Barrington Stoke ISBN 978178125915 £6.99
This book is tremendous fun and draws in the reader from the very start with its eye-catching yellow gatefold cover and shiny title. In Blake’s imitable style the tale is told of George, an extraordinary frog who is noticed dancing on a lily pad by a by now long dead relative, Gertrude. Having lost her husband to war, Gertrude plucks the dancing George from his lily-pad and takes him home to evidently provide comfort and entertainment. While it niggled me that the book does not consider George’s feelings about being taken from his lily-pad, I guess I need to get over this and acknowledge that George and Gertrude go on to become rather famous as George ‘performs’ all over the world and Gertrude takes on the role of his manager and agent. The book is liberally punctuated by Blake’s distinctive illustrations with George the frog featuring in each picture. Indeed, at the end of the book a brief explanation of how you can ‘draw like Quentin’ is provided. Quirky and amusing, I’m sure this book will have broad appeal across the primary age range.
Laura Manison Shore, Senior Lecturer in Early Years & Primary Education, UWE, Bristol