Brain is (Not) Always Right (Scott Stuart, Scholastic)
Scott Stuart may have come to creating books for children in an unconventional way, but the social media storm surrounding his support for his child to be everything they could want has captured hearts and minds the world over. He has since proven his ability to write and illustrate books that are fun and engaging while also having a social mindset and a message for a better world at their core. Did I mention hearts and minds? Stuart might have captured ours, but his latest book explores when your brain and your heart want different things and have conflicting priorities. Heart loves chocolate and playing and fashion whereas Brain likes lists and broccoli and safety rails and never doing anything that people might laugh at. And let’s be honest, Brain is used to getting his way. With adorable anthropomorphised vital organs, we learn what happens when one overpowers and overrules the other, especially where jazz music lessons are concerned. Bright, fun and suitably silly to cover the ‘lesson’, this will be a sure hit for classrooms, libraries and bedtime reading everywhere. Two to six-year-old fans of Stuart’s previous works, and of Matt Cosgrove and Aaron Blabey books, will love this with all their heart, and like it with all their sensible brain.
Michael Earp has 20 years of children’s specialist bookselling experience and manages The Little Bookroom. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
