Fox wakes, and begins to walk. She crosses ice and snow, over mountains and across frozen oceans, encountering bears and birds beneath the endless daylight of an Arctic summer, navigating a world that is vast, wild and wondrous.
Meanwhile, Leila embarks on a journey of her own – finding her way to the mother who left her. On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she’d lost, with help from a determined little fox.
I loved Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, which was her first project with her husband, Tom de Freston, as the artist. This book is in a matching edition with the same stunning art style from de Freston, and I knew I wanted to pick it up immediately after seeing it.
We follow similar themes to Julia and the Shark, and a familiar feel to the story and the book as a physical object. Without seeing one of these books in person, it is difficult to describe exactly how beautiful this artwork is. Alongside beautiful, sketchy full page and double pages sketches, and little pieces dotted throughout the book, we also have tracing paper style overlays on some of the pages, which I adore.
Once again, this book covers some deep and emotional themes as well as introducing a lovely friendship between a young girl and an animal. There were so many objects of the friendship between the animals that were reflected among their human companions, and I loved the comparisons between the two. This book focuses on migration, both for our main characters and the animals.
Overall, I really loved this story and I read it on a perfect frosty winter evening. It may not have stuck with me in exactly the same way as Julia and the Shark, but it was a delightful story and has further cemented Kiran Millwood Hargrave as an auto-buy author for me.
★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
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