In the 1950s I was in the hospital and my grandmother gave me a book that she read to me every day. I was around seven-years-old at that time. It had a blue hardcover with black lettering. It had stories like “Billy Goats Gruff”, “Why the Bear had a Stumpy Tail”, “Town Musicians of Bremen”, and “Shingabis and the North Wind”. I do not remember the title of the book, but wish to find it to give it to my daughter for her children. I can still repeat the Shingabis story almost word for word as I had to have that story read to me every day.

When I was growing up ( I was born in 1968) my mother had a set of World Book Encyclopedias and on the same set of shelves she had this boxed set of four : grey with red/maroon lettering . I could be wrong but I recall all four of the books having nursery rhymes/poems e.g. Jack Spratt, Old Mother Hubbard, Itsy bitsy spider, there was one about black birds baked in a pie. There was even one about a purple cow and the last line of it was I’d rather see than be one – and on the top of the page was what you could tell was a color picture of a Holstein cow but they had mad it look purple. The quality of the books were the same as the encyclopedias- hard shell, thick feel of the paper. I loved those books. I have a co-worker who also remembers the same set of books but her mother also did not keep them to her dismay and she and I both have been trying to figure out who published them and could you still find a set. There were tons of poems/ rhymes and I loved them all but the purple cow was my all time favorite. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated .

This little book was filled with little stories and line drawings. One of the stories was about a Dad who brings home three bay chicks. He gives one to each of the children. Two of the chicks grown bright flashy feathers. The one the baby gets stay dull and brown. The flashy chicks grow up to become roosters and the sweet little brown one becomes a hen and lays an egg!
Another story was about a family of fish who catch a loaf of bread that is dangling from a fishhook. There were about a dozen stories in all. The book was probably published during the 1960s.

There was a book which was read to me as a child that had a series of one page stories in it. I remember it being a thick book (but I was a child) The one story I remember the most was one about all the shoes that came out of the closet at night and danced around there room during the night. I tried Hans Christian Anderson but couldn’t find it. Have no other information. Would love to see read that story again.