Arlo and the Raven
Lucy Fleming
Walker Books
On a craggy clifftop high on a rocky islet lives a teeny tiny boy with wings of midnight blue; his name is Arlo and his home a cave. He lives a lonely existence with only bottles of lightning for company. Arlo’s favourite activity is flying which, he finds calms his mind as he soars high up able to see for many miles before swooping down to skim the sea’s surface with his wing tips. Having tried his best to fit in with the other birds he is rejected by the flock.
Then one day when he arrives home after his morning flight, he hears clattering and a tip, tap, tapping. Arlo discovers Raven, another loner and also a collector of things. These he is busily using to make himself a new home just outside Arlo’s. Keen to distance himself from Raven’s noise, Arlo tries to fly with the flock from his islet but all they do is take off and leave him.
Whenever Arlo arrives back, there is Raven, still tip, tap, tapping and hoping Arlo might have accepted some of the shiniest things he’s found and left for him. One day Raven hops towards the boy and places an unusual object at his feet.
This upsets Arlo who shouts at the Raven telling him to go and play with the other birds and let him be. The result is that everything around him clatters to the ground and the birds scatter to the air leaving Arlo by himself once more. Well almost for Raven remains and it’s not long before there’s a feeling of calm all around.
Realisation dawns on Arlo who takes a moment to breathe slowly: Raven is the only flock he needs and together the two construct a new home that will accommodate both Raven’s trinkets and also Arlo’s lightning bottles and whipped cloud.
Time passes; other birds come to the treehouse and share their hobbies too: a flock with a difference – or many.
There’s a magic of a rather different sort to Lucy Fleming’s story: friendship can sometimes be built when and also where you are least expecting it, and a community built upon kindness not similarity. I love how she captures both movement and the sudden grounded silence and calm that surrounds Raven and the boy after his ‘LEAVE ME ALONE!’ outburst.
A wonderful book to share and talk about with a KS1/lower KS2 class.
Time passes; other birds come to the treehouse and share their hobbies too: a flock with a difference – or many.
There’s a magic of a rather different sort to Lucy Fleming’s story: friendship can sometimes be built when and also where you are least expecting it, and a community built upon kindness not similarity. I love how she captures both movement and the sudden grounded silence and calm that surrounds Raven and the boy after his ‘LEAVE ME ALONE!’ outburst.
A wonderful book to share and talk about with a KS1/lower KS2 class.
