Pollyhester

by VerityLouise (Author), Louise Verity (Illustrator)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $3.24

  Pollyhester is an eccentric dressmaker, who lives and works in a wardrobe tunnel, where the walls are made of dresses and every room is overflowing with ribbons, bits of fabric, and multicoloured thread. With her elfin helper Zazou and her Viking deliveryman Chunky, Pollyhester makes dresses for celebrities. She would like to be able to give dresses to girls who cannot afford them, but she is too poor. She has to depend on people like Celebrity Iverna Loaf to survive. The story follows Pollyhester as she sews a dress for Iverna, in preparation for the Great City Ball. She has commissioned a fruit and vegetable dress, as seen in style magazine Eye-Con, worn by super thin model Petal Silly-Illy. When this one is destroyed, Pollyhester designs one herself that is the toast of the Ball until Iverna trips and splits it, creating such and embarrassing stir that she leaves the celebrity sphere for ever. Pollyhester gets a lot of publicity from the event and earns enough money to send dresses to more unfortunate girls all over the world. Underlying this colourful and delicious tale, with its marvellous dresses, nutmeg toasts, a nature-friendly (and slightly smelly) neighbour Madge, spiders with sinister sunglasses living in cobwebs lined with beads, is a fierce criticism of today's extreme celebrity and beauty culture. The author's motivation for writing this book was to raise an awareness of how much children can be affected by this culture; she aims to provide alternative ideals: simplicity, beauty, generosity. Highly illustrated, this book enchants and informs, combining inspiration and wisdom in a way that will appeal children and parents alike.