• Reading age: 6 to 8

An original and poetic invitation to read the signs offered by nature like a book.

In a stunning fjord, Catmarin, a slender and graceful bird, gathers the other shorebirds (seagull, cormorant, guillemot) to share his discovery: they all live in a vast open book, older and more alive than those found in libraries, as ancient as their glacier and as fresh as a breath of air. This book is the world around them. Some see only mountains, waves, trees, and rocks. However, a keen eye will discern that the down of new snow is as soft and untouched as a blank page, that the prominent mountain sets the scene, that the raindrops serve as commas punctuating the day, and that the waves enclose the belugas like brackets.

Willy Wanggen is an author and illustrator based in the Northern Vosges, a protected area of woodland, wetland, farmland, and historical sites in the Grand Est region of northeastern France. He studied philosophy and Asian languages in Paris before working in China in the fields of arts, culture, and publishing. Upon returning from abroad, he decided to fulfill a long-delayed goal: to become a storyteller through text and images. Fjord is his first book.

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