Agency and Multispecies Communities in Picture Books

This article discusses two children’s picture books, The Snail and the Whale (2003), written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, and The Secret of Black Rock (2017) by Joe Todd-Stanton, as vibrant and fantastic engagements with multispecies worlds. Drawing on new materialism and multispecies studies, the article argues that these two picture books exemplify the possibilities inherent in children’s literature of imaging encounters with multispecies communities and apprehending the dynamic agencies of the material world. With reference to the real marine animals and environments alluded to by the books, it addresses the limitations and opportunities of anthropomorphism, and the significance of the concept of agency in the environmental humanities and children’s literature studies. It argues that the gleeful rhymes of The Snail and the Whale and the awe-inspiring illustrations of The Secret of Black Rock are not mere entertainment but serious and playful explorations of connections between bodies and language, stories and communities, children and adults, human and non-human animals, rocks and fish, and agency and the more-than-human world.