The Storytellers Handbook by Elise Hurst

We fell in love with this book the moment we opened it — and we have been pressing it into the hands of every customer, teacher and parent who walks through our door ever since.

The Storyteller's Handbook by Elise Hurst is one of those rare books that genuinely works for every child at every age — and we mean that. A preschooler will sit with it and name the animals. A year three student will use it as a writing prompt. A year nine student will find entirely new layers in the same illustration they first encountered at age five. It never runs out of story. That is the magic of it.

The book contains 52 richly hand-drawn illustrations — each one a new place, with new characters and situations, just waiting for the viewer to imagine the story. No set stories, just thousands of possibilities. Koalas float through the air on an autumn leaf; luminous jellyfish drift near a hot-air balloon in outer space; a giant tabby naps across a city street. Every illustration is rendered in Elise's extraordinary black pen and watercolour style — detailed, dreamlike and endlessly rewarding to return to. 

Elise Hurst is a Melbourne-based Australian fine artist, illustrator and author who specialises in books for children. From her studio, where black pens and oil paints spill across the desk, magical worlds leap into being. Her work has illustrated a Neil Gaiman novel and been shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards — and this book, we think, is her masterpiece.

It is the perfect teacher's gift. It is the perfect gift for a child starting school. It is the perfect gift for a child finishing school. It is the kind of book that lives on a shelf for a decade and gets pulled out again and again. We love it completely.

See Elise's second book, The Storytellers Almanac!

• 52 richly hand-drawn wordless illustrations
• Black pen and watercolour — intricate, layered, beautiful
• Introduction by Elise Hurst
• Hardcover, 128 pages — gold foil stamping and lay-flat binding
• Works for all ages from pre-readers to adults
• A brilliant classroom tool, bedtime book and creative writing prompt
• A perfect teacher's gift, birthday present or any-occasion book