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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
Sadly, no. I was hoping someone here would be able to help.
Hi, I’m looking for a children’s picture book about a boy who lived with his grandfather, who was a fisherman. One day the boy went to town and was captured by pirates. He sailed with them as they met captain Nemo and Robinson Crusoe. The pirates captured treasure from the Spanish but were later ambushed and all captured except the boy, who kept a neckless, and one other pirate. They go to a Dutch inventor, who has a flying ship, and together they rescue their fellow pirates by dropping a bee hive on the Spanish governor, who had an injured foot. I believe the book was printed in the 1980’s and was large with a predominately blue colored cover.
My forty year old daughter is looking for a favorite childhood book about a character named Muffin who didn’t want to move to another house. Muffin spent her time collecting belongings, one by one, declaring each object would NOT be leaving and neither would she. If anyone knows the title of this book (or the author’s name), I’d love to surprise my daughter. Thanks. Rebekah
That sounds like Moving by Wendy Watson (1978).
“When Mom and Dad make plans to move to a new house, Muffin decides to remain in the old one.”

good morning – some help please, as i remember it – its a childrens picture book and only have parts of the books story as follows, a farmer/young boy sows and grows food in four fields south east West north, and one of the fields (i think west) is guarded or haunted by some sort of mythical beast and nothing grows or can be sown in the west field, and the farmer wants to use the field and has to over come this problem. any idea anyone ? please assist – Thank you
Possibly Tops and Bottoms by Leslie Conger?
“A clever and hard-working farmer manages to outwit a goblin in this folktale from England’s Northamptonshire, splitting his crop with his opponent three times, and managing to come out with the better part of the bargain in each case. The drama begins when the farmer, never having understood why his west field had to law fallow – a custom inherited from his father – decides to cultivate it, and is immediately confronted by the goblin, who demands his crop. Convincing his adversary to take half of the crop (but to allow him to do all the work), the farmer plants corn when the goblin demands the bottoms, and carrots when he chooses the tops. But when, having grown tired of being bested, the goblin instead divides the field itself into two halves, and states that whoever finishes harvesting their share of the crop first will get everything, it looks like the farmer’s luck has run out. Or has it…?”
If it’s not this one, it’s most likely another variation of the same folk tale.
Hi, I’m looking for another children’s book in once saw in the library around 1980 in the easy reader picture book section. I really enjoyed it a lot. It was about some boys who went out trick or treating on Halloween, and the main character was dressed in a greenish cat suit costume where you could tell that shoe soles had been sewn into the feet and a mask area covered the eyes. When they finally appeared at this one house where this old lady did, the others dared the main character to investigate it. When he said no, one said, “Now I know what kind of cat you are. You are a scardy cat.” So the main character goes ahead and does, and after he manages to get up on the porch (and maybe into the house), he discovers the woman lying on the floor. “She’s dead!” He goes. The page of him examining her showed him cautiously leaning down for a closer look in an illustration spread over two pages. He wasn’t sure what to think because “he had never seen a dead person before.” As it turned out, she wasn’t dead, she was rushed to the hospital to take care of her. The last page shows that later on (the next day?) he discovered a small bsg with cookies or something and a note that read “Thank you”. “But (his name) knew who it was from,” were the story’s last words. Anyone know what it is?
Old Mother Witch, by Carol Carrick.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2147926.Old_Mother_Witch
I am looking for a children’s book- possibly published by Scholastic 1990-1995. About a littles boys birthday party. It starts by him waking up up to his birthday- most memorable lines “Hooray Hooray I’m 5(?) today! I’ll never be 4(?) again”
He preps the for the day – his sister (Charolette maybe) is a bit poo-pooey about the day. His friends come.. the gifts he gets.
Help?
Looking for a book of fairy tales put out by Whitman Publishing Company, in Racine, Wisconsin, somewhere in the 1940’s or 50’s, entitled, simply , Fairy Tales. which is ‘retold’ by Katharine Gibson and illustrated by Isobel Read. It has 22 well known, and a few not so well recognized fairy tale stories. The book is approximate 12” by 6” with 224 pages. Most of the illustrations are pen and ink.


The 2nd page has printed ‘Copyright, MCML, with publishing company and ‘Printed in U.S.A
Any ideas as to where I may find this book? I appreciate any leads.
You have enough information to find this book on ebay, amazon, or abebooks.com. Use the Advanced Search on abebooks. Suzanne
I’m looking for a children’s book, most likely from the late 90’s/early 00’s. It follows a girl and a boy, the boy having washed up on a beach when young, who are the only children left in their village. The other children have disappeared, and it turns out they were kidnapped to work in magical mines. The girl and boy enlist the help of a magician and his assistant, the magician turns out to be actually magical, but he has run out of magic (?) There were several books in the series. In a later book the magician and assistant marry, and the magician has a pooka friend. Very vague I know but this has bugged me for years!
That sounds like The Witch Trade (book 1 of the Night Witches series by Michael Molloy).
The two children are Abby (whose parents disappeared years ago, so she has been raised by her aunt and uncle) and Spike, who was found by Abby’s uncle Ben on the shore. The town is called Speller, and the Night Witches have kidnapped and enslaved all of the children.
“Abby and Spike are drawn into a world of witches, hidden caverns, fabulous boats, captive children, lost parents, and a quest to find Ice Dust – the source of magical power. With their strange new companions – Captain Starlight, Benbow the giant albatross, and Sir Chadwick Street, flamboyant Master of the Light Witches – they hurtle through perilous seas, face fearsome monsters, and do battle with an enemy darker and dirtier than they could ever have imagined.”
“The evil Night Witches have invented a powerful new weapon and are threatening to take over the world — and only Abby and Spike can stop them! Joined by Captain Starlight (aka the Ancient Mariner), Abby and Spike must travel through perlious seas and wild lands to reach the dark lair of the Night Witches. Can their ragtag bunch defeat the evil Night Witch forces before it’s too late?”
The other books in the trilogy are The Time Witches and Wild West Witches.
The Time Witches includes Paddy the Pooka and two of the characters getting married:
“Abby Clover travels back in time with Sir Chadwick to stop Wolfbane and his mother Lucia Chesseman from committing unspeakable evil and rescue Hilda Bluebell. With the help of Mandini, Spike, Starlight, Paddy the Pooka, Jack Elvin and the elves; Abby and Sir Chadwick foil Wolfbane’s scheme and return Torgate to its seaside town splendor.”
“We meet old characters and new as Sir Chadwick and Hilda Bluebell are about to get married but the evil Wolfbane and his equally devious mother are set to spoil things by going back in time and causing chaos!”
I’m sorry I don’t have much to describe all I know is it was a chapter Book made into a movie and I think it published between 2001-2009 i’m more strongly thinking rather 2001, 2006, or 2009 I could be wrong about all three though. It was about a boy and a girl and their life around them. The book would writing their perspective every other chapter. The boy and girl where both neighbors and the girl had like the boy since they first met. She had fell in love with him the first moment she laid eyes on him. They where very young and the boy was just moving in. On the boy’s perspective when he first saw her he thought she was very annoying and dirty. The story progresses on years later when they are both in middle school or high school? The boy starts being interested in her but the girl had stopped thinking about the boy.
Looking for a book, of short stories where 2 boys solve problems through magic and science.
