Stick Man is probably the most straightforward Julia Donaldson / Axel Scheffler picture book that my daughter has come across so far, yet it is right up there amongst their most charming. Driven by a cautionary refrain that urges the eponymous Stick Man to beware the many perils strewn across his path, the narrative follows the tragic hero as fate tears him from his “Stick Lady Love” (not Stick Lady Wife, I note - how modern) and their “Stick Children Three” and then a series of unfortunate events take him further and further away from his “Family Tree”.
As with many of Donaldson’s stories (Freddie and the Fairy leaps to mind, for one), Stick Man’s outrageous woes stem not from the malice of others, but their ignorance. Donaldson’s world may be one where a dragon can become an air ambulance, a Big Bad Mouse can dominate the deep dark wood and a stick can be imbued with the amazing gift of sentience, but most of its inhabitants still insist on judging books by their covers, and a result poor old Stick Man almost ends up roasting on the Christmas fire (which might well qualify as the darkest moment that you’ll find in a Donaldson / Scheffler book; the prospect of immolation certainly puts becoming a cuddly old Gruffalo’s sandwich into perspective, and is probably liable to give rise to a nightmare or two).
Colourful and melodious, yet occasionally aberrantly dark, Stick Man might well be a simple story, but it’s one that it’s hard not to love.
