Looking for a Childhood Book? Here's How.

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Whoops! Flat Stanley is looking for a book! His own book, first issued in 1964, with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer. He won't find a nice copy!  It's a very rare book.

Every day we receive emails from people searching for childhood books.  I'm sorry but we no longer research emailed book queries. Please read this page carefully and you may find some alternate ways of searching for your book yourself.
You can also post your query on the Comment section below. Since I personally moderate Disqus Comments daily, I will see any query you post and will answer if I am familiar with the book. However, there are several contributers to this page who are more knowledgeable about modern books than I am. We also highly recommend  www.Loganberrybooks.com.

CONTENTS

Searching for a Book Online
Selling One or Two Books
Finding and Valuing an Older Book
Describing a book for your query
Followed by a Comments section, which you may use to post a query.


Searching for a Book Online:

Our Old Children's Books Search:
First, it's worth trying our own Advanced Search.  About 3/4 of our children's books, are on this site.  Although only about 500 have pictures, almost all contain plot descriptions and Keywords (tags). These can be searched using the Description and Keyword field or the simple search on the website.

We are specialist children's booksellers. There are better sources on the net for inquiring about most children's books, especially readers, series, modern, or mass market books. Please try the links below before contacting us:

Absolute Best: Loganberry Books
Loganberry Books home page.

Select "Nostalgia" from the menu.
Look through other people's queries and Solved Mysteries; post your own book query.
See this Loganberry page for children's storybooks or anthologies:
Loganberry Books Anthology Page,

It's in there somewhere: ABE Books Advanced Search
Abebooks Advanced Search.
For best results use only: Title, Author, Date Range, and Keywords. You will be able to limit your search further once you reach the results page. This is the best book search engine on the net, from a huge Canadian company originally started by booksellers.
Millions of books of all kinds from dealers all over the world, some not found in libraries.

Most of the English language books ever published: WorldCat
https://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch lists entries from catalogues of libraries in English speaking countries around the world. You should limit your search at least to Format:Book, and Audience:Juvenile. You can do this on the advanced search page or once you arrive at the results, using the left hand column, as with abe. Often you can find more about the content of a title by going to an individual library holding. (Because you won't get as many duplicate titles, Worldcat works better for common titles than Abe or Amazon.) If you have access to a university reference library, you can access a more WorldCat reliable search.

Ask the experts: Steve Santi
For a Little Golden, Elf, or similar book, try the forum on:
https://www.thesantis.com

Pictures are best:
Once you have narrowed down a possible title, try Amazon.com or Google.com Images for an image. The colour option on Google is working better and better. It's a real help. I have started using Images on bing.com also, something about the quality and the layout makes IDs easier.  Amazon and Google pictures are not accurate though, so use the "Seller Supplied Pictures"  (not the Stock pictures) on Abebooks for specific editions. (Look in the left hand column to limit your search to these.)

A few words can help:
If all you can remember is a few words, try Google.com.
Put the words in quotes.
Use only one or two, essential, easily-spelled, keywords.
Try this sample Google search:   "I think I can"  train
Remember that one?

Selling One or Two Books.

Probably the easiest place for an individual to sell books with an ISBN is on Amazon. Look up your book, click on the picture, then look in the blue box for "Have one to sell?" and click on "Sell yours here." Amazon's instructions for selling are very clear. If, and only if, Amazon has listed the book in the past, will you be able to list also.  Ebay is also very easy and inexpensive to use for a few books and it allows you more room to describe the books.

For pricing your book, it is easier and more accurate to use Abebooks Advanced Search https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry to find a price. Then double check on Amazon because prices there are sometimes higher.  Amazon's Search is really not set up for out of print books.

