posted on 22 Feb 2018

PramBusters by Anne Fine, illustrated by Vicki Gausden

I do like a story that focuses on the pleasures of children creating something together. When I started to think about it I realised that, outside picture book world, they are pretty thin on the ground. Could this be a reflection of the increasing lack of emphasis on the creative arts in the school curriculum? Whatever the reason - this book makes no bones about putting the joys of drawing at the centre of the plot and so hopefully might encourage young readers to have a go themselves.

Malik is one of several children who go to a summer holiday day camp. Every morning they are collected by a minibus and go off to have fun in the nearby countryside where they play ball games, run races, make camp fires and sing songs together. They have plenty of stories and often use the Box of Surprises as inspiration for junk modelling. But when it rains they have a narrower range of activities because of limited space in the barn. One particularly rainy day there is lots of grumbling because, although they have plenty of paper and felt pens, they are fighting for space and can’t decide what to draw. Then Malik has the great idea to divide the children into two teams and have a drawing competition. Then one of the group leaders, Mrs Hope, who is pregnant, suggests that they design an ideal pram for a baby and after a very democratic method of selecting team members, they are fizzing with ideas and begin drawing enthusiastically on large sheets of paper.

Malik’s team seem to agree that a baby would need lots of comfort, space and colourful sensory stimulation until Miriam suggests that it also needs ‘ sharp knives sticking out of all four wheels to keep away fierce dogs’. It seems that she is better suited to be on the other team which seems to be concerned with designing a remote controlled weaponised vehicle. One of their team members, Tyler, protests vehemently about this and so the two children swop and everyone settles down to embellish their imaginative designs. As Malik has scathingly predicted, the other group leader, Mr Oakley is a big softy and so just cannot make a final decision about which the best drawing:

‘Each in its own way is a masterpiece of design. They’re both quite wonderful. So I’m afraid that they’ll both have to win.’

It has taken several happy hours to complete the creative task and everyone goes home feeling satisfied with a job well done.

The well told story by Carnegie Medal winner, Anne Fine is enhanced throughout by plenty of lively expressive illustrations by Vickie Gausden. This is the latest book in the Little Gems series published by Barrington Stoke and they have again succeeded in packaging a charming and eventful story into very few pages. Some jokes and space to draw a design are hidden beneath the jacket flaps and I can guarantee that younger readers would be entertained and inspired.

Karen Argent

February 2018