Author and Illustrator: Ian Beck
Publisher: First published 1993 through Doubleday, featured edition Picture Corgi, Random House 1995
For me this book has all the ingredients of a perfect children's picture book. Firstly (and in no order of priority), plenty of adventure, excitement and a good rescue mission storyline. Secondly, sumptuous illustrations with a lot of texture, depth of perspective and landscapes that feel very epic. Thirdly, whimsical characters- a boy who commands his own hot air balloon (and in the subsequent sequel, a raft), a girl on a desert island saving dinosaurs, and a grandfather, living in a lighthouse and ready to listen to his grandson's stories. As plot devices go, Ian Beck has created a plethora, all pitched beautifully at the curious minds of children; at every turn there's a new idea to fuel the fantasy, a volcano erupting, magic flowers to attract dinosaurs, a struggling baby dinosaur to help. What this achieves is a very gender neutral book, with plenty of fixes in the story to interest across gendered reading norms. My daughter (3) for example, loves the idea of a message in a bottle, the rescue itself, and dinosaur protector and architect of the plan, being a female lead. My son (5), loves the exploding volcanoes and the idea of character Tom, braving the elements alone to perform a daring rescue.
As I said in my review of Benedict Blathwayt's The Little Red Train series, it's rare to find in children's literature, a writer who writes as well as he illustrates, but in Ian Beck we have that very thing. Beck uses lots of hatching techniques, mainly through exposed cross hatching, dipping and ticking penwork to create very textured, layered pictures. He is generous with his picture-per-page ratio and there are plenty of big double spreads in this book that wow; my children particularly like the dramatic volcano erupting page in this title. Beck has a real talent for drawing sea, cloud and smoke especially, which offers a lot of depth and movement to the page, his work is really captivating.
To find fault with this title I would suggest that the type-font or type set of the book is dated, I think it's written in Times New Roman, which I find hard to read personally. And while I like the pace of the book, as the story always grips my children, there is a lot going on, and such a complicated plot in a very compact exposition, might be confusing to some. The plot is a little frenetic, very fantastical and takes a confident reader to interpret which sections of the narrative to emphasise. When 7 year old Alf read Tom and the Island of Dinosaurs to his siblings a few days ago, it sounded like there was an exclamation mark after every sentence end, as to him, every moment in the book was remarkable and worthy of expression. (And I would agree).
In all, a hugely enjoyable book, perfectly matched at the 3-6 year old market, and I'm sure it's inspired many a dream in our house; my middle two children have certainly role played at saving dinosaurs (with the carpet as the sea) following reading this book.
Authors: James Bowen & Garry Jenkins
Illustrator: Gerald Kelley
Publisher: Red Fox Picture Books, 2015
Every inch of me loves this book. I love cats, buskers, rescue stories, real life stories, puppies...well not puppies, but the cat wearing a scarf makes up for that. The children were dubious at first, mainly because, their words, "the pictures are too scary, and everyone in the book is afraid", but as with all first-time yarns, once re-read a couple of times familiarity sets in, and with this book that familiarity means we know of the hero ending, the happy reunion between girl and puppy, so the 'fear' fades. What we're left with is this lovely animal-to-animal rescue mission, as brave scarf wearing former stray Bob, worries about the small shivering puppy he finds under a bush in the park. Not wanting to leave the puppy alone in the howling wind on a dark, rainy night, Bob ventures back outside to intervene. He finds the puppy, but has a hard time convincing the puppy he is 'a friend'. Turning away, Bob is chased by a 'big dog' ( the section of the book the children deem 'most scary'), but the yelping puppy comes to the aid of Bob just in the nick of time. And if that wasn't enough drama, there is still time for the puppy to be reunited with his owner.
In terms of the graphics, the simple ink and watercolour illustrations used capture the human faces in the story especially well, bringing a realism to the piece. As such the dog chase page depicts a cowering Bob at the moment the baying big dog lunges, the realistic expressions are again, just a little too scary (for the preschooler age range), but have softened for us with familiarity. The illustrations are however, very rich and beautiful, well worth a look, capturing the night sky vividly. In contrast, here's the opening two pages with nice depth of perspective over the park:
The backstory of 'Bob the Rescue Cat' is enthralling, and brought in via snippets in the intro and outro. Author James Bowen had himself faced a period of homelessness, and was making a new way in life for himself as a busker when he met stray ginger tom cat (he later named Bob) back in March 2007. Having nursed the poorly stray cat back to health, James and Bob became very attached to one another, so much so, Bob accompanied James on his stints on the streets busking. (I think this where the knitted scarf and cat harness come in). Author Garry Jenkins then helped James Bowen pen the book 'A Street Cat Named Bob' in 2012, and the further books, fame, charity work, and feature film went from there (reference: Bob the Rescue Cat back page).
At 3 years, 5 years, and 7 years respectively the children seem to be interested in the backstory of James Bowen's life as much as the rescue mission tale. They love the photos page showing Bob in several scarves and giving his owner a paws-up high-five. I think I'll try to move Alf (7) on to some of Bowen's work aimed at older children, at some point this year, as Bowen's biography has been a little 'edited' in these picture books, and I think there's hardhitting more exploratory themes to come. This is a great book for starting discussion about trust, friendship, loneliness, homeliness and bravery though; I think it has the potential to become a real classic.
BBFC Rated 12A, so not suitable for the littlies, I'll leave you with the trailer from the newly released film: A Street Cat Named Bob
