Welcome: Mr Men & Little Miss

Remember 'Mr Men and Little Miss'?

Personally, I like Mr Tickle and Little Miss Bossy. They remind me of 2 people that are very special to me. I think it is only coincidence that these two were the first to be created in the Mr Men and Little Miss Series of books, respectively.

Well... today is the birthday of Roger Hargreaves, an English author and illustrator of children's books, notably the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The books' simple and silly stories, with bright-coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture for over 25 years, with sales over 85 million worldwide in 20 languages.

"What does a tickle look like?" ~ This was the question asked by a six year-old boy of his father, one morning in 1971 that inspired Roger Hargreaves to create a little orange man with a big toothy grin, a blue hat and extraordinarily long arms. And so, Mr. Tickle, the first of the Mr. Men, was born in 1971.

Here's a bit of History. The first six Mr. Men books were published in United Kingdom in 1971, priced at 20 pence each. Mr. Tickle was the first Mr. Men character created by Hargreaves, inspired by his son, Adam, who had asked him what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves responded with a round, orange figure with long, bendy arms. Each book in the original Mr. Men and Little Miss series introduced a different title character and his/her single dominant personality to convey a simple moral lesson. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters frequently reappeared in other characters books. The books' simple stories, with brightly-coloured, boldly-drawn illustrations, made them very popular with children, delivering sales of over 100 million worldwide across 28 countries.

Little Miss Bossy is the first book in the Little Miss series.

Roger Hargreaves, who was an advertising copywriter, had been looking for not just a way to entertain his children but also a way to make money. Here's what Adam Hargreaves has to say of his father, Roger Hargreaves and 'Mr Men and Little Miss'.

"My dad was very ambitious... It wasn't just writing books for us as kids. It just evolved from that. He sat down and wanted to create an idea that would give him a lifestyle and way of living that he wanted. He had seen what had happened with strip cartoons in the sixties, the likes of Snoopy and that kind of thing, that you could take characters and they could become commercially successful."

Here's a collection of ALL the 'Mr Men and Little Miss' Series.