I Is For Ida the Incredible Ironing Board
Ironing boards are a pretty strange shape. They have legs that fold up under a long, flat board and as research has proved, they’re not terribly good at walking. Ida is no exception “…and I don’t like it when anyone stares!” she says in her story.
But when Ida thinks someone is in trouble, she forgets all about being awkward and is the first to arrive at the top of the stairs…
Q: Who invented the ironing board? A: Sarah Boone (1832–1904). She was an American inventor who on April 26, 1892, obtained the United States patent number 473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board. Boone’s ironing board was designed to improve the quality of ironing sleeves and the bodies of women’s garments.
Name Meaning: Ida – A female name from a Germanic word id, meaning “labour or work”. Alternately, it may be related to the name of the Old Norse goddess Iðunn. Ida name on Wikipedia
Ivy the Iron
Ivy is an essential support character. She’s primarily based in the kitchen and is there to cast doubt in the face of anything brave or out of the ordinary.
Her own fear and timidity causes her to panic and blow off steam, blow hot and cold, put a damper on things and generally be hot-tempered.
On a lighter note, Ivy is the bass player in the BoodleBob Band.
Name meaning: Ancient Greeks presented ivy wreaths to newlyweds as a symbol of fidelity. In the language of flowers. Ivy implies faithfulness. Ivy name on Wikipedia
J Is For Josie The Jolly Jam Jar
Josie the Jolly Jam Jar. Always whistling, always helping, she proves to be incredibly brave too.
Imagine what is must be like to see your best friend little Jenny Wren about to be eaten up by a loud greedy magpie.
Josie steps forward not knowing that magpies are easily hypnotised when they see something shiny and Josie is very, very shiny. Lost property is found, and everyone gets taken for a ride. Especially magpie.
Name meaning: Josie, short for Josephine means God shall grow Josie name on Wikipedia
Jenny Wren
Josie the Jolly Jam Jar’s best friend. Little Jenny Wren doesn’t realise the danger when Magpie corners her and screams SHACKASHACKASHACKA!!!! as he swoops in to eat Jenny Wren for his lunch.
Well, a snack really because Jenny Wren is so small. Josie proves to be the knight in shining armour – literally!
Wren Facts: In proportion to its size, the wren has the loudest song of any British bird. Wrens will nest communally in winter, with as many as 10 birds spending the night together in a single nestbox. The maximum recorded roosting together is 61. Wren’s on Wikipedia
Name meaning: Jenny (Jennifer) . The Celtic meaning of the name is ‘lady of the people’ and the Hebrew meaning is ‘gracious’ or ‘merciful’ Jenny name on Wikipedia
The Jenny’s
As soon as we learned that young female turkeys are called ‘Jennys’ the existing name ‘The Turkey Hens’ was thrown out. The Jenny’s are the backing singers for our turkey and go with him everywhere.
Turkey Facts: Turkeys are able to run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour and fly at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. That’s like a flying medicine ball! Turkey’s on Wikipedia
K Is For Katie the Karate Kicking Kettle
Katie is always letting off steam. Of course, she is, she’s a kettle, and what better way to do this than by practising karate.
The trouble is, she gets so carried away quite a lot of damage is done including chopping the table in half and making a large hole in the wall.
But it turns out okay because when Katie goes to the shed to mend the table, she overhears Crankworth’s wicked plan to trap – and eat – the House-mites. Time to play Crankworth at his own game.
Name meaning: Kate is a feminine given name. It is a short form of multiple feminine names, most notably Katherine but also Caitlin amongst others. These names are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria.
L Is For Lucy the Luminous Lamp
When everyone is asleep, Lucy wants the nightlife. She loves the parties and shining until dawn and it’s been said that if Lucy had been a candle, she would have burned at both ends. Now she’s bored, that is until she goes with Barry the bin on his rounds and makes friends with the Fluffies; adorable little fluffy dolls that sit in a line along the shelf.
Only on this night, they’re not on the shelf. They’re having a pillow fight and in doing so have lost their heads – literally. And their arms and their legs and their feet.
They’re in bits and Barry, being Barry, crossly sweeps all their bits up. Lucy comes to the rescue and along the way makes a friend who loves the night as much as she does.
Name meaning: Lucy / ‘dawn or daylight’, The name Lucy stems from the male name ‘Lucius’ with the meaning as of light (born at dawn or daylight.Lucy name on Wikipedia
Lucky Fat Worm
Lucky Fat Worm is a stereotyped fat worm design and it’s his four-leaf clover which provides the clue to him being lucky.
But is it lucky to be plucked from the ground, carried off dangling from a beak to then be presented as lunch only to then be dropped (from this great height) to land down the trunk of an elephant? Apparently so.
Fact:
Q. Why is four-leaf clover lucky?
A. The leaves of four-leaf clovers are said to stand for faith, hope, love, and luck.
It’s often said that Ireland is home to more four-leaf clovers than any other place, giving meaning to the phrase “the luck of the Irish.” If you’re lucky enough to find a four-leaf clover, look for more! 4 Leaf Clover on Wikipedia
Louise the Loofah
Louise is one of the original characters from ‘Terence The Terrible Tap’.
Along with her bathtime friends, Louise is only too happy to join in when Terrence starts acting out his pirate story.
But it all gets out of hand. Louise doesn’t care – she’s having a great time – and as she shoots down the stairs she never thinks about how she might get back?
Name meaning: Louise means “Famous warrior”. Louise name on Wikipedia
M Is For Morris the Messy Mop
Morris the Messy Mop is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men). Who doesn’t like making pastry? It’s just flour and water but for Morris, it’s a disaster.
