Review ~ Ten Poems about Childhood from Candlestick Press

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to share this latest poetry pamphlet from

Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
April 2019

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this poetry pamphlet

Poems exploring innocence and experience

Childhood must be one of poetry’s very favourite subjects. Countless poems try to capture the light and shade of being very young – moments that lodge vividly in our adult memories.

This beautiful mini-anthology ventures off the beaten track with poems that will be new to many readers. From a group of children who:

“...thought words travelled the wires

In the shiny pouches of raindrops,”

from ‘The Railway Children’ by Seamus Heaney

to a baby entranced by mirrors and glass, we see the world in language that sparkles with newness.

Mimi Khalvati’s selection reflects her fascination with how we learn to talk and read, and there are poems about a first encounter with books and about children from different cultures playing ball and swapping words in a village square.

Mimi Khalvati is an award-winning poet and founder of the Poetry School.

Poems by Kayo Chingonyi, Jane Duran, Louise Glück, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Jennings, Mimi Khalvati, Hannah Lowe, James Merrill, Tracy K Smith and James Womack.

Cover illustration by Celia Hart.

Donation to Unicef.

My thoughts...

When I was a child I loved listening to poetry and I can remember how perfectly safe I felt when my mother read to me from a battered old copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's, A Child's Garden of Verse. In Ten Poems about Childhood, the magic of words comes alive and with such a wealth of emotion in this selection, it is difficult to choose a particular favourite.

Mimi Khalvati's thoughtful selection covers a whole range of experiences from her own work in:

Translation 

"...children throwing languages in rotation-
their own, a new one, being made aware
as they leap, drop, pick up, catch, of translation..."

To The Railway Children by Seamus Heaney

"...We were small and thought we knew nothing
Worth knowing, We thought words travelled the wires
In the shiny pouches of raindrops..."

Reading Ten Poems about Childhood is a real celebration of childhood in all its many guises. Reading the poems took me back to those heady days of my own childhood, when summers stretched endlessly long, when with great excitement we build dens and dams, ran races and climbed trees and snuggled up with a glass of milk at bedtime and became lost in the universal language of words.

Ten Poems about Childhood makes a perfect gift for the child that lives in all of us.

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Clouds, Walking, Birds, Home and Kindness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Connect: www.candlestickpress.co.uk

Twitter @PoetryCandle

Review ~ Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

Mantle
Pan Macmillan
8 March 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Pop...1 Pop...2 Pop...3

When a gunman enters the McKinley Elementary School, six year old, Zach, his teacher Miss Russell, and the rest of his class huddle together in the closet, however, the pop, pop, pop, of gun fire can be clearly heard. Hiding in the dark and with no clear knowledge of what is happening they wait for someone to save them. When help finally arrives, the nightmare begins, and, in the aftermath of the tragedy, the small community around McKinley need to face up to the knowledge that such a despicable act happened on their doorstep.

Current and timely, in light of the recent school shooting in the US, Only Child gives us the story from the perspective of six year old Zach. It is his voice that leads us through the aftermath; his are the thoughts, feelings and observations, as is the way he perceives what the grown-ups around him are doing. His father, Jim immersed in his work no longer has time to listen and Zach's mother, Melissa, buries her grief and sorrow in a hate campaign against the perpetrator and always seems to be angry.

Insightful, sensitive and acutely observed, the author has with a subtle and delicate touch recreated the voice of a child and even as Zach struggles to explore his thoughts and feelings, so the adults around him are also trying to make sense of a world gone mad. Such is the strength of the story that my heart ached for Zach who desperately needed some TLC and good trauma counselling and yet his feelings, so very often, seemed to be brushed aside as the ‘grown ups’ slid into defence and attack mode.

All too often these terrible atrocities flash onto our TV screens and the world sits up and takes notice for a little while without ever really considering what happens to these small communities when the TV companies disappear and folks are left trying to pick up the shattered remnants of their lives. Beautifully written and astutely perceptive Only Child shows quite powerfully the trauma of loss, sadness and total incomprehension that surrounds a mass shooting. 

Zach’s story in Only Child brings this powerfully into focus.

About the Author

Rhiannon Navin grew up in Germany before a career in advertising took her to America. Now a full-time mother and writer, she lives in New York with her husband, three children and two cats.

ONLY CHILD is her first novel and with this story Rhiannon hopes to help bring about change and contribute to the important conversation about US gun control in a meaningful way.

Website

Twitter @rhiannonnavin #OnlyChild

Amazon UK

Only Child will be published in hardback on the 8th March by Mantle

Out in ebook now.

Review ~ She Looks Pale by Kate Rigby

2012

What's it all about ..

The title is taken from a schoolgirl levitation ritual, practised by the mother of narrator Hannah. As a result of Meningitis at the age of six, Hannah nearly dies leading her parents to become obsessively over-protective. Her parents gradually dispose of all methods of modern communication and take Hannah out of school until one day, tortured by the evils of the world, her father ‘disappears’ during the Lord’s Prayer one mealtime. Hannah's mother continues the self-imposed isolation. Confined in the house, Hannah’s only contact with the world is either through the window or through her mother’s past.

What did I think about it ...

She looks Pale is a very intuitive story which looks at the rather alarming way in which Hannah's life pans out following a devastating childhood illness. There's no doubt that any life threatening illness in childhood can have a devastating effect of the parents of the child but in this short novella Hannah's parents take it to its extreme with very interesting consequences.

Whilst reading the story I was immediately taken back to my own childhood, not that my parents were anything like Hannah's, but back to dusty days playing the levitation game, a game which both thrilled and terrified me in equal measure and I can remember very clearly sitting with a finger lightly resting under someone's torso and chanting "She looks pale, she looks pale... she is pale" whilst waiting, eagerly, for the dreaded levitation to happen.

Parts of the story made me smile especially Hannah's describing the cat next door as being a funny ossity, a saying so integral to my northern childhood that I felt quite at home within the pages of the novel, and more especially with the 1970s description of Hannah's mother whose own story is cleverly told as Hannah looks at old family photographs and sees her mother's reminiscences about Chelsea Girl and Chantilly perfume.

However, there are also parts of the story which are both poignant and thought provoking and I  think that the author has really played to her strength in describing Hannah's story in quite simple terms as we get a rather simplistic viewpoint and her childlike acceptance of what happened to her, is well described and at times, quite unsettling.

I really enjoyed She Looks Pale. It's a short story which packs a real punch.



Best Read with...a large paper bag of grapes and cherries..

About the Author

Kate Rigby was born in Crosby, Liverpool and now lives in Devon. She's been writing novels for over thirty years. She loves cats,singing, photography and LFC.

You can read an earlier interview with Kate by clicking here

My thanks to the author for sharing her story with me.

~***~