Category Archives: Unsolved

345Q: An old picture book starring two cats in love

2 Replies

I was born in ‘93, and I remember my parents had this book well in advance of me reading actively on my own. The book was beautifully illustrated, and I remember that the lady cat in the book was beautiful, fluffy, and… gentle? I also remember a thin, scruffy and beat-up looking Siamese pirate cat, though I can’t remember if he was the romantic lead, or if he kidnaps our leading lady. I do remember the tall, ribbed, triangular sails of the Chinese-style pirate ships, and lots of rich warm colors.

345P: YA book where kids get gills cut in their necks and go underwater

5 Replies

A group of kids, maybe a girl and her younger siblings, are surviving on their own. They meet a boy on the beach, who cuts gills into their necks somehow, and they go swim in the ocean and visit a deep and dangerous chasm at one point. Mermaids may or may not be involved. They leave the water in the end. The cover is blue with a picture of them swimming; the art wraps around the front and back, though it was probably a paperback. YA Pre-2000. Eerie feel.

345L: Children’s Book – Little Girl Trying to Hide a Giant (Cyclops?!)

2 Replies
‘
This was a book my father used to read to me at bedtime in the early/mid-90s. There was a little girl (perhaps with a pageboy haircut, pretty sure she had brown hair and bangs!) who, for reasons I cannot remember, comes upon a giant (who if memory serves had one giant eye) whom she has to hide. I feel like there may be a scene in a library and/or one involving a fence or hedge. I’ve been searching for this book for YEARS!
Thank you so much!

345K: In Search Of a Children’s book called “The Bus Riding Book”

1 Reply

I’m looking for a children’s primer, a first reader series, and one of the books is called “The Bus Riding Book.” In the book, all of the animals get on the bus, one by one, and then a bee flies in and everyone runs out of the bus. I learned to read using it in 1976 in catholic school in Queens, NY. I believe the publisher was McGraw Hill, colorful drawings inside the book with animals getting on the bus, and the cover may have been soft.

345J: Young Girl Decries Dangers of Reading When Chased by a Bull

1 Reply

Read this book when I was around 8, which puts it at 1960.  I am sure it was not new at that time.

Written by someone like Thurber or Ogden Nash, it was a collection of children’s short stories.  The only one that I can remember clearly was about a little girl who couldn’t read. At the end, when she is being chased by a bull, she comes to the conclusion that reading (words?) are dangerous.  The sign she couldn’t read said something  like, ‘beware of  bull.’

Hoping you can help me.

345E: Walking Into the Sunset

3 Replies

I would love some help finding an old children’s book from my childhood. I seriously doubt that anyone will be able to locate it, but it’s worth a shot.

Really, the back page is all that I remember, because I used to stare at the picture all the time. I used to read the book at my babysitter’s house, when I was roughly 3-6 years old. This would have been from 1986 to 1989. The book could have very well been from the late 60’s thru early 80’s.
Anyway, about the image at the very back page of the book. It was a sunrise or sunset image, with the main characters walking out a door into a beautiful scene full of trees, animals, etc. The main character(s) had their backs turned to the reader as they walked down a road into this scene. The image really was beautiful, serene, filled with hope. The sunset was mostly orange and yellow, and took up a big portion of the page. This image looked like the ideal place to be, and I’ve never forgotten it. Sesame Street comes to mind, though I don’t specifically remember it being a Sesame Street book. Truth is, I don’t know but am hoping that this will jog someone’s memory. I’ve never forgotten this book and would love to see that picture again, now that I have kids of my own.
Again, I doubt anyone would be able to help me with this, based on the limited details that I remember. But, thank you for trying!