Robert the Great ¦ Robert and the Red Balloon

The first two titles to feature Robert who deserves to become an established favourite with his own series. He's the stereotypical (archetypal?) boy with a stupendously messy bedroom. In the first of these two books Robert embarks on a determined and spectacular rebellion against being addressed as 'little', but Dupasquier has a neat turnaround in store for the reader. In Red Balloon Robert is bored but his balloon takes him on a n imaginative journey and brings him a friend. Tidy storylines and short manageable texts with helpful speech bubbles, but the chief pleasure is in the detailed, crowded pictures where there always seems to be more to find and enjoy.