For some reason I have been getting emails from a company called Nosy Crow. Now, these books were mostly only available in the UK, so I am not sure why I had the emails. However, recently they have a US imprint, and I started to browse titles. The first two titles I found were Everything Possible and Frank and Bert. Now, neither book is in my Top 10 Favorites, but they are cute books that I know people will enjoy.
First, Everything Possible is a song done by Fred Small. There is an afterwards that tells you how it came about. While I was reading it, however, I had two thoughts: The first it was a bit disjointed, the second they really are pushy about the “you can love whomever you want” aspect. Which makes sense when you read the afterwards. Until then you get a song/story that is about love, being yourself, acceptance. I am not sure if I really LOVE the story, but the art is fun. Alison Brown created very colorful, and nicely detailed illustrations. The afterwards has a few straightforward comments, and a nice round up of how things came to be. There is a code at the end you can scan to find more goodies.
Then I found Frank and Bert V01 by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. This is a simpler story about how two friends, Frank and Bert, play hide and seek, but Bert the bear is not really good at it. He needs more time to hide. So, Frank counts to 100 and even though Bert is far away, an accident allows Frank to find him. But Bert really wants to win at least one game, but Frank likes winning, too. The solution is simple, sometimes we give a little because our friendships mean more than winning. The art is very simple, but not simplistic. There are some fun details, and the pages are open. There is a, what I call, not American feel to the text. Sometimes a European book just does not have the same pacing, and that comes out here.
Both books are for probably at least four and up, but the illustrations allow them to be any age. Though the older reader could be thrown off by the picture book format. Both titles are available, but I read via an online reader copy.
