reviews 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued Hare 


Zoë Greaves, illus. Leslie Sadleir, Old Barn Books, 24pp, 978-1-9106-4603-8, £9.99 hbk


Mother and daughter, graphic designer/ illustrator Leslie, and bookseller Zoë, have teamed up for this debut picture book and they make a good partnership.Here we are introduced to – so long as he stops still for more than a few seconds – ‘O’Hare’ (aka Hare King or hare-kin), a golden creature if ever there was one. We follow the frisky character from the churchyard, along the riverbank through the waterside- meadow scrub – what’s he doing in the water? Then he moves between   where he hears a sound and slinks away into the dewy grassland – gone  fourteen pages and is followed by a section of hare mythology and legends     document differences between hares and rabbits (I learned something new here).The poetry of William Cowper and an encounter with a hare itself were Zoë Greaves’s inspirations for the book and a fortuitous one it surely was. Her       ‘He was hare … and now he’s gone./ The fellow in the dew/ The slink-away/      detailed illustrations have an almost photographic quality to them and it’s a case of the more you look, the more            meadow, and the frog and vole beside the bulrushes for instance. An unusual and fascinating book.


JB The Colour Monster 


Anna Llenas, Templar, 24pp, 978-1-7837-0356-2, £12.99 hbk


The Colour Monster is a very cleverly constructed paper engineered book about feelings featuring spectacular pop-ups. The story is told by a little girl who introduces the reader to her friend, the colour monster, who is very  up together. She tells him this is because  to help him sort them out into bottles. Each double page is devoted


to a colour themed feeling with, unsurprisingly, yellow for happiness and blue for sadness. Different      fear is depicted by a grey monster in a scary black forest and calmness  a hammock in a garden. The scenery and monsters pop up in a variety of ingenious ways. For instance, the anger spread is especially effective with the red monster appearing to jump out of the pages, mouth opening wide. A child-like sketching style is combined effectively with collage, crayon, paint and photography to create the varied background images. The monster’s feelings are happily sorted out by the end of the book, with the colour monster turning pink and feeling full of love.


This is a special book to share with a child and enjoy looking at, albeit very carefully! Though the concept of bottling up feelings might be a little problematic, parents and teachers could certainly use this book to spark discussion about different feelings and perhaps help children understand them a bit more. It might lead to talk about other feelings too, such as what colour would represent boredom – perhaps brown or grey?


SMcG I Will Love You Anyway 


Mick and Chloe Inkpen, Hodder Children’s Books, 32pp, 978-1-4449-2456-5, £11.99 hbk


An acclaimed father and daughter team have created a book to treasure. Dog is very badly behaved, not trainable in any sense, and the family despairs. Oh what a scruff of a naughty dog, and it is he who tells this story. The illustrations are simply drawn, giving the dog so much character that we can’t help but sympathise with him. The family are driven to distraction by his destructive behaviour at home and subsequently by


away. Again and again. Discussions take place. The dog will HAVE to go. Dog runs away, but this time he runs and runs … and doesn’t come back. The night he spends away from home is quite terrifying. Black pages, full of thunder and rain, with Dog scared witless, his enormous eyes round with fear. But there is a happy ending, for  is returned home eventually, with the young child full of relief, being licked to bits. Is Dog reformed? Probably not! A heart-warming tale of a family, and a pet with more wag than sense. GB


Love is My Favourite Thing 


Emma Chichester Clark, Jonathan Cape, 32pp, 978-0-8575-5121-4, £11.99 hbk


The author’s own dog, Plum, is given the role of narrator in this, her own picture book, that grew out of the Plumdog blog. Essentially, the book is all about love – Plum’s absolute favourite thing. It’s pretty much an all embracing thing, this love of Plum’s: she loves weather in many forms (apart from rain), her bear  children (who come through the hedge to play) and in particular, Emma and Rupert her ‘mummy and daddy’ and all the things they do together, things through which they show their love of Plummie, as she likes to be called. There are times though when Plum’s joie de vivre lands her in trouble and then one thing leads to another and a little trouble quickly becomes a disaster, or rather, a series of disasters resulting in banishment to bed in a dark room. Seemingly that’s the end of things where Plum and love are concerned. Fortunately for her though, that’s not quite the case; this family’s love for that crazy canine creature is unconditional. The variety of illustrations range from vignettes through to double-page spreads with a scattering of comic strip pages. These are effective in


his running


orchestrating the pace of the story and directing the reader’s focus to the humour of the whole good/bad behaviour dilemma Plumdog repeatedly  particular will lap this one up.


