Tish by Edwina Wyatt

Tish by Edwina Wyatt is a delightful, bitter-sweet story about the qualities of friendship, of searching, finding, saying goodbye and hello and learning to know oneself. The soft and gentle pencil illustrations by French illustrator Odette Barberousse are full page size and accompany the simple and good storyline perfectly. Hard back, slightly taller than a paperback novel, it is perfect for holding on your chest and reading in bed-not so perfect for lining up with paperbacks on the library shelf!

The reader's heart goes out to Tish. Tish is "quick like a mongoose but lazy like a bear...heavy like a mammoth...with a heart like a feather and has...small stumpy wings that can almost-nearly fly." He is a product of the imagination of lonely children. Sadly though, when each of the three children in the story find a real life friend, Tish is sidelined. Wyatt, using the voice of the third person narrator, keeps Tish close at all times and the reader feels his every emotion, every new understanding and observation. As a child I would have cried reading Tish but the story is also a comfort as it aligns with the oft' felt experience and anguish of shifting friendship groups that children experience at this age.

Stories like Tish are important for children as they talk of the universal need to be loved, the process of trying to adapt, trying to please and the development of confidence in what is important to oneself in a friend. Tish represents unrequited friendship, gentleness, hurt and goodness. Puff the magic dragon is an example of this type of tale and it likewise, never failed to make my heart break. My little sister had two important imaginary friends. They certainly exist.

Ultimately, because we know that every child grows up, thank goodness Wyatt has Tish find his own perfect friend. It would be very hard to have him continue on being rejected. A beautiful tale!

Highly recommended.

Themes: Imaginary friends, Goodbyes, Finding identity, Courage.

Wendy Jeffrey