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B is for Beer

B is for Beer by Tom Robbins Oldcastle, HK$91

Everyone is writing children's books it seems. Sometimes this feels a stretch (John Grisham?); at others, a natural extension of a writer's adult work: John Connolly or Jasper Fforde. Tom Robbins fits squarely into the latter category. Work like the wonderful Still Life with a Woodpecker is playful, vivid and loud: who else would dream up a universe from a packet of Camel cigarettes? B is for Beer is aimed nominally at children but will win over parents too - and fathers above all. If books were sold at pubs then male literacy would improve pronto. Our hero is Gracie Perkel, a six-year-old native of Seattle. She also loves beer - not drinking it, but reading about it. The reason is her Uncle Moe, who patiently explains that 'beer isn't extracted from grasshoppers'. Robbins has produced a valentine to the amber nectar and, oddly, to insects as well: 'In Seattle in October, the day is already so dark by 6pm that the bats are out shopping for bug bargains and stars are striking wet matches in an attempt to mark a path through the gloom.' Whether you read for the froth or the fun, you will lap it up. Robbins should do more of this: C is for Cigars? Maybe not. In any case, I'm off for a pint.

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