Looking for a Childhood Book? Here’s How.
Looking for our antiquarian children’s bookstore?
Go to https://www.oldchildrensbooks.com
Looking for our antiquarian children’s bookstore?
Go to https://www.oldchildrensbooks.com
You are looking at a new website, same address, with all the features and more, right on this site! Thousands of queries and solutions from the last five years are all here.
The search below is an exciting addition: Search the Content: try Dragon, or Sister, or Christmas. Or click on the green bars, select Author and call up our experts like Mama Squirrel… or search your own contributions. You can also hide Replies for a quick visual search, follow Users, Edit using the Settings gear… and more!.
You can be notified of responses by signing in using your old Disqus password or you can establish a new one. “Subscribe” (upper left).
Many thanks to Kelvin Kathia of Journeybytes.com for figuring all this out very quickly.
Note: Children’s book queries only: all comments are moderated and thus take a few hours to appear here; ads, links to sales venues, and direct contact info will be deleted.
It will take Google a few weeks to connect with this new site since Disqus hasn’t functioned well since December. We welcome your comments now, but feel free to repost later in March. Suzanne
I’m looking for a book about a mother and her 3 boys, summer vacation starts and the boys start acting wild and crazy, like one climbing on the fridge and eating a jar of jelly beans. Their mother is so surprised by their behavior, she says that they’re acting like a bunch of monkeys. Eventually the boys end up turning into real monkeys and causing so many problems at the house their mom sends them to live at the zoo. Hope that’s enough info, thank you.
I’m looking for the name of a set of books (I’m sure they’re from the 80s) about an insect-sized alien that crash lands on Earth. The alien befriends the insects, who live in houses. One part I remember is the alien’s spaceship being washed down a drain pipe. Another, the alien and insects build a go-kart out of scrap materials.
Any help would be appreciated!
This may be the reading system you are looking for. The HBJ Treasury of Literature. It includes As quick as a Cricket and other titles included are ‘Silly Sally’ by Audrey Wood (which I am pretty sure is the title with the girl in the tutu you refer to) and Better move on, Frog.
There are accompanying audio books, big books, worksheets etc and while most editions are broken into grade level volumes with about 5 titles per volume, there does appear to be one large volume titled ‘Feast your eyes : HBJ Treasury of Literature’ Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, ©1993 (691 pages)
I’m looking for a full color childrens book read to me in the early 80’s about two cats on an adventure. At one point they paint themselves in colors so one cat has polka dots and the other stripes. I remember little else. Thank you
Looking for a children’s book from the 90s, about a girl named Megan who has different monsters come visit her, one monster is named Monty and thats all I can remember, please help!!
Hi all, hoping you can help me. I’m looking for a childrens book – from maybe the 60’s or 70’s? It’s for my friend who used to read it when she was growing up. The thing she remembers is that one side of the book had ‘good’ stories and nursery rhymes and then you could flip it over (back to front) and read ‘darker’ stories and nursery rhymes. I know its not much to go on so any help would be appreciated! 🙂
I’m looking for a book I would have read in the early 70s. It was a kids picture book. I I don’t remember a lot of plot but I think there was a parent and child. I remember there was a section about panda and tiger slippers and I believe they also flew kites. It flashes in my head from time to time but I’m never able to find anything. Thanks for any help!
I’m looking for a title for a book my mother read to me in the 90s, but it was already an older book, maybe from when she was a child. There’s an older lady who lives in the forest and she’s baking pies for the fair. She sets out to the fair with her pies all boxed up and piled high, but has to keep turning back for things, like an umbrella when it starts raining. The smell of the pies lingers through the forest and although she doesn’t make it to the fair after all, the forest friends and people alike, arrive at her home to enjoy her pies. Does anyone know of this book?
Was it from the 90s? Does he set up machines so he can jump into his clothes straight out of the bed?
I’m looking for an art drawing book from my old high school library circa 1994 (obviously could be decades older) and all I can remember is these alien creaures drawn with stick figure legs with little balls at the feet, no arms, round circular body, connecting to a long neck, circular head with one large circular eye, and long snout, and ending in a large per half circle nose. The nose was often used to vacuum/pick up and shoot cannon ball objects out of it. They were always viewed from the side. It was a very strange but cute art book.
I’m desperately looking for a book I used to have when I was 8 (during the 1990s era). It only had 5 pages and each page had a scene on. The first page was of a jungle, the second page was a garden, the third page was a desert, the forth page was the ocean and the fifth was a forest. It came with little fuzzy felt animals that matched each scene, and they had black cling material on the back, and you made scenes with them. I remember the first page said something like “jungles are hot, noisy places. I wonder who lives here?” or something like that. I remember a lot about this book…except for the book title.
