Hold on Tight (Sara Acton, Scholastic)

What would happen if you let go of your mum’s hand and blew away up into the sky? Would you have cups of tea with the birds? Bounce on clouds? Get caught in raindrops? Hold on Tight is a young girl’s fanciful daydream, which leads the reader on a wonderful journey. British-born author and illustrator Sara Acton’s Englishness features strongly in this picture book; the little girl eats cherry buns and floats away with sycamore seeds and fairies (dandelion clocks). Children will enjoy the rhyming prose and the imaginative situations, and adults reading to them may also get swept away. The story also has an open ending, which is refreshing. Acton, whose previous work includes Ben and Duck and The Unexpected Crocodile, won the CBCA Crichton Award for New Illustrators in 2012. Hold on Tight will appeal to daydreamers and fans of Acton’s previous titles. I dare say she will snare some new ones in the process.

Katie Haydon is a former assistant editor of Books+Publishing and a freelance reviewer

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews