It's Not the Age, it's the Mileage.
Why do I feel like I'm falling apart? My hip aches, my heels can have a real good go at making walking in the morning feel like hot coals and there are days when I could stand permanently like a pregnant woman (you know, hips out to the front, hands on my back, long-suffering face) because of my back. No, I don't take cod liver oil, yes I do take Evening primrose oil and, yes, I think I know what causes it. It's because I spend a portion of every week sat on little dinky chairs that are only 12 inches high. Somedays I feel like Gulliver, standing over a bunch of self-opinionated and bossy Lilliputians. Is it worth it? You betcha. My magic moment today (there is usually at least one) was having 50 little reception children hanging on to every word as I told the Naughtiest Story of All (with apologies to Dorothy Edwards!) from memory..... I love the fact that My Naughty Little Sister is still going strong after 50 years. We got the cd to listen to on holiday and it kept my 5,7 and 9 year olds chuckling. I have been raised on it... I was after all a naughty little sister..... and my Mum bought me a copy to keep in my classroom. She reckoned it was a story that transcended age, race and class. I love its nostalgia, its humour and its truth. The post war days when dolls broke if you dropped them, but got mended at the dolls hospital, the days when a pot of glue and a pair of scissors were the best entertainment and the pantomime had fairies drinking fizzy pop and eating toffee drops.
Those books bring back such happy childhood memories, the illustrations are so nostalgic. My children love anything by Shirley Hughes, and my son Jack even asked if we could call our new baby girl "Annie Rose". Now of course he realises he's been lumbered with the most highly effective naughty little sister in the world!
ReplyDeleteJulia x
Oh look another Julia has left you a comment !
ReplyDeleteI love My Naughty Little sister Books!!!! I can still remember sitting on the floor in my infants schoolfirst class, listening to the teacher Mrs Pugh, reading us the chapter when she catches a fish in a jam jar. I love My Naughty Little Sister and Bad Harry too.
It should be a book read to every child - love Julia x
I have to own up, I've never read them... I know I'm terrible, in my defence I think I've read EVERYTHING else!!!
ReplyDeleteThird Julia to leave a comment, is that a record? :)
ReplyDeleteI remember that there used to be a dolls hospital down the road from where I lived, and I think there must have been a pram hospital near my Nans, as there was a shop window full to the brim (really piled high) with old prams and bits of prams.
That was a blast from the past - I remember My Naughty Little Sister from when I was a child.
ReplyDeleteHave a great (dry and painfree) weekend!
Such a lovely post. The children are quite fortunate to have such an attentive story teller!
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear naughty tales from yours and your sisters childhood. I was VERY naughty to my poor sister. Once I threw chewing gum in her hair and told her she would get in trouble for standing in my way when I spat it if she didn't let me cut it out. She was half bald on top of her head until her hair grew back in!!!
My daughter still reads hers and she is thirteen!
ReplyDeleteI use to read them to her as night time stories.
Take care,
Alison x
Oh, I know the feeling of sitting in those tiny little chairs, and bending over desks all day! The rest of the experience makes up for the pain though! I don't think I've ever read those stories!
ReplyDeletexxx
Don't know these books but the cover looks really lovely... as for sisters I don't know how naughty one can be... I was an only child !
ReplyDeleteI loved those books! I've been reading the Paddington stories to my 5 year old son and he is really enjoying them! And just like Paddington my son will get into mischief if at 'a loose end'.
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