Shadows in the Sky (2007) by Pete Cross
Pete Cross, author of Shadows in the Sky, featured in a BBC Radio 4 programme, Palores the Bird of Cornwall (11/08/2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lmfm), part of the New Storytellers series, where he read a short extract from the book. The extract featured Yowynk the young chow (chough) and his reaction to emerging from his cave-based nest for the first time. It was so poetic and descriptive that I bought the book, which has certainly lived up to expectations.
Although written for children, it is suitable for the child in all of us. The author skilfully weaves facts about the natural world into the story, so a child reading it would learn that the moon affects the tide, that peregrines have black cheeks, and a whole host of other useful information while being captivated by the three stories that make up the novel. He also perfectly describes the birds’ acrobatic flight and delight in flying: “In the air above him, Yowynk could see chows doing amazing things, soaring, tumbling, travelling at incredible speeds” (p.30).
Inspired to search for more details about the Cornish chough and its loss from and subsequent re-introduction to the county, I found that Cross had taken the actual history and created three related stories from it: the birds thriving in 1700, struggling to find food, and suffering persecution in 1900, and returning to what we would now call a ‘rewilded’ land in 2001. The prologue, which took place on a clifftop in 1974, set the scene well, and the old chough there pops up again, as does one of the ‘two-legs’. The choughs’ reliance on ‘four-legs’ was woven through the book, and cleverly highlighted how different parts of the natural world are linked: the choughs need the sheep and cattle to graze on the clifftops to keep the grass short and create a suitable environment for the juicy invertebrates that the birds love (particularly crane-fly larvae); when the animals are removed, the grass is too long and the choughs have to search inland for food, bringing them into closer contact with people, which has unfortunate consequences.
I usually steer clear of anthropomorphised stories because they often contain upsetting scenes; however, although sad events happen in the intertwined stories in this book, they are told in such a calm, matter-of-fact way that they are not distressing – simply part of nature, as the author himself observes.
I also read out a short section (pp. 28-31) of Yowynk’s story to my storytelling group and they really enjoyed it, too, so it would be a good tale to read aloud with a young child.
In short, I highly recommend this novel – anyone, child or adult, would be chuffed (sorry!) to receive it as a present.
See https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/the-return-of-the-cornish-chough for more details about the chough and its return to Cornwall.