| Title | : | Mr. Greedy |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 084317840X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780843178401 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 36 |
| Publication | : | First published December 1, 1971 |
Mr. Greedy Reviews
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In fairness to Mr. Greedy he'd decided to go for a walk after breakfast to build up an appetite for lunch, so he was mindful of he's weight.
The only problem is that his eyes are bigger than he's belly and that got him into a whole load of trouble!
Another wonderfully memorable character in Hargreaves Mr. Men series. -
Mr. Greedy is a strange and unusual story. Mr. Greedy somehow ends up in a magic castle of a giant. The giant catches Mr. Greedy and says “greedy by name and greedy by nature.” He forces Mr. Greedy to eat a huge meal - which is pretty much a much as Mr. Greedy weighs. Then Mr. Greedy learns his lesson and stops eating so much and loses weight. This is fat shaming and there has been a lot of it in the past. We know now that there are other reasons people can’t control their weight.
This almost feels like a little mean spirited to me. I enjoy Mr. Men, but this is not my favorite and it seems more harsh than Roger usually goes in for. I guess one out of 30 you don’t care for is pretty good odds.
I didn’t think the message in this one was all that great for modern children, so I didn’t share this with the kids. I probably should, but I have some friends I’m loyal to and this story would hurt their feelings. So not passing this message along. -
Even as a kid I thought this was a weird one. It’s like a bizarre retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk where the giant wins. Still, it has all of the Mr. Men charm, for all its oddness. I’m not sure how well its ‘if you don’t stop overeating I’m going to force feed you until you physically can’t eat any more to teach you a lesson’ message would go down with today’s dieticians and parents, though…
My next book:
Europe - A Prophecy -
My 6 year old niece loved this story because it teaches you not to be greedy and that made her feel happy.
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Wonderful books for story time. Loved by all my family. Recommended.
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This is another great little learning book. Mr greedy eats too much. But the giant made him Finish all his meal and Mr greedy just felt I'll, he never ate too much again and he looked much better for it. We especially liked the counting of how much Mr greedy was eating.
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I remember reading this during the 1970s when I was little and thinking it was pretty good fun. Nowadays, with the modern-day accusations of fat-shaming, I wasn't so sure I would see it the same way. It's a nice little story which moves along briskly, has a decent amount of text to read, with simple illustrations. Mr Greedy's changing of his ways after the giant 'fat shames' him could equally be applied to any kind of over-indulgence whether it be shopping, eating lots/extravagantly, idling, boozing, not so very different from A Christmas Carol, and therefore the moral of this short tale remains a worthy one: 'Everything in moderation'. 3.25/5
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Greed or Gluttony
12 July 2017 – Gage Roads
I'm currently sitting on a ferry making the crossing between Perth and Rottnest Island, having just paid a ridiculous amount of money for the tickets (but considering that it is the only ferry that makes the crossing, a part of me is not surprised). The fact that they didn't bother to stock up on any teabags for the journey, and the fact that the host suffers from a bad case of verbal diaherrah, really has made the journey quite painful, though the rough seas really don't bother me much. However, the spot of water that we are currently crossing is called the 'Gage Roads', and that stood out in my mind because it is the name of a brand of beers from Western Australia.
Anyway, this isn't a review about my holiday (or the ferry operator) but about a Mr Men good called Mr Greedy. Okay, the seas have just become a little rough, so it is going to be interesting to see if I can finish this review in one piece. Anyway, Mr Greedy us about a man that likes to eat, and because he likes to eat he happens to be really round. However, one day on a walk he finds himself in a huge cave which contains some quite large food, so he decides to help himself, much to his own detriment.
It is interesting that greed seems to be connected with food, but not necessarily with wealth, yet there is this idea that greed isn't necessarily a bad thing. What Hargreaves is talking about here is not so much greed, but gluttony – which is one of the seven deadly since. Like alcohol, food isn't always necessarily a good thing and eating to much can actually be quite detrimental to one's health. I do find the pastor who condemns alcohol in all its forms but lays out a sumptuous feast to be somewhat hypocritical – in a way it is easy to condemn alcohol because of the nature of drunkenness, but food not to the same extent – we all need to eat. Yet having super-size portions in some countries seems to be expected.
Yet are greed and gluttony the same things. Well, yes and no. Okay, it isn't necessarily illegal to be greedy, nor is it illegal to be a glutton, but there is the concept of ethics. If we work of the principle of the golden rule (and not the one that says that he who has the gold, makes all the rules) then gluttony isn't necessarily a problem as the only person whom you are hurting is yourself (though this doesn't take into account family and dependants). However, when it comes to greed there is the idea of the zero sum game – for every dollar you earn, somebody else is losing – and in some sense the more money you make, or save, is more money out of somebody else's pockets. Moreso, it isn't necessarily the rich that end up losing money, though in a sense the poor never really had much to begin with.
Personally, I think greed is hiding behind legal peculiarities to justify ripping somebody off, or worming one's way out of a contract – this is why people don't like insurance companies because the general consensus is that while you are giving them money when it comes time to claim they generally don't come through with the goods. In fact, I remember speaking to a life insurance professional once and asked him what the best thing about his job was – he said denying claims – and the thing is that when they deny claims they don't see a suffering person at the end, they see a saving, and when confronted with this, their response is generally 'but the law is on our side'. In my mind it is the sign of a scoundrel to behave in an unethical manner and then hide behind the law.
No, I don't think Mr Greedy is actually greedy – he doesn't come across as a scoundrel. Okay, he does eat food that doesn't belong to him, but I still don't believe that he is a scoundrel. Instead, he is a glutton, and his tummy is proof of that. Yet, what is a shame is that these days greed isn't portrayed in the same way that it used to be portrayed, particularly in this book. In one sense the world has changed, and people are discarded in favour of ever greater profits, and companies that seek to do the right thing are punished by the market because they are spending money that is not rightfully theirs. -
This is probably my least favorite Mr. book so far. I wish it was more about not being greedy and less about not being fat. I hate the page that shows a smaller Mr. Greedy and then says something like that suits him a lot better doesn't it. I mean I think he was fine both ways. I could see this book making kids self conscious even if they have the smallest amount of baby weight, which I don't think is okay. All in all this book could have been about not sharing or many other things, but they choose to go about it this way, and I don't think it was the right choice at all.
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Est-ce que je suis la seule à être complètement indignée par ce livre??? Avec des phrases comme "plus il mangeait et plus il était gros", "il était gros et malheureux".... Un géant le fait manger jusqu'à ce qu'il se sente mal pour lui faire réaliser qu'être glouton c'est mauvais donc à la fin on voit une image de lui mince et on lit "il est mieux comme cela, non?" PARDON? Pauvres enfants qui grandissent en se faisant lire ça...
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Ah, Mr Men and Little Miss, how wonderful you are!
These books made up so much of my childhood. No matter what I would go ahead and pick one up. I worked my way through them all a couple of times. Each one has a wonderful story for the child to engage with, each character being fun to read.
Everyone has a bias for their favourite character, yet every book is delightful. -
I get quite peckish when ever I read this.
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Never turn down a pot noodle
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Every story has a lesson. Apparently this one is "Beware of Giants!"
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Tedious moralism and fat-shaming. I guess I should have expected it.
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So, this is a classic of children’s literature with vibrant, colourful pictures and an easy to grasp moral. It’s a shame that the moral comes across as pretty problematic to the modern ear.
I’d probably avoid this one in future, and stick to Roger Hargreaves’s John Mouse books, which have aged far more gracefully than all the Mr Men books I’ve read in the 2020s. -
This book is plagiarised; MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY HAS BEEN STOLEN.
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Απ'τα καλύτερα βιβλιαράκια της σειράς!Τα παιδάκια το βρίσκουν αστείο.
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Reading challenge = ✅
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Exciting use of language evokes the very constrained era of the time, with amazing character development that really increases one's empathy with the main character. The denouement is exciting and well crafted together. The symbolism inherent in the entire text created personifications of biblical sins, so may be a bit deep for some readers.
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If there is one Mr Men tale for our modern times this must be it.
This era of obese children and adults merely reflects the story told here. Mr Greedy eats too much, which is obvious from his size and shape.
However he is not pilloried by the other Mr Men (although some cruelty takes place in other stories), and there is no-one to curb his habits.
A weak plot device (he goes for a walk to build up his appetite, as if!) leads him to the home of a giant.
Being Mr greedy, he is unable to resist the lure of the giant's meal.
The giant catches him and, adopting a literal Big Brother role, forces him to eat all the food.
Mr Greedy learns his lesson and vows to change his ways, turning into a svelte shadow of his former self.
Given his appearance in subsequent tales I'm guessing Mr Greedy becomes a yo-yo dieter, a la Oprah Winfrey.... -
Think I’m right in stating that as a boy I had all the pre-1990 Mr Men books with the possible exception of “Mr Snow”. Looking at all the covers apart from the latter jogged my memory.
Sadly I remember little about the stories now, despite reading them numerous times during my boyhood, plus watching the Mr Men cartoons more than once.
Reckon the last time I would’ve read these was 1983, though may have returned to them as late as 1985. Although I’ve forgotten almost everything about this title and all the others I feel that owing to the amount of times I read each publication that they all deserve to be rated five stars.
I’m grateful to Roger Hargreaves for brightening up my childhood with both his Mr Men and the Timbuctoo series of books. -
I absolutely loved these Mr Men and Little Miss books. I remember getting them from my granny every week. There was so much from these simple characters, I remember filling my little bookshelf with all these books making sure I had got them all in right order. I wish I still had these books but somehow most of them got lost with many house moves or my mum gave the rest away. If I ever have kids, I will make sure they get the chance to experience these wonderful, colourful books.
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Overall, I thought that this was a good portrayal of greed through the character Mr Greedy. He learnt that he was uncontrollable with the amount of food he was eating, resulting in him being greedy. It took a giant to force him to eat a super sized meal for him to realise he was being very greedy when it came to food. I love that after realising this, he made a dramatic transformation, losing so much weight and living a healthier and less greedy life.
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Over and over and over again.... I read these stories to my first daughter and then to my second daughter.
They loved them... they laughed... i love my daughters... i laughed with them....that was more than enough for me.
......and as time has gone by I have come to look more and more like Mr Greedy. -
This is one of the best books ever written. I found every moment of Mr. Greedy's journey through gluttony and self-discovery riveting. This book has an uncanny ability to strike home in an embarassing (if not almost spiritual) way. In the end I was left asking myself... am I Mr. Greedy??? As disturbing as this is to face, "Mr. Greedy", (fortunately) also lends hope for the future.
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The 'Mr Men' and 'Little Miss' books are so simple yet so effective. I love the way that all the characters are linked and how characters pop up in other stories!
The books are great for encouraging young children to read because they are interesting, have a variety of simple language and are short enough that young children don't get bored! Children love collecting all the characters too.
