The Garden at the End of the World
by Cassy Polimeni and Briony Stewart
Published by University of Queensland Press
The Garden at the End of the World is a 2024 CBCA Notable Book
Guest author post by Cassy Polimeni about her original, inviting and Reassuring picture book, The Garden at the End of the World, for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog
It’s exciting to read an Australian story set in Norway and Cassy writes so well about the book that everyone will be enticed to read and savour it. As well as having fairytale elements, this story helps to alleviate climate anxiety with wonder and hope. Cassy also reminds us about the encouraging role that author support groups provide.
*****
“At the end of the world, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, is an island covered in ice. On the island is a mountain, inside the mountain is a vault, and inside the vault are millions of seeds.” (The Garden at the End of the World)
The Garden at the End of the World is a fairytale adventure to the real-life Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. A young girl called Isla and her botanist mother go foraging in the forest at the end of their garden, and one day Isla finds a rare and beautiful seed pod. She wants to keep it, but her mother tells her about a special place where seeds are kept safe “so children who haven’t even been born yet will be able to grow and eat the foods we love.”
They set off on an adventure to Svalbard to deliver the seeds, and travel by plane, snowmobile and on foot, keeping an eye out for Arctic animals, the northern lights, and learning about this magical place as they go.
I spent some time in northern Norway as a student and had heard of the vault, but my first real encounter with it was during the dark days of Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns when I was unable to travel more than five kilometres from home or even take my kid to the park (it seems bizarre now, but playgrounds were officially banned!). One day while stuck at home, I tuned into an episode of Destination Flavour on SBS, and saw former Masterchef winner Adam Liaw pull up to the vault on a husky sled, and examine seeds and chat to engineers inside.
Laying eyes on this magical place during the darkest of times really stuck with me. I was blown away that something like this existed – something genuinely altruistic and hopeful, and in such a surreal and remote location. The details stayed with me too: the seeds themselves, the spectacular landscape, the natural refrigeration provided by the permafrost (frozen soil), the sparkly green art installation that adorns the entrance (in Norway it is mandatory for all public buildings to contain a work of art). Researching Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault and dreaming up this story became my escape, the lullaby I needed to get me through lockdown.
I can’t imagine a more perfect illustrator for this book than Briony Stewart. She is such an incredible artist and has a personal connection to biological specimen collection and scientific investigation through her father’s job in a university zoology department when she was growing up, and her husband’s role as a plant biologist. She used charcoal (burnt wood) to complete the linework of the illustrations and the gorgeous endpapers were made using cyanotype prints (sunprints) of real plants collected near her home in Fremantle, WA. Cyanotypes were an early form of photography used to document plant specimens, and this mix of art and science is a perfect complement to the story. Briony’s cyanotypes appear throughout the book as well, along with silhouetted photos of plants. The illustrations of the town of Longyearbyen and the vault itself are hyper-real when viewed alongside photos of the real thing, and the silhouetted plants of Isla’s imagination create an ethereal and magical effect.
I wrote this book early on in my kidlit journey and was encouraged by feedback from early readers in an online critique group. These days I rely even more on my writing communities to keep me going. I regularly connect with writers in my local area and online to share feedback, moral support and insights about the industry. When The Garden at the End of the World was released in 2023 I joined an eclectic group of debut authors with books out the same year, and shared the rollercoaster of being a first timer. Many of those relationships have continued beyond our debut year. For such a competitive industry it’s an incredibly supportive one, and that support has made me a better writer – and a saner one too.
Books for children always need an element of hope, but I think we need that too – I know I do. The world is sometimes so dark it can feel hopeless, and amid the doom scrolling we need to be reminded of the good things. Some trusted early readers told me they liked the idea of showing their kids some of the good already being done, as there was so much pressure on young people to fix the mess we’re in. Climate anxiety is rife among young people and while they likely will be the ones to change the world, that responsibility needs to be balanced with caring for their mental health. Being named a CBCA Notable Book in 2024 was a real thrill, and I hope this recognition helps the book connect with even more budding conservationists and global citizens. But most of all I hope both kids and grown ups reading this story feel the same sense of wonder I did just knowing that a place like this exists.
Order The Garden at the End of the World here.
The Garden at the End of the World at UQP
Cassy Polimeni’s website:https://cassypolimeni.wordpress.com/
paperbarkwords.blog 
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