Max the Brave

This book by Ed Vere is a close to perfect kids' book. Plotwise it's very much the same kind of general gist as The Gruffalo, but the protagonist is a cat looking for mice to hunt instead of a mouse seeking to not be hunted; both lead to monstrous conclusions that are neatly amusing. Though if I'm honest the style of illustrations in this one - being scribblier and black blobby inkspot style rather than Overly Detailed; I don't have the real excuse anymore of having to read to Small Isaac so I did read this purely for my own entertainment, and I very much enjoyed it. Another front on which it's better than the other more famous story I compared it with here is that only one lie is told throughout the whole book - still the mouse saving his own skin, obviously - but it just resolves itself as a moral quandary much more neatly than The Gruffalo, in my honest opinion. But hey, what do I know, I'm just a 26-year-old non-binary Children's Books Nerdstalgia Meta-Guardian.