Ernest and Celestine ¦ Bravo, Ernest and Celestine

The Belgian artist Gabrielle Vincent is one of the finds of the '80s and it is good to see the first two Ernest and Celestine titles in paperback already. In Ernest and Celestine, the young girl mouse, Celestine is very sad when she loses her beloved toy duck Gideon; no other toy can replace him. Then Ernest, a large brown bear, hits on a solution: he makes her a new Gideon. The portrayal of the special relationship between the pair is touching but manages to avoid sentimentality. Gentle, muted watercolour pictures depict their simple life style and help convey the tenderness of the friendship.

The sequel, Bravo, Ernest and Celestine shows the pair trying their hand as street musicians in an attempt to raise money to repair the leaking roof. In both books the text is all in dialogue and is not as simple as the single line per page would lead you to believe at first glance. In my view these are best offered to those readers at the stage when they are moving from oral to silent reading, when they seem to offer most.