ABANDONED. Teenage lit fantasy adventure. Passing comet will be visible from Earth and our young protagonists are about to experience a magical night. A plot detail: dogs can speak, but they don’t, as their speaking voice turns people into statues.

[Niki]

Perhaps my memory is deceiving me with the title of this book. I was under the impression that the title was: "The night of the comet" but this does not seem to be correct, as there is a limited amount of books bearing this title and their plot/subject matter has nothing to do with the plot I am describing here.

This book, a teenage lit fantasy adventure, is about the adventures of some children during a magical night, when a passing comet will be visible from Earth. (I am fairly sure that) most people flee their city out of fear of a possible collision, but our protagonists experience that magical night on Earth more wholesomely or more profoundly than the adults, and we get to see through their eyes the laws of every day life being slightly skewed. For example, dogs can speak, but they refrain from speaking to us, as their speaking voice will turn the person who hears them into a statue.

*SPOILER AHEAD*

On the "night of the comet", dogs will speak to you if you ask them a question. At some point I do vaguely recall a man looking down at a stray dog and mumbling a question. The dog solemnly looks up and gives a reply; the man turns into a statue immediately.

Another plot detail: one of our young protagonists has a cockroach - not quite sure if it is a whole cockroach farm. He has an older brother who is his role model and quite mature for his age (around 16-17?) and asks him to please feed his cockroach while he is away. The older brother promptly replies no.

I am Greek and I read this book in Greek. I am not sure if it is a foreign literature book translated in Greek, but all I can say is that I have searched in Greece and I have not been able to find anything. I had this book when I was about 12 and sadly lost it when we moved to another house. I have since looked for it everywhere to no avail. It must have been published sometime between 1970 and 1986.

[Kate]

Niki ~~
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[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Niki (OP) was last active on the site in August 2019.