Bang

One big, hilarious pile-up – that’s ‘Bang’, a fabulous picture book story with hardly any words. Animals of all kinds go crashing into each other. They all have their own reasons for not noticing they’re about to smash into the others. Only Chameleon pays attention and, with brakes screeching, is able to avoid a collision. Everyone’s so relieved. But only for a moment, because then Penguin comes along and he can’t get his ice-cream van to stop in time. But what a happy crash it is! Ultimately, it makes the world a better place. Friendships blossom, someone proposes marriage and in the end a street party breaks out.

‘Bang’ is a short but powerful picture book. You can leaf through it as quickly as a pile-up occurs, but it’s worth taking a little longer to ‘drive’ through it: every collision has an abundance of details worth examining. The colourful illustrations and characterful animals make this book a feast for the eye. Leo Timmers manages to transform an everyday moment into an hilarious pile-up.