The Adventures of Moose & Mr Brown

by Paul Smith, Sam Usher (Illustrator)

Overview

This is the iconic international fashion designer Sir Paul Smith's very first children's picture book – and the first book in a new and exciting series.

Written by Sir Paul and illustrated by the brilliant Sam Usher, this is a stunning, beautiful, laugh-out-loud story of animals, travel, design and finding inspiration in the most unlikely of places.

Inspired by toys that Paul has owned for many years, the main characters are curious, charming and characterful.

Mr Brown is an international fashion designer, who meets Moose on a plane travelling to London. Moose is distraught as he has lost his twin brother Monty – who got on the wrong plane! Mr Brown agrees to help Moose track Monty down, and in return, Moose helps bring even more inspiration to Mr Brown's business.

They travel around the world, helping other animals with their designs (slippers for sloths, parkas for penguins, scarves for giraffes, and more) while looking for Monty. Will Mr Brown and Moose find Monty before Mr Brown's big catwalk show?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843654285
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/24/2019
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sir Paul Smith is an internationally renowned fashion designer. The Paul Smith fashion company has flagship stores in London, Paris, New York, Milan and Tokyo, with a total of over 200 stores worldwide. It has a presence in over 70 countries.

Sir Paul Smith has collaborated with a number of well-known brands including Manchester United Football Team, Anglepoise, Land Rover, New Balance and Penguin Classics. This is his first children's book.

Sam Usher has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Prize and the Red House Children’s Book Award and longlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal. He is particularly admired for his technical drawing skill and prowess with watercolour.

Editorial Reviews

2019-08-29
Anthropomorphic animals meet through happenstance, become friends, and help each other with their problems.

The new spin this title tries to apply to the overly familiar trope is that one of the two characters—monkey Mr. Brown—is a famous fashion designer. He meets Moose on a plane when Moose is traveling from Alaska to London. Moose is introduced as having a superfluous and perpetually absent-minded twin—Monty—who has boarded the wrong plane. Mr. Brown offers to help Moose look for Monty, though looking seems to just mean that Moose will accompany Mr. Brown as he travels around the world to work. Moose, in return, provides Mr. Brown with top-notch fashion ideas, such as scarves for giraffes and sunglasses for snakes. Though clearly aiming for some degree of lovable kitsch, this title overshoots and lands squarely on bizarre. The premise is preposterous; the narrative meandering. At best the choice to feature an anthropomorphic (possibly stuffed) monkey character named "Mr. Brown" is unfortunate; at worst, it's offensive—especially taken alongside the tiny vignette that is the sole representation of Africa. The illustrations are frequently too crowded, making decoding them difficult and rendering the entire work a confusing mess.

Safe to skip it. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews