Watch this interview with the author. Can you think of other questions that you would like to ask him? Family is also at the heart of renowned novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debut for children, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (HarperCollins), with art by Joelle Avelino. Adichie became a mother in 2016 and has previously published a book of advice about how to raise a feminist daughter, Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Her new picture book features a child called Chino, who enjoys playing with the hair scarf her Mama wears to bed while Mama goes to work and she stays home with her father and grandparents. At once a peek into a day in the life of a toddler, it is also a tender act of memorial, as Adichie writes under the pseudonym Nwa Grace-James – in honour of her deceased parents, James and Grace. The recurring pattern of Mama’s vivid green scarf, decorated with bright red and blue rings and beautifully reproduced on the endsheets, poignantly evokes a sense of the circle of life. Has there been a particular person who influenced you – an artist or author for example, or someone completely other?

As the two return to their daily lives, the little boy keeps thinking about his whale-friend, hoping to see him again.Davies is also looking at developing some of his other properties into animation, as well as writing longer-form children’s projects alongside his picture books. He says: “A lot of that is still very early days. I’m honestly just trying to find time to actually do things that aren’t commissioned pieces of work, artworks which have the freedom to breathe in their own space.” This summer, there will be an exhibition of his art which is “partly related to the 10th anniversary of The Storm Whale” at Los Angeles gallery Nucleus. The choice of the whale came seamlessly at the point of inspiration as I remember it. The idea that a whale could be in the bath was so misplaced as a concept that the story began forming around that starting point. Look at the silhouette pictures on the inside covers. Could you create similar pictures based on whales or other animals? In a strange twist of fate, I last bumped into author-illustrator Benji Davies on a flight to Inverness, when he was on his way to Spey Bay’s Scottish Dolphin Centre to deliver events centred around his award-winning picture book The Storm Whale. Almost five years later, we are chatting over Zoom about the 10th anniversary of the book and a new addition to the series, The Great Storm Whale, to be published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Books in October.

Here is a trailer for the sequel to The Storm Whale. Could you make an animated trailer to promote this book? Watch this animated trailer for the book. Could you create an animated version of a scene from the book?

Credits

Noi lived with his fisherman father and their six cats in a small house by the sea. Every day his father would head out to sea on his boat, and the young boy would be on his own. Then one day, after a great storm, Noi found a baby whale washed up on shore. Determined to care for this stranded creature, Noi brought the whale home and put it in the bathtub. His understanding father, when he discovered the cetacean in the tub, realized that Noi had been lonely, but told him that they would have to return the whale to his ocean home all the same. A thoughtful, emotive and heart-warming story that will capture your imagination and thaw even the bleakest of winters. We can’t think of a more perfect gift to find under the tree this Christmas.” I don’t remember a huge number of picture books from when I was little but Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea was a big favourite. Benji describes the book as being like the journey home; just as Storm Whale takes us out to sea, the sequel carries us home, as we find that Noi’s kind deed to the little whale was never forgotten.

But Noi knows the secret companionship won’t last long and fears that his dad, upon coming home, would be furious about the whale in the bathroom. So after a wonderful book launch, hosted by our brilliant colleagues at Simon and Schuster, and in anticipation of our cosy Christmas story time, where Benji will be reading us his heart-warming story, I wanted to find out a little bit more about the man behind the books… LM Pictures from the launch of The Storm Whale in Winter, which took place at Waterstones in Tottenham Court Road, hosted by Simon and Schuster.Noi paints pictures of the whale when he is gone. Can you paint your own pictures of whales and other ocean creatures? My grandad was big influence on me when I was growing up — I think he was responsible for giving me a love of books and the natural world. THIS WEEK author and illustrator, Benji Davies, creator of The Storm Whale and Grandad’s Island, launched his highly anticipated picture book, The Storm Whale in Winter. Write the conversation that Noi has with his father when the whale is discovered in the bath. Use direct speech and / or reported speech to record what is said.