Best Selling Books by Allan Ahlberg

First published in 1985, in three sections: a bear has a noisy birthday party; a little man has a big hat; and a door is opened to a monstrous surprise.

It''s Christmas Eve and the JOLLY POSTMAN is delivering greetings to various fairy-tale characters - there''s a card for Baby Bear, a game appropriately called ''Beware'' for Red Riding Hood from Mr Wolf, a get-well jigsaw for hospitalised Humpty Dumpty and three more surprise envelopes containing letters, cards, etc. Everyone''s favourite postman keeps on peddling his bicycle up hill and down dale . . . and into everybody''s hearts.

Henry and Henrietta Hay are embarrassed because their circus performer parents, in contrast to other mothers and fathers, go everywhere happily wearing their horse suit.

As Mr. Gaskitt takes a series of jobs and Mrs. Gaskitt keeps winning prizes, their nine-year-old twins, Gus and Gloria, follow a substitute teacher who seems too good to be true.

The Bucket by Allan Ahlberg - the enthralling childhood story one of Britain''s best-loved children''s authors ''My mother, who was not my mother, I see her now, her raw red cleaner''s hands twisting away at her apron as she struggled to speak. Adoption was a shameful business then in many people''s eyes, the babies being mostly illegitimate. Better not speak of it.'' Allan Ahlberg was adopted as a baby. In 1938 he was picked up in London by his new mother and taken back to Oldbury in the Black Country. Now one of the most successful children''s book writers in the world, in The Bucket he describes an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in an industrial town during the 1940s, in conditions which today we might describe as ''deprived''. He writes of a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a tough and fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life assurance policies (''£6 if the child dies under age 3'') and fearsome bacon slicers, of half-remembered trips to his mother''s sister''s grave and to the bluebell woods. And of his first days at school: ''Allan could do much better. He is most inattentive and dreamy at times'' (school report, December 1946). Using a mix of prose and poetry, supported by new drawings by his daughter Jessica and old photographs, The Bucket retrieves a childhood which lovers of Ahlberg''s classic picturebooks The Baby''s Catalogue, Burglar Bill and Peepo! might feel they have glimpsed before but which are now exquisitely brought to life. This beautiful, exquisitely designed book, which will also appeal to fans of Gervase Phinn, Alan Bennett, Roald Dahl and Nigel Slater''s Toast, will be loved by generations of Ahlberg fans. ''Allan Ahlberg has a string of children''s classics to his name'' Nicolette Jones, Guardian Born in Croydon but brought up by his adopted parents in the Black Country town of Oldbury, Allan Ahlberg held jobs as a gravedigger, postman and plumber''s mate before becoming a teacher. He taught for ten years before collaborating with his wife Janet on a series of much-loved, now classic children''s picture books including Peepo!, Burglar Bill, Cops and Robbers, Each Peach Pear Plum, Woof!, Heard it in the Playground, Please Mrs Butler, The Boyhood of Burglar Bill, The Pencil, Friendly Matches, The Improbable Cat, Goldilocks, My Brother''s Ghost, The Mighty Slide, Collected Poems, The Boy, the Wolf, the Sheep and the Lettuce and The Ha Ha Bonk Book.

Three skeletons enter each other''s dreams about dinosaurs.

Jam-packed with brilliant jokes to tell your Mum, your Dad, your dog or even your teacher!

Once more the Jolly Postman rides - and flies - and shrinks! The Jolly Postman is setting off on his third adventure. . . but nothing goes quite to plan when he suffers a bump to the head, and shrinks to the size of a postage stamp! And from then it just gets curiouser and curiouser. . . Featuring a whole host of familiar characters and of course, beautiful pull-out letters and a magnifying glass, The Jolly Pocket Postman is the third story in the bestselling and award-winning series by Janet and Alan Ahlberg.

Coronation Year, 1953, and in Oldbury a Coronation football competition is organized. The boys from the bottom pitch get a team up, but there''s no chance they''ll win, of course. They''re just the odds and sods – one of them is even a girl – but they''re all football crazy and ready and eager to beat off the opposition. A funny and moving story of football and friendship in a world when the streets were full of kids and empty of cars. Not only for boys – and girls – of 9+, there''s a real pull of nostalgia for adults as well. And, of course, for all lovers of football, whether on the pitch or in the park.

Dinosaur Dreams is one of the titles in Allan Ahlberg''s iconic children''s picture book series about skeletons, Funnybones. Despite being set in a dark dark house, this brightly coloured book is perfect for early readers! The big skeleton and the little skeleton are being chased by dinosaurs . . . in their dreams! Luckily dogs can dream too - and save the day. ''There can be few families in the British Isles who do not possess at least one well-thumbed Ahlberg'' - Independent on Sunday Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children''s books and with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning children''s picture books, including Peepo!, Each Peach Pear Plum and the Kate Greenaway Medal winning The Jolly Postman. Other titles in the Funnybones series include Funnybones, Mystery Tour, The Ghost Train, The Pet Shop, Bumps in the Night, The Black Cat, Skeleton Crew, Give the Dog a Bone and A Brilliant Bone Rattling Collection, all of which are available from Puffin.

