A Very Late Story
Mariana Coppo
Flying Eye Books

Imagine opening a book and discovering that the first spread is virtually blank, save for a single sentence. So it is in Mariana Coppo’s new picture book of which showing rather than telling is the essence.

Five creatures show up on the second spread and when one decides they’ve landed in a book, four are content to wait for the story to arrive.

Not so the little pink rabbit.

Having had its “Can we play?” suggestion turned down by the others who are willing to be patient and chat among themselves, the rabbit makes its way to the verso page of the book.
There, using the colour pencils from its backpack and a bit of imagination, the little pink animal populates the page with a tree, birds and much more besides.

The tree grows and with it and further colour pencil additions from rabbit, life on the verso becomes ever more exciting, spilling across the gutter

and attracting the attention of the passive quartet of story waiters.

Before long they are drawn into the action so that when the postman arrives with the mail, the story he delivers to them is surplus to requirements.

Cleverly conceived and SO brilliantly executed, this is a real joy of a book.