Sycamore Wings

Shake me empty
the bowels overflow
 a river of tears,
rage pushed in a vortex.
I long to be free.
Shake me still,
then let me be,
blinding words infested wounds,
navigate my head
piercing blue light
inhale exhale a smile
rage swimming forth
breathing hard
out of breath
echoing void


Jekyll hydes waiting for the kill
looking through the glass pane
nobody knows he is there
just an angel with a spear
open arms smiling clear

but the see-through rage cannot cover up
the smears
of the authorities
the ondulating fence
of barbed wire,
of splintered wood,
of mossy insignificance
longing for respite
pierce the fear,
 it's empty, you see

Perch on that perfect sycamore seed,
grip the fragile blades,
ignore the greed
tumble dizzily
safe landing mission completed

wait for new buds to sprout,
bring out the talking cricket
and the rhino
the roots hold down and push
OUT
this magical being
levitating
and the air still stinks

The Paper Dolls - Creativity at its Best!

Julia Donaldson's imaginative story in The Paper Dolls (illustration Rebecca Cobb) reaches out to the young and old.



You Tube Reading by Little Loves Library

'They were Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie and Jim with two noses and Jo with the bow'.

'You can't catch us. Oh no no no!
We're holding hands and we won't let go.'

A beautiful tale of a little girl who makes five paper dolls with her mum and takes them on many adventures until they are snipped by a little boy. The paper dolls do not disappear, however, and the girl turns into a woman and a mother, who passes on the gift of play and creativity to her own daughter,

The illustrations are immediate, fantastical and flow wonderfully with the simplicity and magic of the text.

Why I like this story:

The repetitive, catchy 'chorus' is musical and melodic
The story is an opener for creative, simple games with kids
The book pays hommage to a child's imagination
There is strength in togetherness, there is power in a child's imagination!
The story can also be used to accompany a child suffering from loss or trauma (nothing is lost forever; using your memory to store and keep precious things long after they have gone).

Filling the Emptiness with Anna Llenas

Calling an Emotion by its Name

During a visit to Spain, my friend Sandra excitedly gave me three of Anna Llenas' books, which all dealt with emotions - identifying them, understanding them, embracing them and working through them. I felt they were really written for adults somehow and wondered how kids would relate to them. I think her books bridge the emotion gap between child and parent and through simple stories, emotions roll out and both adults and children are introduced into this complex yet extremely important and often understated or misunderstood world of emotions.

With a background in graphic design and advertising, Llenas went on to specialise in analytical psychology and art therapy before turning her creativity into writing and illustrating, among other things. Known for her simple collage-like illustrations with recycled, coloured cardboard, Llenas uses sparse text that sets the reader on a journey towards self-awareness, discovery or renewal. She is mostly known for her book El Monstruo de colores (The Colour Monster) which has been translated into 15 languages. Regarding this successful debut, Llenas explains that her intention was to consciously name the different emotions that existed and the validity of each one (tomar conciencia de las emociones y darme permiso para sentirlas). With The Colour Monster, she had initially hoped her idea would improve communication between parents and children and open a path towards relating to and talking about our feelings.

Emptiness (recommended for ages 5 and up)

In the book I want to discuss in this post, El Vacio (Emptiness), the protagonist Julia, quite an average girl, suddenly feels a growing emptiness which she tries in vain to fill. All she needed was to find the right stopper to plug the gaping hole, she thought. Easier said than done! Her search leaves her feeling empty and she sinks into a dizzying hole. You have to reach rock bottom before you start finding your way up again, it seems! This is when Julia's inner self starts to take control and she realises the solution is not outside but within her. This epiphanic moment reconnects her with the outside world, which she approaches differently. 

We all have a hole, it seems. The difference is the size and what we do with it. It is quite easy to become consumed in a useless search that brings us further away from ourselves. Llenas references the consumerist society we live in and the thousand and one solutions and offers out there, ready and promising to 'fill our gaping holes'.

Yet, we all need a hole to see within us, to explore ourselves and not lose sight of who we are or want to be. The danger is, however, in not filtering what goes into the hole and therefore risking being submerged and drowned by all that we let in. This is a story about loneliness, feeling lost and misunderstood but it is also about endurance and renewal and about working with our emotions to overcome whatever obstacle or challenge we face.

You might like this book if...
you want to help your child deal with loss, sadness, separation or the big world of emotions in general
if you yourself feel depressed, sad or somehow lost
if you are looking for a good story about a character who surmounts a personal obstacle and comes out stronger
if you are interested in creative collage illustrations