The Fog by Kyo Maclear illustrated by Kenard Pak

A few years ago I took a holiday organised by bird watchers. It was so interesting to witness their passion and perseverance. In this book the small yellow warbler (bird) is the watcher. He watches the humans and documents their types, characteristics, habits and physical attributes. Some of his classifications are presented in hilarious detail on the end papers such as the #666 solitary knitter,  the #670 dapper bespectacled book lover and #664 the American bushy browed surf-head.

Take a look here to see more of the pages illustrated by Kenard Pak

Warbler lives on a remote ice covered island. "People came from around the world to visit this special place."  This made me think of Fair Isle where I saw bird watchers at work.

One day a heavy fog rolls in. It stays and island life changes and the human visitors disappear. Then one foggy morning the small yellow warbler spots a human species #673 Red-hooded spectacled female (juvenile). The pair cannot talk to one another but some how they communicate. Warble is worried about the fog. The human suggests they write messages on  paper boats and launch them into the sea. 

Do you see fog?

Eventually the pair receive a series of replies to their question. A walrus in Canada can see the fog; a musk ox in Norway wants to fix it; and some cats in England reply too (their answer will give you a laugh). As more and more notes arrive from around the world the fog begins to lift.

Is this story an allegory?  I think it might be.  As people of the world gain awareness of our environment and the issues of climate change perhaps, with good communication, the fog will lift and our planet can begin to heal. Am I being too deep? Not according to some of the reviews I have listed here:

Kirkus gave this book a star review and used words like sharing and awareness of small things (mindfulness).
Quill and Quire use the word fable and allegory and link the story with climate change.
The reviewer at Whisked away by words also identifies deep themes in this book.
Kyo Maclear has a page of review comments on her web site.

Huge thanks goes to my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything for introducing me to Kyo Maclear and Kenard Pak. I am not sure I would have discovered these two talented book people without access to her wonderful library and Teacher-Librarian knowledge. I hope to talk about some other books by Kyo Maclear on this blog very soon especially The Good Little book.

You can read my recent post about Kenard Pak.  He is such a wonderful illustrator. I hope more of his books can find their way into our Australian school library collections.