Condition, especially the presence of a jacket if called for,  and publication data are extremely important, but just record what you see, don't try to grade or ascertain edition and printing. The more care you put into describing your books, the more likely you are to sell them. Note: We do not purchase books online, sight unseen. Please do not offer them to us. Thank you. If you have a collection or several rare books you are interested in selling to us, especially if you live in the Northwest, please look on http://oldchildrensbooks.com/buying-and-pricing-childrens-books

Finding and Valuing an Older Book.

We are happy to assist you in finding a half-remembered book from the 1930s  or before. Our email address is on the Contact Us page. We do not run a formal Book Search and we will not order books for you, but we'll try to point you in the right direction. For a more modern book read the suggestions above or post a Comment/query on this page..

We never value a book over the net, nor do other reputable booksellers. If you have an older book which seems to have value, you might want to look at our page Buying and Selling Children's Books.

Look through the suggestions below. If the process seems too complicated, we are pleased to recommend an very experienced children's specialist bookseller who does formal book searches and keeps a want list for customers.

Jeryl Metz Woitach
dba Jeryl Metz, Books
697 West End Ave, #13A
New York, NY 10025-6921
Tel. (212) 864-3055
Email: Jmwbooks@aol.com
Website: https://www.abebooks.com/jeryl-metz%2C-books-new-york-ny/6872/sf
 

Describing a Book.

-Basic Information:
    The latest possible year of publication, i. e. before (date).
    Your estimate as to the range of possible publication dates.
    Picture book or children's novel
    Source: Library? School? An older family book?

- Anything at all you remember about the book:
    Title,
    Author,
    Illustrator,
    Binding,
    Size,
    Phrases or refrains,
    Bits of plot.
-Illustrations: the quickest way to ID, the hardest quality to describe.
    Colour?
    Separate plates or in text?
    Style?
    Other illustrators the pictures call to mind?

Choose your search words carefully:
Unusual words really help: wallaby works better than bear as a search word.
Names which could be spelled in various ways are hard to search; Peatie Peety Petey Peetie Peaty
Words which could be hyphenated or not also take time, especially with older books which may follow different conventions: dog house, dog-house, doghouse
Avoid abbreviations, they could be spelled out or not: Dr/Doctor. Mr./Mister Co./Company  Inc./
Avoid possessives, although sometimes it doesn't matter.

See also our Links for Collectors in the Collector's Corner.

POST YOUR BOOK QUERIES BELOW.

Guidelines: This forum is monitored by the owner of this site, Old Children's Books. Only a few book sleuths are whitelisted on this forum. All other pending posts are reviewed individually and approved at least daily.

Please understand that direct contact information and/or commercial solicitations will be removed from your post.

* Post only bookID-related posts or links. No sales offers, please.
* Include no contact information in the body of your comment.
* Sign up for Disqus to be notified of responses.

Many, many thanks to all the wonderful readers who help to ID these books!  We also appreciate those who take the time to thank the contributors for researching their books.

 

Comments

Book about a New Baby

I remember reading a book in the mid-1990s about a boy who just became a big brother. He feels like his parents aren't paying him attention anymore so he goes to his special "cubby place" or a hiding place of some sort in his room where he keeps his toys. The boy in the story was no more than 7 years old, possibly younger. My mom checked this book out from the library several times when I was younger, but I haven't seen/read it in at least a decade. We have been trying to figure out what this book is for the past 5 years. We've searched the library and online to no avail. Any ideas?

Peters Chair by Ezra Jack

Peters Chair by Ezra Jack keats.

I remember this book! My

I remember this book! My parents used to read it to me when my little bro was born :)

vintage children's paper craft books

2 of them (same author)
both had yellow covers, one with blue cut and fold figures on it, the other with red cut and fold figures.
hard cover
published 1940's to 1950's (i believe)
dimensions approx 6x8

A book my grandfather read to me

Im not real clear on it sorry. But i believed it was an orangish colored cover with leaves and small children or elves or such on the cover and the thing i remember most about it was the story of the 5 chinse brothers and rikki tikki among other stories within it.

Finding the name of this book would be appreciated thanl you.

