I’m looking for a book my fiance read when he was in primary school.
He borrowed it from the Bookrunner Bus (a library van which visited primary schools), and he thinks he was 8 or 9 at the time. This means it will be from before 2000.
It was a short, children’s paperback, but had black and white illustrations – which he believes were in a similar style to Edward Gorey.
It was about a young boy living in a house with his mother and big buildings were being constructed all around, which cast shadows over his house. In the end the boy and his mother have to move to an apartment in one of the bigger buildings. There might also have been some sort of pet bird, but he can’t fully remember! He did mention that it was a really odd, creepy book.

If this sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know! I really would love to get it him for Christmas.

One book that I learned to read with really stuck in my head because it was very similar to my own situation: A little sister who kept tagging around after her big sister trying to do everything she did and saying “Me too!” in every instance. I could swear the big sister was a brunette and the little sister was a blonde (as we were). My mom was trying to teach my big sister how to read, and even though I was only about 3 at the time, I wanted to learn right alongside her, because, well, “Me too!” I know there is a 1983 Mercer Meyer book along these same lines, but it has non-human protagonists and the older sibling is a brother. The book I’m looking for would have been published at least 10 years before that.

It’s a children’s book (I believe) with beautiful illustrations. The story centers on a girl, very possibly with blond hair. She is kind to the animals and to nature, unlike those around her (perhaps she has a sister who is deliberately unkind). As a result, toward the end, the birds come together and make her a beautiful dress made entirely of brightly-colored feathers. The dress has a long train and peacock feathers seem to feature prominently. It might be a wedding dress.

I read it in the 1980s as a young child, but it could be an older book.

I remember very little about this book. I must have been 4 or 5 when i saw it so i couldn’t read! All i remember are the pictures…

I’m guessing it was from the 50’s, it wasn’t a big book, maybe the size of the golden books? It is about a little girl going through all the seasons. What stands out in my mind is the pictures of her on the various vacations so there is one of her next to the Christmas tree and her with the pumpkins at Halloween, the same at Easter. There is also a page about her birthday with a picture of her with cake. The pictures and really warm and soft and the little girl who is about 5 years old is always wearing really pretty dresses.

Not much to go by i know but i now have a little girl who i know would just love those illustrations and i would be so delighted to have a copy for her!