Dirty Bertie

There is always room for another picture book about filthy habits, and children will surely delight in their disgust at Bertie's particularly unsavoury ones. Roberts' illustrations rise above the run-of-the-mill panderings to children's preoccupations with these matters through their close attention to the tactile details of dog-hairs on lollypops and tongues, snail slime on walls and cat food on toys. The characterisation of both animals and humans is strong; one can almost smell the mangy old dog, and the expression on the cat's face as it performs its bodily functions is priceless. Roberts' pictures achieve a nice balance between flat stylisation and naturalistic lighting. The design and typography are well considered, and the use of colour and all round production of the book are excellent. These aesthetic pleasures provide some compensation for the distressing discovery that Bertie eats his own bogies.