Look for a book that has the

Look for a book that has the story 'Tikki Tikki Tembo' retold by Arlene Mosel. My husband drove me crazy c/o this book until I found it. I dont know about the story with 5 brothers but here's one of the stories!

I really want to find this book I loved when I was a kid

Unfortunately I don't remember much about this book but I have been wanting to find it for quite some time. I used to check it out from the library. It might have been published in the 1980s. It was very mystical and fairy-tale-ish (NOT realistic AT ALL). It was about a child (possibly a little girl) who travels and visits her family members who represent the months of the year (or possibly holidays). Each person she visits has hair & clothing (and everything else around them) representing the month or holiday or something... like a summer person would have summer clothing on and be in a summer-looking setting or possibly even have summer things like sunshine for hair... and the a Autumn person would have like pumpkins and such around and have overalls on and stuff... I don't know... Does this ring any bells? I'd love to find it!

book about the months of the year

The Story of May by Mordecai Gerstein. The parents are April and December. they fight so much they have to go to different places. May visits all her relatives who are the months of the year.

additional info for"I really want to find this book I loved when

Based on the info someone else knew about the Slavic tale, I came across
THE MONTH-BROTHERS: A SLAVIC TALE retold by Samuel Marshak, illustrated by Diane Stanley, 1983
and
LITTLE SISTER AND THE MONTH BROTHERS retold by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers illustrated by Margot Tomes, 1976 (republished later so I don't know if the cover changed in case you look for pics of the cover)
and these seem like possibilities based on their publication dates.

Is it a Slavic tale called

Is it a Slavic tale called 'The Twelve Months'? I had a copy when I was little and it sounds the same.

Looking for info on 2 children's books

Can't remember the titles or the authors!

The first one was about English children who spent their summer by water, either a lake with a river, or a sea estuary. One of the images of the book is the setting sun making a golden path across the water. There's a houseboat in the story.

The other book was set in Tsarist Russia and it's the story of a little girl taken to live in a royal palace. She steals some fruit from the table and won't own up, allowing a servant to be blamed and punished, so next time all the children go skating she's left behind as a punishment. Her name might be Katya.

possible answer for: Kirsten's"Looking for info on 2 children's

It depends on how old you are Kirsten! I found a book called ANGEL ON THE SQUARE by Gloria Whelan but it was published in 2001. Katya's mother is a lady in waiting in the house of Tsar Nicholas II, and Katya goes to live w/ her. Although I couldn't find the specific events you mentioned (and I didn't read the book, just read through summaries), it does seem to be about her realizing how priveleged her life has been and how others have little, so it could fit.

Book I read in the early 70s

They were from the library, hardcover, there was a series of them. About 2 girls who start a babysitting service. It's not the popular babysitters club series. Those were later. I feel like one of the girls names was Jenny but not sure

Ginnie and Geneva babysitting books

I remember these books! The girls were, I believe, Ginnie and Geneva and they start a babysitting service. Catherine Woolley is the author.

possible answer: Book I read in the early 70s

It could be the GINNIE AND GENEVA series by Catherine Woolley. They did babysitting, entered a cooking contest, even solved the mystery of an antique doll. They were republished at different times, so there are different covers, in case the first ones you see in a search don't match your memory.

Desperate!!! Have been looking for years

In the 1950's a book about a pond that dries up and the bear, grumpy frog, deer, butterfly, duck, bird ( a ceder waxwing), bee, squirrel and bunny must go out in search of a new one. They find a big lake and are grateful but miss their pond. It rains, and their pond fills back with water so they are able to return. I still have part of the book but no title, author of publisher because the cover is missing. There are also no page numbers. It looks about the size of a Little Golden or Wonder Book but I have searched their books and not baen able to find it. Any help would be grately appreciated.

Maria

Lakes and ponds - laurence

Lakes and ponds - laurence santrey.... could this be it? its 1980s though.

