Category Archives: Picture Book

110D, solved: Unusual Pencil-drawings

Our teacher showed us this book in 1993; it had full-page pencil drawings with unusual captions.  I remember one of the drawings was of a young boy sleeping and the caption said something like “Archie (don’t remember last name).  A small voice said ‘he’s the one.'” I think another picture was of a room or staircase, and there was a tiny, maybe six-inch high door built into the wall.  I want to say our teacher mentioned that the illustrator had dropped off the illustrations and captions at a publishers, said he would return the next day, but never showed.  So the pictures were published into this book but no one knows who actually drew them.

 

107A: Appearances can be deceiving

children’s book I had in early 1970’s.  Was about not judging others by their appearances, that sort of thing.  There was a well dressed man and a bum/hobo both with their hands behind their backs.  When you turned the page, the bum had flowers behind his back and the “nice” guy had a club or a bat!

106B: Cottage of Different Animals

The book I am looking for was about a bunch of different animals (a golden lab puppy, a kitten, a hen, a duck and turtle I think, maybe also a squirrel) that all lived together in a cottage in the woods. I think it was a golden book but can’t find it on their lists. I also think it was a picture book. It has several pictures of them all cohabiting and doing house chores. I think there was a picture of the puppy with an apron pulling stuff out of the oven. I also remember pictures of them holding little hobo packs (bags on the end of a stick) possibly moving to the cottage. The artwork was not cartoony it was more like paintings.

 

106A: Whose Baby Is This?

A children’s book, about a group of woodland animals who stumble across a ‘baby’ in the woods – they’re concerned that it’s been abandoned, and the common refrain is “Whose baby is this?”  It is in fact a child’s doll, and the little girl comes running to fetch her, as the snow falls – gorgeous art.

105B: Cottage Surrounded by Moat

This is a very vague memory and unfortunately I only remember a few minor details. It was a colorful children’s book with a little cottage surrounded by a moat. A little man rowed a boat shaped like a swan (or a duck) to and from the cottage. It is NOT The Old Man at the Moat, although I realize it sounds similar. The man in that book has reddish hair and is shown as rather large, whereas I think the man in this book was small and had brown hair and a brown beard. It was also a different style of illustration – everything was drawn smaller and was show as being farther away (vs. large and up close as in The Old Man at the Moat). I remember lots of pinks and purples and one picture of the cottage that showed it viewed from the left side (if you were looking at it from the outside). The cottage was also on a very small plot of land – almost like a circle had been cut out just to fit the house. I thought at first it might be Magic Afternoon (similar vibe and illustration style), but that cottage doesn’t have a moat!

104E: Wordless Children’s Book About an Apple

I am looking for a children’s book that has a red hardback cover.  I believe the pages inside are all black & white.  There are no words.  It is a picture story about an apple.  At one point I think the apple is thrown out a window.  No, it is not The Giving Tree – that has a green cover.  It’s size is about 5 x 7 and it is vertical.  I don’t know the title.

104D, solved: fish beautiful happy sea pond

I read this to my children in the 70’s and 80’s. The moral of the story seemed to be about compassion and freedom. It seems that it was an oblong shaped book, not hard cover, but not cloth, but flexible.

It seems that the background, on the very colorful pages, was black and shiny. When your hand warmed places on the pages, the color would brighten and become visible. The story was about a very beautiful,  happy fish, jumping and gleefully playing in the sea. He is somehow caught (don’t remember how or by who) maybe with a net, by a man or boy. The person takes the fish home to keep forever and puts him in a little pond. Not long after being in the pond the fish becomes dull and sad and not beautiful any longer. He is released back into the sea and swims off, shiny and beautiful again in the sea. The last line in the book is something like, “ a beautiful, or magical fish loses his beauty or magic when captured”.

104C, solved: Children’s book covering colors

Hi–

I am trying to find a children’s book that talks about colors– every page is a different color.

I cannot remember the title, but the book cover is black (the one I had was hardcover) and the cover has a peacock on it.  The text inside is in rhyme, covering a different color on each page.

Here is some text I remember:

–Plates of purple pickle pie (for page on purple)

–Small blue snail, Big blue whale, Snail on whale, Whale on snail!?, It’s no wonder they go under (for page on blue)

–Pink peacock passing by, When she is full of pickle pie, Pink peacock says, Goodbye –I believe this is on last page, which is probably pink