Category Archives: 1990s-

378C: The Friendly Monsters

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I’m looking for the title of a picture book that I read as a child in the mid-1990s. I believe the book was written in the 1980s or 90s, though it could also be from the 70s. I don’t remember any part of the title. It was a large-format hardcover edition.

It features illustrations with a watercolor style and a brightly colored, somewhat flat, surreal aesthetic with greatly exaggerated proportions. Its protagonist is an explorer who is dressed in a blue 19th-century naval outfit and sailing a large (and very tall) ship by himself.

He is searching for a rare creature that has some giraffe-like features and eats bananas, and on every page you can see that this creature is following him just out of sight. During his exploration, the protagonist meets several huge, frightening monsters, one of which I seem to recall was named the “purple lumpy thumpet”.

When the explorer finally finds his creature, it is revealed that it has many babies, and also that the monsters he encountered earlier were all friendly. All characters then have a picnic together on an island.

As a young child I read this book over and over again, captivated by its unique blend of unsettling, dreamlike visuals and mischievous, lighthearted storytelling. I have now been searching for its title for nearly a decade with no luck, and just found out about this service.

377S: Animal beggars who were at the bottom of a well

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There’s a book that I had as a child that my mother hated reading to me – I was born in 1987, we had this book before I turned 10. It was a children’s book, illustrated, it was about animal beggars with different kinds of injuries (one missing legs, one blind – war wounds I think), I think one of the animals was a frog. They lived (or hid?) in the bottom of the well and meat was thrown down to them. I’m sorry that I don’t remember much more of about this book.

377L: The White Blob From The Moon

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Hi there! I’m seeking Stump the Bookseller’s help in finding a lost book from my childhood. It was about a white, blobby creature that came down to the earth from the moon and had adventures. This book was available in the Huntingdon Valley Public library in the Philadelphia area in the 90s (I’ve looked there and asked the librarians without success) but I’m sure it was not self-published. It was a picture book or perhaps an early-reader chapter book (I believe it was portrait orientation) and I think it was part of a series. It was illustrated–if not fully illustrated–on the interior. It was not new in the 90s–it had a slightly vintage feel–perhaps 60s, 70s, or 80s. The art style was graphic and cartoony–more akin to the Space Case books by Edward Marshall than something illustrative like Moornhorse by Mary Pope Osborne (and no, it’s not either of these–It’s also not Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer, the Matthew Looney series, or Dmitri the Astronaut by Jon Agee.) There were themes of loneliness–perhaps the moon creature came down to earth to make friends? It’s possible he was not from the moon but rather a different planet. I believe the background color of the cover was black. It’s possible that this unsolved query is describing the same book: http://w1.loganberrybooks.com/stumpthebookseller/145x-moon-creatures/. [EDIT: I now believe this is a book in the Moonbird series called The Unicorn and Witch. I don’t think it’s the book I’m looking for, though.] My mom remembers the moon creature as having had a pear-shaped body, maybe a bit of neck, and then an oval or round head, whereas I more clearly remember a white horse or perhaps unicorn. There could have been a little boy protagonist too, but I don’t remember clearly.

377K: Picture Book: A Man’s Heart is Hidden in a Fish

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Story Description – It was a classic fairy tale situation. There is a young woman, the heroine, and the man she loved (one or both of them might have been a prince or princess, but I don’t remember). An evil wizard/sorcerer hides the heart of the man in a fish. To save her lover, the heroine must pick out the fish that has his heart from a river full of fish. She does so successfully and the fish is cut open to reveal the heart.
Physical Book Description – It was a children’s picture book with loose whimsical illustrations featuring elongated characters. Blues and reds were heavily incorporated colors. I remember it being in a vertical format, taller than it was wide. There was a full-spread illustration of dozens of fish along the bottom of the spread and the heroine above. One of the fish has the man’s heart in it.
Background – I remember checking this book out of my elementary school library in first or second grade in the early 2000s so it was probably published in the 90s, maybe even 80s. I’ve tried searching for the book on and off for the last 5 years or so with no luck.

377I: A Book From the 90’s

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I am looking for a book that I read in the 90’s.. with or 11th grade English.  It’s about an adolescent male who looses the friend. The friend may have died as a result of falling out of a tree OR…. The main character goes to the tree while processing his grief.  OR. There is a picture of a boy on the cover… sitting at the base of the tree. There is also a sort of soliloquy… where he talk about the death. 
I’ve been wondering about this book for years and the name isn’t even remotely close to the tip of my tongue.  

377G: Young boy makes maps

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This fiction book set in Butte Montana. A young boy makes amazing maps and illustrations and a teacher, I think, submits them to a national magazine and for years he makes these amazing illustrations and they don’t know it’s a kid. Eventually they give him an award and he doesn’t know how to get there (I think the teacher doesn’t want the secret revealed) so he hides on a train (this turns into kind of a magical time warp train ride) and goes to Washington DC. 
I think it must have been published prior to 2010? Around there or before.

377C: Extra Tall Child

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I do not remember much of this book unfortunately –  I read it when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (2001-ish).  It was a picture book about a little girl that grew extremely tall. Her family or community had to make her clothes to try to keep up with how fat she was growing. The character girl had blonde hair that also got longer as she got taller. Her clothes looked like a patch work quilt because they were using whatever they had to make clothes big enough for her.  I think at one point one of the illustrations is her hiding behind a tree because she outgrew her clothes and had nothing on? 

376Y: The whodunit on the estate (Solved!)

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I have been trying to remember the name of a book I likely read in the early 1990s but could have been published much earlier than that. Every time I describe it to someone they guess it’s The Westing Game, but it is not.
A girl is invited to her aunt’s house for a visit. The aunt is married to a prominent and rich man (possibly a journalist? He is someone the girl is aware of and admires) who is throwing a party at his estate for a large number of famous friends. Once the guests are assembled it’s revealed via clues that the man has knowledge of something unsavory from each of their pasts (including his wife’s) and is blackmailing them.
That night the man is murdered and the book becomes an Agatha Christie style whodunit, knowing that the murderer must be one of the people in the house. The girl is able to learn about all of the guests and eventually solves the murder – the killer is a loyal housekeeper who doesn’t want the aunt’s secret to get out.
My son is now approaching the age I was when I read the book (probably 10 or 11?) and I’d love to find it for him since he enjoys mysteries but I cannot for the life of me remember the title, nor track it down with any kind of “books similar to the Westing Game” style searches.

376T: 12 Days of Christmas parody (Solved!)

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I came across this website while trying to search for this book from my childhood. I do not know the title of this book. All I can remember is that it is a 12 days of Christmas parody. That there were monsters in this book. It had to been published before 1996. It was a colored illustration book.

The world works in mysterious ways. A line from the book came to me today and when I searched it, an article from The New York Times archive popped up. Published in 1977, Joel Schicks The Present was there. This was the book I’ve been searching 10 years for.