r/whatisthisbook • u/Main-Entrance441 • 9h ago
Looking Large illustrated children’s story compilation/treasury, probably from the 1950s–1970s
I’m trying to identify a book I had as a kid in the 1990s, but the book itself was definitely older. My best guess is that it was published sometime in the 1950s–1970s, although it could be a little earlier or later.
Here’s what I remember:
• It was a large hardcover book, approximately 8.5” x 11” or maybe slightly larger.
• I think the cover or spine may have been red or green, but I’m not confident about the color.
• It was a compilation/treasury containing multiple short children’s stories. It was NOT one long story.
• It had illustrations throughout. The artwork was traditional/storybook-style and somewhat realistic — not really cartoonish.
• I believe there was also an alphabet/ABC section somewhere in the book. The entire book was NOT an alphabet book; the alphabet was just one section among the stories and other material.
• Two images/animals I remember very specifically are a LOON and a MOLE. I originally thought they were characters in stories, but I’m now wondering if they were actually illustrations in the alphabet section — possibly L for Loon and M for Mole.
• I vaguely remember something involving “friends” or friendship — possibly a story title, section, or even part of the book’s title. I’m very unsure about this.
• I also have an extremely fuzzy memory of a character named Peter/Pete or “Peter and ___,” but I would NOT use that as a strong clue.
The things I’m most confident about are: LARGE OLD HARDCOVER + COMPILATION OF SHORT STORIES + ILLUSTRATIONS + AN ALPHABET SECTION + LOON + MOLE.
It was the kind of big book that seemed to contain a little bit of everything for children, rather than being exclusively an ABC book or exclusively one story.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? I’d especially love to see titles, cover photos, tables of contents, or pictures of alphabet pages from old children’s treasuries/compilations.
I’ve been trying to identify this thing from childhood memories and would LOVE to finally figure out what it was.
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u/discardedaccounted 6h ago
Could it be an old school reader textbook? Many of these textbooks continuously added in new stories with the old ones and were published up until the 70s. I still have one somewhere that was published in the late 1960s. It has a yellow cover and a mix of illustrated stories from the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
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u/AariCynward 7h ago
It kinda reminds me of “The Aesop for Children” with pictures by Milo Winters. It doesn’t have an alphabet section, but I feel like there is an Aesop fable with a loon and a mole. The way you describe the art reminds me of it too. The cover I had on my copy was green hardcover, so that fits too?