Does this book sound familiar to anyone here?
I am desperately looking for the name of a children’s book of fairytales. It was beautifully illustrated and had some interesting stories, including one about why cats and dogs don’t like each other and one about a guy called Berthold, who’s a monk. It also had other more standard fairy tales. I think it was published in the 1980s. Thank you!
The book I’m trying to remember is a large picture book, and every screen took up two pages. All of the scenes were made up of every day items such as buttons,food, and just everything knickknacks. Some of the scenes I can remember are 1. An astronaut and his space ship 2. A house with a garage with a blue car 3. The inside of a living room 4. A class room 5 a school bus with chocolate doughnuts for wheels. This sounds like a stage book but I used to fascinate over each page and I can’t for the life of me remember. I thought it was an I spy book but non of them look like the one I’m remembering.
this is a little bit later (1986) but if it could have been just a smidge later, it might be worth taking a look at Good-bye Pink Pig by C.S. Adler.
Ten-year-old Amanda walks around feeling like the world’s biggest disappointment. Her beautiful, cultured mother doesn’t know what to do with her shy and unremarkable daughter. Her big brother Dale is kind to her and watches out for her, but their relationship is all but eclipsed by their mother’s expectations for Dale regarding going to an Ivy League school and putting that special shine to the family name. Her best friend Libby has always been a source of comfort, but things begin to shift when Amanda discovers a tiny, glass pink pig to add to her collection of miniatures. Pink Pig is different from her other toys. He’s real. When she plays with pink pig, she’s transported from her dull daily life to a world where all her miniatures live and are real. It’s during these times, and only during these times, that Amanda feels alive and loved. But no one will believe her when she tells them about Pink Pig. No one but her grandmother Pearly, who works as a janitor at the school Amanda attends, and who her mother tries to keep her from seeing as a rule. Embarrassed by her ex-husband’s working class mother, Amanda’s mother does everything in her power to keep the two separate. But when Pink Pig is lost, Pearly is the only one Amanda can turn to to fend off the bone crushing loneliness that threatens to engulf her.
You can read the book online for free at open library: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24626818M/Goodbye_Pink_Pig
Please help!
I’m looking for a children’s book of many short stories. May be called “childrens illustrated something of collected stories” or something along those lines. It includes quick as a cricket by audrey wood, some rhymes and songs, several stories with a ghost that wears a red and white sleep cap hat (one with the ghost playing with a dog, a beagle or hound), a story of a boy on a balcony, a story with a frog, a girl with crazy red hair dancing around in a bright orangy red tutu and stockings. Most of the stories have realistic artwork but some like with the tutu girl and ghost are either more cartoony or mixed. The book is a blue hardback with no pictures on the cover or back *i think*. The binding is off white with the title on the spine and possibly on the front. From the front it would look as if the left 1/5 is the off white and the right 4/5 is blue. The off white is glossy/matt paper covering, and the (light?)blue part is a canvas/cloth style. This is a book that was used in the 90’s as a kindergarten and first grade reading book for schools. In classrooms there would be 20-40 copies and each student would get one to follow along with a cassette tape that read aloud. Please help me find this book. There are so very few books i feel are for a lifetime and this is one i want even my great grand children to enjoy.
Looking for a book I read in the early to mid 90s about an enchanting parade of animals/children (?) led by a Faun type creature into the woods where they discover a magical abandoned carnival (I specificically remember the carousel) which they party at until dawn then back to home and parents. I think it might have been one of those customized books with your name in it but I’m not 100% sure.
Does anyone know the title of a juvenile novel from the 70s, about a young girl with a collection of glass animals? May have been a bit of a coming of age story. I remember her being quietly hurt when one of them is broken, and she moves from playing with the glass toys to more “mature” pastimes. It’s NOT “The Glass Menagerie.” (It is the reason I knew what menagerie meant when I got to high school.)
Looking for an illustrative children’s book, published between 1980-1990 and most likely Canadian or American. Demographic audience between 5-10 yrs old. Story is about a little girl and her mother going on a road trip somewhere. The mother drives a motorcycle and the little girl rides on the back. They stop at a hotel and stay in a room that is all blue – blue bedding, blue carpet, blue walls. Any help greatly appreciated!
There’s a book called Dirt Boy by Erik Jon Slangerup that might be it.
this is probably a long shot. So i read this book when i was about seven or eight roughly 2009. it was hardback landscape. i think it was a folkstory,i don’t remember much except it was beautifully illustarted (its a picture book) and the main character was a girl with long black hair i think she was sad and the moon was some how involved. my mother is irish so it could be celtic as she is the one whobought it she no longer remembers the name either.
