Midwest Book Review

9780996044011, $28.95, 288pp, www.amazon.com

Synopsis: Based on the diaries that author Susan Branch has kept since she was in her 20s, “The Fairy Tale Girl” is an illustrated memoir that is charmingly designed in Susan’s style with her whimsical watercolors and personal photographs. It’s an enchanting story of love and loss, mystery and magic that begins in a geranium-colored house in California, and ends up, like any good fairy tale, on the right side of the rabbit hole, in a small cottage in the woods on the New England Island of Martha’s Vineyard. “The Fairy Tale Girl” humorously explores Susan’s journey as an artist and as a girl/woman, from the 1950s through the 1980s. In “The Fairy Tale Girl” we get a revealing view of Susan’s early life as the oldest of eight children and the marriage she imagined would be forever; it’s filled with inspiration, romance and discovery, and a leap into the unknown. Journey back to the olden days with Susan, to the land of happily-ever-after, where men were men and girls just wanted to have fun. Bring a hankie, we think you might need it.

Critique: Exceptionally well written and an inherently fascinating read from beginning to end. Enhanced throughout with the inclusion of a profusion of colorful illustrations and images, “The Fairy Tale Girl” is very highly recommended for personal reading lists and community library collections.