The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (Harper Collins Children’s Books)
Leila and the Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave with Tom de Freston (Orion)
Another two books, ostensibly for children, that I’ve read
recently are by authors I read and enjoyed last year. Both are beautiful books
with the illustrations perfectly complementing the text and working to move the
story along rather than just depicting the written words.
The books very much wear their hearts on their sleeves and
social issues/mental health plot lines are prominent in both and for me they just
about stayed ‘good books with a message’
rather than being ‘issue books’ hung around a narrative.
The Lost Whale follows a young boy as he is sent from the UK
to his grandmother in California after his mother is hospitalised. While there
he becomes fascinated with the grey whale migration and one whale in
particular. As well as Rio’s personal
circumstances the book also has a strong ecological message and talks about
climate change in a sensitive way.
Leila and the Blue Fox is ostensibly about Leila, who lives
with her aunt and cousin, visiting her scientist mum, Amani, in Norway for the
summer. The blue fox of the title is an arctic fox who walks from Norway to
Canada in 76 days, and who is being studied by Amani as this migration is unusual.
Just as with the Lost Whale there is much more going on in
the book and as well as the ecological themes of global warming and melting ice
caps, other issues covered include being a refugee, having a family torn apart,
having to leave your own country and the power of social media.
I think that with both of these books you spot more of the
underlying themes the more world experience that you have and that the stories
are great in themselves, I very much like how important the illustrations are
to create physically beautiful books.
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