The newest book to appear on my crowd sourced list of the 100 Best Children’s Books of the 21st Century, The Girl who Speaks Bear sees Sophie Anderson return to the territory of her debut, The House With Chicken Legs. Rooted in Slavic folklore her stories expertly blend tales which are likely unfamiliar to young … Continue reading
“I know what it’s like to be small in the city…” Many picture books use a wintry setting to convey a sense of wonder and excitement. Snow can have a transformative beauty, while a great winter storm brings danger cloaked in cosiness. In Sydney Smith’s Small in the City the weather closes in around its … Continue reading
“So the Shortest Day came and the year died” This is a picture book rebirth of a 1974 poem originally written by Dark is Rising author Susan Cooper for the annual Christmas Revel shows, a fusion of medieval and modern music and poetry. “And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, … Continue reading
There are certain smells and sounds that can transport you straight back to childhood. For me paint and pencil textures do exactly the same thing: Shirley Hughes deep nostalgic hues, Quentin Blake’s busy, youthful lines and perhaps deepest of all the work of John Burningham. While Mr Gumpy’s Outing captures all the heat and vibrancy … Continue reading
A leading chronicler of British festive traditions since she first invited us to visit Lucy and Tom at Christmas in 1981, Shirley Hughes take readers to places other children’s authors cannot reach. Like much of her work, Burning the Tree is a result of her keen observation skills. Writing in A Life Drawing Hughes explains how … Continue reading
Judith Kerr based her Mog books on the peculiar behaviour of the nine cats she shared a home with during her long and impressive life. In her autobiography ‘Creatures’ she says that the best of these stories were based on real events. The sixth book in the series was inspired by Felix, son of Posy … Continue reading
Many years before Michael Rosen sent a family on a bear hunt, three other children set forth into the British countryside under a low winter sun. They observe all kinds of natural sights, from cows to hungry birds, before discovering a brown knitted bear stuck up a tree. As the snow begins to fall, they … Continue reading
The late 1960s saw a creative reawakening of the British folk tradition, in music, film and literature it was the earthy flip-side to the gloss of the swinging sixties pop culture. Children’s books proved a fertile ground for the old myths and legends and powerfully showed how they are never too deeply hidden from the … Continue reading
I could fill this entire Advent calendar with fantastic wintry books by the legendary illustrator Roger Duvoisin – in fact I pretty much have, here, here and here. But perhaps his most garlanded title is Bright Snow, White Snow for which won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. One of the key practitioners of American mid-century … Continue reading
It’s been nearly 25 years since Philip Pullman published Northern Lights, the first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Since then the books have become classics and are partly responsible for kickstarting the current boom in children’s publishing. Northern Lights has also spawned a movie adaptation, stage play and now a magnificent BBC … Continue reading
In Once Upon a Northern Night the French/ Canadian illustrator Isabelle Arsenault collaborates with writer Jean E. Pendziwol, who draws on her native Lake Superior in northern Ontario. It’s a story to be read aloud at bedtime on a frosty night. The text is deliberately old fashioned, the refrain Once Upon a Northern Night providing … Continue reading
Sometimes a book can get weighed down by its cultural baggage, The Snowy Day more than most. In 1962 New Yorker Ezra Jack Keats produced one of the first children’s books with a black protagonist. At first it was hailed as a landmark in publishing, but as time went by its intentions began to be … Continue reading
What can be said about The Snowman that hasn’t already been said? It is as much a part of popular Christmas tradition as Slade or that episode of Father Ted where the priests get lost in the lingerie department. Raymond Briggs is certainly fed up with talking about it, but thankfully in 2014 a first … Continue reading
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is a book all about sensations, of cold and fear, warmth and happiness, food and starvation. From the very first page you really feel as if you’re in this world. “Snow lay thick, too, upon the roof of Willoughby Chase… The house was all alight within, and the joyous … Continue reading
Chirri and Chirra are two identical Japanese children who live in a hut on the edge of a forest. Each of their adventures sees them set off on their bicycles for an adventure in the natural world. In the Snowy Day the children are even more rosy cheeked than normal, as they ignore the unsuitable … Continue reading
The weather plays a central role in Lucy M. Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe, the plot turning on a new twist in the winter conditions, from floods to snow, ice to thunder storms. The story begins with the hero, seven-year-old Tolly, taking a train through a flooded English landscape, delivering him to the aptly … Continue reading
In England it is a long, well established fact that the person who delivers our presents is a benevolent, if sometimes grumpy old man called Father Christmas. Americans have their jolly, Coca Cola sponsored Santa Claus. But look further, into the darker reaches of the northern European imagination and the picture becomes much stranger. In … Continue reading
“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.” I can now count the ways that C.S. Lewis laid traps for my younger self to become obsessed with his secret world. A portal hidden in an empty old house. Talking animals serving tea in cosy dwellings. But … Continue reading
The Snow Angel tells the story of a young girl with a love of the natural world and adventure who loses her parents to Ebola then finds herself rejected by her adopted family and plunged into an even more dangerous world. Her plight is lightened by the arrival a new friend and the occasional appearance … Continue reading
