Category Archives: Picture Book

180A: Pete and Polly and their dog pippin the poodle

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It is a book about Pete and Polly and their dog pippin the poodle. “It was a very hot day, I am tired of playing in this garden” sighed Pete, so am I agreed Polly, “I wish we could think of something to do” “Let’s go for a walk” sighed Pete “You promised you’d show me where the twisty path goes to” They ended up getting a key from a fish. A message was attached.. “this magic key will unlock the blue door, and that leads to Magic land, you can ride in the little red car, wherever it likes to take you. But bring back the key tomorrow without fail, or something dreadful will happen!” They rode in the car and met the three bears and a princess who had a lemonade fountain I think. The illustrations were very colourful. I Have been quoting this book to my children for years now 🙂 Would be something wonderful to find it.

179E: All I can remember about it is that there were two really tall couples (solved)

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Trying to identify a book I used to love as kid. All I can remember about it is that there were two really tall couples, two sisters who married two brothers I believe (but all were extremely tall and lanky). I want to say it was set in the Edwardian period (or thereabouts) as the men were dressed like Edwardian dandies and I think they had handlebar mustaches (a la Edward Gorey). I believe the women were dressed in Edwardian white lace dresses and may have been wearing those Edwardian straw boater hats. This is really all I can remember about it; while I doubt this will be enough to go on, I figured I’d give it a shot. Thanks

179B: Fairy Tales from Around the World including Lapland

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This book was probably late 40’s or early 50’s and was a collection of fairy tales from around the world. It did have Bluebeard and Puss in Boots and some of the traditional stories, but it also had a story about children in “Lapland”. It was probably fourteen inches or so in height and maybe and inch and a quarter to an inch and a half thick. It had some illustrations. I can’t remember much more but I would recognize it instantly. Please help me identify it!

179A: Two Turtles Walking to School

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This is for my mom, so I can’t provide all that many details. It is a book that she read in the 60’s, so could have been published in the 1950s or 1960s. It is about two turtles who are walking to school. One detail she remembers is that they were carrying books wrapped in cord or twine instead of in a back pack.

178H: Children’s Christmas book about animals helping Santa deliver presents.

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I unfortunately do not remember the name or author of this book. I received it for a Christmas present as a child probably between 1955 – 1957. The book was about Santa Claus delivering presents on Christmas Eve. He stops in the forest for a break to eat the sandwiches and coffee that Mrs. Claus packed for him. He sits under a tree to eat and falls asleep. The animals in the forest find him asleep and decide not to wake him – but to deliver the presents for him. The large animals take the bigger gifts and the small animals the smaller ones. My favorite part of the book was the skunk – being too small to climb to the roof to deliver his present, leaves it at the front door. There was even a picture of him doing this. There are illustrations on each page. My memory of the title was “The Animals Christmas”, but I have never been able to find this book by this name. At the time I received this book I lived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was given to me by my grandmother and she would have purchased it in a local store.

178G: magic old stamps (solved)

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When I was a kid in the 1970s, I had book of wonderful/magical tales – the one short story that I loved (and have been looking for) is about a boy who finds these old, strange postage stamps in some box in his house – they have pictures on them that depict beautiful, exotic places that he’s never heard of.
He puts one on an envelope and it gets whisked away through the air, only to return a little while later, roughed up and postmarked. He puts a stamp on a package and it too gets whisked off – only to return, appearing well-travelled and postmarked. Then he puts his old pet cat in a box and puts stamps on it – the box is whisked away to this magical land, only to return with the cat seemingly younger and rejuvenated. I think it may have ended when he sent himself off on the same journey.
I don’t recall the name of the book or this particular story – but I suspect it had “stamps” in it.

178C: Competing neighbour gardeners (solved)

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Looking for a children’s book I had in the 1970s/80s about two neighbors who begin competing to have the best garden. It’s very beautifully illustrated and their gardens grow bigger and more elaborate until eventually I think they grow together. It is possible they are forced to become friends and cooperate at that point, but I don’t recall very well.

178B: Birthday girl who gets a glockenspiel

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My sister and I have been always on the lookout for a book that was hers and then mine which was about a birthday girl waking up on her birthday and with a bluebird on her windowsill I believe and the story follows her day. She receives a glockenspiel as a gift.

It’s possibly a Golden Book or Wonder Book and she would have had it in the late 1950’s.

178A: Cool Cars from 40’s or 50’s

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As a child I was gifted a hard cover picture book, written in the late 40’s or 50’s. It contained wonderful pencil-drawn illustrations of sleek and aerodynamic autos of that era. They were drawn from the perspective of a child viewing from a sidewalk in a busy city. I do not recall the name of the book, or even the story, but I have vivid memories of the drawings.