In the battle of the family friendly newbuilds, the front line is being reinforced with some new foot soldiers. In P&O Ventura’s case it is ‘Noddy’ and friends, in NCL ‘Norwegian Epic’s case it is ‘Spongebob’ and friends.

That's not what I call formal dress!

NCL has recently announced a partnership with ‘Nickelodeon’ in which ‘Norwegian Epic’ (and other ships in their fleet) will feature Nickelodeon-themed family entertainment. Nickelodeon and NCL experiences for the entire family will include character meet and greets, interactive game shows and more.

That icon of British culture ‘Noddy’  features in the children’s area of Ventura, for two to four-year-olds to emphasise the ship’s family-friendly facilities.  Noddy makes periodic appearances at character breakfasts and during playtime. This is claimed to be the first time a British cruise line has forged a relationship with a recognisable children’s character.

Let’s not forget that the ‘Disney’ ships know a thing or two about children’s characters too.  I hear Micky and Minnie are regular passenger on their fleet.

Now Royal Caribbean have taken a different approach to kids entertainment and are not using rubber suits, (sorry, I mean children’s characters) on board.  Instead the ‘Oasis of the Seas’ is relying on it spectacular children’s facilities such as the water-park, rock wall and flow-rider to keep the kids amused.

Without doubt Disney, Royal Caribbean and NCL are the market leaders for family cruising, so let the battle of Toytown begin!

Malcolm Oliver

David Davis

Have these people realised that these shows may be on, because it’s what British children want to watch?

The MSM providers are not a perfect undistorted market: far from it. But they perhaps more nearly reflect what our youth wants in their programming than does, say, the BBC for what (it thinks) adults want.

Personally, I’d rather there were many more factual science, history and engineering programmes. That’ll also do more to “empower the women of tomorrow’s Young Country” than any amount of Disney child-hotel-soaps, or multiculti-Noddy.

Pesanan Gita dengan berbagai macam tema. Cerita lengkapnya bisa ditengok di sini yaa.

NB. Pemesanan cupcakes dengan desain seperti di bawah, MINIMAL satu minggu sebelum hari H. Terima kasih atas perhatiannya.

Every time my husband takes The Love Bus out for a little drive, he returns with shiny eyes and a “Can we keep it, mum? Can we, huh? HUH?” attitude even though we’re supposed to be selling it. 

Every time, that is, until last weekend when he’d had to phone me from the side of the road. Then, it was more “Muuuuuuummmm…. Can you come pick me up?”

Yes, The Love Bus had broken down. Again. And surprise, surprise, it had broken down because it had overheated. AGAIN. 

For those readers unacquainted with the Love Bus and its little quirks, overheating is one of its more decadent pastimes. The last two times it’s overheated, we’ve had to entirely replace the engine. I suspect both times had something to do with my husband’s tendency to thrash it like a white 1970 supercharged Dodge Challenger on the open road, instead of driving it like the 20-year-old people mover it actually is. 

This time, however, he’d been driving it in much the same way Noddy might tootle through the streets of Toy Town, throwing in the occasional “Parp-parp!”  and all. And in fact, he’d barely driven more than 50km in it since the last engine overhaul. The injustice of it all. 

As I piled the children into the Star Wagon to go pick him up, I rehearsed a short but rousing speech I was going to make when I saw my dear husband’s face. It went something like this: “I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!”

But then, I thought, he’d be feeling bad enough without me stating the bleeding obvious. So I decided to seethe quietly instead. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” my husband after I’d picked him up and had begun my seething in earnest. “But can you imagine what’s going through my head right now? Just two weeks ago a man offered me $2500 cash to take the damn thing off my hands but I said ‘No, I’d much rather wait a few more weeks so I can then fork out that same amount to have it fixed. AGAIN.’ In fact, you could say that when anything ever happens, I say to myself ‘What would a wise man do in this situation?’ and then do the complete opposite. I call it Tarago Logic.”

