Frank and Bert is a gorgeous and playful book about friendship, hide and seek and playing fair.

The story is narrated by Frank the fox, who introduces us to his best friend – Bert the bear. But as much as Frank loves Bert, Bert is terrible at hide-and-seek, and poor Frank is really quite over it. But apparently Bert thinks it’s just because he never gets quite enough time to hide! How can a bear be expected to hide in ten measly seconds? So Frank graciously allows him to hide for a whole 100 seconds! After the countdown, and traversing multiple mounds and mountains, Bert finally finds a hiding spot. But sadly, he doesn’t realise his scarf has caught on a tree and he has left a twine trail right to him! Frank easily follows the trail, and sees Bert’s hiding spot, but will it make him happy to find Bert and ruin the game? Frank has quite the conundrum that everyone has to face at some point in their lives– is winning everything? Or is it fair to let someone else have a turn?

Frank and Bert is a beautiful book that shows the importance of thinking outside of ourselves and dealing with the tricky subject of winning. It really highlights the importance of good sportsmanship, and how to be a great friend. Bert and Frank are just adorable and the ending was cheeky and satisfying. I love the twine of wool and following it along the page. It also helps to teach young ones their numbers and counting, and my toddler loved counting along all the way up to one hundred. Sharing and winning is something that doesn’t always come naturally to most kids, so this book gently teaches how a vital part of friendship is thinking about others when playing, and encourages fun and play in kiddos.

The illustrations are adorable and I love the neon scarf and hat and how they add to the plot and the game. The beautiful autumn colours teamed up with the creamy background contrast wonderfully with the bright wool against the mossy mountains and boulders.

I hope there are more Frank and Bert stories on the horizon, as I really enjoyed this sweet gentle book.

---

Title: Frank and Bert

Author/Illustrator: Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Published: March 2022

Ages: 3+