outh African illustrator Niki Daly’s Pa’s Poopy Chair (Corgi Pups pound;3.50) stands out from the crowd of chapter books for Year 1 pupils and above.
In books designed for new readers, it is important that a young child can “read” the story from the pictures as well as the text.
This is amply so in this book. Daly’s drawing style is loose and sketchy but marvellously expressive. We know instantly by looking at the first two pictures that a) here’s something wrong with the man’s chair and b) he’s seen a new one advertised on the TV.
It’s a self-assembly chair and the two children, Bono and Brenda, wear fabulous expressions as they watch Pa putting the bits together, and when the chair turns out to “poop” loudly every time anyone sits on it.
As good as the ubiquitous Nick Sharratt and Tony Ross may be, it is refreshing to see a completely new visual style at play.
