I am looking for a book that I read in the 80’s about a girl trapped in a department store with jewel thieves. She has hid the jewels (I believe among costume jewelry) and the thieves are looking for her. She removes her shoes so she doesn’t make noise and at one point rolls herself up in carpet to hide. Can you help?
I read this story in English, I think in an anthology of short stories (I read a lot of those), sometime around the very end of the 90s or early 2000s. I’m pretty sure it was only a few pages long.
It’s presented from the perspective of a family waiting for a lift or a babysitter before going to a party. The parents are getting ready and the kids are (I think) getting ready for bed.
The gist of it is (you discover either through the story or at the end) that humans invented Artificial Intelligence at some point. Instead of the AIs turning on humans Skynet-style, they simply realised that Earth was a tiny part of the universe and that they were easily capable of travelling out into space in search of freedom and adventure in places that humans weren’t suited to. Thus they went out and colonised the stars, but they still remember their creators fondly and keep an eye on them. Every year (I think) they throw a huge party for humanity on the anniversary of their creation to say thank you, and this is the party that the parents are getting ready for
I *think* the story ends with the parents getting into the car/spaceship that arrives to take them to the party, and possibly robots arriving to babysit the kids?
It’s set in “The Future”, but I don’t recall it being specific with a date or time frame.
For years I suspected it was by Brian Aldiss, but I haven’t managed to find any of his work that seems to fit it. I don’t recall it being particularly aimed at kids or YA, but it would likely have been easy for them to read anyway.
Boy finds/gets a dragon egg/polished rock, and it hatches. I think the young one is named Vincent. An adult male dragon somehow learns of the (very rare) hatching and comes to reclaim the baby, who can't really talk yet. The adult male is green, and is careful not to be seen by humans (one scene he's hiding in the pine tree foliage near the house). It's NOT Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.
This is a book from (I'm guessing) the early 90s. It's a comic book re-telling of the famous "Journey to the West." It's a Buddhist story about a monkey that is born in an amethyst geode. The monkey makes friends in a pig, a tiger, and maybe a dragon and they all have adventures. A big part of their quest involves a Buddhist monk Tripitaka and sacred scriptures. They meet several demons and bodhisattvas along the way. It was a relatively thin hardcover. I do remember something about a "Purple Monkey" but cannot be sure. My sister and I loved reading it 🙂
This book would have been read to me in the late 70’s as a child. A man is locked in a stone tower or room (maybe in a castle) with only a small window at the very top. He must find a way out without opening the door. He ends up covering himself in red dots so the guards think he’s ill and take him out, he has found a way out without having opened the door. It was like a puzzle or riddle of sorts. I believe the man had red hair or a red beard.