Mr. Men

Mr. Men is a series of 49 children's books by British author Roger Hargreaves commencing in 1971. From 1981, an accompanying series of 42 Little Miss books by the same author, but with female characters were published. After Hargreaves's death in 1988, his son Adam Hargreaves began writing and illustrating new stories like Mr. Good and Mr. Cool.

Each book in the original Mr. Men and Little Miss series introduced a different title character and his/her single dominant personality to convey a simple moral lesson. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters frequently reappeared in other characters' books. As of 2015, a total of 85 Mr. Men and Little Miss characters had been featured in series. The books' simple stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, made them very popular, with sales of over 100 million worldwide across 28 countries.

The first six Mr. Men books were published in United Kingdom in 1971, priced at 20p each. Mr. Tickle was the first Mr. Men character created by Hargreaves, inspired by his son, Adam, who had asked him what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves responded with a round, orange figure with long, bendy arms.

Over the course of the 1970s Roger Hargreaves produced 38 more Mr Men in addition to Mr Tickle, as well as producing a number of other Mr Men books. In the 1980s Roger Hargreaves began the Little Miss series with 'Little Miss Bossy' and he produced 21 characters and books. As well as this two special Mr Men stories were created in 1985 'Mr Nobody' and 'Mr Christmas'. Both of these have been rereleased in later years. Roger Hargreaves died in 1988 and his son Adam was to take over the franchise.

In France, illustrator Colette David and writers Viviane Cohen and Evelyne Lallemand produced a number of new characters that were not released anywhere else in the world. The characters 'Mr. Crosspatch', 'Mr. No', 'Little Miss Yes', 'Little Miss All-Goes-Well', 'Little Miss Loud', 'Little Miss Careful', 'Little Miss Brilliant', 'Little Miss Flirt', 'Little Miss Pain-in-the-Neck' and 'Little Miss Prim' were only released in France and Greece whereas four Mr. Men characters and nine Little Miss characters were also published in English and can be seen listed below as being released in 1990.

After his father's death, Adam Hargreaves took over the Mr Men.

A competition was held in the British Sunday Times newspaper for children to submit their own Mr. Men character for inclusion in a limited edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the series. Mr. Cheeky, submitted by then eight-year-old Gemma Almond, was selected as the winning entry. Gemma's creation led to a book featuring her character being published; it was sold only in W H Smith branches, with a portion of the proceeds going to a charity supporting children with leukaemia.

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Wikipedia