Category: Name That Book Request

I’m looking for a children’s book, published definitely before/in the year 2004. I don’t remember the title or the author or even most of the plot. All I know is that the book may open with a little boy in bed, who sees a big white bird fly in through his window. The bird carries him to a land where there is a character called Michael Finnegan who rode backwards on a donkey up a hill to a castle. As Finnegan rides, he sings the old ditty: “There was an old man called (or “there once was a man named”) Michael Finnegan, He had whiskers on his chinnegan, The wind came up and blew them in ag’in, Poor old Michael Finnegan (begin ag’in).” Every time Finnegan sings, his whiskers (moustache etc) grow and sink in and out of his face. I know there isn’t much there to go on. If it helps at all, the copy I read was in English (in London, at some point during the years 2001 and 2004) and it was not a book for babies or toddlers, but for children in primary school. Thank you for your help!

I need help! I need to find a book and I can’t remember details good enough for a Google search… I read it in my late teens, so mid 2010’s. I lost my book collection a few years back and it’s driving me crazy trying to find this book!!!!! I believe it had a black cover with a girl, or just eyes, on it. The story follows a young girl whose dad is a sailor or fisher I believe, and she is picked on, maybe described as chubby, and her dad eventually leaves her mom. Her mom blames the young girl, and I remember a fight scene between them where there are ornaments or snow globes or some trinket from the dad to the mom, they end up smashed or broken, and the mom blames the young girl for the dad leaving but in reality it wasn’t the girls fault. The young girl begins to swim with her school team. Cut to her adult life, she is a stunningly, drop-dead gorgeous, beautiful woman (and knows it), and I don’t believe she has a relationship with her mom. All I can remember is she meets a man who lives on a boat with his dog and she falls in love with him, but he has a girlfriend when they meet (or fiance/wife i can’t remember). I think she manipulates them into breaking up. I also remember one scene where she randomly meets someone she went to school with who bullied her and the woman has a young kid, I think they meet in a cafe? And this woman was a model when she was younger and they were in school together, but is now a mom and I think described as ugly or gross? I can’t remember the climax of the book…

It was a story about a girl who left her village/town to go to another town?. Lodged in a bed and breakfast and got a job as a seamstress/tailor. She met a guy in the bed and breakfast , fell pregnant and got an abortion in her room by a “doctor” the guy found. After the abortion, she started bleeding a lot and even had to burn her mattress and clothes cause if the amount of blood. The guy broke up with her and started dating someone else abs the girl went to the new gf house- I think and shot her. New girl died and our girl was sent to a mental institution cause her lawyer argued that she was insane. *can’t remember much after this*

I’ve been trying to find this one for a long time! I read it in the late 80s or early 90s but it was probably old by then. It might have been a short story in an anthology. The only thing I really remember is a woman with a lot of children and an absent husband. There’s a lot of tension around a secret she’s keeping, which has something to do with the husband having been missing longer than the youngest child has been alive. There’s a big reveal at the end when she goes into the back yard and there’s a baby being born from a plant – a seed pod, I think, that opened up. That’s all I really remember: the sense of revelation and wonder at the baby growing from a plant, and their fear of being discovered. Someone in another group said he remembered it and the words “Rowan oak” – which rang a bell for me as well. If I had to guess, I’d say it might have been written in the 1970s or early 80s – it would have fit in well and I had a lot of library discards to read. I’d love to solve this mystery!

This was an illustrated Russian fairy tale book for kids translated into Romanian in the 80s It was a story about a flying tiny horse who had all kinds of adventures. There was a character riding the horse but the tiny horse was the main character. The illustrations were art nouveau style

I think it was a goosebumps book but I can’t ever find it when looking at their list A family moved from a house in California I remember the first night the boy(?) narrator saying ‘this house sound strange, not like our nice new build in cali’ He finds a passage way in the house and lots of things happen but there is a American flag with bullet or cut marks in it and it was the original from a war

I read an ebook (it was on an ipod I had in 5th grade, and I’ve tried looking everywhere for it but can’t find it anywhere (also I think I read it around 2014)) about two girls who I think were high school age? And they were the exact same age as each other (born like minutes apart). I don’t remember the character names, so I’ll call the main character A and the best friend B. So for their whole life, B was training to develop her super powers (because her dad had powers and I guess it was genetic). A was jealous of the thought of powers, but didn’t show it. And throughout the book, weird things kept happening around A. Swarms of animals would follow her everywhere, like frogs, birds, bugs, etc. Also there was a new guy who moved to town and he had powers too because he’s from the same world as B’s dad (like a whole different dimension or something idk). And B was like “yes match made in heaven” and they started dating, and A was super jealous because B always got the good things in life (A’s dad died and I think her mom was very ill). But then in the end it’s revealed that A and B got switched at birth, and their moms didn’t realize, so B’s family is actually A’s family, and A’s is actually B’s. A also realizes that she actually has powers, and B doesn’t (B was never shown to actually be able to use her powers).

I read a book in 5th grade where there was a society told they were living in a massive high-rise structure to escape the radiation of the world below. The perception was shattered when a boy from outside found his way in, revealing the structure is actually underground, and the radiation risk has diminished, although that information is kept from society. The plot follows the boy and a girl who make their way up the structure to the surface. The cover had the two children running toward the viewer in a tunnel. The year was 1995, and the cover art looked like it was straight out of the ’70s

I read this book in middle school so it should be published before 2011. It was in my school library if that helps. ****** TW***** The cover was of a young girl purple/blueish book and she has blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s a photo of a girl.The plot is that protagonist has an extremely abusive mother. She is 12 and runaways I believe to her grandmother home that’s states away on a bike ? I just remember that she had a giant liter of soda and survived off that. I believe it was 7up. I think she had a little sister too who she took with her. I think it maybe based in the southern United States (I might wrong)In the end she finally makes it her grandmothers home and her mother comes and physically beats her on the front yard ? But mother finally gets arrested. The protagonist lives a peaceful life afterwards. I believe the author wrote it based on her life. It maybe fiction though. It seemed like it was based in modern times. But I believe there were no cell phones in the book. It helped me overcome a lot of my own inner turmoil as preteen like the protagonist who had family issues as well. I would like to reread it now as an adult. Thank you

Two books, one was a collection of short stories for kids, one of the stories was about a girl who finds a magical pen on her way to school. The pen is the perfect weight, and when she uses it, her stories flow out of her and become real. I don’t recall the other stories. The other I recall very little about. It was a middle grade book, there was a tree with peaches and it was somewhat fantasy. The peaches was somehow significant I believe.