William Books

[balletnotlacrosse]

Does anyone have children who still read these? My father had a lovely collection of them which we kept after he died. So far no success in getting the grandchildren interested

[ppeatfruit]

I'm a granny and our children are now around 30 they all loved them, and our 8yr old GD loves them soo much she took one home (after staying with us for Easter). to continue reading on the plane .

I got her interested in them via reading the story about the "little girl Violet Elizabeth Bott" to her.

[ppeatfruit]

We also have a collection of them!

[SavoyCabbage]

Yes mine love reading my copies. I reeled them in by playing the Martin Jarvis audio books in the car.

There is some fantastic vocabulary in them.

[AtomicDog]

We Have some. DH hadn't read as a child, and thoroughly enjoyed reading them to our 8yo!

[Bowlersarm]

Mine don't, they don't read much at all unfortunately, but I keep re-reading them. They're fantastic. Im collecting the first editions, but they are very hard to find, and especially at a reasonable price.

[ppeatfruit]

That's a brilliant idea SavoyCabbage I love Martin Jarvis's version of them!

They should repeat the TV version with Bonnie Langford that might get some more children interested in the books.

[balletnotlacrosse]

Glad to know they still appeal to modern children. I will keep trying .

[Sukebind]

I am no longer young but loved them and still re-read them. My elder Dd is nearly 8 so hoping she will try them soon. I really enjoyed the BBC adaptation of a few of the stories made a few years back with the actor from Outnumbered as William. Sadly for me he is now way too grown-up to film any more.

[hels71]

Dd is 7. The last time she got to.choose a book.in the bookshop she chose the first William book and thinks it's very funny!

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I did the same as Savoy Cabbage with the audiobooks and it worked very well. You have to be a very good reader to read them yourself (the first few were actually written for adults, for a women's magazine, but turned out to be popular with the readers' children, and she didn't simplify her style much once they started marketing them for kids).

[cariadlet]

I was a voracious reader as a child, but never came across William until I was an adult and heard Martin Jarvis reading them on Radio 4. Maybe they were considered too old fashioned to stock in the local library and the school library.
I feel that I missed out and would have enjoyed them.

I tried introducing dd to Just William via Martin Jarvis, but she didn't like the voices (no accounting for taste). But she thought the TV version with Daniel Roche (from Outnumbered) was hilarious.

[DeeWe]

Dd1 enjoyed them (and the Jennings series), ds was found in hysterical laughter over them, but I did have to tell him that the antics wouldn't be found funny if he tried them.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I read once that William books are most popular with clean, well-behaved children who get a vicarious thrill from him doing things they would never dream of doing

[funnyossity]

That fits here Countess.

I like them a lot and enjoy reading them out loud. I don't think my children would read them off their own bat.

[DeeWe]

Oh No! Countess Ds thought he sounded a great role model and was all prepared to try out some of his ideas, especially any with a catapult.
In fact we had a few weeks last summer when him and his friends (all aged 7yo) spent days at a time hiding in the woods round the corner from us and leaping out at unsuspecting passers by with their pop guns (the little ones with a cork in the end which make a noise but nothing worse) which he'd got the idea from one of the stories.
Rather amusingly we had a long train of (mainly retirement age) men who came round to the door delighted to be held up in such a way, with tales of similar things they had used to do.

Dd1 is the complete opposite though.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Oh that's so sweet DeWee!

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Sorry, I mean DeeWe!