The lucky shack by Apsara Baldovino and Jennifer Falkner

The trials and tribulations, highs and lows of life are reflected in the fortunes of a fisherman’s shack, tucked away on a small promontory, where it watches the small craft bobbing on the waves. Built by a fisherman who comes and goes, the two get along well, the fisherman seeing to the house’s joints, keeping it warm and snug through the night while the house is a refuge for the fisherman who scales his fish and studies his maps. Two shades of colour are shown, the green of the hills, and the blue of the sea. But one day the colours dissipate and all is black.  The fisherman is not returning. The paint peels and the house misses the sound of boots on the floor, and the smell of fish and the wood fire.

The house deteriorates even more; a window shutter falls into the sea, and the house seems to give up. But the very next day someone appears and starts to renovate the old house using a bucket of paint, a tin of oil and saw and hammer. The house is taken back to what it was, loving the sound of boots in the floor, the warmth of the wood fire, the smell of fish and the sea. And it can see more than the two colours of before, now there is a range of colours for this lucky shack to absorb.

A delightful hymn to our lives, where the cycle of the seasons mingles with loss and abandonment and rebirth as the cycle begins again. It is fitting that the new owner has small children, the cycle of life is assured.

Beautiful painterly illustrations cover each page, watercolour used with Printshop create visual stunners. The hills slope down to the sea, where keen eyes will find a myriad of things associated with that lifestyle, and be heartened by the images of life and the continuity of the seasons. I love the different images of the little bay and the lighthouse, each quite different but of the same place. Hope for the future is engendered in the image of the bay shrouded in mists as a new boat makes its way to the shack. And then later the boat goes out to sea, fishing as the shack sits comfortably  waiting. Indeed a lucky shack. Teacher's notes are available.

Themes: Death, Loss, Hope, Renovation, Sea, Fishing.

Fran Knight