A spectacular picture book, with text in subtly linked beautifully composed four-line stanzas, evoking winds around the world, including those in the Canadian west, off the coast of Central America, Capetown, and the Middle East.
The illustrations are muscular, organic, powerful evocations of the power of those winds.
Shaw TV Chilliwack posted a video of author Barbara Nickel talking about A Boy Asked the Wind, while she presented it at the Yarrow Library in BC. Check out the YouTube Video.
Barbara Nickel
is the author of books for young people, including The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart and Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach, which won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. Barbara is also an award-winning author of poetry for adults; her work has been published in many anthologies and magazines such as The Walrus. She lives in Yarrow, B.C. with her husband and two sons.
Visit Barbara's website at www.barbaranickel.ca.
Gillian Newland
is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She works mostly in watercolor, ink and pencils.
"The beautiful mixed-media illustrations are a good match for the lyrical prose."
— Kirkus Reviews
"In this celebration of the winds of the world, poet Barbara Nickel embeds a subtle message of global unity and peace. . . Nickel's poetry is stunning, vibrant with verbs and gerunds. . . The pictures are energetic and give us information about the various locations."
— Quill and Quire
"A beautiful story about where the wind lives. . . Young readers will enjoy learning about the wind in this rhythmic picture book."
— KidsBookshelf
"A Boy Asked the Wind should be on every school and child's bookshelf as a powerful read about nature's airstreams but more as the supremacy of wind to shape our worlds and those of others."
— CanLit for LittleCanadians
"Libraries contain several books on tornadoes and hurricanes, but this is the first book I have seen for young people which discusses other types of winds. The long, rectangular pages of the story are illustrated with double page spreads. They look painterly in design. The shape and pattern of the visible winds match the descriptive words in the author's text."
— Resource Links Magazine
"As an award-winning poet, Barbara Nickel brings a sophisticated, nuanced elegance to the text, making A Boy Asked the Wind more than merely a study in meteorology. . . Gillian Newland's watercolour illustrations vividly capture the changing personality of the wind, as well as the very different landscapes.
Highly Recommended."
— CM Magazine
Shortlisted for the 2016 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards in the Children's Picture Book Award category
2017 Rocky Mountain Book Award nominee
Chocolate Lily Book Award nominee
Part of Vancouver's 2016 Reading Lights program
On the Fall 2016 edition of the CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection
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