Mia Cassany / Mikel Casal: Frankfurt, un chucho con estilo

Frankfurt is the most refined little dog you could imagine. He drinks his tea without the slightest slurp. He never gobbles his food. He arranges his toys and scarves carefully according to size and colour. But there was always one thing that really upset Frankfurt — his name. Nobody, he felt, would ever take him seriously with a name like that.

This charming picture book has been published by Mosquito Books Barcelona, a fairly new independent publishing house with a very fine catalogue. They plan to put out around ten beautifully made titles a year, and Frankfurt, un chucho con estilo is one of the loveliest in the early list.

The text is by Mia Cassany, who has a real gift for the kind of small, dry humour that makes adults laugh at picture-book readings as much as the children do. The illustrations are by the Basque illustrator Mikel Casal, whose editorial work I have admired for years. His Frankfurt is all long nose and proud posture, dressed (depending on the page) in a bow tie, a turtleneck or a tiny tweed jacket.

The story follows Frankfurt as he tries on different identities, each more elegant than the last, in the hope that the world will finally treat him with the dignity he deserves. Of course, the joke is that he was already perfectly dignified to begin with. The book lands somewhere between a fashion plate and a quiet little lesson about being yourself, without ever turning preachy.

A book to give to dog people, design people, and any child who has ever decided their name was the wrong one.