Winner of Kate Greenaway medal for illustration 2020.
Tales from the Inner City is a collection of 25 incredibly original stories, rich with feeling, strangely moving, almost numinous. Each about a particular animal tiger, snail, hippopotamus, shark, and so on and how we as humans might respond to their unexpected presence with in a concrete, steel, and glass landscape: the place so many of us now call home. Some stories deal with love and kinship, the way animals can elevate out spirit; others are about cruelty and disrepect. All are intended to be thought-provoking without being moralizing or overly political, and strange enough to invite variable readings, not unlike a series of interesting dreams.
And when the reader comes to the artwork, its like walking into an amazing room, and then throwing open a curtain to see a brilliant scene that makes you understand and appreciate everything youve encountered in a deeper way.
A book both for children and adults.
