Meg & Mog - Meg's Fancy Dress (Meg and Mog Books)

Product Information

Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski have worked together for over forty years, first at the BBC and then on the MEG and MOG books. Jan Pienkowski is a celebrated author of children's books, he has won the Greenaway Medal twice for his illustration of Joan Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea and Haunted House. Don’t expect closure. Don’t be friends with Meg. She and her cat are mysteriously safe from the ‘accident’, but you end up trapped as a mouse for a FULL YEAR before she’ll even try to fix the situation! …Assuming Mog didn’t eat you. In 2001, an animated TV series of 52 five-minute episodes was planned to be produced as a co-production between Telemagination, TV-Loonland AG and Absolutely Productions for a 2002–2003 delivery, with Loonland holding Non-UK rights to the series. [2] Cover to Cover Cassettes is a company which Helen Nicoll founded which specialises in the production of complete and unabridged readings on audio cassette of 19th Century Classics and children's books. Puffin Cover to Cover story tapes offer children a wonderful listening experience and are the perfect introduction to the world of children's literature. Favourite Puffin stories, read by famous actors and actresses are brought vividly to life by the use of music and sound effects.

Helen Nicoll was a television producer with the BBC for many years. It was here, as Producer of the children's educational series Watch, that she first met Jan Pienkowski. After working together for four years, they decided it was time to preserve their creativity in book form for future generations of children to enjoy. The result is the immensely popular Meg and Mog series. Another productive partnership began for Jan in 1977, when he and writer Helen Nicoll created Meg and Mog - the much-loved duo of a witch and her cat. As illustrator Mark Southgate recently observed, 'Jan Pienkowski's wonderfully creative use of the picture book format looks ground-breaking even by today's standards.' Twenty years after the series began, the books remain contemporary and have lost none of their appeal. Meg and Mog books have achieved such a lasting affection with children and parents that in a Gallup poll, conducted for The Telegraph in 1992, Jan was the third most recognised contemporary children's author (after Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake). He studied English and Classics at Cambridge but spent most of his time designing posters, sets and costumes for student drama productions. While still in Cambridge, he was co-founder of the greetings card company, Gallery Five, of which he remains a director. This approach […] is infinitely more valuable, impactful and longer lasting than the dressing-up activity which it replaced” The bestselling MEG and MOG stories have been casting a unique spell for more than thirty-five years. They are perfect for sharing or reading alone and children love exploring the colours, sounds and shapes.We find that the project work initiated by this approach to celebrating quality literature is infinitely more valuable, impactful and longer lasting than the dressing-up activity which it replaced.

However, the restricted range of costumes commercially available means conformity now risks becoming the norm. Originally published in 1972, this initial entry in author Helen Nicoll and illustrator Jan Pieńkowski's Meg and Mog picture-books, about a witch named Meg, and her cat Mog, pairs a simple text with boldly graphic illustrations that will grab the young child's attention. Following Meg as she gets up, gets dressed, prepares breakfast, and sets out (with Mog) for a witches' spell party, the narrative has a repetitive quality that will aid beginning readers, while the artwork is colorful (primary and secondary colors only), and makes use of simple shapes and clean lines. It was produced by Carl Gorham and directed by Roger Mainwood, featuring the voices of Alan Bennett as Owl, Fay Ripley as Meg and Phil Cornwell as Mog with additional voices by Morwenna Banks and Paul Shearer. So - it's really just as good as Meg on the Moon... except it doesn't include any phrase as good as 'Lunar Module' which earned that book a fourth star all on its own. So Nicoll will have to settle for three here. A very solid picture book. I've commented before on how hard it is to review picture books like this - I mean, by the time I've got into my flow here I'll have used more words than are contained within this entire book.Jan Pienkowski is a celebrated illustrator of children's books. He has won the Greenaway Medal twice - for his illustration of Joan Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea and for Haunted House. Jan lives in London. Forgive me, but the whole dressing-up endeavour should never have become a job for parents. Instead, it has always been an ideal task for children. A couple of weeks prior to their voucher-spending bookshop excursion, each class decides on a title (through hustings and votes – it’s democracy in action) and they then work collaboratively on an alternative cover design which is produced at an appropriate scale to cover the classroom door. It’s no wonder that World Book Day celebrations have established themselves as mainstays of many schools’ annual calendars. Over the years, I believe that almost everything about the endeavour has gone from strength to strength.

Mog and Owl are hungry, so Meg makes a spell. It goes wrong and they all go to bed without any supper, but Mog and Owl are still hungry...

Helen Nicoll was born in Natland, Westmorland, in 1937. She was educated at schools in Bristol; Dartington Hall, Devon; and Froebel Education Institute, London. Helen Nicoll married Robert Kime in 1970 and they have one daughter and one son. This is our second Meg and Mog book. We started with Meg on the Moon because I'm a sci-fi geek. Fin (my 18-month old son) loves that one very much, so we decided to get him the original for Christmas. There are surprises galore for Meg, Mog and Owl in these three classic Meg and Mog stories: Meg's Eggs, Meg at Sea and Mog in the Fog. As ever, Meg casts her spells with the best of intentions but always with hilarious results. Children will love exploring the colours, sounds and shapes in this bumper volume, perfect for sharing or reading alone. The activity should provide much cause for creativity, personal expression and – ultimately – celebration. Away from books, theatre has been a continuing interest of Jan's since Cambridge days. Among the shows he has designed are The Meg and Mog Show, two plays for Theatre de Complicité, Beauty And The Beast for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and a spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty for Disneyland, Paris.

Particularly valuable, I thought, were the costumes that couldn’tbe easily guessed: asking a child to explain who their character was and to articulate why they had made certain clothing decisions was entertaining (often hilarious), informative and educationally beneficial. The book selected is used as a stimulus for creative work over the next few weeks, and this is all displayed inside. The door/cover therefore becomes – quite literally – a portal into another world.

Jan's other books include the Nursery series, pop-up books like Haunted House, Robot and Little Monsters, and the sound effect books like Phone Book and Door Bell. In a very different style, Christmas and Easter bring the words of the King James' Bible vividly alive for a young generation. But then, alas – and particularly regrettable as the whole World Book Day initiative was born out of the desire to giveto children rather than take from them – the profiteers began to get involved and mass-produced costumes started to appear, expressly targeted (it was claimed) at “busy, hard-working parents” who – thanks to those dreadful teachers! – suddenly found themselves “required” to provide their child with an outfit for school themed around a character from literature. The familiar characters and man-made fibres will be out in force again on World Book Day. But maybe it’s time for a different approach, argues Jonathan Brough, headteacher of Hurlingham School in Putney… Meg Goes to Bed is the latest of the iconic MEG and MOG picture books that continue to delight children up to the age of 3 with the brightly coloured and spellbinding antics of Meg the witch, Mog her cat and Owl. These would be much better – and more appropriate – uses of the money concerned. Building a new approach