The Tale of Georgie Grub
By Jeanne Willis Illustrated by Margaret Chamerlain
I don’t know why I loved this book so much but I read this one so many times as a child, seems to be a theme with me. My mamma also remembers reading this to me and my nephews and my niece too so this book has entered the imagination of many in my family and not just loved by me. The Tale of Georgie Grub has different meaning to me now compared to when I was a child, this is one of the many books that my aunt/God mother gave me. She was a God mother in the true sense of the word, and one thing she has always done is write a little message in each book she gave me which means so much more to me now that she recently passed away.
Georgie was not exactly what you call clean…his mum had finally had enough and let him go. I remember finding the book very funny with the other people looking disgusted at Georgie and covering their children’s eyes, the many many dogs following him down the street and the flowers wilting as he sat next to them.
This book is quite good for early literacy. The words rhyme which helps with word recognition, there aren’t too many words on each page and the font is a good size making it easy for the early reader to read.
I really appreciate that my mamma kept some of my childhood books because I love revisiting them. I almost find it amusing that in the past some of the books I wouldn’t choose to read at story time or recommend them as reads, however the more I look through them the more value I can see they have and the more I wish to share them with the new generation of readers.
Little Big Reads 
I read this book so many times to my own four children, at the playgroup i worked at and eventually ran and subsequently as a teacher that I can still recite it word for word. What i DONT have is our original copy which I kindly lent on pain of death to a friend….and have never seen again. I expect her little angel probably chewed the **** out of it. Can I replace it for my grandchild? Can I ****. But i remember it fondly and with reverence. All my children read at 3 years old thanks to material like this and the tiger who came to tea etc. Wouldn’t swap for the feminist non gender stuff I see on my grandchilds shelf now.
Lovely article. ☮️
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