Vern and Lettuce

Allow me to make up for my being way behind the times with Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache by introducing you to Vern the knitting sheep and his best bunny pal Lettuce, who has a host of tiny, loveably-troublesome siblings:

In author Sarah McIntyre's own words:

It stars a sheep and a rabbit who live in a tower block in a neighbourhood in south London. While Lettuce the rabbit is watching a talent-spotting show on telly, she suddenly decides she wants to be famous, and scoots her best friend Vern off to the big city, despite his protestations that they need to work on getting a talent first. They are both hugely inept at doing most things, but while reading, you hope that the strength of their friendship will help them survive in dark and dangerous places.

I'm not normally a fan of comics, Peanuts aside. But when it's cute, clean and well-written, with some nice quirks on the side (knitting sheep, bunnies wanting to be famous, set in a London tower block with no humans in sight) I'll occassionally make an exception.

Vern and Lettuce's existence isn't new - their adventures were originally published in the now-defunct DFC Comics and The Guardian also ran the strip last summer - but the book is. It was only released on 30 September and the official launch party - organised by Stitch London because of the knitting sheep goodness - is tomorrow.

It looks like a lovely affair - signed copies of the book; sparkling sheep dip; a Stitch a Sheep competition (with categories including Most Misunderstood Sheep); and, presumably for those who didn't have the skills to enter, the chance to learn how to stitch a square sheep.

One strip was enough for me and I snapped up a copy yesterday. But I'm now considering whether to go along to the party. Part of me knows that my dad will probably want a hand getting his Blackberry up and running. The other part of me thinks this party is too fun to miss - but my darn conscience won't shush. Argh. It is a little out of the way, but the wholesome dorkiness of the event appeals to everything that is within me.

Either way, I have the book to enjoy. I read it in one sitting yesterday and loved it. At times the style somewhat jarringly veers between British and American (McIntyre is a Seattle transplant who has lived in London since 1999) and the plot of the main story isn't as exciting as it could have been. But it is aimed at young children *ahem* and bearing that in mind it works very well.