The Lying Carpet

This story is a fairytale of sorts about objects from a bygone age left in a silent house, the eponymous Carpet offering versions of the truth of their past to the stone girl frozen forever on her plinth. Never knowing whether he tells truth or lies, it is not until the end of the story that she achieves freedom.

With many illustrations, integral to and enhancing the text, almost as footnotes, there is much to puzzle over here, and much to interest a visually aware child. However I feel that the text is the weaker part of the whole. The story is based on an odd premise – or maybe not so odd in today’s world of uncertainties, but certainly without the underlying safety of an understood truth. I find this disconcerting – the world of fairytale is so much rooted in basic human values which are implicit despite all that happens in the outside world. Here I feel the rug is pulled from beneath our feet. This is an adult construct offered to children, who despite assumed sophistication are still children.