Category Archives: Picture Book

350Y: Salami Racing cars!

Large watercolor book about a girl whose family owns a salami or sausage factory? They have a parade or race where they build things from the salami. They may be inventing machines? Can’t remember exactly. Would have been in English. Amazing illustrations of contraptions made from salami and shoes and all sorts of items.
Protagonist was a small girl. I read it late 80s but the illustrations were quite psychedelic so could be 60s or 70s.

350W: A Monster/Bird/Caterpillar Grows

I’m looking for a children’s picture book. Probably published between 1994 and 2004, a square white book, where … There’s a monster/bird/caterpillar? kind of thing that seems to grow … I remember the illustration being swirly, watercolor like with say leaves and feathers that get caught up in it as it grows???
Not Monster Mama but those colors and blurriness are on a similar track … Not a very hungry caterpillar, those colors are right but the illustrations aren’t cut paper…
What brings this book to mind is this fabric:
Do you think we have any chance of figuring it out?

350Q: Book with Tape Picture Book of Planetary Explorers

From early-mid 1980’s(?), book + tape children’s read along picture book. Brother and sister(?) visit all the planets in the solar system along with a ‘captain’ astronaut guy. There’s a part about each planet. There is music and sound effects in the production. In one part the captain almost dies on a space walk and the kids save him. I’ve been looking for this for decades now.

350N: Illustrated children’s book featuring a young boy, alligator/crocodile, and (possibly a second book) other wild animals

It’s possible I’m confounding two children’s books. I remember reading this/these book(s) as a child in the 1980s. Book(s) featured a young boy who has trouble falling asleep. He wakes up or is still awake late at night, fearful of wild animals coming into his house. He is not believed by his parents. After dark he encounters wild animals, including a lion or tiger coming down the stairs of his home. He is afraid but is not harmed. I also remember (possibly from the same book or perhaps from another book) that the boy is at school, daydreaming. He looks out the classroom window and is scolded by the teacher. He sees an alligator/crocodile, who is beckoning him to go on an adventure to return the alligator/crocodile to his home. The boy travels with the alligator/crocodile through water. The alligator/crocodile says goodbye, offering the boy his tooth as a parting gift. The alligator/crocodile has a single tear on his cheek as he says goodbye. The book(s) have a dreamy, whimsical feel and I remember being frightened of the wild animals and enjoying the illustrations.

350J: Witch keeps girl’s lover in birdcage

I’m looking for a darkly illustrated children’s book, probably published in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

There was very little text and mostly illustrations. The story involved a girl whose lover(?) is taken away by a witch. She goes to the witch’s lair and there are many birdcages with owls in them. Her lover(?) is also being kept in a birdcage when she saves him.

The pictures had a very dark colour scheme with a gothic/art nouveau art style, similar to Kay Nielsen but darker. I remember being fascinated with this book as a child as the content was so dark compared to my other books. I’ve been trying to locate it for years but cannot remember even slightly what the title was.

If it helps, I suspect the author was European given the content, so the original book was probably published in Finnish, Danish or German.

350H: Story Sound Bites

I am searching for the title of a children’s book published in the 1990s that had push buttons (powered by a battery).  There were story sound bites on each button.
There was a female villain who said “I get what I want.”

I recall cartoon illustrations. Similar to The Magic Schoolbus type of illustrations maybe? … In the boys’ memory, the book was 101 Dalmations. We did have that push-button book, too; but that wasn’t it. Robert was so sure it was the Cruella DeVille button, that he looked it up (https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/101_Dalmatians_(Golden_Sound_Story)), but her button is a car engine. And I remember enough to recall it wasn’t a Disney movie/book. It was … I think a little White girl. On a farm? The villain was a White woman, too, similar to Cruella DeVille.

I searched your archives without luck.

350F: Cat is cared for by everyone in an apartment building

Bright, colorful illustrations. A stray cat is cared for differently by each person in an apartment building (plays with someone’s yarn, someone else feeds fish). In the end, she has kittens and each person takes one to live with them. One of the illustrations is of the apartment windows/balcony with each of the kittens with their family. Maybe published late 80s/early90s? Not Six Dinner Sid or The Cat with Seven Names.

349Y: Boy wants a sled for Christmas, but doesn’t get it

I’m looking for a children’s picture book. It’s about a boy and his mother. Christmas is getting close. As they go about their days, they frequently pass by a store window, where the boy sees a sled he wants. I think it’s a red Radio Flyer type steel sled with rails. He wants it really badly. The story builds toward Christmas, but on Christmas morning he doesn’t get the sled he wanted. I think there may be some other, cheaper, sled under the tree. But it’s not the one from the window. I feel like it implied that the single mother just couldn’t afford it. I remember it being a sad book. This book always used to make my mom cry when she read it to us. Things have improved for us all now, and I’d love to find her this memory.