Written and Illustrated by Richard Scarry
Amazon Link: £4.19
Published by Random House
Normally "What do you do all day?" is the sort of thing your boss will ask you, normally when you've got a teetering in-tray and have been trying to beat an unreasonable deadline. Following on from the Richard Scarry love-in of "A day at the Airport" we're back in Busy Town for a huge, detail-packed toddle through Busy Town's exceptionally busy folk.
Every job you can think of is packed into the book. We see firemen, coal miners, bakers, butchers (does anyone else find it worrying that Busy Town's butchers are pigs, and are usually found in the book lovingly fondling sausages?) all in Scarry's trademark cartoon detailed genius.
Though there's no real narrative thread running through the book (something that caused my daughter to constantly shout "Read it, read it, read it!" when I spent more time pointing out the crazy antics than reading the text) it's still fantastic if you've got enough of an imagination to make up little stories about each colourful and detailed page.
Charlotte's best bit: The cheerful paper mill masher
Daddy's favourite bit: I still can't shake the image of that piggy butcher and his sausages.
Rating: 5 out of 5