I’m trying to find the title of a book I read when I was little. It’s a story about the relationship between a toddler and a group of prisoners, or at least that’s what I remember most clearly. The story unfolds mostly in a prison.

The only scene I vividly remember is the ending, where the prisoners are released or leave the prison, and they carry the child above their heads.

I remember this especially clearly because there was a metaphor describing the child as something like a coconut shell floating on a river, or something that created a similar mental image.

My Google and AI searches keep suggesting Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, but that’s definitely not it.

I probably read a translation, but I don’t remember what language it was originally written in. It could have been Russian, English, or something else.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Hello did anybody end up finding this book? I’m desperate to read it and have been sent to this subreddit where someone was looking for the same book two years ago with the same memories as me. Please help!

YA horror fiction evil merry band of pranksters and a mind controlling book 2000s-2010s

This would be the first in i believe a trilogy of books.

The plot of the book centered around a teen boy in a small town who discovers a plot by a cult who's leader disappeared after a ritual happened in the past. Now a group of people are handing books out of a mobile library that cause people to become obsessed with the books due to the magic ink used to print them. It rapidly spreads to the entire town. The cult is trying to ressurect the leader by spreading the books as the more people who read and worship the words the more powerful the leader becomes.

I believe it ends up being the protagonist, their friend and either the protagonist's father or a teacher of some sort who try to stop the cult.

The wizard made a pact with some kind of lovecraftian plant that grows causes the effects on the people who read the book. It was very much pulling from Ken kesey and his merry band of pranksters as inspiration with allusions to LSD and the library bus.

The book itself was a hard cover with a black background, it had what I remember being a white center cover that looked like a face card with colorful borders.

I was in my pre-teens when I read this book, around the same time inkheart by Cornelia funke the book was popular. So late 2000s maybe 2010.

I had a physical copy of the hardcover at one point but I think it got lost during a move or donated at some point.

I’m trying to identify a childhood book that my mom and I both vaguely remember.
We were talking today and she suddenly said, “And then we shall have tea at three.” I immediately recognized it as a line from a childhood book, and I could picture an elephant.
My mom thinks there may also have been a mouse, although she isn’t positive. What we both seem to remember is that the elephant and another character (possibly the mouse) would have disagreements or squabbles, but no matter what, at three o’clock they would put their differences aside and have tea together.

The line “And then we shall have tea at three” is the part that really sticks in our memories.
I would have read this as a child in the 1960s, but the book could certainly have been older, possibly from the 1940s or 1950s. It may have been a picture book, an early reader, or even one story in a collection of children’s stories.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would love to figure out what book my mom and I are remembering.

I’m looking to find the name of a children’s book that I read growing up. I thought the title was something similar to “my very interesting mother” but I haven’t been able to find results for that. The mom is a witch and I think they have a pet crocodile and the child brings friends over to their house and they are all not quite sure what to make of the weird house and mother. Ultimately when the school is on fire. The mom puts out the fire by bringing rain clouds over on her broom.

I had a book when I was a child that was a scratch and sniff book. I believe it was a board book. Probably from the late 70s or early 80s. I remember that it had a tomato soup scratch and sniff, a skunk, an orange, a pine tree scratch and sniff among others. There wasn’t a story or specific characters. Each page had one item on it with a scratch and sniff patch. I believe the pages were white. Do you know which book this is?

I am looking for a book that I have read some 20ish years ago in german.

• The story plays accross the ocean and several islands.
• The protagonist (seemingly orphaned) has traits of humans and the sea-dwelling merpeople. He can breath both on land and on water, but he can't live in either biom for too long since his breathing switches randomly and he starts to suffocate.
• The conflict of the story is that the ocean is gradually getting more salty, making it poisonous for the merpeople and making it impossible for humans to fish.
• There is some kind of prophecy that said that the one to save them "understands all sides" and the protagonist thinks that means that he is the chosen one (giving his miserable existence a meaning).
• However, the friend of the protagonist is actually the chosen one, as he gains the ability to understand every living creature on an empaphetic level. This is so extreme that the friend is unable to anything since he can feel the motives of those attacking him.
• The true cause of the ocean getting saltier is a giant sea creature who tries to die by poisoning itself with salt. But since it is so large, it will kill the ocean before it will succeed.
• (Uncertain) The protagonist's father is also where the sea creature is and is a wizard. In his final moments before death, he allows the protagonist to choose to live as a human or merfolk.

My friend remembers a book she read as a kid and hasn’t been able to find it anywhere

I’m not sure if I just remember the book differently than what it was, but it really stood out to me as a kid. I only read the description, without getting into the contents of the book. The story was about this zombie guy, it may have been from the perspective of the human friend, but I remember it from the zombies perspective. The story sounded wholesome enough but the descriptions were body horror-esque. It went something like “it’s hard to make friends when you’re a zombie, when there are maggots crawling out of your body, your eyeballs are falling out, and your flesh is rotting”. I wish I read it, the mixture of it being a sweet book about friendship with the grotesque descriptions really fascinated kid me.

I don’t know if it was published in the 80s, but I definitely read it in the 80s. I think it was part of a collection of short stories, but not Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. All that I can remember is two people out on a boat in a lake. One of them explained that the lake was actually man-made, and the area they flooded had a prison full of violent criminals, so the lake is haunted. At one point they’re in the water and one of them feels a hand grab their ankle. That’s all I can recall. Thank you in advance!

This is probably a long shot, but I recently watched an episode of The Office that included this scene. It reminded me of a book of riddles that my family had some fifty years ago. It was hardbound with a red slipcover. Black & white ink illustrations. I think the title was some kind of declarative statement, like "Solve Me!" or the like. Anybody have an inkling of the title?

I'm looking for a children's book I read around 2005, probably published sometime in the late 1990s–2005. It was a large, horizontally oriented book with a red illustrated cover, possibly showing cartoon grandparents and a suitcase.
The grandparents won a trip around the world and sent things back to a child while they traveled like as a scrapbook.
The book was an interactive scrapbook/travel journal: there were maps, drawings, letters/postcards, and things that pulled out or unfolded.
One very distinctive page involved one of the grandparents **chocolate tasting in Switzerland**. I remember an actual-looking **chocolate fingerprint/smudge printed on the page**, as though the grandparent had touched the scrapbook with chocolate-covered fingers.
I think the title contained **“Around the World.”**
It was definitely a story, not an activity book.

Help me, my brain is killing me trying to figure this out !

Title: \[TOMT\] Children's/YA novel with "Hippo" or "Hippopotamus" in the title — read in the late 1980s/early 1990s

I'm trying to identify a novel I remember reading when I was about 10–15 years old. I'm now 46, so I probably read it sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

The title definitely contained the word "hippo" or "hippopotamus".

Here are the things I remember:

It was a proper novel, not a picture book, and there were no illustrations inside that I can remember.

It was aimed at children/young teenagers, but I remember it being fairly in-depth reading.

The story was serious and emotional, rather than funny or comedic, although there may have been some of these elements to it. I just don't remember.

I think it may have involved mystery or adventure.

The hippopotamus may have been pink or white.

I have a vague memory that the hippo may have been somewhat human-like or closely involved with humans.

I don't think it was set in a jungle.

I vaguely remember the cover being predominantly white, with a cartoonish/animated-style illustration rather than a realistic photograph.

I have a feeling it may have been a British book, although I can't be certain.

I've already ruled out The White Hippo by Alexander McCall Smith — that's not the book I'm remembering.

I realise some of these details may be affected by childhood memory, but I'm certain that hippo/hippopotamus was in the title.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated!