Little Miss H in Miffy’s world

Posted on August 28, 2017

A photograph of a mother and her two children settling down to a bedtime story of the Miffy book by Dick Bruna "Miffy at School" - the photograph shows a close up of one of the illustrations of Miffy in the book - Little Miss H in Miffy's World - Mrs H's favourite things

The Miffy books have always been favourites of ours. Miffy is now over 60 years old and is still looking good for her age.

The famous little white rabbit was the invention of Dutch artist Dick Bruna, who sadly died earlier in 2017. And since her birth Miffy has been the subject of books, a TV series and a film.

We recently received a bundle of Miffy goodies in the post to review. And so lately, we’ve been enjoying Miffy a lot – in old ways and new.

Miffy’s World

Standing the test of time

We have a small selection of the 30 storybooks created by Bruna. We already owned Miffy and Melanie (1997) but now our collection includes Queen Miffy (2006), Miffy and the New Baby (2002) and Miffy at School (1984).

When this last story was written, Mr H and I would have only just started primary school ourselves. Little Miss H started her own adventures at primary school this week. And we’ve found reading Miffy at School helped to prepare Little Miss H for her first day at school.

Like all of the Miffy stories, Miffy at School is beautifully simple in terms of both words and illustrations. It has a gentle, poetic quality. Little Miss H is completely captivated by these books.

She loves to sit quietly with a cup of milk while her Daddy reads them to her. Whenever Mr H is home before bedtime he likes to read Little Miss her stories. It’s nice that they get this time together during the week.

Creativity and kindness

One of the things we like most about the Miffy books is that they are full of positive messages. In the book Queen Miffy, the little white rabbit dreams that she is in charge of her own rabbit kingdom. This says something really nice about the power of imagination and how it can transport you to other worlds and adventures.

In Miffy and the New Baby, Miffy celebrates the arrival of a new sibling by helping her parents and embracing the role of big sister. This book reminded us of how Little Miss H acted when her baby brother was born.

We adore Miffy because she is fun, creative (she loves to draw) and is kind to friends, family and strangers. The stories portray these messages simply without forcing the morals too much.

Little Miss H has also loves the Miffy colouring and sticker books.

They are great additions to the Miffy collection because they reflect the character’s love of all things arty. We particularly like the sticker book version of Miffy’s Play Date where you use the stickers to build up the illustrations for each page of the story.

Into the digital age

We adore books in our house, but I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t spend quite a bit of time on our devices.

I’ve lost count of how many phones, tablets and laptops we have. Although, they are mostly old and half-broken.

Little Miss H is no exception. And although we limit her screen time, she will quite often use one of our tablets to entertain herself.

The Miffy’s World app is one of Little Miss H’s favourites. The game allows Little Miss to help Miffy brush her teeth, get dressed, play in the garden, fly a kite and many more things.

In keeping with the books and by comparison to most apps for children, it is very gentle. Little Miss H especially likes helping Miffy plant seeds in the garden, which she can then water and watch grow. She gets very absorbed in it, so it can be a real life-saver when I need to do the washing up or change Little Mister H’s nappy!

As a parent, my favourite thing about the Miffy’s World app is that you only pay £3.99 to install the app. There are no in-app purchases and there are no adverts to other games. So you don’t have to worry about your pre-schooler amassing huge charges on your iTunes account.

Miffy magic

Whether it is on the app or through the books, Miffy is a character Little Miss H really loves. The simple illustrations and stories appeal to children and parents alike, and I can fully understand how this little rabbit has maintained her appeal through the decades.