Puppet by David Almond illustrated by Lizzy Stewart

"At the beginning, just bits of wood. Something to hold them together. Some string perhaps. Just a few bits and pieces and odds and ends. And that's about all. Apart from an imagination, and a belief that you can really do it."

"You're a mystery, aren't you, Puppet? But isn't everything a mystery? 

Not just you, but every single thing that exists."

Silvester is a master puppet maker but now it seems his life's work has come to an end. The museum curators have collected his puppets, posters and props so they can prepare a display of his work. Not so long ago, Silvester's beautiful wife Belinda has died, and as all the puppets are taken away, Silvester is left feeling so alone. 

Late that evening he climbs the stairs in his home to his puppet workshop. At first it seems there are only discards of wood and other materials, but Silvester gently picks up one piece and then another and before long he has created a new puppet.

"He used thin wire and tweezers to put together a leg and then another leg. One was longer than the other, one had a very wobbly knee joint. One was dark wood; one was light. He added feet; one with a black boot, one with a brown. He found a pair of arms, one of them with powerful-looking muscles. One had had the full four fingers, the other only three. He found a skinny torso and wired the arms and legs to it. He took one of the dangling heads from its string. It was pine wood, yellowy brown. He attached it to the body."

All of this is happening under moonlight and in the company of the small creatures who live in this attic space - a mouse, some spiders, and woodlice. Silvester makes his puppet with love and skill and somehow this makes magic, because Puppet speaks.

And so the story begins. Silvester names his new companion Puppet but out in the world, when he is mistaken as his grandson, he tells local people the boy is named Kenneth. Naturally Puppet knows nothing of the world and so Silvester takes great delight in teaching him to walk and then introducing Puppet to the simple wonders of his local neighborhood - the park, the shops, and the playground swings. In the park Silvester and Kenneth meet a young girl named Fleur and her mum Antonia. They have recently moved to this community following the death of Fleur's father. There is a very special moment in this story when mum and Silvester make a connection.

A small paper puppet slips out from one of Silvester's old scrap books. 

"Silvester picked it up. There was a label tied to it. Thank you for the show. His name is Claude. With love from Antonia."

"Then he took Claude from his pocket and held him high towards the birds and moved him through the air as if he were flying too. And Antonia caught her breath. ... and held her hands out and Puppet put the paper puppet into them, and she whispered 'Claude!'"

After young Antonia and her parents, saw Silvester's puppet show of Hansel and Gretel she explains "at home we made puppets from paper and sticks and card. We made a puppet theatre from a cardboard box and acted out Hansel and Gretel for ourselves. And I made a little puppet named Claude, parcelled him up and took him to the post office and I sent him to you."

David Almond writes with such gentle insights as we watch Silvester caring for Puppet. He also gives readers fragments of text that anticipate how this story will end.

"This would be Silvester's final puppet; he knew that. Puppet was brand new, but he was made from bits of ancient puppets, scraps and fragments, stuff that seemed nearly useless. He was, as Fleur had said, both young and old. He had bits of Silvester in him, bits of Belinda, bits of memories, bits of dreams. He had grown from all the puppets that had gone before, and he would lead to all the puppets that were still to come."

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of the exquisite way David Almond writes:

"This is called music. It pours from the air into your mind and moves your bones."

"Puppet flapped his arms as if they were wings. He stood high and stretched upward, as if about to fly."

"All through the rest of the night, beneath the lamp and the moon, Silvester worked to make Puppet the best puppet it was possible for him to be. He tightened Puppet's joints. He reshaped Puppet's face. He smoothed and waxed his skin. He thickened Puppet's hair. He brightened his green eyes."

"No he would never be perfect but he was beautiful. He was beautiful and imperfect, as all the most beautiful things are."

"What is time? How does it pass? Sometimes - maybe when we're bored or when we're waiting for something we really want to do - an hour can seem like a week. Sometimes an hour can seem like a few fleeting moments. And there are times when you forget everything and time doesn't seem to pass at all ... like when you're reading a good book."

I recommend this book for readers who are deeper thinkers aged 10+. 

There are some themes in Puppet by David Almond which made me remember other books that I have read. To my eye many of his books have religious/Christian themes. After reading Puppet and Skellig you might look for Jackdaw Summer, Clay, Heaven eyes, and Bone Music.

• Falling Boy touches on issues of bullies and community action. Dawn from this story is also grieving the loss of her brother. 
• The tale of Angelino Brown is very similar to Puppet. A lonely couple are 'rescued' by a tiny 'angel' boy.
• Skellig - if you have read this classic award-winning story you will remember the way Skellig resembles an angel and the significance of his wings. 

In her review for our Magpies Magazine Dr Robin Morrow said: "Lizzy Stewarts black-and-white illustrations ... are an integral component of this book, making it a kind of graphic novel. They appear at unpredictable intervals ... The final seven pages have no verbal text, simply the illustrator's eloquent depiction of Puppet releasing his makeshift wings and flying into the distance." "There is an elegiac mood to this small masterpiece."

Read some other reviews:

• Kirkus Star review
• Kids' Book Review
• Books for Keeps

I recently talked about Pinocchio. Perhaps adults will make this connection, but I actually enjoyed Puppet as a character and his friends Silvester and Fleur more than that mischievous Pinocchio who, as an adult reader, frustrated me with his selfish and headstrong attitude and slightly tedious misadventures.

Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee

"You know what she told them? To stop it. To go away. 

That she was waiting for Kiri to come home."

Early in this story there are fragments or tiny hints that Kiri will not come home. Ayla thinks about the significant events from their past together such as drawing trees in their second grade class when Mr Nesbitt said to draw 'what you want to be when you are thirty' and both Ayla and Kiri draw trees. A telephone appears in Ayla's tree. Ayla has no intention of using it, after all it is not connected to anything, but others want to use the telephone and one of these is a little boy with the nickname Gentleman. He is mourning the loss of his pet lizard named Sweetheart. The death of this beloved pet is another tiny story hint about the absence of Kiri. Then the pizza guy uses the phone to call his dad. Then another person comes - a dad with his tiny baby who wants to talk to his wife.

"The pizza guy told me about this telephone. He comes here and talks to his dad when he needs to."

The trees in this street are all markers of life and death. Ayla can name each tree and match it with a birth or the end of a life. Then she sees a new tiny birch tree has been planted and her anger flares.

Reading this book needs to be gentle quiet experience - you already know the outcome or the destination, so it is important not to race to get there but rather to slow down and let the story gently unfold. And yes, even though I knew Kiri was not coming back I cried when Ayla finally allowed herself to revisit the awful events that led to death of her friend. 

Raw and sad but lit with occasional glints of humor and ending, as it should, on a rising note. Kirkus Star review

Publisher blurb: Ayla and her best friend Kiri have always been tree people. They each have their own special tree, and neighbors and family know that they are most likely to be found within the branches. But after an accident on their street, Kiri has gone somewhere so far away that Ayla can only wait and wait in her birch, longing to be able to talk with Kiri again. Then a mysterious, old-fashioned telephone appears one morning, nestled in the limbs of Ayla's birch tree. Where did it come from? she wonders. And why are people showing up to use this phone to call their loved ones? Especially loved ones who have passed on. All Ayla wants is for Kiri to come home. Until that day comes, she will keep Kiri's things safe. She'll keep her nightmares to herself. And she will not make a call on that telephone.

I was so interested to read Alison was inspired to write this book after reading about a telephone in Japan outside the town of Otsuchi. It is an old fashioned disconnected rotary dial telephone that people from all over use to call deceased loved ones.

"The image of the phone and the reason for its existence was so powerful to me that I knew, right away, I wanted to create a book inspired by it."

Thanks to the person who commented and alerted me to this picture book.  You can read more here. 

Here is the author web page

Companion books:

Love that Dog

I recognised the author's name when I spied this book in Melbourne last month. I read Snap (published in 1999) decades ago and then re-read it for this blog in 2015. I have also included covers of other books by Alison McGhee. I think Maybe a Fox covers similar themes to Telephone of the tree. Alison McGhee is also the author of the junior novel series Bink and Golly and picture books like Countdown to Kindergarten, Someday illustrated by Peter Reynolds and Always illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre.

Snap

Maybe a Fox bookseller blurb: Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better than best friends. Jules’ favourite thing is collecting rocks, and Sylvie’s is running – fast. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the most dangerous part of the river one snowy morning to throw in a wish rock, she is so fast that no one sees what happens when she disappears. At that very moment, in another part of the woods, a shadow fox is born: half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She, too, is fast, and she senses danger. When Jules goes to throw one last wish rock into the river for her lost sister, the human and shadow worlds collide with unexpected consequences. Written in alternate voices – one Jules, the other the fox – this searingly beautiful tale tells of one small family’s moment of heartbreak as it unfolds into something epic, mythic, shimmering and, most of all, hopeful.

Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Pure summer fun. Kirkus Star review

"Everyone is sweating, and smiling, and skip stepping toward ... OUR POOL."

"First stop is the locker room, where clothes come off lickety-split and swim suits go on luckety-spitter."

The pool is like "An ice-cold bowl of City People soup."

"You can feel TALL in the shallow end. And OH-SO-SHORT in the deep end."

This is a joyous, noisy, fun book with the most vibrant illustrations in bright Fluro colours. And the way the text is presented in capital letters it just begs to be read aloud.

While I was in Melbourne this week I took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours in the narrm ngarrgu Library which opened just one year ago. One of the books I read was Our Pool and it 'blew me away'. Click the LOOK button the publisher site to see inside this book. You can see all the pages in this video but do try to find the book to read to your group - that would be way better than just showing this video. 

Publisher blurb: On a hot day, people come from all over the city to spend the day at the pool in this joyful picture book that’s a love song to summer, the city, community, and staying cool! Today is a pool day in the city! The sun is shining, so what are you waiting for? Friends and family. Kids and grandparents. Big bodies and small bodies. Everybody is welcome at our pool! Get ready for swimming and splashing, zigzagging and dunking, and racing and laughing.

Image source NPR (listen to an interview with the author)

Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, illustrator, and art director of children’s books. She was happily paired with Jean Reidy for both Truman, which was named a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2019, and Sylvie. She is also the author-illustrator of Stumpkin, Vampenguin, Dalmartian: A Mars Rover’s Story, Our Pool, and A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals. Lucy has swum in creeks, streams, gorges, rivers, swimming holes, pools (above- and in-ground), lakes (both Great and Finger), decorative fountains, and oceans. Her very favorite place to swim, however, is at her community pool in Brooklyn with her sons and her neighbors.

Big Truck Little Island by Chris van Dusen

"Out on the ocean, one bright summer day,
bound for an island, still five miles away,
a tugboat was towing a truck on a barge-
a truck that was hauling a load, extra large."

Told in verse, the narrative, which seems at first to simply be about a truck’s glacial journey to its destination, turns out to be an excellent lesson in kindness and problem-solving. Kirkus Star review

A huge truck (we might call this a B Double here in Australia) arrives on a small island. We cannot see the load because it is covered in a tarp. The roads on the island are narrow and wind around below a small chain of hills. This truck really is way too long to maneuver, and it is not too long before it becomes well and truly stuck. This is the main road on the island - into and out of town. Meg has a swimming lesson, Barry is already late for his ballet class, Pete is working on a school science project with his friend, and Sue really needs to get her dog to the dog wash- he just encountered a skunk! The parents are just frustrated and beginning to grow angry, but the kids can see the solution. Everyone can walk around the side of the truck and swap cars! Oh, great idea - and when the truck is unstuck can we finally discover what it was carrying - yes - but I am not going to spoil this wonderful surprise.

Reading a picture book is such an easy way to introduce new words to your young reading companion or library group. This book has such rich vocabulary - barge, bound, load, hauling, wraps, treacherous, trundled, chugged, oversize load, transected, isle, switchback, payload, battlement frappe, frustration, convened, solution, departed, summoned, revealed, and delight. The other aspect of this if you read through this list, you are sure to see many words that are unlikely to be part of your daily conversation and yet by reading this book look at all the words your child will hear. And this is a story that warrants re-reading so they will hear these words more than once and hopefully some will become part of their own word repertoire. I do love the word switchback! This book will be enjoyed by children aged 6+ especially those who are fascinated by large trucks. And the page with the island landscape is certainly one to linger over. Oh and what a wonderful celebration of community life and the trust we should have in others. 

Van Dusen is in full command of his rhyming text, using rhythm and sound to set the pace and convey mood. His expressive characters add humor to the situation. Horn Book

A perfect little slice of life with a unique take on kindness and compromise. Kirkus Star review

This book is based on a real incident on Vinalhaven island off the coast of Maine. That truck was carrying a wind turbine - there is a photo at the back of the book - you can see it was a very long load. People did swap cars just as they do in this story.

I talked about another Chris van Dusen book recently. This one is also based on a curious true story:

The Circus Ship

The Thief who Sang Storms by Sophie Anderson

"My family are alkonosts, which means we're descended from the ancient bird-people of our island. Most alkonosts look similar to humans, although we're smaller and lighter, and have feathers, while humans have hair. ... The biggest difference between alkonosts and humans (have the) ability to sing magic."

Until three years ago alkonosts and humans lived in harmony but on the day of the Unity celebration one of their ships - Joy - sinks in a wild storm and the leaders of Morovia are drowned. The new leader blames the singing magic and all alkonosts are banished to the swamp lands. A new army of bogatyrs take control but they need protection from the singing magic and this comes from iron. Bogatyrs and their leader Captain Ilya clad themselves in iron from head to toe. The iron is mined from the waste land behind the castle and so alkonosts are captured and forced to undertake back-breaking labour. 

Linnet, an alkonost, watches as her father is captured. She is a resourceful girl and so she gathers her friends - alkonost and human and they make a plan to rescue Nightingale and all of the others. As she works on her plan unlikely ally arrives. Her name is Hero. Linnet and Hero were best friends before the sinking of Joy but something changed and straight after the sinking Hero utterly rejected Linnet blaming her and all alkonosts for the tragedy. Hero arrives in the swamp lands just as Linnet and her friends are about to be arrested but can she be trusted?

This book contains the most amazing, invented world. The days of the week for example have creative names: Songsday, Nestday, Liftday, Flightday, Glidesday, Soarsday and Swoopday. And the alkonost character names are all based around birds - Linnet, Nightingale, Jay, Kestrel, Robin and Lark. You are sure to also warm to Linnet's special friends - you can see them on the cover - Lumpy a toad and Whiskers a swamp rat. 

Reading this book does take some stamina - it has just over 400 pages and every few chapters there is a flashback where Linnet tells the story of past events which are linked to their banishment. I expected to read this book over a day or two but it took me over a week. I am not sure why but someone the action didn't seem to hold my attention. The title also continues to puzzle me, but I will leave you to ponder this yourself. Here are some very detailed teachers notes from the author webpage. 

Publisher blurb: The Island of Morovia is shaped like a broken heart. The humans live on one side of the island, and the alkonosts - the bird-people - live on the other. But it wasn't always this way...Linnet wishes she could sing magic. But magic is forbidden and she has been banished with her father to the Mournful Swamp. She misses her old life, and dreams of reuniting with her friends. When her father is captured for taking a precious jewel, Linnet must set out on a treacherous journey. Travelling through alligator pools and sinking sands with new friends, she learns how to be brave, and discovers something even more powerful than singing magic. Something that could save her father, and heal the broken heart of her island once more... 

Anderson delivers convincing, inviting worldbuilding, wide in scope, lovely in its evocation of landscapes, and entrancing in descriptions of foods, crafts, clothing, and feathers. ... Impressively different and captivating. Kirkus

This beautifully written tale of a divided nation is loosely based on characters from a Russian folksong. It explores bereavement and persecution, but ultimately celebrates the power of friendship, trust and hope to reunify enemies and establish peace. BookTrust

With a cast of wonderful characters – including a toad named Lumpy and a smelly but ever-faithful swamp rat named Whiskers – and an action-filled plot, The Thief Who Sang Storms is as entertaining as it is moving, and would be a fantastic addition to the bookshelf for kids aged 9+. Readings

Sophie Anderson has won the Independent Bookshop Book of the Year Award and the Wales Book of the Year Award, and been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal twice, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award, the British Book Awards’ Children’s Fiction Book of the Year, the Andersen Prize, and the Branford Boase Award. Here are three other books by Sophie Anderson.

Here is the US cover - which do you prefer?

Companion book: 

Prisoner of Ice and Snow

Accidentally Kelly Street by Briony Stewart

 

A new family arrive at a new house on a new street in a new neighbourhood. Being new can feel lonely, but on Kelly Street the neighbours are warm and welcoming, and small acts of kindness go a long way. Soon enough, strangers have become friends, and a new house becomes a home. Affirm Press

The tiny details in the illustrations found inside this book bring me such joy – mum is sewing red polka dot fabric – we have seen her daughter in clothes made from this material but then mum gifts the same sweet outfit to the child of a neighbour. This is a gentle and generous surprise for the reader and for the mother of the toddler. The little girl finds a paper aeroplane and talking about this with the kids over the fence sets up her first new friendship – all of this can be surmised from the illustration. Generous neighbours give the new family an old lounge and a dining table and chairs. There are also small hints that this is an Australian story – a magpie in a tree, the Streets ice cream sign and the name of the band Frente outside the shop. 

I also appreciated the small cultural references – shoes placed near the door to their house, the woven rug on the back of the lounge, and the desperately sad image of mum and dad reading letters from home and watching the dreadful news on their tiny television. You can see a picture of their extended family on the ledge behind the tv echoing the sacrifices involve with coming to this new land – we can only guess why – but their meagre possessions and the image of the young girl playing with a boat filled with tiny figures shows clearly that this is a family of refugees. 

I was not a teenager in the 1990s so I missed this 1992 song. I did not expect to like this book because I thought knowledge of the song would be essential, but it is not! I really love the way the illustrations in this book tell a completely different, but related, story. The end papers are perfect. I do wish, however, the book designer had moved the ‘celebrity’ endorsements onto the back cover – they are a distraction and will be of no interest to the target audience. 

Coming back to the song – the title of this book is also perfect this family are so lucky to have accidentally found their home in Kelly Street – a street that is a joyous celebration of everything a community should be. The illustrations move beautifully between full page spreads, half page and unframed vignettes I love the sunflowers and daisies – yellow for sunshine and happiness. And there is a hint of another story on the final page. 

This story helps readers appreciate the universal big feelings that come with starting in a new place. It also allows children to walk in the shoes of not only the newcomer, but to see through the lens of someone that is already part of the community, actions they can employ to help welcome others. Reading Opens Doors

Here's a door and here's a window
Here's a ceiling here's a floor
The room is lit like a black and white movie
The T.V's on that's what it's for
And if you walk real slowly
You can feel the planet breathe
There's no need to feel so lonely
Now that we've all learned to give
Chorus:
Accidently Kelly Street
Where friends and strangers sometimes meet
Accidently Kelly Street
I never thought life could be so sweet
In the garden birds are singing
The sun is shining on the path
The wind is talking to the flowers
And dogs and cat all take a bath
And if you stop that talking
You can hear the traffic sigh
Throw away those keys start walking
And watch those tiny things go by
(Chorus)
It's Sunday everyday
There's no need to rush around
Inside of everybody
There's sun and laughter to be found
It seems that we're on Holidays
And sleeping in is not a sin
All the house work done by tea time
And feeling good about the way I've been
Perhaps this optimism will crash on down
Like a house of cards
I know that my decision to change my life
Is not that hard
(Chorus)
Accidently, accidently,
Accidently Kelly Street I never thought life could be so sweet

Amelia Ellicott's Garden by Liliana Stafford illustrated by Stephen Michael King

Opening sentence: A long time ago, Amelia Ellicott's family owned most of Sampson Street, from the fish-and-chip shop on the corner to the roundabout on the main road.

But over time the street has changed and now number fifty-six is overshadowed by a block of flats and a high fence. In the past Amelia knew her neighbours but now she is all alone. Amelia has grown old and her garden as become hard to maintain. There are weeds and the roses badly need pruning. At least her chickens are happy. Every evening Amelia sits with her chickens and has a chat about her day.

"They are Pekin Bantams, the colour of sunshine and marigolds."

Sadly when the new chicks hatch, there is no one to share the joy. Her cat Mustafah refuses to be interest in chickens. 

Meanwhile, in those high-rise flats next door Tony Timponi watches the chickens too. He used to live in Italy and he had chickens and goats and fruit trees. Adrian Pop looks down too. He would love a garden where he could grow cabbage and zucchinis. Lin Li would love to see some ducks paddling in Amelia's little pond and the Martinovitch children dream of making a tyre swing in the big mulberry tree. 

