. He has a little sister and she always leaves the gate open. I believe his mother is sick. I also recall he always leaves his shoes untied. He never ties his shoes. At the end of the book he's walking down the railroad tracks [his mother died maybe?] and he suddenly decided to bend down and tie his shoes. As he's doing this, he is hit by a train.

I'm sorry there is so little info on my part. I barely remember this story and kept thinking it was called "The Gate", but my searches found ... David Bowie, I believe. My husband seemed to think it was by Stephen King in his pen name Richard Bachman, but my search of that got me nowhere. I've been trying to find this book for several years, but it seems to be totally lost on me on what it's called or who wrote it.

Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to find a book I read in the fourth grade. It was a fantasy book, paperback, I think the cover had a girl and an archway. The story was about a girl, I believe she may have been riding on a school bus, she was drawn into another world. I believe there may have been a goblin and/or a prince, something purple and sticky, a climbing of a tower, a wizard (possibly evil). I think she was one in a line of girls brought from our world to the magic world, but the others before her had been killed/sacrificed. I know its not much to go on. It could have been published no later than May of 1995, though I think it was probably a few years old already by that point.

Alright. I've been trying to think of this book for years. I think it must have been a YA book, and I read it somewhere between the late 80s and mid-90s, but at the time I read it it already looked old. (It was a used book that someone had donated to the library).

I remember a silver orb being central to the plot, to the extent that I thought 'orb' was a word in the title, but that hasn't helped me find it so far. The main character is a kid that's stuck in some sort of natural disaster (I want to think water is involved) and is miraculously saved (with many other people?) by aliens(?).

At some point he has to learn the language of some people that don't speak his language.

Later, his mind is transferred into the body of some sort of other alien for at least a period of time. The alien species is smart, and he describes trying to use its brain as running from room to room in a huge building looking for the sort of information he wants.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? I can't even guarantee that it's all the same book!

I read a compilation of short stories when I was little, maybe mid to late eighties. One of the stories in the book is about a boy who finds a unicorn horn in his house somewhere and throughout the course of the story, he either accidentally or purposefully stabs himself (in the chest, I think) with the horn and it transforms him into a unicorn.
I vaguely recall that the boy has a very abusive father, but that may be incorrect.
There are so many 'masters of' and 'best of' fantasy compilations that I have no idea where to begin!

I've got two I've been hunting for, and a reader suggested this community. Here goes!

ETA: Another reader on my blog tracked #1 down--Tecwyn, Last of the Welsh Dragons (And I didn't hallucinate the uranium!)

#1) My memory is that the book had a red dragon on the cover, a heraldic style one, and I think the dragon may have been Welsh, but I could be wrong. It was about a little dragon who lived with a family, and ate coal. But winter comes along, and coal gets very expensive, and they don't have enough for the dragon, so it gets very weak, and the kids are very worried.

Here's where it starts to sound like I'm on a crack, because I swear, in my memory, the kids hear about a miracle fuel that's being used by the government, and somehow--I think trains may get involved--they wind up smuggling the dragon into some kind of government facility (possibly a train) and feeding him silver bars. I seem to recall the implication being that they're uranium. There's a happy ending, I think the dragon gets a job running a boiler or the stoking the steam train or some kind of government job, but I have a really clear memory that at one point, the dragon gets fed bars of uranium, which is the sort of freaky logical thinking that makes a real impression when you're a kid.

I would have read this in the early eighties, and I'm not sure how old it may have actually been, but I would like to find it again just to prove to myself that I'm not crazy about the uranium bit.  (It's not a Pern book, and it does not appear in E. Nesbit's "Book of Dragons." I can't completely rule out the possibility it may have been a short story in a kid's magazine, though.)

Someone on the LJ find_a_book community said they remembered having read it, but couldn't remember the title either, so possibly I did not hallucinate its existence.

#2) There's a girl who winds up alone in a cabin in the woods. (It might be a somewhat enchanted woods, or it might not. I don't recall a lot of magic, but I also don't recall its lack.) I want to say that she's following in the footsteps of her father or grandfather, who may or may not be dead, who may have prepared the cabin for her, and possibly she's reading his diary, but I'm not entirely clear on that bit. What I recall most clearly is that she's living alone in this cabin, doing all the things she needs to, and she doesn't really want to be found by the outside world. ( I get the feeling it was a little over my reading level, on the whole motivation for being there front, so that bit's not set in stone.)

There is a family of mountain goats that she watches. I'm very clear on the existence of mountain goats, because the baby is called "Billy the Kid" which I thought was the most clever pun I'd ever read at the time. All the other details may be wonky, but the mountain goats are solid. If it doesn't have mountain goats, it's not the book I'm after.

