Title: Isabella’s Secret
Author: Jane Tanner
Illustrator: Jane Tanner
Publisher: Puffin Books, $14.95 RRP
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 9780140555677
For ages: 4-6
Type: Picture book
About: It’s hard to imagine any little girl not loving this book. Tanner is responsible not only for the writing but the illustrating as well, and as one who is woeful at drawing, I am wildly envious of her talents.
Tanner’s reputation as an award winning Australian writer/illustrator is richly deserved. This book is treasured in our home as I am sure it would be in many others. Tanner has been shortlisted for various awards, among them the CBCA Book of the Year Award.
The story depicts a little girl called Isabella lying in the garden and being approached by fairies to come and play with them. Who could refuse such an offer? And thus begins Isabella’s journey into a magical world every little girl longs for at some point. Isabella shrinks, learns to fly and when she leaves this magic land, she does so, knowing that she can return one day.
The book heightens the reader’s appreciation of the world around them and sparks the hope that maybe, just maybe, they could fly with the fairies too. Magical spells are written in rhyme so the young reader or listener can learn them off by heart too.
The typeface is beautiful and Tanner’s drawings are exquisite. The delicate use of embossment of silver and gold serve to heighten the delicate and ethereal nature of the fairies themselves.
A wonderful escape from reality for reader and child.
- this review by Sarah Pietrzak