I am looking for a children’s books that was probably published in the 1980s. I am 35 years old now so if this was a new book when I was a child, this would have been maybe around 1988, give or take a few years.
PLOT: What I remember about the book was that it involved a child going to school on a rainy day. When the child arrived at school, they saw all of the umbrellas of the other children lined up outside the classroom. I remember a page (actually I think the illustration covered two pages) depicting all of the different colors and patterns of the umbrellas, all dripping outside the classroom. The style of the illustrations seemed to be like watercolor paintings. I don’t remember anything else about the book, only that the rainy day and the umbrellas were at the center of the story.

I’m looking for a hardcover illustrated children’s book that I remember as having some of the most gorgeous illustrations I’ve ever seen. It’s not a novel, it’s more of a picture book. It has very little plot to it, and is more about describing sights and sounds than about a plot. It’s about a princess that goes to a ball (it could be a masquerade, I’m not absolutely sure), at or before midnight and dances with a fairy prince (I think she does, anyway). The ball is held outside on the palace grounds and in a garden maze (as far as I remember). I think the book ends at dawn when all the magical creatures dancing there disappear. It might have been written in poetry form. I think the cover had an illustration of the princess walking down a flight of stairs in a midnight blue dress. I remember the cover itself as being midnight blue, as well as that colour being the main colour of all of the pages. I can’t remember the title. I feel like it had either the word “Midnight” or the word “Mystery” in the title. I remember the clothing pictured as being 18th century-type and there were lots of peacocks and peacock type colours on several of the pages. The book was most probably published somewhere between the late 80s and mid 90s. I’m hoping someone will be able to help me with this. I only wish I could remember more. The illustrations themselves were reminiscent of the work of Graeme Base.

In the mid-80’s I bought a collection of tiny picture books for my nephew which featured anthropomorphized animals who lived on Cobblestone Lane. I bought them because the first book feature a character (a cat) named Tim, like my nephew. I am looking for these books again as Tim now has a son and would like him to have a set. Can you clue me in as to what they were?

A Children’s book bought in the early to mid 80’s, might be A Little Golden or Elf? These are the lines “Bossy eats grass and swishes her tail and gives us milk in a shiny pail. Skippy drives the cows and sheep and over the fence will lightly leap. Piggy Piggy eats all day he sleeps so much he will