Reading Rocks: Little Ray of Sunshine

As today would have been the 76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves (RIP), I thought it would be a good day to mention the wonderful Mr. Men and Little Miss books, of which he was the writer and illustrator. Even the Google "Doodle" today features Little Miss Sunshine, among others!


You get a different character each time the Google homepage reloads. These are some of my favourites...



Images via Google

I loved the Mr. Men and Little Miss stories myself as a child, with their friendly, engaging characters, colourful illustrations and funny little stories. This year is also the 40th anniversary! You can see the full spectrum of misters and misses here on the Mr. Men website.

Image via Wikipedia
One of my favourite charity shop finds (as an adult!) is this cheerful ceramic piggy bank:


Mr. Men & Little Miss wiki lives here.

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.

Reading Rocks

I realise it's been a while since I did a Reading Rocks feature, and thought it was about time I did another! Since Halloween is currently on everyone's mind - particularly mine, I love this time of year (any excuse for fancy dress!) - I thought I'd stay sorta spooky for this one.

My favourite witch-in-training, Mildred Hubble, was the subject of a whimsical and enjoyable series of books by Jill Murphy about a girl, aka 'The Worst Witch,' who was more than a little accident-prone and had a habit of getting into trouble or finding her spells not going *quite* as planned!



One of my favourite things about her was the fact that when it came to having a familliar, she was last in line an at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches and somehow ended up with a tabby cat instead of the usual black cat.

I highly recommend these books as they are a thoroughly entertaining read, never a dull moment as things so often go (hilariously) awry for poor old Mildred!



There was even an enjoyable TV show based on these books, which screened around 1998~2001!

Find out more about the Worst Witch here.

Other Halloween-flavoured treats (no tricks, I promise!):
http://www.bookortreat.com/2010/10/27/halloween-gift-tags-for-books/
http://www.domestifluff.com/2010/10/free-printable-mini-owl-treat-boxes/
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/10/sock_zombies.html

Reading Roald Rocks!

This is a special Roald Dahl Day edition of Reading Rocks! :)

As it's the advent of the well-known children's author Roald Dahl's birthday today, what better day to celebrate some of his wonderful works. So, without further ado, here are a small selection of my favourites, featuring the lively illustrations of Quentin Blake.

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory


Matilda


Revolting Rhymes


James & the Giant Peach


The Witches


The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant)


George's Marvellous Medicine


If you want to mark the occassion yourself, why not try something from the downloadable Roald Dahl Day Party Pack? It's sure to be entertaining!

There's also a rather wonderful and interactive official website (complete with a quiz, e-postcards you can send and a flying peach game for under 13s) here.

Reading Rocks

I just thought, "it's high time I did another Reading Rocks post" - so here it is! I hope you enjoy :)

You can't beat a traditional children's story and 'The Velveteen Rabbit' (or 'How Toys Become Real') is no exception. Naturally it helps that it is about a cute little toy rabbit that wants to be a real rabbit!

Written by Margery Williams, it was first published in 1922 and remains a children's classic, not least because of the endearing depictions of the bunny in question by illustrator William Nicholson.


Image: Forge & Brew

I've discovered a lovely true-to-the-original version of the book here which you (or your kids!) can read online, complete with beautiful illustrations. There is also a PDF version of the book available from the www.archive.org website.

Find out more about The Velveteen Rabbit on Wikipedia

Reading Rocks

I'm hoping you've enjoyed my little Reading Rocks series so far. I will be continuing these posts and am aiming to get back into a regular posting schedule. Here is the next installment!

As a child I had a particular fascination with the adventures of a little bear from deepest, darkest Peru, who wears a duffel coat, is named after a London train station and has a well-known penchant for marmalade sandwiches.

You may have already guessed by now that I am of course referring to Paddington Bear!


I loved reading about his (mis)adventures and all the daft scrapes the silly old loveable bear got himself into, it certainly made for an entertaining read. Watch this episode of the popular kids TV series about the origins of the bear's name :) There's even a Paddington Bear wiki!

All images via Google images

You also can find the official Paddington Bear website at www.paddingtonbear.com. It's got some fun things for kids to do such as Paddington's Party Game, colouring in pages and an interactive map where you can add the location of your very own Paddington Bear.

There is currently an exhibition entitled "The Life & Times of Paddington Bear" on at the Museum of Reading until Sunday the 4th of July. It's a celebration of the famous bear and his creator, Michael Bond. Details here and here.

An Island Life

As a child, I spent several years living abroad in Europe. This meant that good children's books printed in English were quite hard to come by. My parents always made a point of making sure we had access to books by Scottish authors and other things which would remind us of home, such as taking us to traditional Celtic music events and seeking out specialist shops for familiar treats.

I think it was their way of infusing our nationality in us, making sure we didn't lose our culture and identity when we were immersed in foreign surroundings. I am grateful that they took the time to do this, as it is something I now cherish in those childhood memories.


One of my favourites as I was growing up was the series of books about little Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick, who lived on the (fictional) island of Struay, which I have since learned was actually based on the Scottish island Coll, near Tiree and Mull.

I particularly loved the lively illustrations of the island and will always remember the red-haired Katie Morag wearing her ubiquitous Fair Isle jumper with a yoke and her cheerful little kilt.


I think one of the things I liked the most about these stories was the depictions of life on a raggedy wee island with a wonderfully unspoilt landscape. Naturally I always enjoyed hearing about the scrapes Katie got herself into too!

Reading Rocks

I had an idea for a blog series and it came to me last night, like all of my best ideas do, just as I was drifting off to sleep. Which of course meant that I then couldn't get to sleep as my head was buzzing with hundreds of thoughts about it!

I'm glad I remembered it in the morning instead of the idea getting lost in the ether, as can happen when you don't write it down before the dreams take over.

Every fortnight (or so) I have decided I will write about one of my favourite childhood reads. The first of these is the Mog books by Judith Kerr.


As you've probably guessed by the title of my blog (not to mention the name of my business!), I have a slight obsession with all things furry, particularly those which go purr and meow! I adored these books for their beautiful illustrations (by the author herself) and the antics of the slightly cheeky cat Mog and her various adventures.


Find out more about the Mog series on Wikipedia.