Throughout all this, I maintained an impressive and stony silence. It’s in the blood: when I was sixteen, my father had to pick me up from a highschool teacher’s house, having received a phone call from her to say I’d been rat-arsed drunk at the school play. All that long drive home, I babbled incoherently things like “Nobody’shh perfect” and “Shorryyy…” and he just drove, eyes fixed on the road ahead, his silence speaking volumes (although, admittedly, I was too rat-arsed drunk to hear it). 

Anyway, the point of all this is that I may have continued my Ice Queen treatment except something happened. While my husband ran into the shops to run the errand he’d originally set off in the Love Bus to do, I turned the radio on. There, I heard the latest news of Haiti… estimates of 200,000 dead… talk of it being the worst human disaster ever seen by the United Nations… devastation, despair. Unspeakable horror. 

And I realised that while the Love Bus breaking down wasn’t the best thing that had happened to us, it most certainly wasn’t the worst that could happen. 

When my husband returned to the car, I surprised him by hugging him tight. 

“Look, if it’s broke, it’s broke. It’s okay,” I said and hugged him tight again. 

And we drove home and phoned the Red Cross donation line right away. In Australia, that number is 1800 811 700.

How much fun would your child have zooming around Toyland in their very own Noddy pedal car? Well now that dream can become a reality as you can buy the Noddy pedal car at The Kids Window website with over £100 discount off the original price.

When you think of timeless children’s TV characters one of the names that pops up every single time is Noddy.  The lovable little wooden boy who just loves to play has been having adventures with his friends Big Ears, Mr Plod, Tessie Bear and more fore generations and now you have the chance to let your child feel what it would be like to be Noddy himself, driving around in their very own Noddy pedal car.

This absolutely stunning recreation of a car, which is iconic to children and adults alike, is an official Noddy licensed product which has been designed and developed in the UK to the very highest standards.  This beautiful Noddy pedal car is a near perfect replica of the famous little taxi.  Unlike many other inferior pedal cars on the market the Noddy pedal car at The Kids Window features; a rigid box steel chassis, a sturdy steel body, duralast tyres and a padded seat making it one of the best outdoor toys of its kind.

The fantastic Noddy pedal car is available for mainland UK delivery within 7 days and currently has a discount of £117.01 if you buy it online.  The Noddy pedal car is available for a limited period for the special new year price of just £352.99 when you buy it online with The Kids Window.  To take advantage of this amazing saving and to see the many other children’s TV toys at The Kids Window simply click the banner below.

   I am the hero of the moment. Well thanks to the internet and its IT forums, I am. The thing is, that the youngest is currently into Noddy. Not the lead singer from Slade, I may add, but the Enid Blyton favourite character. He has been into this for some time now, and his brother managed to get 10 videos, from eBay for him for Christmas. Today, he decided that he wanted his Noddy CD Rom installing. Now bearing in mind, that this was a state-of-the-art piece of software for windows 98 (not 98se mind you), and his PC is Vista Home Basic, it was never going to be easy. Of course after installation, it would not work. It just would not autorun the start file. Tried in Win 98 and Win 95 compatibility modes, and nothing.

   So, a compromise, I thought, I’ll install it on my Windows XP machine. Not much better. It complained that I needed a minimum 3mb of virtual memory (it’s set a lot lot higher than that). So I was beginning to think that this would not happen, and we would have a bad day. I tried looking for an XP or Vista patch, but to no avail. As a last resort, I typed the whole problem into Google and hit ‘I Feel Lucky’. A games forum page came up, with the advice to install DirectX 9, which apparently runs side by side with DirectX 10 on Vista. Off I toddled to the MS website to download the file, only to find, that the download was a stub file, that opens the correct MS webpage, and installs from there. That was no good, youngest lads computer is not internet connected. Eventually found another site, and downloaded the correct files. After a little tweaking, the program ran. Hero am I (today at least).

Golly Stuff

I really love Gollys, I always have and I get very indignant and grumpy when I hear people getting all pc about them.  I miss the Robertson’s Golly and the Golly out of the Noddy books and I resolutely and stroppily buy every Golly related item I can lay my hands on.

