Category Archives: Picture Book

203E: Surrealist landscapes for kids

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I’m looking for a picture kids book from probably the 70’s or early to mid 80’s. It was like traveling through surrealist or magical realist landscapes. Lots of architecture, like archways and pillars/columns, and far off landscapes, lots of lavender and greys, maybe had a feeling of Magritte paintings with lots of sky in the pictures, and men in suits, and some flat water.

I think it had a landscape orientation. It might possibly be one that has those weird half pages inside of it that show the picture in a different way when you turn the page, similar to Jacko, but it was much larger than that, and I’m not sure. I mostly remember the feeling of the images — surreal and weird landscape. Rob Gonsalves art somewhat reminds me of it: http://bit.ly/1CI0Xyu
Might have even had a man in a suit or bowler hat, maybe a weird statue garden. or an angel or woman.

Not sure if this is enough to go on.  Very cool site, hope you can help me as this has bothered me for decades!

 

203D: Number poem book

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Please try to locate a book my children had, perhaps sometime in the ‘50s; unfortunately, I don’t have it’s title, but it was a book that featured numbers. Each page contained a poem that emphasized a certain number: the one I remember was the number four. The poem was as follows: “Selma Snitch, the halloween witch, had four brooms, she was very rich! She had four bats, and four pointed hats, and four of the biggest and blackest cats!” Thus, each page featured a different number; the first page had a poem with the number one, the second, two, etc.

201D: Late 1960s-era “Birthday Party”? stumped

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I am looking for a mysterious children’s book from what I am guessing is the late 1960s. It was hardbound, unusually tall and narrow, and illustrated in a sort of kooky 60s style. It was about a little girl who lived in the city and whose birthday is right around the corner, deep in winter. Somehow, a wealthy eccentric woman who lives nearby has the same birthday, and decides to invite the little girl over for a special fantasy day. I remember that the woman sends over a dress and coat the day before–– I want to say it was a blue dress with a blue satin sash– so the little girl will have something lovely to wear when she comes. On the day itself, a special coach arrives to pick her up and take her to the woman’s house, and she goes over there, And she and the woman and have a madcap day. I feel like I remember an illustration of a room filled with books, and perhaps a hammock strung up in it. Very Bohemian but very ritzy. I can’t really remember anything more except for the fact that a cat has kittens at the end of the story.

201B: Children’s book, navel oranges, sharing. (solved)

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A boy receives an orange as a gift, and he generously gives away its segments to others, only to find himself with none left. Someone tells him that it was a navel orange, and there was a hidden baby orange within the skin, enough for one bite. I read this around the 70’s, a beautifully illustrated book. The author might have had a Spanish name, or perhaps Jewish? I don’t recall any Christmas themes and he shared his gift mainly with older relatives, neighbors who seem European…

200E: Lazy man with monkey who does what he asks

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I’m looking fora book that was written before 1989. This is the year I found it but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a new story.
The basic message is, don’t be so lazy to wish all your tasks off on someone/something else. It is very much a cautionary tail.
It’s told through a tale about a guy that comes across a magical creature (monkey-like I think). The creature is at the mans beck-and-call to do any task he asks of it. He ask more and more, gets lazier and lazier until one day the man asks the creature to breath for him. Essentially the man ceases to exist.
I believe the story takes place on an island. I know most of the illustrations of the man picture him in a hammock. I also think it won a literary medal. As far as the shape of the book it was longer than it was tall.

The school librarian read it to the class when I was in 2nd/3rd grade.The story was was impactful for me as a child but I cant remember the title. I’ve been looking for it for years. Please help me find it.

199D: Children’s fairytale/fantasy book with illustrations *possibly* by Paul Klee? (Solved)

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I had a picture book, squarish proportions, about knights who set off on a journey to confront “the wizard Bone,” depicted in the book as a rather dragon-like creature. The art style is VERY reminiscent of Paul Klee paintings during his Bauhaus period – very geometric, abstract; the ‘wizard/dragon’ is sort of like a Pac-Man with sharp teeth – or something like Klee’s ‘Death and Fire’ – the lettering in the book was by hand, with a very stick-figure style almost like Viking runes; flattened picture-plane perspective, etc.

I do seem to remember seeing the word “Klee” on the cover; but given that he died in 1940, if it wasn’t him, it was certainly inspired by his work. Oval eyes like ‘Senecio,’ panels like his ‘Sinbad the Sailor.’ and generally geometric backgrounds like ‘Castle and Sun’.

It seemed to have been published new in the early 1970s, late 1960s maybe.

199C: The Children and the Beached Galleon

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I can’t remember the name of the book or the author. A children’s book with plenty of line drawing illustrations, and featured some children who lived near the sea. One morning they go down to the beach to find that an ancient wrecked galleon has been washed up on shore, which I think they explore ( okay, this was before health and safety concerns! 🙁 Then when they go down to play the next day, there has been another storm and the ship has been washed away again.