When I was a kid around 1992 (could be off by a few years), my mom got me a book to help me not be bored and have things to do while she tried, at least occasionally, to keep my older brother off my back. It is quite possible that the book was considerably older than that. It was called something like Things to Do on a Rainy Day or Rainy Day Activity Book, but no matches online for those titles are the one that it was so the title may have been different. It was a softcover with a shiny finish. There was a boy with a flashlight and he may have been opening a treasure box. If I am remembering that as the right cover, the art looked like a colored-pencil style but with professional quality and dim lighting in the scene. However, the book could also be misremembered and could be Zany Rainy Days: Indoor Ideas for Active Kids or that could be a reworked version. I am fairly certain that the size and shape of the book was U.S. Letter size (regular 8.5x11" paper you use for your home printer in the U.S.), approximately.
The book contains:
- There may have been a section on making some kind of putty from borax and Elmer's white glue, but it is possible that was from another book.
- A section describing a sign language that used string, and a description of its tribal origins.
- There was a whole section on building hats out of paper (a whole sheet of newspaper was barely enough to make hats that fit my head at the time). There was at least: sailor's cap, printer's cap
- There was a whole section on braiding, and I made several bracelets that way using several strands. The book may have shown how to make braids of at least 5, maybe 7 strings. I was able to build upon the technique to make even wider bracelets.
- Hand-drawn illustrations for all or most of the activities, usually line art (unfilled drawings) that looked hand-drawn but smoothly-drawn and good quality.
- Shadow puppets (How to use your hands to make various animal shadows, including at least dog and bird but also several others)
Unfortunately my parent's don't have the book anymore. It got mold damage from the basement and my mom made me throw it away.
It had special meaning to me as forming positive memories in difficult times. To be clear, I'm looking for a book to satisfy my nostalgia and show my wife a fond memory, not to find some similar book.
There are other books with one or more of these that aren't the book I am describing. I couldn't find any book that has the paper hats, at least not in anyone's review of the books, but it is possible one of the books online is the book but no one mentioned that.
It is possibly:
- Rainy Day Book by Alastair Smith (but not likely--the title doesn't seem right but I could be wrong. I am pretty certain none of the editions match the cover I remember.). It is an Usborne book apparently, but the cover is different than any of the rainy day books below.
- Zany Rainy Days: Indoor Ideas for Active Kids Hallie Warshaw, Mark Shulman, (A 2001 book, but may be a reworked version of it)
- What To Do With The Kids On A Rainy Day, Adrienne Katz , 1989
- * Highlights Book of Things to Do Indoors
- * 101 Things for Kids to Do on a Rainy Day by Dawn Isaac
* Any one marked with * is a long shot since seems different, but I never saw inside so I can't be sure.
If you have one of those, please send pictures of anything under "The book contains" or verify if the book does not have something on the list.
It is definitely not:
- Rainy Day Play Book by "A Little Golden Book"
- Usborne Rainy Day Activity Book (though there is a similarly titled Usborne book above that may be it)
- Usborne Little Children's Rainy Day Activity Book
- Usborne Things to Make and Do on a Rainy Day
- Fun on a Rainy Day subtitled "150 Things To Do" 1953 Merrill Co.
- Richard Scarry's Best Rainy Day Book Ever 1974
- Rainy day book of things to make and do : more than 50 creative crafting projects for kids aged 3-10 Woram, Catherine, Youngs, Clare (photos of the inside of the book are at Brown's Books (UK), and show that the book contains photos rather than illustrations)
I could buy every book that vaguely matches and see if it has the paper hats and braiding but I don't think that is a good use of my money, and I would end up with several books I can't use. It is possible that the cover changed and a later edition is available and I've already seen it and missed it, like What To Do With The Kids On A Rainy Day, Adrienne Katz , 1989, which has an eBay listing with some pictures of the inside that have the line-art illustrations of string sign language along with its tribal origins, but also other parts that I don't remember but could have been added in a reworked version. At some point I may have to decide how much I want to find it and buy every book with a similar title and look inside to see if it is the one, but I'm not ready for that yet . I wish more of these books showed at least a page or two. Then I could at least see if the illustration style is as I described, which would be an extremely likely match since the style is apparently rare. I can see inside of some from YouTube videos at least, and using that information added some to the "definitely not" list above.
I've looked for probably over an hour on at least three separate occasions on Google Images and can't find the cover I remember (Hopefully I remember the cover right--as I described it above ).
Remember, any book whose first edition is much later than 1995 could not be correct, but I suppose it is possible it could have been reworked by the author and sold as something else, so one of the books that is easy to find could be some form of it, which, only in that case, would be what I would call a match.
Does anyone have any clues?
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What is the name of that "Rainy Day" book from the 90s?
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