Lulu And The Flying Babies

by Posy Simmonds

Lulu and the Flying Babies

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE is a British newspaper cartoonist and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she has drawn the series Gemma Bovery (2000) and Tamara Drewe (2005–06), both later published as books. Her style gently satirises the English middle classes and in particular those of a literary bent. Both of the published books feature a "doomed heroine", much in the style of the 18th- and 19th-century gothic romantic novel, to which they often allude, but with an ironic, modernist slant.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lulu goes to a museum with dad and has a few tantrums on the way as she's feeling left out by baby brother getting all the attention. Once inside the museum some cherubs take her on a tour of and inside the scenes on the paintings. A nice idea but was over quite quickly. The illustrations were nice, comic book style, I found the faces a bit dated.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lulu is looking forward to romping in the snow, once her slow-poke Dad, and annoying baby brother Willy are ready, and she makes her impatience more than evident, at home and on the street. When the wintry weather proves too cold for Willy, however, Lulu finds herself shepherded into the local museum instead, where her sulky behavior finally causes her father to lose his patience. Depositing her on a bench, he tells her to catch up when she's "feeling better," and departs. "Horruble Daddy," she concludes, and begins (naturally) to pick her nose. Fortunately, two cherubs - from a nearby sculpture, and painting, respectively - intervene, before any more toddler grossness can ensue, and take her on a wild ride through the painted landscapes in the museum's collection...

Curiously innocent in its conceit - I have a hard time imagining any current parents leaving their child on a bench in a public place, with instructions to behave - this picture-book from the late 1980s is full of amusing child-appeal. Who hasn't felt, at that early stage of development, during which every denial of our wishes feels terribly unjust, that one's parents are just "horruble?" The magical adventure here, in which Lulu is guided through a number of works of art, satisfies both the childlike desire to dive right into pictures (I know I often wished I could dive into my books, at that age!), and the need (possibly for the first time) to have separate experiences from one's family. I did wonder what kind of museum this was - natural history or art? - given the presence of both dinosaurs and fine paintings, but I suppose that is all part of the fun.

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm having trouble believing it - can I be the only person on Goodreads who's come across this excellent children's book? Lulu, about five, wants to play in the snow... but her baby brother is cold, so Dad takes them off to the art gallery. Lulu's in a foul mood, and makes herself so unpleasant that Dad says she can damn well stay on her own until she's calmed down.

Suddenly, two winged cherubs turn up, escaped from one of the paintings! They grab hold of Lulu and pull her back into the art world with them, Mary Poppins style. Posy, an accomplished artist in her own right, has a lot of fun doing kids' versions of well-known pictures and showing you Lulu's reactions. At the end, she decides that the gallery isn't nearly as dull as she'd first thought.

My own children loved it when they were small - Posy's touch is light, and she's more concerned with keeping the young reader entertained than with preaching about Great Painters. It's enjoyable to read aloud too. Strongly recommended!

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely wonderful!

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The late American philosopher Gareth B. Matthews reviewed this book in the "Thinking in Stories" column he produced for the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (available here: https://www.montclair.edu/iapc/review...). He wrote: "Artists, poets, and writers do give us ways of escaping our world. Certainly Lulu was glad for the chance to escape hers. But they also give us ways to under­stand and appreciate our world, and to give meaning to it. Perhaps when Lulu left the museum she was guided by her own art experience to see, for the first time, a winter landscape before her-not exactly like the Flemish landscape she had visited in the museum, but then not totally different either. Posy Simmonds’s delightfully illustrated story doesn’t exactly tell us that this is what happened. But it may make us wonder."

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lulu is being stroppy and wants to play in the snow but her baby brother is cold so Daddy takes them to a museum and sits her under a painting until she snaps out of it. She gets whisked into the paintings by cherubs and has a whale of a time.

Lovely art gallery propaganda.

This is one I’ve kept since my childhood. Whenever we read a book S doesn’t remember getting he asks ‘where that come?’ and if I say it was mine when I was little he tilts his head and says ‘awwwwww!’

[Jmay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember more of a traditional picture book in the early 90s, but this was a 30 page graphic novel on Hoopla, Goodreads crediting it as early 2000s. Either way, it had wonderful illustration and a cozy color palate- gentle art museum adventure bundled in wooly hats :)

[Carly Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the setup and expected there to be some lesson about being selfless and thoughtful of others, but then it was just illustrated cherub butts showing the girl an unrelated fun time when she should've been apologizing to her parents.

the illustration style was charming!

[Briony Bastin · Rating 3 out of 5]

About stroppy child
Good mix of words and pictures

[Atharv Siddhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice illustrations..

[Rodopa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comics style book, with a wonderful story about a kid's imagination making friends a cherubs in the museum.

[lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

seriously contemplating flying to beijing to retrieve my copy

[Robert Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a story with a great imagination theme. I believe any young reader would like it. It is laid out like a comic strip.

[Louise F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story which addresses the issue of young children finding trips to museums and art galleries boring.

[Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cute.