Review by Frank Plowright

Many parents have witnessed their young child being more enamoured with the box in which an expensive present came than the present itself. Perhaps that was James Burks’ inspiration for Box Tales, stories of Bea and her best friend Box, who’s, well, a box. More polarising among parents is having to watch a show put on by their infant and friends. Some welcome the opportunity to nurture the little darling’s creativity by heartily applauding the undisciplined, everlasting event while others spend the time praying for an earthquake. Just a minor one, you understand.

As with the previous Grow, Strawberries, Grow!, this is an instructional manual in disguise, giving rise to the feeling that Burks has on occasion prayed for an earthquake and is determined to improve life for parents everywhere. Perhaps encouraging the reading of Super Terrific Showtime! will result in a better experience for all.

Burks has definitely observed children creating a show, not least with the flyers being seen as the important aspect to encourage an audience, with no thought given to what the Super Stupendous Really Really Really Really Funerific Variety Show might present. That’s where Burks steps in with a series of ideas of what might be performed. The jokes are groaners rather than thigh-slappers, but they have to be pitched at a level for the children to understand, and the more imaginative will be able to adapt the material.

Burks keeps the cartooning simple, but with considerable animation during the finale, and as bonus item illustrates a relatively complicated card trick. Any child pulling that off deserves an extra biscuit.

If kids follow his template, it should make for more entertaining performances in front of parents and their friends, while still allowing for individual creativity. We’ll all be grateful.