These are two picture books from Allen & Unwin – thanks to the publishers for sending them for review.

Whisper on the Wind
Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft

A gorgeous, lyrical cumulative tale celebrating the ocean and its wonders with equally gorgeous watercolour illustrations that perfectly capture the words and spirit of Claire’s writing.
Young Ren lies asleep dreaming in her lighthouse bedroom: ‘This is the whisper / in Ren’s dream’ we read, as the wind captures that whisper whisking it across a moonbeam lit dreamscape filled with playful fish and dolphins diving in the swirling sea.

It reaches a small sailing boat whereon a sailor with a net catches the whisper, fathoms its message and knows just where she must go. And so she does in good time for a perfect start to the day for two people, for love has a special power of its own.

Childhood magic is encapsulated in both Claire Saxby’s multi-layered text and Jess Racklyeft’s powerfully evocative illustrations that together gently pull you into the ocean’s depths and back to safety on land once more.

By the same creators, and now in paperback is

Iceberg
Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft

In a poetic text sophisticated and yet accessible, Claire presents the life story of an iceberg through the changing seasons of its Antarctic location. To read it aloud is music to the ear; to gaze at each richly layered illustration is to immerse oneself in the natural beauty of an awe-inspiring landscape. To experience the two together is artistic richness indeed.

As you open the first page prepare to be taken on a journey above and below the ocean: you will see penguin tracks, orcas’ shadowy shapes and spy seals and seabirds – terns and cormorants – and a multitude of other life forms that are all part and parcel of an environment that is at the same time seemingly endless, full of life, capable of renewing itself, yet frighteningly fragile.

This stunning book draws our attention to the melting Antarctic snows, suggesting subtly during the journey and asking much more strongly in an afterword, that we humans do everything within our power to address the effects climate change is having and will increasingly have, and thus protect and preserve the fauna and flora of an environment that is unlike any other.