I love the utterly engaging kid-soaked quality - but not only in the text - the pictures, too. It really feels like you're opening a child's most precious diary and peeking inside at the childlike wonder.
The other thing I love is the brilliant use of typography. A mass of altered text - sizes, fontfaces - sit like shiny pebbles on the pages, hooking the eye and engaging it thoughly before uplifting and heading to another scattered pebble.
So, what is Good Morning Mr Pancakes about? Bee is off on holidays and she is busying herself with making certain her pets will be fully okay. There's the chooks to worry about, the dogs, the caterpillar and the kitty cat, Wally. There's also the fish.
There will be no football, tuba or chess this week, no no. Bee is so excited about her holiday, she thinks her head may fall off. She is going to swim, she is going to talk to parrots, she is going to eat with her hands and climb in and out of holes and eat as slow as a snail, if she likes.
She is going to languish in the joy that is pure holiday rest - rest from the grind of being a kid. And when she gets home, she's going to be renewed, as if life is starting all over again.
Simple, sweet, totally told from the head of a child, Good Morning Mr Pancakes is a wonder to behold.
Title: Good Morning Mr Pancakes
Author/llustrator: Chris McKimmie
Publisher: Walker Books, $29.99 RRP
Publication Date: 27 June 2011
ISBN: 9781742377193
Format: Hard cover
For ages: 3 -10
Type: Picture Book
