Review by Ian Keogh

Toon Books were ahead of the game in aiming their line at children who’ve only relatively recently learned to read. The illustrations were designed to appeal to kids under seven, and the language and plot were kept simple enough to understand. The undisputed master of the form was Geoffrey Hayes, whose Benny and Penny series stretched to six books. For comic historians that will be all the more remarkable for his only previous genre contributions being to the wild Underground comics of his brother Rory.

Given the editorial brief, Hayes delivers a cheery story about two mice. Penny is Benny’s younger sister, while both are roughly a little younger than the children who’ll be reading the book, and behave accordingly. Benny sees Penny as a little pest for interrupting his pirate game, while she’s not quite old enough to have the imagination that transforms a box with a stick into a pirate ship.

Hayes came to Benny and Penny with a long career in children’s book illustration, and his depictions of Benny and Penny are designed to fascinate. They’re active and charming, and Hayes ensures they occupy relatively simple, but imagination stretching environments, and while their mother is briefly mentioned and instructs Benny to be nice, she’s never actually seen. Keeping Benny and Penny’s world almost free of adults encourages exploration, but there’s always the safety net of a parent nearby. Most importantly he captures the annoyance children often feel toward their younger siblings, while ensuring the underlying love is present and expressed.

Any child just beginning to read won’t find this too challenging, and should delight in the drawing. The same applies to any book in the series, and The Big No-No is next.