Harry’s Ladder to Learning; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, The Hunting of the Snark and The Nursery ‘Alice’ by Lewis Carroll; Frog and Toad Storybook Treasury by Arnold Lobel; Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, Lucy Brown and Mr Grimes, Tim and Lucy Go to Sea, Tim to the Rescue, Tim and Charlotte, Tim in Danger, Tim All Alone, Tim’s Friend Towser, Tim and Ginger, Tim to the Lighthouse, Tim’s Last Voyage and Ship’s Cook Ginger by Edward Ardizzone and The Old Ballad of the Babes in the Wood, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone; Elmer, Elmer Again, Elmer’s Weather, Mr Benn — Red Knight, 123456789 Benn, Big Top Benn, Mr Benn, Spaceman, The Adventures of King Rollo, Further Adventures of King Rollo, King Rollo and the Breakfast, King Rollo’s Autumn, King Rollo’s Playroom and Other Stories and Not Now, Bernard by David McKee; A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond; and The Boy Who Bit Picasso and Miró's Magic Animals by Antony Penrose
In the Little Tim books of Edward Ardizzone, life is simple. It is not without its problems. There is often jeopardy, there are often dangers, often real moral questions for small heroes to consider and to confront. But life itself is simple. There are boats and ships on the sea – the harsh sea. And what people do is to go out on the boats, or to look after and superintend them in lighthouses, all because the boats must move and whatever it is that they carry must be delivered. As I say, life is simple. Tim and his friends struggle and must be brave. They fight fires; they right ships that are in peril. But the world rewards them for their efforts, eventually. After the trials and the difficulties and the risks. The world rewards their bravery, when it can.
It is pure fantasy, all of this. It is a vision of life that has never existed but so many of us, especially in our childhoods, most desperately wish to be real. The books are also very beautifully illustrated. I am very fond of them.
Some of David McKee’s books for children are very simple. I don’t think any of the King Rollo books have much substance to them. I have heard from one or two adults who have something personal against Elmer, the show-off of an elephant, a multi-coloured irritant, they say, who never fits in because he has never tried to do anyone else any good. I disagree about Elmer, who I consider to be a fine fellow – a young elephant, just a little strange in his ideas, that’s all.
Meanwhile, Not Now, Bernard is a fabulous book and I urge everyone to read it to their children. I won’t spoil why I think it’s so funny.
But in my judgement, in the judgement of many, what McKee did best in all his working life was to invent Mr Benn. The premise of the books is simple. Mr Benn is an ordinary man who lives on the beautifully named Festive Road. He notices that there is a costume shop, for fancy dress, nearby. Inside, Mr Benn is encouraged by a fez-wearing proprietor to try on a costume.
Perhaps you might go into the fitting room to see if it suits? he says.
When Mr Benn leaves the fitting room, he discovers that he has entered the world where the costume would be right. If he dressed as a red knight, he is now in a medieval-fantasy kingdom where there is a dragon for him to slay – or not to slay, as the case may be. If he is an astronaut, he leaves the shop to find himself in a spaceship, or on the moon.
After realising this, Mr Benn then participates in an adventure in this new setting and finally, when he has done the right thing, a man who looks quite like the fez-wearing owner of the shop appears and suggests that he step right this way, and points him into a tent or a cave or a room in the castle, and when Mr Benn enters, he is back in the shop after all, and ready to go home.
I must have been miles away, Mr Benn happily remarks.
To which the proprietor says, with a smile, that Mr Benn may return and try on other costumes whenever he likes.
This is simply one of the best premises for art intended to be read by children and it is no wonder that these books – and the television programme made about Mr Benn – are as beloved as they are. It is a wonderful thing to tell children that things they will like are waiting for them, if only they have the courage to join in.
If Antony Penrose’s books of his own childhood have a moral, it’s that being in too much awe of the great and the good, and otherwise self-conscious, would get in the way of childlike enjoyment.
In many ways, this is close to the lesson of the Paddington books. Paddington is able to go from mishap to mishap without a fall in his enthusiasm, his optimism, his good nature. Children are not born good at many things. They might take failure quite badly. The lesson that all they need is to be funny and well-intentioned, and told people won’t mind them making mistakes. It is a very useful one. A risk-averse, surveillance culture cries out for a little tolerance of amusing chaos.
The Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have many good things for very young children to hear. One of my particular favourites is Toad’s idea that he must start making lists. His list, of vitally important things, begins, ‘wake up,’ and then continues with ‘eat breakfast,’ then ‘get dressed,’ and then ‘go to Frog’s house,’ and ‘take walk with Frog, eat lunch, take nap, play games with Frog, eat supper,’ and finally ‘go to sleep.’
I can’t help you if you don’t find that charming.
Another moment comes when Frog and Toad find that they cannot stop eating some newly-made cookies. They strategise how they might avoid eating them all and then being left with none.
Frog put the cookies in a box.
”There,” he said.
“Now we will not eat any more cookies.”
”But we can open the box,” said Toad.
”That is true”, said Frog.
It is true. Frog is right. As frogs so often are, and so justly, in books for children.