The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

"A strange animal arrived one day looking dusty, tired, sad 

and frightened. 

He was pulling a big suitcase."

Stop and think about these opening lines. Why is he sad? What has happened to make him frightened? This suitcase is big - what could be inside? It is so heavy he has to drag it. The image above is from the title page. You can feel the weight from this illustration.

Now watch the Nosy Crow trailer and a video where Chris Naylor-Ballesteros talks about The Suitcase.

The strange animal meets a fox, rabbit and bird. The group are curious and ask about the contents of the suitcase. The list of contents sound utterly impossible. A teacup, a table, a chair, a kitchen and even a wooden cabin. The strange animal is exhausted and he falls asleep. The fox decides they should open the suitcase so they can discover the truth.

"Meanwhile the sleeping stranger dreamed about running away and hiding, about climbing over mountains and swimming across deep waters. And he dreamed about his suitcase and all that he had inside it."

When the suitcase is opened I gasped. What the fox has done is so dreadful. It's a violation but what happens next will warm your heart and, I know this sounds very deep but, I think the final scenes will give your young reader a sense of hope for humanity.

This is my favourite type of picture book where a seemingly simple narrative is a disguise for a deeper message but it is all done with a light touch there is no feeling that the author had an agenda or a message or an 'axe to grind' or a moral to impart. You might remember I talked about Almost Anything by Sophy Henn recently. It has a very different theme but I think it demonstrates this idea of that old adage "show don't tell."

This is in every way a five star book.

Here are some review comments:

The message here is powerful and profound and beautifully served by the simplicity of the telling. Love Reading4Kids

What better book could there be to share with a nursery or foundation stage class during refugee week than this one, offering as it does, hope and the possibility of new friendship. Red Reading Hub

I would bet that many folk would come away from this book with various different levels of interpretation of the core powerful message of being kind, and treating strangers a little better - but wow, this is so subtly and cleverly done. Read it Daddy

I would link The Suitcase with The Thing by Simon Puttock and Shelter by Celine Claire.  You could also look at Welcome by Barroux and Room on our Rock by Kate and Jol Temple.

In this video you can see Chris creating his characters. I loved hearing Chris says "Picture books are for everyone!"

Here are two other books by Chris. You can read the long journey that it took to make I'm going to eat this Ant on his blog.