Umbrella

Elena Arevalo MelvilleClick here for biography

Winner of the Queen's Knickers Award. Read more here.

Clara has gone to the park, but there's nobody to play with. She finds an umbrella on the ground and does a good deed by putting it on a bench. The umbrella says 'thank you' and invites Clara to make a wish. So unfolds a magical chain of events where kindness and forgiveness go hand-in-hand.

• Every child will love the idea of finding a magical umbrella in the park
• A delightfully surreal book about kindness and generosity
• Invites the reader to interact by choosing what sort of wish they would make

Endorsed by because it celebrates our rights to express ourselves and to choose our own friends

• Nominated for the Greenaway Award
• Selected as a White Raven, by the International Youth Library
• A DPictus '100 best Children's Books at Frankfurt 2019' and '100 Outstanding Picture Books spring 2020 selection'

Praise for this book:

'Lovely bold, expressive drawing conjures a magical story in Elena Arevalo Melville's heart-warming picture book Umbrella' The Sunday Times

'The power of kindness and the triple joys of magic, music and the miraculous lie at the heart of this clever, colourful story which celebrates our rights to express ourselves and to choose our own friends' Lancashire Evening Post

'Oh, this is a brilliantly bizarre picture book, no doubt about that! A young girl finds and shows kindness to a sentient umbrella (yes, really) that magically returns the favour tenfold. Thus ensues a series of astonishingly realised events, culminating in a well- pitched finale demonstrating the healing power of forgiveness. A superb work: an example of a text being paired with its perfect publisher. Joyous!' Northern Scottish Papers

'This quirky book takes a familiar folktale trope - the object of power, capable of granting wishes to the righteous - and plays with it, forging its own eccentric and appealing path through a landscape that feels fresh and new. Arevalo Melville's illustrations are confident to be themselves and don't talk down - there's no hint of the cute and cuddly in this book, despite its subject-matter, and children will be pleasantly challenged as well as entertained.' Books for Keeps Magazine

'Elena Arevalo Melville's use of a minimal colour palette until the penultimate spread serves to make that illustration all the more perfect too. Her somewhat surreal tale of empathy, kindness and community is one to share and discuss at every opportunity.' Red Reading Hub Blog

'Young readers will want to experience the magic of the umbrella again and again - and see the ordinary become extraordinary!' The Book Activist Blog

 

Other books by Elena Arevalo Melville

Elki Is Not My Dog

 

Rights sold: Slovenian, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Korean

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