How Long Is A Piece of String?

How Long Is A Piece of String? by Madeleine Meyer (Windy Hollow Books)
HB RRP $25.95
ISBN: 9781922081346
Reviewed by Anne Hamilton

A boy wakes to the sound of his lost dog, barking mournfully in the night. Putting on his hat and stepping out the window with the help of an orange crate, he sets off in search of the wandering canine, red string in hand. (No doubt he’s learned a thing or two from fairytale of the Hansel and Gretel or that old Victorian tourism ad about visiting mazy Melbourne.)

Past a funky castle

and a teetering town

across a moody mountain

into a monster’s meadow,

the boy finds the dog on a strange, otherworldly seashore.

All he has to guide him home is that trail of red string.

A friendly and fabulously grotesque flying fish lends a hand (or maybe a fin) to rescue the boy and the dog and bring them home safely.

 As unusual and quirky as Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, this wordless book shows that facing your personal monsters and getting past them to save a friend brings its own reward.