Category Archives: Picture Book

151C: Anthology of Fairy Tales

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

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.

 

150J: jokes/quotes to escape from a shell, selecting future selves (solved)

 

Looking for a children’s book, brother and sister, a series of magical challenges.  One requires that they escape from a conch shell with increasingly important quotes.  They start with jokes/riddles and end up needing powerful quotes for the final sections of the shell. 

Also there is a scene where the sister (Nora maybe? Ellie?) is faced with a series of doors, each in a set of two where she chooses one based on her reflection.  At first she chooses more sophisticated versions, with fewer of her hated freckles, but ends up very uptight and opts to return and take another path. 

 

150I: Nine ??? Dragons (solved)

 

Children’s book I read to my kids in the 80’s.  I believe it was part of a collection, my daughter believes it may be from Sesame Street.  Probably a learning book about numbers.  “Dragons” was definitely in the title, probably with a descriptive word in the middle, such as “Nine Daring Dragons”.