I'm Mr.....? (Mr. Men Library: Mr Bump Loses His Memory - Roger Hargreaves)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Mr. Men Library: Mr Bump Loses His Memory - Roger Hargreaves
Date:	22/04/09 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun to read

Disadvantages: None for me

From a very young age my mum would religiously buy me a new Mr Men or Little Miss book every week. If I was lucky my grandma would also by me one and so it didn't take me too long to amass the entire collection. The collecting of the books however was only the start as to be completely honest you wouldn't be wrong if you had said I was obsessed with anything remotely Mr Men like. My bedroom was decorated with Mr Men stickers. I had the Mr Men bedding and curtains as well as wall clock, figurines, posters, coat hangers and of course the soft-toys.

My obsession with these wonderful characters therefore was only increased when in 1998 Roger Hargreaves' son Adam Hargreaves released a new story library that gave all fans fantastic new stories about existing characters. I was more than eager to collect the books and again with no time had them all.

When they were first released the Mr Men books had a blue spine with a blue stripe going down the right hand side of the back of the book and down the left hand side of the books front. The Little Miss Stories had the same but in pink making it easy to distinguish between the two. It is these libraries of the books that I have but when I have seen them being sold recently I have seen that both Mr Men and Little Miss ones have a blue stripe - don't ask me why.

Both the new Mr Men library collection and the new Little Miss collection have twelve books. The book I am going to review today is number 4 in the Mr Men collection and is called 'Mr. Bump loses his memory'.

The front cover of the book has a picture of Mr Bump with a somewhat startled expression on his face, carrying a ladder on his shoulder. Above the image is the books title as well as the logo for the new story library. The book cover also displays Roger Hargreaves' name in a small blue box although it is his son Adam who has written the story. This fact is acknowledged inside the books cover.

If you turn the book over you will find smaller pictures of all the other books in both the Mr Men new library and the Little Miss new library. This is a great feature as it makes it really easy to keep track of which stories you have left to buy and read. As well as this the back cover also shows you what all of the books look like when they are put together (a picture appears amongst the spines).

The story inside the book is a truly delightful one in so many respects but this all stems from the fact that Mr Bump is one of the most iconic and well-loved Mr characters in the series. The story starts by reinforcing the idea that Mr Bump is an accident-prone person. In fact a very accident-prone person describes him much better. Mr Bump has small accidents, medium accidents and big accidents. Quite simply he has lots and lots of accidents.

The real story begins however when opening his window one morning Mr Bump falls out and bangs his head. Sitting up and rubbing his head he realises he has no idea where he is. It seems Mr. Bump has lost his memory. Unfortunately for him the first person he meets is Mr Muddle who being in a muddle himself identifies Mr Bump as Mr Careful. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem but when you live in a land where your name is determined by your behaviour Mr Bump finds himself is a real pickle.

The book itself is printed in the familiar Mr. Men fashion with writing on the right hand side and wonderfully vibrant cartoon style pictures on the left. These pictures lift the words right of the page and into the minds of those that read them. They are also perfect for ensuring that younger children are involved in the story even if they cannot read. The font size is also quite decent and therefore suitable for children learning to read as well as parents and grandparents with visual problems.

This book is simply a delightful read for all Mr. Men fans. It is fun, entertaining, engaging and extremely colourful. All in all I think it has every component that a super children's story needs to have. Better still it has an RRP of £2.99, which for a book isn't too bad. To make things even better it can often be found on offer in supermarkets, in discount book shops and online.

Summary: A lovely childrens story