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Mr. Men #10
Mr. Silly
Mr Silly is the silliest person you will ever meet. He lives in Nonsenseland, which, as you can imagine, is full of silliness. For example, the pigs don't say 'Oink!' They say 'Moo!' How silly.
-- The spring in his step has got MR. BOUNCE down -- can a pair of heavy boots help lift his spirits?
-- Join a boy named Jack as he goes on a wild adventure with MR. DAYDREAM -- without even leaving his desk
-- Square apples, twisted teapots -- who knows what will win, when MR. SILLY and his nonsensical neighbors compete for the yearly Nonsense Cup?
>-- Mr. Tickle's tickling is out of control Can LITTLE MISS MAGIC conjure up a solution?
-- The spring in his step has got MR. BOUNCE down -- can a pair of heavy boots help lift his spirits?
-- Join a boy named Jack as he goes on a wild adventure with MR. DAYDREAM -- without even leaving his desk
-- Square apples, twisted teapots -- who knows what will win, when MR. SILLY and his nonsensical neighbors compete for the yearly Nonsense Cup?
>-- Mr. Tickle's tickling is out of control Can LITTLE MISS MAGIC conjure up a solution?
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
About the author
Roger Hargreaves
1,365 books383 followersRoger Hargreaves was a British cartoonist, illustrator and writer of children's books. He created the Mr. Men series, Little Miss series and Timbuctoo series, intended for young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with bold, brightly coloured illustrations, have sales of more than 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
June 29, 2021
This is one of my favourite Mr. Men books as it appeals to my surreal sense of humour. Mr. Silly enters the annual competition to be the silliest person in Nonsenseland and you won't believe how he does...
If square apples, monocle-wearing worms and umbrella carrying chickens are your jam, this could be the book for you.
My next book: Mr. Uppity
If square apples, monocle-wearing worms and umbrella carrying chickens are your jam, this could be the book for you.
My next book: Mr. Uppity
July 14, 2020
One of the more surreal Mr. Men stories as everyone in Nonsenseland compete for the Nonsense Cup with an array of daft ideas.
Our protagonist Mr. Silly is desperate to get his hands on the cup, but will his idea be more odd than a backwards teapot or a square apple?
An enjoyable fun short silly tale!
Our protagonist Mr. Silly is desperate to get his hands on the cup, but will his idea be more odd than a backwards teapot or a square apple?
An enjoyable fun short silly tale!
February 7, 2018
My nephew would not go to bed until he got an extra story tonight. I didn't plan on this. Yet, I enjoyed this book. These Mr. Men books are fantastic. I enjoy them. He loves these things and they giggled.
Mr. Silly lives in Nonsenseland. There is a yearly silly competition he has his heart set on winning. He has to come up with something really silly to win with. He has lost the last 2 years.
Smart storytelling. I see why these have survived. My nephew loves them.
Mr. Silly lives in Nonsenseland. There is a yearly silly competition he has his heart set on winning. He has to come up with something really silly to win with. He has lost the last 2 years.
Smart storytelling. I see why these have survived. My nephew loves them.
May 9, 2017
Children adore these books and I like the way the Mr Men are accepted and loved within the stories, despite their eccentricites - only learning a gentle lesson if they display excessive greed for example, but even then proving that they stay true to their character. Quite a useful lesson for little ones to learn while having fun, and enjoying the wonderful illustrations.
April 12, 2017
My 6 year old niece says Mr. Silly is a silly billy and he makes her feel funny.
May 22, 2025
Now this is an incredible use of my €3
May 29, 2011
An excellent parody of social conformity and rebellion. I felt the middle section was padded out a little, did we really need three animal introductions during Mr. Silly's walk? Although interesting, they didn't advance the plot. Perhaps Mr. Hargreaves was eager to show off his animal drawing skills.
I would have liked to have known more about the other characters in the competition. Mr. Muddle, Mrs Nincompoop and the King of Nonsenseland were barely discussed. I for one would have been interested in the horticology challenges Mr. Muddle overcame to grow his square apple.
All-in-all, an excellent read, if slightly short.
I would have liked to have known more about the other characters in the competition. Mr. Muddle, Mrs Nincompoop and the King of Nonsenseland were barely discussed. I for one would have been interested in the horticology challenges Mr. Muddle overcame to grow his square apple.
All-in-all, an excellent read, if slightly short.
July 8, 2018
All my children and grandchildren have loved the Mr men books by Roger Hargreaves.
We had great fun buying a book each week and building up a library. They where always reasonably priced and gave my children a love of books. Recommended.
We had great fun buying a book each week and building up a library. They where always reasonably priced and gave my children a love of books. Recommended.
May 2, 2014
Favourite quote:
"Meow" said the chicken.
"Meow" said the chicken.
May 31, 2023
/!\ SILLIEST BOOK EVER
February 4, 2010
This book deserves a star just for Mr Silly's shoes - tremendous!
A lovely, whimsical tale, transporting children to a magical land where their silly natures can be indulged to the full.
My childrens' imaginatons were sparked by the start, trying to come up with more silly things he might do.
