The Storyteller's Handbook: 52 Illustrations to Inspire Your Own Tales and Adventures
Elise Hurst
Compendium
Nonfiction, CH? Creativity
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Weirdness
*****
Description
Artist Elise Hurst offers numerous detailed images of whimsical surreality to spark the imagination. With a foreword by Neil Gaiman.
Review
A bit of a sparse description, I know, but there is no other way to really describe this "handbook". After Gaiman's remarks, which form an introduction of sorts in the form of a fairy tale, the book is mostly just what the subtitle indicates: a series of often-peculiar pen and ink illustrations full of animals, people, buildings, wildlands, skyscapes, seascapes, and more. Most contain hidden details and little flourishes and hints of secretive shapes and meaning that reward repeated perusal or merely lingering over the pages. Almost any part of any picture, from a small detail to the overall milieu to the general emotion to what possible symbolism could be at play (if one doesn't take the images literally), could spark ideas in readers of all ages, for everything from stories to poems to songs to even original artwork. It gets top marks for sheer imagination and delivering precisely what it promises.