A rare example of a winter themed picture book set in an urban environment, the best known of which is Ezra Jack Keats’ similarly titled The Snowy Day. That book famously achieved distinction by casting black children but refused to make reference to their race. Here Komako Sakai does the same, except with rabbits. Sakai … Continue reading
Brambly Hedge is an English Arcadia suffused with the spirit of Beatrix Potter and Arthur Rackham. The Secret Staircase is the fifth story in the series, and the second to feature a winter setting. Jill Barklem’s work is famously intricate and impressively well researched. She spent five years looking at the landscape around her home … Continue reading
‘Once upon a time, a hundred years ago there was a dark and stormy girl.’ With echoes of the Brothers Grimm and Snoopy, The Wolf Wilder is a book that already feels like another classic from Katherine Rundell. Adding to that effect are atmospheric illustrations throughout by Gelrev Ongbico who talks here about the process … Continue reading
Arnold Lobel wrote his Frog and Toad books to help children learn to read but like Dr. Seuss before him Lobel achieved so much more. Through his characters, uptight Toad and optimistic Frog, he created one of the most tender and believable representations of friendship, and possibly the first same sex relationship in children’s … Continue reading
Following on from last year’s list of the best Christmas books for children, 2019 sees a gathering of the very finest illustrated tales of snow, ice and winter magic. These are stories imbued with the sense of wonder and possibility which is evident during the winter months. And when the real world is distinctly lacking … Continue reading
Tom Fobble’s Day is the final part in a quartet of books inspired by Alan Garner’s family who lived at Alderley Edge, a hill of Arthurian legend in Cheshire. It’a a series crafted with such symmetry and beauty that you gasp, just as its protagonist does as he takes his maiden journey down Lizzie Leah’s … Continue reading
Books that invite you to read along each day as Christmas approaches have long been a part of the publishing landscape. In 1955 Puffin released The Yuletide Cottage by John Harwood. The idea was that readers would push out a new piece every day until they had built their own Christmas house. It proved to be a … Continue reading
‘What was the point of Christmas? Magical stars in the sky, a baby born in a manger, a man who didn’t even exist riding a theoretical sleigh across the sky to not drop presents down your chimney. Christmas was the biggest annual collection of made-up daydreams in the whole world.’ Mouse is a boy who … Continue reading
Reviewing as many Christmas books as I have, you become attuned to some recurrent themes: anticipation, togetherness and charity pop up again and again. Often, among the joy, there’s a little melancholy. Less common is loneliness. Like Orlando Weeks’ The Gritterman, or Emma Chichester Clark’s Melrose and Croc, Marguerite’s Christmas deals with loneliness in a … Continue reading
It’s taken 21 days, but finally here’s a book that’s actually about Christmas, you know with the baby, the donkey and the rest of the gang. And as Chris Riddell says on the cover, Refuge is perhaps the most important. It begins with the familiar nativity tale, but told from the donkey’s point of view. … Continue reading
Plenty of children’s Christmas books major on the theme of family and togetherness, but far fewer cover the equally important flip side of loneliness experienced by many at this time of year. In Melrose and Croc: Together at Christmas we meet, for the first time, two of Emma Chichester Clark’s most popular characters as they … Continue reading
For some it’s The Snowman, others love It’s a Wonderful Life. Somebody, somewhere chooses Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. In my house, Olive, the Other Reindeer is the sweetest Christmas TV treat. It all started when the children were small and getting up at ridiculous o’clock on Christmas Morning. Having weighed through TV specials … Continue reading
‘Finally Father Christmas was able to go to bed. He put on his pyjamas and was just climbing into bed when he saw something that made him gasp. At the end of his bed lay his sack. Father Christmas could see the shape of one present still inside it. Father Christmas pulled the present out … Continue reading
You know that bit in Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas when the old grump is dragging his sack across the roofs of a terrace of houses. Some of the windows below him are radiating amazing warm light, suggesting the sort of excitement that Father Christmas will never be party to. Did you ever wonder what exactly … Continue reading
Following his involvement in an operatic adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are in 1979, Maurice Sendak was asked to design a new production of that famous festive chestnut, the Nutcracker. His immediate reaction was negative. ‘Who in the world needed another Nutcracker? The mandatory Christmas tree and Candy land sequences were enough to sink … Continue reading
There’s surely no human better qualified than Shirley Hughes to bring to life the breathless sense of anticipation felt by a couple of children in the run up to Christmas. I grew up with Lucy and Tom in the late Seventies and early Eighties, so revisiting the book now feels rather like looking at my … Continue reading
A favourite sub-genre of Christmas stories for children is the festive crime caper. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Home Alone and that episode of the Simpsons where Bart burns down the tree and blames it on burglars. Perhaps it plays into a sense of unease about a festival that allows a an old bearded man … Continue reading
I never had a cat growing up, which was a shame. But I didn’t really need one, I had Mog. Judith Kerr’s beloved tabby cat is that rare thing in children’s literature, an animal that doesn’t talk or embody all sorts of human characteristics. Instead she looks and behaves like a real animal. In Mog’s … Continue reading
Pat Hutchins was a picture book genius. Her debut, Rosie’s Walk, is rightly acknowledged as a classic and is still loved by small people everywhere. But little of her other work is that well known – or even in print – including the Silver Christmas Tree. Published in 1974, the same year that Hutchins won … Continue reading
Father Christmas is my all time favourite Christmas book. In fact it may even by my favourite ever book. It’s the only story I’ve consistently read throughout my life, a Christmas Eve reading ritual that provides a direct link to my childhood. I can still remember the excitement of holding this book and obsessing … Continue reading
‘The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond; the white squares were the roofs of the garage, the old barn, the rabbit hutches, the chicken coops… All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that … Continue reading
Brian Wildsmith, came to prominence in the sixties as one of the great innovators in children’s picture books, combining words and imagery in striking new ways. He produced many Christmas books during his career including Mary and A Christmas Story, taking the traditional story of the Nativity and reinterpreted it in his visually arresting style. … Continue reading
‘There seems to be a good deal more to the world than the Christmas tree and the attic and the dust-bin. Anything at all might happen I suppose.’ One of the books on my slowly depleting list of betterment, I came to the Mouse and His Child with only a little knowledge: A fifty year … Continue reading
The Moomins aren’t a naturally Christmassy species. They prefer to spend their winters tucked behind an old boiler, or huddled together in their drawing room. You wouldn’t have thought the irascible Hemulens would have much truck with the celebration either, other than to give them something else to get cross about. But in The Fir … Continue reading
‘Jingle, jingle, jingle here. Jingle there. Jingle Christmas everywhere.’ Let’s step out of the cold and return to the New York Plaza hotel once more to spend Christmas with its most famous resident, six year old Eloise. If you’ve not met her before, she’s the part feral product of wealth and delegated parenting, who may … Continue reading
In 1957 Dr. Seuss was enjoying what Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys would describe as his ‘imperial phase’. The Cat in the Hat had just changed how children learn to read forever, and another masterpiece, Green Eggs and Ham was to follow. In between came his Christmas book, and it was every bit … Continue reading
‘One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it … Continue reading
One of the many pleasures of reading classic Christmas books is the way they open a window into the past in an especially vivid way. More than just present another idealised vision of Victorian festivities, the best of them can highlight the small details and forgotten language of Christmas’s past. As Piers Torday’s delightful stage … Continue reading
In a bid for Christmas equality, Posy Simmonds has now give us two versions of Scrooge as a woman, most recently in her graphic novel Cassandra Darke, which casts Dickens’ miser as a misanthropic art dealer. “Women really aren’t allowed to be total rotters,” she told the Guardian. “There certainly aren’t many like Scrooge, who … Continue reading
It’s the ‘Happy Birthday’ of children’s literature, a poem constructed from iron girders and designed to stay standing even as the ground shifts beneath it and the holiday it represents changes out of all recognition. The Night Before Christmas is the original and perhaps even the best Christmas book. It’s been interpreted by countless artists … Continue reading
Like a pop star working out a contract they didn’t understand when they signed, because they were too busy slurping down Capri Sun to realise what they were letting themselves in for, I find myself, after six grueling years in the game, working on the inevitable Greatest Hits compilation. The twenty four best ever Christmas … Continue reading
One book more than any other is associated with Christmas: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Its ubiquity is probably the reason I’ve avoided it in these last six years of writing Advent posts. I assumed there was nothing new to say. Returning to A Christmas Carol this year I was surprised by just how … Continue reading
‘Since his parents couldn’t stop taking about Father Christmas, Julien had decided to pretend to believe in him for another year. So he had written a letter to ask for a present.’ Julien is getting to old for Father Christmas, or so he has been led to believe. But he’s not quite ready to let … Continue reading
Reviewing as many Christmas books as I have, you become attuned to some recurrent themes: anticipation, togetherness and charity pop up again and again. Often amongst the joy there’s a little melancholy. Less commonly there is loneliness. Like Orlando Weeks’ The Gritterman, Marguerite’s Christmas deals with loneliness in a fascinating way. Instead of the usual … Continue reading
One thing you might notice about many of these advent posts is their overwhelming whiteness. I’m not talking about an abundance of snow and ice, rather the skin colour of their protagonists. There are exceptions, like Jack Ezra Keats’ classic The Snowy Day or Lauren St John’s brilliant The Snow Angel, but for the most part it might … Continue reading
Hello and welcome to another special blog by me, Clara! We’ve read more Christmas books than we know what to do with this year, so I’m going to do a picture book roundup of some of the best ones. The books are Red and Lulu, Oliver Elephant and Morris Wants MORE! Book one is Oliver … Continue reading
The idea of a story created in front of our eyes, the ‘third wall’ removed and the artist’s pencil visible, is nothing new. In the 1950s Harold’s Purple Crayon and Looney Tunes cartoons like Duck Amuck both upended the conventions of their form. More recently we’ve seen the like of Allan Ahlberg’s Pencil and Kathryn … Continue reading
Crockett Johnson was a New York cartoonist and children’s book creator best remembered for his classic 1950s books about Harold and the Purple Crayon. These deceptively simple stories follow a small snub nosed child in a romper suit around a blank background which he brings to life with line drawings from his ever present purple … Continue reading
