70
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Help me find the title of a sci-fi apocalyptic movie following a brother-sister duo, but the sister is different somehow
This is a fair description of the science fiction film Serenity
Serenity is a 2005 American space Western film written and directed by
Joss Whedon in his feature directorial debut. The film is a
...
- 652k
62
votes
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Young adult fantasy novel where young girl was priestess-in-training in a dark sacred cave
This sounds like The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula LeGuin. Arha (originally named Tenar) is selected as high priestess of the dark powers of the Tombs. She is trained, mostly by other priestesses, but ...
- 91.5k
49
votes
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What fantasy book has twins (except one's blue) and a cloaked ice bear on the cover?
I think you're looking for the Phenomena novels by Ruben Eliassen.
Phenomena is a series of Norwegian Young Adult fantasy books written by Ruben Eliassen. The series follows the elf boy Alk and his ...
- 207k
37
votes
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Young adult short story book with one story where a woman finds a walrus suit and becomes a walrus
Thank you to @TheLethalCarrot, without whom I would not have found this book.
The book in question was Half-Human (2004), which did indeed include part of Dusssie by Nancy Springer.
A girl who hears ...
- 613
36
votes
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Novel where anti-gravity devices are attached to a submarine and it floats to the moon
Could be Harry Harrison The Daleth Effect.
From Wikipedia:
He fits an experimental Daleth effect unit to a submarine to create a makeshift spacecraft. When it is sent into space to rescue two ...
- 16.4k
36
votes
Movie or book about people kept in a type of prison where if their name came up in a lottery, they'd be subject to experiments and/or organ harvesting
Sounds like the premise for The Island (2005).
From Wikipedia:
The Island is a 2005 American science fiction action thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. It stars Ewan McGregor, ...
- 88.2k
36
votes
What is the earliest young adult dystopian trilogy?
There were two trilogies written by UK author John Christopher that may count.
These are The Tripods Trilogy first published in 1967 and The Sword of The Spirits trilogy first published in 1970.
Each ...
- 819
28
votes
Young adult sci-fi book where space medics treating sick individuals accidentally kill the microbe that gives them intelligence
"Star Surgeon" by Alan E. Nourse possibly. From this review:
The moment the humanity found a way to travel fast in space they discovered Galactic Confederation of different aliens. All of ...
- 207k
27
votes
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A post apocalyptic story about a father and daughter who survive an alien attack that wipes out humanity
You are probably thinking about Strange Tomorrow by Jean E. Karl, although there are only two parts to the book, not three. And her brother is there as well. Both main characters are named Janie; the ...
- 1,699
25
votes
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Looking for a book about kids with animal guides
Perhaps Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, who is indeed British. Also known as The Golden Compass in the USA.
The novel is set in a world dominated by a theocratic international organisation, the ...
- 7,143
24
votes
Trying to find a book called The Game
Invitation To The Game by Monica Hughes, which was later re-released as The Game.
It's the year 2154. Lisse and her friends have been deemed unemployable in the eyes of society. Now they must ...
- 11.1k
24
votes
Young adult short story book with one story where a woman finds a walrus suit and becomes a walrus
As this was in a school classroom it seems highly likely it might have only included excerpts from the stories and not the whole thing in detail. Or it could have just mashed together a group of ...
- 141k
23
votes
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Looking For A Mistaken Identity Super Hero Book About A Woman Who Works Fast Food
Night Shift (2018) by Erik Schubach
Night Shift is the first book in the Emily Monroe Is Not The Chosen One series which consists of 3 books (so far).
Emily Monroe may be a lot of things, but one ...
- 141k
23
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What is the earliest young adult dystopian trilogy?
There are surely quite a few.
The first that comes to mind is John Christopher's Tripods series, published in 1967-8. (There was also a prequel, but this was published much later in 1988 so the ...
- 61k
23
votes
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YA Novel : 'A Drop Of ? Water'
The Awakening Water by G. R. Kesteven.
I'm sure I have a copy but I cannot find it so I can't provide quotes. However the summaries I find by Googling confirm it's the book I remember e.g. Google ...
