Open Wide Wilbur; Long Live Roberto

These two titles are from a series aimed at early readers. A brief foreword states that these anthropomorphised stories are based on actual records of prodigious creatures such as an enormous whale and a long-lived rabbit.

The formula of small blocks of conventional text, somewhat whacky illustrations (black and white) and text in other forms such as speech bubbles, letters, captions, maps are all utilised to good effect. Orchard have made an attempt to introduce some variations to the formula such as two pages of corny jokes (which young readers will love) and a short list of facts about the creatures featured in the stories. Despite all of this the two stories reviewed here fall rather flat. It is, however, difficult to judge a whole series on the strength of two titles.