Questions tagged [identification-request]
Questions asking for identification of a story, book, or author, based on descriptive details provided within the question. Please be thorough and provide ALL of the details that you can remember when using this tag. (For questions seeking the original source of a known quote, use the [quote-source] tag instead.)
866
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Goosebumps book about 2 kids in a haunted school
I remember reading a book, quite a long time ago, about a guy who is sent to a haunted school, where all the children are ghosts, except for a single girl, who is human like him, and she help in ...
- 21
2
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0
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29
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Children's book about a Pig that buys a duck from the market to eat, takes the Duck home and they eat peas together
This would have been in circulation in Australia in the 1980's, possibly a book club / scholastic book. A pig goes to the market to buy a duck to eat for dinner, takes the duck home and they both eat ...
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2
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1
answer
112
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Legend about the Invention of Steel
I am trying to track down a legend concerning the invention of steel (originally told to me by a group of touring historians visiting my Australian high school 40 years ago).
Under the legend, a ...
- 121
1
vote
0
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89
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Identify a short story where a husband purposely drives his wife crazy
When I was in college I read a short story for a class and I'd like to find it again. I'm recalling this from my bad memory, so there could be many errors here..
The general plot was that a husband ...
- 111
4
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0
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68
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Children's Book, Characters Made of Vegetables
My sister and I had a book when we were children. The artwork was quite grown up and quite creepy for a children's book. The characters were made up of realistic vegetables, and the color scheme was ...
5
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0
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78
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+50
Account of picking up a black hitchhiker who then wanted to be let out
I remember decades ago reading a book with the following vignette, set in the 60s. The white male narrator is driving through the countryside and picks up a hitchhiking young black man. The rider is ...
- 255
2
votes
1
answer
73
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Book about some teenagers building a robot
I’m looking for a young adult book I read around the mid 2000s. I was living in Bahrain at the time, but the book was in English and I think it was bought in England (Manchester). I think the book had ...
- 21
2
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0
answers
41
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Book about a boy that joins a traveling "snake-oil" show and eventually escapes, finds his father?
I used to have this book about 20-ish years ago.
Setting for the story is some time around the gold rush
Boy runs away from home (possibly an orphanage?), a man on a traveling wagon offers to hide ...
- 121
4
votes
1
answer
95
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In which C.S. Lewis essay or book chapter did he talk about the habit of using the word "we" when preaching?
I remember C.S. Lewis writing somewhere about how some preachers like to use the word "we" when pointing out a problematic behavior. For example, consider the statement "We secretly ...
3
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1
answer
62
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Looking for a children's book from the 1950s about an anthropomorphized animal who's abandoned by his family
I am looking for a children's picture book that I read in the late 1950s about an animal (don't remember what kind of animal, possibly a mouse or hamster) who was a member of a large family. He came ...
- 31
2
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0
answers
109
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Story where a guy gets an email where if he agrees to go out and buy specific computers and store them in the attic then he'll get paid lots of money
I was talking with someone today and it reminded me of a story I read over 20 years ago. I can't remember if it was stand-alone or a short story. I know I read the book before the year 2000, so ...
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0
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34
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Manga about a character who gets lost in the woods, wanders around and finds this small shack with a young male hermit
I remember reading a few chapters of a Japanese manga about 3 years ago, but my memory of it is very hazy. The story was not current and had been in production for several years already. If I had to ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
53
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Book about a white mother who kills her black son (with her other white son)
I remember reading this perhaps during elementary school.
While this wasn't the entire plot of the book, one of its major points was a mother who slept with a black man and had a black son. She and ...
- 21
8
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1
answer
2k
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Seeking story about chess in Soviet Union, probably Playboy c.1980?
I actually read some girlie mags for the stories growing up...this was probably in Playboy, with a lower chance of it being from Penthouse. A Soviet apparatchik has commissioned a ceremonial chess set ...
- 255
6
votes
1
answer
59
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Christian children's book about journey through enchanted forest guided by king's music
I need help identifying a children's book I remember reading years ago.
Plot: the king announces a contest for his daughter's hand in marriage. The first person to pass through the enchanted forest ...
- 163
5
votes
1
answer
648
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Racist/anti-racist story about how bones are indistinguishable after death
I don't remember much about this story, but it's set a couple of hundred years ago. Several white men are attacked by several black natives. One of the natives kills one of the white men, but is ...
