The subtitle of this book is "Finding Magic in everyday." The magic in this story comes from the beautiful relationship between this young child, they could be a boy or a girl, and their grandfather. There is also magic in the unstated parts of this story.
The young child has moved to the city. The words of the opening sentence resonate with unspoken events and unhappiness:
"The City had been home to me for three weeks."
Where has this child come from?
Why are they with their grandfather?
Has something sad happened to the rest of the family?
The child and grandfather enter a shop of curiosities. As the child looks more closely he or she begins to see there are interesting things in this second hand shop. Grandfather finds a small treasure.
"It might just look like a boring, grey stone to you, but when I was younger, about your age, my grandma told me beauty and magic and be found in the most unexpected of places. You just need to look for it."
On the way home the child does begin to look. There are puddles and flowers, birds and statues, a fountain and a rainbow. Best off all there is a playground to explore and a new friend waiting.
"We were surrounded by the everyday fantastic, and for the first time in three weeks and four days, I felt hopeful."
This is a beautiful book to share with a young child. It could be a gift given to a grandfather to share with a grandchild.
I adore the illustrations in this book by Fiona Lumbers. She is the illustration of The Secret sky Garden which is a book I absolutely love and the quirky and splendid book I like bees, I don't like honey.
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