Collateral attractions: Alice’s favorite book #richardarmitage
Emma Chambers, Dawn French and Richard Armitage in Vicar of Dibley. Source: RichardArmitageNet.com
Do you remember Alice’s favorite book? It was a tossup between Jill’s Gymkhana (which I wrote about here) and Werner Holzwarth’s The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business (which I had encountered earlier in German as Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat, and had given frequently as a gift — the German title is so much more precise).
The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business. Photograph: Peter Hammer Verlag
Today: news that the illustrator of Holzwarth’s book, Wolfgang Erlbruch (also a famous children’s book author in Germany in addition to illustrating), has won the well-endowed Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize. Congratulations to Herr Erlbruch — and hey, Geraldine, don’t make fun of Alice’s taste in books! I always knew it was a great book.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I had no idea Alice’s favourite books were real!
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ah, well! The Mole is really cute. I gave it once as a present to a friend with a newborn and once as a present to a friend my same age. Jill’s Gymkhana is — well, you can read up there what I thought of it.
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I figured they were just made up, too!
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Readers who enjoy the book about the mole will also enjoy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyone_Poops
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Who would have thought a mole with pooh on his head was a real story? The picture is really cute – I’m going to have to read these.
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Butting in with a link – if you would like to see the Mole in action, here is the book on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG0KzxVoTI8
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It’s a great book and my young nephews loved the version with sound effects and pop ups. My sister wasn’t too pleased I bought it for them though. Ah the delight of being the naughty auntie.
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There’s a POP UP VERSION??????!???
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The book about the mole is great. The title in Danish is not alright though, because its title includes a much cruder word than pooh.
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everybody poops 🙂
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For ‘pedagogical’ reasons (inverted commas indicate the lack of good taste), the Danish title includes a four letter word beginning with L. It’s also used as a swear-word. So you see, I was very apprehensive about taking this one home from the library to my then toddlers. But it’s an altogether sweet book, and they loved it.
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weird choice. Although I didn’t really feel that the English title reflected the German one very well. (Put that down to English restraint vs the German semi-preoccupation with fecal matter, lol. )
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I am very proud to say I own both the mole book (purchased in Quebec) and Everyone Poops. Alice and I share a great love of literature🤣 As an elementary and preschool teacher, it was impossible not to buy and read. My students (in their late 20s) still mention them🤣. I have a flair for reading aloud with sound effects👀
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I love that you read them to your students! When I gave my nieces “Everybody Poops” my SIL looked at me full of disapproval. There should be more fun in life 🙂
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