My birthday present

archichik · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 5:26 pm

I had to share this with you guys.

My husband collected and gave me a series of four Jean-Pierre guinea pig books for my birthday this week. He searched them all out and got them all from auctions. What a sweetie!!!

Have you guys seen these books? They have the cutest crayon-type illustrations!

Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 5:41 pm

I´m not familiar with them. Maybe you could post a pic of a sample? It would give us some idea of what they are like.

That does sound like an awfully thoughtful thing to do. You must have found one of the good ones.

archichik · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 8:43 pm

I´ll scan some tomorrow. We´ve started a collection of guinea pig children´s books. I am surprised just how many there are. The Jean-Pierre books, I believe, are by a French Canadian author. There´s another book we´ve gotten recently called "Olga de Polga" that also has really cute illustrations.

Our poor kids (when we have some).... Wow, Mom. Another story about a guinea pig!

Laura823 · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 8:52 pm

Oh, they sound great! What a wonderful gift!

I´ve heard of Olga da Polga (never actually seen it though) but not the others.

I would love to get some books about guinea pigs. Right now I am trying to find the two books I am missing out of the 4-book Max series. (Max is an orange manx cat who goes saerching all over the world for his tail. Ever heard of it? I think it was later made into a TV show.) Anyway, I hope I´m as successful in finding them as your husband was!

Enjoy your books!

GP Lover · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 9:38 pm

Lucky you and happy birthday. Could you post the titles of those books. I have the one called "The day the Guinea Pig Talked". I love the illustrations. I wasn´t aware that there were more books about Jean-Pierre.

Evangeline · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 10:05 pm

What is the name of the author? Since I´m a French Canadian myself, I´d like to get those books for my son.

We have the series about Caramel, the guinea pig, but the books are in French. Apparently, in English, he´s called Fluffy. The author is Kate McMullan.

http://www.katemcmullan.com/

Evangeline · Post » Fri Mar 01, 2002 10:08 pm

All of the Fluffy books.

http://www.katemcmullan.com/bookshop2.html

cea2001 · Post » Sat Mar 02, 2002 12:03 am

If memory serves, "Olga Da Polga" was written by Dick King-Smith (who also wrote ´The Sheep Pig´ which was made into the film ´Babe´.) He´s a superb children´s author. Another great book of his is ´The Fox Busters´ - all about a group of hens who decide to fight back!

Alfie · Post » Sat Mar 02, 2002 6:11 am

Cea, I think Olga Da Polga was actually by Michael Bond, who wrote the Paddington Bear series.

Archichik, that´s a really sweet present. Happy birthday.

---

Oh, I just ran a search on Jean-Pierre, and discovered the books were written by Paul Gallico! He also wrote the Mrs Harris book series, as well as The Snow Goose and Jennie - both lovely allegorical animal stories.

Here is a site with scanned covers:

http://www.paulgallico.info/guineapigtalked.html

I think Paul Gallico was American, although I can´t be certain.

Post » Sat Mar 02, 2002 8:25 am

I remember being entranced by "The Abandoned" when I read it as a child. And we also had a copy of "Too Many Ghosts". The Paul Galico site sums up "The Abandonded" as: This is the story of a young boy called Peter, who is knocked down by a car. To his considerable astonishment, when he recovers, he is not a young boy, but a cat! He meets another cat, Jennie, who educates him in the wiles of the feline world. I think some books are other-worldly and really make an impression on young minds.

Alfie · Post » Sat Mar 02, 2002 8:26 pm

Hmm. Lynx, "The Abandoned" seems to have been released as "Jennie" here. How odd.

cea2001 · Post » Sat Mar 02, 2002 8:51 pm

Alfie - I must be getting old and forgetful!

I love the Paddington books too and the Wombles (although that´s a different author).

archichik · Post » Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:41 pm

Yes. He was American, now that I´ve read the entire dust jacket. The four books are:
"The Day the Guinea Pig Talked" illustrated by Dulac
"The Day Jean-Pierre Was Pignapped" illustrated by Dulac (the cutest illustrations!!) - from the Coquitlam Public Library in Coquitlam, BC
"The Day Jean-Pierre Joined the Circus" illustrated by Gioia Fiammenghi
"The Day Jean-Pierre Went Round the World" illustrated by Gioia Fiammenghi - from Parkland Regional Library in Lacombe, Alberta

I´ll try to scan some images for posting.

Post » Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:49 pm

I wonder if the Coquitlam Public Library knows you have that book? Very suspicious.

archichik · Post » Thu Mar 07, 2002 9:06 pm

I´ll only admit to buying a hot book... I´ve never been to Coquitlam - I swear.

Post » Thu Mar 07, 2002 9:10 pm

I should drive over there and tell them you have their book. Just 30 min. away.

cmtigger · Post » Thu Mar 07, 2002 11:45 pm

Hey, I have a friend who lives there! Coquitlam, that is! small world.

The "Fluffy" books are cute, I have three of them, Scholastic publishes them here. I borrowed "Olga Da Polga" from the school down the street to read- it is fun, my mom was amazed that I had never read it, I had to remind her that it had been out of print for years. My two favorites are a book about plus ones, and it´s sequal about minus ones. "One Guinea Pig is Not Enough" and "Twenty is Too Many" both by Kate Duke. I also have a couple by Dick King- Smith, the author of "Babe." "I Love Guinea Pigs" and "Jenius; The Amazing Guinea Pig."