There was a programme on Radio 2 last year with Jeremy Vine, where the thorny issue of Gollys was discussed and people rang in with their views.  The responses pretty much backed up what I knew from my own friends and suspected about others: 

The Golly from Noddy

Black people don’t think they look like Gollys. 
I bet that’s come as a surprise.
It doesn’t matter how strenuously the white, liberal, middle classes hop up and down and suggest that everyone is deeply offended by them (the Gollys that is) –  I would suggest that it is only they who draw the comparison, not anyone else.

It was in this frame of mind that I embarked on a personal crusade to re-introduce Gollys back into society.  I developed a knitting pattern (inspired by a pattern I found in an Australian magazine) and set the Aged Parent and her Cronie to knitting; they knitted the pattern pieces and I made them up and ‘finished’ them.  

Two well-loved and one brand new red Golly

I decided to put a ’slant’ on the traditional style; we called them ‘Gollywiggles’ in homage to Ms Upton, and we made them in lots of different colours, some with contrasting hair and different clothes – as I write, a Girly Golly and a Ghosty Golly are in production.  I made very smart drawstring bags, and each toy had a limited edition certificate, as no two are the same, and a history of the Golly.  They were very popular, so we’re making some more.

How did Gollys begin?

Florence Upton is generally acknowledged to be the creator of the Golly.  Although born in America, she and her mother, Bertha moved back to England in 1889.  At the age of 22 Florence illustrated her first book which was written by her mother.  It was called “The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls” which was based on her own childhood toys.  In the story there is a Gollywog, and the original Dutch Dolls and the Gollywog live at Chequers in Buckinghamshire, the country home of the Prime Minister. 

Florence Upton's original Golly

Where does the word ‘Golly’ or ‘Gollywog’ come from?

To name her character, Florence altered the word ‘Pollywog’ which was a dialect word meaning ‘wiggle head’.  This came from ‘pol’ meaning head and wiggle which over many years became waggle, woggle, wog. Gollys are tremendously popular in Australia where the Collins Australian Dictionary defines the word Gollywog as “…a black-faced, goggle-eyed, fantastically dressed doll…” .

So altogether now …

WHAT DO WE WANT?  GOLLYS!

WHEN DO WE WANT THEM?  WHENEVER WE LIKE!

(That should get ‘em going)

Helena as Enid

ONE of the TV highlights of the year arrives on BBC4 next Monday.

Enid won’t win massive ratings.

But I’d urge you to forget celebs in the jungle or Life as BBC1 knows it.

And treat yourself to this superb 90-minute film.

It stars Helena Bonham Carter as Noddy and Famous Five author Enid Blyton.

You can read my interview with Helena in today’s MEN here.

For those who want even more, below are lashings of extracts which didn’t make the final cut.

As ever, please let me know what you think of the film – and your views on Helena, Enid Blyton, ginger beer…

What attracted Helena to the role?

“It was a wonderful part. It’s wonderfully rich and multi-dimensional and I had so many things to play. You very rarely get well-written parts. The whole script was great. It’s sort of ironic. I always find the better the script, the less money you have to do it and less time. The whole thing was done in 16 days and it’s one of the best scripts I’d read in a long time.”

On Enid re-writing her life:

“When Bobs the dog dies, he didn’t die. She just didn’t accept that he died. So she carried on writing letters from Bobs to all her friends – he wrote letters, the dog, you see. She wrote a column – a dog blog – and she wrote letters from Bobs. Bob just never died.

“Equally her mother, who she hated, she killed off at a really early age. So she told everyone that she’d died. In fact, she was alive. She died about 30 years later.”

Not a lot of archive film exists of Blyton?

“No, there’s about 30 seconds. Bizarrely, because she was unbelievably famous. There was a bit on the radio, yes, I did listen to that. She had quite a high voice, much higher than me. But I didn’t think there was much point in attempting to do an impersonation because, for one thing, she wasn’t commonly publicly known vocally and visually. But I did the walk. Her head, I think, was going all the time and very, very quickly. She wrote very, very quickly and speed was innate to her. And vigour. She was unbelievably vital.

Dressed for dinner

“Somebody wrote and said that she met her and it wasn’t like she was physically pretty but she was so alive and so vital. And there’s also muscularity to do with the age. People spoke with the consonants and those consonants gave you energy and there was a burst, there was a real vigour and verve. Just to remember to observe those ‘ts’ and ‘ds’.

