It may be a book about embracing life’s imperfections but Simona Ciraolo’s This Would Never Happen to Rita (£12.99, Walker) is itself rather perfect. The story begins with a young girl whose friend Rita seems to be good at everything – she even knows that the bush in the garden is called a “rhododendron” and today she wants the pair to draw it.
Naturally, Rita’s finished drawing is superb. But our narrator, with her hesitant eyes and fluffy little bob, feels hers is good too. That is until she discovers that it’s blotted with an inky stain. And, what’s more, the stain is alive and begins talking to her. Soon it’s following her to class, and ensuring nothing looks quite right.
Before gaining a children’s books illustration degree, Ciraolo studied 2D animation and it shows, both in the lively interactions between the child and the blue stain, and the filmic flow of the story through the pages. The gorgeously fuzzy, peachy-pink drawings are – just like the child – interrupted by the perky, dark blot popping up all over (even goading the child when she’s reading out loud, enquiring: “are you sure it doesn’t say ‘bum’?”). The book concludes with the girl noticing that there are stains everywhere, including on her friends’ clothes, and nobody else seems to mind. Perhaps, she realises, they even have potential?
Simona Ciraolo’s This Would Never Happen to Rita
Tales about animal friendships are ten a penny in picture books, often used to educate the very young about relationships or difference, from the size of things to personality traits. Squirrel and Bird by Laura Baker (£12.99, Little Tiger) wittily plays on this convention, introducing Squirrel as the loud one and Bird as quiet until suddenly, across one booming double-page spread, Bird shouts at the narrator “ENOUGH!” and then, “We are not only what you say we are!” Illustrator Stacey Thomas’s lovely woodland drawings come in shades of yellow and grey but the story is full of colour, joyfully highlighting that we all have many different personality traits and can be whoever we want to be.
Another tale about friendship comes in the form of Grace Easton’s The House With the Little Red Door (£14.99, Thames & Hudson) featuring a lonely girl called Olivia and the small mouse she meets on a snowy day. Similar to (but not quite as stunning as) another Thames & Hudson book from 2022, Mouse’s Wood by Alice Melvin, this is a large, lift-the-flap book with cute animal homes and surprises to find behind each window. It would make a wonderfully cosy present for winter time.
The bear takes the man to the depths of the ocean to see the devastation he has wrought
With its epic nature drawings and story of a wise, all-seeing animal asking mankind to change its ways, Annie Booker’s The Great Bear (£12.99, Two Hoots) feels more like a precious folk tale handed down the generations than a debut release. An immense polar bear witnesses the arrival of man in a boat, a shadow trailing behind it, and rapidly sees the oceans deteriorate. In one particularly striking image, the bear rises as one with the white, foaming curls of the sea’s waves to capture and take the man to the depths of the ocean to see the devastation he has wrought. But this is not a tale of doom: the book’s ending loops back to its “once upon a time…” beginning to deliver the hopeful message: “There was a damaged ocean that was brought back to life.”
Over almost a decade of reviewing picture books, I have made a point of rarely covering books by celebrities. There’s a wealth of talent trying to make a living in this industry and famous non-writers wanting to extend their “brand” don’t need the publicity. But I am making an exception for actor (and mother of two) Keira Knightley after hearing that she had actually illustrated as well as written her debut picture book, I Love You Just the Same (£20, Simon and Schuster). Inspired by the time Knightley’s eldest daughter, jealous of her new sibling, asked her “Can the bird take the baby away?”, her book depicts a young girl in pursuit of her baby sister through a land of flying cats, dragons and mermaids after a bird does indeed steal the baby. It’s an admirable labour of love, but the whimsical plot drags when it should leap and skip. The drawings show some skill but lack soul. In its use of language, it shows little understanding that when it comes to picture books, less is so often more. Overall, it’s hard not to wonder whether a bird could spirit away this book and let the other female talents reviewed here take centre stage in bookshops this Christmas.
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Lead image taken from The Great Bear by Annie Booker