Once upon a time, the animals and birds lived happily in a beautiful forest that provided for all their needs. Sadly, pollution begins to destroy their shelter and food supply, and their future looks bleak. Fortunately, Wise Owl leads the others to Professor Noah, who is building a spaceship rather than a boat like the first Noah did. The kind professor invites the animals to blast-off with him to another planet in order to escape the destruction of the forest. After traveling for 40 days and 40 nights, the time guidance system is accidentally twisted in reverse and the space travelers end up back on Earth in a pristine forest just after the famous biblical flood. Readers can make connections between the reissue of this timely story and the need for 21st-century environmental protection and preservation. The richly-detailed and colorful illustrations will keep readers thoroughly engaged in the story.
Author
Brian Wildsmith (1930-2016) was raised in a small mining village in Yorkshire, England, where, he says, "Everything was grey. There wasn't any colour. It was all up to my imagination. I had to draw in my head..." He won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied for three years. For a while he taught music at the Royal Military School of Music, but then gave it up so that he could paint full time. He has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the greatest living children's illustrators. In 1962, he published his first children's book, ABC, for which he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal, Britain's equivalent to the Caldecott Medal. He was also a runner up for this medal for The Owl and the Woodpecker. Wildsmith has said: "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a child's visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life." In 1994, the Brian Wildsmith Art Museum was established in Izukogen, a town south of Tokyo, Japan. Almost one and a half million people visited a traveling exhibition of his work in 2005. Eight hundred of his paintings are on loan to the museum. Brian is married, has four children, and currently lives in the south of France. — Source
