You’re likely familiar with the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltkin; a mischievous creature who helps a young girl impress the king, but at a great cost. The only way out of this bargain is if the young girl can guess this strange creature’s unusual name. In this, part two of the Fairy Tales Gone Bad trilogy, Coelho tells a twisted version of this familiar story.
Like a poem, this book almost sings. The pink, sparkling thread that weaves its way enchantingly throughout the book draws us into a child’s world of creativity and imagination. The illustrations fully capture the magic that is at work here.
Happy Here is a collection of short stories that places the spotlight on a talented group of Black British creatives. This is a varied collection, with tales to pique the interest of any young reader, no matter their preference of genre – from a poem about a rockstar best friend, to a lyrical retelling of a weekend at home with family, to a story about fairytale shape-shifters who want to experience normality.
This sensitive picturebook by poet Joseph Coelho and illustrator Robyn Wilson-Owen will be helpful for anyone supporting a child through loss of a parent through separation or bereavement.
Joseph Coelho is justly celebrated as a poet, performer and champion of children’s reading and writing. The Girl Who Became a Tree, described as ‘a story in poems,’ is a twisty, heartfelt tale which weaves together the Greek legend of Daphne, turned into a tree to avoid the attentions of the god Apollo, and a modern story of loss, memory and acceptance.
This very attractive poetry book with a difference from best-selling poet Joseph Coelho opens with his assertion that ‘Poems are made to be performed’. On each of the beautiful double-page spreads is a poem that Coelho has written especially to illustrate a particular way that poems can be read aloud, each with engaging child-centred notes on how to bring it to life. For example, he starts with tongue-twisters, saying it’s ‘a wonderful way to improve your diction (how clearly you can say words)’.
The comforting routine of a monthly visit to the barber’s, where a little boy and his dad talk about legendary characters with long hair like Samson and Rapunzel, stops suddenly. With Dad no longer around, the barber visits stop and the boy’s hair grows all tangled and uncontrollable – just like his feelings.
This is a pleasure to look at. Award-winning poet Joseph Coelho has written an original poem for every month of the year, and illustrator Kelly Louise Judd provides the sumptuous folk art to accompany the words. Frogs frolic, daffodils delight and bluebirds perch on snow-covered trees in this love letter to nature.
A little girl speaks about her granddad, her memories of him and how he influenced her childhood in this gorgeous new picturebook that gently teaches children about the connections between loving someone and losing them. Exploring her Indian heritage, the little girl takes the reader on a journey into her personal stories of her granddad, beautifully expressed in Joseph Coelho’s epigrammatic prose.
It is wonderful when everything works together in a picturebook – theme, text, illustrations, cover, endpapers – when the whole art object is more than the sum of its parts. Luna Loves Library Day, the début by performance poet Joseph Coelho, illustrated by talented newcomer Fiona Lumbers, is such a picturebook.
