Caryl Hart

Orchard Books

9781408304976

October 2009

When I first picked up this picture book and flipped through its pages I was ready to dismiss it as a blatant Lauren Child ripoff, but then I realised the illustrator is Leigh Hodgkinson, creative director of the first Charlie and Lola animation and the stylistic presentation of Caryl Hart’s rhyming story about table manners made sense.
I like Hodgkinson’s ‘Colin’ titles, but here the ambivalent storyline strikes a rather strange note with Hart’s verse being neither funny nor rhythmically assured enough to carry conviction.
Worth looking out for if you want a picture book about table manners.