Tate Publishing once again show their knack for picking up the most exquisitely attractive books with "Once Upon a Time" by Raul Guridi.
Bard, the aforementioned storyteller, has adored stories ever since he was a child. As an adult, Bard becomes a well respected and popular member of his village. Everyone brings new words to Bard for him to weave stories from. But one fateful day Bard suddenly loses the ability to speak, and the storytelling abruptly ceases.
Without stories, everyone becomes sad and listless. Despite their best attempts to break Bard's deep blue funk, he doesn't utter a word. Without words there can be no stories, or can there? Bard soon realises that there may be a way back to his old self after all with the help of one of his friends.
The book rather cleverly keeps the word count to a bare minimum with artwork to match, yet it's still a thing of complete beauty in all its blue-toned glory...
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| Deft storytelling with a minimal word count and understated art, lovely! |
Understated, yet dazzlingly refreshing, it's a hugely original children's story that shows the value of having friends who will do anything to help out, even in the trickiest situations.
"Once Upon a Time" by Raul Guridi is out now, published by Tate Publishing (kindly supplied for review).