Category Archives: Picture Book

360Q: Picture Book about a farm with huge vegetables (Solved!)

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This is a larger-format picture book, in full color, with illustrations that cover most/all of each page.  I read it in the early- to mid-80’s.  There’s a farmer who grows vegetables and something happens to his farm where he starts growing GIGANTIC vegetables.  There’s a bad guy (I think he’s dressed in a black suit and might have a black top hat?) who wants to get his hands on the farm or the stuff that makes the farm miraculous.  I can’t remember if the thing that makes the vegetables big starts to affect the farmer’s kids or not?
Thank you for reading!

360P: Black & White picture book, people climbing ladder to eat clouds

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I read this book in the early 80’s, but it might have been published much earlier.  It’s a larger picture book with black & white illustrations, done in a rough pen & ink style that reminds me of the 60’s (think The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”).  The characters do many surreal things, but all I can remember is one two-page spread where people are climbing up a ladder to eat clouds with a spoon (they might be leaning into/out of a tower window?)
Thank you for reading this!

359B: Ghost Themed Activity Book (Maybe Disney?)

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There’s a book that I got some time around 1993. It’s a light-hearted ghost themed activity/picture book. One important detail is that there were hidden messages in the book that one could read via the included red decoder that you’d hold up to your eye. It was essentially a red translucent film.
The book was mostly illustrations, maybe with some jokes and mazes thrown in.
The book MAY be a Disney publication as I associate it with Disney. But, as my brother pointed out, that might be because I had the book with me while we were on our trip to Disney in the early 90s. Still, it’s also possible that we got the book while at Disney World.

358Y: Stuff That Makes Kids Cranky

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Looking for a fairly recent children’s book. It is an oversized, paperback, picture book with some text. It is probably about 10-20 pages long. I read this to my daughter when she was young, probably around 2009-2012. It may have been published earlier. I recall the cover being yellowy-orange. It has very vibrant full-color illustrations that cover the entire pages. It’s a book about things you don’t like or want to do as a kid and being cranky/grumpy. I remember a few of the illustrations and words. There is reference to having to “pick up your room” and there is an illustration that show a boy picking up a room in his hand. There is reference to mom buying grown-up cereal with ingredients like sticks and sawdust instead of kid cereal. There is another illustration with a very long chore list rolled out like a scroll. There are also references to brother and grandma. It might be a scholastic book. That’s all I remember.

358M: Children’s book on a boy and too many cats

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I’m hoping you can help us find this book we read to my daughters when they were young in the late 1990s, early 2000s:
The book is either a picture book or a beginning readers book about a boy who loses his cat, and decides to put “wanted” posters up around his neighborhood. But he forgets to put a picture of his cat on the poster, and neighbors bring all sorts of cats of every variety to his house and his home fills up with cats. There are lovely illustrations of the different kinds of cats. We can’t remember the author, illustrator, or the title, so this might be a challenge for you.

358K: Modern Conservationist Noah’s Ark

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Looking for a book I read in elementary school in the mid 1970s.

Here’s what I can recall about it:

It was a modern updating about a “Noah’s Ark.” Not religious undertones, more of a (early) conservationist perspective about animals. About a man who as a way of saving animals collects animals. (I can picture him faintly, brownish hair with glasses.)

It was a picture book (although not simplistic pictures). For example, the schematic on the boat itself was detailed.

The main character build a modern boat (think a big cruise ship) to house the animals. And thereby “saves” a collection of species.

I know it’s not much. I’ve often recalled the book (I used to check it out continuously).

Let me know if you need any clarifications or if I can answer more questions.

358G: Children’s Book with Elevator

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I have been searching google all day with no luck even finding the right title to this book.
I would imagine it was published sometime between 1990 and 1998. I am almost 34 (born in 1987) and loved this book as a child.
This book was shaped like a sky scraper – not a usual rectangle! It was a hardcover and all the pages were also board book material. I don’t recall any words or an actual story — just illustrations.
A track ran through the center of the book with a small plastic square that was an elevator you could move up and down the length of the book. The illustrations inside were the many floors of the building carved up into various different shops and businesses. For hours I would pretend to ride the elevator around running errands in the book.
It’s driving me nuts knowing this book existed (my brother remembers it too) but not being able to find anything even remotely like it after hours of searching online. I now have a daughter who I know would enjoy it just as much if I could find a copy. Although honestly just knowing the title and being able to see pictures of it would suffice!

358B: Boy Loses the Smallest Nesting Doll

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Looking for a children’s book about a boy who snuck and took a nesting doll. While he was sitting on the curb he dropped the smallest nesting doll in the storm drain. I believe he took the doll in a lunchbox? Maybe tried to go to show and tell? He had to tell his mom he lost the doll. My mom read it to me in the 80’s when I was little.