Frank and Bert
For ages 3+
This book is such a GIGGLE!!
By Chris Naylor-Ballesteros (Nosy Crow, 2022)
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This book is such a giggle. Children can never have enough of these sweet and nurturing friendship stories in their early years. Going to school or nursery for the first time and making new friends is such a steep learning curve in behavioural development, and books like these can be the perfect ice breaker.
Have you ever played hide-and-seek with really young children… the moment when they put their hands over their eyes and think you can’t see them because they can’t see you, or they’re hiding behind a chair and you can see them through the legs? How adorable and so funny, right?
About the Story
Frank, the fox, and Bert, the bear, are two really good friends. However, Frank moans to the reader about how simply awful his friend Bert is at playing hide-and-seek. Bert hides with all the expertise of a toddler! As you can imagine the game is over fairly quickly and Frank wins every time. Until one day, Bert explains to Frank that he’d can’t hide properly because he doesn’t have enough time and therefore never gets to win! Frank kindly says he’ll count to 100 instead of 10… perhaps that’ll help?
Little does Bert know that his neon pink knitted scarf got caught on a tree branch at the start and has unravelled all the way to his hiding place. When Frank follows the wool and spies Bert’s butt sticking out of a cave he has a moment of clarity and realises he could just pretend he’s still looking and let Bert win, because although he loves to win all the time, he realises he loves his friend Bert more!
Chris's illustrations are so full of life and texture, with a simple and unfussy layout. Loving the neon colours too! I won’t reveal the cute little twist at the end...
There’s a lovely blog post written by the Chris on the Nosy Crow website about how Frank and Bert came to be:
https://nosycrow.com/blog/how-frank-and-bert-came-to-be-a-guest-post-by-chris-naylor-ballesteros/
FREE official Frank and Bert downloads
Click the pdf link below to download a printable A4 'Frank and Bert' activity sheets! Have a go at playing pairs or writing the story from Bert's point of view. Enjoy!
Reviewed from copy sent by the publisher.
