Category Archives: Picture Book

373L: Don’t remember but going with “Dog Learns Colors”

I was born in 1997, and this is a book meant for preschool to kindergarten kids. I’m guessing it’s a late 90s (maybe earlier) or early 2000s book.
I can’t remember the cover well but I believe the dog was like a terrier, mostly whitish with maybe a spot or some brown fur. In the short picture book, each page is dedicated to a color and the dog then wears clothes matching and does an activity matching as well. I remember for yellow he wore a yellow raincoat and for purple I think there was some purple grape jam involved. I want to say for the color black the dog appeared as a mime maybe? I remember black and white stripes. I believe the plot involved trying to decide what his favorite color was.
The style used for the illustrations was unique, the pictures were simple and used minimal detail. I want to say they were a type of watercolor, the children’s book “Where’s Your Creativity?” is drawn in a similar style but it’s not quite it. I included a picture. Wishing you luck, thanks!

373G: The House Made Out of Cheese

Former Clevelander here. I’ve been wracking my brain about this book for months – it’s a children’s book about a humongous block of cheese being delivered on a flatbed truck, and then people carved a house out of it. 
ChatGPT says it’s “The Big Block of Cheese” by Jack Prelutsky and their description sounds right, but I cannot find record of this being an actual book anywhere??

373E: Boy Builds House with Sticks and Mud

I’m looking for a children’s picture book. NO ONE remembers this book, and I really want to buy it for my kids. A boy (I believe barefoot and in overalls?) builds himself a house with sticks and mud. He may also have a saw/hammer. It’s in a meadow or something. I feel like his parents were ignoring him or making a house professionally?

372Z: Patapon the lost baby duck

Trying to find a picture book about that my mother read as a child in the 1960s. A lost baby duck called Patapon. Patapon’s family go to search and at the end of each picture page the mother duck says, “Patapon is lost and we’re lost too. ” Patapon is found after escaping from a corn field that machinery was harvesting.

372Y: Early/mid 20th century children’s picture book; space fantasy setting; no text

When I was a child in the 80s, there was an old picture book at the public library. It had no text, but it took place in a kind of fairy tale castle on some other planet. If I remember correctly, each scene followed two children as they explored the castle. They may have been following a piece of yarn that eventually led them to where their mother sat knitting in one of the castle rooms or towers. There may have been a sort of robotic-looking cat playing with the yarn at some point. I remember the artwork as being full color paintings like you find with 1960s scifi book covers or movie posters.

372W: Frau The Hare

A children’s book which my Dad read to me when I was about 5. About a hare running from the hunt .. I remember feeling her fear .. for herself and her babies back home in the burrow .. When she arrived back safely with her babies I cried and cried !
It was a hardcover with pictures and the story .. a4 on its side . I think it had a dust cover as well ..

372V: A staying-up-late book

I would’ve read this picture book in the 80s or maybe early 90s but it could have been from earlier too. It was about a little girl (not sure if she was a human girl or an animal like Frances, etc) who thinks her parents (and sister?) have a party after she goes to bed each night. She finally convinces them to let her stay up and it’s fun and I think they maybe eat toast?
It is not a Frances book, it’s not “I Hate to go to Bed”, and it’s not “Amy’s Long Night”.
Thank you!

372O: Vintage children’s photo book – 1960s or earlier

Hello Book Heroes!  The very back of my brain has been tickling me about a book I had as a child, and I’m hoping you can find it for me. 

I don’t recall whether there was any text at all, but I think they were nursery rhymes – what I DO remember is that the illustrations were all photos of miniature items arranged in scenes, perhaps with live baby animals (chicks, kittens, puppies)?  If they weren’t live animals, they would have been perhaps plastic figures, maybe with flocking to make them look fuzzy.