123456789 Mr Benn

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. Benn

by David McKee

When Mr Benn visits the little fancy dress shop, he enters a fantastical world of adventure as if by magic... In this story, Mr Benn tries a black and white stripy outfit for size, only to find himself magically transported into a prison!

Celebrate 50 years of the iconic BBC TV series with the original Mr Benn picture books!
Voted 3rd in a BBC poll of 25 to 45 year olds of all-time favourite children's shows
Voted 6th in Channel 4's poll of the 100 greatest kid's TV shows
Voted 10th most famous time-traveller by THE TIMES
'...the very name is enough to induce a warm glow of childish bliss...' TELEGRAPH

Genres: Picture Books

48 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 1970

About the author

David McKee was a British writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books and animations. He also used the pseudonym Violet Easton. He is frequently referenced as David (John) McKee. He has been commended for his gentle, playful but insightful stories.

For his contribution as a children's illustrator he was UK nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006.

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool, weird concept. Benn tries on a prison jumpsuit in a tiny costume shop and finds himself in a prison. The illustrations were funny, whimsical, and detailed. I loved the mix of color drawings and black and white pen drawings. Definitely worth it for a child who loves to pore over illustrations.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently the only early Mr Benn book not to be directly adapted by the BBC and you can kind of see why. McKee is enjoying the subversion of this one - Benn finds the names of the fellow prisoners very funny, including one Carver Castell which is a very dark joke - but it’s still got a lovely, sweet message to it all. McKee contrasts the darkness of the prison - all spidery black and white pen drawings with a sort of children’s version of Piranesi/ Escher rambling architecture - with Mr Benn’s optimistic outlook. There’s a lovely spread of the prisoners in their new colourful uniforms skipping about the place, all terribly moved by this lovely splash of colour in their otherwise monochromatic world. It manages to both be an archetypal Mr Benn story AND something stranger and more satirical than you otherwise would expect. A lovely book