Molesons book series by Burny Bos illustrated by Hans de Beer

Easy Fiction Treasure

"A refreshing reminder that easy readers can be both literary 

and interesting ... " Booklist

Meet the Moleson family - Dad is Morris known as Mud; Mum is Molly - she is busy and funny; Grandma is a wild lady in her electric wheel chair; and the twins are Dusty and Dugless known as Dug. Dug narrates the stories in each book.

We don't have moles in Australia but I am sure all young children will warm to this quirky little family.

Here are some plot details from a few of the short stories that I especially enjoyed:

Birthday Presents from "Meet the Molesons" - Dusty is given a doll for her birthday and her twin Dug is given a bright red crane. These gifts are the wrong way around and after the siblings swap their presents the games can begin.

The Sick Day from "Meet the Molesons" - Dug and Dusty decorate their faces with lipstick spots and declare they have chicken pox. Dad believes them and lets them stay home from school BUT what will mum say?

Dish washing made easy in "Leave it to the Molesons" - Mum and Dad are exhausted. After all the visitors leave Dug and Dusty offer to wash the dishes. The hose in the back garden seems perfect. Luckily it is a hot summer day because this all ends in a wonderful water fight with the whole family joining in.

The Molesons series are from North-South Books. The series were called "An easy to read book."  Sadly they are all out of print. Each of the titles were originally by European authors and illustrators translated into English. These are all easy to read texts with delightful colour illustrations. Each book in the Molesons series contains eight short stories featuring the different members of the family.

Here are some editions of these books in other languages:

Maulwurf is mole in German - I love that word:

There were terrific books in the North South Easy to Read books. Over twenty were published. Here are a few I especially love and some I would like to read:

One more thing - I cannot verify this but you might see the name Ursel Sheffler on books from the Easy to Read series including the Rinaldo books. I think she might be related to the famous illustrator Axel Scheffler (Illustrator of The Gruffalo and other famous books by Julia Donaldson.) I was also excited to read Ursel loved the work of Michael Ende as a child - my blog is named after a Michael Ende book - Momo.