Tag Cynthia Alonso

Aquarium

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Aquarium
Cynthia Alonso
Chronicle Books

Leaving her home a little girl follows the path towards a river jetty.

There she stops and gazes into the water completely at one with her surroundings. As she imagines herself swimming among fish of all shapes and sizes,

one fish leaps from the water and lands on the jetty.

The girl catches it in a jar and rushes home with it.

Using an assortment of containers and hose piping, she creates a complicated, multi-container aquatic environment and then, inflating a small pool …

and donning her bathing suit, she enjoys splashing around with the fish.

Suddenly, leaping from the pool, the fish makes a break for freedom and that’s when the girl realises that the creature isn’t happy in its new surroundings.

There is only one thing to do …

This thought-provoking wordless tale is beautifully told in Cynthia Alonso’s debut picture book. Using a gorgeous and unusual colour palette of blues, pinks, browns and oranges rendered in pencil, pens and by digital means she immerses the reader in her heroine’s world of water, fish and wonderment leaving plenty of room for her audience to story for themselves.

Under the Canopy

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Under the Canopy
Iris Volant and Cynthia Alonso
Flying Eye Books

Often called the lungs of the world, as the largest plants on our planet, trees are vitally important to us all. Essential for life, they are the longest living species on earth and so link past, present and future.
Many of them are also incredibly beautiful whether covered in new leaves or stripped bare of all foliage.

Herein, fact and fiction are woven together in a celebration of trees of various kinds from all over the world.

We learn how, according to the Greek myth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom’s gift of an olive tree was chosen by the people over Poseidon’s salt spring and Athens was named in her honour.

Another tree featured in the book that has an associated legend is the Willow.
In order to boost sales of the blue and white willow pattern chinaware once popular in England a number of stories were invented based on that pattern.

One such tells of young forbidden love and of the ultimate transformation of the ill-fated lovers into doves.

From tropical regions including Africa and Australia is the acacia. The famous whistling acacias of Zimbabwe were so called because their long pointed thorns make a whistling sound when the wind blows.
A popular food of giraffes, these trees, in response to grazing, pump their leaves with organic chemicals which force the animals to stop feeding and in addition the tree under attack can communicate to other nearby acacias to do likewise.

Legend has it that the English mathematician and phycisist, Isaac Newton conceived his theory of gravity when he saw an apple falling while thinking about the forces of nature.

Elegantly produced, this diverting collection, which features over twenty tree species is one to dip into, to enjoy and savour Cynthia Alonso’s stylish artwork with its textures, patterns and standout splashes of luminous green.