Story involved a sandman putting a group of bears to sleep, either for the night or for the winter. The sandman looked like a young boy. Beautifully illustrated, large-sized children’s book, possibly from the 1970s.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
This sounds a little like the “Nounours” books by Christine and Claude Laydu – although several are small, the book that gives the whole backstory, called “Nounours et le marchand de sable” is large and very beautifully illustrated by Romain Simon. Nounours travels on a cloud with the (young and good-looking) sandman, and he has three (later 4) little bear-nephews whom he visits and sends to sleep.
Thank you for the reply. That sounds very much like the story, especially the good -looking sandman/boy traveling on a cloud. I’ll need to do more research
Solved!!! I did some more research and per the Library of Congress, in 1967, an English translation of the Nounours chez les abeilles by Claude Laydu was published. The English version is called Freddie Bear. I found a copy of if it on eBay and as soon as I saw the cover I knew it was the book I have been searching for!!! Of course I ordered it right away! Thank you, thank you, thank you a million times over to “gagnon.” You helped me find a book I have been looking for for decades! I wish you all the best. I’m so happy people like you are reviewing the posts on this site. I hope someday I too can help solve someone’s mystery.
Thank you! This is the same book I remember! Only things I remembered were the sandman and the bears and a night scene sprinkling sand from the sky.