MY NAUGHTY LITTLE SISTER BOX SET.

MY NAUGHTY LITTLE SISTER BOX SET (Comprising My Naughty Little Sister, More Naughty Little Sister Stories, My Naughty Little Sister And Bad Harry, When My Naughty Little Sister Was Good, and, My Naughty Little Sister's Friends) by DOROTHY EDWARDS with illustrations by SHIRLEY HUGHES. 

My Naughty Little Sister: My naughty little sister is stubborn and greedy and full of mischief. She tries to cut off the cat's tail and eats all the trifle at Harry''''s party! How much bother can one little sister be?

More Naughty Little Sister Stories: My naughty little sister is always getting in trouble. This time she refuses to have her photo taken and shows off in front of Harry. Will she ever learn to be good?

My Naughty Little Sister and Bad Harry: My naughty little sister and Bad Harry make secret friends with a mouse and find a hiding place for their bread crusts! Whatever next?

When My Naughty Little Sister Was Good: Sometimes my naughty little sister can be good... when she helps Grannie to make a Christmas Pudding and even teaches Bad Harry a lesson or two. Has my little sister given up her naughty ways?

My Naughty Little Sister's Friends: More trouble from my naughty little sister - she goes exploring a chimney and learns how to make sweets. But this time she has more friends to help her make mischief! Will she ever learn to be good?

When My Naughty Little Sister Was Good: Sometimes my naughty little sister can be good... when she helps Grannie to make a Christmas Pudding and even teaches Bad Harry a lesson or two. Has my little sister given up her naughty ways?
...... Outer back covers.

FIRST SENTENCE (My Naughty Little Sister #1, Chapter 1: Going Fishing): A long time ago when I was a little girl, I had a sister who was littler than me.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (My Naughty Little Sister's Friends #5, Page 24): She said "I am not always a good child. But I am being very good this week!"

KEEP THEM OR NOT?: To be kept.

A childhood favourite of mine, I was delighted to receive a set of these books for Christmas. So what of my thoughts so many years later?

Well, I found all five books in the series quite charming BUT I did find My Naughty Little Sister to be more annoying than I had remembered her. OK, so she wasn't always naughty, sometimes just mischievous, and she nearly always saw the error of her ways which I suppose meant she wasn't a total brat but, even so,  she was irritating.

First published in the early 1950's I did find the stories quite dated in lots of ways (and I'm not just talking about the use of language or the construction of sentences), the books take you back to a world of hot, buttered toast and frothy milk, to a world where children, in many ways, had much more freedom, to a time when parents won't so suspicious of their neighbours - I've never known any little girl who could count so many grown men as their friends ..... in book one alone there is talk of the milkman, the baker, the coalman, the window cleaner, and the 'shoe mender man' all of whom are friends of My Naughty Little Sister.

Ah how times have changed - and not always for the better. 

Still, a great nostalgic read, I would loved to have shared these stories with our two nieces who alas are now, aged 22 and 13, probably too old to truly appreciate them as I did as a child.