Littt* (for Little, etc.)

According to Google's graphic arts team, May 9th marks what would have been the 76th birthday of British children's author Roger Hargreaves, who was born in 1939 and died in 1988. (Check out the doodles, which change with each click, on the Google home page today.) Hargreaves was the prolific and highly successful creator of the "Little Miss" and "Mr. Men" series, the latter of which was also made into an animated television program on the BBC. His first book, Mr. Tickle, was conceived in 1971 in reply to the question by his young son Adam (who later took over the writing of the series after his father's death): "What does a tickle look like?" In less than twenty years' time, Hargreaves produced over a hundred titles, including the Timbuctoo series of 25 books, half a dozen or so "John Mouse" books, a couple of "Roundy and Squary" books, and, of course, his 46 "Mr. Men" and 33 "Little Miss" books. Twentieth Century Fox has apparently got a movie in the works as well, although it's not yet been decided whether any female characters will be featured in it. Tell them not to leave Little Miss Shy and her distaff sisters behind! We found seven cases of Littt* in OhioLINK and a little over 200 in WorldCat.

(Roger Hargreaves holding a copy of Mr. Tickle on his lap, courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Carol Reid