Sorry about the extra m.
Sam, Bangsm and Moonshine.
Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine by Evaline Ness.
Samantha (usually called Sam) is a motherless child of a fisherman. To keep herself busy, she pretends that her mother is a mermaid and that Bangs, her cat, can talk to her. Sam also claims to have a pet kangaroo. She prefers her fantasies to reality but her father calls her tales “moonshine” and warns Sam that moonshine will one day lead her into great trouble.
Little neighbor Thomas eagerly believes every word Sam says. One day Sam tells the pleading boy of a not-too-distant cove where he can find her mermaid mother. Bangs follows Thomas on a journey to the cove; but, unfortunately, they are caught up in a seastorm and lost. At home, Sam becomes very frightened when Thomas and the cat don’t return, and she tearfully asks her father for help. Luckily, Thomas is found alive (Bangs is later found safe as well), but the boy is now ill. Sam finally understands the importance of telling people about things that are real, as opposed to things that are moonshine.
Sam apologizes to the sick little boy (who, the readers can safely presume, will make a complete recovery), and cheers Thomas up by showing him something that is both real and fantastical.
The last page of the book shows Thomas in bed, with the kangaroo rat – named Moonshine – sitting on top of him.
There’s a few authors who do books of this type. Joan Steiner made quite a few and the first one “Look-alikes” which was published in 1998 does have a very Polar-Express-esque train in it. It actually features on the cover when the book was re-published in 2003 as Look-alikes: the more you look the more you see. However there are some verses in this book so I’m not sure it’s the one you’re seeking.
It’s a picture book about a kid who goes outside to play in the mud, their mother tells them to come inside, they still don’t, it starts raining and the kid gets covered in more mud, turns into a mud monster, goes inside, wants cake, mother says mud monsters cant have cake, kid starts crying, mom washes them off and then gives the kid cake.
Looking for a children’s chapter book for a patron. She remembers it from her youth. Mom and daughter move (maybe out West), daughter wins a horse race and in one scene mom smokes a cigar w/ some men.
Hello everyone, I am hoping someone here can help me locate a book I owned in the late 1970s. (I don’t recall the title or author.) The book was beautifully illustrated and about a boy named Tom who had really big ears. He went on an adventure, through a wood and to a palace that was under and enchantment. The grounds were full of statues that had been people turned to stone (like Medusa). I believe the culprit was an evil wizard. Ring a bell? Thank you.
Is it The Mitten by Jan Brett ?
Im looking for a book prior to 1976 about a sick child and a kangaroo rat. The book was white hardbound. And I remember last page the kangaroo rat in childs bedroom.
Searching for a book about dust balls/dust bunnies. It was from the late 80s/early 90s and it was a press and sound book with different buttons down the side that corresponded to the pages in the book. Pink and blue. I wish I remembered more! I have a little girl now and would love to find it. My mom and I can’t remember the name. It was potentially a Disney book?
Hello. I am looking for a children’s book that I saw in late 2019. It was about every spirit, person, child, I can’t quite remember but each has a name.
Was it a puzzle book of some sort? How big was it? What age group was it for?
Thanks so much, but no, this is a story without any animals.
For the third one, it sounds like one of my childhood favorites – Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett.
Minx has never had a bath before. When her friend Frances and Frances’ grandmother make her take a bath for the first time: “The water promptly became as black as Madame Snickasnee’s hat, and at last Minx stepped forth as clean and shiny as a new dime.”
Minikin Snickasnee – called Minx for short – was nine years old and wished with all her heart that she was not a witch’s child. …
It may sound like fun to be the daughter of Madam Snickasnee and be forbidden to go to school, to wash behind your ears, or go to bed at night. You might even like to see certain people you know turned into potted plants and have your own flying broomstick. …
But Minx didn’t like riding around in the dark or cooking up horrid pots of Black Spell Brew. Even a witch’s child rebels, and one day, Minx sneaked off to school. …
As it turns out, Minx is not a witch’s daughter after all, but the kidnapped daughter of a nymph (which, in this book, is a type of fairy) named Moonfire. At the end, she is reunited with her real mother – and Madame Snickasnee is turned into an anteater.
Thank you!
Let’s give this a go: My local library (UK) had this picture book in the early 2000s. So far as I remember, there were no words, but on every page was a scene on a black background, made up of intricately placed everyday objects – pasta, AA batteries, and the like. The one I remember most clearly was a large steam locomotive, like the one in the Polar Express.
I found this one, but can’t find many details of it:
“Rusty the Little Red Dachshund” by Dorothy K. L’Hommedieu,
Charming vintage story about a Red Doxie who leaves home to have himself an adventure.
