Every day at dawn, Noi’s father departs for a long day of work on his fishing boat and doesn’t come home until dark. Watch this interview with the author. Can you think of other questions that you would like to ask him? 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. Look at the silhouette pictures on the inside covers. Could you create similar pictures based on whales or other animals? The first three Storm Whale books are currently being developed into a series of three half-hour animated films by Lupus Films, the team who worked on the award-winning TV adaptation of Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea. “We’re still in the process of that happening at the moment,” says Davies. “But they have developed a script and teaser animation, and they had a big launch of that last summer at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. Currently, Lupus is in talks with people about broadcasting it. So it’s not been made, it’s in pre-production phase at the moment.” A busy year ahead

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. Has there been a particular person who influenced you – an artist or author for example, or someone completely other?One morning, after a violent storm sweeps the island, Noi goes down to the beach and spots something curious in the distance.

Nostalgic and gentle, this book is beautifully crafted, with filmic, sometimes panoramic illustrations and a plot line that will give the reader goosebumps (in a good way) — so strong is the message and sense of there being a true friendship between boy and whale. 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. London-based illustrator and animation director Benji Davies reconciles these two contradictory demands with enormous tenderness and thoughtfulness in The Storm Whale ( public library) — a beautiful belated addition to the best children’s books of 2014. A quiet meditation on what happens when solitude becomes loneliness, the story welcomes the challenges and rewards of single-parenting, celebrating the redemptive power of attentive love.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. 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. In the final scene, Noi and his father head to a picnic atop the cliff and the little boy’s wish comes true — he spots the baby animal alongside a grown whale in the ocean, waving a friendly tail. But the joyful moment is underpinned by subtle solemnity — one can’t help the pensive awareness that the little boy watching the two tails on the horizon, the larger most likely the whale-mother’s, is about to return to his own motherless home. 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.”

Here is a trailer for the sequel to The Storm Whale. Could you make an animated trailer to promote this book? I also loved the Frog And Toad books by Arnold Lobel, and when I was bit older The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann. My all time favourite is The Little Grey Men by BB. Pictures from the launch of The Storm Whale in Winter, which took place at Waterstones in Tottenham Court Road, hosted by Simon and Schuster. The little boy manages tho keep the secret all through the evening, even sneaking a few fish from the dinner table to the tub, but the father eventually discovers his son’s betubbed friend — a moment dramatic not for its volatility but for the quiet wistfulness to which it awakens the fisherman. Noi paints pictures of the whale when he is gone. Can you paint your own pictures of whales and other ocean creatures?

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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. Noi is a little boy who lives by the sea with his fisherman-father and their six cats. Like in the touching Davey McGravy and My Father’s Arms Are a Boat— two of the most unusual and wonderful books that help children grieve— there is no mother in the picture. With great subtlety, Davies invites the reader to sense the presence of loss in the salty air of this small and sensitive child’s life. 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. 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.

We in this house love the sea and any stories about it, so this picture book caught our eye immediately. Watch this animated trailer for the book. Could you create an animated version of a scene from the book? Despite knowing it was the right thing to do, Noi has a hard time saying goodbye but is glad to have his loving father there. Did you rescue injured animals as a little boy? Just thinking of Noi and the care he takes of little storm whale.As the two return to their daily lives, the little boy keeps thinking about his whale-friend, hoping to see him again. 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 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. Noi and his father live in a house by the sea, on a small island that doesn't seem to have many inhabitants. Because Noi's father works long days on his fishing boat and doesn't return until after dark, Noi is often on his own. One day, while exploring on the beach after a storm has hit, Noi finds a baby whale washed up on shore. With the affection and good intentions unique to a young child, Noi decides to take the whale home and look after him. Happy to have a friend who we can speak to but conscious he willl not be allowed to keep the whale, Noi tries to hide the whale from his father. But there is only so long you can keep a whale in the bathtub a secret. When his father finds the whale and explains that he must be returned to the sea, Noi learns a valuable lesson from the experience, but so does his father. Psychologists have found that presence is the key to great parenting and yet also maintain that growing a capacity for fertile solitude is a developmental achievement for the child.