Title: Chasing the Shy Town

Written by: Erika McGann

Illustrated by: Toni Galmes

Published by: Little Island Books

This is a lovely book with a highly original story that will keep young children engaged. There are themes of friendship, being true to yourself and obsession.

Senan spots a strange town on the hill that has winding streets and yellow roofs but it is not always there so he calls it Shy Town. When he tells Joshua who lives next door she persuades him to find it. So along with Senan’s resourceful grandmother in her ramshackle wheelchair they set off on an epic adventure to find the elusive Shy Town. Toni Galmés illustrations help to bring the characters and their wild adventure to life.

On the way, they meet new friends Paperboy made entirely of paper and a resident of Shy Town known as a Kruckle. This extraordinary group of unique and diverse characters have been well-crafted with their own quirks, flaws and endearing features such as Joshua’s ADHD and Senan being introverted. It also touches on children deciding what gender they are. Considering the book is advertised as the 6+ age range, I do have reservations about presenting this theme to such young children and for this reason I would suggest this book should be classified as Key Stage Two and not Key Stage One.

Senan and his friends eventually stumble upon Shy Town and discover the inhabitants call the town, Perfection, because it is absolutely perfect. But all is not well in Perfection: the Kruckles are constantly worrying about making it more and more perfect and since more perfect than perfect is an impossibility, they are constantly exhausted. I liked how the book explores perfection and how it can be impossible to achieve.

A great book for stimulating a discussion in the classroom on what the children see as their vision of perfect and whether this is realistically achievable.

********

To read an article about Exploring Difficult Emotions in the Safety of a Story by Erika McGann take a look at: Blog Tour – Chasing the Shy Town.