Scary stories have always been part and parcel of Christmas, from creepy characters like Belsnickel to M.R. James terrifying pupils with his ghost stories around a blazing fire. Ross Montgomery is the latest sick individual to try his hand at this dark art: ‘For me, horror and Christmas work perfectly together. There’s something indescribably creepy … Continue reading
‘Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person awake in the whole country. People might find that a lonely thought. Not me’ It’s Christmas Eve and snow is falling ‘thick as vicar’s dandruff.’ The Gritterman is about to set off in his battered ice cream van, chimes blaring Mr Softee’s Jingle as he spreads salt ‘mined … Continue reading
Stanley Lambchop, one of the more unusual heroes in children’s literature, first appeared in 1964 when he was flattened by a falling notice board in his slept. Flat Stanley saw him exploring the world from the unique perspective of someone who suddenly found themselves living a life in two dimensions. The original book was illustrated … Continue reading
Less violent than I might have hoped, Anthony McGowan and Chris Riddell’s I Killed Father Christmas begins instead with an argument about the economy. ‘I don’t care about poor children or the economy, I want a robot and a racing car, and a helicopter that really flies.’ Jo-Jo is dragged into his parents’ constant arguments … Continue reading
Earlier this year I spoke to Rosemary Sandberg, the former editor of Picture Lions, the paperback publisher that gave Puffin a run for their money in the 70s and 80s. Along with classics like Dogger and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Sandberg published a selection of Christmas favourites including Cops and Robbers and Mog’s Christmas. … Continue reading
If anyone has helped shape the look of children’s books over the last couple of years it’s Karl James Mountfield. His covers and illustrations for books including M.G. Leonard’s Beetle Queen, Jennifer Bell’s the Uncommoners and Katherine Woodfine’s Sinclair Mysteries have all leapt off the bookshelves and into the bestseller’s lists. Now Mountford has teamed … Continue reading
December 1986. It’s the run up to Christmas and I have become obsessed by the BBC television adaption of John Masefield’s Box of Delights. It’s perfect in every way, from the twinkly rendition of the third movement of Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony, to the snowy old English setting that melts into glorious effects laden high … Continue reading
Chirri and Chirra are two identical Japanese children who live in a hut on the edge of a forest. Each of their adventures sees them set off on their bicycles for an adventure in the natural world. In the Snowy Day the children are even more rosy cheeked than normal, as they ignore the unsuitable … Continue reading
‘The holiday season is a time for storytelling, and whether you are hearing the story of a candelabra staying lit for more than a week, or a baby born in a barn without proper medical supervision, these stories often feature miracles.’ The Lump of Coal, like Lemony Snicket’s other holiday book, The Latke Who Couldn’t … Continue reading
I could fill this entire Advent calendar with great Christmas books by Roger Duvoisin – in fact I pretty much have, here, here and here – but this year let’s look at his most garlandad title, Bright Snow, White Snow which he won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. One of the key practitioners of American … Continue reading
A combination seemingly put together to cater specifically for my tastes, One Christmas Wish brings together the author of one of my books of the year (Katherine Rundell’s The Explorer) with the artist behind one of the best Christmas picture books of recent years (Emily Sutton’s The Christmas Eve Tree). Thankfully they don’t disappoint. ‘It was … Continue reading
Not long after I moved to Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, I was in the local pub for some Christmas drinks. The establishment had recently been tastefully redecorated to suit people like me, all traces of its long history as a rough locals’ boozer expunged. Halfway through the evening, a gang of bizarrely dressed men … Continue reading
There’s a little way to go yet, but I’m going to put my neck out and say that Lauren St John’s new novel is the best book of the season, and one of the highlights of the year. The Snow Angel begins a little like Katherine Rundell’s debut The Girl Savage which I read at … Continue reading
There’s a lovely homespun innocence to the early Mr Men books, a sense that the stories have been made up on the spot, with illustrations quickly blocked out in felt tips, then on to the next one. Famously Roger Hargreaves began writing the stories down after his son Adam asked what a tickle looked like. … Continue reading
This is a preposterous book! Firstly, without giving too much away, a tree shouldn’t be so big it reaches someone’s ceiling. Think about measuring the height of the room first. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas but there’s a limit to how Christmassy you can get with your tree especially the height! Mr Willowby’s … Continue reading
Two short-ish winter tales by the historical children’s novelist and self-confessed snow obsessive, Emma Carroll, who transports readers to a late 19th century frost fair and a family mystery on the streets of a Victorian town near Bath. Carroll’s debut novel Frost Hollow Hall was a superbly creepy winter ghost story, and in the Snow Sister … Continue reading
The late 1960s saw a creative reawakening of the British folk tradition, in music, film and literature it was the earthy flip-side to the gloss of the swinging sixties pop culture. Children’s books proved a fertile ground for the old myths and legends and powerfully showed how they are never to deeply hidden from the … Continue reading
I thought I might be scraping the bottom of Santa’s sack by now, but after six years of writing about books for Advent there are still more than I can cope with. 2017 has been a bumper year for new Christmas and winter themed releases, and I’ll be sharing the best of those throughout December … Continue reading
As if I didn’t have enough blooming work to do, I’ve been asked by the man at tygertale.com to do something called a blog post. At first I thought he wanted me to read my letters on the lavvy, but apparently it’s to do with the internet.
