Whoops! Flat Stanley is looking for a book! His own book, first issued in 1964, with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer. He won’t find a nice copy! It’s a very rare book.
Every day we receive emails from people searching for childhood books. I’m sorry but we no longer research emailed book queries. Please read this page carefully and you may find some alternate ways of searching for your book yourself.
You can also post your query on the Looking for a Book Page.
Other Children’s book ID services
Loganberry Bookhttp://w1.loganberrybooks.com/stumpthebookseller/about/s home page.
Look through other people’s queries and Solved Mysteries; post your own book query. See this Loganberry page for images of children’s storybooks or anthologies: Loganberry Books Anthology Page
The Abebooks Community Forum/ Book Sleuth/ Children’s section has about 18000 discussions. A little hard to track down and you have to sign in to access it but the book may be there!
It’s in there somewhere: ABE Books Advanced Search
Abebooks Advanced Search.
For best results use only: Title, Author, Date Range, and Keywords. You will be able to limit your search further once you reach the results page. This is the best book search engine on the net, from a huge Canadian company originally started by booksellers. Millions of books of all kinds from dealers all over the world, some not found in libraries.
Most of the English language books ever published: WorldCat
World Cat lists entries from catalogues of libraries in English speaking countries around the world. You should limit your search at least to Format:Book, and Audience:Juvenile. You can do this on the advanced search page or once you arrive at the results, using the left hand column, as with abe. Often you can find more about the content of a title by going to an individual library holding. (Because you won’t get as many duplicate titles, Worldcat works better for common titles than Abe or Amazon.) If you have access to a university reference library, you can access a more WorldCat reliable search.
Ask the Golden Book expert: Steve Santi
For a Little Golden, Elf, or similar book, try the forum on: https://www.thesantis.com
Pictures are best:
Once you have narrowed down a possible title, try Amazon.com or Google.com Images for an image. The colour option on Google is working better and better. It’s a real help. I have started using Images on bing.com also, something about the quality and the layout makes IDs easier. Amazon and Google pictures are not accurate though, so use the “Seller Supplied Pictures” (not the Stock pictures) on Abebooks for specific editions. (Look in the left hand column to limit your search to these.)
A few words can help:
If all you can remember is a few words, try Google.com.
Put the words in quotes.
Use only one or two, essential, easily-spelled, keywords.
Try this sample Google search: “I think I can” train
Remember that one?
Selling One or Two Books.
Selling Venues: Probably the easiest place for an individual to sell books with an ISBN is on Amazon. Look up your book, click on the picture, then look in the blue box for “Have one to sell?” and click on “Sell yours here.” Amazon’s instructions for selling are very clear. If, and only if, Amazon has listed the book in the past, will you be able to list also. Ebay is also very easy and inexpensive to use for a few books and it allows you more room to describe the books.
Pricing: For pricing your book, it is easier and more accurate to use Abebooks Advanced Search to find a price. Then double check on Amazon because prices there are often different.. Amazon’s Search is really not set up for out of print books.
Condition, especially the presence of a jacket if called for, and publication data are extremely important, but just record what you see, don’t try to grade or ascertain edition and printing. The more care you put into describing your books, the more likely you are to sell them.
Note: We do not purchase books online, sight unseen. Please do not offer them to us. Thank you. If you have a collection or several rare books you are interested in selling to us, especially if you live in the Northwest, please look on the Buying and Selling Book Page.
Finding and Valuing an Older Book.
- Our wonderful book sleuths on Looking for a Book will help. I’ll also see your query as I moderate the Forum.
- We never value a book over the net, nor do other reputable booksellers. If you have an older book which seems to have value, you might want to look at the Buying and Selling Books page.
- Look through the suggestions below. If the process seems too complicated, we are pleased to recommend an very experienced children’s specialist bookseller who does formal book searches and keeps a want list for customers.
Describing a Book
- Basic Information:
- The latest possible year of publication, i. e. before (date).
- Your estimate as to the range of possible publication dates.
- Picture book or children’s novel
- Source: Library? School? An older family book?
- Anything at all you remember about the book:
- Title,
- Author,
- Illustrator,
- Binding,
- Size,
- Phrases or refrains,
- Bits of plot.
- Illustrations: the quickest way to ID, the hardest quality to describe.
- Colour?
- Separate plates or in text?
- Style?
- Other illustrators the pictures call to mind?
Choose your search words carefully:
- Unusual words really help: wallaby works better than bear as a search word.
- Names which could be spelled in various ways are hard to search; Peatie Peety Petey Peetie Peaty
- Words which could be hyphenated or not also take time, especially with older books which may follow different conventions: dog house, dog-house, doghouse
- Avoid abbreviations, they could be spelled out or not: Dr/Doctor. Mr./Mister Co./Company Inc./
- Avoid possessives, although sometimes it doesn’t matter.