Mango Allsorts is a girl good at all sorts of things. Bambang: a Malaysian tapir lost in the city on the run from a tiger. When the two of them meet, a friendship forged on a love of adventure and banana pancakes will blossom.
The idea for this series of illustrated fiction grew out of another friendship, between me and author Polly Faber https://pollyfaber.com/about/.
It all started over elevenses. I knew at once that I’d love to work with Polly, not least because she makes me laugh a lot. When she suggested a tapir and a child-companion, I felt a tingling of excitement and rushed to sketch something. I sent it over to her. ‘Does this inspire you at all?’ A short while later the most wonderful stories arrived and I knew we were onto something special.
Four books later, Mango and Bambang have grown to become a duo very close to my heart.
Mango and Bambang The Not-a-Pig
Walker Books (March 2015)
Mango and Bambang All at Sea
Walker Books (March 2016)
Mango and Bambang Tiny Tapir Trouble
Walker Books (September 2016)
Mango and Bambang Superstar Tapir
Walker Books (April 2017)
Walker Books 2017
‘A first chapter book with real charm is Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig, by Polly Faber, illustrated by Clara Vulliamy, in which the relationship between a little girl who is good at karate and Bambang, a lost tapir, has a warmth reminiscent of the Paddington stories. With expressively characterised and comical pictures on every page, this is a lesson in tolerance and joie de vivre, as Bambang delights in wearing a flowery swimming hat, sings of love and loss and the niceness of bananas, and gets the better of the bigoted.’
‘Vulliamy’s glorious black and white pictures and Faber’s words combine perfectly. Each story is the perfect length for bedtime and it’s an irresistible package too, all coloured page edges and foil cover. My six-year-old’s book of the month.’
‘Mango Allsorts is a perfect modern child heroine; brave, clever, kind and adventurous. Gorgeously illustrated in a limited black, white and purple palette by Vulliamy, it’s a modern classic in the making.’
‘Wrapped in purple and white stripes with bits of shiny gold foil, Polly Faber’s “Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig” seems as much like a temptingly packaged confection as a first-in-a-series chapter book for 6- to 9-year-olds. Really, it is both: a delicious and engaging story of the friendship between a city girl and a talking tapir from deepest Malaysia.’