Category Archives: Picture Book

191D: traveling poet who sells his rhymes (Solved)

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The book is about a traveling poet who sells his rhymes. He meets a king or ruler of a town who wants everything to be the biggest and the best. So king is building a hill bigger than any hill, but the hill collapses every day. The colors on the book were very muted so I think it was pre-1980s. I think a part of the book was “the sun is a sun a star is a star i am who i am you are who you are” and something about walking on his feet and following his nose. I would be forever grateful if you could find the name of this children’s book!

191C: Dirty Little Pig ?

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This book was probably published between 1942-1965. It was about a family that lived near train tracks so that the soot covered everything in the house, including the family. The doctor was sent for and I remember he looked everything over and said, “Hmmmmm” which I thought was funny as a small child. The illustration I remember was of a pig sleeping in an open dresser drawer. I seem to recall the illustrations were not in color but more like sketches. I have searched for this book for 10+ years. Nobody has ever heard of it.
Also, if this helps, my mother belonged to something called the Junior Literary Guild and many of my books as a child were JLG books. Maybe this one was as well. My older siblings thought the book was called The Dirty Family or the Dirty Little Pig or that “dirty” was a part of the title.

187I: Lost bird looking for his family

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I’m looking for a picture book about a lost bird looking for his family. The book has lots of voice bubbles to show the bird speaking a language that none of the other animals understand. At the end, the character finds someone who understands him. I believe it was published within the last 5 years. It’s similar to Cuckoo by Fiona Roberton, Beegu by Alexis Deacon, and Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton.

186G: Children’s Book About Foxes (solved)

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I read this book around 1996 and it looked kind of old then. It was a hard cover, wide book and I’m pretty sure the picture on the front was yellow/orange. Very autumn like. The story was about a family of foxes, a mother, father, a son and a daughter (they specifically used the word vixen). The little vixen fox went and found an elderly couple who lived in a house and stayed with them. They gave her a red ribbon to wear. Her leg got caught in a hunter’s trap, and her mom came and lay down with her, where I think it snowed on them and they died together. Every year after that a certain kind of flower (might have been red) would grow in the shape of their bodies laying together.

186C: Trying to surprise Gramma with book

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My Gramma used to read my dad a childrens book when he was young (he was born in 1951) and she can’t remember the book but knows the phrase “(from the top top top) of his head head head” – the part in () I think is what she said but not sure. I think it might have been a golden book, and not sure of the rest from there. His name when he was little was Jimmy, not sure if that’s the character or not. Good luck, it’s not much to go off of. I could probably probe for more if needed from my Gramma. (i was hoping to surprise her). Thanks!

185F: Faithful dog completes difficult task

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This was a short story in a book of children’s stories, ca 1945-50?

The owner of a mastiff bets that his dog will accomplish a verbal task no matter what. He shows the dog a piece of money ( I believe it was an English crown), puts it in the dog’s mouth, tells him to take it home and sends him off. He goes home to await the dog’s arrival. A long interval goes by with no dog. Finally the dog arrives, bleeding with many dog bites, but still has the crown in his mouth.

The faithful dog has completed his task at fearful cost!

185E: Vibrant Color book

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My book stumper is a children’s picture book I’m pretty sure it’s about colours. I have no title or author but I was about 5 or 6 reading it, making that 1963-64.
What I remember most are the deep rich vibrant colours. It was nothing like the washed out, pastel-riddled books I mostly had.
One page was a drawing of a bunch of grapes and they were the deepest, purplest, most mouth-watering colour imaginable.
I think I remember a cloudy storm page…all blues,blacks,grey’s. Images were large and loud. Maybe a new book in the vibrant 60’s!

There was an orangey page. A bold page of sun, I think.

I remember no people and if there was text it was very limited… maybe “a purple bunch of grapes” or just “grapes are purple”. No story.
Only about 8- 10pgs perhaps.
Hardback. paper pages.

We grew up in Canada so either an American or British book, not likely Canadian.

It was stunning. I would love to find it