Inside the Suitcase
Inside the Suitcase
Clotilde Perrin
Gecko Press, 2021
20pp., hbk., RRP $A29.99
9781776573431
Away behind the hills you’ll find a charming little house. Who’s inside? Knock knock… A boy packing his suitcase. Lift the flaps to see what he takes, and travel with him over oceans and mountains, underwater and into the forest. With every step on this voyage of obstacles the boy faces a decision that will lead to a new adventure and help him get home.
Suitcases have always fascinated me because they mark the start of a journey that was always an adventure. We could have been going to my grandma’s house on the beach or my aunty’s on the farm. Or somewhere else entirely. So this book really captured my imagination, particularly with its layers and layers of lift-the-flap opportunities to explore and follow. Within each are the most unlikely tricks and treasures that help the boy to go full circle, rather like Alice in Wonderland, and the end is a surprise – although the reader imagines it will only be for a short time.
While we usually associate this sort of format with stories for the very young, this one is more for the independent reader as not only is the font in cursive, but it uses the technique to unveil the action, rather than words. As a shared story between parent and child, it would be so much fun. And then they could track down its predecessor Inside the Villains, and explore inside the heads of an ogre, a wolf and a witch!
As many of our young readers demand the special effects of screen-based stories, Clotilde Perrin demonstrates that is it can be just as intriguing exploring the possibilities of print!
