- Nature
- Picture Books
- Ages 4–10
The shape of it
The shape of this universe.
The Elements is a quartet of large-format picture books by Kate Greenaway Medal-winning illustrator Grahame Baker-Smith, conceived (at his daughter's suggestion) as a four-book sequence devoted to water, air, earth and fire. Each book follows a single child observing a force of nature on its journey across the world: Issac following rainfall through streams and rivers to the sea; Cassi releasing a swift into the great winds of migration; and onwards through the moving earth and the leaping fires. The texts are spare and lyrical, almost prose poems; Baker-Smith's mixed-media artwork is large, painterly, full of light and scale. The books work as gallery-piece picture books for older readers as much as bedtime ones for the very young.
A quartet of awe-struck picture books about water, air, earth and fire, written and illustrated for children who love big skies and slow looking.
Primary themes
Tone palette
- Warm
- Gentle
- Thought provoking
- Inspirational
The series
One way in.
Cultural footprint
A shelf of evidence.
Cultural ubiquity
2/ 5A working classic for readers in the know.
Sensitivity
Low, and collection-wide.
Across the collection
All 4 books.
About the creator