There is a particular sort of illustrator who understands that less is more, knows when to stop, sees the virtues of travelling light. Tiz & Ott’s Big Draw by Bridget Marzo (Tate £9.99) captivates with its economy. It encourages children, with an unintimidating gaiety, to draw. Tiz is a marmalade cat (his stripes 18 strokes of an orange crayon, his mouth a single upturned black line). Ott is a cheerier donkey than Eeyore (though in possession of a blue tail). The two artists wield outsized equipment: multicoloured crayon and paintbrush. They learn about creativity: it is best not to sleep on the job; it is sometimes good to collaborate; if you paint a storm, you might get swept away. Adults will derive metaphorical mileage from the story and relish the remedy for a creative block as much as any child: out of a deep hole emerges a rainbow-coloured ladder. A joy of a book – all ages.
In its distinct way Soon, by Timothy Knapman, illustrated by Patrick Benson (Walker £11.99), also exemplifies a simple-is-beautiful approach. If you read this book aloud, what strikes you is its perfect pacing (no excess verbal baggage). Mother and baby elephant promenade slowly and the baby tires easily, asks repeatedly when it might be time to go home. The answer is always the same: “Soon.” On the back of this word, momentum builds. The mummy elephant is a trooper and sees off assorted dangers while Benson brings out her nuanced relationship with her baby with tender skill: the wistful look in his eye, his inward curling trunk, his mother’s stoical back view. A gentle book about travelling to the top – and about still being secure when you get there. (2 up).
In The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars by Jean Merrill and Ronni Solbert (The New York Review Children’s Collection £9.99), the elephant is drawn in the simplest of outlines – a little red squiggle with a trunk, in love with wholesale destruction: the crushing of cars. What is wonderful about this reissue – the book was first published nearly 50 years ago – is that it plays along merrily with a child’s need to smash, squash and exterminate. That is why it is being nervously described in its publicity as “subversive”. But all is well, as the little elephant is eventually taught a lesson by a car salesperson and decorative vandalism brought to a close. But do not be deceived: the fun bit is what happens first. (2 up)
Eddie’s Tent and How to Go Camping by Sarah Garland (Frances Lincoln £12.99) is the opposite of travelling light – with Garland, there is delight in the detail. She is a wonderfully sympathetic illustrator and manages to pack so much in: little secrets the observant reader will spot. When Lily and Tilly pack to go camping, their mother tells them: “start again” – with reason. There is an amusingly telltale picture of their impractical, bulging sacks out of which a hobby horse opportunistically stares. The parents are suspiciously virtuoso campers but this beguiling story is rooted in realism. Eddie builds a tent, catches a fish, does a headstand, loses a dog. And what is wonderful is that, as you read, you build up an appetite for feasting and then fall, with gusto, on the recipes for chocolate bananas and other camping treats on the book’s final spread. (3 up)
Sean Taylor’s It’s a Groovy World, Alfredo! (Walker £11.99), illustrated by Chris Garbutt, is aimed at the inner teenager in everyone from toddlers to parents. It is an unlikely smash hit – but it knows how to rock’n’roll. Alfredo is a little frog who is not at all hip. Invited to a party where “groovy dancing” is on the agenda, he replies: “I don’t like groovy dancing.” What follows is a crazy, comic dance routine with advice from fly-by-night flies on “shimmy, shammy shuffling” and other cool moves. Enormous fun to read aloud, with perky drawings in a 60s style of boogying flies, it is a book guaranteed to get the joint jumping (though not necessarily toddlers drowsing). (3 up)
The Most Wonderful Thing in the World by Vivian French, illustrated by Angela Barrett (Walker £12.99), is a familiar fairytale about a princess in search of a groom – but with a sophisticated new twist. The King and Queen decide the successful suitor must come up with “the most wonderful thing in the world” to win their daughter’s hand. What makes the story irresistible is Angela Barrett’s meticulous, romantic and occasionally mutinous illustration. I particularly love the picture of the matchmaking parents sitting irresolutely on their thrones with their backs facing a beautiful lagoon and greyhounds slumped at their feet. High up, unobserved, in a gallery, the princess is doing as any sensible girl cursed with interfering parents would: reading. (5 up)
