Tilly's At Home Holiday by Gillian Hibbs

Tilly's At Home Holiday by Gillian Hibbs
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Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Lorraine McDonald
Summary: A tale for austerity Britain showing that you can have fun on a budget just by using a little imagination and the resources around you. Find out how as Tilly and her Mum take a staycation.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: January 2014
Publisher: Child's Play (International) Ltd
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781846435966
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Tariq is going to India. Chanel is going to Spain. And Paris, of course, is going to Paris. Poor Tilly. She’s not going anywhere. Not even to Grandma’s. Mum thinks that they can still enjoy themselves at home. Tilly’s not so sure. Can a visit to the library, the swimming pool, the park and a market really be as much fun as a proper holiday?

Tilly’s at Home Holiday is a timely tale of a little girl who feels left out and disappointed when all her friends relate their holiday plans while she has none. Tilly hopes her mum is keeping some travel plans secret. Mum isn’t but she does have some creative ideas for when school is out. Her vivid imagination turns the park in to a jungle and the swimming pool in to a lagoon. The library, the market and a tent made of towels, seed ideas for telling exotic stories. Just wait until Tilly’s friends come became from their holidays and hear what she has been up to…

Tilly’s tale is told in a creative, graphic style. I particularly liked the spread where Tilly is at the window of her flat looking glum as neighbours plot their travels, and the market scene showing objects of curiosity laid out on a stall. I loved the use of outlines to depict objects being imagined, particularly in the swimming pool. There is detail in the artwork and variety from page to page in terms of aspect and angle depicted.

There are some good lessons at the heart of this book given in a not too heavy handed way. Children can learn that pleasure can be had in small ways as well as big and that a little imagination can enhance enjoyment. There is perhaps a lesson in here too for parents, that building a relationship with your child is not just about spending money, it’s about taking time and trouble to plan something and seeing life from the point of view of a youngster.

I applaud this book for showing an alternative to materialism. Overall though, despite the warmth of the drawings, I’m not entirely sure that the theme of using your imagination to make the ordinary extraordinary is convincing or indeed necessary. The stories from the library, the market and the indoor tent shared between Tilly and her Mum are hinted at but not shared with the reader. Consequently, they don’t actually seem that exciting, more a bit vague. It would have been nice to see either the activities organised by Tilly’s mum celebrated for their intrinsic fun and value or for the theme of imagination enhancing the mundane to be developed a bit further. This is a nice book, well illustrated, with sound morals that is sure to be welcomed by parents unable to take their children away this year. However, I have to admit that I’d still rather be with Paris in Paris.

For a further account of how to use your imagination to make a day out more wonderful, read Watch Out for the Crocodile’ by Lisa Moroni and Eva Eriksson.

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