Tom and Sofia Start School

The illustrations in this title are colourful and lively, matching the idyllic textual portrayal of Tom and Sofia’s first day at school. The two children (from different families) tell their ‘starting school’ stories side by side on each double page spread with the word ‘Tom’ or ‘Sofia’ provided next to the relevant text. We see a busy time being had by lots of smiling faces and certainly that air of noisy but contained activity is very well captured in these pencil and wash pictures. I find the text less engaging. Part of the problem for me, I think, is the layout of the dual language text in English and Tagalog, which also uses roman script. Tagalog is set noticeably larger in a different font from the English text in order to make it easier to distinguish between the two; interestingly, the English text, though smaller, looks slightly bolder. I’m not sure exactly why the typography is less satisfying – whether it’s that the two fonts don’t sit well together visually or if it’s a case of there being very little white space around the texts. They are so close together that some pages look crowded and I’m afraid to say, off-putting. (Available in 26 dual language versions.)