I Like Books

The text of this book is simply a list of different kinds of books being read by a chimpanzee... 'I like books/Funny books and scary books/Fairy tales and Nursery rhymes' and so on. As you'd expect, though, this rather uninteresting recital is given added interest by the illustrations. Thus, for dinosaur books the stegosaurus has half-open books for fins, the shadow of the armchair forms the monster in the scary book and the song book has open mouths. It is, I suppose, a small child's introduction to the surreal world of Anthony Browne's more complex titles. Most picture books for the very young are bland and obvious so the twists of meaning in this are welcome. Nonetheless, I'd rather give nursery and infant children Bear Hunt, for instance, than this diluted version of Anthony Browne's capabilities.