“I only had three weeks prep for two weeks. So I read Imogen’s book from which most of this story is taken. And I did make copious notes. I believed that she did have a gait that was more leaning forwards.”

Helena managed to forge Blyton’s signature from the first rehearsal:

“My aunt, she’s a graphologist, she’d have a lot to say about this. And I know somebody with very similar handwriting to her but, in fact, less sophisticated. She’d analyse it to hell. It’s very rounded and quite naïve. But it was quite sophisticated, nevertheless. That became her brand. She was a businesswoman. She became very aware that she had a brand, and then the whole thing of being very aware of the media and press. She had to present the perfect family, live up to the world that she created. And when it started crumbling, when her perfect family ceased to be perfect, then she had to quickly get rid of him (her first husband Hugh) and bring in Kenneth, father number two.”

Was she surprised at how distant Enid’s relationship was with her own two children?

“I was working non-stop and thinking, ‘I see my children one hour a day,’ which a lot of parents don’t every single day…see their child for an hour a day, on their own.

“She was shocked at how bad she was. But to be honest, I suspect she had some kind of post-natal depression too with Imogen. She couldn’t bond with her. She was floored as to how to look after her. She was a difficult baby and it got off to a very rocky start. The marriage was breaking down too, the father was drinking and she had huge demands on her work.

“Classically, nowadays, what we’re told by our books and our ante-natal support books – you give up work when you have a baby, you don’t just carry on. And she didn’t. She just demanded of herself that she carried on, had a baby, popped it in a cupboard and carry on writing. And it all fell apart.”

Will this film resonate with working women?

“I think working women, hugely…can you ever achieve a balance? I think you get snatches of bones of balance. And divorce. Children who have been abandoned, being a result of divorce – Enid was a victim of divorce. And then not being able to perform as a parent herself. The legacy of marital discord.”

How does Helena balance her own life?

“It’s just the question I was asked as Enid in that press or radio scene. She says, ‘Of course children need their mothers. Mothers are the heart of any household.’ That’s exactly Enid’s line. ‘And I try my best to spend as much time with my girls as I possibly can, also fulfilling my professional duties. It’s tricky but I think I manage it.’

Enid and second husband Kenneth (Denis Lawson)

“You do what you can. I went on an ante-natal group and the one big message – and it was an ante-natal group that were mostly working mothers – so the father, who was some therapist, said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t give up your job because ultimately you can’t give up yourself to your children.’ Because when they leave, what are you going to be left with? They presume you want your children to grow up and work and earn their own living and you want to be an example. Don’t give up all of yourself because you end up resenting them.

“Tim (her film director partner Tim Burton) goes away, he comes back. Kids are going to always hate you for leaving. And you pay for it. But then I have a lovely holiday when I’m at work. Yeah, that’s why I do it. I think it’s called a rest…a miscarriage this morning, then followed by divorce, then senile dementia. Yes, it’s lovely…your father’s abandoned you. OK, write Noddy…that was my day’s work as Enid. All before lunch. After lunch, kiss someone you don’t know. I love doing this.”

Moving from movies to BBC4:

“I don’t do it for the money. I’m in a lucky position not to have to do it because I’m a kept woman by Tim. Not really – I have my own house and so on. I’ll do anything. I’ll do radio or whatever the medium, as long as it’s good writing or there’s a part there. That’s what I do it for. I don’t think, ‘Oh, how many people will see this?’ Frankly, I’d prefer no-one to see anything that I do. I like doing it and then that would be fine by me.”

Was the tight shooting schedule a problem?

“Not when it comes to acting. I’d do everything in 16 days. On the whole, I’d say it benefitted me as an actor. It helps with your momentum. You don’t get ‘option-itise’ because you just have to do it the one way, because you’ve got no time. I think a lot of the time it’s like that book Blink, you just choose the thing that if you had millions of money you’d end up doing in the first place. You don’t get paralysed by all the different options. Having no choice is really liberating. It’s like, let’s all write it by lunchtime.”

Are her children fans of Enid Blyton?