I have been searching for a book that is a collection of poems for children. My grandmother bought it for me and my sister in the early 60s. My mother would read it to us and we LOVED it. Mom would do silly voices and we would laugh until we cried. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the book. But it had the poem The Swing, Fuzzy Wuzzy, The adventures of Isabel, one about a crocodile and no it wasn’t one of those books with 200 poems and over the top illustrations. Not the Treasury of Children’s poems or the Random House one. I wanted to buy it for my mother’s 80th birthday. It has such happy memories for us. Thank you for any help.
I’m looking for a historical fiction novel which I read in the 1980s though it could be older. It was set in the English Fens in the 1600s when the fens were being drained with the help of the Dutch. The heroine was a teenage girl who got around the fens in a little boat, raft or coracle. I think there was something in the plot that related to the fear of witches at the time – maybe her grandmother was suspected of being a witch and by association she was? As I remember, she was a bit of an outcast who used her boat to get around unseen. She befriends a Dutch boy/young man and there may be a suggestion of a romance between them by the end. He’s certainly kind to her whereas other people aren’t. Does this ring any bells with anyone?
Cancel the search! It’s ‘Many Waters’ by Violet Bibby. Just found it on Worldcat.
Thanks for writing back. Sounds good.
PLEASE help if you can. Nursery rhyme book from either late 70’s or early 80’s. Each rhyme has a different ending than the original story.
I remember so many examples but can’t find the book by googling all of this.
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
eating her curds and whey
When along came a spider who sat down beside her
And said, “Is this seat taken?”
Another:
Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill escaped with a few minor injuries
Another one:
Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And one pale pink petunia.
And this one:
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
She took a bus
I also feel like it had a little saying either at the end of the book or beginning that said something like,
Spring Summer Winter Fall
It’s the nicest time of all…
Thanks in advance!!!!!!!
Seems to me I saw some of these in a school reader from about the time.
Crazy Magazine #77 also did “Mother Goose’s Rejected Nursery Rhymes,” if that’s at all a possibility.
This type of book is usually described as “fractured nursery rhymes.” Typical titles: Mary Had a Little Jam; New Adventures of Mother Goose. Your time frame might help narrow it down a bit more.
These snippets seem too late for your book, but might help jog your memory for The World’s Best Funny Rhymes – Page 74
books.google.ca › books
Along came a spider who sat down beside her And said , “ Whatcha got in the bowl , sweetheart ? ” Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet , Eating her curds and whey . Along came a spider who sat down beside her And said , “ Is this seat taken ?
Joseph Rosenbloom – 1989 – Snippet view – More editions
Laughs, Hoots & Giggles – Page 372
books.google.ca › books
Along came a spider who sat down beside her And said, “Whatcha got in the bowl, sweetheart?” Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider who sat down beside her And said, “Is this seat taken?” Hickory …
Joseph Rosenbloom – 1984 – Snippet view – More editions.
“For titles,” that should have said.
very early 1960s story about a Mexican boy (Miguel, maybe? Manuel?) who did NOT want to take a bath, but it was festival day….he had lots of sisters and THEY are took their baths…and he had to take a bath, too. Remember illustrations being somewhat like Ferdinand the Bull so tried looking for Robert Lawson illustrated books but haven’t come up with it. Any idea on the title of this one?
Angelo, the Naughty One.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3549328-angelo-the-naughty-one
That sounds like Angelo, the Naughty One by Helen Garrett. Miguel is the name of Angelo’s younger brother.
“Very much afraid of water was Angelo who lived in a lovely Mexico city full of fountains and gushing streams. He even ran away from home to avoid getting clean for his sister’s wedding. Yet he wanted to be a soldier, and it was the soldiers who took a hand in making him fit for the wedding and too proud ever to be a ragamuffin again. Gay, humorous pictures with a Mexican background make an engaging book.”




Looking for a children’s book. The plot is that a Native American Brave breeds the best horses in his tribe. He is very sought after for marriage and when he decides to take a wife many fathers present their unwed daughters. Some are good cooks and some are good hunters/some have other skills etc.. The fathers all demand a specific number of horses in order to purchase the right to marry their daughter. However, the Brave chooses a girl based on her personality and pays with his entire herd of horses despite the father asking very little for his daughter. No idea as to the name. Thanks!
Looking for a childrens book that I had as a child. From what I can remember the main character was a long haired blonde lady almost hippy looking, she was on the cover with birds and all I remeber in the end she had this beautiful peacock dress on … it was very highly illustrated, she may have been a kidnapped princess or omething along those lines. I could have sworn it was called songbird or Birdsong but apparantly not.
Other than being blonde and the pic being on the cover, your description of the picture sounds like one of my favorite books as a kid: Jennie’s Hat by Ezra Jack Keats.
https://youtu.be/F8T8RBmZ2ow?t=152
I’m looking for a book from the late 80s or before . A family moves into a house with their kids and there’s a trunk upstairs. They play hide and seek, and a kid disappears. Randonly over the years they’ll smell something decaying, but the trunk is empty when they look. Their little girl has a friend over and she decides to get some play clothes out of the trunk, but the clothes she’s playing with are ones the mom doesn’t remember putting into the trunk. I think the premise is that you find in trunk what you think is in it, whether it’s a great hide-and-seek spot, some fancy cloth and clothing for dress-up, etc. I know the story but have no idea of the name
i’m looking childrens book about a man and a misterious book that appears in his kitchen. The story goes more or less as follows:
The man lives his life, he then finds a blue book and when he touches it to open it he realices it is wet on the cover. The cover was blue because it was the ocean, and he sticks his finger inside and a shark bites it, over the course of the story, the color of the cover changes, just as the ocean changes color with weather and climate and stuff… he then procedes to open the book and it is a bestiary or encyclopedia, it contains all sorts of creatures in tiny tiny form, and the creatures can go in and out of the book. The story ends on a note like “the man notices he is shrinking down in size as time passes”
i don’t remember much of the story, but that’s basically it.
Other clues:
it was a childrens book (as seen on title)
i think it was from scholastic or from one of those bookfairs
it was pubblished before 2007 i think
Thanks for writing back. Sounds like a sweet book, Suzanne
Hi, I’m looking for a childrens book from my childhood in the 80s/early 90s about a little girl who’s mom accidently sells her favourite doll at a yard sale. But then she finds an old stuffed mouse that can talk to her I think. From memory I think the cover was pale yellow with an illustration of the girl, who was black with braided hair, and the mouse who i think was grey. I think the title had a name in it that began with Z. Either the girls or mouses name. Please help! Thank you
I’m looking for an illustrated book that I only had a few pages of in the 90’s. It was a collection of stories, one story has a poor mother sewing her kid stuffed animals out of rags for christmas, because she couldn’t afford to buy presents, and everyone who saw them wanted them too, in the end she had her own business. The other story is about a dowry or a coin that’s thrown in a well or something like that, and some guys being scared of the monster that was down there that didn’t actually exist. The only one brave enough to go there got to marry the girl. The other story has a girl with white hair in a river washing clothes in winter (I think). Thank You!
Have you been able to find this book? I too would love to find it!
I’m looking for a book that I had in the early 90s; it would have been from then or the late 80s. It was a younger children’s learning/encyclopedia book. I think it taught about how people live and how things are done. Unfortunately, I can’t remember many specifics, except that there were a lot of full color drawings, not pictures, that would cover all of a page or two pages. The only one I remember clearly is a drawing showing how bottles move through a (milk?) bottling plant. From what I remember, it was hardcover and there was a good amount of white on the cover. I think it was the size of a DK Encyclopedia, roughly. My mom thinks the title might have been something like “How Things Work” or something like that. But I’ve googled lots of children’s books from that era with similar titles and haven’t been able to find what I’m looking for, so I’m hoping there’s someone here with a better memory than we have. Thank you for any help you can give!
