PICTURE BOOKS:In a world of iPads and smartphones, it's good to know that picture books can still cast a spell on little ones
TODAY’S SMALL CHILDREN live in a world of technological marvels, and some are more skilled than their parents at wrangling with smartphones and iPads. But it’s comforting to know that some things never change, and if you’re looking for a sense of continuity, the news that the picture-book legends David McKee and Quentin Blake have both just produced new books should provide it.
McKee’s Melric: The Magician Who Lost His Magic (Andersen Press, £10.99) has all the scratchy visual inventiveness one would expect from the creator of Mr Benn, King Rollo and Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. Melric the Magician takes care of, well, everything in his kingdom, so when he loses his magic the country falls into chaos. He visits other magicians in the hope of regaining his powers – and discovers that sometimes it’s best to let others take care of themselves.
Quentin Blake and John Yeoman’s Rumbelow’s Dance (Andersen Press, £5.99) is the story of a small boy who dances along to his grandparents’ house in the market square, picking up a strange selection of market-goers on the way. Soon everyone from a farmer and his pig to an organ grinder and his monkey are dancing their way through the fields and lanes. And when they reach Rumbelow’s grandparents, a final dance awaits. This wonderful book is both joyful and strange, and small children will love the rhythm and repetition of the text. Blake’s art is as fresh and funny as ever.
Both Michael Rosen and Tony Ross are also, rightly, legends of the picture-book world, and they’ve joined forces to create Bob the Bursting Bear (Andersen Press, £10.99). It’s all about Bob, a cuddly toy bear who leaves Toy School determined to win the hearts of his new owners. But Solo and her family don’t seem very interested in him – until he discovers he has an unusual talent.
Ross’s Blake-esque illustrations are always a treat, but Bob’s talent – he can blow himself up and is then sewn back together in Frankenstein’s-monster fashion – is more unsettling than appealing, and the human characters aren’t particularly likable.
Picture books have always been a good way of explaining complicated real-life issues to very young children. Liz Weir and Karin Littlewood’s When Dad Was Away (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, £11.99) looks at the experience of a little girl whose father is in prison.
Teased by her classmates and missing her beloved dad, Milly is confused and upset, but with the support of her mother, a kindly teacher and Dad himself, who makes it clear that he loves her despite his absence, she keeps going until her father comes home.
This sensitive and thoughtful book would be a good fixture in any public or primary-school library.
Life is much easier for the happy family in Malachy Doyle and Gwen Millward’s The Snuggle Sandwich (Andersen Press, £10.99). As everyone bustles around the kitchen one morning, toddler Annie’s teddy bear goes missing. But Ted is found in time for Annie’s favourite part of the day, when her dad and siblings all go out to school and work, leaving her and Mama home alone to snuggle in an armchair. Millward’s pencil and watercolour images are incredibly charming, and The Snuggle Sandwich is a good-natured and realistic celebration of the chaos of family life.
However, as all the toddlers in my family also happily head out the door in the morning and go to creche while their mums go out to work, I’m not sure I’ll be passing it on to them.
Every small child I know adores Oliver Jeffers, and his fantastic new book shouldn’t disappoint them. In This Moose Belongs to Me (HarperCollins, £11.99), a boy called Wilfred has acquired a moose, whom he names Marcel. But Wilfred soon discovers that Marcel isn’t going to play by his rules and that you can’t force anyone, or anything, to stay with you. Visually inventive, touching and funny, it’s a perfect picture book.
Meanwhile, David Wiesner’s Flotsam (Andersen Press, £6.99) shows that you can tell an extraordinary story with no words at all. Through vivid pictures, it tells of a boy who finds a camera washed up on a beach. When he develops the photographs in it, he discovers amazing and surprising images of life under the sea – and realises the camera has washed up on many beaches before. Magical.
Anna Carey’s first book, The Real Rebecca, won the Senior Children’s Book of the Year prize at the 2011 Irish Book Awards. The sequel, Rebecca’s Rules, will be published in September