Guest post by Father Christmas. Continue reading
A small mystery for you: Why did Maurice Sendak never produce a Christmas book? A dislike of the season perhaps, or possibly because of his Jewish background? The latter seems unlikely as he said in 2003 that ‘religion made no sense to me’. Whatever the reason you just have to look at books like Chicken … Continue reading
I heard about this unusual book recently on BBC Radio 4’s Beyond Belief programme where the author Frank Cottrell-Boyce chose it as his favourite children’s book with a religious message, describing it as ‘an advent calendar within a book’. Its unique structure takes us day by day through December as a young Norwegian boy opens … Continue reading
We all love an unexpected corpse at Christmas. No one more than Robin Stevens, author of the Murder Most Unladylike series, which has reached the fifth book in its deadly run – Mistletoe and Murder. The Wells and Wong detective agency travel to Cambridge at Christmas where they are there to spend the holidays with … Continue reading
Mice play an important role in Christmas stories, going back to Beatrix Potter’s Tailor of Gloucester, through the Church Mice at Christmas and the clockwork wanderings of Russell Hoban’s Mouse and his Child. To make it clear that this is a book about Christmas (and mice), The Happiest Man in the World comes with the … Continue reading
‘One day Jonas asked me, “Which do you like the best – the sun, the moon, or the stars?” I said that I liked them all, but maybe the stars just a little bit more because they shine so beautifully on Christmas night, and I love Christmas so much!’ Everything you need to know about … Continue reading
Following John Updike, another American cultural heavyweight weighs in with a piece of lightweight seasonal musing today, as anthropologist Margaret Mead records an ‘Interview with Santa Claus’ for what was to be her final publication before her death in 1978. ‘Do you have a few minutes for an interview? Children are asking so many … Continue reading
Michael Foreman’s very first picture book as both author and illustrator, the Perfect Present had originated as a story for the Christmas issue of the Observer magazine. This was the early 1960s, a time of innovation in children’s illustrated books which happily overlapped with the creation of newspaper Sunday supplements. It was an ideal launch … Continue reading
Brian Wildsmith, one of the great innovators in children’s picture books, died earlier this year. He was a true original who deserves to be remembered alongside the many other masters we lost in 2016. Wildsmith produced many Christmas books during his career including Mary and A Christmas Story, taking the traditional story of the Nativity … Continue reading
Although Beatrix Potter only wrote one classic Christmas story (the Tailor of Gloucester), she returned to the season in different ways throughout her career. A prodigious letter writer, Potter designed cards and sent fans seasonal missives from her characters, like this one from Peter Rabbit. ‘You know we do not move our tree; we leave … Continue reading
These advent pieces have grown into a year round obsession, and I’ve got into the habit of searching out Christmas books wherever I go. So it was on a March morning in Howarth, home of the Brontës and a place cast in perpetual winter, that I happened upon this sunniest of festive stories. Benjamin Chaud’s … Continue reading
‘What was the point of Christmas? Magical stars in the sky, a baby born in a manger, a man who didn’t even exist riding a theoretical sleigh across the sky to not drop presents down your chimney. Christmas was the biggest annual collection of made-up daydreams in the whole world.’ Mouse is a boy who … Continue reading
I picked up this telling of the Christmas story on the recommendation of Colin West, a brilliant children’s illustrator with exquisite taste to match. Illustrated by the great Harold Jones, a contemporary of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, Once in Royal David’s City is the follow up to his most successful work, (also with Kathleen … Continue reading
Fans of mid century children’s book illustration will find pretty much everything they’re looking for in Winter and the Children. Dapper costumes abound, with children decked in some glorious knitwear, and check out the town mayor dressed to impress in tweed, plus fours and a goatee. There’s an array of different architectural styles on display … Continue reading
'There seems to be a good deal more to the world than the Christmas tree and the attic and the dust-bin. Anything at all might happen I suppose.' One of the books on my slowly depleting list of betterment, I came to the Mouse and His Child with only a little knowledge: A fifty year … Continue reading
A rare example of a winter themed picture book set in an urban environment, the best known of which is Ezra Jack Keats’ similarly titled The Snowy Day. That book famously achieved distinction by casting black children but refused to make reference to their race. Here Komako Sakai does the same, except with rabbits. Sakai … Continue reading
Brambly Hedge is an English Arcadia suffused with the spirit of Beatrix Potter and Arthur Rackham. The Secret Staircase is the fifth story in the series, and the second to feature a winter setting. Jill Barklem’s work is famously intricate and impressively well researched. She spent five years looking at the landscape around her home … Continue reading
A Santa book for our times, Christmas in July is the torrid tale of a year in which Saint Nick loses his pants to a rich, selfish New York businessman called Rump. ‘Who do you think I am?’ Rump fumed. ‘Santa Claus?’ ‘But I’m Santa,’ said Santa. ‘And those are my pants!’ ‘You’re a bum!’ … Continue reading
Pull Frank Cottrell Boyce’s debut off the shelf and there’s not much to distinguish it as a ‘Christmas book’, the cover is dominated by pleasant blue sky and it’s only the presence of a rather careworn Nativity Donkey that suggests we’re about to enter festive territory. But Millions is one the great contemporary Christmas stories, … Continue reading
