Judith Kerr was a remarkable woman and it'd be impossible to feature any kind of children's book roundup without featuring her brilliant books. Working right up until her death a couple of years ago, Judith's books have always been favourites - and yet we didn't start out with the book you'd expect, though there is a tiger in this one.

"Mog and the V.E.T" is probably one of Judith's funniest books. The Mog series is always excellent but this particular  book absolutely nailed what cat ownership is about, and reminded me of what it was like growing up amongst cat lovers. There was always at least one moggy around.

This time Mog has hurt her paw, and whether she likes it or not, the family decide it's time to go to the (Whisper it) Vee Ee Tee.

The two things Judith always does well in the Mog books - observing and describing cat behaviour perfectly, but also somehow mastering the trick of placing you - the reader - right inside Mog's mind, as if you can read her innermost thoughts - is why this book is so good. The family know there'll be trouble when they haul out Mog's travelling basket. Mog definitely knows there'll be trouble and resists with all her might, but eventually she's on the way to the vets in the car (which she also doesn't like).

Once there the full realisation of where she is hits her, and needless to say there is absolute chaos as Mog won't take a visit to the vets lying down. Her hurt paw is fixed, but there's a clamorous chaotic scene as Mog breaks loose and leads all the other animals in the vets on a merry chase.

The other bit we really like though is the voyage to trip-out city that the vet goes on that night as he has the most terrible dream about animals. We often wondered whether a well-meaning editor might have tried to trim that scene but it's a brilliant (if slightly loopy) addition to the story and I could imagine a steadfast Kerr standing in front of her editor saying "Either that scene stays, or I go!" and winning the day. Utterly brilliant, and definitely one of the best Mog stories (they're all pretty good though!)

Of course we have to talk about "The Tiger Who Came to Tea", probably the book that most people immediately think of when they think of Judith Kerr. We came to this one relatively late as it was always one of the most popular books in our local library, so when we did finally get our hands on a rather straggly copy we knew we'd end up buying our own (and we did).

A young girl opens the door one day to find a rather large but quite benign tiger standing there. The tiger invites himself in, and proceeds to act like the world's worst house guest. He eats his way through the cupboards, drinks all of daddy's beer (WHAT?! Can you imagine THAT passing muster in a modern children's book?) and (yes, the bit most people remember this book for) also drinks all the water in the tap (imagine if the book's editor had got their way on THAT one and had cut it out, as they'd suggested. Again very glad JK stuck to her guns and insisted it was left in).

The little girl thinks she's found a friend, but as soon as the tiger is satisfied, he ups and leaves - But what will Daddy say when he gets home and the house is completely stripped of consumables?

We've seen so many well-meaning teardowns and analyses of this book, everything from it being an allegory for Kerr's own experience of being displaced from her native country by the Nazi regime, to a well meaning but not very well thought out piece claiming this is one of the earliest feminist novels, showing the tiger supressing the book's lone female (I'd almost buy into this theory if it wasn't for Kerr being asked about the meaning of the book in an interview, and rather twinklingly replying "It's about a tiger who comes to tea").

Kerr's later work continued to impress, though we had some fairly tart things to say about "The Great Granny Gang", possibly the only Kerr book that didn't end up being a keeper (and probably one of the reasons we never got sent any more to review from HarperCollins!) The review is included below amongst all the others just so you can see why we didn't take to it though.

That said, Kerr continued to be an energetic champion for children's literacy, appearing at many book events - and her wisdom and brilliant storytelling and illustrative skills were matchless, and it was a very sad day when she passed on.

Original Review Links

Mog and Bunny and Other Stories by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

The Great Granny Gang by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Mog's Bad Thing by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Very sad news indeed. Judith Kerr, author of "The Tiger who Came to Tea" and the fabulous "Mog" books has died at the age of 95.

ReadItDaddy's Booky Advent Calendar Day 10 - 10th December - "Mog's Christmas" by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week ending 13th September 2013 - The Tiger Who Came To Tea (40th Anniversary Edition) by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Twinkles, Arthur and Puss by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Mog the Forgetful Cat

The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Mog in the Dark

Goodbye Mog

Mog's Amazing Birthday Caper

Mog on Fox Night

Mog? Do something bad? Surely not! I was slightly surprised to find that we hadn't read this particular chapter of our favourite book-moggy's life. Judith Kerr's books are (quite rightly) some of our favourites - the Mog series were the books we started reading to Charlotte when she was a tiny baby and it's great that she still enjoys them now.

