Nursery World - Story corner (14)

A mixed bag of books that lend themselves to being shared with a group of young children is reviewed by Alison Boyle Flyaway Katie

Flyaway Katie

by Polly Dunbar

(Walker, 10.99)

The girl at the centre of this story is having a grey day. When she notices her colourful bird-painting on the wall, she brings the painting's colours into her world.

She starts by trying on colourful clothes and then painting her body and face. When she experiences a 'flittery, fluttery, flighty, fizzling'

feeling she develops wings and flies right into the painting. There's an amusing illustration of her settling on a branch and saying hello to the tweeting birds all around her. 'And that's where she stayed, all afternoon... fluttering brightly.'

The careful use of space and colour delivers the story at just the right pace, and there is a measured transformation from pictures constrained within a grey ruled border at the beginning and the borderless and colourful world of the birds later. Discreet collage features are woven into the illustrations too, adding another well-crafted dimension.

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