My copies of these two books show the tell-tale signs of love: dog-eared covers and well-thumbed pages. The distinctive style of writing and the simple line illustrations bring back memories of weekend projects making minty lemonade ice-blocks, pomander balls (from oranges and cloves), and estimating the hours to sunset by lining my fingers in the space between the setting sun and the horizon.
My Practical Puffins were Smells: things to do with them and Out in the wilds: how to look after yourself, but other titles included the evocative Body tricks, Strange things and Cover-ups. They were kind of like the Dangerous Book for Boys of their era.
For me, while these books were practically oriented, they opened my eyes to new worlds. And in a way that may not even have been intended by their authors, they made me imagine – dreaming up experiments and adventures.
Later, when studying publishing, and reading Hilary McPhee’s memoir, Other People’s Words, I learned how important this series was in the history of children’s publishing – in Australia and beyond. It was nice to feel part of the generation of children who were the audience for this unique and novel publishing project.
The series was written and produced by Hilary McPhee and Diana Gribble, founders of the independent Melbourne-based publishers McPhee Gribble who went on to first publish some significant Australian writers, including Tim Winton, Sally Morrison and Helen Garner.
The concept for the books was to create practical books for young children, and the approach was, surprisingly, revolutionary at the time:
speak directly to children as if they were autonomous and sensible, capable of making up their own minds, likely to be imaginatively engaged if the projects were good ones, bored if they weren’t (from Other People’s Words).
The concept and its execution were incredibly successful and by the time the book was in page proofs, the books had large orders from the US, UK and Canada. The first printing for the initial six books was an impressive 585,500 copies. In all, it’s estimated that the series sold three million copies around the world. The series became the source of cash flow for McPhee Gribble that supported their publishing of new authors. You can only imagine how things might have turned out had this series not been dreamed up, and readily consumed by a generation of children.
We’d love to hear from any readers who remember their own Practical Puffins… Any memorable projects?
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due in time for Christmas. In a lot of ways I don’t envy the two American authors of this spin-off. Let’s hope they manage to carry it off with all the spirit the girls deserve.
