Picture Book Review- TOUGH BORIS by Mem Fox

I get a lot of requests for picture book recommendations, usually because someone needs a gift book. If you're looking for a great gift book for a little boy, look no further than TOUGH BORIS by the brilliant and always relevant Mem Fox. Boris von der Borch (I know, I'm even giggling as I type it) is a pirate, a tough pirate, "because all pirates are tough." And he's fearless "because all pirates are fearless", and so on in the patterned way of lovely picture books that children adore reading again and again. I also love a picture book with a word pattern because these are the books our children learn to read on, and we know that for a kid to love reading, it only takes one book. Of course with every good picture book, there must be a twist, and twist it does. TOUGH BORIS is established as tough, scruffy, fearless and all those other things that kids love to think about pirates, and just when you're getting a little big-eyed yourself, his parrot dies. And yes, Tough Boris cries. This darling story is made all the better by the thoughtful illustrations of Kathryn Brown. The illustrations flow seamlessly from page to page, depicting Tough Boris and all the details there, but with much more. As with the best illustrators, the pictures take the story to a whole new place inviting kids to delve more deeply. This book was recommmended to me at an illustrator workshop at the SCBWI conference last week, and I'm so glad I picked it up. Needless to say, my boys have read it about a hundred times. Pick it up for all the little boys on your Christmas list. Enjoy