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Wake Up, Mr. B.!
Book by Dale, Penny
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Penny Dale
56 books24 followersPenny Dale was born in Abbey Road near The Beatles' Studio, but grew up in Ottery St Mary. Her first school was so small that all the children were in one classroom, and even that wasn't full. She drew and made things all the time and her dad showed her how to use a hammer properly, something she's still proud of. She made plasticine models of everything she could think of. When Penny was very small, she found her parents' folios from a time when they both went to life drawing classes in London. She remembers being immensely impressed by their drawing, and even though she was very young, she knew she wanted to draw like that one day. At her junior school she was encouraged to draw pictures to complement written work, and this she loved, though this was not encouraged later on at secondary school, which she found disappointing. However, she still managed to illustrate work in some subjects, like Science (lively diagrams), Geography (coloured-in maps) and even made a lift-the-flap Norman Castle in History.
After secondary school, Penny took a Foundation Course at Bristol, then took a gap year to work with the Arts Workshop in Bath, making props and costumes, acting, and counting the takings on foreign tours. Later she did a Fine Art Degree at Exeter, where she met her husband Bryan. After college she began working for a time at the Northcott Theatre, designing and making costumes and props again, before she and her husband moved to Northumberland to work on renewable energy projects and graphic design. Their daughter Sarah was born in Hexham, and a friendship developed with an artist she met at childbirth classes, which led to shared daughter-minding, making time for painting, drawing and print making. A year later Penny moved down to South Wales, where Bryan took up a lecturing post in design. It was there that she started to write and illustrate children's books.
Today Penny is one of the UK's leading illustrators of children's books. Her books have met with great success: BET YOU CAN'T and ONCE THERE WERE GIANTS were included in the UK SATS booklist for many years. WAKE UP MR B! was commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal 1988. ROSIE'S BABIES (written by Martin Waddell) won the Best Book for Babies award and was also shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1990. NIGHT NIGHT CUDDLY BEAR (also written by Martin Waddell) and TEN IN THE BED both won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award in 2001 and 2002 respectively. JAMIE AND ANGUS (written by Anne Fine) won the BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Award in 2003. Penny has sold over three million books worldwide and has been published in over twenty languages. Her most recent work includes PRINCESS, PRINCESS, as well as THE BOY ON THE BUS and JAMIE AND ANGUS TOGETHER.
After secondary school, Penny took a Foundation Course at Bristol, then took a gap year to work with the Arts Workshop in Bath, making props and costumes, acting, and counting the takings on foreign tours. Later she did a Fine Art Degree at Exeter, where she met her husband Bryan. After college she began working for a time at the Northcott Theatre, designing and making costumes and props again, before she and her husband moved to Northumberland to work on renewable energy projects and graphic design. Their daughter Sarah was born in Hexham, and a friendship developed with an artist she met at childbirth classes, which led to shared daughter-minding, making time for painting, drawing and print making. A year later Penny moved down to South Wales, where Bryan took up a lecturing post in design. It was there that she started to write and illustrate children's books.
Today Penny is one of the UK's leading illustrators of children's books. Her books have met with great success: BET YOU CAN'T and ONCE THERE WERE GIANTS were included in the UK SATS booklist for many years. WAKE UP MR B! was commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal 1988. ROSIE'S BABIES (written by Martin Waddell) won the Best Book for Babies award and was also shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1990. NIGHT NIGHT CUDDLY BEAR (also written by Martin Waddell) and TEN IN THE BED both won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award in 2001 and 2002 respectively. JAMIE AND ANGUS (written by Anne Fine) won the BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Award in 2003. Penny has sold over three million books worldwide and has been published in over twenty languages. Her most recent work includes PRINCESS, PRINCESS, as well as THE BOY ON THE BUS and JAMIE AND ANGUS TOGETHER.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 21, 2014
kids, a dog, imagination and art
Wake Up Mr B! by Penny Dale is a book for lovers of dogs in general, airedales in particular, kids, art, books, animals, pets and people. I bought it at the local library sale because the enchanting illustrations were irresistible. My copy is bound in boards and durably sewn in signatures; Amazon listed several copies of the paperback version and there were a few on eBay, too.
