One side-effect of having a young daughter is that you get to see things that would otherwise be out of your normal world view.

We’ve both been enamoured lately with the Hilda graphic novels. These are a bunch of books about a girl, Hilda, who lives in a semi-Scandinavian world where fairy tale like creatures are a normal part of life.

Even though it features some apparently scary characters (and some drama), everything is softly off beat, kindly, and is drawn with muted browns and oranges.

The stories involve tiny invisible elves that require signed contracts before you can see them, to talking ravens, and the ever-present trolls and woffs (shown above).

There’s a Netflix TV series that perfectly matches the books.

Recommended for any young children. Or even adults that want a break in a gentle fantasy world.