Category Archives: Picture Book

294X: The Perfect House (Solved)

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I read this book in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and here is a somewhat lengthy synopsis of the entire story (which I used in a library school course as a story-telling subject while I was getting my MLS).  Please help me identify the book!  It’s been a life-long unsolved mystery for me!

There once was an old woman who had lived for a long time in a blue farmhouse.   Now this house was not perfect, by any means.  It needed a fresh coat of paint, and the roof leaked when it rained, and the shutters hung crooked on the windows.

But it was comfortable, and it was home to the old woman and her horse and her dog and her cat.  The horse liked to graze in the meadow behind the house.  The dog liked to jump and play in the stream that ran through the meadow.  And the cat liked to chase mice in the attic.

One day, the old woman decided that the house was too run-down and that she must find a new house to live in.  So she packed up all her belongings and loaded them into her wagon.  She hitched the horse to the wagon, called for her dog and cat, and drove on down to the end of the road.

At the corner, she took a right-hand turn, and there, down the road a bit was a house just standing open and empty and waiting for someone to move in.  It had a fresh coat of green paint, and the roof looked new, and the shutters hung straight on the windows.

The old woman decided that this must be the perfect house, so she unhitched the wagon, and unpacked her things, and moved right in.

After about a week, she noticed that her horse seemed very sad.  He just moped around the little back yard all day with nothing much to do.  The old woman thought and wondered and thought about what could be making her horse so sad.  Then she realized that there was no meadow for him to graze in.

Well, the old woman could not abide by a sad horse, and she knew that she had to find a house with a meadow for her horse.  So she packed up all her belongings and loaded them into her wagon.  She hitched the horse to the wagon, called for her dog and cat, and drove on down to the end of the road.

At the corner, she took a right-hand turn, and there, down the road a bit was a house just standing open and empty and waiting for someone to move in.  The red paint was a little faded, but the roof looked new, and the shutters hung straight on the windows.

The old woman saw that there was a meadow behind the house for her horse to graze in, and so she decided that this must be the perfect house.  She unhitched the wagon, and unpacked her things, and moved right in.

After about a week, she noticed that her dog seemed very sad.  He just moped around the meadow all day with nothing much to do.  The old woman thought and wondered and thought about what could be making her dog so sad.  Then she realized that there was no stream for him to jump and play in.

Well, the old woman could not abide by a sad dog, and she knew that she had to find a house with a streaming running through the meadow for her dog.  So she packed up all her belongings and loaded them into her wagon.  She hitched the horse to the wagon, called for her dog and cat, and drove on down to the end of the road.

At the corner, she took a right-hand turn, and there, down the road a bit was a house just standing open and empty and waiting for someone to move in.  The yellow paint was a little faded and the roof looked old, but the shutters hung straight on the windows.

The old woman saw that there was a stream running through the meadow for her dog, and so she decided that this must be the perfect house.  She unhitched the wagon, and unpacked her things, and moved right in.

After about a week, she noticed that her cat seemed very sad.  He just moped around the house all day with nothing much to do.  The old woman thought and wondered and thought about what could be making her cat so sad.  Then she realized that there were no mice in the attic for him to chase.

Well, the old woman could not abide by a sad cat, and she knew that she had to find a house with mice in the attic for her cat.  So she packed up all her belongings and loaded them into her wagon.  She hitched the horse to the wagon, called for her dog and cat, and drove on down to the end of the road.

At the corner, she took a right-hand turn, and there, down the road a bit was a house just standing open and empty and waiting for someone to move in.  The blue paint was faded, and the roof looked old, and the shutters hung crooked on the windows.

But the old woman found that there were mice in the attic for her cat to chase, and a stream for her dog to jump and play in, and a meadow for her horse to graze in.  And she decided that this must be the perfect house. (It looked a little bit like this one.)  And it felt like home.

293Z: Rabbits on the Run – NOT Watership Down

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Picture book – published prior to 1985
Rabbits in jeopardy. Little (young) rabbit wants to escape. Persuades old, previously resigned-to-his-fate rabbit to escape with him.  Big rabbit is scared out in the larger world, returns to his fate where they began.  Little rabbit goes on to other adventures alone.  Could be related to Watership Down – maybe a chapter of that turned into picture book.  Illustrations were beautiful, and NOT clips from the cartoon movie of that book.

293V: A little zebra gets lost

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I am writing a memoir and am trying desperately to identify a children’s picture book that would have been published around 1948 – 1953.  It is a story about a little zebra that gets lost.  The only vivid image of it I remember is the little zebra encountering a senior Zebra who was wearing reading glasses on his nose.  The elderly zebra helps the little one find his mother (I think).

I do not remember the title except that I’m sure Zebra was in the title.  It is a picture book.

293I: A colorful board book

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It is a kids cardboard picture book that each time you turn the page all the objects are in a different shades of a single color and one object is of a different color. There are words on the pages like rhymes that highlight the object that is of a different color (for example a gray umbrella among a bunch of yellow items). The title might have rainbow in it. On the cover I think there are circle cutouts that get wider and wider that hint at the colors featured.

292Y: And The Sun Came Up

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My grandfather read this book to me over and over, probably around the early 1950s, so it may have been published as early as the 1930s. It was a children’s picture book, and all I can remember is the last page read, “And The Sun Came Up.” That phrase was most probably used throughout the book.  I loved it and have looked for it all these years, at antiques stores, rummage sales, etc. I would love to know the title and see if it is still around somewhere, so I can read it to my own grandchildren.