The Story of the Little Mole

Winner – Jayen Mistry The Story of the Little Mole

The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his Business was the book that helped me to potty train.

When I was living in The Hague, Netherlands I was 3 years old my mum and a lady who I called Aunty Ruth were having a coffee in the Paagman Book Shop. On her own account, my mother told me that they had been sitting next to a child -friendly area. Obviously eager to explore it, I wandered off and found myself in the book area. When I had returned from my adventure, I bore the book that changed my life: The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his Business.

Written by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch it was first published in 1989, it had also won the award for the most entertaining children’s book. The book is about a Mole who wakes up and gets pooed on by an anonymous animal; he goes around the land asking them if they did it, in return they all show him what their poo looks like. Then he asks two flies if they can tell him who did it. Once the animal is identified he goes and gets his revenge on him!

I believe it must have been the eye-catching feature of the Mole with the poo on his head or the shiny gold sticker that made me pick it up. My reasons for this are: 1- Only the “strange” things in this day and age appeal to me, 2- As a young child “shiny things” had often appealed to me. When I had given the book to my mother, she and Aunty Ruth looked through it, and started laughing… As it was written in Dutch, I obviously didn’t understand it but my mother felt compelled to purchase the book for me in English so I could enjoy having it read to me as a bed time story.

However, my mother had an anterior motive for buying the book, not because I’d given it to her, I was being potty trained. I didn’t my business on the toilet so I used to do it behind the sofa in my nappy. Whether the book made me enjoy going to the toilet or took away my fear of the potty- still I don’t know! But I deeply suspect it did! Second – Oliver Nancarrow Wombat Goes Walkabout

Growing up in Epping as a young child meant I couldn’t play with my friends in the park, and going to a private school was very stressful for all the family. Our semi- detached house lay adjacent to a busy road. Our garden was a good size but was always billowing with the aroma of car fumes and cigarettes from neighbouring houses. My room was converted from a bathroom and was no bigger than a cupboard. My window looked out onto rows and rows of houses, like miles of manmade fields with the odd piece of grass which only had one use – a dog’s toilet. Although there were some things to look forward to, for example a piping hot Sunday roast with the family or a visit from a family of hedgehogs who would burrow deep into a pile of dried up leaves, somewhat like a teenager on a Saturday- burrows deep into the covers only to appear when food’s available.

However, when spring had sprung and the hedgehogs had fled and the monthly family meals were a thing of the past, I would turn to my books. A bed time story as a young child was something magical, as you laid there sunken into your mattress your mum next to you chattering away about magical lands with fiery dragons and winy princesses with scarily long hair or a tendency for sleeping or losing shoes. Although a book which couldn’t be beaten was one of my favourites – Wombat goes Walkabouts.

This book is not full of surreal nonsense and unorthodox story lines with magical creatures; instead it’s based on a wombat. Who digs a lot and thinks a lot. He might not sound like much of a character; however to me he was my hero whilst growing up. The book is based around a wombat losing his mother which causes him to go for a walk in the hope of finding her. On his journey he meets many different animals who all have different talents like flying or hunting or running or swinging from tree to tree, but all a wombat can do is “dig a lot and think a lot”. After his hopeless stroll, he becomes rather self-conscious and realises that he’s nothing special at all and that he’s just a boring old wombat. Moreover in a wild turn of events which unravel to the end of the story, wombat finds himself saving all the animals he had met on his walk from a bush fire. He thinks of a plan to dig a hole big enough for everyone as the fire is too fast to run from or swing from or fly away from. Once the fire had passed, everyone climbed out of the wombat hole. They were very happy they had survived the fire, but wombat was sad as he still couldn’t find his mother. However within no time at all with the help of all the animals, wombat’s mother was found and reunited with her son. This to me is my favourite book of all even now as it shows me how anyone can become a hero; moreover it reminds me of a childhood which has long been forgotten. 3rd – Tom Cox The Hundred-Year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared

Most books that I’ve read during my life have been based around the same genres: spy or apocalyptic future … because that’s all authors publish about when writing a book for teenagers. But when I read a book by the author Jonas Janasson, I’d finally found a true author.

About two years ago we were in Florida when I first read the book The Hundred-Year- Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared. We were stuck indoors as it was too hot to leave the hotel. I had just finished reading another predictable book by Anthony Horowitz and I was bored. So I picked up a random book from the bookshelf and thought that it was a joke. Never before had I seen a book with such a plain and crazy name. I fell in love with it that moment. I spent the rest of the holiday reading the book whenever I could. At the dining table during tea, to and from the car journeys, even in the queues for Disneyland. The book was unbelievable. It was like nothing I had read before.

When we had to leave I couldn’t wait to go home and buy the book, and any other by Jonas. It had everything: humour, history, love, politics, murder and, most of all, Allan Karlsson. He had had a remarkable life, being an explosive specialist in the Spanish Civil War, meeting political leaders and inventing the atomic bomb. Allan regularly finds himself on the run from people, attracting a crowd of people around him who help him smuggle a suitcase of cash, showing everybody that you’re never too old for an adventure.