reviews 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued


a wall at home and Mum is looking at her – but Mum joins in, as she loves to draw, too, and all is well. Jordan Wray, author and illustrator,


dedicates this book to his Mum, because he drew on her radiator that time… He claims to have crayons as fingers, and has always loved to draw, and that is clear from the very colourful cartoon illustrations spilling off the pages in their exuberance. He is a prolific illustrator of stationery and has illustrated 2 books by Jane Cottrell (My Cat Needs Me, and My Dog Needs Me) but this is his first book


as an author/illustrator. A


second, a Christmas ABC, is due to be published in November, and this is indeed a promising start. DB


Big Bunny HHHHH


Rowboat Watkins, Chronicle Books, 32pp, 978 1 4521 4401 6, £12.99 hbk


Rowboat Watkins is a master when it comes to off the wall humour as he demonstrates in his latest book


delivered wholly


“one upon a time, there was a BIG BUNNY.”


‘A ginormously SCARY bunny?’


comes the response we assume is from a child.


And so it continues with the listener continually endeavouring to pep up and scarify the telling. Before long he has Big Bunny devouring truckloads of carrots but still continues to denigrate the storyline until he’s given control of it. Perhaps control


isn’t quite the


right word for, the whole thing is running rampart with the main character consuming a bridge, a fleet of delivery trucks and then an entire city – buildings and all – very tasty ones built by the bus-driving giraffes. Let’s not go there but just say that Big Bunny seems to have emerged totally unscathed from all this and ready to make one final appearance. Where that is, and to whom or


perhaps what, I won’t say because it will


give the whole lip-smacking


game away. Watkins certainly let his imagination run wild in this tale: his telling in combination with his superb scenes of carrots, trucks and the all- consuming star of the story on the rampage make for a cracking read aloud that adults will enjoy as much as children. Makes sure you peruse the pages carefully for the less obvious jokes sprinkled throughout. JB


Baby’s First Bank Heist HHHH


Jim Whalley, ill. Stephen Collins, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 32pp, 978 1 4088 9119 3, £5.99 pbk


Meet animal loving baby Frank. So desperate is he for a pet that when his parents reject his pleas for same, he takes the law into his own tiny hands


picture through


dialogue. It begins with an adult storyteller’s


– ‘He waited till the coast was clear, / with Mum stuck in a queue... / then Frank put on a bandit mask / and disappeared from view.’ - and stages a bank robbery. Back home he uses the family


computer to order himself the object of his desires using some of his ill- gotten gains. However, not content with just one pet – a meerkat – Frank continues spending until his home is well nigh stuffed with animals, large and small. He might have continued so doing


but, having discovered an outsized creature in the shed, his Mum soon unearths Frank’s misdeed (the stash of cash and bandit mask in his room are a bit of a giveaway). Frank is quick to see the error of


his tiny ways but by then the cash is all gone and so it’s left to Dad to come up with a suitable plan to make recompense to the bank. In case you’re wondering whether the young criminal mastermind gets to serve time behind bars, then the answer is yes, although perhaps not quite in the manner you might expect. Debut


author rhyming laugh-out-loud


Whalley’s jaunty, tall


story


is suitably illustrated by Weekend Guardian cartoonist Stephen Collins whose droll scenes will delight both the young and not so young. JB


Rusty the Squeaky Robot HHHH


Neil Clark, Words & Pictures, 33pp, 978 1 91027 751 5, £11.99 hbk


Rusty is a sad robot because he has a permanent squeak, which means ‘if he couldn’t like his squeak, then he couldn’t like himself.’ Faced with his lack of self-esteem, he can only go looking for other robots that might be able to help. In this jolly picture book that abounds in robots he finds them in spades! There is Belle who rings ‘ding’ wherever she goes, Hoot makes a honk, and Twango ‘twangs’. There are others as well, and Rusty soon learns that everyone makes a different noise, but together they can make even more wonderful sounds: ‘It’s OK to be different. It’s OK to be me. My sound makes me special. That’s how we should all be.’ The fun rhyming text and the marvellous, inventive, and very different robots are a joy to behold; this will be a great way to introduce children to the marvels of being diverse and special. ES


