Nicola Davies

When things change, it can feel as though everything is different. Especially when we move home and all around is unfamiliar.

This collection of poems by Nicola Davies with accompanying illustrations by Petr Horáček intimately explores the experiences of refugees, immigrants and individuals impacted by manmade borders and conflict. Through Davies’ poignant verses and Horáček’s vivid and inspired artworks, the book invites readers to empathise with the struggles and resilience of those seeking refuge and a sense of belonging.

The Automators are the army of the House of Governors on Rumyc, enforcing the Governors’ determination to ‘break nature apart’. This breaking is brutal, as is the crushing of Green Thorn rebels and the destruction of the minds of Listeners, who can communicate with animals. Automators come to seize Listener twins Ash and Xeno. They have reckoned without the twins’ sister, Harlon, and without the training the children have had from their ma.

A boy moves from Italy to another country. The weather, the landscape and the smell of the new place constantly remind him that this is not where he belongs. Yet, only the racing pigeons kept by Mr. Evans, an old man living in the neighborhood, awake his memory of home in Rome. Narrated by the ingenuous voice of the boy, the story infuses thoughtful meaning into the definition of home and wonderfully portrays intergenerational friendship.

This sumptuous picturebook from this award-winning duo is a beautiful object, and would make a lovely gift to take on holidays or even to curl up with as the days get shorter and colder.

Together with Davies’ A First Book of Nature and A First Book of Animals this title marks a new direction in non-fiction writing for young children which blurs the lines between poetry and prose with the subject keenly observed and precisely described in beautifully crafted writing.

Simple yet highly charged, this is one of the big stories of our time told in a form accessible to young children. More than ever in a post-truth world, art, here in the hands of masterful picturebook makers Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb, gets closer to the truth about the world we live in than any ‘fake news’ can.

Ornithology and anthropology, the wonders of biology and the beauty of story, meet in this gorgeously presented narrative about the hummingbird. Their incredible migration north and the joy they bring to the lives of people in Latin America, at sea in the Pacific, and those living in New York City provide the backdrop for understanding the lives of these little birds better.

The incredible duo that produced The Variety of Life has produced another gem, The Wonder of Trees – a big, bright and beautiful book all about ‘huge green beings’. Davies, a hugely popular nature writer, gives concise and clear information on all kinds of engrossing aspects of the lives of trees. Her captivating text is expertly illuminated by Scobie, whose colourful pictures vary from neatly accurate botanical depictions to absolutely adorable illustrations.

Every Child a Song is an ode to childhood and life itself. Written as a ‘Happy 30th Birthday’ to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. The UNCRC is a proclamation of what every adult needs to provide for every child to become a good, healthy and happy citizen of the world.

Lorna Scobie’s beautiful illustrations bring this book alive. Working in watercolour, she has created realistic drawings of mammals, birds, fish, insects and plant life, but all have an engaging picturebook quality that will encourage the reader to imagine the animals outside the book. This engaging quality is fully realised by the storytelling features of the accompanying narrative.