By Fiona Woodcock
Published by Simon and Schuster UK ISBN 978-1-4711-4448-6
Review by Andy Robert Davies
The quote on the book cover is from picture book maker Benji Davies, and simply says, ‘Beautifully crafted’. This is true of both the visuals and the storytelling. Heidi is a girl who is very good at playing hide and seek (mainly due to her rather expansive wardrobe). It is the game she and her friends often play and they seem content, until one day Heidi’s friends get a little bored and Heidi has an epiphany, that maybe she does not have to win all the time to have fun? Playing different games and enjoying the talents of her friends can be just as rewarding.
The story is built around the familiar saying, it is not the winning but the taking part that counts. Woodcock uses a carefully selected palette and combines scratchy pencil with stencilled shapes and textures, creating images that utilise white space to help emphasise the areas of detail.
The group of friends have a chemistry between them and Woodcock manages to convey their individual personalities (especially during the disco scene). Children will enjoy trying to find Heidi on each page, and combined with the message of playing and sharing, this book will appeal to all.
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