Review: The Corner Of My Eye


Thompson's work never fails to enthrall and entertain. This is a majestic foray into the minds of two very different people; one in old age with the onset of dementia, struggling with the enormity of making sense of a lifetime of memories. The other his granddaughter determined to find what he has 'lost'.

The search takes both them and the the reader through a detailed adventure of perception, memory, reflection and finally resignation. Some lost things are never found, like time and youth but with kindness and understanding, their previous existence can be cherished.

Full page spreads burst with colour, clever jokes, ties to previous works and well-known entities. None of us really know what we are looking, but Thompson prompts us to search anyway. The whole effect has a rather Graeme Base feel to it which is brilliant in my book. 

The use of colour, deliberate placement of 'clues' and exploration of 'normal' locations within a home keep minds and eyes active whilst all the while preparing us for the inevitable. Busy images replicate jumbled minds and memories, each quirky reflection compartmentalised yet still wonderfully loose, wild and eclectic.

I love this interpretation of one's deepest long term memories. It is how I envisage the shelves of my memory banks to look and if anything in my life is allowed to be messy, then this place should be it. As Thompson explains, nothing is really lost. It's just our ability the remember where we 'put it' or to remember which shelf in the home of our lives things are, that is diminished with time. That is life. And this book introduces young readers to it in the most enticing, gentle and extraordinary way.


Title: The Corner Of My Eye
Author Illustrator: Colin Thompson
Publisher: Walker Books Australia, $26.99
Publication date: 1 October 2019
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781925381931
For Ages: 3 - 8
Type: Picture Book

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