Title: Letting Grow: A Fairy Tale
Author: Joan Ortiz
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 978-1477287170
Pages: 32, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Children’s Books
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
Rhythmically floating to the flutter of fairies’ wings, this poetic book dances on the minds of young recipients of bedtime storytelling, creating both a visual and loving embrace. Letting Grow, also implying “Letting Go” tells of the imagination of a girl, Julia, just a baby in the arms of her mother, drifting off into the semi-conscious part of sleep; dreaming of fairies flying through nature.In this secure imaginary world, Joan Ortiz takes the reader vicariously on a journey upon the wings of tiny fairies, first effortlessly flying through the sky and over the ocean, over meadows and flowers, then circling down to begin playing with grasshoppers and examining flowers. Held in the loving arms of her royal King Dad and Maternal Queen, Julia, the princess she was born to be, beholds the splendor of the newly discovered sights of our world in awe and amazement. She loves her dream-state, and would return to it at will, hence the excerpt, “It’s plain that the fairies have lured her away with their singing, their dancing, their magical way of looking at life full of wonder and awe, it isn’t a mystery what in them she saw.”
Clearly written as a keepsake tribute to her first granddaughter, author and illustrator Joan Ortiz put her own gallant efforts of tireless imagination envisioning what wonders floated in her then youngest member of her family. Having artistic talent creating fascinating hybrid imagery, she used actual photographs morphed into a fairytale setting, with the omnipresent little winged fairies sparkling up the page with their magical fairy dust and wands. When read to the beat of her innate pentameters, a child can be cast off from the reality of the day and gently floated into a path through dreams and security so important in nurturing.
I feel Joan Ortiz’s carefully chosen words; tersely applied to each page of subliminally stimulating images, creates a comforting, peaceful and repeatable method for healthy child development. This book, published by Author House in a colorful and bedtime friendly size, will surely find many little ones, drifting to sleep, to bestow is loving grace upon. When chosen from a bookshelf at bedtime, years from now, maybe even by Julia’s child someday, will enjoy her then great-grandmother Joan’s loving thoughts she gave her grandchild to be immortalized, just as the fairies in the meadow live forever.
