Illustrated books for young imaginations THE CHALK GIRAFFE | By Kirsty Paxton | Illustration by Megan Lötter | Publisher: Imagnary House | ISBN: 9780639934334 What sort of landscape would you like to live in? Imagine if you had the chance to tell the artist how you wanted to look? Well, the animals of Africa – starting with the giraffe – have a say in creating their own personal landscape when our artistic child draws a giraffe in chalk. When the drawings magically come to life, the characters become rather demanding art critics, and some things have to change! We all know how fabulous it is to draw with chalk and create characters that we love and then rub them clean when we want to change them, only to recreate the original picture. In The Chalk Giraffe, author Kirsty Paxton gives us all these elements along with rhyming text and a creative child with wildly messy hair and a vivid imagination. When THE BRAVE TURTLE | By BD Harris | Illustration by Megan
her creation comes to life and asks for more colourful
Bird | Publisher: Imagnary House | ISBN: 9780639934389
surroundings, she happily draws them for him.
Having collaborated with the NSRI for this innovative fundraising and awareness initiative over a number of months, the intention was to bring to life a book that would
“‘I’m alone,’ he cried out, ‘there’s just grey all around’. So I drew him a tree growing up from the ground.” But as he asks for more and more, our little artist gets
illustrate the power and magic of the ocean and its creatures.
frustrated and things start to unravel! What follows is a
In addition, the Two Oceans Aquarium has assisted with
quirky and humorous tale of creativity and perspective,
valuable information on the plight of our turtles. The result is
with the beautiful African landscape as a backdrop to this
The Brave Turtle, a beautifully illustrated story that will grip
unlikely friendship.
readers, young and old. Imagine what could happen if it just kept raining and raining and raining and the water rose and rose! For our heroine Sam, who rolls off her bed late one night and, with a splash, finds her entire room flooded, this is the beginning of a huge adventure. And it’s not just her room, the whole house is filling with water as the world floods outside. Confused and cold, Sam is rescued by a wise little turtle called Neville who takes her along the beautiful underwater highway, teaching her the ways of this watery world. Floating on driftwood, upturned cars and general flotsam, humans and sea creatures work together to search and save those lost in the floods. This is a wonderful story that carries many underlying messages, the main one being that if you’re in the water: ‘Keep calm’. Not only does the book offer lifesaving messages but it creates awareness of our turtle population. Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) to extend their water safety and drowning prevention programmes.
86 / Creative Feel / December 2018 / January 2019
