Elaine White's Life in Books
The Author
Elaine White is the author of multi-genre MM romance, celebrating 'love is love' and offering diversity in both genre and character within her stories.
Growing up in a small town and fighting cancer in her early teens taught her that life is short and dreams should be pursued. She lives vicariously through her independent, and often hellion characters, exploring all possibilities within the romantic universe.
The Winner of two Watty Awards – Collector's Dream (An Unpredictable Life) and Hidden Gem (Faithfully) – and an Honourable Mention in 2016's Rainbow Awards (A Royal Craving) Elaine is a self-professed geek, reading addict, and a romantic at heart.
The Reviewer
I’m an author and reader, who just can’t get away from books. I discovered the MM genre a few years ago and became addicted.
Top #50 UK reviewer on Goodreads
#1 reviewer on Divine Magazine
Shelter
Book – ShelterAuthor – Celine Claire, Qin Leng
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 42
Cover – Gorgeous!
Would I read it again – Yes
Genre – Children, Picture Book, Animals
** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **
Full of gorgeous graphics in a pretty wrapping, Shelter is a great kids story with a beautiful message. The images are reminiscent of my childhood of Winnie the Pooh, Watership Down, Peter Rabbit and Wind in the Willows, both familiar and comforting while being new and interesting.
The writing is, thankfully, always easy to read which can be difficult for a picture book. Whoever chose the placement of the text cleverly made use of a lot of white space which led the eye from one image to another, when appropriate.
Told in present tense, it leads the reader through a series of images that illustrate the words beautifully, while exploring the world of animals who need to take shelter during a storm, preparing from the minute they wake to the news to the minute the storm hits. The curiosity and uncertainty of the animals is a nice touch of human behaviour in a way that children can appreciate and learn through. The lesson is simple but profound, in the way it's presented; people can assist others that are known to them – as all the animals help each other prepare for the storm – but can be distant and mistrustful of strangers, even to the extent of lying about fires being out and having no food when the opposite is true.
This is a beautiful story that shows that even the honest who want to help but can't can offer a little something of themselves out of kindness, even when they are less well off than others. And strangers can be more welcoming than those they should be able to depend on, even when shown no generosity from others.
Really lovely and gorgeously illustrated.
