Madame Badobedah
A timeless story celebrating friendship and imagination, from an exciting new voice in children's literature.
Mabel lives with her parents in the Mermaid Hotel, by the sea. Mabel likes to keep an eye on the comings and goings of all the guests. Then one day a particularly in-ter-est-ing old lady comes to stay. There is something very suspicious about her, with her growly voice and her heavy trunks and her beady-eyed tortoise. And why does no one know her REAL name? There can only be one answer, Mabel decides ... this guest is a SUPERVILLAIN.
But even supervillains have a soft side, and as an unlikely friendship grows between the pair, their fantastical exploits take them well beyond the corridors of their seaside home.
Resources
Creators
Sophie Dahl began her working life as a teenage fashion model, but books and words were her first love. In 2003 she wrote Sunday Times bestseller The Man with the Dancing Eyes, an illustrated novella, which she followed in 2007 with her first novel, Playing with the Grown-ups. A devoted home-cook, Dahl has written two cookery books, From Season to Season and Sunday Times bestseller Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, in addition to writing and presenting two BBC prime time shows about food. She is a contributing editor at Conde Nast Traveller and was a long-time contributing editor at British Vogue, and she has written non-fiction essays for US Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Observer, Guardian and The Times. Sophie lives in the countryside with her husband, daughters, rescue dog, cat and tortoise. Madame Badobedah is her first book for children.
Lauren O’Hara is an illustrator from the north of England. As a child she loved reading fairy tales, painting insects and listening to her grandmother’s stories. She studied art and illustration at Kingston University and then designed window displays and props for films. Lauren’s career as an illustrator began when she and her sister, Natalia worked together on a picture book, Hortense and the Shadow. This was published in 2017 and followed in 2018 by The Bandit Queen. Lauren lives in a converted church in Dublin, Ireland with her partner, their cat Ida and assorted ghosts.
Reviews
Her drawings are completely beautiful… It’s so magical and the words and the drawings really do weave together in this symbiosis which completely transported me when I read it to be being read to as a kid […] I had completely forgotten what it’s like when you find a story that’s so vivid and imaginative and the pictures and the words align so perfectly that you literally every night feel that you are stepping into a page with your mum.
Dolly Alderton, The High Low Podcast
My favourite contemporary kids’ author[..]
Editor's Letter, Evening Standard Magazine
Illustrated with airy, light-hearted charm by Lauren O’Hara…This longer-form picture book taps astutelyinto the imaginative life of an adventurous child.
The Guardian Review
Dahl’s engaging style – teamed with Lauren O’Hara’s gorgeous illustrations – make it a book to remember.
Press Association (SYNDICATED)
This is a charming story about unexpected friendships and the power of imagination.
minitravellers.co.uk
