Nature's Narratives – serie

Smoke speaks in mesmerising riddles: “I lack a mouth, but I can speak… I lack hands, but I can push out unwanted guests… I’m gentler than a feather, but I can cause harm…” This rhythmically powerful narration is complemented by illustrations in which swirling smoke was captured on art paper held over smoky candle flames, and the dancing smoke textures were then deepened and elaborated with watercolours and Photoshop finishes. With this unique method, Mercè López “let the smoke decide how the idea I had in mind would dance with it, giving freedom to the images”. The resulting illustrations are astounding, and they resonate with the otherworldly text.

What does every living thing on the planet depend on? Weighing nothing and zooming as fast as 186,000 miles per second? Light, of course! Told in lyrical, riddling first-person narrative, Light boasts of its essential role in life as we know it–from fuelling the wheel of life to humans' celebration of it as the year turns. Back matter about the science of light and major historical discoveries enhances the book for STEM learning.