“I read Noddy to Billy, whether he likes it or not. And he does like it and I find it really pleasurable to read. And all the things that people later criticised her for, the repetitive and simple language, well he loves it because he understands it and he can read it. And they’re really short chapters, which are really good when you’re putting your children to bed. So I’ve enjoyed it. She’s clever. She said, ‘I capture my audience young.’ She started at three or four, then she took them up to 13 and then that was it. She wrote for different ages.”

Enid (Helena) and her two daughters

What about the allegations that her books were racist and sexist?

“They’ve all been cut. All the stuff that people found offensive, the racism has been cut, they had to take out all the gollywog references. But I really don’t think she was racist. It was a sign of her time that gollywog was…well, there’s a whole argument and it’s very difficult to talk about it…so I don’t really want to go there. And the sexism? George was a character that she basically based on herself, the tomboy. She didn’t write just female stereotypes. She was George.

“When you write for very young children, they want something that’s so familiar and safe and very stereotyped. They just want to know where they are because it’s so incredibly new, the world. It’s like every single minute they’re getting something new. So when they have to relax and just switch their brains off and not have any information, they just want to be very clear and black and white. Something unbelievably simple. The proof is in the pudding. People still read her and she’s still published.”

Helena said she liked the idea that children could have the adventures they read about in the books. “There’s a huge amount of nostalgia. There’s even a book that I got myself called The Famous Five’s Survival Guide. All those books are coming out now, like The Dangerous Book For Boys. There’s a huge clutch of people going, ‘Well, hang on, let’s go back to this so-called normal childhood that we had.’ Outdoor things.”

Today the idea of playing outdoors is a fantasy in itself?

“It is tragic. It’s pathetic because it doesn’t cost anything. And it’s available. It’s not like trees have stopped growing. And it’s healthy.”

Did she feel any extra pressure playing a real person?

“You always do feel an extra responsibility. You feel like there’s a moral responsibility to get your facts right. There is that, yes, and you don’t want to offend anyone. So I was pretty aware of Imogen’s feelings. And also, she’s not in a position to defend herself. For the people who watch this, they’ll go, ‘Oh, that’s what she was like.’ But it’s just our version. It’s not the truth.”

“My job was certainly not to judge her. My own interest in portraying her was the many aspects and understanding her, trying to understand what it would have been like, to be given those circumstances, what happened to her and her reaction to that. I hope people’s response when they watch it will be that they really don’t know what to feel – or just to understand her.”

Enid is on BBC4 at 9pm on Monday

Enid: Forever Child

Enid Blyton BBC Archive

The Enid Blyton Society

Enid DVD

Helena Bonham Carter Website

Follow Ian Wylie on Twitter

The BBC enjoys flogging an idea to death, especially when it comes to children’s programmes.

Pester power means money, and so it is perhaps understandable that the BBC tries to wring as much money out of its programming as possible.

Unfortunately, this means the quality of programmes – especially spin-offs – can suffer.

When The Fimbles was first commissioned, the BBC was so confident it had a success on its hands that it had merchandising in the shops virtually before the programme had aired.

And The Fimbles was rubbish.

Then one of the minor characters, Roly Mo, was inexplicably given his own series.

And that was rubbish, too.

Now, there is a worse example.

Take a long-running, much loved kids’ series – Postman Pat.

Over the years, tweak it a bit, update the animation technique, add new end credits and a new end song. Fair enough.

But then, you decide to do a joint UK-Canadian update. The rural English idyll of Greendale needs to be internationalised a bit, to increase its monetary worth.

What should the update be, though? Hmm, a spin-off is surely called for!

And so we get Guess With Jess, now running on CBeebies.

The incompetence and bumbling of Pat has been replaced by the ever-so-worthy desire to teach kids things.

We now have Jess the cat (who can suddenly speak perfect English but in a boy’s voice, bizarrely) joined by a couple of girlie dogs (think along the lines of Clifford The Big Red Dog’s poodle chum), off on educational adventures.

The animation is computer-based and looks similar to whichever method is used for Chorion’s Noddy series – so the animals trot along slightly awkwardly and unrealistically.

The scenery is bland Nowheresville, and Pat and Mrs Goggins are never aluded to, let alone Ajay and his train.

