Whisper on the wind by Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft

Watercolour, pen and ink combined with collage and digital techniques were used to create the ethereal illustrations that whisper across the pages, full of watery imagination and an oceanic feeling of depth, enough to make any reader feel akin to the sea, and want to dive in and join the mermaid who swims beneath the little craft.

A story of love and longing, the sailor is far out at sea, but hears the whisper from home on the wind. Inside a bottle, the whisper is carried by the dancing waves, the shining moonbeams passing over it, while the flitting fish beneath the waves follow its course chased by dolphins until finally the whisper reaches the sailor.

Each line adds another sea creature in this lovely accumulative text. Younger readers will love predicting the new word describing the creature carrying the whisper, and be enthralled when the sequence changes, the  different style encouraging them to predict a rhyming word. Every word resonates with meaning, celebrating the wondrous nature of the ocean and all of its creatures. And when she opens the bottle, all of the child’s dreams tumble out, depicting all the things they share at home.

The lone sailor hears the whisper from her child in the lighthouse and heads for home, sailing past the creatures which have supported the bottle of dreams on its journey. So she retraces the steps taken in the first half of the book, until finally she gets back home and they breakfast together, ready for the day. The love between the pair overcomes the distance while the sailor is out at sea and the whisper of home is able to get over the vast areas of the ocean to reach its target.

A deep love of the ocean and all of its contents is reflected in every word and image in this luminous book, offering more on further readings and stopping to take in the detail on every page.

Themes: Love, Sea, Ocean, Sailing, Sailors, Lighthouses, Verse.

Fran Knight