Ella And The Bag That Ran Away: Promise Amenkhienan Charming and Promising Children’s Book

Promise Amenkhienan’s debut children’s book, Ella and The Bag That Ran Away has a stripped-down fantasy/adventure premise: A red school bag suddenly sprouts legs and runs into the woods. Its owner, Ella, chases after it, trying to bring it back home. But, surprisingly, what she discovers becomes the best adventure of her life.

After realising that her bag has run away, as Ella chases after it into the forest, she encounters a talking goat in a polka dot coat, sees pencils that grow on trees and papers that dance through the glens, climbs a high, steep mountain made of socks, and walks on a pulpy candy moon. Everything amazes her and she smiles throughout the journey.

Ella’s interactions with the animals and other mysterious objects are alluring. She happily rides on a vine made of strings and glides down the mountain made of woolly socks. She also flies through the cotton sky, using a floating jellybean to track her bag.

The book is simple and direct, lacking layered subplots and moralising detours that could confuse the children. It’s befitting of their early learning ages and enjoyment.

Ella and The Bag That Ran Away’s unapologetic colours contribute to its appeal. The pages are saturated in reds, forest green, and splashes of golden light and sky blue, creating an instant, almost tactile pull for the children drawn to brightness over intricacy. The mischievous running away of the bag and Ella’s relentless pursuit is made enjoyable through the beautiful hues of colours.

“The colourful illustrations draw them in immediately, and the story holds their attention in a way that very few locally produced books have managed. It is exactly the kind of material we have been looking for,” said Mrs Sally Ohanenye, Head of Early Years at Amen Montessori Children’s house, Owerri in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. “We introduced the book as part of our early reader programme and the response from the children has been wonderful,”

The illustration, which is bold blue, helps amplify the story. Its outlined, exaggerated expressions give Ella and her animated bag a cartoonish vitality that will excite the children. Ella’s wide-eyed determination and the bag’s cheeky bounce and fly are rendered with clear, confident lines that pop against the colourful backdrop of the book.

Despite its brilliant colours and illustrations, the book has a few lapses. Its directness becomes its restraint and limitations. Once the backpack comes to life, the story offers little surprises and a fantastical delight that intrigues the children.

The narration of Ella’s encounter while chasing after the bag is sketchier, making it less of a fully realised journey. One senses that Amenkhienan, the writer and the illustrator, plays too safe with the book’s simplicity. It pushes the book into a more distinctive style typical of imaginative and adventurous children’s books, which tend to water down the story’s impact.

Amenkhienan’s Ella And The Bag That Ran Away is a promising, charming, and accessible book that encourages little children to explore their imaginations and tame their fear in order to achieve their dreams.