I’m trying to find a children’s picture book that was a picture book about two opposite cats and one was really clean with a pink girly bedroom and the other was a scruffy cat who left muddy paw prints everywhere, I can’t even remember the plot but at the end I believe they switched roles and became friends.
I’m looking for an old children’s book that I read in the mid to late 1950’s. I don’t think it was a Golden Book but it did have that kind of look and feel (hard paperback), though I think it might have been larger, “taller” than a Golden Book. A boy find a key at the base of a tree in his backyard (I think the key is golden in color) and it lets him into a fairy world which I think is located inside or in the root system of the tree. He dines there with fairies at a banquet. He emerges from the tree (I think) after this experience, and then cannot get back again because he loses the key and cannot find it again. If this rings a bell with anyone, PLEASE let me know.
Possibly The Magic Key by Mary Francis?



You can see the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMPcutjNnrE
I’m looking for a very short counting book for children. It only went to the number 5 and started out “One tiny tiger”. I’m not sure of the order but the remaining animals were monkeys, lions, parrots, and hippos. It had a flexible cover.
Need help trying to find a story which I used to read Mid 70’s but may be much older as I think it was a fairytale. Basically had stones on a hillside which would cry out and if you looked at them you also turned to stone. Think it ended with a young boy somehow getting all the stones to turn back into people and they all went back to the village. Thank you.
I’m looking for a children’s book about a mom telling her about the day she was born and wanting red toenails so she would look good for her new baby. I would read this to my daughter when she was little and she is now expecting her first. It would have been the early to mid 90s
I am looking for a picture book circa 1950’s about Lapland. The middle spread was a gorgeous pastel-like drawing of the northern lights. I think the story line was about the migration of reindeer, but I was young and completely caught up in the beautiful drawings!
I’m looking for a children’s plbook with pictures, wider than it was tall, hardback glossy pages, dust jacket was off white and a picture of two brothers in chef outfits they were plump but not fat. Art had a hand drawn with colored pencils feel.
The book was about two brother who baked bread and made jam, they were hiding gold coins in the jam jars. Their sister Violet who went by vi figured it out, disguised herself and order jam on bread and would spit the coins into a bag until she had gotten it all back.
Thank you!
Sounds hilarious. Haven’t found anything yet, though!
Where did they get the gold coins from? Was there something magic going on?
I found a copy today! The Darling Boys, by M.C. Helldorfer.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3124844-the-darling-boys?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=0CVC8hoBbS&rank=33
I’m looking for a children’s picture book (probably from the 70s or 80s as I had it in the late 80s or early 90s) about an animal looking for its home. The pages have large cutouts to represent different animal homes. I remember a brown bear and an ant so I was thinking Eric Carle, but I can’t find anything online. The copy I had was a spiral-bound board book. Thanks in advance!!
Searching for a child’s book from the 60s/70s with a record player built into it that you turn with your finger to hear audio. It was a fairy tale book “The Golden Goose.” I remember a man who ate a pile of rolls as high as a house but was still famished, and a girl who wanted one golden feather to buy all the new dresses she could dream of. It was so unique and unlike any other book available at the time. Anyone remember this or can provide more information?
While searching, I discovered the Fisher Price talk to me books from the 70s and 80s. The book I am searching for is a lot like these! But did not require a device to be held over the tiny record. Instead, you turn it with your finger, using a small disc that is on top of the record (if I am remembering correctly). Still searching.
Looking for a book possibly titled “the first snow” or “the first snowfall” although that may be totally wrong. It is a children’s picture book using animals as the characters. I can’t remember the main character, a bear or hedgehog or something but he is walking in his neighborhood and seeing his neighbors getting ready for the first big snow. One neighbor is putting bird seed in the feeder, one is bringing home books from the library, one is getting apples to make pie. Then the snow come and it shows all the neighbors doing their thing (reading books, feeding birds, etc) and the main character gets his sled to go sledding. It says something like “and Harvey got his sled and went to the tallest hill he could find and slid down the hill” Something like that….
Found it! Geraldine’s Big Snow!! Yay!
Sadly that is not the book
I’m looking for a book, probably written in the 60s-70s for middle school aged children. It was about a girl who went back in time through a closet and would live as a little girl back in time. Eventually she would get sent back after entering the closet again. I have been given the book Jessamy, which is similar, but I’m not sure that’s the right one. I want to say the main character might have been named Julia or something similar.
I’m looking for a scary childhood picture book that both me and my younger brother remember. We read it around the years 2006-2009 ish? I remember a boy walking through a cave I think always calling out “who’s there?” And the response was “nobody” and at the end it was this terrifying monster with no body. It’s really bugging me that I can’t remember it.
I am looking for an illustrated children’s book from the 1980s (may be late 70s?) – I think a child was exploring outdoors among trees (in a park?), and the illustrations were very detailed and delicate, and the leaves/foliage had hidden items in them if you looked hard enough. It was magical. I loved reading it about the same time as Jeannie Baker’s first collaged books, so I think it must have been a similar date (about 1983). Thank you!
It’s *probably* not this one, as much takes place indoors, but some of the elements (hidden items, detailed drawings, park-like ending) are there and it’s outside. And we all loved it.
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIKfFWCByVI
I’m looking for a children’s book: one night in this little seaside town, the wind blows so hard, that a creepy old gray man wearing dirty raggedy clothes arrives.
At first the towns people take him in, but he soon becomes devilish and unbearably negative. Eventually the wind blows him away again…
or something like that!
The illustrations were very.. pencil-y? I hope someone knows what I’m talking about!
Perhaps The Wizard Comes to Town by Mercer Mayer?
Hi, I am looking for a book that I read in the UK in the early 80s (it might have been published a bit earlier than that). It was set in the UK during World War 2. It was almost certainly a paperback borrowed from a library, and would have been classified as a ‘children’s book’ (novel) back then, though the subject matter and tone suggests it would be ‘young adult’ now. All I can remember of the plot is a scene near/at the end when one or more enemy soldiers (or possibly escaped POWs) are lined up having been captured, and a young boy who’s watching sees that the man/one of the men has wet himself, and realises how frightened he is. But it’s not written as bluntly as that, a phrase is used, something like “suddenly he saw a dark stain appear on the inside of his trouser leg”. This scene had extraordinary power for me as a young reader, conveying very chillingly the sense of terror this man felt at being captured and potentially impending death (I think there may have been guns being waved around, maybe a hint of a summary execution??). Not much to go on I know; any suggestions gratefully received.
Im looking for a hard cover picture book about dogs at a party that are trying to solve a mystery and it turns out to be mice behind a secret door. I red this book back in the early 2000s
Piggins, by Jane Yolen.
Just throwing this out there – it doesn’t have dogs, but it does have other animals having a party, a mystery, and mice. Take a look at The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base.
“The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery is an illustrated children’s book by Graeme Base. In it, Horace the Elephant holds a party for his eleventh birthday, to which he invites his ten best friends (various animals) to play eleven games and share in a feast that he has prepared. However, at the time they are to eat—11:00—they are startled to find that someone has already eaten all the food. They accuse each other until, finally, they’re left puzzled as to who could have eaten it all. It is left up to the reader to solve the mystery, through careful analysis of the pictures on each page and the words in the story.”
