Meg and Mog

Helen Nicholl, Jan Pienkowski (illus)
Puffin
Age 3-5

The story begins with a familiar morning routine of a character called Meg dressing and having breakfast. However Meg is a witch, she gets up at midnight instead of the morning and mixes her breakfast ingredients in a cauldron! Later Meg flies on her broomstick to meet her friends at the annual Halloween spell party. Unfortunately Meg’s spell goes wrong and she turns her friends into mice!

This is a picture book classic with two popular characters, Meg the witch and Mog her cat.  The illustrations are very striking with bold use of colour, black and white. For children who enjoy this story there are many more amusing and appealing Meg and Mog adventures to discover.

Share the story

Read aloud
Before reading the story look at the cover together and read the title. Talk about what children see, who they think Meg and Mog are and what they are doing.

Read the story aloud pausing to talk about it when children want to.

Join in
When you read the story a second time children could join in with the sound effects eg ‘whoo, whoo’ or ‘bubble, bubble.’ They could follow Meg’s footsteps with their finger as she ‘clip clops’ down the stairs.

Talk about the story

What would you put in a cauldron to make a spell?

What will happen to Jess, Tess, Bess and Cress now they have been turned into mice?

Tell the story

Using the pictures to help them children can tell you the story, it doesn’t matter if their version is slightly different.

Watch the story

Things to make and do

Play the story
Children could use soft toys to be Meg, Mog and Owl and set a table for their breakfast. Talk about how many bowls and spoons will be needed so they have one each. This sort of matching is very good for children’s mathematical understanding.

Using a large pan as a cauldron, children could have fun mixing ingredients to make spells, with imaginary ingredients, small toys or drawings.

Children might like to dress up as a witch or a wizard. Collect black or dark clothes for them to dress up in and make a hat – see here.

Write a spell
Children could make a list and draw all the things they would put in their spell. What will theu include? What will the spell do?

Have fun with rhyme
Look for the rhyming names in the story (Jess, Tess, Bess, Cress).  See if you can think of any more together eg mess/less or words which rhyme with Meg or Mog? (Peg/leg – or hog/dog).

Find out more

There are many more Meg and Mog books to enjoy by Helen Nicholls and Jan Pienkowski

Find out more about Jan Pienkowski