Sali Mali is a popular Welsh children's book and television character, originally created by author Mary Vaughan Jones and illustrated by Rowena Wyn Jones[1] during the 1960s and 1970s. Many Welsh-speaking children learnt to read by reading Sali Mali books.
Following the death of Mary Vaughan Jones, many of her original books were re-published. The copyright belonged to Cymdeithas Lyfrau Ceredigion until the publisher was bought by Gomer Press in 2009. Characters are:
Many new titles for children were authored by Dylan Williams and illustrated by Simon Bradbury. One of these books courted controversy in December 2007, when Sali Mali a'r Hwdi Chwim was published, in the story Sali Mali's iPod is stolen by a hoodie. Several bookshops boycotted the book by refusing to stock it.[2]
An animated Sali Mali series was produced by Siriol Productions and Cymru Cyfru and Calon for S4C in 2000. The theme tune to this was sung by Cerys Matthews (Angharad Bisby in some versions), and the series is narrated by Rhys Ifans.[3] Sali Mali had broadcast in English on Nickelodeon. The show also aired on Channel 4 and has also been sold to Scandinavian countries.[4]
A preschool live-action children's musical television series, Caffi Sali Mali (English: Sali Mali's Cafe), was produced by Siânco for S4C in 1994 and ended in 2001, which was Sali Mali and the others' first television appearance. There are songs every episode, and it was a episodic series, where each episode has a different plot. There was also a spin-off of this series called Slot Syniadau Sali. It was written by Ifana Savill[5] using the characters created by Mary Vaughan Jones, including Sali Mali's pet bird, Jac-do, and her good friend, Jac y Jwc. This series is produced using actors in costumes and puppets. Sali Mali runs a cafe in the small village of "Pentre Bach" (English Little Village). A follow-up soap-opera series, Pentre Bach, which consisted of 52 episodes and aired on 6 September 2004 to 2007, after Caffi Sali Mali was cancelled in 2001, was filmed using a purpose-built village, located in Blaenpennal, which is also a guest centre run by Ifana and Adrian Savill.[6] The rights to the series were bought by Al-Jazeera in April 2006, to be shown across the Middle East in Arabic.[7]
Languages are:
A list of the Sali Mali titles currently in print can be found at http://www.gomer.co.uk/index.php/books-for-children/sali-mali.html