What a visually lovely book, and the narrative's easy to track, whether you do it via the gentle pictures or the very sparse large-type text displayed in simple sentences at the bottom of some of the pages. Rosie's the daughter, Billy's her brother and Mr B is the big, sort of shaggy, airedale-style family dog. Although the brother and sister appear to be caucasian and they live in a 2-story dwelling, the story could be set in almost any Western hemisphere country, almost any small town to large city and even almost any time from the latter part of the 20th century (the © is 1988) into the current 21st. In other words, these are regular people living regular lives almost anyone could relate to and appreciate.
Very very early on an unspecified day of the week, Rosie wakes up and gets out of bed rarin' to go and ready to play. She can't drag her brother Billy out of bed or rouse her parents from their sleep, but she goes downstairs and convinces Mr B to wake up. Rosie gets dressed and dresses up Mr B and they play play play, imagining and acting out driving to the seashore, getting into a boat, sailing around the world and flying to the moon. The last page outcome? Rosie and Mr B end up falling back to sleep themselves, and the rest of the family wakes them up for the rest of the day.
Wake Up Mr. B! is an excellent choice for an teenager or adult who loves beautiful art and illustrations, or for preschool through grade 3 or 4 kids who love to look at pictures, place themselves in a different world and read for themselves. You'll enjoy everything about this book!
Wake Up Mr B! by Penny Dale is a book for lovers of dogs in general, airedales in particular, kids, art, books, animals, pets and people. I bought it at the local library sale because the enchanting illustrations were irresistible. My copy is bound in boards and durably sewn in signatures; Amazon listed several copies of the paperback version and there were a few on eBay, too.
What a visually lovely book, and the narrative's easy to track, whether you do it via the gentle pictures or the very sparse large-type text displayed in simple sentences at the bottom of some of the pages. Rosie's the daughter, Billy's her brother and Mr B is the big, sort of shaggy, airedale-style family dog. Although the brother and sister appear to be caucasian and they live in a 2-story dwelling, the story could be set in almost any Western hemisphere country, almost any small town to large city and even almost any time from the latter part of the 20th century (the © is 1988) into the current 21st. In other words, these are regular people living regular lives almost anyone could relate to and appreciate.
Very very early on an unspecified day of the week, Rosie wakes up and gets out of bed rarin' to go and ready to play. She can't drag her brother Billy out of bed or rouse her parents from their sleep, but she goes downstairs and convinces Mr B to wake up. Rosie gets dressed and dresses up Mr B and they play play play, imagining and acting out driving to the seashore, getting into a boat, sailing around the world and flying to the moon. The last page outcome? Rosie and Mr B end up falling back to sleep themselves, and the rest of the family wakes them up for the rest of the day.
Wake Up Mr. B! is an excellent choice for an teenager or adult who loves beautiful art and illustrations, or for preschool through grade 3 or 4 kids who love to look at pictures, place themselves in a different world and read for themselves. You'll enjoy everything about this book!
October 1, 2017
When no one else in her family will wake up to play, Rosie can always count on Mr. B to be there. Rosie and her dog have a special relationship which is seen throughout the story.
September 6, 2019
This is a great read for children of this generation. Showing they can use their imagination going on an adventure with their dog, cat ect. This is something I loved to do when I was younger.
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November 16, 2023This is a great book of the inventiveness of a child's imagination and the love of man's best friend to go along with the imagination of the child.
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February 3, 2024'Opstaan' heerlijk kinderboek over grenzeloze fantasie. Het bad is is een zeilboot, de tafel een luchtballon...
August 23, 2016
Lots of pictures and very few words. Even kids who aren't avid book fans, take the time to study the pictures and figure out what is happening. One of my nieces informed me that she likes this book because the story is never the same. Interesting thought.
Predictably, I like all of the examples of imagination and play.
Predictably, I like all of the examples of imagination and play.
June 11, 2014
J'aurais pris un peu plus de texte, peut-être un par illustration? Mais l'histoire est charmante, et ça montre bien qu'il faut laisser dormir papa et maman quand il est trop tôt le matin... et les jeux de la petite fille sont très imaginatifs, j'ai bien aimé.
February 14, 2012
Such a sweet story. More looking than reading. As much as I've said "kids are enough work, we don't need a dog", this makes it rather a romantic idea.
September 21, 2014
Great picture story of the family early riser and her patient companion.
December 11, 2015
A girl and her dog :-)
February 1, 2016
CHILDHOOD.
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February 3, 2018Read in cello group class
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews