Characters found In BoodleBobs Stories

Of the 26 BoodleBobs stories, there are some 90+ different characters.  These pages list them.

Bedtime Stories, A To D Glossary of BoodleBobs Character’s

A To D  Glossary of BoodleBobs bedtime stories

The whole point of ANDRE’s story is that it doesn’t really matter how you appear on the outside, it’s what’s on the INSIDE that matters.

Andre thinks he’s just a bit of a plain boring apron but in truth, he’s a very colourful character. Too often we’re swayed by the bright and shiny – the pretty ones – when the real gems are those who perhaps make a little less noise about it.

Andre’s name meaning: Andre is the French form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It’s a variation of the Greek-derived name Andr meaning ‘man or warrior’ Andre on Wikipedia

Story appearances: Andre The Artistic Apron / Katie the Karate Kicking Kettle

Alice lives in the bedroom with Queenie and the Bedbugs. We decided on Alice being a traditional mechanical clock because it’s got so much inherent personality. Also, Alice is far too set in her ways and old fashioned to be realised as digital and also – as a design exercise –  it wouldn’t be practical as her numbers would constantly be changing.

As a traditional alarm clock, her design opened up a wealth of opportunities. Her eyes could be independent of her body (and often, independent of each other!) and her clanger – her alarm mechanism – enabled a mix of both digital and mechanical solutions.

Name meaning: The name Alice is associated with the word ‘noble’. It’s also linked to the word appearance and kind. Alice name on Wikipedia 

Alarming Fact: The first American alarm clock was created by Levi Hutchins of New Hampshire in 1787. He made this device purely for himself and it only rang at 0400 in order to wake him up in time to go to work. 

The French inventor Antoine Redier was the first to patent an adjustable mechanical alarm clock in 1847. Alarm Clock Info

Boris started out as ‘Boris the Boring Book’ but as NO BOOK IS EVER BORING (except maybe a telephone directory?) the description wasn’t appropriate. BORIS THE BRAINY BOOK was much better and was entirely appropriate because Boris really is very brainy (fact). Read the story and you’ll see why.

Have you ever been asked how long a piece of string is? Have you ever been asked why milkshakes? Well, Boris was presented with these questions and more questions besides. He could provide the answers and made sure his brother in Ontario was in the know too.

Boris name meaning: A boy’s name of Slovak origin meaning one who battles Boris name on Wikipedia

Story Appearances: Boris The Brainy Book / Percy The Peeping Pot Plant / Zac The Zealous Zucchini

For our cartoon song, we needed a natural predator for a wild west scene in Roger’s Pop Song ‘Perfect Love Is Me’ and the American national symbol of the bald eagle was an obvious choice. Therefore Bald Eagle is likely to be a ‘one-off’ usage character for the cartoon song. #PLIM – Perfect Love Is Me (but you never know…)

Some info on the Bald Eagle: It’s found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. Bald Eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning of the word ‘white-headed’.

Located between Northern Mexico to Alaska, the male Bald Eagle has a body length of 70–102 cm. A typical wingspan is between 1.8 and 2.3m

National Emblem. The Bald Eagle is the US national emblem and was chosen June 20, 1782, as the emblem of the United States of America because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks. It was also because it was then believed to exist only on the American continent.

Benny is a close friend of Boris the Brainy Book. In short, he loves all books so naturally, he loves Boris. Bookworms causing damage to books is a fallacy since the damage isn’t caused by any species of worm. Rather, damage can be caused by the larvae of various types of insects including beetles, moths and cockroaches which may bore or chew through books seeking food.

Some such larvae exhibit a superficial resemblance to worms and are the likely inspiration for the term but… they’re not true worms.

The term ‘bookworm’ has come to have a second, idiomatic use being indicative of a person who reads a great deal or is perceived to read to excess. In other words, someone who devours books metaphorically.

Benny name meaning: Benny is short for Benjamin which means ‘son of my days’ Benny name Wikipedia

The Bedbugs operate as individuals within a collective. All the BoodleBobs Bedbugs are male, all are identical and they all wear the same style of stripy pyjamas. Quite naturally, they spend most of their time in bed or at least in the bedroom with primarily Queenie and Alice.

They bounce and hop in all directions giggling loudly in their high pitched voices and seem to always be having a whale of a time getting up to mischief.

In the real world, Bedbugs aren’t these charming little characters. In the real world, Bedbugs are a type of insect that feeds on human blood, usually at night. A bite can be quite nasty and can result in a number of health issues including skin rashes with symptoms taking either minutes or days to appear. The main symptom is usually terrible itchiness.

Bedbugs grow up to 5mm long and their bites are NOT known to transmit any infectious diseases.
Bedbugs on Wikipedia

Bertha is one of the original characters from ‘Terence the Terrible Tap’ published by Thurman Publishing.

All stories need an eccentric or at least an older character who is consistent in what he or she does.

Betha is a great believer in washing. She has a book full of cures and remedies and the cure or remedy for ANYTHING is always washing. Bertha has very strong arms and a ‘no messing’ approach.

Bertha name meaning: Bertha is an old German female name ‘Bertha’ meaning ‘bright one’. Bertha on Wikipedia

Bernard is one of the original characters from ‘Terence the Terrible Tap’ published by Thurman Publishing.

Being a bath, there isn’t much Bernard can do. He can hardly un-plumb himself and walk about but he can have lots of fun with water so, since he’s a kind and amiable chap, he’s never short of visitors. Always remember ‘bath time is fun time’.

Bernard name meaning: ‘Brave / hardy’. The name Bernard is Germanic in origin stemming from the word ‘Bernhard’ which is composed of two elements “Bern meaning bear and hard meaning brave or hardy. Bernard on Wikipedia

Beryl is one of the original characters from ‘Morris the Messy Mop’ published by Thurman Publishing.

Not being one of the principal characters, Beryl only has a small part to play but, like all the Boodelbob personalities, they all make an important contribution to the story.

After all, how could Morris slosh water all over the floor if he didn’t have a bucket with which to do so? Beryl does get a little stressed but with messy Morris about, who could blame her.

Beryl name meaning: Beryl has reference to the mineral beryl. As a name, it is deemed unisex due to occasional American usage as a male name. Beryl is likely a variant spelling of the French word Burrell (a reddish-brown woollen fabric) Beryl name on Wikipedia

Big Fat Bee made his first appearance in the story ‘Raj The Rambling Radiator’ where he summons the squad to locate Fedora’s missing egg.

Just as the House-mites and the Bedbugs are useful for crowd scenes, so too is Big Fat Bee and friends since they’re plentiful and identical.

Bumblebees Fact: Bumblebees live together in family groups of up to 400 bees per nest. Each family in a nest is ruled by a queen who is helped by her daughters (worker bees). Bumblebees on Wikipedia

Braden is one of the original characters from ‘Samuel The Sliding Sausage’ published by Thurman Publishing.

Braden appeared in the first story in the series. It’s the very first one and it was read out loud by the author so it was told even before it was written and was intended as a one-off to keep the children amused.

All these years later, it’s still a favourite. Braden is just one of the characters on the plate and it’s his jokes that cause Samuel to fall off. BOING! BOING! BOING!

Braden name meaning: The English meaning of Braden is ‘broad valley’ or ‘broad hillside’. Braden on Wikipedia

Cameron is akin to a favourite uncle or adopted relative who’s strictly old school. He’s a confirmed bachelor (at least in spirit) who tells tall stories about far-away places most of which have been gleaned from National Geographic and/or military autobiographies rather than actual first-hand experience.

He’s a great storyteller and can always be found clutching a glass in need of a re-fill. Being ‘of the military’ army protocol is his protocol too but it’s nice to know that underneath it all, Cameron has a kind heart and is essentially a big kid.

Cameron name meaning. Cameron is a unisex given name from the English language. The name originates from the Scottish surname Cameron. In the Scottish Highlands, the surname is thought to be derived from a Gaelic word, meaning ‘crooked nose’ or ‘crooked river’ Cameron name meaning on Wikipedia

Story Appearances: Cameron The Courageous Cabinet

Despite being redesigned, Carlos was one of the characters who first appeared in the original Boodle Book series in the story ‘Percy the Peeping Pot Plant’ published by Thurman Publishing.

Carlos is everyone’s ‘amigo’ which means he’s everyone’s friend. He’s a big softie even though he’s covered in sharp prickles.

Carlos name meaning: Carlos is a Portuguese/Spanish masculine given name and a variant of the English name Charles, or from the Germanic Karl. Carlos name is on Wikipedia.

Cornelius was a real strutting about cockerel who was the pride and joy (as well as being a great friend) to our author Jo Kemp. She loved him because he was ridiculous as he strutted about, giving it the big ‘I am…’ when in truth he was afraid of his own shadow.

But he was loyal and loved his girls (his hens) and would have laid his life down for them if push came to shove. Sadly, he actually did…

TRAGEDY – Despite being shut away. Despite the wire netting and defences, one dark and stormy night the fox got in and got the lot of them. Including Cornelius. Poor Cornelius RIP (rest in pieces). We were all so sad.

However, the memory of Cornelius lives on in ‘Eva the Energetic Egg Timer’. Immortalized on the silver screen, he remains as magnificent as he was in real life.
Note: Jo has since replaced her flock and has fox-proofed the entire field.

She has a new cockerel too who is essentially dim, cowardly, vain, greedy and bullying. Needless to say, he isn’t called Cornelius – he’s just referred to as ‘the cock’.

Cornelius name meaning: Cornelius / Horn – A Roman family name that possibly derives from the Latin element cornu ‘horn’. Cornelius name on Wikipedia

The chicks only have one line to say which is “He’s mine…he’s mine!” so to save time (and work!) we adapted the existing Flora puppet to create the chicks.

We tweaked the shape, changed the colour and added a new beak. Crow, who is a rather unpleasant character, is the chicks’ mother.

They look quite cute but they’re not very polite since they’re always pushing their siblings out of the way to be first in line for the food (this usually being worms).

What is Fledge? This is where a young bird grows to a point where its wing feathers are developed enough to take flight. Raven on Wikipedia

Crow, the mother to the hungry chicks, is actually a raven and it’s only the size that really sets these species apart.

We wanted to see how the animation would look if we loaded a photograph of a bird into character animator and we were rather pleased with the result.

Crows are highly protective parents and their offspring will stay with their parents for six months after fledging.

Raven fact: Raven’s notable feats of problem-solving highlights the fact that the common raven is unusually intelligent.

This may be the reason why that over the centuries, ravens have been the subject of mythology, folklore, and in some cultures have been revered as a spiritual or godlike creature. Raven on Wikipedia

Crankworth is one of the original characters from ‘Samuel The Sliding Sausage’ published by Thurman Publishing.

In essence, Crankworth is a very naughty pussy cat. He’s devious, sly, greedy and unfortunately for him, not always that bright.

His constant mission is ‘food and capture’ although he’s often not successful at either. His favourite quarry is poor Ratty, a nervous and long-suffering rat whose nerves are shot to shreds and when Ratty isn’t in Crankworth’s sights, then it the House Mites… hundreds of them.

Crankworth first appeared as a support act in the Samuel story but has since appeared in several others due to his inherent popularity as a baddie.

Dorothy is sweetness and niceness all the way through…although she does have a hole in her middle!

She can do all the dances – after a fashion – and whereas she thinks she’s a BRILLIANT dancer, the others have very different ideas.

But Dorothy knows the name of many dances – the jive, the foxtrot and even the moonwalk – and gets so excited when she gets carried away by smooth-talking Roger who – looking for the main chance to steal the limelight – steps in then wishes he hadn’t.

Dorothy is a female given name. It comes from a Greek name meaning ‘God’s Gift’ Dorothy’s name on Wikipedia

Story Appearances: Dorothy The Dancing Doughnut / Percy The Peeping Pot Plant / Josie The Jolly Jam Jar / Andre The Artistic Apron

Other Appearances: Girlfriend (Friday Fun) / Perfect Love Is Me Song / Jump Song

Buy now, one of Dorothy’s recommended books from Amazon.

The design of these delightful ducks takes inspiration from the original series of ‘Boodle Books’.

The story ‘Queenie the Quivering Quilt’ is largely unchanged as the ducks provide the feathers she so badly needs to become fat and warm and snugly. This story was one of the first stories in the initial series published by Thurman Publishing in 1980.

The white ducks are Pekin ducks. They’re bred from the Mallard in China and were first introduced into the United States in about 1873 where they became one of the most popular commercial duck breeds.

Due to their friendly nature, more and more people are enjoying this breed as pets. Their average lifespan is about 9 to 12 years. It is widely believed that Donald Duck is modelled on a Pekin duck.

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.