The Dam: a celebration of music and place by David Almond and Levi Pinfold

Published on: 24 September 2018

You can almost hear the instruments playing while you read this beautiful book about a flooded valley in Northumberland. Find out more and have a sneak peek inside.

When a picture book brings together the incredible talents of David Almond and Levi Pinfold, you know it's going to be pretty special.

Both are multi-award winning: David Almond is the author of books such as Skellig, and Levi Pinfold won the 2013 Kate Greenaway Medal for his masterful illustration of Black Dog.

The Dam is about a large dam completed in 1981 in the Kielder Valley: a wild and beautiful part of Northumberland. The dam was built on the site of a number of farms and homes that had to be evacuated, and, eventually, those buildings were covered with water.

This picture book tells the true story of a musician father and his daughter who, before the community is lost, enter each house in the valley and play music, sing and dance in each one, so that they will always contain music – and magic.

The Dam is the sort of picture book that brings just as much pleasure to the grown-ups reading along as it does for their children (ages 5+).

You can get a feel of this dreamy, poetic picture book in our gallery below.