It’s a mistake to recreate Jess, but worse still to make this spin-off about education rather than entertainment.

It’s po-faced and cynical, and Postman Pat, with his implausible excursions, is far more fun.

But now, we’re nervously awaiting the inevitable learn-with-Jess books – just in time for Christmas.

It’s funny, isn’t it – it was only last week that I was writing about  a new Winnie the Pooh book and now, blow me if another old childhood favourite (though not one of mine), hasn’t been resurrected. There’s a new Noddy story just out: Noddy and  the Farmyard Muddle[HarperCollins Children’s Books, £7.99 978-0007318018 ] There are some new characters, including Stumpy the Elephant and The Bull, but those golliwogs are notable by their absence due to the term being now widely regarded as racist.

The author of the new story is Sophie Smallwood, the grand- daughter of Enid Blyton. It’s the first new Noddy book since 1963. Noddy has been around for 60 years, the first book having been published in 1949. I expect the publishers are hoping to attract as many adults reminiscing about their childhood as they are new young Noddy fans. I’m beginning to wonder if there are any other anniversaries I may have missed.

Back to adult stuff now and I expect like me you have come across a lot of novels that claim to be funny – laugh out loud funny – and prove to be very disappointing. Well, I’ve just read a book that says it’s funny and I really did laugh out loud – at times – and often enough to make me continue reading to the end, though I didn’t read it just for the laughs. Ring Road by Ian Sansom [HarperPerennial £7.99 978-0007156542] is quite a long novel about life in a small to medium sized town, the name of which we never get to know. There are several characters to whom we are gradually introduced throughout the book: first, there’s Davey Quinn, the seventh son of a seventh son, who has just returned to the town after an absence of 20 years to find it much changed, but populated with a lot of the people he used to know. There’s Francie McGinn, the minister of a church called “The People’s Fellowship”, whose pure thoughts sometimes give way to impure ones and eventually lead to his divorce from Cheryth and marriage to singer Bobbie Dylan. There’s Frank Gilbey, the entrepreneur, who got himself elected to the council so that he could influence planning decisions and turn them to his advantage. There’s Colin Rimmer, editor of the local paper called “The Impartial Recorder” who started out wanting to drag the paper into the modern age, but ended up with one that was substantially the same at is was 50 years ago. He’s undeterred: he has his sights on bringing down Frank Gilbey and moving on to greater things. The central “character” though is a building: “The Quality Hotel”, once a thriving venue in the centre of town, now a dilapidated shell and it’s what happens to the building that is the central theme of the book.

I enjoyed this book for several reasons; Ian Sansom has the ability to describe the lives of ordinary people and make them interesting, fascinating even. I dare bet that you will find a character in there which reminds you of someone you know (of) in your town. It’s a cleverly crafted story, but if you like action in your novels, then this is not for you. We get fascinating descriptions of the lives, the likes and dislikes, the aspirations of many different characters from all walks of small(ish) town life and at the end of each chapter, you realise that things have changed and the story has moved on. It was only at the end that I was a little disappointed, but I won’t give away what actually happens to the Quality Hotel.

Apart from this book, Iam Sansom is also responsible for the “Mobile Library” detective series, described as “cripplingly funny” by one critic.

By the way, at the back of the book, you’ll find an index (!!), but also a small section entitled “If you loved this, you’ll like…” a sort of list of suggestions for reading in a similar vein.

Christmas is around the corner and it’s always best to start your Christmas shopping early!  Swing by 6 Calle Industria, Libis to enjoy up to 80% off on branded childrens products – toys, baby products, shoes & clothes.  Sale is open from 9-6pm on Weekends, and 1-6pm on Weekdays.

Film kartun yang ada di indovision,  kesukaan Key salah satu nya si Noddy, Pagi tadi secara ga’ sengaja bikin bento, muka nya mirip si Noddy

dan ini penampakan bento si Key :

Isi bento nya : Nasi yang dibentuk kayak Noddy, shabu2 rebus, brokoli rebus, plus chicken wigs hmm yummy … !!

