What is the picture book that have you enjoyed reading with someone else most, and why?
I think it would be my own long-time favourite book, Amos & Boris by William Steig. I’ve had the same copy since I was about seven - probably the only book I’ve managed to keep hold of since my childhood.
When my children were small I read it to them and they enjoyed it too and sometimes I found it very strange to see myself reading a book to my own children that I’d known since I was little that I’d had read to me by my parents.
It’s a beautiful story about friendship. Amos is a mouse and Boris is a whale and through adventure and a nautical calamity they become best friends. They even save each others lives but ultimately know they can never be together, their worlds being so different. When I used to read it to my children we started adding an improvised bit of silliness after the ending because it’s quite a heart-wrenching last page. We usually imagined Amos being sat on by an elephant he’d enlisted to save Boris and being livid and shouting at it to get off. It made us laugh after the tearful goodbyes in the story. Sorry Mr. Steig!
What's your favourite thing about each character in Frank and Bert?
When I’m trying to decide what they’ll do in each new story I say to myself that Frank knows things whereas Bert feels things. They both approach a situation in their own way and even though they think about things differently, they complement each other and figure things out together.
Frank is a bit of a know-it-all but in a nice way. I think we all know someone a bit like that - they have a heart of gold and would do anything to help, but at the same time they’re sure that their way is the best way!
Bert is a no-nonsense bear. He thinks about the world in a really straightforward way and sees things as they are - even if occasionally things aren’t quite as they are. He’s really loyal and protective of his friend but he’s also got a mischievous streak and isn’t as daft as he sometimes appears.
Which picture book would you give as a gift to Frank and Bert, and why?
Well if I couldn’t give them the books that they’re actually in, like in an episode of This Is Your Life, I’d give them Amos & Boris of course, and a few of my favourites from the last few years - When The Sun Goes Home by Momoko Abe, On A Magical Do-Nothing Day by Beatrice Alemagna and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen - which features a bear who eats a thieving rabbit. It would be interesting to know what Bert thought about that.
And seeing as Frank & Bert really like counting, I’d give them Cockatoos by Quentin Blake and Ten Tiny Tadpoles by Debbie Tarbett, which were big favourites for me and my children.