The thieves turn out to be Kilroy, the mouse, and one hundred and eleven furry (and hungry) relatives that had been hidden in the house and garden.
Thank you for the reply but this is sadly not a match
Hi, I am looking for a book for my mother, she remembers it being called Twinkle Son of Pegasus or Maybe Sun of Pegasus. She would have had it as a child in the 1950’s. That’s all the info I have, google can’t find it.
I am looking for a book I read in the 2000’s. It was a story about a boy who traveled through a tv with his eyes, and then he kept going back in time through photographs and paintings. At one point I’m pretty sure he was in a Siberian prison. I believe he got back home looking at some red gloves or painting a picture of his home. I’ve been looking for this book for years.
I am looking for a children book. It had a pink ribbon with a teddy bear attached to the book. You put the teddy bear in the pictures of the book I remember a rocking horse, a closet and a bed. There was other pictures It was from the 70s
I am looking for a book that I remember being a dark color on the front, either blue or black with a large circle in the middle of it that was possibly the moon. There is a phrase from it that goes “ghosty ghosty all alone, ghosty dropped his ice cream cone” and the illustration that goes along with it is a child wearing a ghost costume in a park with an ice cream cone on the ground. I should probably add that its from my childhood and I grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I once had a book when I was in Kindergarten in the very early seventies (it was also made into a record) about a boy named Grover who always spent time sitting beside a brook. One day he runs into Harriet The Fairy, who has trouble flying in her magic bubble. She gives him the ability to wish for things, but every time he tries he gets the wrong thing. At one point he ended up getting a Christmas tree, at another he ended up getting a reindeer “with hooks on its antlers for his shift, shoes, and socks. Grover liked the reindeer. But still, it wasn’t what he wished for. It was very disgusting.” When he goes back to the brook, he tries to wish for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and instead Harriet appears with half a horse, saying, “Did you wish for this… for this… thing?” Finally, he decides to wish: “I wish that Harriet was the best fairy ever, with the best wand, and best magic bubble, too!” And that fixes everything. Anyone know its title?
The World’s Worst Wisher. The boy’s name is Gordon, though.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/worlds-worst-wisher/oclc/3351135
I’m looking for a picture book I borrowed from the public library and read
to my daughter. Published in the 1980s or 1990 at the latest.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember the author/title/cover, but the main character
is a demanding little girl who wants her parents to cut her toast in the shape
of a hat.
I’m looking for a Cinderella picture book that was my mother’s. She was born in 1955 so it could be 1940-60. There were three balls, color illustrations that I believe had text on one page and the full over illustration on the other. It was a larger hard cover book. I’ve done random searches over the years and always get lost. Would love to find this!
In the first grade 1985-86 at library time we were read a book or story within a book that had a man who heard a reoccurring noise or spoken words that seemed to lead to an animal tearing up the mans stomach.
I am looking for nice copy of the Whitman Tiny Tot book “There’s a Mouse in Our House”
This is a forum for identifying books rather than buying and selling them, (see Guidelines), try abebooks.com or amazon.. . Thanks, Suzanne
I’m looking for a children’s book. A young boy is in bed and he thinks a witch is scratching at his window, but it’s a tree branch. I believe at the end of the book hes eating milk and cookies.
I believe he sees a monster in his closet as well, but it’s a baseball glove,bat and ball
Is It a Monster? Might be what you’re looking for. It’s a book I use in reading recovery and sounds just like it
That doesn’t seem to be it, thanks for trying though!
Hello,
I am looking for a series of books for my grandad. He said he read them in the 1940s. It was a series of books, each from the point of view of an animal. A wolf, a bear and other animals. Each one would talk about themselves and their lives, almost like an autobiography.
They were perhaps originally printed earlier, in the 30s maybe.
Unfortunately he can’t remember much else but has been desperate to find them.
Thank you!
Elacia
It might be worth taking a look at Thornton Burgess’s animal books, such as The Adventures of Buster Bear, The Adventures of Reddy Fox, The Adventures of Old Man Coyote, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton_Burgess
Hi I’m looking for an old book of poems.
One was “who has seen the wind”
I remember one being about manners and about twins (?) who misbehaved
I believe one was about a meadow as well.
I had to give it up when I was fairly young so I don’t remember much however it was one of my favorite books. I want to say the cover was a dark green.
How long ago are we talking about?
Stories too, or definitely just poems?
If it’s an older book and it could have had stories, I know that The Better Homes and Gardens Storybook included Who Has Seen the Wind, The Goops, and Over in the Meadow.
Hi I need help! I’m looking for a book and I need to know it asap! It’s a boy and girl rabbits that both try to find medicine and things to help their mother whilst she is ill, their father comes home later in the day to realise both of them have failed or fallen whilst helping their mother, at the end of the book, the mother tells them she loves them both equally and always will, I had this book about 16-17 years ago when I first brought it. Any ideas anyone??
It’s not quite old enough, but there’s Taking Care of Mama Rabbit by Anita Lobel.
“Mama Rabbit is too sick to leave her bed. Poor Mama! When Papa Rabbit leaves home to get her some medicine, the ten little rabbit children take it upon themselves to help her feel better. One by one they bring her treats from around the house, including a steaming cup of hot chocolate, a cuddly toy, a good book, and a shiny necklace. Before long, Mama Rabbit begins to feel better even without the help of medicine.”
Try this one: Spurs for Antonia, by Katherine Wigmore Eyre.
Hi I’m looking for a book from the 90s. It had a sing a long tape that went with the book. The had something to do with “be my honey bear” that might be the name of it. We’re almost positive the song that came with it is called that. Here are the lyrics to the song that came with the book
Be my honey bear
If you’ll be my honey bear
I’ll be yours to love and care
Always for you
Where you go
I will follow
Through the woods and up a hollow tree
Just you and me and the honey bees
Butterflies on your nose
Flowers in between your toes
No one will ever know
That you’re my honey bear
Ohhh, what a beautiful morning
Oh, what a beautiful day
Funny how when i’m with you i always feel this way
And in the morning with the sunrise
Wipe the sleep out of our eyes
Watch the birds spread their wings and fly
Far, Far, Away
I’ll keep you safe
I’ll keep you warm
Hug and hold you all night long
Sing to you my favorite song
As peepers sing along
Just be my honey bear
If you be my honey bear
I’ll be yours to love ad care
Always for you
I’ll always be yours to love and care
Always for you
Well, I know the song quite well: it’s from Kevin Roth’s cassette Unbearable Bears. I didn’t know there was a book, but it looks like it must have been this set. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242914.Unbearable_Bears_Pkg
I am looking for a book I used to own as a child. I thought it was called My Antonio, but that name does not bring up anything or it brings up My Antonia by Willa Cather which is not the same book. I got it in the early 80s from my school library when they gave older books away. It was older, maybe 50s-70s. It was about a girl who lived on a hacienda with her father, her mother was dead. There was also a cook, housekeeper or possibly an aunt who was also there. The girl wanted to be a boy because her father needed a son to take over the ranch. I dont remember the location but it seemed very Spanish themed like Texas or California maybe. I really hope someone knows what book this is it is driving me nuts.
