Iceberg by Claire Saxby. Illus. by Jess Racklyeft

Superb images of icebergs fill the pages as Saxby tells readers about the iceberg and the animals that live on or near it, all the while a ship somewhere in the distance shows the continuing presence of humans and this encourages readers to think about their affect on this once pristine environment.

With a mix of collage, digital illustration along with watercolour, pen and ink, Racklyeft instills each page with the vastness of the landscape: its cold permeating the reader as each page is turned. The ice blues and luminous whites dominate the pages, but eager eyes will pick out minor details, dwarfed by the size of the iceberg. And they will all be stunned at the fold out pages showing the huge expanse of this environment.

As the iceberg shears from the glacier after the light display in the sky, the sea birds know it is the Antarctic summer and make their way south. A range of birds is mentioned: terns and cormorants, while humpback whales and squid hunt for krill, and the birds dive for the squid. The iceberg keeps wandering with the current, the wind and sun affecting its upper reaches, currents lapping at its base, until by autumn it is smaller, becoming a floe, a place for seals to lie on, a place for krill to hide out the coming winter months below the surface. Each stage of the iceberg's life is mentioned, illuminating the life cycle of this mountain of ice, reduced to just a floe by winter's end. Now spring, an iceberg calves and settles into the sea, the cycle starts again.

The lyrical prose directs readers' attention to the colours of this environment: the animals that live there, the events which herald changes for the animals, the movement in wind, tide and storm, the slow melting of the ice berg over the twelve months. Sentences in Saxby's spare prose will initiate more discussion as ideas are planted: what has ash to do with the iceberg, what is the ship doing there, and children will stretch out their arms to see how wide the cormorant spreads its wings, and ponder the information given on the last page about this amazing environment, reminding us all of our responsibility in protecting this place.

This stunning visual treat begs to be read and reread, discussed and talked over, while many will want to research further. 

Themes: Icebergs, Arctic and Antarctica, Environment, Man's impact on the environment, Animals.

Fran Knight