FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE, A TRILOGY By: Linda S. Gunn

Fantasies have always been a part of our childhood. Princesses, magical creatures, fates, and curses were the highlight of our early life. When we play we put on costumes and pretend that our floor is lava, the cabinet door is a portal to another world, and our dolls and stuffed toys talk to us and have tea with us. Author Linda S. Gunn shows us what it looks like when two worlds actually collide.

Released in 2012, Fairy Tales Can Come True follows three siblings, Marie, Nina, and Mo who are often troublemakers but are bound by sisterly love. Marie is getting older and Nina feels left out while Mo, is just going by the flow. This difference resulted in Nina, the middle child finding ways of escaping to the world of fantasy. She is often mired in her own frustrations and uses her imagination to go on an adventure. Full of wit and adventurous spirit, Nina’s enthusiasm brings her to worlds that are often seen as ordinary by adults and others. She embraces the extraordinary and runs with it along with the trials and tribulations of growing up in the ’50s.

Linda Gunn’s wonderful story is filled with illustrations of what the world looks like and descriptions of how Nina sees it. From ordinary, everyday doors, Nina’s character constantly takes the readers to the depths of her imagination where paradise and adventure await. The author is an independent fine art professional whose paintings have been published in books and magazines which are exhibited worldwide. Her painting of the Peter Pan hangs in the Peter Pan wing of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and has even illustrated two books for N.D. Mansour, the retired CEO of Mattel Corporation.

Fairy Tales Can Come True is her first story and is one that is an ode to herself and her adventurous mind. Every page feels like a present on Christmas day because it brings nostalgic memories of childhood where worries are shoved far, far away and what we only knew was the fantastic worlds that live inside of our minds. What Linda Gunn offers is an escape to the world as we know it, like Nina in the story, we are often baffled by the happenings that surround us but knowing how to be a child sometimes can help us get a perspective of things.

Indeed, fairy tales do come true and Gunn shows it effectively through her paintings and descriptive narrative. She perfectly depicts what it is like growing up and shows the readers that facing the reality of life can be a little bit disheartening as we see it through Nina’s eyes. But through that same perspective, she depicts a child-like wonder of things and is able to express to the readers how important it is to find a path that is best for us.

Children and adults will have a great time reading this masterful work of Linda S. Gunn.