by Alex Milway
I think this is what I like the most about cabins: they’ve all been built by hand and no two look the same. They might have a roof covered with earth and grass, they might be built out of an upturned boat, or they might even be made from a huge old wooden barrel.
But why do people stay in cabins? Well, they’re sometimes a home, or a place to go on holiday, but they can also be places for times of need. Some cabins are stocked with food and firewood, for mountain wanderers needing a place to spend the night.
I made Grandma Nan’s cabin really simple, as she didn’t need anything too grand to live in. But I wonder if you were to build your own cabin, how would it look? Would it be on a mountain, or next to a lake? Or maybe in a huge forest?
Perhaps you could try drawing your own!
A Note from Alex
Big Sky Mountain is based on my childhood adventures with my grandma. But it’s also about the wilderness, and living free in a landscape full of animals big and small.
My unflappable gran was a force of nature. She would be the first into the sea, even if it was a freezing day. She lived in a town called Malvern, which is most famous for its beautiful hills and the composer Edward Elgar. Whenever we visited, Gran would march us up the hills whatever the weather. There was always an adventure to be had, and we’d always return home safe, if exhausted – while Gran had energy to spare.
Rosa is very much like me. I love getting up mountains and walking along rivers, so I had a lot of fun showing Rosa experiencing the wilderness for the first time, tasting the magic of a magnificent starlit night, and feeling the rush and roar of paddling a canoe down a river. And most of all, I loved showing her learning to care for all the new friends she meets on Big Sky Mountain, while respecting them and their very different ways.
Once upon a time, Britain was filled with now-extinct animals like aurochs, woolly rhinos and mammoths, and more recently wolves and badgers. Just by going about their daily business, these animals helped to keep the landscape healthy and alive. By knocking down trees, digging up the soil, slowing down rivers, they helped create fertile breeding grounds for young creatures or seeds and saplings – all without any help from humans!
We can help our remaining wildernesses by bringing back some of these creatures to our landscape, but nature is also good at looking after itself, if allowed.
I truly feel that every creature on this planet is connected, in one way or another. The tiniest insect is just as important as the bawdiest elephant and ultimately every human. Just like Grandma Nan and Rosa, I always try to leave no trace and do no harm to others, because I believe we can and should live peacefully alongside the animals of this world.
I certainly want to, don’t you?
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First published in Great Britain in 2021 by
PICCADILLY PRESS
4th Floor, Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square, London WC1B 4DA
Owned by Bonnier Books
Sveavägen 56, Stockholm, Sweden
www.piccadillypress.co.uk
Text and illustrations copyright © Alex Milway, 2021
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Alex Milway to be identified as Author and Illustrator of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-84812-977-1
Piccadilly Press is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk