Dirtygardener, Glad you found your book..Was going to recommend Amazon, they have a group of old book sellers on their website, I found my own 50 s favorite Uncle Mistletoe, and it was sheer joy looking thru it!!!!I remembered every page as if it were yesterday, I ve asked many of my friends what their favorite book from their childhood was, and found and surprised them with the books for birthdays or Christmas..They always LOVE them....

Gosh, thank you all so much for the great ideas. I have a Pete the Cat book but didn't realize it was a series. I'll look for more. I'm very interested in the Harry McLary books, but interestingly my library doesn't have them! But they are on Amazon, so I'll give them a try. I was going to try to thank everyone individually, but worry I'll leave someone out, so I hope you'll know that I'll look at each of these and try them out. For anyone else reading this looking for ideas, my grandson loves a book I found called Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. And I can second the G'night, G'night construction site. How do boys seem to emerge with an affinity for construction equipment? At 2 and younger? It's crazy! Also, no one answered about Where's Waldo? I know it's older, but does anyone recommend it? If so, which one? Please keep adding books if you think of more. It's great to have them all in a place to check back with. Thanks again!

Socks, this book is the only one I've read in the series. I think it would help to read the first one, get introduced to Skippyjon and why he thinks he should be a chihuahua instead of a cat. ;o) But otherwise, I don't think it would matter. We enjoyed our book very much without having read the first one. Gayle, if I worked at B & N I would spend my paycheck before I left the store! LOL. Otherwise, I would love that job! I would love to work in the children's section and do the storytimes; I love reading aloud to kids. Talley Sue, have your kids read the kids' novels by Carl Hiaasen? "Hoot" and "Flush." I love those books. They are funny, the perfect example of irony, and the language and pace of the plot appeals to middle grade kids. My 5th grader read them this year. He liked them a lot, and he doesn't like to read (whose kid is he?!). I also like the books by Deborah Wiles, for girls. We listend to "Love, Ruby Lavender" on CD while on a road trip. Sad, funny, smart, and cute, a good read. DD read "Every Little Bird that Sings," she is 8, 2nd grade, above-grade reader, but I think it was still a little above her reading level. One of my favorite volunteer duties at the school is to read the new children's novels that come in, they have to be screened for content before hitting the shelves for students. They tell me "just skim them" but I can't! Some of them I've liked recently were "Penny from Heaven" by Jennifer Holm, set post WWII, Italian family, very well developed plot and characters. And "Rules" by Cynthia Lord, narrated by the sister of an autistic boy, deals with accepting disabilities and the people who have them. It comes across very sincere and believable. I did not like the new series that tells of the adventurs of Peter and Pan, "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry, et al. They were IMO, very boring, text was forced/dragged out into twice as many pages as they really needed. They are very long books, and I could not force myself to finish it. That one I did just skim. OK. I'm done for now. ;o)

Grimm, this sounds like the Flower Fairy series by Cicely Mary Barker dating back to the 1920's. Beautifully illustrated with accurate botanical drawings and a 'fairy' in each one. I had a copy of Flower Fairies of the Trees as a child and although I wasn't very interested in the verses I loved the pictures. There is a website dedicated to Barker's life and work, the one below is just of her illustrations. Here is a link that might be useful: Flower Fairies