Song of the River

This is a newly illustrated version of a Joy Cowley poetic narrative published over twenty years ago. Now, Kimberley Andrews has re-imagined an adventure of Cam, the little boy who follows a river from source to sea.

Impatient at the lack of action on his Grandfather’s part (he’d promised to take the boy all the way to the coast, One spring morning, Cam listens to the watery voice of what begins as a tiny trickle of a rivulet among the pines, “Come with me, I will take you to the sea. “ Cam takes up the offer, following the trickle to see where it leads as it runs down the mountainside and joins a stream. A stream with leaping, beckoning trout, that grows into a river flowing through farms and a town, past wharves and then onto sand dunes and there, ‘wild and beautiful’ and going on forever is the sea welcoming him with the most exciting sound ever.

Joy’s writing is irresistible as that watery, ever changing voice carries the reader along but so too are Kimberley Andrews’ visual compositions. Her changing landscapes mirror the voice of the river making reading this book a true sensory experience that involves not only sounds and sights, but you can almost feel the pull of the sea too.

Whether or not Cam’s experiences are real or imagined, it matters not for this circular tale is a wonderful homage to the natural world and to the power of storytelling.