Saturday, October 20, 2012

Brambly Hedge



I started reading the Brambly Hedge Jill Barklem this year only.  I had never heard of them before and accidentally found them while browsing for children's books.  Oh what a discovery it was for me!  I totally fell in love with her exquisite drawings and charming stories about little field mice living in hollow trees.  It was almost like entering a magical world and not wanting to leave once the story ends.


I bought the The Complete Brambly Hedge book (available at the UK Amazon online store) which contains the 8 Brambly Hedge books collection :
  1. Spring Story
  2. Summer Story
  3. Autumn Story
  4. Winter Story
  5. Poppy’s Babies
  6. Sea Story
  7. The High Hills
  8. The Secret Staircase


The stories are about a community of field mice living in Brambly Hedge.  The main characters are Primrose, a strong-willed little mouse and her best friend, Wilfred, who is always looking for adventures!  The stories are sweet and funny and all the characters are so lovable! 

What is really amazing about these books are the detailed illustrations.  The books are filled with color pictures, all incredibly beautiful and full of very small details showcasing the life of the mice in their homes or outdoors.  My favorite drawings are the ones from the kitchen.  Tons and tons of objects are shown and they are so well drawn that they resemble miniature toys (or so one could wished!).  Don't judge by my low-resolution photos though because they don't do the real illustrations any justice.  


To complement the book, I purchased the DVD as well : Brambly Hedge - The Classic Collection which is priced very reasonably and is available unfortunately only at UK Amazon for now. Be careful though because the DVD is coded for the UK so it may not play on your DVD player if you live in another country.  It only plays with one of  my old DVD player but no all of them.  This DVD includes the 4 stories listed below:
  1. Poppy’s Babies
  2. Sea Story
  3. The High Hills
  4. The Secret Staircase



I can't tell you how lovely it was to see the story come alive in these stop-frame animation episodes.  I wished there was a DVD for the 4 other stories as well. One could purchase used VHS (Remember them? Those big bulky tapes?) but I don't own a VHS player .  However, I was able to find the download of those 4 missing episodes on youtube  :)  

The children love those stories and movies.  They ask to watch them again and again. I really wished they could make a line of toys based on the Brambly Hedge stories and characters.  I surfed online for figurines or dollhouses and came across this extraordinary hand-made Miniature Tree House by Maddie Chambers inspired from Brambly Hedge's Crabby Cottage in Spring story.

The picture below is from her Website and you must must must go there to take a look because you will then see each room in detail and see how she built some of the miniature items from scratch!  I am absolutely floored by her creation: so much beauty, patience, and passion went into this Tree House that one can't helped but be amazed at her creativity and sheer talent!


12 comments:

  1. These books look wonderful! I have a book on making plush characters from the stories, but I've never read them myself. I just reserved most of them from the library. I can't wait to read these. This was a fun post--thank you for sharing! xo Jennifer

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    1. Hi Jennifer! You have such a book??? Oh wow, will you make the Brambly Hedge characters one day? I saw your new bunny and it's so darn cute! But I could not leave a comment yet because I just changed laptop and it has messed up with all my setting :( ... I am trying to re-configure everything so eventually my yahoo/blogspot/google will all work like before again!

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  2. Cute!! I've never heard of Brambly Hedge!

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    1. It seems the Brambly Hedge books are not very well known outside the UK. It really should be sold here in bookstores because the stories are just made of win! And the pictures are really inspirational :D

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  3. C'est trop mignon! Je ne connaissais pas du tout! Par contre, la maison dans le trou d'arbre me rappelle un dessin animé quand j'étais enfant. Le titre était "Les dino juniors", je crois. Comme son nom l'indique, les personnages principaux étaient des enfants dinosaures. Le plus sage d'entre eux racontait des histoires à ses petits camarades dans leur trou d'arbre (leur repère en fait). Ses récits avaient toujours un lien avec un problème auquel ils étaient confrontés. Ses amis le coupaient sans cesse pendant sa narration. Donc l'histoire qu'il inventait était modifiée au fur et à mesure. Bien évidemment, il y avait une morale à la fin censée les faire réfléchir sur leur comportement et les aider à devenir de plus gentils petits dinosaures. C'était plutôt bien fait!

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    1. Dommage que je ne connais pas Les dino juniors car mon petit adore les dinosaures! Je devrais dire "adorait" car il aime plus les jeux vidéos ces temps derniers LOL

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  4. Je ne sais pas si ça existe en DVD mais cela m'étonnerait fort. C'est normal, ses goûts évoluent en grandissant! lol

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  5. You and I are SO on the same page!!! I LOVE Brambly Hedge!!! There's a MOVIE??? Oh I need to find that immediately! I just discovered the books last year and I am so enchanted with them. I love that you wrote about this!!

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    1. Yeah another fan of Brambly Hedge! Yes there is one DVD but I must warn you that it may not play on your DVD player (I will edit my post because I forgot to write about that!). It's coded for the UK so it only plays on certain DVD player.

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  6. Oh, someone recommended these to me awhile ago, but Juliet wasn't quite ready for them--now I think they would be just perfect for us! Thanks for reminding me!

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    1. My 3 year-old and 5-year old nephews are absolutely not interested in them! But the older kids love to read the stories and watch the DVD! I hope your Juliet will like it too!

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