Frances Watts (text), and David Legge (illustrator), It’s a Story, Rory!, ABC Books, July 2018, 32 pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780733335938
“It starts with a blank page”, Watts and Legge continue their conversation, (Parsley Rabbit’s Book about Books) exploring what makes a story? Rory the fox and Milly the chicken de-construct their own small adventure into its technical parts – narration, character, setting, action, plot, atmosphere, so that the telling of the tale becomes the book itself. A neat idea that teaches and encourages creative storytelling. The illustrations are computer generated, slick and surreally detailed on some pages, lesser so and blurred on others. The ‘non-adventure’ is full of good descriptive writing, examples of how to build tension and atmosphere through pace, layout, and speech. The book certainly does equip readers with the tools to create stories and would make a good read for creative writing, literature and design students as well as a basis for classroom discussions and projects.
Reviewed by Liz Anelli
