Category Archives: Picture Book

328P: Chicken Eats Way To Giant

Hi there!

My brother asked me about a book my long ago boyfriend read to him and another brother when they were very young (I’d guess 3 and 5 yrs old). I have no idea! Can you help?

Here is his description:
“Do you remember the name of that children’s book that he read to us, about the chicken who ate all of the things in her way on her journey to go see the giant who was eating all the chickens eggs? And then she spit out all those things that she ate at the giant, including a fox, wolf, bear, and the sea?”

I’d love to find the book, as this brother is all grown up now and his first child will be born next month! Would love to get it as a present :).

Thanks for your help!

328A: The Little Girl Who Wouldn’t Go To Bed

I’m looking for a book that I loved when I was little. I was born in 1981 and had the book when I was around 3 or 4 years old. It was called “The Little Girl Who Wouldn’t Go To Bed” or “The Little Girl That Didn’t Want To Go To Bed” maybe? Not sure on the title. But I remember a lot about the book …

Every page was illustrated. In the beginning of the book the little girl doesn’t want to go to bed and her mother says something like, “Very well then, but father and I are going to sleep so you’ll be all alone.”
The whole rest of the book has the little girl going to all these different spots in the house to play – on one page her doll is asleep, on another all her stuffed animals are asleep, she goes from room to room of the house but all of her toys are asleep. She goes to her dollhouse and the dolls in there are asleep too. After going from room to room to find all of her toys sleeping she gives up and goes to bed too. Hope you can help me to find this book.

327S: Snow sweep invited in from the cold for tea (?from Samova)

This was a children’s picture book that I read in the late 1980s. I cannot recall the book title or story line but I can vividly recall one scene where a man (I think the protagonist) invites different people in for tea – from a Russian teapot I think (samova). Think he uses the line “Come in from the cold”. One of the people he invited in was either a snow sweep or street sweep. Any help would be much appreciated!

327Q: Glass/Crystal Palace

I read this book in the late 1990s. It’s a picture book, with detailed illustrations. I remember rich colors, and I think they looked like watercolor paintings. What I remember of the plot: there are two princesses (maybe they’re cousins), and one lives in a castle or palace of crystal or glass. The other princess comes to visit her in her glass/crystal palace, and she arrives by boat—I think the illustrations are of a city similar to Venice, where the streets are canals, and I remember fun bridges with lots of stairs. I was intrigued by the details of the buildings in the drawings. Part of the story may have been that the princess who comes to visit lives in a palace made of some other specific material—brick, stone, wood—something like that, but I’m not certain. And she decides that she would rather go back to her palace of glass.

327M: Mouse Finds Friend In Hurt Bird

I am looking for a children’s book that my mom read to me over and over again. It was about a mouse (?) that was trying to find a friend, when he encounters a hurt bird. The line “It was up to him to help the bird, he would have to find a friend another day,” is surely a direct quote from the book. There were strawberries involved and lovely woodland illustrations. Of course, the hurt bird became the friend the mouse was looking for all along.

326R: Photos of a Girl Named Nancy

I’m looking for a book that was given to my mother and that I also loved as a child. Mom was born in 1928, so I think the book was from the early 30’s. I think the title was just Nancy. It may have had a subtitle–I can’t remember. It was hard-covered with blue patterned paper; I remember it as being square, or nearly so, roughly 10 x 10. Each page had a black and white photo of a girl of about five engaging in various everyday activities. The one I remember best showed her with a sudsy rag washing the big glass window in the front door of her house. I have fuzzier memories of photos showing her riding a trike and eating from a dish. She reminded me of Shirley Temple–similar clothes and hairstyle. There was a small amount of text with each photo. My sister and I would love to have this book again!

326P: Mechanical Illustrations From The Future

I was born in 1977, and remember a picture book with lots of detailed illustrations including cross sections of spaceships and people on conveyor belts being fed via mechanical arms from ceiling (I remember a woman tilting her head back to receive a giant claw full of salad). Also, a kind of altered lawn tractor that did everything, including cutting all the flowers off with a reciprocating hedge trimmer attachment. I thought I may be confusing this with “Little Monster Goes to Work”, which i also loved, but having recently looked through the latter, realized it is a different book. Please help!

326M: Boy Has Adventures On River

I’m looking for a children’s picture book from the 70s or 80s for my friend. Her mom used to read it to her, but she can’t remember the name. It’s about a boy who floats down a river and has many adventures on the way involving animals and food. She thought it was “In the Peanut Butter Colony” by Louis Ross but that doesn’t look right after all.  Thank you for any help!