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Penguin Highway

Tomihiko Morimi, 森見登美彦

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Similar in premise + themes

These books are ranked using the premise + themes labels extracted for Penguin Highway. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: precocious child, small-town mystery, animal mystery, scientific inquiry, supernatural intrusion, coming of age

Themes labels used: childhood wonder, scientific method, curiosity, growing up, knowledge and discovery, mystery, reality and fantasy, mortality, love, death, identity, family, friendship

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + themes embeddings are close.

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Otherwood

Pete Hautman · 2018

Two children’s woodland hideout leads them into a reality-splitting mystery tied to family secrets and loss.

Why this is here

Premise labels: child friendship · hidden secrets · family mystery · parallel realities · missing person · woods setting · grief and loss · coming of age

Themes labels: memory · loss · secrets · truth · forgiveness · growing up · childhood · perseverance · grief · identity · reality · connection · hope · nature vs development · family history · intergenerational harm

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1752

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Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury · 2000 · Green Town

A boy’s summer in a small Illinois town becomes a vivid meditation on childhood, time, and mortality.

Why this is here

Premise labels: summer childhood · small-town life · coming of age · memory · nostalgia · mortality · magic in the ordinary · childhood wonder

Themes labels: coming of age · memory · nostalgia · mortality · aging · time · childhood · life and death · freedom · imagination · tradition · change · technology · humanity · loss · wisdom · war · belonging · ordinary wonder · acceptance

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1898

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A Dark Inheritance

Chris d'Lacey · 2014 · Unicorne Files

A boy who can alter reality joins a secret agency to uncover a father’s disappearance and a strange school mystery.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing father · supernatural ability · reality manipulation · secret organization · paranormal investigation · detective mission · school mystery · child protagonist

Themes labels: grief · loss · family mystery · hope · truth-seeking · identity · coming of age · trust · hidden reality · fate · ethical power use · mourning

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1935

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Yasutaka Tsutsui · 2017

A schoolgirl discovers time-leaping abilities and, alongside a second story about fears, confronts memory, consequence, and change.

Why this is here

Premise labels: time travel · accidental powers · mystery figure · teen protagonist · school life · psychological fear

Themes labels: time and memory · consequence · adolescence · identity · fear and phobia · psychology · future vs present · loss · responsibility · coming of age · reality vs dream · science and ethics · nostalgia · cherishing the present

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1978

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The Secret Lake

Karen Inglis · 2018 · The Secret Lake

Two siblings uncover a hidden tunnel in their garden and tumble into a past version of their own home.

Why this is here

Premise labels: time tunnel · secret passage · hidden world · found family in the past · mystery solving · backyard discovery · time slip · dog mystery

Themes labels: friendship · family · bravery · curiosity · history · connection across time · loyalty · justice · hope · childhood wonder · imagination

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1991

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The Fourth Closet

Scott Cawthon, Kira Breed-Wrisley · 2018 · Five Nights at Freddy's

A grieving teen and his friends confront a new wave of kidnappings while a buried mystery about Charlie surfaces.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing children · urban horror · animatronic threat · identity mystery · sealed past · lore mystery

Themes labels: grief · memory · identity · trauma · loss · secrecy · childhood innocence · mortality · legacy · obsession · truth and deception · survival

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2008

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When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead · 2009

A sixth grader in 1970s New York receives impossible notes that pull her into a mystery about friendship, time, and survival.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mysterious notes · future knowledge · time-travel mystery · friendship rupture · saving a life · coming-of-age

Themes labels: growing up · friendship · family · sacrifice · loss · memory · trust · perspective shift · selfishness · empathy · small acts · coming of age · time · time and change · racism · class · homelessness · single motherhood · bullying · violence · self-sacrifice · reading

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2051

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Lost Boys

Orson Scott Card · 1994

A Mormon family’s move to North Carolina brings everyday tensions, eerie friendships, and a slow-building threat to their young son.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing children · family crisis · imaginary friends · child endangerment · small-town mystery · secret evil · parental fear

Themes labels: family · parenting · faith · good and evil · loss · grief · childhood vulnerability · marital stress · work and family balance · community life · religious practice · fear · abuse · moral judgment · ordinary life · why bad things happen

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2062

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Black River: Deluxe Edition

Ruby Jean Cottle · 2026 · Black River

A bookish teen in a mountain town wakes changed, craving blood, and must uncover what’s happening before it consumes her.

Why this is here

Premise labels: teen transformation · vampire mystery · small-town secrets · forbidden attraction · blood hunger · identity crisis · monster origin mystery · shared change · survival mystery · coming of age

Themes labels: identity · transformation · self-discovery · loss of control · grief · trauma · coming of age · hunger · desire · morality · survival · forgiveness · family bonds · friendship · change · humanity · loss of innocence · responsibility · secrecy · belonging

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2063

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Tales from the Loop

Simon Stålenhag · 2015 · Tales from the Loop

Photorealistic paintings and sparse vignettes trace a childhood shaped by strange machines in an alternate 1980s Sweden.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alternate history · childhood memories · mysterious technology · abandoned machines · speculative worldbuilding · fictional memoir

Themes labels: nostalgia · childhood · memory · growing up · wonder · alienation · melancholy · mystery · imagination · loss · technology and society · past and future · ordinary and extraordinary

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2095

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Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1963 · Tarzan

A young Tarzan’s jungle adolescence unfolds in linked tales of love, survival, curiosity, and brutal self-discovery.

Why this is here

Premise labels: coming of age · jungle survival · human-animal divide · lost child · search for God · first love · friendship with animals · jungle legend

Themes labels: coming of age · identity · loneliness · otherness · self-discovery · knowledge seeking · morality · religion · spiritual inquiry · nature vs culture · parenthood · love · family · humor · survival · intelligence · humanity · civilization

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2103

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The Fourteenth Goldfish

Jennifer L. Holm · 2014 · The Fourteenth Goldfish

An eleven-year-old’s life changes when her scientist grandfather reverses aging and lands in middle school with her.

Why this is here

Premise labels: reverse aging · fountain of youth · scientist grandfather · middle school adjustment · family change · science curiosity

Themes labels: change · growing up · growing old · science ethics · scientific responsibility · curiosity · possibility · mortality · life cycle · friendship loss · new beginnings · identity · family ties · discovery · self-acceptance · diversity · gender roles

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.2128

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