‘It was Christmas day in the top left-hand corner of Wales…’ More than any other Smallfilms production, Ivor the Engine feels as though it’s a part of the fabric of Britain. Inspired by the writings of Dylan Thomas, and a friend of co-creator Oliver Postgate who had been an engine fireman, Ivor has the feel … Continue reading
We last met Roger Duvoisin’s Santa as he rampaged around the streets of New York, like a festive Charles Bronson, wreaking revenge on what he called ‘false Santas’; tearing fake beards from their faces and sending the tottering pile of scalps back to the North pole in his sleigh. Now it’s Easter, and Santa’s in … Continue reading
Plenty of children’s Christmas books major on the theme of family and togetherness, but far fewer cover the equally important flip side of loneliness experienced by many at this time of year. In Melrose and Croc: Together at Christmas we meet, for the first time, two of Emma Chichester Clark’s most popular characters as they … Continue reading
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Raymond Briggs laboured over several books and two massive treasuries containing countless fairy Tales and nursery rhymes, creating one of the most complete visual libraries of Mother Goose and Co. by a single artist. It’s not difficult to see why these often outlandish poems and songs might appeal to someone with Briggs’ … Continue reading
Here we go with the fifth tygertale advent calendar, a selection of the best children’s books for Christmas from the last 125 years. Over the next twenty four days I’ll be sharing vintage picture books, Christmas mysteries and brand new classic stories – as well as hearing from some top authors – so please do … Continue reading
A glittering collection from Abi Elphinstone, author of the Dreamsnatcher trilogy, who brings together some of the brightest stars in children’s fiction for an anthology of winter tales. From ice cold chillers to fairy tales as deep and dark as Christmas itself, Winter Magic is a brilliantly broad and hugely imaginative book that reminded me … Continue reading
As if writing my own advent calendar wasn’t enough, this year I found myself contributing to someone else’s. Words & Pictures, the website of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, has been posting an image a day and inviting people to tweet their own micro-stories. ‘Oh hang on,’ said Father Christmas. ‘Did I … Continue reading
This is the third version of the life and times of Santa Claus we’ve seen this month. It’s not as funny as A Boy Called Christmas, and nowhere near as violent as Klaus, but L. Frank Baum’s book is easily the most detailed account. Fresh from his success with the Wizard of Oz, Baum … Continue reading
Earlier on the advent calendar I told you about the Puffin Post at Christmas, this week another children’s book magazine, the Storyteller. Between 1983 and 1985 this anthology collected together new and classic short stories with some great illustrations with a cassette tape to boot. Inevitably there were the Christmas specials, with a few real gems … Continue reading
We travel to the Austrian Tyrol today, sometime at the turn of the 20th century for a tale based on a childhood holiday of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the Madeline books. This larger than life artist grew up a difficult child, packed off to the Tyrol aged 14 to work in his uncle’s hotels. He was … Continue reading
Today tygertale proudly presents a production of Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty directed by Clara Hayes (ably assisted by Miffy 2), with sets and props created by Su Blackwell and Corina Fletcher for the Sleeping Beauty Theatre company.
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Described as Santa: Year One, after the famous Batman origins tale by Frank Miller, Klaus tells the story of how an itinerant trader with big muscles becomes Father Christmas. A little like Matt Haig’s ‘A Boy Called Christmas’ but with added graphic violence and psychedelia. Continue reading
How did Father Christmas come to be? It’s a blindingly obvious question but one that’s rarely been answered. Author Matt Haig seized on the brilliant idea after his son asked him “What was Father Christmas like as a boy?” A Boy Called Christmas is a rip roaring adventure in the style of all you … Continue reading
Brian Wildsmith pretty much owns the Nativity picture book market. Obviously there are thousands of retellings of it out there, but for me Wildsmith is the absolute Don. We’ve heard the story from the point of view of Jesus, Joseph and the donkey. Hell, even the cat and dog have had their say. In … Continue reading
Raymond Briggs was good friends with the legendary Puffin Books editor Kaye Webb. Despite his reputation for being more grumpy than Father Christmas he found himself sucked into Kaye’s world of Puffin Club outings and general merriment. Kaye was a force of nature, and used her special skills of persuasion on many authors to obtain … Continue reading
Based in New York at the turn of the twentieth century, The Gift of the Magi is an urban melodrama sprinkled with some of the magic of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. We meet Della, a young woman with just one dollar and eighty seven cents with which to buy her husband Jim something … Continue reading
In 1939 Santa’s crew gained a new member: ‘The only original addition to the folklore of Santa Claus in the twentieth century’ is how sociologist James Barnett loftily greeted the red nosed interloper into the pack. I’d always assumed Rudolph was invented for the song by Gene Autry, but this story written by the advertising … Continue reading
Together with Judith Kerr, Shirley Hughes is the person I look to when I want to be reminded of Christmas past. Lucy and Tom’s Christmas in particular feels rather like looking at my own childhood Christmases, laid out in lovely thick gouache. There have been several other wonderful additions to her festive cannon including a … Continue reading
