I recently came across this book published last year in Scotland, part of the Kelpies children series. Written by Catherine Ward and illustrated by Phoebe Roze. I have fall in love with these dreamy floaty images. Since I tend to keep an eye out for beaver illustrations I was surprised it escaped my attention, but when I shared it on the Beaver Facebook Forum it created such a splash I realized no one there had seen it either.
This book needs to be seen!
One thing I especially appreciated was that the beaver faces indicate these are castor fiber. They have a shorter snout and a snubier nose that might be overlooked by anyone who hasn’t spent hours watching castor canadensis. I especially adored this image:
It made me remember those rare moments in the summertime of your youth when all your family is in the pool together. Dad with his skinny legs and mom fussing about her hair and your siblings trying to show off some new trick they just invented.
Being a beaver must be a lot of fun.
Obviously the little girl in the story thought so too, because here she is imagining what the inside of her beaver lodge would look like:
I wrote about beavers as Kelpies 13 years ago on this very website when talking with one our Scotish beaver buddies.
“Stone carvings of this mysterious ‘pictish beast’ are seen all over Scotland. It has been described as like a seahorse, or a dinosaur. In most tales the Kelpie is noted to be very black, very at home in the water, but breathing air. Usually only its eyes are seen above the surface of the water, it’s very strong and its mane is constantly dripping. It’s fur is smooth like a seals but it is deathly cold to the touch”
Kelpies publications are a series of Scotish books made for children everywhere.
- The Kelpies imprint is published by independent publishing company Floris Books, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- Floris Books is the largest publisher of children’s books in Scotland. We acquired the original Kelpies list – which included books from classic Scottish authors such as Kathleen Fidler, George Mackay Brown and Mollie Hunter – from fellow Scottish publisher Canongate in 2002.
Rusty from Napa found this video of the author reading her story. I especially love how the real transition of moving to a new home which is so hard for children is paralleled by the beavers new housekeeping. Clever to find something almost every child feels with something so few children know about.
You can pick up your own copy here: 
or on amazon where I got mine. I wrote the publishers yesterday to try and talk them into donating a copy or two for the festival, I’ll let you know if that works.
