Since the night Beast Quest has no longer been on the cards, I have been scouring the shelves for some of my old faves to read to C. He has, apparently, never heard of Mister Magnolia. A knew it by heart as a toddler, but C was more interested in taking CDs off a shelf, putting Thomas the Tank Engine magnetic engines in a row along the carpet, and putting filthy fingerprints on all of the glass in the house at that age.
We got our copy of Mister Magnolia from the very, very wonderful Booktrust. Back in the days before the credit cruch, all babies, toddlers, 3 year olds and Reception age children were given books appropriate to their age. The chosen books were, without exception, wonderful. Mister Magnolia was in A's toddler bag, and she loved it from the off.
He has only one boot. That's pretty much the key thing about the eponymous hero. He also has a magnificent dinosaur, two lovely flute-playing sisters, a chute, and lots of other things that rhyme with boot. He is also completely bonkers. By the end of the book he has two boots. "That's great." said C. "They don't even match. He doesn't care!" C giggled lots. And the sound of him properly giggling is like a sudden sunbeam breaking through.
J used to love Mr Magnolia. In fact, she loved many Quentin Blake books. Another top favourite was one with a lady riding a bicycle around and gathering various objects on her way. As well as Zaggazoo (which is just brilliant and parodies the evolution through childhood fantastically. That still makes an appearance even now she's the grand old age of 7.
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