“Flipped” by Wendelin Van Draanen
Great book and great movie!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331920.Flipped
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0817177/reference
Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster by Berkeley Breathed (better known as the cartoonist behind the fabulous Bloom County strip)
“Sam the Lion is actually a priceless dachshund, bred to be a show dog. More important, he is Heidy’s best friend and she needs one like never before. Living with her reclusive uncle is hard, but Sam has a way of making her feel soft and whole. Until the day Sam is framed by the jealous poodle Cassius, and is cast out by Heidy’s uncle, alone on the wild streets, where he is roughed up by a world he was not bred for. Sporting a soup ladle for a leg, Sam befriends other abandoned dogs and journeys all the way to the Westminster Dog Show, where his plan for revenge on Cassius takes an unexpected turn when he and Heidy spot each other after years of being apart.”
For the first book, perhaps The Circus is Coming by Noel Streatfeild?
The two orphan children who are the protagonists in this have been brought up by a snobbish aunt (ex lady’s-maid to a duchess). When this formidable woman dies, the two children are faced with the prospect of being sent to separate orphanages. They are horrified at this and determine to run away. Remembering that their aunt would get a Christmas card every year from her brother Gus, a clown with a travelling circus, they decide to set out to find this unknown uncle.
When they track down the circus and appear on his doorstep,Gus is taken aback and,though he makes room for them in his caravan,he tells them that they they can only stay with him if they can adapt to circus life and learn to pull their weight as “There is no room for passengers in the circus”
VERY long shot on the second one – but maybe worth taking a look at The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter? It’s about a little girl named Lucy who is looking for her missing handkerchiefs and pinafore. The other animals can’t help her, but when she climbs a grassy hill behind the farm, she meets Mrs. Tiggy Winkle – a short, stout “person” (hedgehog) who is the animals’ laundress. She has found and cleaned Lucy’s missing items, and the two have tea and spend the afternoon together.
It’s just a little bit later (1971) but perhaps Little Lord Blink and His Ice Cream Castle by Geoffrey Charlton-Perrin?
“All his life, Little Lord Blink had lived in a castle of ice cream that was magical. No matter how much he ate, the castle was never smaller. But one day it began to melt, and Little Lord Bink didn’t know how to make it stop. A wise fatbird offered to help Bink find the solution. As they traveled the fatbird showed that the fish in the sea were never alone, that the biggest lions were kind to their cubs, that children give fun to each other.”
Long shot… maybe the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix? It does have disappearing children (the Piper’s Children, who are abducted by the Piper from the “real” world and brought to The House (an alternate universe) to serve The Piper.
The main character, Arthur, is trying to collect magical keys which will allow him to inherit control of The House.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keys_to_the_Kingdom
I’m looking for a children’s picture book about young boy and his stuffed bear. There is a page where he feeds his bear jam and milk and it gets sticky so the mother puts the bear in the washer and hangs it on the clothesline. There is another page where there is lady bear who is wearing a dress on is standing on a ladder and is getting a box off of the shelf. It has like a muted dark green cover. It’s either from the 1900s or the early 2000s.
What’s For Lunch, Charley? by Margaret Hodges:
Every day Charley passes the elegant King Charles Hotel and the fancy shops that surround it. When Charley complains about the lunch his busy working mother packs for his school day, his father jokes that Charley should have lunch at the hotel.
When Charley gets to school he sees that a new student, Rosabelle Ruggles, has joined the class. Dazzled by Rosabelle’s curly hair and pink nail polish, he forgets about the girl he used to like, friendly but plain Jane Lane, and immediately develops a crush on Rosabelle. There is no cafeteria in Charley’s school, so the students either go home for lunch or eat at their desks. Rosabelle has an unusually delicious lunch – fried chicken, tomato soup, fruit salad and chocolate cake. Charley watches with wonder as she unwraps each item.
On his way home from school Charley stops to talk to the King Charles’s affable doorman, Mr. Murphy. Inspired by Mr. Murphy’s kindness, Charley decides to stop in at the King Charles candy shop to buy a valentine…for someone. The candy shop clerk allows Charley to buy one piece of candy for a quarter.
Because the candy shop lady was so nice, Charley has the confidence to go inside the men’s shop next door and ask about the hatchet he saw in the window. The hatchet turns out to be the young employee’s old Boy Scout hatchet. Charley and the young man bond over the fact that Charley is a Cub Scout. Feeling really bold now, Charley decides to visit the lady’s shop next door…
Wait…WHAT? We were reading this sweet little story and now we’re talking about looking at beavers? Sorry, couldn’t resist. He’s talking about a stuffed beaver in the window of the shop. The beaver is so old and worn out that it can’t be used for show anymore and the shopkeepers agree to give him to Charley as soon as they change the window display for spring.
