Category Archives: Picture Book

366Y: Ricky the Rooster (we think)

1 Reply

In the 1960’s, my mom used to read the book about Ricky the Rooster who was very proud of his brightly colored feathers and pushed the other animals out of the way to eat their food. He grew so fat that all his beautiful plumage fell out and he was disgraced. He learned to let the other animals eat first before he did. His tail feathers grew back without the extra colorful splendor.

My mom is 91 and remembers the story well. She is about to get her first great grandchild and would like to find a copy of the book. I haven’t found one but any leads would be great.

366T: Picture book where kid finds clues hidden in a desk that lead to a treasure/inheritance

1 Reply

The kid in the book receives a desk from his grandpa (uncle?) and a note stating there is a clue hidden in the desk. The note also imposes a time limit that the kid has to meet in order to get the treasure. The kid finds a secret compartment that contains a key and that key takes him to a bus/train station where he uses the key to unlock a locker. There is a duffel bag in the locker that is full of chopsticks. I believe the chopsticks lead the kid to a Chinese restaurant. I can’t remember specifically where it goes from there but I think it ends up leading him back to the desk and the treasure is hidden inside.

Other details:

  • There is a man at a bank that will take control of the treasure if the kid can’t solve it in time
  • The pictures in the book were shades of yellows, browns, whites, and grays
  • There is a secret panel in the desk that reveals a combination style lock face
  • I read this in the 90s but it could be older
  • I think the kid had an animal companion but not 100% sure on that
  • Not Terry’s (Tony’s) Treasure Hunt

366P: Enters baking contest with old oven, wins new oven!

2 Replies

Trying to help out someone I know. They remember a children’s book
that was available in libraries in the US in the early 2000s (pre 2006
for sure), unclear when exactly it was published but didn’t seem like
a new book at the time it was first checked out and read.

Seems like it was a pretty thin book / short story, completely
fiction, talked about a woman that owned an old oven (or otherwise
damaged it during the baking process), that entered a competition to
win a brand new oven. (Or it was money that she used anyway to buy a
new oven. Like 300$ or 500$ or 1000$) Could have been a picture book,
they don’t remember. But most likely just normal book dimensions, not a
super wide one with big illustrations.

The competition was most likely a cake baking one? But there’s a
chance it could have been pies or food possibly. (unlikely)
There was an Amelia Badelia book they found with a cake baking contest
for money, but it didn’t match the old oven being damaged and getting
swapped out for a brand new oven by the end of the story part.

366L: The Mouse’s House by the Waterhole

2 Replies

I’m trying to find a children’s book my mother read me over 50 years ago.

I remember vividly.

The mouse tells all the animals at the waterhole:

There’s a creature in my house yelling and screaming and throwing the furniture out of the windows.

He says this to lions, tigers, giraffes.  In the end, it turns out the creature is  an owl that the jungle animals trumpet and roar at, and it flies out of the mouse’s house in the tree.

Then, the lions realize they are hungry, and the giraffes and zebras etc. run away before the lions and tigers can get them.  The mouse returns to his house in the tree.

365F: Inventions for Children (Solved!)

5 Replies

Can you please help me find a book I read at primary school??
I read it in 1985 or 86 (87 at the very latest) when I was in primary school in the UK.
I would have been 7 or 8 years old.
Book title: Possibly ‘Inventions for Children’ / ‘Top Secret Inventions for Children’ (but that’s just a guess, as I really don’t remember!)
Book description: It was a hardback picture book. Each page, which were mostly double page spreads I think, had roughly 2 to 3 fictional inventions on (all aimed at children).
Some of the inventions I can remember: an armoured vehicle for a child, driving down a street (narrowly missing a cat and a lamp post I think??). Some kind of periscope / binoculars that let you hide behind your desk in school without the teacher noticing (possibly in the shape of a boy sitting upright??). Some little booster rockets (disguised as decorative circular medals?) that went on your swimming trunks to make you swim faster.
I remember all / nearly all of the inventions having a cross-section / cutaway section to them, so you could see the internal mechanics.

That’s about all I can remember, it’s been driving me slightly crazy for years (having tracked down nearly all the other books I loved as a child already).
I will give you any more information if I can, just let me know! 

365D: Castle on a Hill

5 Replies

As a small child in the early 2000s I compulsively read a picture book in the school library but for years have been unable to track it down.

It followed the history of a single hilltop in I believe England. Every page would open to a new period of history with a new drawing, as new groups of people would use the hilltop for its advantageous position.

The first were Celts, who built a stockade around the hill along with dirt walls.

Then a Roman fort with intricate buildings and brickwork.

Eventually there was a Manor House with a rudimentary wall.

And finally a huge castle with lots of towers and a moat.

There were other examples I don’t remember but these are what have stuck with me. Each page includes people in the various forts living, working, and doing activities. Parts of roofs and walls were cut out in the drawing so you could see inside.

And there was even a “Where’s Waldo” type game. In each variation of the hill were a pair of “lovers” (for lack of a better word) who were hidden among the people and activities and you had to seek them out.

Around the drawing was information about the time period, the purpose of why they built something (e.g. a drawbridge), and interesting facts like stuff about defending a medieval castle from attack.

I know this sounds like a lot of depth, but I promise this was a children’s picture book. Somewhere between the ages of 5 and 10 I was obsessed with it. Please help!

364I: Wizard with prism brings color to gray world 

6 Replies

Description: Likely published in 80s to early 90s. Educational content about prismatic light and rainbow colors. Illustrated story book. I remember it being hard cover, but may have been published both ways.
World is grey and wizard/magician/sorcerer brings prism to introduce light and color to the people. Takes children characters (more than one) on the journey to discover the colors of the rainbow throughout the world which may be better defined as a kingdom. I think there was a king and a castle involved. 
I’ve located a similar book titled The Color Wizard by Barbara Brenner. It is very close to the story line, where there is a magical person painting the colors of the rainbow. In the book I’m searching for there are children and a prism is involved in the story. I don’t remember the magical one inhabiting the castle, but as a visitor. 
Thank you to anyone who is able to contribute to finding this!

364B: Big and Little Mother and Daughter Pair

2 Replies

I am looking for a children’s picture book which I read in the mid 1980s (not sure if it was new at the time) at a public library in Columbus OH.  The story has a mother and daughter that plays on the theme of big and little.
The title is something like ‘When you were little and I was big’ or ‘When I was big and you were little’  – I did find a book with a similar title, but it wasn’t the right one.

Some memorable lines include  – ‘When you were little and I was big I gave you a bath in a teaspoon, and one piece of spaghetti was your whole dinner, and I carried you to school in my pocket’