The Legend of Sally Jones is a weird and wonderful picture-book-cum-graphic-novel for an indeterminate age group. It’s the prequel to the novel – The Murderer’s Ape – and is about kidnapped, orphaned gorilla Sally Jones. An epic tale of wonder, learning, sadness, double-crossing, kindness and nastiness (with so many people taking advantage of poor Sally), the Legend of Sally Jones is an easy and yet subtly emotional little read.

I really loved the bizarre, and slightly frightening, illustration style although I think some of the imagery would be too disturbing for really young children (so please keep this in mind).

The story rambles across the world, and our gorilla hero, Sally, learns many lessons about just how terrible and selfish human beings can be. Happily, though, she makes a lovely friend who looks after her on his boat.

But, as I’m about to read the follow-up novel now, I’m slightly worried about how Sally’s adventures with her human friend will continue…especially with the title The Murderer’s Ape!

So, if you’re looking for a quick, quirky (and quite adult) mini-story with illustrations, this is a brilliant little book written and illustrated by Jakob Wegelius and translated from its original Swedish text.

[Reviewer’s own copy – we love it that much!]

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