SHORT-LISTED: 2022 CBCA Picture Book of the Year
NOTABLE BOOK: 2022 CBCA Book of the Year, Eve Pownall Award

In the final freeze of an Antarctic winter, green tails wave across a star-full sky, as if to farewell endless nights. If this world looks empty, look closer ... Penguins trek across the ice to their winter homes. As the temperature warms, birds fly above on their long migrations. And with the advent of summer, beneath an iceberg, the sea is teeming with life. Ocean, sky, snow and ice - minute greens and giant blues - dance a delicate dance in this evocative portrayal of the life cycle of an iceberg.

'Richly informative and brimming with detailed facts presented in lyrical, sophisticated, evocative language ... Text and image balance each other perfectly in their delicate yet powerful tone. An expert merging of knowledge with grace.' Books+Publishing

An iceberg is born into spring and travels through the seasons before dying in a new spring. A stunning, lyrical story for our times, from renowned picture book creators Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft.

'This stunning picture book follows in sensory, singing prose and evocative mixed-media pictures the life of an iceberg through a year of Antarctic seasons ... Solid information is rendered magical against icy shades of sea and sky.' The Courier Mail

Biographical note Claire Saxby was born in Melbourne, moved to Newcastle as a toddler and to Bougainville Island in PNG when she was ten. She attended many schools around Australia before studying in Melbourne to become a podiatrist. For several years Claire worked in community health while simultaneously writing for children. Her books fall into three main categories: animals and the worlds they live in, history, and humour. Claire's work has won several awards including CBCA Honour Book, a NSW Premier's Literary Award, a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, an Environment Award for Children's Literature, an Educational Publishing Award and the Whitley Award multiple times. She is widely curious about just about everything and passionate about encouraging curiosity and wonder. Claire works part-time in a bookshop.

Jess Racklyeft creates a variety of illustrated things - picture books, paintings, prints, pins and cards - mainly in watercolours. She works from her Melbourne home studio with her cat and dog at her feet, and occasionally one of her kids joins in too. Her work often combines collage - either on paper or digitally assembled - and lots of ink, and for every book she tries to use a new technique or process to continue to challenge and grow, book by book. Jess worked in publishing sales for almost a decade before making the leap to full-time illustration work, and since then has won several illustration accolades including two CBCA Notable Picture Book of the Year awards. Her work can now be found in bookshops and libraries across Australia and her days are happily spent in a messy studio or visiting local storytimes with her two young kids. More of her work can be found at www.jessesmess.com