Neil, The Amazing Sea Cucumber

Hello. I’m Neil. I’m a sea cucumber. It’s a bit strange that I’m the star of this book. Usually books are about the cool sea creatures.

And I’m boring, even for a sea cucumber.
Nothing exciting ever happens to me.
At least, it hasn’t before now …

With deadpan text and hilarious illustrations, this is a fabulous story about a very unlikely hero and one epic adventure.

Internationally published children’s author Amelia McInerney lives in Canberra, where she spends most of her time writing kids’ books, staring out the window thinking about kids’ books, and occasionally just plain staring out the window. When she’s not writing, thinking or staring, Amelia enjoys yoga and snorkelling, although not at the same time. It was, in fact, Amelia’s singular focus whilst snorkelling that inspired her latest picture book, Neil, the Amazing Sea Cucumber.

Having fallen in love with unlikely star of this book, Amelia would never eat a sea cucumber, but she does still have a penchant for pickles.

Illustrator Lucinda Gifford was brought up in Scotland and originally intended to become an architect, studying Architecture in the historic surroundings of Edinburgh and then Bath. However, her love of drawing buildings was cancelled out at the time by an overwhelming disinterest in construction sites, and so she went on to work in advertising and design instead.

After many enjoyable years making products look attractive, Lucinda now lives in northern Melbourne – illustrating, designing and sometimes writing from a cosy studio near her home. She aims to create illustration with humour, engaging characters and twiddly architectural bits. Lucinda keeps a tidy desk, but is very easily distracted and always has an inky mark on her cheek.