Frida and Bear
Anthony Browne and Hanne Bartholin
Walker Books
Frida loves drawing as does her pal, Bear but one day Bear, stuck for an idea asks Frida for a suggestion. Frida draws and passes her paper to Bear inviting him to turn it into something: Bear does so and thus begins a game of I start/you finish between the friends.

The clever thing is, each of them is exercising his/her imagination, and becoming co-creator, every time they play a new round of the game.

The two participants in this story, engage in an exchange game not dissimilar to one I used to play with a nursery class I taught, only there I provided a basket of paper/card offcuts and other possibly interesting bits and pieces for the children to help themselves to and sometimes even turn into a character of some kind which often (with the help of a digital camera and a computer) became a character for their own picture story books. I guess Bear and Frida or Browne and Hanne could do something akin to this with all the characters on the final spread of this inventive book.

But that’s a whole other story and maybe one young readers might like to try – after they’ve played the exchange game like Bear and Frida, that is.
Indeed, the butterfly Frida makes

is very similar to one a four year old in my group created and therein lies the beauty of this. Drawing skill is immaterial; it’s creativity and seeing possibilities that’s the essence here.
Super-dooper book – brimming over with creative possibilities for all ages.

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