The next day starts off badly for Charley. He plays in the sink and makes himself late for school.
To add to his troubles, Charley has forgotten his lunch box. He sits in agony as his classmates take out their food and begin to eat. He notices that Rosabelle has the same large lunch she had the day before. Charley watches wistfully as Rosabelle eats, but Rosabelle doesn’t look at him or offer him anything. Jane volunteers part of her lunch, but Charley refuses, having decided to eat at the King Charles Hotel.
Charley meets Mr. Murphy outside the hotel and tells him he will pay for his lunch with a silver dollar his father gave him. Mr. Murphy tells Mrs. Ruggles, the dining room hostess, to let him take care of the bill. Once again, the King Charles Hotel staff exhibits extraordinary hospitality as Mrs. Ruggles kindly takes Charley’s order of chicken, tomato soup, fruit salad and chocolate cake. Charley isn’t able to finish his lunch and is stunned when the waitress brings him the bill and he finds out the meal cost more than three dollars. Luckily, his father walks in just then on a business lunch and agrees to pay the bill. Before he leaves, Charley finds out that Mrs. Ruggles is Rosabelle’s mother.
Charley catches up with his friend Wally, who saw him eating lunch at the hotel. They talk about Rosabelle and conclude that maybe she’ll start talking to them when she’s not so new. In the meantime, Charley is going to give his valentine to the more accessible Jane Lane because of all the nice things people did for him in this book, her offering to share her lunch was the nicest.
Welcome! Your second book is very likely City Under the Back Steps by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. Wonderful book!
Looking for a book, 60s to 70s, vaguely recall a more sketchy art style
Story is about a boy who walks past a fancy hotel everyday, with three stores- a chocolate shop, a beauty salon, and a clothing store. The hotel doorman saves some of his homework papers when they start to blow away in a storm; he buys some fancy chocolates for Valentines from the chocolate store; the lady who runs the clothing store gives him the stole/stuffed mink named Hector? Something with an H? Bc she’s going to retire/close the store soon.
I am looking for a children’s book published from the 30s-60s that featured a prince being carried by a large bird to another country. At the end of their journey, the bird dies.The book was hardback and mustard-colored.
I remember reading a book in the 80s about a black bird that is trying to communicate with a little girl, tapping on her window. I think I’m the beginning of the book your lead to believe the bird is bad but then you learn it’s not it’s just under some sort of spell and was a person turned into a bird years before. It was a beginner level chapter book. Anyone?
Hello, Have been looking for this childrens book for years, no luck. It is a book my mom said she thought was from the 50s? It is about a girl shopping with her mother ( NOT the book shopping with mother but very similar) at the beginning of the book the girl puts on boots and they stop at a perfume shop and other places. Thank you for any help !
Looking for a book about these kids who start disappearing and are sent to another world where they have to work for a tall black shadow. Once there they can only return home by collecting special keys, if return home and they wish to visit the place again they need to do a spell using crows feathers and sticks. I also remember that the were sent to work in a clock tower of some sort with gears, and the higher up they go that more challenging it is to escape. I read this book in middle school from 2010 to 2013. The cover was green and the inside of the book had illustrations every couple chapters
I remember a book about a tiger with a pink lollipop. It took place during the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The tiger also encountered the snake that tricked Adam and Eve. The tiger was standing on two legs. The snake was green.
Just spent the better part of the hour scrolling through this wonderful forum, hoped to help someone with their search but unable to so far. On to my question:
1. a paperback from the 50’s or early 60’s with a collection of stories about a princess with long golden hair (natch) and a fairy with a wild cloud of dark hair and a dress made of cobwebs and ?pearls (my fave). There was a prince or two, oh! and I think a young man named Robin. Some drawings, maybe black and white.
2. a library book, again in the 50’s or early 60’s, about children shrunk to the size of ants, who live with these sentient ants. it is where I first learned about ants domesticating and “milking” aphids ( a real thing, evidently).
3. a short paperback about a young witch who is filthy with grime and dirt and at the end emerges from the bath “shiny as a penny.”
So many great early book memories bubbling up!
Thanks to all.
Do you remember a children’s book about a man that tries to be so on time that he starts getting dressed before he goes to bed and such. Then he finds out that he doesn’t work so he goes back to a basic routine? I would love to remember the title! Do you remember the story? Thanks!
Does anyone know that book where a stuffed bear (or a boy. I don’t remember) is afraid of the dark and visits his other stuffed animal friends and gets a honey sandwich from his kitchen? It’s driving me crazy lol
Looking for a childrens book probably published before 1995. A group of animals receive a package of parts with no instructions. They put together various items. At the end the instructions for the machine are found in a tube/pipe.
