Tales from Muggleswick Wood by Vick Cowie Charlie Mackesy

Tired little Beth climbed into her bed.
"Could you tell me a story?" she sleepily said.
Granny smiled and replied, "Of course I could!
I'll tell you a story of Muggleswick Wood."

Five little children are eagerly awaiting the visit of Granny because she tells the most wonderful bedtime stories of the creatures that can be found in Muggleswick Wood where she lives. From the beautiful map of the village and its surrounds that is unveiled as soon as you open the cover, to the rhyming introduction that beckons you to keep reading, and with a story for each child - Muggleswick Wood, Kevin the Kelpie, The Biggest Blooming Beetle, The Secret of Snittington Hall and Melvin the Mole - this is a treasury of those sorts of stories that we tend to associate with the British landscape of a bygone era, with mysterious woods and magical creatures and personalised adventures.

Each story is told in rhyme with just a few lines per page, so it is not as daunting as its size suggests, and is accompanied by ink and wash vignettes by Charlie Mackesy (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse) which other reviewers have consistently compared to classics like Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows.

Based on the author's childhood memories of the real Muggleswick Wood in County Durham, which gives the stories an added authenticity, this is one that will transport young listeners away from the here-and-now and into the worlds of the Enchanted Wood and the Magic Faraway Tree and continue that childhood wonder we associate with the English countryside.

Themes: Forests, Animals, Mythical creatures, England.

Barbara Braxton