Ten-Word Tiny Tales of Love by Joseph Coelho

"Here you will find loving tiny tales plucked from wedding bouquets, found in the fur of much-loved pets and neatly folded in the corner of your favourite hobby. These are stories of love of all kinds."

Check out my post about the first book by Joseph Coelho that explored this idea of ten word tales.

Ten-Word Tiny Tales

Once again Joseph Coelho has invited illustrators to create images to go with, to extend, to blow your mind with their interpretation of his ten-word tale - this time with the theme of love. There are twenty-one illustrators in this second volume including our own Bob Graham! See his page here.

Joseph Coelho says: "I travelled the globe by hot-air balloon, hovercraft and llama searching for the best illustrators to help bring a glimpse of these tales to life."

Here are a few of the names you might recognise: Sydney Smith; Jon Klassen; Mini Grey; Jarvis; and  Ken Wilson Max.

Here is the page by Sydney Smith - winner of the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.

Art by Sydney Smith

"As it poured, he taught him to tie his laces."

I do hope you will read this book - Ten-word Tiny Tales of Love and share it with a class. I suggest reading the pages in this book, perhaps one each day, without showing the illustration. Let it sink in. Let the children imagine. Let them draw or write. Then much later in the day you could show the page.

We danced starlight into the rainbows of our broken hearts.

The kisses in her card grew wings and flowery scents.

He wrapped his little sister in a whispered bedtime story.

The love he held for his bike made it amphibious.

Using a ladder he washed the mud from his dog.

Grandma's hot chocolate was a furry hug in a cup.

The rescued cats kept watch as the lost child slept.

As a bonus there are story writing hints at the back of this book and a page of ways to extend the ten-word tale into a longer story. I love that Joseph Coelho explains his story parts can be presented in any order - this is a wonderful counterbalance to the prescribed (paid) writing programs adopted in many of our Australian Primary schools. 

Joseph Coelho shares his book on Instagram. Here is a full list of all the illustrators in Ten-word Tiny Tales of Love:

Katherine Child * Fruzsina Czech * Diane Ewen * Jim Field * Bob Graham * Katie May Green * Mini Grey * Mark Janssen * Jarvis * Baljinder Kaur * Heather Kilgour * Jon Klassen * Fiona Lumbers * Steve McCarthy * Rikin Parekh * Natalia Shaloshvili * Sydney Smith * Beth Suzanna * Victoria Turnbull * Ken Wilson-Max * Myo Yim

OR you could check out their Instagram pages: @blahjinder @bethsuzanna @bobgraham75 @creativedewen @fiona_lumbers @fruzic @heatherkilgourillustration @jarvispicturebooks @_jimfield @jonklassen @katherinelobster @katiemaygreen @wilsonmaxken @markjanssenpicturebooks @mini3grey @myo.yim.drawing @nataly_owl @r1k1n_parekh @mrstevemccarthy @sydneydraws @vic_turnbull

Art by Natalia Shaloshvili

"The kisses in her card grew wings and flowery scents."