I would LOVE to know what this book is called

I can't believe I found your comment. I am searching for this exact book... Why this book is so special to me because the names of the animals in this book are the name of me and my brothers and sisters... we used to have a copy when we were little..... I WOULD LOVE TO FIND THIS BOOK :( Have you had any luck?

I read this in the late 80s

I read this in the late 80s early 90s. A group of friends gather at one boy's house. A strange man there gives them carved figures of characters from a role playing game they are always doing. They pass through a portal and actually become these characters but each is flawed in some way. One boy has great strength but can't really communicate. A girl who is fat and unattractive in real life has magic bracelets that allow her to fly. Her name is Teresa, I think. Another girl is beautiful but cold-hearted. Can anyone tell me the name of this young adult SF fantasy book? Thanks!

Looking for the names of illustrated storybooks from my youth

Hi there,
I was wondering if anyone might be able to provide the titles of or some information about some of my favourite books as a child.

The first one was a very large children's illustrated fairy tale book. It had a yellow cover with fairy tale creatures on the front, and included stories about Chicken Little/The Sky Is Falling, The Princess and the Pea, and a story about elves who eat candy and treats from a big tree.

The second book was about an old sea captain and a little boy, or a dog, or both (I can't remember). They wore yellow jackets and the captain smoked a pipe.

The third book had a bright red/orange cover with white letters on the front, and it was a pop-up book from the 1970s or 1980s.

Any information anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated! Thank-you! :)

Little Tim?

I wonder if the second one could be some composite memory of the Little Tim books by Ardizzone, which have been continuously in print and are now available new on Amazon.
Incidentally, we have a nice large 1st US of Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, a bit smaller than the original and printed on both sides of the page, but with calligraphed text and the same illustration on the outside. It's going to the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair  on Oct. 13 and 14 and will probably not be online for several months if at all.

Children's Book Red Cover 1950's?

I'm looking for a book with many stories of moral lessons. I read it in early 1970's. Some of the stories were "little dog lost/little dog found", "toothpaste back in the tube", a note from mother saying "loving you- no charge" and a story about an indian that climbed a mountain, further than two others, and came back empty handed but his face was shining, proving that he had seen God.

Large, rusty colored book with nursery rhymes

I remember being in kindergarten and before the school year had ended, my teacher gave each of us a book from the library. The book that she had given me had grown on me. The book was somewhat large, hard covered and the cloth of the hard cover was a rusty orange color. It had many pages, had alot of nursery rhymes (such as jack sprat, the story of the crooked man, a story about a man from Gloucester, and many others)..my favorite one was about trees being made of bread and cheese and an ocean being made of ink. The book itself and the illustrations looked rather ancient. I was thinking maybe before the 50's. Ive been trying to look everywhere for this book. It was a part of my childhood. Ive tried googling but came up with no luck. Please help me

Brimful Book?

Take a look at the Brimful Book on this site.
http://oldchildrensbooks.com/books/the-brimful-book-14071
The older deluxe edition is rusty orange and has a variety of nursery rhymes, etc. This particular copy is in collectible condition, but these books are available for much less. Just be sure you have the right "edition" (really a printing) as the cover changes later on. As you can see although this was printed in 1939, it has an early 20thc feeling to it. Use the publisher when searching.

stuff animals on bed , Im cold

Published in the 80s.

Red-Top family

I have a coverless illustrated kid's book about a family of 7 small boys who lved and played in the Great Big North Woods. They all wore red mushroom caps and were known as the Red Top family. Their names were Dick, Dock, Nick, Nock, Tick, Tock and Teeny Weeny. I'm guessing it's of 1940/50's vintage, and the full-page illustrations appear to be by "Aina".I would love to know who wrote it, and if I could get another copy that has the full story, as mine appears to be missing the start and finish of the story.

possible lead: Red Top Family

I didn't find anything definite, but you might want to take a look at the work of Aina Stenberg-MasOlle, a Swedish painter and illustrator. It looks like she mainly did Advent calendars and cards, but if the artwork matches, then at least that would be something else to search with. Take a look at these websites for info on her and examples of her art: http://thebeautifultimes.wordpress.com/tag/chrismas-cards/
http://polarbearstale.blogspot.com/2011/12/aina-stenberg-masolle-1885-19...

