Creep and Chase
Digital version – browse, print or download
Can't see the preview?
Click here!
How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.
BfK Newsletter
Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!
Cover Story
The cover of this issue is a design incorporating illustrations from four books illustrated by the subject of our Authorgraph, Ian Beck. The top left illustration is from Five Little Ducks (Orchard), the top right from Poppy and Pip's Picnic (to be published Autumn '97 by HarperCollins), the bottom left from The Owl and the Pussy-cat (Transworld) and the bottom right from Home Before Dark (to be published September '97 by Scholastic). Ian Beck's Picture Book (Hippo) is reviewed in this issue.
Beck talks to BfK's interviewer, Julia Eccleshare, also in this issue. His distinctive decorative style with its sensitive pen line and cross hatching has a nostalgic but sometimes also a surreal quality - he describes it as 'a look that is floating, strong and wistful all at the same time'.
Thanks to Orchard, HarperCollins, Transworld and Scholastic for their help in producing this composite cover.
PDF
Printer-friendly version
Send to friendCreep and Chase
This book's title refers to the elaborate game of Hide and Seek invented by two brothers, Peter and Ben, as they play on their neighbour Joseph's farm. It also refers to the tactics used by Joseph's brother Nick to persuade him to sell part of his farm in order to finance Nick's extravagant lifestyle. There are contrasts everywhere; the competitive warmth between Ben and Peter; Nick's envy for Joseph's settled lifestyle; Ed Randall's factory farming and Joseph's organic approach. Dowley is especially adept at conveying sibling rivalry but she also makes a bold, unsentimental stab at factory farming. This is a short book but it entertains and educates in equal measure.
