Category Archives: Status

143N: Magical Midnight Garden Ball

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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.

 

 

143M: Historical Tales With a Twist

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I am looking for a series of books I loved as a small child around 1982-83.  Each book dealt with the story of a historic figure such as George Washington who was depicted in a happy child-like cartoon format.  Each book also had a central theme such as honesty, courage, etc.  The main character would be faced with a problem taken from their actual life and during the problem an inanimate object (in the case of Nelly Bly it was her pen) would come to life and help them get through the problem using the theme word of courage, honesty, etc.  At the end of the story was a small biography of the person.  The books were in a large picture-book format with hard white covers with pictures of the character on the front.  I have no idea if all the books had the same author though I believe they al had the same illustrator.

 

143L: pre-1955 Aminal

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My uncle described to me a book he has searched for, but cannot locate. He does not recall the title, author, publisher, etc… The book would have to be pre-1955.
The story was about an ‘Aminal’ who was the only one of his kind. He saw the world around him, there were Animals who were like each other, but the ‘Aminal’ was unique. The ‘Aminal’ ate only the left-half of split peas. He was greenish maybe and looked somewhat reptilian.

Thanks for your help!

 

143E: Dog saves lost kids at abandoned lake house

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Children’s novel I read in the 90s about two kids who get lost in the woods or “brush”, they find a large abandoned Victorian-looking house beside a lake to take shelter in. They survive off the overgrown garden with rhubarb and raspberries, and fishing from the lake. Their large black shaggy dog, always has hair falling in their eyes (possibly named Sadie?) ends up finding them and returning them to safety.

The book’s cover was yellow/beige, had an oval frame with the shaggy dog’s head extending out like a photograph. Many many thanks for your help!!