Penguin Australia

May 2021

• ISBN: 9781760894818
• Imprint: Puffin
• Format: Hardback
• Pages: 192
• RRP: $24.99

When I was a kid, growing up in Sydney, my favourite part of the weekend was reading the Sunday comics. I started about four years old, when my Dad opened his Telegraph, and handed me the colourful insert and I was pretty much still reading them even when I was a teenager. Ginger Meggs was always a great favourite of mine. For my 5th birthday my parents took me to Taronga Zoo where the sweetest little monkey grasped my hand through its cage. On the way home I asked for a pet monkey (as you do) and my father replied that it was illegal to have monkeys as pets in Australia. Naturally I retorted ‘That can’t be true. Ginger Meggs has one!’. My father laughed rather a lot and said he knew Jimmy Bancks, the creator of Ginger (how I don’t know – but he did know an awful lot of people!) so I told him he should ask Mr Bancks where Ginger got his monkey from and then I could get one too. Needless to say, no monkey eventuated but I did acquire, soon after, a ginger kitten which I named Meggsie.

When Tristan announced he was writing this book to commemorate the centenary of Ginger Meggs, all those memories came flooding back to me as if they were just yesterday and so, of course, it gives me great pleasure to hold this very special book in my hands.

Tristan’s great-great uncle Jimmy was, without doubt, the best-known cartoonist in Australia and his legacy still lives on today, with Jason Chatfield now creating Ginger’s adventures which are published daily in 34 countries.

Naturally as times have changed, so have Ginger’s stories to give them a contemporary feel whilst retaining the irascible charm of the red-headed kid loved by young and old. When Ginger and his mate, Benny, build their new billy-cart, they ‘borrow’ wheels from the wheelie bin and when Ginger runs for class captain his opponent puts up a poster proclaiming, ‘Make our Class Great Again!’…….frankly, a tad more impressive than GM’s ‘Vote 1 for the Ginger Ninja’ (although to be honest, I think Ginger could do a far better job than our current PM).

Kids and adults alike will thoroughly enjoy these fresh new stories: Dead Man’s Hill, Lamington Billionaire, Ginger Meggs for PM and Father’s Day and, most certainly, will find the illustrated comic strip style timeline of Ginger’s history that follows absolutely fascinating. I have definitely enjoyed the laughs these new stories have provided over this very wet Easter weekend and have been plotting a celebration in our library for Meggsie’s centenary as well as offering our students the opportunity to showcase their comic creation skills.

You definitely won’t want to miss out on this superbly presented commemoration of an Australian icon – pre-order from any of the suppliers below:

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