Category Archives: Picture Book

371Y: The colorful mud people, and metallic foil birds

I’m looking for two books for my sister for Christmas. She was born in the mid 70s and they were books that she loved as a child but she doesn’t remember much about either.

1) mud golems or mud people who may be feel drab, and then find paint or color puddles and absorb the colors and become colorful? I’m so sorry I don’t have title or author, and it sounds vague.

2) the second one was a black glossy book for children about starlings? The unique thing about this particular book is it had metallic foil illustrations. She absolutely loved it. If she sends any more details about either book, I’ll pass them along but thank you for such a cool and quirky service.

371W: Doily cut out Valentine’s Day book

I don’t remember it being explicitly about Valentine’s Day, but it was always put out with the children’s books around Valentine’s Day. The art style was very distinct and was doily/paper cut outs. What I remember about the story is that it was about a set of sisters who were princesses. There may have been 12 sisters. I encountered it in the 1980’s in rural Ohio.esssister

371O: Children’s book about boy who writes poems outside on a typewriter

Looking for a children’s picture book we read at our local library about 2-3 years ago about boy (maybe called max) who sells/gives poems out on the sidewalk (maybe at a stand?). Kids pass him on the street and ask for poems. One is about buttons and repeats the word multiple times, like, buttons on your buttons buttons, one is about seashells after a friend is headed to the beach, one is about kittens because someone is giving them away and the last one is a gift for his sister whose birthday it is the next day.

371J: One Morning (Solved!)

I am looking for a children’s book, possibly called “One Morning” or something similar, that my parents read to me sometime between 1993-1997, although it could have been published earlier. I think it was about a businessman getting ready to go to work early in the morning. It had very few words, but I remember the illustration style being pretty distinct. I believe the illustrations were collages, although not as textured as, say, Eric Carle’s work. The page I (think!) I remember most clearly was from the perspective of a person on the street looking at a house very early in the morning, with a backlit window and a cat sitting on the windowsill, maybe peeping out from some venetian blinds or possibly just behind glass. My parents remember the book I’m thinking of and seem to think it had Japanese or Scandinavian roots, or at least design influences, but the book was at very least translated into English. The copy I remember holding was a relatively small, square white hardcover. The overall energy of the book was calm and cozy, but I really can’t remember anything else. Google searches for “one morning children’s book” always return the classic Robert McCloskey “One Morning in Maine,” another favorite but definitely not this mysterious and elusive title! I wish I had more to go on, and I so appreciate any leads!

371H: Girl Loses Doll on Bus Trip (Solved!)

I’m hoping someone can help me find the name, and maybe the author, of a children’s book. It wasn’t very thick, had illustrations, I believe it was published in the 1960s and was aimed at readers ages 6-10. I read it between 1969-1971. 
A young girl was allowed to take a bus trip by herself once school was done for the summer. She may have been visiting her grandmother. She took her doll along. I seem to remember the doll was made of cloth and wore a dress and pinafore. The bus stopped for a rest break, and the girl took the doll with her. She had a chocolate bar at one point and may have bought it during the stop. She got back on the bus but didn’t notice until after it left the rest stop that she left the doll behind. I don’t recall if she got the doll back.
I would appreciate any help finding this book as the memory of it has always stayed with me.

371G: Alien takes a nature walk

An illustrated paperback children’s book that I read circa 1990 in California, a small alien-looking character walks in a lush green forest and maybe sees a quiet deer, a waterfall, and rainbow? The illustrations may be watercolor, jewel tones, and the main/ only character was dressed like a vintage teletubby. The title may have been “Nature Walk.”

370Q: Traveling Aunt Seek and Find Book

I have a query for you: I was delighted in a seek-and-find book as a child in the mid-1990s which, if my memory serves me correctly, followed a globe-trotting aunt. The reader was always one stop behind her, and to try to catch her was required to find objects and people in each image spread.
The book was large, slim, hard-backed, and had relatively little text. As usual for this genre, the images were visually busy illustrations in a reasonably realistic style.  I have no memory of the title nor the author, but I do remember that some of the locations included an Australian beach (with people wearing white sunblock on their noses), a wet market in Asia (lots of produce and people wearing straw hats) and an airport scene with a man tearing up his tickets. I am fairly certain there was also a scene of people at a ski lodge with lots of snow and chair lifts, but that image is less clear than the others. Each of these scenes took up a full two-page spread.
I read it between 1994 and 2000, although I do not know if it was published before that.