The Smeds and the Smoos by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
Here it is! The brand new book from one of the most successful picture book partnerships ever.
The book plays out as a boy meets girl story. A red Smed and a blue Shoo meet, fall in love and elope together, all to their respective families dissaproval.
The illustrations are of course in Axel’s inimitable style with no shortage of fun humour thrown in and any ‘Gruffalo spotters’ out there will be more than satisfied with this book too!
You know what you are getting with a book by Julia and Axel and this story does not disappoint, however there is something else going on here too.
The xenophobia at the core of this book can in no doubt be inspired the Brexit process that has been gripping the UK for the past few years and indeed there is even a dedication at the end of the book to all Europe’s children.
So it’s a political statement about coming together and a worthy one – But are our political leaders listening? Sadly, I fear not. Anyway the book is great as you would expect.
You can also read my review of Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book by the same authors here: https://davidballardpicturebooks.com/2019/06/28/book-review-charlie-cooks-favourite-book/
