Help Maxios Discover the names of four things!

[Maxios]

First: This one's a book I read in the fourth grade. It was about this boy who discovers an alien shapeshifter/sheriff who has come to Earth to track down another shapeshifter. The boy and his friends help the sheriff, only to discover that the criminal has been mimicing one of his friends. Evil Alien is arrested, and the sheriff leaves Earth while telling the boy that his name will be remembered forever on his world. Pretty sure the tag line was something like "Watch out! They're morphing!" FOUND

Second: A book I read in the third grade. It was this science book, about thirty pages long, and each page focused on another topic. Each page was fully illustrated, and had little facts. A couple of the pages were about UFOs and the Loch Ness Monster. I want to find out the name of this book because I want to buy it for my little cousin.

Third: A movie I watched for like six minutes on the Sci-Fi channel while waiting for Star Wars Galaxies to finish downloading. Pretty sure it was a horror film, about a man and a woman who go on vacation and get kidnapped by this old elderly couple and another guy (who may or may not be the son of this couple). The old woman keeps her dead baby in a jar, and in the scene where the young woman discovers it, the old woman threatens to cut off her lips.

Fourth: A sci-fi book I've never read. All I know about it is that it was written by twin teenaged sisters and it's pretty good. They were at the UCLA book fair in about 2008 and at a comic convention in LA in 2009. FOUND

[Fragenstein]

Brittany and Brianna as the twin teens writing The Strand Prophecy?

EDIT: And it sounds like discovery number 1 is a book by Bill Brittain called Shape-Changer.

[Maxios]

Brittany and Brianna as the twin teens writing The Strand Prophecy?

EDIT: And it sounds like discovery number 1 is a book by Bill Brittain called Shape-Changer.

Thanks man!

[Fragenstein]

Thanks man!

Is there any chance that the science book was part of a series? I found an 18 volume illustrated science encylopedia from 1991 that sounds similar to what you were reading.

[Maxios]

I don't know if it was part of a series. Can you please give me a link?

[Fragenstein]

Illustrated Science Encyclopedia, though I can't confirm that it has any pages on the Loch Ness monster. 24 volumes from 1997 but only 18 from 1991.

This would seem to be the cover, though I can't tell which version it would be...




Whoop -- hold on. My Amazon link is for a Raintree series under that title. The image is clearly Dreamland. Might not be the same at all.

Yeah. Not the same. The Dreamland book is a single volume of 104 pages from... 2008? Hard to tell. Raintree also does Annuals that might qualify. Not finding anything yet that's only 30-40 pages.

[Maxios]

That's not it

[Fragenstein]

Possibly one of the Raintree annuals?

Kingfisher, Usborne and Oxford all have illustrated science encyclopedias and dictionaries as well. What can you remember of the cover and publication date?

[Maxios]

Pretty sure it was published in the 90s. The art was pretty cartoon-y. IIRC, the name of the book was at the center of the cover in big red letters. On the sides of the name there were cartoon-y drawings from the book.

[Fragenstein]

That does sound a lot like Usborne. Here's a sample of their cover style from the early '90s.



They've had a ton of science books throughout the years, including generic science dictionaries and encyclopedias. They seem to keep things cartoonish and kid-friendly. I'm still looking for descriptions of their other books of that era.

Eh, crud. Searching 1990s specifically opens up a host of other publishers. Dorling Kindersley, Macmillan, Golden Books and Eyewitness. A lot of possibilities to go through, dang.

[Maxios]

When I say cartoon-y, I mean "daily newspaper strip" cartoon-y.

[Wookieetank]

For the movie, it sounds like House from 2008.