Can anyone identify these books?
Aug. 9th, 2016 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcI was just reminded that I asked about some books on TV Tropes's Remember That Show... thing ages ago and didn't have much luck (although they did manage to identify one story I read as a kid as one of Joan Aitken's). As a result of which, they've started annoying me again, so I thought I'd see if they sounded familiar to anyone here.
1. A children's book I got from the library, probably in the late 80s, or very early 90s. It was about a girl whose sister (or cousin) was kidnapped by goblins and she went to a magical kingdom to rescue her. On the way she meets various fantastic creatures who, in the way of such things, are strangely similar to the people she's left behind (the one I remember most clearly is a robot who's the counterpart of her annoying know-all brother - since at the time I was an annoying know-all brother myself). There was also a queen with no legs (the girl's mother was bedridden with an unspecified illness). The other bit I remember is the goblins torturing their kidnap victim by aggressively cleaning her, until she'd lost several layers of skin to scrubbing and the enamel of her teeth was worn away by brushing. Which even as a kid I remember thinking was an ... interesting ... message for a children's book.
2, Another children's book, probably a bit earlier, say mid 80s. This was one of those big picture books with a story on one side and big, insanely detailed paintings on the other, and it was about a girl who visited every colour of the rainbow. At the start she doesn't know what indigo is, and someone explains it as "darker than blue, bluer than total dark". (Googling that phrase hasn't helped, though.)
3. A book of artwork, either mostly or entirely of anthropomorphic animals, which I'm almost certain I saw in the early-to-mid-90s (it definitely wasn't after 2002, when James Thins bookshop stopped existing.) Following suggestions on the TV Tropes thread, I can say with some confidence it wasn't by Graeme Base or Alan Aldridge, although both these artists give a very good idea of the kind of art - not cartoony but realistic humanish animals. The two pictures I remember clearly were one of a lion and an elephant on a see-saw, and a pastiche of a scene from M (yes, the film about a child-killer) with cats. I think there were other paintings based on classic films, although I don't remember what, exactly.
All suggestions gratefully received.
1. A children's book I got from the library, probably in the late 80s, or very early 90s. It was about a girl whose sister (or cousin) was kidnapped by goblins and she went to a magical kingdom to rescue her. On the way she meets various fantastic creatures who, in the way of such things, are strangely similar to the people she's left behind (the one I remember most clearly is a robot who's the counterpart of her annoying know-all brother - since at the time I was an annoying know-all brother myself). There was also a queen with no legs (the girl's mother was bedridden with an unspecified illness). The other bit I remember is the goblins torturing their kidnap victim by aggressively cleaning her, until she'd lost several layers of skin to scrubbing and the enamel of her teeth was worn away by brushing. Which even as a kid I remember thinking was an ... interesting ... message for a children's book.
2, Another children's book, probably a bit earlier, say mid 80s. This was one of those big picture books with a story on one side and big, insanely detailed paintings on the other, and it was about a girl who visited every colour of the rainbow. At the start she doesn't know what indigo is, and someone explains it as "darker than blue, bluer than total dark". (Googling that phrase hasn't helped, though.)
3. A book of artwork, either mostly or entirely of anthropomorphic animals, which I'm almost certain I saw in the early-to-mid-90s (it definitely wasn't after 2002, when James Thins bookshop stopped existing.) Following suggestions on the TV Tropes thread, I can say with some confidence it wasn't by Graeme Base or Alan Aldridge, although both these artists give a very good idea of the kind of art - not cartoony but realistic humanish animals. The two pictures I remember clearly were one of a lion and an elephant on a see-saw, and a pastiche of a scene from M (yes, the film about a child-killer) with cats. I think there were other paintings based on classic films, although I don't remember what, exactly.
All suggestions gratefully received.
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Date: 2016-08-11 07:50 am (UTC)/useless comment is useless.
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Date: 2016-08-11 12:54 pm (UTC)