Ingle: How to be a Hob

Ingle is a Hob. A curious, gentle, trusting Hob. One day Ingle wakes to find he is home alone! Of course, his natural reaction is to venture off into the woods to search for his family, which is where a mischeavous Spriggan plants the seeds of abandonement in our hero’s mind and the thought that the love he recieves is not unconditional.

Ingle: How to be a Hob aims to spark new interest in british folore, featuring characters found in folkloric tales that are centuries old, brought into the modern world for a new generation to enjoy! In printing familiar textures found around the house and outdoors to provide a tactile link between the illustrations of the book and real life, the illustrations of the book spark the imagination of its audience and bring these creatures into the real world through the environemnts they were said to inhabit.

Ingle: How to be a Hob is aimed at children from keystage 1 to keystage 2 where children are encouraged to infer meaning and identify themes in a text beyond the words written on the page. Inspiration Drawn from the works of Tove Jansson guided me in making a book that invites children to explore heavier themes for the first time within a whimsical environemnt with endearing characters.

Ingle is a Hob! He lives at number 43, just across from the spriggan’s woods, where he peacefully spends his days sleeping in a cupboard he decorated himself and eating cosy porridge . Ingle lives with his Mum, a Hag and his Dad a Bogart. He loves them very much so you can understand his panic and worry when one day he wakes up …. AND NOBODY IS HOME!

Perhaps they went on a morning walk? Perhaps they’ve gone to get him a treat? or perhaps… they’ve left him behind forever. Ingle’s journey to figure out where his parents have gone leads him to cross paths with a Spriggan who tricks Ingle into believing his parents have indeed abandoned him because he isn’t perfroming his duties as a Hob: housework.

Ingle goes home and starts cleaning right away but having never cleaned before he’s not too sure what to do… and things quickly get out of control.

Sulking in the cupboard beleiving his parents have abandoned him, Ingle is suprised by the familiar face of his mum! Who is quick to comfort him and reassure him he is all the hob he needs to be and that they never abandoned him Dad was asleep on the sofa and mum was out at the neighbour’s house!