Love is …
Sarah Maycock and Lily Murray
Sometimes I feel …
Sarah Maycock
Big Picture Press

In the first book, using a variety of creatures great and small, furred, 

feathered or smooth and leathery, author Lily Murray and illustrator Sarah Maycock explore some of the myriad ways that we can experience love, both feeling it and giving it.

In each example, figurative language ‘Love is / BEAUTIFUL / like the sanctuary / a bowerbird builds for its mate -/ adorned with treasures.’ … – ‘love’s beauty comes / in many forms … / … a simple song, / a colourful dance, / a loving face’, and gorgeous painterly images extend across two double spreads whereon the artist makes use of vibrant hues and monochrome colour to great effect.

Having met a host of members of the animal kingdom the final spreads make the assertion ‘Love is a POWERFUL THING, / For with love … / We can do / ANYTHING.’

What better words to give a loved one: this large format book would send a powerful message to its recipient.

Presented in a small format, again using animal similes is Sometimes I feel … which looks at emotions. 

At the end of the book, in a note the artist explains that this had its origins as a project in her final year at university. She wanted to explore the ‘universal nature of animals and how we can relate them to our own (human) experiences and characteristics. She spent a considerable time studying animals both in zoos and in natural history documentaries on TV and as she painted it seemed that like us, wild animals display a gamut of complex emotional responses. Some of these she captures in this superbly executed series of watercolour and ink paintings.

A little book that offers children an unusual starting point for exploring their own feelings and emotions and those of others.