Category Archives: Picture Book

240C: A family of animals underground (Solved)

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I was born in the late 1960’s. There was a children’s book that had to have been published before 1973 that I remember that had these illustrations it in about either a mole, a rabbit or a mouse whose family lived underground. The book had illustrated cut-aways that showed the ground above, the tunnels going down and their little house down in the earth (like a little kitchen, bed, etc.). For years it has been driving me nuts trying to find this book. So if you have any information please let me know.

Thank you!

239G: Old woman and a wolf? (Solved)

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I have been trying to conjure up what this book is that I had as a child. I could have sworn it was The Old Woman and the Wolf, but I’m not sure. I have stumbled onto The Wolf and the Old Woman, but I can’t find a description of what that book is about, plus the illustrations look wrong in the one image I saw of the cover (not to mention it was published in ’94, much too late for what I’m looking for).
As far as I can remember, it was about a lonely woman who lived by herself in the woods and a wolf would come to visit her. I think at first the wolf was pesty and she wasn’t fond of it, but over time she and it became friends and at the end, either she or the wolf dies. I remember it taking place season after season, over several years, and for some reason the winter season rings a bell. Like she keeps getting colder and colder every winter.
I know that it was a larger book, about the same size as Make Way for Ducklings. And it possibly had one of those medal insignias on its cover, although its possible that I’m mistaking that for MWfD.
I’ve been searching for this book for years and would do a great big happy dance if anyone at your store is able to somehow help me out with this. I want to get a copy for my own kids. And it certainly wasn’t a cutesy book by any means, had a darker vibe than a lot of children’s books.

I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed!
-Nicole

239C: Family gets rich but then they get fed up with the money

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Me and my brothers were read this when we were growing up in the 1980s and none of us can remember the title. It is a children’s picture book with great graphics. The parents became wealthy being rock stars (or famous at least, if not rock stars) and they moved to a house with a gold bath plug in it and had an ice cream machine that made rainbow coloured ice-cream but then they got bored of the money. I remember that the mother complained about the bath plug being scratchy. The mother had a really cool hairstyle which came forward in a point on her forehead. It wasn’t a long book – for bed time reading- but we all think about it a lot and would love to find it.

239B: Mirror World (Solved)

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I am trying to remember a book that I read in elementary school in the mid to late 80s. I don’t remember the title but it was about being trapped inside another world inside a mirror and anytime they showed mirrors they used holographic stickers. I remember it being a large picture book with great (Victorian style?) artwork.

236I: A steampunkish picture book

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Early 90s, I was 8-10 years old, I had this favorite book. It was wider than it was tall (maybe 12” x8”?) paper back and maybe 20 pages or something thin like that. I don’t remember there being a main character, but all the pictures where lots of shades of brown and copper. I would even say steampunkish. The plot had something to do with the machine having an assembly line of all these different gadgets. I vaguely remember gears or oil…I’m pretty sure it was very fantasy and even some anthropomorphism with the machines. Any ideas?

235C: Hippo’s Birthday

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I am looking for a book from my childhood which I remember very well. I am from the UK. The book must be more than 20 years old. It is about a hippopotamus, referred to as “Hippo” in the text. The Hippo asks his dad (also a Hippo) if it is his birthday every day. “Is it my birthday today?” and the dad hippo would reply, “No, not today, Hippo.” This goes on for some time as his birthday approaches. It is eventually his birthday and when he asks a final time, I think the dad hippo says, “Yes, Hippo. Today is your birthday. I even remember the dad hippo hiding the birthday cake on top of a wardrobe.

234G: A Mechanized Life

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Hello~

For about 20 years, I’ve been looking for a children’s book that I loved in the 70s. It was a picture book (or at least an illustrated book) about a boy whose house was fully automated, with an ejector bed that popped him out in the mornings to be dressed robotically, and I think a slide took him to the kitchen, where his breakfast was served mechanically… I wish I had more info. I’ve hit up quite a few children’s librarians, and haven’t had much luck. The book charmed me so much as a kid, I really wanted it for my kids.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

234E: A Book of the World (Solved)

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This book is at least 20 years old. It was a book for children showing all the different ways people live around the world (what they wear/eat/keep as pets/do for fun). There was little text, and what has stayed with me are the beautiful pen and ink illustrations. I also remember that the last pages showed how boring life would be if everyone was the same: a two-page spread of a street scene with everything all the same in drab colors, and then the next two pages a spread of a vibrant, colorful street scene instead. The book seemed quite large to me as a child, big enough to have lots to look at on each page… perhaps 12″x14″? Most vague of all is my memory of the cover… possibly, it had a drawing of the globe on a white background, and was just called “The World,” though that may be some other book! I’m from the US, but it’s possible this book was brought as a gift from another anglophone country.

Thank you for your help!