This book made me and the children smile and then laugh out loud. We loved Bert's hiding skills and also loved their friendship. Lovely story with beautiful illustrations.

Perfect little book to read with my son. Such vibrant colours and easy to read story makes it a great story time together.
I love the story as well, it’ll be one to read as he grows with a lovely message.
Thank You NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an early copy to review.

As a huge fan of Chris Naylor-Ballesteros’s work, I was so excited for this book! It’s such a wonderful story about the true meaning of friendship and so relatable to young children, with it being set around a game of Hide and Seek. I think children will instantly be drawn to Frank and Bert’s cheeky characters.

'Frank and Bert' is a super cute picture book for children aged about 3-5 written and illustrated by Chris Naylor-Ballestros. Huge kudos to him as the illustrations are delightful and the story is very sweet as Frank the Fox and Bert the Bear (love some alliteration!) learn about friendship through a truly epic game of hide-and-seek. The result is a simple, humorous story well told with a funny twist at the end.

The messages about celebrating our friends and putting them above winning are lovely and important ones to send to all children, but especially to boys. It's a much more positive model of masculinity than you tend to see in mainstream media (which often values aggression and competition in boys/men over kindness and emotional intelligence). I also love to see Bert wearing a pink scarf which Frank knits for him (Normalize boys knitting! And loving their friends! Also, colours don't have genders. Let boys/men wear pink!). Parents and teachers will also appreciate the chance to practice counting with their kids (all the way up to 100!) and the language is simple enough for a little reading practice. I'd definitely recommend it for a home, school or nursery library..

Thank you NetGalley and thank you Nosy Crow for sending me an eARC of this adorable book!

You know when you’re so excited about a book that you accidentally preorder it twice? I did the advanced copy equivalent of that with this book; I requested ARC’s from two publishers because I just knew I was going to love it. Then I got approvals from both publishers, so I got to enjoy both the electronic and physical copies of this book.

So, does that mean I loved it twice as much? You bet I did!

Frank the fox and Bert the bear are best friends who love playing hide-and-seek. Frank always finds Bert though because, well, Bert isn’t the best at hiding.

Bert’s hiding skills reminded me of those of another bear, Fergus from Mike Boldt’s Find Fergus.

Frank loves to win but he also loves his best friend. Frank’s competitive nature goes up against his desire to make his friend happy in the most adorable way.

Bert, to his credit, isn’t quite as oblivious as he first appears. The way the story resolves gave me the biggest smile (and there were many) of the book.

The illustrations are so much fun. My eyes were continually drawn to Bert’s hot pink scarf, an important part of the story that really pops in the physical copy of the book. Both animals are quite expressive, adding to the humour.

Bonus points for the accidental learning. One of the games of hide-and-seek requires readers to count to one hundred. I’d definitely be encouraging kids I was reading with to count along with me.

This story seems so simple at first but there’s such a great message about the value of friendship.

I can’t get enough of this book! I really hope Frank and Bert secure starring roles in future books.

If you finish this book and you’re looking for another picture book that weighs the value of friendship against winning, I’d recommend Katy Hudson’s The Golden Acorn.

Thank you so much to Allen & Unwin and Nosy Crow for the opportunity to fall in love with this picture book.

Beautifully illustrated and wise. A fantastic book to share with young children and for older children to read to siblings. Human kindness, as with the wonderful ‘The Suitcase’ is demonstrated beautifully. All homes and schools should have a copy. I’ll be buying it for my school library and recommending it to everyone. A future classic.

What a beautiful story about friendship and thinking about the feeling of others. What a nice and fun way to discuss empathy with young children. Definitely a beautiful book that left a smile in my kids lips.

Remember reading a book in your childhood with a big grin on your face throughout? Ever had an experience where the grin starts off as a smile and goes on increasing in size until you are actually laughing out loud by the last page? Here’s a book that will do exactly that, and much more!

These two are best friends and love playing hide and seek. Or maybe I should say, Bert loves to hide and Frank loves to seek. Unfortunately Bert isn’t very good at hiding and Frank inevitably finds him. When Bert finally laments about how he might have a better chance if Frank counted till a hundred instead of till ten, Frank, being a good sport, agrees. Does Bert manage to find the perfect hiding spot?

There are children’s books with morals, and there are books that are for entertainment. This book falls in both the categories. The idea of friendship vs. competitiveness is nicely brought out in the story. Frank’s counting till a hundred adds a nice mathematical advantage to the story. Frank and Bert are simply adorable characters and I would love to read more books centred on them.

