Category Archives: Picture Book

342X: Asian Inspired Dragon Picture Book

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I was hoping someone out there would have a bit of information on a book I’ve been looking for over the last 20-25 years. The book was a hardcover, horizontal/landscape style. It was highly stylized, with what I could only describe as flat/paper like art. The book had little story to speak of, with the appeal being the detailed art. I believe the book had some fold outs as well.
The little text it had was descriptions of the dragons (if there even was that). It may have served as an encyclopedia of different dragons (Ice Dragon, Mountain Dragon, Forest Dragon, etc).

The dragons were mostly Asian-like in nature but there may have been some Western ones tacked on as well.

I think it was printed in the late 80s or early 90s, but it may just have been when the book was available to me. I can’t see it being from before the 1970s, it’s just too stylized. It’s possible, but I don’t think it was.

342Q: Vintage Picture Book Featuring the Ocean

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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:

  1. Sea stars on a sandy ocean floor, the sunlight is shining through the water onto the ocean floor
  2. A sea turtle swims and again the sunlight coming through the water
  3. 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!)

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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!)

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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

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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

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There’s a girl who lives in a house or has just moved to a house, and in the house lives a cat. She goes up a staircase into a room with many doors in it, and through one of the doors, the cat brings her to a world full of snow. I believe there are other doors with other places through them but I can’t remember. This was a picture book I believe and likely was written in the 90’s or even early 2000’s.

341L: Little girl’s doll makeover at her father’s Doll Hospital (Solved!)

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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

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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.