Posted on: 08/06/2015
Our literature review this time covers a range of books, but essentially all of them this time are about how powerful our imagination and dreams can be – if we allow them to be realised...
We are used to books from Phil Earle that leave us with a thump in the chest. His previous books, Being Billy, Saving Daisy, Bubble Wrap Boy and Heroic have powerfully tackled the bleakest of issues for young adults. Despite their brutal reality, he has a knack of creating characters that stay with you and you can’t help but become attached to them. Demolition Dad is a powerful narrative of a different kind, which despite being for a younger audience, has a warmth that shines the light on love and the relationship between a son and father. The son, Jake Biggs, is in awe of his father, George, who by week lives the life of a demolisher on a building site, but at the weekend becomes Demolition Man – the greatest wrestler in their local town! Things don’t go quite as planned when Jake’s ambitions for his father start to be bigger than the wrestler himself… We loved the illustrations from Sara Oglive, which help to add the humour and character to an already funny book. Hopefully Phil Earle will go on to create more for this age group, as this is a book that really does pack a punch.
This is literally a dream of a book, and although it has been out for a while we wanted to give it a mention. Following in the footsteps of We Are All Born Free, this book is so much more than simply the combination of inspirational quotations from famous (and less well-known) libertarians, but one of those texts where the illustrations add so much depth and narrative to the words. In fact, every choice that has been made about the images, words, typeface and positioning of the text add to the overall effect. The illustrators, who are all noteworthy in their own respect, have been matched perfectly to the spokespeople they illustrate and range from Oliver Jeffers to Chris Riddell and Alexis Deacon.
We would love to use this when exploring significant people and thinking about themes of freedom and exploring the different ways that freedom manifests itself – a perfect starting point for philosophical discussion.
Not just a beautiful book visually, but a beautiful book with a wonderful tale of imagination and friendship. Lisa Stubbs is a clever lady indeed - her screen printed illustrations jump off the page with their vivid colours and childlike quality which literally paint a tale of what happens when our drawings come to life. Lily is an artist who draws the world around her, as well as a very special friend – Bear! Each day their adventures take them on the journeys that Lily plans, but one day Lily learns that life is about sharing when Bear wants to try some bear-like things and that’s when they know they are true friends!
A gorgeous book that would be perfect for younger children who are still exploring the magic of friendship, taking turns and of course, that still know how to use their imagination!
We were big fans of Rebecca Cobb’s marvellous illustrations in Paper Dolls where she collaborated with then Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson and here she has created something rather wonderful in her own right. The Something is the tale of a young boy’s imagination about what lies at the bottom of a hole underneath the cherry tree in his back garden, down which he loses his ball. Whether it is a mouse’s house, a troll’s lair or even a dragon’s den, the boy’s imagination sparks some wonderful illustrations and explores themes of the unknown, determination and the ways in which sometimes our imaginations can run away with us, but with the most wonderful of consequences. Our personal favourite part is where the boy’s dog lets his own imagination run wild! Throughout the story, the passage of time is marked beautifully by the changing of the cherry tree’s leaves and whilst the narrative is simply told from the boy’s perspective, the illustrations give us the detail we need to conjure up the detail.
We would love to use this to create elaborate descriptions of the worlds the boy imagines.
