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Petite Beauté (2008)

by Anthony Browne(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

287767567X (ISBN13: 9782877675673)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Kaléidoscope

review 1: Little Beauty by Anthony Browne is the story of a blossoming friendship between a sad and lonely gorilla and a kitten. Throughout the story we see the recurring image of a rose. On the first title page we have white rose and on the next we have a pink rose. Historically, white roses symbolize innocence and purity while pink roses symbolize love, gratitude and appreciation. As you read through this story you can see why Browne chose to use these two roses. The themes of innocence, love, gratitude and appreciation are weaved throughout the entire story in several different ways. First, the gorilla feels appreciation towards the zoo keepers for giving him a friend, the kitten. The kitten represents innocence. The friendship between the gorilla and the kitten grow into a love.... more We know this because the words on the pages tell us they do everything together and the images on the pages show the gorilla and kitten to be happy. The looks on their faces also mirror each other - with both having an almost euphoric look in the eyes and a grin on their faces. The two flowers are on the last page together as the gorilla and kitten live happily ever after - showing the blend of innocence, purity and love.
review 2: "Little Beauty" is about a Gorilla who lives at a zoo who is lonely and desperate for a friend. through use of sign language the gorilla tells his anguish to the zookeepers who decide that they should get the gorilla a friend, namely a pet kitten they call "beauty" they quickly become best friends until one day whilst watching an upsetting film (it can be assumed King Kong by use of the illustrations) the gorilla becomes angry and breaks zoo property and when the zoo keeps go to reprimand the gorilla threatening punishment, the kitten takes the blame instead and everything's fine...The story line itself can be a starting point for discussion about loneliness, friendship, and kindness, potentially supporting PSHE and Art topics. Throughout the story the gorilla experiences a range of emotions; sadness, happiness, anger, all of which can be inferred either through the beautiful illustrations alongside the story or reading the subtext.This was an amusing tale, and is a positive view of animals. Instead of the usual angry, scary gorillas that are portrayed in literature, we are offered a friendly and smart creature. However,although I find the plot good for a stimulus, I do find the ending problematic with Beauty taking the blame for the gorilla and would have to consider how some children may be influenced.This book has the potential to be used with a wide range of ages. The striking, life-like illustrations draw in the attention of even the youngest readers. Browne’s enthusiasm lies in encouraging children to become readers of both words and pictures. The detailed illustrations frequently convey their own meaning, for example the explanation that the gorilla and the kitten ‘did everything together’ is accompanied by a humorous image of both animals sitting next to each other, each on the toilet! This book thus lends itself to being read without the text at first, children can have great fun simply looking at the pictures and making up their own version of the story.Older readers might appreciate the hidden details within the illustrations, for example the reference to King Kong. This author has written and illustrated many other books, often characterized by almost surreal illustrations, hidden details and visual puns. Exploring this book with older primary stage children could lead to form part of a literacy project on comparing texts by the same author. less

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