Billy and the Minpins (illustrated by Quentin Blake)

Good

This new edition of The Minpins was published to mark the 40th anniversary of the Dahl & Blake collaboration, which began with The Enormous Crocodile in 1978. In the years after Dahl's death, Quentin Blake reillustrated the books that were illustrated by others. This resulted in new illustrations for James, the two Charlie stories, The Magic Finger, Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny the Champion of the World. Blake also illustrated a 2012 edition of Boy.I know that the original Patrick Benson picture book illustrations for the Minpins are more suited to the atmosphere of the story and I know that the re-illustrated versions of the pre-1978 Dahl stories might be a mere cash grab by Dahl's estate and publishers. However, this new Minpins hardback is like a capstone to the Dahl & Blake collaboration. Initially I was surprised that Blake would want to attempt the story, but when I purchased my copy of the book, I felt relieved that he adapted his style well the demands of the story.Blake's illustrations are in a different style from the Benson originals. The original Benson pictures were naturalistic and atmospheric. The colour illustrations in the earlier version are cross-hatched and allow scenes to play out on a broad canvas. In contrast, Blake is more sprightly and more close-up and his illustrations accompany the story at every step. Occasionally the vignettes don't place themselves within a context, but we can still have an idea of the scene even when viewing these drawings. I have to admit that sometimes the atmosphere in the Benson pictures obscures the actors in the story, and so it's hard to see Billy, the minpins and the birds when they are not brought into the foreground. Some people may think that Blake's style better fits the Dahl books of the early 1980s, but here Blake shows remarkable restraint in depicting Billy's adventures with the Minpins.The book feels more grown-up than the picture book version, as the story is now divided into 10 chapters. As such, it has a bit more stature to it and can take its place alongside the three other novellas in Dahl's corpus.Don't be afraid - this Blake Minpins hardback does more than justice to the story. It may be different from Benson's naturalistic picture book illustrations, but it has its own rewards to devotees of Dahl and Blake.I think I might be keen to see Dahl's estate put out a colour edition of this Blake edition of the Minpins.

Lovely story. Used it to generate a cross curricular sequence of learning. It resulted in some quality writing, art work, PSHE discussions and Forest School sessions.

My daughter bought this with her birthday money, it was delivered quickly thanks to Prime and she was finished it within a few hours. She loved it and said she'd give it 5 stars. She loves Roald Dahl and this one didn't disappoint. Roald Dahl's books are timeless, I remember reading them when I was at school too.

Read this book very young and remember being captivated and frightened by the unseen monster, which is an ingenious move by Dahl not to show the creature, and fascinated by the idea of the Minpins themselves, wondering if my garden was home to these little people

Just started reading this to my 5 year old. It's so well written that it quickly got my sons attention. As well as this it has some good pictures, which many longer books lack. This is a good book to help move kids on to bigger books. We are both looking forward to find out what happens next.