The Red Feather by Ben Kitchin
Ill. by Owen Swan. New Frontier Publishing, 2015. ISBN
9780957988439
(Age: 3-6) Recommended. Themes: Friendship, Feathers, Beaches,
Children, Play, Imagination. The Red Feather is a charming picture
celebrating friendship and imagination as four young friends enjoy
an outing to the beach. Young Claude, Shelby, William and Maya walk
down to the beach ready for a day of swimming, playing and having
fun. Whilst the others spread out the towel and set up the beach
umbrella, Claude finds a most beautiful red feather. He proudly
walks around with the feather in his hair until he realises he's
hungry. Shelby exchanges her whole watermelon for the feather,
Claude sadly agrees. Each child plays with the feather until a
situation occurs and they need something that another friend has,
Sophie exchanges the feather for an umbrella to protect her from the
rain and William wraps his cold body in Maya's warm blanket.
Finally, they come to the realisation that sharing the feather and
the blanket, watermelon and umbrella makes for a lovely beach
outing. Owen Swan has included an older man and his dog bobbing in
the waves in their boat, a hint of someone who may be the adult
looking after the children on the beach. The dog is the last to
enjoy the red feather before it is taken away by a seagull.
Ben Kitchin's gentle narrative is beautifully illustrated by Owen
Swan in pen, watercolour and colour pencil. He expressively captures
the child characters with soft pastel colors, pale blue, sandy
yellow and watery green. The red feather boldly dances, swirls and
twirls across the pages communicating the characters'
feelings. This simple picture book speaks of friendship, sharing and
creativity.
Rhyllis Bignell