Tag Simon Mole

Poetry Pizza

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Poetry Pizza
Simon Mole, illustrated by Tom McLaughlin
Otter-Barry Books

There’s a plethora of playful poems and some more serious ones to be found in this first collection for older children by Simon Mole.

Of the light-hearted offerings, one I particularly like is The Blop. It starts by describing a hot bath and its effects: ‘When the bath’s so hot / that your cheeks turn pink / and the steam is so thick / you can’t see.And your eyes are only half open anyway / because they feel so droopy / because you feel so droopy / that you can’t get out of the bath / … In our house, we call that / The Blop.’ If anything should encourage children to invent their own words for things, that’s surely it.
I love too the playfulness of LOL, which begins thus: Lemurs On Lawnmowers! LOL! / Labradoodles on Lavatories LOL!’
There’s further fun in BRB, a great demonstration of the use of abbreviations: examples given are ‘Baking Raisin Biscuits’ and ‘Babysitting Ryan’s Buffalo’.

Of the more feeling centred poems my favourites are I Need A Hug and 60 Second Spell For Being Here And Being You – that’s one for people of all ages.

I could go on enthusing but I’ll finish by saying, there’s lots here for everyone, some accompanied by a fun drawing by Tom McLaughlin and whether or not you’re already a poetry enthusiast, get your hands on a copy of this, it’s full of tasty offerings.

A First Book of Dinosaurs

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A First Book of Dinosaurs
Simon Mole and Matt Hunt
Walker Books

It surely is a case of ‘eat or be eaten’ in Simon Mole’s poetic presentation of dinosaurs in all shapes and sizes. The large format book dramatically illustrated in collage style by Matt Hunt is divided into four sections: ‘Meet the Dinosaurs’, ‘Eat or Be Eaten’, ‘Dinosaur Families’ and ‘The End. Or Is It?’ Readers/listeners will encounter some already established favourites such as Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex (the first two featured), Stegosaurus and Diplodocus called herein Planet On Legs on account of the numerous small creatures that live on its back. There are many less well known creatures too including the dog-sized Eoraptor (new to this reviewer as is Baryonyx). I love Simon’s description of that one: ‘Swift-sprinter / Tail-flicker / River-watcher / Quick- dasher / Fish-grabber / Flesh-ripper // Best hunter / Gets dinner!’ together with Matt Hunt’s dynamic visual interpretation. A wealth of kennings in that.

Readers are introduced to a variety of poetic forms: Ankylosaurus, Sauropelta and Euoplocephalis are all described in a single acrostic entitled Tough! Tough! Tough!.

There’s a wealth of onomatopoeia, some similes and metaphors, a recipe and even a dialogue with a present-day chicken. To find out what said chicken is doing in a book about dinosaurs, you’ll need to get your own copy; so doing will make you popular with youngsters for sure.

After a look at the downfall of dinos and some fossil evidence, the book ends with a somewhat truncated dinosaur timeline.

A large-format, romping, stomping treasure, beautifully produced and one hopes, likely to turn a fair number of dinosaur-fanatic children into poetry enthusiasts too.

I Love my Bike

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I Love my Bike
Simon Mole and Sam Usher
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

The little girl narrator of this story is the proud owner of a new red bike and with the help of her dad, she’s learning to ride it.

His encouragement enables her to get going and with confidence growing, ‘a tingle in her tummy’ and a ‘flame on the frame’ she soon loves the experience, even starting to take some risks as she rides.

Hills are a struggle (my bike gets lazy) but the walk up is well worth it as the view from the top is incredible.

Now for the downhill run, that’s sure to be fun, or is it?

Before long, exhilaration gives way to exasperation, the tingle in her tum turns to a tangle and …

Her response reminds me a a young relation who having taken her first tumble said, “Nincompoop bike”, threw hers down and walked away. Inevitably such falls hurt, probably both pride and limbs, but thanks to an understanding Dad and some beautiful natural surroundings to rest in, it isn’t too long before our novice cyclist is back on the saddle and feeling positive once more, off she goes again …

Both poet Simon Mole’s words and Sam Usher’s illustrations capture so well the lows and highs of learning to ride a bike as well as celebrating both a warm father/child relationship, and the sheer joy of being outdoors, especially in a green place.

Kites

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Kites
Simon Mole and Oamul Lu
Frances Lincoln First Editions

Young David has just moved to Fivehills and the very first thing that he notices is the abundance of kites in the sky: seemingly he’s the only person without one.

Using bits and pieces from things he already has, the boy fashions a kite and cannot wait to launch it from the hill whereon the others are flying theirs.

Then one by one, well-intentioned girls and a boy alter David’s own design.

By the time they’ve finished the kite is totally different and certainly doesn’t feel right. Moreover when it comes to ‘breeze-busting’ and ‘gale-sailing’ the thing is a total flop.

Back in his bedroom David takes hold of Grandpa’s lucky feather and remembers his words, “Let’s see what we’ve already got. More often than not, we’ll find the answer inside.” And then he knows.

Back to the kite he goes and once again makes it his own.  Will it fly this time?

David though, has learned about more than just kite-making that day: he’s made an important discovery concerning himself.

Simon Mole’s reflective narrative is poetic which isn’t surprising as he’s a performance poet. In this, his first picture book he captures so well those feelings of displacement and desperately wanting to belong that children especially experience when moving to a new community: feelings that Oamul Lu mirrors in his distinctive eloquent digital paintings.