There is the obligatory walk that the Mr Men character goes on, such is the formula for these stories.
Personally we felt that the teapot should have won the cup, but then our hero wouldn't have succeeded.
A lovely, whimsical tale, transporting children to a magical land where their silly natures can be indulged to the full.
My childrens' imaginatons were sparked by the start, trying to come up with more silly things he might do.
There is the obligatory walk that the Mr Men character goes on, such is the formula for these stories.
Personally we felt that the teapot should have won the cup, but then our hero wouldn't have succeeded.
December 27, 2014
The 'Mr Men' and 'Little Miss' books are so simple yet so effective. I love the way that all the characters are linked and how characters pop up in other stories!
The books are great for encouraging young children to read because they are interesting, have a variety of simple language and are short enough that young children don't get bored! Children love collecting all the characters too.
The books are great for encouraging young children to read because they are interesting, have a variety of simple language and are short enough that young children don't get bored! Children love collecting all the characters too.
September 28, 2015
Ah, Mr Men and Little Miss, how wonderful you are!
These books made up so much of my childhood. No matter what I would go ahead and pick one up. I worked my way through them all a couple of times. Each one has a wonderful story for the child to engage with, each character being fun to read.
Everyone has a bias for their favourite character, yet every book is delightful.
These books made up so much of my childhood. No matter what I would go ahead and pick one up. I worked my way through them all a couple of times. Each one has a wonderful story for the child to engage with, each character being fun to read.
Everyone has a bias for their favourite character, yet every book is delightful.
December 22, 2016
I enjoyed this book because I like being silly. I also enjoyed this book because this was a book about being silly.
August 25, 2025
I really need to hit those 30 books this year.
February 2, 2018
My son loved this book.
July 13, 2017
Let's do Something Silly
12 July 2017 – Rottnest Island
A part of me wants to say that Rottnest Island is expensive, but then again I shouldn't be all that surprised since the only way you can get out here is by boat across what can be considered a rather rough channel. Also, the price of the ferry trip I suspect also includes the price of entry onto the island, and the fact that the employers have to pay for their staff to commute to and from Perth is also going to add to the costs. As you can probably guess, I happen to be sitting at a restaurant on Rottnest Island, and have actually lugged my Laptop across the Gage Roads simply so I could write a couple of reviews while I am here.
So, the previous review was on Mr Greedy, and was a bit of a downer because I seemed to only talk about greed and how unethical greedy people actually are. However, this story is a little brighter because it is a story about a silly person living in a land full of silly people. In fact, the place is so silly that every year they have a competition on who can come up with the silliest idea. I guess we should be a little more specific as the silly idea is either useless (such as a car with square wheels) or pointless (such as an apple shaped like a cube). Actually, we could also have a category for the useless and the pointless, such as the iPhone 7, or the Turnbull Government. Well, I shouldn't be too harsh on the pro-business political party in Australia as all politicians probably fall into the category – they are what people refer to as Pole Turtles.
Another idea that should fall into the useless categories are call centres, especially those connected with Virgin Australia (and sister airlines). The thing is that they send me an email to say that my flight has been canceled, but that's okay because they booked me on the flight that was first thing in the morning. So, I call the call centre to complain and get somebody, who clearly isn't Australian, and no doubt working in poverty-like conditions, tell me that she is incredibly sorry but there is jack that I can do about it. So, what happens is that these mega corporations get these poor individuals to field phone calls everyday to basically be told that their company sucks, but there is nothing that they can do about it, and are then punished because they weren't able to change the caller's opinion around. Hey, the only person that I want to know what I think of their company are the shareholders and the board – at least they can do something about it, not some poor Filipino in a call centre that would no doubt breach occupational health and safety standards.
However, Mr Silly wins the prize (sorry for giving the end away, but come on, who else was going to win this competition) by doing something that is quite normal, at least in our eyes. The thing with Nonsenseland is that what we consider to be silly, they consider normal, and what they consider silly is what we consider normal. As such, Mr Silly does something that we would consider normal, but the residents of Nonsenseland consider to be incredibly absurd. In a way, we should follow in Mr Silly's footsteps and start doing things that on one hand seem to be quite absurd, such as paying people a living wage, taking responsibility for our actions and decisions and not attempting to foist them on somebody else, and actually starting to live minimally as opposed to ostentatiously. Maybe, just maybe, if we start doing that we might also find that we, like Mr Silly, end up reaping the rewards.
12 July 2017 – Rottnest Island
A part of me wants to say that Rottnest Island is expensive, but then again I shouldn't be all that surprised since the only way you can get out here is by boat across what can be considered a rather rough channel. Also, the price of the ferry trip I suspect also includes the price of entry onto the island, and the fact that the employers have to pay for their staff to commute to and from Perth is also going to add to the costs. As you can probably guess, I happen to be sitting at a restaurant on Rottnest Island, and have actually lugged my Laptop across the Gage Roads simply so I could write a couple of reviews while I am here.
