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).”

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.

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.

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.

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.

This book was read to my class in Australia in 1975, when I was 5 years old. It was about how a little water (or rain, though I seem to remember a watering can) makes the desert bloom. I remember vivid illustrations. The flowers looked like lollipops. Story told with secretive wonder.