LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
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.
Andrea Reece
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About
And I Climbed, And I Climbed Synopsis
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?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781912745296 |
| Publication date: |
11th September 2023 |
| Author: |
Stephen Lightbown |
| Illustrator: |
Shih-Yu Lin |
| Publisher: |
Troika Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
95 pages |
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Author
About Stephen Lightbown
Stephen Lightbown grew up in Lancashire and now lives in Bristol with his wife and son. He writes extensively but not exclusively about life as a wheelchair user, and is passionate about seeing and hearing authentic voices on disability.
Stephen has appeared at events across the UK, including Shambala, WOMAD, Verve and Lyra Bristol festivals. In 2021 he wrote and performed a one-man show, A Life With PIP. He has two poetry collections for adults, Only Air (2019) and The Last Custodian (2021), both published by Burning Eye Books. And I Climbed And I Climbed is his first collection for children.
In 2020 Stephen left a long career in NHS communications and public relations to focus on his own writing and to qualify as a yoga teacher. He is also a keen surfer and in 2022 he represented England at the ISA World Para Surf Championships in California.
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