Clara has gone to the park, but there's nobody to play with. She finds an umbrella on the ground and does a good deed by putting it on a bench. The umbrella says 'thank you' and invites Clara to make a wish. So unfolds a magical chain of events where kindness and forgiveness go hand-in-hand…
Umbrella
Picturebook Published by Scallywag Press
Endorsed by Amnesty International UK
Winner of the inaugural Society of Author’s Queen’s Knickers Award 2020
Nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal 2020
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2021
Selected as a Read for Empathy by Empathy Lab in 2021.
Selected for the White Ravens Collection 2019 (one of only 9 selected from the UK).
Selected as 100 Outstanding Picture Books By dePictus at Bologna Children’s Book Fair and at Frankfurt Book Fair.
Translated into Chinese, Italian, Korean, Slovenian, Swedish and Turkish
What would you wish for somebody else?
Winner of the Society of Authors Inaugural Queen’s Knickers award.
Umbrella is a Read for Empathy Book!
“Anything is possible when someone opens this special umbrella. Helpful for perspective-taking as children think about what each character needs. And how a touch of magic might help.”
Empathy Lab Primary Guide 2021
Photo UCPS
How does Umbrella understand what others need?
Umbrella and the curriculum:
Literacy and Maths resources with guide and lesson plans developed with an education consultant.
“When judging this prize each of us thought that they alone would be speaking up for Umbrella and each of us was overjoyed to discover that we all felt the same. It is a book that makes you feel like it is your discovery, like it belongs to you.
“At first glance Umbrella can appear quiet or small. It is a book that might easily be overlooked on shelves packed with bolder shapes and brighter colours. It doesn't deserve that. Like the umbrella in the story it deserves to be found and opened.
“Opening the book is like opening that umbrella: You do it and something wonderful unfolds. It is my hope that this award will allow Umbrella to reach a wider audience than it otherwise would and help its creator to make more books like it. In a world where it seems like you have to scream just to be heard, Umbrella talks to you in its own clear voice, as a friend. It is a very worthy winner.’
—Alexis Deacon, one of the judges of the Queen’s Knickers Award
'Lovely bold, expressive drawing conjures a magical story in Elena Arevalo Melville's heart-warming picture book Umbrella'
THE SUNDAY TIMES
This quirky book takes a familiar folktale trope – the object of power, capable of granting wishes to the righteous - and plays with it, forging its own eccentric and appealing path through a landscape that feels fresh and new. Arevalo Melville's illustrations are confident to be themselves and don't talk down – there's no hint of the cute and cuddly in this book, despite its subject-matter, and children will be pleasantly challenged as well as entertained.'
BOOKS FOR KEEPS MAGAZINE
'The power of kindness and the triple joys of magic, music and the miraculous lie at the heart of this clever, colourful story which celebrates our rights to express ourselves and to choose our own friends'
LANCASHIRE EVENING POST
Elena Arevalo Melville's use of a minimal colour palette until the penultimate spread serves to make that illustration all the more perfect too. Her somewhat surreal tale of empathy, kindness and community is one to share and discuss at every opportunity.'
RED READING HUB BLOG
'Oh, this is a brilliantly bizarre picture book, no doubt about that! A young girl finds and shows kindness to a sentient umbrella (yes, really) that magically returns the favour tenfold. Thus ensues a series of astonishingly realised events, culminating in a well- pitched finale demonstrating the healing power of forgiveness. A superb work: an example of a text being paired with its perfect publisher. Joyous!'
NORTHERN SCOTTISH PAPERS
'Young readers will want to experience the magic of the umbrella again and again – and see the ordinary become extraordinary!'
THE BOOK ACTIVIST BLOG