(Continued from Part 1)

Top Dogs (page 41)

This page features photographs of dogs that Bunty readers had sent in. It’s funny how there is a photo of a dog in a wheelbarrow if it succeeds the pet pin-up on the previous page. The other dog on this page I really like is Crackers the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel because my parents owned a dog of that breed called Jasmine from 2008 until 2011.

Flower Power! (pages 50 – 51)

Gemma Foster (the second reader called Gemma to be included in a feature in this annual) helps out at her friend’s florist. Although Gemma doesn’t have to get up very early in the morning to buy the flowers at the market, she carries out other duties such as making sure the shop is spotless inside and out, making flower arrangements, wrapping flowers, serving customers and watering the plants.

This is an interesting feature that gives readers an insight of what it is like to work in a florist.

Telly Mission! (pages 68 – 69)

These two pages are full of television-themed puzzles. Even though the copy of the annual I have has had some of its wordsearch, the Mum’s The Word! puzzle and the All Change! puzzle filled in and the odd person out crossed out (the previous owner of the book had crossed out the incorrect answer in the group of Friends characters in Odd One Out), I was still able to scan some puzzles where the previous owner hadn’t written the answers. The puzzles I have managed to solve myself were the Odd One Out one, the Soap Star! one and unscrambling some of the names of the TV shows. 

Ha-Ha-Happy Christmas (page 76)

This is a page of festive jokes and everyday jokes. A lot of them are typical jokes that one would find inside a Christmas cracker, but I especially find the one about dragons flying spitfires very clever.

Green Scene (pages 82 – 83)

These two pages are packed with tips on how to be more environmentally friendly and facts about trees, animals and birds. Even though this feature is a good way to educate readers about the environment, I find that this feature repeats some of the same facts and tips from the Green Scene feature in the Bunty 1998 annual. Nevertheless, I tend to take care of the environment by turning off lights when I leave a room, not letting the tap run when I brush my teeth and recycling as much as I can.

Great Grandma’s Sweet Shop Secrets (pages 108 – 109)

Bunty reader, Amy Shepherd, visits the Beamish Open Air Museum to get a behind the scenes look inside the Jubilee Confectioners. Amy watches the sweet maker, John, make some sweets and Amy even gets to separate some of them and bag them up for a customer. She also has a go at serving customers whilst dressed up as a sweet shop assistant from Victorian times.

This is a very fascinating feature that very fittingly succeeds the picture story Lizzie’s New Life and Beamish is a place that I have wanted to visit for many years even though it’s very far from where I live.

…And A Happy New Year! (pages 126 – 127)

The West Jesmond Junior School (now known as West Jesmond Primary School) Netball team share readers their new year’s resolutions for 1999. These include being nice to their younger siblings; not eating pork, lamb, beef or chocolate (even though Laura Callender doesn’t like chocolate) to one reader keeping in touch with her old friends when moving back to her original country.

What I found unusual is that most of the girls in this feature were 12 years old and attended junior school. I always thought that junior school pupils were aged 7 – 11 (there is one 11-year-old in this feature), although this school might have accepted pupils up to the age of 12 at the time the annual was published. Nevertheless, there is an interesting range of resolutions and this is the perfect continuation of the Merry Christmas… feature.

Final Verdict 

There is a diverse range of features in this annual. My particular favourites are Merry Christmas…, What’s Cookin’?, Do Not Disturb!, the Pet Pin-Ups, Top Dogs and Great Grandma’s Sweet Shop Secrets. Telly Mission! is a fun and interactive feature despite it having a lot of handwriting in my copy of the annual while Green Scene is an informative feature in spite of the repeated facts and tips.

Disclaimers: This is not a sponsored blog post. All opinions expressed are my own.

The images used in this blog post belong to D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd., although I have made my own scans of them. 

Links to my other Bunty for Girls 1999 annual blog posts 

Picture Stories (Part 1): https://stompgal87.blog/2021/05/08/review-of-the-picture-stories-in-the-bunty-for-girls-1999-annual-part-1/

Picture Stories (Part 2): https://stompgal87.blog/2021/05/08/review-of-the-picture-stories-in-the-bunty-for-girls-1999-annual-part-2/

Photo Stories: https://stompgal87.blog/2021/05/29/review-of-the-photo-stories-in-the-bunty-for-girls-1999-annual/

Text Stories: https://stompgal87.blog/2021/06/13/review-of-the-text-stories-in-the-bunty-for-girls-1999-annual/

Features Part 1: https://stompgal87.blog/2022/05/14/review-of-the-features-and-pin-ups-in-the-bunty-for-girls-1999-annual-part-1/