Quick! Save Og from being eaten! (Meg, Mog & Og - Helen Nicoll)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Meg, Mog & Og - Helen Nicoll
Date:	20/10/08 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely story and illustrations

Disadvantages: A bit dated

Meg, Mog and Og is one of the books in the popular series written by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski. When I was a child, my mum used to have all of these, and although they seem a little outdated now, I still use them every now and then for my son. They seem to e more directed at girls as the main character of the books is a witch, but boys and girls can read them without feeling like it shouldn't be for them.

Meg is a rather unfortunate as a witch. Her spells never seem to go quite according to plan. Here, she decides they need a bigger room, so casts a spell to enlarge. She manages to create a big hole that her and her friends Mog the cat and Owl fall through. They meet Crom, the caveman who sleeps on the floor, and find out that he is about to eat a woolly mammoth who can only say 'Og.' Taking a liking for Og, Meg persuades the caveman to eat her bubble and squeak instead, and then they go hom. But someone carries on eating their food. I wonder who it could be?

The story is a lovely one. There aren't many words, so I find it is quite handy for my son to have both as a book that we can read to him and also to use for him as he begins to learn to read properly. The illustrations are vibrant and colourful, and very soft and friendly. Stories for kids involving witches these days tend to portray them as rather evil and cruel, both in the words and the illustrations, but here they show Meg to be friendly and nice, especially to poor old Og who's about to get eaten.

The Meg and Mog books are very good. I find them useful to help my son to learn to read, and althught they are a bit dated, he doesn't really notice this, and if anything it's a little bout of nostalgia for me as well! Meg, Mog and Og is available from kids' bookshops, although not as much as they used to be, so you may have to order them. It retails at £4.99, but you can pick it up for much cheaper on ebay at the moment.

I recommend this book: it can be good as a story for younger kids, or as a learning aid for kids who are starting to read.

Summary: Good story for kids of a wide range of ages