Category Archives: Status

350Z: AI Celebrate Anniversary Date Of Their Creation

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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.

350Y: Salami Racing cars!

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Large watercolor book about a girl whose family owns a salami or sausage factory? They have a parade or race where they build things from the salami. They may be inventing machines? Can’t remember exactly. Would have been in English. Amazing illustrations of contraptions made from salami and shoes and all sorts of items.
Protagonist was a small girl. I read it late 80s but the illustrations were quite psychedelic so could be 60s or 70s.

350X: Sensory-Enhanced Man’s Girlfriend Not What She Seems (Solved!)

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The novel is about a man who works at an agency for people with advanced senses who use them to foil art thieves and bank robberies, and throughout the course of the story the protagonist becomes more and more paranoid as he is continuously foiled by a cat burglar who knows which poisons he is weak against. He believes his girlfriend is cheating on him, and gave away his secret, but it turns out she Is the cat burglar. The infidelity is a lie planted by his best friend, who is secretly a mobster trying to get revenge for a robbery he foiled.
I distinctly remember one specific scene, where he hits a man in the face with a large dildo.

350W: A Monster/Bird/Caterpillar Grows

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I’m looking for a children’s picture book. Probably published between 1994 and 2004, a square white book, where … There’s a monster/bird/caterpillar? kind of thing that seems to grow … I remember the illustration being swirly, watercolor like with say leaves and feathers that get caught up in it as it grows???
Not Monster Mama but those colors and blurriness are on a similar track … Not a very hungry caterpillar, those colors are right but the illustrations aren’t cut paper…
What brings this book to mind is this fabric:
Do you think we have any chance of figuring it out?

350V: Adult Dragon Comes for Baby Dragon that Boy Hatches

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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.

350U: Buddhist Quest Starring a Monkey (Solved!)

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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 🙂

350T: Red Dot Escape (Solved!)

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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.

350S: Out of Print Witchcraft Book

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The details of what I’m looking for are as follows:
– I’m looking for a book on witchcraft that is almost certainly now out of print, having been published between the 1960s and the 1980s.
– The cover is solid pale pink with some black illustrations. I believe that there is a clothed pre-Raphaelite woman on the cover, and an image of her nude appears a few pages in.
– The title did *not* explicitly mention witchcraft, Wicca, magic, or spells. It may have used the word “potions” but I believe the title only referenced the making of natural cosmetics and/or other natural goods.
– I borrowed this book from the Hillsborough County (FL) library system in the late 90s or very early 2000s, but after searching their catalog I do not believe it to still be in circulation.
– I specifically remember one spell from the book, that prescribed eating an apple with your back to a mirror to discern your future lover. Unfortunately this is a commonly published spell so it may not narrow it down.
I think that is all I have to go off of, but would be more than happy to answer any further questions.

350R: Daughter of Lord Leads Resistance to Keep Father in Power (Solved!)

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I’m searching for a book that I can only remember the plot of. When I was around 13 I read a book about a girl who was the daughter of a lord. (I’m 35 now, so it would have been written 1998 or earlier). She was poor and was the leader of a small resistance trying to keep her father in his lordship. Eventually she got hurt and captured. She was brought to the capital. To the people she had spent over a year fighting. Once she got there she found that there was far more going on than she realized and the people she had been fighting were their own quiet resistance.
I don’t remember the picture on the front. It was YA, fantasy.
There was one scene that stood out. She received a gift from a “secret admirer”; it was a ring. Which finger you wore the ring on meant different things. She didn’t know that so she wore it on the one that fit.
I borrowed the book from the library and to this day I think about that book. I want to read it again but I can’t remember the title or author.

350Q: Book with Tape Picture Book of Planetary Explorers

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From early-mid 1980’s(?), book + tape children’s read along picture book. Brother and sister(?) visit all the planets in the solar system along with a ‘captain’ astronaut guy. There’s a part about each planet. There is music and sound effects in the production. In one part the captain almost dies on a space walk and the kids save him. I’ve been looking for this for decades now.