Category Archives: Picture Book

194H: children’s book about a girl that loved to read

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I’m trying to find a children’s book about a girl that loved to read. She surrounded herself with books and read all of her life, sometimes pushing away friends and family so she could read. The illustrations show her in rooms filled with books. I distinctly recall a picture of her in a big, comfortable chair and all you can see is her holding a book and surrounding by mountains of books. Maybe even by candlelight. I can’t even remember her name! All I remember are each piece of artwork in the book shows her reading and in places filled to the brim with loads and loads of books.

194G: Boy’s house overshadowed by buildings (Solved)

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I’m looking for a book my fiance read when he was in primary school.
He borrowed it from the Bookrunner Bus (a library van which visited primary schools), and he thinks he was 8 or 9 at the time. This means it will be from before 2000.
It was a short, children’s paperback, but had black and white illustrations – which he believes were in a similar style to Edward Gorey.
It was about a young boy living in a house with his mother and big buildings were being constructed all around, which cast shadows over his house. In the end the boy and his mother have to move to an apartment in one of the bigger buildings. There might also have been some sort of pet bird, but he can’t fully remember! He did mention that it was a really odd, creepy book.

If this sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know! I really would love to get it him for Christmas.

194F: 1960’s book about accepting disabilities (Solved)

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Looking for a Children’s novel. I probably read it around 1963 or beyond. It was a library book. It was about a young girl helping her friend (possibly named Sarah?) who had a disability (possibly Cerebral Palsy?). I remember the girl helping the disabled girl/Sarah and helped her in school and at play and to generally feel accepted by others.

194D: Mouse Searching For House

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I’m searching for this book for a friend so I don’t have much of a description. Here’s what she remembers;

The character is a mouse that is looking for a house. The circle house blows away in a storm. There’s something unsatisfactory about the corners in the triangle house.

That’s it. I hope it’s enough!

194C: Like “Me Too,” but with human sisters (Solved)

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One book that I learned to read with really stuck in my head because it was very similar to my own situation: A little sister who kept tagging around after her big sister trying to do everything she did and saying “Me too!” in every instance. I could swear the big sister was a brunette and the little sister was a blonde (as we were). My mom was trying to teach my big sister how to read, and even though I was only about 3 at the time, I wanted to learn right alongside her, because, well, “Me too!” I know there is a 1983 Mercer Meyer book along these same lines, but it has non-human protagonists and the older sibling is a brother. The book I’m looking for would have been published at least 10 years before that.

194B: A walk in New York City

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In the late 1980’s t had a lovely book about a middle-aged woman who lived in an apartment with a cat. She gathers up her coat and shopping bag and purse and goes for a walk throughout the city including a stop at the Guggenheim Museum. There was no text, only the loveliest muted color drawings. I’d love to be able to share this book with my grandchildren.

194A: Boy falls into magical world, solves puzzles to escape

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My younger brother ordered this book through the Scholastic Book Club or similar program in the late ’90s. He would have been between kindergarten and 2nd grade. The book followed a young boy who, I think, was visiting his uncle or grandfather and fell through, I think, a grandfather clock into another world. The reader had to solve puzzles to help him escape. The puzzles were answered on the next page and you weren’t supposed to turn the page until you solved the puzzle. They would be something like, if 12 o’clock is green and 6 o’clock is red, what color is 3? Some of the puzzles were quite hard and took us a while to solve. What I remember the most is the illustrations. They were vivid, almost life-like. They were dark and the world the boy had fallen into was frightening but the scenery was detailed and stunning, even to me as a young child.

193E: Girl with the Dress Made of Feathers (Solved)

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It’s a children’s book (I believe) with beautiful illustrations. The story centers on a girl, very possibly with blond hair. She is kind to the animals and to nature, unlike those around her (perhaps she has a sister who is deliberately unkind). As a result, toward the end, the birds come together and make her a beautiful dress made entirely of brightly-colored feathers. The dress has a long train and peacock feathers seem to feature prominently. It might be a wedding dress.

I read it in the 1980s as a young child, but it could be an older book.

193C: Littlest Hippo

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The book I am looking for was a children’s book from the 1960′s. I don’t know who the author was. I blieve it was called “The Littlest Hippo” the story was about a herd of hippos whom lived together and the smallest hippo either became separated, or was they might have all been looking for something that they couldn’t find. the little hippo looked behind things, under things around things, etc. it wasn’ until he figured out to look “UP” that he found what he was looking for (which may have been the rest of the herd of hippos).

193B: little vacation girl (Solved)

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I remember very little about this book. I must have been 4 or 5 when i saw it so i couldn’t read! All i remember are the pictures…

I’m guessing it was from the 50’s, it wasn’t a big book, maybe the size of the golden books? It is about a little girl going through all the seasons. What stands out in my mind is the pictures of her on the various vacations so there is one of her next to the Christmas tree and her with the pumpkins at Halloween, the same at Easter. There is also a page about her birthday with a picture of her with cake. The pictures and really warm and soft and the little girl who is about 5 years old is always wearing really pretty dresses.

Not much to go by i know but i now have a little girl who i know would just love those illustrations and i would be so delighted to have a copy for her!