Darly’s Adventure in the Garden

Darly’s Adventure in the Garden is part of a series about Darly written by Stephanie Horman and illustrated by her sister, Christine Walker. In this series, Darly uses her imagination to go on adventures.

In Darly’s Adventure in the Garden, the child protagonist decides she wants to be as small as the ants, and so she shuts her eyes and shrinks down. Once small, however, Darly’s adventure misses out on the excitement and possibilities of being a child “the size of a slug.” Over the course of the story, Darly briefly looks at an insect, digs in the dirt, and hides under a mushroom when it starts to storm. When the rain clears up, Darly wishes she was big again. She grows back to her regular size and goes home for lunch.

The sparse illustrations consist of flat black and white ink drawings of Darly and her surroundings, with orange highlights on Darly’s clothing and on the mushrooms. There is also a line of brown dirt painted on the bottom of each page. Most of the visual interest is added with the varying shades of green watercolour used as the background. These background watercolours are well-suited to the subject matter. One instance where this is used effectively is when it starts to rain on Darly. There, close to the bottom of the page, is a large circular watermark, giving the impression that a massive raindrop fell on the page. For a child who shrinks to the size of an insect, the world around Darly is surprisingly empty.

Fans of Darly will enjoy going on this adventure with her, although it may fall flat with new readers.