JB When I Am Happiest 


Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson, Gecko Press, 128pp, 978-1-9272-7189-6, £7.99 pbk


TIt’s the last day of school, and Dani and her classmates are packing up their belongings. Overall it’s been a happy year, she reminisces. She’s made a great friend, Ella, and has learned to socialise with her peers. She’s now writing a story about her      with a chapter about her happiest      this might be – which is hard now that Ella has left her school – she’s summoned to the headteacher’s        accident. Her world turns topsy- turvy. Since she’s motherless, her grandparents take her in, her only friend her mischievous, somewhat insensitive cousin. Where now will  From being a cosy story about


The Prince and the Porker 


Peter Bently, illus. David Roberts, Andersen Press, 32pp, 978-1-7834-4108-2, £11.99 hbk


Peter Bently’s porcine take on the prince and the pauper story is jam- packed with jam tarts and hearty laughs. Pignatius is a greedy little pig who helps himself to ten fresh buns that are cooling outside the palace, but his search for more gets him into all sorts of trouble with the royal cook.  in the Prince’s chamber and while indulging in a spot of dressing up he is mistaken for the Prince himself. He loves ordering the guards around the yard and demanding every delicacy his stomach can think of, but when the real Prince shows up the porky pair must work out how this double 


 it becomes abruptly sombre as Dani struggles to come to terms with her father’s accident. Young readers may  but, as the sunny cover and heart-             sympathetic character, always sees the positive side even though she’s known pain and loss. The story owes much to the large, spirited black and white hatched line drawings that capture the essence of each      into short, manageable chunks. Divided into 12 short chapters, the book is attractively produced with  pictures, and the type set large. AF


Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat 


TS Eliot, illus. Arthur Robins, Faber & Faber, 32pp, 978-0-5713-2483-5, £6.99 pbk


Feisty, fun and furry, I imagine Eliot would be pleased with this depiction of his train-loving cat. Here’s a cat who takes pride in his railway know how, and loves to strut his stuff. He’ll settle those noisy dogs, get those dastardly rats and tuck up old ladies into the bargain. Always with that personal touch, he is a cat of many services. Eliot is of course a master. In his words, you can feel the clatter of the iron wheels beating through the pulse of the poetry as the rhythm seems to run along the lines of the track. Robins creates a cosy, magical world on the Night Mail train with a vast array of lively characters. Though resonant with        berths, there are skilful modern touches like the Sikh stationmaster and the Policewoman with a mobile. His characters are delightful, and his energetic line gives speed and vivacity to each page.A joy from start to the end of the line! Perfect for reading aloud, singing or performing.


JNH


The absurdly stylish David Roberts adds panache to this pig tale with fabulous fashions, décor to die-for and illustrated edibles that genuinely look good enough to eat. It’s a visual feast for the eyes and Andersen Press have pulled out the stops with a suitably lavish production; the gold frames and end-papers are a real treat. An afternoon-tea of a picture KC


 and the Awful Invasion





David MacPhail and Richard Morgan, Young Kelpies, 138pp, 978-1-7825-0158-9, £4.99 pbk


 His father, Harald the Skull-Splitter, chief of the village, despairs of him.      he keeps a pet pigeon instead of a hunting hawk, and he is constantly polite and helpful. He is a mystery to the rest of the village, as Vikings are       decides to take him on a voyage to       place amongst the warriors and earn       on board things don’t go according to plan, and instead of plundering treasure, they end up with a delicious      day, and for once the Vikings recognise that it can pay to be nice. This is a hilarious new series from


David MacPhail, and the illustrations by Richard Morgan add to the humour and


Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015 23


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