Hello,
I’m looking for a book my mom read us as kids in the 80s. I think the book was a collection of stories. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t standalone and I think based on what I can remember of the illustrations, it was from the 60s or 70s and couldn’t have been earlier than that. It wasn’t from school or the library which makes me think my mom bought it somewhere. It was hardcover and I remember it being a big (not thick) book with colourful illustrations. The illustrations felt like 60s or 70s because they had a sort of groovy quality to them. The outside of the book was probably white.
If it was a collection, I don’t remember any other stories from it, except one. It was about a strange looking bird that escaped, my brother says from an insane asylum but I think it was a zoo, but the bird was dangerous because it could snipe or snip you or something like that.
I remember being a little offput or scared by the story as a kid and our mom would pinch us pretending to be the escaped bird, sniping us. (I know there’s a bird called a snipe and it sort of looked like that). The descriptions of the bird and what it did are what I remember best.
The bird had a murderous glint in is eye, it had a sharp beak and sharp claws and it had stripes I think and it was on the loose so you better watch out! The book is all about how this bird is wanted by the authorities. I don’t remember how the story ends but it did have illustrations of a skinny, pointy, mean looking bird. The bird had a sort of silly nonsense name like the bandersnatch (I am not thinking of that story here trust me!) And there was even a line in there like “beware the bandersnatch” or something along those lines.
Can someone help me with this? My brother has two little girls now and he would fall over dead I’d I could find this book for him… THANK YOU!
Taking a long shot here: The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds, by Arnold Lobel.
https://timothyyoungauthor.com/2018/12/12/the-ice-cream-cone-coot/
I can see why you suggested this one! Unfortunately, it’s not the one but thank you so much for taking a moment to respond!
I had a bedtime story book that was read to me in the late 90s/early 2000s. It was square and blue and I feel like i remember it having stars and moons on it? I remember one of the first stories in it was about a man with a tricycle with a very large front wheel and two small wheels in the back. There was another story in there about a lady who made pies and jam and kept it all for herself. Pls help!!!
Looking for a Halloween themed board book. The main character is a young witch who I think is preparing for a witch party, except the other witches are mean to her. I remember something about fizzy punch?? That’s really one of the only things that stands out in my memory. Around 1993-1997
This one perhaps?
https://www.goodreads.com/series/59260-the-magician-s-house-quartet
Children’s picture book: child/ren watching too much television. Dad throws TV set in the backyard. Over time, birds build a nest in the TV frame and provide something better for the child/ren to spend their time watching. Maybe a Canadian author. Judging by the bulky old TV set it would have been published in the 80’s or 90’s. Thank you!!!
Fred’s T.V., by Clive Dobson.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6845823-fred-s-tv
Many, many thanks! A decade-long search is over!
You’re welcome.
Hello, I am trying to remember this children’s book by a female english author I read it in the 1970s. The illustrations were so sweet and quaint with forest and country pictures with cute wild animals like hedgehogs and squirrels. There was a cat that was crossing the country 2 lane road and a car was coming and a wild animal saved it. It took the cat in, it seems like the house was in a tree and the cat was wearing an apron. I think it had kittens. Help!
Hey all, I am trying to remember the name of this favorite children’s book of mine. It was soft back, medium size and about 20-30 pages if memory serves. It was an English female author who’s illustrations were so sweet and quaint of the forest with forest animals, and there was a cat, who crosses a country road and it seemed scary because a car was coming, I think a wild forest animal came and saved it from getting hit. I remember there was a tree that some animal was living in, and the cat was there wearing an apron.I think it had kittens. That’s about all I can remember! Help!
I have searched everywhere without success, so I’ll post this long-shot here: Sometime in the eighties I found a book that I was sure was called Pony Girl, but as that has come up dry, perhaps the title had to do with Circus. I think it must have had the word pony in it because that’s why I picked it up as a child. It was about a girl and her family who had taken over a stableful of abused Shetland ponies that were part of a circus attraction. She also brought a few of her own Shetlands. She had a stepmother who was a large tall lady (there was a scene with this lady, Marge, I think her name was, riding one of the Shetlands). They nursed the ponies back to health and performed a pony show with them. The ponies were also used as a pony riding attraction for children. I think one of the ponies was named Golliwog. The girl also found a boy in the barn the first night and discovered he had been bringing clumps of grass to the ponies to keep them alive. I’m pretty sure the book was old even in the eighties; it was pasteboard bound like Taffy’s Foal and The Whistling Stallion, which were also in the same library. It was a chapter book with some black and white inked illustrations. I’m sure it’s out of print, but any help anyone has at least identifying it would be greatly appreciated.
Perhaps this one?
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24754003M/Pony_girl
Pony girl
by:Young, Jan, 1919-
Eleven-year-old Peg Warmack lives on a ranch in
Nevada; her widower father is an ex-rodeo champion who is away trying to
earn money following the circuit. When he returns he has a new wife.
The new wife and the children want him to give up the rodeo, so they
persuade him to take on a pony ride concession. The ponies however are
sick and starving.
Editions:4 Date:1963 Type:Juvenile Genre(s):Juvenile work
Thank you! That’s the one. I was really surprised to see it was by the same person who did the polar express.
It is! Thanks so much!
Looking for the book where theres a king who boils seeds and givers them to kids so he can find his next heir and all the kids come back with actual flowers except one
The Empty Pot by Demi.
“The Chinese Emperor announces an unusual test to choose an heir—the child who raises the best flowers from a seed given by the Emperor will be his successor. Ping, unaccountably, is unable to get his seed to sprout—but Ping’s empty pot is best of all.”
Hi guys
I have fond memories of a book about a magician/wizard/time traveller, I think he had an unusual name. The character was skinny with a big mess of hair, he was quiet and introverted, and his motives were often unclear. He wouldn’t always oblige the children with the magic they requested. A little bit of a Mary Poppins figure in that respect.
I can’t remember if time travel was mostly what he did, or if he had other magic.
I think the book is set in London. One time he takes the children back to a (Victorian?) tea party in a park – they walk through a magic gate. Another time, towards the end of the book, he brings the Boudica monument to life. This latter scene is what’s depicted on the front of the book, which I remember being mostly navy blue.
He also said ‘tempus fugit’, possibly multiple times.
I read this as a child in the 90s, but I’m pretty sure the book was old when I got it.
I’ve had no luck with Google so far, any help would be so appreciated.
Thank you.
Perhaps something from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series?
One of William Corlett’s books? He has a character who says “tempus fugit.”
Thank you for your help. Although I have memories of this tv series now I’ve seen the pictures, it was not this book.
It’s a strange coincidence that it’s a magician who also says Tempus Fugit – I wonder if Corlett took inspiration from the book I read.
My book was more whimsical and less heavy-sounding than The Magician’s House, and definitely more Londony.
I remember now that the magician was fairly young, and possibly a student – thus his magic sometimes went wrong. Character was maybe aged 20-30.
I am looking for a book about a teenage boy who finds a bunch of stray cats in a shack (i think near a dock) and a lot of them are injured or aggressive from being abandoned and he goes on his bike and buys them cat food to nurse them back to health?
Plz help ive been looking for so long!!!!
That sounds like The Nine Lives of Travis Keating by Jill MacLean.
