I’m looking for a children’s book from ca.1945-1952. It’s about a little girl who finds a tiny girl fairy child and then keeps her. It has lovely color illustrations. One illustration shows the little girl giving the fairy a bath, using a soap dish for a bathtub. Can anyone identify this book?
Category Archives: Picture Book
210G: Boy uses coal chute to recreate clown car (Solved)
Full-color picture book published between 1940 and 1980. At the beginning, a coal delivery to the boy’s basement through a chute. Then the boy’s father takes him to the circus, and he sees a clown car but can’t figure out how they do it. Somehow, he thinks of the coal chute and figures out that there must be a trapdoor under the car for the clowns to go. Then he makes his own clown car.
208C: little girl that goes to a fairy or elf wedding (Solved)
This will be fairly vague (sorry!) When I was little (late 70s/early 80s) I had a book that was about a little girl that goes to a fairy or elf wedding. The things that stick in my mind are that it had these really amazing illustrations and a Lupine Fairy who had blue hair that swirled all around her head, there were also fairies who were parachuting in on milkweed fluff. The husband fairy (elf?) had long pointy ears and a crooked nose… Unfortunately that’s all I can remember, none of the actual story except that it is all about them getting prepared for the wedding but it’s one of those things that pops into my mind occasionally and I’ve never been able to figure out what book it is. Any help would be amazing!!
208A: Children’s Book Published Before 1968
I am a librarian in need of HELP. A patron has asked for a children’s book published before 1968. The only thing they can remember it’s about a man delivering or selling milk with a donkey cart. The donkey gets hurt in the story. I have tried everything looking for this book. If you can help me it would be gratefully appreciated. It is a birthday gift for a patron’s sister
207H: Children’s book about being afraid of the dinosaurs at the museum?
I am searching for a children’s book I enjoyed as a kid. I believe it would have been available by the late 70’s/early 80’s.
I don’t remember the title, but I remember it had to do with a kid who thought he/she wanted to go to the museum, but then when they got there, was scared of the giant brontosaurus. I remember an image of her pulling on her mom’s hand to get away from the dinosaur. I don’t really remember what else happened, but the book might have been about saying no to things, or getting over fears. The images were quite simple, I think.
207E: Little girl goes to a carnival or fair
Little girl goes to a carnival or fair, has the best day and comes home with a balloon. Read to me a lot in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
207C: similar in tone to “Miss. Rumphius
I am searching for a children’s book (a picture book) about an old woman who, with the assistance of a handyman, lives in a cottage by the sea, learns to swim, to make an omelette, etc. I do not know the title or author (obviously), but it is similar in tone to “Miss. Rumphius (aka the Lupine Lady).”
206A: Rich Brother/Poor Brother
This book was a children’s illustrated book I never was able to finish as a child because I was pulled away from the store as I was finishing. It seemed to have realistic (rather than cartoony) full page painted illustrations and was a wide, landscape book. The story was about two brothers who grew up and got married. One brother was successful and rich and the other was poor. The poor brother would go to his brother to beg for things they needed, and the rich brother would ask him for increasingly difficult payments in return for meager returns. At one point, the brother asks for food for him and his starving wife and the rich brother demands one of his eyes as payment and gives him a moldy piece of bread in return. I think in another exchange, he begs for fire or light, and receives a pithy little candle stub. I wasn’t able to finish the story, but from what I recall, I think the poor brother eventually gives up both of his eyes, but at some point, an angel appears before both brothers and its glory is so bright that the rich brother is blinded, but the poor brother is spared because he cannot see (perhaps he regains his sight?). If I remember correctly, the scene in which the rich brother is blinded showed him covering his eyes from the bright light. It gave me a feeling of being a holiday or Christmas book, much like The Little Match Girl, but that could have been because of the angel, or a time when the poor brother and his wife were freezing in cold weather.
I don’t know the title, but I only recall as a child thinking that the business with taking eyes was a bit mature/dark for a children’s picture book.
205E: some kind of inventor who had some contraptions
I’m trying to remember a large (not a lot of pages, but physically the book was big) illustrated book. It was mainly drawings, with a little bit of text on the pages. It probably had a soft cover. There was some kind of inventor who had some contraptions, including at least one flying machine. Something bad happened at the end, there may have been some kind of disaster, the guy was really unhappy. It may have been some kind of activity book, with some perforated parts you could punch out? It would have been published no later than 1985, when I was 7. I’m guessing it was at least a few years earlier than that. I’ve been trying to think of this for years, so any help is appreciated.
205A: Uncle Elgin’s Attic Trunk
I am looking for a book that was about, I think, two boys named Andy and Joe who found their Uncle Elgin’s attic trunk, and inside of it was a kaleidoscope and possibly other things. I remember one line that read “Goodness gracious,” Andy said to Joe, “I think I see an eskimo!” This book was probably published in the 1960’s. I was born in 1966 and a lot of my childhood books were Little Golden Books, various picture books, many published around 1969. I was a good reader by the time I was five, so this book was older than that. I have been unable to find the title or author of the book. My mother told me she looked everywhere for a kaleidoscope because she used to read this book to me and wanted to show me what a kaleidoscope was like.