One Potato Review

Anthony Browne is one weird dude if his books are any indication: Backgrounds come palpably frozen, almost eery, primates are always dropping in unexpectedly, and story lines are very often inscrutable. In a business – and a genre – increasingly allergic to taking risks, he is to be congratulated for his eccentricities, but they don’t always make for easy reading. Browne appears to reining in some of his wackier impulses in this one (though you still find yourself asking Why a gorilla?) and the result is an entirely accessible, slightly off-kilter little fable about a girl, her work-addled Dad, and the fantasies she cooks up to replace him. For a while anyway. Complete with happy ending.