Katrina Germein (text) and Mandy Foot (illustrator), Bev and Kev, Little Book Press, January 2022, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780645027051
Bev and Kev is the tale of a giraffe and a yellow-billed ox pecker (bird) who become friends. The story opens with Bev who constantly has other animals commenting on her height. The comments about Bev’s height are not intended to be hurtful but their constancy wears at Bev and makes her wish that she were someplace else – some place that feels right. Bev embarks on a long walking trip that exhausts her. Just as Bev feels that she can’t go on she meets Kev who distracts her and befriends her as they journey together to the waterhole.
Katrina Germein’s text delightfully illustrates the message that to make a friend you need to be a friend. Given the diversity of Germein’s previous titles, Wonderful Wasps, Before You Were Born and My Dad Thinks He’s a Pirate, it’s unsurprising to see her turning her hand or words to yet another topic.
As loneliness is such a big issue in society this is a timely story which has been gorgeously illustrated by Mandy Foot who also gave us Lucy and Copper and The Last Dragon. The characterisations of African animals are beautifully brought to life by Foot’s illustrations. The fold out page at the back of the book is a particular highlight.
As an adult reader I could see the value of this text for young readers (0-6 years). The lessons that you can make friends with people who don’t look like you and that it is important to care for one another are both vital life lessons. However, it did also concern me that life isn’t always as simple as it appears in picture books and that many children who are marked as “different” by their peers may continue to struggle to make friends. Hopefully there will always be beautiful and thoughtful picture books that encourage us to try harder and do better.
Review by Anne Varnes
