More Would You Rather...

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by John Burningham

Interest age: 3 to 5

Published by Penguin, 2019

Funny
Picture books

About this book

Would you rather serve a meal to a very polite rat or a very bad-mannered cat? Be punched by a bad-tempered baby or pushed over by a badger? Just a couple of the vital questions that are posed in this long-awaited sequel to John Burningham’s original Would You Rather, which was published in 1978.

The text is so funny and will stimulate great conversations with children of all ages. The illustrations are also stunningly beautiful, each one telling its own little tale. Look carefully at the expressions of the characters, particularly wonderful is the eagle stealing all the clothes.

This is the perfect book to read a child to sleep with as it ends with a particularly snuggly bed. It’s a book that keeps on giving and giving, potentially leading to a childhood-long game for adults and children to share that starts with questions posed in the book and moves on to your own invented dilemmas.

A truly sublime book that was published just before the death of the author and illustrator, who won the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 alongside his wife, Helen Oxenbury.

About the author

John Burningham studied illustration and graphic design at the Central School of Art, graduating with distinction in 1959. Many illustration commissions followed, including iconic posters for London Transport, before the publication of Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers, John’s first book for children. It won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration and heralded the beginning of an extraordinary career spanning 50 years.

John Burningham has since written and illustrated over 30 picture books, which have been translated and distributed all over the world. These feature his classic and much-loved children’s books, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming; Mr Gumpy’s Outing, also awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal; Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne; The Shopping Basket; The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; Granpa, later made into an animated film; Oi! Get off our Train; and various books for adults.

John is married to the illustrator, Helen Oxenbury. They have three children, three grandchildren and a dog named Miles. They live in London.