Help me find my favorite childhood picture book.
March 9, 2009 8:55 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a couple of picture books I loved as a kid, in the late eighties. Unfortunately, the only thing I have to go on is really vivid memories of the pictures.

They were big hardcover books, probably at least 12 inches by 12 inches and had no words at all, just pictures. I had two books by the same author, both featuring the same family.

The first followed the family through their Christmas preparations and holiday as they bought and put up the tree, wrapped gifts, mailed cards, shopped for the Christmas turkey, went to church, opened gifts, put the tree out on the curb, and so on. Some pages contained one huge picture, some contained up to ten smaller pictures. Not every picture was all that significant, either—I remember a picture of them loading the groceries into their car in a mobbed parking lot, followed immediately by a picture of their empty parking spot with a little girl's mitten lying on the ground. Another page had small pictures of all the houses on their block—some were decorated, some not, some full of light, some dark.

The second book followed the kids (an older sister with long brown hair and a younger brother, who was blonde) throughout a really rainy day. They woke up, saw it was pouring out, put on their boots and raincoats, and went out for the day. They looked at laundry left out on the line, fed some ducks, tried to jump across a rain-swollen creek, and generally just wandered around. Then they came home, dumped their rain gear all over a mud room or a laundry room, had a hot bath (completely soaking the bathroom in the process) and a snack, watched some TV, ate dinner and went to bed. In the morning, it was sunny again.

Anyone remember these?
posted by anderjen to Media & Arts (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I'd be willing to bet that you're remembering a couple of books by renowned children's author/illustrator Peter Spier.

The former is probably Christmas!.

The latter is probably Rain.
posted by valkyryn at 9:15 AM on March 9, 2009


Response by poster: Yes! Thank you so much; you've made my day!
posted by anderjen at 9:43 AM on March 9, 2009


Thank you so much for this question and answer -- made me realize that I had one of Peter Spier's books too -- People. An absolutely wonderful book.
posted by peacheater at 12:11 PM on March 9, 2009


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