The Shirley Hughes Collection

Beautiful

This book did not arrive on time. It doesn’t look like the picture as it has no dust jacket & the edges of the book are well worn so I’m initially very disappointed. The inside of the book appears to be in very good condition apart from having a child’s name written on the inside cover, it wasn’t expensive so I guess I’ve got what I payed for. I’ve bought this Alfie & Annie Rose book on a recommendation from a friend but I feel it’s too old for my 2 year old grandson. I will keep the book as my grandson absolutely loves books so I hope he’ll grow to enjoy it.

A really great book. I fell in love with Ir watching a TV program about its drawings. So I ordered some of her books, and I am deleted. The drawings are wonderful and so well done, it is very realistic with a lot of poetry and pure joy! I am an adult, and appreciate those books for the drawings but children will appreciate both the illustrations and the stories. I strongly recommend the books of Shirley Hughes!

When I was a girl (in the 70's), we had a few Shirley Hughes stories that were favourites. As a parent, I've become a big Shirley Hughes fan, discovering all the other stories she has illustrated for children - and also poems, and a volume for anyone who enjoys history or gets nostalgic for eras gone by ("A Brush with the Past").I have flicked through this collection, bought as a gift, and it seems too much! Like many presents all at once. I can't believe that so little money can actually buy something so precious. Buy it before someone hoiks the price, buy it for your children, for grandchildren, children's friends, for your siblings who grew up with Shirley Hughes, for teachers and lovers of art and stories. How can you buy a slice of the past, gift memories? Shirley Hughes' illustrations have the effect of music or a scent to suddenly jolt you, gift you the past.I've enjoyed reading "Dogger" and "All About Alfie" to my three-years-old son because he doesn't attempt to turn the page before the text (quite lengthy by comparison to today's books) is finished, he lingers over the pictures. If you are considering buying this for your grand/children, these are illustrations that someone has taken time over, that can be pored over, - there are not enough of these kind of illustrations today!

This is truly a book for a whole childhood with stories for babies right through to older children and indeed the adults who read the stories to the children. My children were raised on Shirley Hughes, from individual books, nursery ones, Alfie, Annie Rose, Lucy and Tom and Dogger and even when they were grown up and new ones were published I bought those for them too. Shirley Hughes is an amazing writer and artist, truly gifted in the observation of everyday life and its joys and tribulations. I believe children's books with beautiful and powerful illustrations are fundamental as part of their development and enjoyment of life and its experiences. If you want to enrich your children's lives... look no further. Every single book is worth having and will be treasured by children and adults alike.

I've got loads of Shirley Hughes books and got this as a present for someone else. Even though a lot of what is in the book is repeated in books I have, a lot (say half?) is totally new to me and a good few of the stories I've never seen anywhere else in any other book or anthology of her work. I might buy myself one, just for the unusual stories it contains and of course it makes a brilliant introduction to Shirley Hughes' writing and drawing which reminds me what childhood is really about.