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All I can remember is that there is a child on, I believe, a spaceship.
He's given an empty room and is allowed to decorate it using a screen to choose what he wants. I'm not sure if this is a novel or short story but I believe I read it in elementary school which were the years 2000-2004.

Specifics:

  • He is looking for a bed and sees the option for a hot rock, and he ends up settling for a hammock.
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  • Was this a novel, short story, what? Do you know when you read this?
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 12:57
  • I was thinking it might have been one of Bruce Coville's Alien Adventures books, because that sounds like a sort of scenario he'd have, but I can't find any matching text.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 13:18
  • @TheLethalCarrot I believe it was elementary school. I do not recall if it was a short story or novel.
    – LampPost
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 13:21
  • @LampPost You can edit this information into your question. Be sure to add when elementary school was and if you think the book was new or old at the time.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 13:23

1 Answer 1

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There's a device like this on a spaceship in Bruce Coville's My Teacher Glows in the Dark:

Instantly the wall in front of me began to display a picture. That was neat; the entire wall was like a giant television screen...The picture it showed now was actually a chart, with all kinds of furniture on it--and I do mean all kinds. Not only did it show chairs, desks, and beds, it had items that looked like everything from medieval torture devices to toilets designed for octopi.

Our narrator, Peter, gets a custom chair ("Less than five minutes later the very chair I had ordered popped through the door of the transcendental elevator") and a hammock:

After Broxholm left that first "night," I used the URAT to get myself something to sleep in. The most interesting thing on the chart—at least, the most interesting thing that looked like I could actually sleep in it—was a kind of hammock device. The only problem was, I couldn’t figure out where to hang it, since the walls in my room were smooth, and I had a feeling I wasn’t supposed to put screws or nails in them, even if I had screws or nails, which I didn’t.

I should have known not to worry. Each end of the hammock had a rope. At the end of the rope was a ball. When you threw the ball at the ceiling, it stuck wherever it struck, and didn’t come down until you gave the rope three sharp tugs.

So I got myself a hammock and hung it from my ceiling.

It was like sleeping on a cloud—though by the time I got it hung up, I was so exhausted I probably could have slept on a bed of cold seaweed and hot rocks.

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    Hah! So I was right about the series!
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Sep 7, 2018 at 2:52
  • Yesss! Thank you! I'm so surprised someone got it.
    – LampPost
    Commented Sep 7, 2018 at 6:12
  • You're welcome!
    – F.W. Gravy
    Commented Sep 8, 2018 at 0:43

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