Category Archives: Picture Book

154B: The Princess Who Escaped Her Story (solved)

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Here’s what I remember:

The book is about a princess, I think her name was either Sophie or Sophia, who lives in a castle with her Royal Family in a town located within the confines of a storybook. Whenever the book is opened, the people in the town stop their current activities and rush to their places in order to preform their story for The Reader who’s name, I think, is Claire. The princess is very adventurous, she hates the repetition of the story and longs to visit a world beyond the book. I think that she does leave for a short period of time, and once she steps out from the book, she enters one of Claire’s dreams. She returns to the book ,and informs the other characters who react with shock and disapproval. When Claire’s little brother burns the book, the princess and the characters escape into Claire’s memory/imagination/dreams. The story and the characters, I believe, are passed down to Claire’s daughter or granddaughter, who with the princess’s help, re-writes/re-publishes the story so that it and it’s characters will live on.

Another point worth mentioning is that the book was published sometime in the early 00’s, I had a copy in my possession in 2003. It was from a school book fair, so the publisher could be something that has connections with Elementary and Middle schools like Scholastic. It was a paperback, the front and the back were off-white or cream in color, and I think the front had an illustration of the princess. All I can remember was that she had dark hair. 

 

154A: Green and gold book about the sea

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I was in second grade around 1963 or 1964 in Los Angeles Unified School District.  I remember in the school library there was a book on a book stand.  It was hardcover, green, with gold etching, about half or three quarters inch thick, a bit over-sized.  I desperately wanted to take home that book but couldn’t.  Now I think I dreamed it up.  The words “sea” and “star” and “world” sometimes flit before me.  (It’s not Sea Star by Marguerite Henry or the Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson.)  It was not heavy on text.  I had another epiphany with Holling Clancy Holling (Paddle to the Sea?), but I’ve looked at all of his titles and it’s none of them.  It’s size and feel were definitely Holling — green library binding — but not so wordy.   I can’t get any farther than this, but I MUST find that book!!  It is a true needle in a haystack with no author or title.  I have searched thousands of images of vintage books and can’t find this. 

 

153B: Golden Ball Book

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My book is a fairy tale that is written about a girl who displeases her father and so she’s sent by him to the bottom of the sea in a huge ornate ball.   I know that she meets a prince who eventually gets the ball out of the ocean but that’s all I can remember.

The style of the book is ornate and looked Russian in design.  It must have been prior to 1990 when it was written.  Thank you.

 

153A: Fairy tale and nursery rhyme book

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I had a Fairy tale and Nursery rhyme book when i was a child in the 80’s so i’m assuming it was printed before or up to the late 80’s. It was a big heavy red book and the title included Fairy tales and Nursery Rhymes. The cover had little red riding hood and various characters from all the stories inside. Stories included Cinderella, snow white, heidi, jack and the beanstalk,sleeping beauty, tom thumb, little red riding hood to name a few and some of the rhymes included the old woman that lived in a shoe, little polly flinders, jack and jill, little jack horner, twinkle twinkle little star. I managed to find some of the illustrations on the net but they had no information as to where they came from. I’ll include them with this post. They’re all beautiful color illustrations. So if any one has any idea of the name of this book it would be hugely appreciated

 

152E: ISPY type Children’s Book

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There was a book I owned as a child in the the early/mid 90’s.  It was a hidden objects, interactive book, where I believe each page represented a different country.  There was definitely something about hidden treasures.  I believe after you finished the book, there were extra challenges at the end.  One of them was to find a particular man on each page.  I can’t remember if he was a good or bad guy (i.e. a detective or a thief.)  The one thing I remember absolutely is that on each page there was a capital letter hidden somewhere on the page.  After you found all the letters, you had to unscramble them and it would tell you the location of some hidden treasure ( I think it was some type of goblet.)  I remember that Brazil and China were two of the countries- I believe Russia was there too.  I think the answer to the riddle was that the treasure was hidden in Brazil.   It was a large hard-covered book and title completely escapes me. It might have been Treasure Hunt or something like that.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

151C: Anthology of Fairy Tales

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Hi, I had this book probably in the late 90’s. It was a paperback book of fairy tales, but not traditional ones, “different” ones, and I’m pretty sure it was an anthology. I’ve thought of quite a few of the stories and plots but can’t remember the name of the book or editor. Anyways, The borders of the cover were red and there was some kind of blue and green forest type scene on the front I think? The colors looked like a drawing, not a real photo or anything. One of the stories is about a prince crossing an ocean and his boat begins to sink. A mermaid kisses him all over his face and he can breath underwater. He goes to live with her for a while but also wants to go back and tell his parents he’s ok, he does, meets a girl on land and marries her, and when he crosses the ocean again the sea princess drowns him I think. Another one is about a girl getting ready to be married and she meets some kind of half man half stag in a forest and he puts a braid of his hair around her finger. When she goes back home and goes to get married, the ring won’t go on her finger and the stag man shows up to take her back to the forest. The third story I remember is just about a girl with blue hair (maybe a mermaid?) who’s missing and her brothers are coming to a town one by one to search for her. They all end up getting indentured to different people and she shows up in town (or something) riding a tiger. And last, a princess stitches her dog into a tapestry she’s creating and stitches herself in too. Wanted to escape the castle or marriage or something. I found a similar answered question about a story like my very last one, but I know this one was in a book with lots of other stories, not by itself.

 

151B: Childrens book about baking bread

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I’m looking for a children s book where a group of children (I believe all siblings) go into town and pick up ingredients to make a loaf of bread except they don’t measure and when they bake the bread in the oven it over flows the oven, and eventually over takes the house coming out of the windows. I believe they end up cutting of pieces and either giving it or selling it to their neighbors in the small town, or village.