"An authentic, must-read collection and a voice we seldom hear."
November 2024 Debut of the Month
Shortlisted for the 2024 CLiPPA, the children’s poetry award, And I Climbed, And I Climbed is a book you won’t have read before.
Like poet Stephen Lightbown, its speaker, eight-year-old Cosmo has been left paralysed following an accident – in Cosmo’s case, a fall from a tree – and uses a wheelchair to move around. In poems that are direct and immediate, he describes his thoughts and feelings about what he’s going through. Many of them are addressed to the tree, others describe moments with his family, other people’s reactions, his own rage and frustration at what’s happened.
There’s a lot of anger but surprising joy too, for example, when he describes the freedom that surfing brings and the exhilaration of wheelchair dancing. Without a trace of sentimentality, it makes for a page turning collection, addressing complex emotional issues with a striking simplicity and clarity.
| Suitable For: | |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Why didn’t you catch me? Why, Tree? Why?
Cosmo is a young boy whose life has been changed forever, after falling out of the tree he loved to climb. Now, Cosmo is disabled and uses a wheelchair. Now, Cosmo wants to have a conversation with the tree.
In this outstanding debut collection for children, Stephen Lightbown draws on his own personal experiences as a wheelchair user, while creating a unique and utterly engaging character in Cosmo.
Written in Cosmo’s voice and peppered with contributions from the boy’s family, these poems take the reader on a journey of challenges, questions, hurts, explorations and triumphs. Cosmo is endlessly open and curious, and his observations and reflections are at once perceptive, raw, hilarious, confronting and enchanting.
How can Cosmo come to terms with, and adapt to, this seismic change in his life? Is his life as he knew it gone? Could there be new possibilities ahead, and also new abilities that Cosmo doesn't yet know he possesses? And will the tree ever reply to his number one question: why?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed And I Climbed, And I Climbed and determined it is suitable for children aged 7-10 years old
And I Climbed, And I Climbed features in the following genres: Featured Books for 7+ readers, Featured Books for 9+ readers, Debuts of the Month, Recommendations, Stories about Family and Friends, PSHE: Special educational needs and disability (SEND), Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Poetry Books for Children, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Children’s / Teenage poetry, anthologies, annuals
And I Climbed, And I Climbed is available in Paperback
And I Climbed, And I Climbed was written by Stephen Lightbown and published by Troika Books
And I Climbed, And I Climbed has 95 pages
£8.09
