The ubiquity of Franklin, the small green turtle, is a fact of Canadian life for those who have young children. Franklin appeared first in an appealing picture book series, then moved onto television, and now is bustling his little shell out of the screen and into a new series of TV storybooks. The various authors who now produce stories about Franklin still, of course, depict him in his cozy home with kindly parents who support and encourage him through the tribulations of early childhood – forgetting to do chores, having to go to the doctor and to hospital, coping with a new sibling, learning to apologize. Gentle humour and reassurance are the hallmarks of the Franklin stories, in all their various formats. In his encounters with the larger world Franklin is surrounded by adults who wish him well, and difficulties with his friends – Bear, Beaver, and Fox – are comfortably resolved.

Franklin Goes to the Hospital, in the picture book series still illustrated by Brenda Clark, is in that line of well-used books whose narratives assure the young child that one can visit the hospital, be brave, and come back home feeling better. This one has a pleasant joke: Franklin worries that the X-ray of his insides will reveal that he’s just been pretending to be brave.

Intended to entice viewers of the televised Franklin tales into reading about them in picture book format, the Franklin TV Storybooks look fairly similar to the original Franklin series, and share the common format of problem followed by reassurance and solution. The drawing and use of colour are, however, bolder and less nuanced; this is particularly evident in the depiction of Franklin’s animal friends, drawn in cartoon style without the textured fur of Clark’s originals. There are fewer details in the pictures, and the language is flat and colloquial. The new series will appeal to those who prefer Disney versions of the Winnie-the-Pooh characters to the softer and more varied originals by Ernest Shepard; the obvious TV tie-in may attract new readers, but at some cost.