The dragons were mostly Asian-like in nature but there may have been some Western ones tacked on as well.
Category Archives: Picture Book
342Q: Vintage Picture Book Featuring the Ocean
Vintage Picture Book (from 50s, 60’s, or 70s), not very thick, stapled, maybe 10 – 12 pages, not a lot of printed text. Watercolor, realistic illustrations
What I remember about the story: A boy spends a lot of time snorkeling, he sees all kinds of fish and turtles, and he finds a shipwreck and a shark shows up (scary) but he escapes and finds a treasure.
I remember the following illustrations:
- Sea stars on a sandy ocean floor, the sunlight is shining through the water onto the ocean floor
- A sea turtle swims and again the sunlight coming through the water
- A two page illustration showing the boy on the left top looking down on the shipwreck, again the light plays through the water
The illustrations were realistic and what stood out was the light portrayed underwater.
342M: Children’s Book – Whale who changes color (Solved!)
I’m racking my brain to remember a favorite childhood book. The premise of the story is a whale who is traveling down a river in the jungle (I think it’s a jungle?) who meets other animals along the way and he is sad that he is not colorful like they are. The other animals help him become colorful by rubbing different colored plants on him. I vaguely recall the cover of the book, but I do remember that it was rectangular in shape. I was born in 1979 and I don’t think this book was published much before or after that. Maybe 1987 at the latest? Does anyone recall coming across this book?
342K: White Horse Turns Pink After Eating Strawberries (Solved!)
As a child in the 1940’s I had a picture book about a white horse who loved strawberries but was allergic to them and turned pink when he ate them. I do not remember the title or the author, but I do recollect a blue cover with a picture of a white (maybe pink horse). I’d love to see that book again, or at least learn something about it.
342I: Children playing in a tree
My brother and I have been searching for a picture book that we were particularly fond of as children. I don’t remember the title but it would have been published in the late 60’s or early 70’s. The story is about a boy (possibly named Keith) who has his father help him built a fort in a large tree in his back yard. Some neighbor children come by to play, and they end up adding their own structures to the tree. I remember one of the friends puts a big wash tub up in the tree and pretends to be an astronaut in a ship. Some girls bring their dolls up in the tree and make a tent with a blanket or some kind of hammock. There’s also a plank that they stand on that is supposed to be a raft? Maybe one of the kids was a pirate? Not sure, but before you know it, all the neighborhood children are playing in the tree. I can still see the illustrations in my mind’s eye and and would recognize it if I saw it. Thanks!
342C: A house with a magic door
342B: Racist picture book from mid-century about trip to Africa
Some children go on a travel adventure – at one point they are being chased by a lion while driving in a sort of Land Rover and someone throws a shoe at the lion and hits him on the nose – illustration shows lion knocked on his butt with a swollen nose.
341P: Boy finds flint arrow head
Children’s picture book available in 1990s. Boy finds a flint arrow head in his garden. Somehow (that night?) he is magically transported back to the time that indigenous First Nations people lived on the land - he sits around their camp fire with them.
341L: Little girl’s doll makeover at her father’s Doll Hospital (Solved!)
Looking for a child's fiction/picture book circa 1950's-1960's, maybe even 1940's -Hardcover - Colored pictures drawn like doll wigs of different colors, new clothes in tissue paper, clothes accessories, etc. Pictures are not 'cartoony'; more true to life.
Story: Little girl has been asking her father to fix her doll but he has been too busy at his shop. Finally, on the little girl's birthday, he closes his doll hospital early and dedicates the rest of the day to fixing up her beloved doll with new eyes, face and clothes that she gets to pick out all by herself.
341K: 70s-80s Book About Colors
I don’t remember if there were characters or much of a plot, but what I do remember is that it had lushly illustrated two-page spreads where each spread was devoted to a single color. I think yellow was a picnic in a wheat field with buttered bread…I also think there was a spread that depicted the beach (not sure what color it might have represented). Also, I think in each spread there was a teaser color spot or object that represented the next color’s scene. I think the book ended with a scene of all the colors. I would have read this in the late 80s, but it might have been 70s etc. It was certainly bigger than a Golden Book or board book.