Button Boy, by Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro

It’s amazing how many buttons you can find when you’re looking.

Banjo loves collecting buttons. While the other children are playing chase, or swapping stories, or laughing, Banjo is looking for buttons. Each day he takes his finds home to Grandma Woolly, who sews the buttons onto Banjo’s jumper, until there is hardly any room left for more.

Then, one morning, as Banjo plays in the park, he meets a little girl sobbing because she is missing a special button. Banjo hands the button back. The next day he meets an old man missing a button from his coat sleeve. Banjo hands this one back, too. Soon, he has no buttons no his jumper – but there are lots of happy people around him. At home, Grandma Woolly has a surprise – a nice new jumper. And the next day he discovers that collecting friends is as easy as collecting buttons was!

Button Boy is a delightful picture book with plenty of whimsy as well as a lovely message about friendship. The text is simple, with pieces of repetition with which young readers will enjoy joining in, and the illustrations also appear simple, though this is a clever deception, with plenty of little details for readers to discover. Illustrator Sue de Gennaro has used acrylics and coloured pencils with blues and greens predominant as well as details in black lines and grey shading, for an overall whimsical effect.

A gorgeous picture book.
Button Boy

Button Boy, by Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro

Scholastic Press, 2011
ISBN 9781741697971

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.