Category Archives: Picture Book

243C: Busy Busy Port (Solved)

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I am looking for my son’s favorite book when he was a small child. He was born in 1982, and the book dates from early to mid eighties in publication. Its title is “Busy Busy Port”, but I have no idea of the author. It’s a picture book.

The book is essentially nonfiction; there is no plot, nor are there characters. It’s just a picture book close-up of all the activities and the boats, ships and navigational devices and trains that center on a big city port.

The book is a small book, maybe 10 x 8, and nothing like Richard Scarry-type books with lots of flashy colors

243B: A Picture Book of Color Photographs

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When I was a boy growing up in Farmingdale, NY (Long Island), I attended a primary school (Parkway Oaks) from 1973-1976 and there was a picture book that I used to take out of the school library all the time.

It was full of color photographs of objects. I believe it was an object book or visual dictionary of some sort. However, I also vaguely remember that it was organized by color so that green objects were together, etc. I could be misremembering this, though.

It was not a very thin book; I think it was reasonably thick, chock-full of photos. It was smaller in dimensions (WxH – not an oversized book).

I remember the color being red, but I could be wrong, and that could simply be an artifact of edition. This book appeared to have the style of a book from the 50s or 60s. I cannot imagine a book from the 40s having this much color photography.

I remember being fascinated by all the color photographs (rather than illustrations, which were more common in the other children’s books), and I would love to find this book again.

Thanks!

242G: Hats!

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I’m looking for a book, could be from any time before 1975 or so.
It was a big picture book for young children which I think was primarily about different hats. The main thing I remember is that there was one spread with a woman wearing a fancy hat with netting on it, and there was a fish design in the netting such that the fish went right over her eyes.
My mom thinks it was called something like “My Aunt’s Hat” but isn’t sure. I haven’t had any luck googling that.
She remembers it as being about an older woman, sort of crazy, with “old lady tight curly hair”.
She remembers the image as being “big, falling off the page” and there may have been a tiny little fishing line on the page.

Pretty sure it is not:
Jennie’s Hat
Aunt Lucy Went to Buy a Hat
Aunt Flossie’s Hats
Caps for Sale
Cat in the Hat or any Dr. Seuss including Bartholomew Cubbins Old Hat, New Hat or any Berenstain books

Although if there is a spread with the fish hat in one of these, that’s probably it.

242C: Magic Carousel

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I read this book when I was around four or five, so it would have been 1969 or 1970. Two sisters were with their dad at Central Park in NYC and he took them to the carousel and to watch the ice skaters. They rode the carousel and the horses. The carousel and the horses became real and they rode them off the carousel and through central park, maybe this is when they rode past the ice skating rink. From my memory it was evening time. I remember the book as being in pinks, yellows and oranges and I think the illustrations may be similar to those of Alice and Martin Provensen. Here’s to hoping someone knows something about this book! I have never forgotten it.

240F: A girl pretends to be a witch (Solved)

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The book is a children’s picture book about a little girl in witch school, or living with witches. But she is not a witch, or she doesn’t look like one, but she is pretending. Every day she puts on her robe and hat, and also a fake witch’s nose to hide her small nose. The book had line drawing illustrations (black and white), and at least one involved spiders and her bed. The girl was swept away by a real witch on Halloween, having been mistaken for a real witch girl, and finds herself at this school quite by mistake. I’m afraid this is quite a stumper, as I have only the fuzziest recollections of the book, but would know the illustrations instantly. I have looked and looked, and can’t find it!

 

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