An astrology book for children... by Postman Pat

I find many weird things in charity shops but this is a goodie

Afternoon,

Welcome to another An Omelette letter.

I spend an alarming amount of time in charity shops picking through books. I have found all sorts, but today’s book is a favourite. Did you know it existed? I didn’t!

Your pal,
Katie x

The ‘80s were a weird time (I know - I was there). So it makes sense to me that there would be an astrology book aimed at children, as told by… Postman Pat.

Published in 1989, Postman Pat’s Zodiac Storybook is Pat’s discovery into astrology. One morning, as the leaves were turning brown in Greendale […] Pat walked into the post-office, and there was Mrs Goggins, reading the Pencaster Gazette.

“Would you like to hear your fortune, Pat?”

Up until this point Pat had gone through life not knowing he was an Aries. Pat is an obvious Aries; passionate, hard working, loves a challenge. This is our Pat in a nutshell.

Over the course of Pat Meets the Stars, the first story of the book, Pat goes about his day delivering letters and asking the residents of Greendale their star sign. I am going to drop an exclusive - Jess the cat is a Pisces.

Jess the Pisces

At the end of the story, having exhausted the idea over nine long pages, Pat is reading to his son, Julian, a bedtime story and tells him about the signs of the zodiac.

“I’d like a story for every sign of the zodiac.” Julian asks, for whatever reason. “It could be a puzzle,” Sara, Pat’s wife, pipes up. “Each story could have something from the zodiac […], and you would have to spot it.”

Thus, poor Pat tenuously links a different story to a different sign (A Day at the Sales sees Sara buying scales. Scales as in… Libra. I told you it was a tenuous link), and by the twelfth story (A Knocking at the Door, which I think could be about Taurus), young Julian is probably wishing he’d never asked.

Why does this book exist? As Bandit, the dog dad from Bluey always says, it was the eighties! All I can guess was there was a gap in the market. And Postman Pat politely filled it.