Big Brave Brian

Big Brave Brian – or Daniel in the Polish text (for the sake of alliteration, I assume) isn’t afraid of the monsters or goblins that lurk in various recesses of his house. Nor of giant slugs in his bathroom and ‘Incy Wincy Spiders’ (the illustration is of a fearsomely gigantic one in contradiction to the phrase ‘Incy Wincy’! What he is afraid of, we discover on the last page, is cleaning his room (and this is a grown man). Text appears in varied curves and sizes in both Polish and English, the former being slightly larger in all instances. I am a little ambivalent about this book. The idea behind such titles is supposedly to lessen the fears of young children, but in the telling they can sometimes create a fear where none existed before! I think this particular book is in danger of doing just that for some young readers – especially the illustration of the big hairy spider on one double page spread. Others will be able to laugh off its apparent absurdities as intended and launch into full discussion of the fearful things listed, not to mention that last one about cleaning rooms. Also available in French/English, Spanish/English and English.