Boundless Sky by Amanda Addison and Manuela Adreani featured as part of my World Book Day Blog.  It is a simply stunning story using the migration of a beautiful swallow to illustrate the journey of a refugee.  The story depicts just how far refugees travel to get to safety, how long and dangerous the journey can be, and how the help and welcome of others is so needed. And of course highlights the wonder of nature and how incredible the migration of birds really is. Published by Lantana Publishing, Boundless Sky evokes real empathy and beautifully depicts the power of nature and kindness; it’s a story we can all learn from.

Today, I am sharing a Q & A with author Amanda Addison who shares some wonderful insights into the inspiration for the book and how stories can connect us all. Welcome to the blog Amanda!

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind Boundless Sky? The natural world and travel are both inspirations for my writing and painting. Boundless Sky was inspired by several things coming together to form the seed of an idea about bird migration. Mark Cocker, (co-author of Birds Britannica) lives in a neighbouring village. When I read Crow Country there were so many amazing facts about bird migration that it sowed the seed of an idea to use bird migration in fiction. My first exploration of the idea was in connection with nomadic peoples and yurts in my textile-inspired novel, Laura’s Handmade Life.

Then I was asked to make a piece of artwork for a Bird themed exhibition – birds and migration was circling around in my head! If I had a super power it would be to be able to fly. And that was my ‘light bulb’ moment of telling the story of a migrating swallow from its own Bird’s eye view of the children it meets en-route. I have wanted to write about the refugee crisis in an empathetic way and so the story links the amazing migration of the swallow (something we are familiar with) with an understanding of the lengthy journeys many people fleeing conflict, climate change etc have to make to survive and thrive. Journeys are made to survive and thrive. Bird’s journey can be seen as a metaphor for coming together under the same boundless sky.

However, there is still work to be done in extending people’s intellectual and emotional empathy around this issue. Leila offers Bird the life-giving water it needs to continue its journey when the adults don’t notice. This is my favourite spread as children often notice what is really important.

My hope is that Boundless Sky will be part of that change and help us to understood migration on both an intellectual and emotion level.

What research did you carry out to inform the story? I returned to some of the bird facts in various books which inspired me to write about bird migration in the first place. I also read accounts of swallow migrations. There were some amazing facts which I couldn’t fit directly into this story, such as how in the past people really didn’t believe it was possible for a bird so small to migrate and so they believed that they hibernated underground! However, I used this belief to inform the beginning of the story:

“Nobody knew,

nobody dreamed,

nobody even considered the possibility

that a bird which fits in your hand

might fly halfway round the world –

and back again.”

How did you work with the illustrator to bring your words to life? When Alice from Lantana suggested Manuela Adreani, I thought her work was a very good fit as she uses bold compositions with a tender use of colour and tone which would be just right. The final images are gorgeous and stylish! I love the echoing of flight shapes, wings, kites, butterflies, hands etc. What I particularly like about the pictures is the way you can look at them again and again and get something more out of them.

We had a few discussions to clarify some things in the text. But in the end (as I used to work as an illustrator and did my first degree in illustration at Chelsea School of Art) I wanted to trust Manuela and give her the freedom to come up with something beyond my own imagination. The best illustrators complement a story and bring an extra dimension to it.  Also, Manuela and I are indebted to the book’s designer the book designer made beautiful use of complementary colours with orange type and spine against turquoise background.

Home has a particularly poignant meaning in these difficult times – what do you think your story can teach people about this today? When I wrote Boundless Sky, I never dreamed that the book’s message of resilience, interconnectedness and helping each other would be so important, in such a different context. In fact, one reviewer said the book is for 5-89 years! as it’s a heart-warming story for us all. As home becomes smaller for us during social isolation, our sense of place and connection with others becomes more important.

Stories can allow us to be mental travellers, allow us to explore places from our past, our imagination and inter connectedness with the whole world. Times are tough, but as with bird’s journey we are reminded that the world is truly interconnected and we must support each other to enlarge our common humanity. Stories of tenderness, kindness and connection can help us come through this pandemic with our humanity intact.

Finally, can you share what new projects you are working on? I am working on more stories on the theme of home and away for both adults and children. It is difficult to focus at the moment on new ideas, but I am finding it a perfect time to re-write my drafts-in-progress and this is a comfort of sorts. The conservatory, my usual studio space isn’t working out with everyone at home so I have turned part of my greenhouse into an art studio and will be painting from nature!

Find out more at www.amandaaddison.com.You can download resources for Boundless Sky and watch Amanda read the story aloud here.

With thanks to Lantana Publishing for sending me this book to review and to Amanda Addison for participating in this bookchat!