Little Echo

"A lot of people can make beautiful sketches, but when you go to colour it can easily feel a bit stiff and lifeless. In this book Al has kept his artwork really alive, it feels like it’s dancing on the page. He has got such a clever use of light, colour and composition in this book, as well as beautiful mark-making (the way that you express yourself with paint). He would have planned this carefully, and it’s such a fine balance of being free, but making something that is easy to follow, that has a clarity of image. The colour is absolutely beautiful. It’s all in the dark and it’s got a wonderful sense of light. The book is about a little character called Echo, a little yellow sort of mousy bear creature — who can’t find her own voice, she can only echo — and boy called Max, who is trying to find treasure in a cave, but is lost. Echo knows where the treasure is, but is too shy to talk to him, but then she has to speak to Max when he is sleeping and a bear sneaks up on him. It’s a sweet story about friendship and finding your voice, which uses the character of Echo to show all the good things that can happen when you try being brave and speaking up. It also feels like a book of imaginative play, the sort of adventure I remember acting out with my friends as a child. The playfulness of the artwork complements the story beautifully. It looks fresh with a lightness of touch, but I know how difficult it is to achieve that looseness. It’s rich and textured in the colour and mark-making, and still very readable in terms of image. I’m in awe, and I want to know how he does it. As an illustrator, I find it a joyful celebration of painting. I think this is quite a brave book."