So what did Mog do? What was Mog's bad thing?

It all started out with the rather bizarre scenario of Mog's family setting up a tent in the back garden for a cat show (I'd love a garden that big!) Mog's helpful friend and neighbour puts up a huge marquee. The only problem is that the great white monstrosity covers up one of Mog's favourite places. The place Mog goes to when Mog needs to do something secret.

I'm sure you're beginning to get the picture of what Mog's Bad Thing was (typically the incident is Charlotte's favourite bit in the book, and the bit that made her hoot with laughter!) Suffice to say that Mog (like most cats) knew she'd done something very naughty indeed, and before the Cat Show can get under way, Mog promptly hides in the attic until the fuss dies down.

Prim and proper pampered moggies soon arrive for the show. Some are scruffy, some are beautiful, one in particular is a big fat spoiled (and slightly vicious) cat. But there's no sign of Mog and her family begin to worry about her.

Will Mog put in an appearance at the last minute to steal the show?

As ever, Judith Kerr's keen cat-loving observations are a joy - and this is a worthy addition to your bookshelves if you love Mog's adventures (and who doesn't!)


Charlotte's best bit: Where Mog chooses to do her bad thing. Ew!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Mog is fantastic, and this book's a great little observation of cat behaviour.

Judith Kerr is a national treasure, and right from when Charlotte was a tiny little mite, we loved reading her the Mog books - and of course the sublime "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" as well.

"Mog's Christmas" was a gift from her Auntie Emma one year, and it was a lovely christmassy read as we tucked her up in bed after a very busy Christmas Day. Mog the forgetful and slightly scatterbrained cat isn't really sure about Christmas. Strange people arrive to stay at the house, there's a lot of noise, a lot of strange decorations - and worst yet, a huge talking tree arrives at the house and scares Mog half to death.

Enough is enough. Mog escapes, and finds a nice warm snuggly spot on the roof of the house next to the chimney.

Mog refuses to move, even for a nice fish supper, but it's warm - and as Mog settles down for a snooze, she has the strangest dream...! Meanwhile the family are quite sad, no one really feels like celebrating Christmas when Mog can't join in!

"Mog's Christmas" reminds me of our family christmas, hectic, lots of visitors, lots of mess and fuss but we wouldn't have it any other way. A wonderful christmassy book with our favourite cat!


Charlotte's best bit: The funny old aunties and their presents!

Daddy's Favourite bit: What happens to Mog just as Christmas Dinner is getting under way. Hooray!

Here they come, a force to be reckoned with - The Great Granny Gang! Smelling sweetly of lavender, hopped up on bonfire toffee and Werthers Originals, they're ready to pitch in and put the world to rights.

Like an octogenarian version of The Village People, each Granny has their own special skill. One can fix cars, one's a dab hand with a pneumatic drill, one can even tame the fiercest lions or even look after your pets (yes, even your rather soppy crocodile!)

We've been looking forward to reading The Great Granny Gang for ages - and it's been out in hardback for a while. With the release of the paperback, HarperCollins kindly sent us a copy so we feel slightly guilty that this is the first Judith Kerr book that - well - to put it politely, just didn't win us over.

It's not merely because it's a tough read (the secret to a great rhyming book is that you're not falling over your own tongue trying to get the story to flow. That happened rather too many times here). It isn't merely because the "hoodies" are a bit jarring, and whiff faintly of grumbling old folk moaning about useless and unproductive teenagers while they're barking your shins and elbowing you out of the way in the post office queue, or snarling at you to keep the noise down while they're blasting out "The Archers" loudly on a peaceful sunday.

It's largely because it just doesn't feel like it belongs amongst Kerr's other books. It sticks out like a sore thumb (even though we still utterly and completely love her art style - which thankfully DOES still royally rock!) mainly because it feels like it's not conveying a story that befits the fantastic Grannies who star in it.

I've seen two other reviews of the book that put it far better than I have here. Check out Child-Led Chaos's appraisal of the hardback:

A Handful of Books Depicting Grandparents

...and also WahmBam's awesome review:

The Great Granny Gang review on WahmBam

As both have suggested, it puts a dainty granny boot through one stereotype while shoring up another.

I rather like CLC's suggestion that the story would've had a different feel (and certainly a different reaction from us) if the Great Granny Gang had been pitched against a gang of moany grumpy old grannies instead of a gang of mouthy hoodies.

