The Ice Child

"Deep in a lonely cavern, across a wasteland of ice and snow, in the heart of the frozen north, an icicle started to drip...drip...drip...A hump of ice started to form.

Slowly the icicle dripped and slowly the mound got bigger.

For ten years its shape shifted and changed until it had taken the form of a child.

Then one dark morning the sky burst in a crash of thunder.

The figure shivered and cracked...and the ice child was born." A beautifully-told original story following the progress of the little ice boy who must learn to live amongst people and, most importantly of all, learn to love them.

Peter Bailey manages to capture complex emotions and energy in the simplest of line illustrations.

His charming artwork perfectly suits Nick Ward's at times plaintive and finally heartwarming story of a child coming to terms with friendship and identity.