6 May 2010
By frangliz
In Children books
Looking through a list of David Melling’s books on Amazon, it is striking that they all have five-star ratings. Melling is both author and illustrator of this delightful picture book. He began his career as an illustrator and then progressed to writing his own stories that were inspired by his drawings.
The story centres around a goodnight kiss that is blown by a busy king (on his way to have a bath) to his young son. The kiss unfortunately misses the little prince and bounces out of the open window. The king orders his loyal knight to go in search of the kiss, so the knight mounts his trusty horse and they gallop off to the wild wood. This is a pretty scary place when it is dark, and our knight does not seem to be the bravest of young men.
David Melling, picture book
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17 Mar 2010
By frangliz
In Children books
I remember as a child how much my imagination was stimulated by C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’: the idea of walking through the back of a wardrobe into a fantasy world where you met fauns and had to fight against a wicked Queen was enough to relieve the boredom of any school holiday. As my sons were growing up, it was the novels of Road Dahl that captured their imagination. Fancy being able to point your finger at people and turn them into birds, as the furious little girl in ‘The Magic Finger’ does. The idea of mixing up a glorious concoction to deal with a despicable person, as in ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine,’ seems almost within your own reach.
Lewis and Dahl are still tremendously popular today, but what of younger children whose imagination needs stimulating? ‘The Ghost Library‘ by David Melling seems to be just the answer.
David Melling
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26 Feb 2010
By frangliz
In Children books
Before meeting the star-faced crocodile of the title, we are introduced to a bear with a banjo sitting beside a lake, singing to the stars. The crocodile loves the song; he swishes his tail to the music and the bear sees his eyes just above the surface of the water, piercing the centre of the reflection of a star. The bear is astounded to see what he presumes is a star-faced crocodile, and every night when he sings, he tries persuade the crocodile to dance. The crocodile, however, knows that if he comes out of the lake he will no longer be star faced and will not impress the bear.
Being a rather imaginative creature, the crocodile makes a hat out of star-shaped flowers, but the petals drop out one by one as he dances. The crocodile slithers back into the water, ashamed.
David Melling, picture book
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