Jamie and Angus

I spotted The Jamie and Angus Stories in the library one day and was surprised to see a book for little ones by Anne Fine. Coincidentally just the day before I had spied her Flour Babies in the older child's library bag, she'd borrowed it from school and had quite liked it. I flipped through the Jamie and Angus book and it did seem like the 6-year old would like it. Sandhya the Walking-Talking Library was with me and endorsed it heartily so there of no question of not picking it up.

And turned out I was right. These gentle stories of a little boy called Jamie and his stuffed toy bull christened Angus are totally a hit. Which child, after all, can not relate to spotting that perfect toy in the store and begging to be given it for his/her birthday? She read it and declared that although they were a 'bit baby-ish' (yes we are all grown-up now) she quite liked them. She also thought her 4-year old cousin would love them.

The six stories are glimpses into the life of the boy and the toy - simple yet heart-warming. For example, the one about how Angus got chucked into the washing machine by accident while actually it was meant only to be dry-cleaned and yet how Jamie chose to keep the bed-raggled straggly toy even when his grandmother offered to get him a new one because, well, now Angus was his friend.

I found the two sequels - Jamie and Angus Together and Jamie and Angus Forever on flipkart and ordered them. Both have six stories each, just like the first book. Each story can be read on its own, just right to be read aloud one at a time or even for early readers. They arrived last evening and had both been read up by bedtime - they produced many smiles too.
Now off I go to check them out myself.