Posted on: 01/04/2019
In an age where mobile phones, email and social media allows instant and constant connectedness with one another, loneliness is a real issue for many people. And whilst loneliness can be something we all experience in our lives, it’s seemingly more prevalent than ever in children and young people. It is said that we can be in a crowded room and feel utterly alone, so perhaps loneliness is not necessarily being by oneself, but rather a feeling of isolation. Three beautiful new children’s books seek to address these themes and - as always - a great deal other issues too): Two Sides by Polly Ho-Yen and Binny Talib; Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly and A Velocity of Being - Letters to a Young Reader edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick.
(Stripes Publishing Ltd, 7th February 2019)
It is said that there are two sides to every story and this book explores exactly that concept. When we learned that Polly Ho-Yen was to have an illustrated text for younger readers published, we were really excited and her understanding of children (borne from her days as a primary teacher) shines through this work of perfection. The story centres around an age-old yet timeless plot: best friends who have a falling out. The story begins on a day - The Day That Everything Goes Wrong - that starts like any other, when Lula and Lenka fall out over a borrowed, forgotten pencil case (needed to finish a competition entry) and words that once out, cannot be taken back.
For a moment, I want to forget that
Lula didn’t bring in my pencil case.
I want to forget the hot, itching feeling
that’s building behind my eyes…
A wave of anger surges up inside me.
I shout …
For a moment I can’t even open my mouth
to speak, I’m so stunned.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I say in the end.
“You knew it was important to me,” …
“but you just didn’t bother
to make the effort because it wasn’t
important to you. You only ever
think of yourself.”
The now ex-best friends - who in fact were born on the same day - have had only each other for company and so ensues a lonely and worrying time. The use of different font and colour to show the ‘Two Sides’ helps the reader, as the feud continues, to see how each girl feels: Lula, the more outgoing of the two manages to befriend someone else but it isn’t quite the same; Lenka - being shyer and the keen artist - retreats into herself reasoning that she’s now got more time to plan drawings but the truth is that each girl is painfully lonely.
What’s so lovely is that the clever use of different fonts will ensure that younger children who struggle with empathy and who may also feel lonely at times, makes clear that there really are two sides to every story and - crucially - that no-one is alone in their loneliness and that it is a problem encountered by others. Such a lovely addition to a book corner in a year 2 or 3 class in particular, we think.
(Piccadilly Press, 5th February 2019)
A different kind of loneliness is the theme of this text and a loneliness caused by a difference: Iris is profoundly Deaf. Deaf is referred to with a capital ‘D’ by Iris throughout the novel perhaps because this is how she identifies but also perhaps because she is aware that her inability to hear sets her apart from others: perhaps she wants to set the word apart from others in her story. Although her grandparents are profoundly deaf, this doesn’t help the feelings of isolation and loneliness Iris feels. She struggles socially and even some of the teachers aren’t all that supportive; she’s always in trouble at school but is misunderstood and - perhaps understandably - angry. But what she does have an affinity with is vintage radios and she is a self-taught whizz at restoring clapped out contraptions to their original glory. It’s the vibrations from the sound-waves that she connects with - a feeling rather than a hearing. Incidentally, the cover illustration and at the beginning of each new chapter, is a silhouette of trees reflected in the sea that echoes a picture of sound-waves.
So when she learns of Blue 55 (a fictitious whale who is based on a true story of a lonely whale) - a whale whose song is at an entirely different frequency from the others so his voice cannot be heard - there is understandably an instant connection and Iris decides to try and use her knowledge of hertz and all things sound to help the whale out of loneliness. Chapter 43, just 4 paragraphs long, is achingly beautiful and moving:
The song he’d ached for, had searched for in the world’s seas, was here…
(he) reclaimed every song he’d ever created and abandoned on the waves. He sang them all, right then, in a bellow of music that ripped through the ocean.
And after all the years of calling and searching, after so much time and loneliness, so many calls left unheard and unanswered, the whale thought that maybe, finally, someone was listening.
And the author’s note is well-worth a read too: as a sign-language interpreter herself, she has poured intricate detail into her story that will resonate with profoundly deaf, hearing impaired and hearing children in year 5/6 alike. An important piece of literature to have a copy or two of in school.
(Enchanted Lion Books, 17th January 2019)
Now this is a book that interested us as it is in a similar vein to the popular ‘Stories for Rebel Girls’/ ‘Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different’ publications yet is different as rather than it being biographical, it is a collection of letters (some written in poetry form; others as a cartoon) that are addressed to the reader on the subject of books. The project, which was 8 years in the making and garnered some 121 letters, includes message from people of significance including Neil Gaiman, Lena Dunham and Shirley Manson printed alongside artists such as Jon Klassen, Shaun Tan and Tomi Ungerer in a wonderful pairing of peoples’ take on life - advice in many cases, with an artistic interpretation of the thoughts and advice in each letter. So - upon the subject of loneliness, here is the essence of just three of the letters:
Emily Levine writes about a time when she wanted nothing more than to fit in and then her joy at discovering a character in a novel who felt the same:
I felt such an intimate connection with her, as if she’d looked deep inside me and knew the way I wanted the world to know me. Reading didn’t just offer escape; it offered connection.
In the letter from Alain de Botton - author and founder member of emotional education organisation, The School of Life, he states:
We wouldn’t need books quite so much if everyone around us understood us well. But they don’t…that’s where books come in. They explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated and less alone… they are the perfect cure for loneliness.
And finally Sausalito-based writer and anthroplogist, Laurel Braitman, not entirely on the subject of loneliness but of any time of need says this:
Sometimes big ugly stuff happens to the people you love and running away doesn’t really work… She goes on to recount her dad’s cancer diagnosis and how whilst this deeply affected her childhood, her father left her with knowledge that the written word is a gift:
Years after my dad died, I became a writer myself. I was working on my own book about animals when I learned that it’s not just the mother whales who protect the calves - the fathers do too. Sometimes a male will carry a calf gently in his mouth if she’s tired or scared, letting her go only when she’s ready to brave the waves and the cool dark depths on her own.
The best books are like that - and my dad knew it. They pick you up when you’re frightened, teach you what you need to know, and then set you back down again when you’re ready.
And to echo a past literature review where we shared Matt de la Peña’s idea that stories have the power to make the reader feel less alone, this is one of the key messages in the book.
This would be such a lovely gift and would be an brilliant addition to a school or class library. It would also be an ideal stimulus for reflection time - be that for whole-school assembly, in a class or for a child who was seeking comfort and guidance.
