American Arthur Geisert, trained as a sculptor, but is now an illustrator and storyteller who has a fascination with etching and pigs. I too, love etchings and the detail that is possible with black lines. His books are often textless or have very minimal text so they rely on the reader to create their own story. My favourite story of his, Ice is textless and features pigs. This community of pigs is suffering because it is so hot and they go in search of ice. It then becomes a tale of inventiveness, change and adventure. My favourite illustrations though are in the sequel to Ice, The Giant Seed, where this time, the pigs need to get creative when their home is destroyed by a volcano. Luckily, beforehand they had buried a large mysterious seed. This seed features on the cover and I would dearly love to own a copy of that particular etching. His books highlight themes such as ingenuity, problem-solving, creative thinking and coping with change. Great for circle time, group discussion and thinking routines. They just need to be published as big books!Unlike Dick King-Smith, Geisert was not a pig farmer, but who would have thought you could make porcine creatures so endearing.
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