# help identify "Single Boy" Children's book
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 16, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461 "2018-09-16T21:07:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/1 "2018-09-16T21:07:55Z")
My youngest is on the autism spectrum. She was looking at a very fuzzy photo of a bookrack of here pre-school 9 or 10 years ago. In the photo is a very fuzzy book. She asked me to help find “Single Boy”.
It’s really fuzzy but it’s a large pre-school style book. The cover is light blue. There is a white head of a dog and a girl in the background. At the forefront is a drawing of a boy. The title is white and can make out a big sweeping S.
I didn’t find “Single Boy” on Amazon (there is one but it’s not a kids book) or a specialty kids book site.
I am simply amazed. My daughter was looking through old photos and then asked me for help to find Single Boy. I know she has a great memory, but this has left me speechless.
Appreciate if any of the Teeming Masses can help locate this book
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/2 "2018-09-16T22:41:24Z")
I googled “Book Single Boy,” and got [this result.](https://www.amazon.com/Single-Boy-Alan-Turner/dp/1480162914). I’d say that this is not what you were looking for.
Slightly different search parameters took me to [goodreads.com](http://goodreads.com), and yielded a [list of 592 other books with “Boy” in the title](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/47035.Books_with_the_word_Boy_in_the_title?page=1), and they range from adult/pornographic to pre-school in subject matter.
I didn’t find “Single Boy” anywhere in the 592 titles.
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/3 "2018-09-16T22:58:10Z")
I think you need to refine your title some; the Library of Congress isn’t showing anything by that title.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/4 "2018-09-16T23:42:28Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#):
>
> My youngest is on the autism spectrum. She was looking at a very fuzzy photo of a bookrack of here pre-school 9 or 10 years ago. In the photo is a very fuzzy book. She asked me to help find “Single Boy”…Appreciate if any of the Teeming Masses can help locate this book
Can you give us a link to this picture?
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### Author:  [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/5 "2018-09-17T00:40:32Z")
Though “Single Boy” would appear unlikely to be the title, I expect your daughter really is correctly remembering something (but not the title), or that she’s remembered the title close-but-not-quite.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/6 "2018-09-17T03:59:18Z")
Here is a [link](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOyDknGIYTudoVxSNbPzL2rbOJVwWUVHNgJfSrXMlTaiybLoCllysWPtMj5zocWvg?key=RGhKQmlEa1cxTjN5TjNGYjdRaExINUE0XzB6c2RR): the photos are low res and hope they help.
Again, appreciate the help. My daughter’s mind works in some mysterious ways. She’s got the memory of an elephant for certain things, and this is the first time something like this has cropped up.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/7 "2018-09-17T04:17:38Z")
Is the pre-school still open, and do any of her teachers still work there? They may be able to identify the book.
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### Author:  [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/8 "2018-09-17T04:22:31Z")
You must have super vision, I can’t make out any of the covers on the book rack.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/9 "2018-09-17T05:12:21Z")
Single Boy kinda sorta matches the one book. My daughter’s memory was perked by seeing that photo and she may be close but not quite there with “Simple Boy.” “Single Boy” got a hit but is unlikely to be the kids book.
I think the pre-school is still there but it’s been 7 or 8 years…so that’s an unlikely lead.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/10 "2018-09-17T06:56:05Z")
You could take her to a library and book stores to look around.
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### Author:  [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/11 "2018-09-17T07:23:56Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> You could take her to a library and book stores to look around.
Depending on the person, [young autistic person] plus [a trip of indeterminate length to go into stores for the specific purpose of looking all over the place for something you’re not sure is even there] might be… interesting… 😉 - which might be why he asked here. I have one autistic friend who would drag me to get there faster, but if we took the other, it might ruin that day for her plus half the next one - and these are adults. 🙂
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/12 "2018-09-17T07:39:05Z")
I think the boy’s face is on another book sitting in front.
I think the word in the title may be “smile” or possible something like “syndo” which obviously is meaningless, but it’s not “single” or “simple”. I did wonder if it was “sticker book” she was saying.
Also the girl face looks like a doll-like anime version of a character, which sent me down the _Frozen_ or even _My Little Pony_ licensed character route. She really looks familiar to me.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/13 "2018-09-17T07:54:37Z")
Okay, I have now figured out the first word is “Cycle”. It may be “cycle boy” or something similar, like “cycle son”
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/14 "2018-09-17T09:55:15Z")
It is profoundly fuzzy (where is my “zoom and enhance”!?) but my eyes are wanting to see “Smile Baby.” Googling for books with that title gives me _Smile, Baby, Smile_ by Moria Butterfield. I didn’t see a cover with an exact match, but [this one](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7558276-smile-baby-smile) has a curved “smile” shape under the second use of the word Smile, and having primed my mind to that, I can see the same feature in the book in your photos. I’m around 99 percent confident that it is an edition of that book.
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### Author:  [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/15 "2018-09-17T10:36:22Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> I’m around 99 percent confident that it is an edition of that book.
I think you’re right. I can see the little head at the bottom of the book in the classroom photo and it looks just like the head of the little person on the book cover.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/16 "2018-09-17T11:10:12Z")
Wow, **Darren Garrison** is right, he’s found it, and my guesses started out well but went way off track. This is like pareidolia.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/17 "2018-09-17T14:54:58Z")
On closer examination, [that _is_ the exact same cover](https://www.booktopia.com.au/http_coversbooktopiacomau/big/9781405494359/smile-baby-smile.jpg) as the book on the shelf.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/18 "2018-09-17T18:16:22Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> On closer examination, [that _is_ the exact same cover](https://www.booktopia.com.au/http_coversbooktopiacomau/big/9781405494359/smile-baby-smile.jpg) as the book on the shelf.
Agreed, good detective work!
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/19 "2018-09-17T19:23:29Z")
Good one. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identify-single-boy-childrens-book/821461/20 "2018-09-17T19:34:41Z")
I’m impressed. I thought the front of the book featured a sea anemone and some coral.
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