SuitabookEleanor’s Eyebrows
Timothy Knapman
- Reading
- Read it aloud with time to inspect the illustrations and predict each new role. Afterwards, invite your child to invent a useful or silly job for an everyday feature, without treating appearance changes as required.
- Themes
- Accepting a distinctive feature: Eleanor initially dismisses her eyebrows, then recognises that her face is not quite the same without them and seeks their return. The narrative clearly moves towards valuing what Eleanor previously rejected, presenting self-acceptance as its stated message.
- Imagination through absurd transformation: The eyebrows leave to test a succession of improbable jobs, while Eleanor tries unconventional replacements and notices eyebrows elsewhere. The book presents this favourably.
- Appearance and other people’s reactions: Eleanor is seen without eyebrows and one account says this frightens her grandmother; the story then continues towards Eleanor’s efforts to restore them. The event is reported, but there is not enough information to establish whether the book treats appearance-based reactions critically, sympathetically or simply as a comic device.
- Worth knowing
- The eyebrows try dangerous-sounding roles, and Eleanor appears without them while attempting replacements; one account says she frightens her grandmother. The tone is described as funny and crazy, but the full visual treatment is not known.