Mister Magnolia: Celebrate Quentin Blake’s 90th Birthday

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The show includes roughs and preliminary sketches alongside the finished artworks for both modern and classical writers, from Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, to Michael Rosen and John Yeoman, as well as illustrations for Quentin's own popular verses Mr Magnolia and All Join In. Poetry and story and opportunity for discussing what else is in the brilliant pictures. Can be read fast or slow. Has warmth and emotion. Happiness and just a little sadness with excitement at the end.

See if you can make up a new story about Mr Magnolia together. Perhaps beginning ‘ Mr Magnolia had only one shoe….’You can play with the rhyme, taking it in turns to invent a new line. Avoiding the climactic joke, the romp in this book ends with a girl gifting Mister Magnolia a boot. Quentin Blake slows down the pace and builds up suspense as Mister Magnolia slowly opens his gift. (That’s why we wrap gifts in the first place, right? Suspense!) I do wonder if a story like this would be published today. When Quentin Blake was creating Mister Magnolia at the end of the 1970s, there were still plenty of men in primary school teaching. The 1980s saw a rapid and permanent exodus of men from teaching as parents became more aware of sex abuse crimes against children. Suddenly, what had earlier been hidden, precisely because it was unthinkable to non-pedophiles, became a fleshed-out fear in the minds of parents, and book-buyers everywhere.

Using pens or paint and paper, children can make a picture of a favourite part of the story, show their picture to someone else and talk about it. Find the rhyme

Mister Magnolia is an entertaining rhyming book which explores the titular character’s journey of trying to find a second boot. Throughout the entire story, the reader can see what happens in the main character’s peculiar life, such as his love for the trumpet and having a dinosaur in the house.Mister Magnolia has many things, such as an old trumpet that goes rooty-toot, some fat owls, who are learning to hoot, a big purple dinosaur, who's a magnificent brute, two sisters who play the flute, and even a swimming pool with chute! But he still only has one boot! Somerset Youth Dance Tinys Somerset Youth Dance Tinys & Somerset Youth Dance Juniors Somerset Youth Dance Tinys & Somerset Youth Dance Juniors & Plus1 more... Somerset Youth Dance Tinys & Somerset Youth Dance Juniors & Plus1 more... & Plus2 more... Although the magnolia is a well-known flower, it’s not all that common. That describes Blake’s Mister Magnolia character, right? Well-known in the neighbourhood, but beautifully unusual. I love reading this book with my children for the simplicity of the story - he is a happy person doing things with his friends, such as playing the trumpet and taking his friends out for a scoot. The illustrations really bring the book to life. We spend just as long reading the book as looking at the detail in the pictures, for example the expression on the face of the woman in 'Just look at the way he juggles with fruit!'