Glister

Glister Butterworth is a curious and clever young girl with an odd little life. She's also the subject of a collection of connected stories written by Watson (Breakfast After Noon) over the last decade. Her tale begins as children's light fantasy—a shape-shifting house, a talking teapot, and both fairy and literal dust drifting dreamily through the air. However, as Watson expands her protagonist's world, we delve into her family history (an absent mother and a swindling, gambling ancestor) and into the nooks, crannies, and tetchy personality of Chilblain Hall, the youth's English manor house, which quickly becomes the star of the show. The narrative feels a bit fluffed up with twee details at times, but as the stories build one upon the other, the reader becomes delightfully immersed in a veritable labyrinth of familial love and pastoral strangeness. In busy, lightly lined illustrations with amusing detail, and with each vignette in a different color, Watson allows his imagination free rein and invites his audience to embrace their minds' meanderings as well.