"But no one ever says a word. They are too shy. And besides Amelia Ellicott never gives them the time of day"

Now pause. You have read about the problem which at its heart are themes of loneliness and longing. What would you add to the story to facilitate a change? Liliana Stafford adds a wild storm. Remember those neighbours have been watching the garden. Now they spring into action. 

"And there in the pouring rain are all the neighbours running around chasing chickens or trying to catch bits of Amelia Ellicott's garden." 

And the best thing, apart from everyone meeting over cups of tea, is that the fence that once separated residents of the high-rise flats from Amelia Ellicott and her garden, has fallen down. Go back and read all those dreams - a tree swing, a vegetable garden, sharing baby chicks, and friends - all of those dreams can now come true!

Amelia Ellicott's Garden was first published in 2000. The illustrations by Stephen Michael King are fresh and vibrant - I think his early books were among his best - I am thinking of The Man who loved Boxes, Henry and Amy, Mutt Dog, Pocket Dogs, Beetle Soup, Where does Thursday go? and Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle. Click this link to see the posts about lots of books illustrated by Stephen Michael King. 

When you open Amelia Ellicott's Garden spend some time on the first page, the imprint page, and the gloriously decorated title. I picked up Amelia Ellicott's garden at a recent charity book sale because I have always loved it. Sadly this book is now out of print, but I am sure it will be in most Australian school libraries. Here is a heart-felt review with teaching ideas from Children's Books Daily. In this video for the State Library of NSW Stephen Michael King talks about his book. 

Companion books (or perhaps you could read these as part of a mini theme about community life):

The Biscuit Maker

The Song for everyone

The Invisible

Old Fellow

Market Day by Carrie Gallasch illustrated by Hannah Sommerville

 

"Dad gives me a coin, it's for anything that I choose. I put it in my pocket and keep it safe with my fingers."

There are so many tempting things to buy in the market. The setting for this book is the famous Melbourne market but really it could be any market in a city. The family have arrived late in the day and as the walk around we see night begin to fall and lights turning on. Make sure you compare the front and back end-papers. The family buy tomatoes, avocados, dumplings, mangoes, olives, cheese, croissants, dolmades, oysters, dates and grapes. Then they eat some dinner while a young musician plays his guitar to entertain the crowd. He is a busker, and his music inspires people in the market to dance.

"The music gets faster and so do our feet! We wiz and swing and stomp."

Eventually it is time to go home. 

"But the coin is still in my pocket."

Can you guess what happens next?

Market Day was shortlisted for our CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Early Childhood picture book award in 2023. Here are a set of teachers notes. And here are comments and responses by the 2023 shadow judges. 

St Francis Xavier PS Box Hill

Here are the Early Childhood judges' comments:

Market Day narrates the story of a little girl that arrives at a market with one coin she can spend in any way. Several themes are explored, including community, generosity, the power of music, kindness, transience and appreciation. The evocative, detailed digital illustrations depict a bustling produce market and invite further investigation on each read. The language is simple as the girl narrates, yet also, at times, quite beautiful, matching the mood of the outing. It is punctuated by metaphor, analogy, alliteration and an interesting range of verbs. A busker is seen intermittently, and he turns out to be the girl's most interesting and worthwhile encounter at the market.

I love the potential this book affords for such a meaningful discussion with a group of children - How would you spend the coin? Is there a right way to spend money? How do you feel about the way the girl spent her coin? What impact will this have? What do you think her family will say when they arrive home? What might happen on their next visit to the market? What ideas do you think the author wanted readers to consider?

Here are two other books by Carrie Callasch:

Hannah Sommerville has a new book due in November - In the Rockpool. Here are three other books illustrated by Hannah Sommerville:

Anisa's Alphabet

Finding You

View from the 32nd Floor by Emma Cameron

Blurb: Something special has been gifted to you. Join your neighbours, Saturday, 6.00 pm, on the roof. Living on the thirty-second floor of an apartment block, William has a clear view of the building opposite. He sees his neighbours eating ice-cream, watering potted palms, painting pictures ... or as shadows behind closed curtains. Shadows worry William. With his new friend Rebecca, and helped by lots of cake, a dictionary of names, tai chi, and banana-shaped sticky notes, he plans to tempt his lonely neighbours back into the world. Can they succeed? Always always.