So, the previous review was on Mr Greedy, and was a bit of a downer because I seemed to only talk about greed and how unethical greedy people actually are. However, this story is a little brighter because it is a story about a silly person living in a land full of silly people. In fact, the place is so silly that every year they have a competition on who can come up with the silliest idea. I guess we should be a little more specific as the silly idea is either useless (such as a car with square wheels) or pointless (such as an apple shaped like a cube). Actually, we could also have a category for the useless and the pointless, such as the iPhone 7, or the Turnbull Government. Well, I shouldn't be too harsh on the pro-business political party in Australia as all politicians probably fall into the category – they are what people refer to as Pole Turtles.
Another idea that should fall into the useless categories are call centres, especially those connected with Virgin Australia (and sister airlines). The thing is that they send me an email to say that my flight has been canceled, but that's okay because they booked me on the flight that was first thing in the morning. So, I call the call centre to complain and get somebody, who clearly isn't Australian, and no doubt working in poverty-like conditions, tell me that she is incredibly sorry but there is jack that I can do about it. So, what happens is that these mega corporations get these poor individuals to field phone calls everyday to basically be told that their company sucks, but there is nothing that they can do about it, and are then punished because they weren't able to change the caller's opinion around. Hey, the only person that I want to know what I think of their company are the shareholders and the board – at least they can do something about it, not some poor Filipino in a call centre that would no doubt breach occupational health and safety standards.
However, Mr Silly wins the prize (sorry for giving the end away, but come on, who else was going to win this competition) by doing something that is quite normal, at least in our eyes. The thing with Nonsenseland is that what we consider to be silly, they consider normal, and what they consider silly is what we consider normal. As such, Mr Silly does something that we would consider normal, but the residents of Nonsenseland consider to be incredibly absurd. In a way, we should follow in Mr Silly's footsteps and start doing things that on one hand seem to be quite absurd, such as paying people a living wage, taking responsibility for our actions and decisions and not attempting to foist them on somebody else, and actually starting to live minimally as opposed to ostentatiously. Maybe, just maybe, if we start doing that we might also find that we, like Mr Silly, end up reaping the rewards.
March 27, 2015
Think I’m right in stating that as a boy I had all the pre-1990 Mr Men books with the possible exception of “Mr Snow”. Looking at all the covers apart from the latter jogged my memory.
Sadly I remember little about the stories now, despite reading them numerous times during my boyhood, plus watching the Mr Men cartoons more than once.
Reckon the last time I would’ve read these was 1983, though may have returned to them as late as 1985. Although I’ve forgotten almost everything about this title and all the others I feel that owing to the amount of times I read each publication that they all deserve to be rated five stars.
I’m grateful to roger Hargreaves for brightening up my childhood with both his Mr Men and the Timbuctoo series of books.
Sadly I remember little about the stories now, despite reading them numerous times during my boyhood, plus watching the Mr Men cartoons more than once.
Reckon the last time I would’ve read these was 1983, though may have returned to them as late as 1985. Although I’ve forgotten almost everything about this title and all the others I feel that owing to the amount of times I read each publication that they all deserve to be rated five stars.
I’m grateful to roger Hargreaves for brightening up my childhood with both his Mr Men and the Timbuctoo series of books.
August 18, 2013
I absolutely loved these Mr Men and Little Miss books. I remember getting them from my granny every week. There was so much from these simple characters, I remember filling my little bookshelf with all these books making sure I had got them all in right order. I wish I still had these books but somehow most of them got lost with many house moves or my mum gave the rest away. If I ever have kids, I will make sure they get the chance to experience these wonderful, colourful books.
July 31, 2008
BLOWN AWAY! the use of imagery and allegory are poetic and profound, a cerebral page turner in the strictest sense. Numerous parallels to the epic Gilgamesh w/ subplots that seem to epitomize and clarify the most fundamental principals of Kantian metaphysics. Simply provocative - Simply . . . . genius.
May 28, 2011
This book is a lot of fun and especially silly. Theme is everything that is silly! Great to ask questions to children and involve them by wondering what Mr. Silly might do next. Pictures are great and so unique to Roger Hargreaves books.
June 16, 2008
Mr. Silly lives in a silly house in nonsenseland. His ambition is to win the nonsense cup. Can he manage it?
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May 2, 2012UH OH LOOK WHO IT IS THE SILLIEST SAUSAGE IN TOWN!!! WAHOO!!!
July 11, 2012
Couldn't stop laughing while reading this one, so trees are red eh?? Various funny things can be found in Nonsenseland.
August 23, 2012
I'm reading the Mr Men books to my son at night and i love this book, actually i think i enjoy this book as much or maybe a bit more than he does!
September 21, 2014
For some reason the idea of birds flying backwards really tickled me when I was six.
February 13, 2015
what a silly book!
July 16, 2016
Mr Silly tries to win a Nonsense Cup.
This book reminded of all the things people do to win awards / prizes / etc.
This book reminded of all the things people do to win awards / prizes / etc.
October 1, 2016
“Mr Silly” - Competing against Mr Foolish, Mr Muddle and Mrs Nimkinpoop, Mr Silly wins the Nonsense Cup by doing something never before seen in Nonsenseland.
August 5, 2017
This Mr Men book is worth reading for the pictures! A worm with a monocle!!!!!Enough said.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews