What a cheerful chappy (Mr Cheerful - Roger Hargreaves)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Mr Cheerful - Roger Hargreaves
Date:	11/07/08 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story with fantastic characters

Disadvantages: Writing a little small for young children

The Mr Men series of books has been well loved for many, many years. Roger Hargreaves wrote the first 39 books and his son Adam wrote the final seven. Adam was actually Roger's initial reason for writing the books, as one day he asked his dad what a tickle looked like and inspired Roger to write Mr Tickle. Each book tells the story of a different Mr Men character and this book in question, Mr Cheerful is number 43 in the series, meaning it was actually written by Adam Hargreaves.

Like all of the Mr Men and Little Miss books the front cover of this story is extremely simple. In the centre of the book is a picture of Mr Cheerful, a small bubbly looking orange character with a yellow nose and a small blue and yellow hat. His name 'Mr Cheerful' is then printed in block capitals above him. The back of the book, again like all others in the Mr Men series contains smaller pictures of all the other characters within the series meaning it is easy for you to keep track of which books you have yet to buy and read.

My copy of Mr Cheerful however doesn't have pictures of the final three Mr Men creations as it was purchased just after the book was first published and so the final three characters did not yet exist. In fact my copy is has the price £1.25 on the back and unfortunately the books do not cost this price anymore. Just looking through my Mr Men collection (yes I still have it, as well as the Little Miss collection) I have even found books that only have the first 39 characters on them at cost only 99p. The current retail price is about £1.99 but the can be purchased for less if you hunt around.

***THE STORY***

The story begins by telling us that Mr Cheerful always wakes up in a cheerful mood and that he is one of the most cheerful people you will ever meet. It also tells us though that Mr Cheerful has a secret that makes him sad. The story continues telling us all the places Mr Cheerful is happy and how other people become even happier when they see him.

One day however Mr Cheerful meets little Miss Splendid whilst he is out for a walk. He smiles at her but Little Miss Splendid is not happy and calls him rude. "You should raise your hat when you meet a lady!" she says. Mr Cheerful loses his smile and blushes. Why won't Mr Cheerful raise his hat? And what is his secret?


****MY THOUGHTS****

Mr Cheerful is once again another brilliant Mr Men story that is perfect for young children. Each double page spread has writing on the left hand side and a bright, colourful and cheery picture on the right enabling young children to see what is happening in the book. The writing however is a little small for young children to read but after a while they will get used to it and with a little encouragement will start to want to read the books on their own.

The fact that the story also allows you and your child to meet other Mr Men characters is also great as in this way your child can learn to recognise and name other characters. In this way you can also introduce learning colours and numbers into reading.

The book can be read in under five minutes making it perfect for bedtime reading and for the price the book is certainly worth it, as if your children are anything like me they will treasure the story for ever and read it until the pages are too battered to be turned any more.

Summary: Well written story with brilliant and bright pictures