I’ve never read Enid Blyton, apart from skimming a couple of her more racist books for this piece. As a child my Mum wouldn’t allow them in the house, which never seemed like a huge loss. So here I am, my first proper Enid Blyton book in front of me and it’s a Christmas … Continue reading
In my early twenties, at about the same time as I was connecting with a certain type of cynical, over medicated American writer, I came across the work of Truman Capote. I’d watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s of course, and heard of his larger than life reputation, but his writing came as a complete revelation. … Continue reading
What a great early Christmas present the Sainsbury’s advert turned out to be. The return of the permanently befuddled tabby cat Mog came as a complete surprise, particularly as Judith Kerr had famously retired her most famous creation in the 2002 book Goodbye Mog. ‘It wasn’t so much that I wanted to kill her … Continue reading
December is the month when I excuse myself from my intimidating pile of unread books and turn back to some favourites from Christmases past. I never read the Wolves of Willoughby Chase myself, but it was read to me by a primary school teacher of impeccable taste. As I sit here thirty years on, … Continue reading
In England it is a long, well established fact that the person who delivers our presents is a benevolent, if sometimes grumpy old man called Father Christmas. Americans have their jolly pantalooned Santa Claus, and that’s fine (for the purpose of abbreviation). But look further afield the picture becomes much stranger. In Holland the … Continue reading
Published in 1950, I Like Winter, with its bold colours and thickly outlined cast of rosy cheeked American children, has all the hallmarks of a mid-century classic. The sweet rhyming text lists all the things that are lovely about the season: snow, trees, presents, Jesus etc. How delightful. Then I try reading it out loud and … Continue reading
First published in 1924 The Mysterious Toyshop is an early example of a story that looks back on the idealised Victorian Christmas. The days when it always snowed and ‘streets were dimly lighted with flames of gas, quivering in tall lamp posts set far apart.’ One December in the late 19th century a toy shop springs … Continue reading
If Anne Booth and Sam Usher’s Refuge is the most important new Christmas book of 2015 then Emily Sutton and Delia Huddy’s The Christmas Eve Tree is easily the most heartwarming. It’s the story of a little fir tree that finds itself unsold at Christmas time, and is rescued from the department store’s bin … Continue reading
‘On Christmas morning the Plantaganets woke to hear real carol singers in the street outside. “Peace and goodwill among men,” sang the carol singers. “And among dolls,” said Mr Plantaganet. “I hope among dolls.” Unfortunately for Mr Plantaganet, an abused doll with a crudely drawn pencil moustache on his upper lip, things are … Continue reading
You will remember the end of Carlo Collodi’s Adventures of Pinocchio, after the antics with the nose, the circus and the whale, the Blue Fairy grants the wooden child his wish and turns him into a boy. But as we discover in Lane Smith’s sort of sequel, it wasn’t quite happily ever after. The fairy … Continue reading
When we last met Edward Gorey at Christmas he was recounting the season’s Twelve Terrors with John Updike. The bright lights and gaiety of the season aren’t perhaps the natural territory for the master of the macabre, so I was intrigued to come across this colourful looking addition to the Christmas canon. The Christmas … Continue reading
Welcome to tygertale’s fourth (FOURTH!!) advent calendar. Each day I’ll be revealing a christmas or winter themed children’s book ranging from seasonal favourites, through obscure vintage finds to brand new holiday classics. There’s a large mug of mulled cider waiting for me at the end of this.
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As we’re about to find out it’s been a great year for new Christmas books, but as Chris Riddell says on the cover, Refuge is the most important. It begins with the familiar nativity tale, but told from the donkey’s point of view. The text makes no mention of Jesus, Mary or Joseph. Instead … Continue reading
Let’s finish this third advent calendar where we began, with Dylan Thomas’s recollections of his childhood Christmas in Wales. ‘One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I … Continue reading
Like Kay Thompson’s Eloise or Astrid Lindgren’s Lotta in pig form, Olivia just wants to help with Christmas, to be involved. She also lacks any type of patience. Things must happen, NOW, and if they don’t she’ll make them happen. It’s the perfect cocktail for a non sentimental Christmas book that all children will be … Continue reading
I first became aware of Barbapapa a few years ago when visiting the children’s sock department of my local H&M. Assuming they were a piece of hip retro Swedish kitsch, my children spent the next couple of years hoofed in the blobby little shape shifters. Turns out Barbapapa is real 70s retro kitsch, which in … Continue reading
Christmas and comic book sci-fi don’t always go together that well. It’s there at the kitschier ends of the genre – ‘Happy Christmas Superdog. And thank you Wonder Woman, you’ve done a neat job turning my Fortress of Solitude into a winter wonderland.’ Or ‘Holy immaculate conception Batman.’ That sort of thing. There’s one notable … Continue reading
As a child I became a bit obsessed by the mythical sounding football match that took place in the trenches of the first world war when it featured in the video for Paul McCartney’s Pipes of Peace. Now, in the centenary year we’ve had Sainsburys flogging groceries off the back of it. But somehow, whether … Continue reading
‘It was Christmas Eve and twelve of the clock, when the message was heard, on the wind in the trees, on the air, underground and humming through wires and slipped into dreams.’ Can it Be True? follows the news of the birth of the miraculous child. From the blood beaked owl and the scurrying shrew … Continue reading