This Zoo Is Not For You HHHHH


Ross Collins + ill., Nosy Crow, 29pp, 9781788002523, £6.99, pbk


This is another super rhyming


picture book by the There’s a Bear On My Chair author and illustrator Ross Collins. Once again there is humour suitable for those of every age. A Platypus arrives at the zoo... eagle-eyed children might spot he


is carrying something. On the gate there is a sign reading ‘Interviews today apply within’. When he enters he is met by a tiger who directs him to various animals. Each double page is then taken up with that particular animal’s assessment of the platypus. The rhymes are rather funny and all end with the repeat ‘This zoo is not for you’ So when you read the book aloud children can join in with the refrain. The panda page particularly made me chuckle as the rather bamboo full over fed panda appears to be a bit complacent with his popularity. To show this he is leaning on a mound of panda paraphernalia including mugs, toys and packed lunch boxes. The illustrations


are lovely and


fluid in great spaces on the page with contrasting colours so you can really have a good look at the animals and their expressions-the monkeys are very cheeky and there is even a poo reference on their page! The book has a very clear message in it about treating people/animals kindly and ends with a surprise. If you read it you will see how the platybus fits in – it’s worth the read I can assure you! SG


Quick Barney Run HHH


Pip Jones, ill. Laura Hughes, Faber & Faber, 29pp, 9780571327522, £6.99, pbk


A very gloomy rainy day with Mummy and Daddy asleep or working is the setting for this charming picture about baby Barney and big sister. On each page we see the sister’s creativity as she imagines wonderful adventures for herself and Barney starting with flying away in a box ‘from this grumble-grey sky’. The pair then enter into a world of


adventures traveling up a rock face, into a cave, through water, across bridges... They end up meeting a rather fierce looking tiger but escape with the help of a beautifully colourful bird. There is a lovely balance in the pictures at the beginning and end as they first leave then re enter their ‘home world’.The picture at the end seems to suggest that the parents were perhaps only asleep temporarily at the start of the book!


The whole page pictures are in a


sketchy water colour type style which gives a dream like quality to it, suiting the story. The words are great for early readers with some lovely sounds to make and handy rhyme to make it fun to read together too. A lovely book which would also be


a good source of ideas for a rainy day too. SG


Gary’s Banana Drama HHHH


Jane Massey, Simon and Schuster, 978 1 4711 4784 5, £6-99, pbk


With a striking cover in luminous orange


depicting Gary the gorilla


balancing a banana on his head, this story opens with something really bad happening. Imagine, there are no more bananas! So Gary sets off


Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018 23


on a banana hunt, with his brand new hat and trimmed toenails. But every time he thinks he has found just what he wants, it turns into something different. Bananas turn into dogs, dribbling drool all over his face, whilst singing bananas are in fact toucans with terrifying yellow, pecking beaks. BAM, BOING, BING! These aren’t bananas either, but hurtle


at Gary, as Billy practises


with his yellow boomerangs. Poor Gary, bananas everywhere, but not a one to eat. (Banana butterfly wings, handlebar


moustaches,


Viking helmets, rabbits’ ears….. the pictures show countless examples.) It is the worst day ever. Will the giant banana-footed rocket


blast him to


the wonderful banana in the night sky??? 5,4,3,2,1 ... BLAST OFF! Surprisingly, Gary lands on Banana Planet. Bananas everywhere, and here comes a little twist at the end. A story to spark lots of conversation about finding just what the heart / stomach desires, with lots of pictures to enjoy and fruits to discuss. GB


Oh me, oh my, a PIE! HHHHH


Jan Fearnley, Nosy Crow, 978 1 78800 103 8, £6-99, pbk


This accumulative story has the feel of a traditional tale, as the author- illustrator unfolds a story of greed and sharing. In a kitchen full of fine ingredients and utensils, we see a nice old Grandma who has baked a pie. Foolishly she leaves it on the windowsill to cool…… and, of course, it is stolen! A fox comes by with greedy eyes. “YUM! YUM! What a surprise! Oh me, oh my,” he is delighted with his pie. As he hurriedly hurtles into plant pots, his pie flies up into the sky. It somersaults and lands near a mouse, who can’t believe his luck. “Oh me, oh my, this pie smells yummy, I want this pie inside my tummy.” Rolling it down the street, his pie is next stolen by a greedy cat…then WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! Dog decides the pie is meant for him. Turn the page and we watch as fox chases mouse, chasing cat who now is chasing dog. Who finally snatches the tempting pie? But it becomes


too heavy, THUD! This


tale goes full circle as it lands back on Grandma’s table, just in time for tea! Five small creatures wail their disappointment, so kindly Grandma invites them to join her. The ending is a surprise in itself, as Fearnley shows all the characters interacting (badly) in the final scene. Every page is full


of small details, rewarding


further investigation. The cat wears a wonderful kipper tie with fish bone detail, and the mouse sits at table mounted on a cushion atop a pile of books. There is a QR code to scan at the beginning of the book, to hear a free audio reading. This book is lots of fun, and it would make a great subject for drama. GB


balloons,


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