Today I had to wait around 3 hours at an appointment so I picked up View from the 32nd Floor before I left home this morning. Today is the THIRD time I have read this book and I still adore it - but I so desperately wish Walker Books Australia had given this book a better cover - apologies to Liz Anelli. I need to beg, shout, cajole this publisher to reprint this little book - it is such a GEM. 

I have talked about View from the 32nd Floor twice previously in 2013 and 2019 so please take a minute or two to read my comments and then IF you have any way of influencing the publisher please beg, plead, implore them to republish this book NOW. Perhaps we should all tell the author Emma Cameron too.

Teachers - you could use this book for so many things but most off all this book would be a splendid read aloud to a Grade 4 class. In my previous posts I talked about the music William's dad share each day and all the wonderful names William adopts to match his daily hopes and purpose.  Here are some character descriptions:

Mrs Stravros - "She had hair streaked with more silver threads than black, and her pale face was as wrinkled as crepe paper."

Paula - "Paula was as skinny as Jess but only came up to her armpits. Her boots were nothing like Jess's either. They were covered in sequins of every colour and a tiny bell jiggled at the end of each pointy toe when she walked."

Jess - "her skinny legs covered in stretchy black tights and her fine frame wrapped in a pale blue terry towelling bathrobe. Thick brown hair flopped over her eyes when she juggled a key in the lock."

The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham

Amanda and her mum live on the fifteenth floor of an enormous apartment complex. Heaps of kids live in this building. Today is the day, after "a cold, hard winter", that the doors have been opened and so everyone jumps in the lift and travels down from their apartment homes to enjoy running and playing outside. It is true that their playground is a large area of concrete but there is so much these kids can do there - ball games, bikes and scooters, and running and jumping with their dogs.

"Children spilled out like sweets from a box."

I love the image conjured by this phrase - happiness, surprises, colours, sweet times ahead.

Amanda is carrying a huge box. It is filled with chalks of every colour. She sets her box down on the ground and draws an interesting picture. If you share this image with a group of children I am sure they would have lots of ideas about Amanda's drawing and also creative ideas about how to add to this image to make it into something even more interesting or perhaps surprising. In fact that is exactly what Jack does. He picks up some green chalk and adds stem and instantly Amanda's picture is a dandelion.

Gradually the enormous picture grows. Every child has something to contribute. You can see some of the children's chalk ideas on the book cover. Bob Graham, as always, paces the page turns perfectly building up our anticipation until just past half way when the full picture is revealed. 

"Someone drew butterflies, balloons, a caterpillar, and a bumblebee passing by. A beautiful exotic garden spread across the concrete."

From her balcony high up in the building Nasrin sees the wonderful picture. She snaps a picture on her mobile phone and sends it to her mother in Isfahan, Iran.

"With a tear in her eye, Nasrin's mother then sent it to everyone she knew."

The image travels across the world including to the apartments above the concrete plaza where the children have been drawing. The residents finally look out of their windows and everyone applauds - someone even throws down some flowers. The children have drawn the most amazing scene in the area below their huge towering apartment building. It is a joyous moment. Days later though, (spoiler alert) it rains and the picture is washed away.  Once the rain stops, the children once again "burst from the building". Will the children draw another huge piece of art or are there other ways to play? 

Bob Graham gives the kids terrific names - Janet Fairly (it is so true some kids are always known by their full name); the Bradley twins; Lovejoy; Luke's dog Alfie; Indira; Cecilia; Arthur; Rosie and of course Amanda.

I really appreciate the way Bob Graham didn't give his story any hint of magical realism. Creating their chalk drawing has filled these kids with joy but Bob has not been tempted to recreate the famous scene from Mary Poppins and have the children jump into the picture to bring it to life. During Covid 19 lots of children drew games and pictures on sidewalks near their homes. You can see this idea on the cover a very old book by Bob Graham - Charlotte and Henry.

This sweet story - The Concrete Garden -  celebrates simple things such as playing, having fun, cooperation and creativity. At no point does anyone ask Amanda if they can use her chalk - she has clearly bought it along to share. We are also left to guess how it is that mum had this huge box of chalk which is given to Amanda as she steps into the lift on the first day the children can all go outside to play. 