- 87.1k
21
votes
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YA novel involving immortality via drowning
The Live-Forever Machine
This is an early work by Kenneth Oppel, the author of such well-known works as Airborn. It’s got "machine" in the title, of course.
According to the Goodreads ...
- 115k
21
votes
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1980's? Young Adult Fantasy Orphan Son Who Dies in Car Accident
This rang a faint bell with me, and I was able to localize it to "Dead End", a short novel in the "Shockers" series by John Peel, published in 1994.
The best, and indeed only, ...
- 55.5k
21
votes
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The Aquanauts, series of books in a post-apocalyptic future
This is the YA book series The Hydronauts by Carl Biemiller. The first book was published in 1970.
From the back of book 1: "The range was not the entire world. But it was more than 80% of it, ...
- 1,967
20
votes
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A novel or novelette length ghost story, "You can't trick me the same way twice"
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively.
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a low fantasy novel for children by Penelope Lively, first published by Heinemann in 1973 with illustrations by Anthony ...
- 16.5k
20
votes
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Teenagers discover a network of tunnels to other times
I believe this could be "The Time Maze" by Reginald Maddock, published in 1960. Online information about this book seems really scanty - the Goodreads page, for example, is disappointingly ...
- 55.5k
20
votes
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Children's / YA novel and game about travelling back in time via an old tree
This is almost certainly "The Riddle of the Trumpalar Tree" by Judy Bernard-Waite (goodreads link).
Matches:
Australian, the description on Goodreads doesn't specify which city
Main ...
- 1,065
20
votes
Young adult time-travelling book with the tag-line "what if you could slip in and out of time"
I think this is Out of Time (1990) by John Marsden, republished by Tor Teen in 2005.
The cover shows the tag "What if you could slide in - and out - of time?"
The time machine looks like a ...
- 103k
20
votes
Young adult sci-fi book where space medics treating sick individuals accidentally kill the microbe that gives them intelligence
This sounds like Star Surgeon (1960) by Alan E. Nourse.
The story you describe is the second excursion of the hospital ship described in the book. They receive a distress call from a planet (31 ...
- 103k
19
votes
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Short story about a young man stranded alone on Mars who runs out of air
"The Air of Mars" (1970) by Dmitri Bilenkin. Its only English publication was in The Air of Mars and Other Stories of Time and Space (1976) edited (and translated) by Mirra Ginsburg.
A ...
- 306
19
votes
YA book where the main character goes to an island, finds a beautiful woman who serves them food, but it was an illusion
There's a scene that matches somewhat in A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth, book #1), by Piers Anthony.
In this book, the main character, Bink, finds himself on an island (disguised as a yacht) with an ...
- 38k
19
votes
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Is the 'Magic Ex Libris' book series by Jim C. Hines suitable for children?
No. Although the book series doesn't contain explicit descriptions of sex, it does contain a great deal of sexualised content. I've only glanced through looking for the naughty bits, so please bear ...
- 652k
17
votes
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Absurdist/comedic novel about the behind-the-scenes of the universe
This might be The Seems, a series by John Hulme.
I found a snippet in a Google books search that has a team of (Jamaican expy) time miners, who normally mine Firsts, Seconds and Thirds of time from ...
- 103k
17
votes
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Young-adult novel about cursed wishes from the 1990's or earlier
This is probably Bill Brittain's The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree (1983).
Three young people, Polly, Rowena and Adam, find a mysterious man at the county fair selling cards for 50 cents each ...
- 103k
17
votes
Novel where anti-gravity devices are attached to a submarine and it floats to the moon
This could be H. G. Wells' 1900–1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. In particular, the description of an antigravity device that functioned like window blinds is exactly as it appears in the book. ...
- 91.5k
17
votes
Accepted
YA fiction 1980 - society living in underground caverns
Partial match is 'Devil on my back' and the sequel 'Dream catcher', especially if some elements are conflated.
Both novels involve colonies of humans who survived some sort if disaster in arcs, which ...
- 16.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible