Happy Birthday Miffy!

Image via Centraal Museum

Miffy is 56 today! Happy birthday to Miffy - I guess rabbits just age well... :)


For Miffy-related fun, check out the Miffy UK twitter, as they are giving away lots of lovely prizes today in celebration!

There is also an exhibition at the Dick Bruna Huis museum in Utrecht in the Netherlands celebrating its 5th anniversary in this, the year of the Rabbit. The exibition is called Miffy in Fashion - several fashion designers have been invited to make a party dress for a ceramic Miffy which is 40cm high! The exhibition runs until January 2012.

Reading Rocks

These Reading Rocks posts seem to have fallen by the wayside a little. Oh dear! I do, however, have plenty of favourite childhood reads to share and recommend coming up over the next while. I've decided I am going to do them on a monthly basis from now on.

Image via Wikipedia
Something which prompted me to start this up again: I saw an interesting article on Dick Bruna, the creator (writer and illustrator) of Miffy in the FT Weekend Magazine - read it here.

I've loved Miffy for a long time, I think probably because she is so cute! She's also very curious and inquisitive, which makes her very appealing for anyone with a child-like sense of wonder. Her Dutch (for Mr. Bruna is from Holland) name is "Nijntje" which comes from the word "konijntje" and means little rabbit.


Miffy at Keukenhof via Miffy UK
Every image of Miffy is lovingly hand illustrated by the man himself, using very particular colours and a clean, neat style. It's no surprise that this bunny has become an enduring icon, celebrating her 50th anniversary a few years ago - I was lucky enough to see the dedicated exhibition when it came to the National Library of Scotland in 2007.


Miffy is 50 via NLS
The official Miffy website is great too and definitely worth a visit, as it's highly interactive and extremely child-friendly:


You can learn all about her, play games, print off colouring-in pages and even watch short video clips.