ACHUKA Children's Books UK

children's & YA recommendations on the go

  • News
    • Reviews
  • Illustrated
    • Meet An Illustrator
  • Fiction
    • Humour
    • Classics/Reissues
    • YA
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry & Tales
  • Gift
  • Links
  • About
    • ACHUKAstudio
    • Contact me
You are here: Home / Archives for disfluency

I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott ill. Sydney Smith

January 21, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 22 Jan 2021

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“This poetic and deeply memorable picturebook has a quality that stops you in your tracks and pulls you in… …a lyrical and intensely visual exploration of how it feels to struggle to speak out.” BfK 5 STAR review

After a day of being unable to speak when asked, and of being stared at, a boy and his father go to the river for some quiet time. “It’s just a bad speech day,” says Dad. But the boy can’t stop thinking about all the eyes watching his lips twisting and twirling. When his father points to the river bubbling, churning, whirling and crashing, the boy finds a way to think about how he speaks. Even the river stutters. Like him. “I talk like a river,” he says.

Lyrical, painfully acute language and absorbing, atmospheric illustrations capture, with startling clarity, this school-age child’s daily struggle with speech. Free verse emulates the pauses of interrupted speech while slowing down the reading, allowing the words to settle. When coupled with powerful metaphors, the effect is gut-wrenching: “The P / in pine tree / grows roots / inside my mouth / and tangles / my tongue.” Dappled paintings inspire empathy as well, with amorphous scenes infused with the uncertainty that defines both the boy’s unpredictable speech and his melancholy. KIRKUS

An incredibly moving picture book that offers understanding rather than a solution, and which will resonate with all readers, young and old. Masterfully illustrated by Sydney Smith, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Follow the illustrator on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneydraws/

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Illustrated Tagged With: difference, disfluency, speech, stammer

Copyright ACHUKA © 2021 · designed on Genesis Framework