Hey, YA People

[fuzzyoctopus]

Just out of curiousity, which sister are you, and what does your nick mean?

[Moriosta]

Oh!  I am the youngest sister.  The weird one.  My nickname means Dark Defender in Elvish.  What does your nickname mean?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

it's sort of a hairy 8-legged invertibrate

[stacer]

Oh, there's another book that's not on my list which I love. It's called Goose Girl, it's by Shannon Hale, and it's a retelling of the fairy tale by the same name. Come to find out the other day that she's actually a local Utah author, too. I'm guessing the Hale is some relation to those of Hale Theater fame.

[fuzzyoctopus]

yeah, fuzzyoctopus just kind of started our as a joke when I was in high school, and I've grown attached to it because it's 1) quirky and 2)  never taken by anyone else

[Moriosta]

Oh thanks Stacer I will add that onto my list.  

Really, fuzzyoctopus, that's cool.

[stacer]

*bump*

Chimera, this is the thread with all the fantasy recommendations.

[Chimera]

Thanks, stacer, for reviving these threads for me. There's a lot of good recommendations, some I've read and some I haven't. I'll have to get going

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Ok, this is probably a better question for HoM, but there's an LDS authors named... er.. something Skye. He's written a fantasy novel about a kid from Oklahoma with an impossibly ridiculous name (possibly more odd than "Alcatraz") who discovers the world of "foo" (which makes one wonder if the author KNOWS how this term is used by programmers). But, since it's fantasy, I thought I'd poke around and ask if anyone had heard of it, and knew whether it was worth reading.

[Spriggan]

I've seen the book and it's cover and title caught my intrest, it's called Leven Thumps And The Gateway To Foo.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Yeah, that's the one. I saw it yesterday while at the This Is The Place bookstore.

[origamikaren]

OK I came to this thread late, but it seems to be the place for this question:

I read a series lo many years ago when I was young and charming that had an orphan prince named something like Tab or Teb or Tad or something and he lived with talking Otters for a while at the start of the first book, but then somehow he hooks up with a dragon, and has to go and defeat the evil guys who have taken over his kingdom.  And on the way he meets up with other dragons, and their special people (one of whom has had his tongue cut out by the bad guys), and gets a magic harp, and then in order to get close to the bad guys, the dragons all turn into special white horses, and... I don't remeber what else, but is any of this ringing a bell?  


I totally know how fuzzyyoctopus felt in the following post:

I swear, I'm giving it another year and then I'll figure it never existed, and I'll write the darn thing myself.  

Most of my own writing has been trying to make a book that comes close to being like what I remember this series to be.  I'd very much like to read it again and see if it's any good at all, or if I've just imagined it all.

By the way, I also read a fantasy about somebody who actually did that -- evidently there was this fantasy book, and the characters in the story all have their own little lives while the book is closed, but have to go and act out the story when the book is opened.  But then there's a fire or something and all the copies of the book are destroyed (there weren't many to begin with evidently), and then the characters are only left in the mind of the girl who used to read the book, and years later she finally gets around to writing it down, but the stroy is a little garbled with other people she's known in her life.  It was kind of cool, but I can't remember its title either.

[Pink Bunkadoo]

I read a book when I was about seven or eight that I tried to find for years afterwards--I asked librarians, bookstore employees, teachers, fellow geeks, and never found anyone who'd ever heard of it.  Then the internet came along and I got an answer from a kidlit list--The Mystical Beast by Alison Farthing.  So I got it on interlibrary loan and read it, and it was pretty lame.  Ah well.  At least it's not haunting me anymore!

Karen's series sounds cool, though!

[Chimera]

Karen, I wish I could help you with your book but it's not ringing any bells. Sorry.

However, since this is the place to ask about books you can't remember the author/title of, I think I'll jump on the bandwagon.

I have a hard time studying at the BYU library because it is like putting an alchoholic into a liquor store--being surrouunded by books is just too tempting, and I inevitably get bored with what I am supposed to be studying and pick up an interesting-looking book instead. It was in one of these fits that I stumbled upon a book that still haunts me today. The main character was a boy (I *think* his name started with a "T") and he had the power to enter paintings. Once he was inside the painting, he was in the world that it depicted. There was one particular painting that he loved and frequented all the time. It was a peaceful world, possibly with fields of golden wheat, but there were occasional fantastic characters. I can't remember the conflict but I'm sure it must have been along the lines of having to save the world/painting from an evil person who wanted to destroy it. There was also a girl that he liked, and I remember her name because it was Heather (my name  ). And there was a windmill.

The funny thing is that I don't remember being overly thrilled with the book yet I haven't been able to ever get the idea out of my head. If anyone has any guesses, let me know, because I would like to read it again and put my mind to rest.

[fuzzyoctopus]

There's a book called "Monet's Ghost" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but it's about a girl who can project herself inside paintings.