This would also have been the early-to-mid-eighties. It most definitely is not The Secret Garden. (I ordered Mandy on the off-chance...) In feel, it almost reminds me of Valley of Horses, completely the wrong setting and era, but same girl alone watching animals kinda vibe, only without all the Cro-Magnon sex at the end.

If anybody successfully names either one of these, I will be terribly terribly grateful.

A friend of mine was talking about this book today, and I thought I'd ask you guys before she went absolutely crazy trying to figure out what is was. Here is her description:

It's a three part series, in diary format. In the first book, the heroine is trapped in a garden or something, but she escapes and goes on adventures. By the end of the book, she has ended up in some weird city where everything is controlled by the rolling of dice.

In the second book, she might get captured? She winds up in a castle that has moving rooms inside, and she has a diamond ring that controls things for part or all of the book. She eventually escapes the castle, goes hiking through jungle, and finds her mother's(?) flying ship, which is piloted by a robotic snake with prehensile hair.

The third book is mostly the adventures of the girl and the snake in the spaceship.

There's also a guy that she meets, perhaps in the castle.

Has anyone heard of this series? It sounds weirdly trippy, and I want to know what it is now - it sounds fascinating!

EDIT: Evidently, they're the Claidi Journals, by Tanith Lee. Thanks guys!

I'm always looking for this book since I have really fond memories of it, but I can't remember the title or any of the authors. I'm beginning to think that the only way I'm ever going to track it down is by finding someone else who read it and has a better memory than I XD

What I do remember is that it had nothing to do with the Vampire Diaries, but had the same sort of tacky cover, and I remember the premise of a few of the stories.

Stories I remember:
* Vampires on a train
* A girl (who died her hair all the time) who has a vampire history teacher
* A group of vampire hunting neighborhood kids
* A blatant ripoff of The Most Dangerous Game, with vampires of course

It isn't Vampires: A collection of Original Stories, or "American Vampire" anything.

If anyone can help, it would mean the world to me.

Please help me, I am looking for two books I read when I was a young child, but I think they might both have been quite old at the time. I read them in Primary school so at the very least 10 years ago.

The first one was about people going to different planets (maybe because of global warming?) And there was a family on the spaceship - which was the last one to leave I think, and it was tiny. They were only allowed to take one book each. That was important because the boy in the story took a blank notebook and everyone thought he was being an idiot.
Basically they colonised this planet, and there was possibly an alien species there, animals I think - but that's a guess, it could have been trees!!
The youngest girl of the family was allowed to name the planet, and the book ended about a year in, and they had all read all of the books and were bored, so they made the boy give them his notebook, so they could make paper games, but when they opened it, it was full because he'd written down their story, and they started reading it, so I think the end of the book was the same as the beginning of the book?


The second book was about a doll. A young boy found a doll in an attic - perhaps his grandparents? And she spoke to him whenever she was standing up, but when she was lying down, her eyes closed and she was asleep. So when he found her she had been asleep for years and years, and she asked after the little girl she belonged to, but the girl had gotten sick and died a long time ago. The girl might have been called Emily but that's a wild guess.
So, the boy started looking after this doll, and letting her watch the TV and things, and he would talk to her at meals and his grandparents thought it was strange, because adults couldn't hear her - only children could.
At the end of the book, i think he lay her down and didn't wake her up again until he was grown, and then he woke her up and gave her to his own child, and he knew she was talking but he couldn't hear her, but everyone was happy etc.
I am almost certain the book's title was the doll's name. And I think it might have been a double-barrelled name?

Please help me find these books, I loved them as a child!
Thanks in advance xx

In this book there was a fellow with dyslexia who was tormented by his teachers. His father was cool and thought he should be raised like a girl at first, but then raised like a man later. He tamed horses with patience and compassion instead of breaking them.
The fellow saw all sorts of interesting hallucinations and stuff, and had premontions.

Also, I am looking for a book that takes place in South Africa. The main character was left handed and opinionated and female. She had a grandmother who kept all the stuff she... menstruated on and these birds took them away after she died. The woman's sister shot her children and bigoted husband

I also need to find a book that is told from the perspective of a fetus who has an abusive father.

Hi, I'm looking for a young adult book which was in my high school library in the eighties. It's called The First Day and the title is just too common & brings up too many results for googling to work for me.

It had a pic on the front of a young brunette with a caramel coloured jumper sitting at a desk in an office. She had left school early against her parent's wishes and gotten a job as a secretary. She ended up leaving when her boss made a pass and the book ended with the girl buying a poster which said 'today is the first day of the rest of your life'.

I'm hoping someone will know the author
Thanks!

This has been driving me crazy, but I'm not sure if I have enough information to help.

