The bookstore owner’s lament

My friend B.B. owns a wonderful online bookstore specializing in vintage children’s books. Today on Knox Blab, she shared some of the requests she gets from potential book buyers who don’t quite know what they are looking for (but who expect her to know):

This can be the best part (when I successfully identify a book) or the worst part of my business. I have hundreds of these unsolved requests and they drive me nuts.
I’ve had a few days off this week and thought I would tackle some of them, but it’s not working out too well.
At some point, they all start to sound like one big drug trip.

The main characters were a brother and sister who travel (I think in their pajamas), they come across a bear family, I remember a big breakfast that the mother bear prepares for them, the hair on the boy and girl in the illustrations reminded me of yarn, at the end of the story the Sandman takes the children back home through the night sky.
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One of the stories was about a black cat. I believe he was shopping at one point.
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I read from the book. It was thin and many pictures with a small story line very similar to Dr Seuss. It was not a young adult novel. I want to remember that it was not a Dr Seuss book or a part of that series, but I cannot be sure. The main character was Purple Kanobtak, but the spelling may not have been exactly that. Phonetically it sounded like ‘Kanobtak.’ The story line was about a purple creature, as were the pictures, but other than that I cannot remember. I used to embellish the story, so I really don’t remember the nature of the adventure.

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My wife and I are expecting our first child and I am trying to locate certain things from my own childhood that inspired my lifelong love of reading and would be grateful if you could help me find a book whose title I don’t even remember (if you do that). The book would have come out around the mid 70’s. It was a picture book that was about a gargoyle who lived above or worked in a pizzeria (or both). It might have taken place in NYC (perhaps Chicago).

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The book contains the following poem:

High in the sky in the shape of a V, how many wild geese can you see? Hurry and count them and you will see — 9 geese flying — and so will I!

This silly poem has stuck in my mind for 40 years (about the only thing left there!) and I would like to buy it for my new great grandchild!

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What she remembers of it is sketchy at best. She believes it involved some sort of place/hospital for broken toys which could be adopted later. So far, my limited searching has been unsuccessful. I can almost “see” the book jacket in my mind, a Victorian house with a sign in front which I believe written on it is the actual book title.

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When I was a kid a long time ago, My teacher read to the class some books with the characters Jasper & Zebby in them. Do you know of these books or a way I can find the author or books? I would like to share them with my grand daughter.

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I need some help locating a children’s book for my girlfriend. Her Dad and her used to read it when she was a little girl, but it disappeared from their library one day and she hasn’t been able to find a copy since. The book was about a Dad and her little girl who lived or were vacationing near the beach. They had pansies growing outside their home. The Dad thought that the pansies looked like monkey faces and began to call his daughter “my little monkey face”. I have tried posting on the internet and also googling, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

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When my son (who is 25) was young we had a book from the library about a cat named Blue Beanie. Not sure of spelling. He was so taken with it that he named his own cat that name. I have tried in vain to find a copy of that book for a gift for him.

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A friend of mine, who was born in 1946 (in Canada ), had a book as a little boy about a bunny who worked in a chocolate factory. He doesn’t remember the title – only that he loved the book very much as a small boy. My guess is that the book had to have been written before 1956, and probably a few years sooner. Is there any way you can help me track down this book?

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