HaPpY mOndAy my lil’ butterfly Keyshia Alma

Luv,

bunda

Gosh! I am taking ages to complete the book I am reading, and so I have resorted to stealing interesting memes from off the internet to fill up my blog. This one is taken from Eve’s Alexandria, which she in turn seems to have taken from somebody else

The idea is to list the books that most shaped your reading life as a child and young adult year by year, or by spans of years.

So, down memory lane I go thinking of all the great and not-so great books that influenced me through the years…

Ages 6-8
I think the Noddy series by Enid Blyton did the trick for me. I was obsessed with Noddy and his friends. I used to often escape into my dream world where I played with my imaginary friends – Noddy, and Tessie Bear, and Wobbly Man, and Inspector Plod, and Big Ears, and Bumpy Dog, and my god who else have I missed. Now, I am getting to relive those days with my daughter who also seems to have a liking for Noddy

Ages 8-10

Again Enid Blyton ruled. She was my favorite author. I devoured her Famous Five, Mallory Towers, and St.Claire’s series of books. Just like Eve, these books made me dream of going to boarding school. I remember my mom threatening to send me to boarding school when I was behaving badly, and being utterly taken aback when I ecstatically responded YES,YES,YES!

I also drooled over her descriptions of food – jammy buns, buttery scones…all these sounded so appetizing for my taste buds that seemed to be always getting boring idlis and dosas. She also inspired me with the idea of having midnight feasts with all my friends and young relatives.

Ages 10-12

This was the age when I started to delve into classics. I was a tomboy at heart (still am), and Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn really sparked my imagination.

I did also read Pride and Prejudice, but I must say didn’t really get too much out of it. It was only when I reread it many years later, that I could appreciate it for what it is.

This was also the phase of gothic thrillers and horrors. There was a dramatization of The Woman in White on TV at the time and seeing that prompted me to read and enjoy both The Woman in White and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I also enjoyed Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre by the Bronte sisters.

Agatha Christie also stormed into my life, and I read every book of hers many times over. I still do, there is something so wonderful about her books. Even knowing the identity of the murderer does not spoil my pleasure in re-reading.

In summary, this was a great book-reading phase thanks in part to a neighbor who indulged my love of reading, and often lent me a lot of books from his own personal collection of classics. I even read some Russian authors, and enjoyed Crime and Punishment, which I am quite surprised at now.

Ages 14-16

This is rather a dark period in my reading history. Spent more time focusing on my studies and not too much on books. I remember a friend stealthily lending me The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon, and that was my introduction to the big bad adult world of books where sex was explicitly mentioned. I rapidly read the rest of his books, and I must say they were quite instructive

I also started reading Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and The Three Investigators series of books – primarily because I did not have much choice, and that these books were the ones stocked in my local library (which was pathetic to say the least). Of all the three, I remember liking The Three Investigators best.

This was also the time of Harlequin Romances and Mills n Boon. Barbara Cartland also makes an appearance. But, I think the less said about these the better.

Ages 16-18

By this time, I was fed up of modern-day romances and teenage detectives. I upped my reading slightly to Jean Plaidy’s historicals (I loved the Tudor and the deMedici books), Victoria Holt’s gothic romances, and Georgette Heyer’s regency comedies.

I also started having access to the internet and reading a lot of reviews on books that I would not normally read. The Hobbit was one such book. I picked it up after having heard some interesting stuff on the web, and that was my introduction to the wonderful world of fantasy. I also picked up Asimov’s Foundation, and I fell in love with his very rational style of writing – something that I had not been exposed to earlier. Science fiction and fantasy were then added to my reading lists.

Looking back, I don’t know quite what to make of my list. It seems that at each stage of my life, my reading has reflected the person I was then. There is a lot of variety in this list – partly because I read anything and everything that was available (did I mention my lending library was pathetic), but also, I think it reflects the person I am – constantly searching for something new. And I think that’s still me – because my reading list is pretty varied even now, I think.

All in all, this post was one I really enjoyed posting. Looking back at my idyllic childhood and teenage years was really fun. I might even go back and reread quite a few of these books mentioned here. Hopefully, I will recapture some of the awe and wonder I felt when I first read them.