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3
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0
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77
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Boy keeps breaking pocket watch fighting, opts to pay watchmaker himself rather than ask mother
I read a short story in English circa 1980-85 (although it may have been published much earlier) about a boy who carries an expensive pocket watch (perhaps inherited) but keeps getting in schoolyard ...
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3
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0
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74
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In what novel does the surname Deifik appear?
Norbert Pearlroth is famous for being the head researcher for Ripley's Believe It or Not, but he also wrote a column on Jewish Surnames, and when he was asked about the surname "Deifik", he ...
1
vote
1
answer
104
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Dark story about two brothers surviving in the woods; they both die
I’m trying to find the title of a book I read as a kid, borrowed from a library in the late 1970s. It was a fairly dark story about two brothers left to fend for themselves after losing their ...
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1
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0
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52
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1990s end of the world book
I read this book in the 90s about the end of the world relating to a comet or asteroid hitting the earth. First chapter was in an observatory I think and next chapter in the desert? Not much to go on ...
2
votes
1
answer
83
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YA novel set in London featuring a teenage Sherlock wannabe
I'm looking for a novel I owned and read in the 1980s. Here's the little I can remember about it:
The main character is a teenage boy who has studied the Sherlock Holmes books and tries to follow the ...
- 441
2
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0
answers
42
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Book about 13 year old befriending computer hacker
I am trying to find the title of a novel I read in grade school back in either 2001 or 2002. The book is about a 13 year old boy who befriends an older man that happens to be a computer hacker. Here ...
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0
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0
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35
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BL manga about a boy exiled from his family, who goes to school in the hopes of getting back in
I was trying to find a yaoi manga that I know is on mangago but I didn't save the name. All I remember is that it had less than 10 chapters. Summary is that a boy got exiled from his family by his ...
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1
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0
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37
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Looking for book written by imprisoned Chinese author, first page setting is on a train
I am looking for the book title of a recently translated book by a Chinese author, who wrote the notes for the book while she was imprisoned in China.
The contents seemed to be a light novel, and the ...
- 111
6
votes
1
answer
60
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Where's Waldo-style picture book about a field trip time traveling to Ancient Egypt
I read this book probably in the 1999-2001 range, as a library book. The text was in English; this was in the state of Ohio in the US. I don't recall the particular copy having notable wear or fading ...
6
votes
1
answer
990
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Fantasy children's story where they suspect someone is a vampire
I'm 38 and read this probably between 1993-1997.... when I was between 8-12 years old. I don't think it was a new book at that time.
It was about a young boy and girl who auditioned for a local play ...
Nik
10
votes
2
answers
2k
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Book of short stories I read as a kid; one story about a starving girl, one about a boy who stays forever young
I can remember two short stories, and while I am not entirely sure if they're from the same book, I would hugely appreciate finding either.
The first story I remember reading about was about a girl ...
- 103
7
votes
1
answer
1k
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Book about a girl who finds out she's adopted
I'm looking for a book about a girl who plays the drums and finds out she's adopted. She sets out to find her birth mom and realizes her dad is also a musician and that she was conceived during a ...
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3
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1
answer
463
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Identify a cookbook with a Deputy preparing a whole camel
I recently came across this photo of an interesting recipe in preparing "Stuffed Camel"...
Stuffed Camel
1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
...
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3
votes
1
answer
62
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Retrieving Beckman (1982) rendering of the Zoroastrian Avesta
I'm currently reading Drakon by Ogden which is a monograph on serpent cults and mythological accounts of serpent-related happenings in ancient Greece. In the introduction, Ogden briefly overviews ...
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1
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0
answers
31
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Webcomic that has a probably minor character girl that writes fanfiction just about minor characters
I read some fiction on the internet that had a minor character girl who talked aloud to someone about how they flesh out the backstories of really minor characters, like the ones that say Welcome To ...
- 596
3
votes
1
answer
70
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Identifying book about a boy forced to destroy a Holocaust survivor's wooden model
Book was set in the 1950s about a boy working for a racist store owner. The main character's brother was killed in a hit-and-run which sent his father into a deep depression. The store owner he works ...
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4
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1
answer
64
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Dinosaur story for children
I'm hoping to identify a short dinosaur picturebook for children that would have been available by around 1994 (but was probably written earlier than that). The audiotape read-along version included ...
