Meg and Mog (Meg and Mog - Helen Nicoll)

Member Name: catsfish

Product:	Meg and Mog - Helen Nicoll
Date:	05/09/09 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a welcome blast from the past, younge kids still love these books

Disadvantages: tricky to know which bit to read next sometimes

The Meg and Mog books were written and illustrated by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski and printed by Puffin books back in the early 1970s and I remember them from when I was young and how I really enjoyed the simple but entertaining stories and illustrations. These books seem to have a timeless appeal; they have been in print and popular with generations of kids since. My son has had several of these books since a toddler and still likes them now.

The stories are based around 3 characters who live together Meg the witch, Mog her cat and Owl who is unsurprisingly an owl. Each book is a small paperback and based around a different scenario the characters find themselves in: Meg's eggs where they find dinosaur eggs that hatch. Meg at sea where they find themselves stranded on a desert island. Meg Mog and Ogg where they find a prehistoric man and a mammoth and Meg's car where they cast a spell to make a car. These are the books we have but there are lots more in the series.
I think the subjects (at least in the books we have) are ones that young kids find engaging no matter what decade they have been brought up in, there is nothing in the story to really date them and I think this is part of there charm. The stories have a lot of slapstick humour to them which is again timeless, and they all have a happy ending which usually involves the characters going back home for tea.
The illustrations are simple, line drawings in bright primary colours but they are distinctive and have an appeal to them. I like the way the story is brought to life through the use of speech bubbles from the characters and sounds illustrated in big letters incorporated in the drawings rather like a comic would. This can catch you out when reading a story for the first time as sometimes it's quite difficult to know which bit should be read next with text going this way and that.

I find them very useful as a quick bedtime story when we are running late because they are so quick to read and my son has still had a book he enjoys.
The text is still printed just how I remember it, hand written in what I would call "primary school printing" with the letters large and well formed and printed in the style you are first taught to write in when starting school - this makes the book ideal for children who are learning to read because the letters are easily recognisable.

Summary: I enjoyed these books when I was a child and my son enjoys them now.