Paradise Sands by Levi Pinfold

A young girl and her three brothers stop by the hot and dusty desert road to pick flowers for their mother and wanting a cool space after their travels, enter the Paradise Sands Hotel.

Washed clean in his pool, we fall under his rule . . .
Away from what is, we all are now his.

Their mother’s poem is repeated by them as they take advantage of the stopover in the cool shade.

The brothers swim in the pool and take the drinks offered, but the girl sees them swimming as dolphins in the pool. Almost like a fairy tale, the story is other worldly and borders on the supernatural, as the girl seems hesitant and attempts to alert her brothers to some sort of danger as the Teller draws them inside his domain. The eerie silent walls offer contentment, but the girl wants her brothers back as they were and negotiates with the Teller for their return. If she can stay and not eat or drink for three days then all will be restored as it was, the lion tells her.

This she does but one small slip sees a future hold that she cannot escape.

The reader almost expects a moral to the tale, some sort of lesson to be learnt about the nature of human desire, but none comes immediately although there will be much to discuss and ponder as the young men fall easily within the grasp of the Teller rather like Ulysses’ men falling to the trickery of Circe.

Breathtakingly illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medalist Levi Pinfold, the images fancifully evoked for me references to the Beats in the 1950’s and Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) along with paintings by mid nineteenth century American artist, Edward Hopper depicting people in a familiar yet unexpected landscape. Touches reveal a setting half a century ago, with macrame hanging from the rear vision mirror, the girl wearing a pinafore, the boys in t-shirts, a la James Dean, the brutalist architecture, the hospital bed. Each page brought something different to focus the eyes, and the wonderful outdoor eating area with columns and a range of backgrounds was riveting, as was the muted palette changing from the dark sombre colours of eerie silence to the shock of the blue sky before the whole is blown away into dust.

More can be found about the haunting illustrative techniques of this young author illustrator here. 

Themes: Enchantment, Journeys, Road, Travelling, Obstacles.

Fran Knight