1. These slides give examples of fronted adverbials starting with prepositions of place. Prepositions of place tell you the position – the ‘where’ – of things in the sentences.
These slides illustrate things that different authors have written using prepositions.
The illustrator takes the author’s words and then carefully tries to show them in a picture.
When you write a story you have to do it the other way round! – you have to imagine the picture in your head, and then carefully choose the right words to describe the picture.

2. Around the sign’s two legs, long grass was starting to grow.
From ‘House Held Up By Trees’ by Ted Kooser, illustrated by Jon Klassen.
This is from a story about a house that goes from being lived in to being empty. This picture shows the house with a ‘For Sale’ sign in front of it. The illustrator is trying to show how nature is starting to grow back around the house, until it will be surrounded and lifted out of the ground by a forest of trees.
Around the sign’s two legs, long grass was starting to grow.

3. From ‘The Turtle and the Island’ by Barbara Ker Wilson, illustrated by Frané Lessac.
This is a story about a turtle that lives in the middle of a huge ocean. This picture shows the turtle resting in the middle of the ocean. The illustrator is showing both night and day in the same picture.
Above the surface, she breathed the clear air and felt the warmth of the sun.

4. From ‘Over and Under the Snow’ by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal.
The author is describing the creatures that are busy during the winter. She doesn’t just say ‘there is an owl’, or ‘there is a shrew’. She starts the sentence with a fronted adverbial at the beginning telling you where the creature is.
On a high branch, a great horned owl kept watch. Under the snow, a tiny shrew dodges columns of ice.

5. From ‘The Village That Vanished’ by Ann Grifalcone, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The author has put a lot of description into this fronted adverbial: she tells you where Abikanile is sitting, but all describes the place – not just reeds but tall reeds, not just tall reeds near the water, but tall reeds near the water’s edge.
In the tall reeds that grew near the water’s edge, Young Abikanile waited.

6. From ‘Cloud Tea Monkeys’ by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard.
The authors could have said ‘under the tree, the monkeys feasted’, but they’ve added a lot more detail: they’ve added that the monkeys are in the shade, the position of the tree, and the rocks, ‘the jumbled rocks’.
In the shadow of the tree that grew from the jumbled rocks, the monkeys feasted.

7. Also from ‘Cloud Tea Monkeys’ by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard.
The authors use two fronted adverbials beginning with prepositions. It adds even more detail than is shown in the picture.
In the chair, in the purple shadow of the purple silk, sat a man made of silver light like the moon.

8. From ‘Mysterious Traveller’ by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham, illustrated by P J Lynch.
The authors use two fronted adverbials again, this time each one beginning with a different preposition. They use ‘beyond’ to say where in the distance the towers of rock are. It makes the description of the setting on this page very precise.
In the distance, beyond the valley, huge towers of rock rose into the air.

9. From ‘Mysterious Traveller, by Mal Peet & Elspeth Graham, illustrated by P J Lynch
The story starts with a dramatic sand storm. ‘Behind’ is another unusual preposition being used for a fronted adverbial. It is important to say ‘behind’ here, because it gives the sense that the men on camels are being chased by the sand storm.
Behind them, the evening sky was now a boiling wall of sand and dust like a tidal wave.

10. From ‘Desert Giant: The World of the Saguaro Cactus’, written and illustrated by Barbara Bash.
This sentence is from a non-fiction book about a type of cactus plant. There are two fronted adverbials starting with prepositions. They give more detail about the yellows that grow from this plant.
Out of the top of the cactus, high above the ground, the buds emerge and open into large, milky-white flowers with yellow centres.

11. At the edge of the field, the farmer’s children were playing.
From ‘Floss’, written and illustrated by Kim Lewis.
‘At the edge of the field’ tells you just where the farmer’s children were playing.
At the edge of the field, the farmer’s children were playing.

12. Within the han’s high walls, travellers and merchants found shelter.
From ‘Night Sky Dragons’ by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Patrick Benson.
Within is a preposition that isn’t used as much as some other prepositions. This fronted adverbial helps to give an idea of how safe the han is.
Within the han’s high walls, travellers and merchants found shelter.

13. From ‘The Lost Happy Endings,’ written by Carol Ann Duffy, illustrated by Jane Ray
The author doesn’t use a comma here. The character Jub is hiding away because she is really upset about something that’s happened: she’s not just in her hole, but ‘deep’ in her hole, which gives the idea that she is ashamed and overwhelmed.
Deep in her hole in the forest Jub heard the noise that the children made.

14. Throughout the village, he was known for his tender and loving heart.
From ‘Tenzin’s Deer’ by Barbara Soros, illustrated by Danuta Mayer
This is a story about a boy called Tenzin who lives in a village in Nepal.
Throughout the village, he was known for his tender and loving heart.