The Playdate
Uje Brandelius and Clara Dackenberg
Lantana

This story is narrated by a little girl who accompanies her mother to the house of Henry Henriksson. On the longish journey from their flat, the girl notices a robot in a toy shop window. It’s something she’d dearly love but keeps quiet knowing that it would be way too expensive.

Henry’s mum welcomes the two and the narrator goes off to play with Henry. They play all kinds of games until Henry’s mum announces that it’s time for lunch . She asks her visitors if they’d like to join then but the girl’s mum says they have sandwiches and so they eat in separate rooms. After lunch Henry goes off to play on his computer leaving the girl to amuse herself, which she does by playing chase with the dog.

As a result she goes into a room she’s not seen before and there on the floor is a huge bag of discarded toys. Atop the pile is a robot exactly like the one in the toyshop.

After a while Henry’s mum calls the children to eat fruit together and they watch tv.
When it’s time to leave the girl’s mum suggests that Henry might like to come and play at their home sometime. “Hmm, maybe” Henry’s mum responds.

On the journey home, the little girl tells her mum that Henry is her best friend. Suddenly she remembers that there’s something she needs to confess and tearfully she takes Henry’s robot from her backpack and explains that she stole it. Mum remains calm and merely says she’ll return it the following week.
We’re not told that the girl’s mum is the cleaner for Henry’s mum and it’s evident from the illustrations that the two families live completely different kinds of lives.

Cleverly presented with the words telling one story and the illustrations showing another, this is a comment on the class divide and on our throwaway society. I envisage KS2 children (or even older) having interesting discussions after a class sharing though I’m not sure what children around the age of those in the story will make of the multi-layered book.