Category Archives: Picture Book

369D: The Secret Passage, Straight to the Bakery (Solved!)

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I’m not even sure why this particular picture book continues to stick with me. Was it the thrill of exploring a secret passage that sparked my love of exploration? Was it my first surprise ending? Was it my love of bakeries? I’m really not sure, but I’d love to find a copy. I borrowed this book from the children’s section of the Elmhurst branch of the Queens (NY) Public Library many times from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s. There were either one or two children–boys I think–who were exploring a secret passageway they had found in an old mansion or castle. I think he or they had just moved there but my memory is unclear. One of the illustrations I remember best showed an interior view slice of the whole house, including the secret passageway winding its way through the multi-leveled dwelling, with the two boys visible with their flashlight somewhere on a lower level. The boys follow the passageway a long way underground to a door. The door opens out into a bakery in the town or village.  There’s another illustration of a surprised baker at his oven as the small door opens out from mid-wall and the equally surprised boys tumble into his bakery. For some reason I think the baker is French, but again details remain elusive. At the end the baker serves them cream puffs or eclairs. Another post I saw (on another book search site) seemed to be a  query about this same book and mentions the boys perhaps finding some old casks of wine (?) that had been missing for some time. I also think the town was celebrating some kind of anniversary and the townspeople hoped to celebrate with the casks of wine. It’s also possible I am confusing two books. If anyone can help, I’d really appreciate it! 

368Y: Mouse in Old Lady’s House (Solved!)

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Looking for a children’s book I read in the early 2000s. Hardcover story book with illustrations, possibly in watercolor. The book was tan with a dark brown spine, the lettering was gold. The story is about an old lady living her peaceful life, drinking her coffee/tea, eating a slice of spice?/chocolate? cake, and reading her book every night. One night she finds a mouse in her house, who I think ate her cake and chewed her book, which sends her to bed stressed. The next day, she buys a cat to get rid of the mouse, but the cat ends up being too lazy and sleeps all day. Then she gets a dog, but the dog just runs around and makes a mess. Then she gets an owl to hunt the mouse, but it keeps her up all night flying around. Then a snake, and so on. She keeps buying animals to solve the mouse problem until her house is in chaos, but the mouse is still there. The story ends with her getting rid of all the animals and eventually making friends with the mouse and serving it it’s own tiny cup of tea and it’s own tiny slice of cake every night with her and they live happily ever after. I have Googled things like “children’s book old lady mouse in house” and variation of that for hours with no luck. Send help!

268W: Kings Getting Smaller and Smaller

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I am looking for a children’s book written before 1985. The book is about a man who is looking for an answer or a king. He visits different kings and each king is smaller than the previous one. At the end the last king is so small he is in a horn so people can hear him speak. 
Thanks for any help you can provide.

268V: Early 70s B&W Photos Perforated Pages (Solved!)

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I have searched for years for a book I once owned; I cannot remember the title, but the physicality of the book remains vivid.  It was paper-bound, roughly 8″ square, and I think there was a good deal of yellow in the cover design.  Most of the book consisted of perforated pages, with four 4″-square black-and-white photos per page, meant to be torn out and used as focal objects for meditation (or perhaps divination, in the manner of tarot cards).  The photo pages were printed on heavy card stock and had photos on each side.  The images were varied: people, landscapes, buildings, etc., all inviting contemplative regard.  There were also pages of text in the front of the book describing ways of using the photo cards.  My other lasting memory is that the book was the same size as Ram Dass’s Be Here Now (published 1971), so that, once all the photos had been torn out, the Ram Dass book could more or less fit into the space left behind.  Since this book does not neatly fit any standard category, I’ve never been able to track it down.  Many thanks to anyone who might share this memory with me and know the title.

368O: Fixing Broken Things

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I’m looking for a favorite book from my father’s childhood. He says he was around 1st grade when he read it, which would put that between 1971-1974. He read it in school, possibly in a group reading situation. It was a hardback or board-book around the size of a magazine or slightly smaller. The cover may have been white with an illustration of a man and some of the things he fixed. The book itself was illustrated in full (or near full) color with defined lines. He remembers that the shoes were brown; the car was black; and the house was white, pink, yellow, or orange.
The plot was that a younger man, maybe blonde, would find things at a garbage dump and fix them. He fixed a pair of shoes, a piano, a car, and a house. There may have been other things too. An older man, wearing a suit and maybe glasses, had thrown the things out and would come by after the younger man fixed them and try to claim them even though he had thrown them away.
Thank you in advance!

368L: Childrens illustrated book 80s or 90s small perspectives

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Children’s book published I believe in the late 80s early to mid 90s. It was a large paperback picture book. The illustrations were incredibly complex and rich and painterly. It was based in the woods and the surrounding areas. And was I think, through the perspective of a little creature like a mouse. Everything was small but five perspective looked big if that makes sense. So like a little beetle would be the size of a dog kind of thing. There was a scene in a clearing in the woods. There was a little house on a tiny pond with a boat that went to it. And there was a scene in a meadow at night. Each scene would cover the entire two pages that you saw. And for every scene there would be a key off to the side with a list of all of the items that you were supposed to help the main character find. They would have magical properties but they were all things that existed in real nature like deadly nightshade, cobwebs ( not all like scary stuff but those are the two things I can’t remember).
illustrations were super intricate and all of the little items were hidden but not like hidden blueberry was a dogs eye or something, hidden in this really great way that seemed very real and also very hard to find the item so it was actually challenging to search which made it so fun. It was absolutely beautiful and so immersive for a little person’s imagination.

368K: Underwater Treasure Chest With A Single Doubloon

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This is an illustrated book from the 80’s or more likely the 70’s. It entails a boy who rows his dinghy into the ocean. He spots something on the sea floor and dives down to find a treasure chest. He discovers that there’s a hole in the bottom of the chest so that there’s nothing in it save for a single doubloon. That either happens in the boat or back at the harbor — I think I recall an older sailor explaining the doubloon to him. It had beautiful art — especially the water refraction effects. I would love to show this book to my son.

368G: Searching for a Children’s Book with a Valentines Day Theme

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1950s or early 1960s children’s picture book. Little boy has some sort of issue on Valentines Day; maybe a fight with his brother? I think he loses a valentine card, maybe one that he made. I remember an illustration of him in his pajamas outside in the snow. I think he finds the missing valentine outside in the snow.