Publisher's synopsis
A meteoric new work from award-winning author-illustrator Zeno Sworder about hope for the future, the power of small beings and the special friendship of trees.
When a picture-book maker runs out of stories, his pencil decides it’s time to tell her own…
My first memories were of darkness and reaching for sunlight. My roots connected me to everything. I was small but I was also the forest.
Here is the story of a green giant and a small wanderer who formed a friendship that spanned lifetimes.
From the award-winning author of My Strange Shrinking Parents comes a luminescent and hopeful tale about our living natural world.
Upcoming resource
Awards
- 2026 CBCA Notable Picture Book of the Year
Zeno Sworder is an award-winning writer and artist who lives in Melbourne with his young family. After studying Chinese literature and migration law at university, he ended up as a dish washer. Later, he went on to work as a journalist, an English language teacher, a consular officer, an advocate for refugees and immigrants and a jewellery designer. He is a lover of all stationery but has a particular soft spot for pencils. Once I was a Giant is his third picture book. His previous books are This Small Blue Dot and My Strange Shrinking Parents.
Bio and photo: Thames & Hudson Australia
