# It just takes one person to remember this book title **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969 "2014-05-21T22:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cococ173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@cococ173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cococ173)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/1 "2014-05-21T22:39:25Z")
I have been trying to find a book I had as a young child. I know three other people who had this book but none of us can remember the title or much about it, other than we all thought it was special. What I do know is that it was originally published in the 1940s (1947 or 1948?) and was a hard cover illustrated children’s anthology of stories. All the stories were strange. One story was called “The Steamroller” by Margaret Wise Brown. Daisy gets a steamroller as a present and flattens a lot of people and animals. The cover was either turquoise-ish or orange with a circle or square in the middle. In that shape was an illustration of a little boy lying in bed with the moon shining outside his window ( not Good Night Moon)…at least according to my memory. I have Googled and Yahooed for decades, looked in antique stores and street fairs, used book stores, and asked a zillion people. Since everyone on this board knows everything, maybe collectively we can put me out of my mysery. Who knows? Someone may have this book in their possession right now. Please help. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/2 "2014-05-21T22:49:48Z")
Check out “Read Me Another Story” illustrated by Barbara Cooney and see if it looks familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/3 "2014-05-21T22:55:44Z")
Margaret Wise Brown had a collection called Margaret Wise Brown’s Wonderful Storybook which contains the steamroller story and others. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/4 "2014-05-22T00:13:42Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Margaret Wise Brown had a collection called Margaret Wise Brown’s Wonderful Storybook which contains the steamroller story and others. 1997 reprint with table of contents [here](http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Wise-Browns-wonderful-storybook/dp/0760706700). ---
**Author:** ![cococ173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@cococ173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cococ173)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/5 "2014-05-22T02:44:45Z")
Thanks so much but Read Me Another Story and the Wise Brown collection are not it. The anthology contained stories by different authors; it was all stories, no poems. It was like the Twilight Zone of kiddie lit. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/6 "2014-05-22T03:23:32Z")
**cococ173** , if you don’t get an answer here, take the description in your OP and email it to a library in a large city. Most have email addresses listed on their websites. Over the years I have been slowly accumulating my favorite childhood books, and often I don’t recall the title or author. The librarians I’ve emailed have, in most cases, been able to provide the information I needed. I have **never** had one not reply back to me, even in the rare case when they couldn’t figure out which book I was describing. One time I couldn’t find an answer from two American libraries, so I emailed one in London and got my answer. Very quickly, too. Librarians are an amazing resource. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/7 "2014-05-22T09:55:35Z")
You could also try asking over on Goodreads, where there is a group called [What’s The Name of That Book??](https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book) which is dedicated to finding lost/ forgotten/ half-remembered books. Quite a few librarians are members of the group. The more detail you can give - and you’ve got a lot more in your OP than some of those posting queries in that group! - the more likely you are to be successful. ---
**Author:** ![cococ173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@cococ173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cococ173)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/8 "2014-05-22T18:35:12Z")
Thanks. I have posted on Goodreads and plan to write librarians. I am still hoping my description here will jar someone’s memory. ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-just-takes-one-person-to-remember-this-book-title/688969/9 "2014-05-22T19:45:05Z")
Have you checked Loganberry’s [Stump the Bookseller](http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved-p.html) pages? The website looks like something out of the 90s and will drive you crazy but it has found tons of children’s and YA books for people, based on some very tenuous descriptions.