Synopsis: The residents of Whoops-a-Daisy World can always coung on their strong and brave Fire Chief Rhino whenever a blaze threatens. From his lookout on top of the fire station, Chief Rhino spots a fire in one of the houses below. Dashing to the rescue with his team of firefighters, they pour a stream of water through the house's window... only to discover they have just hosed the hundred candles on Great Granny Wrinkle's birthday cake! What a mess. Fortunately all Granny Wrinkle needed was some extra company with her soggy cake, and now forgiven, the fire crew joins the party.

Review: Sam Lloyd has created a book which has both a fun, fresh look, and also pays a fond tribute to Margaret and H A Rey's Curious George. Lloyd uses the same colour palette and shading techniques, his jaunty tale of mishaps echoes Rey's storytelling, and Chief Rhino even looks much like Rey's 'The Man with the Yellow Hat' (possibly with a bit of Babar thrown in). But the bold illustrations and clever storytelling stand well on their own.

The illustrations of the town are hilarious, everything's laid out like a toy village with funny little labels, flattened perspectives and townsfolk going about their business. The fire in Granny Wrinkle's window is hardly frightening. The flames look more like little flowers and the emphasis is less on danger than on the jolly excitement of getting out a red fire engine and coming to the rescue. We even get a cutaway section of the fire station, so we can see the various rooms the fire crew race through to get to the engine garage.

The story reads well, managing to be both cosy and fast-paced, with just the right amount of text to keep the pace light and funny. Certain expressions roll merrily off the tongue: 'what the blazes?!', 'flaming flumps of fire!'. Even reading it silently, I found the voice in my head hamming  it up with great spirit. ('Stand back!' instructs Chief Rhino. 'I'm going in!')

Chief Rhino is bigger than life, and the reader wonders if he's a bit arrogant. Which makes the scene of him grovelling at the foot of Grany Wrinkle's rocking chair such a turning point; he's genuinely distraught and we see he really cares about his community, not just being a hero. The endpapers reflect this theme: the beginning end papers show Rhino in his glory with his signed photo and trophies, and the final end papers show gentler tokens of his interaction with a community that loves him.

2008-06-18