Reaching in the cupboard – the WRONG cupboard – Morris empties flour all over the kitchen floor.
Then, using lots of water he tries to clean it up but in doing so, it becomes a horrible mess and Morris gets stuck fast.
Freddie the fly and his pals come to the rescue, but it doesn’t end there and it takes an elephant (an elephant?) to save the day.
Morris name meaning. The name Morris is of Anglo-Norman origin deriving from the ‘de Marisco’ line (meaning “of the marsh” in modern English). Morris name meaning on Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Morris The Messy Mop
Malcolm The Moth
Malcolm was created as a digital puppet. At first, he only served to provide cameo appearances but then – with us having experienced a really bad edit and a serious mistake – Malcolm came into his own as what’s known in film terms as a wipe.
Thereafter, whenever we encountered a tricky edit, a time-lapse or a scene that didn’t quite work, Malcolm would sweep in, wipe the frame and we could start anew with the next sequence.
As a result, we see quite a lot of Malcolm whilst remaining true to his character i.e. moths fly in search of light, flutter about and then flutter off again being easily distracted. We love Malcolm.
Name meaning: Devotee of Saint Columba – The Malcolm name comes from Scottish Gaelic meaning ‘devotee of Saint Columba’ who around 550AD spread Christianity into Scotland. Malcolm Wikipedia / Columba Wikipedia
Magpie
A villainous character from the ‘Josie The Jolly Jam Jar’ story.
It’s widely believed that magpies have a compulsive urge to steal sparkly things for their nests.
This probably isn’t true Magpies ‘don’t steal shiny objects’, BBC but there are lots who think they do and write stories about it. That’s how folklore starts.
They are NOT good birds since they take the eggs and chicks from the nests of songbirds and eat them. They are very bad birds for doing this.
Mole
Mole only makes a few appearances across the 26 BoodleBobs stories, so his digital puppet was kept very simplistic.
Since mole spends most of his time underground and explains ‘Where I live it’s black, more black and black.” he’s all but blind but with so much time on his paws (haha), he reads a lot since he’s very good at braille and recently discovered podcasts (yeah!).
Mole knows just about all there is to know about anything and actually knows nearly as much as Elsie the elephant.
Mole Facts – Moles puppet hands were created from a picture of a real moles paw where they have a curved front paw with claws that dig like shovels.
Moles can dig up to 5 meters an hour (18 feet). Why?!
How do moles breathe underground? Moles have twice as much blood as other mammals carrying more oxygen in their blood makes this possible.
N is for Nigel The Niggly Napkin
Nigel is clean and fastidious. Well, he would be – he’s a napkin. He likes order and crisp straight lines, so it goes without saying that his favourite hobby or pastime is origami.
This gets Nigel into trouble as he can turn himself into anything but in the end, showing off and his own vanity gets the better of him.
Nigel’s character traits. Niggly, Denoting or engaging in trivial or irritating criticism.
Nigel’s in Australia. In Australian English, Nigel is a colloquial term for a male social misfit or a friendless person, Names Nigel. Nigel’s name meaning on Wikipedia
Story / Cartoon Appearances: Zac The Zealous Zucchini / Nigel The Niggly Napkin
O Is For Ollie the Off-hand Ostrich
“Whatever….” Ollie is such a cool ostrich, nothing fazes him. ‘Whatever….’ is his favourite expression as he drifts through the day looking for likely – or unlikely – things to eat, not worrying about anything.
Even ‘though he has very long legs making reaching the floor rather difficult, he never goes hungry because fortunately, he also has a very long neck.
Having this dual ability to reach very low down as well as very high up, proves to come in very useful when naughty pussy Crankworth chases Ratty up the drainpipe. “Come out, come out wherever you are….” but not in the way Crankworth expected!
Name meaning: Ollie, Short for Oliver. Associated with the Latin term/name ‘Olivarius’ which translates as “Olive tree planter” Oliver on Wikipedia
P Is For Percy The Peeping Pot Plant
Percy the Peeping Pot Plant is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men).
Wanting to always amuse the parents/teachers too, there has to be something in the story to also make them laugh.
The label on the bottle Percy is given reads ‘Supa-Grow plant food. Instructions overleaf.’ Okay, it may not be that funny, but it has a semblance of adult wit and if that doesn’t work (as well as the plant food) one can always resort to good old slapstick which is mostly what the story is about.
Peep meaning. A quick or furtive look or glance.
Percy name meaning. A short form of the given name Percival, Perseus Wikipedia.
Story Appearances: Percy The Peeping Pot Plant
Queenie The Quivering Quilt
Queenie is one of the principal characters featured in the original (1980) first six books published by Thurman Publishing (Mr Men).
Queenie is a dear, sweet old lady and her story concerns her need to find something to eat that will make her fatter because, as it explains in the story, a quilt needs to be fat and warm and snugly.
Queenie appears quite frequently in some of the other stories and is consistently kind and patient, if not a little timid.
Queenie name meaning. The name Queenie is an affectionate, or pet use, of the term queen – and is thought to be derived from the Old English word ‘cwen’, meaning ‘woman’ rather than a reference to the monarch or his wife. Queenie name Wikipedia
Story Appearances: Queenie The Quivering Quilt/ Harry the Higgledy-Piggledy Hosepipe
Stories From The Ultimate Alphabet Book
Granny Annie’s ‘Ultimate Alphabet Book’ is a different approach to alphabet books insofar as it’s written to expand children’s vocabulary and their imagination. Every letter of the alphabet is catered for with characters that are engaging and lasting; in situations that young people can relate to in their everyday lives.
