Annie's Christmas Surprise — William Forde

This story addresses that perennial question that has perplexed the minds of millions of children ever since ‘Father Christmas' came into their lives. “If there is a Father Christmas, and he visits the home of every boy and girl across the world to give them a present; then why does he always give the most expensive presents to the richest children and the cheapest presents to the poorest?”

Another prime reason for writing the ‘Action Annie' stories was to correct an imbalance, which had appeared to have developed between girls and boys; and in particular the differing stereotypes. Often the contribution of boys in a primary school classroom would be allowed to override the contribution of girls, simply because the boy's contributions were invariably put forward more vociferously as opposed to the ‘more polite girls.' Classroom teachers with a high pupil ratio would tend to give sway to the views expressed by the boys for the sake of an easier life and a more manageable day.

Then there were the roles that each of the sexes was naturally expected to gravitate towards upon completion of school: doctors and consultants for the boys and nurses for the girls: air pilots for the boys and air hostesses for the girls, etc.etc. More subtle discrimination and expectations existed however, when one looked at the type of behaviour that might be ‘expected' from a boy, but which was wholly ‘never expected' or considered ‘acceptable' from a girl; such as shouting, swearing, fighting, picking one's nose and even making rude noises in public! In short; ‘Action Annie' represented ‘girl power' in action and was my humble attempt of redressing the balance of the young reader and the more discernable adults in their lives.

Annie is an imaginative and very active seven-year-old whose mind and body is always on the move. Even as she sleeps, she is dreaming about the things she plans to do tomorrow. She's always thinking up new ideas and inventing things. She is such a busy child that her parents never know whether she's coming or going.

Annie is very determined. Once she gets an idea inside her head, she becomes determined to try it out. If her ideas don't work out the first time Annie tries them out, she won't give up and will try and try again. Once Annie has decided to do something, nobody and nothing will stop her.

Annie's head is crammed with ideas and her body is filled with feelings, feelings which she finds impossible to hide from the outside world. Anyone can tell whether Annie is feeling happy or sad because she just can't hide her feelings. Anyone can tell if Annie is in a good mood or a bad mood; by simply looking at her, and by listening to what she says and how she says it.

Whenever Annie is happy, her smiley face tells you so. Whenever she is sad, the smile on her face will quickly disappear and be replaced by a squashed-tomato look.

Whenever Annie is ‘very, very, very happy', her eyes sparkle and grow bigger; the smile on her face widens, her two arms begin to rotate like the propellers of an aircraft, her two feet jump her body up into the air and her mouth gleefully yells out, "Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee for Annie!"

Whenever Annie gets angry, she begins to lose her temper. Her face turns red, the sound of her voice gets louder and she stamps one of her feet on the floor three times and says, "Bother! Bother! Bother!" Whenever Annie gets 'very, very, angry' her face begins to scowl; her lips twist up and she stamps her foot on the floor three times saying, "Bother! Bother! Bother!" Then, both of her arms begin to rotate furiously as she jumps up into the air, and upon landing with both feet, she yells out loudly, "And Double Bother!"

There is a little bit of Annie in every boy and girl. That's what makes her likeable. Read about Annie's adventures and find out what bits of Annie are like you.