‘Jingle, jingle, jingle here. Jingle there. Jingle Christmas everywhere.’ Let’s step out of the cold and return to the New York Plaza hotel once more to spend Christmas with its most famous resident, six year old Eloise. If you’ve not met her before, she’s the part feral product of wealth and delegated parenting, who may … Continue reading
In previous years we’ve seen a modern update and a tactile app version, but this folksy 1980 edition takes us about as close as it is possible to the mid 19th century America of its author Clement Moore’s imagination. Tomie dePaola, author of the magic pasta pot adventures of Strega Nona, sets his version of … Continue reading
Tom Fobble’s Day is the last part in a quartet of books inspired by Alan Garner’s working class family, who lived at Alderley Edge, a hill of Arthurian legend in Cheshire. It is crafted with such symmetry and beauty that you gasp, just as much as its hero as he takes his maiden journey down … Continue reading
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a version of the Twelve Days of Christmas quite like this. George Buchanan takes the central premise and plays it out to its full comic potential. Set against the backdrop of a snowbound house straight out of the Good Life, we meet a young couple.Boy attempts to explain the … Continue reading
This 1964 Ladybird book explores practically every element of the festive period in a surprising amount of detail. Norah Florence Pearson reveals the origins of our best known customs, including the largely non Christian roots of the great winter blowout. It’s the first Ladybird book illustrated by Frank Hampson, the comic book genius behind Dan … Continue reading
The Church Mice series which began in the early 70s, reached the inevitable Christmas episode in 1980. It’s a bit like a made for TV adaptation of The Tailor of Gloucester starring Leonard Rossiter and the cast of Dad’s Army. Hard to think of something more of its era. The mice are out to party, … Continue reading
Tove Jansson knew a thing or two about merchandising. Like a one woman Nordic Disney she was, as early as the mid 50s selling handkerchiefs, piggy banks, dustbins, suspenders and marzipan Moomins. Although she did stop short of allowing a line of sanitary towels for young girls – the company wanted to brand them ‘Little … Continue reading
Here’s a book – in fact a series of books – that deserve to be much better known, at least in the UK. Ernest and Celestine, the creation of the Belgian author and artist Gabrielle Vincent, are a musical bear and his adopted daughter, a sensitive young mouse. It will appeal to anyone whose enjoys … Continue reading
Astrid Lindgren’s Lotta is a character every bit as strong as Pippi Longstocking, if not in body, then in sheer wilfulness. Think of her as a Swedish cousin of My Naughty Little Sister, or Lauren Child’s Lola (whose best friend is perhaps un-coincidentally also called Lotta). This series is aimed at a slightly younger … Continue reading
In Once Upon a Northern Night the French/ Canadian illustrator Isabelle Arsenault collaborates with writer Jean Pendziwol, who draws on her native Lake Superior and northern Ontario. Arsenault’s style is painterly but with a strong graphic design element that helps create artwork that take your far beyond the world in which they are set. It’s … Continue reading
After two years and 55 advent blog posts I'm finally get round to writing about Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. I’ve kind of been avoiding the book. It's not because I don’t like it, but rather that I’ve always thought, what more is there to say about a book that everybody knows inside out and back … Continue reading
‘It was Christmas Eve. The children were excited, but mum was hot and Dad was cross. “Christmas is hard work,” said Dad. He wanted the children to help, but they didn’t want to. They were watching television.’ I flipping love the Oxford Reading Tree books. The never ending series of ‘learn to read’ series by … Continue reading
December: ‘This, as you know is the month when two good things happen. The term ends and Christmas comes.’ In the last year of his life Roald Dahl wrote a diary of the changing seasons around his home in Great Missenden, intertwined with memories from his youth and spiky observations of the world around him. … Continue reading
W is for Warsaw. ‘Neither Germans nor communists will keep me from a fish steak this Christmas Eve.’ ‘What does German look like?’ Lucja asked. ‘Like a communist’, Grandpa Feliks said crossly. ‘But with better boots.’ If you’re after an original, heartwarming Christmas book without the usual turkey or trimmings, then look no further than … Continue reading
There are certain smells and sounds that can transport you straight back to childhood. For me paint and pencil textures do exactly the same thing – Shirley Hughes deep nostalgic hues, Quentin Blake’s busy, youthful lines and perhaps deepest of all the work of John Burningham. While Mr Gumpy’s Outing captures all the heat and … Continue reading
If you’ve ever wondered where Santa fits in to the whole commercialisation of Christmas debate: Working class hero or corporate stooge? Then One Thousand Christmas Beards is the book for you. Roger Duvoisin, author of Petunia’s Christmas, brings us a Santa who is both befuddled and enraged by the festive jamboree. The objects of his … Continue reading
Welcome to tygertale’s third (THIRD!) advent calendar. Each day I’ll be revealing a christmas or winter themed children’s book ranging from seasonal classics, through obscure vintage finds to brand new holiday favourites. Continue reading
In Snow we meet a boy and his grandad as they prepare for a day out in the snow. As the boy impatiently tries to get out of the door, his grandad understands that a little delayed gratification, particularly at Christmas time, is sometimes the best thing. The boy is tortured by the sight of … Continue reading
We all love receiving a good book at Christmas, particularly one with a heart warming message full of goodwill and the spirit of the season. Pity then the children of the 19th century, who instead of cosying up on the sofa with mummy, daddy and the Snowman were sent packing to their draughty nursery with … Continue reading