“After his mother’s death, Travis Keating and his father move to Ratchet, Newfoundland, to start a new life. Some life. Travis soon discovers that only a few oddballs show any interest in him: Cole, a talker who soon makes himself scarce; Hector, a strange kid whose ears stick out; and Prinny, a girl as scraggly as her skinny ponytail. Nobody you can really call a friend. And then there’s Hud, the toughest, nastiest bully in school, who hates “townies” and promises to make Travis’s life an utter misery. But Travis doesn’t care. He’s got his funeral face, a tight mask that gives away nothing and allows him to hide his feelings. Funeral face comes in handy, especially with parents and other adults who think they know what you’re feeling every minute of the day. But funeral face can also make him reckless, and Travis decides to visit the dangerous Gulley Cove, with its treacherous wharf and its tumbledown fish shacks, which some of the kids say are haunted. Instead of ghosts, Travis discovers a colony of feral cats, sickly and starving, and unused to kindness. Putting aside his own problems to care for them is about to bring Travis more satisfaction-and more danger-than he ever would have thought possible.”
I am looking for a book probably written between 1960 and 1980 about a boy whose parents divorce and he goes to live with an older female relative (maybe aunt or grandma) in the country. She lives in a house with round walls (furniture made to fit). He discovers a little wood, a ‘spinney’, nearby and also works on a farm and learns to plough with heavy horses.
I am looking for a book I read in the late 60s early seventies. It was in black and white and the words were printed in spirals and sometimes in the center if the page from top to bottom, or along the edges only. Every page was different. It was whimsical and imaginative.
I wish I could remember more. I think it won an award but I haven’t seen it on the Caldecott list.
Except for the part about it being in black-and-white, it might be worth taking a look at Arm in Arm by Remy Charlip.
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(you may have to click this one – the image doesn’t seem to be loading)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_o8xEQUMYkUA/S7aaOUZNBMI/AAAAAAAAB_g/KB-axvGufsw/s400/no+picture.JPG
Hi all! I’m looking for a book that was probably published in the early 2000s. I cannot remember what the cover looked like but I remember that it was a huge collection of bedtime stories. The funny thing is I remember most of the stories. One about kids throwing a birthday party (with a style similar to Charlie Brown). I think the kids name was Arnold? It also had Fox in Socks in it, Freddie’s Spaghetti, Go Dogs go, The Teeny Tiny Woman, Goldie Locks, Inside Outside Upside Down and one about a kid that goes under the sea with an old man to find his treasure. I also remember it had poems in it as well and borders around every page and the paper was really unique and thin and the book was a lot bigger than an average sized book. If anyone can tell me the name of this book I will be forever grateful as I feel a piece of my life is missing
Please help!
Thanks,
Alison
The Random House Book of Easy-to-Read Stories.
1 online resource (252 pages : color illustrations)
Contents: Dog party / P.D. Eastman —
A visit to Mr. Exit / Richard Scarry —
Eat at Skipper Zipp’s / Dr. Seuss —
Mud / Wendy Cheyette Lewison —
The teeny tiny woman / Jane O’Connor —
Babar’s picnic / Laurent De Brunhoff —
The surprise party / Annabelle Prager —
The prince has a boo-boo / Harriet Ziefert —
Inside, outside, upside down / Stan and Jan Berenstain —
Tweetle beetles / Dr. Seuss —
Freddie’s spaghetti / Charlotte Doyle —
Little witch’s big night / Deborah Hautzig —
The ugly duckling / Katharine Ross —
The fuddnuddlers / Dr. Seuss —
20,000 baseball cards under the sea / John Buller and Susan Schade —
I can read with my eyes shut! / Dr. Seuss.
Thank you so much!!
I’m literally in tears rn lol
Glad to help! (Freddie’s Spaghetti was a good clue.)
I am trying to find this picture book i read as a child.
It was about a father and a son, however i don’t recall the title, author or publisher/publishing year. It was poem based as far as i can remember and had a brown tone across almost all pages. I remember this one particular picture where the father raises the child in the air and the child was wearing a red cape. I’m afraid i can’t provide more details as my memory fails me, hoping you can help.
Thank you!
I am looking for a book I read around the year 1982-1985. I was a scholastic book I think, I know I ordered it from a magazine at school. It was about this young kid, maybe 12 or so who’s older brother comes home and tells him they have to leave and he has to come with him. They must quickly pack up their belongings and head out right away. They are leaving a VW Beetle I believe. The cover of the book was blue I think with headlights or a small red VW beetle driving down a road and the headlights are shinning along (maybe going up a cliff road with the house down below) The only thing I am sure about is the basic plot. I really can’t picture the front of the book that well since it’s been a few years. I remember loving the story and I want to find it again if it’s possible.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!
You’re welcome! It was one of my favorites, too. Thanks for writing back!
Thank you for the lead!
Another artist with a similar sense of humor is Tomi Ungerer. Was it a book, or maybe a New Yorker cartoon?
Thanks, I’ll check that out!
I am lookong for a book my gran read to me as a child in England. Sometime in the mid to late 80’s most likely so it must have been released before then.
The basic premis was one of those stories that taught morals, something to do with being late or wasting time or something. This pixie I think it was had to take a package of ice cream to a birthday party and along the way got sidetracked talking to various people/animals maybe and by the time they got there the ice cream had melted. Lots of bright colorful pictures.
Other than that I have no idea of title, author or publication date.
I am desperately trying to find this book. My mom said it was called “tiger”, but later told me she thinks she made it up lol. The plot: thos family had a cat that they loved so much. The cat had kittens and the family played with the kittens and started ignoring the cat. The cat got old and sad and ended up going to her favourite tree to die alone
its depressing…i know…but it was my fave book as a kid and reminds me of my late mother. She hated reading it to me because I cried everytime haha. Its been quite the mission to find this book. It was circa 1985 or so that I rented it from my local library in St. Catharines ON Canada. Not sure if it was a Canadian or US author…or anything like that. It was probably written in maybe the 70s …PLEASE HELP! I have to find this book before I die
THANK YOU.
The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye, by Jane Yolen.
I remember reading some books from a series back in elementary school, probably around 2013 or 2014. It was a part of my school’s library and from what I can remember, it was rather popular in my class. I can’t remember anything about the titles or author or the name of the series, though I remember a good amount about the characters and the plots of two of the books. The key characters I remember are Sammy, Kathy, Miss Tammy, Dave, and Possum Blabbermouth/Blossom Babberton. If I remember correctly, Sammy and Kathy are orphan siblings who were taken in by Miss Tammy and Dave was a very close family friend who was in a wheelchair. Possum Blabbermouth was a nickname given to who I believe was a recurring character whose real name was Blossom Babberton by Sammy. She was depicted as cranky and ill tempered and hated children. In one book, everyone was on vacation and there was a hurricane or bad storm of some sort. Dave had jumped out of his wheelchair and into a rushing river to save a small child who was holding onto a tree, managing to do so with just his arms. Blossom had immediately taken the child under her wing, stating that he was a baby and not a child, and so he attached himself like glue to her. Later, I remember the child’s father seeing them at red cross and they were reunited. In the other book I can remember, they were visiting some friends in I believe Alaska(?) and their husky. The husky had been caught in an illegal bear trap and Kathy, who wanted to be a vet, had been the quickest to trying to provide care. She soaked a washcloth in warm water and dripped it into the dogs mouth. The crew then went to try and find the owner of the bear trap, I also believe the dog lost his leg at the end of the book.
The Buried Eye, by Irene Schultz, one of the Woodlanders series. (It’s Mrs. Tandy, not Miss Tammy.)
Thank you so much! This has plagued me for a long time and it is such a relief to finally know what the name and author is. You’re a life saver!
You’re welcome!
