Otter - (Accordion Book) by Jackie Morris (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the co-author and illustrator of The Lost Spells, and The Lost Words--single animal focused meditations in accordion form

An Accordion Book doesn't open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text - poems, descriptions, invocations - inspired by the same animal.

Together they work as spells to summon the animal's spirit. Jackie Morris has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which hadn't been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water. Fox and Otter are the first two Accordions in a series that will go on to include Hare, Owl, Hound and Cat among many others.

Review Quotes

For Jackie Morris:

"Beautiful, lyrical and lovely." -- Joanne Harris on The Wild Swans

"Jackie Morris does more than tell a story; she conjures glorious landscapes of the heart." -- Meg Rosoff on The Unwinding

"The tales feel like half-remembered dreams, peopled with fairytale characters and magnificent creatures." -- Rebecca Armstrong, i Paper Best Books of 2020

"A quiet masterpiece . . . a love story, a hope story, a story out of time, out of stricture, out of the narrow artificial bounds by which we try to contain the wild wonderland of reality because we are too frightened to live wonder-stricken." -- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

About the Author

Jackie Morris is a writer and artist. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Arts and Bath Academy and has written and illustrated more than fifteen books. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane, won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019, and Morris was nominated again for The Unwinding in 2021. She lives in Pembrokeshire. @JackieMorrisArt