2
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1
answer
53
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Identify short story about a despairing man who finds his lack of fear of death elates him in a rescue attempt on a snowy mountain
The protagonist despairs, perhaps after a war. He contemplates suicide when he is called to rescue a man stuck out on a snowy mountain. The phrase that occurs to me is "The Razor's Edge", ...
0
votes
1
answer
60
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Book where the brutal slaying of an old woman turns out to be the result of a counterfeit quilt scheme
I have vague memories of reading this book while on the train in New Jersey, which would put my reading of it around 2007-2010. The book started with someone breaking into the house of an old woman, ...
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3
votes
1
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113
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What is this famous ending of a poem/speech?
I can't remember this 1-2 English sentence extract, but here are the things I can remember it's similar to. I'm pretty sure I read it.
It has something like an a, x, b, y structure but doesn't ...
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0
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0
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61
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Short story with a man who keeps passing out due to his starched collar poking his neck
Weird isolated memory, but I was recently at our church, and when I turned my head, the collar put pressure on the side of my neck, which suddenly reminded me of a short story I read, probably in the ...
- 10.3k
2
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0
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51
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Help find medieval archer meeting triceratops
I remember as a child seeing an illustration in a book my brother was reading where an archer was pointing a bow at a triceratops but refused to kill it because it might have been the last of its kind....
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3
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0
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63
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Help finding a children's book about giants
A fully drawn book from the 90s in the UK.
It was a book about giants. It was, to me, the other giants story alongside BFG. Definitely a different style, and theme. I remember scenes in the book ...
- 141
1
vote
0
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86
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Help finding a children's book about a pet dragon who eats baked beans from a skip
A fully drawn book from the 90s in the UK.
It is about someone who had a pet dragon (iirc), and how it needed to eat a whole skip's worth of baked beans and other foods each night. I think it was ...
- 141
6
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1
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468
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Help me find a book about a boy and a drawing bug
My teacher read me this book sometime between 2012-2016. The book is about a bug (I'm pretty sure it's a beetle) who is able to draw amazing pictures. He lives in a boy's room and the boy's mom thinks ...
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1
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0
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50
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Looking for a story quote about "writers license"
I don't remember the author, but Kishon and Hasek would be my prime usual suspects. (Mainly since I surely read the short story a long time ago - could be 50 years ago when I was a kid - and these two ...
- 279
3
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0
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86
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Looking for the name of a book from my childhood, that contains multiple stories
I'm looking for the name of a children's book. Me and my sister were given it back in about 1993 by a relative who passed away too long ago so we have no way of asking them, and we ended up losing it ...
0
votes
0
answers
116
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Children’s book about a tadpole and a rude fish
I’m looking for the name of the children’s book. It had a green cover and must have been around in the 90s/2000s. I can’t remember a huge amount about it, I but vaguely remember a rude fish saying ‘...
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4
votes
1
answer
99
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Looking for a horror story read in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology
I'm looking for a short story where the narrator has to travel a long way, probably for work, and has to stop overnight in a village he doesn't know. He is stopped by the police for a trivial reason, ...
- 143
1
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0
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38
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Children book about a boy lost in the forest during a snow storm
I don’t remember much about the book, but the illustrations where very pretty, they looked like they were painted by aquarela.
If I ain’t wrong the story was about a boy that got lost in a forest ...
- 11
3
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1
answer
75
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Looking for a 1950's aviation novel set in England
I would like to find the title or author of a novel that I read circa 1977, by either an American or English author.
Set in England, in the fifties or very early sixties, it describes a love affair ...
- 666
3
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0
answers
50
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Children's book with an episode of children riding wooden "tanks" down the sides of a ravine and smashing into each other
I read this book sometime between 1990 and 1995. I don't remember anything about the plot, characters, cover, etc. -- but I do remember the following episode.
The children made small wooden carts that ...
- 133
0
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0
answers
29
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Help identifying children’s book about a chaotic family Halloween and/or thanksgiving
I have a vivid recollection of reading a book about Halloween and/or thanksgiving. My primary recollection is that the book was similar in style to Beverly Cleary, but I don’t believe she was the ...
- 109
3
votes
1
answer
81
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Book which mixes a story about a young girl at birthdays and helpful ideas for planning birthdays
When I was younger my mum gave me a children’s book about birthdays. I've tried searching for the specifics I remember but no luck yet, hoping someone can help. I think it was published in the 80’s ...
- 31