Julia and the Shark’s writers on their pandemic-driven book lauded by Waterstones

The novel written and illustrated by husband-and-wife duo, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston, has been named children’s gift of the year by Waterstones, while Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics wins book of 2021

It was a BBC article about a 400-year-old Greenland shark which sparked Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston’s children’s novel Julia and the Shark, which has just won an award at Waterstones. But it was the pandemic which drove its exploration of the fragility of a parent’s mental health.

Hargrave’s novel, which is illustrated by her artist husband de Freston, tells of 10-year-old Julia, who travels with her parents to an island in the Shetlands. There for the summer, her marine biologist mother becomes obsessed with finding the elusive Greenland shark. The title was named children’s gift of the year today by Waterstones, described by head children’s buyer Florentyna Martin as “an incredible piece of storytelling” which explores “powerful topics with warmth and honesty”.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3deI54N