Cat playing music in the Italian restaurant

childrens book;

the cat plays music (fiddle) in an Italian restaurant: new owners kick the cat out: various adventures including going to sea in a trawler: returns to find restaurant went bust (no cat playing music) and is re-instated to general delight: probable published date around year 2000

Mouses house

An old children's story book my grandmother used to read to me ( age 59yr.) could have been one she read to my dad. I believe it was called, Timothy Mouses House.

possible answer: Mouse house

Could this be TIMMY MOUSE a Junior Elf Book from Rand McNally by Miriam Clark Potter? It was published at different times so there are different covers.

Story about an old man

Im looking for the title of a fairly old children's book, it had an aqua blue front cover and it was about an old man who had a wife and cat. It was full of little stories about his adventures, one of them was about mowing the lawn and finding lots of money that kept fallin out of his pocket, another one was about how a dog followed him home because it wanted his fish? And another was about how someone stole his umbrella. I hope this helps, I'd really like to know!

alien book

i remember reading a book from the library in the early 60's. I'm not sure when it was printed. It was about an alien boy who visited earth and made a friend who i think was also a boy and i think it was in new york. He looked like a human. The book was very sweet and i really enjoyed it
I don't remember much else.

Can't remember the name of a storybook

In the storybook, a farm girl and her mother used to sweeten homemade donuts with molasses during the winter when they tapped the trees. I can't remember the title of this book. Please help.

children's textbook

Hello All,
I am looking for a children's textbook that had stories. It had a sealion (or a walrus or seal) and a sun or sunset. Possibly a 3rd grade book

To the Children's Librarian.

We continue to appreciate your contributions! For some reason, the Fairy Tale page also has comments from people looking for books. Quite a few by now, if you would like to skim through them,
http://www.oldchildrensbooks.com/catalogues-lists/topic-lists/folk-tale-...
or click on the icon on the front home page.
Suzanne

book from my childhood.

I am trying to find out the name of a series of childrens books that I was obsessed with as a child in the 70's. The series is about triplett sisters and the illustrations seem to be from the 50's. Loved these books and wondering if anyone remembers them.

If these were full colour

If these were full colour picture books they might be Flicka Ricka Dicka stories by Maj Lindman. Here are some pictures from the book, click on them to see them better. http://oldchildrensbooks.com/books/flicka-ricka-dicka-and-the-girl-next-... Their male counterparts were Snipp, Snapp and Snurr. Here are the pictures from one of those books. You'll see the clothing looks more 30's ish. Lindman wrote these books over a couple of decades and her clothing illustrations changed with the times..

Also there is an actual series by Bertha B. Moore, each book called The Triplets .....
Here's a picture of one book. There are a lot on abebooks.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=896818421&searchurl=bsi...

Book about a dog with the name of a flower. . . ?

I loved a book I repeatedly checked out in my elementary school library in the mid to late 60's. It was about a dog, I thought with the name of Petunia or Pansy. I think the dog was a smaller dog, but I wouldn't swear to it. Does anyone remember the name of this book?

Try Pasha? First he was with

Try
Pasha?

First he was with a horrible family and then he found a kind family...

australian book

this book was published in australia between 1980-1985. the dust jacket had a dusty rose colored border, about 1 1/2", but the majority of the cover was taken up with a picture. i believe that there was a little girl with really dark skin on it, and it may have taken place in africa. i believe that the little girl was a princess and she didn't know it. i kind of remember her being an orphan and traveling around to different tribes.

old story book

I am trying to find an old story book that I had as a child, many moons ago. It was an old school book of stories and the one I would like to find is about a jackel and the babbling brook.

