Imagine a City

Imagine a City by Elise Hurst (Omnibus Books for Scholastic Australia)

HB RRP $24.99

ISBN 978-1-74299-009-5

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

Imagine a train to take you away is the first line in a beautifully magical journey into a land of fantasy. The words are few, just a sentence to every double page, but deeply evocative, ‘A world without edges’. Each sentence stands alone, and is part of the bigger picture of the story.  If you take the text alone, it is a lovely poem.

The black and white illustrations are stunning. They draw the reader even further into a fantastical place, where bears hold up bridges, paintings do not end at their frames, fish fly through the sky carrying passengers and stories escape from the pages of books.   Among the whimsical fantasy of the story are a boy, a girl and their mother, whose appearance on each page gives a consistency and solidity to a story which otherwise may have flown away.

Along with the juxtaposition of real and imaginary, are the contrasted concepts of past and present, large and small.

There is so much to see in every wonderful picture. This story will engage and expand the imagination of readers, boys and girls, from three to adults. 

It’s a city like you've never seen before. Get ready to explore!