Take a look at other chalk books and a great idea for using this book with your classes from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything.

Bob Graham is quite famous for his wonderful end papers but he has kept them quite minimal in his newest book (due for release August 2023). He does, however, begin the story on the page before the title page and then continues with a wordless story right across the double spread of the imprint page and title page. We see the kids all bursting out of the lift with so much excitement you can almost hear their laughter. Bob Graham pulls out all the illustration tricks as you would expect - full page spreads, small framed images, a birds eye view (complete with a huge bird), and lots of glorious white space. And of course there are lots of tiny details that require close inspection and revisiting.

Walker Books: After a cold, dark winter, doors opened. Children spilled out like sweets from a box. Amanda was last one out of the tower block. She brought some chalk with her. On every inch of the concrete outside, the children drew pictures of everything they could think of, from flowers and snails, to spaceships and queens. Before long, a beautiful and exotic garden spread out across the concrete. From master storyteller Bob Graham comes a charming, and gently post-pandemic story about finding optimism after a dark spell, and the nurturing power of community friendships in an urban setting. The Concrete Garden will resonate with anyone who has been apart from their loved ones, and will encourage us all to find the brightness and colour within ourselves.

Bookseller blurb: Bob Graham’s heartwarming tale, The Concrete Garden follows Amanda and the other children as they burst from their tower block, armed with chalk and brimming with creativity. With pictures of everything from flowers to spaceships adorning the once drab concrete surroundings, a beautiful garden springs to life. This gently post-pandemic story celebrates the power of community and friendship to nurture optimism in dark times, and inspires readers to find their own inner brightness and colour. It’s a must-read for anyone who has experienced separation from loved ones.

In this book, The Concrete Garden, Bob Graham revisits the themes of A Bus called Heaven where, in a similar way, the small actions of a child lead to wonderful community connections. 

Other connections: The urban scenes in The Concrete Garden also echo the family travelling in the lift in Oscar's Half Birthday. Bob Graham also celebrates imaginative play in his book Libby, Oscar and Me and gardens in his books The Wild, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten and Pearl's Place.

I was lucky to borrow this book from the library where I volunteer at Westmead Children's Hospital here in Sydney. I will now need to buy my own copy as I have a plan to own 'every' book by Bob Graham.

Here are some other picture books about drawing with chalk.

The Baker by the Sea by Paula White

We have fish merchants, and smokers that smoke the fish, blacksmiths and basketmakers, butchers and bakers. There are cosy cafes and tiny shops that sell everything you might need. 

Every aspect of life in this village revolves around the sea. There are fishermen, net makers, sail makers, boat builders, coopers who make the barrels for the pickled fish and young girls who process each catch ready for pickling. 

"The sea is the beating heart of all he we do."

But this boy's father is not a fisherman. He is the town baker. The boy is not sure this is as important as being a fisherman but his father explains how everyone enjoys his baking - the boat builders buy bacon butties from the cafe, the fisher-girls enjoy piping hot buns to warm their fingers, and out at sea the fishermen dip their biscuits in their hot tea.

"I look at my father and feel proud. For without the bread, buns and biscuits, ... the people of the village could not go on as they do. When I am older I am going to be a baker, just like my father, in the village by the sea."

Bonus - there is a recipe at the back of the book for hot coconut buns - yum.

The Baker by the sea was short listed in 2023 for the Klaus Flugge Prize.

The Baker by the Sea has wonderful illustrations done in black and white pencil with pale blue spot colour. 

Relying upon a limited palette of greys and tonal blues for the most part (except for the warm yellow glow of the baker’s oven), her visual and written narrative crosses over the village, passing over the bustle of residents’ hard-working day-to-day lives and its centring around the fishing trade. Books for Keeps

The Baker by the Sea celebrates those small-village communities in which everyone worked hard together and looked after each other. It is quite poignant that the village then has been lost to the elements but perhaps readers can take something from the idea that something special happens when communities come together. Books for Keeps

I highly recommend The Baker by the Sea for your school library. Read it for Father's Day; read it for the junior history topic Life in the Past; read if your class are talking about workers in the community; but most of all just read it for pure enjoyment. 

The perfect companion book would be: