[SirOracle]

Apparently a lot of people have the same problem as I do with forgetting childhood books. I think I may record all the books I read to my kids so this never happens to them!

There are a couple of scenes I remember very distinctly from this book, so I hope that will possibly lead to someone out there remembering it. First, there were several stories that seemed completely separate at first and then were tied together by the final story. During this final story, a man talks to a woman in front of a cottage and wears a silly blue hat. However, a tornado comes out of nowhere and whisks the man away. The man is replaced by another man who sweeps the girl off her feet and transforms her cottage into a fantastic castle. He begins to carry her in, and that appears to be the end of the story, because at the bottom of the page is "The En". However, after turning the next page, the woman starts questioning the new guy, who sheepishly admits that he is the author.

Meanwhile, the first man has been flung into the recesses of the author's computer, where he meets up with a byte (who happens to be the second 'o' in tornado) and then tries to find his way back into the story with the woman. He pops into the other short stories from earlier in the book, in one case being a wizard who shouts "Huzzah!" and then leaves. Eventually he does return to the woman, and the author tries to get rid of him with "Suddenly a tornad came and whisked him away", which does not work. Not sure how it all turns out in the end.

I also vaguely remember the cover as being yellow with a lot of random objects on it, like a frog with a crown and a floppy disk.

You would think that if I knew all these minute scene details, I could remember the title, but I guess that is not how my memory works.

Any help on this, even if it is just a lead I can follow up on, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Wondergirl]

It's 1 a.m. here and the library is closed--otherwise I'd call. The children's department librarians get asked questions like this all the time. Give your library a call in the morning, and you just might get your answer.

P.S. I'm a librarian but all the ones I know are asleep.