The Invisible Story
Jaime Gamboa and Wen Hsu Chen
Lantana

On a shelf, hidden away in a corner of a large library is a book that’s unlike all the rest. They would sometimes spend time arguing about which is most read, or best loved; but the ‘Invisible Story’ listening from the shadows has never been read. It longs to be colourful and popular like the others. “I’m just a ghost, nobody can see me.” it chants over and over.

Then, one day a young girl visits the library; she runs her fingertips over the spine of the ‘ghost’ book, discovers tiny raised dots. and announces … “I’m going to read.” The alarmed book begs her not to, saying that its pages are blank. However the girl’s gentle voice calms the book and it goes on to discover that it is in fact a very wonderful story indeed, a story written in braille, “the language you read with your fingertips’.

The invisible story now realises that no one story is better than any other, they are just different.
Translated from the original Spanish by Daniel Hahn, Jaime Gamboa’s inclusive tale is a reminder that not every book is intended to be read with the eyes. It also contains an important message about the power of a great story – the best books can be read over and over; they never really end.

Wen Hsu Chen’s watercolour and cut paper illustrations work in harmony with the text and are really effective, be they wholly white, predominately white with small splashes of colour or where the colour predominates.

For those readers who are blind, partially sighted (or dyslexic) the publishers have collaborated with the Royal National Institute for the Blind and accessible formats are available from RNIB Bookshare.