Busy Betty by Reese Witherspoon. Illus. by Xindi Yan

To be honest I wasn't sure that a picture by a Hollywood star would be any good, but I am happy to say that I was wrong. Busy Betty is a story by Reese Witherspoon and tells us all about Betty who finds it hard to focus on one task at a time, and often gets distracted. She has a friend coming over and wants to make sure the dog is clean and ready to play! But, Betty gets distracted and creates much more mess than she started with. When her friend comes over they pool their busy brains and perfect plans to create their very own business....a dog wash. 

There were many things that I liked about this story, to start with I enjoyed the writing. I think that the author captured how the busy brain of a child works. From one thing to another, distracted by hunger and ideas, and then the inevitable mess at the end. It was also really lovely to see how Betty's friend had no issue with any of this, accepts her for who she is and then together they came up with an idea, worked hard and put it to practice. It showed a wonderful picture of childhood friendship, no strings attached!

The print in the book is also nice and big, with the majority of it in black (except a few larger, coloured words) and on a white background. From an accessibility angle this is great but also I feel that this would ensure that parents could read it over the shoulder of their child and that emerging readers could have a go too. 

The illustrations are very good, with Xindi Yan capturing lots of the mess and craziness of Betty's world. The dog Frank is so funny and you can imagine him in so many of the scenarios. 

A great book for children 3+.

Themes: Pet, Friendship, Small business, Persistence, Cooperation.

Lauren Fountain