This is a tale of a boy who pulls his wagon around his town, looking for bottles to collect and redeem. There is a map of the places he visits on the inside covers.
266H: Golden Book: Bottle Journey
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266G: Color-based ABC books
I am trying to find a children’s book probably printed in the 70s or 80s.
It was to teach children about colors. Each page featured a different color (I remember there were pages for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Black, and White). On each page the name of the color would be printed in that color, and there were various objects of that color illustrated (for example the Red page would have had an apple, a red barn, a cardinal bird, etc). Each page might have had ten or so illustrations on it. The non-primary-colored pages of this book (orange, grey, pink) had a small illustration to show how they made those colors by combining others. The illustrations were circles…red circle + white circle = PINK, red circle + yellow circle = orange, etc.
I am having a great deal of trouble remembering the exact illustrations, but I’m trying. I think that (among other things) the Yellow page had buttercups and a canary, Blue page had bluebells, Pink had a rose, White page had baby’s breath and maybe a jug of milk, Black page had some sort of berry(?)
The art style definitely had a vintage look to it, like so:
266F: Collection of Fairy Tale Stories From Childhood
My mom bought me a hardback collection of fairy tale stories in December of 1996, 1997, or 1998. She remembers purchasing it from Barnes and Noble, and recall it was a special holiday edition. I do not know the title, though I think I vaguely remember the worlds “Once Upon a Time” on the cover. I remember that the cover was a royal blue, and I think there was a picture of a castle/kingdom centered on the front. I think the book was almost square in shape. The pages were gold, that was one of my favorite things. I remember a couple stories from it, the Princess and the Pea I remember distinctively, and I know there was one about a man stealing herbs from a witch’s garden because they would heal his wife’s illness, but they made a deal to give the witch their first born child, so maybe this is a Brother’s Grimm book? I know there are a lot of stories I think may be in there, but those are the two I remember very well, so I don’t want to accidentally give a story that is not there.
It was such a beautiful book, and all I want is to find it and have it for my children to enjoy as well.
266E: A boy works at a marina
I read this book when I was in high school(1964-1967). It was about a boy who worked at a boat moorage/marina on Lake Okeechobee. I don’t recall it being a very thick book. I’m pretty sure it was a fiction book. I can’t seem to find it. Thanks
266D: Scary picture book about a monster that constructs itself from other animals/plants
I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me find a picture book from my childhood that I have been searching for for years. My mum borrowed it from our local library (in Victoria, Australia) sometime in the 90s, perhaps any time from 1997 onwards. It was a dark (both in theme and illustration style) picture book with detailed illustrations similar to those of Gary Crew’s The Watertower. I think it was designed for older readers (8-12 years). I used to think the title was Is Any Body There?, but I’ve searched so many libraries, bookstores and databases for it that I must have got the title wrong.
In the book, the protagonist is walking through different landscapes that have recently been destroyed by something or someone. The protagonist walks into the woods and says “Is any body there?” (or something along those lines). The wood’s inhabitants reply something like “Yes, somebody was here”, and the trees say something like “It took our branches”. I think other animals in the woodland also said that they had parts stolen from them, but I can only remember the trees.
The protagonist continues journeying and reaches a lake, where they also say, “Is any body there?”. The inhabitants of the lake also respond “Yes, somebody was here”, and say that something stole their body parts too. I can only remember the fish saying “It stole our eyes”. The illustrations very vividly depicted the fish under the water, with empty eye sockets.
The protagonist follows the trail of destruction through several other landscapes (sorry, I can’t remember them) and arrives at a house in a forest (I think). The protagonist makes their way to the basement, where they say for the final time, “Is any body there?”. A response comes from the darkness: “Yes, some body is here”. On the final page, there is a detailed illustration of a monster that is clearly constructed from all of the parts stolen from the animals, trees and environments.
The illustrations were in dark, earthy shades and I think it’s possible that the narration was either first- or second-person to heighten the immersion, but I can’t remember much more about the book than that. I’ve spoken to several librarians (including one who worked at the library we borrowed the book from originally) and booksellers, and no one knows of this book. Only my sister remembers it, otherwise I would have thought I’d fabricated it entirely.
Any help in solving this would be very, very much appreciated – this mystery has been annoying me for too long!
Many thanks,
266C: Mockingbirds with no song
This is a children’s book from the late 30s or 40s about four mockingbirds who did not sing/have voices. The other birds felt bad for them and gave them their songs.
266B: A teenager struggles with mother’s mental illness
I read this book in the late 70’s on tape, so no cover detail is available. April is a teenager learning to cope with her mother’s mental illness.
266A: Boy shares his cookies
This book (which seemed old when my grandmother read it to me in the 1960’s) was about a little boy who had a bag of cookies that he gave away one-by-one on his walk home leaving one for himself when he arrived home. I’m confident the postman got one.
265G: This Room Is Mine (Solved)
A 1960’s-early 70’s color (I think) children’s picture book about a girl who is forced to share her bedroom with a sibling. She copes by drawing a line down the middle of the room to stake out her territory.
265F: People with limited amount of words
The story is about a world where one’s wealth is measured by the amount of words he has in life, which are limited. A boy and a girl are in love and in the end when he kisses her she has only one word left and says: More.