Handbag Friends
Book
Paperback/Softback
69 pages
978-0-552-55230-1 (ISBN)
Description
Meet six little Handbag Friends - Harry, Hopspot, Binky, Balloon-Bird, Semolina and Loud Millie - as they go on an adventure, rescue lots of baby handbags from the horrible Clasp (move over Cruella De Vil) and find a new home inside a Princess' pink handbag. With warm, utterly charming illustrations by Sue Heap and the inimitable voice of Sally Lloyd-Jones, the "Handbag Friends" are set to take the children's book world by storm ...and you'll love the song. Show me the 4-8 year-old who could resist it! (And don't necessarily exclude the boys - you may be surprised).
Reviews / Votes
Has parent appeal. Stylishly illustrated, pink, handbag-shaped, it recounts the hilariously surreal adventures of a collection of toys, sneaking in some satire on designer culture. Buy this for a 3-6 year old and end up singing the (very silly) handbag song yourself -- Nicolette Jones The Sunday Times 20051204 Crammed inside the pink handbag-shaped Handbag Friends are playful illustrations and enough pink to sugar an entire street. Ecstasy, in other words, for girlies Independent 20051021 A highly imaginative story with irresistible characters, this book deserves to be a big hit Guardian 20051001 This is an unforgettable and utterly irresistible gem of a kids' action adventure with inviting illustrations, endearing characters and and involving storyline, the Handbag Friends are the new Friends in town The Good Book Guide 20051101 Pink, glittery and handbag-shaped, it has a brio that is impossible to resist, with a witty text -- Jill Slotover Financial Times 20051210More details
Persons
Sally Lloyd-Jones is a British-born children's author living in New York. She moved to the States in 1989 'just for a year of two' and is still there. Born in Kampala, Uganda, raised in East and West Africa and at a boarding school in the New Forest, the first book she remembers reading all the way through was The Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear. Things have never been the same since. Sally worked in children's book publishing for several years where she came up with funny ideas for what books can do (pop, flap, bounce, rock, float, squeak, tick) and wrote stories and rhymes to go inside. In 2000, she left to write full-time and perfect her silliness. Handbag Friends is her first picture book. Sue Heap studied graphic design at Hull College of Art. She started her working life as a temporary store person dealing in valve components, before moving on to Yellow Pages where she designed layouts for such copy lines as (file under Plumber) "Mr Onion will fix your leak!" A move into the world of book design followed, beginning with school textooks and moving onto picture books at Walker, before going freelance, illustrating picture book texts, a number of which she has also written. These include Cowboy Baby, which won the Smarties Book Prize Gold Award in the picture book category. Sue and Sally first met at OUP in 1984. Then ten years later they met in New York for a brief chat about book ideas. Their career as Handbag Friends finally began in 2001.