I am also looking forward to enjoying and guiding my daughter’s path through the world of books. Hopefully, she will enjoy reading as much as I do. It’s too early to tell, right now

Well, that’s enough rambling from me folks. Would you like to tell me about some childhood reading memories? I would love to hear back from you.

Lisboa juntou-se este fim-de-semana aos amigos do Noddy,  no Campo Pequeno, para uma festa surpresa organizada  para comemorar o aniversário de uma das personagens mais queridas do público infantil – o Noddy.

Durante cerca de 90 minutos, o Senhor Lei, a Ursa Teresa e o seu cão Turbulento, o Orelhas e o robot Sabe Muito, trataram de todos os preparativos e nem mesmo as partidas dos duendes Sonso e Mafarrico conseguiram estragar a festa, que culminou com a entrada em palco de um enorme bolo de aniversário e com uma colorida explosão de confetis, que muito entusiasmou os mais pequenos.

Durante o espectáculo, as crianças também tiveram a oportunidade de interagir com os amigos do Noddy, nomeadamente graças à presença lúdica do Sabe Muito, que mais uma vez não perdeu a oportunidade de ensinar algumas palavras e expressões em inglês aos seus amigos de palmo e meio.

O mais difícil foi explicar às crianças que o seu amigo Noddy já faz 60 anos. Para Mariana, por exemplo, sempre tinha sido difícil de perceber porque é que o Noddy já trabalhava e conduzia um táxi, é que segundo lembra, e muito bem, esta fã de cinco anos, “as crianças não podem trabalhar e não têm idade para conduzir”.

O Noddy foi criado pela escritora inglesa Enid Blyton, em 1949 e desde então tem feito as alegrias de várias gerações de crianças, em todo o mundo.

Depois de três espectáculos em Lisboa, é a vez de Santa Maria da Feira receber no próximo fim-de-semana, nos dias 10 e 11 de Outubro, no Europarque, Noddy – A Festa de Anos, um espectáculo dirigido a crianças dos 3 aos 8 anos. Uma produção Lemon.

No total vão ser quatro sessões, duas no sábado e duas no domingo, às 11h00 e às 15h00. O preço dos bilhetes varia entre os 15 e os 30 euros e podem ser adquiridos nos locais habituais, como o Europarque, www.ticketline.pt, www.blueticket.pt, lojas FNAC e Worten, entre outros.

Noddy Live – A Festa de Anos vai estar em cena nos dias 3 e 4 de Outubro, no Campo Pequeno, em Lisboa, e nos dias 10 e 11 de Outubro no Europarque em Santa Maria da Feira.

Depois do sucesso das edições anteriores, o Noddy está de volta aos palcos portugueses, com mais um espectáculo para os mais pequenos. Desta vez, para celebrar os 60 anos de Noddy, criado pela escritora inglesa Enid Blyton, as personagens da Cidade dos Brinquedos vão-se juntar na preparação de uma festa de anos surpresa para o seu amigo.

Para Lisboa estão agendadas três sessões, duas no Sábado, às 11h00 e às 15h00 e uma no domingo às 11 horas. Santa Maria da Feira vai ser brindada com dois espectáculos em cada dia, também às 11h00 e às 15 h00, em mais uma produção da Lemon.

O espectáculo é dirigido a crianças dos 3 aos 8 anos e o preço dos bilhetes varia entre os 15 e os 35 euros, podendo estes ser adquiridos nos locais habituais (Campo Pequeno, Europarque, www.ticketline.pt, www.blueticket.pt, lojas FNAC e Worten, entre outros).

Por Cristina Alves

A wonderful fold-out world of Toyland awaits in this fabulous gift book, with six mini Toy Town house-shaped board books for you to take out and read. Step into Toy Town with this striking storybook set! Open it up to reveal the colouful world of Toy Town and six storybooks — each shaped like a Toy Town building and containing its own special adventure. With six fun stories, this wonderful gift book is the perfect way to meet Noddy and his friends!

Price : 299 Rs ,Age Group : 3 to 6 years

This bumper book is packed with five exciting Noddy adventures and great colouring pages ,puzzles and things to do!

Price :250 ,Age Group :3 to 6 Years,7 to 10 Years ,11 to 14 Years