Looking for a book I read in elementary school (2010-2015 I think)
I remember it started with the main character who was a boy, and he had a neighbor who was a girl. He disliked the girl and he was moving into the neighborhood. She helped him move in (they were both kids, the parents let them both carry boxes or whatever). I also remember she would climb some tree in the mornings and yell how many blocks away or whatever the school bus was. I also remember how the parents of the boy were wondering if the girl’s parents owned hens or roosters, since they heard chickens, and the boy and his friend, instead of asking, peeked over their fence and saw chickens, and just assumed chickens were different from hens and told his parents they were all chickens. I also remember that at the end when he liked her, he planted a tree in her front yard with the permission of her parents. I thought the tree was a willow or something but it just sounds wrong since willows are large. Thanks.
I am trying to remember the title of a small children’s book that my grandmother had in the 1960’s. The story is older than that because I Remember my dad who was born in 1936 mentioning this book once. The main character is a very skinny old man. I believe that is the main point of the story-how skinny he is. I believe wind may have blown him away. Also, I believe his wife was very big. The title of the book is either just his name or both of their names. Anyone happen to remember this book?
It Looks Like This, by Irma E. Webber.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
You’re welcome!
Oh, I recall these! I don’t remember the names, but there were two or three at least! Ack. If I think of it, I’ll share …. haven’t thought of these in years.
Okay I have absolutely NO IDEA when this book came out but I vividly remember reading it in late elementary school (2013 ish?). But I read this book about this dog who was like a show dog and spoiled and I think the other family dog (maybe it was a cat?) Attacked the families baby and the dog got the blame. It was then thrown out into the rain and he steps in a bear trap. It follows the dogs story till he was adopted. I’m pretty sure it was the kinda book that was mostly text with a few drawing sections but I might be wrong. Someone PLEASE tell me they know what book I’m talking about 😭 I’ve been searching for years. I THINK the dog was a coppery red dachshund but I could be wrong. It’s been forever and the details are fuzzy.
Looking for a book published before 2007 about a bunch of animals who go on a picnic or share a meal of some kind, but they invite too many people and they run out of traditional tableware and start using anything they can think of like pails and shovels and found items to make sure everyone has a plate/cup/spoon/fork!
Looking for two book from my childhood. First, two children, a girl and a boy, have their parents die and they go to live with their uncle in the circus. The girl learns to be an acrobat and I think the boy becomes a rider (not sure). Second, the story is about children who run into an old woman in the forest who tells them stories about a baby (and her adventures) named Tinklewinkle (or something like that) HELP
Anne McCaffrey’s dragon books? While the “tiny dragons” (fire lizards) are present in all of the Pern novels, they are especially prevalant in the Harper Hall trilogy: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums. (The other books focus more on the full-size dragons and their riders.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSkuSLYE-sA
Looking for two books!
1) 70s-90s picture book (muted palette, sketchy art style) about a boy who draws an imaginary friend on the wall of his bedroom (the friend is kind of monstrous looking), maybe while he’s home sick? When the kids mom finds out, she makes him wash it off the wall. The book ends with the boy drawing his friend very small on the wall behind his pillow. Not Harold and the Purple Crayon.
2) 90s picture book with richly colored, detailed illustrations of animals dressed up for a ball. All sorts of animals in bright clothing getting together for a ball in the forest at midnight.
Thank you!
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER a children’s book from before, say, 1960 that is about a bunch of mice who live in a barn, and one day, the farmer brings a cow into the barn. The mice are puzzled. “What is this creature?” The mice meet to talk about it. The mouse at the front door describes this creature one way. The mouse who lives in the rafters says, no no, it looks like this… The mouse that lives at the back door to the barn says, you’re both wrong, it looks like this… Anyone remember?
Perhaps A Gallery of Cats by Ruth Brown?
I am looking for a book series I read in the early 80’s for child really about 10 years old that was based on a mythical word with small dragons. The main character and others could bond to those tiny dragons and speak to them telepathically. The dragons could be many different kinds of vibrant colors. Some could sing, I think?
Glad I could help! Thanks for taking the time to post back.
“Celebrity cat” by:Hooper, Meredith
During their evening at an art gallery, all the cats are outraged to find so few paintings with cats. A young artist, Felissima Cat, decides to repaint some masterpieces to make them better. However, after much thought and travel, she realizes why there are so few paintings with cats.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/647775.Celebrity_Cat
Perhaps Mike and the Magic Cookies by John Buller?
From an online review: “Mike’s parents send him on an afternoon adventure to buy cookies from a local bake shop. He mysteriously ends up at an unfamiliar bakery where he meets an unusual baker who sells him cookies. When he returns home, he and his family begin eating the cookies when weird things start to happen to them! The family turns into animals that were the shape of the cookies they ate. Mike quickly returns to the bake shop and insists that the baker make new cookies to change his family back. He returns home with the new cookies and his whole family turns back into people except his cat! His cat is now permanently part cat, part duck!”
Boffo: The Great Motorcycle Race, by Frank Dickens.
Are you 100% sure it was a sweater – and not a mitten? That’s the plot of The Mitten (a Ukrainian folk tale) and Jan Brett illustrated a beautiful version of it in 1989.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVdHH-hGBQw
Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair by Patricia Polacco.
When the town of Triple Creek first built a huge TV tower, Aunt Chip took to her bed, promising, “there will be consequences.” Now, 50 years later, the townspeople are so obsessed with their televisions that they are oblivious to everything else. Of course, people still “use” books-as furniture, to fix crumbling walls, to patch up tattered roofs-but no one knows how to read. Finally, Aunt Chip, who used to be the town librarian, pops out of bed to do something about it. Beginning with her nephew, Eli, she teaches the children to read. Hungry for books, they take them from wherever they can be found. When Eli and his friends pluck a copy of Moby Dick from the dam, they unleash a wall of water that destroys the TV tower and changes the future of the town.
Mike and the Magic Cookies, by Jon Buller.
Are you sure it was a sweater and not a mitten? Jan Brett’s version of The Mitten is popular.
(Does the clothing item get overloaded, or do the animals just stay cozy?)
I remember a book from the early ’70s which had a group of children on a beach collecting shells possibly one in a pirate costume with a peg leg. Any help finding it would be greatly appreciated.
Looking for a book about a baby /toddler they go for a picnic and make mud pies out of the mud, he’s just in his nappy. I am 32 and I was around 3-5 when I read this. Thanks
I am looking for a book about 3 bunnies who are going to bed. It is one of my childhood books that my mom would read as I went to sleep in the early 2000’s. It was set in summertime and showed them coming in to the house and then taking a bath and brushing their teeth and being tucked in. The book was a lilac purple and if I remember correctly one of the bunnies was supposed to be a baby.
I’m looking for a book my grandma had. 1970s or 80s. A motorcyclist has a flat tire and fills his tire with milk. It turns into butter and fills the hole??
I’m trying to remember the name of a children’s book where a group of kids befriend an old man who makes toys out of junk. It was a picture book.
I’m looking for a book about a group of cats who take over art galleries across the world, it featured alot of iconic western artwork such as Van Gogh’s chair and the Henri Rousseau’s tiger in a tropical storm, all of which had a cat painted into them. (ie. a cat curled up on van goghs chair, the tiger replaced with a cat.) It wasn’t a part of any series, and I can’t really remember many other details other than the characters were very stylised and illustrative whilst the altered paintings were done in such a way that it matched the style of the painter. I believe it’s from sometime around 2000- 2014.
Hello! Im looking for a book where the plot was that a boy goes into some witches bakery and buys animal shaped cookies for his family, but when they eat the cookies they turn into the animal of the cookie. It was a picture book and i think it might’ve been called animal cookies or something like that.
I can’t remember much about this book other than I think the main character’s name was in the title and had something to do with a train. It looked at her friendship with another girl, and I remember a small plot point that had something to do with dark omens that brought on death. This was read in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
I’m looking for a children’s book that I used to read to my daughter. It was her favorite. It was about a sweater left outside in the snow that would enlarge every time an animal crawled inside to get warm. It was from the late 80’s or early 90’s and beautifully illustrated. She is now pregnant with her first child and I would love to get the name of the book. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Phone Book by Jan Pieńkowski
Ring, Ring, Ring Hello, I’m busy. I’m reading a book This ringing romp stars a variety of wacky pop-up animals–a cat, dog, rabbit, bear, and octopus–who are all too busy to talk on the telephone. Readers will have a blast flipping the pop-up pages and pushing the button to make each animal’s phone ring.
Possibly the Childhhood of Famous Americans series? They started printing them in the 1930’s – and I believe they’re still in print today. There have been a number of different covers. The recent paperback copies have blue covers. Some of the oldest hardcover versions had orange covers, while later versions had multicolored covers. You can see examples here: http://librarianbooksforchildren.blogspot.com/2014/08/great-biography-books-for-children.html
That sounds like the Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald.
The part with the first flush toilet (and “great brain” Tom charging the neighborhood kids to come see it) is in the first book, titled The Great Brain. The narrator of the story is Tom’s younger brother, J.D.
Animalia by Graeme Base?
I’m trying to find a book about a small town who stopped reading books and only used them to help hold tables and pillars in place and kids visit this lady who tells them why no one reads books anymore and that there used to be a librarian but no one has seen her since they tore down the library and told the kids that if they want to read books they have to take them from the town but can’t tell anyone can someone tell me what this book is called I used to love reading it when I was younger
“The Secret Country” by Jane Johnson
Ben wants a Mongolian Fighting Fish more than anything. But when he goes to Mr. Dodds’s Pet Emporium with his hard-earned savings, he buys a cat instead. He doesn’t have a choice, really. The cat insists.
Iggy (as the tabby likes to be called) has been kidnapped from his home, a parallel worldknown as the Secret Country. And as the two soon discover, Iggy is not the only animal to fall victim to the pet-store owner’s devious scheme: Mr. Dodds is stealing the Secret Country’s magical creatures and selling them to England’s rich and curious. Being away from their homeland causes the creatures with any connection to the Secret Country to be
under immediate threat. What’s more, it seems Ben’s mother is their
long-lost queen.
With his mother’s life hanging in the
balance, it’s up to Ben to play his part in an ancient prophecy and
prove he’s worthy of the title of Prince of Eidolon.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1075673.The_Secret_Country
I am looking for a book about a child who took his savings to a pet shop to buy a fighting fish but was talked into buying a talking cat, the cat talked him into it. From there a series of adventures. Sorry can not recall details but remember my children loved it. Probably teen or young adolescents.
Favorite Tales of Monsters and Trolls by George Jonsen?
Contains The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Trolls and the Pussy Cat, and The Stone Cheese.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff: Three billy goat brothers are having a problem with a troll who lives under a bridge. They want to cross over to a greener pasture, but are blocked by a troll. As the first two goats cross, they tell the troll to wait for his older brother. When the biggest goat crosses, will he be scared by the troll or will he do what goats do best?
The Trolls and the Pussy Cat: In this story, a hunter is traveling home to present the king with a gift: the polar bear he has just captured. He and the bear stop for the evening at a cottage. The farmer tells the hunter that trolls are coming to bother them that night, and the hunter tells them not to worry. The bear is inexplicably tame, and the family, the hunter, and the bear settle down for the evening. But what will happen when the trolls arrive and find the “pussy cat” (bear) sleeping under the table?
The Stone Cheese: This story is similar to the Billy Goats Gruff in that there are also three brothers, but these boys are humans and not goats. The brothers have been tasked with bringing back firewood, but they are plagued by a troll. It is up to the youngest brother to trick the troll- but all he has is a piece of cheese. Can the youngest brother bring home firewood for his family?
I read a book series in the 70s/80s that was about kids in the late 19th or early 20th century. One scene had one of the kids kicking a brother/sister in church, signaling it was time to take over paying attention because their dad always quizzed them about the sermon at dinner. Another scene had the family getting the first flush toilet in the neighborhood, and one of the kids charging a nickel or something to let people come see it flush. Thanks for any hints!
Looking for a biography set of books that all had blue covers written for elementary students that date back to the 1940-1960s; Love to know the name of the authors/series; individual books on the individual people such as George Washingto, Abramham Lincoln as a boy, etc. Thanks for all your help in advance.
Hi I’m searching for an older picture book. From what I can remember it was a alphabet/where’s Waldo style book with animals that wore human attire and went to work and such. It gave almost an Alice in wonderland vibe but less cartoony
Some overlap with ‘The Freak’ by Carol Matas, though there’s a lake rather than an island and I’m not sure about the boy and/or the bear.
Seeking an early elementary children’s book that was one I adored but can’t remember title or author. It had 3 short stories , 1980 ish…one of the stories was 3 Billy goats , another was of 3 brothers with cheese involved somehow and the third seemed to have trolls in it but not positive. I’m dying to find it !!!
Child of the Holocaust: A Jewish Child in Christian Disguise by Jack Kuper
One day, when Jacob Kuperblum was eight, he came home to his town in Poland. His family and friends were gone, rounded up by the Germans only hours earlier. He would never see them again.
Thus begins a journey of survival as a young boy travels from town to town in a desperate search for safety and shelter, growing up in fear, deprived of his home and his people — and even his identity. All that survived was his spirit — and his indomitable will to live. Child of the Holocaust is the acclaimed account of Jacob Kuperblum — an unforgettable and moving tale of adversity and triumph.
This is the actual account of the early life of Jankele Kuperblum, (Kubush) aka Jack Kuper, a Jewish resident of Poland during this time.
Thank you so much! That’s it!
You’re welcome! Thanks for posting back!