What should you do if your best friend always wants to play hide and seek but never wins? Frank the fox faces just this dilemma with his bear friend Bert.
In this simple and funny picture book for young children, we explore ideas about what makes a good friend. Frank gives Bert an extra-long count so that he can hide really well… but Bert’s unravelling scarf gives him away. Should Frank stick strictly to the rules of the game, and tell Bert he’s been found, or should he let Bert have a moment of glory?
This is a cheerful story but is also a useful introduction to the complexities of friendships. For little children who are starting out on friendships, it might be useful to know that the kind thing to do isn’t always the same as the rule-based thing to do. Reading this made me realise how much social interaction of this type is not obvious at all, but has to be learnt.
I approve strongly of another of Frank’s expressions of friendship, which is re-knitting Bert’s unravelled scarf so that the friends can play hide and seek together again (it looks like a chevron stitch pattern to me). Friendship, kindness and knitting – what’s not to love?
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