‘I have never particularly wanted to draw geese (though they’re quite interesting when you do), but the story was handed to me on a plate and I didn’t feel I could waste it.’ Judith Kerr spent much of her career drawing cats of one shape or another. She writes in her biography Creatures about her … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Judith Kerr
Mog on Fox Night by Judith Kerr
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
Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr
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
The Sixties
The world of children’s books loves a ‘golden age’ and so do I. According to various experts there have been at least three, with most agreeing on the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century (from Alice to Pooh) as the first. Critics including Imogen Russell Williams and Amanda Craig have said we are living … Continue reading
Rosemary Sandberg – From the Puffin Club to Picture Lions
Last week saw the 50th anniversary of the hugely influential Puffin Club, the children’s book group that brought a generation of readers together with each other and their favourite authors. By coincidence I had arranged an interview that day with the woman who was responsible for many of the practical and creative aspects of the … Continue reading
10 Best Children’s Books of 2015
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s list of my favourite picture books and graphic novels of 2015 comes another ten books for children, these ones containing more words than pictures. It’s a stupidly broad category that includes stories about trains, wolves, refugees, pills, Christmas, tigers and tapirs. And that’s just how I like it. Five … Continue reading
Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Judith Kerr
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
Reading Dangerously – The Tiger Who Came to Tea
In The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life, Andy Miller takes a long hard look at the books we read and the books that we say we read. Realising that the closest he has come to reading a book for pleasure since the birth of his … Continue reading
Rosie’s Chick – Pat Hutchins Q&A
There’ve been a spate of belated children’s book sequels lately – Alan Garner’s been back to Brisingamen and Judith Kerr’s followed up The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Now Pat Hutchins has brought out the sequel to one of my very favourite picture books, her perfect debut story Rosie’s Walk. But Where, oh Where, is … Continue reading
Happy Birthday Judith Kerr (and Pink Rabbit)
Today is tygertale’s 1st birthday. By happy coincidence (and much more importantly) it is also Judith Kerr’s 90th birthday. To celebrate I went out and bought a copy of her autobiographical new book Creatures. ‘That book is simply gorgeous‘ the charming young man behind the till in Foyles rightly pointed out as I went to … Continue reading
Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr
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