It's rare to find children's picture books these days that don't have some 'preachy' message to impart, in fact most of the time we find ourselves wishing for simpler times when children's PBs were all about charm and whimsy.
So it's lovely to see "The Tall Man and the Small Mouse" by Mara Bergman and Birgitta Sif. A book that, by its very nature, may be about friendship but also uses subtle undertones of describing how we can all get along despite our differences.
All day long, the Tall Man does tall things that need doing, like picking apples and untangling swings and fixing lots of broken things.
He's pretty smart but might have finally met his match, in the form of the huge town clock which simply stops ticking, tocking and dinging one day.
The tall man goes slightly crazy trying to find enough information in books to help him repair the town clock.
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| An idyllic life for two very different friends |
Whatever will the Tall Man do? However hard he tries, he just doesn’t have a clue!
Perhaps now is just the right time for the perfect little friend to come along? Cue Small Mouse who might be diminutive in stature, but has a mighty clever little brain on her.
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| Poor tall dude! He just can't think how to fix that clock. |
So yes there is a moral lesson here, but the book deals with the message so beautifully that you'll be completely enchanted by it.
"The Tall Man and the Small Mouse" by Mara Bergman and Birgitta Sif is out now, published by Walker Books (kindly supplied for review).