Little Girl who taps her teeth with her finger when thinking

Yes!!! Pleasssssse Help me, my mother and I have been trying to remember the name of this childrens book she would check out of the library for me all the time when I was a kid. That would be late 70s-early 80s. It has been a running joke between us that we cant find this book anywhere. It had a little girl who tapped her teeth with her finger when thinking. I believe she had a dog as well. Ohhhhh, Please Help us remember what book this is! I'm sorry that isn't much to go on. I believe she may have been trying to solve a mystery....? I would appreciate your help Very Much indeed!

Something Queer is Going on by Elizabeth Levy

Probably Something Queer is Going On by Elizabeth Levy. Wonderful floppy basset, called Fletcher, as I remember. Very funny. There are several, among them Something Queer at the Library.
Here's an Amazon page with reviews. Something Queer is Going on by Elizabeth Levy
http://www.amazon.com/Something-Queer-Going-Elizabeth-Levy/dp/0807200468...

mid-70's -mid-80's witch school based in England

I am looking for a paperback I read in school about a child temporarily living with his/her cousins I believe in England because one night the child meets an old church sexton and finds out somehow about this magical school that takes place at night. They get to go I think but it's a secret, magical school and only at night. I don't remember anything else except the wonder and surprise of the main protagonist at finding this wonderful school when they had been so lonely (maybe the parents died?). Sound familiar at all?

Don't know the book you're

Don't know the book you're looking for, but it sounds like J.K. Rowling read it too :-)

dogs

I am looking for a book that relates the lives of several aristocratic dogs living on an estate. THey are depicted as being courageous intelligent dogs owned by a well to do man living in the east. I believe the dogs are golden retrievers or labradors. Their owner is an aristocrat or something. I believe the owner lives in a mansion and the stories are about the different dogs that live there and the marvelous things they do. Seems to me that the title is the royal dogs of * estate,

1950's Childrens book

I am looking for a book about an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. A family finds it, fixes it up and lives there. I do not know the Title or the author. I have been looking for this book for about 40years. Can you Help?

likely answer to 1950s children's book (about abandoned house)

It sounds like THE BIG WORLD AND THE LITTLE HOUSE by Ruth Krauss ; pictures by Marc Simont, 1949. A fmily moves into a litle old decrepit house and makes it into a home.

Mouse Hunt

I'm looking for a mid-90's book I read as a child. It was entitled "Mouse Hunt", though I don't remember the author's name. I do remember that one of the characters was named Missy, and her mom Flo, both mice, in a mouse family of 4 in a fabric shop, I believe. The owner of the shop I believe was named Mr. Miles, and he was very mean to the mice. Throughout the book, it tells of the mouse family's adventures while avoiding the evil advances of the shop owner. In the end, it tells of a final battle of that mouse family and their friends and relatives against Mr. Miles, which the mice eventually win. I hope this rings a bell with someone here...

Illustrated Children's book involving summoning monsters

Publication Date: I read this book in the early 90s, so it couldn't have been published later than that.

Title: Unknown

Author: Unknown

Illustrator: Unknown, the illustrations remind me of Steven Kellogg or Mercer Mayer in style, but I checked their respective bibliographies and couldn't find it.

Plot: There is this boy who is someplace, I think a large luxurious tent. I think he was an apprentice wizard or something. He finds a book of magic and accidentally summons a large green giant with a mustache from the ground. While trying to escape it he accidentally knocks over an urn and lets out a large tan-colored monster with horns. The monsters start fighting. He casts a spell to make the tent and monsters vanish, but is upset because he lost the tent and all the stuff in it. He practices until he can banish the monsters, then brings them and the tent back and sends them away.

Illustrations: They were in color and fairly detailed. I think they were in the text. The character designs were fairly realistic, not cartoony or exaggerated at all. As I said before, they reminded me of Steven Kellogg or Mercer Mayer.

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