I am looking for a nursery rhyme picture book that I had in the mid to late 1980’s. The measurements of the book are approx. 7 by 7. The book is at least 90 pages; it was pretty thick. The illustrations are very bright and vibrant and have been described as “retro kitsch” similar to Virginia Parsons illustrations. The rhymes are the original English versions. For example, instead of “Ring-around-the rosie” it reads Ring-a-ring o’roses”. If you do a google image search for “retro kitsch” and “nursery rhyme” you will see a woman selling pages from the book on Etsy. i have contacted her and she claims to have no information about the book itself. There may have been some fairy tales mixed in with the rhymes, not sure if I am remembering that correctly. I beleive there was some red on the cover. It was a hardcover book and the pages have a matte finish. Thank you for your help!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
It looks a little bit like a Gyo Fujikawa. (Not the Mother Goose one or “Oh What A Busy Day” but maybe one of the smaller books?)
So upon further research I may have solved the mystery. The illustrator is most likely Michael Ricketts and/or his wife Ann Ricketts. In the late seventies and eighties Brimax and Brimax England published a series of board books and regular books for very small children. There were a series of 12 Simple Simon’s Nursery Rhymes. Ricketts and his wife as well as author M Rogers in 1984 via Brimax published a book called Ryhme Time Story Time with ISBN: 9780861122622 which appears to be the complete collection of all 12 rhyming books in one book. This is the book I think I had that I am trying to track down! It says there are 150+ pages which I think makes sense.
Stephanie,
Let me know if you would like our specialist to try and find a copy for you. If she finds you a copy and you decide to order from us you will have a $4 credit toward the book for using our Stump the Bookseller service.
Ami
Thanks Ami. Can your specialist track down the image of the cover? I want to be sure it’s the right one, I think I might recognize the cover if I saw it.
I will give her the info we have and she will be quoting you in a few days.
I have a book called “365 Stories and Rhymes for Girls.” I got it as a gift four years ago. It says that this edition was published by Parragon in 2009. It does not have information about previous editions. The illustrations do look like Virginia Parsons’ style. It has Ring-a-ring o’Roses. It’s ISBN is 978-1-4075-1389-8. It says it was illustrated by Eva Musynski, Marina le Ray, Veronica Vaylenko and Hannah Wood.