Ten-Word Tiny Tales of Love by Joseph Coehlo and Friends, illustrated by artists from around the world, Walker Books
These ten-word tales are like magical story seeds that grow in young readers’ imaginations as they experience them together with the accompanying illustrations. It’s amazing how much Coehlo conveys in so few words. The illustrations, each by a different artist, offer an interpretation of the words, and they make space for the reader’s own creativity in imagining how the story might unravel. The tales in this collection are united by the theme of love – between siblings, for nature, in times of sadness and in moments of joy. It’s a tender portrayal of love in different guises.
Our Love by Fátima Ordinola, Post Wave
This book is so simple and so easily understood by young children and yet it communicates the expansiveness of love between a parent and a child. The love in this story stretches to the far reaches of the world, helping children to feel safe and secure. It gives strength to those who feel it. I love the sentiment that it’s “our love” – something shared and reciprocal – and a reminder of the essential bond between a child and their adult. The watercolour artwork is beautiful, with depictions of animal families that illustrate the primordial and enduring nature of love.
Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story by Jackie Kay, illustrated by Jill Calder, Walker Books
In this gorgeous book, inspired by the author’s own childhood, Jackie Kay draws on Scots dialect, language, lullabies and memory to tell a story of how love is passed on, from one generation to the next. When she’s a little girl, Shona’s daddy tucks her up, “All safe and snuggly and cooried in,” and the familiar folk songs he sings to her fill her dreams with the people and places she loves. Years later, when Shona is 60, it’s her turn to tuck her daddy into bed: “Coorie Doon, Coorie Doon, wee Daddy.” And it all happens beneath “the wise moon” that “had been there all alang, all alang”. As it looks down, Shona looks up, and life and love go on.
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Reviews by Alice Ellerby
Published in issue 94. Accurate at the time this issue went to print.
