Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears: Emily Gravett
More multimedia project than straight-forward storybook, the Big Book of Fears is a beautiful object that children are sure to savour.
Little Mouse has found a workbook dedicated to helping humans work through their fears-and since she’s afraid of so many things, decides to fill it out herself.
I love the way Emily Gravett draws animals-her Little Mouse is round, soft, and enduringly fretful, but The Big Book of Fears proves she has range beyond simply “cute”. Each page of this invented workbook is filled right up. From heavy, chalk-pastel drawings to collages of dogs (made with pictures of cats) to faux newspaper articles relating the tale of the three blind mice, accompanied with lift-ups and flaps, each page captures how Little Mouse feels about a particular fear. However, this format precludes much written story. The text on a given page might consist of the name of the fear, its definition, and a scribbled note from Little Mouse. This isn’t a failing, but this book works much better spread out on a table than held aloft for a read-aloud.
Rating (out of five): ★★★★
