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Horrid Henry is a children's book series by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross. It has been adapted for television, film and theatre.

Books

The first Horrid Henry book was written and published in 1994 by Orion Books. Up until 2015, 24 official Horrid Henry titles were published in the series with a special one-off 25th Anniversary book, published in 2019. The series has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide.

The books are a slice-of-life series featuring the titular Henry, a wildly misbehaved boy who will typically be faced with a problem and then will often retaliate in interesting ways that involve trickery, rule-breaking and elaborate practical jokes. Henry has a younger brother, Perfect Peter, who is the exact opposite. Almost every character is known by an alliterative nickname (Rude Ralph, Moody Margaret, Brainy Brian, etc.) with a few exceptions e.g. Mum, Dad and Miss Battle-Axe. According to Francesca Simon, she got the idea for the Horrid Henry books when a friend asked her to write a story about a horrid child. She also wanted to write about sibling rivalry and families where one child was considered "perfect" and the other "horrid". Many of the books' stories were inspired by events from Simon's life and those of people that she knew, with additional ideas coming from her imagination. Inspiration also came from her own childhood, growing up in California the eldest of four, desperately wanting to be an only one. They lived in very small houses so there was, in Simon's words, "that feeling of all being squished together in not enough space, with my dad (Mayo Simon) writing away upstairs and telling us to be quiet".

The Horrid Henry stories are read on audiobook by actress Miranda Richardson and published by Orion Audio. Released between 2000 and 2019, the audiobooks were produced by Peter Rinne and Nicholas Jones (for Strathmore Publishing), with music composed by Rinne and Dik Cadbury.

Each title in the main series consists of four short stories with black and white illustrations. The titles in the Early Readers series, aimed at younger readers, each consist of a single story with colour illustrations. Each story in that series, except Don't Be Horrid, Henry!, was originally published in a main series title. Don't Be Horrid, Henry! is an original story about Henry as a toddler. Eleven fact books, written from Henry's point of view, have also been published along with eight joke books, eleven colour books and at least twelve activity books as well as a series of annuals.

Horrid Henry is published in 25 languages around the world. In April 2009, the US Sourcebooks' Jabberwocky imprint released four Horrid Henry paperbacks nationwide, which included Horrid Henry, Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb, Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine" and Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy. Sourcebooks has released additional Horrid Henry titles including activity pages, event kits and a teacher's guide.

Main series

Extra Book

• Horrid Henry's Bedtime (2005; published for World Book Day)

Early Readers

Fact books

Joke books

• Horrid Henry's Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's Jolly Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's Mighty Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's versus Moody Margaret
• Horrid Henry's Hilariously Horrid Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's Purple Hand Gang Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's All Time Favourite Joke Book
• Horrid Henry's Jumbo Joke Book

Colour books

• Horrid Henry's Big Bad Book
• Horrid Henry's Wicked Ways
• Horrid Henry's Evil Enemies
• Horrid Henry Rules the World
• Horrid Henry's House of Horrors
• Horrid Henry's Dreadful Deeds
• Horrid Henry Shows Who's Boss
• Horrid Henry's A-Z of Everything Horrid
• Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four
• Horrid Henry's Royal Riot
• Horrid Henry's Tricky Tricks

Activity books

• Horrid Henry's Brainbusters
• Horrid Henry's Headscratchers
• Horrid Henry's Mindbenders
• Horrid Henry's Colouring Book
• Horrid Henry's Puzzle Book
• Horrid Henry's Sticker Book
• Horrid Henry Runs Riot
• Horrid Henry's Annual
• Horrid Henry's Classroom Chaos
• Horrid Henry's Holiday Havoc
• Horrid Henry's Wicked Wordsearches
• Horrid Henry's Mad Mazes
• Horrid Henry's Crazy Crosswords

Television adaptation

Film adaptation

On 23 June 2010, Vertigo Films announced that a live action 3-D film of Horrid Henry was in production. The film's plot focuses on Henry and The Purple Hand Gang fighting to prevent the closure of their school by an evil private school Headmaster. The film was released on 29 July 2011 in the United Kingdom and 11 January 2013 in Australia.

Reception

• In April 2008 "Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman" won the Galaxy Children's book of the Year Award.
• Horrid Henry has twice been nominated for BAFTA's Best Animation; in 2009 and 2010.

See also

• Horrid Henry (TV series)
• Horrible Harry, a different character

References

1. "Horrid Henry becomes a movie star". Oxford Mail. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
2. Hemley, Matthew (6 June 2008). "Godber to bring Horrid Henry to the stage | News". The Stage. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
3. "New Horrid Henry book to mark series' 25th anniversary in 2019 | the Bookseller".
4. "Become an FT subscriber to read | Financial Times". Financial Times. 5 April 2019. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022.
5. "Here are the answers to some of your questions..." Hatchette UK. Archived from the original on 15 October 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
6. "Horrid Henry – Live and Horrid! - Teachers' Resource Pack" (PDF). 2008. Retrieved 27 August 2024. The idea for Horrid Henry came about when an illustrator friend of Francesca Simon's asked her to write a book about a naughty child, as she was fed up of drawing angelic children! As the eldest of four children, Simon also wanted to write about the relationships between brothers and sisters, and so she created Perfect Peter. Although she says she adores Peter, Simon admits that Henry is most people's favourite; he is the "imp inside everyone" and of course it's "sometimes great to let that imp out"!
7. "Francesca Simon interview: what makes Henry so horrid?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
8. "20 things you never knew about Horrid Henry". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 July 2024. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
9. "Horrid Henry: The Facts Behind the Fiction" (PDF). 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
10. "Here are the answers to some of your questions..." (PDF). 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2024. I get my ideas from things that happen to me, or to people I know, or from my imagination. I think of ordinary situations, like birthday parties or getting nits, and then add a "horrid" twist. So if my son, Josh, has to have an injection, I think of how Henry would behave.
11. "Exclusive chat with Horrid Henry's 'mum' Francesca Simon on her inspiration behind the naughtiest boy in literature". London Mums Magazine. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
12. "Author Francesca Simon reveals the real inspiration behind Horrid Henry". Jewish News. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
13. "The Horrid Henry Audio Books". Hatchette UK. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
14. "Audiobooks". Francesca Simon. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
15. "Francesca Simon HORRID HENRY'S NITS Children's Audiobook CD Miranda Richardson". Ebay. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
16. "Francesca Simon Read By Miranda Richardson – Horrid Henry Meets The Queen (2004, CD)". Discogs. 2004. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
17. "Horrid Henry". Sourcebooks.
18. "Horrid Henry makes jump to hit big screen". BBC News. London. 23 June 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.

General sources

• Robert McCrum interview in the Guardian
• Q&A with Francesca Simon
• Telegraph interview with Francesca Simon
• The Stage review.Horrid Henry Live and Horrid

External links

• Official Francesca Simon Web Site
• The official Horrid Henry books Web Site
• Horrid Henry publishers site - Orion Books
• The official Horrid Henry TV / DVD Web Site horridhenry.me
• Novel Entertainment's web site
• CITV official Page
• Steam announcement page of Horrid Henry Game

• Horrid Henry
• Book series introduced in 1994
• Child characters in literature
• Series of children's books
• Fictional British people
• Literary characters introduced in 1994
• Characters in British novels of the 20th century
• Characters in British novels of the 21st century
• Sourcebooks books