The Magic Pudding (Dover Children's Classics) - Softcover

Lindsay, Norman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486452816 ISBN 13: 9780486452814

Publisher: Dover, 2012

Synopsis

"Hard to resist." — The Horn Book Magazine
"Wild and woolly, funny and outrageously fun." — New York Review of Books
"There's nothing this Puddin' enjoys more than offering slices of himself to strangers," observes Bill Barnacle the sailor. Since its 1918 debut, generations of hungry readers have been helping themselves to The Magic Pudding. A walking, talking dessert, the pudding shares its deliciousness with everyone and never runs out — because it's magic!
Australian author and artist Norman Lindsay wrote this jolly fable in response to a friend who claimed that children liked to read about fairies. Lindsay maintained that kids prefer food and fighting, and this fun-filled romp abounds in both. Sailor Bill and his companions Bunyip Bluegum (a koala) and Sam Sawnoff (a penguin) stroll, eat, and defend the pudding from would-be thieves. Upon occasion, the friends burst into exuberant song, punctuating their adventures with a series of whimsical rhymes. Charmingly illustrated by the author, this children's classic promises to satisfy even the biggest appetite. "Hearty eaters," as Sam remarks, "are always welcome."

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"This is the funniest children’s book ever written. I’ve been laughing at it for fifty years, and when I read it again this morning, I laughed just as much as I ever did. There’s no point in trying to explain why it’s funny. If there’s anyone so bereft of humour that they can read these words and look at these pictures without laughing, then heaven help them, because they’re beyond the reach of advice, instruction or despair." --Philip Pullman, from the introduction

About the Author

Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) was born in Victoria, Australia, the fifth of ten children, several of whom grew up to be artists. At age seventeen, he left home and traveled to Melbourne, where he found work as an illustrator. Famously prolific in many mediums, Lindsay produced countless oil paintings, drawings, etchings, and watercolors, as well as eleven novels. He was famous, too, for the countless controversies he happily provoked throughout his long life. As his granddaughter later explained: “He fought the wowsers, he fought the hypocrites, the people that were going to stop and stifle creative freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of thought.”
        Norman Lindsay’s home is now a museum of his works run by Australia’s National Trust. After entertaining generations of young Australians, The Magic Pudding is recognized as a classic of children’s literature, and in 2000 a sculpture of Bunyip Bluegum and friends (including the Puddin’ itself) was unveiled as the centerpiece of the children’s garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

Philip Pullman is the author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, the third book of which, The Amber Spyglass, was the first children’s book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in the UK. He spent part of his childhood in Australia, where he first encountered The Magic Pudding. He now lives and works in Oxford, England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0486452816
• ISBN 13: 9780486452814
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144