Tilly and Friends books, by Polly Dunbar
This series of six interrelated books by Polly Dunbar employs all of her usual simple, sweet charm, ably demonstrating why her work is such a delight. Each of the six books begins the same: Tilly and her friends all live together in a little yellow house… and there follows a small story that centres around each of them in turn.
Hello, Tilly, the first in the series, serves as an introduction to the group, without a real storyline of its own, but the others all set up scenarios that allow a tiny, gentle lesson. The thing is, it doesn’t feel that way, and never comes with a lecture, just an occasional gentle chiding from Tilly – though usually not even that. The characters are good are reading their friends’ feelings and knowing when their joke has gone too far. It’s a nice thing to have modeled, actually, in such a sweet environment.
So what mischief is this little bunch of animal friends getting into? Well, there’s the day that Doodle the alligator wakes up feeling BITEY! When he can’t control himself and bites Tumpty, he gets his tail stepped on, and a little chiding, a pair of apologies, and some TLC make everyone feel better.
Hector’s story starts out with him very happy to be sitting on Tilly’s lap until the others all join in and take over – then he is miserable. The others can’t seem to make him happy again, but when Tilly paints him a special picture, he is so pleased, “he even let Tiptoe paint his nose blue.” (Now that’s some joy!)
Pru doesn’t want to share her lipstick, and a put-out Tumpty takes her purse, sharing the rest of her makeup with the others. An upset Pru finds Tumpty wearing her purse on his head, but when he sees her, he is immediately contrite, and his apology, along with the return of her things, restores her to good enough spirits to let Tumpty use her lipstick to decorate everyone.
One evening Tiptoe the bunny is not sleepy, and keeps popping up with all sorts of things, until he and Tilly finally fall asleep together (so cute!).
And finally, there’s the time that Tumpty was trying to hide, but since elephants aren’t good at hiding, everyone laughed and hurt his feelings. He left the room, and surprised everyone by coming out of a well-chosen hiding place after overhearing them talk about missing him.
As a whole, this series is adorable and full of gentle reminders to be kind to friends. The well-priced hardcovers even make it possible to give them as a set for a gift, or to pick a few that you particularly like.