I wish I’d written… Jonathan Meres marvels at the impact of a picture book classic.
Jonathan Meres’s new book, Mint Choc Chip at the Market Cafe (978-1-7811-2756-8) is published by Barrington Stoke, £6.99 pbk.
My first two published books, were picture books. The next thirty- odd, weren’t. I’d like to write another, one day. But it’s not nearly as easy as some people might think. When you’re writing a longer book of say, thirty thousand words, you can go off on the odd tangent, or detour. But with a picture book, you have just five hundred words or so, to tell an entire story. Every single one of them has to count. Because with any luck, that book will be read over and over again. Not only by children, but by grown-ups reading to children. Each word will be learned off by heart. Woe betide the grown-up who gets one wrong, or tries to skip to the end, hoping the child has fallen asleep. And for that reason, the book I wish I’d written, is any of the wonderful picture books I read to my own children when they were little. We had so many favourites. But if I had to pick just one, it would have to be Farmer Duck, by Martin Waddell, gorgeously illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. ‘“How goes the work?” called the farmer. The duck answered, “Quack!”’ Brilliant. George Orwell eat your heart out.
Good Reads
Ladder to the Moon Maya Soetoro-Ng, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, Walker Books, 978-1-4063-3773-0, £5.99
Suhaila is a little girl like me. Her grandma Annie passed away but wanted to see her granddaughter one last time so she made a golden shiny ladder in the sky and climbed down until she reached Suhaila’s house on Earth. Grandma Annie invited Suhaila on an adventure and Suhaila agreed. They climbed up all the way to the sparkly, silver moon and when they looked down they saw terrible things happening. They saw a flood, schools and homes washing away, but the children and mummies stayed safe because of Suhaila and her grandma who shared everything they had and gave them sweet moon dew to drink. From the moon Suhaila could see her shadow on earth and knew she would take power from the moon back with her when she had to go. I used to wish that the earth could be our moon so we could gaze at all the countries and remember them in our heads, and learn something about all of the people in the world. What makes the book special for me is how
you can tell from the pictures that the people are from different places. I think all families everywhere should read this book together. Lily Hearn, Yr 2.
The Noisy Classroom Ieva Flamingo illustrated by Vivianna Maria Stansislavska, translated from the Latvian by Žanete Vevere Pasqualini, Sara Smith and Richard O’Brien, The Emma Press, 978-1-9101- 3982-0, £8.50 hbk
This book of poems is very interesting for me, Ieva Flamingo writes about so many subjects. It helps me with my language and to learn new words and information. Some pieces are funny and some are serious and moving. My favourite is ‘The Girl in the Wheelchair’, especially the final lines: She is almost, almost exactly like me, though it’s easier for her to play the spellbound princess; but you mustn’t imagine she’s trapped by a dragon; or think that her wheelchair’s a frightening fortress...
Farmer Duck (978-1-4063-6573-3) by
and are all poetry anthologies. Thanks to the pupils and to the school’s poet-in-residence Cheryl Moskowitz
Ieva Flamingo is sensitive about people and relationships and also cares about the natural world. Her poetry helps us to see that computers and mobile phones aren’t the most important things in life, you need nature and friendship too. I can’t speak Latvian so I am happy these poems have been translated otherwise I wouldn’t have known about them. My first languages are Greek and Albanian so I know how important it is to be able to translate good writing into a language people can understand. I like writing my own poems and I write about
people, and the world and what interests me just like Ieva Flamingo does. At the back of this book are suggestions for creating your own poems. I think I will try some.
Kristina Kola, Yr 6 Fortune’s Bones –
The Manumission Requiem Marilyn Nelson, notes and annotations by Pamela Espeland, Front Street Books, 978-1-9324-2512-3, £11.99
We have been talking at school about Black History and learning about Harriet Tubman, who worked to free slaves, so this book is very interesting for me. It’s beautifully illustrated with photos and paintings from history. Fortune’s Bones is more than a poetry book, it’s a requiem (which means ‘song for the dead’) reminding us how black people in America were often born into slavery and treated wrong for their whole lives, then forgotten about when they died. The poet Marilyn Nelson saw this skeleton in a museum and wanted to find out about the man whose bones it was. He was a slave named Fortune, owned by a white doctor who kept the bones after Fortune died.
My favourite lines are from the poem ‘Not My
Bones’: You can own someone’s body | but the soul runs free. It roams the night sky’s| mute geometry. The poem tells us that who we are inside is more important than the body we live in. The last verse in this poem begins,
Well, I woke up this morning just so glad to be free... This book really inspired me and will make you appreciate your own freedom and care about those not so fortunate.
Saphira Ekici Yr 6
The Young Inferno John Agard, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura, Frances Lincoln Books, 978-1-8478-0109-8
This book is one long poem, divided into 12 Cantos (like chapters). Based on Dante’s Inferno, the story tells what happens to people after they die if they have done bad stuff but it is really a book about life and how we can learn from history. A boy,
let’s call him The Boy Who Went to
Hell, is led around by his teacher guide, the Greek storyteller, Aesop, who wrote all those fables! The poems contain bits of stories and characters I recognised (Shakespeare,
Hitler,
Henry the Eighth...) and things we already know about history. The fact that it’s written as a poem, and rhymes, makes you want to read it more and the Japanese pictures kept my attention. I would recommend it for every child, even older people. Also, reading this means you can impress adults
that you know about The Divine Comedy the original poem by Dante that John Agard was inspired by. It’s like a history lesson and would be good for teachers too. I read the book at school and liked it so much I asked my mum to buy me a copy for home. Dilan Ahmed, Yr 6
Books for Keeps No.227 November 2017 19
Lily
Kristina
Saphira
Dilan
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