Booklings Effort
25
Facts
? Hans Andersen was tall and thin with a big nose and described
himself as ugly.
? Around £2.2billion is spent on books each year in the UK, of
which a fifth goes on children’s books.
? The bestselling children’s book of all time may well be JRR
Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which has sold more than 100 million
copies since 1937.
? The seven Harry Potter books are estimated to have sold 450
million between them but precise figures for the individual titles
are unknown.
? Hans Christian Andersen was born two months after his parents
married.
? The Oxford English Dictionary lists 21 words as having been
introduced into the language by Lewis Carroll, author of Alice
In Wonderland.
? Alice In Wonderland was banned in China in 1931 as talking
animals were an insult to humans.
? Hans Andersen never ate pork and when staying in hotels
always carried a coil of rope with him in case he needed to
escape from a fire.
? The real name of “Dr Seuss”, author of 64 children’s books,
was Theodor Seuss Geisel. When asked why he had no children
of his own, De Seuss said: “You have ’em; I’ll entertain ’em.