Hicotea: A Nightlights Story

Description

In this mesmerising follow-up to Nightlights, Lorena Alvarez explores our relationship with nature and animals. On a school field trip to the river, Sandy wanders away from her classmates and discovers an empty turtle shell. Peeking through the dark hole, she suddenly finds herself within a magical new dimension. Filled with sculptures, paintings and books, the turtle's shell is a museum of the natural world. But one painting is incom-plete, and the turtle needs Sandy's help to finish it...

Lorena Alvarez was born and raised in Bogota, and studied Graphic Design and Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has illustrated for Puffin Books, Faber & Faber, Usborne Books, Parragon, Boom! Studios, Nickelodeon and Disney. Since 2008, she has been part of "La Procesion Puppet Club", an experimental puppetry group of illustrators and visual artists.

The intoxicating weirdness and saturated colour characteristic of Alvarez's artwork, filled with luminous spheres and horrifying transformations, and the demands she places on her readers as she guides them into liminal spaces of imagination, boredom and dream, are revisited in Hicotea. * TLS * The characters are full of life and emotion, environments have strong tones, and the storytelling is complex and satisfying. * Graphic Novel Resources * Hicotea is another treasure from Alvarez. The subtext is again the power of imagination to overcome obstacles, with just the right touch of mysticism to engage, and the drawing is again a delight. -- Ian Keogh * The Slings & Arrows Graphic Novel Guide * Evocative artwork * Bekkabergamont on Instagram * A story of the power of imagination & the responsibilities of environmental conservation, paired with beautiful illustration. * @pickuppages * Alvarez's artwork is luminous and stunning, full of detail, evocative and engaging. -- Children's Books Ireland