Category Archives: Picture Book

274B: Non-fiction series with striped spines

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I’m trying to hunt down a series of nonfiction young reader picture books from the 80s. My family had 12-15 of them when I was growing up, and I recall them all having the same pattern on their spines – muted stripes of yellow, green, red, and blue. I’m under the impression that each book in the series had a different author/illustrator. Unfortunately I can’t remember any specific names or titles, but there are certain books from the series that I’ve tried to pinpoint:

Book 1: An instructional book on how to make costumes for various magical creatures and characters. There are instructions on how to make fairy and pirate costumes, among others I can’t recall. Vignette illustrations of fairy cakes and mushrooms are placed throughout. In the last spread, all of the magical characters have a feast.

Book 2: Title something along the lines of “On the Go” or “On the Move”? A more cartoonishly illustrated book on the progression of vehicle technology. Double page spread of horses and wagons mired in mud, illustrating life before the invention of roads. Some very 80s illustrations of sports cars. An image of a very nervous man in a tiny sedan being sandwiched between two Mac trucks.

Book 3: An instructional book on caring for pets, including detailed illustrations on how to build aquaria for turtles.

That’s pretty much it! I hope something rings a bell for someone. Good luck, everyone!

273D: Ethereal Little Mermaid Illustrations

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I’m looking for a Hans Christian Andersen collection of fairy tales from the early 90s. I read it when around 1994-6 but it could have been published a little earlier. I remember it for its Little Mermaid illustrations. They were so beautiful and seemed to glow. Lots of pale mermaids with long blonder hair. Like angels. The pages I remember most are the pictures where the Little Mermaid’s sisters are hoisting each other up out of the sea to hand her a dagger to kill the prince. The last page is the Little Mermaid floating to the sky as an angel after she kills herself to save the prince. It was hardcover and I believe it also had The Princess and the Pea and The Tin Solider stories in it, but I think different illustrators worked on them.

 

Hope this was enough to be helpful. I tried to look up books published in that time frame with Hans Christian Andersen author credits, but couldn’t find a comprehensive list.

272F: Picture book about pesticides/food chain

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This was a picture book from my childhood (so, early 90s). The kingdom wants to rid itself of some kind of insect (I think), so they spread pesticide or dust which I believe was purple all around. I think everything up the food chain starts getting purple spots, until the princess ends up with a purple spot on her nose and they realize the error of their ways.

272D: Hero has to choose the true object from a room full of copies

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A black and white illustrated children’s book that I read in the 80’s. At one point the hero has to chose the real object hidden amongst a bunch of duplicates. The object may have been a small knight or castle figurine. The hero solves the riddle by asking the various craftsmen who made the copies which one they think is best. The one left over is the true object.  The craftsmen or makers may have been dwarves or some other type of fantasy creature like an elf.

I recall it being a fantasy type setting, possibly medieval and probably had a typical Hero’s Journey type structure to it. The illustrations seemed to be cross hatched or stippled and I’m pretty sure they were in black and white only. The illustrations were large enough to make me think this was a picture book. The book was probably a hardcover and likely in a landscape format.

 

Hope you can help!

271E: Unlocking a treasure chest

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I am looking for a childrens book where at the end a treasure chest was unlocked. The keys to unlocking the chest have shapes on them and they are colored different colors. Above the lock on the treasure i believe is the shape that will unlock it. I am unsure if the colored shapes are at the front or in back of the key.

271D: Scary children’s picture book (Solved!)

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Greetings!

Please help me remember the name of this book.

I guess it must be kind of obscure since I can’t seem to find it on Google. It is not a novel. It had big pages with big illustrations. It’s a children’s “horror” book but horror is a bit much. It more-so just has a creepy, dark tone. It has about one or two sentences per two-page spread. Maybe more. It is also a flip-book (meaning the pages have flaps that flip outward. When you unfold the flaps, the same setting and creatures are portrayed underneath, but this time, you see them without skin I think). It takes place in the wilderness, in some sort of forest. Every two-page spread depicts a new spot, as the book gets progressively deeper into the forest (not just a forest, caves, etc., all part of a bigger, creepy wilderness setting). The narrative describes the setting, and the creatures. There are no reoccurring characters or dialogue besides the minimal narrator. There were creatures in this book that were very odd, dark, small, animal-esque. The book climaxes on the last page where we find a character at the deepest part of this world. The creature is a combination of elements of all the settings we’ve seen. I think the flap reveals a heart inside this creature.