The language in the story is very easy for an early reader. The style in which the story is written also makes it suitable for readalouds as well as for joint reading and independent reading.

I liked the illustrations too. They are drawn in a sort of rough, scribbly kind of way that makes the characters more endearing. The entire book feels very cute because of this mode of sketching. I am sure the colours will pop out even more in the physical copy.

Kids are going to love this little book and I bet they will giggle with joy at the end. A wholesome and fun entertainer, this. Heartily recommended.

5 joyous stars.

My thanks to Nosy Crow and NetGalley for the ARC of “Frank and Bert”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A super cute picture book about two friends, Frank and Bert, who love playing hide and seek.

If you have a 3-year-old at home, you know what it is like playing hide and seek with small kids: counting is a challenge, giggles will give them away and they are certain that if they cannot see you it's also true the other way around. It's so much fun - exactly like this book about these mates who want to win the game, but at the same time would also like to let the other one win.

Gorgeous illustrations, clean and simple pictures, and a funny, relatable story.

A gorgeous picture book about finding joy in another person's happiness.

Frank always wins at hide & seek but finds a new perspective when he realises that he loves his friend even more than winning.

Simple & beautiful 🦊🐻

Love all of his work, and this is no exception! Looking forward to seeing a physical copy, picturebooks aren't great on a small screen

Thankyou to Netgalley for letting me read this super cute book.

This beautifully drawn children's book is about friendship and about how sometimes letting your friend win is the right thing to do.
The details gone into the drawings were amazing even though they were simplistic. I love the names as well Frank the Fox and Bert the Bear (can't beat a good use of alliteration).


The message behind this book is simple but sweet, celebrating friendship and putting your friend first is more important than winning. I also appreciate the fact they normalised boys/men knitting and boys loving their friends, this is such a positive role model for young people it's brilliant.
I also like the fact its teaching children to count and also the simple phrases and wording is brilliant to help children read.

A brilliantly funny story about friendship and the small sacrifices one sometimes make to keep friends happy. I loved the colours which are offset by the use of negative space and allows to focus on the characters and importantly on their hat and scarf. Little readers love it when they are in on the joke and know something characters don’t and Chris Naylor-Ballesteros makes great use of that. I loved that cheeky ending! A great read

A sweet tale of friendship and a great way to practise counting with your little ones. We really loved the illustrations too, particularly how ‘fluffy’ the bear was! My daughter giggled at the ending. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

I loved this simple story of friendship. The bright illustrations perfectly capture the warm and gentle tone in a story about what is more important, winning or doing something positive for your friend. With a humorous little twist at the end that works really well, this is a good book for looking at issues around other peoples feelings and what it means to be a friend. Lovely.

A tale of true friendship, Frank and Bert are playing hide and seek! But Bert is not so good at hiding! Ever the good friend Frank gives Bert the ultimate hiding opportunity - counting to 100 (which is a long time)! Giving us the excuse to practise counting to 100! And even then Bert's hiding skills leave something to be desired. Frank however, has a heart of gold.

Less a story about numbers and counting and more a story about what makes a good friend, this book has everything I've come to expect from a Chris Naylor-Ballesteros story: good wit and humour and a big heart! An utterly charming read!

Brilliant! Frank and Bert are best friends who love to play hide and seek. Bert loves to hide and thinks he's great at it, but really isn't. When Frank realises how sad Bert will be if he is so easily found again, he thinks about whether winning really is the most important part of the game.

I love the illustrations in this book and know that children will enjoy joining in with the counting. I also really like books where the reader can see exactly what's going on, before the characters do and this book does that so well.

This has been one of the most beaıtiful and fun children's books I have read lately. I love the characters, I love the story, and the illustrations and the colour palette is gorgeous. I especially like how playful the characters are, and the message is loud and clear. Excellent work!

Frank and Bert is about two animal friends who love to play hide and seek, but Burt isn't so great at hiding! This is a really cute book that shows the meaning of friendship and how sometimes letting your friend win is the right thing to do.

I loved the artistry of this book and how cutely the characters where drawn. I particularly liked how detailed the characters were drawn, but also how simplistic their designs were.

As a teacher in training I appreciated the maths link as the animals counted up to 100 whislt playing. I also liked the word phrasing and sentence structure as it will help build pupils fluency skills and phonological knowledge.

Rated: 3.5 stars

A joyful tale about 2 friends playing hide and seek. A brilliant learning tool for showing young children that though winning is fun, being kind and having fun together is more important.
Clear, colourful and bold text and illustrations, with easy to read text and numbers.