A teddy bear with a rather inflated opinion of himself has a series of not-always-pleasant adventures before finding a real home.

A father tells four stories about a pig, a cat, a horse and a cow.

Illustrated by Joe Wright

Mrs Vole the Vet has one son, two daughters, three cats, four dogs and no husband. Really, she has everything she needs and she works very hard - no job is too big, too small or too high - but her children think that what she really needs is a boyfriend!

The big skeleton and the little skeleton get fed up with the dog skeleton and decide to swop him at the pet shop. They start off with a goldfish but soon get tired of him and swop him for a parrot until they get bored with him, and so it goes on. Eventually the pet shop owner gives them a box to take home with a surprise pet inside which of course turns out to be none other than their old friend the dog skeleton.

When Thomas Tull is seven years old, he stops growing and begins shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.

The three skeletons go out in their car one night in search of a mystery. They discover that lots of things look mysterious in the dark, including a black cat on a roof and a ghost on a train in a dark tunnel.

Mr. Buzz, his family, and all the neighbors chase a swarm of uncooperative bees through the countryside.

The easy reader with col. illus. about a cheery train driver. 6 yrs+

Bumps in the Night is one of the titles in Allan Ahlberg''s iconic children''s picture book series about skeletons, Funnybones. Despite being set in a dark dark house, this brightly coloured book is perfect for early readers! No matter where they are, the two skeletons keep going bump in the night - clonk! There''s only one thing to do: "Send for Doctor Bones!" ''There can be few families in the British Isles who do not possess at least one well-thumbed Ahlberg'' - Independent on Sunday Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children''s books and with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning children''s picture books, including Peepo!, Each Peach Pear Plum and the Kate Greenaway Medal winning The Jolly Postman. Other titles in the Funnybones series include Funnybones, Mystery Tour, The Ghost Train, The Pet Shop, The Black Cat, Dinosaur Dreams, Skeleton Crew, Give the Dog a Bone and A Brilliant Bone Rattling Collection, all of which are available from Puffin.

Take one clever little monkey with a key to his cage and what do you get? A day of madcap mischief as he scales a giraffe''s neck to escape the zoo and bursts into the bustling world beyond the gates--where people do the most interesting things! Full color.

Labelled pictures introduce vocabulary and such concepts as cause and effect, opposites, and parts of a whole.

Imagine getting so very, very small that you could leave your house by a crack under the door and live, for a while, in your very own, private snail house. Imagine a tigerish bird, raindrops like sacks of water, an apple the size of a huge bomb. Imagine the adventures you might have... Now picture yourself on the verandah one warm summer''s evening, with Michael, Hannah and the baby, as Grandma begins her story...

Sick of socks and sheets and undershirts, the Lathers decide that in future they will wash anything except laundry.

Mr. Tick is the teacher in a tiny school with only six pupils--his own children--which suits everyone perfectly until he learns that an inspector is coming who plans to close the school if it does not have more students.

Rhymed text and illustrations invite the reader to play "I Spy" with a variety of Mother Goose and other folklore characters. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Catching a baby in his hat sets off a series of adventures for a young nineteenth-century English boy as he becomes a sea captain and finds a surprising mate.

Penguin presents Funny Bones: The Collection by Allan Ahlberg, read by Stephen Mangan. An audio collection of the perennially popular Funny Bones books by Allan Ahlberg Featuring: Funnybones, The Pet Shop, The Black Cat, Bumps in the Night, Give the Dog a Bone, Dinosaur Dreams, Skeleton Crew and Mystery Tour.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal. Lachie MacLachlan, the generous hero of this enchanting tale, is the exception to the rule that the Scots are a thrifty lot. In his "wee house in the heather," where he lives with his family of twelve, he welcomes to his hearth every weary traveler who passes by on a stormy night. "There''s always room for one more," says Lachie, and how his grateful guests say a wonderful "Thank you" provides a delightfully warm and tender ending to this hilarious tale of kindness. Always Room for One More is the winner of the 1966 Caldecott Medal.

The humorous adventures of Mrs Plug''s wacky family. Mrs. Plug wins a world cruise for the family by saving a rich man from a robber. When the ship hits a rock and begins to swamp, the captain calls for Mrs. Plug.

Henry and Henrietta Hay are embarrassed because their circus performer parents, in contrast to other mothers and fathers, go everywhere happily wearing their horse suit.