Customer Reviews

Mr. Tickle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved reading this book to my grandchildren. Even my husband was listening and enjoyed hearing this cute story. I shared it with my neighbor and her grandchildren wanted her to reread it over and over. Little Miss Mischief mentions Mr. Tickle also in the story and a great follow-up book to go along with it. All of the Mr. Men books are great fun to read, and I will keep them on hand for any little one who will sit still to listen to me read it to them. I enjoy the stories as much as the children do.

Back in college I got a job as a summer janitor at the local elementary school. One of the things I had to do was clean up in the library. I took this time as an opportunity to catch up on some reading... in the form of the Mr. Men series. Mr. Tickle is a great book about a man who likes to tickle. If you like to laugh, this book is for you. If you like to tickle, this book is for you. If you are a mean spirited and grumpy person, perhaps you should try another book

Hargreaves' first work, and regarded by many as his masterpiece, Mr Tickle is something of a rarity amongst the Mr Men books. Elsewhere, we see much exposition on the pitfalls of excess - such as in Mr Greedy and Mr Messy, for instance - but a distinct lack of discourse on personalities that are over- rather than under-regulated. A case in point might be another work, Mr Fussy, which stands out as an opportunity glaringly missed. Despite a faintly ridiculing tone to the prose, this is essentially a lamentation on how others cannot live up to the high ideals and perfectionism of its titular central character. It is at best an ambiguous critique of repression, and Mr Fussy escapes the moral judgment so often dished out to others in the series.

So what a glorious anomaly we find in Mr Tickle - a breath of fresh air from the unrestrained id. The all-consuming sensual delight he offers relentlessly disrupts the social order. A postman drops all his letters in a puddle, the tickling of a policeman causes a traffic jam, and the unbearable reverie he inflicts upon a station master brings the local rail network to a temporary standstill. There is something almost Bakhtinian about the manner in which he tickles a dour schoolmaster until he loses control in front of his class.

But Mr Tickle is not Stirner's Egoist, nor does he proclaim `do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law'. And if he is a terrorist, his weapons are laughter and ecstasy. Though his principal targets may well be those who wear uniforms - those who exercise, embody and therefore are most in the grip of Authority - we would be mistaken to think that Hargreaves' purpose is to challenge the external Social Order. Rather, it is to loosen the vice-like grip of an interior foe: the overdeveloped Superego.

We note that Mr Tickle himself is no slave to sensory delight - quite the opposite; he is a model of psychical equilibrium. At the end of his day's escapades he relaxes in an armchair, sated and quiescent. Our hero preaches a message of catharsis - a call to arms against becoming too bogged down by self-suppression and normative regulation. Via psychoanalysis, we arrive at an Aristotlean middle way, and are left with the gentle realisation of our need to give a measure of expression to desire and joy.

Because one thing we can be sure of is that the more we repress the pleasure principle, the more we guarantee that sooner or later we will fall victim to an overpowering and fervid release from the id.

And rest assured, it will be at just that hour we fail our Superego the most.

Mr. Tickle was one of my favorite books as a child. Whenever my dad it to me he would enphsise all the parts where Mr. Tickle tikled people by tickling me. If you have young children, this book is a must. It'll give them memories to charish.

Mr. Tickle makes you laugh WILLINGLY.

I know, I know. You are saying, "But I don't like to be tickled. And I don't want my children to feel that tickling is socially appropriate."

I had similar reservations before approaching Mr. Tickle, but I ordered it anyway. Mr. Tickle gets his just rewards, let me assure you, but in the meantime, he seduces readers into the world of Mr. Men. He does not just Tickle the people in his town. No, that is more...Sesame Street (The Tickler, The Man Who Starts with the Letter T, Volume 13, I think, of The Sesame Street Library).

Mr. Tickle helps the people of his town BOND TOGETHER. He is that slippery sort of antagonist who acts as a protagonist. Britain called for a hero, and Mr. Tickle answered the phone.

But BARELY #2.... (Mr. Strong being #1). For a while this was #1 though. Mr. Tickle is the hilarious story of a tickle (you didn't know that there was such a thing as a tickle did you?) on an adventure though town causing mayhem by tickling everyone! This is also a trip though memory lane for daddy as I grew up in England reading Mr. Men books. My copy of Mr. Tickle looks like in went through a war zone, lol.
The best part of the book is the game my son invented by asking me to tickle him every time someone in the book gets tickled. And by the last page he's ran of the bed hiding and giggling. You'll understand if you've got the book, it's got a GREAT ending!
If your kids like Mr. Men books and you don't have Mr. Tickle, what are you waiting for????

I remember reading this book a long time ago, and I loved it. I still do. Mr. Tickle has always been my favorite Mr. Men character because he liked to have fun by tickling people. In an episode of the Mr. Men and Little Miss show, Mr. Small got stuck in a tree, and Mr. Tickle used his long arms to get Mr. Small down. That shows that even Mr. Tickle knows there's a time to be silly and a time to be serious. I'd recommend this book to kids, because it's wholesome, something that a lot of books today aren't.

Well, it's a Mr Man book, isn't it?! Mr Tickle - the first of the clan, who started the whole era of Mr Men. With both a storyline that appeals to children and adults alike, and a non-patronising moral to boot, this is a book that all children (and adults!) should own. As, in fact, I would say for any of the series, this is highly recommended.

Love the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. I picked up a few of these for my kids' collection and mistakenly thought that the higher price (4.99) was because of a special title. It's actually because it's a larger book (8x8). If you're looking for the smaller versions, click on the "more buying options" and look for the 3.99 titles.

This is the cutest book to share with a child. My children 5 & 6 love this book and all the Mr. Books. Truly, one of the best series.