I read this YA novel sometime in middle school -- it was set in a small town in America, and there was a pretty young newcomer to the town named Marie. She marries one of the boys in the town, and I think the both of them somehow end up murdered. I think the story was told from the perspective of another girl in the town, who may have been jealous of Marie.

That's all I remember. Any help would be much appreciated!

If anyone can help I'd appreciate it!  The book is thin Harlequin type but not sure if it's actually a Harlequin.  Front cover I believe had the hero and heroine, I think she was in a bikini and they were in a passionate embrace leaning against a large boulder.  The book is set in Missouri, current times.  Sometime between 1970-1995. 

The plot:  The heroine is a virgin when she meets the hero.  They get married.  Their honeymoon is ruined when the hero's best friend and girlfriend/fiancee/new wife (not sure) join the honeymoon.  The best friend's woman is very spoiled and conniving, always trying to get with the hero and insulting the heroine and making life miserable for everyone in general.  A theme throughout the book is that whenever the heroine is angry with the hero he uses sex to get his way.  In the end he realizes the error of his ways and changes.  Another theme in the book is they are constantly using the missouri state motto.  Whenever one of them wants the other to "show them" something instead of saying "show me" they say "state motto".  Now I could be wrong, but I think the hero's name was Judd.  Really that's all I have to go on and I know it's not much but if anyone knows what this could be I'd love the help.  I've searched online for years and haven't found it.  I do know that it's NOT Show Me by Janet Daily.  Thanks in advance!

Ashleigh

I remember a book I read in grade school about a white boy named Jamie who lived in South Africa or similar during Apartheid. The book centers around his relationship with a black boy his age with whom he plays.
At one point the two boys find an abandoned tractor tyre, and roll down a hill in it, and Jamie is injured.
I know I read this book long ago in school, and I also firmly believe there's a film made of it.

There was a book I read a few years ago but it was older than that. the title was something similar to 'A Faery Tale' or something along those lines it was to do with a younger boy(at least I think it was a boy)  and his brother encountering fairies and the leads brother becoming possessed by a more malevolent one. I distinctly recall a scene where the boys brother had been nude and harassing the nurses at the hospital he was in. I'm pretty sure the title was similar to what I had mentioned but I can't remember the author and google -fu is failing me. It was a hard cover book and the authors name may or may not be Pamela. It's been a few yers since I read it but I am wanting to try to read it again.

******
Edit- Found! Thank you!!

'Faerie Tale'- by Raymond Feist

I read this book when I was in elementary school, late '80s to early '90s, but I'm fairly certain the book was probably published in the early '80s, late '70s, or even earlier than that. Anyway, I remember that this little girl met another little girl (who was in a tree when they met, I'm thinking) who was really weird and maybe claimed to be a witch? I also remember that the main character gave up watermelon for lent, and her witchy friend gave her a watermelon (maybe at the end of lent, not sure) that I am thinking that she got from a greenhouse. I'm pretty sure there was discussion of a greenhouse.

I realize that this is not much to go on, but the other details are fairly vague for me.

FOUND! it's The Tunnel" by Anthony Browne. Thank you!.

There's a children's book, about eight inches tall and twelve wide - landscape format. Hardcover, when I read it. On the inside covers were patterns of bricks.

A girl and her older brother were playing (with a soccer ball, I think?), but the brother was mean. He ran away, and she got worried after a while and followed him.

There follows several pages where there are no words, I think, and she goes through woods and things and maybe a brick wall. Or around one. She finally finds her brother somewhere, turned to stone. I think she hugs him back to life. Then they go home and are happy.

I vividly remember the pictures - dark woods, bricks, the brother and his soccer ball turned to stone - but I can't for hte life of me remember title or author.

Anyone know this book?

EDIT: Found!  Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King!  Thanks guys!  Coincidentally, anyone read it?

I was in Blackwells this afternoon looking at books I can't buy because I'm a poor student and also I have no way to get them home when my study abroad year is done (as in, I'm sure I'm already over the allowed weight) and I picked up a book on the basis it looked interesting.

It appeared to be told from several points of view, which ordinarily I'd hate, but seemed pretty interesting.  All of the characters in the bit I read had other names- and old woman was called the Lone Ranger, because she had a black mask on, and she and another character went to Florida, and then she wanted to leave, but the other person got famous drawing pictures.  All of the characters were American Indian, I /think/, and I know the writer was 'cause it said so on the back of the book.  The one who the story was being told to kept being called Coyote.  There was something about a diner called the Dead Dog Diner (I think).  The special recipe never changed, but they changed the name every day to make tourists think it did.

It had grass in the title, too, of the book.  If I have to I'll go back to Blackwells and hope it's in the same place, but I want the name so I can maybe check it out when I get home or something, because it sounded really interesting, and certainly a style I'm not used to.  It was paperback, if that helps.

Thanks guys!