When the weather turns cold, Meg makes a sunshine spell - "Camel's hump / And vulture's eye / Make it bake / And frizzle and fry" - only to see the sultry heat all but destroy the garden. Meg, Mog and Owl work in their vegetable garden in this seventh entry in Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski's witchy picture-book series, planting peas and carrots (Owl), a pumpkin (Mog), and some unidentified seeds (Meg). In addition to the MEG AND MOG series, Helen has a long and varied association with Puffin - as editor of the Junior Puffin magazine THE EGG from 1977 - 1979, as compiler of the popular children's poetry anthology POEMS FOR SEVEN YEAR OLDS AND UNDER, illustrated by Michael Foreman, and through her partnership with Puffin, the enormously popular series of Puffin Cover to Cover story tapes of which Helen is the Producer. The result is the immensely popular MEG AND MOG series. After working together for four years, they decided it was time to preserve their creativity in book form for future generations of children to enjoy. It was here, as Producer of the children's educational series WATCH, that she first met Jan Pienkowski. Helen Nicoll was a television producer with the BBC for many years. Helen Nicoll married Robert Kime in 1970 and they have one daughter and one son. She was educated at schools in Bristol Dartington Hall, Devon and Froebel Education Institute, London. Recommended to young readers who enjoy witchy fare of a more humorous kind.Helen Nicoll was born in Natland, Westmorland, in 1937. As always, the little exclamations and asides to be found in the speech bubbles - Owl's exasperated "He's eaten too much again," eyes rolled upward, when the fish skeletons are revealed in Mog's tummy - add to the sense of fun. Readers already familiar with the trio of Meg, Mog and Owl will know what to expect - i.e.: catastrophe - when Meg steps in to solve the problem with magic, and will not be disappointed. With plenty of humorous hi-jinks, and brightly colored illustrations that suit the characters' madcap antics to a T, Mog's Mumps is another enjoyable entry in Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski's witchy picture-book series. Unfortunately for Mog, his treat, once he is feeling better, lands him back in bed again until Christmas. Swallowing the potion she has concocted for him, he undergoes a series of colorful transformations, but it is only when an x-ray spell is cast - "Baked boiled grilled or fried / Show us what's in Mog's inside" - that the cause of the trouble is revealed. Mog the witch's cat encounters some difficulties in this eighth entry in the Meg and Mog series, finding himself seriously unwell and subject to Meg's magical care. Helen Nicoll was born in Natland, Westmorland, in 1937.
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