Brighten the Corners sent me a copy of their very cute book, Victor & Susie. It is a short story book about a girl, Susie, who meets a snail called Victor that has a hole in his shell and isn’t feeling too well. She takes him in and looks after him and… well, I don’t want to spoil the ending for you.

(Click to enlarge)

The credits list Brighten the Corners’ partners Billy Kiossoglou as the Writer and Illustrator and Frank Philippin as the Typographer. Given that the real feature of book is that all the images are created typographically, I’m not quite sure how they divided that up.

(Click to enlarge)

What to say? It’s not big, but it is clever. And it is a cute story. I was surprised how small the book was physically – I had not noticed the dimensions online – but it only costs £5 so you can’t really complain. My immediate thought, however, was that I would love to see it bigger and printed on that heavy card used for children’s books.

(Click to enlarge)

If you want a little gift for your favourite typographer or typographess it’s not a bad idea. Or start indoctrinating your children into the world of type at an early age, but buy two copies because they will get one grubby. Getting them to wear white cotton gloves might just be a bit too extreme – save them for photographer’s kids.

You can buy Victor & Susie directly from the Brighten the Corners website.