My husband mentioned a book he read in school 90s to early 00s, he thinks it was a chapter book but not really sure. It was about a woman, possible princess or of some nobility, that rebelled against the normal and hunt dragons. Most of the big dragons had already been hunted, but it was her quest to become a dragon hunter. She did make a fire protectant salve that she used while hunting.
Possibly The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.
“Aerin is an unsatisfactory princess—she isn’t beautiful, she isn’t accomplished, she has a dubious dead mother who was probably a witch, and she managed to give herself a bad case of vertigo by eating a magic plant. By long and positively scientific methodology, she makes a flameproof ointment that lets her be a dragonkiller—which doesn’t help make her popular, because dragons are vermin, and killing them is necessary rather than glamorous. Then everything goes to hell in a series of handbaskets and Aerin saves the day.”
“…Aerin stumbles upon a book about the history of Damar and the enormous dragons of old that used to terrorize it, of which only much smaller relatives still exist. Seeking privacy in the pasture of her father’s now-injured war horse, Talat, Aerin reads through the book while forging a friendship with the stubborn and proud horse. At the back of the book she finds a recipe for kenet, an ointment meant to protect the wearer from the effects of fire. While experimenting with the ointment, she also trains herself on mounted combat with Talat. Eventually, she sneaks off to slay a small dragon that has been terrorizing a village. Her success earns her some minor notoriety and requests for assistance from other villages. In the meantime, trouble comes from the north, in the form of one of the western barons, Nyrlol, who threatens civil war.”
Don’t remember a salve, but the basic story reminded me of “The Practical Princess” by Jay Williams. It’s from the ’60s or ’70s but has been reprinted since.
I am looking for a book my sister loved when she was in elementary school in the early 60s. She doesn’t remember the title or the name of the character. It was about a boy who gets blinded by a firecracker and gets a seeing eye dog. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Follow My Leader by James Garfield.
After Jimmy is blinded in an accident with a firecracker, he has to relearn all the things he used to know. With the help of a determined therapist, he learns to read Braille and to use a cane. Then he’s given the chance to have a guide dog. Learning to work with Leader is not easy, but Jimmy tries harder than he ever has before.
i have a copy of this one! loved it as a child!
I read this book in the 3rd grade. Looking for a children’s chapter book about a princess? (At least I thought she was a princess because she was described as wearing beautiful white dress) is being chased by goblins and ends up in either a boarding school or home for girls in some rainy european town.
This girl can’t be seen by anyone older than 12 or 13.
Can anyone help me find this book? I would be so grateful.
Sounds like Elliot and the Goblin War. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7739887-elliot-and-the-goblin-war.
The book I’m looking for has realistic graphite illustrations. It is sort of a children’s book, but kind of dark. The only page I remember is a nicely furnished room with a lump under the rug knocking aside the furniture and the caption, “two weeks later and it was back again.”
Well it sounds like Edmund Gorey, take a look on Google Images.
It’s not him, but I love his work, thank you! I have seen some of it, but forgotten about it, didn’t remember the creator, and never realized how much he did!
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysteries_of_Harris_Burdick

Agree, Harris Burdick. https://www.kidpub.com/book-page-or-chapter/mysteries-harris-burdick-under-rug-1834136386.”
My mother enjoyed a red book with many short stories in it including the Gift of the Magi and one about a kitten and the little red napkin. This would have been in the 1930’s or 1940’s.
i’m looking for a book i read in primary school about a boy that turned into a dog and looked for all his friends and they just thought it was a dog and he went out at night and had to sleep on the street i believe?
Possibly Woof! by Allan Ahlberg?
“Eric is a perfectly ordinary boy – perfectly ordinary, that is, until the night he turns into a dog! This is the story of his adventures with his best friend, Roy, and their efforts to puzzle out the reason for his transformation.”
“One ordinary summer’s evening, ten-year-old Eric Banks turns into a Norfolk terrier. When his parents discover him they assume that some strange dog has got into the house, and put him out.”
Hello! I’m looking for a pre-1980 book about a witch who can’t bake cookies. There was a recipe at the end. I checked out this book from my grade school library in 1979-1980. I know it’s not much to go on, but does anyone remember it? Thank you!
It might be worth taking a look at the Black Witch books by Wende and Harry Devlin.
The first book is Old Black Witch: “When Nicky and his mom buy an old New England house to turn into a tearoom, they are startled to find they must share the house with its resident troublemaker, Old Black Witch. “Boo! Scat, and Ratcha Fratch!” Old Black Witch calls out to all the tearoom visitors. Zooming about on her dilapidated broom, she manages to stir up plenty of fuss and excitement.” (the recipe at the back is blueberry pancakes)
The second book is Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon: “Old Black Witch, who lives in tearoom owned by Nicki and his mother, makes a cake to enter into the town’s cake contest and then steals the famous coconut cake made by the snooty Mrs. Butterbean.” (the recipe at the back is “magic nut cake”/pumpkin bread)
The third book is Old Witch Rescues Halloween: “Old Witch uses her magic to overcome Mr. Butterbean’s edict against Halloween.” I’m not sure if that one contains a recipe or not.
Just to add on to my previous suggestion of the Black Witch books, while the recipes in those books are pancakes and nut cake, Wende and Harry Devlin do have a recipe for Maggie’s Favorite Cranberry Cookies in another of their books – Cranberry Christmas. No witch in that one, though – just a grumpy old man who won’t let kids ice skate on “his” pond.
Great! Thanks for posting back.
Looking for a children’s chapter book. Cover has a victorian house on the beach with a white picket fence going down into the sand. Something about sea shells and possibly a mystery. A little girl is friends with an older lady who lives in the big house maybe? late 70s or 80s.
You’re welcome!
Looking for children’s picture book from maybe 60-70s about an Ice cream parlor/shop, a old man owns it, he always puts a little scoop of Ice cream in the bottom of the cone so that there is always Ice cream when you get to the bottom. During the story his younger son takes over the shop and doesn’t put the scoop in the bottom, just a scoop on top. People don’t like it as much, and he has to learn to do it right. I think it was called “Mr _____ Ice Cream _____”? any ideas would be appreciated. I have been looking for this book for a long time
The Little Store on the Corner, by Alice Miller. Watch out for changes between editions, though!
Thank you sooo much. My heart is happy just seeing the pictures of the cover. My sisters and mom will be happy, too:-)
Looking for a book about a boy and his friend doing a family tree assignment. The boy finds buried family secrets. The cover looks like a old aged map. I read it in th or 5th grade. I think it took place in el Paso
Hello, I am looking for a book from my childhood it’s about 3rd – 5th grade level. The cover had orange and red on it and a winding trail? I really don’t remember much about it except the title was really long, and it was possible candy related? I believe there is a moose king and he has a sweet tooth. It is a quest for a little boy to find something. One part of the book is in a dilapidated castle I believe, and they are tricked or set up and soldiers come. This is a really long shot but I remember it being one of the most imaginative books I’ve ever read!!! I would love to find it and read it again! It had to have been written before 2006
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews.

The Whangdoodle was once the wisest, the kindest, and the most extraordinary creature in the world. Then he disappeared and created a wonderful land for himself and all the other remarkable animals—the ten-legged Sidewinders, the little furry Flukes, the friendly Whiffle Bird, and the treacherous, “oily” Prock. It was an almost perfect place where the last of the really great Whangdoodles could rule his kingdom with “peace, love and a sense of fun”—apart from and forgotten by people.
