What an amazing read!

I picked this up from the library as I had seen it appear on my goodreads and had added it to investigate further... but wow.

I hadn't at first realised that the book was a novel entirely made up of poems!!! And once I did realise I was ecstatic. Poetry is very important to me, and especially this kind; that gritty, real, emotional and messy kind.

I loved the character. A well rounded, flawed, and real human who caught me instantly even though I have so little in common with her visually. I could tell from her poetry that we were kindred spirits. Which I another thing I love about poetry!!!

The book is a YA piece, focusing on the teenage life of X, whilst she deals with school, young love, faith and family (all the key aspects of a good YA journey of course).

I just can't manage to put all of my opinions on this book into words. It was truly a piece of art, I enjoyed reading every page and hoped it would never end. I have already order a copy for myself to annotate and re-read again and again.

- read by the TM whilst on School Placement.

The story of a little girl who wakes up and is feeling very shouty and how her day unfolds. I liked the humour in this story, but also the realism of how she feels and shows her emotions. It is a very simple idea, put together in a wonderful way to use in an interactive story telling session with children.
The TM has plenty of questions and reflections for the children to consider the emotions and consequences of the girls actions. She used lots of voices and tone to show off the girls feelings, and allowed the children to talk about times when they have felt like shouting or being grumpy too.

A very sweet story about a lonely rain cloud who is determined to make a new friend when the sun drives all of his other clouds away.

The story itself is very simple, and focuses mainly on the empathy needed to make friends, recognise other people's feelings and how to help them. The book does a great job at leaving small hints on every page that children will enjoy picking up on and figuring out what is happening in Ivy's life to make her so grumpy.

I loved a very particular quote which I will leave here for future reference:

"Being grumpy is just another way of being sad, he thought".

Although I didn't particularly enjoy the narrative of this story, I did feel a kind of kindred relation to Franklin and so enjoyed the book overall.

Franklin thinks he's happy to be alone, doing important cloudspotting work, but when an unexpected arrival disturbs his routine, he becomes angry and worried.

I can clearly remember the days at school where I would walk around the perimeter of the playground and watch the clouds for shapes during lunch time. I liked to do it alone, and I didn't like to be disturbed. But I can definitely admit that I was a lonely child, so when Franklin figures out that he is indeed lonely, he decides to be friends with the new addition and is happy to continue cloudspotting with his new companion.

What I didn't enjoy about the narrative was the play out of the two point climax. There is an action climax where Franklin sends the new arrival away in anger, and an emotional realisation climax where he then understands he was lonely all along. I think these could have been merged together a little better as they feel quite unnaturally fast paced and disconnected.

Another favourite to add to the list!

I read this about 3/4 times over before writing this, just because every time I did I found new little details or made more sense of the language.

This picture book is written in an entirely nonsensical language, the language of the bugs and insects it tells of. Yet, through the repetition of certain phrases, the illustrative clarification of certain key words, and the creative decisions of the reader, the story somehow manages to make complete sense and even hold a beautiful meaning.

The characters are charming, the action and story arch is consistent and well paced, and the ending is a beautiful full circle, representing the cycle of nature it depicts through the plot.

I would recommend this story for older children who can already read independently, as a great way of challenging reading perceptions and initiating group discussion.