The Old Forest Path

A metaphor for the transformative power of music and its ability to set us free, this story of a fairy, a musician and their love for each other is beautifully illustrated by relative newcomer Kanako Wakabayashi, whose delicate, layered watercolours bring a lightness and innocence to a story that might otherwise feel overly heady and sensuous. The setting is an enchanted forest, hope to fairies who dance along its central path careful not to stray away from its safety, all that is except the youngest fairy who is so caught up in the music of the forest that she regularly dances off the path. When the source of the intoxicating music – a young piper – steps out of the trees the two unite in a dance that lifts them both up above the forest canopy to vanish forever. At this point, the path dissolves, the boundaries that have limited them disappearing. This might not be to everyone’s taste but its exhilarating, liberating sense of music, magic and love’s rapture is undeniable.