Written & Illustrated by: Joe Todd-Stanton 

For ages: 5-9 years

Language: English

Topics Covered: Adventure, Mythology, Natural World, Supernatural, Magic.

Summary: This is one of the Brownstone’s Mythical Collection books, and we really like the way that it’s set up like a comic book.  Arthur is a young boy with a penchant for strange objects and spends a lot of time in the forest or on adventures to collect things.

One day he’s in the forest when a gigantic black wolf rampages through the village, extinguishing the magical fire that is needed to keep everything from freezing solid.  Since Arthur wasn’t in the village, he wasn’t injured during the attack and is the only one who can make the journey to visit Thor and relight the flame, saving the village.  Arthur must use his wits and collection of items to prove to the villagers that he is more than just a wandering meddler in forest affairs, before everything freezes solid!

This book is really cute, and can help kids with problem-solving skills.  It’s fun to track Arthur through the illustration panels when he’s traversing an adventurous landscape.  Arthur is a character that we can relate to, he’s not bothered by people thinking he’s weird for liking to spend time in the woods or collect unique objects…both of these we enjoy as well!

This book was generously sent to us by Flying Eye books for review. All opinions are our own!  This softcover book will be released on February 4th, (the hardcover has been out for awhile) and we are very grateful that we were able to receive it early.

About the Author & Illustrator:

Joe Todd-Stanton grew up in Brighton and studied at UWE Bristol, receiving a first class degree in Illustration. Joe has been commissioned to work for clients such as Oxford University Press, Usborne Publishing and Aquila magazine.

To find out a little more about his work, Flying Eye asked Joe the following questions:

What inspires your work?
I normally find inspiration through reading or conversations. It’s rare that I get a fully-formed image in my mind but I will read about something strange that interests me and I will research it to see if anything grabs my attention. Normally by the time I have finished the work it has complete changed from the thing that influenced it but I think that is what makes it interesting.

Tell us a bit about your process…

I try and keep plenty of sketch books and fill them up with weird characters and life drawings so when it comes to making an actual piece of work or commission I already should have a few relevant drawings and I’m not just starting from scratch. Once I have a finished drawing I use Photoshop to colour and tweak things around.