The Wall in the Middle of the Book

Review

You probably don’t give much consideration to the ‘gutter’ that runs down the middle of every book on your setting’s shelves, but here, as the title hints at, author Jon Agee has used it as a clever visual metaphor and a means for putting across a vital message.

The titular ‘wall’ is a red brick construction that stretches from the bottom of the pages to the top, separating a friendly-looking knight on one side from a menagerie of wild and ferocious-looking beasts on the other.

The wall, we’re told, keeps the knight safe and is a ‘good thing’ – but when a rising tide on his side forces the knight to climb a ladder to preserve himself, the tables start to turn.

Ultimately, the inhabitants of the ‘unsafe’ side rescue our hero – and, it turns out, they aren’t quite so scary when you meet them in person.

With ever more talk of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the real world, the idea that the unfamiliar doesn’t equate to ‘bad’ can’t be introduced to early.