On the positive side, we loved the various Mog-like moggies that pitch up in the book, and also love Kerr's other animal characters (which Charlotte thought had popped up for a cameo from Mog and the V.E.T - a book we utterly loved to pieces by Kerr). Such a shame. We'd been so looking forward to this, and it had even made it onto our Wishlist for this year but it's disappointed us greatly. Aw!

Charlotte's best bit: The animal cameos and the cats.

Daddy's favourite bit: I still love Judith Kerr to bits. She is lovely, and a wonderful old lady. Actually that's a very good point, where was the super-storytelling expert illustrator granny in the gang?

(Kindly sent to us for review by HarperCollins Children's Books). 

File this one under "I Can't believe we haven't reviewed this before" but after countless borrows from the library it's probably about time we did.

Charlotte loves this book to bits. I'm still a bit unsure, as I rather thing the tiger's a bit of a cad.

It tells the tale of a little girl who answers the door one day to find a rather large (and extremely hungry) tiger standing there. Her mother, polite as people were in the 1970s, invites the stripy chap in to stay for tea. And stay he does! First he polishes off all the cakes, then glugs down a huge pot of hot tea (Charlotte was a bit concerned he'd burn his mouth but I told her tigers have heatproof tongues).

He doesn't stop there, the tiger basically strips the house of anything edible (probably fortunate that the poor family didn't have a pet fish or pooch). Then without so much as a nod or a wink the tiger makes his excuses and leaves.

WHAT. A. ROTTER!

Poor mummy is left with no food in the house, and (shock horror!) nothing to give daddy for tea when he gets home (ahhh the 70s, how I love thee!)

Thankfully daddy is resourceful and whisks them off for a slap up feed at a local cafe.

I had to argue Charlotte down on this one being book of the week, I think it's definitely one of Kerr's best but I couldn't get past that tiger being a complete (insert adult choice of rude word here) and the poor little girl's various attempts to cuddle and fuss him go completely ignored (probably just as well, too much attention and the girl would've ended up nestling in the tiger's tum!)

I am sure we'll end up borrowing this from the library a few times more before Charlotte realises the tiger's a bad lot and completely falls out of love with him. In the meantime though, I jest, this is a timeless classic and gives hours of entertainment particularly if you share your home with a couple of greedy 'tigers' who strip the cupboards bare and use up all the hot water.

Charlotte's best bit: Inevitably, "The girl is ME!"

Daddy's favourite bit: I like to entertain myself by imagining what this book would be like with contemporary noughties values attached. Will we see a day where someone revisits brilliant old 70s kids books like this and PCs them? Would the tiger be as keen to eat a family out of house and home if all he found in the cupboard was a horsemeat lasagne and a tub of hoummous?

This is the fourth Mog book we've read and Charlotte shows no signs of getting fed up with this egg-obsessed cat. 


Mog is having a tough time at home, and doesn't like the tasty fish or cat food that's laid out for her supper every night. Mog wants eggs, but Mog's family aren't too keen on her scoffing through a dozen a day. 


Mog sulks and during her mopey sojourn in the garden, Mog sees a Fox. 


The rest of the book details Mog's attempts to avoid her Foxy invaders as they take over the garden, and soon also make their way into Mog's house. 


A fun-packed tale that oozes quality just like all the Judith Kerr / Mog books. 


Charlotte's best bit: The fact that Bunny (Mog's pet from another Mog book) makes a cameo appearance. 


Daddy's favourite bit: Mog's rather surreal dream about Mr Johnson stealing all the world's eggs and putting them in a bin bag. 


Rating: 4 out of 5

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Very few authors seem to be able to get inside a cat's head to any degree of success. Akif Pirinici managed it with his grown-up "Felidae" books, and Judith Kerr has also managed it with this timeless children's classic, "Mog the Forgetful Cat". 

Telling the story of a simple ordinary family house cat, the way the story is told immediately 'clicks' with anyone who's ever owned a cat. From forgetting they've been fed (a frequent occurrence when we owned cats) to basically being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mog is a typical moggy but she's lovable and brave. If you've never encountered the Mog books (those of you of a certain age probably remember them from school as they were first published in 1975) they're absolutely brilliant and definitely up there with the likes of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "We're going on a Bear Hunt". Thoroughly recommended.


Charlotte's best bit: "Bother that cat, bother bother that cat!"


Daddy's favourite bit: The fact that even the burglar gets a cup of tea (while being arrested).


Rating: 5 out of 5