Thoughts from a Quiet Bench by Kes Gray illustrated by Nila Aye

Publisher blurb: The Quiet Bench in the playground is the perfect place to sit and watch the world go by. It's a place to listen, think, and ask yourself questions such as . . .

What are thoughts made of?

Where does the air stop being invisible and turn into blue sky?

Can the wind blow in two different directions at once?

So next time you see someone sitting quietly, why not join them? Because there's always room for one more friend on the Quiet Bench.

This is a book you will want to add to your school library BUT I recommend shopping around because the price here in Australia seems to vary between AUS$22 up to over AUS$32. 

Kes Gray is an author of more than fifty books for children of all ages, including the acclaimed Daisy series illustrated by Nick Sharratt and Garry Parsons. As well as winning the Red House Children's Book Award for Eat Your Peas, Billy Bucket and Daisy and the Trouble With Zoos, Kes was noted by The Independent as one of the top ten children's authors in the UK only a year after publishing his first book. He is also the author of Zippo the Super Hippo illustrated by Nikki Dyson and the bestselling Oi Frog! illustrated by Jim Field. Kes lives in Essex with his wife, children and an assortment of animals.

I spied this book in a city bookshop. I picked it up. Read it. And sighed with happiness.  Aren't we lucky that children's authors and illustrators keep producing amazing books for our children. I don't usually give stars to picture books but as you can see I have given this five stars! Just look at this page - 

There are, of course, some poignant moments in this book when we see the child sitting on the bench and later a child playing alone but this is beautifully balanced with some laugh out loud moments and a beautiful story ending. One of the things I treasured in my former school library were the quiet loner (not necessarily lonely) younger children who came to my library at lunch time. I tried hard to put aside the endless lunch time task of book shelving and just sit with these kids to play a simple card or board game and then inviting other kids to join in. 

Kes Gray is the author a book I love to read aloud:

Billy's Bucket

Here are some other books by Kes Gray - surely you already have many of these in your school library!

Nila Aye was born in Rangoon, Myanmar, arriving in the UK at the age of three and spent most of her childhood dreaming and drawing pictures. Nila studied graphic design at Central St Martins in London, graduating in 1995. Nila is an award-winning illustrator, collaborating on many well-loved children's books including Nature Trail, People Need People, Story Soup and the Little Bugs Big Feelings series. Her love of visual storytelling and collaboration with authors continues to energise Nila in her mission to bring beautifully illustrated books to a new generation of young readers around the world.

Here is the Instagram page for Nila Aye - she has a few small videos about Thoughts from a quiet bench.

Companion book:

The Friendship Bench