But not completely forgotten. Professor Savant believed in the Whangdoodle. And when he told the three Potter children of his search for the spectacular creature, Lindy, Tom, and Ben were eager to reach Whangdoodleland.
With the Professor’s help, they discovered the secret way. But waiting for them was the scheming Prock, who would use almost any means to keep them away from his beloved king. Only by skill and determination were the four travelers able to discover the last of the really great Whangdoodles and grant him his heart’s desire.
The Whangdoodle is described as being sort of like a moose that can change colors and has a sweet tooth.
Looking for a book series I read as a kid! Late 90s/ early 20s most likely. I remember having at least 2 different ones – they were hardcover, I believe brown maybe? The plot followed a bunch of toys coming to life every night I believe. Heavy influence on the toy box too? I think the main character was a bear. Heavy picture drawings! I grew up in Canada, if that helps!
There are a lot of books about bears and other toys that have a life of their own, but maybe take a look at the Old Bear and Friends series by Jane Hissey? There are a LOT of books in the series, published between the 1980’s and 2010’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bear_and_Friends
Looking for the Dick and Jane reader that has the story of the kids playing hide and seek in the house. Don’t know if it was a separate book or a story with others in a Dick and Jane book.
If you’re looking for one of the classic readers, there’s the story “Spot Helps Baby” in the book We Work and Play. In later editions (The New Work and Play) “Baby” is replaced with “Sally” and the story is titled “Spot Helps Sally.”
The children are playing hide-and-seek and Baby is “it.” She can’t find Dick and Jane, so Spot helps her. (Note the different illustrations from different versions of the book – in one, Baby is hiding her eyes against a chair – but in the other, she is hiding her eyes against a tree trunk. Both are by Eleanor Campbell.)
I have the three-in-one reprinted collection Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends, which contains We Look and See, We Come and Go, and The New We Work and Play. It has the illustration with Sally hiding her eyes against the chair, and is titled “Spot Helps Sally”.




If it was recent, there’s Dick and Jane Hide and Seek by Kristin Ostby as a stand-alone book. It has different illustrations (by Larry Ruppert) than the classic books.
“Dick, Jane, and Sally love to play hide-and-seek, and this time Jane’s it! Come along as she searches all over the house for her brother and sister—and finds some funny surprises along the way. It’s just another day of classic family fun with Dick and Jane!”

Looking for a book that was made probably after 2010. I bought it from a Scholastic Book Fair when I was in elementary school. It was a children’s novel and the cover had dark green leaves all around it and I think there was a picture of a young girl with dark red hair and a purpley red jacket on. I believe the main characters name is Rue. Something happens to her parents and she ends up being taken in by her uncle. I think she travels on a train to get to him? He lives on an island, not somewhere sunny, rocks instead of sand, and there’s an abandoned children’s hospital on it which is where they live. The girl has a glass snake that she stole from somewhere. She finds a box in her room that has a packet of gum in it along with other things. She enjoys hiding in small spaces. She finds out that her uncle has a son who lives there too and he arranges skeletons and bones to put on display in his room, he has a lot of tantrums. She also finds an attic filled with dirt and it’s later revealed that it used to be a garden that belonged to her uncles wife (I think she passed away). They eventually restore the garden to its original beauty. I think a stork is mentioned at some point and may be significant? The title might start with an H and it’s in yellow letters on the cover.
The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter. From the Google Books description:
Hiding is Roo Fanshaw’s special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment’s notice. When her parents are murdered, it’s her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.
As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn’t believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.
Despite the best efforts of her uncle’s assistants, Roo discovers the house’s hidden room–a garden with a tragic secret.
That’s it! Thank you so much, I’ve been trying to find this book for months and was about to give up on it!
Im looking for a book that i would have read in the early 90’s, England.
Highly illustrated, no words at all to my recollection. Small worlds, people, cars etc inside of of various objects page to page.
Example: man riding bike on road inside of a tractor, the road is a reimagined wire and the engine is now more of a building (expressionism ?). as though you were seeing inside of something you usually couldn’t, the little men inside the telephone etc.
Example 2: The inside of a suitcase, ladders falling from toiletries, stairs climbing levels of clothing. Think the borrowers but very stylised, a style i can only relate to old timey aardman.
I am also looking for the series if books about a small town inhabited all by animals. I believe it is called Sweet Pickles? I have ¹ original book dated from the 70s that I cherish but I would love to have the whole series
I would search Ebay Books/Children’s and Young Adults (not Antiquarian Children’s although some are cross listed) for “sweet pickles set”
Hello group…I’m looking for a book from my childhood late 70s to the 80s. I remember the book binding is black and purple and the story is similar to casper in the fact that its about a friendly ghost but this one lives in the attic and is wrapped in chain’s. I remember the family moves in but decides to stay once they realize he is friendly.
Georgie by Robert Bright. There are several in the series. Not too hard to find.
Nope it was Gus was a friendly ghost by Jane Thayer….I’m so happy I found it
That sounds like Gus Was a Friendly Ghost by Jane Thayer, illustrated by Seymour Fleishman.
There was once a friendly ghost, by the name of Gus, who lived in an old house in the country. Mr. and Mrs. Scott and their twins, Susie and Sammy, lived there too during the summer. Then autumn came and the Scott family left. Which meant Gus had nothing to do but sit around. One day, during a walk, he met Mouse, who was cold and hungry. “Come spend the winter at my house!” cried Gus.
Other titles in the series include Gus and the Baby Ghost, Gus Goes to School, Gus Was a Mexican Ghost, What’s a Ghost Going to Do?, and Gus Was a Gorgeous Ghost.


http://www.kathleendeady.com/images2/GusWasaFriendlyGhost7.jpg
http://www.kathleendeady.com/images2/GusWasaFriendlyGhost8.jpg
Thanks for letting us know. I remembered “Georgie the friendly ghost “and when that wasn’t the title, should have looked further!
Georgie was one of my favourites in kindergarten.
I loved this book when I was a kid
I have been looking for a book for about a decade now! I even got a librarian to try! It probably came home from my dad’s trip to an American Library Association conference in 1991 or 1992. I would guess publication between 1989 and 1992. It would probably be called a mid-grade or YA novel. It is possible it was published previously in another country/language and this was the English publication. I believe it came home with the book Agnes Cecelia (I got all my books from ALA conferences in a big stack 1-2 times a year). I don’t think there were any illustrations.
The protagonist is a girl and she has at least one, maybe a couple brothers. They have some kind of big pond or lake in their yard or near their home and it has a small island in it. I remember that at one point, she is walking to her brother’s hockey game and starts basically hallucinating the island. She comes out of it still walking someplace later, I think in the snow, and hitchhikes home (in a truck?), and downs a bunch of pills when she gets there. The rest of the book is about her recovery from that (she sees a therapist… and I don’t recall what else). I remember that she takes drawing or art lessons – and while doodling she drew the island (gave it to her art teacher’s kid, surprised they wanted because there were no people, the kid responded that there could be/might be people on the island (or something to that effect). I remember the (little?) brother asking if she took the pills because of the hockey game… and that is literally everything I remember about the book.
I would have read it around 1991/1992.
That was one of the ones I saw as I was trying to Google, and none of the illustrations were familiar, and the cover was wrong. I think the original cover was red, with a black and white pen drawing of a crocodile/alligator and a little girl, and I think there were a lot of large leaf plants that I believe were one of the only colored part of the picture.