Category Archives: Picture Book

377L: The White Blob From The Moon

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.

377D: Older Children’s Book Set in Charleston, SC

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I know this is a long shot- but i don’t know where else to turn. There was a children’s book written about a brother and sister who found arrowheads on either the wappoo bridge or the bridge going to folly. As you can tell it was written in the Charleston area. I had checked the book out from the old Charleston Library when visiting with my grandmother one summer- it had to have been in the early 80’s, but I feel like the story took place in the 50’s (not sure), but I loved the book. I just wish i could remember its name. If anyone can help i would be extremely thankful.

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.

376P: Potion makes you beautiful outside, ugly inside

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I would like to find a children’s picture book checked out from library in the early 90’s (most likely published then but possibly in 80’s), about a woman who was ugly/plain and wanted to be beautiful so the prince would marry her. A little old man with a raisin looking face peddled her a potion but told her only to take it sparingly and it would make her pretty. She did and then got vain and took it all, and became beautiful but ugly on the inside. She was mean to the raisin face man and I think he turned out to be the prince under a curse and she didn’t end up with him after all. Was a colorful picture book.
Not the book titled Sleeping Ugly.

376L: Spooky 90s picture book w/ Ichabod Crane vibes

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My younger brother and I used to regularly borrow this spooky picture book in early-mid 90s (could also be from the 80s). I remember rich illustrations and a main character with an Ichabod Crane nervousness about him. Can’t remember any of the plot except that at the climax of the book he is in a dark church and he believes there are ghosts all around. My brother’s memory is that the main character was an organist/pianist and that another character dresses up as a ghost and chases him off. I don’t *think* this is a version of Sleepy Hollow. But given how vague my memory is, anything is possible. Even if it is, I would love to figure out which version it is specifically. My brother and I have been trying to figure this out for years.

376F: A Brother and Sister and their Cat

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Three short stories about two children and their cat. They are a brother and sister. In one story, the cat eats all their aunt’s goldfish, one at a time on successive visits to her house, and they manage to gradually replace them one at a time so that she never realizes. In another story, burglars break into the children’s house when they’re home alone and the cat scares them away. My grandmother bought this book for me in the mid-80s. I believe the format is somewhat taller and narrower than a standard book. It has illustrations throughout, they are sketchy black and white, possibly with touches of red, blue and yellow. Not sure whether it would be classified as a picture book or an early reader.

375U: A children’s book about cousins

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It was a book my sister and I owned when we were children and we were born in 1990 and 1992. The copy we owned had the cover ripped off so we can’t remember anything based on that. From our memory it was a children’s picture book – the images we specifically remember are a tire swing and a blue minivan. We can’t remember if the character had a cousin or a friend that came to visit or if she went to visit them. But what we remember is that during this visit (most likely with a cousin but possibly a friend) she had all these plans for what they would do together and then nothing turns out as expected and she’s disappointed. I think there is something about her being annoyed about her little sister and wanting to exclude her and then in the end she realizes her little sister is actually great. My sister thought that maybe something was culturally different between the two girls, but it could be getting mixed up with another book. When we googled, it seemed similar to the book “When the Cousins Came” but it’s not that book and that one was published too recently as well. It definitely takes place in the summer or in warmer weather. My Mom remembered that the girl might have had red hair, but my Mom’s memory isn’t always the greatest so I wouldn’t say that is definitely a part of the book, but figured I’d add it just in case. I know this is pretty obscure but hopefully you can help!

375S: Children’s book about Marvin

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As a child in the 60s our family had a book about a boy named Marvin. Marvin leaned against a brick building. Adults who went by kept telling him to go home. He would reply that if he did, the building would fall down. He finally left, and the building fell down.
It was a hard cover book with a picture of a little boy learning on a brick wall on the front. Our version was similar in size to the Dr. Seuss books.
I would love to find a copy to read to my grandsons!

375M: Susie the Cow

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I have a vintage children’s book that I have been looking for that my grandmother used to have for us to read. The main character of the book was a female cow named Susie and I believe the title of the book was Susie. If I am remembering correctly the cover of the book was pale blue and had black decorative scrollwork on the corners and her name on the front. Susie walked upright on her two back legs and wore pretty sundresses, high heels and a pearl necklace. There was a male cow in the book as well and was somewhat of a nerd and became cute and popular at the end of the book. He liked Susie and I believe they ended up together at the end.

Many have suggested that this book must be Elsie the cow, but Susie was younger and more stylish. I imagine they were both from the same time era and the book was from around the 1940’s.