The Yellow Book of Hob Stories

Hob Stories

by William Mayne, Patrick Benson (Illustrator)

In five episodes, Hob protects his human family and solves problems by dealing with Eggy Palmer, Sootkin, Hinky Punk, Sleepyhead, and the Tooth Fairy.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

William Mayne was a British writer of children's fiction. Born in Hull, he was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. He lived most of his life in North Yorkshire.

He was described as one of the outstanding children's authors of the 20th Century by the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1957 for A Grass Rope and the Guardian Award in 1993 for Low Tide. He has written more than a hundred books, and is best known for his Choir School quartet comprising A Swarm in May, Choristers' Cake, Cathedral Wednesday and Words and Music, and his Earthfasts trilogy comprising Earthfasts, Cradlefasts and Candlefasts, an unusual evocation of the King Arthur legend.

A Swarm in May was filmed by the Children's Film Unit in 1983 and a five-part television series of Earthfasts was broadcast by the BBC in 1994.

William Mayne was imprisoned for two and a half years in 2004 after admitting to charges of child sexual abuse and was placed on the British sex offenders' register. His books were largely removed from shelves, and he died in disgrace in 2010.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books as a kid - they were weird and imaginative and nothing else was like them! I wish they were more widely known. I'm so glad I kept hold of them so I could read them to my kid in turn. I never forgot Hinky Punk and eggy palmer from this book (and hotfoot, whump and clock stop from others in the series).

[Tahya Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I personally did not care for this book too much. I think it would be a good book maybe to read as like a nighttime story if the child was interested in it, but I would not recommend it to a classroom. If you were to read it to kids I would say that it is for 3rd graders and up. When you open the book, one side is full of words and the other side is the picture so they words can get overwhelming if read to younger kids.